trooperist
Cinnamon Roll AI
Did you say Freezing?
*hyperventilates with rage*
AH I HATE THAT SERIES!
Battle Action Harem Highschool Side Character Quest (No SV, you are the Waifu)
- Thread starter Avalanche
- Start date
- Original
*hyperventilates with rage*
AH I HATE THAT SERIES!
So, the more weak-looking option is actually the stronger one and have better achievement? Dang it.
Avalanche
Atypical Netizen
- Location
- Australia
Luckier mostly, although the exact background I won't be able to pin down without knowing the tone of the quest. At-1 like it is now, it would have been that she was lucky. At +2 or above, then we start getting wtf levels of skill allowing her to wreck any attacks that did happen.
The Awkward Shy Girl never swapped to offensive loadouts as the Monsters did, would choke out in any situation that required confrontation with another human and was generally more of a door mat. However, you'd basically never lose a defensive battle.
EDIT:
XxXxXxXxXx
Just throwing some dice.
EDIT2: Is that 6 3s in a row? Huh.
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meganeshounen
*tips glasses*
- Location
- Far East Asia
So in exchange for having less(?) combat skills, Anna can actually hold a conversation for more than a minute and not become a blubbering wreck by the end of it?
A matter of mad skillz vs social-fu, then.
I'm somewhat content with Anna's current status, since we'll eventually need to interact with people (and more importantly, the Protagonist!) sooner or later.
Then again... being a dojikko while also being a combat savant also is also a good way to get the Protagonist's attention.
EDIT: Nnngh, but since the Shy Girl is also a defensive specialist, she can be quite useful to the Protagonist as a cute
Ah heck. Instead of a "guardian", might as well let Anna become someone who teaches offensive techniques to the Protagonist, since it's her forte.
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Avalanche
Atypical Netizen
- Location
- Australia
*Glances at mess of dice in post #126*
*cringes*
Might do my rolling off site from now on, either in my own little dice roller or wolfram.
EDIT: Well, maybe not. Also, ignore that last dice, twas lag.
EDIT 2: By last dice, I meant the last dice in the Type 5's first pool since I've rolled more die since then.
*cringes*
Might do my rolling off site from now on, either in my own little dice roller or wolfram.
EDIT: Well, maybe not. Also, ignore that last dice, twas lag.
EDIT 2: By last dice, I meant the last dice in the Type 5's first pool since I've rolled more die since then.
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Ginger Maniac
Subject to Gravity
- Location
- Old Blighty
And the rest, as they say, is geography. Splat-boom.
Speaking of which is the reason Anna almost died fighting Sekhm because she was running low on Higgs particles, well that, and her lack of experience fighting something that fast/experienced/strong? Actually how common are individual who can keep up with a Type Zero, and/or fight one in single combat?
I imagine the reason it requires Higgs particles to use is the absurd power needed to punch through the shielding of High rank monsters, and pull off high end techniques.
While the simulators inability to withstand Higgs particle usage means accidentally harming opponents shouldn't be an issue(unless events like the Inter Academy tournament take place in a environment allows their use?) will our melee weapons breaking due to the "style" being one which uses pure power to overcome any enemy attack, or defence be an issue in the short-term?
More like exchanging the ability to not lose in a defensive battle for a strength gained from the desire to protect someone, and the days spent fighting constantly against a unending foe, so a matter of the exact ratio of starting skill inoffence vs defence.
If we're trying to find a combat partner to minimize risk in battle, we can probably see if our roommate is interested instead of the MC who has "Extra moron included." , and she doesn't require us to be a side character in the long-term.
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Post 4
Avalanche
Atypical Netizen
- Location
- Australia
Votes
[X]Yes:
>[X]Against Antagonists:
>>[X]Random Scenario: 17 votes
>>>[X]Moderate: 15 votes
>>[x]Historic Scenarios (Difficult to Impossible) 2 votes
>>>[x]First Contact (Survival. As the name suggests. Survive the Antagonist attacks, protect the ICBMs on terminal approach, survive the resulting explosions) 2 votes
XxXxXxXxXx
"I agree with Miss Kravala," you say after a moment of thought, "the inter academy tournament is not a matter of life and death. Your familiarity with the Antagonists is."
"It appears then I am outvoted," sighs Sandra, "We will have plenty of opportunities to battle against the Antagonists within the simulator through our years at the Academy, so why not take advantage of today?"
"There is no doubt that we shall fly against other Cadets through the year too," says Shuri, taking to the air in a smooth practiced motion, nearly flawless.
"Very well," grumbles Sandra, her hand moving across the air to scroll through the simulator menu, "Anna, what is your combat rating? I can't seem to access it."
"I do not know," you reply, you were almost certain it would very be high, but you have never taken a standardised test for your combat ability. Also, when you cannot use either Higgs particles or spatial warping, you weren't really sure how well you would adapt. You have fought for so long with the assumption that you could do both freely, it would take some getting used to.
"Are you new to Valkyries Frames as well? Then let us just keep the difficult at moderate," Sandra says, pressing down decisively down with a finger.
No, that was not what you meant-
The world goes grey again as the simulator halts.
>1st Year Cadet. Aleksandra Marianne Cambridge proposes new simulation<
>Random Scenario Selected<
>Moderate Difficulty<
>>Accept?
>>1/3
You mentally shrug then confirm with a thought but-
>>2/3
"Sandra," Shuri sharply complains.
"What? You finished a moderately difficult Scenario for first years by yourself last time. I may be new, but I will not be a burden."
"That was- I don't-" Shuri abruptly cuts herself off, "I may be able to keep the Antagonists in a moderate scenario from shooting down one green Cadet, but two is asking too much."
"I am capable," you interject, a sharp spike of annoyance at her assumption making your tone clipped. What did she know of your experiences?
"Anna is confident and so am I. What does it matter should we be shot down in the Simulation? We can treat it as a learning experience," Sandra says, spreading her arms as she takes to the air also.
Shuri is silent for a moment, then the simulation goes completely black, with only the glowing exhaust vents of the Valkyrie frames and the small IFF markers projected by the simulation showing that the simulation was still active.
>>3/3
>New Scenario Startup
>>Suppression of Antagonist Airbase
The terrain unfolds around you, again with that nauseating wrenching of space.
The trio of you appear standing at the edge of a cliff.
You take a glance around, mountains soar into the sky around you, snow capped with pearly white ice. Around your feet, alpine flowers bloom in profusion, a rainbow of colours. The horizon ruins the idyllic view however. Dark smoke clouds rise thickly into the air, casting the plains past the foothills into darkness.
Flashes of colour sullenly light the cloud from within as look on and you focus in on them to discover the source, only to find you can't make out a source for the explosions at all. Durga quickly marks those as expended active decoys.
A transmission suddenly blares across your comms in open channel, "Shark Fifty One Thirty to all. Roach Nest found. Position marked. Heavy Ant presence."
You mentally flick through your dictionary, a Roach Nest was an Antagonist air base, one of the larger variants, and Ants were Antagonist anti-aircraft.
A nav point appears in the distance, you immediately zoom in, but again cannot pierce through the dark smoke. Was this smoke some newly deployed form of electronic warfare?
"Command to Shark Five One Three Zero, Air is contested. Ground cannot advance. No backup ETA."
"Shark to Command. Roach Nest is Active. Air gets here now or never."
The channel is silent.
Flashes of light announce Shuri extending weapon systems, a particle projector of some sort that sat over her right vambrace, a melee halberd in her left hand and a series of additional thrusters appear mounted to her waist like an armoured dress.
Sandra looks at Shuri, Shuri silently nods back at Sandra.
"Command. This is Valkyrie Cambridge. En route to Roach Nest with two other Valks," Sandra speaks authoritatively over the channel.
