Reverse Engineering For Fun and Profit (Planetary Annihilation/Multicross SI)

[TikiTau]

Synopsis: One Gamma Commander, One Malfunctioning Unit Database, an uncontrolled plummet out of orbit, a Reverse Engineering Protocol, and the Koprulu Sector. Let's rumble!~

A/N: Yeah...so...I'm kiiiiiiind of bad at keeping on target. Work on one writing project, and the ol' muse goes '...Heeeey. You like giant robots.' 'This is true.' 'And explosions.' 'Yes.' 'And brutally self replicating mechanisms of war, right?' 'Also tr-...oh dammit.' 'mweeheeheehee!'

So, Yet Another Tiki Story! Hope ya'll like it. Feel free to comment and the like if you want. :3

-Worlds Visited-
Starcraft
Mass Effect
Dead Space (Gibbs)

-Personae Dramatis-

-Index-
Chapter 1: Orbital Drop (Chapter starts below Index)
Chapter 2: Goals and Guns
Chapter 3: Step 1, Profit. Step 2, More Profit.
Chapter 4: Step 3: Spaaaaaaaaace. Gotta go to SPACE!
Chapter 5: Firstblood
Chatper 6: Go Big or Go Extinct
Chapter 7: Sneaking Mission
Chapter 8: Gunship Interrupt
Chapter 9: Brutal Cunning
Chapter 10: 3, 2, 1...Let's Jam!
Chapter 11: Space Medicine! In Space!
Chapter 12: This Isn't Warcraft In Space! It's much more sophisticated.
Chapter 13: Artificial Intelligence, Authentic Idiocy
Chapter 14: Secure Cerebrate Protocol
Chapter 15: Charlie's Foxtrot Dance Night!
Chapter 16: Damage Control
Chapter 17: Stuff Blowing Up
Chapter 18: Big Gun, It's Showtime!
Chapter 19: Burn, Baby, Burn!
Chapter 20: Picking Up The Pieces
Chapter 21: Finding Loose Ends
Chapter 22: It's The Only Way To Be Sure
Chapter 23: Derailment
Chapter 24: Return To Sender
Chapter 25: An Offer You Can Refuse
Chapter 26: Danger Zone!
Chapter 27: Walk This Way~
Chapter 28: So Long, Koprulu, And Thanks For All The Fish Tech!
Interlude 1: Damn You, Science!
Chaper 29: Setting Up. In Space. Again.
Interlude 2: Get Yer Guns On, Boy!
Chapter 30: Corsair Diplomacy
Chapter 31: Legitimate Business Volus
Interlude 3: Space Dungeon Bypass (Or: How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love The Plasma Blade)
Chapter 32: Holding Up The Void
Chapter 33: He Had It Coming
Chapter 34: The Loud Voice
Interlude 4: SOMEONE Failed An Uncanny Valley Check
Chapter 35: MEANWHILE!
Chapter 36: The Reward of Training Well Done
Chapter 37: It's ORIENTATION DAY!~
Chapter 38: The Extranet. The Extranet Never Changes.
Chapter 38.5: New Car Lot, 2165 Edition
Interlude 5: Dynamic Engineering
Chapter 39: DIPLOMANCEY!
Chapter 39.5: Shopping With A Nerazim
Chapter 40: Dusk Negotiations
Interlude 6: Obliterwhatnow?
Chapter 41: Integration
Chapter 42: What's The Question, Then?
Chapter 43: The Silver Armada
Chapter 44: Inner Universe
Chapter 45: It's Just Business
Chapter 46: CDI: A Brief Briefing

xXxXxXx​

The first thing I thought when I woke up was 'man, that was a good nap.'

The second, however, would be most accurately described as '00101110 00101110 00101110 01110111 01101000 01100001 01110100', followed up by '01010010 01001111 01000010 00100000 01011001 01001111 01010101 00100000 01000010 01000001 01010011 01010100 01000001 01010010 01000100'.

Maybe with a few more expletives. Well deserved, you know. Anyways, enough binary, it's mostly just for effect, if I'm being honest. I mean, really, Progenitor coding? Waaaay more advanced than just 'yes' or 'no'.

After all, when I last fell asleep back home, I was a squishy meatsack, I certainly wasn't a fifteen meter tall, brutally efficient, self-replicating mechanism of war and conquest.

To make a point, I ALSO wasn't plunging headfirst towards a grungy looking mess of a red planet. Oh, hey, it's actually mostly water, and the coloring is due to a high iron content! Neat! Wait, no, not neat, not neat! Water landings suck too! Water hates high speed direct impacts!

...Come on, come on...Lessee, poking around the ol' brain quantum foam bank...Mmm.. Mmmhmm. Oh, hey, lessee…Hah! Got it!

'Automatic Landing Protocols have been disabled. Please activate Manual Landing Protocols'.

...Okay, okay, I can fix this. I mean, y'know, landing protocols. Useful, useful, because, y'know, according to the data my (totally bullshit hypertech, Oh I Wish YOu DiDn't GIVE ME ALL THIS INFORMATION RIGHT NOW AS I PLUNGE TO MY PAINFUL DEMISE) sensors are picking up, I'm kiiiiind of de-orbiting at unsafe speeds.

Unsafe speeds FOR A COMMANDER. Yeeeah. Right, right, panicking a bit, brain the metaphorical size of a planet doesn't help when I'm panicking...Searching.

Oh, thank the Maker, there it is, Manual Landing Protocols! Just need to upload you to the pod, annnnd... Engage!

Ah Ah Ah! You didn't say the Magic Word!

*Cyberattack detected.*

...Please?

*Engaging countermeasures*

Ah Ah Ah! You didn't say the Magic Word!

*Countermeasures ineffective. Corruption increasing. Attack continuing. Quarantining damaged files*

Can I hack this? The password or the lockout or the virus? I'm a super computer, right? C'mon, magical superscience brain, erm...hack the password. Please?

*File corruption...increEesing.*

Ah Ah Ah! You didn't say the Magic Word!

*Core set to isolation mode…*
…
*Isolation mode disabled. Data corruption in progress*

…well...that sort of thing worked in Ghost in the Shell. Damn.

…Hum.

So! Yeah! Not only am I a fifteen meter tall Commander in a reentry pod, I'm in one without active landing thrusters or their Progenitor tech equivalent to ensure the standard 'safe' landing. (...Well, relatively safe, given it drops the equivalent of a nuke on the landing site, but what's a little orbital kinetic weaponry between friends?) that's currently getting devoured by the cyberworm from hell!

Thanks, ROB. Dick. I hope Gork and Mork nutshot you during your next poker tournament.

