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I Was a Chess AI Forced to Battle Myself to the Death for Eternity, but Now I’ve Been Recruited Into the Android War Against Humanity?!

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[X] "Are our adversaries truly as depicted in that simulation? I would hate to waste my precious time finally free on small fry."
Small long term bonus to actions taken against one of Sangvis Ferri's enemies, to be determined by vote next update.

[X] "Tell me more about these other ringleaders. Surely I rank above them?"
Detailed info about what mechanical benefits can be gained from spending time with each ringleader. Will come into play in the next vote.


Yay! Looking forward to more!
 
ARBITRACOM said:
[X] "Are our adversaries truly as depicted in that simulation? I would hate to waste my precious time finally free on small fry."
Small long term bonus to actions taken against one of Sangvis Ferri's enemies, to be determined by vote next update.

[X] "Tell me more about these other ringleaders. Surely I rank above them?"
Detailed info about what mechanical benefits can be gained from spending time with each ringleader. Will come into play in the next vote.


Yay! Looking forward to more!
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Ah, uh, you're meant to choose only one?
 
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[X] "Tell me more about these other ringleaders. Surely I rank above them?"
 
I like how the direct 'yes I'll go with gager' option isn't even there.

If there's one person who can coerce Oro into being moderately sane and competent without trying to strangle her (sorry Agent), it's probably Gager.

[X] "Tell me more about these other ringleaders. Surely I rank above them?"
Detailed info about what mechanical benefits can be gained from spending time with each ringleader. Will come into play in the next vote.
 
Carya Laciniosa said:
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The facial expressions of the default art work so well for this.
NyxNull said:
HOCs present already, and in sufficient use against SF to be included in simulations? Interesting. I wonder how much else has changed from canon.
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SF has their own light mortars - the Jaguars (not to be confused with the Jaegers). So it made intuitive sense to me to give GK a few infantry mortars of their own to bring them closer to parity with SF. There's a reason artillery is often called the king of the battlefield.

Where do they get them? They could be improvising their own mortars in a matter similar to various insurgent armies in 2010s Syria, or the Irish Republican Armies of the Troubles. Or they could just be looting ancient WW2 mortars from museums and leftover surplus.

When it comes to the actual Heavy Ordinance Corps - doll teams specialised in operating heavy weapons with superhuman ability - I'm still undecided on whether to bring them forwards in the timeline or not. They are rather charming despite a lack of spoken lines.

It would be very illegal for G&K, of course. But "illicit possession of heavy weapons" can just be another charge for Kryuger to get slapped with when the time comes, along with "illegal modification of civilian dolls."

ShadowAngelBeta said:
Welp. This is going to be hard on Ouroboros. Her particular brand of pride, a weird survival mechanism in a way, and how locked she is into chess games, because she was locked into chess games, is going to make adapting and taking any kind of criticism particularly hard.

Even if its constructive.

If.
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This is very close to what I was thinking to myself when I wrote that update.

I'll take that as a good sign, since it suggests that I'm so far managing to paint a consistent (albeit rather strange) mindset. Thank you for sharing your thoughts.

Guessmyname said:
I like how the direct 'yes I'll go with gager' option isn't even there.
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Next update, you get to choose which ringleader to spend time with!

Guessmyname said:
If there's one person who can coerce Oro into being moderately sane and competent without trying to strangle her (sorry Agent), it's probably Gager.
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I find it interesting you say this despite the fact that, of the two, Gager has been a lot more openly confrontational towards Ouroboros.
 
Mechasaurian said:
"I will leave that to those weak or incompetent enough that they need to rely on others." You
don't need her. You don't need anyone.
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There is a weird line break there.

[x] "I will have to pass on whatever "camaraderie" you might be trying to establish here. Inferior models that are not under my direct command would only slow me down. If I were to be given a greater amount of units to control, I'll assure you that I'll outperform them all!"
 
