You know the 'standard' Gamer system already in all likelihood. It has levels, stat grinding...
The SPECIFIC Gamer quest
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We Just Write
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You know the 'standard' Gamer system already in all likelihood. It has levels, stat grinding, magic, skill books, IDs, a hammerspace inventory, and the dual package of Gamer's Mind and Gamer's Body.
We aren't doing that. Instead, you've got five slots with which to pick games, which you gain powers (and a drawback) based on. In addition, each game has two optional upgrades costing an additional slot. Please be aware however, that choosing one of a game's upgrades ratchets up the cost of the game's other upgrade to 3 slots (it will be possible to get more slots during the quest, but they will be few and far between).
Without further ado, here's the games available for choosing!
Now that you've picked some powers, it's time to answer a few important questions about who you are aside from the powers
1: What is your given name?
[] write-in
2: What is your family name?
[] write-in
3: What are your top three favorite pastimes?
[] Video Games
[] Tabletop Games
[] Tinkering
[] TV
[] Reading
[] Building and flying model rockets
[] physical fitness
[] write-in
4: What's your job?
[] A high-paying technological job, like being an aerospace engineer.
[] You're some variety of medical practitioner. Perhaps you'll be a dentist?
[] You're a magazine editor working for a generic Tabloid.
[] You do one of the jobs no-one really thinks about but still keeps society running anyways.
[] You're a minimum wage intern working at the local generic fast food place.
[] You're in the military.
[] write-in
5: Summarize your personality in a paragraph
[] write-in
Now that we know who you are and what you can do, where are you?
[] Normal Earth (Obvious)
[] Historical Earth (Same as above, but you drop in on any date of your choice between 0 AD and 1987)
[] Insertion (Pick any non-video game setting. That's where you're going. Please be aware that if it's something I haven't read I'll basically be running entirely off of wikis)
[] Mashup (Pick any two non-video game settings. I will try to make them into a workable fusion setting, before sending you to the result. Due to the workload this places on me, it will only occur with at least 2/3rds majority.)
How did you get here?
[] What do you mean, how did I get here? I've always lived here. (You are native to this world, with everything that entails)
[] A woman in a faintly glowing runed cloak offered me a chance to go on the adventure of a lifetime, and I took it. (Consensual ROBing)
[] I went to sleep one night, and when I woke up I was somewhere else. (Non-consensual ROBing, smooth)
[] I was just walking down the street, when a rift in time and space opened up and sucked me in. There were these sparks of light there, and I managed to grab a few before the rift spat me out where I am now. (Non-consensual ROBing, rough)
[] I was working on a teleportation machine, it misfired, and now I'm here. At least it didn't explode. (SCIENCE!)
We aren't doing that. Instead, you've got five slots with which to pick games, which you gain powers (and a drawback) based on. In addition, each game has two optional upgrades costing an additional slot. Please be aware however, that choosing one of a game's upgrades ratchets up the cost of the game's other upgrade to 3 slots (it will be possible to get more slots during the quest, but they will be few and far between).
Without further ado, here's the games available for choosing!
+You can level up skills to Legendary, at which point anything you do involving those skills is an automatic crit-success. Please be aware that his takes years of constant training at minimum.
+If you get particularly inspired, you may enter a Strange Mood. When you come back to your senses you'll have an indestructible Artifact of awesomeness, and the craft skill you made it with will have automatically leveled up to Legendary. Please note that outside of exceptional circumstances this will only happen once EVER.
+You get a loyal band of seven Dwarfs with skills chosen by you at the start of your adventure. Take good care of them, and more will show up (though you'll never be quite sure where they're coming from).
-Tantrum Spirals. Just... Tantrum Spirals
+If you get particularly inspired, you may enter a Strange Mood. When you come back to your senses you'll have an indestructible Artifact of awesomeness, and the craft skill you made it with will have automatically leveled up to Legendary. Please note that outside of exceptional circumstances this will only happen once EVER.
+You get a loyal band of seven Dwarfs with skills chosen by you at the start of your adventure. Take good care of them, and more will show up (though you'll never be quite sure where they're coming from).
-Tantrum Spirals. Just... Tantrum Spirals
+You know all those crazy contraptions (perpetual motion machines, nailing a fortress to the sky, drawbridges that instantly disintegrate anything they land on) that DF players make that would never work IRL? Now you can actually build them! Your Dwarfs can too by the way.
+You can even do things that DF doesn't quite allow yet, like making a giant fortress-mech with lava powered death rays!
+/- No-one'll ever be able to copy your tech, because it just doesn't work for them for some reason.
+/- On the other hand, whatever world you land on now has Dwarf Fortress geology too. This includes both Adamantine and the HFS.
+You can even do things that DF doesn't quite allow yet, like making a giant fortress-mech with lava powered death rays!
+/- No-one'll ever be able to copy your tech, because it just doesn't work for them for some reason.
+/- On the other hand, whatever world you land on now has Dwarf Fortress geology too. This includes both Adamantine and the HFS.
+You start with 6 Legendary skills and 2 Artifacts of your choice
+If your other picks come with advanced tech or magic items, you can have Artifact versions of those items
-Dwarf's Metabolism: You need alcohol to live, if you are ever sober for 48 consecutive hours you will suffer cardiac arrest (or the nearest equivalent), which can only be remedied by getting some more booze in you. You are not immune to the mind-effecting properties of alcohol.
+If your other picks come with advanced tech or magic items, you can have Artifact versions of those items
-Dwarf's Metabolism: You need alcohol to live, if you are ever sober for 48 consecutive hours you will suffer cardiac arrest (or the nearest equivalent), which can only be remedied by getting some more booze in you. You are not immune to the mind-effecting properties of alcohol.
+You've got a shiny new robotic body, complete with an internalized fusion reactor, meaning you don't need to breath, eat, or sleep (you still need the occasional glass of water to filter deuterium from).
+You're also immune to poisons, diseases, and psionics
+Your new body has some pretty cool specs; You can run at 120 mph for hours, power lifting up to a ton of whatever is easy, you can jump up to 8 meters in the air in Earth gravity, and you're durable enough to take a Tomahawk cruise missile to the face (though you'll need some serious work done to get back on your feet after).
+You've got a transforming plasma Arm Cannon, you can fire it 5 times per second, and can dial the power of each shot between 'Glock' and 'M1 Abrams main cannon HEAT'.
+Your body slowly self-repairs, meaning that as long as your processor survives and there's enough of the right raw materials around you'll only be out of commission for a month maximum.
-You don't have a civilian mode, leaving you smack dab in the middle of the uncanny valley.
+You're also immune to poisons, diseases, and psionics
+Your new body has some pretty cool specs; You can run at 120 mph for hours, power lifting up to a ton of whatever is easy, you can jump up to 8 meters in the air in Earth gravity, and you're durable enough to take a Tomahawk cruise missile to the face (though you'll need some serious work done to get back on your feet after).
+You've got a transforming plasma Arm Cannon, you can fire it 5 times per second, and can dial the power of each shot between 'Glock' and 'M1 Abrams main cannon HEAT'.
+Your body slowly self-repairs, meaning that as long as your processor survives and there's enough of the right raw materials around you'll only be out of commission for a month maximum.
-You don't have a civilian mode, leaving you smack dab in the middle of the uncanny valley.
+MAD SCIENCE!
+More specifically, you now have the combined genius of Doctors Light and Wily. If they built it, you can too, though you're starting out at around Mega Man 4 levels of tech. You can even invent something (or someone) completely original with enough work! (note: making anything with true Free Will will take at least 10 years of work from start, though what you start with is pretty freaking close)
+/- You're human (or at least biological) again, though you could change this with a few years of tireless research.
+More specifically, you now have the combined genius of Doctors Light and Wily. If they built it, you can too, though you're starting out at around Mega Man 4 levels of tech. You can even invent something (or someone) completely original with enough work! (note: making anything with true Free Will will take at least 10 years of work from start, though what you start with is pretty freaking close)
+/- You're human (or at least biological) again, though you could change this with a few years of tireless research.
+Your robot body can now run at 500 MPH, power lift 10 times what it previously could, almost fly, and you're durable enough to tank 3 MOABs to the face.
+Your arm cannon now has a maximum uncharged power equal to a Tomahawk cruise missile, and if you charge it you can get as much power as a MOAB out of a single blast
+You've also got an insanely powerful Beam Saber now, that effectively un-exists anything the blade passes through
+If an enemy has some sort of unique attack or ability, after beating them you can use it too (though it has limited energy/ammo that'll need about a week to recharge without help)
+You're no longer in the Uncanny Valley! And you've even got a civilian mode!
