Marca Estrella: A Game of Chivalry in the Time of Archengines
- Thread starter Exhack
- Start date
- Original
Sirrocco
Pedantic
If it were one-on-one I might agree with you. What about our parents? They're kind of on the ropes. The sooner we can get over there, the more likely it is that we'll *have* parents when this is all over.
Cetashwayo
Lord of Ten Thousand Years
- Location
- Across the Horizon
Losing your parents is an essential part of every young heroine's development. What would we do without the lack of guidance and crushing guilt that it would cause?
Norseman
Entirely Wholesome
[x] (x1.2) Finish this decisively, attacking head on.
It seems that we have a strong edge here, maneouvrability and raw power. We also have that shield generator thing, so we should be able to take a blow on the nose, close in, and then rage punch the enemy's head off.
It seems that we have a strong edge here, maneouvrability and raw power. We also have that shield generator thing, so we should be able to take a blow on the nose, close in, and then rage punch the enemy's head off.
Part Uno XVI: A Decisive Moment
- Pronouns
- She/Her
(continues)
[x] (x1.2) Finish this decisively, attacking head on.
Dust scatters around you in great big clouds as you prepare to advance, pulled out into long wisps of ruddy brown by the wind. It's eerily still in the long beats between clashes, in the lead-up and even in the seconds before you hit. There's no music, no thunderous applause every time you score a hit. Sometimes the strikes resonate through the frame into the cockpit, but this is rare. Inside there is only your breathing, your heartbeat and the hum of the radial displays fitted into the surfaces around you.
Your hands are coiled around the controls, but when you squeeze them you feel machinery whirr and your grip around the alloy shaft of the spezzante resist the fingers of your archengine. You are here. You are there. This is what it means to be a hidalgo.
Your training has been stepping stones to this moment. Your heart is racing and you feel terror, but competition has taught you to swallow your fear and you have practiced each motion thousands of times. Everything except for the circumstances are second nature to you. In this moment you know your best course of action is to end it as quickly as possible, dashing their plans and their maneuver against the rocks before they can land a hit on your vulnerable body.
You step into the enemy machine as it hesitates, slam the spezzante forward in a heavy overhand blow that shatters the centaur engine's shoulder.
<<Look out!>> Michael flashes red, two whorls of glyphs: one behind Cen-1 and another marked '???' emerging from the periphery.
Your eyes track side to side as you shift your posture back to defense in anticipation. <<What is it?>>
There's a hiss as the doll comes free, undamaged even as its mortally damaged front section falls. It's arms open to embrace you. At the same time a threat warning beeps and you see a third centaur thundering out of the low ground to the east, bearing down on you, even as the first one grabs you around the shoulders with its blade. The charging centaur levels a huge lance, thundering forward.
Inspired by desperation you kick your legs, flicking the sword up and throw it into the legs of the approaching centaur. It trips forward, stumbles, and the spear makes a long runnel in the earth, before the archengine lifts the tip, spinning it back round to a more controllably length. You use your weight to pull free of the doll, and roll to one side in a spray of dust before coming up, the good end of the spezzante forward towards both your opponents.
The angle is awkward however, and you find yourself backing further up as the two enemy's circle, moving with annoyingly good coordination. The doll is probably being remotely piloted from the cockpit of the archengine. Damn.
<<Watch out. Gulley behind.>>
You come to a stop, blocked by the gulley. It's easy to drop down but you'd need to pay attention that you don't have with the two enemies circling you. You decide what to do now. The doll is definitely the more aggressive of the pair. The enemy is using it like a hunting hound, trying to tie you down so they can get in a killing blow, while the archengine holds back slightly.
[ ] Jump back off the ridge and slide down, then jab the spezzante up at the first attacker to come over the ridge.
[ ] Step forward into the archengine and launch a series of attacks on it to distract the operator, then, as the doll comes in, step away from it and use the centaur to block it from attacking you
[ ] Feint weakness and target fixation on the archengine, then when the doll jumps at you destroy it with a rapid blow
[ ] Accept a hit to grab the tip of the archengine's lance, and use the momentum and Michael's superior output to slam your two foes together, then finish them off with a single blow.
