TikiTau
Commander Pangolinski
- Location
- Texas
Also much easier to swap out when a) you can ignore little things like 'life support' and 'crew compartments' and b) are assembling the whole thing with crazy advanced nanomachines.
Reverse Engineering For Fun and Profit (Planetary Annihilation/Multicross SI)
Arafell
Verified Cephalon
- Location
- Oregon
This. When you don't have to waste a lot of resources and space on a crew, you get a lot more efficient. You can scale down the ship, giving it more maneuverability for the same capabilities, or you can keep it the same size and stick more systems into it.
When you're building with nanites, you can even forego crawlspaces and access points. Something breaks, you can just reclaim that section of the ship and stick in new parts.
Stephenopolos
Going through stargate withdrawl
- Location
- illinois
Hah, with the bull***t progenitor nanomachines you could do so even if you left the life support and crew compartments intact... treat the hull as a ground/return for any circuit and it'll double as hull polarization. (just remember to have actual cables too in case you need to turn the hull polarization off.
- Location
- Arizona
...D'oh! Every time someone wrote Mech Marine, I thought you meant the UEF unit from Supreme Commander. And then I remembered that this is Planetary Annihilation, not SupCom.
I honestly wonder if the AUBBs will be brought back into play in the future. I honestly don't recall if any faction ever went back to the blasted worlds (well, in the short term). Heck, I'm not even sure the Zerg want to go back there, no bio diversity to harvest.
It's rather amazing how a few limitations makes this a very interesting and different build-up-story compared to other PA fics. Stealing other people's designs seems to require in-depth research about what's available. I mean, to a Starcraft Player, a battle cruiser is a battle cruiser. but in the Starcraft Lore, there's like 5 or 6 different designs of battlecruiser.
I wonder if the SI is making it tough for the other factions to invade their worlds. After all, one of the first things the SI does is to harvest those tasty tasty minerals planet-wide. if there's no minerals for an invading force to use, are they stalled?
and what about Vespene gas? Any fun uses for that? or the other interesting natural resources that are present in the Starcraft verse?
I honestly wonder if the AUBBs will be brought back into play in the future. I honestly don't recall if any faction ever went back to the blasted worlds (well, in the short term). Heck, I'm not even sure the Zerg want to go back there, no bio diversity to harvest.
It's rather amazing how a few limitations makes this a very interesting and different build-up-story compared to other PA fics. Stealing other people's designs seems to require in-depth research about what's available. I mean, to a Starcraft Player, a battle cruiser is a battle cruiser. but in the Starcraft Lore, there's like 5 or 6 different designs of battlecruiser.
I wonder if the SI is making it tough for the other factions to invade their worlds. After all, one of the first things the SI does is to harvest those tasty tasty minerals planet-wide. if there's no minerals for an invading force to use, are they stalled?
and what about Vespene gas? Any fun uses for that? or the other interesting natural resources that are present in the Starcraft verse?
pheonix89
Wants to be Seven Of Nine
- Location
- North American Plaguelands
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Those subterranean bases make a planet basically impossible to take without the SI's consent. Basically, any invader has to deal with an infinite stream of enemies coming from factories and materials sources hardened against low-level exterminatus.
TikiTau
Commander Pangolinski
- Location
- Texas
Amusingly, the recent anime Heavy Object apparently uses this for their 50 meter tall doomspheres. All the newer Objects lack wiring for the most part because the hull itself is a circuit layered between armor and circuits and armor and circuits and armor - etc etc
For reference, Gamma got his mechanical mitts on the oldest model still in (some) service, the Leviathan-class. The Confederates were using a stripped down version as a prison ship near Mar Sara.
It's an older model, but since Gamma's going to modify the -hell- out of it when he finally finishes doing Sneaky Things, that's really not that big a deal.
Noted problem it had as built was apparently the docking bays for auxillary craft are just off the bridge. Great for quick on-off loading of crew, not so good when trying to deal with boarders.
Gamma and I are NOT VERY GOOD AT NAMING THINGS. XD
So, it's a 'Mechanical Marine' and thus a Mech Marine.
It's a Plasmabat because it shoots Plasma.
It's an SCV because it's still an SCV, just tech'd up. It's lucky it didn't get called a 'Worker' or 'Builder'. xD
Also, yes, Mech Marine is a homage to SupCom.
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Chapter 5
TikiTau
Commander Pangolinski
- Location
- Texas
A/N: And yeah, don't expect this update rate all the time. Easy to do when one's home on a nasty day/evening and the Muse is giggling non-stop, but the weekly grind starts again tomorrow! ;_;
Chapter 5
I'll be honest.
For a few minutes (actual minutes!) I considered leaving the Jacobs Installation raid to Raynor and the Sons of Korhal.
I mean, on the one hand, sure, giving Mengsk access to Psi Emitters seems like a great idea…
On the other, well, hell, without 'em, Mengsk would seem a damn sight more reasonable for longer, and it's not like the Confederacy doesn't already -have- Emitter Tech, they designed the damned things and used them.
...on Mar Sara, come to think it. ...Um. Hmm.
Hadn't found one when I was scavenging. Odd. Might just be too damaged for my scavengers to log it as anything other than debris.
Anyways, there is also some sort of heavy duty counterpart to the Emitter on Tarsonis, if I recall.
So, in a way, denying the things to Mengsk doesn't really do much more than slow 'em down, since the djinni's already out of the lamp. When I do decide to pop that pimple that is Mengsk, I suppose I'd much prefer not to have to Collateral Damage some of his perfectly good subordinates because they still think he's a good little rebel. I'd rather break him as a Monster than kill 'em as a Martyr, basically.
I figure it might be more efficient in the long run of things, and leave more people to pick up the pieces of this madhouse.
So, Option 1: Let the raid go as planned, leave 'canon' alone.
Didn't really like that, and I was planning to nuke what I remembered of events from orbit anyways...so I made up Option 2: Make An Alternative.
Hence why I had several dropships full of Mech Marines, Plasmabats, and freshly modified SCVs en route to the Jacobs Installation, racing to beat the Sons of Korhal and Raynor.
xXxXx
Corporal Leeroy Gibbs didn't really hate his job, surprisingly.
Sure, like any good Confederate Marine, he kvetched in the barracks with his buddies about everything from the dullness of guard duty to how stupid the damn green LT's decisions could be.
Punk only got promoted because his momma was sleeping with some Confederate general, anyhoo.
But, if pushed, Leeroy would admit he didn't hate guard duty. It sure as hell beat being on Spooky Science Duty inside the Installation.
Seriously, some of the things he'd heard rumors of in there...well, there was probably a reason the eggheads insisted on using Resocs for most of it. Nasty Business.
But for Corporal Gibbs, hell, this was a nice break from his previous tour of duty suppressing rebels. No real threat, just lock your armor's knees and half doze through things. Never been a bigger threat than an unusually cantankerous Rhynadon.
Good eatin', that.
Sure, he'd heard some other rumors from that worrywart city boy in his squad that the higher ups were pulling out, but Gibbs was pretty sure that was just horse pucky. Installation's way too important to be abandoned, the Captain said so himself when he put the LT in charge here.
This might explain why Corporal Gibbs was a bit unprepared for his quiet stretch of guard duty to be interrupted by a thunderous, bone-shaking BOOM, a group of grey-and-blue painted dropships slamming from high orbit to deployment range in complete ignorance of safety hazards, in perfect formation, even as every communication line in his armor suddenly went dead except for heavy crackling static.