+Your arm cannon now has a maximum uncharged power equal to a Tomahawk cruise missile, and if you charge it you can get as much power as a MOAB out of a single blast
+You've also got an insanely powerful Beam Saber now, that effectively un-exists anything the blade passes through
+If an enemy has some sort of unique attack or ability, after beating them you can use it too (though it has limited energy/ammo that'll need about a week to recharge without help)
+You're no longer in the Uncanny Valley! And you've even got a civilian mode!
+You now have a fully functional and staffed space center on the coast of some equatorial location or other. It never seems to run out of space program supplies. You drop in at your space center on whatever world you go to.
+Minions: Kerbals are excellent pilots, loyal, good with tech, genuinely nice people to be around, and you never seem to run out of them. Please be aware that they aren't too good in a fight unless they're driving some variety of war machine, and they're still people who will object (possibly in a violent manner) to being treated as disposable.
+Tech: By default, in addition to stock (slightly buffed so that if a design can get into orbit of Kerbin it can get into orbit of whatever your starting world is) you have access to the entire Near Future family of mods, Extraplanetary Launchpads, Some sort of self-sufficient colony pack, and the Atomic Age nuclear engine mod. You also have access to any tech that you could reasonably be inferred as having, such as advanced and safe miniaturizable nuclear power for Atomic Age and Near Future Electrical. (NOTE: Tweak the nuclear lightbulb's mass down to 8, also double its thrust for the purpose of submitting a design)(OTHER NOTE: Probe Cores are right on the edge of having free will, and if you actively develop the tech you could be making fully sapient AI inside of a decade. This is greatly reduced if you take a robotics-specialized MAD SCIENCE!!! power.)
+Minions: Kerbals are excellent pilots, loyal, good with tech, genuinely nice people to be around, and you never seem to run out of them. Please be aware that they aren't too good in a fight unless they're driving some variety of war machine, and they're still people who will object (possibly in a violent manner) to being treated as disposable.
+Tech: By default, in addition to stock (slightly buffed so that if a design can get into orbit of Kerbin it can get into orbit of whatever your starting world is) you have access to the entire Near Future family of mods, Extraplanetary Launchpads, Some sort of self-sufficient colony pack, and the Atomic Age nuclear engine mod. You also have access to any tech that you could reasonably be inferred as having, such as advanced and safe miniaturizable nuclear power for Atomic Age and Near Future Electrical. (NOTE: Tweak the nuclear lightbulb's mass down to 8, also double its thrust for the purpose of submitting a design)(OTHER NOTE: Probe Cores are right on the edge of having free will, and if you actively develop the tech you could be making fully sapient AI inside of a decade. This is greatly reduced if you take a robotics-specialized MAD SCIENCE!!! power.)
+/- You are now a Kerbal, and have a full set of memories of growing up on Kerbin and somehow managing to become the Emperor of Kerbkind.
+Instead of one little space center, you've got a full copy of the Kerbol system just one light year away from your selected start world. It is heavily colonized, with even Dres having a permanent population of about 1,000.
+Tech: You've now got all the goodies from the Interstellar Mod, including a basic warp drive. This also includes nuclear fusion, antimatter, full sapience AGI right off the bat (though it'll need some work to miniaturize), and laser cannons rated at around 10 megawatts per cubic meter. You also get the added goody of being able to back up your mind so that if you get killed you just wake up in a fresh clone body. Please be aware that aside from the Warp Drive everything you have is limited by the speed of light.
-Please be aware that the Empire of Kerbin is highly expansionist, and though there's no term limits you could very easily be voted out of office if you don't keep the common Kerbal happy
+Instead of one little space center, you've got a full copy of the Kerbol system just one light year away from your selected start world. It is heavily colonized, with even Dres having a permanent population of about 1,000.
+Tech: You've now got all the goodies from the Interstellar Mod, including a basic warp drive. This also includes nuclear fusion, antimatter, full sapience AGI right off the bat (though it'll need some work to miniaturize), and laser cannons rated at around 10 megawatts per cubic meter. You also get the added goody of being able to back up your mind so that if you get killed you just wake up in a fresh clone body. Please be aware that aside from the Warp Drive everything you have is limited by the speed of light.
-Please be aware that the Empire of Kerbin is highly expansionist, and though there's no term limits you could very easily be voted out of office if you don't keep the common Kerbal happy
+You've got awesome reality breaking physics engine powers now!
+Some of the things you can do include: Inducing immense phantom forces capable of ripping capital ships apart, blasting hapless victims apart into a pile of body horror, temporarily editing the values for the local physics, making a vehicle you're driving along with any occupants it has invincible to all damage and able to operate even when it doesn't have any power or fuel, flinging victims out of the system at superluminal speeds, or glitching planets out of existence.
-Each time you use these powers you gain some corruption. Roll under your corruption for power usage, and you get hit with the eldricht backlash as your powers misfire. This is guaranteed lethal with no respawns allowed (though you could revert to a checkpoint), and you can only decrease your corruption by 1d4% per day.
+Some of the things you can do include: Inducing immense phantom forces capable of ripping capital ships apart, blasting hapless victims apart into a pile of body horror, temporarily editing the values for the local physics, making a vehicle you're driving along with any occupants it has invincible to all damage and able to operate even when it doesn't have any power or fuel, flinging victims out of the system at superluminal speeds, or glitching planets out of existence.
-Each time you use these powers you gain some corruption. Roll under your corruption for power usage, and you get hit with the eldricht backlash as your powers misfire. This is guaranteed lethal with no respawns allowed (though you could revert to a checkpoint), and you can only decrease your corruption by 1d4% per day.
+You've got the equivalent of a high school education from the 2550s. You can cobble together a LOT of interesting tech that can't be built today on that knowledge, but won't be getting anything truly OP like teleportation or immortality-cloning out of the deal.
+You've got some pretty good fighting skills with improvised weapons, such that you could easily beat down a swordsman with just a fire extinguiser
+You get a complimentary space suit!
+You've got some pretty good fighting skills with improvised weapons, such that you could easily beat down a swordsman with just a fire extinguiser
+You get a complimentary space suit!
+You are now a qualified Engineer, Scientist, Doctor, Mechanic, and Roboticist with the SS13 tech-base. You can even build a teleporter, cloning system or an AI in a cave with a box of scraps!
+Your start location is now the eponymous space station itself, which has been moved to high orbit over your selected start world.
+You can be the Captain, if you want
-Please be aware that there is a cunning and subtle Syndicate infiltrator somewhere on the station who has been tasked with ensuring your permanent death.
+Your start location is now the eponymous space station itself, which has been moved to high orbit over your selected start world.
+You can be the Captain, if you want
-Please be aware that there is a cunning and subtle Syndicate infiltrator somewhere on the station who has been tasked with ensuring your permanent death.
+You are now a Changeling.
+You're also a Wizard. This comes with a gem-encrusted hardsuit
+You've also got syndicate gear available to you, including stuff that would normally only be available to a nuclear operative.
-Changeling instincts make seeing other people as anything besides food REALLY hard.
+You're also a Wizard. This comes with a gem-encrusted hardsuit
+You've also got syndicate gear available to you, including stuff that would normally only be available to a nuclear operative.
-Changeling instincts make seeing other people as anything besides food REALLY hard.
+You've got an ultra-secret base now on the continent of your choice
+Your research team is good enough to reverse-engineer just about anything in months at most
+You've got soldiers under your command. While they suck horribly at first they turn into nigh-unstoppable badasses as they level up.
-The aliens followed you, and are now invading whatever world you find yourself on.
-Good luck staying funded on a world where no-one even remembers starting your project.
+Your research team is good enough to reverse-engineer just about anything in months at most
+You've got soldiers under your command. While they suck horribly at first they turn into nigh-unstoppable badasses as they level up.
-The aliens followed you, and are now invading whatever world you find yourself on.
-Good luck staying funded on a world where no-one even remembers starting your project.
+You start the game with your tech base including plasma weapons, power armor, basically everything endgame X-COM has besides psionics. You've even got ways to artificially make your own Elerium, Alien Alloy, and MELD! Please note that this includes aerospace craft more or less equivalent to what the aliens have, possibly even capital ships if you manage to scrape together the resources.
-The aliens have realized that something is screwy, and they're sending a much larger invasion force than normal. You'd have your work cut out for you if this is all you had access to.
-The aliens have realized that something is screwy, and they're sending a much larger invasion force than normal. You'd have your work cut out for you if this is all you had access to.
+You've got psychic powers strong enough to overpower even the uber ethereal at least 50% of the time now.
+Yeah, this is hilariously OP
+When tested, at least 70% of your personnel will turn out to be psychic
-Same as the other upgrade. Yes, this stacks.
+Yeah, this is hilariously OP
+When tested, at least 70% of your personnel will turn out to be psychic
-Same as the other upgrade. Yes, this stacks.
+Revert to your last checkpoint (default: the last time you woke up) any time you get killed.
+Double Jump, you can do it now.
+You have aquired a pistol with the conceptual ability that ANYTHING will go down if you shoot it enough times, though each shot does very little damage.
