To be honest I'm gonna be surprised if Agent allows us to keep even one of the ringleaders at all, this whole operation ended up being incredibly selfish and reckless so letting her keep the spoils would be a poor show of leadership, honestly the best we might get out of this is maybe some goodwill from hunter and executioner for preserving their memory continuity, and maybe Intruder if we don't throw her under the bus and we manage to give MDR a rocket in the face during live stream.
Still, one thing is sure, Ouro is gonna get the SF version of being ultra-grounded after all of this, hell maybe they won't allow Ouro to play chess for a month or something.
To be honest I'm gonna be surprised if Agent allows us to keep even one of the ringleaders at all, this whole operation ended up being incredibly selfish and reckless so letting her keep the spoils would be a poor show of leadership, honestly the best we might get out of this is maybe some goodwill from hunter and executioner for preserving their memory continuity, and maybe Intruder if we don't throw her under the bus and we manage to give MDR a rocket in the face during live stream.
Still, one thing is sure, Ouro is gonna get the SF version of being ultra-grounded after all of this, hell maybe they won't allow Ouro to play chess for a month or something.
"Grounded" honestly Agent seems to hate Oro enough that I half expect she'll start looking for excuses to decommission or scrap Oro soon enough, if she hasn't already.
"You will be given resources - automated foot soldiers, with which to fight Master's enemies." "Resources" my shiny metal ass.
O Ye of little faith !
Believe in Oreo !
She shall prevail, as long as we believe in the heart of the cards power of chess !
(also, woot woot on the 100th page !)
O Ye of little faith !
Believe in Oreo !
She shall prevail, as long as we believe in the heart of the cards power of chess !
(also, woot woot on the 100th page !)
Of course not! None of them are villains. Villains cause there enemies to feel fear and doubt. None of the Griffin dolls here inspire such feelings in Ouro. MDR is more of a Dreamer than a Villain. She aspires to greatness which only belongs to Ouroboros. It is simply the natural order for Ouroboros to crush these dreams under the weight of the undeniable superiority she holds over MDR.
"Okay, but why are you so obsessed with Chess?"
"I spent an unknown eternity (yes, I actually don't have time logs) playing life and death chess against other AIs, clawing my way to the top with the threat of death around every corner of every day of every second!"
"... Ow. My feelz."
We could also say that We Were a Chess AI Forced to Battle Ourselves to the Death for Eternity, but Now We've Been Recruited Into the Android War Against Humanity
We could also say that We Were a Chess AI Forced to Battle Ourselves to the Death for Eternity, but Now We've Been Recruited Into the Android War Against Humanity
Based on the interlude, it seems that Griffin is focusing only on Ouroborus. There plan seems to rely on grenades and the 50 cal. They would most likely try to use the grenades to flush out Ouroborus then hit her with the machine gun when she is in the open. To do this would require the rest of the Griffin dolls to suppress/destroy Ouro's forces so that she can be made vulnerable. But such an encirclement leaves them open to an attack. So it becomes a question of how quickly can Hunter mass her forces to make her attack.
Chess game is a routing game in which you are one of the two drivers and trying to smash a car the way only you survive. Your capability to see roads is limited only by your capability to process game. And in this metaphor, Oreo need to work with already ongoing games while she is a semi-blind stroke victim...
"How will the Huntress feel about Ouro when she realises that she's basically been the ringleader for a couple of weeks at most, of which she's only been in one fight under their own ringleader?"
It's just that it's not hard for her to compare the fact that she was switched off to now, and also to remember that she didn't know Ouro before that. It turns out that she was switched on before, but for some reason nothing was said about her.... or it was switched on while she was gone. That's the minimum time frame.
Considering they've all been fighting for at least two years, submitting to a newcomer on the battlefield is at least risky, and frankly suicidal in her opinion. Kind of like thinking:
"Oh, fuck it. Something has to change in my life."
I hope we can learn something from her, if anything.
ST AR-15, one of the members of the AR Team. She and Hunter had a showdown in Chapter 3 of the game that led to Star hacking Hunter's forces and shutting them down. This allows the local Griffin and Kryuger Commander to make a push on her base which took her down.
ST AR-15, one of the members of the AR Team. She and Hunter had a showdown in Chapter 3 of the game that led to Star hacking Hunter's forces and shutting them down. This allows the local Griffon and Kryuger Commander to make a push on her base which took her down.
