You mean Anna Smith? Well, AFAIK, she's only our liaison and point of contact with EUDF Intelligence, and not directly under our employ. We'd probably have to negotiate with her superiors to get permission, unless she volunteers. And while she is peppy, cheerful and irreverent, I'm not sure if that extends to going that far out of her way for us.
I presume you intend this AI to be a digital infiltrator of sorts, which would come in handy in the future dealing with the Westphalians and maybe Chimaira (though Delphi probably has that in hand), so if we do want a new AI, we'll probably need to do some favor-trading with Intelligence.
This, pretty much this. as annoying as she is sometimes, There's no doubting her effectiveness and we've already done intel a few solids by now including the spy mechs and that assignment that Banner went on that he was not prepared for. So having an AI based on her that can infiltrate enemy systems would be invaluable at some point and I would prefer that we get there before we actually need it.
[X] It may hold solid in the air - but how about a localized water spout? Lean into the Thunderbolt's speed and power over wind, drown it in swirling waters before smashing it!
Using the terrain is pretty cool.
[X] Those legs of it can't be that sturdy. Smash them, and then finish it off!
I'd rather make it more difficult for the thing to turn/react before getting in close for a finisher.
[X] It may hold solid in the air - but how about a localized water spout? Lean into the Thunderbolt's speed and power over wind, drown it in swirling waters before smashing it!
[X] Those legs of it can't be that sturdy. Smash them, and then finish it off!
Scheduled vote count started by Basarin on Sep 17, 2023 at 5:15 PM, finished with 24 posts and 16 votes.
[X] It may hold solid in the air - but how about a localized water spout? Lean into the Thunderbolt's speed and power over wind, drown it in swirling waters before smashing it!
[X] Write-In: We break ships by breaking their keels, and this one's no exception. Slide underneath it and give it a point-blank supercharged blast to the belly, and if it tries to raise legs to stab at us, shoot out the other ones to topple it!
[X] It only has been fast enough to deal with the Thunderbolt in Super Robot mode - is it fast enough to deal with its alt-form? Slam into it with the gunship!
Post will probably come this weekend as I'm driving home from this business trip. Since Ichiro's options were a little more contested I'll try to incorporate a bit of all of them.
Post will probably come this weekend as I'm driving home from this business trip. Since Ichiro's options were a little more contested I'll try to incorporate a bit of all of them.
Thunderbolt - It may hold solid in the air - but how about a localized water spout? Lean into the Thunderbolt's speed and power over wind, drown it in swirling waters before smashing it!
Banner - Relatively contested tie, interestingly.
- Strike at it from the flank - a point blank blast from the supercharged cannon will send it packing!
- Those legs of it can't be that sturdy. Smash them, and then finish it off!
- Write-In: We break ships by breaking their keels, and this one's no exception. Slide underneath it and give it a point-blank supercharged blast to the belly, and if it tries to raise legs to stab at us, shoot out the other ones to topple it!
1007, 22 June A.D. 2073 Derelict Oil Platform Internals
I have so many suggestions for this thing when I get back!
Ichiro winced as he brought his newly armored arms up into a cross-guard. Gouges ripped into his armored gauntlets before the high impact rounds ricocheted into the walls, blanketing his flanks as high explosives erupted around him. The Sledders that had formed the armor around him were durable, they were powerful - he just wasn't sure they were durable enough. He was tough, but not Perseus tough.
But he couldn't deny just how much more power the plugged in Faedium Block was giving him. Inside, he could feel the extractor arrays spinning faster and faster, drawing yet more power to feed into his servos as he kept his guard up in bounding leaps. Ocular had sent over his own analysis of the...whatever this thing was. Despite those clawed legs being its main method of maneuverability and defense -
- they were also its bigger liabilities against an enemy who could fight back.
Ichiro pushed as much power as he dared into his servos - and he was suddenly flying forwards at velocities more suited to a catapult shot than a moving mass of metal. He felt the arms scrape the back of his armor - barely missing his back mounted cannon by a whisker - but that was the worst of it as he broke through the frigate's guard, and smashed directly into the prow of the vessel. Metal shuddered, winced, then screamed in protest before he felt something expensive and important crumple and snap beneath his fists.
In the storm of ruined electronics and severed cables, Ichiro saw his chance as the clawed legs reared up to try and slice him off of itself.
Gotcha.
Waiting until the very last moment, Ichiro backed away, allowing the first leg to slam down where he had just been standing - and then he saw the relatively weaker joints that Ocular had pinpointed.
And before the followup strike could pin him down, he leaned forward and rammed his fist through it.
With an almighty snap!, the clawed appendage was severed - and now the frigate was wildly trying to recompensate for the balance midstrike. The 'head' glared down at him, even as various point defense weapons were aiming at him - but Ichiro was already moving onto the next part of his plan as the tank cannon was interlocking with the Sledders' amplifiers:
Knocking this damned crab onto its back.
"I think it knows the game's done!" No sooner than Jessica uttered those words than her thrusters were already shrieking at full power, wrenching her away from the airspace she had just been in - and promptly avoiding the many, many rounds that pierced through it. Her eyesight glided across her HUD, locking onto various hardpoints she could see on the mechanical monster that had been a cargo plane - all before simply triggering every missile she had.
She felt the Thunderbolt's frame rocket back as the last of her missile banks were depleted - and she was already away and flying as the storm of missiles were barreling towards the last standing Westphalian airmech. Most were already beginning to get picked out of the sky by the smaller caliber weapons bolted onto it - but that was not Jessica's aim here.