-Any deliberate attack, trap, or environmental hazard that manages to connect is now instantly lethal.
+Double Jump, you can do it now.
+You have aquired a pistol with the conceptual ability that ANYTHING will go down if you shoot it enough times, though each shot does very little damage.
-Any deliberate attack, trap, or environmental hazard that manages to connect is now instantly lethal.
+You are now perfectly aware of everything within 100 meters of yourself
+Within this zone of awareness you can reshape the area to your whims
+The possibilities are endless, make apples that fall up to kill people, add rows of spikes that get up and chase people, even twist space into a knot!
-Please be aware that you can't pause the world while doing this, and it's a wee bit time consuming, meaning that using it in a fight, while certainly possible, is risky.
+Within this zone of awareness you can reshape the area to your whims
+The possibilities are endless, make apples that fall up to kill people, add rows of spikes that get up and chase people, even twist space into a knot!
-Please be aware that you can't pause the world while doing this, and it's a wee bit time consuming, meaning that using it in a fight, while certainly possible, is risky.
+You're now durable enough to survive falling onto spikes at terminal velocity
+Eye Lazors!
+Infinite jumps... sure, why not.
+Your pistol is now powerful enough to wreck a Destroyer (naval vesel) in just 20 shots.
+You've now got a set of amazingly good combat instincts granting you auto-crits for everything in a fight.
-You will be constantly beset by those who wish to slay you and take your title of being THE GUY.
+Eye Lazors!
+Infinite jumps... sure, why not.
+Your pistol is now powerful enough to wreck a Destroyer (naval vesel) in just 20 shots.
+You've now got a set of amazingly good combat instincts granting you auto-crits for everything in a fight.
-You will be constantly beset by those who wish to slay you and take your title of being THE GUY.
+ You've now got a basic base on your starting world. It's got a command center, a Barracks, a Factory, 3 supply depots, a few SCVs and about 50 loyal personnel.
+ You now know how Terran tech works, along with how to build and maintain it.
+/- While it now takes a more realistic (read: long) amount of time to build something like a battlecruiser or a THOR mech, they also have more realistic durability, meaning that a bunch of yahoos with assault rifles won't be shooting down your capital ship.
- Your start world likely doesn't have Minerals or Vespene gas, meaning you'll have to mine for resources the hard way. Good thing your guys still have those old plans for a D-D fusion reactor.
+ You now know how Terran tech works, along with how to build and maintain it.
+/- While it now takes a more realistic (read: long) amount of time to build something like a battlecruiser or a THOR mech, they also have more realistic durability, meaning that a bunch of yahoos with assault rifles won't be shooting down your capital ship.
- Your start world likely doesn't have Minerals or Vespene gas, meaning you'll have to mine for resources the hard way. Good thing your guys still have those old plans for a D-D fusion reactor.
+ You get nifty psychic powers!
+/- You're now playing as Protoss on both the personal and strategic level.
- The world you land in doesn't have an industrialized home world to beam in buildings from, so you'll have to build everything the hard way.
+/- You're now playing as Protoss on both the personal and strategic level.
- The world you land in doesn't have an industrialized home world to beam in buildings from, so you'll have to build everything the hard way.
+/- You're now playing as Zerg on both a personal and strategic level.
- You'll be basically getting constantly mindraped by Zerg instincts
- Co-existing peacefully with people will be nigh-impossible.
- You'll be basically getting constantly mindraped by Zerg instincts
- Co-existing peacefully with people will be nigh-impossible.
+You've now got psychic powers!
+Unlike the other psionic options, you can dive straight into someone's inner mental landscape, and (perhaps literally) see, and perhaps change what makes them tick.
+/- You only start with the most basic psychic powers, and leveling up will take a few years at minimum, given there won't be anyone to train you in all likelihood.
+/- Mind-diving doesn't stop time while you're doing it.
+Unlike the other psionic options, you can dive straight into someone's inner mental landscape, and (perhaps literally) see, and perhaps change what makes them tick.
+/- You only start with the most basic psychic powers, and leveling up will take a few years at minimum, given there won't be anyone to train you in all likelihood.
+/- Mind-diving doesn't stop time while you're doing it.
+ You've now got a summer camp for training psychic kids.
+ You've also got the skills needed for the job.
+ Said camp comes with a loyal staff of psychics. Please be aware that while loyal, they'll still be wondering just what happened.
+/- The Campers might find out and foil any nefarious plots you have.
+ You've also got the skills needed for the job.
+ Said camp comes with a loyal staff of psychics. Please be aware that while loyal, they'll still be wondering just what happened.
+/- The Campers might find out and foil any nefarious plots you have.
+You start with all the powers obtainable in the game, upgraded to maximum.
+You can now slow down time to 1% of normal when mind-diving.
+You can now slow down time to 1% of normal when mind-diving.
Now that you've picked some powers, it's time to answer a few important questions about who you are aside from the powers
1: What is your given name?
[] write-in
2: What is your family name?
[] write-in
3: What are your top three favorite pastimes?
[] Video Games
[] Tabletop Games
[] Tinkering
[] TV
[] Reading
[] Building and flying model rockets
[] physical fitness
[] write-in
4: What's your job?
[] A high-paying technological job, like being an aerospace engineer.
[] You're some variety of medical practitioner. Perhaps you'll be a dentist?
[] You're a magazine editor working for a generic Tabloid.
[] You do one of the jobs no-one really thinks about but still keeps society running anyways.
[] You're a minimum wage intern working at the local generic fast food place.
[] You're in the military.
[] write-in
5: Summarize your personality in a paragraph
[] write-in
Now that we know who you are and what you can do, where are you?
[] Normal Earth (Obvious)
[] Historical Earth (Same as above, but you drop in on any date of your choice between 0 AD and 1987)
[] Insertion (Pick any non-video game setting. That's where you're going. Please be aware that if it's something I haven't read I'll basically be running entirely off of wikis)
[] Mashup (Pick any two non-video game settings. I will try to make them into a workable fusion setting, before sending you to the result. Due to the workload this places on me, it will only occur with at least 2/3rds majority.)
How did you get here?
[] What do you mean, how did I get here? I've always lived here. (You are native to this world, with everything that entails)
[] A woman in a faintly glowing runed cloak offered me a chance to go on the adventure of a lifetime, and I took it. (Consensual ROBing)
[] I went to sleep one night, and when I woke up I was somewhere else. (Non-consensual ROBing, smooth)
[] I was just walking down the street, when a rift in time and space opened up and sucked me in. There were these sparks of light there, and I managed to grab a few before the rift spat me out where I am now. (Non-consensual ROBing, rough)
[] I was working on a teleportation machine, it misfired, and now I'm here. At least it didn't explode. (SCIENCE!)
Last edited:
Character Sheet: Harry Brady
We Just Write
Blatantly Plural
- Location
- New England
- Pronouns
- Plural
Powers
1: X-COM
2: (UPGRADE) Advanced Tech Package
3: Mega Man
4: (UPGRADE) The Brilliant Doctor
5: Starcraft
Name: Harry Brady
Pastimes
-Video Games
-Tabletop Games
-Tinkering
Previous Occupation: Aerospace Engineer
Current Occupation: Commander and Head Researcher of X-COM
Personality: A semi-lazy and cynical personwith a suppressed streak of madness (madness was eaten by powers). You'll still give it your all to save the day when sh*t hits the fan. You're also prone to bursts of sarcasm, as a side-effect of your previous time in the military (had to pay for college somehow).
Appearance
Resources
Monthly Funding: 19,500,000,000
Generic Money: 31,499,500,000
Cydonium: 111,605
Neosteel: 19,385
Superconductors: 35,484
Elerium: 31,939
MELD: 765
1: X-COM
2: (UPGRADE) Advanced Tech Package
3: Mega Man
4: (UPGRADE) The Brilliant Doctor
5: Starcraft
Name: Harry Brady
Pastimes
-Video Games
-Tabletop Games
-Tinkering
Previous Occupation: Aerospace Engineer
Current Occupation: Commander and Head Researcher of X-COM
Personality: A semi-lazy and cynical person
Appearance
Resources
Monthly Funding: 19,500,000,000
Generic Money: 31,499,500,000
Cydonium: 111,605
Neosteel: 19,385
Superconductors: 35,484
Elerium: 31,939
MELD: 765
These factories dotting the landscape are tasked with producing exotic materials and advanced military hardware for the governments of Earth. They've recently begun a massive expansion program to increase their output by two orders of magnitude which will be complete by the end of the month, costing around 28,000,000,000.