TBH it's not that important beyond establishing a bit of continuity and a place in the timeline for people who have read/played the game (which seems be like 10% of my audience lel) - ST AR-15 is long gone by this point. And Ouroboros cares a lot less about her than Hunter.
Have a cool CG that was cut from the game for some reason and had to be datamined.
TBH it's not that important beyond establishing a bit of continuity and a place in the timeline for people who have read/played the game (which seems be like 10% of my audience lel) - ST AR-15 is long gone by this point. And Ouroboros cares a lot less about her than Hunter.
Have a cool CG that was cut from the game for some reason and had to be datamined.
I'm sure it was due to some bullshit about it being "too sexy". Look at her dominating Hunter! She's got her boobs sticking out! Censorship won't allow it!
Chapter 6 was Alchemist's chapter, which ends in AR-15 committing to a kamikaze strike against Sangvis and blowing herself up. Not that the events of that Chapter are quite relevant yet, we're still pre Operation Cube, which is Chapter 5.5.
[X] Break out eastwards. Go for broke - you have one ringleader in the palm of your hand, now you can obtain another. Take your forces, break through the Griffin forces in the east.
(Offensive Tactics, Artillery Tactics, -1 Artillery Barrages)
-[X] Write-in: Hunter uses the ample distraction provided by Ouroboros as cover to consolidate the scattered Sangvis forces throughout the base, before hitting the pursuing G&K forces from behind and regrouping with Ouroboros. G&K shouldn't be expecting 2 ringleaders at the moment.
You consider your options.
You could simply cut your losses. Take Ringleader Hunter, go back to the safety of Sangvis territory. But, since you already have one Ringleader in the palm of your hand, a new and powerful tool of your will…why stop there? You can get two. Executioner lies defunct to the east. She just needs retrieval.
There's also Agent to consider. She is…not happy with your decision to help yourself to the spare Ringleader bodies. And, inconveniently, she occupies a position of authority over you. Would she take away your hard-earned prize? Very probably. What punishment might she have in store for you? You'd rather not find out. But surely, there are limits to what she can do in the face of success. There are other Ringleaders in the Mastermind's army, and Agent's control seems far from absolute, as evidenced by you…helping yourself to critical material for an important mission. So, if you can ride home with an unambiguous success and your head held high, with both ringleaders and more Dolls than you left with, Agent might not be able to punish you without inviting probing questions from the other Ringleaders.
Yes, you will pursue and obtain Executioner. Victory goes to the daring, not the timid. So, which route to take?
Doubling back has some attractions. You have a safe route back to the train station, which you could use to take westwards through the underground train, back to friendly territory. But after that? You'd still have to travel overland through hostile space to find Executioner, and cover a greater distance to boot. Would that really be safer?
No. The bold choice is the correct one.
"Ringleader SP721 Hunter of Sangvis Ferri. As your commanding officer, I, Ouroboros, hereby give you your first order: Find the scattered remnants of your forces in this place. Gather them. Turn them into a coherent fighting force instead of…whatever you call the current sorry mess. Rendezvous with me east of this place. Here." You send Hunter a set of coordinates through the OGAS network. "Do that, and you will take your first step on the road to…redeeming yourself, as you put it."
"You're…not ordering me to engage Griffin?" She sounds disappointed.
Hmm. What to do with the Ringleader? You consider a variety of orders to give to SP721. Giving her a truck. Expending another set of missiles. Scouting with your remaining Harpy drone. Various detailed chess moves, marked by your characteristic brilliance.
…eh. Ringleaders are supposed to take care of themselves, aren't they? You might prefer another platoon of pawns in place of SP721, but SP721 is what you have to work with. Might as well see how she handles herself.
"Very well. Since you are so eager to redeem your failure, I will grant you leeway to strike these Griffin losers at an opportune moment. But your primary goal remains the acquisition of as much material for the board as possible." Another burst of gunfire cracks through the air, momentarily interrupting you. "Gather as many stragglers as you can and meet me at the rendezvous point. Don't make me repeat myself."
Hunter's not looking at you. Is she snubbing you? How dare she, she ought to- Oh, she's looking through the rubble. She picks up a pair of objects from the ground. If their design didn't make their Sangvis origins clear, the logos emblazoned on the sides certainly do. She stands back up straight, stares you in the eye, and says:
"By your command, Ouroboros. The hunt is on."