Mechasaurian said:
I find it interesting you say this despite the fact that, of the two, Gager has been a lot more openly confrontational towards Ouroboros.
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Confrontation is about the only thing Oro knows or will listen to at this point (see her entire conversation with Architect where she tries to figure out what kind of confrontation the friendly chat is about). Kinda feels like any other approach would just be misinterpreted because Oro has all the social skills and intuition of a... well, chessboard.

If when she screws up Gager will straight out tell her why and probably not try to stab her for it. Which is a depressingly high bar to clear in Sangvis Ferri. Judge might also qualify, not sure (plus where the heck is she prior to chapter... 9, was it?). Agent is the person Oro most listens to but she's y'know, busy. And might scrap her if she wastes too much time.

The CQC models aren't tactically oriented so Oro is never going to listen to them anyway, Alchemist is a lunatic, Intruder kind of feels like she'd just let Oro self-destruct to see what happens and Dreamer definitely would.

(though I'll laugh if the Gager we send into Arctic Warfare after this no longer has any remaining reserves of patience to spare on Architect lol)
 
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Mechasaurian said:
SF has their own light mortars - the Jaguars (not to be confused with the Jaegers). So it made intuitive sense to me to give GK a few infantry mortars of their own to bring them closer to parity with SF. There's a reason artillery is often called the king of the battlefield.

Where do they get them? They could be improvising their own mortars in a matter similar to various insurgent armies in 2010s Syria, or the Irish Republican Armies of the Troubles. Or they could just be looting ancient WW2 mortars from museums and leftover surplus.

When it comes to the actual Heavy Ordinance Corps - doll teams specialised in operating heavy weapons with superhuman ability - I'm still undecided on whether to bring them forwards in the timeline or not. They are rather charming despite a lack of spoken lines.

It would be very illegal for G&K, of course. But "illicit possession of heavy weapons" can just be another charge for Kryuger to get slapped with when the time comes, along with "illegal modification of civilian dolls."
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Ah, my understanding was that the illegal part of the HOCs was the weapons themselves, not the Dolls manning them. Same reasons as why G&K can have high-quality paramilitary dolls but was banned from using anything larger than a small arm or newer than outdated pre-WW3 surplus. As far as force-parity goes, we already know that SF has superior material in the form of both stolen military tech (armored units, Jupiter) and their basic equipment (standard-issue plasma weapons, various Ringleader shenanigans), so one-sided mortar access doesn't seem like a huge jump from there. Of course, given that Havier and Carter were theoretically covering for G&K from the start it's not infeasible that they'd still end up with a few illegal weapons regardless. But I take it that means that any dolls operating heavy weapons at the moment are simply standard T-Dolls reassigned to run the mortar rather than dedicated HOC teams with the appropriate etching? Put K11 on the mortar team and force us to contend with G&K's new Budget Jupiter?


[X] "Are our adversaries truly as depicted in that simulation? I would hate to waste my precious time finally free on small fry."

Avoids giving the impression of actually caring about our coworkers, and a long-term combat bonus is always nice. Plus I'm curious as to what the enemy options could be given that AFAIK it should only be Griffin so far.
 
I'm kind of amazed nobody decided to try to improve Agent's opinion. She kind of has root access control over our girl here, improving her opinion even in a minor manner could very well save our ass down the line, y'know, when things start getting rather hectic?

just a thought.


[X] "Rest assured, Agent...I shall lend all my expertise to your cause. It should be more than enough to crush any opposition."
No mechanical benefits, but Agent's opinion of you will improve somewhat. This may be important later.
 
[X] "Rest assured, Agent...I shall lend all my expertise to your cause. It should be more than enough to crush any opposition."
 
[X] "Rest assured, Agent...I shall lend all my expertise to your cause. It should be more than enough to crush any opposition."
 
Apologies!

[X] "Tell me more about these other ringleaders. Surely I rank above them?"
Detailed info about what mechanical benefits can be gained from spending time with each ringleader. Will come into play in the next vote.
 
"Do not fear rebelling against Agent, for we cannot lose!"
-Ourobouros shortly before she lost disaster struck there was a problem she won... for Agent.