Global readiness level: +3 per week
Income
+ 1,000,000,000 money
+ 5,500 Cydonium
+ 8,000 Neosteel
+ 3,200 Superconductors
+ 3,500 Elerium
+ 200 MELD
Global readiness level: +3 per week
Income
+ 1,000,000,000 money
+ 5,500 Cydonium
+ 8,000 Neosteel
+ 3,200 Superconductors
+ 3,500 Elerium
+ 200 MELD
This lady is well-equipped for everything even remotely bureaucratic. She can blast through even the most obtuse paperwork (possibly in a language she doesn't even know) with blatantly superhuman speed, comprehension and efficiency, can almost literally bury opponents in red tape, and makes sure to stay well-informed to relevant information. Her duties include helping you with your paperwork, and providing you with requested information in a quick and efficient manner.
Mortally wounded on his very first combat mission, Otto's brain was extracted and placed into a combination combat robot/life-support system. This body Is superhuman in every conceivable way, meaning he outperforms even soldiers in power armor. As an added bonus, this new body of his is low-profile and lifelike enough that he can (barely) pass for a baseline human when on leave.
A highly skilled Therapist, Gio isn't one for a direct fight, but he has a load of buffs lasting several hours that he can apply to others. He has well over 50 years of experience in the supernatural world, 15 of which were spent orchestrating the downfall of well over 320 Torturers.
Efficiency level: A++
Spells known (NOTE: There's plenty more, but these are the more commonly used ones. If you can think of a buff or debuff, there's around a 78% chance he can do it. Please be aware that the bigger and more impressive ones require far more Madness)
-Ease of life: A subtle luck effect, this spell persists for several weeks, and arranges matters so that the recipient can maintain a comfortable middle class lifestyle with little to no effort on their part, as an added effect the recipient never seems to get sick or suffer serious accidental injury. Gio is just plain good enough at efficiently powering his magic for this to be passive for him, but normally it requires a noticeable moderate expenditure of madness.
-Benevolent Aura: A passive running on the stress of his daily life, it makes those within 20 meters of him feel slightly better about their lot in life, it would be more powerful, but most of Gio's passive power goes into his continual Ease of Life.
-Luck Shield: Recipients receive a luck effect for several hours, during which any attack that would kill them instantly simply wind up somewhere they aren't.
-Critical Accuracy: The recipient of this buff will always land their attacks EXACTLY where they want them to go, and also gains a heightened sense for where the most devastating place they could hit is.
-A Wretched Existence: This is a curse targeted via an image of the one you want to effect, or via sympathetic magic. For the next month, things just start going wrong for them. This includes suddenly taking ill with a variety of debilitating ailments, a greatly increased likelihood of them suffering crippling injuries, making their legal identity get wiped out by hackers or the like, having all their insurance policies go defunct, and making their workplace incredibly hostile to their continued employment. That last effect also stretches to welfare and attempting to get a new job. The normal version of this spell has a 90% chance of rendering the target a non-threat for the duration and an indeterminate period after and a 20% lethality rate. With his improved efficiency, Gio's version is guaranteed to render the target a non-threat and has a 70% lethality rate. This still requires a monstrously huge amount of Madness.
Efficiency level: A++
Spells known (NOTE: There's plenty more, but these are the more commonly used ones. If you can think of a buff or debuff, there's around a 78% chance he can do it. Please be aware that the bigger and more impressive ones require far more Madness)
-Ease of life: A subtle luck effect, this spell persists for several weeks, and arranges matters so that the recipient can maintain a comfortable middle class lifestyle with little to no effort on their part, as an added effect the recipient never seems to get sick or suffer serious accidental injury. Gio is just plain good enough at efficiently powering his magic for this to be passive for him, but normally it requires a noticeable moderate expenditure of madness.
-Benevolent Aura: A passive running on the stress of his daily life, it makes those within 20 meters of him feel slightly better about their lot in life, it would be more powerful, but most of Gio's passive power goes into his continual Ease of Life.
-Luck Shield: Recipients receive a luck effect for several hours, during which any attack that would kill them instantly simply wind up somewhere they aren't.
-Critical Accuracy: The recipient of this buff will always land their attacks EXACTLY where they want them to go, and also gains a heightened sense for where the most devastating place they could hit is.
-A Wretched Existence: This is a curse targeted via an image of the one you want to effect, or via sympathetic magic. For the next month, things just start going wrong for them. This includes suddenly taking ill with a variety of debilitating ailments, a greatly increased likelihood of them suffering crippling injuries, making their legal identity get wiped out by hackers or the like, having all their insurance policies go defunct, and making their workplace incredibly hostile to their continued employment. That last effect also stretches to welfare and attempting to get a new job. The normal version of this spell has a 90% chance of rendering the target a non-threat for the duration and an indeterminate period after and a 20% lethality rate. With his improved efficiency, Gio's version is guaranteed to render the target a non-threat and has a 70% lethality rate. This still requires a monstrously huge amount of Madness.
The first Joe to reach sapience, Anne identifies as female, and has indeed wound up in a relationship with one of your soldiers. She has been upgraded with an incredibly lifelike and fully functional civilian mode, which she may change into or out of at will. Worth noting is this 'saves' whatever clothes she was wearing last when she transformed, preserving her modesty when she changes back to civilian mode.
Recently she became a Mage
Efficiency level: F
Recently she became a Mage
Efficiency level: F
An engineer who got a promotion, Steve is in charge of your newly completed moon base. Though he's an alcoholic, Steve makes up for this in sheer engineering skill, reducing the amount of resources required for construction without compromising on performance or reliability.
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Information: Official Staff Communication
- Location
- The Hague
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Build Finalized
We Just Write
Blatantly Plural
- Location
- New England
- Pronouns
- Plural
Final Vote Count
Powers (upgraded powers take precedence, but there's only room for two of them. They also count as a vote for the basic power when you get to that phase. Basic Starcraft counts as an upgraded power for this purpose. In the event of a tie, QM goes by personal preference. That last bit applies to all stages of chargen.)
Dwarf: xx
Dwarf A: xxx
Dwarf B:
Mega Man: xxx
Mega Man A:xxxx
Mega Man B:
Kerbal: xx
Kerbal A: xxx
Kerbal B: x
SS13:
SS13 A: x
SS13 B:
X-COM: xx
X-COM A: xxxxxxx
X-COM B: xx
IWBTG:
IWBTG A:
IWBTG B: xxx
Starcraft: xxxx
Starcraft A:
Starcraft B: x
Psychonauts: xx
Psychonauts A:
Psychonauts B:
First Name
Harry: xxxxx
Daniel: x
Lex:
Conan: x
David: xx
Family Name
Dresden: xx
Brady: xxx
Stark:
Richardson: x
O'Brian: x
Miller: xx
Favorite Pastimes
Video Games: xxxxxxxx
Tabletop Games: xxxxxxxx
Tinkering: xxxxxxxx
TV:
Reading: xxxxxx
Building and flying model rockets: x
physical fitness: xx
Pranking: x
Job
A high-paying technological job, like being an aerospace engineer: xxxx
You're some variety of medical practitioner. Perhaps you'll be a dentist:
You're a magazine editor working for a generic Tabloid:
You do one of the jobs no-one really thinks about but still keeps society running anyways: xxxx
You're a minimum wage intern working at the local generic fast food place:
You're in the military: xxx
Spacefaring Eldricht Abomination: x
Personality votes (Unlike the rest, I take all the votes and do my best to blend them together into a cohesive whole. Bigger votes get more weight to them)
-Classic nerd: xxx
-Sarcastic but chivalrous, Harry somewhat resembles a certain detective from Chicago- and he was a detective, but never exactly worked with magic before. In day to day life he is a bit of a nerd, scraping by on the money he made from runaway kid cases and crazy divorcees. He's a country boy at heart, still not at home in the city- or advanced technical doodads. He does love pop culture and Star Wars in particular.: xx
-half-mad tinkerer who is still likeable enough to have a few solid friends: x
-SV hivemind node: x
-You are in the military, but not one of those oh so famous special ops or even a grunt. No you are an accountant (or other similar) and not one of the whizzes, just an ordinary guy that knew some math and needed the money.
You live a fairly boring life thats major challenge up to now has been avoiding those remedial training sessions that the more combat capable grunts keep sending your way, every time you audit them. It was boring but a good enough life and the free time has combined to give you a love of the games and books that entertains you when your work gets you down.
Now if only you didn't have this creeping sense of doom ever since you shut down one particularly stupid idiot on SB last night, idiot thought that (insert chosen games here) would be an awesome cross-over universe. You proved him wrong of course but now your gut is sending you signals worse than that time the Army got pissed and 'accidentally' signed you up for Ranger Air-drop training, you got out of that one but only because you were owed that favour.....: x
-Kind of introverted. Lazy but forces himself to work hard enough he can compete with fellow officers in getting promoted so he won't be kicked out of the military. Has a habit of having his head up in the clouds, either fantasizing or thinking about something. He's reluctantly stuck as the Forever GM in his offline tabletop gaming group, but manages to play a PC in a few online games. Mid 20s, became an officer through ROTC.: xx
Where to go
-WH40K: xx
-Star Wars: xx
-Historical Earth, 1190 AD: x
-Star Trek: x
-Normal Earth: xxxx
-Normal Earth (masquerade):
-PMMM: x
-RWBY: xx
How to get there
-SCIENCE!: xxxx
-Smooth non-con ROB: x
-Native: xxxx
-cons. ROB: xx
Here's the resulting build.