She takes off at the sentence in near synch with Shuri and accelerates towards the Nav point. You hurry after them, still trying to pierce the confounding clouds.
"Valkyrie Cambridge, your flight is at half strength. This needs a full flight of Valks. Wait for reinforcements."
"Valkyrie Kravala is an Ace, we can handle this," says Sandra with complete certainty. You notice Shuri's flight wobble slightly at this, before she pulls slightly ahead of Sandra.
"Confirmed Valkyries. Good luck. Command out."
You shift to Shuri's other side and above, forming a basic triangle.
Shuri dives towards the ground and begins Nape of Earth flight as the distance to the nav marker drops to 70 kilometers.
At just under fifty kilometers, you spy several battalions of Antagonist tanks towards your right flank. The large and squat vehicles, topped with one heavily armoured rotating turret, steadily advance forwards, crushing the ground under their treads and throwing up dust as they charged over the ashen ground at three hundred kilometers per hour. Your current flight path would put you within a couple of kilometers of them. You call another of your new weapons to the forefront, the racks of XHEAP missiles materialising in carriers attached to your hips, both Shuri and Sandra slow slightly at this.
You can't help but feel slightly satisfied at their visible surprise. That sense of satisfaction turns to surprise as you scan the tank columns. Their emissions were too low and flat out missing in several bands to be actual Tanks. Convincing, but not up to the task of fooling your sensors.
Flares of light announce incoming plasma and missiles. You analyse the attacks quickly, the plasma was far too low energy to weapon fire from a real Antagonist combat vehicle and the missile acceleration profiles were wrong. Durga marks the entire lot as decoys as you focus and try to find the real threat. You've never seen Antagonists go to such effort to construct elaborate fakes when they have always had the number to simply use actual units for any feint.
You are broken from your concentration when the low energy plasma bolts from the decoys rattle off your Impeller field. You eye the 'tanks' speculatively, shifting slightly to duck a 'missile' on instinct, those attacks were not anywhere near the real energy of an Antagonist tank cannon and anyone would have realised that by now, so why-
>1st Year Cadet Anna Sanchez hit by Antagonist Tank Battalions<
>Predicting negligible damage taken<
What- oh.
"Sanchez, if it takes too much concentration to maintain multiple weapon systems, dump some," calls out Shuri as she returns fire alongside Sandra, a glaringly bright white beam of high energy particles racing out to join Sandra's cannon fire and missiles.
"Sorry, I forgot this was a simulation," you say as your join in the returning fire, sending your own missiles soaring at the furthest tanks while shredding the closer ones with the hypervelocity cannon.
The missiles were both fast and agile, plunging into the antagonist tanks, through active defences and shattering armour, causing secondary explosions to bloom through the backline of armoured vehicles while your hypervelocity rounds chewed craters into and then through the innards of the tanks, sending spurts of molten metals flying everywhere.
Though none of you slowed down, in the fourteen or so seconds you were in optimal range of the Tank battalions, the trio of you had completely annihilated the enemy force.
The trio of you reform into loose formation and continue your advance, several more Antagonist armoured formations race for you but fail to get in range before you leave them behind. At just under twenty kilometers you start making out fighters ascending into the upper atmosphere from a jagged spire. Around it, hulking grub like creatures, easily two hundred meters tall and four hundred long, their long articulated carapace covered with glowing red lenses that shifted this way and that with jerking, irregular motions, plod along the ground. Enemy 'Ants', heavy laser anti-air.
"Enemy Roach Nest in sight," said Shuri, "Ants around it, four groups of three."
"Yes," you confirm.
"I see them," thirds Sandra, "we close in right?"
"We do," says Shuri.
Your formation disperses slightly as the three of your pick up speed. Against the heavily armed and armoured Ant, standard tactics for Valkyries was to close in, to lessen the number of firing arcs that she would be in, then tear the monsters apart at close range.
Durga flashes a notice to you as she detected tracking beams, again marking them as spoofing rather than actual rangefinders. You shake your head slightly and adjust your sensors to be less discriminatory. The lenses shift from the sullen red standby colour to the white blue of imminent discharge.
You'll Shift just before- wait no, you can't do that in the Simulation. Then you'll try use your Higgs engine for an emergency strafe- no actually you can't.
Hmm.
You slam your thrusters into full strafe and extend your Impeller field into a large plane, angled towards one side, turning nearly all your forward velocity into sideways speed. Dozens of lasers flash out, but you were already outside of the area they were bracketing. Only momentarily missing, the beams sweep after you with unerring accuracy, even as you push power into a tight turn in the opposite direction, the distance between you and the Antagonists nullifying the fairly slow traverse speeds of the individual lenses.
You see a grid of lasers box in Sandra and fire a missile into the ground ahead of her, sending a plume of ash, dust and rocks into the path of some of the lasers, momentarily obscuring them. It doesn't work quite as well as you hoped, but Sandra manages to take only glancing hits.
The lasers cut out, the Ants having exhausted their capacitor charges. They start swing their bulky bodies around to allow their still charged lasers on their other flank to target your small Flight, but the trio of you were already on them.
Dozens of cilia extend from between their armoured plates, spitting short ranged explosive flak shells at you. You fire your hypervelocity cannon in return, shredding through the incoming fire and drawing a fiery line down the Ant's side. Through the gap you fire another pair of missiles, which swing in and turn to burrow into the gap of the carapace from where the cilia extend through and explode. The entire section of carapace cracks as fire and gore races out from the gap and the giant weapon slumps.
You fire one more missile through the gap just to be sure and take stock of the other three Ants. Sandra had chosen use her plasma caster to break through the laser lenses, then fired missiles into the creature as you did, followed by more plasma blasts. It was somewhat inefficient as the laser apertures were actually very well armoured and bulwarked internally, but it did succeed on causing the Ant to seize up then slump as something important internally was destroyed. Shuri exploded out of her target, apparently having cut her way into the Ant with her melee halberd, then she wrenched off a piece of carapace and held it in front of her with her Impeller field as a shield.
Lasers slammed into it as the three of you raced for the next group of Ants, but the strong and ablative armour held, though the explosive force from the vaporising material caused her flight path to wobble dangerously. You clear the next group without hassle and rapidly swing for the third, then the fourth.
All in all, it takes slightly less than a minute for all four Ant groups to be eliminated.
"Command, this is Valkyrie Cambridge, Ants around Roach Nest eliminated. Attacking Roach Nest," Sandra broadcasts as the last Ant goes Silent, Shuri having caved the entire side of the monster in with her melee halberd, toppling into its side with an enormous crash, revealing hundred of legs on its underside, some still twitching weakly.
"Confirmed Valkyrie Cambridge, local AG forces on retreat. Friendly air is advancing."
Missiles, lasers and shells streak from the Antagonist base even as she speaks, alongside nearly three squadrons of light fighters. Deciding to conserve hypervelocity cannon ammunition, you materialise your laser systems. Small optical ports appearing all over your frame and you begin counter fire as the three of you advance, breaking kill boxes of missiles and shells, then targeting their launchers and turrets with missiles of your own. Shuri is blazing around the perimeter, simply dicing apart the approaching fighters with precise shots from her particle projector while Sandra supported her with cannon fire. Perhaps the approach for your three was awkward for the weapon systems of the redoubt, but your found the incoming fire somewhat light, still you could not neutralise laser fire and a beam slices through, slamming into Sandra head on. You destroy the laser port before it completes the full attack as Sandra's Impeller field shrugs off the energy without trouble.