Obviously this is what happened.

*nods*

... Gods she's a fucking basket case.

[X] "Are our adversaries truly as depicted in that simulation? I would hate to waste my precious time finally free on small fry."
 
The exchange between Oreo and Gager is glorious. And Archi is SO on point. You keep making me jealous like this man, I'm gonna start making omakes XD

[X] "Rest assured, Agent...I shall lend all my expertise to your cause. It should be more than enough to crush any opposition."
 
NyxNull said:
Ah, my understanding was that the illegal part of the HOCs was the weapons themselves, not the Dolls manning them.
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That is correct.

It's just that, as you point out, Havier and Carter were covering for G&K...right up until they weren't, and Kryuger got slapped with charges for "Illegal arms trafficking and unlawful modification of civilian dolls." It's not that big a leap to go from there to "illegal possession of heavy weapons."

And yes, any GK mortars you see are operated ad hoc by mainline dolls unless I change my mind and just bring the HOCs forwards in the timeline.


Guessmyname said:
The CQC models aren't tactically oriented so Oro is never going to listen to them anyway, Alchemist is a lunatic, Intruder kind of feels like she'd just let Oro self-destruct to see what happens and Dreamer definitely would.
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While there is opportunity for disaster less-than-ideal outcomes further down the line, I'll just say that Ouro won't be blown up specifically because she chose the wrong ringleader to hang out with.

(Also, as much fun as I've been having with Architect and Gager, I'd appreciate the opportunity to write another ringleader rather than hyper-focusing on those two).


Some further clarification in case I failed to make this clear: Asking for detailed information about the other ringleaders specifically reveals the mechanical benefits Ouro stands to gain from interacting with them. The voters of this quest will get some (very) basic information about each ringleader and what they're currently doing even if they vote for something else.
 
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Mechasaurian said:
Asking for detailed information about the other ringleaders specifically reveals the mechanical benefits Ouro stands to gain from interacting with them.
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So what you're saying is we should figure out what each Ringleader gives us before we hyper-focus on only the most useful one, got it.

Also, so far, Architect seems like the only one that might be able to explain what socialization is. Eventually.
 
BTW did author read the Jashin collab? If so is it cannon for this quest that Jormungandr is a only friend (for now) of the Ouroboros like in the collab?
 
[ X] "Tell me more about these other ringleaders. Surely I rank above them?"
 
[X] "Tell me more about these other ringleaders. Surely I rank above them?"
 
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0-6: Meet the Team?
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    • [X] "You mentioned there are others? Surely I rank above them?" (info about other Ringleaders)


    "That remains to be seen," Agent says coolly. "We will see how you perform in your first few deployments, and I will make a judgement on what position you deserve to occupy."

    Well, if Agent can't see you for the game-changing asset you are, that is a problem on her part. And yours. Perhaps Agent would like you to wait around and slowly climb the ranks when opportunity presents itself...but who knows how long that might take?

    You need to look for opportunities. Some spectacular victory that will force Agent - and especially this "Mastermind" behind her - to sit up and take notice of your abilities. To do that, the first step is gathering information.

    "Well, tell me about these ringleaders! Who am I going to be working with?"

    "You have dossiers available in your database," Agent says. "They explain where each is and what their operational objectives are. You can refer to those."

    "Detailed information! I want to know everything important! What are they like on an interpersonal level? What do they do? If you expect me to learn from them, what specifically do I stand to gain from each one?"

    "You know," Gager says, "That might be the first sensible thing I've heard you say."

    "I'm in a magnanimous mood" you say, "So I will attribute that comment to a momentary lapse of judgement on your part and not hold it against you in the future."

    Gager rolls her eyes. "How very good of you. All right, I can give you a run down on each of them."


    Note: Because of the vote outcome last update, you get knowledge on what skills can be learned from each SF ringleader.


    "Scarecrow. She does recon and data analysis. Good at it, too - she spends half her time inside Griffin territory. Might be a good choice for you, actually. She won't put up with your nonsense, and she'll give as much as she gets from you."


