No SV You Are the Forest
A Riot Quest
Turn 07
The Forest rested serenely in its new position, somewhat closer to the local source of particles than it had been previously. The amount of particles that it received had increased, if not too significantly, while the particles coming from elsewhere had not diminished.
All was quiet, as far as the Forest was concerned. The strange ships hadn't shown up again, the Predators were asleep, the Prey had left, the Beast had not returned, and the Ingaba were steadily taking apart the giant ship by the sun.
All was well. The Forest would be capable of advancing its various projects in relative peace, with little need for defensive measures.
…
Then the Feeling Trees detected something most peculiar. A warping of the magnetic fields. No ship was the source of this, the Forest knew, as the fields bent and twisted in a strange new way.
Without further warning, the fields rippled intensely in a tightly spaced area. Even if it had less resolution, the Forest would have noticed this – and, further, noticed the sheer number of
things that flooded from what seemed to be a singular point. Fast moving projectiles, like some of the weapons that the Forest had defended against in the past, erupted from it in all directions.
Resources that had been laying in wait for a need, almost wasted, were suddenly remarkably useful. Magnetic Trees spun up to full power, fields compressing particles tightly between them just before a spread of energy hammered into the Shield erected by the Forest, followed shortly afterwards by high-energy kinetics.
The Shield strained, but did not break.
The Forest, were it capable of doing so, would likely have wiped its brow of sweat. As it is a Forest, it does nothing of the sort. Some of its leaves ruslted in the passing of particles it deigned not to catch for a brief moment, that was all.
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The Ingaba, on the other hand, are a mess. Some damage was dealt to their operations in the system. Not enough to meaningfully delay them, but enough to make them
look weak.
"Admiral, I'm sorry to say that no, we didn't have a clue that this was going to happen," Senior Scientist Oragles said, chagrined, to Fleet Admiral Monagles, who was in the system overseeing the dismantling of the precursor vessel. "All of our sensors are keyed to the Forest; the first we knew something was happening was when it erected its shields and they were hammered by the initial mass-energy release of the Wormhole a few moments later."
The opening of the Wormhole was a most useful thing, provided it remained stable long enough to get
another research team out here. If it was a stable wormhole – if it lasted long enough – then the Ingaba would get a great deal of use out of it, and would likely heavily fortify the system against assault, no matter where the wormhole led.
"Scientist Oragles, are you telling me that we need
another research base out here?"
"Yes, Admiral, that's exactly what I'm saying. Knowledge pulled from studying the Wormhole – combined with what we can observe from the Forest – could result in gravitic STL drives, and micro-wormhole generation."
"Jump drives?" There was an eager, hungry glint in the Admiral's eye.
"Of a sort," Oragles temporizes. "It won't work the same, I don't think, but the effect will likely be close enough."
"Good enough for me," he grunted. "I don't want to have to coordinate fights across our territory without a fast reaction force. I'll see what I can do to shake the funding – and the teams – loose, so that you aren't overwhelmed."
"Thank you, Admiral."
"Don't thank me, Oragles," Monagles' grin was full of teeth. "After all,
you will be the highest ranking Scientist in the system after the group studying the mobile shipyard leaves, which means you will be at least looking at their reports."
Oragles' eyes widened. "More paperwork?" he whispered. "As if there's not enough of that floating around already!"
"Good luck, Oragles."
"Thank you, Admiral. I think."
And with that, the channel closed, and Oragles got back to work. He would likely need to promote a few of his own subordinates, just to help oversee the mess that was heading his way.
Turn 07 Vote
The Worm remains in effect, doubling all non-automatic successes.
Communication Actions
[ ][Action] Ask the Research Base about other Stars.
-Requires 5 successes, 2/5
[ ][Action] Ask the Research Base about the Prey.
-Requires 5 successes, 4/5
[ ][Action] Ask the Research Base about the Beast.
-Requires 5 successes, 2/5
[ ][Action] Ask the Research Base about establishing a deeper psychic link
-Requires 5 successes, 4/5.
[ ][Action] Ask the Research Base about food for the pups.
-Requires 5 successes
[ ][Action] Reach out to the Research Base.
-[ ][Action] Write-in what to speak about.
-Requires 5 successes
Defense Actions
[ ][Action] Erect the Shield! (Magnetic)
-There's nothing there. Probably. However, the Beast's uncaring movement through the system was informative – it was very possible for other beings to arrive without warning, and leave just as quickly.