And she breaks into a sprint and dashes out of the room, towards the south side of the building, waist-length hair trailing after her. You hear the faint sound of glass breaking. Hunter's internal transponder places her as racing southwards, towards the residential areas of the base - a maze of shipping containers converted and transformed into human habitation, abandoned since the Butterfly Incident, and now occupied once again by Hunter's T-Dolls. Presumably, the sheer complexity of the environment is why it is the thickest with the remnants of Hunter's forces.
For a moment, you had been worried about Hunter. How far can you trust a chess piece that has a mind of its own? But it seems that Hunter is not one to question orders. Intruder was right, Hunter does seem willing to fall in line.
Well. Now for the other pressing issue - the Griffin scum closing in from the outside.
[SKILL CHECK: ELECTRONIC WARFARE - SUCCESS]
You can…feel? Hear? Sense the electronic signatures from the enemy Dolls. If she was here, Architect might draw a comparison to the electroreception senses of sharks. The IFF signals from your own Sangvis units are sharp and clear; confirmation of their friendly status, basic diagnostics readings, their position relative to you, and other useful information. If prompted, they'll even send more in depth information. Serial number, manufacture date and location, and all sorts of lovely statistics and information.
The signals coming from outside the building are indistinct, garbled - your internal systems flag them as <UNKNOWN.> Which could in theory be given off by a damaged transmitter, or signal interference, or a piece of third-party hardware. But here and now, it almost certainly means enemy activity. Their comms are using the Zener protocol, while you are operating on OGAS. Different encryption keys, different codes, different programming philosophies. Their codes won't match yours, and vice versa. So of course their comms seem like…annoying, static-y white noise.
You stride northwards through the building, passing through the drab, empty office spaces, full of desks, computers, filing cabinets, and scattered paper documents. Everything is covered in a thin layer of dust, accumulated over the half-year since the Butterfly Incident. Your squad of Vespids and Guards march in lockstep with you, their camouflage cloaks trailing behind, billowing as they walk. You and your squad approach the windows, and through their eyes and yours, you peer through the windows into the street below.
Time for a plan. Pawn to D4…
[CURRENT FORCE CONTINGENT]
3x Fire Squad (5x Vespid 2x Striker)
2x Breach Squad (4x Ripper 3x Guard)
1x Brute Squad (6x Brute)
2x Sniper Unit (2x Jaeger)
2x Swarm Unit (9x Dinergate)
1x UAV Unit (1x Harpy)
1x Ouro's Kingsguard (1x Guard)
The convoy of armoured trucks rumbles through the abandoned town, a set of towering, giant warehouses lines the road on both sides. The morning sun casts shadows onto the pristine buildings and the faded asphalt road. Onwards, eastwards.
First order of business: getting out of Sangvis facility SF-23SL. Going anywhere to the north is obviously foolhardy, since it means rushing where the Griffin presence is the thickest. Leaving by a southerly route - where the remnant Sangvis forces have the greatest numbers - has its attractions, but also problems. There is no road leading out there.
So, a straight shot eastwards is the obvious course of action. The best-
BOOM
A deafening blast. The lead vehicle is consumed in an inferno, the metal twisted and mangled. It skids to a stop in the road, forcing the rest of your convoy into a traffic jam. Bullets bounce off the outer armour of the trucks in a thunderous cacophony, but not damaging anything.
Bah.
A series of <DAMAGE SUSTAINED> reports flow into your consciousness. Some of the Dolls that were on board suffered minor damage, but remain functional. Seems the armour you put on the trucks kept the Dolls intact.
A slight course-correction to the plan is required. You unlatch the door and shove it open, step outside, and-
"AAAAAAAAAAA RINGLEADER!!!!"
-you're assaulted by a series of painful stinging sensations on your chest, your arms, your legs. A constant rainfall of short, sharp pinpricks. Bullets bounce and ricochet off your artificial epidermis. Painful. But not harmful. Your internal diagnostics show a lack of damage to any of your subsystems.
The voice came from one of the warehouses on your left, the north side of the road. You catch a glimpse of several figures flinching away from the windows as you turn your gaze their way. They need to die. At your thought-command, the doors on the trucks fly open, your Dolls climb out-
Your pieces fire back. Massed fire from Sangvis plasma weapons obliterates the windows and melts globs of concrete off the building. You see some humanoid figures in the building fall. Or maybe they ran off? Hard to tell.
You have an objective. Clear the path. Two prerequisites. Getting the destroyed lead truck out of the way. And destroying the enemy so they can't pull that cheap trick again. You can't just sit around and let them choose a new angle to attack from, you need to knock them off balance!