Powers
1: X-COM
2: (UPGRADE) Advanced Tech Package
3: Mega Man
4: (UPGRADE) The Brilliant Doctor
5: Starcraft
Name: Harry Brady
Pastimes
-Video Games
-Tabletop Games
-Tinkering
Previous Occupation: Aerospace Engineer
Current Occupation: Commander and Head Researcher of X-COM
Personality: A semi-lazy and cynical person with a suppressed streak of madness. You'll still give it your all to save the day when sh*t hits the fan. You're also prone to bursts of sarcasm, as a side-effect of your previous time in the military (had to pay for college somehow).
Location: Normal Earth
Transition: Native, before getting ROB'd into your current position.
Just a few things to finalize
Where is your base?
[] North America
[] South America
[] Europe
[] Asia
[] Russia
[] Africa
[] Australia
[] Antarctica (WHY!?)
Are you the only supernatural?
[] Yes
[] No, but your powers are exceedingly weird by most standards
[] No, and your powers really aren't anything special
Powers (upgraded powers take precedence, but there's only room for two of them. They also count as a vote for the basic power when you get to that phase. Basic Starcraft counts as an upgraded power for this purpose. In the event of a tie, QM goes by personal preference. That last bit applies to all stages of chargen.)
Dwarf: xx
Dwarf A: xxx
Dwarf B:
Mega Man: xxx
Mega Man A:xxxx
Mega Man B:
Kerbal: xx
Kerbal A: xxx
Kerbal B: x
SS13:
SS13 A: x
SS13 B:
X-COM: xx
X-COM A: xxxxxxx
X-COM B: xx
IWBTG:
IWBTG A:
IWBTG B: xxx
Starcraft: xxxx
Starcraft A:
Starcraft B: x
Psychonauts: xx
Psychonauts A:
Psychonauts B:
First Name
Harry: xxxxx
Daniel: x
Lex:
Conan: x
David: xx
Family Name
Dresden: xx
Brady: xxx
Stark:
Richardson: x
O'Brian: x
Miller: xx
Favorite Pastimes
Video Games: xxxxxxxx
Tabletop Games: xxxxxxxx
Tinkering: xxxxxxxx
TV:
Reading: xxxxxx
Building and flying model rockets: x
physical fitness: xx
Pranking: x
Job
A high-paying technological job, like being an aerospace engineer: xxxx
You're some variety of medical practitioner. Perhaps you'll be a dentist:
You're a magazine editor working for a generic Tabloid:
You do one of the jobs no-one really thinks about but still keeps society running anyways: xxxx
You're a minimum wage intern working at the local generic fast food place:
You're in the military: xxx
Spacefaring Eldricht Abomination: x
Personality votes (Unlike the rest, I take all the votes and do my best to blend them together into a cohesive whole. Bigger votes get more weight to them)
-Classic nerd: xxx
-Sarcastic but chivalrous, Harry somewhat resembles a certain detective from Chicago- and he was a detective, but never exactly worked with magic before. In day to day life he is a bit of a nerd, scraping by on the money he made from runaway kid cases and crazy divorcees. He's a country boy at heart, still not at home in the city- or advanced technical doodads. He does love pop culture and Star Wars in particular.: xx
-half-mad tinkerer who is still likeable enough to have a few solid friends: x
-SV hivemind node: x
-You are in the military, but not one of those oh so famous special ops or even a grunt. No you are an accountant (or other similar) and not one of the whizzes, just an ordinary guy that knew some math and needed the money.
You live a fairly boring life thats major challenge up to now has been avoiding those remedial training sessions that the more combat capable grunts keep sending your way, every time you audit them. It was boring but a good enough life and the free time has combined to give you a love of the games and books that entertains you when your work gets you down.
Now if only you didn't have this creeping sense of doom ever since you shut down one particularly stupid idiot on SB last night, idiot thought that (insert chosen games here) would be an awesome cross-over universe. You proved him wrong of course but now your gut is sending you signals worse than that time the Army got pissed and 'accidentally' signed you up for Ranger Air-drop training, you got out of that one but only because you were owed that favour.....: x
-Kind of introverted. Lazy but forces himself to work hard enough he can compete with fellow officers in getting promoted so he won't be kicked out of the military. Has a habit of having his head up in the clouds, either fantasizing or thinking about something. He's reluctantly stuck as the Forever GM in his offline tabletop gaming group, but manages to play a PC in a few online games. Mid 20s, became an officer through ROTC.: xx
Where to go
-WH40K: xx
-Star Wars: xx
-Historical Earth, 1190 AD: x
-Star Trek: x
-Normal Earth: xxxx
-Normal Earth (masquerade):
-PMMM: x
-RWBY: xx
How to get there
-SCIENCE!: xxxx
-Smooth non-con ROB: x
-Native: xxxx
-cons. ROB: xx
Here's the resulting build.
Powers
1: X-COM
2: (UPGRADE) Advanced Tech Package
3: Mega Man
4: (UPGRADE) The Brilliant Doctor
5: Starcraft
Name: Harry Brady
Pastimes
-Video Games
-Tabletop Games
-Tinkering
Previous Occupation: Aerospace Engineer
Current Occupation: Commander and Head Researcher of X-COM
Personality: A semi-lazy and cynical person with a suppressed streak of madness. You'll still give it your all to save the day when sh*t hits the fan. You're also prone to bursts of sarcasm, as a side-effect of your previous time in the military (had to pay for college somehow).
Location: Normal Earth
Transition: Native, before getting ROB'd into your current position.
Just a few things to finalize
Where is your base?
[] North America
[] South America
[] Europe
[] Asia
[] Russia
[] Africa
[] Australia
[] Antarctica (WHY!?)
Are you the only supernatural?
[] Yes
[] No, but your powers are exceedingly weird by most standards
[] No, and your powers really aren't anything special
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Awakening 1
We Just Write
Blatantly Plural
- Location
- New England
- Pronouns
- Plural
As you wake up on a bunk that reminds you of your time in the army just from how it feels beneath you, the first thought that springs to mind is 'this is not my room'. This is only emphasized when you hear a feminine voice bearing a British accent over the intercom requesting "Commander Harry Brady to conference room 1A, I repeat, Commander Harrry Brady to conference room 1A."
Somehow, you instinctively know that's referring to you, and you slam your thumb onto an intercom button you weren't quite aware existed previously and ask "Is the level of urgency high enough that I can't take a shower and put some decent clothes on first?"
There's a delay of 13.127 (how in the world did you time that so well!?) seconds, before the British lady replies "No, but please be quick about it." Relieved, you quickly clean yourself up in the small bathroom attached to your quarters (you really must be high-ranking if you've got your very own bedroom rather than a spot in the barracks), throw on one of the dress uniforms hanging in your closet (yep, this is real, it's perfectly fitted for you and has your name on the front), and march out into the corridor.
Madness and magic are one and the same
As you walk, it occurs to you that you really shouldn't have any clue where conference room 1A is or how to get to it, but you do. You frantically dig through your thoughts as you travel, trying to find anything else that's been implanted into your mind. You find blueprints. MORE than blueprints, an entire set of technological skills (primarily based on robotics, but also applicable to architecture and starship design of all things) shoved into your mind. Just how much of the old you is even left besides your memories and basic interests?
Madness isn't power, but fuel.
You easily clear away the storm of unwanted thoughts (another new feature) as you enter the conference room, sitting at the seat saved for you. You calmly ask a black-haired lady with a bowl-cut "Alright Ms. Perkins, tell me, what is this conference about?" (even with her name tag it should have taken you a second to read it)
Fuel has to be burned in order to achieve anything.
She takes a deep breath, before replying "3.1 hours ago, we all woke up knowing nothing besides our way around the base, our names, the skills and information we needed to do our jobs, and the fact that you were apparently our Commander. We're willing to go along with it for now, but we need to know, did you do this to us?"
All magic is powered by burning madness.
Your eyes widen as you realize what she's implying, and you respond "I would never do such a thing! Yesterday I was just an aerospace engineer with an ex-military background who's good at strategy games!"
One of the men at the table with a weird-looking monocle notes to everyone "The lie detector isn't acting up, he's telling the truth, or at least he thinks he is."
Another lady at the table then says "Since you apparently aren't the one who wiped our memories, at least not deliberately, I suppose it's time for introductions. I'm Dr. Vahlen, a xenobiologist in charge of your research department."
