THE INFINITE BROOD (Starcraft/Supreme Commander Crossover Quest!)

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THE SWARM SHEET
  • Informational
    • The Brood of Blades
    ​
    Cerebrate Prime: Samantha Clarke
    LEVEL: 5
    XP: 205/210
    TRAITS
    Strategic Genius: Once per structured encounter, Sam can create a piece of the environment that is in her favor as a sticky spark. Roll a d3 for its value.
    Empathetic: upon meeting an NPC, learn their motivation!
    Legendary Commander: Gain 4 Command sparks at the beginning of each mission/combat. Command sparks may be spent to give NPCs orders, which they may either obey or refuse to obey (doing nothing instead.) Command sparks may not be regained via skills or powers.
    Hunted: Something wants her - but for what? +1 Danger to all scenes​
    SKILLS
    CLOSE COMBAT (2): Brawling, Edged Weapons
    PERSONAL (2): Awareness, Resilience
    SOCIAL (4): Charm, Empathy, Leadership, Taunt​
    MASTERY
    ACU Pilot (2): Nanofabrication [Mass], ObSat Operations [Range]
    The Hilt (4): Biomorphic Spawning (People), Regeneration (Durability), Physical Perfection (Speed), Telepathic Dominion (Range)​

    POWERS
    The Living Swarm
    Vent: 4-0
    Effect: Gain 1 Living Swarm spark, +1 per vent reduction.​
    The Living Swarm: While this swarm exists, move in three dimensions and through anything smaller than a keyhole, reforming at will. You may expend these sparks to cause 3 Hit Sparks in a Area 2 radius.​
    Area Upgrade: +1 to Area Characteristic​

    Biomorphic Reinforcement
    Vent: 4-0
    Effect: Create 1 Biomorphic Reinforcement spark, +1 per vent reduction, which can be given out to anyone within Range 2, or to yourself
    Biomorphic Reinforcement: +1 to Damage or Mass characteristic for the purpose of raw physical strength/feats.

    Back to Back
    Vent: 4-0
    Effect: Choose 1 ally (+1 per vent reduction), within Range 1. Each can take one action using one of your skills, any of them that you wish. Once they have done so, you may make a free attack with your melee weapon, getting +1 to your skill per ally that acted.​

    Adaptation
    Vent: 4-0
    Effect: Create a number of sparks equal to the enemy's difficulty, narratively based on turning their abilities against them. Works on enemies of Diff 2>, +2 per vent reduction.​

    Just as Planned…
    Vent: 6-0
    Effect: Vent 6 heat and create 1 Planning Spark for her or an ally, +1 Spark per vent reduction.​
    Planning: The person holding this Spark can expend this to get +1 to a skill check as a free action. Using this Stack counts as you are helping for the purpose of relationships.​

    GEAR
    Zeratul's Psi-Blades
    Adds: +0 (Edged Weapons) | Characteristics: Damage [Speed] (4)[1]​
    Shadowstep (3): Can expend as a free action to move without crossing intervening space.
    Guarded Space (3): Can expend to use Damage as a secondary characteristic for Durability, reducing incoming Damage characteristics.​

    GALACTIC WAR
    Victory Points: 5    ​
    RESOURCES​
    TERRAN DOMINION [Background] (1)​
    The men and material of the Dominion - limited, but they're mustering as we speak. ​
    ALLIANCE EXPEDITIONARY FORCES [Mastery] (1)​
    While you have access to several ACUs of every faction, they lack economic and technological support to be fully effective. ​
    ZERG HIVE [Mastery] (1)​
    The scant few Zerg you control that are free of Amon's influence. Mostly Zerglings. ​
    AEON FLEET [Background] (1)​
    While half a dozen CZARs seem impressive, they're not actually well made for ship to ship combat. ​
    ALLIED COHESION [Motivation] (1)​
    The alliance is fragile and weak.​