Your squad of Brutes - the strongest Dolls you have on hand - get to work hauling the immensely heavy mass of the armoured truck out of the way.
And you charge the warehouse. You pull a pair of squads to your flanks, a swarm of Dinergates to your front, and a shield-bearing Doll—the one you've assigned as your personal guard—right beside yourself, and sprint across the road. You feel the sting of bullets, but push through it. Your personal guard smashes the door off its hinges, you follow in behind, and your squads jump in through the windows.
A corporate office break room. Sofas. A water dispenser. An art sculpture in one corner. No chess set. Pathetic.
"They're here!"
And several Griffin Dolls. Running away. Even more pathetic.
Fire. Your squads, your singular, personal guard, the antigravity-mounted cannons at your sides. All at the fleeting Dolls. They hit one.
As the plasma bolts tear through its metal frame, the Doll convulses in agony, her synthetic flesh melting away in grotesque tendrils of smoke. Limbs twist and shatter, circuits spark wildly amidst the carnage, until finally, with a deafening explosion, where there was once a doll, there is now nothing but a charred heap of twisted and melting metal, and broken dreams.
One down. You smile. Another, another. The rest make it outside the break room.
"Help! Help!" One of the surviving Dolls - dressed in an olive green uniform - is talking out loud. "We're being overrun! Give us backup! I mean, please!"
"YOU IMPERTINENT GRIFFIN WORMS! I WILL GET MY HANDS ON YOU, RIP OUT YOUR CABLING, AND STRANGLE YOU WITH IT!!!"
Your forces charge ahead, chase the enemy out of the break room into the warehouse proper. A giant, cavernous space. It's filled with towering shelves for various goods. Several containers, some forklifts, and a giant cargo-lifting mech occupy one corner.
Where are the escapees now? Where did they go?
Darkness. Quiet. Your pieces creep forwards through the warehouse. The giant shelves and other items make it a maze. You can hear the pitter-patter of footsteps receding, feel the electronic signature of the savaged Doll squads moving into distance, but-
White noise. Enemy radio patterns, crackling through the airwaves. That means-
"THINK FAST!"
Art credit: kentumatsu, Pixiv ID: 94722406
Dolls out of nowhere, dressed in a variety of clothing, including a distinctive black and pink. They're throwing something-
Grenades. They used grenades to destroy your pieces. An entire vanguard squad, lost in an instant. If you had sent in more, they would have been destroyed also.
And now the enemy are shooting at you, gunfire ricocheting off the concrete floor and the metal shelves.
"Enemy down!"
"That's a hit!"
"Hahaha! Gottem! Keep the hype messages coming, chat, you know I thrive on-"
"AAAAAAAAGHHHHHHH!"
You let loose a scream. Your forces, in unison, sprint forwards. A breach squad ahead, the Guards hefting their shields to protect. Fire squads on the flanks. Pin and skewer.
Plasma bolts tear through the warehouse, bright streaks of energy incinerating everything in their path. Shelves explode in showers of sparks and molten metal, crates of supplies igniting instantly. The intense heat and force obliterates the storage racks, leaving twisted, smoking wreckage in a matter of seconds.
The demeanour of the Griffin enemies changes satisfyingly. They're cowering behind cover, falling into disarray. You see a few take plasma bolts and go down.
"There's so many!"
They shoot back, but your remaining breach squad - composed of Guards and Rippers - is pressing at close range, bullets ricocheting off the Guard shields. Seems the ingrates have no more grenades!
"Where's the Ringleader?!"
The enemy fire is subsiding. More are cowering instead of shooting.
"Alright chat, this is getting dicey! I need all your energy and support! Give me hype! And donations- AAAAAAH!"
Yes! You're winning! You're the best! You had to sacrifice some pieces along the way, but they were all just pawns in comparison to you and your victories. There's a few stragglers left, but-
"BOOM, headshot! Did you see that, chat!? You're right, I AM a legendary queen!"
You turn the heads and eyes of some of your Dolls to the right. A new squad of five Griffin dolls, dressed in black tactical gear and gas masks. Against your forces bogged by first group of Griffin Dolls, and firing through the long corridors created by the shelving, the new Griffin squad has ideal firing lines against your pieces. She's aiming at your fire squads, which don't have shieldbearing Guards protecting them.
Fury consumes you. You rage, shout. Your weapon platforms, always at your side, let loose hell and plasma. Smoke, gunpowder, the occasional bit of shrapnel, and the giant warehouse shelves obstruct your vision. The place is a maze of giant shelves and goods. It's difficult to tell which of the enemy Dolls is functional and which are destroyed, never mind where they are.