Last edited:
Exhack
We Won't Build The Plane!
- Location
- Montreal, Canada
I won't commit to hard numbers without talking to FBH about it, but it's usually in the area of 1-5 seconds depending on the extent of the shattering and various other factors like interfering weather conditions.
- Location
- The Hague
- Pronouns
- He/Him
[X] Accept a hit to grab the tip of the archengine's lance, and use the momentum and Michael's superior output to slam your two foes together, then finish them off with a single blow.
Protagonist first battle finishing move sighted.
Protagonist first battle finishing move sighted.
Sirrocco
Pedantic
[X] Feint weakness and target fixation on the archengine, then when the doll jumps at you destroy it with a rapid blow
Each action we take should remove an asset of the enemy, while preserving our own. We will be no help to our parents if our archengine is too injured to fight by the time we get to them.
Each action we take should remove an asset of the enemy, while preserving our own. We will be no help to our parents if our archengine is too injured to fight by the time we get to them.
- Location
- The Hague
- Pronouns
- He/Him
I'm willing to bet that Malgreys is an unwinnable boss fight. We're definitely not going to take out our love interest/villain on the first encounter.
But the other way round isn't necessarily true. They absolutely can wreck our ride nonfatally if we let them
Ridiculously Average Guy
I'm you, but stronger
- Location
-
[X] Step forward into the archengine and launch a series of attacks on it to distract the operator, then, as the doll comes in, step away from it and use the centaur to block it from attacking you
Remember, this engine hits like One Punch Man.
Remember, this engine hits like One Punch Man.
Appendix B: Mecha Profiles I: Mach Mustang
Exhack
We Won't Build The Plane!
- Location
- Montreal, Canada
Author's Note: No update today, but hey! More supplemental materials! This one's kind of a spoiler, but you've all earned it.
MACH MUSTANG
An uncommon model of archengine, the Mach Mustang was a transitional design between the original bipeds produced by the Oros Workshop's founder and the sleek quadrupeds which earned it the patronage of the Concord Republic's elite Knights of Oregon. The house would continue to produce a few original bipeds under the Challenger namesake, while the Mustang name would reflect a series of four-legged designs thereafter. A few were in the possession of the Ispano mercenaries known as the Night Brigade, received as payment for a contract with the Knights.
Type: Mustang B
Archmeister: Naj Oros
Nation: Concord Republic
Height: 17 meters
Weight: 140 tons (200 with slave unit)
Output: 1.2 trillion horsepower (1.6 with slave unit)
MACH MUSTANG
An uncommon model of archengine, the Mach Mustang was a transitional design between the original bipeds produced by the Oros Workshop's founder and the sleek quadrupeds which earned it the patronage of the Concord Republic's elite Knights of Oregon. The house would continue to produce a few original bipeds under the Challenger namesake, while the Mustang name would reflect a series of four-legged designs thereafter. A few were in the possession of the Ispano mercenaries known as the Night Brigade, received as payment for a contract with the Knights.
Like the original Mustang, the Mach Mustang is a powerful design featuring a potent multi-chambered fusion engine, heavy protochitin armor and robust electronic systems that make it well-suited to group combat. The design is essentially the same from the waist-up, with a sturdy sloping torso design, rounded shoulders and thick arms with high torque but worse articulation, but has modified the lower body with pair of digitigrade legs. The waist has been noticeably thinned out to accommodate a junction for a slave unit, making it something of a weak-point in combat.
As early Mustangs were typically designed for common knights, they featured only a single mantella built into a reinforced cavalry shield to defend at range and in melee, and were armed with magnetic pistol-sabers and Grase Balorian radiation beams built into the head optics. The latter were distinctly unpopular except as a trump card as they induced severe flash blindness, disabling the hidalgo for whole minutes and forcing them to depend on their unit's augurs to maneuver. For the Knights of Oregon who believed in cultivating their sixth sense and moving by instinct rather than perception, the brief sacrifice of one's eyes in exchange for the Grase Balorian's power was a natural way of testing their own limits.