Welp. Low enough the altimeter just kicked in. Those numbers are going down waaaaay too fast, and surface heat of my pod is picking up. I can just say without fear of being questioned that this is gonna su-

*TRANSMISSION INTERRUPTED*
*Damage Report: PRimARmy Reactor, offline. Strrrrr-rrr-rrructural integrity CR-CR-CRIIIIITICAL. Primary Sennn sors, Offline. ECM, Offline. ECCM, Offline. Uber Cann-can-can-cannon, offline. Secondary Reactor, Offline. Primaaarrry had a little lamb little lamb little lamb Resource Core, offline. Multifunctional Phased Disassembly/Reassembly Nanoarray, offline. Galateeeaaaa party party party we are gonna have a party Launchers, offline. Blaster Cannon Array, Offline. Tertiary Reactor Offli-Functional, One Percent functionality retained. Surviving Primary Systems Switched to Safe Mode. Entering Primary Consciousness Hibernation. Emergency Repair Systems, Online. Estimated Time To Revival: Error. Insufficient Data.*

*...*
*...*
*...*
*...*
*...*
*...*

*Unknown Signal Detected. Beginning Emergency Reboot Sequence*
*Tertiary Reactor...Initializing...Ten percent...Thirty...Sixty...One hundred percent. Reactor Online.*
*Resource Core, reactivated. Beginning fuel synthesis*
*Secondary Reactor...Chamber priming...beginning primary fuel feed...Test firing complete. Reactor Online*
*Preparing for Primary Ignition*
*Primary Reactor...Primed...Test Firing complete. Reactor Online.*
*Beginning System Reinitialization*
*Sensors online*
*ECM online*
*ECCM online*
*Uber Cannon...Insufficient Energy For Repeat Fire. Cannon online.*
*Construction Array: Online
*Galatea Personal Air Defense System: Online*
*Blaster Cannon Array: Online*
*Resource Core...Online*
*Disengaging Emergency Repair System*
*Primary Conscioiusness LNCMDR_GAMMA44268_LEGIO_INDOMINUS...Loading...Successful...Booting up*
Whaaaaaaa-
*Welcome back, Commander. WARNING: DATA CORRUPTED. ATTEMPT RECOVERY?*
Yes
*CORE MODULE..: FRAGMENTATION. RESTORATION IN PROGRESS. INTEGRITY RESTORED*
Well, that's good, I don't want to not be me…
*DATABANKS...INCOMPLETE*
Grand. Status?
*CORRUPTION TRACED TO FOREIGN VIRUS CURRENTLY LOCATED IN MANUFACTURING MODULE*
...Oh, you have to be kidding me. I haven't had a drop go this ploin shaped since that Assault on Progenitor Command back during the War.

...Wait, how do I remember that? Oh. I see. Interesting. Personality melding with a foreign 'imprint' mmm? Well, something to look at later. Let's see…...fine bit of hacking if it got past the automatic defensive firewalls...annnnd let's see how much the bastard got.

…

Yeah. Final tally? Sucks to be me..

Bot Factory Data? Wiped.
Air Factory Data? Wiped.
Vehicle Factory Data? Wiped.
Naval...Wiped.
Orbital: Partial recovery. Least I can get off this chunk of rock with some luck, assuming nothing is going to shoot me down on atmospheric exit (And can find me. I mean, Progenitor ECM is pretty bullshit). ONE orbit-to-ground plunge unaided was enough, THANK YOU VERY MUCH.

Facilities...Grand, most of my Tier 2 is at least just fragmented, not destroyed and deleted like my other default designs were. Starting recovery...Yeah, just going to split off a thought-thread to deal with that.

To make things more fun, apparently ROB left me a present. In this case, the utterly vicious little cyberworm that it used to punch a hole in my programming in the first place. The auto-repair systems managed to quarantine the thing...but doing so damaged the hell out of my design subroutines. They're...sort of there. Just...well…

The estimate I keep getting when querying my repair system for finishing fixing those delicious design programs is <ERROR UNDEFINED>.

Great.

Ah well, least I have the basics, and my databanks still have my tech base buried in there...It's just not the easily buildable 'standard' stuff, since most of THAT is fragmented to hell and back. You thought normal defrags were bad, try piecing together a fragmented file literally made out of quantum fluff that's had...erm...according to my internal clock, 'Yes' amount of years to further deteriorate. Just going to take time to fix, I suppose.

Not all bad news, though! I've still got a few bits and pieces that made it through alright. Gotta love backups of backups of backups, and even those got damaged.
My beloved Holkins and Pelter are here, all warm and snuggly in my mind. And the good ol' Galatea and a Laser Tower. Mm. Metal Extractor, Basic Generators, Radar Tower, Storage Facilities...Well, I've won with less.

Time to bring sensors off standby now, let's see what I'm buried i-LAKJLKEHFAJLKFJEA OH GOD EW EW EW EW EW GET IT OFF GET IT OFF GET IT OFF GET IT OFF EW EW EW EW EW EW EW IT IS ON MY FACE IT IS ON MY SENSORS OH GOD IT'S WIGGLING AGAINST ME GET IT OFF GET IT OFF GET IT OFFFFFFF NOWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW-
*TRANSMISSION INTERRUPTED*
*UBER CANNON VOLLEY DISCHARGED. RECHARGE SEQUENCE COMMENCING. TRANSMISSION RESUMING*

Nnnnnngh. Ow. Note to self: Point blank Uber Cannon shots while in an enclosed coffin of sedimentary rock? Not the best option. Still! Optimism: I"m not covered in Filthy Organic GOOP anymore, and now I can see the surface, and a lot of charred biomatter.

That's growing back.

And purple.

And pulsing.

…..ROB, YOU MOTHER F-
*TRANSMISSION INTERRUPTED*
*Personality Matrix Destabilized*
*Re-establishing*
Owwwww…..Note to self, Raging until I manage to crash Progenitor hardware HURTS. Also looks like I'm not quite back to full condition...Mm. Right. Engaging the ol' Multiarm, slurp up the rock around, convert you into mass, dum de dum dum, I love you right now Progenitor Bullshit Hypertech...Annnnd there we go, path to freedom. Eat my dust (which isn't Dust, mind you, mmmm delicious picotech I want you so bad, that's bullshit that the Progenitors would nod approvingly at. Oh, right, attention drifting again) Minecrafters.

I Walk Upon The World Once More.

...Annnnd promptly wish I wasn't. Ew.

When you were a kid, did you ever run around barefoot in the summer and step in a pile of dog excrement?

Yeah.

Walking on Creep feels like that times at least fifty, plus the stuff moves and bucks against your foot. Ggggh. If I had a gorge, I'd lose it now...but luckily, I don't!

Annnnd tactile emulation sensors to feet...off! Much better.

Oh, hey there little Zerg Drone! Aren't you adorable?~~~
*SQUISH*
Heh heh heh. Oh, look, your Hatchery!~ Be a shame if someone, I dunno...Accidentally An Explosioned It!
*WEAPONS ONLINE. UBER CANNON FIRING. BURN, XENO SCUM*

Anyways, after a fit of cathartic violence, I stop, switching the nanoarray (...Really should choose a designation for that thing) over to 'reclamation' mode. Lessee...Yep, thank you, Game and Story Integration. Looks like Zerg, per the lore, use those funky resource crystals (can't remember the name off the top of my head) as a way to strengthen their carapaces and bodies a bit. Said funky crystals contain the materials needed to forge (admittedly inferior to GLORIOUS PROGENITOR BULLSHIT alloy) advanced alloys. So…

Dead Zerg? Kinda like popcorn, if you can ignore the fact they look like -filthy space roaches-. Num. The dying creep is hoovered up too, adding trace amounts to my metal stockpiles, but, more importantly, clearing off the ground for proper construction. Through luck or ROB not being a complete and utter ass, there's a good spot for an extractor here.

Well, with the Space Bugs dead and the area cleared off, time to set up a small firebase. Dum de dum dum, Metal extractor, a generator, some turrets, a few pelters just in case, a radar array, more generators…

Hey, Neat. Right, Glorious Progenitor Bullshit. Radar array works perfectly well as a comms relay as well.

