Super Robot Quest

Basarin · Oct 21, 2021

0844, 5 October A.D. 2072
Proving Grounds

"C'mon! Put your backs into it!" Charlie skids to a halt, his Jackal alt form already revving its engines for another. "Gotta get it done perfect like this time!"

"Perfect, or good enough?" Iris quietly asks back.

"Is perfect even a thing?" Frankie chimes in. "I mean-"

The tangent-led conversation is disrupted as all three scatter, a high explosive round impacting the dirt only a scant few hundred meters away from them. The training line of Bulwarks creeping in on their location were beginning to zero in on their targeting - deliberately throttled back, or they would have been taking rounds much, much sooner than this.

"Okay, uh, Charlie?" Frankie Configures into his mecha form - his visor-covered eyes reveal a few dents and cracks, leaving the whole assembly to take on a fragmented look. "Maybe let's not split up this time?"

"We could lure them into a choke point," Iris points out.

"Yeah, well-"

Haruko switches off the audio feed, and turns to you. "This has been their dynamic since I started," she admits. "They work well together, but their personalities are taking time to...work well together without the lengthy discussions."

"So basically they're being siblings trying to figure this out," you snort. Haruko just shrugs, but she doesn't deny it either. "Alright. Keep me posted on it."

One Turn Remaining.

The kaiju that has been lurking near Japan has begun to lash out. Yet almost always, it is avoiding Defense Force assets like the plague. Not once has it made landfall, not even towards port assets - yet a patrol boat fleet here, the odd destroyer there, are apparently fair game. No one has died yet, thankfully, but the drydocks in and around the Pacific District are starting to show vessels with plenty of wear and tear with them.

Diana is of the opinion that the kaiju is sizing up...something in Japan. Charitably, the attacks on the patrols could be attributed to wanting to bleed out the local defenses, but that also doesn't seem to make a lot of sense either - Sheol has to know that even with an alien warship wandering around in high orbit somewhere, you still have access to satellite footage.

But what is worrying Diana - and by extension, yourself - are two things.

One: You've gotten additional visuals on the kaiju. Something about it seems...off. Not even in the normal way in which the damned things look somewhat similar to earth reptiles or dinosaurs. There's something oddly humanoid about it, yet it still navigates the ocean waters as gracefully as any seaborne kaiju would. Combined with its restraint, that's already enough to worry about.

Two: Diana's pinpointed enough of its recent locations, and she grimly shows you where its recent sightings have taken it. No longer is it poking and prodding at all of Japan's coasts. It's probing at a wide, but shrinking, area along one particular part of the central-north coast.

Kyoto.

You have every reason to believe now that the Yukimura Institute may be directly receiving uninvited guests. The only good thing about this is that you have this warning at all.

New type of kaiju spotted. Potential attack on the Yukimura Institute suspected. New Liaison Action, new Deployment Action Unlocked.

1200, 9 October A.D. 2072
Command Center

You just stare at Adriana's avatar.

Adriana just gives a sheepish grin.

You then turn your stare towards Erika Drake. The young woman is dressed in something that looks like a throwback to early twentieth century pilot's gear. Brown leather jacket and pants, a brightly colored scarf, and a cap with goggles hanging from her neck. That, and a holster still holding a freshly used firearm.

Her butler, Patrick, starts things off. "Apologies for the nature of this call, sir," he opens smoothly. This sounds like it has way too much use to be an off the cuff thing - you wonder if he's had to do this with Mander. I'd lose that bet. Especially when his suit was boasting bullet grazes and burn marks. "We attempted to reach our own organization, but our quarry is proving to be a tad more bothersome than we anticipated. Luckily, Adriana still retains a direct line to you."

"She does," you agree. You sigh, pinching your nose. "Alright, spill it. What is it this time? Kaiju? Westphalian?"

"Both."

"What?"

"Yup, boss. Both. Had to parse that one out, but they're both here."

"Compliments where it's due," Erika adds, somewhat begrudgingly. "Your girl here is incredibly persistent."

"Putting it lightly, but go on." You reach for the coffee carafe again - you already feel tired and it's only just hitting lunchtime.

"So, it's like this - at first, we didn't find anyone. Then we did! We totally did! Found someone super sketchy, but then he was just passing on a message to someone else - and then we found someone super scaly they were communicating with locally! 's why you shouldn't use '12345' for a password, don'tcha know, 's how I found the digital trail, and then-!"

You hold up a hand, and Adriana pulls herself back. She does look like she's pouting a bit at being cut off, but you just need the summarized version. You turn to Patrick. "You all found Westphalian and kaiju agents. How did this result in a fight?"

"One of them panicked," he replies. "Simple as that, I'm afraid. This is not uncommon in our work, I might add."

"I'd wager the next round that they're trading for something," Erika says. "They're being unusually cagey about it, even for the Westphalian blokes. Fairly sure something's going to go pearshaped soon enough. They're going to regroup and try again, but I will crash that party."

"Time estimate?"

"They'll lay low, maybe about a month or so. At least, the Westphalians will. No clue what the lizard blokes are going to do."

Great. You've had a period of not having to deal with kaiju, and now you have two instances of it.

Some sort of technology or material exchange is going on between Westphalia and Dr. Sheol. Youmay have a month or two before the deal wraps up, but there's a level of unpredictability here. New Liaison Action, new Deployment Action Unlocked.

0250, 10 October A.D. 2072
Engineering Bay

"Just once," Lana grumbled. "Just once, I want a design that doesn't fight me the whole way!"

"'s called inspiration, shorty," a tired mumble replied back.

"Shut it, clown. Why are you even awake right now anyway?"

"Because I had a brainwave. Kinda surfed it. Wasn't sure where it was going."

"Anything halfway decent?"

"Something like that. Got the data I needed." Jiro yawned - and Lana spotted a pile of coffee cans piled up behind him. For a moment, she wondered if this was just Major Devin in disguise, then she discarded the ridiculous notion immediately. He certainly looked like he wasn't getting much sleep - his hair was even more disheveled, and his eyes were somewhat bloodshot.

"What's it involve?"

"Enough for me to figure out that maybe...uh, maybe..." Jiro yawned again. "...maybe the whole Steed probably is wasting a little space. Something..." He rustled through his notes. "...something about combining the K-Suit and the Steed armor idea and going with that instead. Or something. I dunno. I'll look at it in the morning."

"Wish I had it that easy," Lana grumbled. "The Sledder idea is supposed to be designed as a combining support unit from the ground up. Do you have any idea how long it's going to take to make sure at least 75% of potential combinations could be feasible before even seeing wat the combinations are!?"

Five seconds passed without a response. Lana looked up, and Jiro was already slumped over his desk, already drooling absentmindedly as snores rivaling a sawmill began to fill the room. "Oh, good grief," she grumbled to herself again. "How do humans deal with having to sleep all the time?"

There was at least a note about the Marine Expeditionary Force that was left on digits. The Seekers had become a smash hit, and the very first unit was to be on loan to the Institute for the foreseeable future. At least there was one of Lana's designs that seemed to have ironed all of the issues out - if only this one cooperated!

Jiro has managed to complete the standardization! New Practical Applications Actions Unlocked. New Support Unit, 25th Marine Air Wing, added to roster!

Lana is brute forcing it, but she's making some progress. One Turn Remaining!

1900, 13 October A.D. 2072
The Lair

More taskings. Not nearly enough qualified personnel - flesh or code - to do them all. Having already acknowledged that this starting to become a bottleneck, you tap into Ignatov's team to try and bring another AI up and running. What surprises you - and what surprises Ignatov as well - was that you don't need to scan to incubate new AI personalities.

Beneath everyone's notice, a small community of AI personalities has started to develop in one of the servers.

The new AIs are still somewhat blank slates - but they're already starting to develop quirks and character. Naturally, they started with observing the Novgorod team, but soon their curiosity started to expand to other parts of the network - and by now, you're pretty sure there's not a single part of the Institute that hasn't been observed by the AIs. Even the siblings are surprised by this - and the one sibling that might have caught onto it was streaming off-network helping out Drake.

Ignatov wants to do some more vetting of the personalities, but so far, it all seems to be a relatively benign development. In fact, he's already seeing some code inside that might just fit the tasks you're looking for. The only question is, which one?

You've got AIs starting to develop on their own inside of the base. Intriguing. The only question is: which one looks like a good fit for helping out?

[] One AI personality is already proving to be somewhat brash and headstrong, but eager to learn. (Unknown; chance for potential added d6 on rolls)

[] Another AI personality is proving to be incredibly fussy and precise about just about everything. (Unknown; chance for reducing challenge thresholds)

[] Finally, there's one AI personality that's just...slightly off. Granted, by the Institute's mad science standards it's fairly standard. (Unknown; chances for random benefits)

Three Turns Remaining.

The Build Team are much more ecstatic about this project, even if Anthony fully admits that the Heat Knife was a much more engaging use of their time than he initially expected. The Kausen Energy Blaster package for the Heavy Weapons System is about as classic as it gets for the Institute's armory, dating back to the initial fight against Bandit and the Beowulf's trial by fire.

The mechanism - a giant man portable launcher sized up to a Super Robot's scale - stays the same. The internals are simply ripped out, and the heavy artillery-like method of delivery is replaced with circuitry and slots that can accept low-grade Energy Shards or pre-packaged 'cartridges' instead.