With most of its weapon apertures now in smoking ruins, the three of you hover over the armoured cap of the airbase's central shaft. Shuri charges her particle projector until it glows, then fires the weapon directly downwards into the cap. The super strong composite material never stood a chance and is simply peeled back as the particle beam passed through. A rumble shakes the entire spire as the barrel of Shuri's particle projector smokes, clearly overloaded, and you frown slightly at the waste - then Shuri stows it, presumably for her Valkyrie Core to fix, and materialises another identical weapon.
You shake your head slightly in bemusement at the tactic as the three of you fire your remaining stocks of missiles into the base through the breach in the cap.
The ground shakes as the detonation of a hundred missiles in the depths of the Antagonist airbase throws a plume of fire up from the central shaft.
You scan the base, wondering if that was it, when Durga flashes an alert, her 'voice' sounding rather irritated. Pseudo Higgs engine reaction?
…What?
A Type 5 explodes out from a secondary shaft. Dark blue, flat and angular like a pre-Impact stealth bomber, a long segmented tail extended from its back and four limbs trailed outwards from under the main body. A brightly glowing sensor band on it's leading edge shone with amethyst light.
Ah. The simulator could not replicate the Higgs engine signatures output but it tried its best, which was apparently not up to Durga's standards.
"Type 5!" yelps Sandra, spinning to face it and reversing away on instinct from the high level Antagonist at the same moment Shuri charges forwards, combining her melee halberd with her particle projector.
The Type 5 turns away and immediately engages a pseudo- … it immediately engages its Higgs thrusters and burns towards the human lines, if it broke through to the incoming air transports, casualties would spike.
You raise your hand and every weapon you have speaks out to refute that possibility.
It wobbles and then is forced into a spin as first your lasers, then heavy particle streams slam into it, followed fractions of an instant later by hypervelocity cannon rounds. The Impeller field of the Type 5 was unable to disperse the incoming fire evenly and the thermal explosion of so much concentrated energy knock it off it's flight path, your strike very nearly managed to break through the field judging from the way it visibly distorts. Before you manage to reacquire weapons on it, Shuri smashes the Type 5 towards the ground with her particle melee weapon combo, shattering it's Impeller fields with a flash of light. A secondary layer underneath slows the strike enough to prevent it from being bisected by the blow.
The Type 5 crashes in an enormous explosion of dust, another flash of light announcing its secondary layer of Impeller fields had overloaded at that. Shuri points her melee halberd down and the blade extends, shooting for the beast. From within the dust, you see the type five raise an arm, the glow of some particle weapon charging- before you sever the arm with a well place beam of heavy particles of your own. Shuri's blade slams down right through the creatures center of mass, annihilating its Higgs engine and coring it right through.
Shuri disconnects her particle cannon from her melee halberd and you let most of your weapons slip back into storage as the slag that was formerly a Type 5 smoulders on the ground.
A pair of missiles slam into the remains.
You both turn and look questioningly at Sandra.
"I will have both of you know that I let those missiles loose while the Type 5 was still alive," she huffs at you, an arm coming up to her head and making a sweeping motion, "I don't believe I've seen a high level Antagonist die that fast since I watched a holodoc about the Battle of Britain."
>All enemies eliminated<
>Scenario success<
>Casualties: 0<
>Objectives lost: 0<
>Grade: S+<
>New time record for Scenario achieved<
>Formerly: 06:19<
>Currently: 03:15<
>>View statistics?
You shrug at that, dismissing the notice from the simulator. The simulated world around the Spire fades and with a shuddering convulsion of space, you find yourself again outside Perth Academy, restored to its flawless appearance.
"Well that was quite exciting," sighs Sandra, her Valkyrie unit retracting, leaving her in her uniform.
Looking over at you, she questions "I thought you said that you were new?"
Shuri looks over at you too at that.
You shake your head, "I have never taken a standard combat rating test, but I fought, before I arrived here."
Sandra winces imperceptibly and Shuri shakes her head slightly.
"Ah, I am sorry for asking."
"No worries," you say with another shrug, mostly thinking back to the battle.
No. Not the battle, the simulation.
It was too… unreal.
Too far removed from what you were used to. No Higgs usage, no spatial warping, attacks that were only threatening in the sense of removing points. You had fought Type 5s before and none died so easily as that fake. You hope that the larger simulator rooms that could support up to a hundred Valkyries at a time had fewer restrictions than this one. You hoped that they felt real.
Suddenly you were very glad that you had not decided to try and fight a hollow copy of Sekhmet in this simulator.
"Still Anna, I must say, you are extraordinarily skilled," says Sandra, clapping her hands together, turning to Shuri, she smiles slightly and continues, "You might have competition as top Ace of the first years now Shuri."
You notice Shuri clench a fist and stiffen slightly at that.
"Maybe, maybe not." Shuri defers, then abruptly, "I am heading back to the dorms now, will you be coming Sandra?"
"Yes, I think I should, active battle is far more tiring than manoeuvre and weapon practice, even though I did very little," said the girl as Shuri retracted her Valkyrie frame.
"See you in class Anna, keep up the good work," she gives you a wave in farewell.
"Goodbye." you say, then the two exit the simulator.
XxXxXxXxXx
Target Rich Environment Level 1: (0)+56 = 56/??
XxXxXxXxXx
You wait a minute for the two to get clear, then retract Durga and exit from the simulator yourself.
It was still only a few hours into the afternoon, but you remember Yukari's advice, your therapist had also suggested that you try and sleep more.
Walking to your room, you pull up a scheduler and view it.
Combat theory classes in the mornings, lunch, then Valkyrie handling and combat classes again in the afternoon. Dinner, then Free time or elective classes in the evening.
The elective classes looked like an enormous bludge, all were completely self study and most appeared to be recreational activities. There didn't even appear to be any real incentive to actually formally enlist, as it was noted that unless specifically noted, these classes were open door, if sometimes difficult to get to, with location markers such as the bottom of Perth Arcology and several kilometers out to sea at Old Perth CBD.
You glance over the hugely expansive list, noting some that stood out. Aerospace modelling. Amateur novel writing and literary critique? Athletics. Aviation. Baking and pastries. Ballistic study. Cars? Computer games review? Competitive swimming? Cooking and Culinary sampling? Demolition. Electronics. Fishing? Golf? Homemaking. Inventions. Jokes and stand-up comedy. Kinaesthetics. Law. Matchmaking? Modelling? Mu? Noise and Music? Questions? Radio. Statistics and Maths. Space and Spaceships. Trains? Videos of various things that are often cute but sometimes rather scary.
…
What?
You scroll past the rest of the open door ones and to the bottom where the non-open door classes were located, or rather, just one class.
Elite (Invite only.)
No location marker and not very descriptive.
You focus back onto the corridor as you come upon your room. Opening your door with a thought, you take it in.
A large room maybe twenty meters squared with walls painted the standard off white. If you were to say the door opened in the south east corner looking north, then directly to the west of the door was a large wardrobe. A large bed with soft yellow blankets and pillows sat in the Southwest corner along the western wall, directly under a wide window, currently set to be opaque. On the opposite side of the room, a desk with a reclinable chair was arranged along the eastern wall, also with an opaque window in front of it. Towards the North, a long sofa was squashed against the wall, a small coffee table in front of it. You raise an eyebrow at it's positioning then turn and look up, an expansive holoscreen stretched along the upper half of the South wall.
Wow.
You turn and adjust your vision slightly and look through the north wall, revealing a large bathroom behind the door in the Northwest. You were quite sure normal cadets don't get a room this nice. Then again, if it was true that scarcity was no longer a problem in arcologies then maybe they did.
You take off your shoes and walk over to the bed, sitting down and considering your classes-
Soft.
You blink at the sensation of the mattress and quilt giving way under you. Putting a palm flat against the quilt, you ran it over the quilt, reveling in the sensation of smooth and soft fabric under your hand.