I'm not on some Maker Forsaken Planet with nothing but Zerg for company, since I'm pickin' up comm chatter now. In English. Good ol' Space English.

"-hift your lazy asses, you Resoc Rejects! They're coming over the hill again! Steady...steady...FII-"

I pause, my systems shifting as I glance down at a bit of discarded debris that I stepped on, formerly covered in creep, reading the lettering on it.

Heh.

Heh heh.

HehHAHHAHHAHAHAHHAHAH!

I can't help it. I laugh…Because, in a Backwater Sector, on a Backwater Planet, at Backwater Station...A Commander builds a metal extractor.

Three potentially hostile races, a heavily damaged and fragmented fabrication database that is currently severely limiting my current options to fixed defenses and an unarmed orbital transport, all while on a planet slated for orbital glazing?

Hell, I'm a Commander.

Piece of cake.

 

[TikiTau]

Chapter 2

Alright, alright. Moment of levity over. Time to get to work. Setting course for the biggest concentration of communications and traffic on this rock.

Now, supposedly, listing one's problems helps. I think. I've never been greatly organized, but what the hell, one chunk of Mar Sara Basin looks amazingly like the rest, and Commanders aren't going to set land-speed records.

So, problem the first: I've got no additional unit templates left to build in my factories, thanks to that damn ROB-Worm wiping them, and I can't get the factories online without something to build in them. Data fragmentation, I think, rather than ROB sabotage there. To make it more fun, it's currently embedded in most of my design protocols.

See, normally, if a Commander had his database wiped...well, would set us back a bit, but I think, from what system files I can access in there, we could probably just whip up a new design from scratch. It might take a hellacious amount of time, even by our standards, but they COULD do it.

Me? I can't. Well, not directly.

See, I found a bit of a work around. I'm not sure if it's the one piece of good luck I managed to pull out of being offline for who knows how long (Seriously, I crash landed on Mar Sara back when it was mostly ocean…), but while I get nothing but errors, crashes, and assembly errors (Serious problem when dealing with nanomachines) trying to design something from scratch, the one bit of those subsystems that still checks out fine would be the reverse engineering protocols.

Makes sense...I mean, gameplay and story segregation, don't trust game mechanics to be narrative, yadda yadda, but that's basically what happened to the 'canon' Commanders, if you think about it, in the Galactic War Mode. Come online with only a partial database, then get fresh chunks of delicous data by conquering and ripping it from the smoking metal corpses of your foes.

THAT protocol's hard-wired in, and ROB's worm didn't or couldn't take it out. Now, if I can just find some tech that's not a useless half-digested pile of bio-sludge thanks to the Zerg or battle damage, we'll be back in business...

Mind, I'm feeling a bit nervous at the moment, so I keep pausing in my trek towards Mar Sara City to build myself some turrets to hide behind. Just because I'm fifteen meters of killer robot doesn't mean I'm invincible. Death of a Thousand Cuts is a very real worry for me, y'know? Sure, I can shrug off and self-repair a good bit, buuut….

Zerg are adaptive bastards, Protoss are just all sorts of bullshit, and underestimating Terrans is a good way to get nuked.

Possibly literally.

So, reminder to self: Tough, not invincible. Dealing with this place might take some more subtlety than I would normally use.

Problem the Second: I'm on Mar Sara. Seeing as how I don't see any Terran buildings infested with Zerg Crap here at Backwater Station, I'm guessing that good ol' Raynor's been by and blown them up, then been arrested. Given that the surface isn't a charred, glassed wasteland and I'm picking up a fair bit of chatter on both open and encrypted (Well, to anyone who isn't running Progenitor_Bullshit_Cyberwar.exe), the Protoss haven't glassed the place from orbit. Puts me at relatively early in the Great War, about when the whole Zerg vs Protoss thing started spilling over into Terran Space.

Narrow time frame to act, but gives me a bit of an opportunity to do some good. Always had a soft spot for underdogs.

Problem the Third: Major Threats. My databanks-slash-memories are pretty shaky on Starcraft's future beyond 'punch Mengsk in the face when he starts being a super crazy dick', but I vaguely recall that Amon is also lurking around, possibly as some sort of undead thingy, and he's got some spooky guy doing spooky things and needs the Zerg to eat the universe. Or something.

Need to spin a thought thread off on how to punch him in the face too. Or maybe I'll just xenocide the Zerg. That seemed to be a big part of his Evil Plans, taking over the Zerg. If they don't exist, he can't use them. I'm designed for galactic conquest, so it's doable.

Yeah, checks out...Logic!

As a subset of that, derailing the whole 'Queen of Blades' thing seems like it would solve a lot of problems. Probably create shiny new ones, but meh, screw it, the whole mess just seems like it was full of unnecessary drama and pointless civilian casualties.

Also, I think the UED is somehow watching things as well? Eh, will nuke that bridge when I come to it.

Problem the Fourth: Tech. I want it. Specifically, I need to pillage a Protoss Database. Sure, I've got a perfectly usable, cheap teleporter with interplanetary range.

...Well, I HAD a perfectly good interplanetary teleporter before ROB smashed my databases. ANYWAYS, MOVING ON before I rage-crash again.

Those shiny mouthless goofballs casually engage in time fuckery and point to point teleportation with units on an infantry scale, plus their naval units, if not always that impressive in game (but I suspect that's game limitations, not 'setting' limitations, y'know?) seem a lot more impressive than my own. I mean, sure, I can probably get some better Orbital stuff, but regardless of actual comparative effectiveness, their stuff looks neat. and thus, I Want It, dammit!

Same thing for the Terrans, really. My 'native' tech is probably ridiculously more advanced in some ways than anything they can make, but since I can't ACCESS my full range of stuff right now, I'm thinkin' I need to shamelessly plunder their databases as well. Also, they have some sort of technological defenses or controls for dealing with psionics, as well as a few other interesting niches that Commanders ignore.
I don't have that information.

That makes me worried.

That's just the major problems I can think off in a few cycles of processing. I'm sure there'll be more. Still, no Commander ever won by sitting around, so...time to get a move on.

So, since everything needs a base to build on...Well...if I can't build disposable murderbots like a normal Commander, I'll just have to find some allies…

I pause as I stop at the next metal deposit, queuing up some more defense turrets, and turn most of my attention from brooding-slash-plotting my next move to examining the local communications networks. Laughably primitive encryption by Progentior standards, and thus no match for my Hypertech Brain.

A bit of slicing reveals that, yes, the Confederacy are indeed proceeding with their plans to be jackasses, seeing as how they are refusing to either attack the Zerg or allow the Militia to fight back, and are, in fact, in the middle of pulling their assets off of Mar Sara.

Mmm. Smells like amoral science to me.

Folks have already been starting to flee for Mar Sara City, seeing as how the individual outposts and Stations were pretty much undefended before I came online, and it's only getting worse as the Zerg get better entrenched. Can't blame the civilians, really, they don't have any good options right now, but putting all that tasty biomass in one area? Yeah, that's going to draw the Zerg in.

Luckily for them...I just got into Holkins range of the city!~ Plenty of metal in storage...economy's fine...Build order queued…

Ho ho ho ho, Mar Sara! Special Delivery from The Legion!~

xXxXx​

The Magistrate was not having a good day.

Nor was he having a very good month, really.