Admittedly, this is going to take a tiny bit longer to make than a Heat Knife. One, because it does take awhile to make sure it won't pull a Bandit and explode in the user's face.

Second, because Greg swears they need to do extensive testing and quality control. They're not just goofing off and firing it constantly at the range to test the melting point of certain metal targets.

Clearly.

One Turn Remaining.

They're professionals, they're just testing, they swear.

2210, 14 October A.D. 2072
Engineering Bay

"...huh." Wilde removed his eye protection as the bright lights finally dissipated. "That was intense."

"Just a little," Henry agreed. "Think it started to go slightly wrong at that first hair fracture."

"The data is promising, though!" Katarina chimes in. "This one didn't work, but I think we don't have to worry about an analogue power adapter anymore!"

The floor was littered with crystal fragments, all sharing that strange dark purple and pink color that Mary's samples seemed to share. Stepping carefully around the broken Faedium fragments, Henry kneels next to the wreckage of the crystal chamber. "Katarina, high speed replay, please."

Wilde joined Henry as Katarina's avatar brought up a replay sequence of the test. The Faedium surged with power as all three engines poured electricity into the crystal. A bright purple light, almost blinding in intensity, glares the whole display out until -

"Ah-ah-ah, there it is," Wilde pointed. "Stop." The recording halted - and Katarina obligingly pointed towards the hairline fracture that was forming at the edge. "That's it."

"It's taking in energy no problem - but it's not discharging energy fast enough," Katarina noted. "No wonder it broke like that."

"Pretty sure Mary'll be happy with the data," Henry commented. "We just need to find a better way to distribute the power more efficiently."

"Think we could dust off the universal adapter some?" Wilde asked.

"Combined with whatever else Mary can produce?" Henry replied. "I don't see why not."

Faedium is a strong candidate for combined formations. Two Turns Remaining. One Turn removed from Faedium requirement!

"Sam here! Happy to report that psychic augmentation of K-Class Materials is kind of - sort of - maybe - back on track!"

"So! Here's the issue - volume. Is K-Class malleable enough that psychic energies can change some properties? ABSOLUTELY. We were - with some finagling - able to induce some added properties to a K-Fang prototype. For about two seconds, we were able to set it on fire with our brains."

"Problem: one person does not have nearly enough psychic power to make that happen by his or herself. You need lots of people for this. At least, with our current understanding of the psychic phenomena, we need at least a literal theater troop to make this work. And you can expect everyone to have a raging hangover by the time they're done, only this time they actually want the alcoholic beverages rather than suffering from them."

"Is it possible? Physically, yes. Can we make use of it right this second? Not really. But I have ideas for this!"

"Sam Carlson, we're done here."

Nothing you can use yet, but it's possible to affect changes onto K-Class Materials. New ESP Actions Unlocked.

According to Max, the Empathic Booster is not exactly reliable. It's hard to get standardized tests on fleeting things like emotions apparently - either you're calm and fine, or you're panicking or angry but possibly putting up a very good poker face. Either way, she's concluded that the Booster, while it latches onto positive or productive emotions, tends to only really have a tangible effect at extreme ranges. Irritatingly, that can either be consistent with one personality, or quite rare in others.

She's looking into setting up a 'net' of sorts, to catch those moments of intensity. And given that the Steeds are becoming the standard fixture of all super robots - at least for now - she's making plans to work with Jiro to make that a reality.

One Turn Remaining.

Ivanna, on the other hand, is somewhat miserable. The Anti-Gravity solution is just not cooperating with her. In attempting to free up more space aboard the Pegasus, she tried to conduct a layered 'shelving' system to include more and more room for frames. What ended up happening, well, you're still not sure. She deleted the footage and adamantly refused to answer any questions about why tools were floating off into the ceiling beyond 'I don't want to talk about it.'

She still has some time to give it another try, but it seems you're stuck with the one Super Robot core unit and some change with the support units for now.

Not great results. One Turn Remaining.

0633, 19 October A.D. 2072
Xenotechnology Labs

Zulu presents to you something that looks, for lack of a better word, 'blocky.' It very much looks like a gun, but in attempting to meld Kausen and human design aspects, it comes across looking like a blunt instrument. "Kaus energy weapon. Self defense mostly," Zulu explains. "Not military grade by Mekaen standards."

He takes another block, and slams it into the end of the weapon - and abruptly the whole thing flares to life, a soft, red glow emanating along the edges and from the barrel. "Current model - modest firepower, by Mekaen standards."

Zulu then hefts the weapon, which latches onto his forearm, and he fires down the improvised range. The solid block of titanium he'd set aside as the target shudders as the energy round impacts, sending it tumbling down against the wall. Some parts of the block have clearly melted, while others are just showing blackened singes.

"Not fit for the Super Robot," he concludes. "However: more than sufficient for supporting units."

You nod - he'd already explained that all it really needed were some of the Energy Shard 'shavings' that weren't fit for consumption or use. The likes of the Beowulf probably was already stronger than what this provided, but that wasn't the point. The likes of the Jackals, the Centurions, or the Phalanxes?

Well, the added help just became that much more deadly. And Zulu's convinced there's even more he could do with this given the time and resources.

You don't even mind that he decided that he wanted to keep the prototype. "This weapon: mine," indeed. You figure he's earned it.

A new firearm type has been developed for the Support Units! Will require minimal effort from Engineering to fit the support units. New Practical Applications Action Unlocked. New Xenotechnology Action Unlocked.

Mary is positively ecstatic.

Or at least you think she is. She's always so monotone, it's honestly hard to tell.

But from what you can tell, she's gotten a lot of good data from the attempted use of the Faedium crystals in the Beowulf's theoretical triple combination. "Stress tolerances can be a tricky thing to gauge," she tells you. "Or at least, if I was being cautious about resources or damaging equipment. Clearly, the Engineers have very little regard for their own well being, so I am getting plenty of data on how far I can push the crystals before they explode violently."

The sad thing is, you're pretty sure Wilde would agree. Henry would probably just smack the other upside the head.

Still, strange tangents aside, it has given her enough data to form the basic Faedium crystal. A fist sized jewel that, at present time, can hold enough power to fuel a Beowulf-class Jackal, its Shepherd and the Falcon unit for at least two hours...albeit, if they were being powered separately. Combined is still a tricky proposition.

But even so, it seems that Mary's set her sights on the Beowulf for future testing. Wilde and Henry have given her ideas...

Complete! Thanks to Wilde and Henry's use of the prototype and their own disregard for personal safety (apparently), Mary was able to complete her Faedium experiments ahead of schedule!

New Faedium Actions Unlocked! New Action in support of Triple Combination Unlocked!

Basarin · Oct 24, 2021

2215, 3 November A.D. 2072
Unity Station

"...so in short, now is the time when things decided to set themselves aflame?" Peters asked.

Devin's avatar on the sat-link grimaced, but he didn't shy away from answering. "That about sums it up, ma'am," he admitted glumly. "I've got one situation that will possibly keep for a month, maybe more if I'm lucky. But we've got an intelligent and patient kaiju that's estimated to make landfall sometime this month onto Kyoto. Chances are, I'm going to lend support - losing Mercury V's not something we can afford."

"Honestly, this works just as well," Peters mused. "It's a little earlier than I was going to ask you to do, but this could lay the groundwork for it later. Assuming you succeed, that is." At Devin's questioning glance, she added, "If you can't beat them, ask them to join. I had some thoughts about formalizing the current agreements you seem to be striking with the other groups, but that will have to wait."

"Anything else for now then ma'am?" When she shook her head, Devin cut the link.

"Awfully in a rush he is," she muttered. She glanced down further onto her notes. Yes, if they could build on the goodwill the Major was developing with the others - even the dreaded 'Ground Pound,' from which she was hearing so many interesting things now - they could have something special emerge soon.

She might need to muse another name, however. 'Super Robot Defense Corps' was a bit of a mouthful after all...

OOC: The Defense Force options focuses on a few key items:

- Pilot Training - Exactly as it sounds. There will be options to increase and/or refine the capabilities of your pilots.

- Super Robot Deployments - Also exactly as it sounds. Every so often there will be an opportunity that materializes, and your teams will have the opportunity to get involved. There will be a mini-turn after the main turn's decisions and rolls have completed, giving you a broader picture of what's going on - and if any Situations need to be prepared for the next turn.

- Defense Force Network Monitoring - More or less how you determine if something requires your Super Robots' attention or not. The Reaction Force will give you updates as to what is going on in your immediate area, but this will be elaborated on later.

- Liaisons with Defense Force officials/other Super Robot teams - Narratively, it's always a good idea to stay on friendly terms with your peers. And doing so may unlock new opportunities moving forward...

Haruko Sasaki
- LOCKED - Pilot Training
- If placed in Pilot Training, you may re-roll a failed roll.
- If placed in Liaison, gain 1d6 to your roll.
Diana
- Wherever she is slotted, reduce the Threshold by 1.
Adriana
- If placed in Reaction Force Monitoring, gain chance (at Disadvantage for 1d6) to uncover additional details, regardless of success or failure.