Gibbs himself, along with the group of Resocs on door duty, found himself slammed to the ground by the sudden shockwave of the decelerating ships, rifle knocked away by the shockwave. Dropship doors opened as he slammed his visor down and started to roll to his feet, grey-and-blue armored Marines dropping with machine-like precision, guns snapping up mid-freefall as they grounded on the hard ground.
An electronically masked voice sliced through the static, precise and right genteel soundin'.
"You have until the count of ten to lay down your arms. If you surrender, you will be escorted to your fleet's vessels via dropship. Failure to comply will be met with lethal force. One."
Gibbs blinked a bit owlishly, eyes widening as he stopped fumbling for his C-14 in shock at the sheer gall these bluejackets were showin'. Seriously, didn't they know where they we-
In later years, Corporal Gibbs would come to realize that moment of shock and indecision saved his life.
His fellow Marines, Resocialized one and all, reacted as their neural programming demanded.
"FOR THE CONFEDERACY!"
Impalers pulled up, the barrage of spikes from the other four guards spat hot pointy death at the invaders…
And left them standing, their armor scuffed and sparking, but still functional.
That electronic voice sliced through the jamming again.
"Unfortunate."
xXxXx
The Mech Marines tore the Alpha Squadron Marines apart in short bursts after they opened fire, taking cosmetic damage as the C-14s, designed to punch through two inches of neosteel, failing to make an impression on the heavy layered Progenitor Alloy.
My upgraded gauss rifles (New Designation: Vladimir Gauss Rifle. Redesignating), on the other hand, didn't have any such problems, slamming the Terran-spec spikes through the organic marines with ruthless efficiency. The one survivor of the gate guards held his hands up, sensors indicating an elevated level of stress, shock, and waste products in his internal armoring. Luckily, Mech Marines don't need to breathe…
A 'standard' Terran Dropship (like the ones I lent to the Sons of Korhal) grounded, the surviving Marine being marched on board at gunpoint and left under guard by a pair of them.
As for the front doors...well, the Plasmabats stepped up.
Armored bunker doors were no match for heavy plasma torches, a massive breach burned into the barriers. Not bothering for the metal to cool, my forces stormed forwards.
SCVs modded for Electronic Warfare quickly ripped control of the systems away from the base's scientists, already beginning to download as much data as they could into their quantum memory cores.
The data I really wanted access to, however, was held on a stand-alone server in a shielded bunker. Physical access was required.
Considering the numbers I had brought, I doubted this would be a problem. As one detachment hurried through the facility, smaller groups split off, burning through bunker doors, offering all Terrans inside the same choice: Surrender or Die.
A distressing number chose death, alas, but some breakage is expected in these sorts of operations. Most of the civilians, however, were quickly hustled outside and joined the Marine Corporal and a few of his surviving comrades on the dropship.
Scientists, maintenance workers, Marines...I didn't really care, honestly, I just had a small contingency I'd made up on the spot to deal with them.
I mean, I don't mind the breakage, as mentioned, I -AM- Line Commander Gamma #44268 of the Legion, and thus being a ruthlessly efficient self-replicating mechanism of war is in my job description.
No, literally, that bit is in my documentation and briefing files.
Buuuut just because I can accept collateral damage if needed doesn't mean I see a need to gun down every plumber and pencil pusher in the complex for wearing white.
Also, infantry scale point-to-point teleportation pads. Mmm, yeees, yeeeeeeeeeeees.
So, yeah. Between the heavy tech advantage, numbers, and sheer precision, it didn't take my troops long to gut the facility, leaving nothing behind but plasma melted doors, splattered remnants of the defenders who refused surrender and Zerg test subjects, and a good ol' space mystery.
Oh, and I plundered the Jacobs Installation data core, ripping all that delicious experimental data away, the E-War SCVs casually smacking down the self-destruct and data purge systems while plundering the facility.
Good thing, too. I mean, we found some really high-yield crystals (locals call 'em 'ardeon', I think) in a vault with two meter thick hardened doors. No match for determined Plasmabats, but quite excessive by local standards. Probably for the best I stole them, the things must have been valuable, given the security, but they were also full of Zerg spores. Nasty.
I just had the SCVs carefully disassemble the original crystal matrix, atom by atom, so I could replicate it at a whim if needed. Never know when I'll need some bribes in a local material, after all.
Anyways, while my troops were efficiently going about their looting, I went through the data as it streamed across my network. Really, kind of a morbid read, the facility's data.
See, apparently, the main thing this little hole in the rock was studying happened to be how Ghosts interacted with the Zerg. Turns out the Zerg just adore Ghosts' psionic signatures, and will home in on them once they find them.
The Psi-Emitter, as I vaguely recalled, broadcasts that tasty Zerg-attracting Ghost Signature at a distance of Very Long, drawing the Zerg in from all over the damn place.
Could be useful for me, really. I did intend to xenocide the filthy things at some point, and drawing them into traps couldn't hurt at all.
Specifically, drawing them into a specially trained deathworld I can remote-detonate would be the best option. That's for a later date.
Anyways, I removed most of the research data, then had my troopers shred the console in 'accidental' crossfire. No sense giving Mengsk too much of a head start on any other research, and then we left the Psi Emitter data on the mainframe….along with a few...tweaks. Nothing too out of the ordinary, not at all, just a minor design change I worked into the design that might result in both lessened distance for this version of the Emitter as well as letting someone with the proper access codes remotely over-ride the nasty little thing, as well as actively noting exact positioning when the beacon was powered.
Just in case, you know. If I'm giving Mengsk enough rope to hang himself, I want to know how much rope he's actually using.
Anyways, Psi Emitter data sabotaged to be less effective than advertised as well as programming in backdoors for myself, and I pulled out my troops.
Rather profitable little mission, in my opinion.
I picked up Zergbait, Goliath specs, a full scan of Ghost equipment, and tetrabytes of data on the Zerg and psionic experimentation
Also, a shipful of confused, frightened survivors.
Well, if there's one thing I figure is universal, it's greed. A quickly fabricated Adjutant in a Ghost outfit, plus a box full of palm-sized ardeon crystals, and it was showtime.
My 'Ghost' (Dangit, the locals used all the good names for spooky sorts. Can't call 'em Wraiths, that's a ship...Spectres are some confusing black black ops project...Banshees are another aircraft...bah, I'll think on a better name later) stepped out, clad in grey and blue, headgear glowing ominously as it stared emotionlessly at the frightened survivors.
"You may call me Agent Black. The Confederacy apologizes for the abrupt manner of your departure from your previous posting, but Command has ordered that facility shut down and expedited. This ship will shortly be offloading you at the Confederate evacuation fleet. The base was shut down due to the general evacuation of the planet. Your facility was attacked by rebels from the Sons of Korhal. A Confederate-friendly mercenary unit pulled the survivors out while leaving Mar Sara itself along with the general population. Any actual truth of the method in which the facility was shut down is locked down under a Class 7 Seal. You will not speak of it. Comply, and you will be amply rewarded."
My Ghost opens the case its' carrying, showing the Ardeon crystals.
"Speak of this, and you will not live to see the next day. This conversation never took place. I was never here."
The pair of Mech Marines, in perfect sync, cocked their Vladimirs, the heavy repeating gauss rifles gleaming ominously in the dimly lit dropship.
Really, the majority of these fine Terrans were the ones smart enough to surrender anyways.
Given a choice between 'shut up and take enough money to live the high life for a few years' and 'be murdered ruthlessly by Confederate Black Ops', it's not really a surprise they chose to be quiet about it.