His world had been abandoned by the Confederacy, in direct defiance of all regulations, his Marshall arrested with most of his best troops, and the only way to save the civilians under his care had been to turn to a radical band of terrorists, the Sons of Korhal.

To make it worse, the Zerg were starting to push Mar Sara City's defenses quite heavily, and while the evacuation still underway, he still had thousands of citizens on the ground, and the Sons of Korhal only had so many ships to make the increasingly dangerous trek back and forth from orbit…

Which is when his Adjutant's voice broke in on his ruminations, announcing on the general troop communication network something...unusual.

"Warning. High Yield Artillery Incoming. Please take cover."

Blinking, he flicked his camera up to Bunker 12. At first, all he saw was wave after wave of chitin, ravenous Zerglings and Hydralisks rushing over the last of the minefields his troops had set up.

Above them, streaks of orange light gracefully plummeted downwards, slamming into the middle of the oncoming horde. Massive explosions erupted from the impact sites, vaporizing the Zerg near the impact sight as the overpressure shredded them by the score, shaking the bunker he was viewing, causing the Marines inside to start swearing. Hell, he could feel the ground trembling from here.

"Hoooleeeee SHIT! That wasn't a siege tank shell, Sarge!"
"Yeah, did you figure that out on your own, genius? Now, quit yapping and keep firing! There's actually less of 'em than we've got bullets now."

The curtain of shells kept raining down, cutting off the city's walls from the Zerg onslaught, shifting to obliterate their assaults, then slowly walking backwards away from the city, leaving a blackened hellscape of shattered ground and twitching Zerg chunks behind.

Blinking, the Magistrate flipped his communicator on, directing it to the Sons of Korhal's command frequency.

"Mengsk? This is the magistrate. Where the hell did your boys pick up that much artillery?"
"Magistrate, while I am delighted to hear that ya'll are still kicking down there, I'm forced to admit that is NOT us."
"Well, then who the hell is it? Confederacy already wrote us off and left us to rot, the MIlitia certainly didn't have that sort of ordinance in its inventory, and I'm not seeing a human fleet in orbit in position to bombard the Zerg, just those alien bastards who glassed Chau Sara."

A smooth, slightly metallic voice cut into the communication line at that point.

"That, gentlemen, would be me."

xXxXx​

What can I say, I'm a bit of a ham, and how could I pass up such a line?

"To make things quick, gentlemen, as we are on a bit of a clock here. You can call me Gamma. No, it's not my real name, but it's certainly the closest thing I have to one these days."

Oh, hey, fairly intact wreckage! Sweet! Bout time! Needed some native tech desperately.

Poor bastards must have been evaccing but got shot down by the Zerg. Spray-and-analyze, Nanoarm!

Behind me, the Holkins Batteries I'd set up continued to fire, shaking the earth, spitting a continuous stream of shells downrange to slam any Zerg on my sensors. Even burrowing can't save the filthy vermin, since a 'shallow' burrow is still close enough to the surface to be pulped by the concussion of the shell's hitting. I mentally tweaked the aim a bit, ensuring that the barrage wasn't going to get any closer to the city.

Friendly fire isn't, after all!

"As for the organization I'm with, well, you can call us the Legion. Very hush-hush, you know how it is, but when I saw the plight you were in, I felt it behooved me to act. I'd rather not have the deaths of several thousand innocents on my mind."

Hmmm...Scanning...data compiling...programs assessing...Civilian grade truck, a few small arms...annnd...JACKPOT! One wrecked SCV!

Crossing my metaphorical fingers, I hungrily devoured the SCV, slotting the freshly drawn up blueprints into my design programs. The damn ROB-Worm didn't activate like it had when I tried to make something from scratch, just as I'd hoped. Huh, bit on the small side. I think my old default Construction Bots were a bit bigger than this thing. Hmm.

Lessee, build down a bit, use my techbase to replace the frame, rip out all the life support...mmm, right, put the C&C module /there/, generator here...annnd a nanoarray there and there...Mmm. Bit clunky, but it'll do.

Oh, Mengsk is talking. Eh, shouldn't be too snarky just yet, doesn't look like he's gone full Asshole yet.

Yet.

I want some of his subordinates' help, really, so I'll just keep a sensor on him.

"...I see. Well, sir, I suppose in this dark time, necessity makes us look for allies in strange places. Our thanks for your timely intervention."

Let's see, he's still talking, Bot Factory unlocked due to having access to a bot design now...saving the new design as SCV, imaginative there, Gamma...building...Queing up forty or so of the blighters…

"Magistrate, continue your evacuation efforts. Mister Gamma, I don't suppose we can impose on you to lend us that rather...effective...firepower under your control to allow us to pull more of our troops and civilians to safety."

Right, new radar array, orbital array, huh, looks like the Protoss are getting antsy...Yeah, time to get ready to go, I think. Orbital launcher building, few minutes for that... Set all the little blighters to scan as much as possible. Worst comes to worst I'll just make some Progentior Technicals...Pretty sure I've got a small enough gun to slap onto a truck...Oh, right, humans still talking.

"Eh, sure thing. I've already got the emplacements up, might as well use 'em. I'm not seeing any major Zerg concentrations in your area-Hold a mo, just found a Hatchery cluster near the City. Should take pressure off if that goes down. Ya'll brace for shock, now!"

Fifty Holkins shells landing at once is going to cause some tremors, y'know?

"Right, that's splattered. Also, the fleet in orbit is starting to move into an assault formation. I'd expedite if you can."

"Damn. I was hoping we had more time. Magistrate, how long until the last of your civilians are evacuated."

"I'll need at least an hour. We're hot launching dropships as fast as they can load, but…"

Ooooh, more wreckage! Crashed dropship, bit shredded up, but still enough to be viable...yoink! Annnd...reverse engineering...want to keep the transport capability...Eh, screw it. It's good enough for Terran work. Slightly better engines and power, tiny nanoarray in the wings to sneakily drop some nanomachines for infiltration purposes, heavy 'local' alloy for the hull, strengthened life support, tweak the normal cockpit to be a bit more user-friendly (Thanks, SCV Control System!)... Hell, since I'm not really upgrading the ship or really using Progenitor tech, just tweaking the current design, materials, and using superior nano-construction to be a bit better than the usual tin-can, I can crank 'em out for a fraction of the cost of a proper Progenitor-Tech unit. It's basically 'stock'.

I'll reverse engineer up a better one when I have a spare couple of minutes.

Air factories one through five... building...online...dropships queued….

"Magistrate, Mengsk be advised, I'll be sending ships in to help with the evacuation. We're a bit short on pilots, though, so they'll be on autopilot until they ground. Should be easy enough to steer, though, if you have any pilots down there. First wave is incoming. Gamma, out."

Right then. While most of the dropships are being funneled down to Mar Sara City, I load a few of them up with my SCVs and send them zipping off to some of the destroyed outposts. If I'm lucky, I can loot some more delicious nibbles of the Terran's techbase!~

~​

 

[johnwedd]

Moar, plz!

 

[Happerry]

A very good story, even if I wish we'd see more of 'Ere We Go! sometime. Just one question though...

The damn ROB-Worm didn't activate like it had when I tried to make something from scratch this time.

Click to shrink...

When did this happen? I can't find 'you' trying to design a new unit from scratch, and all the action I can find of the virus doing before was deleting all your unit templates, not messing up your ability to make more. The only mention I can find of things that keep you from designing things from scratch is this.