Somehow before you knew it, you ended up lying down on the bed, enjoying the sensation of the fabric enveloping your hands and calves.
Wow. Really soft.
You look up and eye the pillow at head of the bed, it looked soft too. You reach out and grab it, putting it under your head. Relaxing back into it, you sigh, it was as soft as it looked.
But something was wrong, a subtle resistance, a slight dullness in the feeling.
You turn off your Impeller field completely for the first time in years.
…
This was amazing! You reach up and grab the other pillow at the head of the bed, hugging it to your chest and rubbing your face into it. It was so comfortable.
Swinging out an arm whilst using the other to keep the pillow pressed to your chest, you grab the quilt and fold it over yourself, rolling over and over to cocoon yourself in the nice soft material.
The beds here were amazing, you think absently as you roll over and over on the bed, enjoying the feeling of the mattress giving way under you. Your feet swing out over the edge of the bed.
Uh oh.
You try reversing you momentum with every trick you knew, but confined in the treacherously soft quilt and pillows, you are helpless as you slowly topple off the bed.
Brushing you hair out of your face, you unravel yourself from the quilts and consider the problem.
Hmm.
Walking over to the wardrobe you open it and hit gold. Many more quilts and pillows inside, many, many more.
You enthusiastically haul them out and throw them onto the bed.
Leaping back over, you construct walls with the extra quilts and pillows, before pulling your original quilt and pillows back around you and resume your rolling about. Now there was no threat of falling off the bed and a command turns off the room lights.
Another malfunction occurs however as you bump into one of your walls and it topples on top of you. You wriggle free of your cocoon then burrow to the surface, poking your head out from under the piles of pillows and blankets.
Actually, this wasn't so bad. You yawn and relax back into the pile.
This reminded you of an earlier time, a more innocent time.
Sunbeams shining across the room - Half remembered faces swim across your memories - Anna! Get up you little sleepyhead! - A sunset from a rooftop -
Your hand twitches as you grab for the hand of someone else, who?
Finding nothing, you sigh in disappointment and fall to sleep.
XxXxXxXxXx
Social score + 1
XxXxXxXxXx
Where do you focus your efforts on during day classes and which, if any elective class do you choose?
Morning:
Combat theory classes:
Mostly study of common AGs and the tactics against them.
What do you want to question the instructor about?
>[]Focus on studying close in combat
>[]Focus on studying ranged combat
>[]Focus on studying Higgs, the Impeller field and the abuses of, and spatial warping (Self study)
Afternoon:
Valkyrie handling and combat classes:
Actual piloting of Valk frames. You probably won't learn anything here, but you might teach some.
What do you want to practice with the instructor?
>[]Focus on practicing close in Combat
>[]Focus on practicing ranged combat
>[]Focus on studying Higgs, the Impeller field and the abuses of and spatial warping (Self Study)
Evening:
>[]Do not join any elective classes, keep them free.
>[]Do not commit to any elective classes, explore them.
>[]Join an elective class
>>[]Write in. (GM reserve right to Veto)
XxXxXxXxXx
Notes: Okay. This update took ages. I meant to publish a character sheet first but this has taken long enough. Before the next update comes out, you'll get the character sheet though.
[X]Yes:
>[X]Against Antagonists:
>>[X]Random Scenario: 17 votes
>>>[X]Moderate: 15 votes
>>[x]Historic Scenarios (Difficult to Impossible) 2 votes
>>>[x]First Contact (Survival. As the name suggests. Survive the Antagonist attacks, protect the ICBMs on terminal approach, survive the resulting explosions) 2 votes
XxXxXxXxXx
"I agree with Miss Kravala," you say after a moment of thought, "the inter academy tournament is not a matter of life and death. Your familiarity with the Antagonists is."
"It appears then I am outvoted," sighs Sandra, "We will have plenty of opportunities to battle against the Antagonists within the simulator through our years at the Academy, so why not take advantage of today?"
"There is no doubt that we shall fly against other Cadets through the year too," says Shuri, taking to the air in a smooth practiced motion, nearly flawless.
"Very well," grumbles Sandra, her hand moving across the air to scroll through the simulator menu, "Anna, what is your combat rating? I can't seem to access it."
"I do not know," you reply, you were almost certain it would very be high, but you have never taken a standardised test for your combat ability. Also, when you cannot use either Higgs particles or spatial warping, you weren't really sure how well you would adapt. You have fought for so long with the assumption that you could do both freely, it would take some getting used to.
"Are you new to Valkyries Frames as well? Then let us just keep the difficult at moderate," Sandra says, pressing down decisively down with a finger.
No, that was not what you meant-
The world goes grey again as the simulator halts.
>1st Year Cadet. Aleksandra Marianne Cambridge proposes new simulation<
>Random Scenario Selected<
>Moderate Difficulty<
>>Accept?
>>1/3
You mentally shrug then confirm with a thought but-
>>2/3
"Sandra," Shuri sharply complains.
"What? You finished a moderately difficult Scenario for first years by yourself last time. I may be new, but I will not be a burden."
"That was- I don't-" Shuri abruptly cuts herself off, "I may be able to keep the Antagonists in a moderate scenario from shooting down one green Cadet, but two is asking too much."
"I am capable," you interject, a sharp spike of annoyance at her assumption making your tone clipped. What did she know of your experiences?
"Anna is confident and so am I. What does it matter should we be shot down in the Simulation? We can treat it as a learning experience," Sandra says, spreading her arms as she takes to the air also.
Shuri is silent for a moment, then the simulation goes completely black, with only the glowing exhaust vents of the Valkyrie frames and the small IFF markers projected by the simulation showing that the simulation was still active.
>>3/3
>New Scenario Startup
>>Suppression of Antagonist Airbase
The terrain unfolds around you, again with that nauseating wrenching of space.
The trio of you appear standing at the edge of a cliff.
You take a glance around, mountains soar into the sky around you, snow capped with pearly white ice. Around your feet, alpine flowers bloom in profusion, a rainbow of colours. The horizon ruins the idyllic view however. Dark smoke clouds rise thickly into the air, casting the plains past the foothills into darkness.
Flashes of colour sullenly light the cloud from within as look on and you focus in on them to discover the source, only to find you can't make out a source for the explosions at all. Durga quickly marks those as expended active decoys.
A transmission suddenly blares across your comms in open channel, "Shark Fifty One Thirty to all. Roach Nest found. Position marked. Heavy Ant presence."
You mentally flick through your dictionary, a Roach Nest was an Antagonist air base, one of the larger variants, and Ants were Antagonist anti-aircraft.
A nav point appears in the distance, you immediately zoom in, but again cannot pierce through the dark smoke. Was this smoke some newly deployed form of electronic warfare?
"Command to Shark Five One Three Zero, Air is contested. Ground cannot advance. No backup ETA."
"Shark to Command. Roach Nest is Active. Air gets here now or never."
The channel is silent.
Flashes of light announce Shuri extending weapon systems, a particle projector of some sort that sat over her right vambrace, a melee halberd in her left hand and a series of additional thrusters appear mounted to her waist like an armoured dress.
Sandra looks at Shuri, Shuri silently nods back at Sandra.
"Command. This is Valkyrie Cambridge. En route to Roach Nest with two other Valks," Sandra speaks authoritatively over the channel.
She takes off at the sentence in near synch with Shuri and accelerates towards the Nav point. You hurry after them, still trying to pierce the confounding clouds.
"Valkyrie Cambridge, your flight is at half strength. This needs a full flight of Valks. Wait for reinforcements."
"Valkyrie Kravala is an Ace, we can handle this," says Sandra with complete certainty. You notice Shuri's flight wobble slightly at this, before she pulls slightly ahead of Sandra.