Reaction Force Monitoring
Free Action (does not Require Advisor)
Chance for Detection (Roll for Disadvantage at 1d6, Threshold Unknown)
Can Assign: Sasaki, Diana, Adriana, Katarina (Increase roll to 3d6, Threshold Unknown)
Notes: You are already tapped into the Defense Force Network, so you are always at least passively aware of what's going on in the wider Earth Union. If you leave well enough alone, you may have a chance of something crossing your desk and giving you the option to intervene. If you are actively looking, you are more likely to discover activities of enemy Action, unlocking new opportunities to investigate and pursue.

The results and new options, if any materialize, will be available for selection next turn.

[] Reaction Force: Passive Monitoring - Requires No Advisors
[] Reaction Force: Active Monitoring - (Which Advisor?)

Super Robot Deployments
Free Action (does not Require Advisor)
Requires available Super Robot and Pilot(s)
Requires available transportation (unless specified)
Notes: These will show the hotspots you have identified already that could warrant the attention of the Super Robot teams. These range in severity from something simple (for your teams) to handle, to something that is seen as more catastrophic requiring your attention (such as, say, a Kaiju stomping around downtown).

At the moment, you only have one option available. But it's one that's been hinted at for quite some time!

~~Richard Callaghan/Beowulf~~
- LOCKED, Requires One Turn to recover
SAI-01 Ichiro Banner
Tellison, Zhang/Perseus
Satsuma, Thunderbolt

Refer to this page beneath "Support Available to Deploy."

[] Kyoto - Yukimura Institute
- [] Which Core Unit?
- [] Which Support Units?
- Urgency - IMMINENT
- The kaiju is going to make landfall. You're pretty sure that Mercury V and Hiroki are up to the task - but this kaiju has been showing an odd amount of restraint and patience, two traits you don't like seeing in kaiju. It will likely be making a beeline towards the Yukimuras and Mercury - but your Super Robot can definitely lend a hand.

[] Australia - Blue September
- [] Which Core Unit?
- [] Which Support Units?
- Urgency - Moderate (Estimated 1-3 Turns)
- It seems official - the Westphalians and the kaiju are making a trade of some kind. You have some time before this blows up in your face, but you shouldn't wait for too long. If not because the enemy will bolt, but because Erika will run out of patience and act on her own.

Pilot Training
Requires Advisor
Chance for Success (Roll 2d6, Threshold Varies)
Duration: Two Turns
Can Assign: Sasaki, Diana, Adriana, Katarina
Notes: Exactly as it sounds - whoever is overseeing this particular assignment will be making use of the Proving Grounds and any other particular blend of 'fun' they can come up with. The thresholds for success and the rewards will vary - these can include new abilities, refining existing ones, or an increase in Actions per Round or even team-up attacks for example. One Advisor is required - but you can then place in as many pilots/teams as you wish.

As for the threshold for each team and pilot, you won't quite know until you develop a baseline for them (i.e., putting them through the training initially). As a rule of thumb, new and inexperienced pilots are relatively easier to help improve, while the more experienced ones have somewhat diminishing returns. Experience roughly corresponds to Green, Inexperienced, Experienced, Veteran, Ace. The less experienced they are, the easier it is for them to learn and gain bonuses - but said bonuses will be quite modest. The higher in experience they are, the harder it is for old dogs to learn new tricks - but if they succeed, the results will speak for themselves.

A pilot or team can be pulled from training for combat - however, it will delay the duration by one turn.

Experience is gained from

~~[] Pilot Training: Richard Callaghan/Beowulf (Which Advisor?)~~
- Experienced, Threshold of 5-6
- LOCKED, Requires One Turn to recover
[] Pilot Training: SAI-01 Ichiro Banner
- Which Advisor?
- Inexperienced, Threshold of 4-6
[] Pilot Training: Tellison, Zhang/Perseus
- Which Advisor?
- Inexperienced, Threshold of 4-6
[] Pilot Training: Charlie, Frankie, Iris
- Which Advisor?
- Green, Threshold of 3-6

Liaison Duties
Requires Advisor
Chance for Success (Roll 2d6, Threshold Varies)
Notes: This mostly applies to other elements in the Defense Forces, the other Super Robot Teams and the Legion. Failing these rolls does not necessarily reflect worsening relations, but just mostly that whatever you were setting out to do didn't produce the results you were aiming for (such as cooperating to track down a particular target). Each Liaison also has their own agenda in particular, and depending on if you're successful in fostering cooperation with them, different targets of opportunities for the Super Robots will appear for follow on deployments.

Each Liaison will have a Baseline Threshold. In a vacuum, and if no other factors are in play, this is what you would require to succeed to cooperate with them. However, other factors (busy with their own agenda, recent events influencing positive or negative behavior towards you, etc) will modify the Threshold as well. For this turn, no other factors are in play just yet (with one well known exception). Expect that to change soon.

[] Liaison: General Li/GDF
- [] Which Advisor?
- Relations: Neutral
- Baseline Threshold: Moderate (5-6)
- You're not exactly close with the Ground Defense Force general, but there is no doubt that General Li greatly appreciated being the first to field the Centurions. It could be worth your while to follow up and see how they're doing, or if there's anything else that needs doing.

[] Liaison: Colonel Kim/FRC
- [] Which Advisor?
- Relations: Friendly
- Baseline Threshold: Simple (4-6)
- The Jackals have by now become ubiquitous across the North American District, and more are being seen being produced and fielded elsewhere. Colonel Kim's enthusiastic endorsement of the frames were partially responsible for that - it could be worthwhile to check in, and see if he's uncovered anything that you can use.

[] Liaison: Colonel Bernard/MEF
- [] Which Advisor?
- Relations: Neutral
- Baseline Threshold: Moderate (5-6)
- Awkward first meetings over San Diego and the Falcon aside, you and the Marine Expeditionary Forces officer get on just fine. Now that you have some of them on retainer as well, it's only courteous to keep him updated on how things are going.

[] Liaison: Captain Dana Candle/NDF
- [] Which Advisor?
- Relations: Neutral, leaning towards Friendly
- Baseline Threshold: Moderate (4-6)
- Candler has been making good progress in becoming an independent...task force. Or something. You're not sure of the terminology the Naval Defense Force hats are going to use just yet. Given that you have some upcoming emergencies, see if she might be willing to lend a hand...but you may end up in the unenviable position of owing another favor to someone.

[] Liaison: Dr. Yukimura/Yukimura Institute
- [] Which Advisor?
- Relations: Friendly, leaning towards Close
- Baseline Threshold: Moderate (5-6)
- There's no way Yukimura doesn't realize that there's another kaiju out for his and Mercury's blood. But extending some kind of warning might not go amiss - especially if you choose to not deploy in Japan this month.

[] Liaison: Mander/MSS
- [] Which Advisor?
- Relations: Neutral, leaning towards Friendly
- Baseline Threshold: Moderate (5-6)
- Note: You owe them a favor (Deployment #3)
- Mander is well aware of Erika's gallivanting. If you choose to cooperate with Erika to take down the plot that's brewing down there, might be prudent to open a dialogue out of courtesy.

[] Liaison: Galbinus-R/Legio Galbinus
- [] Which Advisor?
- Relations: Warm, Allies
- Baseline Threshold: Simple (4-6)
- The DFRI and the Legion get on like a house on fire. After saving Cavalier, building the Enclave and helping them with Variable Configuration, you are as close as can be with Galbinus and his crew. Why not check in with your friends from the stars and see what else needs doing?

[] Liaison: Major Lenora Jenkins/Ground Pound
- [] Which Advisor?
- Relations: Friendly
- Baseline Threshold: Moderate (5-6)
- It's been a few months since you've heard back from Jenkins. Assuming that the Fulgur Particles or the nanomachines haven't eaten them all just yet, it might be time to see what's changed since you checked in on them.

[X] Pilot Training - Argonauts
- LOCKED - Haruko Sasaki
- Chance for Success (Roll 2d6, Threshold of 3-6)
- Duration: One Turn Remaining

OOC: Engineering is both the same and a little different from before. Some notes to consider for you all:

- Engineering's short term focuses revolve around upgrades for the existing Super Robots. For example, Ichiro has just returned from combat somewhat battered, and he will need at least one turn of downtime to be back up to fighting trim. Once he's fully repaired, you can then look to give him some permanent upgrades.

- Practical Application of the new technologies you have researched remain a classic option. When the Science Department unlocks the secrets of a new technology, it still falls to Engineering to find a practical use for it (see: K-Scale). As always, this is a matter of time (turns) and successes (rolls). This covers prototyping new designs (or variations of existing ones) and effectively building the new Super Robots via this action, or new weapon or equipment designs.

- Super AI Development is still an option, but this usually remains a very long-term project (such as it was with the AI Sisters and Delphi). They are either base support Advisers, or Super Robot AI - either way, this results in a new character (hence the care taken in developing them).

- Item Construction is a new option for you all. In a vein similar to the one-shot Zirvitium knuckle dusters and the Shard Kit, you can dedicate a few turns to constructing a ready-made arsenal and toolkit set for your Super Robots deploying to battle.

- As always, the most recent list of everything you have researched thus far is referred to on this page.