The slave unit was the main feature of the Mach Mustang which provided increased engine output and speed at the cost of maneuverability, and could be detached as a scout or attack dog. Roughly a third the size of the main unit, it stood with ape-like gait and was equipped with a pair of mercury knuckles that allowed it to form any number of bladed extensions from the wrist out, ranging from vicious claws to long lances. The communication system made use of rare particles created through alchemy which allowed for uninterruptible control of the slave. Although Mach Mustangs are not particularly sought-after by collectors, the contents of their comm suite makes them valuable salvage.
Name: Mach MustangType: Mustang B
Archmeister: Naj Oros
Nation: Concord Republic
Height: 17 meters
Weight: 140 tons (200 with slave unit)
Output: 1.2 trillion horsepower (1.6 with slave unit)
Weaponry: Cavalry escudo with mantella, pistol-saber, Grase Balorian, mercury knuckle x2 (on slave unit). Compatible with most standard archengine weapons.
- Location
- The Hague
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Mach Mustang is a really cute name. Also, could you possibly expand on how a mantella works?
More generally, what I really love about this is that while the setting is very much embedded in the milieu that Nagano created for Five Star Stories, it does its own thing with that, which makes it really stand out. For example in Five Star Stories the armaments of the now GTMs kind of began and ended at the speid - while there were other weapons, none of them really had the kind of image as the speid, which felt like something created in the universe, rather than designed as part of a robot. Here it goes a bit further.
I like the take on Fatimas, as well, particularly the expanded role in both society and as an element of the setting. I like that intensely political element to the distribution and education of escudero, particularly in the way it puts a negative spin on the 'chivalry' in the title.
Exhack
We Won't Build The Plane!
- Location
- Montreal, Canada
I'm planning a dedicated post giving a little overview of archengine combat and systems, and then some smaller ones that address the individual fiddly bits, but the gist of it is that mantella are stasis fields that arrest energetic activity over a certain threshold rather than defensive fields like the spezzante's distortions. They're almost impossible to overpower, but how much mileage you get out of it is dependent on engine wattage, the quality of the make and the threshold set on the mantella itself. Running low-threshold gives you a few seconds of untouchability but the emitter quickly burns out against flurried blows or rapid fire, while high-threshold gives a certain guarantee against being chumped by snipers with exotic matter guns.
A sturdier archengine like Michael in full armor can run a high-threshold field and tank whatever falls under the limit, only using it in essential circumstances, while a softer unit specialized in scouting might just run low-threshold because the armor can't really hold up at all. Managing the threshold in response to circumstances is a critical skill in archengine combat, as important as the parry or the block.
Melee is hugely important because of their presence, although only certain styles and approaches are effective against a fresh, fully-charged mantella. All-out attacks with relatively mundane weapons like the Grifon's lato can be shut down, while slower strikes that capitalize on the sheer mass can get through.
Special weapons like compressa and spezzante can break through one due to their fields and special effects, while the bardibuss would have been just slow enough on the regular swing to be viable. The spezzante is probably objectively the best weapon against archengines and pilots that focus on mantella-based defense, except that the special function that makes it so good also leaves Michael vulnerable for a few seconds after.
- Location
- The Hague
- Pronouns
- He/Him
That's pretty interesting stuff. I'm going to go out on a limb and suggest that in future some combat options will probably turn on mantella mechanics, so everyone should study up!
Cetashwayo
Lord of Ten Thousand Years
- Location
- Across the Horizon
[X] Accept a hit to grab the tip of the archengine's lance, and use the momentum and Michael's superior output to slam your two foes together, then finish them off with a single blow.
come out and slam and welcome to the jam
come out and slam and welcome to the jam
Ridiculously Average Guy
I'm you, but stronger
- Location
-
THIS SWORD OF MINE JAMS WITH AN AWESOME POWER
ITS BALLIN' ROAR TELLS ME TO DUNK YOU
TAKE THIS! MY SLAM, MY JAM, AND ALL OF MY DUNK.
MARCA ESTRELLA!
Part Uno XVII: A Breath and Balduino's Challenge
Exhack
We Won't Build The Plane!