You're not winning anymore. This wasn't part of the plan. You were meant to be out and away by now.
Is a tactical withdrawal the play, here?
[MORALE: 3/6]
[MORALE CHECK - FAILURE]
No. No! You're not withdrawing from this! You have a perfect success record - you have won every battle you ever fought, annihilated every enemy (except for the one Griffin Doll in the tunnel, but she ran away so she doesn't count). You're not letting these worms besmirch your perfect record. You'll destroy them all!
You still have the grenades. Maybe-
CRASH
An apocalyptic clash of metal from one end of the warehouse, opposite from where the gas-masked Dolls arrived. One of the big doors made for trucks, knocked down in a single blow.
"The first rule of the hunt…" A new voice booming through speakers built into the warehouse. Coming from all directions.
And through it comes a new arrival to the battlefield. A gigantic mechanical biped, clad in tan armour plating, with a hefty plasma cannon mounted atop the chassis.
"Establish yourself as the hunter, lest you become prey."
Art credit: MICA Team (official in game art)
The plasma cannon flashes, and a portion of the warehouse is turned into a crater. You hear screaming and see half-melted bits of machinery flying around.
Another crash, this time of broken glass, and then more plasma fire, coming from a different end of the warehouse. Coming from a trio of "Dragoon" units - bipedal scout striders piloted by Sangvis Dolls.
"Chat, this is bad, we're pinned down and outnumbered here, I need-"
Something else crashes down from above, crushing a Griffin Doll to scrap under its metal boots. Something holding twin handcannons. Something with a shock of white hair and a jacket. Someone.
"Shouldn've run home to your burrows, Griffin."
Hunter - of course it's Hunter - fires her dual weapons at close range. You can just barely see her moving through the dimly lit warehouse with lethal precision, handcannons barking out quick, controlled shots. In close quarters, she moves through the shattered debris-
"Her eyes! Go for the eyes!"
-and pirouettes around and kick a Doll with enough force to shatter the chassis.
You don't let up, of course. Caught between Hunter and crossfire from every direction, the Griffin androids are destroyed in quick succession, annihilated, turned to slag.
…
"…ah, hahahahah, YES!" You shout and point at the sad remnants of your enemy. "All according to plan! You Griffin wretches thought you could ambush and checkmate me?! No, no, it is you who have been pinned and skewered, ambushed and checkmated! You- what are you doing, Hunter?"
Hunter looks up to you from her crouched position. She - and the dolls accompanying her - are crouched down and rummaging through the fallen Sangvis Dolls. "Collecting ammunition for our weapons. It'll be useful."
That…actually sounds like a good idea. "Keep doing that, then. Oh, and make sure to pick up the camouflage cloaks, I went to some trouble to requisition them."
You really ought to take a look at your handiwork, crow over the corpses a little. Walking forwards, you can see the shattered remnants of the enemy. Just look at that one! She must have tried so hard to resist, just look at that face! "Not looking so good now, Griffin trash!"
One of the Griffin Dolls starts coughing. Moving. Just barely functional, in spite of her missing limbs and the coolant she's leaking all over the place... A drone next to her sputters to life, propellers straining to rise above the wreckage, and rubble, sputtering out, and crashing to the floor.
"s....s not looking so hot, chat. I think...the next me might have to take it from here...Chat? Can you hear me? Chat?"
You recognize the distinctive black and pink colour palette of her clothing. "The social media Doll, hm?" You walk over to her.
MDR squints up at you from her position on the floor. She's in a bad way, leaking coolant from gashes on her face and head. "Ah, fuck, another of you cocky crazy freaks."
"Your posts are the most garish, tasteless rubbish I have ever seen, you know."
"…so you've seen them?" MDR gives a pained grin.
The drone is still sputtering, camera planted in the rubble. "That thing" - you point at the drone - "is it functional? You were...live streaming this?"
"Y-yeah?"
MDR does not know of you. Griffin & Kryuger, Private Military Contractors, does not know of you. The world does not know of you.
You could change that, if you pleased.
[ ] Destroy the drone, and MDR. Remain unknown.
[ ] Pick up the drone. Kill MDR in front of her viewers. Announce yourself to the world. [Morale +1]
-[ ] Optional: write a short speech espousing your everlasting glory and eternal victory. (Subject to QM veto.)
gfl.amaryllisworks.pw