Thunderbolt's all about storms, tornados even! Water spouts are a thing, so-!
The Thunderbolt's stabilizers adjusted one last time - and then the Thunderbolt simply wasn't there, a displaced pocket of air being the only evidence it had been.
[THRUSTERS AT 80%]
The Thunderbolt ripped above the waterline, sending waves of concerning height crashing against the oil platform - she winced as some of the Jackals were attaching hooklines between their frames and the platform itself, but she forced herself to keep going.
[THRUSTERS AT 90%]
By the time the missiles had been destroyed, the monster above had turned down - and was immediately slammed with an errant blast of electricity. Waves the size of industrial cranes were starting to fly upwards into the sky, with more and more beginning to form a funnel-like structure. Electric power arced between water droplets as the source of it all spun faster, faster, faster still around the base of the monster.
[THRUSTERS AT 100%-]
[THRUSTERS AT 101%-]
[THRUSTERS AT ERR-]
The Thunderbolt could feel the monster's ordnance attempt to pierce through the barrier - but water and wind proved to be one of the greatest forms of armor. As more and more water began to slam into the robot, it rapidly found basic movements to be beyond its capability as the high velocity winds cut directly into its frame. Scraps of armor, circuitry, and joints soon joined the artificial storm swirling around it. The engines holding it aloft began to spark, and plumes of smoke from abrupt explosions were immediately swept away in the circling storm.
The C-Crystal gleamed like a lighthouse on Jessica's chest as she roared.
"Buster Cannon!"
Okay, it wasn't the most inspired name, but that's what you get when you forget to set a name before the fight!
Ichiro grinned behind his faceplate as parts of his armor reassembled itself around his tank cannon arm. Parts of the armor pack twisted and turned, forming around the cannon as it created something almost resembling the Arc Cannon. Gripping onto the newly created handles, the newly christened Buster Cannon was already venting exhaust as he brought it to bear -
- and smashed yet another of the grasping legs by the joint, shattering it into so many fine particulates as he slammed the barrel into the now vulnerable portside. "Boom!"
The cannon didn't disappoint - and a bright pink flash of energy outright melted the armor. Ichiro was sent skidding backwards, the recoil of the blast enough to send him sliding as the disruptive energies he'd unleashed were now tearing through the mech's now vulnerable side. A moment later, a small eruption of energy emerged from the other side, the leftover energies having passed through entirely and vaporizing the unused buildings on the other side of the makeshift drydock.
"Alright, time to finish this!" The mech stumbled groggily towards Ichiro - but ultimately was unable to maintain its weight or balance. Ichiro merely helped it along by shoulder checking the weakened legs, sending it collapsed onto its side after an almighty crash!
"Show's over!" Ichiro slammed the Buster Cannon directly at the wounds he'd already caused, the cannon barrel already glowing. "Buster Cannon! Maximum!"
Despite the fearsome forces of nature she'd unleashed, Jessica found the winds no barrier to her movement. The Thunderbolt was softly glowing, a sharp contrast to the devastating whirlwinds holding the cargo hybrid in place.
Cut power!
At once, the engines cut down to 50% - and the storms wrenching the water into the artificial tornado ceased. But even as the storms began to cease, and as gravity took over, bringing the now wrecked monstrosity back down to water level, the Thunderbolt was already rising, its fist reared back as electric power already crackled and concentrated around it.
"RISING-!"
The winds seemed to slam against each combatant at both ends, bringing the inevitable strike a closer, and immediate, end. What little camera optics remained on the mechanical construct stared dully at the oncoming fist, possibly realizing its impending demise.
"-CRASH!"
Below, a bright flash of light.
Above, a crash of lightning and metal.
Twin storms of power flared for a brief moment, before absolute silence settled onto the impromptu battlefield.
At least until the moment was ruined.
"...I'm not lugging that thing up the elevator."
"Forget the elevator, I'm not swimming down there to pick that up!"
Either way. Someone is going to have to go down and retrieve that thing if the DFRI want's it to turn into another chassis for the T-Rex to combine with.
Now another question is, what can we do with this? It was an option for our base, and even if all we do is strip it for evidence and tech samples, I loathe just leaving it be and letting it potentially back into Westphalian hands.
We could set up this place as an aquatic research and assembly bay for the DFRI, but do we have enough spare personnel under our command to do so?
Maybe General Peters has some ideas of who can man this place. Do we trust the Naval Defense Force, if they have a burgeoning Super Robot program, to set up shop here? It would be a delegation option to build aquatic-capable mechs.
The biggest priority over the mech-wrecks or the base itself is figuring out their teleportation stuff, since that's what they've been using to pull so much BS across the world under our noses.
Now another question is, what can we do with this? It was an option for our base, and even if all we do is strip it for evidence and tech samples, I loathe just leaving it be and letting it potentially back into Westphalian hands.
It's probably nothing. I'm going to bet that Beowulf has been self-aware for a while now. Perseus, comparatively, is more conspicuous than his older brother because of the Psychic Theater.
Off of the top of my head, it will serve as a potential base for a Super Robot satellite program, or at least given to the Naval Defense Forces. You all will get some say in swaying it one way or the other, but the decision-making authority is above your heads.
Post will likely come on the weekend. For anyone on the east coast, hope you all got through this week's crazy weather alright, stay safe out there.
So on the one hand: I've been radio silent for the last month because I had some pretty hectic work schedules that combined into a 'we're constantly on fire' mentality.
On the other hand: I live! But I do owe you all a post. The next turn post might be a bit, since it's the first turn post you've had for awhile, so I'll make up for it in the meantime with an omake.
