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

THE SWARM SHEET
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​
 
Last edited:
Also, just two cool details in this scene:
"-waiting on you."

Your spine stiffened. Your eyes widened.

"I know, move to the old storefront. I want that photon cannon locked down." A tired sounding female voice came back.

"I gotcha!"
I heard those voice lines in my head. Also, hello there, Magistrate, hope you're doing well in this timeline.

It was an oddly robotic display for the normally more lively Adjutants you were used to interacting with back in the UEF - the millions of eager volunteers who made the UEF possible.
"Eager volunteers" is certainly the word the UEF would use for them.
 
You are in combat, and you don't know it thanks to Duran and Sarah's machinations!
An important thing to consider here.

Clarke doesn't know about the attack. By extension, she doesn't know that Sarah knows that Clarke knows that who Sarah is.
So, Clarke thinks that she has an information advantage, not an information disadvantage.

[X] Call up to the ship. You're having a great deal with this dominion, but you know how they are. Princes, big on pomp and circumstances. So you need the ACU, Mira's Marauders, all your combat forces for a parade to impress the princeling, whose going to show of with his own troops. Real hassle. And yeah, bring your girlfriend down as well, maybe she wants to watch?
-[X] This is of course, a clever ploy to lure her into a place where you can have a calm conversation without collateral damage, and overwhelming force if needed.
(The exact mechanical effects of this vote are left as an exercise for the reader writer)
 
Last edited:
[X] Call up to the ship. You're having a great deal with this dominion, but you know how they are. Princes, big on pomp and circumstances. So you need the ACU, Mira's Marauders, all your combat forces for a parade to impress the princeling, whose going to show of with his own troops. Real hassle. And yeah, bring your girlfriend down as well, maybe she wants to watch?
-[X] This is of course, a clever ploy to lure her into a place where you can have a calm conversation without collateral damage, and overwhelming force if needed.

hmmm....hmm
hm
hmmm

hm

This would be, mechanically speaking, "taking out" The Queen of Blades using your Bluff skill, and tapping your Marauders sticky into "Deceptive Parade" sparks that add +1 to the skill check, which would take Kerrigan out for 4 Heat, but you'd still have the disadvantaged sparks.

Then you'd have to choose what to do next, since you'd still have Heat to gain (though you can vent using a power, like, building your defenses up at the Terran base.)
 
HMm!

After doing my reread, I have concluded that Sarah's fun and playful personality might be understood as a desperate attempt to connect with someone. Anyone, of course, but the closest thing to an equal she can think of in particular? The vibe I get and I think Sam would have gotten is overwhelming loneliness and a clear sense that she would like to stop being the Queen of Blades, but also can't imagine how she would do so.

Obviously Sarah might have had ulterior motives, but any scheming feels like it's directed towards the UEF/humanity in general and not at Sam specifically. I'm not sure Sam would see scheming, though, regardless of whether it's there - does she think 'if she was hiding this, what else was she hiding?!?' or does she see her lover with rose-tinted glasses even after the revelation? Or neither, I guess, in which case I go back to 'if Sarah was trying to get one over on Sam specifically I don't see it.'

Part of me is thinking about 10ebbor10's writein, which is a lot of fun, but also part of me is just thinking 'just call the ship and tell Sarah that we know about It ™️ and we want to talk to her about It ™️'. Given how many times Sarah has very pointedly used Dramatic Irony on Sam, one might assume that she just really wants someone to talk to and is tired of all the bullshit and lies she has to do :V
 
Before we can attempt to solve things by talking to Sarah though, we first have to kick the shit out of Duran. Amon's right hand shapeshifter isn't going to let this situation end in anything but bloodshed.
 
Before we can attempt to solve things by talking to Sarah though, we first have to kick the shit out of Duran. Amon's right hand shapeshifter isn't going to let this situation end in anything but bloodshed.
I mean, yeah, but Sam doesn't know that. Obviously Sarah is under some form of duress, but I don't see how Sam could know what form that takes, and how would she figure it out without talking to Sarah?
 
An important thing to consider here.

Clarke doesn't know about the attack. By extension, she doesn't know that Sarah knows that Clarke knows that who Sarah is.
So, Clarke thinks that she has an information advantage, not an information disadvantage.
I like the cut of your jib, we should talk to our girlfriend first. Being a Confederate Ghost turned Queen of Blades isn't a deal-breaker :V
Relatedly: can't believe we lost the Colonial Girlfriend Spark without getting a matching Zerg Girlfriend Spark in return!

