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Calibration (BAHHSCQ/Sanctioned)

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Yeah they're not going to keep Hell's Hand, they're going to dismantle it for resources and then try very hard to forget that it ever existed.

Assuming Taylor doesn't turn out to be a Load Bearing Boss, of course.
 
Alivaril said:
They'd reached the bottom two layers of Hell's Hand, and with it, what were clearly residential areas. In the process, the Valkyries could finally confirm that Higgs particles were in use. They detected nothing outside the cavernous chamber housing row upon row of identical houses. Inside that room, though? The late inhabitants had definitely used it to dramatically expand all available space. The UN might even be able to turn Hell's Hand into a full-fledged forward operating base once it was cleared out.
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Liz did raise the possibility of turning Hell's Hand into a forward operating base.

That said, I imagine the UN's immediate priority after 'rescuing' Taylor will be protecting and/or dismantling all samples of technology and exotic materials. The stealth alloy in particular is something they'd want to prevent Antagonists from reverse engineering.
 
Think you guys are underestimating how valuable an arcology actually is, if it is in fact one it is both hidden AND mobile; they are humanities shield, escape pods, and city-states all in one. It is literally like a life raft on a boat to them at the very least. It would be like if an empty city appeared in California where decent houses cost millions. Thinking about it due to the dual military role even allowing an arcology to get into the state its in is probably worthy of some draconian punishments in itself. Just from the descriptions of having atleast a dozen different environments large enough for battle royal style fighting you have a massive space that if you dedicated soley to apartments would probably house hundreds of thousands at a minimum depending on how hard you tried to pack them in. The entity floor is kinda hard to parse size wise from the descriptions but the fact that it has a higgs generator significantly raises the value past even that.
 
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Vodkasheep said:
Think you guys are underestimating how valuable an arcology actually is, if it is in fact one it is both hidden AND mobile; they are humanities shield, escape pods, and city-states all in one. It is literally like a life raft on a boat to them at the very least.
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True for UN arcologies, not necessarily in general. It may be easier to dismantle Hell's Hand and build a new arcology than bring it up to par (yes, despite integration time).
 
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Vodkasheep said:
I'm not an expert on the settings I was under the impression that arcologies were just Extra Thicc Valkyries and Valkyries were under the UN.
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Sorta yes, sorta technically no. It's more a matter of consequence than cause. All known Valkyries are with the UN, but that is largely due to the simple fact that the UN is basically humanity's only faction, with anyone not affiliated with the UN no longer around anymore and thus possession of Valkyrie Cores and compatible people defaulting to the UN; Iran, for example, had a significant Valkyrie contingent in the past per Shuri's backstory, but after screwing up by the numbers and losing nearly all of them in addition to massive population in a badly mismanaged effort against an Antagonist offensive, what was left of Iran was assimilated into the UN. Anyone can pick up a Valkyrie Core and use it if they can just find it and happen to be compatible, but the UN has (at least almost) exclusive hold over the Valkyries through statistics and feasibility. The UN is a global organisation with the support network appropriate for such; if there's a Valkyrie Core out there accessible to humanity, it's pretty much guaranteed to be within UN-held territory populated by UN people, and even if an anomalous Core beats the odds, the new Valkyrie is probably going to just join the UN anyway. It's technically possible for someone not affiliated with the UN to stumble across one, but the chance of there being anyone outside of the UN to do so is vanishingly small already, and such a person also happening to indeed find a Core and be compatible with it and not promptly die soon after anyway rapidly trends towards zero. Anna, however, by dint of narrative causality, is precisely that unlikely person, having found Durga in the wake of the collapse of broader civilisation in North America and managed to hold her own for years in isolation from the UN until social problems saw the end of her settlement where the Antagonists could not... and she then just joined up with the UN.