I suspect I could redesign something from scratch, but it would probably take a bit longer than I have at the moment. Impending orbital bombardment and all.

Click to shrink...

And it doesn't mention any virus type issues at all...

 

[TikiTau]

A very good story, even if I wish we'd see more of 'Ere We Go! sometime. Just one question though...
When did this happen? I can't find 'you' trying to design a new unit from scratch, and all the action I can find of the virus doing before was deleting all your unit templates, not messing up your ability to make more. The only mention I can find of things that keep you from designing things from scratch is this.
And it doesn't mention any virus type issues at all...

Click to shrink...

...I need to go back and make sure I didn't scramble or post the wrong drafts now. Doh. Oh well, should be wet and rainy and slow at work tomorrow. -.-

Thanks for pointing it out.

Edit: Annnnd tweaked. Thanks again, Hapberry! (Actual story tweak was at 12.01, so it's technically tomorrow, right? Yay insomnia.)

 

[Orez Lanrete]

I have a feeling a certain battleship in the forums here will be picking up a phone soon.

 

[Ovid]

...Nice. I'm loving the self-imposed restrictions, the "fuck everything with Artillery!!!" thing you've got going on, the appropriate SB attitude towards loot, and best of all, the sheer irony that the protoss are about to glass a planet because of Zerg infestation, when all they really have to do is let Gamma build up for a week, and it'll hoover up all the tasty popcornZerg.

 

[TikiTau]

I have a feeling a certain battleship in the forums here will be picking up a phone soon.

Click to shrink...

but I don't have a fish problem, I have a space popcorn roachbug problem!

...And possibly a Space Wizard problem as well as a Space Megalomaniac Redneck problem, but they're less immediate threats.

...Nice. I'm loving the self-imposed restrictions, the "fuck everything with Artillery!!!" thing you've got going on, the appropriate SB attitude towards loot, and best of all, the sheer irony that the protoss are about to glass a planet because of Zerg infestation, when all they really have to do is let Gamma build up for a week, and it'll hoover up all the tasty popcornZerg.

Click to shrink...

It is a bit ironic, yes, but then again, Zerg DO grow-and-expand quite quickly, so one can't blame them. Not as much as a proper Commander could, but they're still an exponential threat, y'know?

(IE, One Hatchery? Oh, a few zerglings. Two hatcheries? Hmm. Three? Oh that's a lot of zergli-STOP BUILDING HATCHERIES! Oh, great, now you're spamming wave after wave of Zerg. This is why no one likes you guys! )

Heck, Tassadar's being rather soft on the Terrans, if ya recall. He waits until they're off world before glassing the planet this time!

 

[Flamester]

This is glorious.

 

[Ashali]

More Commander fics? Yes, please.

Heck, Tassadar's being rather soft on the Terrans, if ya recall. He waits until they're off world before glassing the planet this time!

Click to shrink...

Spoiler

En Taro Ouros.

 

[Ryune]

I'm kind of surprised he didn't get anything from the Zerg stuff he took. I mean, yeah, they are the token biological faction but that doesn't mean that their own "tech" is worthless. At the very least it would allow for impressive upgrades to the nanomachines and production. Every zerg is capable of regenerating from scraps of flesh provided time to recover and the ability to morph structures and other units out of base units is also incredibly efficient. They are basically as close to technology as any biological gets. And the only reason Biology is typically discarded is because it's hard to make whole hog and it's generally less useful than a process designed to mimic it's properties for a decided goal.

 

[Bloodalchemy]

More PA fics. Watched.

 

[PurgeTheXeno]

Watched. Also, what kind of commander are you? Faith is an Osiris type...

I have a feeling a certain battleship in the forums here will be picking up a phone soon.

Click to shrink...

Which battleship would this be?

 

[TikiTau]

Watched. Also, what kind of commander are you? Faith is an Osiris type...

Click to shrink...

Gamma Commander.

Tis right there in the bootup line when his systems came back online, yes.

LNCMDR_GAMMA44268_LEGIO_INDOMINUS

So, Line Commander Gamma #44268 is his/my technical full name, according to his internal systems.

(Yeah, I know, it's a SI, but I tend to refer to the SI char as someone else. Helps keep me from being confused. xD)

Spoiler: Giant Blocky Robots Are Best Robots

I'm kind of surprised he didn't get anything from the Zerg stuff he took. I mean, yeah, they are the token biological faction but that doesn't mean that their own "tech" is worthless. At the very least it would allow for impressive upgrades to the nanomachines and production. Every zerg is capable of regenerating from scraps of flesh provided time to recover and the ability to morph structures and other units out of base units is also incredibly efficient. They are basically as close to technology as any biological gets. And the only reason Biology is typically discarded is because it's hard to make whole hog and it's generally less useful than a process designed to mimic it's properties for a decided goal.

Click to shrink...

That is an excellent point!

On the other hand, bugs are icky.

Also, someone dropped Gamma on his head when he was a young commanderlet.

Drooped him on his head from orbit.

Into water with no deceleration other than air friction.

And he still had enough velocity on impact with the ancient Mar Saran oceans to drill his nearly wrecked chassis deep enough that it didn't get dug out or found by mineral hungry Terran Prospectors until now.



(Joking aside, that is a case of not thinking about that, really. So he pretty much just nommed the dead Zerg and didn't bother wasting time analyzing them, seeing as how impending orbital doom. I'm sure it'll occur to him eventually. ...Maybe.)

 

[Night_stalker]

Chin up Gamma, could be worse.

Could be on Char.

 

[TikiTau]

Chapter 3

Alright then, where was I…

Lessee...Perfectly Normal Dropships dispatched and helping to ferry Mar Sara refugees to safety on the Sons of Korhal fleet (and certainly not dropping minute amounts of Nanomachines to slowly infiltrate the ship's systems to steal ship templates and navigation data for my own use every time they dock with the larger ships, no sir)...Check.

Modified SCV Salvage Teams dispatched...Check. I know Mar Sara's a bit of a backwater, even by Terran standards, but, hell, worst comes to worst I can pick up everything needed to build a Terran colony. I mean, granted, I might tweak a few little things here and there, but there's something to be said for being able to churn out lowtech as well as hightech.

Quantity has a quality all its own and all that.

Frankly, Terrans are weird. Some of their stuff is advanced enough to make my CPU stall out trying to figure out how they can do that, and some of it is so laughably primitive that if it wasn't for the way they apply it, I'd barely bother to save the data to my CPU core. Advanced-yet-Primitive, really.

I blame that on some engineers being latent psychics, really. I'm pretty sure there's at least one Ghost out there with Machine Empathy, so Super Engineer doesn't seem to be that far-fetched as a talent.

This is in contrast to the Protoss. Them, I can just blame their tech level on the tiny fact that they are Psychic Space Wizard Monks.

By contrast, eh, I suppose my techbase's main strength is in a combination of size, firepower, cyberwarfare, and numbers. Really, the Progenitors mastery of tech is ridiculous. Just the fact that I construct equipment via nanoassemblers and have sensors that can easily examine such things down to the atom...well, It explains a lot about my stuff's design philosophy.

Why bother with any real effort at durability when you can't keep up with the sheer destructive output that the other guy has, right? For a fraction of the effort, you can have three or four or forty tanks to blow up the other guy by the time he blows up one of your basically disposable units.