Wilde and Henry
- LOCKED - Triple Combination - Prototyping
- If assigned to Practical Applications, gain 1d6 to rolls.
- If assigned to Construct Super Robot, reduce Duration by One Turn.
The Build Team
- LOCKED - Item Fabrication
- Can only be assigned to Item Fabrication.
Lana
- LOCKED - Construct Super Robot Support - Sledder
- If assigned to Refit Super Robot, roll 2d6 (Threshold of 5-6). On success, reduce the Duration by One Turn.
- Lana may offer a re-roll to any failed Engineering roll. Only applies once per turn.
Jiro Yukimura
- If assigned to Practical Applications (and Design Super Robot or Design Support), gain 1d6 per roll.
- Critical Success is now 4-6 (applicable depending on Success Threshold). Applies ONLY to Jiro's assigned Action.
Boris Ignatov
- LOCKED - General Base AI Development
- Threshold for success on AI or Kaus Actions is reduced by One.

Refit Super Robot
Requires Advisor
Duration: One Turn minimum (more extensive upgrades may increase Duration)
Notes: Exactly as it sounds, this will provide upgrades from your existing technology and equipment to a given Super Robot. For 'minor' upgrades such as ZIrvitium Plating or Anti-Gravity Solution, this would only take one turn. However, fitting a Super Robot with more internal upgrades such as K-Circuits or outfitting it to enable the Psychic Theater will take longer. Refitting the unit for Combination would take even longer, and so forth.

Fitting a Super Robot with new weapons, unless specified, is generally a simple process that does not require extensive refits.

Note: You can choose to Upgrade a Super Robot even if it is currently undergoing repairs. The upgrades will finish alongside repair completion.

[] Refit Super Robot
- [] Which Super Robot?
- [] Which Upgrades?
- [] Which Advisor?

[] My Kingdom for a Steed
- [] Which Advisor?
- [] Which Super Robot?
- Duration: One Turn
- Will grant additional HP, additional unknown benefits to refit Super Robot
- Must be Human pilot(s)
- The Steeds can now be retrofitted to the existing Super Robot lineup. However, this is definitely something you may wish to wait on until things calm down just a tiny bit.

Practical Applications
Requires Advisor
Chance for Success (Roll 2d6, Threshold Varies)
Duration: Varies (Two Turn Minimum)
Notes: Once a new design concept is fresh off of the researchers' plates, it is up to Engineering to figure out a practical way to manufacture something useful out of it. This also folds in the original 'Experimental' suite of actions, so I decided to fold these all into the same group. This can cover everything from designing and prototyping new Super Robot/Support designs, to new weapons with existing technologies (Dispersion, Zirvitium, etc.).

[] Design Super Robot Core Unit
- [] What is the Design Concept?
- [] Which Advisor?
- Chance of Success (Roll 2d6, Threshold Varies)
- Duration: Two Turns+

[] Construct Super Robot Support Unit(s)
- [] What is the Design Concept?
- [] Which Advisor?
- Chance of Success (Roll 2d6, Threshold Varies)
- Duration: Two Turns+

[] Design New Equipment (Weapon)
- [] What is the Design Concept?
- [] Which Advisor?
- Chance of Success (Roll 2d6, Threshold Varies)
- Duration: Two Turns+

[] Funnel Development
- [] Which Advisor?
- The Funnel Concept does work. However, it still has quite a few restrictions that limits its current usefulness. Some new technology may become readily available for use in development, but it's not there yet. Work with the understanding that you have, and see how much further you can practically take this. Who knows? You might have made an impromptu boomerang to start with, or something.
- Chance of Success (Roll 2d6, Threshold Unknown)
- Duration: Three to Five Turns

[] Even More Gun
- [] Which Advisor?
- Bandit's customized blaster, as it turned out, was nothing more than just adding even more bits of blaster together to get more blaster-y. At least, those were the terms that Wilde used - Henry clarifies as usual, pointing out that Bandit basically welded several Kaus blaster components to gain a greater yield of firepower. What's noteworthy about it is the fact that it didn't just overload and explode on him, while also giving him the general firepower of a heavy blaster. It's entirely possible that the support units could get a boost in their firearms - though nothing nearly so overlocked as Bandit's. You have safety standards, after all.
- Chance of Success (Roll 2d6, Threshold Unknown)
- Duration: Two Turns+

[] Head or Heart of the Matter
- [] Which Advisor?
- In what is now fairly common for Jiro, he came across an idea in one of his fever dream rushes of development and made some progress on it. What if the K-Suit could be adapted to become an even smaller configurable vehicle? Or even form the head (albeit with more than sufficient armor) or core of the chest? Jiro's notes admits that this is probably a little beyond reach right now, but in future this could become a possibility...
- Chance of Success (Roll 2d6, Threshold Unknown)
- Duration: Three Turns+

Equipment Fabrication
Requires Advisor
Duration: One to Two Turns (Varies)
Notes: This does not cover weapons or the solid heavy equipment. This specifically covers the one-shot use items such as Ichiro's Knuckle Dusters and the Shard Kit, useful items that the Super Robots may need to level the fight in their favor. These are relatively quick to fabricate, but it is always worthwhile to have a ready made stock.

[] Equipment Fabrication
- [] Which Item?
- [] Which Advisor?
- "If you ever need to know what you can order us to make, boss, just refer here. This is an ongoing thing, but depending on what else the crazies at the research department can come up with, we'll have more options available to us."

Super AI Development
Requires Advisor
Chance of Success (Roll 2d6, Threshold Varies)
Duration: Four Turns Minimum (Varies)
Notes: If you want to develop a new Base or Super Robot AI, this is the option to do so in. As you've witnessed before, developing an AI is not an easy or short process - you will need to have in mind what you want them to do before you start.

[] Base AI Development
- [] What do you want the Advisor to do?
- [] Which Advisor?
- Chance of Success (Roll 2d6, Threshold of 6)
- Duration: Four Turns+

[] Super Robot AI Development
- [] What do you want the pilot to be?
- [] Which Advisor?
- Chance of Success (Roll 2d6, Threshold of 5-6)
- Duration: Four Turns+

[] Pooling Research - Drone Support
- [] Which Advisor?
- Boris's study of the Drones has given him some ideas about potentially coopting the technology behind the Drones for the Institute's own ends. Naturally, he's not going to even think about going for the semi-lobotomized nature of the Free Brothers' hordes - Zulu is already an uncomfortable enough example of what that entails. However, could we create our own Drones with the added capacity to learn and grow? Not only could this lead to additional help, this may help ease the introduction of the Super AI concept to the wider Union with healthy, well adjusted citizens...or at least, as well adjusted as the DFRI allows.
- Chance of Success (Roll 3d6, Threshold Unknown)
- Duration: Three Turns+

- Though Ignatov assures you that he and his team can oversee the development of new AI, he won't be able to give you more specifics on time and chances of success until some rough parameters and expectations are given. As you currently are well enough staffed in pilots and Base AI personalities, this is not a pressing matter at the moment. It's still good to know you have this available as an option though.

Enemy Wreckage Analysis
Requires Advisor
Chance of Success (Roll 2d6, Threshold of 5-6)
Duration: One Turn
Notes: The wreckage available for study are:
- Beast Mega Blaster

[] Enemy Wreckage Analysis
- [] Which Advisor?
- Chance of Success (Roll 2d6, Threshold of 5-6)
- Duration: One Turn

[X] Construct Super Robot Support Unit
- [X] Sledder
- LOCKED - Lana
- "I'll get this damned thing to work if it's the last thing I do!" Considering all the anguish Super Robot designs seem to be giving her, all Lana is missing is a North American football that constantly gets yanked away just before the kickoff...
- Chance of Success (Roll 2d6, Threshold of 6)
- Duration: One Turns Remain

[X] Triple Combination - Prototyping
- LOCKED - Wilde and Henry
- Faedium is apparently in. Wilde and Henry have blessed off on the new material as the next step forward in getting around the power incompatibility issues that taking different power sources and engines poses. There's now just the matter of additional testing - how far can they take it? Now comes the iffy part - the optimal place to install the crystal.
- [] Faedium is proven to work, albeit it's still a bit unstable. But Wilde is convinced we can proceed to scale tests now. The Beowulf is the core of the Combination - so let's install a fully fabricated Faedium Crystal inside a Jackal and see how this works. (Chance to complete now; roll 2d6, Threshold Unknown)
- [] Henry is a bit more cautious, and wants to conduct some more stress tests in a controlled environment before they slap a Faedium Crystal into a test model Jackal. (roll 3d6, Threshold of 6)
- Duration: Two Turns Remaining

[X] Fabrication - Energy Blaster
- LOCKED - Build Team
- Duration: One Turn Remaining

[X] General Base AI Development
- LOCKED - Boris
- Chance of Success (roll 2d6, Threshold of 6 5-6)
- Duration: Three Turns Remaining
- Current personality: Fussy, Precise

SCIENCE.

That said, not much has changed on these options. They are still broken down between specific new projects, and the broader categories of ESP Theory, Kaiju Biotechnology, Xeno Technology, and any remaining gifts of the Regent left on the docket.