    FRONTS​
    Trade Sector-34-51 [Pirate Activity]
    Pirates Raiding 6 (Supply Lines in Disarray 1)
    COMMAND: Jim Raynor | ARMY: Raynor's Raiders
    RESULTS: Pending

    Braxis [Zerg Invasion]
    Borealis Siege 6 (Zerg Rampage1)
    COMMAND: General Samantha Clarke | ARMY: Brood Clarke
    RESULTS: Pending

    Typhan II [Active Xel'Naga ACU]
    Typhan II Occupied 6 (Xel'Naga ACU Spotted 1)
    COMMAND: Lt. Colonel Mathew Horner | ARMY: UEF Armored Command Unit
    RESULTS: Pending

    Deep Space Sector 981 [Hive Fleet Identified]
    Zerg Hive Fleet Spotted 6 (Kerrigan? 1)
    COMMAND: Citizen-Commander Dostya | ARMY: CN Armored Command Unit
    RESULTS: Pending
    ​
    ENEMY ASSETS (Currently Known)
    ​
    THE GOLDEN ARMADA
    ACTIVITY: Unknown | Threat Level: 6​
     
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  • Informational
    • [x] Plan Breakwall/turtle-boom

    UEF aren't good people, I don't feel like characterizing our commander as one. That said, I'm fine with 'you can leave' winning.
     
    Eater said:
    I'm thinking about this like a PA teleporter though
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    What does "PA" mean here?

    And Agria might work, though we don't know what the exact situation is there right now. Might still be our best bet if we go with that plan, though. I'm not sure how much spare space Expeditionary One has.
     
    Just realized, what is the Dragon's Teeth? From context it's some sort of unit or structure, but I don't think there are any in canon by that name.
    Reese said:
    What does "PA" mean here?

    And Agria might work, though we don't know what the exact situation is there right now. Might still be our best bet if we go with that plan, though. I'm not sure how much spare space Expeditionary One has.
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    Planetary Annihilation, they have instantaneous planetary-range teleporter gates.

    Anyway, I have serious doubts about the currently winning plan. Quantum Gates are a T3 structure and we don't have any economy to build something that costs about 10x more than everything else built thus far combined.
    Also, we don't actually have a good place for the civilians to evacuate to (and possibly they need vehicles made as well to handle going through the gate safely)
     
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    Reese said:
    What does "PA" mean here?
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    Sorry! Planetary Annihilation. It's a spiritual successor to Total Annihilation and Supreme Commander. The teleporter there is basically a stargate; send units in one and they come out another. Tho pa has no lore or campaign so it might work between star systems as well

    Expeditionary has at least two acu bays open. Those could hold a lot of refugees for a bit at least.

    I wasn't aware that quantum teleporters were buildable in supcom? I would think there'd be a civilian version available as well that we could make.
     
    Eater said:
    I wasn't aware that quantum teleporters were buildable in supcom? I would think there'd be a civilian version available as well that we could make.
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    There's two different kinds. There's the structure used to "build" SACUs, and then there's the unbuildable objectives that come pre-placed on the campaign maps. I doubt the latter is any cheaper than the former, and quite possibly significantly more expensive to make for a smoother ride for those not in a giant war robot.

    There's also the ACU personal teleporters, but those are sufficiently different I don't think they're relevant.
     
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    notgreat said:
    There's two different kinds. There's the structure used to "build" SACUs, and then there's the unbuildable objectives that come pre-placed on the campaign maps. I doubt the latter is any cheaper than the former, and quite possibly significantly more expensive to make for a smoother ride for those not in a giant war robot.

    There's also the ACU personal teleporters, but those are sufficiently different I don't think they're relevant.
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    Mmm. These are all very large military sized gates. I wonder if there would be smaller civilian versions? One or two people at a time sort of things. It really depends on how scalable the technology is.
     
    I think the more important question is if this is a good thing for the narrative and the game. Will the existence of easily-constructed teleporters just break all the encounters and leave DC to make up star-trekky excuses for why the teleporters can't work this time?

