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The Shadow of Old Transgressions (Homeworld/Mass Effect Crossover Quest)

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Arcanestomper said:
Scheduled vote count started by Arcanestomper on Mar 22, 2023 at 11:13 PM, finished with 15 posts and 8 votes.
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Hmm, technically rendezvous won, but four people did want the surprise attack. They just wanted a different target. I know it's already been a while, but I think I would like it if there was one or two more votes. I won't wait too long though. If there isn't a deciding factor by tonight I will go with a merged option.
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would it be possible to lob a siege cannon shot at one of the groups and head to the rendezvous? or lob the shot from the rendezvous point?
 
Pretty much by design the rendevous would be nowhere near the wraiths since the defenders would need to open up part of their defensive grid, and they aren't going to want to do that if their are wraiths nearby.
 
Arcanestomper said:
Pretty much by design the rendevous would be nowhere near the wraiths since the defenders would need to open up part of their defensive grid, and they aren't going to want to do that if their are wraiths nearby.
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does the siege cannon have a range limit? i always got the impression that it was basically a time fuzed artillery shell of sorts
 
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Turn 8.3: The Blitz
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    • Core Space

    Arak System
    The Grand Conclave

    With your course decided you waste no further time. Your fleet takes up a compact formation designed to concentrate your fire and provide as much protection as possible given that you're about to deliberately surround yourselves on all sides.

    You yourself take up the center position with your defensive field stretched to its full capacity to protect the others. In a triangle around you are Laverna and the two shepherds stick as close as possible to take the most advantage of your field. The dervishes, acoyles, and cherubs wait patiently in their hangars for the order to launch. Each of the flicker frigates is assigned to one of the carriers to protect it as best they can.

    Next are the slinger frigates in an upright hexagon that stays close for much the same reason. Flying among them are the flicker frigates, the Raawan, the Marduk, and Kwan in a loose sub formation. They'll deal with any wraith escorts that enter your field.

    Finally to your port and starboard are Ulysses and Oracle 13 respectively. Their heavier armor and powerful weapons will hopefully allow them to survive in the weaker periphery of your defensive field.

    Aurora and Iuno won't be joining you. They are both large targets with minimal defenses. But they have their own mission which is just as important. They'll make their way around the defensive shell and try to meet up with the guardians.

    "Quantum vector computed. Final fleet check." you order.

    "I'm all gold, and so are the drones," chirps Laverna.

    "All systems are nominal." reports Ulysses stoically.

    "It's a good day for battle. Let's crush some heads," says Captain Dire with a laugh.

    "I don't know about heads, but we're ready here." You can just imagine captain Leli shaking her head.

    "Let's get some payback for Irune," Captain Dun sounds more vehement than usual, but then he does have a fairly personal stake here.

    Oracle doesn't say anything. But you do get a systems diagnostic over the fleet channel.

    "Good Luck." "Don't get yourselves damaged out there." chime Iuno and Aurora.

    Not the most disciplined review, but you'll take it. "Alright let's do this. Initiate Hyperspace Jump."

    Golden rectangles spring up around you as your hyperspace core sends you into a short tactical jump. There's almost no discontinuity at all, just an immediate exit into battle. The transition is stark. You go from empty space to one filled with hundreds of ships. Black armored frigates fly in shoals while swarms of interceptors launch from the menacing carriers. A series of missiles is in flight headed towards the Conclave defense stations. Ahead of you sit five massive ships. Their bulk dwarfs your entire fleet and their power signatures are large enough to give you pause even knowing what to expect.

    You don't have more than a moment to feel fear however before your systems redline into combat mode. Your sub minds link up and outward as a battle trance settles over not just you, but Ulysses and Laverna as well. Even as you begin targeting your own ion cannons you have plenty of time to watch as Ulysses deploys his siege cannon.

    The hatch plating folds aside and the ancient weapon rises from its emplacement already humming with energy. Ulysses had been charging his capacitors even before you jumped and now you can see the magnetic bottle forming with deadly payload. A ball of plasma the size of a frigate erupts from the barrel and flies forward like a small star.

    It races towards the wraith carriers and as you've come to expect they do not stick around. They flee with their exotic FTL drives leaving streaks of light in their wake. But they are the only wraiths so fortunate. The rest are left to weather the storm as the siege explodes in a massive shockwave. Energy sweeps over the battle. Your sensors overload and your capacitors drain as even the after effects that reach you are enough to strain them.