The handoff at the Confederate Evac Fleet went well, with things being too confused by the chaos of evacuation for anyone high enough in the chain of command to care bothering to look too closely into where a mysterious mercenary group called 'Black's Marauders' came from.
Considering the Fringe Worlds, it's probably just another band of freebooters that are a dime a dozen out here, plying their trade. Right? Right.
As for the Sons of Korhal...well…
xXxXx
Raynor was no stranger to violence. He'd lived a rather checkered life up to this point, on both sides of the law. He scratched his scruffy chin with an armored finger, ignoring a wince from the sergeant assigned to his squad at the sight of someone casually using powered armor in such a careless fashion.
"...Well, if that don't beat all. Someone's already been through here ahead of us."
Shaking his head, he waved his fire team forwards, the veteran Marshall keeping an eye on the jumpy rebel FNGs.
One of them twitched, his helmet light jerking as he let out a little shriek, hopping back and firing wildly into the ceiling, screaming obscenities until Jim physically shoulder checked him, slapping the rifle safely upwards and pulling it from the FNGs hands as two of the veteran marines with him grabbed his arms.
"Easy there, boy. The hell spooked you?"
Trembling, the private shakily tried to salute.
"s-sorry, Marshall. I-had somethin' drop on my helmet, an-and I thought one of them Zerg critters was waitin' up there ta jump on me. I heard it happened to my C-cousin Lemmy when we was evacuatin'."
Sighing, Raynor wiped a neosteel hand along the kid's helmet. "Right, guess that's understandable, kid, but in this case, it was just a crappily maintained fire extinguisher line. Jimenez, keep a hold of the rook's gun until he stops ridin' the stimmies."
Turning, Raynor addressed the rest of his troopers. "The rest of you! Get back in marching order. Point, forwards. Rear, Kid's got a point. Eyes up as well as around! Tain't natural, whatever happened in here."
The now-wary group of rebels moved cautiously through the dead bunker, suit lights playing across damaged and scorched walls, destroyed vehicles, and puddles of corpses. Raynor frowned as one pile of viscera, formerly contained in a heavy cell, wasn't made up of dead humans.
"Mengsk. We got some dead Zerg in here. I don't believe it. The hell was going on here?!"
The Sons of Korhal squad paused, the sergeants chivvying the younger troopers into guard positions while the Marshall chatted with the Rebel Leader.
Mengsk sounded grim, voice ominously rumbling over the commlinks in the darkened bunker.
"Believe it, Marshal. I've seen other facilities like this one, with Zerg in them, and that was over a year ago. The Confederates KNOW about the Zerg, Marshall. Not only that, they lured them here. Hell, they might be breeding these things!"
Raynor shook his head, spitting. "That's just sick, man. Anyways, we're coming up on main lab. Not a soul in here, just heavy battle damage. Grabbing anything left on the mainframe and getting the hell out of here before we get eaten or burned by the other aliens."
xXxXx
Note to self: I need to find a way to get fingers again. It just isn't the same, being able to cackle about plans going as planned without fingers to steeple.
Having my Mech Marines do it for me just isn't the same...
Chapter 5
I'll be honest.
For a few minutes (actual minutes!) I considered leaving the Jacobs Installation raid to Raynor and the Sons of Korhal.
I mean, on the one hand, sure, giving Mengsk access to Psi Emitters seems like a great idea…
On the other, well, hell, without 'em, Mengsk would seem a damn sight more reasonable for longer, and it's not like the Confederacy doesn't already -have- Emitter Tech, they designed the damned things and used them.
...on Mar Sara, come to think it. ...Um. Hmm.
Hadn't found one when I was scavenging. Odd. Might just be too damaged for my scavengers to log it as anything other than debris.
Anyways, there is also some sort of heavy duty counterpart to the Emitter on Tarsonis, if I recall.
So, in a way, denying the things to Mengsk doesn't really do much more than slow 'em down, since the djinni's already out of the lamp. When I do decide to pop that pimple that is Mengsk, I suppose I'd much prefer not to have to Collateral Damage some of his perfectly good subordinates because they still think he's a good little rebel. I'd rather break him as a Monster than kill 'em as a Martyr, basically.
I figure it might be more efficient in the long run of things, and leave more people to pick up the pieces of this madhouse.
So, Option 1: Let the raid go as planned, leave 'canon' alone.
Didn't really like that, and I was planning to nuke what I remembered of events from orbit anyways...so I made up Option 2: Make An Alternative.
Hence why I had several dropships full of Mech Marines, Plasmabats, and freshly modified SCVs en route to the Jacobs Installation, racing to beat the Sons of Korhal and Raynor.
xXxXx
Corporal Leeroy Gibbs didn't really hate his job, surprisingly.
Sure, like any good Confederate Marine, he kvetched in the barracks with his buddies about everything from the dullness of guard duty to how stupid the damn green LT's decisions could be.
Punk only got promoted because his momma was sleeping with some Confederate general, anyhoo.
But, if pushed, Leeroy would admit he didn't hate guard duty. It sure as hell beat being on Spooky Science Duty inside the Installation.
Seriously, some of the things he'd heard rumors of in there...well, there was probably a reason the eggheads insisted on using Resocs for most of it. Nasty Business.
But for Corporal Gibbs, hell, this was a nice break from his previous tour of duty suppressing rebels. No real threat, just lock your armor's knees and half doze through things. Never been a bigger threat than an unusually cantankerous Rhynadon.
Good eatin', that.
Sure, he'd heard some other rumors from that worrywart city boy in his squad that the higher ups were pulling out, but Gibbs was pretty sure that was just horse pucky. Installation's way too important to be abandoned, the Captain said so himself when he put the LT in charge here.
This might explain why Corporal Gibbs was a bit unprepared for his quiet stretch of guard duty to be interrupted by a thunderous, bone-shaking BOOM, a group of grey-and-blue painted dropships slamming from high orbit to deployment range in complete ignorance of safety hazards, in perfect formation, even as every communication line in his armor suddenly went dead except for heavy crackling static.
Gibbs himself, along with the group of Resocs on door duty, found himself slammed to the ground by the sudden shockwave of the decelerating ships, rifle knocked away by the shockwave. Dropship doors opened as he slammed his visor down and started to roll to his feet, grey-and-blue armored Marines dropping with machine-like precision, guns snapping up mid-freefall as they grounded on the hard ground.
An electronically masked voice sliced through the static, precise and right genteel soundin'.
"You have until the count of ten to lay down your arms. If you surrender, you will be escorted to your fleet's vessels via dropship. Failure to comply will be met with lethal force. One."
Gibbs blinked a bit owlishly, eyes widening as he stopped fumbling for his C-14 in shock at the sheer gall these bluejackets were showin'. Seriously, didn't they know where they we-
In later years, Corporal Gibbs would come to realize that moment of shock and indecision saved his life.
His fellow Marines, Resocialized one and all, reacted as their neural programming demanded.
"FOR THE CONFEDERACY!"
Impalers pulled up, the barrage of spikes from the other four guards spat hot pointy death at the invaders…
And left them standing, their armor scuffed and sparking, but still functional.
That electronic voice sliced through the jamming again.
"Unfortunate."
xXxXx
The Mech Marines tore the Alpha Squadron Marines apart in short bursts after they opened fire, taking cosmetic damage as the C-14s, designed to punch through two inches of neosteel, failing to make an impression on the heavy layered Progenitor Alloy.