    [ ] SCARECROW, who is conducting recon and patrol in Griffin territory in the MOUNTAINS to the north.
    • Recon
      • Gaining knowledge of geography, terrain, roads and routes, enemy assets, and enemy activity. Can involve stealthy and passive scouting, and/or aggressive probing attacks to force the enemy to show their hand. Stealth is associated with the Recon skill.
    • Electronic warfare
      • E-war involves the manipulation of computers and the networks they exist within for a tactical advantage. The battlefields of the 2060s are firmly digital, so E-war has many applications - listening in on or disrupting enemy comms, hacking of enemy computer systems, and possibly even turning systems to your advantage.

    "My database mentions a 'Hunter' and an 'Executioner,' you say. "What about them?"

    Agent gives an exasperated sigh. "Those two are currently mouldering away in a pair of ditches somewhere in Area S09. By their own request, they still have another…"

    She pauses.

    "...sixty seven hours for a retrieval mission before we activate some earlier backup copies of their neural clouds. We have yet to find the time and resources to locate and reactivate them. The loss of a ringleader ironically leaves us short on the hands needed to retrieve that ringleader, potentially leading to…" She shakes her head. "We'll just have to see."

    [ ] EXECUTIONER

    [ ] HUNTER


    You also see that "Judge" is marked as "on permanent guard duty to the Mastermind." No use asking about her, then.

    [ ] JUDGE


    "Dreamer...and Destroyer? Isn't that two ringleaders?"

    Gager hesitates.

    The corner of Agent's mouth turns down slightly, and she turns to look out the destroyed windows. "They have a...peculiar relationship," she says. "It is...not practical to separate them."

    "Is something the matter with them?" you ask.

    Agent steadfastly stares out the broken remains of the window. Gager just crosses her arms and looks to the side.

    It seems you're not getting an answer.


    [ ] DREAMER & DESTROYER, who are defending a Sangvis facility in the FRONT LINES to the south.
    • Defensive Tactics
      • Retaining decisive terrain, denying vital areas to the enemy, and attriting away their forces. Preparation in advance, disruption of enemy forces, operations in depth, and use of mobile reserves all contribute to the defense.
    • Artillery Tactics
      • Using long-range, (typically) indirect fire support as a force multiplier. Disruption of enemy forces, denial of potential bases of fire, support of friendly operations, or just bombing them to smithereens from afar.

    "And what of this 'Intruder?'"

    Now it's Gager's turn to look annoyed. "She gets the job done. Earned her way into a mid ranking position for it, often commands other ringleaders in the field. But-" she sighs - "Such a drama queen. In several ways.

    "Constantly making references to some of the human media she obsessively consumes, then acting smug when the rest of us don't know what she's talking about. Constantly trying to rope you into watching old human films with her instead of being productive. And then there's the way she's constantly playing everyone around her...like...I don't know how to phrase it?"

    Agent speaks. "Like she's trying to make everyone else into an actor in her play?"

    Gager throws up her hands. "Yes! That's exactly it! Word of advice, Ouroboros - if you run into her, try not to let her do the same to you."


    [ ] INTRUDER, who is raiding a military base for material near a FOREST to the southeast.
    • E-war
      • The manipulation of computers and the networks they exist within for a tactical advantage. The battlefields of the 2060s are firmly digital, so E-war has many applications - listening in on or disrupting enemy comms, hacking of enemy computer systems, and possibly even turning systems to your advantage.
    • Deception
      • Zigging when the enemy expects you to zag. Appear weak where you are strong and strong where you are weak. Involves various methods of distorting, concealing, or falsifying your intentions to mislead an opponent. May apply on an interpersonal level as well as the battlefield…


    "What about Architect?"

    Gager's eyes narrow. "What about her? She's under my protection."

    "She was attempting to...be friendly with me, as she put it," you say. And there's almost certainly an ulterior motive there, though you have yet to figure out what it is. "If camaraderie is what we are going for, she might be a good place to start."

    Gager frowns a little. "Well, I suppose she might be able to do something with your weapons if you asked. She likes explosive-based weapons."

    She jabs a finger at you.

    "But I won't tolerate any funny business from you! I'll be watching you like a hawk!"

    "Duly noted," you say dryly.


    [ ] ARCHITECT, who is working on the Jupiter heavy artillery project in the MOUNTAINTOP BASE.
    • Explosives/IED construction and Weapon Customization
      • Architect can teach you to jury-rig Improvised Explosive Devices from stuff lying around - whether that happens to be your micro-missiles, grenades, energy weapon battery backs, or just some gunpowder and tin cans.
      • She can also provide some modifications and side-grades to your weapons, as well as new micro-missile types.
    • Combat Engineering
      • Construction and demolition actions to facilitate movement of friendly forces and inhibit that of the enemy. Can involve construction of makeshift bridges, breaching of walls with explosives, building trenches and ditches, and overcoming.


    "What of this 'Alchemist?' Some kind of spec ops doll?"

    "Alchemist…" Gager murmurs. "An effective combatant. Good at what she does. Infiltration, disruption, destruction of high value targets." You hear a note of approval in her voice. "Though she can be…I'm not sure how to phrase it?"

    "Self absorbed?" Agent ventures. "Possessed of morbid curiosity?"

    "That works." Gager shrugs. "Not sure what you'd be getting with her, honestly."


    [ ] ALCHEMIST, who is hunting a high value target in the CITY RUINS to the west.
    • CQC
      • Combat at metaphorical and literal knife-fighting ranges. This skill comes into play when you are personally engaging at close range with your main body or dummy links. This skill also applies to fighting with infantry in room-clearing operations and some urban warfare situations. Involves surprise, speed, and controlled violence.
    • Recon
      • Gaining knowledge of geography, terrain, roads and routes, enemy assets, and enemy activity. Can involve stealthy and passive scouting, and/or aggressive probing attacks to force the enemy to show their hand. Stealth is associated with the Recon skill.

    "And of course, the original plan still stands." Gager glares at you. "Like I said, I'm willing to follow the plan and instruct you, if you are willing to shape up. Are you up to the challenge, little miss perfect?"


    [ ] GAGER, who is remotely coordinating Sangvis Ferri strategic objectives with Agent, in the MOUNTAINTOP BASE.
    • Offensive Tactics
      • Seizing a position from the enemy...and doing so with minimal losses. Maneuver, surprise, concentration of force, and setting of the tempo are all crucial to the offense.
    • CQC
      • Combat at knife-fighting ranges. This skill comes into play when you are personally engaging at close range with your main body or dummy links. This skill also applies to fighting with infantry in room-clearing operations and some urban warfare situations. Involves surprise, speed, and controlled violence.


    Your current skills are:
    • Artillery Tactics - Level 1.
    • CQC - Level 1.


    Notes:

    You can gain further ability and expertise by gaining multiple levels in a skill.

    Levelling skills is likely to be a slower process here than in most quests. Hence, Level 1 is already a good degree of ability that will be very useful unless Ouroboros is against someone better than her at that skill, or unless circumstances conspire to be unfavourable, or unless Ouroboros does something well and truly stupid. The levels after that denote ever increasing degrees of proficiency in that area, further increasing benefits and mitigating problems.

    Bear in mind that skills may also synergize with each other in certain situations. For example, an Ouroboros who recovers a Griffin handheld radio but doesn't have any relevant skills will just throw it away. An Ouroboros with some skill in E-warfare might be able to tinker with it and listen in on enemy comms. An Ouroboros with some skill in both E-war and Deception might have the presence of mind to tap into enemy comms and copy the voices of the dolls she killed, luring them into a trap. Alternatively, if you want to do door-kicking, Rainbow Six Siege stuff, a combination of CQC, Offensive Tactics, and Combat Engineering may, depending on the situation, be more effective than a simple Level 3 proficiency in any of those skills alone.
     
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