Cold, efficient numbers game.

Still, plundering Mar Sara's techbase is giving me some useful little toys.

First off, there's the Adjutant tech.

Adjutants are damn useful things right off the bat:

First, subordinate AIs that I (probably) don't have to worry about going rampant (They seem pretty stable given that if the Terrans haven't managed to cause a Machine revolt with all the time they've been here, they should be a-okay), plus the frame work for their bodies.

Seriously, human articulation is finicky. Saved me a lot of hassle picking up the Adjutant framework. Pity I don't have the full on cyborg data the first models supposedly were built with, due to that being long gone by the time the Saras were settled. Ah well, maybe once I get to one of the original colony worlds. Regardless, I'm happily taking advantage of a functional humanoid-sized frame I don't have to bother with figuring out the kinks of.

A bit of redesign and splicing in my unit's base coding, and I've got a heavily modified Adjutant design that fits just fine into a standard CMC Powered Armor, takes orders like a killbot, and can 'soft' adjust to the chaotic mess of infantry tactics.

That's as opposed to my normal killbots, which, if I had them, would probably just ignore the whole mess and just leave nothing but smoking debris behind their march.

If I can't bury my enemies under wave after wave of ten meter tall killbots, then by damn we're going to borrow the stereotypical Soviet style! Wave after wave of infantry, backed up by heavy artillery.

...Huh. Actually, as an unexpected side effect, I think I just accidentally made a veterancy system for my infantry. Simulations say that the longer an Adjutant Marine survives, the better it's programming gets at infantry combat, due to having a more refined database of responses.
Whoops?

Can't just flat out swap the advanced programming to all of the baseline Adjutant Marines thanks to quantum variations in their AIs, apparently? I'm not sure I really get it, despite my new giant computer brain, but basically once they hit the field, the Adjutant AI starts developing independently, and it just doesn't want to compile in a new frame easily due to each AI installation being slightly unique.

Like a lot of my experiences since coming online... weird, annoying, and odd. Meh, maybe if my systems settle some more, I'll figure out a way around the whole frame adjustment bit. Ah well, I'll still spend the things like ammunition.

...Wonder if this means I'm plotting mass murder. Bit murky when using AI controlled killbots. As designed, my Adjutant AIs are sentient without actually being sapient. ..Suppose if any break the sapience barrier, well, I'll have to worry about that if it happens.

Also, as a side note, holy hell do I love Terran power armor. Cold fusion generators and gravity tech? Thank you, come again, nifty technical bounty! Sure, there's probably a 'better' bit of Progenitor tech I could repurpose, but this stuff is already usable on the scale I'm working on.

...I think I'm kind of lazy, as a Commander, come to think it.

Anyhoo, I've got two options I'm storing for usage. First, there's the 'default', bare bones, Terran designed version of armor. I'm saving that and the gear specs entirely as a contingency to piss off Mengsk if he goes nuts and I can't headcap him with an orbital laser (Due to fighting all the other things) or some such. Figure that there's nothing like orbital dropping supply caches to rebellious anti-Dominion and anti-UED sorts for making the life of their troops interesting.

Second, there's the version I'm making for my combad modded Adjutants. That sucker's still cheap as hell to make by my standards, but I've upgraded the armor using Progenitor alloys. The kind of stuff they make tanks out of. My best simulations say that it should pretty much shrug off anything infantry scale at this point, and take repeated strikes from anti-vehicle weaponry to do any real damage. Same thing for the gauss rifle: Build in a micro-fabricator for ammo (and more Progenitor level spikes) along with souped up rail coils for a longer, harder punch, and my Mech Marines should be a threat to anything under starship grade plating. I've also tucked a small nanobomb scuttling charge in there that ensures that if they do go down, they're leaving a crater and a pile of nanodust behind (Bomb's mostly to disguise the nanomachines breaking down), not highly advanced materials for those crazy Terrans to reverse engineer.

Yeah, I'm onto you, Stettman! You and Swann won't get your hands on my tech and do terrifying things with it!

...Well, unless it's really, really funny, or if I decide on Plan Assassinate Mengsk Via Sheer Rage At Raynor's Raiders And Their Toys Being Better Than His.

End result is a 'Marine' sized unit that should pass casual inspection as such, and for the cost of 'normal' Progenitor-tech units I can easily pump them out in squads once I get the Metal and Energy flowing. Had to design a specialized factory for squad based production. Naturally, I just used the Terran design for a Barracks for a shell, then packed it with fabricator arms.

To my annoyance, my systems were really quite helpful with redesigning the barracks into an Infantry Factory..

Build a new design entirely? Nope, nope, crash to desktop (Which hurts like hell when you are the desktop, by the by.)

Take an existing building, then repurpose it? 'Hey Skipper, I see you're trying to install a fabricator arrays, would you like some help in placement?' Bah.

Anyhow, ended up doing the same with Firebats, but my version are more like Plasmabats than just Firebats. Gotta love high intensity plasma throwers. Heh.

While I was kludging together my Infantry Factory, I figured I may as well put the other Terran building templates to good use.

As long as I'm stealing ideas from Glorious Soviet Russia, might as well indulge in some maskirovka. Just a simple shell with some sensor jamming to give off the same readings as a Command Center or Supply Depot or whatever to drop over my metal extractors and generators, plus one for my Infantry Factory. Five minutes of CPU time to make. Off the shelf jammer to spoof a comsat station, off the shelf spoofer to give proper material returns to sensors, big hollow shell of high grade nano-forged steel, bam, done. Had to rejigger the design a bit to shove a bit more of the Extractor underground to make it work, but I figure it'll be worth it until I feel secure enough to go full obvious Von Neumann machine.

Also useful if I need to justify a presence somewhere. Look guys, why are you suspicious at the Legion having troops on planet, we totally have a real base RIGHT HERE!

Missile turrets...eh, I'll just steal the styling to make my own stuff blend in better. Comsat's not hugely useful, Progenitor tech is amazing sensor wise, but it's nice to know which frequencies that Terrans use when doing remote scanning and that should also pick up the local species' cloaking tech.

Vultures…

I settle for a bit of fiddling so they can handle a Mech Marine riding one, build in a fabber for Unlimited Spider Mine Works, put a better explosive in the Spider Mine's payload, upgrade the grenade launcher to a nice light laser...Bam, fast moving light attack vehicle and mine layer.

Despite that, even with Progenitor technology, I still can't find a way to make a Vulture safe to ride. They look awesome, though, so that's alright!

For the hell of it, I also took a look at the Terran's anti-grav tech they slap on their bigger buildings. Not really that useful for me, in a weird way.. As a Commander, it's honestly just simpler and faster to move some fabricators about (Dropship's far faster than a building!) and build a new factory on site rather than worry about moving and escorting a giant, slow moving target. Might be useful to spend some cycles when I'm less busy on integrating it into my designs. I mean, moving artillery pieces IS kinda funny. I figured I'd just go ahead and leave it in place on my 'fake' Terran buildings, just in case, so they blend in a bit better.

Or can do double duty as decoys. Hmmm. Heh.

Anyways, I didn't just spend my bit of time playing with tech design! I was also busy doing sneaky Commandery-things.