My upgraded gauss rifles (New Designation: Vladimir Gauss Rifle. Redesignating), on the other hand, didn't have any such problems, slamming the Terran-spec spikes through the organic marines with ruthless efficiency. The one survivor of the gate guards held his hands up, sensors indicating an elevated level of stress, shock, and waste products in his internal armoring. Luckily, Mech Marines don't need to breathe…
A 'standard' Terran Dropship (like the ones I lent to the Sons of Korhal) grounded, the surviving Marine being marched on board at gunpoint and left under guard by a pair of them.
As for the front doors...well, the Plasmabats stepped up.
Armored bunker doors were no match for heavy plasma torches, a massive breach burned into the barriers. Not bothering for the metal to cool, my forces stormed forwards.
SCVs modded for Electronic Warfare quickly ripped control of the systems away from the base's scientists, already beginning to download as much data as they could into their quantum memory cores.
The data I really wanted access to, however, was held on a stand-alone server in a shielded bunker. Physical access was required.
Considering the numbers I had brought, I doubted this would be a problem. As one detachment hurried through the facility, smaller groups split off, burning through bunker doors, offering all Terrans inside the same choice: Surrender or Die.
A distressing number chose death, alas, but some breakage is expected in these sorts of operations. Most of the civilians, however, were quickly hustled outside and joined the Marine Corporal and a few of his surviving comrades on the dropship.
Scientists, maintenance workers, Marines...I didn't really care, honestly, I just had a small contingency I'd made up on the spot to deal with them.
I mean, I don't mind the breakage, as mentioned, I -AM- Line Commander Gamma #44268 of the Legion, and thus being a ruthlessly efficient self-replicating mechanism of war is in my job description.
No, literally, that bit is in my documentation and briefing files.
Buuuut just because I can accept collateral damage if needed doesn't mean I see a need to gun down every plumber and pencil pusher in the complex for wearing white.
Also, infantry scale point-to-point teleportation pads. Mmm, yeees, yeeeeeeeeeeees.
So, yeah. Between the heavy tech advantage, numbers, and sheer precision, it didn't take my troops long to gut the facility, leaving nothing behind but plasma melted doors, splattered remnants of the defenders who refused surrender and Zerg test subjects, and a good ol' space mystery.
Oh, and I plundered the Jacobs Installation data core, ripping all that delicious experimental data away, the E-War SCVs casually smacking down the self-destruct and data purge systems while plundering the facility.
Good thing, too. I mean, we found some really high-yield crystals (locals call 'em 'ardeon', I think) in a vault with two meter thick hardened doors. No match for determined Plasmabats, but quite excessive by local standards. Probably for the best I stole them, the things must have been valuable, given the security, but they were also full of Zerg spores. Nasty.
I just had the SCVs carefully disassemble the original crystal matrix, atom by atom, so I could replicate it at a whim if needed. Never know when I'll need some bribes in a local material, after all.
Anyways, while my troops were efficiently going about their looting, I went through the data as it streamed across my network. Really, kind of a morbid read, the facility's data.
See, apparently, the main thing this little hole in the rock was studying happened to be how Ghosts interacted with the Zerg. Turns out the Zerg just adore Ghosts' psionic signatures, and will home in on them once they find them.
The Psi-Emitter, as I vaguely recalled, broadcasts that tasty Zerg-attracting Ghost Signature at a distance of Very Long, drawing the Zerg in from all over the damn place.
Could be useful for me, really. I did intend to xenocide the filthy things at some point, and drawing them into traps couldn't hurt at all.
Specifically, drawing them into a specially trained deathworld I can remote-detonate would be the best option. That's for a later date.
Anyways, I removed most of the research data, then had my troopers shred the console in 'accidental' crossfire. No sense giving Mengsk too much of a head start on any other research, and then we left the Psi Emitter data on the mainframe….along with a few...tweaks. Nothing too out of the ordinary, not at all, just a minor design change I worked into the design that might result in both lessened distance for this version of the Emitter as well as letting someone with the proper access codes remotely over-ride the nasty little thing, as well as actively noting exact positioning when the beacon was powered.
Just in case, you know. If I'm giving Mengsk enough rope to hang himself, I want to know how much rope he's actually using.
Anyways, Psi Emitter data sabotaged to be less effective than advertised as well as programming in backdoors for myself, and I pulled out my troops.
Rather profitable little mission, in my opinion.
I picked up Zergbait, Goliath specs, a full scan of Ghost equipment, and tetrabytes of data on the Zerg and psionic experimentation
Also, a shipful of confused, frightened survivors.
Well, if there's one thing I figure is universal, it's greed. A quickly fabricated Adjutant in a Ghost outfit, plus a box full of palm-sized ardeon crystals, and it was showtime.
My 'Ghost' (Dangit, the locals used all the good names for spooky sorts. Can't call 'em Wraiths, that's a ship...Spectres are some confusing black black ops project...Banshees are another aircraft...bah, I'll think on a better name later) stepped out, clad in grey and blue, headgear glowing ominously as it stared emotionlessly at the frightened survivors.
"You may call me Agent Black. The Confederacy apologizes for the abrupt manner of your departure from your previous posting, but Command has ordered that facility shut down and expedited. This ship will shortly be offloading you at the Confederate evacuation fleet. The base was shut down due to the general evacuation of the planet. Your facility was attacked by rebels from the Sons of Korhal. A Confederate-friendly mercenary unit pulled the survivors out while leaving Mar Sara itself along with the general population. Any actual truth of the method in which the facility was shut down is locked down under a Class 7 Seal. You will not speak of it. Comply, and you will be amply rewarded."
My Ghost opens the case its' carrying, showing the Ardeon crystals.
"Speak of this, and you will not live to see the next day. This conversation never took place. I was never here."
The pair of Mech Marines, in perfect sync, cocked their Vladimirs, the heavy repeating gauss rifles gleaming ominously in the dimly lit dropship.
Really, the majority of these fine Terrans were the ones smart enough to surrender anyways.
Given a choice between 'shut up and take enough money to live the high life for a few years' and 'be murdered ruthlessly by Confederate Black Ops', it's not really a surprise they chose to be quiet about it.
The handoff at the Confederate Evac Fleet went well, with things being too confused by the chaos of evacuation for anyone high enough in the chain of command to care bothering to look too closely into where a mysterious mercenary group called 'Black's Marauders' came from.
Considering the Fringe Worlds, it's probably just another band of freebooters that are a dime a dozen out here, plying their trade. Right? Right.
As for the Sons of Korhal...well…
xXxXx
Raynor was no stranger to violence. He'd lived a rather checkered life up to this point, on both sides of the law. He scratched his scruffy chin with an armored finger, ignoring a wince from the sergeant assigned to his squad at the sight of someone casually using powered armor in such a careless fashion.
"...Well, if that don't beat all. Someone's already been through here ahead of us."
Shaking his head, he waved his fire team forwards, the veteran Marshall keeping an eye on the jumpy rebel FNGs.
One of them twitched, his helmet light jerking as he let out a little shriek, hopping back and firing wildly into the ceiling, screaming obscenities until Jim physically shoulder checked him, slapping the rifle safely upwards and pulling it from the FNGs hands as two of the veteran marines with him grabbed his arms.
"Easy there, boy. The hell spooked you?"
Trembling, the private shakily tried to salute.
"s-sorry, Marshall. I-had somethin' drop on my helmet, an-and I thought one of them Zerg critters was waitin' up there ta jump on me. I heard it happened to my C-cousin Lemmy when we was evacuatin'."
Sighing, Raynor wiped a neosteel hand along the kid's helmet. "Right, guess that's understandable, kid, but in this case, it was just a crappily maintained fire extinguisher line. Jimenez, keep a hold of the rook's gun until he stops ridin' the stimmies."