    When your sensors clear you see the effects. The most prominent of which are what you don't see. Every wraith escort from their purpose built ships right down to the subverted interceptor is simply gone. Most of the missile cruisers are drifting and a few have been destroyed outright. Even the dreadnoughts have taken some damage to their armor.

    Unfortunately it appears that isn't enough to stop them as they turn to face you even as they launch additional interceptors to replace those destroyed in the blast. But they aren't the only ones with fighters. Laverna and the shepherds are already churning out waves of acolytes and cherubs. The distances are so close that the two fighter swarms meet almost instantly and the battle becomes a chaotic melee.

    You, Ulysses, and Oracle all start taking shots at the remaining missile cruisers with your ion cannons while the slingers salvo masses of missiles at the dreadnoughts. They in turn respond with their own railgun fire and your defensive field soon comes under such extreme strain that you turn your secondary cannons towards trying to intercept the railgun rounds before they can reach you.

    Unfortunately you don't have time to deal with them as the missile cruisers begin righting themselves and firing their own bio torpedoes at you. Oracle counters by deploying a wing of stocky keeper interceptors to shoot them down.

    One by one forces are deployed and counter deployed. The dreadnoughts send a new force of interceptors to destroy your missiles. Laverna covers them with a squadron of dervishes. The Wraith Flagship releases a set of small fast crimson craft that are completely new. They race in to disable the dervishes with some sort of emp before actually landing on them and cutting them apart with monomolecular blades. Captain Dire advances to cover the missiles and tears the crimson cutters apart with his flak turrets. But that draws the flicker formation out of the range of your defensive field and the dreadnoughts start firing on them with rail gun rounds that outmass the flicker frigates themselves.

    Making a snap decision you update the tactical feed with new waypoints. "Take care of the cruisers," you order Ulysses and Oracle. In seconds the fleet splits in three. Ulysses and Oracle move to destroy the remaining missile cruisers. Laverna and the shepherds hang back to support the acolyte and cherub wings dogfighting in the center of the battle. And you power forward towards your allies. The slingers practically cling to your flanks even as they launch a steady stream of new missiles.

    By the time you make it to your friends the Marduk is in a bad way. Captain Dire has used it to shield the other two smaller frigates. It's been hit several times and you're surprised it's still in one piece. The Kushan build tough ships apparently. The Kwan hasn't done very much. Dun may have vengeance on his mind, but his ship doesn't really have the capabilities to contribute in a capital ship fight. The Raawan does though. Captain Leli has expertly maneuvered it around the nearest dreadnought and used her ion cannons to good effect. She can't do much damage herself, but she's destroyed several secondary turrets and cleared a path for the missiles. They've started to impact and the dreadnought is starting to take a beating.

    Unfortunately it decides not to just accept that. Your only warning is a spike of energy on your sensors before it unleashes its main weapon in your direction, or perhaps more accurately in the direction of the slingers packed tight around you.

    Once again the battle field is lit up like a sun as the ravenous beam of energy sweeps the field clear. You desperately route as much power into your defensive field as possible and unfortunately it is not quite enough. Your capacitors and emitter banks explode as the last of the beam sweeps over you. Fortunately the anti subversion module is still working, but your armor is vaporized by the maelstrom of energy.

    It's fortunate that you aren't in a destroyer body anymore as you would likely have been destroyed. A cruiser hull is made of sterner stuff and despite your sub minds screaming about total armor failure in sectors all across your bow you survive the blast. Your sensors reset and observe the battle. The fighter battle is finished as every Bentusi acolyte and Wraith Interceptor has once again been destroyed.

    Ulysses and Oracle are still in fighting condition, but they are the only ones. Laverna is helping one of the shepherds conduct repairs while the other one drifts away in pieces. The Slingers were shielded by your own bulk and are mostly intact, but their hulls are still scorched and their missile hatches fused shut. Your primary ion cannons have been gutted along with your armor. The Marduk is a drifting hulk with the Kwan and Raawan hovering beside it taking on survivors.

    You signal a retreat and a series of golden flashes whisks the survivors of your little task force away.