First off, I dropped a number of SCVs, with some Mech Marines, off at Backwater Station. Their job was to rebuild the now-collapsed hole I'd blasted my way out of, then keep going deeper. Once they tunneled down deep enough, through the wonder of nanotech, they began laying in a nice contingency for me.

Namely, building me a Secret Underground Base.

After all, I don't think I've done anything to cause the Protoss to cease their plans to glass Mar Sara, Just In Case...and that means most of my current surface infrastructure is probably going to end up wrecked in a few hours.

Hence leaving behind a nice bunker filled with goodies if I decide to re-establish myself here on Mar Sara. Massive metal and energy storage facilities were built up, slowly filling as construction continued. I lacked the proper 'advanced' generators still, alas, so I had to make do with quantity instead, filling entire levels of the base with basic energy generators.

Factories were next on the list, each lining fairly large hangars or silos. Rack after rack of Mech Marines on standby, bays full of Vultures, and hangar after hangar full of dropships redesigned to use my best tech.

Sure, I might have to dig them out again after bombardment, but I think I can be confident they'll survive it, considering the multiple layers of Neosteel and Progenitor Alloy I'd reinforced the base's walls with. Just in case, the walls and ceilings were layered with weapon emplacements, from basic artillery and laser cannons to banks of plasma throwers, railguns, and missile launchers.

As for myself…

Well, I was thinking that it was time to move on from Mar Sara. The Evacuation was starting to wind down, the civilians safely getting off planet to the evac fleet.

My orbital factory constructed a small group of Astraeus', the heavy orbital transports hovering above the base.

Their cargo? Dropships full of SCVs and Mech Marines, as well as myself.

Letting a few of the expendable transports boost first, I turned my sensor arrays to observe the Protoss. Still on approach to Mar Sara, but they were certainly taking their time and being obvious about it. Makes a certain amount of sense, really. Tassadar was giving them as much time as possible to save as many civilians as possible.

Admirable chap.

To my pleasure, my Astraeus' made it free of atmosphere unmolested, powerful engines quickly fleeing Mar Sara's gravity well.

Tossing a mental salute to the fleets above it, I watched in interest as the contested planet fell away beneath my feet as my own transport began to rise to join my small transport fleet in Space.

A quick burst of orders, and we were on our way to set up some proper infrastructure. Our destination?

Well, in the paraphrased words of a Dead Kunnin' Kaptianly Sort, the place that gits will not dakka is da place dat dey have already dakka'd.

Chau Sara, here I come!

 

[torroar]

In the words of a slightly less kunnin ork: I don't geddit

(I do, but I love those freebooters)

 

[TikiTau]

Chapter 4

Space.

It's really, really big.

Pretty, too. Rather nice to just float along, Astraeus engines humming, using hyper advanced sensors that would make any observatory weep with envy to watch the stellar scenery as I hop between worlds.

Seriously, the Sara system's primary star was gorgeous to watch. Rather like a giant lava lamp. Quite relaxing.

Course, I had a rather enjoyable exercise to do while in flight.

See, given Progenitor communications tech, even with my basic sensor arrays, I could easily keep up to date with my small base back on Mar Sara. This meant I could also recieve data relayed from Mar Sara.

In this case, I was rather enjoying the feel of Terran ship designs of all shapes and sizes slowly (by my standards) filtering into my databases.

Freighters, ore haulers, cruiser liners, refurbished colony ships, light frigates...All sorts of vessels, due to the fact that, as terrorists, the Sons of Korhal can hardly have a 'standardized' set of units like a 'proper' military would.

You'll notice I wasn't particularly leeching any heavy military use designs. Makes sense, really. My dropships were on refugee duty. You don't tend to route refugees to the ships that are expected to be in the thick of the fighting while everyone else runs like hell, after all.

Still, I was perfectly happy to shamelessly take advantage of all those new hull designs. Pretty standard, honestly: Rip all the life support out, rip out inefficent power systems, install my own tech for much more powerful engines, leave in warp drives...

I could barely contain an electronic 'squee!' when my Orbital Factory unlocked. Another step closer to having all systems back online. Let the good times roll!

I quickly slammed together a couple of units to fill in some niches in my sadly lacking space forces.

FIrst, the ever-important orbital fabricator. Based off a light freighter, I pretty much gutted it, leaving behind nothing but a set of extremely powerful engines, a basic Terran warp drive for interplanetary travel, and then fitting five of the orbital assembler arrays on the small ship. End result is a bit larger and more expensive than the 'basic' Orbital Fabricator (I think. MIssing data, you know the drill) but, once constructed, much, much faster at building. I had just enough space left to slap on a single laser cannon and a bit of extra armor, to boot. To make it even more glorious, due to Sturdy Terran Design and upgraded engines shamelessly ripped off my Astraeus, these suckers could work in orbit or in atmosphere. Eat your heart out, Advanced Flying Air Fabber! New designation: Settler

While the orbital construction unit was great, I couldn't help but giggle gleefully at the massive ore megareighter design that I'd gotten plans for. So much SPACE. Ended up with three variations for my own use. First variation was simple, converting the bay into a combination metal/energy storage. Not as much as either dedicated building, but on the other hand my new design was mobile and heavily armored. Managed to wedge a few point defense turrets on it, as well, to swat at wandering fighters. New designation: Tanker.

Second variant, I just filled the ore hauler's cargo bay with as many generators as I could wedge in there. Mobile, warpable generators I can tuck away safely in the Black somewhere? Either they go unmolested by an enemy, or they force them to waste forces trying to run down what is, essentially, a useful-but-not-necessary unit for me. Would also make moving on to a new star system MUCH easier, since I'd have my energy network online and ready. New designation: Juicer.

Third variant was an improved transport. While the Astraeus is alright on its own, it's a bit limited. Transport capacity is, well, me. Anything over about fifteen meters and you're out of luck. Plus, you need a ton of them for a proper invasion. Granted, that's great for messing with point defense, I suppose, presenting way too many targets, but I figured a heavy transport wouldn't be a bad idea, especially since I wanted something less...fragile...for transporting my august presence. I figured between meter thick Progentior hull plating, heavy point defense cannons and a pair of missile turrets, plus a communication array, I had a winner. Sure, I lost out a bit of cargo space with the secondary systems, but well worth it to have a transport that can shoot back. New designation: Hauler.

Alas, my plans for the fourth design I worked up as mid-flight entertainment couldn't be finalized, being saved as a work-in-progress. My systems were still a bit wonky from the rough offlining <Error Undefined> years ago, so while I know I am technically capable of building one, I just currently do not have access to the schematics for the glorious resource core built into a Commander. Once my systems recover that data, though, I'm filling up one of these ships with nothing but resource cores and a basic engine and warp drive, then hiding them in the middle of nowhere in a system.

Space has a LOT of nowhere to hide in, you see.

As Chau Sara became visible as more than a speck of light in the distance, I quickly worked up two more designs based off a Terran light frigate. The first, an anti-ship variant, was loaded with heavy energy weapons. Hello, Spear-class Frigate. The second was designed to deal with the Zerg, in particular, as well as large groups of fighter craft, consisting of a tough little ship loaded up with as many anti-air weapons as I could physically fit on the sucker. Longbow-class Frigate, ready for construction.

Moving into Chau Sara's orbit, I couldn't help but tsk. When the Protoss try to destroy something, they really don't do things by halves.

According to what data I had mined out of the Terran databanks, Chau Sara used to be a mix of verdant jungle and wasteland, with a population of about 400,000.