    I think a system that requires us to build a gate at both ends and can only take person-sized things would probably not break as many plotlines as a star trek transporter. Might reduce the drama, tho, if we can (almost) always evac the civs easily.

    And of course DC can always later rule that the rules are different now, cos it is a game as well as a story.
     
    For sure! Could add tension too; maybe we need to hold out for a certain amount of time etc.

    There is the weird quantum film/bubble thing the whole sector is in, so further disruption due to changes to that would say interesting things. Especially with the whole 'all these planets are artificial' angle that's going in.

    Anyhow, very much in favor of DC doing whatever he wants.
     
    I believe the suggestion for the SupCom quantum teleporters is that they need the big orbital gates somewhere nearby to function, the ground gates just piggybacking off the space based network.

    There are some missions where you escort a bunch of civilian trucks filled with civilians to ground gates to evacuate them somewhere, so they can yeet people across the stars.

    My interpretation is that regardless, gate travel is instant but heinously energy intensive, hence why allmost all warfare is waged by teleporting ACU through the entwork, which are presumably the smallest practical package that can manufacture an army on site, but I am not willing to say I am objectively right on that one.
     
    Oops, I'm dumb! I'm so sorry for not noticing this.

    So, @Eater, your plan goes

    Fab Resources (diff 1)
    Fab Resource extractors (diff 2)
    Fab Nested Gate Construction Engineers -> This is two actions, if you want to make them nested, which means diff 3, then 4 - which is 1 then 2 heat.
    Then Fabbing the Terazine is 3 heat, which puts you at 6!

    You can't get the defensive works without overheating (it'd put you at 4 overheat, which is enough to add +2 shock to the counter and then lets the enemies act.)

    Is that all right with y'all?
     
    DragonCobolt said:
    Oops, I'm dumb! I'm so sorry for not noticing this.

    So, @Eater, your plan goes

    Fab Resources (diff 1)
    Fab Resource extractors (diff 2)
    Fab Nested Gate Construction Engineers -> This is two actions, if you want to make them nested, which means diff 3, then 4 - which is 1 then 2 heat.
    Then Fabbing the Terazine is 3 heat, which puts you at 6!

    You can't get the defensive works without overheating (it'd put you at 4 overheat, which is enough to add +2 shock to the counter and then lets the enemies act.)

    Is that all right with y'all?
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    I thought that we got the resources for free as the starting bonus?

    Edit: are we only able to nest one thing inside the resources?
    Edit edit: so what i did was:
    Resources
    |—> mex/energy
    |—> terrazine
    |—> gate engineers
    —> defenses

    All off the one node. I'll havta rejigger the plan if that's not allowed. I'm a bit confused by this in general actually, I just noticed this:
    DragonCobolt said:
    The value is randomized since the battlefield is never fully under your control, with a value between 1-6, which I shall roll after I post!
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    How does the value of the resource node affect its behavior? Can we nest more inside, or..?
     
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    Skipping defenses seems fine to me. If I understand the system right, the other guys can't both get to our base and attack us this turn anyways.
     
    Ohhhh, yeah, I getcha now! Yeah, that seems fine!

    THe weakness to this is it would be only one spark, which could then be focus fired down - while having multiple sparks would force the enemies to take multiple actions to hammer.

    Though...hmm...

    Gonna make a note that a spark can only have a certain number of nested things. I'll say 1 per stack.

    So, Resources (6) can have six nested sparks in it, while Resources (2) would only be able to carry 2!

    Since I've just decided that right now, we'll say the Resources sparks are big enough for your nesting shenanigans!
     