    Aurora and Iuno meanwhile have had a much easier time of it. They jumped around the periphery of the defensive shell until they were almost entirely opposite the battle. Which isn't to say they were unimpeded. The Wraiths aren't so foolish as to leave their opponents an opening to get reinforcements. A lone carrier hangs outside the defensive sphere to prevent exactly what Iuno and Laverna are trying.

    It's a menacing figure. A dark form against the stars with its manipulators and rail guns poised to hurl death and destruction. But Aurora and Iuno are not impressed. They may not have hulls built for war, but they have numerous hangars and ample flash forges.

    The Wraith carrier finds itself swarmed by multiple wings of cherubs and dervishes. They pound its hull with fusion torpedoes and ion cannons even as acolytes deal with its own fighter escort. But they're just a distraction. Something to keep the wraith occupied while a trio of mark two quantum missiles close in from opposite sides.

    By the time the carrier realizes its mistake it's too late. The missiles release their sub munitions and the carrier is bracketed by a dozen quantum explosives. It's nothing compared to the hellish energies being unleashed on the other side of the battle space, but it's enough to pound the lone carrier into scrap.

    After a quick sweep of acolytes to get rid of the last Wraith interceptors Aurora and Iuno approach the defensive station and transmit their envoy codes. Normally the guardians would warn away an ambassadorial delegation from a battle like this, but after the show of Bentusi force they're happy to temporarily deactivate the defense station and welcome the two support Bentusi in.


    Your small flotilla floats some distance from the battle space as you contemplate the current situation. Your surprise attack was fairly successful. The wraith carriers are dispersed for now. From prior experience you don't expect them to be able to make it back to the battle for at least a day or two. Enough that they won't be a factor in the next phase of the siege.

    A huge number of wraith interceptors and escorts were destroyed. The escorts can't be replaced. For some reason they don't seem able to build their smaller ships, and there are no raiders to subvert here. The interceptors can be rebuilt, but you've seen that wraith resources aren't infinite. Doing so will take time and supplies.

    Their missile cruisers also took a heavy pounding. At least a third were destroyed and another third heavily damaged. The dreadnought you targeted with missiles also seems to have taken significant damage when you review the tactical logs.

    Unfortunately the other three dreadnoughts and the flagship were mostly untouched. The flagship especially seems to have a few surprises stored in its crimson hull. And your fleet did not come out of the fight unscathed. You lost a lot of your own acolytes and dervishes, and your resources aren't infinite either. More concerningly you also lost a shepherd and the Marduk. Though some survivors were taken off in time. Unfortunately Captain Dire wasn't one of them.

    You've taken heavy damage yourself, and the slingers also suffered in that last blast. The problem is that Aurora would normally be the one to fix you up. You have some self repair systems and Laverna can do more, but none of you will be at one hundred percent without Aurora's help. And she is now cut off from you. Contact is sparse at this distance so you can only hope that she and Iuno have been able to distribute the subversion countermeasures.

    You consider your next course of action.

    [ ] Harass the Wraiths
    You don't have the capability to attack them directly again. But they have patrols covering the rest of the Conclave's defensive sphere. And more importantly they likely have resource gatherers in the area. You can do a little hunting and make their resource situation even worse.

    [ ] Join up with the Guardians
    The Wraiths stepped up their patrols after Aurora and Iuno went through, but you can still blast your way through. Tha will let you meet back up with Aurora and get your damage repaired. Though your fleet will also be stuck inside the defensive sphere.

    [ ] Pull back and Reinforce
    You don't have Aurora, but all Bentusi can do a little construction. If you can find some handy asteroids you can build a support bay and repair yourselves to full capacity. The only downside is that it will give the Wraiths time to regroup as well.
     
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    • Given our hitting force is outside the cordon, and our primary mission to ensure the defenders have the capability to resist the subversion beam (they might have had the same sort of thing already, even if it's just massed defense fields) complete, I think Harass is the way to go. Possibly with Valerius hunkering down in our busted up CA while Ulysses does "shenanigans" with his boom stick. Hypering in, letting off a nova round, and hypering out as the capital ship that was being repaired or coordinating resourcing is crumpled, for example.
     
    *salutes Captain Dire*

    Adios, you beautiful, absolute madlad. May you be reborn as a Thresher Maw and continue to be a nightmare to your enemies in your next life.