SAM CARLSON
- If assigned to ESP Theory or Kaiju Biotechnology, reduce the Threshold for Success by 1.
Max Brand
- LOCKED - Empathic Booster
- If assigned to Xeno Technology, you may add 1d6.
Ivanna
- You may re-roll any failed Science roll once per turn.
Zulu
- If assigned to Xeno Technology, you may add +2 to the value of the lowest rolled d6.
Mary McCullough
- Critical Successes explode. (The dice, that is, not her experiments. Usually.)

ESP Theory
Requires Advisor
Chance for Success (roll 2d6, Threshold Varies)
Duration: Varies
Notes: You've pushed ESP Theory pretty far, and Sam can be reliably marked as the top expert (and probably the only expert) in the field. The Man-Machine Interface, the Psychic Theater, and the initial forays into altering K-Class Materials - all are still viable options to pursue as well. Your options will vary, but write in what angle you want to pursue, and the rolls will tell what that develops into.

[] Refine Psychic Theater Principle
- [] Which Advisor?
- [] Write In what you want to pursue
- Chance for Success (roll 2d6, Threshold of 5-6)
- Duration: Two Turns

[] ESP Augmentation Theory
- [] Which Advisor?
- Sam has proven that it's possible for psychich strength to directly affect tangible physical changes to K-Class. It's not dramatic, and the payoff right now is somewhat negligible for the effort required. This is absolutely in its infancy at the moment, and it might not be worth pursuing at this very moment. But it's there, it just needs much more literal brainpower to do anything with than you have the time or resources for right now.
- Chance for Success (roll at Disadvantage (1d6), Threshold Unknown)
- Duration: Three Turns

Kaiju Biotechnology
Requires Advisor
Chance for Success (Roll 2d6, Threshold Varies)
Duration: Varies
Notes: Like ESP Theory, Kaiju Biotechnology (and the resulting K-Class Materials) form the bedrock of your 'super science' powering the Super Robots.

[] Explore K-Fang Development
- [] Which Advisor?
- [] Write In what you want to pursue
- Chance for Success (roll 2d6, Threshold of 6)
- "Sam here! So now that we've actually got viable vats of K-Fang, it's time for some experimentation! We're all here because we have a giant chunk of Dragon's bone, and we want to make a weapon of mass destruction out of it! So! Who's ready to make something ridiculous?"

Xeno Technology
Requires Advisor
Chance for Success (Roll 2d6, Threshold Varies)
Notes: Xeno Technology is a catchall phrase describing all the technology coming from the Kausen and the Regent (C-Crystals are very much counting as Xeno Technology for the purposes of the system). You are only scratching the surface of what both fields have to offer, but Max and Zulu are there to unlock the rest of what these new fields hold.

[] Kausen Equipment
- [] Which Advisor?
- [] Write In what you want to pursue
- Chance for Success (roll 2d6, Threshold of 5-6)
- Duration: Two Turns
- Anti-Gravity. Zirvitium Alloys. The Dispersion Field. Shard Technology. These are all new revolutionary things for humanity, but are at best ho-hum for the Kausen (with exception to the Dispersion Field, which they regard as finnicky at best). You aren't going to outdo them in their own technological fields anytime soon, but Max is confident that you can put your own spin on the technologies and see if you can't surprise the Free Brothers. Preferably with a punch to the face. Repeatedly.

[] C-Crystals
- [] Which Advisor?
- [] Write In what you want to pursue
- Chance for Success (roll at Disadvantage, 1d6, Threshold of 4-6)
- Duration: Two Turns
- The C-Crystal Generator is finished, and the "Master" crystal is safely ensconced in the deepest parts of the Command Center. You can leave well enough alone, but aside from Satsuma's integration wtih the C-Crystal, it may be worthwhile to conduct some additional tests, in case there's something the Regent didn't mention or if there were side effects even it wasn't aware of. Though you have been able to make the generator and it is now fabricating C-Crystals with no difficulties, there's still too much about it you do not know about it, even beyond the 'must be this heroic to use' clause.

[] Blaster Miniaturization - Super Robot Edition
- [] Which Advisor?
- Chance for Success (roll 2d6, Threshold of 5-6)
- Duration: Two Turns
- Breaking down the Drone blasters down to support unit scale has given Zulu some confidence that it's very possible to adapt a much more powerful version down to a 'pistol' sized package for the Super Robot core units. He just needs some time to work on it to determine feasibility.

Faedium
Requires Advisor
Chance for Success (Roll 2d6, Threshold Varies)
Duration: Varies
Notes: Faedium is a new field of mad science that you rescued from obscurity thanks to Max's meet and greet in the late stages of A.D. 2072. Right now, the realm of possibilities extends to power storage and generation - and it is currently key to breaking past the barrier of large scale Combinations. But you haven't even come closer to going past the surface of what could happen.

[] Faedium Research
- [] Which Advisor?
- [] Write In what you want to pursue
- Chance for Success (roll 2d6, Threshold of 5-6)
- Duration: Two Turns

[X] Gifts of the Regent (Empathic Booster)
- LOCKED - Max
- Chance for Success (roll 2d6, Threshold of 5-6)
- Duration: One Turn Remaining
- So far, the story checks out - the Booster does in fact amplify emotions to achieve some sort of tangible effect. The joy of research wasn't what you had in mind, but it's good to know that it sort of, kind of, does work. You think. But now that Max has mostly gotten it out of her system, the next step is figuring out how this can actually be practically used for the Super Robot.

Katarina
- Katarina can add 1d6 to any roll across all categories. Can only do this once per turn.

[] After Market Purchases
- [] Which Advisor (Can be Special or Engineering)
- Chance for Success (roll 2d6, Threshold Unknown)
- Duration: Two Turns+
- Your old friends came through for you, and delivered a burnt out rocket engine, and an old Saddle cargo helicopter. To anyone else, these would be curiosities at best, and complete garbage at worst. But your team built the Pegasus out of worse than that - now the question is, what can you do with these?

Basarin · Oct 26, 2021

Plan Send Perseus Now Thunderbolt Later
-Reaction Force: Active Monitoring
--Adrianna
-Deployment: Kyoto - Yukimura Institute
--Core Unit - Perseus
--Support Unit - Seeker squad/'Chimera'
-Liaison: Dr. Yukimura/Yukimura Institute
--Dianna
-Refit Super Robot
--Thunderbolt
---Anti-Gravity Treatment
---K-Suit (Pilot)
---K-Scale Mesh Mk. II
---K-Circuits
---Upgrade the Heavy Weapons Pack to Energy Blasters
--Katarina
-My Kingdom for a Steed
--Jiro
-- QM NOTE: Assuming you want to gear this towards the Thunderbolt
-Triple Combination - Prototyping
--Faedium is proven to work, albeit it's still a bit unstable. But Wilde is convinced we can proceed to scale tests now. The Beowulf is the core of the Combination - so let's install a fully fabricated Faedium Crystal inside a Jackal and see how this works. (Chance to complete now; roll 2d6, Threshold Unknown)
-ESP Augmentation Theory
--Sam
-Blaster Miniaturization - Super Robot Edition
--Ivanna
-C-Crystals
--[X] How does the C-Crystal react when installed in our 'normal' super robots
--Zulu
-Faedium Research
--Integration with Kausen shard tech to improve our energy blasters
--Mary

Note: This plan does not factor in the fact that Ivanna was still focused on the Pegasus expansion. For intents of this plan, that will be dropped, and you will be given a chance later to 'resume' it. This is a one-off for this, I don't see myself making this a normal feature.

Also, some actions were not listed in here because they did not need dice rolls. Those will be described fully whenever I get around to the narrative posts.

Pilot Training: Argonauts
Assigned: Haruko Sasaki
- Re-Roll One Failed Training Roll
Duration: One Turn
Rolling (2d6, Threshold of 3-6): 5, 3
Good success. Argonauts move up to 'Inexperienced.' Benefits to be revealed in narrative post.

Active Monitoring
Assigned: Adriana
- Gain chance (at Disadvantage for 1d6) to uncover additional details, regardless of success or failure.
Duration: Two Turns
Rolling at Advantage (3d6, Threshold Unknown): 5, 6, 4
Rolling for Adriana's snooping (1d6): 6
QM: Dammit Adriana!
Great success! There's some strange readings in and around the campus's geographical region. Nowhere near you, and it was momentary, but...
One Turn Remaining.

Liaison: Yukimura Institute
Assigned: Diana
- Reduce Threshold by 1
Duration: One Turn
Rolling (2d6, Threshold of 5-6): 5, 2
It turns out that Diana being an AI is the least most interesting thing Dr. Yukimura and the Institute are going through with the incoming kaiju's approach. The warning is appreciated, and there's just enough time to make coordination to make ready for landfall.
Options to be revealed on Deployment.

Triple Combination - Prototyping w/Faedium proto-sample
Assigned: Wilde and Henry
- Wilde and Henry: Gain +1d6 to Triple Combination
Duration: One/Two Turns
Rolling at Advantage (2d6+1d6, Threshold Unknown): 3, 6, 6
It works! Sort of! You now have a way of bypassing the catastrophic overload issue!
Now all you have to do is get the designs down properly and get it done.
New Refit Super Robot Action unlocked!

Construct Super Robot Support: Sledder
Assigned: Lana
- Re-roll one failed Engineering roll - only applies once per turn
Duration: One Turn
Rolling (2d6, Threshold of 6): 1, 1
Re-roll triggers: 4, 5
Lana doesn't make quite as much progress as she'd like, but she's learned more than a few lessons of what not to do in future designs. The Sledder design is finished, it is functional, and that's about it.

AI Development
Assigned: Boris
- Threshold lowered by 1
Duration: Three Turns
Rolling (2d6, Threshold of 6 5-6): 5, 1
Boris is making progress into introducing the latest AI sibling to more and more of the people working in the base. Apparently the AI is horrified by at least some of the inefficiencies.
Two Turns Remaining.

ESP Augmentation Theory
Assigned: SAM CARLSON
- Reduce Threshold by 1
Duration: Three Turns
Rolling at Disadvantage (1d6, Threshold Unknown): 5
Sam is looking back to inspiration from the Dragon on how best to tackle this. Permanent changes are far too psychically intensive with our current understanding and technology - but what about temporary ones?
Two Turns Remaining.

Blaster Miniaturization
Assigned: Ivanna
- Free Re-Roll on a failed Science roll (applies once)
Duration: Two Turns
Rolling (2d6, Threshold of 5-6): 4, 1
Ivanna triggers a re-roll...
Rolling: 5, 3
There's some promising avenues here! Ivanna took her time to check the math as she usually does, and she is confident enough to try out scale tests next month.
One Turn Remaining.

C-Crystals - Testing (Super Robot)
Assigned: Zulu
- Add +2 to the lowest roll
Duration: Two Turns
Rolling at Disadvantage (1d6, Threshold of 4-6): 2+2
Zulu is downright baffled by the C-Crystal. The C-Crystals, for their part, also don't seem to quite know what to make of Zulu - or, by extension, any of the Super AI personalities. That alone is worth knowing and pursuing, considering your base's unique demographics. Zulu is intrigued and wants to look more into it.
One Turn Remaining.

Empathic Booster
Assigned: Max
- Add +1d6
Duration: One Turn
Rolling at Advantage (2d6+1d6, Threshold of 5-6): 5, 3, 4
Max announces she's figured out enough of the Empathic Booster that she's pushing to integrate some testbed ideas into one of the MMI units. Everyone is slightly afraid.
New ESP Option Unlocked!

Faedium (Energy Blaster Augment)
Assigned: Mary
- Critical successes explode
Duration: Two Turns
Rolling (2d6, Threshold of 5-6): 4, 4
After some initial success, Mary's team is somewhat struggling with balancing Faedium with not just Kausen weaponry, but Energy Shards on their own. Not frustrated yet, more intrigued than anything, but there's no concrete results at the moment.
One Turn Remaining.

Basarin · Oct 30, 2021

QM Note: I'm constantly tinkering with the format of my posts - you'd think I'd have gotten this down by now, but then you'd be mistaken. Still, this is as much for my own internal organization as anything else, so please excuse the grammatical clutter. Please let me know if this format looks like it's a little clearer on what action is being narrated on or if I need to readjust.

Defense Force Actions

Pilot Training - Argonauts

By now, Haruko has made it clear that she's satisfied with the Argonauts' training - that is to say, she's marginally less annoyed with their progress than when they started.

The main issue that she identified was that, as any group of brothers and sisters tend to do, they squabble. They bicker. They argue. And they can barely agree to disagree, before promptly and enthusiastically disagreeing on everything else. But, being the eldest sister in her own family, Haruko already knows full well that you're never going to stop siblings from arguing with each other. Hence, she didn't even bother trying on that front.

So instead, Haruko tried something else: redirecting their bickering towards something productive. The various training scenarios she crafted for the Argonauts were all tailored towards forcing them to work with each other consistently. And if they failed, they would do it again.

Normally, this wouldn't work, but Haruko had already gotten a pretty good grasp of Charlie, Frankie and Iris. They would bicker, yes, but in their own ways, they wanted to win more than argue. And fairly soon, they started actually planning, and working together to try and bounce off each others' talents to overcome the opposition.

At which point, they would promptly go back to arguing with each other in the hot wash reports. But at least that's something Haruko and Diana can work with.

Argonauts are now 'Inexperienced.' They gain the following trait:

Combative Cooperation
- After using an Action, roll at Disadvantage (1d6). On a Threshold of 6, Argonauts' Action will refresh.
- ONLY applies once every three Rounds.

Active Monitoring

For all that you sometimes get exasperated by Adriana's antics, there's a reason you invested as much as you did into security when you started. And this was when you had limited resources as your constraint rather than limited time. The groups of 'tourists' that turned out to be Westphalian agents, and the Warlord's crew that had somehow managed to sneak in and launch an attempted siege break into the campus grounds all come to mind. To say nothing of the strange message that General Armistead had passed on that could have launched a virus if you weren't being paranoid.

You fully admit that you are paranoid. Because when you're running a Super Robot program and the threats to the Union have it in their best interests to make sure you don't succeed, the world really is out to get you.

So when Adriana digitally bursts into your office one morning announcing she 'might-have-sort-of-possibly-but-just-maybe found something weird on the scanners,' you're inclined to believe her.

The good news: it's not near the Campus at all.

The bad news: it's been bouncing along the perimeter defense stations you've posted. None of the station chiefs have reported anything unusual even as you've put them on higher alert status, but that doesn't mean they're not out there. Whatever they are anyway.

Some of the station defenses have started to send out patrols on their own initiative, but so far, nothing has been spotted. But Adriana, worryingly, also noticed that the signal tends to disappear and reappear within a kilometer seemingly at will. No contact yet, nor any casualties so far, thankfully.

But what the hell is it?

A strange signal is moving closer towards the base. You are rightly concerned.

Liaison - Yukimura Institute

0948, 7 November A.D. 2072
Yukimura Institute

Diana's avatar blinked as she stared at the somewhat calm look Dr. Yukimura was giving her. "...wait. That's it?"

"Yes." Dr. Yukimura sipped from a nearby cup of tea, bloodshot eyes with deep shadows beneath blinking wearily as the lab around him was already bustling about with frantic activity. "You are an Artificial Intelligence of some kind, yes? Considering on whose behalf you are here for, it is not the strangest thing I've heard, young lady."

"I was...expecting more extreme responses," she admitted.

"Perhaps in another time and place you would have had it," Yukimura allowed. "But please consider our current circumstances. We recently have been under repeated attacks from kaiju humanoid infiltrators - one in particular who has made it clear she will stop at nothing to see this facility razed to the ground. Ms. Hamakawa Keiko has already rounded enough of her compatriots from the Ground Self Defense Forces to serve as security, and has already fought off several attempts. Hiroki punched one of those infiltrators hard enough to expose their disguise in an otherwise angry response to perceived rudeness, sparking even more madness just a few days ago. And now, I find that this is all potentially a prelude to some new kaiju that has managed to evade our attempts to detect it."

Yukimura paused for a few moments to let that sink in, and stared levelly at Diana. "So please understand, miss, that your digital nature is the least concerning thing to me. If you are here to help on behalf of Major Devin, then I more than welcome it, and am willing to grant you some access to some of our servers to assist us."

"...well, I do accept," Diana says after a split second to process it. "And that's why I'm here anyway, sir, to help coordinate ahead of time. The Research Institute is going to send one of its Super Robot teams to assist, and I had some preliminary ideas I'd like to run by you..."

Yukimura took it fairly well - and at this point, he doesn't care if Diana is an AI if it means he might ensure his facility's safety and maybe finally get one decent night's sleep.

Deployment Actions unlocked! Will be unveiled at Deployment setup.

Deployment

Tellison, Zhang, and the Seeker wing are already on their way to Japan. Diana has already paved the way for them, and there won't be any surprises in trying to work with Mercury V or the local Defense Force personnel.

It doesn't stop you from being somewhat anxious, however. Tellison is not green - he's very much blooded, having fought in the defense against the Warlord, and in the Westphalian attack on New York. But the Perseus is largely untested - you can at least count yourself lucky he's fighting alongside the original Super Robot in the world.

All that's left is to wait...

Mini-Turns to follow.

Engineering Actions

Wilde and Henry have managed to pull it off.

It exploded again, but at this point you've come to expect that. As much as Henry wanted to take it a little more cautiously, Wilde was confident that they could get some good results by simply double downing on the possibilities that Faedium was providing - and it turned out, he was right. Using additional crystals from Mary's team, this time they opted to use an early version of what Mary expressly was testing for industrial capacities.

Wilde and Henry subjected the crystals to 'combat conditions.' Not shooting at it, as that would cause an explosion that didn't give good data. They applied power surges and draws to the crystal based on historic combat data from the Beowulf's sorties - and this time, they didn't filter anything like they had before from each individual generation source.

The crystal lasted for a good hour of this treatment before it gave up and exploded.

Henry begrudgingly concludes that, while they still have more testing to do, Faedium is ready for prime time. Now there's just one thing left:

Actually refitting the Beowulf, the Shepherd, and the Falcon to Configure together with the Faedium crystal in the center.

New Refit Super Robot Action unlocked!

Design Super Robot Support

0422, 15 November A.D. 2072
Engineering Bay Mainframe

Lana's eyes were twitching ever so slightly.

The wireframe design, and the one production prototype that was sitting in realspace, was staring back at her innocently, as if they didn't do anything so monstrous as cause her so many defragging headaches and crash to start migraines.

"Okay." She took in a deep breath, and exhaled, crossing her arms as she glared at the infernal design. "Okay. You do...exactly what you were designed to do. You have enough hard points to be Configured into a combination. You can link together with others to provide power, and you can do all sorts of pioneering field work."

The wireframe didn't move an inch.

"But!" She growled. "But! Why is it that every time - every time - I'm designing one of you damned things it always causes such a damned headache!?" Rubbing her head, she grumbled to herself. "Maybe I can foist you onto the Legion to see if anyone wants to try testing you as an alt-form or something. Geez, I was hoping to try and upgrade you to even a Super Robot core, but that's not gonna work with the specs we were able to manage at all with you."

Still, she had to admit that this was giving her all sorts of good lessons on what to do, and what not to do. It would do - and maybe that was what getting at her. It wasn't just enough to keep bashing her head against a 'failed' attempt over and over again - you took what didn't work last time, and then see how else you could make it work, or find what doesn't work and see what else you could do with it.

She just wished it didn't cause her such a damned headache.

Sledder is finished as a design. Stats will be revealed in a later post.

ADDITIONALLY:

Lana gains modification to 'Stubborn.'
- You may re-roll a failed Engineering roll once per turn. You must take the new roll results.
- The re-roll will add +1 to its next result.

Item Fabrication

The Build Team, on the other hand, are not having nearly so much problems on their end. If anything, they're having the time of their lives. The Energy Blaster was finished maybe a week ago, in actuality.

You now have to institute a stricter time line for 'quality control' tests, however. They were spending perhaps a little too much time testing the melting point of steel with it.

1x Energy Blaster created! May be assigned on Deployment.

AI Development - Base Assistance

Boris is utterly bemused at the pace the new AI is learning. It was already a fussy thing about trying to keep order and maintain time schedules in just about everything it did.

What Boris's current conundrum in consulting contains at the moment? Trying to reign in the greater impulses of the AI to jump into everything and 'fix things.' He admits to you on the side that 'the last thing I need is for another Adriana on this particular scale.' A sentiment you can't exactly blame him for.

Still, despite the lack of sleep the Novogorod team seems to be subjected to at the moment, Boris seems to have this well in hand. He assures you that the AI will be ready to introduce itself formally next month, with one more month past that to fully adapt to its new duties on the Campus.

Two Turns Remaining.

My Kingdom for a Steed! / Refit Super Robot

Jessica Satsuma is currently without a Super Robot at the moment. There's a good reason why: soon, she will be shoved directly onto the frontline against whatever Drake had managed to find down in Australia.

The Thunderbolt is currently in all manners of disassembly. Much of the skeletal structure beneath are being wrapped in K-Class materials, currently crisscrossing everything like particularly creepy cobwebs. Critical heavy components are being dunked into Anti-Gravity Solution, trying to desperately free up just a tiny bit more weight for the additional upgrades that need to be installed. In particular, enough weight needs to be lightened for the addition of the Steed that will serve as the cockpit. Jiro and Katarina have been working nonstop since you gave the order to make sure the Thunderbolt was as battle ready as they could possibly make it for Jessica's debut.

Jessica herself is being subject to additional tests as well. Her assigned C-Crystal is being embedded into a K-Suit of her own, and she's been spending the month undergoing calibration tests to make sure there's no chance of the suit failing on her because of some kind of programming error.

If you were subjecting this through the lens of a typical anime show, there would not have been this much prep time. For the rule of drama and cool, Jessica would have been thrown into it, and you yourself would probably be cast as the bumbling but well meaning government official haplessly throwing regular army units at the monster of the week in an ineffectual display of wasted firepower.

But you're not, and you never believed in throwing in someone into the firing line without as much preparations as you could manage.

Jessica will be ready. One Turn remaining.

SCIENCE! Actions

ESP Augmentation Theory

Sam, despite misgivings, has jumped back into the Augmentation theory idea. Right now, his current hypothesis - you can't force permanent changes onto K-Class with what you currently have available. No one single individual has enough psychic power in their brains to do that - and getting enough people to try would take up enough space to rent out an entire concert hall apparently.

So instead, he's trying something else - temporary change. In the terse notes he's sent you, there are plenty of references to the Dragon's defenses when Beowulf went one-on-one with it, and in particular attention has been paid to how the Reactive Scales always slid into place in direct response to the Beowulf's attacks. So his current efforts are to try and achieve something similar - could you manage to apply temporary hardening of K-Scale Mesh, for example?

He's not sure how he's going to address the psychic power requirement, but he's feeling better about this approach than what he tried last time.

Two Turns Remaining.

Blaster Miniaturization

The good news: Ivanna knows she can do this. In fact, she's ready to attempt large scale tests next month!

The bad news: Until a more permanent solution - like, say, from Mary's Faedium project - can be applied, the Energy Blaster Pistols are going to be a two-to-three use thing, much like its larger cousins.

Still, you yourself aren't too concerned by that. Ivanna seems to be on the right track to take the current understanding of Kausen energy weaponry, and shrink it down into something smaller and more compact. Even if it's 'more of the same,' it's still more of the same but convenient.

You'll happily take that.

One Turn Remaining!

Empathic Booster

Max fully admits that what she has isn't exactly a solution, per se. But it's something.

The Empathic Booster design she's managed to come up with much more of a 'net' of sorts. It will latch onto positive emotions, and will amplify those to the best of its abilities to give the pilot a much needed boost in reaction time, speed, and determination (or 'bloody mindedness' as she puts it).

What has some people concerned is that she plans to install it into the Man Machine Interfaces. "Well, where the hell else am I supposed to get these supposed positive emotions from!?" she snapped when asked. "If you can't get it from the MMI, then it's not like I can make them sit down for movie night in the middle of a firefight!"

It still has some people uneasy.

New ESP Action Unlocked! When applied, rare chance for situational bonus in combat. Can be improved.

C-Crystal Testing

Zulu has no idea what to make of the C-Crystals. If one were to just strictly go by facts and logic, it's almost as if C-Crystal were a much more advanced derivative of Faedium crystals - only that it's actually a really advanced computing system embedded into a crystalline vessel that defies your current ability to understand it. But it seems to be constantly scanning for new users of worth by its programmed standards.

Yet when it turns its attentions to Zulu, the C-Crystal seems to falter, and then stumble somewhat. Zulu is sentient, yet something about him seems to throw off the C-Crystals' sensors.

This is very interesting to you - considering that you have plenty of AIs living on your base, and at least four that can serve as combatants, it would be interesting to see if its requirement for heroic character could be applied on the digital level. Which doesn't completely answer your questions about how the C-Crystals fully work, but at least understanding who it can be applied to would help somewhat.

Zulu's curiosity is at an all time high, and he gets to work.

One Turn remaining.

Faedium - Energy Blaster Augment

For whatever reason, Faedium is having some difficulties in attempting to serve the same function as Energy Shards. There's no reason why it shouldn't, at least in theory - it more than holds a similar composition, and your abusive scale tests with the Triple Combination more than proves it is capable of serving the same function. But the Energy Blasters are not really receiving them the same way.

Mary is not concerned, however, and is determined to at least keep going for another month or so as her budget allows. You get the sense that normal failures just don't affect her the same way it might others - she never though she'd have a budget or facilities for her ideas in the first place, so perhaps there's a good reason for it.

One Turn Remaining.

Basarin · Apr 17, 2022

1220, 22 November A.D. 2072
Outskirts of Kyoto, Japan

"'Ensure you are worth the investment,' he says."

The once-human face pulled itself back into a sneer, her formerly hazel-colored eyes now a yellow and black reptilian shape and coloration narrowing into a frown. Rows of too-sharp teeth exposed themselves in too wide a grin, the hands gripping on the 'controls' of the Titanosaur momentarily exposing sharp, bone-white claws where fingernails once were. A tail swished back and forth behind the figure, as if betraying the body's agitation like one would see in a house cat.

"'Destroy Mercury V or else, he says.'"

The world seemed to shake as the Titanosaur finally made landfall. Giant footprints gouged themselves into not just the sands of the beach, but into hardened concrete. Buildings visibly shook, some even dislodging themselves slightly from their foundations as millions of the sheep below her simply fled. The pilot barely paid any heed to the hundreds of lesser monstoids dislodging themselves from the Titanosaur's body and legs, or even the 'bigger' ones that were already marching ahead of her to the Institute. The doc could always make more, and she sure as hell wasn't going to lose any sleep over any of the fates of the mindless drones the Union called citizens.

"Tch. Fine. Fine. Not like all the other raids or bullshit I've done for the doc's counted for anything," the pilot continued to grumble. "Aaaaaanyhoo." The organic control grips responded nicely, and she had to give it to Sheol, even the outer layer that kept the cargo and the creature protected during their stint as a living submarine (he hadn't taken it well when she tried to paraphrase that song at him - no taste, some people!) wasn't really slowing her down much at all. Probably didn't even need to eject it for awhile in case they ran into Mercury V.

The smile widened. If they ran into Mercury V.

"If you want something done right, plan it yourself," she chuckled. The old man was going to have his own share of problems before they could even think about launching the damned thing...