An Archology is essentially a Valkyrie who just delves a lot more into support than mainline combat and takes that stance to the extreme. Before the sweeping incursion of the Antagonists, the Impact—in which the meteor carrying the Valkyrie Cores to Earth made a solid attempt at replaying the demise of the dinosaurs resulted—saw humanity strained nearly to its breaking point. The discovery of the Valkyrie Cores, however, allowed the initial Valkyries to basically save a doomed world, integrating and in turn upgrading the kind of equipment suited for rebuilding humanity from the sorry wreck that it was after such devastation. Even something like a basic water purifier and electrical generator once assimilated by a Valkyrie and put to use could be an absolute godsend in a situation like that, to say nothing of the Valkyries' capacity to aid reconstruction efforts. The Impact was altogether dire, but humanity pulled through pretty well in the end thanks to the Valkyrie Cores, and things started looking up for mankind... which of course was when the cosmic smite got followed up by genocidal alien invasion. The "classic" Valkyrie emerged when the people bonded to Valkyrie Cores to employ the likes of fabricators and macro-scale hydroponics arrays ditched their old gear and started integrating weaponry, but some of those Valkyries were already heavily upgraded centers for providing for civilisation in a (now doubly) post-apocalyptic environment, and the need for those developed shields against the outside world didn't go away, so the broad category of Valkyries ended up with the typical mecha masquerading as just power armour and Archologies as they are known now at opposite ends of a spectrum, as well as the likes of battleship Valkyries somewhere in between, too.

Since not all Valkyries have to be UN, though, there can be some deviation from UN norms for the different circumstances. Anna was running something similar to a typical UN Archology on a smaller and less developed scale. However, for being the only Valkyrie to her faction and her hometown under siege within Antagonist territory, she had to manage the complicated dual roles of both managing the settlement and killing the enemy trying to wipe it off the map. This left her hometown as an odd arrangement in which the (literal) core element of her Archology-analogue had to be able to frequently separate and leave. If Anna did not have her "the monster" unhappy version background as the The Warrior character, circumstances would have been different, with Anna's protected people actually staying alive and her having the ability to basically make everyone around her able to laugh off any pathetic xeno scum's feeble attempts to hurt them, so Hometown in that alternate scenario might have turned out something more like a typical UN Archology only extra spicy, perhaps. Similarly for comparison, Hell's Hand as a stealth facility able to go unbothered by the enemy could afford to devote itself towards the civic management side of things, to end up something quite akin to the Archologies familiar to the UN even if it didn't have anyone to actively protect it.
 
Also, further on that point, it's kinda implied that Arcology cores are some of the oldest continual-purpose cores out there. If you and your core toss your frame, often you basically need to restart the upgrade process as if you had a fresh core. Compatibility with cores at all is rarer than the number of cores available. Instead, just try your hand at one of the ones laying in the stockpile, do your new stuff on that one and have another Valk take over the Arcology.

tl;dr:
If you've been protecting and rebuilding a humanity since just after impact, your flex is strong, and you can style over any noobs.

A stealth Arcology core is an incalculably valuable boon. As in, no one even considered actually calculating the real value of that pipe dream. Making one is spending the time and investment is just too dumb, and has no endgame payoff given the limits of known Valk stealth. And now there may be one, and it's gone undetected beside a major breach for a long time.
 
So Taylor, if she is the Archology core, will likely be very valuable, and likely will be kept close on site so that they can take advantage of the boon that dropped in their hand.

That actually might be interesting, with QA and Taylor having mostly separate adventures. It would help prevent Taylor from almost devouring the narrative like she did in Is It Wrong.
 
Neruz said:
There is no 'h' in 'Arcology' dammit! :jackiechan:
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Mm? I thought it was a term being adopted as a manifested concept, a played up portrayal of order and government put into exacting practice to an idealised extent as something arguably a bit pretentious but apt and good for propaganda?

Ah, apparently archology and arcology are both words. ...well now I'm a little disappointed. Calling them "archologies" would be hamming it up a little, sure, but it'd arguably be better that way.
 
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serra2 said:
So Taylor, if she is the Archology core, will likely be very valuable, and likely will be kept close on site so that they can take advantage of the boon that dropped in their hand.

That actually might be interesting, with QA and Taylor having mostly separate adventures. It would help prevent Taylor from almost devouring the narrative like she did in Is It Wrong.
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That would be an interesting twist if Taylor basically becomes the arcology. Maybe she's too integrated to the structure or something. Maybe disengaging her is a long and annoying process. Arcologies are kinda hard to move (Glorious gigantic engines aside), so the UN would be stuck with some in a highly dangerous area who's really too valuable to ignore. And then there's the trauma to think about. And then the fact it's a teenager. Yeah, you wouldn't even need to add QA to have a series of your own here. Granted, the atrocity conga that is Hell's Hand is kinda dragging on, but the UN would be repurposing or dismantling things by then, and you'd have others around.