"Confirmed Valkyries. Good luck. Command out."
You shift to Shuri's other side and above, forming a basic triangle.
Shuri dives towards the ground and begins Nape of Earth flight as the distance to the nav marker drops to 70 kilometers.
At just under fifty kilometers, you spy several battalions of Antagonist tanks towards your right flank. The large and squat vehicles, topped with one heavily armoured rotating turret, steadily advance forwards, crushing the ground under their treads and throwing up dust as they charged over the ashen ground at three hundred kilometers per hour. Your current flight path would put you within a couple of kilometers of them. You call another of your new weapons to the forefront, the racks of XHEAP missiles materialising in carriers attached to your hips, both Shuri and Sandra slow slightly at this.
You can't help but feel slightly satisfied at their visible surprise. That sense of satisfaction turns to surprise as you scan the tank columns. Their emissions were too low and flat out missing in several bands to be actual Tanks. Convincing, but not up to the task of fooling your sensors.
Flares of light announce incoming plasma and missiles. You analyse the attacks quickly, the plasma was far too low energy to weapon fire from a real Antagonist combat vehicle and the missile acceleration profiles were wrong. Durga marks the entire lot as decoys as you focus and try to find the real threat. You've never seen Antagonists go to such effort to construct elaborate fakes when they have always had the number to simply use actual units for any feint.
You are broken from your concentration when the low energy plasma bolts from the decoys rattle off your Impeller field. You eye the 'tanks' speculatively, shifting slightly to duck a 'missile' on instinct, those attacks were not anywhere near the real energy of an Antagonist tank cannon and anyone would have realised that by now, so why-
>1st Year Cadet Anna Sanchez hit by Antagonist Tank Battalions<
>Predicting negligible damage taken<
What- oh.
"Sanchez, if it takes too much concentration to maintain multiple weapon systems, dump some," calls out Shuri as she returns fire alongside Sandra, a glaringly bright white beam of high energy particles racing out to join Sandra's cannon fire and missiles.
"Sorry, I forgot this was a simulation," you say as your join in the returning fire, sending your own missiles soaring at the furthest tanks while shredding the closer ones with the hypervelocity cannon.
The missiles were both fast and agile, plunging into the antagonist tanks, through active defences and shattering armour, causing secondary explosions to bloom through the backline of armoured vehicles while your hypervelocity rounds chewed craters into and then through the innards of the tanks, sending spurts of molten metals flying everywhere.
Though none of you slowed down, in the fourteen or so seconds you were in optimal range of the Tank battalions, the trio of you had completely annihilated the enemy force.
4 AG Tanks roll 2d4 + 2 each: (8,7,5,6)
Against
Anna: 4d6 - 4 + 4d6 + 8,
Babbys first time in a simulator: - 2
I can't use this that, them or those: -1 from die maximum and some special modifiers disabled
Result: 32
Shuri: 4d6 - 4 + 3d4 + 7,
I can't use this that, them or those: -1 from die maximum and some special modifiers disabled
Injuries: -4
Result: 17
Sandra: 4d6 - 4,
Practised: + 1
Well Read: + 1
Result: 11
AG Tanks fail to gain any individual successes.
Group totals:
60 vs 26
20+ difference.
Flawless success.
Against
Anna: 4d6 - 4 + 4d6 + 8,
Babbys first time in a simulator: - 2
I can't use this that, them or those: -1 from die maximum and some special modifiers disabled
Result: 32
Shuri: 4d6 - 4 + 3d4 + 7,
I can't use this that, them or those: -1 from die maximum and some special modifiers disabled
Injuries: -4
Result: 17
Sandra: 4d6 - 4,
Practised: + 1
Well Read: + 1
Result: 11
AG Tanks fail to gain any individual successes.
Group totals:
60 vs 26
20+ difference.
Flawless success.
The trio of you reform into loose formation and continue your advance, several more Antagonist armoured formations race for you but fail to get in range before you leave them behind. At just under twenty kilometers you start making out fighters ascending into the upper atmosphere from a jagged spire. Around it, hulking grub like creatures, easily two hundred meters tall and four hundred long, their long articulated carapace covered with glowing red lenses that shifted this way and that with jerking, irregular motions, plod along the ground. Enemy 'Ants', heavy laser anti-air.
"Enemy Roach Nest in sight," said Shuri, "Ants around it, four groups of three."
"Yes," you confirm.
"I see them," thirds Sandra, "we close in right?"
"We do," says Shuri.
Your formation disperses slightly as the three of your pick up speed. Against the heavily armed and armoured Ant, standard tactics for Valkyries was to close in, to lessen the number of firing arcs that she would be in, then tear the monsters apart at close range.
Durga flashes a notice to you as she detected tracking beams, again marking them as spoofing rather than actual rangefinders. You shake your head slightly and adjust your sensors to be less discriminatory. The lenses shift from the sullen red standby colour to the white blue of imminent discharge.
You'll Shift just before- wait no, you can't do that in the Simulation. Then you'll try use your Higgs engine for an emergency strafe- no actually you can't.
Hmm.
You slam your thrusters into full strafe and extend your Impeller field into a large plane, angled towards one side, turning nearly all your forward velocity into sideways speed. Dozens of lasers flash out, but you were already outside of the area they were bracketing. Only momentarily missing, the beams sweep after you with unerring accuracy, even as you push power into a tight turn in the opposite direction, the distance between you and the Antagonists nullifying the fairly slow traverse speeds of the individual lenses.
You see a grid of lasers box in Sandra and fire a missile into the ground ahead of her, sending a plume of ash, dust and rocks into the path of some of the lasers, momentarily obscuring them. It doesn't work quite as well as you hoped, but Sandra manages to take only glancing hits.
The lasers cut out, the Ants having exhausted their capacitor charges. They start swing their bulky bodies around to allow their still charged lasers on their other flank to target your small Flight, but the trio of you were already on them.
Dozens of cilia extend from between their armoured plates, spitting short ranged explosive flak shells at you. You fire your hypervelocity cannon in return, shredding through the incoming fire and drawing a fiery line down the Ant's side. Through the gap you fire another pair of missiles, which swing in and turn to burrow into the gap of the carapace from where the cilia extend through and explode. The entire section of carapace cracks as fire and gore races out from the gap and the giant weapon slumps.
You fire one more missile through the gap just to be sure and take stock of the other three Ants. Sandra had chosen use her plasma caster to break through the laser lenses, then fired missiles into the creature as you did, followed by more plasma blasts. It was somewhat inefficient as the laser apertures were actually very well armoured and bulwarked internally, but it did succeed on causing the Ant to seize up then slump as something important internally was destroyed. Shuri exploded out of her target, apparently having cut her way into the Ant with her melee halberd, then she wrenched off a piece of carapace and held it in front of her with her Impeller field as a shield.
Lasers slammed into it as the three of you raced for the next group of Ants, but the strong and ablative armour held, though the explosive force from the vaporising material caused her flight path to wobble dangerously. You clear the next group without hassle and rapidly swing for the third, then the fourth.
All in all, it takes slightly less than a minute for all four Ant groups to be eliminated.
4 groups of 3 AG Anti Air roll 3d5+3 - 2 (Attacked from NOE flight) each: (12, 11, 12)(10, 10, 12)(8, 6, 11)(8, 7, 11)
Against
Anna: 32
Shuri: 17
Sandra: 11
AG Anti Air 1 beats Sandra by 2 points.
1 point mitigated by Anna (Shattered Aegis)
Sandra takes 1 point scratch damage.
AG Anti Air 2 beats Sandra by 1 point.
Mitigated by Anna (Shattered Aegis)
No effect.
Sandra's scratch damage fades.