- Location
- Montreal, Canada
[X] Feint weakness and target fixation on the archengine, then when the doll jumps at you destroy it with a rapid blow
You step into the doll, your suit's head turned towards the archengine even as your eyes inside the cockpit are on the doll. It's a common enough trick, one you read about in your dueling text book, but in the quickness and rage of battle it can work, and does. The doll leaps at you, blade out, the archengine a moment behind it. You turn, using your step into the doll to get the distance, and run the doll through with the spezzante. It sees your lunge a moment too late, momentum taking it into you, and it impales itself. You yank it around, taking three more steps so the collapsing doll blocks the other archengines charge.
Problem, both ends of your spezzante are now gone. The archengine jumps over the shattered doll, lance held over its head. You knock the tip away with the spezzante pole and grab it just past the blade with your off hand, stepping forward and head butting the shorter cavalry engine back. It lets go the spear and draws a short saber, but you see the motion just soon enough to grab its arm. For a moment you strain against one another, then you drop the spezzante and jab a flurry of punches into its face.
Metal screams on metal, and you see the enemy archengine's armour distort under your blows, then shatter. There's a thump and the ejection pods fire, twin streams of white gas rising away from the back of the archengine as it flops forward, its nervous system gone with the crew.
<<Spezzante up, 2 seconds.>>
Did that all take only a few seconds? It seemed like a lifetime. You turn, looking around at where your father is . . .
Falling. The Grifon collapsing to its knees, both arms gone. The Murgleys turns, dropping the shattered ruins of your family engine, facing you.
"Worth every penny I paid them I see." Your fiancee sighs, then spins his compressa up into a fighting stance and patrols forward a step towards you. You take a high guard with the spezzante, a bit more cautious of this opponent. "So, it appears this is between us Mireia. Don't worry. I spared your father and mother. I wouldn't give you the same loss that I suffered."
"Don't act as if you're doing me a favour!" You feel a fresh surge of anger at his tone, and charge. He stops the spezzante with a series of flick blocks with the compressa, dropping back a step, seeming overwhelmed by your attacks.
Suddenly you remember the defined muscles of his arms, and his skinned knuckles. This isn't a man who uses a compressa. . .
You stop, swinging the spezzante up in defence, then slide backwards as the Murgley's other arm comes around in a massive punch, kicking up dust. Twirling the spezzante you push him back, making another series of rapid fire stabs
"You're quick. Your technique is brash, but your instincts are good." You can hear the smile in his voice, but underneath it, a strain. You're giving him a work out. "How often have you fought in an archengine?"
"This is my first real battle."
"Preposterous." He laughs. "Oh, I have undone myself by betraying you."
"You're correct."
He backsteps quickly as you advance, circling slowly with his compressa held horizontally, ready to parry and counterattack. "You must have some escudero keeping you company. Family secret? I didn't see anyone with you earlier."
Avagis' voice comes in through the internal communications. <<Ooooh, he knows the secret.>>
<<Quiet, I need to concentrate.>>
<<Of course.>> Your escudero complies by going quiet for the moment, allowing you to refocus on the slender giant looming ahead.
"Something like that." You begin to circle in the opposite direction, moving quickly and aggressively to pressure. Since neither of you appear to have ranged weapons, this fight could drag easily. Given his armor advantage, this may not be ideal.
His posture is infuratingly calm as Murgley's great shoulders heave in a shrug. "Well, that's fine. I'll find out eventually. It isn't that pretty lady-in-waiting of yours, is it?"
You can't believe this man. "No! And how can you keep talking?!"
"Easy. I'm remembering to breathe."
"Are you mocking me?" You scowl, though he can't see that. The blood rushing to your head is keeping you from approaching this as slyly as before, and your manners are roughened by the adrenaline coursing through your body.
"Not at all. Your posture is too stiff- an archengine with striomers like that is going to be rather strong and flexible, but you're already halfway committed to the attack. You're not leaving yourself any spring!"
<<He's mocking you. And right.>> Avagis sounds like he's trying not to laugh.
You answer Avagis with silence and focus on your target. "What kind of enemy gives advice on the battlefield?"
Balduino's voice becomes somber. "I'm not your enemy, Mireia. If you realized that, both our lives would be much easier. With that archengine, my abilities and your potential, this planet could be just the beginning. My new liege… our liege, rewards skill and ambition."