[X] Call up to the ship. You're having a great deal with this dominion, but you know how they are. Princes, big on pomp and circumstances. So you need the ACU, Mira's Marauders, all your combat forces for a parade to impress the princeling, whose going to show of with his own troops. Real hassle. And yeah, bring your girlfriend down as well, maybe she wants to watch?
-[X] This is of course, a clever ploy to lure her into a place where you can have a calm conversation without collateral damage, and overwhelming force if needed.
(The exact mechanical effects of this vote are left as an exercise for the reader writer)
 
Last edited:
I mean, yeah, but Sam doesn't know that. Obviously Sarah is under some form of duress, but I don't see how Sam could know what form that takes, and how would she figure it out without talking to Sarah?
Hrmmmm, this's my vote for now but yeah- really just wanna get to talk to her safely for both ends of things.

[X] Call up to the ship. You're having a great deal with this dominion, but you know how they are. Princes, big on pomp and circumstances. So you need the ACU, Mira's Marauders, all your combat forces for a parade to impress the princeling, whose going to show of with his own troops. Real hassle. And yeah, bring your girlfriend down as well, maybe she wants to watch?
-[X] This is of course, a clever ploy to lure her into a place where you can have a calm conversation without collateral damage, and overwhelming force if needed.

Not sure if there's a better way to do it or word it- so this for now
 
[X] Immediately attempt to contact the ship (Use your Leadership skill to try and batter down the control Duran has over Stukov's body - 7 heat, lightly overheats you)
 
[X] Call up to the ship. You're having a great deal with this dominion, but you know how they are. Princes, big on pomp and circumstances. So you need the ACU, Mira's Marauders, all your combat forces for a parade to impress the princeling, whose going to show of with his own troops. Real hassle. And yeah, bring your girlfriend down as well, maybe she wants to watch?
-[X] This is of course, a clever ploy to lure her into a place where you can have a calm conversation without collateral damage, and overwhelming force if needed.
Then you'd have to choose what to do next, since you'd still have Heat to gain (though you can vent using a power, like, building your defenses up at the Terran base.)

We can also end turn to lose a little heat and let one enemy act, right?

hmm, speaking of the disadvantaged sparks, could we use the Gratitude of Aiur to, like, get some sort of Counter-Psionic Action going on or just un-blind ourselves and thus protect ourselves from that scary Blinded by Betrayal? I dunno if we have the protoss communicator handy still! but presumably they know their way around zerg and schemes and psychic fuckery

Either way,


[X] Call up to the ship. You're having a great deal with this dominion, but you know how they are. Princes, big on pomp and circumstances. So you need the ACU, Mira's Marauders, all your combat forces for a parade to impress the princeling, whose going to show of with his own troops. Real hassle. And yeah, bring your girlfriend down as well, maybe she wants to watch?
-[X] This is of course, a clever ploy to lure her into a place where you can have a calm conversation without collateral damage, and overwhelming force if needed.
 
[X] Call up to the ship. You're having a great deal with this dominion, but you know how they are. Princes, big on pomp and circumstances. So you need the ACU, Mira's Marauders, all your combat forces for a parade to impress the princeling, whose going to show of with his own troops. Real hassle. And yeah, bring your girlfriend down as well, maybe she wants to watch?
-[X] This is of course, a clever ploy to lure her into a place where you can have a calm conversation without collateral damage, and overwhelming force if needed.

I'm not entirely sold on this, but it doesn't lead to an overheat and it does leave more options open.
 
We can also end turn to lose a little heat and let one enemy act, right?

Yeah!

hmm, speaking of the disadvantaged sparks, could we use the Gratitude of Aiur to, like, get some sort of Counter-Psionic Action going on or just un-blind ourselves and thus protect ourselves from that scary Blinded by Betrayal? I dunno if we have the protoss communicator handy still! but presumably they know their way around zerg and schemes and psychic fuckery

Nah - you didn't bring any Protoss with you
 
[X] Immediately attempt to contact the ship (Use your Leadership skill to try and batter down the control Duran has over Stukov's body - 7 heat, lightly overheats you)

The "plan a parade" idea is hilarious, but I think saving Stukov from mind control is more important.
 
[X] Call up to the ship. You're having a great deal with this dominion, but you know how they are. Princes, big on pomp and circumstances. So you need the ACU, Mira's Marauders, all your combat forces for a parade to impress the princeling, whose going to show of with his own troops. Real hassle. And yeah, bring your girlfriend down as well, maybe she wants to watch?
-[X] This is of course, a clever ploy to lure her into a place where you can have a calm conversation without collateral damage, and overwhelming force if needed.

Alright, now that I have read further into this, biding a turn to lose a heat AND cause a decay of one Blinded By Betrayal will let us crush the Blinded By Betrayal next turn without overheating and letting us vent heat through a power.

[X] Immediately attempt to contact the ship (Use your Leadership skill to try and batter down the control Duran has over Stukov's body - 7 heat, lightly overheats you)

The "plan a parade" idea is hilarious, but I think saving Stukov from mind control is more important.

Plan a Parade is more about naively laying a trap without realizing we have had a trap laid for us. But letting a turn pass will let us break through the mind control next turn without overheating, so we wouldn't suffer extra costs or letting all of them act.
 
Last edited:
The "plan a parade" idea is hilarious, but I think saving Stukov from mind control is more important.

Yeah, leaving Stukov in his current condition is the main reason why I'm not completely sold on the write-in.

However, if we do free Stukov then Duran and Sarah will know that Clarke knows that may place Stukov's life in danger as he's currently being kept alive to keep up appearances.

So for me the write-in is the lesser of two not great options.
 
Ahh, nice explanation for focusing on the Queen of Blades now.

DragonCobolt said:
We could crack it, but not easily, and our science team has been so busy studying the Zerg and the Protoss.
Hm. But they did get in, by partway through Bad Dreams (0.4)?
Then there's the Adjutant we recovered - studying it has determined that the Terran Dominion has all the weaknesses that Dr. Brackman once exploited to build his Cybran terrorist network. There's some old data in there pointing to some secure communications, but this particular Adjutant never picked any of them up.
(Also, I think that was what I was remembering as us explicitly not getting an adjutant with That Message on it, from earlier.)
...
Oh right or Sam could just be lying. It also serves the purpose of potentially making the Dominion think their security is better than it actually is vs. the UEF; much more useful to have broken your enemy's encryption if they don't know you've done it, after all!

The organic components had long since shriveled up
Hm. Maybe the Confederate scientists didn't have the resources to keep it alive?
Actually, I wonder what happened to the other two? Maybe this was actually the one in the best condition of the three, and so the only one the UEF took with them?

thirty billion people spread across half a dozen planets
...Wow, the UEF's a lot smaller than I'd thought.

...Huh. And that was intercepted Suns of Korhal traffic... So, I wonder if the UEF techs just missed that, lost somewhere in the filesystem, or... possibly Duran interfered? Hmm.

(Also, interesting we heard the marshal magistrate there, but Sarah only named Jim and Arcturus. I wonder what the relationship between them was like? And where the marshal magistrate is now?)

Right, so, voting! Obviously something is very wrong, and the situation is not what Sam believed it to be. But how exactly? Questioning Valerian has the issue that we can't actually trust Valerian, particularly now, and we even more can't trust the Dominion personnel here. He might also just be wrong. Hm. We also don't want to show weakness, if possible, but how to contact the ship and exert enough Leadership there? We don't know this is urgent because of the incoming zerg, but we do know that either something's wrong on the ship or something's wrong down here, or both.
...Well, still basically this, even if the details might want more refinement:
[X] Immediately attempt to contact the ship (Use your Leadership skill to try and batter down the control Duran has over Stukov's body - 7 heat, lightly overheats you)

Details...

[X] Attempt to play things cool for now -- Valerian might be shocked at his father's behavior, but it's genuinely the sort of thing you'd expect, and it's not, so you want it to appear, like any of the rest of the recording has personal relevance. However, contact the ship to ask if they have any information on a "Kerrigan"... which you'd actually very much like to know, but also do it in a way to fish for a duress code while, knowing you've got psychics likely against you, being on the lookout for any other signs even if one isn't given. Then proceed with the Leadershipping, and... things can go from there, based on what happens.

Twei said:
May go back and change this (or approval vote it?) - it makes sense as a panicked action
How panicked would Sam actually be here? Obviously, yes, things have taken a sudden and shocking turn for the worse, but she didn't get where she is today by panicking when that happens. I'd expect it to plunge her into more of a battle mindset. Intel turned out to be bad, some of my units might be compromised, what information and resources can I still count on, and how much?

beleester said:
Also, hello there, Magistrate
Magistrate, not marshal, right, I'd forgotten; thanks!

10ebbor10 said:
By extension, she doesn't know that Sarah knows that Clarke knows that who Sarah is.
So, Clarke thinks that she has an information advantage, not an information disadvantage.
Know, no, but she knows Sarah has had extensive access to the ship for some time now; if Sarah is the QoB, there's no telling what she might have set up. She might have bugged the ship, or Sam herself, she might have set up back doors, including psychic ones, might already have found this information was on the adjutant and made the UEF personnel hide it from Sam... Or, alternative, it isn't Sarah at all, but it's someone else on the ship, a Cybran agent perhaps, and the evidence she's just heard is fabricated, using Sarah's voice specifically to get to Sam.

Twei said:
The vibe I get and I think Sam would have gotten is overwhelming loneliness and a clear sense that she would like to stop being the Queen of Blades, but also can't imagine how she would do so.
And recent events, in particular? A remorseless monster infiltrator wouldn't have broken down like that. She wouldn't even have let Sam see there was anything wrong, would have tried to bolster her cover story instead of even hinting she was involved in nasty military stuff in the past. So even if Sarah is the Queen of Blades, that means the Queen of Blades is in several senses not who Sam's been told she is.

but also part of me is just thinking 'just call the ship and tell Sarah that we know about It ™️ and we want to talk to her about It ™️'.
How would we make that not look too bad in front of the Dominion, though? Who, after all, might outright be the ones behind this, whether or not Valerian personally is in on it. As far as Sam knows, after all, the first time that recording was found on the adjutant was after the Dominion techs had had a chance to maybe do something.

Twei said:
I mean, yeah, but Sam doesn't know that. Obviously Sarah is under some form of duress, but I don't see how Sam could know what form that takes, and how would she figure it out without talking to Sarah?
Well, happily for that, Duran is the one actually at present attacking her command/TacCom crew. :D

Various People said:
[X] Call up to the ship. You're having a great deal with this dominion, but you know how they are. Princes, big on pomp and circumstances. So you need the ACU, Mira's Marauders, all your combat forces for a parade to impress the princeling, whose going to show of with his own troops. Real hassle. And yeah, bring your girlfriend down as well, maybe she wants to watch?
-[X] This is of course, a clever ploy to lure her into a place where you can have a calm conversation without collateral damage, and overwhelming force if needed.
...I don't really like this plan. Yes, it gets her down here where we could talk to her, if it works. But, a: even if it works, it gets her down here in a Dominion base, where they just heard that recording, and I doubt they are likely to be very understanding. And b: it seems pretty unlikely to work, because why would Sarah head down in that situation?
 
hmm, speaking of the disadvantaged sparks, could we use the Gratitude of Aiur to, like, get some sort of Counter-Psionic Action going on or just un-blind ourselves and thus protect ourselves from that scary Blinded by Betrayal? I dunno if we have the protoss communicator handy still! but presumably they know their way around zerg and schemes and psychic fuckery
No, but we might get some Protoss help in building an anti-zerg Psionic Disrupter in the future.

[X] Call up to the ship. You're having a great deal with this dominion, but you know how they are. Princes, big on pomp and circumstances. So you need the ACU, Mira's Marauders, all your combat forces for a parade to impress the princeling, whose going to show of with his own troops. Real hassle. And yeah, bring your girlfriend down as well, maybe she wants to watch?
-[X] This is of course, a clever ploy to lure her into a place where you can have a calm conversation without collateral damage, and overwhelming force if needed.
 
...I don't really like this plan. Yes, it gets her down here where we could talk to her, if it works. But, a: even if it works, it gets her down here in a Dominion base, where they just heard that recording, and I doubt they are likely to be very understanding. And b: it seems pretty unlikely to work, because why would Sarah head down in that situation?

We've got Rapid Defensive Employment specifically to prevent fighting from breaking out in situations like this and DC has stated that this plan will work and will in fact incur less HEAT that if we were to try and free Stukov.
This would be, mechanically speaking, "taking out" The Queen of Blades using your Bluff skill, and tapping your Marauders sticky into "Deceptive Parade" sparks that add +1 to the skill check, which would take Kerrigan out for 4 Heat, but you'd still have the disadvantaged sparks.

Then you'd have to choose what to do next, since you'd still have Heat to gain (though you can vent using a power, like, building your defenses up at the Terran base.)
 
Actually, it's cause most sci-fi writers have no sense of scale goddamn it.
Yeah, like the war between the UEF, the Cybrans, and the Aeon is probably mostly a cold war with brief periods of heat, otherwise it'd have ended due to pressure & friction.

Also, most worlds probably have tens of billions of people, so thinking about the level of death that could happen is almost too hard to imagine, along with how each empire hasn't burned the galaxy out or the constant battle of logistics.
 
DragonCobolt said:
Actually, it's cause most sci-fi writers have no sense of scale goddamn it.
I mean, for not getting how big a billion is, maybe, but for having only six planets?

Spart117MC said:
We've got Rapid Defensive Employment specifically to prevent fighting from breaking out in situations like this and DC has stated that this plan will work and will in fact incur less HEAT that if we were to try and free Stukov.
Hm. Maybe...
Well, thanks for the mechanics-including announcement, at least.

Still, I think I'll keep my vote as it is... it looks like it's not going to matter anyway, so I hope you're right.
 
The "plan a parade" idea is hilarious, but I think saving Stukov from mind control is more important.
...I don't really like this plan. Yes, it gets her down here where we could talk to her, if it works. But, a: even if it works, it gets her down here in a Dominion base, where they just heard that recording, and I doubt they are likely to be very understanding. And b: it seems pretty unlikely to work, because why would Sarah head down in that situation?

Yeah, there are a lot of reasons to be iffy about it, honestly. I'm still leaning towards write-in nonsense, but I don't blame anyone for voting otherwise.
 
Back
Top