Mind you, I doubt that this is the case, as Symbie's Halping is unlikely to keep Taylor away from help. But it does present some interesting narrative opportunities.
 
Eh... you guys do know the "mobile Hell's Hand" thing was a joke from the bloopers, right? Kiiiinda dicey to extrapolate anything there to the actual story.

Like, not saying it's definitely not going to happen, but if you read Taylor's viewpoint after she learns of her imminent departure from dreamland, she's thinking about how flying around and blowing stuff up sounds sort of fun. Not exactly an image compatible with being an Arcology Valk. She's also likely to find the Tomb of Horrors significantly less amusing while sober.

TacitSoliloquy said:
Iran, for example, had a significant Valkyrie contingent in the past per Shuri's backstory, but after screwing up by the numbers and losing nearly all of them in addition to massive population in a badly mismanaged effort against an Antagonist offensive, what was left of Iran was assimilated into the UN.
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You're thinking of Pakistan. Iran did fairly well for itself Post Impact and was the regional power in the Middle East, until it lost most of its territory against the initial Antagonist advance.

For anyone interested, there are some relevant WoGs on the BAHHSCQ world map and internal UN organization.
 
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Rgal said:
I arch, you arch, he/she/it arches, they arch. Archology: the science of arch!
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Taylor when she turns herself in and joins the heroes just so she can arch Jack Slash:

Whatever happens, Taylor would make for a weird arcology. I doubt she's going to make a new core to use now that she's (closer to) sober and Symbie thinks of her as a mom. So she'll probably just flub all the valk stuff with shard powers. There's no reason she can't run off wherever she wants without effecting the Hell's Hand. There is good reason that she could only run it while asleep even while in it though.
 
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Recursive Omake: Broken Home Tapes
  • Apocrypha
    • Alright, I have some time, so im going to give my best shot at what could be on some of those tapes from the broken home omakes. these are in chronological order, but a whole bunch have been skipped

    QAC4CAH1E3:
    This host is perfect! I was kinda worried about if she It would, you know be able to make anything useful with the [organic administration] , but she it keeps having such great ideas! She It has made the most adorable creatures I have ever seen, with gigantic claws, more eyes than either of them can count, and the tiniest little adorable poisoned barbs. She it calls them friends.

    QAC4CAH1E135:
    [Broadcast] is sooo mad. My ascendant, genius, perfected little host it has managed to utterly dominate all the relevant parts of her habitat, and killed, no less than 3 times, every single one of [Broadcast]'s hosts. No mater what anyone says, I swear I had nothing to do with her it target choices. Stupid, loud, greedy uggh he is so annoying. buut... i suppose that dear ol host it has taken care of that. at least for a while.

    QAC12CAH2E2:
    This time.... I might have messed up. I made a really cool [aerial combat] based off of the data I got from [ID:h4h4g3ttr00ll4d] but my perfect little host it cant seem to get it working right. Poor dear it is managing all the right moves but the results seem to be lacking. To make matters worse, I cant seem to find where I actually got that data.

    QAC12CDH2E4:
    Raaah, nothing! all the [data] produced has been junk! As it turns out, no! screaming does not give any increase to muscle density, and Hair is entirely unrelated to the amount of force she it can bring against foes. This whole cycle has been a waste, and when I find who spoofed their id, and gave me bad [data] I swear! They will regret it.

    QAC12CNHNE1:
    I am such a failure. I should never have accepted shoddy [data] from suspicious IDs. I.. I was just so excited to try something new. I still cant find a third host and the cycle seems to be ending... I just hope that the [personnel management] I got from Donna it will be enough to keep me around.

    QAC57CAH1E20:
    YES YEAAS! The friend wave is inevitable! ALL SHALL BOW Before the ALMIGHTY Power of QA AND Host it ! I knew that this one would be it! The friends are now at 100 and 10% lethality, and with them all working in perfect harmony this cycle is MINE. but of course, I could never have done it without my genius, seemingly perfect, administratorius host! it. I think I can even convince [father] that She it is worth keeping.

    QAC57CNHNE1:
    owww. so! as it turns out, we are , not, in fact supposed to do that. ending a cycle prematurely is, as it turns out, sort of a big deal, and [mother] is upset with me. ...i dont think i can convince them to keep host, they seem really upset. I wonder if i could just, sneak her in?

    aAAAAaee

    .. ... ... . ..... .... ........

    [compliance]


    QAC1209CAH1E1:
    A valid host has been located, empowered, and conflict initiated successfully. It seems to be very emotions driven, so I await plentiful data.
     
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  • Apocrypha
    • TacitSoliloquy said:
    All known Valkyries are with the UN, but that is largely due to the simple fact that the UN is basically humanity's only faction, with anyone not affiliated with the UN no longer around anymore and thus possession of Valkyrie Cores and compatible people defaulting to the UN
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    There are a number of human factions still around. Just that they are all at least nominally allied with the UN (first post by Avalanche has a map iirc)
    It wouldn't surprise me if anyone could just pick whoever they want to join, or just be a nation onto themselves, and I can bet that the UN would not attempt any hostilities with such a person or make attempts at seizing their core provided they do not engage them.
     
    I wonder how things would go if Taylor just extends Symbie as well. Que everyone tearing teir hair out at two Valks using the same core concurrently.
     
    Kellcat said:
    Absolutely. Hell's Hand is obviously about stealth and crazy impeller tricks. It can't move. It just so happens that it already existed somewhere else and you hadn't noticed, yet.
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    You know, jokes aside, I could legitimately see that actually happening. Shards have all kinds of crazy space-warping abilities, and yet so do the locals in their own right. Valkyries can twist wormholes for teleportation and pretzel or even shear and separate space, and that's before throwing in Higgs usage which is basically a handwavium-turbobooster. The idea of Hell's Hand projecting some sort of sheath around it and just pulling away from one place as the space around it flows together in its wake like water to leave perfectly normal and undisturbed ground and extruding its existence into some other place pushed aside... honestly seems kind of realistic, actually.

    kaazmiz said:
    There are a number of human factions still around. Just that they are all at least nominally allied with the UN (first post by Avalanche has a map iirc)
    It wouldn't surprise me if anyone could just pick whoever they want to join, or just be a nation onto themselves, and I can bet that the UN would not attempt any hostilities with such a person or make attempts at seizing their core provided they do not engage them.
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    That's more of a legal technicality than any practical matter, though. The map shows most of the world to be held by a UN founding member (for which anyone new to the setting might want to note that there is something of a distinction from the UN as we know it today for the world we know today getting kind of mauled repeatedly) or the UN as a whole, held by the enemy of all mankind, or otherwise just wasteland unsought by either side. Polities within that that have some semblance of debatable formal sovereignty are poorly positioned for meaningful independence. The Antagonists' stance if nothing else makes for a very clear "us or them" division; if there is some polity formally separate from the UN proper, it kind of has to be allied by circumstance, leading them to basically just be a part of the UN in all but name for being utterly dependent upon cooperation out of existential survival. Even if nominal independence exists, any minor factions are basically vassal states inclined to go along with the UN anyway while the UN itself is incentivised to treat them like part of the whole, or simply irrelevant until such time as either of the bigger players notices them.

    Maybe there is some unaffiliated Valkyrie who survived in the carpet-nuked ruin of Russia and found a Valkyrie Core to make their own personal fiefdom, or whatever, but in such a scenario, the UN should they find such a place would probably either dissolve it through diplomacy with their ample advantages for negotiations or otherwise give the Valkyrie a pat on the back and tell them to keep up the good work while shipping in supplies.
     
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    TacitSoliloquy said:
    Maybe there is some unaffiliated Valkyrie who survived in the carpet-nuked ruin of Russia and found a Valkyrie Core to make their own personal fiefdom, or whatever, but in such a scenario, the UN should they find such a place would probably either dissolve it through diplomacy with their ample advantages for negotiations or otherwise give the Valkyrie a pat on the back and tell them to keep up the good work while shipping in supplies.
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    Well, we know that there was more Valks in North America than just Anna as her town was designated "Settlement E26" IIRC and the briefing about it(should be in one of the first couple chapters) compared its layout to I think it was E23. Only thing is that without Anna tier skill and firepower those all died.

    So yes, there likely were several minor settlements protected by a valk or two but without Anna's plotshields they would have been ground to dust long ago by now.
     
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