Turning, Raynor addressed the rest of his troopers. "The rest of you! Get back in marching order. Point, forwards. Rear, Kid's got a point. Eyes up as well as around! Tain't natural, whatever happened in here."
The now-wary group of rebels moved cautiously through the dead bunker, suit lights playing across damaged and scorched walls, destroyed vehicles, and puddles of corpses. Raynor frowned as one pile of viscera, formerly contained in a heavy cell, wasn't made up of dead humans.
"Mengsk. We got some dead Zerg in here. I don't believe it. The hell was going on here?!"
The Sons of Korhal squad paused, the sergeants chivvying the younger troopers into guard positions while the Marshall chatted with the Rebel Leader.
Mengsk sounded grim, voice ominously rumbling over the commlinks in the darkened bunker.
"Believe it, Marshal. I've seen other facilities like this one, with Zerg in them, and that was over a year ago. The Confederates KNOW about the Zerg, Marshall. Not only that, they lured them here. Hell, they might be breeding these things!"
Raynor shook his head, spitting. "That's just sick, man. Anyways, we're coming up on main lab. Not a soul in here, just heavy battle damage. Grabbing anything left on the mainframe and getting the hell out of here before we get eaten or burned by the other aliens."
xXxXx
Note to self: I need to find a way to get fingers again. It just isn't the same, being able to cackle about plans going as planned without fingers to steeple.
Having my Mech Marines do it for me just isn't the same...
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- Location
- Arizona
I will be quite sad when your update speed slows down. Oh well. At least the quality is consistently high and entertaining.
Though, I completely forgot about those Terran point-to-point teleport panels in SC1. I don't even think those things are in SC2. handy, for you.
The sheer amount of Adjutant variants that you seem to be spamming is going to be all kinds of hilarious. Either your Adjutants gain sentience, in which case Yay! companions, or they might try to convince you to uplift their enslaved/wrecked brethren that are serving the terrans. Either way, sounds entertaining.
Also, you made the Adjutants as disposable troops, but honestly, you don't seem to have come close to losing any yet. my guess is, the only MechMarines you'll lose, are to zerg acids, or Protoss bullshit.
Though, I completely forgot about those Terran point-to-point teleport panels in SC1. I don't even think those things are in SC2. handy, for you.
The sheer amount of Adjutant variants that you seem to be spamming is going to be all kinds of hilarious. Either your Adjutants gain sentience, in which case Yay! companions, or they might try to convince you to uplift their enslaved/wrecked brethren that are serving the terrans. Either way, sounds entertaining.
Also, you made the Adjutants as disposable troops, but honestly, you don't seem to have come close to losing any yet. my guess is, the only MechMarines you'll lose, are to zerg acids, or Protoss bullshit.
Faith
Some idea of what I'm doing.
- Location
- Land of Waves and Warmth
This somehow slipped under my radar until now.
It's certainly a very interesting read, and I like the reliance on reverse-engineering existing designs for everything. Gives a nice sense of progression, rather than starting at ridiculous and escalating further.
Consider this watched, good sir.
It's certainly a very interesting read, and I like the reliance on reverse-engineering existing designs for everything. Gives a nice sense of progression, rather than starting at ridiculous and escalating further.
Consider this watched, good sir.
Arafell
Verified Cephalon
- Location
- Oregon
I call shenanigans. No way do Terran get those without studying 'toss tech.
Fusou of course, after her comment of calling that there will be more PA commander SIs.
According to the wiki. They apparently already have those even before the Protoss showed up. They were invented by Transmatter Inc.
There was a version used by pirates that didn't required pads but instead needed very accurate positioning data.
There was also the much more adavnace version after the End War which basically gave their battlecruisers the equivalent of the blink ability at very long ranges.
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- Location
- US
Probably didn't even study the tech, just ripped up a couple of paired pads and plopped them down in the base. Utility over understanding, that's the Terran way.
Starcraft Unit Scales
TikiTau
Commander Pangolinski
- Location
- Texas
Eh, the Terran transporters also apparently don't work very well. Short range inside a building or starship is about the best they can do, and it apparently requires a lot of computer support and precise alignment or else Bad Things happen.
by contrast, Protoss can do casual interstellar building and unit teleportation with the proper beacon and Progenitor can do interplanetary between gates.
...they tried to make teleporting marines, supposedly, but they had a tiny little problem and tended to, well, combust. Or fade out of the time stream.
*shrug* supposedly they existed, though I suppose they might just be bs' d engine restrictions instead of elevators. If it helps, they probably DID find some xel'naga ruins at some point to loot the tech from.
Also, something useful!
by contrast, Protoss can do casual interstellar building and unit teleportation with the proper beacon and Progenitor can do interplanetary between gates.
...they tried to make teleporting marines, supposedly, but they had a tiny little problem and tended to, well, combust. Or fade out of the time stream.
*shrug* supposedly they existed, though I suppose they might just be bs' d engine restrictions instead of elevators. If it helps, they probably DID find some xel'naga ruins at some point to loot the tech from.
Also, something useful!
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Chapter 6
TikiTau
Commander Pangolinski
- Location
- Texas
Chapter 6
Honestly, I gotta say, I was sort of disappointed with the Terran transport pads I'd gotten my hands on back in the Jacobs Installation. Frankly, the danged things were pretty inefficient and short range.
I used a Mech Marine as a guinea pig, juicing one of the teleporters up with access to my energy network to see if it was just a matter of power limiting distance.
The Mech Marine kiiiiind of exploded all over my testing area, the chunks caught on fire, and then the entire mess faded out of existence. Very annoying, need access to a better teleporter.
The pads didn't even have the grace to help defrag or replace my old reliable Progenitor transport gate, either. Best I could get with some tinkering was a bit more range and shrink the size of the pad, but nothing particularly amazing on a strategic level. Tactical, sure, they'd be useful inside my bases, but beyond that? Nope.
What rude technology.
Still, it wasn't all bad! I upgraded my infantry and bot factories with the things. Not the greatest range, but, for instance, it let me build a factory, seal it behind defenses and solid walls, then have the Infantry and Bots produced teleported to a storage bay or into the path of hypothetical invaders.
They'd already be trying to advance through killzones of heavy fixed defenses and checkpoints, so why not make it more annoying for them and add in a constant, never-ending stream of murderous killbots?
Speaking of Murderous Killbots, the Goliath design! Lovely, although why the hell did they design the things with a giant cockpit with weaker armor for infantry to shoot through to kill the pilot, I will never know. This isn't the Inner Sphere, dammit.
My version of the Goliath ended up looking a fair bit different from the Terran variants.
I left the general bipedal frame, did the Usual Upgrade Song And Dance (Progenitor Power Tech, armor, frame, etc) but stole a bit from a universe of grim and unending war for armament. Ripped out the pair of 30mm Autocannons and missile pods the Goliath came with, then added in a pair of heavy bore autocannons to each side. Built in a fabber so the killbot could swap between armor piercing high explosive shells and flak. Finished it off with a chin mounted dual Vladimir turret, for light infantry work and suppression, then up-armored the whole thing, taking advantage of the stronger engine and structure from my Progenitor tech. Gave the whole thing a delightfully blocky look, rather like my own august presence, with flat, slab like armor making for a rather menacing looking unit.
Also, no giant 'Shoot Me Here To Incapacitate' window like the original design!
Oh, right. Other fun toy. The Ghost that got splattered back in the Installation's main lab, well, I managed to pull his name and serial number from the lab's records, figure that could be useful later on.
