[x] Plan JhoJho's Bizarre Robotics
-[x] Build 6x Gyroscopic Stabilizer feet (-2400 R)
-[x] Repair Tacit, replace Traction Pads with Gyroscopic Stabilizer Feet (-100 R)
-[x] Build Long-Range Breach Scanners Augment (-1500 R)
-[x] Research improved Medical Technology
-[x] Improve Defenses to 5 (-6000 R)
-[x] Research City-Scale Railgun Defensive Emplacements (Defense augment)
-[x] Build 1 Hiln (-6000 R)
-[x] Research improved Helios Stellarator (Focus on making it smaller and more efficient)
-[x] Continue Researching Actual For-Realsies Magic
-[x] Research 'Intelligence Leak' - Investigate the mystery behind Musketeer and how he managed to match up with Tacit Ronin so closely with emphasis on seeing if outside hostile forces are spying on us somehow in order to prevent such reoccurrences or otherwise keep any other vital information we have from being used against us.
-[x] Clean up the blue! (-100 R)
-[x] Research Plasma Weaponry w/ Dainslief token
-[x] Jagdhund Toughness Upgrade*20
-[x] Research Mobile Pocket Entry Point for "Hammerspace" (SRM)
-[x] Research improvement to the Heimdal; See if the new ultracompact rector tech can be utilized to give the Heimdal more firepower
-[x] Research Conventional Air-Purifier Systems (CAPS) in order to prevent gasses and vapors such as Zetsubo's from effecting out conventional units
-[x] Research "Quetzalcoatl" Heavy Air unit; A large, heavily armed aircraft with multiple weapons batteries and extended flight time (The C-130 based unit we keep talking about)
-[x] Send another scouting party to Oblivion Bay to see what got missed the first time
-[x] Recycle 2 Punchy Fists, 2 Traction pads
-[x] Build 2*Banshee, 2*VTOL Carryalls, 1*Mortar Team with the MPFs
(-16,100 Resources, 43,373+ remain)
With the blueprints finished last week, three pairs of the new feet are churned out, with four immediately going into storage. The other two, however, are installed onboard Tacit Ronin, whose damaged components are quickly repaired.
6 Gyroscopic Stabiliser Feet constructed! 4 in storage!
All Strikes repaired! Traction Pads removed! Gyroscopic Stabiliser Feet installed!
In order to augment the city's detection and analysis capabilities, a series of dedicated scanning dishes are set up, tuned to focus in on Breach radiation.
Long Range Breach Scanner constructed!
Work on the advanced medical tech goes... alright, though it could easily use more work.
Jaeger pilots will recover slightly faster.
The city's defenses are given a substantial bulking up, with more armour, countermeasures, bunkers, and other safety bits thrown in across the board. Buildings are further reinforced as well, so they should be more able to stand up to kaiju attacks.
Defense to 5!
Additionally, another, more active method of defense is drawn up-- after all, is not the best defense an even better offense? If nothing more, then these railgun turrets should provide a steady curtain of fire against foes from any direction. The only downside is that equipping them across the entirety of the Defense Perimeter would be ridiculous.
New Defense Augment available for purchase: Defensive Railgun Battery!
Defensive Railgun Battery (Defense)
2500 Resources
- RX-11 'Longspear' Railgun: 3x 1d10+1 Impact damage. +2 Damage. Range 20/30/-. Hits on 5+. Benefits from Arges.
- Perimeter Defense: Each Railgun Battery must be purchased to cover a specific sector of the Defense Perimeter. When a fight occurs in that sector, the Railgun Battery may participate. Rather than suffering complete destruction, a damaging hit to the Battery will subtract 1 Attack Dice from it (costs 300 Resources to repair 1 AD).
Yes, I'll be implementing 'sectors'-- sorta. You already have them, in terms of battlefield directions (there's like, eight sectors-- North, South, etc.). Plus, @Killbles did such a fine job with his Turret Tower Defense Grid that I just had to share the love!
Another defensive asset also sees development, as the brand new shield projector is crewed and fielded. While its armament is particularly anemic, it doesn't have to be noteworthy-- that's not its goal, after all. Instead, the new Hlin will function as a mobile shield, defending Neo-Seattle's ground-based assets from kaiju at range.
DBPS-1 'Hlin' constructed!
Work on downsizing the Helios reactor goes surprisingly well, and a shrunken version is soon simulated and found viable! There's an obvious limit, but with the proper designs, there should be enough space to fit all sorts of stuff inside a jaeger with one of these-- perhaps even a second reactor, if they're really crammed in there! Additionally, they manage to simply the Helios design a little more-- though the same cannot be said for the new 'Polaris' variant.
Helios Heavy Fusion Stellarator to 49 000 Resources!
Variant gained for Helios Heavy Fusion Stellarator: Polaris Compact Fusion Stellarator!
Polaris Compact Fusion Stellarator (Mk 4) (Helios Variant)
- 50 000 Resources
- See Helios Heavy Fusion Stellarator
- Smaller Than Normal: The Polaris takes up significantly less space than the Helios does, allowing for more intrusive components and equipment in the jaeger's chest cavity.
Now properly funded, and with evidence to boot, the metathaumic team throws their all into continuing their research. Their labs are filled with enthusiastic noises, and energetic exclamations, but nothing's being revealed to the open. Finally, Sturm arrives at the council's meeting room, and reports that they have a lead. However, in order to properly expand on it, they're going to need access to existing data-- data that is, unfortunately, over in Japan. He talks for a while about what sort is needed, citing some sort of storm from 2015, and unusual residual radiation readings in one city or another... it's hard to follow, but he seems very certain that this is their best option.
Dr. Sturm's most promising lead requires data from Japan. Without this data, you will have to turn to a more difficult route.
With one suspect not guilty, the majority of the investigation team turns to their next one; the kaiju brains (a few are looking around at other leads). Fortunately-- or unfortunately-- it is here that they find an answer.
While Palisade was cut off from the hivemind, the brains
weren't-- and it's between these two parties that a secondary hivemind has bee set up. Combined, these minds have very high psychic potential-- and the regular bursts of exotic radiation that flow through the city appear to be boosting this, allowing the secondary hivemind to actually copy residual neural information, essentially reading the minds of all nearby. Much to the worry of the team, the brains are also perfectly capable of transmitting information back, and have likely done so already! Solutions are... difficult to come up with. At the moment, the most they can do is quarantine, and conduct analysis with their drones-- a dedicated solution would either involve some sort of shielding around their containment, a method of cutting the psychic link altogether, or (in the case nothing else works) simply killing the specimens.
Solutions will require time and resources to implement, but will likely put a stopper in your information leak.
Blue cleanup is simple, if disgusting. Then again, that's nothing new.
Using analysis of Danslief's ionic weaponry, along with the details from plasmacaster blueprints, JSW R&D bangs out a brand new weapon, based off of the kaiju's tail cannon. The monstrously large gun is capable of equaling the power put out by Danslief's version, though not without issue. Since mounting it the standard way would be an incredibly invasive operation on a jaeger's structure, mounting has been dealt with by a two point connection-- the flexible power feed plugs into the bottom of the jaeger's spinal column, while the body of the launcher attaches to the jaeger's hip on an advanced omni-joint. In order to stabilize the weapon during firing, two rotating grips have been fitted-- ideally, a jaeger would use both, but it can be fired one-handed if need be.
With the undeniable success of their endeavor, and the positive tests on the design, Special Weapons decides to make a downsized version of their launcher, which lower power jaegers could use. This smaller version is a bit less efficient, having a shorter range and lower output, but it's cheaper and doesn't need both hands to use.
Danslief token used up!
New Jaeger Weapons available to purchase: IDB-49a "Schwert Gewehr" Buster Launcher, IDB-49b "Dolch Gewehr" Plasma Launcher!
IDB-49a "Schwert Gewehr" Buster Launcher:
Built-in/Carried One/Two-handed Ranged Weapon (Rifle)
5000 Resources
Attack Dice: 1d10+1/2x 1d10 (1d10-1/2x 1d10-2)
Armour Penetration: 3+Special
Damage Type: Burst
Damage Bonus: Ranged+1
Range: 20/30/35
Special:
Armour Penetration receives a bonus, equivalent to 1 for every 5 points the jaeger beats the opponent's reaction/to-hit roll by.
Thermal Bloom: When used in the first firing mode, all within 1d5 Units of the target struck automatically take 1d5 Fire Damage.
Dual Shot: May be used to target multiple opponents when used in the second firing mode, though the second attack suffers a -1 penalty.
May be activated as a Movement or Standard Action, and sheathed as a Free Action.
Buster Weapon: This massive weapon requires both hands to make the most of it. If the wielder chooses to use it with only one, use the set of values in parentheses. Otherwise, use the main set of values.
The Buster Launcher may only be mounted on jaegers, and always mounts on a Thigh. When active, it must be held by the Hand that corresponds with the Thigh, though two hands can be used for increased accuracy (see Buster Weapon).
The Buster Launcher may only be used by Mark III+ Jaegers, and always mounts on one Thigh when used.
IDB-49b "Dolch Gewehr" Plasma Launcher:
Built-in/Carried One-handed Weapon (Rifle)
3000 Resources
Attack Dice: 1d10
Armour Penetration: 2+Special
Damage Type: Burst
Damage Bonus: Ranged
Range: 15/20/25
Special:
Armour Penetration receives a bonus, equivalent to 1 for every 5 points the jaeger beats the opponent's reaction/to-hit roll by.
Thermal Bloom: When used in the first firing mode, all within 1d5-1 Units of the target struck automatically take 1 Fire Damage.
May be activated as a Movement or Standard Action, and sheathed as a Free Action.
The Plasma Launcher may only be mounted on jaegers, and always mounts on a Thigh. When active, it must be held by the Hand that corresponds with the Thigh.
The upgrades for Jagdhund are finalized, and installed. Once the jaeger's online, she should be able to withstand a fair amount more damage before her effectiveness is compromised.
17 successes! Jagdhund to Toughness 4! +2 Durability! 18/20 stat points in use!
Mobile Pocket - 2d5+11 17
Breach tech works day and night on their project, and it's...
mostly done.
Mobile Pocket will require another action to complete research on. Total research on Breach storage is 63% complete.
The three sections of conventional R&D have each been assigned different tasks, though they present their results at the same time.
Section 1's goal was to improve the firepower of the HEEM-2 superheavy armour, due to its recent... lesser showing on the battlefield. While the council suggests using the smaller reactors, there's a much simpler way-- improving the gun's targeting ability. It does take a few resources, but the new patch and equipment is installed without a hitch.
Heimdal to Range 3! -100 Resources!
You guys do
remember you can just upgrade your superheavies' stats, right?
Section 2's goal is addressing something more recent; Zetsubo's cloud. Currently, breathing filters aren't standard in most anti-kaiju weapons, due to the fact that most engagements take place far from point-blank, and air-borne attacks aren't usually gaseous or particulate in nature. While gas masks are an option, it never hurt to try more, so some fairly basic (but reliable) filtration systems are standardized across all vehicles currently in service. While it's not perfect, it should help out.
Military support units are more likely to resist gaseous or particulate attacks.
The last section's goal is... honestly, probably the most ambitious of the three. A combat aircraft that fills the roll of a ground attack plane, and carries a very heavy payload, but is still able to fly a long distance. Their result is the PL-160 'Quetzalcoatl' Gunship. Armed with brand new missiles, nose-mounted Vulcan guns, and some very pretty missile racks, the new gunship is capable of travelling for a while, and fighting it out just fine. There are a few downsides, however-- for one, owing to its complex and custom design, mass-production is a little more difficult. For another, due to the expanded fuel tanks, it isn't able to hold any heavy cannons, instead forced to rely on the missiles. And last... it's a little expensive.
New conventional unit available for purchase: PL-160 'Quetzalcoatl' Gunship!
PL-160 'Quetzalcoatl' Gunship
1500 Resources
The first fixed-wing post-Tod der Jaeger aircraft designed for combat, the PL-160 takes clues from the AC-130 and other ground assault planes, featuring very wide wings, multiple engines, and numerous weapons. Like its older relative the PL-92, the PL-160 has expanded fuel tanks, multiple redundancies, and a fairly low flight ceiling-- however, its custom design makes it difficult to mass-produce. Its main weapons are a pair of nose-turreted 20mm Vulcans, an expanded micro-missile pod on each side, and four large racks of Hellfire+ missiles, making it a formidable combatant.
- Move up to 20 units a turn. Must move at least 5 units a turn.
- May not be built in Military Production Facilities.
- Nose Vulcans: Deals 1 Impact on a 5+. Range 10. May be fired simultaneously with another weapon, even at a different target. Does not benefit from Arges.
- 'Kaiju-Buster'-G Ultra Micro-Missiles: 1d10 Impact/Fire damage. -1 Damage. Range 5/10/-. Hits on 4+. Cauterises Wounds. Benefits from Arges.
- Hellfire+ Missile: 1d10 Fire damage. +0 Damage. Range 20/-/-. Hits on 4+. Two Shots Only. Cauterises Wounds. Benefits from Arges.
- Manoeuvering Thrusters: All Ranged attacks against Quetzalcoatls are at +1 difficulty to-hit.
With the aid of the Condors, another scouting mission is sent down to Oblivion Bay. This time, they manage some more possible targets, though most are in worse shape than the three initially mentioned.
Additionally, there's sightings of non-kaiju Anteverse organisms; things like plants and fungi, alongside smaller animals. However, of bigger worry is a single Category V kaiju spotted in the area-- it looks to be based off of the so-called 'sword kaiju', though parts of its armour and extraneous appendages are curiously absent.
List of potentially recoverable jaegers (and ones that may be useful just for parts):
-
Lucky Seven: A Mark I jaeger with a reputation for surviving very dangerous encounters, pulled from the roster in 2021 due to the threat of Category IV kaiju. Seven was mostly intact, though the kaiju have inflicted some damage, leaving the jaeger missing its legs below the knee, and much of its torso. Seven's integrated armament consisted of a rocket-driven anchor spike in its left arm. Combat style: reckless wrestler.
-
Dingo Amber: Another Mark I, which fell after two kills. Dingo has been viciously torn up, though its frame should be fairly intact. The jaeger's only integrated weapons were two shoulder-mounted missile pods, meant for softening up targets before closing. Combat style: pragmatic brawler.
-
Midsummer Night: The younger sibling to Coyote Tango, this Mark II was far less famous than its elder counterpart, and fell after killing three kaiju. Currently, Night's arms and shoulders are mostly gone, with more severe damage to the left side. Night's integrated armament consisted of two short-range M68 Railguns, and a pair of retractable daggers near its elbows. Combat style: stalwart bruiser.
-
Blazer Phantom: A mid-line Mark II, pulled from the roster after sustaining heavy damage. Blazer is missing its entire lower body, but the reactor compartment still seems secure. The jaeger's integrated armament was two "heat brander" fists, which heated ridges along their surface to very high temperatures. Combat style: aggressive boxer.
-
Piercer Savage: One of the earliest jaegers to use a held melee weapon. Piercer just seems generally beat up. Its main weapon was a long, durable spear-- and while it doesn't have the spear with it, it could have its blueprints in its computers. Combat style: eager lancer.
-
Gipsy Danger: One of the more famous Mark IIIs, mission-killed in 2020 by its mutual-kill, the Category III "Knifehead". Gipsy lacks an arm, half its connpod, and a good chunk of its chest and reactor area. Most of the kaiju seem to avoid it. Gipsy's integrated armament consisted of a pair of gauntlet-mounted I-19 Plasmacasters, and an "Elbow Rocket" melee enhancer in each forearm. Combat style: street brawler.
-
Kabuto Shockwave: A Mark III-E that specialised in heavy armour, but had fairly basic weaponry due to design constraints. Kabuto appears to have suffered a reactor breach, obliterating over half of its upper body. Combat style: endurance tank
-
Basilisk Zephyr: An early Mark IV, downed after seven kills, and sporting the Helios Heavy Fusion Stellarator as its power core. Zephyr has been practically gutted, with most of its torso structure destroyed, and other assorted damage. Rebuilding will take considerable effort. Zephyr's weapons were two "Octo-Punch" revolving cannons, and a pair of diamond-edge blades. Combat style: adaptive swashbuckler.
With the removal of Tacit's Traction Pads, the last of the jaeger's original equipment is broken down, their deconstructed materials providing a bit of a discount on the new feet.
2 Traction Pads recycled! 2 Punchy Fists recycled!
+ 250 resources!
Other stuff happens.
2 Banshee squadrons constructed! 2 Meganeura squadrons constructed! 1 Mortar team constructed!
And thus ends the week.
Of god finally.