Group totals:
60 vs 35
60 vs 32
60 vs 25
60 vs 26
+20 difference in all cases.
Flawless Success on all counts.
Against
Anna: 32
Shuri: 17
Sandra: 11
AG Anti Air 1 beats Sandra by 2 points.
1 point mitigated by Anna (Shattered Aegis)
Sandra takes 1 point scratch damage.
AG Anti Air 2 beats Sandra by 1 point.
Mitigated by Anna (Shattered Aegis)
No effect.
Sandra's scratch damage fades.
Group totals:
60 vs 35
60 vs 32
60 vs 25
60 vs 26
+20 difference in all cases.
Flawless Success on all counts.
"Command, this is Valkyrie Cambridge, Ants around Roach Nest eliminated. Attacking Roach Nest," Sandra broadcasts as the last Ant goes Silent, Shuri having caved the entire side of the monster in with her melee halberd, toppling into its side with an enormous crash, revealing hundred of legs on its underside, some still twitching weakly.
"Confirmed Valkyrie Cambridge, local AG forces on retreat. Friendly air is advancing."
Missiles, lasers and shells streak from the Antagonist base even as she speaks, alongside nearly three squadrons of light fighters. Deciding to conserve hypervelocity cannon ammunition, you materialise your laser systems. Small optical ports appearing all over your frame and you begin counter fire as the three of you advance, breaking kill boxes of missiles and shells, then targeting their launchers and turrets with missiles of your own. Shuri is blazing around the perimeter, simply dicing apart the approaching fighters with precise shots from her particle projector while Sandra supported her with cannon fire. Perhaps the approach for your three was awkward for the weapon systems of the redoubt, but your found the incoming fire somewhat light, still you could not neutralise laser fire and a beam slices through, slamming into Sandra head on. You destroy the laser port before it completes the full attack as Sandra's Impeller field shrugs off the energy without trouble.
AG Redoubt rolls 5d6: (13) and 3 Squadrons of AG Light Fighters roll 3d5 each: (12, 9, 4)
Against
Anna: 32
Shuri: 17
Sandra: 11
AG Redoubt beats Sandra by 2 points.
1 point mitigated by Anna (Shattered Aegis)
Sandra takes 1 point scratch damage.
AG Light Fighters 1 beats Sandra by 1 point.
Mitigated by Anna (Shattered Aegis)
No effect.
Sandra's scratch damage fades.
Group totals:
60 vs 13
60 vs 25
+20 difference in both cases.
Flawless Victory.
Against
Anna: 32
Shuri: 17
Sandra: 11
AG Redoubt beats Sandra by 2 points.
1 point mitigated by Anna (Shattered Aegis)
Sandra takes 1 point scratch damage.
AG Light Fighters 1 beats Sandra by 1 point.
Mitigated by Anna (Shattered Aegis)
No effect.
Sandra's scratch damage fades.
Group totals:
60 vs 13
60 vs 25
+20 difference in both cases.
Flawless Victory.
With most of its weapon apertures now in smoking ruins, the three of you hover over the armoured cap of the airbase's central shaft. Shuri charges her particle projector until it glows, then fires the weapon directly downwards into the cap. The super strong composite material never stood a chance and is simply peeled back as the particle beam passed through. A rumble shakes the entire spire as the barrel of Shuri's particle projector smokes, clearly overloaded, and you frown slightly at the waste - then Shuri stows it, presumably for her Valkyrie Core to fix, and materialises another identical weapon.
You shake your head slightly in bemusement at the tactic as the three of you fire your remaining stocks of missiles into the base through the breach in the cap.
The ground shakes as the detonation of a hundred missiles in the depths of the Antagonist airbase throws a plume of fire up from the central shaft.
You scan the base, wondering if that was it, when Durga flashes an alert, her 'voice' sounding rather irritated. Pseudo Higgs engine reaction?
…What?
A Type 5 explodes out from a secondary shaft. Dark blue, flat and angular like a pre-Impact stealth bomber, a long segmented tail extended from its back and four limbs trailed outwards from under the main body. A brightly glowing sensor band on it's leading edge shone with amethyst light.
Ah. The simulator could not replicate the Higgs engine signatures output but it tried its best, which was apparently not up to Durga's standards.
"Type 5!" yelps Sandra, spinning to face it and reversing away on instinct from the high level Antagonist at the same moment Shuri charges forwards, combining her melee halberd with her particle projector.
The Type 5 turns away and immediately engages a pseudo- … it immediately engages its Higgs thrusters and burns towards the human lines, if it broke through to the incoming air transports, casualties would spike.
You raise your hand and every weapon you have speaks out to refute that possibility.
It wobbles and then is forced into a spin as first your lasers, then heavy particle streams slam into it, followed fractions of an instant later by hypervelocity cannon rounds. The Impeller field of the Type 5 was unable to disperse the incoming fire evenly and the thermal explosion of so much concentrated energy knock it off it's flight path, your strike very nearly managed to break through the field judging from the way it visibly distorts. Before you manage to reacquire weapons on it, Shuri smashes the Type 5 towards the ground with her particle melee weapon combo, shattering it's Impeller fields with a flash of light. A secondary layer underneath slows the strike enough to prevent it from being bisected by the blow.
The Type 5 crashes in an enormous explosion of dust, another flash of light announcing its secondary layer of Impeller fields had overloaded at that. Shuri points her melee halberd down and the blade extends, shooting for the beast. From within the dust, you see the type five raise an arm, the glow of some particle weapon charging- before you sever the arm with a well place beam of heavy particles of your own. Shuri's blade slams down right through the creatures center of mass, annihilating its Higgs engine and coring it right through.
Shuri disconnects her particle cannon from her melee halberd and you let most of your weapons slip back into storage as the slag that was formerly a Type 5 smoulders on the ground.
A pair of missiles slam into the remains.
You both turn and look questioningly at Sandra.
"I will have both of you know that I let those missiles loose while the Type 5 was still alive," she huffs at you, an arm coming up to her head and making a sweeping motion, "I don't believe I've seen a high level Antagonist die that fast since I watched a holodoc about the Battle of Britain."
High Level AG Type 5 rolls 4d5+5 to attack transports: (17)
Anna rolls 4d6 - 4 + 4d6 + 8 to intercept:
Babbys first time in a simulator: - 2
I can't use this that, them or those: -1 from die maximum and some special modifiers disabled
Result: 27
Anna beats Type 5 by 10
Interception successful
High Level AG Type 5 rolls 4d5+5 for battle: (15)
Anna: 4d6 - 4 + 4d6 + 8,
Babbys first time in a simulator: - 2
I can't use this that, them or those: -1 from die maximum and some special modifiers disabled
Result: 31
Anna beats Type 5 by 16.
Critical Success
Shuri: 4d6 - 4 + 3d4 + 7,
I can't use this that, them or those: -1 from die maximum and some special modifiers disabled
Injuries: -4
Following up a Critical Success: + 2
Result: 22
Shuri beats Type 5 by 7.
Significant Success
Type 5 has been defeated!
Sandra: 4d6 - 4,
Practised: + 1
Well Read: + 1
Following up a Critical Success: + 2
Result: 17
Sandra beats Type 5 by 2.
Type 5 is already dead!
Anna rolls 4d6 - 4 + 4d6 + 8 to intercept:
Babbys first time in a simulator: - 2
I can't use this that, them or those: -1 from die maximum and some special modifiers disabled
Result: 27
Anna beats Type 5 by 10
Interception successful
High Level AG Type 5 rolls 4d5+5 for battle: (15)
Anna: 4d6 - 4 + 4d6 + 8,
Babbys first time in a simulator: - 2
I can't use this that, them or those: -1 from die maximum and some special modifiers disabled
Result: 31
Anna beats Type 5 by 16.