    ACT ONE, MISSION TWO: First Strike (0.6)
  • Threadmarks
    • Your forward viewscreen showed the resources you had spotted in the OrbSat. The gleaming blue of the crystalline deposits were clustered thickly around the legs of some ancient ruined statue, while gas vents hissed and pumped greenish fog into the air around them. It was enough to run an entire economic platform for a military attack...and it was situated relatively close to some terazine vents. The purple fog of them was visible, just barely over the ridge of some low hills. You scrolled the view in, then out, then in again as you thought.

    Memories played through your mind.

    Strategies based on reelection aren't war winners, Riley.

    We've lost too much, for too long. The colonization run was a bust. You've seen the reports.

    Hurm.

    You could remember the plastic slates in your fingers, scrolling through ream after ream of colonization data from the DCA. More energy credits and mass allocations than the education and public services sector, and they'd managed to do a remarkable feat of Von Neumann engineering. Probes and survey ships, replicating and managed from their work center in the ancient city of San Francisco - and the end result? Ten thousand surveyed solar systems, and a hundred thousand with flythrough probes. It was probably the most impressive single collection of exploration and astrocatography that the galaxy had ever seen, better organized and better supported than anything the old Earth Empire had managed. They had seen more, but it had taken them a hell of a lot longer.

    End result?

    Three habitable planets.

    And two of them needed engineering that'd take three, four decades before they could be independently viable.

    Your lips pursed slightly.

    We have to hold what we have.

    The President was fighting a war on multiple fronts - and he had sent you here to open another one?

    Your fingers drummed on your arm rest. "If he has a problem with it, he can send a message the slow way," you said, quietly, then tapped at the controls - and got to work fabricating a factory. The building swelled out of nothingness with flares of glowing energy from your arm, while Stukov's voice came over the line.

    "General, we're reading Tal'Darim movement," he said.

    Your eyes flicked to the minimap in the upper right hand corner of your view and grunted quietly as you saw the gleaming dots representing the enemy walkers. There were three platoons - and two of them had merged together, making them significantly more dangerous. The other one, though, had spread out. Walkers scuttled to Terazine vents...and you frowned as you scrolled in the view, frowning. The OrbSat's resolution was good enough to show that the vents weren't entirely natural. They jetted up among pillars and crystalline buildings. You frowned. "Dr. Hanson, thoughts?"

    "It looks almost like a place of worship," she said, slowly. "Considering the religious overtones to everything else the Tal'darim have said, uh...I think there's good cause to call these things shrines."

    "Since when have we given a damn about alien religious practices?" Tosh's voice came on the line, his face appearing in the upper left corner as he shook his head. "Alien religious practices are why we got the Aeon running around. They've killed millions of people."

    You frowned.

    The alien walkers were sleek and fast looking things - black hulled, red lines glowing along them. Memories of fighting cybrans flickered through your mind - but you quashed it, focusing instead on how they moved. Several dozen teleported, fanning out through the shrines, securing them with some impressive alacrity. If they were as mobile in active combat...

    You frowned harder.

    "I'm going to get us what we need, then we're getting out of here with the colonists," you said, firmly.

    "Sir?" Stukov asked.

    "This planet can be conquered and colonized once we have a better operational base to start from. Right now, our focus is on the colonists. Dr. Hanson, can we transport them through a quantum gate to our ship?"

    "Yes, sir, though, finding space for them will be tricky," she said, and...you swore she sounded proud of you. You brushed it off as you tapped at your keyboard. The factory began to buzz loudly as you checked the shrines. The Tal'darim had managed to secure several of them - you weren't going to be able to get at them without blasting them away. But you had one near enough by. You started to maneuver towards the shrine, the stomping footsteps caused the stone to shift and a statue actually crashed to the side and shattered on the ground. Your nanolathe aimed at it as you adjusted a mass storage unit to be portable with a few touches on your control panel. As the nanolathe worked, you frowned to yourself.

    This was going to work.

    This was going to work.

    Behind you, the first engineers were rolling off the platform. One trundled to your side and started to add the stabilization beams and spraying nanites over the mass of glowing, half present mass. You let them, stomping towards your base's most obvious entrances. Railgun turrets started to bloom as you checked the map.