[ ][Action] Prepare a Shard Volley (Crystal)
-This action primes resources to hurl a volley of razor sharp shards of crystal, splintered from the trunks and branches of the Forest itself. Successes are banked against future need, but only to a point – 10 successes per Magnitude of the Forest can be stored. 19/30 stored.
[ ][Action] Move towards where the Ingaba ships always appear from. (Gravity)
-Multiple side effects. The more successes this action has, the faster it occurs.
Growth Actions
-High-density particles remains in effect. All non-automatic successes are multiplied by 1.4.
-Sun Proximity 1 is in effect. All non-automatic successes have their multiplier increase by 0.1.
-The Forest is at 36/40 Special Trees.
[ ][Action] Grow the Forest
-62.75/200 successes to Mag 4
[ ][Action] Grow <Treename>
-Replace <Treename> with the name of a Special Tree from the Front Page. Variable cost.
Growth progress is visible on the front page.
Offense Actions
[ ][Action] Soothe the Predators.
-Opposed Action. This will put the Predators to sleep for the next turn if it succeeds.
[ ][Action] Soothe the Research Base to see what happens. (Psychic)
-Opposed Action.
-The Ingaba have agreed to allow this to happen, as a test of their psychic defenses. Attempt when ready, but be warned – they are almost certainly stronger on an individual basis than the Predators, and more numerous.
Magnetize – no valid targets detected.
Research Actions
-Most of these are placed on the FP. Simply copy-paste one of the options there into your vote.
Note: All Psychic Research actions gain +1 success per Forest Magnitude while the Ingaba Research Agreement is in effect, provided at least one action is taken on them.
[ ][Action] Assist the Ingaba Research Base (General)
-This action works to pay off the Forest's side of the deal with the Ingaba Directorate. In order to not default on the Treaty, at least ten dice must be paid into this action every turn for ten turns.
-Effect: For each die paid into this Action, the Forest will obtain one success to the most voted for Research Action with an asterisk.
[ ][Action] Study the Wormhole (Gravity, Void)
-Attempt to discover what this is. Success allows for further study.
-Effect: Wormhole Theory obtained. New technologies unlocked.
-Requires 50 successes.
Survival Actions
[ ][Action] Attempt to store resources against future need. (General)
-All successes stored. 86 successes banked against recovering future damage or to pay off the debt owed to the Ingaba Directorate.
Note: 5 Survival successes per turn are lost to the Ingaba Directorate as a result of paying for samples of new technologies.
[ ][Action] Sacrifice to the Worm (???)
-The Worm is always hungry. Feed the Worm that it might grow.
-Requires 100 successes before the Worm is satisfied. 13/100.
[ ][Action] Expand the reach of the Forest, allowing it to gather resources from a larger area. (Magnetic)
-The Hoop Tree extends a powerful magnetic field, capturing stray particles that are greatly distant from the Forest and channeling them to the roots. Sufficient successes empower all Growth actions.
-With 10 successes, the successes of all Growth actions are increased by 10%. 4/10.
[ ][Action] Move closer to the local star, see what happens. (Gravity)
-The more successes this has, the faster the movement occurs. The star provides much of the matter and energy used by the Forest; perhaps getting closer will increase the amount received.
[ ][Action] Erect the Empty Veil (Void)
-Cloak the Forest from opposing sensors, deliberately hiding it from all forms of detection.
-Opposed Action. Unlike with Shields, the Veil rolls against each other faction individually.
Other
[ ][Action] Write-in
-For if you believe I'm missing something. I reserve the right to
disapprove of any write-ins, or appropriate them for other purposes and places.
Focus Actions
Choose
any three actions from the above for the Forest to focus on. These are voted upon by the entire group, and are in addition to the individual actions taken by each member. Multiples should be indicated with a x#, so the second identical action would be x2, etc.
[ ][Focus] Action Name
These Actions will receive a number of automatic successes equal to the Magnitude of the Forest and any bonuses from other sources.
At the moment, the top three focus actions will win, each receiving the focus of the Forest.
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Your Votes should look like the following:
[ ][Action] Action
[ ][Focus] Action 1
[ ][Focus] Action 2
[ ][Focus] Action 3
Newcomers should add one of the following:
[ ][Tree] Heart Tree
[ ][Tree] Mind Tree
[ ][Tree] Root Tree
This vote will always be open.
*-*-*-*
A/N: Good on all of you to keep that Shield up. Also, Wormhole.