Critical Success
Shuri: 4d6 - 4 + 3d4 + 7,
I can't use this that, them or those: -1 from die maximum and some special modifiers disabled
Injuries: -4
Following up a Critical Success: + 2
Result: 22
Shuri beats Type 5 by 7.
Significant Success
Type 5 has been defeated!
Sandra: 4d6 - 4,
Practised: + 1
Well Read: + 1
Following up a Critical Success: + 2
Result: 17
Sandra beats Type 5 by 2.
Type 5 is already dead!
>All enemies eliminated<
>Scenario success<
>Casualties: 0<
>Objectives lost: 0<
>Grade: S+<
>New time record for Scenario achieved<
>Formerly: 06:19<
>Currently: 03:15<
>>View statistics?
You shrug at that, dismissing the notice from the simulator. The simulated world around the Spire fades and with a shuddering convulsion of space, you find yourself again outside Perth Academy, restored to its flawless appearance.
"Well that was quite exciting," sighs Sandra, her Valkyrie unit retracting, leaving her in her uniform.
Looking over at you, she questions "I thought you said that you were new?"
Shuri looks over at you too at that.
You shake your head, "I have never taken a standard combat rating test, but I fought, before I arrived here."
Sandra winces imperceptibly and Shuri shakes her head slightly.
"Ah, I am sorry for asking."
"No worries," you say with another shrug, mostly thinking back to the battle.
No. Not the battle, the simulation.
It was too… unreal.
Too far removed from what you were used to. No Higgs usage, no spatial warping, attacks that were only threatening in the sense of removing points. You had fought Type 5s before and none died so easily as that fake. You hope that the larger simulator rooms that could support up to a hundred Valkyries at a time had fewer restrictions than this one. You hoped that they felt real.
Suddenly you were very glad that you had not decided to try and fight a hollow copy of Sekhmet in this simulator.
"Still Anna, I must say, you are extraordinarily skilled," says Sandra, clapping her hands together, turning to Shuri, she smiles slightly and continues, "You might have competition as top Ace of the first years now Shuri."
You notice Shuri clench a fist and stiffen slightly at that.
"Maybe, maybe not." Shuri defers, then abruptly, "I am heading back to the dorms now, will you be coming Sandra?"
"Yes, I think I should, active battle is far more tiring than manoeuvre and weapon practice, even though I did very little," said the girl as Shuri retracted her Valkyrie frame.
"See you in class Anna, keep up the good work," she gives you a wave in farewell.
"Goodbye." you say, then the two exit the simulator.
XxXxXxXxXx
Target Rich Environment Level 1: (0)+56 = 56/??
XxXxXxXxXx
You wait a minute for the two to get clear, then retract Durga and exit from the simulator yourself.
It was still only a few hours into the afternoon, but you remember Yukari's advice, your therapist had also suggested that you try and sleep more.
Walking to your room, you pull up a scheduler and view it.
Combat theory classes in the mornings, lunch, then Valkyrie handling and combat classes again in the afternoon. Dinner, then Free time or elective classes in the evening.
The elective classes looked like an enormous bludge, all were completely self study and most appeared to be recreational activities. There didn't even appear to be any real incentive to actually formally enlist, as it was noted that unless specifically noted, these classes were open door, if sometimes difficult to get to, with location markers such as the bottom of Perth Arcology and several kilometers out to sea at Old Perth CBD.
You glance over the hugely expansive list, noting some that stood out. Aerospace modelling. Amateur novel writing and literary critique? Athletics. Aviation. Baking and pastries. Ballistic study. Cars? Computer games review? Competitive swimming? Cooking and Culinary sampling? Demolition. Electronics. Fishing? Golf? Homemaking. Inventions. Jokes and stand-up comedy. Kinaesthetics. Law. Matchmaking? Modelling? Mu? Noise and Music? Questions? Radio. Statistics and Maths. Space and Spaceships. Trains? Videos of various things that are often cute but sometimes rather scary.
…
What?
You scroll past the rest of the open door ones and to the bottom where the non-open door classes were located, or rather, just one class.
Elite (Invite only.)
No location marker and not very descriptive.
You focus back onto the corridor as you come upon your room. Opening your door with a thought, you take it in.
A large room maybe twenty meters squared with walls painted the standard off white. If you were to say the door opened in the south east corner looking north, then directly to the west of the door was a large wardrobe. A large bed with soft yellow blankets and pillows sat in the Southwest corner along the western wall, directly under a wide window, currently set to be opaque. On the opposite side of the room, a desk with a reclinable chair was arranged along the eastern wall, also with an opaque window in front of it. Towards the North, a long sofa was squashed against the wall, a small coffee table in front of it. You raise an eyebrow at it's positioning then turn and look up, an expansive holoscreen stretched along the upper half of the South wall.
Wow.
You turn and adjust your vision slightly and look through the north wall, revealing a large bathroom behind the door in the Northwest. You were quite sure normal cadets don't get a room this nice. Then again, if it was true that scarcity was no longer a problem in arcologies then maybe they did.
You take off your shoes and walk over to the bed, sitting down and considering your classes-
Soft.
You blink at the sensation of the mattress and quilt giving way under you. Putting a palm flat against the quilt, you ran it over the quilt, reveling in the sensation of smooth and soft fabric under your hand.
Somehow before you knew it, you ended up lying down on the bed, enjoying the sensation of the fabric enveloping your hands and calves.
Wow. Really soft.
You look up and eye the pillow at head of the bed, it looked soft too. You reach out and grab it, putting it under your head. Relaxing back into it, you sigh, it was as soft as it looked.
But something was wrong, a subtle resistance, a slight dullness in the feeling.
You turn off your Impeller field completely for the first time in years.
…
This was amazing! You reach up and grab the other pillow at the head of the bed, hugging it to your chest and rubbing your face into it. It was so comfortable.
Swinging out an arm whilst using the other to keep the pillow pressed to your chest, you grab the quilt and fold it over yourself, rolling over and over to cocoon yourself in the nice soft material.
The beds here were amazing, you think absently as you roll over and over on the bed, enjoying the feeling of the mattress giving way under you. Your feet swing out over the edge of the bed.
Uh oh.
You try reversing you momentum with every trick you knew, but confined in the treacherously soft quilt and pillows, you are helpless as you slowly topple off the bed.
Brushing you hair out of your face, you unravel yourself from the quilts and consider the problem.
Hmm.
Walking over to the wardrobe you open it and hit gold. Many more quilts and pillows inside, many, many more.
You enthusiastically haul them out and throw them onto the bed.
Leaping back over, you construct walls with the extra quilts and pillows, before pulling your original quilt and pillows back around you and resume your rolling about. Now there was no threat of falling off the bed and a command turns off the room lights.
Another malfunction occurs however as you bump into one of your walls and it topples on top of you. You wriggle free of your cocoon then burrow to the surface, poking your head out from under the piles of pillows and blankets.
Actually, this wasn't so bad. You yawn and relax back into the pile.
This reminded you of an earlier time, a more innocent time.
Sunbeams shining across the room - Half remembered faces swim across your memories - Anna! Get up you little sleepyhead! - A sunset from a rooftop -
Your hand twitches as you grab for the hand of someone else, who?
Finding nothing, you sigh in disappointment and fall to sleep.
XxXxXxXxXx
Social score + 1
XxXxXxXxXx
Where do you focus your efforts on during day classes and which, if any elective class do you choose?
Morning:
Combat theory classes:
Mostly study of common AGs and the tactics against them.
What do you want to question the instructor about?