    The Tal'darim were working on something.

    "Quantum signatures, General," Stukov said. "I think they're making a push!"

    You finished one of the buildings, then quickly laid down a series of jagged, metal spikes around them, breaking up the chances of anyone easily breaching through the defenses...but as you worked, you saw something...spindly and swift twirling towards you. It looked like a multisegmented flower of glass and black steel, and it came to a stop right outside of your defensive line's fierepower. It didn't look dangerous. Course, you had once seen an ACU ripped to shreds by half a dozen spindly Aeon combat bots that had barely been more sturdy looking - their sonic pulses vibrating the ACU so hard that the fusion core had breached and the man had come back through the emergency teleport with bits of bone in his lungs from how badly they had pounded him.

    The spindly flower opened.

    "More quantum signatures!"

    Stukov's warning was barely needed. More of the infantry you had faced before snapped into existance, flashing into place beneath the flowery device - far more than could have been carried. It was a transport - no, not a transport. It was a portable gate. The very idea was so shocking you had barely noticed that almost four platoons of alien infantry had been dropped. They started to rush forward, and their distant warcries reached your ears.

    "Forged in Darkness!"

    Their energy blades crackled with bright red light as they rushed forward and the turrets began to open fire. They bounded through and around the armored dragon's teeth you had thrown down, vaulting over the walls with reckless abandon. More than a few were caught by railgun projectiles, their shields bursting and their bodies flaring into red nothingness as they exploded with strange energies. But more than a few managed to reach the other side and began to leap forward. The first few of your defensive turrets blew with flared of bright white light, their frames scythed apart by fanatic, suicidal bravery paired with advanced shields and a speed you hadn't expected.

    "Fuck they're fast!" you hissed, softly.

    ---
    Okay! Your tactical genius trait generated a Resource (3) spark. Then you fabbed up an Economy Structures (2) spark for 0 heat, a Gate Engineer Spark (1) for 0 heat and a Terazine Container (1) spark for 1 heat. Then you created Defensive Buildings (1) for 2 heat and Forifications (1) spark for 3 heat. This put you at 6 heat, then you vented to create one Just as Planned spark.

    Your sparks all decayed by one! This decayed your defensive sparks into a STICKY SPARK: Tier One Defense (1). Your Economy sparks are still at Resources (2)->Economic Structures (1). They're still vulnerable - you've built a factory, some engineers, but haven't teched up to gates yet.

    Now all three stalkers got to act.

    Stalker Platoon 2 and 3 moved close together, so they're all at -20 range from you.

    Stalker Platoon 1 moved to -5 range, then generated Guarding The Shrines (3) sparks! Not getting any more Terazine save that one sample till you deal with that.

    The round ends! The Guarding the Shrines spark decays to (2).

    Now, I as the GM get to spend some of my 15 Shock!

    I have created four Diff 1 Zealot platoons - for 4 shock and they all get to act! Narratively, this would put them at -30 range. But just for funsies, I'll use a Warp Prism to get them closer by spending 7 shock to create a Diff 1 enemy with the speed characteristic of 5 (many kilometers) and the spark of Portable Pylon (1). The warp prism flies over, then uses its spark as a justification for the zealots to just be there immediately! They create four hit sparks: Slash!->Crash!->Crackle!->Vrszzts!

    Once those decay, they'll make a sticky spark of Destroyed Defenses (1).

    I have 4 shock left, which I shall bank!

    RANGES
    Double Stalker Platoon: -20
    Stalker Platoon at Shrine: -5
    Zealots 1-4: -0

    YOUR STICKY SPARKS
    Tier 1 Defensive Buildings (1)

    YOUR SPARKS
    Resources (2)->Economic Structures (1) [ETA: 2 turns]

    INCOMING HIT SPARKS
    Slash->Crash->Crackle!->Vtrrzzts!