She was momentarily distracted by the impact of a... "Are...you friggin' serious?" The creature's head turned towards a nearby building that was doing its best to imitate the Leaning Tower - a frantic group of soldiers were desperately trying to attack her with...a machine gun. Wat.

"Idiots," she grumbled, barely paying attention as a fat, massive fist swatted the building, sending giant pieces of debris and bodies flying off into the distance. "Right, any more idiots who haven't watched a single movie in their lives...? Oh, yep. There's a few." The road to the Yukimura Institute was being blockaded, a mixture of Ground Defense Force and...actual Japan Self Defense Force trying to set up a firing battery?

"Okay." The pilot laughed. "Just for that? You get my attention."

The ground shook, as screams and deflected rounds echoed loudly in the distance...

1222, 22 November A.D. 2072
Mainframe, Yukimura Institute

"Diana, what's the situation?"

"Wait one-" The avatar paused as additional data flowed into her makeshift 'command center.' "Ms. Hamakawa, you have additional incoming from the bottom floor. Recommend you bolt the doors shut until you can deal with your current situation." Another pause as more information came in, the avatar swiping additional screens to the side as she refocused on more of them in front of her, the rest of the mainframe nothing but digital static all around her. "Dr. Yukimura, we have friendlies arriving - I'm pausing to get them briefed, standby."

Finally turning her attention back to the incoming call - what felt like an hour to her in reality only took a few seconds by human perceptions - she responded. "Looks like Dr. Sheol was planning this for awhile, sir. But before I start diving into the weeds, let me get you up to speed."

She glanced up at the impromptu video conference - Lieutenants Tellison and Zhang were present, as expected, but Major Devin was also observing. No pressure or anything. Shaking that thought aside, Diana produced an aerial overview of the Yukimura Institute. "Kaiju just made landfall two minutes ago and it's marching towards the Yukimura Institute right now. At its present speed, I give it about an hour before it gets here. That would be fine, but..."

Diana waved her hand, and additional red pings began to highlight hostile marks. "...kaiju-converted foot soldiers are making a move on the Institute itself. Ms. Hamakawa is handling ground security and the techs are working overtime to get Mercury up and running, but we're getting slowed down by that. And on top of that..."

The image of another kaiju appeared - smaller and more diminutive than the standard kaiju, and certainly smaller than the Dragon that they all had fought almost a year ago, but it was there. "Two of these were apparently sent ahead of the big one. Likely objective is to wreck as much as possible to prevent Mercury V from launching at all. They just didn't reckon with the fact that this time Dr. Yukimura had help arriving - we should have just enough time to land the Pegasus and downgrade all equipment before they arrive."

"Any luck with preparing the battlefield ahead of us?" Major Devin asked.

Diana grinned. "This time, we were able to make some changes that Dr. Yukimura agreed to sir..."

Due to good relations with the Yukimura Institute and arriving in time to help with the present crisis, Diana was able to get something ready ahead of time. Choose one:

[] "...we were able to do some good old fashioned mine laying. And, um, mine laying this time refers to pallets of old artillery shells that Ms. Hamakawa was able to get her hands on from her friends. I have no guarantee how much damage it will do, but it will do something even to kaiju." On the first turn this deployment, roll 4d6, Threshold Unknown. For each success, inflict 3 HP damage on each kaiju.

[] "...Dr. Yukimura had an old prototype from when he was building Mercury V rigged up as a cannon of some kind. It's been set up, but he can't promise it will stay stable - it wasn't developed much further for a reason apparently." Every two turns, roll 2d6, Threshold Unknown. Counts as a Heavy Weapons Attack. Can be targeted by kaiju.

"Good job," Major Devin nodded. "Diana, you're already on ground, you have command and control. Tellison, Zhang, get the Seekers and the Perseus ready as soon as you touch ground." He glanced at all the participants at the call. "We got lucky with the Dragon, but if our recent scuffle with the Free Brothers proved anything, it's that we can't assume that we're the top dogs anymore - and we're dealing with Mercury V's enemies. Our objective is to buy Mercury V as much time as possible to get online and help push back the kaiju. Anything else we can manage after that is just a bonus. Understood?"

When all confirmed, he nodded. "Let's get to work."

QM Notes: Vote by plan as per usual.

And as a reminder of what you all brought to the field:

Actions Per Turn: 1 + 1 (K-Suit)
Enhanced Reflexes:

- The K-Suit upgrade grants One Free Re-Roll per Combat Turn (Must be declared)

Notable Character:

- Can make two attacks per turn at 2d6 for 1 HP each. Counts as a single Action.

Psychic Unison: For One Turn, All Rolls gain +1d6
- Duration: 1 Turn (ends at the start of Perseus's next Turn)
- Can only be used Once per Combat
Inspiring Leadership: Inspire Support Units to fight harder!

Seeker Formation:

- Can refresh Disrupt if on cooldown. Can only be applied once per target.

- Can grant one friendly unit a re-roll to any Action for free once per combat turn! Cannot use this on himself.

2LT Zhang Xiu Ying
Actions Per Turn: 1+1 (Psychic Theater)
- Can use Zhang's Actions for the Perseus
Co-Pilot: Can only be deployed in the Perseus.
Terrain Mastery: You may sacrifice this pilot's Action this turn to hinder enemy action. For the cost of 1 Action, delay an enemy's cooldown by 1 turn. This can only be used once every three turns. NOTE: pilot must be aware of what the actions are prior to using this.
Synchronize: Once per turn, Perseus may re-roll a failed Defensive save. You must keep the new roll.

Assigned to: 1LT Tellison / 2LT Zhang
HP: 15 + 6 (Anti-Gravity)
Strikes:

- Can Strike at Disadvantage, 1d6, Threshold of 5-6.

- Can inflict 2 HP per Strike.

Heavy Weapons:

- Can make a Heavy Weapon Strike at Advantage every four turns. (3d6, Threshold of 5-6, Inflicts 2 HP). Counts as the Phalanx's Action. Can be upgraded prior to missions.

Combat Shield:

- Free Action. Can take refuge behind a deployable combat shield mounted on the left arm.

- Can be used once per Combat Turn. Roll 2d6 at Threshold of 5-6; a success will reduce incoming damage by 3 HP. A failure will still reduce the damage by 1 HP.

- Dispersion Shield, Prototype - Costs 3 RP to deploy in combat. Can deploy a limited Dispersion Field mounted on the left arm that overlaps the Combat Shield. Will automatically negate all damage that combat turn. Has a maximum use of twice per deployment. Upon depletion, automatically resort back to Combat Shield.

Shield Wall:

- Can choose to absorb an incoming Strike for an allied Support unit. Will absorb -1 HP of the original Strike. Roll 1d6, Threshold of 4-6 to negate damage entirely. Can be upgraded in future turns.

K-Scale Production Type:

- You may reduce damage at 2d6. Reduces damage by -1 HP. Applies once per combat turn.

Arc Blade: A collapsible sword that can be supercharged with electromagnetic force.
Electromagnetic Field:

- Reduces the damage of one attack by 2-5 HP. Any enemy attempting to attack is struck with electromagnetic backlash, inflicting 1 HP for each attack.

- Electromagnetic Field stays online for one turn of combat, can be activated as a free action.

- Refreshes every three turns.

Strikes:

- Can be used to make basic Strikes. If used this way, can inflict +1 HP per Strike.

- Notable Bonus applies.

- If K-Circuits are applied, use new baseline for added damage.

Lightning Blade:

- Finishing Strike requiring the deployment of the Spark Caliber. Test roll situational. Can inflict up to 8 HP of damage.

- Target-able - Enemies can make a called shot to disable the weapon if deployed. If successful, will be unavailable for two turns.

- Basic Model - Perseus by itself cannot support the Spark Caliber's energies; requires a Combine Unit to realize the Arc Blade's True Potential. Lightning Blade can be used, but not safely.

Upgrades: K-Suit (applied to Pilot), Anti-Gravity Treatment, Psychic Theater+, K-Scale

CR-11 Seeker Squadron
Twenty-Fifth Marine Air Wing 'Chimeras'
Strike:

- Can Strike (Roll 2d6, Threshold of 5-6). Can inflict 2 HP per Strike. Can Strike every turn.

- Additional Weaponry: Can Re-Roll one failed strike against Enemy Target at disadvantage (1d6). Can be applied once every turn.

Attack Runs:

- Attempt to disrupt next Enemy Action. Inflicts negative status on Enemy, scales according to target.

- Chance to Succeed (roll 1d6, Threshold Varies)

- Counts as One Action

High Velocity Agility:

- May roll to avoid a successful enemy attack at 2d6, Threshold of 4-6.

- Diminishing Returns: After two successful agile rolls, Threshold increases to 5-6.

The Backup:

- Can be targeted by enemies to delay Strike. If Enemy successfully hits, Seeker Squadron refresh is delayed by One Turn.

As an OOC admin note as well: I'm in the middle of moving, both from my job and my current location, so my responses are going to be much slower. Additionally, I'm also shaking off the dust of this quest, and just getting back into writing in general. So do please bear with me as I continue. For whoever's been keeping up with this - my heartfelt thanks.

Basarin · Jan 20, 2023

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