It's the upside of a Government with a known branch of Evil Assassins, really. If you tell someone that you're an Evil Assassin and can back it up a bit, looks and gear wise, they probably aren't going to go out of their way to blab about running into an Evil Assassin to anyone else.
So, name, name...eh, screw it, I'm callin' my design a Geist. Combat Adjutant, tweaked for infiltration and Recon duties, as well as generally being vicious and Black Opsy.
Not psychic in the least, unfortunately, and fairly fragile, so no awesome Ghost powers...buuuuut on the other hand, due to having access to my power network, the Geist's cloaking devices don't have to be turned off.
Bit of reverse engineering there. See, the original Ghost cloak requires a psionic component, since the cloaking is apparently psionically stimulated cells refracting light. That, however, was apparently based off the Wraith's cloaking field originally, which is pure tech. So, from my tinkering, I found a hypothesis: The reason the cells need a psionic activator to cloak is because the Terrans are using a Ghost's psionics to cut out the admittedly impressive computer and power requirements to properly micromanage near-perfect light refraction and redirection.
I, on the other hand, have much better computer and power systems, plus much more advanced nanotech.
With those advantages, I was able to kitbash together my own version. Maybe not quite as effective, since it requires an external power source, but, heck, most of my stuff works off a funky quantum power network with a planetary range anyways, so it's not really a downside for my Geists.
I also tuned up the C-10 Canister rifle I'd taken from the dead Ghost. Damn thing's an anti-tank rifle to start. Seriously, it's a 25mm rifle firing explosive shells and it has an automatic function. Ghosts are crazy.
Naturally, I can't let a bunch of brainwashed operatives outdo my Geists, so I swapped the firing mechanism out for a gauss accelerator system for longer range and punch, upgraded the penetrator mechanisms, installed a secondary 'magazine' fabber for Lockdown rounds to screw with enemy vehicles, plus a heavily upgraded scope and set of targeting sensors to help expedite long range target removal. Also, the flashlight was swapped out for a more ominous red tactical flashlight, to go with the Geist's red optics, because it looks cooler
Rest of the loadout my Geists were issued included a heavy pistol, a large combat knife honed to a monomolecular edge (I do hope Ares Macrotechnology never finds out…Lawsuits are scary~), and a shotgun that one could be forgiven for mistaking for a short range flak cannon, after upgrades. Bout time I put some of those salvaged Terran small arm designs to good use, anyways.
Not like my Geists get tired, after all, so as long as their loadout is under weight capacity, hell, why not load them for Ultralisk?
Final result: I have a perpetually cloaked infiltration unit with a heavy sniper cannon suitable for murdering light vehicles and being a threat to heavy vehicles and even light starship armor. Granted, would have to rely a bit more on the Golden BB effect or tagging something vulnerable (Engine, weapon emplacement, control mechanism, that sort of thing) for shooting at starships, but it's still TECHNICALLY a threat to a light vessel operating that low.
As for my little fiefdom...well, I mostly just sent several Settlers boosting for the Sara System's asteroid belts. While Chau Sara was rich in metal deposits, and the Crystal deposits churned up by the Protoss bombardment were great, the fact was I was starting to hit capacity on design. Oh, sure, I can maintain that economy...but I'm going to want a LOT of ships for the next phase of my plan, which means I need way more metal and mass, even with my fleet of Tankers, Haulers, and Juicers hanging about Chau Sara, slowly filling their storage bays.
To explain why I need what even a Commander would consider excessive resources...Well…
When I had finished downloading the schematics for the old Leviathan-class Battlecruiser, I ended up being forced to do some retrofitting to get a factory big enough to actually construct the damn thing. This is due to the fact that my 'default' Orbital factory is perfectly fine for a large number of vessels...buuuuut a Battlecruiser is more along the lines of what a Progentior-tech Commander would consider Titan-grade Construction. Could possibly be built by just fabricators, but that's much slower and more vulnerable to enemy raids than a proper factory would be.
Actually, come to think it, that's a bit of a weak point in my normal tech base. Commanders don't usually bother with excessive Macro-scale construction, by nature. Why bother? We can just spam smaller units in infinite hordes.
Titans are an exception, but even then, they're still spammable with enough of an economy backing you up.
Thus, I had to radically redesign my building methods to start building proper Battlecruisers.
So, first, I took advantage of the nifty modularity that Terran Buildings have access to. Instead of mysteriously useful physics labs, though, I was able to use the modular functions to daisy chain a series of Aerospace Fabbers together. The final block of Fabbers was kind of huge, since it was having to build Battlecruisers, you see. As in, 'noticeable from space due to being about a square kilometer of fabrication tools'.
Inefficient, and my estimates suggested it would take at least three hours to build and assemble each Battlecruiser.
Who has three hours to spend on a single ship?!
So, step two.
I raided my station-keeping designs for my Orbital Factory. Given that the Terran Starport design I had based my Aerospace Factory off of was made to be slowly mobile and orbit-droppable for colonization purposes, it was already space rated.
Still, I wanted to upgraded a bit, and the 'default' version seemed to require deployment. Just took that away, left it capable of 'deploying' in space with the addition of heavy gravity compensators.
Then, I folded the Capital-Class Fabber over on itself. Space means three dimensions!
Thick pillars of Progenitor Alloy anchored the second set of Capital Fabbers above the first, spaced wide and tall enough for a Battlecruiser to fit between them. That done, I sheathed in the sides with a few meters of thick neosteel, to deal with meteorites.
The result was a fat, squat, modular orbital factory component. I could then link those up like Legos until I had an Orbital Shipyard large enough to handle Battlecruiser construction.
After I finished the first of them, I then had a thought.
Neosteel's perfectly fine to build on, right? And I don't have proper orbital platforms yet…
So I kludged.
I had Settlers start building point-defense turrets and generators directly on the outside of my Orbital Shipyard, plus comm arrays. Plenty of space, the final result was a bit over 700 meters long and 700 meters wide. Had to be that large to handle the Cruiser construction, and the Leviathan's an OLD ship.
Can't wait till I get my hands on the Behemoth-class schematics, those suckers are even bigger!
Still, I had to stop and laugh when I realized what I'd built in orbit.
Big old blocky structure with a surface area of about 2 square kilometers, counting the top, bottom, and the sides, studded with power generators and defense turrets, capable of churning out a single Battlecruiser in under 20 minutes. Utterly expensive to build, but worth it.
Asides, I could always just build a single Orbital Shipyard and use it to pump out smaller ships at a ridiculous rate.
I probably would have cackled more and then started developing hilariously lethal Leviathan-class Battlecruiser variants except my economy suddenly tanked and I started receiving 'Unit Destroyed' warnings.
I mentally blinked.
Oh. Right.
Protoss Expeditionary Fleet.
...Forgot about that. Guess I spent too much time playing with my new tech designs. Well, there goes my Mar Sara surface industry.
Whoops.
Honestly, I gotta say, I was sort of disappointed with the Terran transport pads I'd gotten my hands on back in the Jacobs Installation. Frankly, the danged things were pretty inefficient and short range.
I used a Mech Marine as a guinea pig, juicing one of the teleporters up with access to my energy network to see if it was just a matter of power limiting distance.
The Mech Marine kiiiiind of exploded all over my testing area, the chunks caught on fire, and then the entire mess faded out of existence. Very annoying, need access to a better teleporter.