The man with the lie-detector monocle then notes "I'm Dr. Raymond Shen, one of the two heads of your engineering department."
Another man, this one sporting a well-managed beard remarks "I'm the other head of your engineering department, Geoffrey Daniels. I've only got a Master's though."
Ms. Perkins goes next, with "You already know my name, I'm your secretary apparently."
Once introductions are out of the way, the first order you give is
[] "I'd like to know where we are and what's going on outside the base."
[] "I'd like to know what assets are available to me."
[] Write-in
Somehow, you instinctively know that's referring to you, and you slam your thumb onto an intercom button you weren't quite aware existed previously and ask "Is the level of urgency high enough that I can't take a shower and put some decent clothes on first?"
There's a delay of 13.127 (how in the world did you time that so well!?) seconds, before the British lady replies "No, but please be quick about it." Relieved, you quickly clean yourself up in the small bathroom attached to your quarters (you really must be high-ranking if you've got your very own bedroom rather than a spot in the barracks), throw on one of the dress uniforms hanging in your closet (yep, this is real, it's perfectly fitted for you and has your name on the front), and march out into the corridor.
Madness and magic are one and the same
As you walk, it occurs to you that you really shouldn't have any clue where conference room 1A is or how to get to it, but you do. You frantically dig through your thoughts as you travel, trying to find anything else that's been implanted into your mind. You find blueprints. MORE than blueprints, an entire set of technological skills (primarily based on robotics, but also applicable to architecture and starship design of all things) shoved into your mind. Just how much of the old you is even left besides your memories and basic interests?
Madness isn't power, but fuel.
You easily clear away the storm of unwanted thoughts (another new feature) as you enter the conference room, sitting at the seat saved for you. You calmly ask a black-haired lady with a bowl-cut "Alright Ms. Perkins, tell me, what is this conference about?" (even with her name tag it should have taken you a second to read it)
Fuel has to be burned in order to achieve anything.
She takes a deep breath, before replying "3.1 hours ago, we all woke up knowing nothing besides our way around the base, our names, the skills and information we needed to do our jobs, and the fact that you were apparently our Commander. We're willing to go along with it for now, but we need to know, did you do this to us?"
All magic is powered by burning madness.
Your eyes widen as you realize what she's implying, and you respond "I would never do such a thing! Yesterday I was just an aerospace engineer with an ex-military background who's good at strategy games!"
One of the men at the table with a weird-looking monocle notes to everyone "The lie detector isn't acting up, he's telling the truth, or at least he thinks he is."
Another lady at the table then says "Since you apparently aren't the one who wiped our memories, at least not deliberately, I suppose it's time for introductions. I'm Dr. Vahlen, a xenobiologist in charge of your research department."
The man with the lie-detector monocle then notes "I'm Dr. Raymond Shen, one of the two heads of your engineering department."
Another man, this one sporting a well-managed beard remarks "I'm the other head of your engineering department, Geoffrey Daniels. I've only got a Master's though."
Ms. Perkins goes next, with "You already know my name, I'm your secretary apparently."
Once introductions are out of the way, the first order you give is
[] "I'd like to know where we are and what's going on outside the base."
[] "I'd like to know what assets are available to me."
[] Write-in
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Awakening 2
We Just Write
Blatantly Plural
- Location
- New England
- Pronouns
- Plural
Your first order is of course "I'd like to know our location and what's going on outside the base."
Ms. Perkins obliges with "We were wondering the same thing, and we'd taken the time to observe just that with a Firestorm-launched spy satellite equipped with the best stealth tech we've got and a quantum encrypted gravity wave communicator. From everything we can tell, we're at 46° 4'49.27"N, 7°45'46.14"E. To translate, we're dug into the side of a mountain smack dab in the middle of the Alps but still reasonably close to a highway."
You nod, that makes quite a lot of sense. Ms Perkins continues
"On the strategic intelligence side of things, things are looking mostly normal. There's chaos in the Middle East thanks to the whole ISIS situation, but the middle east's been a messed up place for a long time. North Korea's saber-rattling again, but nothing new there. Honestly, Earth is more-or less fine at the moment. However, our spy satellite has been getting gravitational interference consistent with at least 20 gravity drive equipped spacecraft.
They haven't done anything but look yet, but I doubt their benevolence greatly."
You nod, before something occurs to you "Curiously, what's the inventory of all the facilities and equipment we've got on-base?"
She grins, before saying "Shen and Daniels asked the same question, and did an inventory earlier. It should be accessible to you via your smart-clothes." Another burst of instinctive knowledge, you bring your left forearm up, and it begins projecting a holographic User Interface that you somehow just know works like a touchscreen.
You quickly navigate to the folder labelled base inventory, and open it
After reading that, you get to thinking. You've recognized the insignia on the uniform you're wearing now, and if these are the same aliens X-COM normally has to deal with, they are most definitely NOT friendly. So, for dealing with the ships in orbit do you
[] Send up the Firestorms to clear the orbitals while setting the anti-orbital battery to 'murderize'
[] threaten them with... something
[] Try talking, they might not be the same ones Yeah right.
[] Send up troops in an Avenger to board and capture the biggest ones
[] Something else
And then there's the matter of funding, you'll need to do something to keep all your personnel paid and expanding your organization will take money.
[] Write-in plan for loadsamoney
There's also these ideas running rampant in your head, and they're making it hard to think. Maybe putting some of them together for real will help relieve the pressure?
[] Suppress the urge Bad idea!
[] Upgrade something that already exists
-[] Improve the Avenger's fuel efficiency at FTL
-[] Deal with the MULE's maintenance issues
-[] Something else entirely
[] Draw up plans for a
-[]Robot
--[] One of the designs you've already got?
---[] Which one?
--[] Something new
---[] Anything specific in mind?
-[] Teleporter
pick two design goals
--[] Safe for humans
--[] Energy Efficient
--[] Fast (if not picked, the entire teleport sequence takes around 20 seconds)
-[] Something else entirely (write in what)
[] Forget drawing up plans, you need this out of your brain NOW! build a
-[]Robot
--[] One of the designs you've already got?
---[] Which one?
--[] Something new
---[] Anything specific in mind?
-[] Teleporter
pick two design goals
--[] Safe for humans
--[] Energy Efficient
--[] Fast (if not picked, the entire teleport sequence takes around 20 seconds)
-[] Something else entirely (write in what)
Ms. Perkins obliges with "We were wondering the same thing, and we'd taken the time to observe just that with a Firestorm-launched spy satellite equipped with the best stealth tech we've got and a quantum encrypted gravity wave communicator. From everything we can tell, we're at 46° 4'49.27"N, 7°45'46.14"E. To translate, we're dug into the side of a mountain smack dab in the middle of the Alps but still reasonably close to a highway."
You nod, that makes quite a lot of sense. Ms Perkins continues
"On the strategic intelligence side of things, things are looking mostly normal. There's chaos in the Middle East thanks to the whole ISIS situation, but the middle east's been a messed up place for a long time. North Korea's saber-rattling again, but nothing new there. Honestly, Earth is more-or less fine at the moment. However, our spy satellite has been getting gravitational interference consistent with at least 20 gravity drive equipped spacecraft.
They haven't done anything but look yet, but I doubt their benevolence greatly."
You nod, before something occurs to you "Curiously, what's the inventory of all the facilities and equipment we've got on-base?"
She grins, before saying "Shen and Daniels asked the same question, and did an inventory earlier. It should be accessible to you via your smart-clothes." Another burst of instinctive knowledge, you bring your left forearm up, and it begins projecting a holographic User Interface that you somehow just know works like a touchscreen.
You quickly navigate to the folder labelled base inventory, and open it
After reading that, you get to thinking. You've recognized the insignia on the uniform you're wearing now, and if these are the same aliens X-COM normally has to deal with, they are most definitely NOT friendly. So, for dealing with the ships in orbit do you
[] Send up the Firestorms to clear the orbitals while setting the anti-orbital battery to 'murderize'
[] threaten them with... something
[] Try talking, they might not be the same ones Yeah right.
[] Send up troops in an Avenger to board and capture the biggest ones
[] Something else
And then there's the matter of funding, you'll need to do something to keep all your personnel paid and expanding your organization will take money.
[] Write-in plan for loadsamoney
There's also these ideas running rampant in your head, and they're making it hard to think. Maybe putting some of them together for real will help relieve the pressure?
[] Suppress the urge Bad idea!
[] Upgrade something that already exists
-[] Improve the Avenger's fuel efficiency at FTL
-[] Deal with the MULE's maintenance issues
-[] Something else entirely
[] Draw up plans for a
-[]Robot
--[] One of the designs you've already got?
---[] Which one?
--[] Something new
---[] Anything specific in mind?