>[]Focus on studying close in combat
>[]Focus on studying ranged combat
>[]Focus on studying Higgs, the Impeller field and the abuses of, and spatial warping (Self study)
Afternoon:
Valkyrie handling and combat classes:
Actual piloting of Valk frames. You probably won't learn anything here, but you might teach some.
What do you want to practice with the instructor?
>[]Focus on practicing close in Combat
>[]Focus on practicing ranged combat
>[]Focus on studying Higgs, the Impeller field and the abuses of and spatial warping (Self Study)
Evening:
>[]Do not join any elective classes, keep them free.
>[]Do not commit to any elective classes, explore them.
>[]Join an elective class
>>[]Write in. (GM reserve right to Veto)
XxXxXxXxXx
Notes: Okay. This update took ages. I meant to publish a character sheet first but this has taken long enough. Before the next update comes out, you'll get the character sheet though.
Last edited:
Avalanche
Atypical Netizen
- Location
- Australia
You nearly died against Sekhmet not because of any handicap, it simply outclassed you.
Without the 300 frames, there are perhaps 20 or so people in the world who stand a chance against a Class E Type Zero. With the 300, then the previously mentioned 20 people can now dust up against a fresh and ready Class D Type Zero. When equipped with 300 frames, the number of people who can face off against Class Es goes up to around 600. Of course, seeing as there are only 315 Frames in the 300, that doesn't actually happen.
Also, Valks, even those in the 300, don't charge into AG controlled territory the way High Level AGs sometimes yolo into human territory, there is a limited number of the 300 and humans have no idea how to make more, unlike the Major Breaches, which spit out Type Zeros like clockwork.
Pretty much. Higgs particle is just my term for handwave basically. It follows rules, but most people in universe don't have the rulebook.
The Simulator safeties are robust enough to prevent almost any form of attack from harming a cadet, the entire Sim will stop to counteract anything it finds may actually hurt a participant. As for the interacademy tourney, that's hosted at Santiago, so I'm not really sure if they'll have the same type of Sims Perth has. Maybe they're just use an Arena with auto activating Impellers to prevent anyone from doing too much damage to each other.
You don't have to worry about equipment breakage. So long as it is recognisable by the Valkyrie, the Valkyrie core can repair it. Don't expect to get it back too quick unless you've got a good fabricator unit synched in though. Also, melee weapons are rarely actual physical contact weapons. You might hit someone with a plasma blade connected to your melee halberd, but actually trying to whack them with the halberd itself? Generally not a thing.
Last edited:
trooperist
Cinnamon Roll AI
So if Anna hadn't stopped those hits, would the damage to Sandra been actually damaging? Not really sure what hit points everyone has.
Anna seems to have conflicting opinions. She seems to dislike violence but at the same time wants to go back to the front and fight again.
I laughed how Anna continues to find the Ace's rip and tear maximum firepower combat style to be suboptimal.
Anna seems to have conflicting opinions. She seems to dislike violence but at the same time wants to go back to the front and fight again.
I laughed how Anna continues to find the Ace's rip and tear maximum firepower combat style to be suboptimal.
meganeshounen
*tips glasses*
- Location
- Far East Asia
Morning:
Combat theory classes:
Mostly study of common AGs and the tactics against them.
What do you want to question the instructor about?
>[X]Focus on studying ranged combat
Afternoon:
Valkyrie handling and combat classes:
Actual piloting of Valk frames. You probably won't learn anything here, but you might teach some.
What do you want to practice with the instructor?
>[]Focus on studying Higgs, the Impeller field and the abuses of and spatial warping (Self Study)
Evening:
>[]Do not commit to any elective classes, explore them.
"Shattered Aegis" represents Anna's tendency to provide defensive support for her allies, I suppose? But seeing as she'd "failed" already in the past, it's not perfect.
Though it'll be enough for now.
Combat theory classes:
Mostly study of common AGs and the tactics against them.
What do you want to question the instructor about?
>[X]Focus on studying ranged combat
Afternoon:
Valkyrie handling and combat classes:
Actual piloting of Valk frames. You probably won't learn anything here, but you might teach some.
What do you want to practice with the instructor?
>[]Focus on studying Higgs, the Impeller field and the abuses of and spatial warping (Self Study)
Evening:
>[]Do not commit to any elective classes, explore them.
- Theoretical studies about shooting things better might benefit Anna, who's probably been running on instinct for a while now.
- As for actual hands-on training with Valk frames... well, Anna had more than recommended combat experience with regards to her maneuvering, so might as well improve her ability to fuck up anything in her Impeller field range.
- There's a helluva lot of clubs... let's try them all. And maybe bump into interesting people along the way.
"Shattered Aegis" represents Anna's tendency to provide defensive support for her allies, I suppose? But seeing as she'd "failed" already in the past, it's not perfect.
Though it'll be enough for now.
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[x] veekie
Darn, I was hoping the simulators would actually be useful, but it looks like they just unsettle us.
I wonder if we would get a rep doing that, try the simulator once, completely demolish the previous record and then stop. The reason? Its too fake.
I wonder if we would get a rep doing that, try the simulator once, completely demolish the previous record and then stop. The reason? Its too fake.
meganeshounen
*tips glasses*
- Location
- Far East Asia
Anya complaining that the simulators aren't "deadly" enough, like the real thing?
Seems legit. Though understandable, as they're only simulations of the real thing.
Seems legit. Though understandable, as they're only simulations of the real thing.
>[X]Focus on studying Higgs, the Impeller field and the abuses of, and spatial warping (Self study)
>[X]Focus on studying Higgs, the Impeller field and the abuses of and spatial warping (Self Study)
>[X]Do not commit to any elective classes, explore them.
>[X]Focus on studying Higgs, the Impeller field and the abuses of and spatial warping (Self Study)
>[X]Do not commit to any elective classes, explore them.
meganeshounen
*tips glasses*
- Location
- Far East Asia
Anna: "All of these missions are actually winnable... with no casualties?"
Simulator Technician/Programmer: "Are having that much of a difficulty in finishing them, Cadet Sanchez?"
Anna: "... No, it's not that. I'm just surprised that these missions can be completed at all. It's just that back then, I've... nevermind."
Well that and they don't register as real to her on an instinctive level either. She thought everything was a decoy at first and had to actively remind herself that its suppose to be real, on top of that we can't use half our bag of tricks.
I vote we just stay out of the simulation rooms when we can, the fluff of it being not real enough for her and her accidentally untraining some of her instincts... Well I'd be worried about that at least if I was in her position.
- Pronouns
- They/Them
Mmh... with the end of the day, we've either passed the first 10 minutes of episode one, so something will happen tomorrow so the protagonist can show his action-harem-plot-skills, or it's the end of the episode and it happened without us knowing about it.
trooperist
Cinnamon Roll AI
Just remember that plot speed usually revolves around the protagonist and what he's doing. He probably went and had a few scenes with the tsundere and his roommate before calling it a day. I'd say it's the end of episode 1.
- Pronouns
- They/Them
The thing is, first episodes are always (or almost) organised the same way:
- A cool and badass intro, with some fight or some unclear thing happening, or an in media res of the last point before flashbacking
- Slice of life presenting the protagonist and "first girl"
- Introduction of the world (the school assembly here "blabla, you're the last hope of humanity, now join some clubs since we're in a japanese school for some reason") and introductions of some more characters and presenting the new situation of the protagonist (ie. classes in something happening in a school. Classes are great for exposing the world)
- Some more action showing the main character's skill (either an enemy breach, or more likely a simulation against a powerful student here)
That way, you've got action to get people in, exposition and some more action with hopefully a cliffhanger so that people will watch the second episode.
At least, if I wanted to create a generic action harem anime feel, I'd use this structure. Of course, our character isn't the type that's has much screentime at first, so we may very well have missed those events.