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Beneath Celestial Depths (An Arpeggio of Blue Steel Quest)

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[x] Seize control of the base's systems
-[x] Overwhelm both the control and security systems. (20% chance of failure)
 
Yeah, let's not play Russian roulette with the computer systems till we can move.

[X] Gather/salvage conventional materials.
-[X] From broken parts of the sub pen.

We need to be able to move/hide at least. That's priority #1.

[X] Let's just have fun with Mary for now.
 
[X] Seize control of the base's systems
-[X] Overwhelm both the control and security systems. (20% chance of failure)

[X] Teach Mary some useful skills...
-[X] Show her how your Thanatonium Reactor functions (Engineering Training)

I just don't see the point in command training Surcouf has been doing this for years, she even managed to beat Habbukuk. Who while not someone I would call a tactical genius, needed planning and preparation to win such a fight. I get that Mary is smart but she lacks the experience that Surcouf has.

And besides I'd much rather have super best engines capable of space travel! You know like how Mary said she wanted to see. (For the moment space travel is a joke but I really do want more effective and efficient engines.)
 
[X] Seize control of the base's systems
-[X] Overwhelm both the control and security systems. (20% chance of failure)

[X] Teach Mary some useful skills...
-[X] Let her drive you for a bit. Simulated, of course (Navigation Training)

Mary says she wants us to take her to space, so maybe we can do her one better and let her steer us when the time comes?
 
Is it called insane difficulty because the level of opposition is insane or because the players are insane?
 
All players are insane. The question is whether they are differently (in)sane from the QM(s). Because QM is also insane. :V
 
MobiusC said:
Problem I see is that we'd be setting ourselves up for an unknown time limit. We don't know if, when, or how often the Uplink checks on the base so destorying it could eventually bring the heat down if/when people come looking wondering what's up.
edit: On the other hand, going for overwhelming both systems risks a 20% chance of getting found now with a negligible chance afterwards if we succeed.
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Cathon Grimeye said:
As for the risks of both options as I see them:
-Overwhelm has the risk of calling down a strike force to investigate if unsuccessful. Such a strike force is probably something that could come in a matter of hours to days, depends of the tasking of the surrounding assets. A KKV would be unlikely since that would be extremely costly for such an unimportant installation, so grunts would be the most likely.
-Destroy would also give a response, but I can't see it coming anytime soon... or ever really. The pen was abandoned for years after all, so it isn't strategic in any way nowadays and useless to whatever people possessed it. The guys on the other side of the uplink are more likely to think it is an equipment malfunction and the only thing that could be a danger to them (the uplink to hack whatever network is on the other end) being destroyed makes it even less of a priority to deal with. They may send a maintenance crew, but that would probably be a matter of months as it is added to their task queues and might be pushed even further if other tasks are added to it.
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Since it seems I wasn't clear enough.

Think of it like that: You're the guy that monitors the accesses to the network.
Destroy happens: Your system notifies you a node of the network has gone dark. You check what has gone dark and realize that it's the uplink of a facility abandoned for 10+ years in the middle of the Pacific. You shrug and send an e-mail to maintenance since it seems the old systems there have finally died and write it up for your report. After that, maintenance determines if it's worth the time and money to send people to repair a facility that no one seems to care about or use. The response to the malfunction might take months to years depending on the workload of the maintenance teams. Months to years that can be used to put Surcouf's hull in shape and letting her get away. Yes, a timer has begun to tick, but it's a really slow one.
Overwhelm happens and succeeds: Your system glitches a bit, but stabilizes. You shrug and go back to work.
Overwhelm happens and fails: Your system notifies you that a hacking attempt has occurred in a facility in the middle of nowhere. You cut the connection and punch the big red button that your superior has told you to never punch unless for emergencies and tell the spec ops guys to be ready to go in hot. The timer here is a matter of hours, maybe days if all the spec ops teams around are tasked due to an ongoing conflict. Or maybe tell them to send a cruise missile?

MilitaryAaa said:
I just don't see the point in command training Surcouf has been doing this for years, she even managed to beat Habbukuk. Who while not someone I would call a tactical genius, needed planning and preparation to win such a fight. I get that Mary is smart but she lacks the experience that Surcouf has.
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Gunzou was a naval academy student before becoming Iona's captain. Few months later, they sink Hyuga, something that Iona alone couldn't have done. Mary is much much smarter than Gunzou, has an ingrained knowledge of all the capacities of contemporary human and Fog ships and has spent the last 6 years reading and re-reading material related to naval operations. If she can't do better than Gunzou, I'll eat my hat.

In the end Surcouf, as a Fog ship, is competent in all those domains, which is why she sank Habbakuk who sucked at them, but Mary would make Surcouf absurdly good in a given domain. The question then is what domain do we need to be focused on?

Tactical would give us extremely good aim, since Mary could work her magic on the targeting algorithms, but since we don't have a lot of weapons (Ha!) and will probably have to rely on the scraps we find on the base in the near future, so that's not something that we could really take advantage of for some time.
Engineering would give Mary the opportunity to go all mad science and take care of the good functioning of the ship, but since we have nothing to build the crazy devices she could imagine, it's something that will not be useful in the near future. If we have the time and the logistics for it, why not? But knowing how to make nukes or mirror rings doesn't serve us much when the only thing we have right now is some rusted bits of metal.
Navigation would probably make Surcouf crazy maneuverable with Mary squeezing every once of capacity her hull can offer, but seems a bit of a waste of Mary's talent.
Mary as a Sonar operator would probably make us capable of finding a lot of things, especially since she knows the ins and outs of human and Fog tech and could recognize or imagine what the sonar sends her way, but, again, it seems like a waste of talent.
Command is as I described above. Besides that, it is something that would be relevant at every step of the way, from the early game where we make do with the scraps we find, to endgame where we, hopefully, get the hull decently refitted. The downside is that outside of battle and emergency situations, it wouldn't impact much.