-[] Teleporter
pick two design goals
--[] Safe for humans
--[] Energy Efficient
--[] Fast (if not picked, the entire teleport sequence takes around 20 seconds)
-[] Something else entirely (write in what)
[] Forget drawing up plans, you need this out of your brain NOW! build a
-[]Robot
--[] One of the designs you've already got?
---[] Which one?
--[] Something new
---[] Anything specific in mind?
-[] Teleporter
pick two design goals
--[] Safe for humans
--[] Energy Efficient
--[] Fast (if not picked, the entire teleport sequence takes around 20 seconds)
-[] Something else entirely (write in what)
Awakening 3
We Just Write
Blatantly Plural
- Location
- New England
- Pronouns
- Plural
(time elapsed: 4 days)
You give the order to Ms. Perkins "Let's not kill the aliens immediately, but get the anti-orbital battery warmed up and have the Firestorms ready to scramble. The very instant they try something, I want them all blown out of the sky within 5 minutes if possible."
Your secretary nods, and replies "Affirmative!". That done, you tell her "Anyways, I've had these... ideas burning in my mind for stuff I can do ever since I woke up this morning. It's starting to get hard to think, so I'm going to try putting plans to metal now. If you need me, I'll be in engineering."
You soon arrive, and wonder what you'll be doing. You ultimately decide on working with something that already exists to save yourself some on coming up with a design, but what to improve... You immediately fixate on the glaring issue with the M.U.L.E. mining robot. When you get to Manufacturing, you find that 7 of your 24 MULEs have already broken down.
You walk over to a workstation and ask the engineer currently working on MULE #13 "I'd like to try my hand at working with this? May I please do so?"
He looks at you weirdly, before saying "You're command staff. What in the world are you doing down here wanting to work on a robot?"
You shrug, before saying "I've got these ideas burning in my brain for things I could build, and it's gotten to the point of making it hard to think clearly. I was thinking that maybe putting some of those plans to metal could help."
The engineer (his name is Gene, according to the name tag) sighs, before saying "Alright, you're the boss. I'll work on one of the other ones and get ready to bail you out if you do something REALLY stupid."
That done, you sit down at the workstation and take a look through the already open access panel. A part of you deep inside sneers at whoever designed a robot this badly when you get a look at the things innards. This thing is a mess, the parts are designed for impossibly precise manufacturing tolerances that simply can't be achieved, the power plant has shoddy containment, and there's a whole heap of other issues you can't really list.
Without another word, you get to work. By the end of the first two hours, you're already convinced that while the basic design is sound, you'd be better off making a whole new robot based on the same general idea and recycling the current batch. Still, your stomach rumbles, reminding you that it's lunch time and you never had breakfast today. Sighing, you put down the tools and march yourself off to the mess hall.
When you get there, you note the menu for today has 4 main options, 3 sides , and 4 beverage options. You order the Spaghetti and meatballs, Broccoli with mayo, and diet cola.
After lunch, you go back down to engineering, and begin making alterations to the plan for the MULE to fix all the issues you'd spotted. This done, you send the improved (or more accurately, fixed) plans for the MULE to Dr. Shen and tell him "I've made some alterations to the MULE design to fix the maintenance issues. I'd like 36 of them, scrapping the existing set for raw materials. On top of that I'd like 40 CMC-400 Powered Combat Suits, 20 suits of Titan Armor, 20 suits of Ghost Armor, 10 Hover Heavy Weapons Platforms, 120 of each man-portable weapon currently available to us with an appropriate amount of ammunition, 20 medispray applicators, and 20 Archangel packs."
Shen replies "I can get you all of that, but it'll take a couple months. Things will go much faster if you give us time to expand the manufacturing wing first."
You...
[] Deny it, you need him working on that kit ASAP!
[] Allow it, it makes sense.
Anyways, that dealt with, the days stretch on by, without the aliens making a move. It's day 4, and your pilot's fatigue from being kept on high alert for so long is really starting to show, when there's an intruder alert at the ground level entrance. You drop everything (yelping slightly when the lit welding torch bounces off your Cydonium-plated boot) and race to look at the security feed.
The scene before you is somewhat surreal, the soldier you had on guard duty is lying twitching on the floor as if he just got hit with an electrolaser, his pistol looks to have fired on stun very recently, and standing over him is an ancient-looking woman with a severe face holding a briefcase and complaining that the scorch marks will NEVER come out of her favorite dress in the past 180 years.
How do you respond?
[] write-in
You give the order to Ms. Perkins "Let's not kill the aliens immediately, but get the anti-orbital battery warmed up and have the Firestorms ready to scramble. The very instant they try something, I want them all blown out of the sky within 5 minutes if possible."
Your secretary nods, and replies "Affirmative!". That done, you tell her "Anyways, I've had these... ideas burning in my mind for stuff I can do ever since I woke up this morning. It's starting to get hard to think, so I'm going to try putting plans to metal now. If you need me, I'll be in engineering."
You soon arrive, and wonder what you'll be doing. You ultimately decide on working with something that already exists to save yourself some on coming up with a design, but what to improve... You immediately fixate on the glaring issue with the M.U.L.E. mining robot. When you get to Manufacturing, you find that 7 of your 24 MULEs have already broken down.
You walk over to a workstation and ask the engineer currently working on MULE #13 "I'd like to try my hand at working with this? May I please do so?"
He looks at you weirdly, before saying "You're command staff. What in the world are you doing down here wanting to work on a robot?"
You shrug, before saying "I've got these ideas burning in my brain for things I could build, and it's gotten to the point of making it hard to think clearly. I was thinking that maybe putting some of those plans to metal could help."
The engineer (his name is Gene, according to the name tag) sighs, before saying "Alright, you're the boss. I'll work on one of the other ones and get ready to bail you out if you do something REALLY stupid."
That done, you sit down at the workstation and take a look through the already open access panel. A part of you deep inside sneers at whoever designed a robot this badly when you get a look at the things innards. This thing is a mess, the parts are designed for impossibly precise manufacturing tolerances that simply can't be achieved, the power plant has shoddy containment, and there's a whole heap of other issues you can't really list.
Without another word, you get to work. By the end of the first two hours, you're already convinced that while the basic design is sound, you'd be better off making a whole new robot based on the same general idea and recycling the current batch. Still, your stomach rumbles, reminding you that it's lunch time and you never had breakfast today. Sighing, you put down the tools and march yourself off to the mess hall.
When you get there, you note the menu for today has 4 main options, 3 sides , and 4 beverage options. You order the Spaghetti and meatballs, Broccoli with mayo, and diet cola.
After lunch, you go back down to engineering, and begin making alterations to the plan for the MULE to fix all the issues you'd spotted. This done, you send the improved (or more accurately, fixed) plans for the MULE to Dr. Shen and tell him "I've made some alterations to the MULE design to fix the maintenance issues. I'd like 36 of them, scrapping the existing set for raw materials. On top of that I'd like 40 CMC-400 Powered Combat Suits, 20 suits of Titan Armor, 20 suits of Ghost Armor, 10 Hover Heavy Weapons Platforms, 120 of each man-portable weapon currently available to us with an appropriate amount of ammunition, 20 medispray applicators, and 20 Archangel packs."
Shen replies "I can get you all of that, but it'll take a couple months. Things will go much faster if you give us time to expand the manufacturing wing first."
You...
[] Deny it, you need him working on that kit ASAP!
[] Allow it, it makes sense.
Anyways, that dealt with, the days stretch on by, without the aliens making a move. It's day 4, and your pilot's fatigue from being kept on high alert for so long is really starting to show, when there's an intruder alert at the ground level entrance. You drop everything (yelping slightly when the lit welding torch bounces off your Cydonium-plated boot) and race to look at the security feed.
The scene before you is somewhat surreal, the soldier you had on guard duty is lying twitching on the floor as if he just got hit with an electrolaser, his pistol looks to have fired on stun very recently, and standing over him is an ancient-looking woman with a severe face holding a briefcase and complaining that the scorch marks will NEVER come out of her favorite dress in the past 180 years.
How do you respond?
[] write-in
Awakening 4
We Just Write
Blatantly Plural
- Location
- New England
- Pronouns
- Plural
You immediately open up the intercom's interface, and call "I want 2 squads, one armored with CMC-400 and carrying plasma weapons, the other with Titan Armor and Gauss weapons! Also send down a couple medics and some hovertanks!" You were doing all this while running to the command center. You send a second call to Ms. Perkins now, ordering "Lock down the ground level entrance! This is not a drill!"
Ms. Perkins answers "Affirmative!" as you stumble into the command center's attached briefing room. Within 40 seconds 12 soldiers with the designated equipment and backup filter into the briefing room.
You brief them "There's an intruder in the ground-level entrance with abilities we aren't quite sure of, but she wasn't affected by a shot from a laser pistol's stun setting, and the person who was on guard duty got hit with a stun shot of some variety. Get down there and be ready to contain her in case negotiations break down."