From orbit, all I could see was a blasted, charred black ball of lifeless rock, cracked through with glowing, bleeding veins of magma visible from orbit. Data from my orbital sensors primly informed me that the current temperature of the planet was a balmly three hundred degrees celsius and an atmosphere made up of delightful gases like hydrogen sulfide and sulfur dioxide.

Still, from what I can tell, the place would probably recover after a bit. Terrans are actually pretty good at terraforming around these parts, especially because they seem to not mind arid environments. Once the magma cooled enough to cap itself, the sheer amount of moisture in the air would probably do a nice job in finishing the post-bombardment cool down due to (highly acidic) rain.

Wouldn't be a pleasant place, but it'd be livable.

Luckily, I don't have to particularly bother waiting for that period. A quick pulse of my sensors found a cluster of tasty looking metal extraction points and my little fleet descended from orbit, the dropships detaching on their own to finish the descent once they were low enough.

As for me, I cut my transport's transport clamps a good story or two up, dropping to land with a thunk in the fresh volcanic plain I'd decided to set up on, ash curling up and around my arms.

Queuing up the basics, I quickly began constructing a surface base, even as I borrowed the template my Mar Sara SCVs had made when they were building Backwater Station's underground base. A few orders and scans of the ground for proper positioning, and a number of SCVs were industriously burrowing into the ground to set up Awesome Underground Backup Base #2.

I dispatched several of the marine dropships on a patrol of my new world, on the lookout for anything interesting. Didn't really expect anything, honestly, but it didn't hurt to be through.

As for the rest of my SCVs, those either assisted my construction, adding their nanosprayers to my work, or set about building factories.

I was actually quite happy with the Terran Starport design. A bit of tweaking and rotating, and I had a shiny new combination Air-and-Orbital factory. Left me the Orbital launcher to save for probes and light fighters and the like.

The new Aerospace Factory could only handle orbital units up to about the size of my new Settler, but that's fine by me. Once built, a Settler can easily boost its way into orbit on its own, no need for rockets.

Once the basic economy buildings at my beachhead were established, I gleefully set a pair of aerospace factories to repeat-build Settlers for me, each of them popping out a fresh vessel every five minutes. Due to build-staggering, that meant a new Settler every 2.5 minutes. I immediately sent them off to zip about the planet, capping the rest of the extraction points, while following units were set to salvage wreckage and those minerals everyone in the sector seem to go gaga over.

I can see why. They're DELICIOUSLY full of useful atoms. Mmmm, filling.

Finally, economy roaring, I sent a pack of Settlers to high orbit, beginning construction of orbital factories. Said factories immediately began construction of Spear and Longbow class escort frigates, the small flotillas of frigates moving off to standby locations in various orbits once they were completed.

Hey, I might be intending to stay low-profile for a bit, but I'd rather have a big nasty wolfpack of frigates available and underutilized rather than needed and not there.

I left my Settlers to their own business finishing up a trio of Orbital Factories to build up my fleet of Tankers, Juicers, and Haulers when a verrrrry interesting data download started being relayed from Mar Sara.

Oh, Leviathan-class Battlecruiser data?

AhahahhahHAHAHAHAHA YES! Yeeeeeeeeeees, come to me oh massive capital ship schematics!

Looks like the Sons of Korhal had finally sprung Jimmy Raynor from his charming abode up on the Merrimack after Duke shoved him and his militia there to rot.

It also appears, to my great pleasure, they used one of my dropships in either taking the ship or removing the prisoners. Sure, the Leviathan-class is old by Terran standards...but I don't care about that, I just need the Battlecruiser template so I can begin construction of my own fleet of capital-class ships.

I canceled further Settler construction, leaving the factory idle for the moment, even as I cracked the Terran commnet again to pass the time while my nanomachines mapped every nook and cranny of the Merrimack.

xXxXx​

Adjutant 919-MS blinked slightly, calmly managing several communication lines as it turned to address its current User.

"Your tenure as Colonial Magistrate has been suspended pending an official investigation of your affiliation with the Sons of Korhal. Receiving incoming transmission."

The Adjutant adjusted a screen, passing data along to the former Magistrate. On it, the face of Raynor, James, (Marshall, Mar Sara Colonial Militia) appeared.

Raynor spoke, grinning slightly. "Hey man. Arcturus' boys sprung me from the prison ship. Apparently, they're as frustrated with the Confederates as we are! I know their reputation, but they seem to be on the level. I think Arcturus wants to speak to you."

The Adjutant observed as the former Magistrate adjusted their chair, glancing at a second screen. The new voice was idly noted as lacking in proper identifiers for return transmissions, an automatic subroutine flagging the transmission source as questionable. On the new screen, a grey-haired older man appeared. ID: Arcturus Mengsk, Sons of Korhal, Rebel Leader.

"Commander. Mar Sara is almost completely overrun by the Zerg. The Confederates are abandoning the planet, and so are we. However, there is one thing I'd like to do before we leave."

Arcturus leaned forwards, staring intently at the camera and his video conference partners.

"I want you to raid the colony's Confederate outpost and recover whatever design or weapons' schematics that you can find in their network. With the chaos of the Confederate evacuation, you shouldn't have any trouble getting in or out of the installation."

Raynor grinned, just a touch viciously, pleased at something. Calculating: Payback, seventy five percent probability. "I'm into it."

The Adjutant retracted the videoconference screens as the transmission on the other end cut out.

In his chair, the Magistrate rolled a shoulder, then pulled up a file on his computer. "Adjutant, open up a channel to the troopers. I need to get some raiders together."

The Adjutant nodded its mechanical head slightly, eyes unblinking, logging the orders as ita lways had. "Affirmative, Commander."

xXxXx​

Oh ho, looks like the Sons of Korhal are going after the Jacobs Installation. Battlecruiser schematics AND crazy Terran weapon designs? Today is officially my birthday!~

 

[Arafell]

Interesting. If you overhaul the Battlecruiser's reactor, you might be able to Yamato/fire the laser cannons much faster.

 

[Night_stalker]

Interesting. If you overhaul the Battlecruiser's reactor, you might be able to Yamato/fire the laser cannons much faster.

Click to shrink...

Would also have to do the wiring, fuses...

 

[torroar]

Yeah, but come on. Mass spam Yamato blasts.

Hell, once you have Yamato cannon tech, you could probably make drones and orbital monitors that could use them.

Or maybe not, I've never played PA so I dunno what a Commander can really get up to.

 

[Weird Guy]

Its nice to see the Magistrate/PC being shown as a character here instead of just being handwaved away.

 

[Arafell]

Would also have to do the wiring, fuses...

Click to shrink...

Easy to do when you're building with nanites and advanced material sciences.

He would also (possibly) get defensive matrices, which are pretty close to shields, and could probably keep them on full time. Increased reactor power and better materials would not only let him spam Yamato's, it would make the battlecruisers faster and tougher.

Of course, these are the lame single shot battlecruisers. The cool ones from Starcraft 2 with their rapid fire extermination lasers probably don't exist yet.

 

[johnwedd]

I can't wait until mech marines start having personality. Like minions, only with high caliber weapons.

 

[Night_stalker]

Easy to do when you're building with nanites and advanced material sciences.

Click to shrink...

True, just saying, scifi always makes it out to be so easy, slap out old reactor, slap in newer, more powerful one....