    Anyways, we've been bled pretty good and losing two hulls stings, but the enemy had been bled even worse. Even better, it's obvious now that the Void Wraiths want absolutely no part of being on the wrong end of Ulysses's siege cannon. I doubt that we'll be able to land another brutalizing hit from that thing, but @DaLintyGuy has a point there.

    The moment our boy Ulysses opened fire, the ships that could scattered. At the very least, that can be used to keep break up their formation whenever they try to reform their fleet if we elect to continue harrassing them.

    As much as I'd like to go limping back to Aurora and Iuno, do a full round of repairs and work on building a new hull for our surviving Kushan Flicker Friends (they've definitely earned it), I'm also not keen on letting the Void Wraiths surprise us with something new if we give them the time and resources to rebuild.

    [X] Harass the Wraiths

    I vote that we go on the hunt for their patrols and resource gathering operations. We might get lucky and get to gobble up one or two of their carriers again, but more importantly, every patrol we swat out of the area is one less ship or ships to have to deal with when we finally go head to head again, as well as providing us with sufficient raw materials for what repairs we can do without Aurora and Iuno.

    I will however note that this course of action doesn't necessarily mean that we're not linking up with the rest of our flotilla and the Taiidan defenders, just likely delaying it, which also gives Aurora and Iuno time to assist said defenders in fabricating enough anti-subversion modules to protect themselves and repairing and rearming their ships.

    Also.

    Arcanestomper said:
    It races towards the wraith carriers and as you've come to expect they do not stick around. They flee with their exotic FTL drives leaving streaks of love in their wake.
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    This has me thinking of that old Nyan cat meme. 😆
     
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    So, proposal!
    Active interdiction.
    Rapidly deploy chunks of matter (small asteroids) along the Wrath FTL escape trajectory by using small amounts of exotic matter in external FTL accelerator.
    In other words, small relay with FTL corridor ending inside expected Wrath FTL corridor. Rocks, frankly, should be at rest relative to us when they exit. Or at least at speeds that make them ineffective weapons.

    Bonus points for specialized ammunition/grav well generators that transform vector into a cone of FTL denial and disruption.
     
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    NHO said:
    So, proposal!
    Active interdiction.
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    The properties of exotic matter are known to our character, so it should be noted that the actual energies involved are the exact same as when the Wraith is using their conventional drive. So it'd either have to be a very large rock or a quantum torpedo. And if we can precisely lay the latter at a distance then we should just directly plant them on enemy targets for the instant KO without the possibility of interception.
     
    Arcanestomper said:
    The Wraiths just want to bring love to the galaxy.
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    I'm imaging two Turians side by side, both of them horribly deformed and heavily infested by the Void Wraith subversion beam, wearing wrap-around sunglasses and bobbing their heads in synch to an ancient yet strangely captivating song found only in the oldest Bentusi data archives.

    It becomes an insanely catchy hit throughout the galaxy, causing all of the Bentusi Elders to sigh in disgusted exasperation and wonder just who the hell let the Void Wraiths get their hands on a Haddaway album.
     
    [X] Harass the Wraiths

    Edit: How often can Ulysses' Siege Cannon shoot? I'm not really asking for a real-life Rate of Fire but like 'once a per battle' 'once per update' something like that? Is it a cooldown we should hold for maximum effect or can it just be part of a normal combat rotation? Previous battles haven't lasted long enough for a second shot from it to matter, but it looks like it'll matter quite a bit here.

    Also, is this battle roughly correlated to Sovereign's attack at the end of Mass Effect 1?
     
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    SerGregness said:
    [X] Harass the Wraiths

    Edit: How often can Ulysses' Siege Cannon shoot? I'm not really asking for a real-life Rate of Fire but like 'once a per battle' 'once per update' something like that? Is it a cooldown we should hold for maximum effect or can it just be part of a normal combat rotation? Previous battles haven't lasted long enough for a second shot from it to matter, but it looks like it'll matter quite a bit here.

    Also, is this battle roughly correlated to Sovereign's attack at the end of Mass Effect 1?
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    He can usually shoot about once per update. The votes are more concerned with where exactly he should put that shot.

    And yeah, this is basically the climax of Sovereign's attack on the Citadel.
     
    I'm actually a bit stuck on what to have you do after the next part of the battle. By which I mean which voting options I should present.

    Do any of you have any general battle plans you'd like to see carried out?
     
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