"I won't marry a man who betrayed my parents!" You catch yourself and feel a chill as you realize you've said something untrue by reflex.
"We both know the truth of that, and I won't hold it against you for making that mistake. Now look." Murgleys' clawed left arm arm holds a pair of irregular spheres aloft. Ejected cockpits, bearing the gryphon-and-boot emblem of your house. He jostles slightly them for emphasis as he addresses you again. "I see you're a loyal girl, but this fight is unfair."
Fear and anger mingle within you in uncertain ways. You hands grip the controls so tightly your knuckles go white, and you find yourself screaming into the comms. "You coward! Do you think hostages will persuade me?"
"I do. You're a proper, filial country hidalgo. Not one of those vipers in the Don's court, or the Capital. Which is why we'll make a competition of this: you like those, don't you?"
"Explain!"
Murgleys gestures over the wreckage, of Grifon and the three Concordian machines. "Salvage whatever you want from those machines and cross the desert to my estate on the eastern side of the continent. We'll resolve this on the open field, with that machine of yours properly armed. Your parents will be treated well- as noble prisoners taken in a lawful battlefield. At sunset- I'll let you burn the image of my Murgleys under the madder-colored sky into your mind so you have good fodder for paintings."
"And the stakes?"
"Well I don't intend to kill you. We'll marry properly and you'll be my accomplice. If you win… hmm." His voice doesn't sound terribly strained or worried as he contemplates that. "I suppose I'll give you everything of mine and your parents in safety. Perhaps I'll even end my schemes?"
"What if I tell the authorities?"
"We sadly don't know eachother as well as I'd wish, but at this point I know you have a vivid imagination. Use it." Balduino's voice goes wistful, and then cold. A moment later he's irksomely chipper again. "So what do you say? An honorable duel?"
How do you reply?
[ ] "I am no fool or coward, and you don't need hostages to keep my attention. We end this now."
[ ] "I don't need that long. Give me an hour, and we fight here."
[ ] "Very well. But if I even suspect you have laid a finger upon my parents, I won't hesitate to kill you."
[ ] "I refuse!"
You step into the doll, your suit's head turned towards the archengine even as your eyes inside the cockpit are on the doll. It's a common enough trick, one you read about in your dueling text book, but in the quickness and rage of battle it can work, and does. The doll leaps at you, blade out, the archengine a moment behind it. You turn, using your step into the doll to get the distance, and run the doll through with the spezzante. It sees your lunge a moment too late, momentum taking it into you, and it impales itself. You yank it around, taking three more steps so the collapsing doll blocks the other archengines charge.
Problem, both ends of your spezzante are now gone. The archengine jumps over the shattered doll, lance held over its head. You knock the tip away with the spezzante pole and grab it just past the blade with your off hand, stepping forward and head butting the shorter cavalry engine back. It lets go the spear and draws a short saber, but you see the motion just soon enough to grab its arm. For a moment you strain against one another, then you drop the spezzante and jab a flurry of punches into its face.
Metal screams on metal, and you see the enemy archengine's armour distort under your blows, then shatter. There's a thump and the ejection pods fire, twin streams of white gas rising away from the back of the archengine as it flops forward, its nervous system gone with the crew.
<<Spezzante up, 2 seconds.>>
Did that all take only a few seconds? It seemed like a lifetime. You turn, looking around at where your father is . . .
Falling. The Grifon collapsing to its knees, both arms gone. The Murgleys turns, dropping the shattered ruins of your family engine, facing you.
"Worth every penny I paid them I see." Your fiancee sighs, then spins his compressa up into a fighting stance and patrols forward a step towards you. You take a high guard with the spezzante, a bit more cautious of this opponent. "So, it appears this is between us Mireia. Don't worry. I spared your father and mother. I wouldn't give you the same loss that I suffered."
"Don't act as if you're doing me a favour!" You feel a fresh surge of anger at his tone, and charge. He stops the spezzante with a series of flick blocks with the compressa, dropping back a step, seeming overwhelmed by your attacks.
Suddenly you remember the defined muscles of his arms, and his skinned knuckles. This isn't a man who uses a compressa. . .