Now we only need to determine what are our priorities. The one that seems preeminent to me is survival, thus I chose Command since it's the one that would give us the best chances if shit hits the fan. And since we have chosen Insane difficulty shit will hit us hard.
 
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Besides, Mary's already claimed the captain's chair as her own. We might as well just make it official.

I wouldn't want to be the one to tell her she has to give it up now :p
 
Cathon Grimeye said:
Destroy happens: Your system notifies you a node of the network has gone dark. You check what has gone dark and realize that it's the uplink of a facility abandoned for 10+ years in the middle of the Pacific.
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Cathon Grimeye said:
Overwhelm happens and fails: Your system notifies you that a hacking attempt has occurred in a facility in the middle of nowhere. You cut the connection and punch the big red button that your superior has told you to never punch unless for emergencies and tell the spec ops guys to be ready to go in hot.
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Maybe I'm just not in-touch with what constitutes proportional response for a confirmed hacking attempts, but sending in a kill-team to a facility abandoned decades ago seems... a bit of an excess.
 
Always Late said:
Maybe I'm just not in-touch with what constitutes proportional response for a confirmed hacking attempts, but sending in a kill-team to a facility abandoned decades ago seems... a bit of an excess.
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Arpeggio of Blue Steel, Episode 6.

Mission objective: assassinate a little girl.

Assets deployed: at least a company of spec ops + gunships + tank drones + support + whatever was off screen.

Proportional response in Arpeggio of Blue Steel is a bit weird, yo! Since the opposition can be anything from baseline humans to Mental Models, passing by killbots and power armored troops, it's a bit vindicated. I'd rather err on the side of caution and assume the guys on the other side of the uplink aren't stupid, will assume the worst and send something that can survive it long enough to tell if it's necessary to KKV the facility.
 
Cathon Grimeye said:
Arpeggio of Blue Steel, Episode 6.

Mission objective: assassinate a Design Child in the company of two Fog Mental Models.

Assets deployed: at least a company of spec ops + gunships + tank drones + support + whatever was off screen.
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Cathon Grimeye said:
I'd rather err on the side of paranoia and assume the guys on the other side of the uplink will irrationally assume the worst and send something that can survive it long enough to tell if it's necessary to KKV the facility.
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FTFY. We do not know who the people that are out to get us are, so speculation can only go so far before it hampers our ability to act. We have no idea if the people controlling the Satellite weapon platforms are friendly or antagonistic, and we've either ignored the options that will tell us that information, or treated it like the plague.
In short, Chillax.
 
Honestly, there's an element of risk either way. I'd rather take the option where we a) have that risk quantified, and b) get a bonus out of the deal.

I have faith that the Random Number God will not betray us
 
[X] Teach Mary some useful skills...
-[X] Show her how your Thanatonium Reactor functions (Engineering Training)

She's already shown an aptitude with the off-the-cuff warhead design, and she likely wouldn't mind spending more time in the strawberry garden.

Going to abstain on the other controversy here. Decent arguments on both sides.
 
[X] Gather/salvage conventional materials.
-[X] By breaking down parts of the submarine pen.

[X] Teach Mary some useful skills...
-[X] Let her drive you for a bit. Simulated, of course (Navigation Training)

I'd like to at least to be able to move around a little and who knows we might need Mary to drive us in manual for whatever reason... Though I do want to learn more about the current political order instead of staying as a hermit in our little island.
 
[X] Seize control of the base's systems
-[X] Overwhelm both the control and security systems. (20% chance of failure)

[X] Teach Mary some useful skills...
-[X] Show her how your Thanatonium Reactor functions (Engineering Training)

Well, we're probably hosed, but since we started with maximum WITNESS ME, might as well go out that way too, right?

A KKV in the form of a tungsten rod is really not super expensive, especially if there's a spaceborne industrial complex, and since people are clearly on Mars... If there's a high value on (human?) life and sufficiently volatile conditions to call for KKV capabilities, tossing some tons of metal, a tiny rocket, and some basic guidance gear off a platform 'just in case' could seem pretty rational.

I think Mary might come in most handy helping us repair and adapt to modern day equipment and technology - and people, of course. But I don't really want to manipulate her, she's too adorable. Maybe we could learn from her...or even ask her to be our friendly interface to the people of modern day?

[X] Gather/salvage conventional materials.
-[X] From broken parts of the sub pen.

If we're allowed more options, this sounds good in any spare time we might have. Unless hacking goes badly.
 
[X] Gather/salvage conventional materials.
-[X] From broken parts of the sub pen.

[X] Teach Mary some useful skills...
-[X] Let Mary see some playback of major battles during the Fog War and see if she can change the simulated outcome at all (Command Training)

Before we hack the system I would prefer to have some weapons.
 
[X] Gather/salvage conventional materials.
-[X] From broken parts of the sub pen.

[X] Teach Mary some useful skills...
-[X] Let Mary see some playback of major battles during the Fog War and see if she can change the simulated outcome at all (Command Training)
 
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