The pads didn't even have the grace to help defrag or replace my old reliable Progenitor transport gate, either. Best I could get with some tinkering was a bit more range and shrink the size of the pad, but nothing particularly amazing on a strategic level. Tactical, sure, they'd be useful inside my bases, but beyond that? Nope.
What rude technology.
Still, it wasn't all bad! I upgraded my infantry and bot factories with the things. Not the greatest range, but, for instance, it let me build a factory, seal it behind defenses and solid walls, then have the Infantry and Bots produced teleported to a storage bay or into the path of hypothetical invaders.
They'd already be trying to advance through killzones of heavy fixed defenses and checkpoints, so why not make it more annoying for them and add in a constant, never-ending stream of murderous killbots?
Speaking of Murderous Killbots, the Goliath design! Lovely, although why the hell did they design the things with a giant cockpit with weaker armor for infantry to shoot through to kill the pilot, I will never know. This isn't the Inner Sphere, dammit.
My version of the Goliath ended up looking a fair bit different from the Terran variants.
I left the general bipedal frame, did the Usual Upgrade Song And Dance (Progenitor Power Tech, armor, frame, etc) but stole a bit from a universe of grim and unending war for armament. Ripped out the pair of 30mm Autocannons and missile pods the Goliath came with, then added in a pair of heavy bore autocannons to each side. Built in a fabber so the killbot could swap between armor piercing high explosive shells and flak. Finished it off with a chin mounted dual Vladimir turret, for light infantry work and suppression, then up-armored the whole thing, taking advantage of the stronger engine and structure from my Progenitor tech. Gave the whole thing a delightfully blocky look, rather like my own august presence, with flat, slab like armor making for a rather menacing looking unit.
Also, no giant 'Shoot Me Here To Incapacitate' window like the original design!
Oh, right. Other fun toy. The Ghost that got splattered back in the Installation's main lab, well, I managed to pull his name and serial number from the lab's records, figure that could be useful later on.
It's the upside of a Government with a known branch of Evil Assassins, really. If you tell someone that you're an Evil Assassin and can back it up a bit, looks and gear wise, they probably aren't going to go out of their way to blab about running into an Evil Assassin to anyone else.
So, name, name...eh, screw it, I'm callin' my design a Geist. Combat Adjutant, tweaked for infiltration and Recon duties, as well as generally being vicious and Black Opsy.
Not psychic in the least, unfortunately, and fairly fragile, so no awesome Ghost powers...buuuuut on the other hand, due to having access to my power network, the Geist's cloaking devices don't have to be turned off.
Bit of reverse engineering there. See, the original Ghost cloak requires a psionic component, since the cloaking is apparently psionically stimulated cells refracting light. That, however, was apparently based off the Wraith's cloaking field originally, which is pure tech. So, from my tinkering, I found a hypothesis: The reason the cells need a psionic activator to cloak is because the Terrans are using a Ghost's psionics to cut out the admittedly impressive computer and power requirements to properly micromanage near-perfect light refraction and redirection.
I, on the other hand, have much better computer and power systems, plus much more advanced nanotech.
With those advantages, I was able to kitbash together my own version. Maybe not quite as effective, since it requires an external power source, but, heck, most of my stuff works off a funky quantum power network with a planetary range anyways, so it's not really a downside for my Geists.
I also tuned up the C-10 Canister rifle I'd taken from the dead Ghost. Damn thing's an anti-tank rifle to start. Seriously, it's a 25mm rifle firing explosive shells and it has an automatic function. Ghosts are crazy.
Naturally, I can't let a bunch of brainwashed operatives outdo my Geists, so I swapped the firing mechanism out for a gauss accelerator system for longer range and punch, upgraded the penetrator mechanisms, installed a secondary 'magazine' fabber for Lockdown rounds to screw with enemy vehicles, plus a heavily upgraded scope and set of targeting sensors to help expedite long range target removal. Also, the flashlight was swapped out for a more ominous red tactical flashlight, to go with the Geist's red optics, because it looks cooler
Rest of the loadout my Geists were issued included a heavy pistol, a large combat knife honed to a monomolecular edge (I do hope Ares Macrotechnology never finds out…Lawsuits are scary~), and a shotgun that one could be forgiven for mistaking for a short range flak cannon, after upgrades. Bout time I put some of those salvaged Terran small arm designs to good use, anyways.
Not like my Geists get tired, after all, so as long as their loadout is under weight capacity, hell, why not load them for Ultralisk?
Final result: I have a perpetually cloaked infiltration unit with a heavy sniper cannon suitable for murdering light vehicles and being a threat to heavy vehicles and even light starship armor. Granted, would have to rely a bit more on the Golden BB effect or tagging something vulnerable (Engine, weapon emplacement, control mechanism, that sort of thing) for shooting at starships, but it's still TECHNICALLY a threat to a light vessel operating that low.
As for my little fiefdom...well, I mostly just sent several Settlers boosting for the Sara System's asteroid belts. While Chau Sara was rich in metal deposits, and the Crystal deposits churned up by the Protoss bombardment were great, the fact was I was starting to hit capacity on design. Oh, sure, I can maintain that economy...but I'm going to want a LOT of ships for the next phase of my plan, which means I need way more metal and mass, even with my fleet of Tankers, Haulers, and Juicers hanging about Chau Sara, slowly filling their storage bays.
To explain why I need what even a Commander would consider excessive resources...Well…
When I had finished downloading the schematics for the old Leviathan-class Battlecruiser, I ended up being forced to do some retrofitting to get a factory big enough to actually construct the damn thing. This is due to the fact that my 'default' Orbital factory is perfectly fine for a large number of vessels...buuuuut a Battlecruiser is more along the lines of what a Progentior-tech Commander would consider Titan-grade Construction. Could possibly be built by just fabricators, but that's much slower and more vulnerable to enemy raids than a proper factory would be.
Actually, come to think it, that's a bit of a weak point in my normal tech base. Commanders don't usually bother with excessive Macro-scale construction, by nature. Why bother? We can just spam smaller units in infinite hordes.
Titans are an exception, but even then, they're still spammable with enough of an economy backing you up.
Thus, I had to radically redesign my building methods to start building proper Battlecruisers.
So, first, I took advantage of the nifty modularity that Terran Buildings have access to. Instead of mysteriously useful physics labs, though, I was able to use the modular functions to daisy chain a series of Aerospace Fabbers together. The final block of Fabbers was kind of huge, since it was having to build Battlecruisers, you see. As in, 'noticeable from space due to being about a square kilometer of fabrication tools'.
Inefficient, and my estimates suggested it would take at least three hours to build and assemble each Battlecruiser.
Who has three hours to spend on a single ship?!
So, step two.
I raided my station-keeping designs for my Orbital Factory. Given that the Terran Starport design I had based my Aerospace Factory off of was made to be slowly mobile and orbit-droppable for colonization purposes, it was already space rated.
Still, I wanted to upgraded a bit, and the 'default' version seemed to require deployment. Just took that away, left it capable of 'deploying' in space with the addition of heavy gravity compensators.
Then, I folded the Capital-Class Fabber over on itself. Space means three dimensions!
Thick pillars of Progenitor Alloy anchored the second set of Capital Fabbers above the first, spaced wide and tall enough for a Battlecruiser to fit between them. That done, I sheathed in the sides with a few meters of thick neosteel, to deal with meteorites.
The result was a fat, squat, modular orbital factory component. I could then link those up like Legos until I had an Orbital Shipyard large enough to handle Battlecruiser construction.
After I finished the first of them, I then had a thought.
Neosteel's perfectly fine to build on, right? And I don't have proper orbital platforms yet…
So I kludged.