You stop, swinging the spezzante up in defence, then slide backwards as the Murgley's other arm comes around in a massive punch, kicking up dust. Twirling the spezzante you push him back, making another series of rapid fire stabs
"You're quick. Your technique is brash, but your instincts are good." You can hear the smile in his voice, but underneath it, a strain. You're giving him a work out. "How often have you fought in an archengine?"
"This is my first real battle."
"Preposterous." He laughs. "Oh, I have undone myself by betraying you."
"You're correct."
He backsteps quickly as you advance, circling slowly with his compressa held horizontally, ready to parry and counterattack. "You must have some escudero keeping you company. Family secret? I didn't see anyone with you earlier."
Avagis' voice comes in through the internal communications. <<Ooooh, he knows the secret.>>
<<Quiet, I need to concentrate.>>
<<Of course.>> Your escudero complies by going quiet for the moment, allowing you to refocus on the slender giant looming ahead.
"Something like that." You begin to circle in the opposite direction, moving quickly and aggressively to pressure. Since neither of you appear to have ranged weapons, this fight could drag easily. Given his armor advantage, this may not be ideal.
His posture is infuratingly calm as Murgley's great shoulders heave in a shrug. "Well, that's fine. I'll find out eventually. It isn't that pretty lady-in-waiting of yours, is it?"
You can't believe this man. "No! And how can you keep talking?!"
"Easy. I'm remembering to breathe."
"Are you mocking me?" You scowl, though he can't see that. The blood rushing to your head is keeping you from approaching this as slyly as before, and your manners are roughened by the adrenaline coursing through your body.
"Not at all. Your posture is too stiff- an archengine with striomers like that is going to be rather strong and flexible, but you're already halfway committed to the attack. You're not leaving yourself any spring!"
<<He's mocking you. And right.>> Avagis sounds like he's trying not to laugh.
You answer Avagis with silence and focus on your target. "What kind of enemy gives advice on the battlefield?"
Balduino's voice becomes somber. "I'm not your enemy, Mireia. If you realized that, both our lives would be much easier. With that archengine, my abilities and your potential, this planet could be just the beginning. My new liege… our liege, rewards skill and ambition."
"I won't marry a man who betrayed my parents!" You catch yourself and feel a chill as you realize you've said something untrue by reflex.
"We both know the truth of that, and I won't hold it against you for making that mistake. Now look." Murgleys' clawed left arm arm holds a pair of irregular spheres aloft. Ejected cockpits, bearing the gryphon-and-boot emblem of your house. He jostles slightly them for emphasis as he addresses you again. "I see you're a loyal girl, but this fight is unfair."
Fear and anger mingle within you in uncertain ways. You hands grip the controls so tightly your knuckles go white, and you find yourself screaming into the comms. "You coward! Do you think hostages will persuade me?"
"I do. You're a proper, filial country hidalgo. Not one of those vipers in the Don's court, or the Capital. Which is why we'll make a competition of this: you like those, don't you?"
"Explain!"
Murgleys gestures over the wreckage, of Grifon and the three Concordian machines. "Salvage whatever you want from those machines and cross the desert to my estate on the eastern side of the continent. We'll resolve this on the open field, with that machine of yours properly armed. Your parents will be treated well- as noble prisoners taken in a lawful battlefield. At sunset- I'll let you burn the image of my Murgleys under the madder-colored sky into your mind so you have good fodder for paintings."
"And the stakes?"
"Well I don't intend to kill you. We'll marry properly and you'll be my accomplice. If you win… hmm." His voice doesn't sound terribly strained or worried as he contemplates that. "I suppose I'll give you everything of mine and your parents in safety. Perhaps I'll even end my schemes?"
"What if I tell the authorities?"
"We sadly don't know eachother as well as I'd wish, but at this point I know you have a vivid imagination. Use it." Balduino's voice goes wistful, and then cold. A moment later he's irksomely chipper again. "So what do you say? An honorable duel?"
How do you reply?
[ ] "I am no fool or coward, and you don't need hostages to keep my attention. We end this now."
[ ] "I don't need that long. Give me an hour, and we fight here."
[ ] "Very well. But if I even suspect you have laid a finger upon my parents, I won't hesitate to kill you."
[ ] "I refuse!"
Last edited: