Terminus Quest: A CKII Mass Effect Quest

Simon_Jester · Mar 18, 2018

I suspect that there's a reason why when we had an option to fiercely persecute and ferret out criminals, the vote option available to Mira was "Ardat-Yakshi Hunt."

Namely, that "BURN THE ARDAT-YAKSHI!" is something the asari may not be unfamiliar with. If there are any Ardat-Yakshi, they are no doubt hiding well.

PoptartProdigy · Mar 20, 2018

Vote Tally : Sci-Fi - Terminus Quest: A CKII Mass Effect Quest | Page 468 | Sufficient Velocity [Posts: 11803-11954]
##### NetTally 1.9.8

[X] Shoot first, shoot often. Sucker punch the Lystheni with an all-out assault. You possess the advantage of quality. An alpha strike could easily burn half of the Lystheni's ships before they get their engines started, and secure the battle.
No. of Votes: 43

[X] Play it cool. Depart in your own shuttle without comment to anybody. Get off of this toothless platform beforethe shooting starts.
-[X] Call for the surrender of the "Navy". Hopefully they're more reasonable.
--[X] And make sure it's recorded for posterity.
No. of Votes: 6

Rui
Ashmaker
Kerfirou
KnightDisciple
Night_stalker
Spacegnom

[X] Secure the Payload
-[X] Take control of the hanger. VIPs leave with the Dalatress and (if living) her aide.
-[X] Board the CL, CL takes out a ship. Fleet advances to secure the station. FF and K focus on anti-screen duties.
-[X] Message the Lystheni and tell them we have the Dalatress and that their kidnap attempt has failed but make it seem like we're still on the station.
--[X] If the CL is close to being destroyed (somehow), message that she's on the CL. Provide video.
-[X] Destroy their fleet.
-[X] Retrieve our people once safe to do so and leave.
No. of Votes: 2

KhazintheDark
gutza1

[X] Shoot first, shoot often. Sucker punch the Lystheni with an all-out assault. You possess the advantage of quality. An alpha strike could easily burn half of the Lystheni's ships before they get theirengines started, and secure the battle.
-[x] Make sure that the dalatrass is kept up to date on the progress of the war.
No. of Votes: 1

thamuzz

[X] Write-in
-[X] Force the Dalatress at gunpoint to record a message of her ordering local troops to stand down as we leave, with any appropriate codes. Make a second recording of her declaring she's been captured after she attempted to betray us during negotiations, and that the Lystheni are to surrender unconditionally and comply with any orders we give.
No. of Votes: 1

Deathbybunnies

[X] Play it cool. Depart in your own shuttle without comment to anybody. Get off of this toothless platform before the shooting starts.
No. of Votes: 1

Erehwon

Total No. of Voters: 54

[X] Shoot first, shoot often. Sucker punch the Lystheni with an all-out assault. You possess the advantage of quality. An alpha strike could easily burn half of the Lystheni's ships before they get their engines started, and secure the battle.

Vote closed. Your winner!

Give me a roll of a d50 for the battle roll, Mira's bonus. Your opposition:

dacsan · Mar 20, 2018

Rolling dice

Tylonius · Mar 20, 2018

Nice.

random_npc · Mar 20, 2018

so a 13 point roll advantage, on top of a likely major modifier advantage. It's good to see that the Lystheni are maintaining a consistent level of competency.

Gore17 · Mar 20, 2018

uju32 said:
The Justicars/asari society murder them out of hand, and everyone else turns a blind eye.
They almost all turn psychotic like Morinth, and so are killed in self defence/law enforcement.
They run for the Terminus first chance they get, and out of range of the Justicars
A bunch of people hide their medical records.
Samara was lying.

Samara only considers those suffering the most severe cases to actually be Ardat-Yashi.
Samara was simply ignorant of the actual numbers.

Blonddude42 · Mar 20, 2018

So that's 2 degrees of success, but definitely not enough for 3. With our advantages in quality, experience, and, most importantly, surprise we've got this engagement in the bag.

Have we considered banning Salarians from guarding the Dalatrass? Or is that too micro for this quest? It might help keep any Lystheni Hail Mary from potentially freeing her (however slim the odds are in the first place)

Slayer Anderson · Mar 20, 2018

Blonddude42 said:
Have we considered banning Salarians from guarding the Dalatrass? Or is that too micro for this quest? It might help keep any Lystheni Hail Mary from potentially freeing her (however slim the odds are in the first place)

That's probably an unnecessary level of paranoia to go to... and too micro for this quest as well, likely.

Besides, that smacks of banning... like, Arabic-descended French (or American/British/or whatever) citizens in the military from guarding ethnically-Arab terrorists they catch. Beyond it being discrimination, it's also bad PR if it gets out, and would likely alienate the Salarian citizens from our administration.

Still, the point is largely moot, given that we won't be in charge of her day-to-day custody personally unless something weird happens.

Blonddude42 · Mar 20, 2018

Slayer Anderson said:
That's probably an unnecessary level of paranoia to go to... and too micro for this quest as well, likely.

Besides, that smacks of banning... like, Arabic-descended French (or American/British/or whatever) citizens in the military from guarding ethnically-Arab terrorists they catch. Beyond it being discrimination, it's also bad PR if it gets out, and would likely alienate the Salarian citizens from our administration.

Still, the point is largely moot, given that we won't be in charge of her day-to-day custody personally unless something weird happens.

It's not to discriminate against them, but worry about Lystheni deep cover posing as one of our citizens. In all honesty though, it is probably more paranoia than we need given how idiotic the Lystheni seem. Just don't want to get in a habit of thinking so little of them they can sucker punch us.

Slayer Anderson · Mar 20, 2018

Blonddude42 said:
It's not to discriminate against them, but worry about Lystheni deep cover posing as one of our citizens. In all honesty though, it is probably more paranoia than we need given how idiotic the Lystheni seem. Just don't want to get in a habit of thinking so little of them they can sucker punch us.

Fair point, but I don't think we've known the Lystheni or had close enough relations for them to have 'deep cover' cells operating in our borders yet.

Still, I don't think there are good odds of having a security team on her that's only Salarians, anyway. Odds are that she'll have a mixed security team with Asari, Batarians, Salarians, and maybe even a volus on it. We're a very diverse (former) colony. The Quarians might even get in on it if they want to make sure we're not mistreating a captured head of state, since they're aiding in the takeover by keeping the border secure.

kelgar04 · Mar 20, 2018

Do the Lystheni want us to hand them their heads or do they just have a death wish?

AvidFicReader · Mar 20, 2018

Hopefully that hypothetical volus security member is a BIOTIC GOD!

uju32 · Mar 20, 2018

Blonddude42 said:
So that's 2 degrees of success, but definitely not enough for 3. With our advantages in quality, experience, and, most importantly, surprise we've got this engagement in the bag.

44 roll + 24 Mira's bonus = 68.
That's 2x the Lystheni roll.

Things are going to get fun. If we're really lucky we might be able to take them with a minimum of casualties on their side. Maybe.

Blonddude42 said:
Have we considered banning Salarians from guarding the Dalatrass? Or is that too micro for this quest? It might help keep any Lystheni Hail Mary from potentially freeing her (however slim the odds are in the first place)

Why would we want to do this?
You DO realize that most of the agents we've been using to gather intel on the lystheni were salarian right?

Not to mention that Shurna is the single most competent Minister in our Cabinet. Asking her to vet her guards is like teaching granma to suck eggs.

Blonddude42 · Mar 20, 2018

uju32 said:
44 roll + 24 Mira's bonus =68.
That's 2x the Lystheni roll.

Things are going to get fun.

That's assuming they have no bonus. Someone with Martial 4 is enough to stop that.

uju32 · Mar 20, 2018

Blonddude42 said:
That's assuming they have no bonus. Someone with Martial 4 is enough to stop that.

I am actually.
Part-time soldiers with no combat experience, and a navy so compartmentalized that only two people knew how many ships were in it.
I kinda doubt there's anything in the way of fleet command experience.

But we'll see.

Simon_Jester · Mar 20, 2018

Slayer Anderson said:
Fair point, but I don't think we've known the Lystheni or had close enough relations for them to have 'deep cover' cells operating in our borders yet.

I dunno, we've been in contact with them for ten years, which is a large part of a salarian lifetime. We know they do manage to fake ID and presumably can infiltrate agents; it is far from inconceivable that one or two Lystheni moles have slipped past Shurna's guard and gotten into our security services. They had to get those frigate blueprints somehow, right?

At the same time, I doubt there are many and it would take unusual bad luck for one of the Lystheni moles to be a guard responsible for the Dalatrass's security AND in a position to single-handedly betray the rest of the guard detachment and bust her out of captivity.

uju32 · Mar 20, 2018

Simon_Jester said:
I dunno, we've been in contact with them for ten years, which is a large part of a salarian lifetime. We know they do manage to fake ID and presumably can infiltrate agents; it is far from inconceivable that one or two Lystheni moles have slipped past Shurna's guard and gotten into our security services. They had to get those frigate blueprints somehow, right?

At the same time, I doubt there are many and it would take unusual bad luck for one of the Lystheni moles to be a guard responsible for the Dalatrass's security AND in a position to single-handedly betray the rest of the guard detachment and bust her out of captivity.

Much easier to get in and steal data from military design bureaus and run away than to insert a sleeper agent into the Ministry of Security.
Especially given the relative shortage of manpower the lystheni labored under.

Tolack · Mar 20, 2018

Tbh, with how outgunned and outskilled they are, at two degrees of failure we would probably enter a stalemate in the fleet shooting match. Two degrees of success probably savages 80-90% of the enemy fleet. Meanwhile three degrees of success probably has something to do with total annihilation or savaging half their fleet while the other half broadcast their surrender as quickly and loudly as possible.

NHO · Mar 20, 2018

Tolack said:
Tbh, with how outgunned and outskilled they are, at two degrees of failure we would probably enter a stalemate in the fleet shooting match. Two degrees of success probably savages 80-90% of the enemy fleet. Meanwhile three degrees of success probably has something to do with total annihilation or savaging half their fleet while the other half broadcast their surrender as quickly and loudly as possible.

I prefer "Disabled instantly for quick boarding" for three degrees.

Renars · Mar 20, 2018

Well, if lystheni fight with this roll, they will suffer, IF they run (sensible thing that we know they are too *doink* in the head to do),
they really needed to chose surrender. After this we need to deal with the rest that are dispersed across multiple worlds, and counting in their standard compartmentalisation might be in some ways crippled (dalatrass, their 'grand plan' and cult mentality points in that direction). {might want to get popcorn}

• On other news "grain of salt" computer: IBM working on 'world's smallest computer' to attach to just about everything

If this wasn't done before, than Virmire (AFTER developing Kinetic barriers like that scientist Asari suggested) might become little more notable in the wider Galaxy. OK, Yes, I know that Mass Effect has high-quality computers and even quantum computers (some might be even better than Expanse computers which are:

To actually calculate the orbital mechanics of more than two planetary bodies like 'N-body problem' is very incredibly complex and require supercomputer clusters. The Rocinate's onboard computer did it in real time when Alex realized the slingshotting around the Jupiter's moons was a solution without firing up the engine.

)
It and yes, such computers, with specialisations, in large quantities and in right network connections could open IMMENSE possibilities....
just a thought

Dwergar · Mar 20, 2018

uju32 said:
I am actually.
Part-time soldiers with no combat experience, and a navy so compartmentalized that only two people knew how many ships were in it.
I kinda doubt there's anything in the way of fleet command experience.

But we'll see.

Well... Their Fleet Commander wouldn't be totally incompetent. Picking some dependable and loyal fellow, than have him running simulations for a big enough amount of time.
I'd give him a Poor at the very least.
Now, should we destroy their flagship in a opening salvo, then there wouldn't be a bonus at all, since there are no orders and no command chain.

Also, we might have a second event chain, what with Amalinya inspection. Do you think we can up Kirai's Martial in that event too?

jacobk · Mar 20, 2018

random_npc said:
so a 13 point roll advantage, on top of a likely major modifier advantage. It's good to see that the Lystheni are maintaining a consistent level of competency.

It could work out for them. A quick decisive loss is probably their best case scenario at this point. Virmire isn't super genocidal as a society. If our casualties in the war are minimal there isn't going to be much appetite for revenge. The Lystheni will be unhappy that they won't have much say in the future of their polity, but they'll be largely unharmed.

OTOH if they rolled a bunch of natural crits and we rolled a bunch of critical failures the best they could do would be to weaken Virmire to the point that the whole cluster becomes Rachni chow.

rdc30 · Mar 20, 2018

@PoptartProdigy

How will Reaper indoctrination be handled from a gameplay perspective or is that something you're keeping secret until it happens? I imagine that indoctrination of our heroes/advisers simply won't reveal anything, but what happens if Mira or a future PC comes into extend contact with Reaper artifacts like what happened with the Batarian leadership?

PoptartProdigy · Mar 20, 2018

rdc30 said:
@PoptartProdigy

How will Reaper indoctrination be handled from a gameplay perspective or is that something you're keeping secret until it happens? I imagine that indoctrination of our heroes/advisers simply won't reveal anything, but what happens if Mira or a future PC comes into extend contact with Reaper artifacts like what happened with the Batarian leadership?

Bad things. Bad things will happen.

More seriously, I will be sitting on that until or unless it becomes relevant.

uju32 · Mar 20, 2018

Dwergar said:
Well... Their Fleet Commander wouldn't be totally incompetent. Picking some dependable and loyal fellow, than have him running simulations for a big enough amount of time. I'd give him a Poor at the very least.
Now, should we destroy their flagship in a opening salvo, then there wouldn't be a bonus at all, since there are no orders and no command chain.
Also, we might have a second event chain, what with Amalinya inspection. Do you think we can up Kirai's Martial in that event too?

See here's the thing:

We have intelligence that only two people knew how large the lystheni navy was, and who it's commanders were: their Fleet admiral and the dalatrass.
That's crucial, because any commander needs to know who his ship captains are, their capabilities and so on, as well as the capabilities of the ships.
Only two people even knew how many ships there were, let alone who their captains were.

I have my doubts as to whether they even established a formal chain of command for if/when the commander was disabled; the admiral was doing procurements personally, instead of having staff to do it.

Given as they were planning an invasion of Virmire, the fleet admiral is not going to be here, because someone else has to be putting together the rest of the fleet, and only the fleet admiral knows who the rest of the fleet is.
Which means the only other possible commander of their forces in this star system is the dalatrass.
Who we currently have in custody and away from radio.

See the problem?
We kept on mentioning how paranoia was crippling them for a reason.

Terminus Quest: A CKII Mass Effect Quest

Lawful Evil

Knight Watcher

Dumb is a state of existence

While you learned to write, I studied the blade.

Lawful Evil