    Oh, and before you ask: The reason why hit sparks don't have numbers is they're always 1 since Hit Sparks are special and automatically nest. It's how the damage system works, trust me.

    What do you do?

    [ ] Operation: The Best Defense - target down the zealots with your Vehicle Weapon skill: Taking out two for free (diff 1 and diff 1+1), then taking 1 heat and 2 (diff 1+2 and diff 1+3) heat for the other two. Next, vent 3 heat and create 4 Just as Planned sparks to bolster your next turn's actions. The hit sparks will decay into the sticky spark of Destroyed Defenses - but you can always build them again.
    [ ] Operation: Repair Beams! - use four actions to bat down the hit sparks for 0, 0, 1 and 2 heat. Then gain 3 heat to blast one of the zealots with Vehicular Weapons 2. Then vent 4 heat to use Marksman and blast a second one for free! The remaining two have already acted, so the stalkers will get to act - and they seem focused on defending the Shrines.
    [ ] Write In
     
  • Threadmarks
    • Hmmm is the warp prism in range of our ACU gun? An overcharged shot can take down even bulky T2 tanks, so that might be a good thing to take down the enemy reinforcements
     
    CrabTravelLLC said:
    Hmmm is the warp prism in range of our ACU gun? An overcharged shot can take down even bulky T2 tanks, so that might be a good thing to take down the enemy reinforcements
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    You can shoot it down, yes! Currently, it won't be doing anything - but that portable pylon spark is a rational to spawn enemies near you, rather than far away! However, I'm running low on Shock, so I'll be unable to spawn more things unless you overheat and make things worse.
     
    Hmm. So what happens if a nested spark decays before the nesting spark does? Does that still create a sticky spark?

    Also, say you have a spark/nest like so:
    resources (2) [building (2), vehicle (2)
    When this decays, it will become:
    resources (1) [building (1), vehicle (1)]
    If the resource node can only have as many nested nodes as its value, what happens to the two nodes? Is it more like:
    resources (1/2) [building (1/2), vehicle (1/2)]
    So that when it ticks down again and the value zeroes out a sticky building 2 and vehicle 2 are left behind?
     
    Well, at least it's a Warp Prism rather than a War Prism.

    [X] Operation: The Best Defense - target down the zealots with your Vehicle Weapon skill: Taking out two for free (diff 1 and diff 1+1), then taking 1 heat and 2 (diff 1+2 and diff 1+3) heat for the other two. Next, vent 3 heat and create 4 Just as Planned sparks to bolster your next turn's actions. The hit sparks will decay into the sticky spark of Destroyed Defenses - but you can always build them again.

    This kills all 4 enemy zealots, and at the cost of 1 spark of defenses we get an extra 2 sparks/heat-value in total, seems like a reasonable choice.
     
    Eater said:
    Hmm. So what happens if a nested spark decays before the nesting spark does? Does that still create a sticky spark?
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    It still does! However, if any part of the spark is snuffed, it all is. Nested sparks are linked like that.

    Think of it like this: Even if you do build gate constructors, they can't build a gate if the resourcers get destroyed!

    Eater said:
    If the resource node can only have as many nested nodes as its value, what happens to the two nodes? Is it more like:
    resources (1/2) [building (1/2), vehicle (1/2)]
    So that when it ticks down again and the value zeroes out a sticky building 2 and vehicle 2 are left behind?
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    Click to shrink...

    It still works, since it had enough sparks to start with. Once made, they're made!
     
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    I agree with notgreat, t1 stuff is for exactly that

    [X] Operation: The Best Defense - target down the zealots with your Vehicle Weapon skill: Taking out two for free (diff 1 and diff 1+1), then taking 1 heat and 2 (diff 1+2 and diff 1+3) heat for the other two. Next, vent 3 heat and create 4 Just as Planned sparks to bolster your next turn's actions. The hit sparks will decay into the sticky spark of Destroyed Defenses - but you can always build them again.
     
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