I had Settlers start building point-defense turrets and generators directly on the outside of my Orbital Shipyard, plus comm arrays. Plenty of space, the final result was a bit over 700 meters long and 700 meters wide. Had to be that large to handle the Cruiser construction, and the Leviathan's an OLD ship.
Can't wait till I get my hands on the Behemoth-class schematics, those suckers are even bigger!
Still, I had to stop and laugh when I realized what I'd built in orbit.
Big old blocky structure with a surface area of about 2 square kilometers, counting the top, bottom, and the sides, studded with power generators and defense turrets, capable of churning out a single Battlecruiser in under 20 minutes. Utterly expensive to build, but worth it.
Asides, I could always just build a single Orbital Shipyard and use it to pump out smaller ships at a ridiculous rate.
I probably would have cackled more and then started developing hilariously lethal Leviathan-class Battlecruiser variants except my economy suddenly tanked and I started receiving 'Unit Destroyed' warnings.
I mentally blinked.
Oh. Right.
Protoss Expeditionary Fleet.
...Forgot about that. Guess I spent too much time playing with my new tech designs. Well, there goes my Mar Sara surface industry.
Whoops.
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TikiTau
Commander Pangolinski
- Location
- Texas
Nope.
Those are 3 kilometers to a side, I think, from the sages of Google.
The Orbital Foundry is about 700 meters long x 700 meters wide(exact number varies depending on kibble built onto side) and more rectangular than a cube. Is more like, I dunno only 450 meters tall, tops. Plus the interior is mostly empty space lined with fabricator arms.
Not nearly as big as a Borg Cube.
*missing the point*
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EFW3
This is Walter Wireless signing off!
- Location
- Charleston
So I presume at some point you might visit the Star Trek verse, right?
I propose that you Troll the Borg / Picard / Kirk.
We are the Legion. Your technological everything will adapt to serve us. Your culture will be untouched, lower your shields and take a 5-minute coffee break in my cafeteria. Resistance is futile.
I propose that you Troll the Borg / Picard / Kirk.
We are the Legion. Your technological everything will adapt to serve us. Your culture will be untouched, lower your shields and take a 5-minute coffee break in my cafeteria. Resistance is futile.
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- Location
- Germany
- Pronouns
- It/Them
Watched. Nice story!
That said, little nitpick:
That said, little nitpick:
Dimensions just don't look right. First you say you got a 0.7x0.7 km² = .49 km² sandwich, that means 2 km² surface area (for the four sides of the two slabs) + thickness, hard to believe it goes up to 980 km². esp. if you have to leave room inside for the battlecruiser.
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TikiTau
Commander Pangolinski
- Location
- Texas
Maaaaaaaaaaaath. -.-
Doy, forgot I was converting to square kilometers or something. Eh, still huge. XD
Thanks for the catch, I'll fix it after lunch, pending work.
Still, if worst goof I make today, today is a good day! Thanks for the feedback.
Edit: and tweaked from phone.
Doy, forgot I was converting to square kilometers or something. Eh, still huge. XD
Thanks for the catch, I'll fix it after lunch, pending work.
Still, if worst goof I make today, today is a good day! Thanks for the feedback.
Edit: and tweaked from phone.
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I prefer "resistance only makes you more attractive" myself.
Incidentally, is there any reason to build the battle cruisers in an "at once" method? I mean, he has the mobile building tech and the admittedly fairly awesome modularity building style so building individual sections and then having them self assemble might be more efficient. This kind of spits in the face of typical PA construction but building a ship that large is already spitting in the face of PA's usual play style.
You are probably also going to end up with a lot of empty space inside of the big guy. Corridors for instance are going to take up a huge amount of space all on their lonesome. Mess halls, living quarters, entertainment, the general supplies required to feed the crew, repair the ship, fuel the ship. All of it can be ripped out and replaced with resource cores, resource storage, it's own aerospace factory(s) and a Mech Marine factory using the teleport pad to deploy troops and vehicles to the ground. Building the ship modular would allow for both specialization, in that it could likely build it's own modules to complete itself mid flight, and a general streamlining of the construction process.
johnwedd
Above Average man
- Location
- usa
"We are the Legion. You technology will be scanned and used for our own dakka.Your culture will be untouched.So relax and have a cup of coffee. And since you were such good sports about this, have a download of all the tech we have so far."
Elsewhere:
"Captain! The entire science and engineering sections have broken into fits of cackling and giggles."
"Tactical! Report!"
"Im sorry sir, but im disabled by massive murder boner I have."
@TikiTau
why don't you stick a Homeworld style resource storage set up on the battlecruisers? it will give you extra mass storage and an free extra armor belt for as long as your economy is in the black.
also i suggest you add a lot of Missle cells on the sides of the ship and make provisions on the bottom for drop pods as a way to deploy forces when you can't teleport for whatever reason.
why don't you stick a Homeworld style resource storage set up on the battlecruisers? it will give you extra mass storage and an free extra armor belt for as long as your economy is in the black.
also i suggest you add a lot of Missle cells on the sides of the ship and make provisions on the bottom for drop pods as a way to deploy forces when you can't teleport for whatever reason.
- Location
- United States
I love your update speed. 6 chapters and still in page 2.
TikiTau
Commander Pangolinski
- Location
- Texas
Cause instead of building resource cells, I could just replace that empty space with More Armor, instead.
Gamma has Haulers for filling up with spare resources, which are also a fraction of the cost to build compared to a Battlecruiser and he can pump out from a 'normal' Orbital Factory.
Terran Teleporters are also limited by requiring two pads (well, the variant Gamma has, anyways). You can't just enter one and pop out somewhere else, and Gamma's huffy at the finicky tech and, as mentioned, is a little bit lazy.
Instead of smashing his head against it until he's broken the tech to fit his exact needs, he's just gone 'meh, works good enough to shuffle troops from a factory to a holding bay'.
*smiles innocently, takes notes~*
Will prolly address that when I get around to teching out the current Battlecruiser design Gamma's messing with. Basically, his 'standard' approach to building a starship if he doesn't intend for it to be part of his low profile approach (more or less) is to rip out all the excess space you mention and then fill it with more subsystems or armor.
(For reference, the Low Profile approach!:
'Oh, sure, look around my ship, it's completely normal, honest. Why, look at our cantina, full of our ship's off duty marines!'
"HELLO FELLOW HUMANS. IT IS A GOOD DAY TO CONSUME ALCHOLIC LIBATIONS."
"YES. DID YOU HEAR ABOUT THE SPORTSVILLE SPORTS AND THEIR PERFORMANCE THREE CYCLES AGO?"
"YES. THE GAME WAS NOT MODERATED PROPERLY."
"THEY WERE RELIEVED OF PROPERTY!"
"THIS STATEMENT IS TRUE."
"I AGREE."
"I AGREE."
"HAH HAH HAH!"
"HAH HAH HAH!")
So, yeah, built in infantry factory or aerospace factories are totally a possibility.
Alternately, he needed that massive factory set up just to build the HULL, nevermind the actual subystems!
Oh, and the final reason to build a giant factory to build giant ships in one go instead of easily assembled 'modular' ship sections?
In the immortal words of Captain Bravo...
Bravo!
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- Location
- Arizona
So, Tiki, question for you. What's your viewpoint on unit design? Do you go with PA's "make something do one thing well, then make it cheap enough to spam", or are you more like Supreme commander's "do this job, and this, and let's tack on this subsystem here..."
I personally prefer versatility, but that's just me.
I personally prefer versatility, but that's just me.