As they do so, you activate the intercom, calling the segment of the entrance you've got your mysterious visitor locked up in. you ask "Who are you, why are you here, and why did you attack my subordinate?"
She answers "I hope you don't mind if I answer your questions out of order. Anyway, I've needed to switch names on a regular basis for the last 450 years or so, but my current alias is Sybille. As for your guard, when he shot me with that fancy ray gun he wound up on the receiving end of an ability of mine that I don't have conscious control over. Lastly, I came here because you're a Savant, and there's some information you need know now."
This piques your interest, and you ask "Savant?"
At this, she touches her finger to the forehead of your downed guard, and with her other conjures what looks to be a dove made of light that starts flying around the room. She then speaks, saying "Let me guess, a few days ago you woke up here with no idea why you weren't at home and powers you didn't think possible? Regardless, magic is real as I just demonstrated, and now you have a particularly powerful variety."
you reply "Continue, but make it quick, I've got an organization to run." You're skeptical, but at this point you aren't quite sure whether that's justified.
Sybille nods to the security camera, and says "All magic is ultimately fueled by Madness. As it gets used, the total amount of insanity in the system decreases. A Savant is what happens when a brain aneurysm bursts in just the right place for things to happen in the following sequence: unconsciousness, madness to an immense degree, death. There's several other complicating factors involved, but you asked for the short version.
In that scenario, the sheer amount of madness trips a sort of 'release valve', and the subconscious bails out the resulting madness. This allows the mind to continue functioning, but only by shoving the tremendous amount of madness into a continuous and immensely powerful magical effect."
You nod automatically, before responding "That explains why I'm suddenly a robotics genius and getting flashes of instinctive knowledge whenever I need them, but it doesn't explain the super secret sci-fi military base from nowhere, nor how I got here from Texas of all places."
Sybille elaborates "Ah, that would be your Burst. When a Savant is forming, there's still far more madness present than their brain damage would normally provide to fuel their powers. The excess gets released as a one-time massive effect that cannot be reproduced under normal circumstances."
"You're a Savant aren't you?"
"Yes."
That explains quite a lot, and you ask (up to 2)
[] What are the other types of magic user and how do they work?
[] How'd you find this place anyways?
[] How many Savants are there?
[] What's your telephone number?
[] Write in
Ms. Perkins answers "Affirmative!" as you stumble into the command center's attached briefing room. Within 40 seconds 12 soldiers with the designated equipment and backup filter into the briefing room.
You brief them "There's an intruder in the ground-level entrance with abilities we aren't quite sure of, but she wasn't affected by a shot from a laser pistol's stun setting, and the person who was on guard duty got hit with a stun shot of some variety. Get down there and be ready to contain her in case negotiations break down."
As they do so, you activate the intercom, calling the segment of the entrance you've got your mysterious visitor locked up in. you ask "Who are you, why are you here, and why did you attack my subordinate?"
She answers "I hope you don't mind if I answer your questions out of order. Anyway, I've needed to switch names on a regular basis for the last 450 years or so, but my current alias is Sybille. As for your guard, when he shot me with that fancy ray gun he wound up on the receiving end of an ability of mine that I don't have conscious control over. Lastly, I came here because you're a Savant, and there's some information you need know now."
This piques your interest, and you ask "Savant?"
At this, she touches her finger to the forehead of your downed guard, and with her other conjures what looks to be a dove made of light that starts flying around the room. She then speaks, saying "Let me guess, a few days ago you woke up here with no idea why you weren't at home and powers you didn't think possible? Regardless, magic is real as I just demonstrated, and now you have a particularly powerful variety."
you reply "Continue, but make it quick, I've got an organization to run." You're skeptical, but at this point you aren't quite sure whether that's justified.
Sybille nods to the security camera, and says "All magic is ultimately fueled by Madness. As it gets used, the total amount of insanity in the system decreases. A Savant is what happens when a brain aneurysm bursts in just the right place for things to happen in the following sequence: unconsciousness, madness to an immense degree, death. There's several other complicating factors involved, but you asked for the short version.
In that scenario, the sheer amount of madness trips a sort of 'release valve', and the subconscious bails out the resulting madness. This allows the mind to continue functioning, but only by shoving the tremendous amount of madness into a continuous and immensely powerful magical effect."
You nod automatically, before responding "That explains why I'm suddenly a robotics genius and getting flashes of instinctive knowledge whenever I need them, but it doesn't explain the super secret sci-fi military base from nowhere, nor how I got here from Texas of all places."
Sybille elaborates "Ah, that would be your Burst. When a Savant is forming, there's still far more madness present than their brain damage would normally provide to fuel their powers. The excess gets released as a one-time massive effect that cannot be reproduced under normal circumstances."
"You're a Savant aren't you?"
"Yes."
That explains quite a lot, and you ask (up to 2)
[] What are the other types of magic user and how do they work?
[] How'd you find this place anyways?
[] How many Savants are there?
[] What's your telephone number?
[] Write in
Last edited:
Awakening 5/Incoming 1
We Just Write
Blatantly Plural
- Location
- New England
- Pronouns
- Plural
Continuing the conversation, you ask your 'guest' Sybille "Curiously, how'd you find this place anyways? this is supposed to be a secret base after all."
Sybille answers "Over the centuries, I've often taken an interest in others sort of like me. I've therefore developed a passive technique to detect the distortions in reality from a Savant Bursting, and use them to triangulate their location. You won't need to worry about someone else knocking on your door for the same reason at least, it took me over 250 years to figure out how to do that, I haven't shared it with anyone, and I'm the only immortal both inclined to and old enough to have managed it. Besides, your Burst long since faded."
You think on this for a while, and it makes a startling amount of sense. Regardless, there's one other thing that caught your interest, and you ask "You mentioned other types of magic user? I'd like to know how they operate."
Sybille sits down and groans, saying "This'll be a long one. You already heard the basics of madness being used as fuel, so I'll describe the most common ways of using it. Broadly, casting can be divided into two categories; External in which you use the madness of others, and Internal, in which you use your own madness. While any caster could theoretically use any spell if they got their hands on enough madness, in practice they tend to gravitate to either indirect or direct effects depending on how easy it is to generate and store the stuff with their methodology."
You request for her to continue, and she does with "I'll start on the External casters. They come in a few categories, Therapists, Torturers, and Technomancers. Therapists are the least morally dubious, merely using madness that already exists, preferably from someone who consented to have their emotional baggage dealt with or such. They vary from those who just care about the power and money they get from it, to those who legitimately want to help people and the magic is just a side benefit. In addition to my innate powers I've also taken the path of the Therapist, which is how I made that light dove I used to demonstrate."
"Continue."
"Certainly. Torturers are scum. They abduct people and deliberately drive them mad with methods varying from psychoactive drugs, to horrifying night terror spells, to invasive brain surgery in at least one particularly horrid case. The worst part is, enough Torturers are smart enough to cooperate on maintaining a worldwide memory-altering spell to conveniently censor knowledge of magic out of public perception. Savants are immune due to any attempts to mess with out minds being consumed as fuel for our powers, and it doesn't really work on those who are exposed to magic on at least a weekly basis, but most attempts to break the masquerade so far have been derided as a hoax within the month."
"You sound bitter over it."
"As I should given I've lost several friends to those wastes of Oxygen. Now for the last variety of External caster, Technomancers. Technomancers are a recent phenomenon, only coming into being about a decade ago. That's because, while machine intelligence is still in its infancy, it's gotten smart enough that it's capable of going insane. Technomancers are an offshoot of Torturer who decided to take advantage of this, and they can literally generate more madness to use at the push of a button. Still, the comparative simplicity of a machine intelligence means that they can't store much madness at once, limiting Technomancers to rather small spells if they want to keep their rig portable, though that's not likely to last long given how fast AI tech is advancing."
"And now for Internal casters, correct?"
"Yes. Victims are what most magic users besides Savants start as. Basically, someone goes really, really, thrown off the deep end crazy, and sets off the same 'safety valve' as leads to Savants. Approximately 80% of Victims come from inexperienced Torturers getting greedy and driving someone too far into madness, which is where the name comes from. Victims start with a large supply of Madness to fuel spells with, but those spells are comparatively inefficient. There are two possible fates for a Victim, either they put 2 and 2 together and come up with a way to get more madness to fuel their spells with and become one of the other types of caster, or they run out of madness and eventually fade back into the veil of memory the Torturers set up."
"One more besides Savants, correct?"
"Yes, Nutcases are those who deliberately drive themselves mad in order to get more magical power. They favor the most direct spells, and they're the easiest to spot once you know what to look fo-"
Ms. Perkins taps your shoulder and says "The aliens just moved out, 3 ships just landed in Cleveland, Ohio and they're dragging random civilians into the ships after shooting them with some variety of device, we aren't sure if it's lethal or not. Firestorms have been launched, along with the Vikings to cover the airspace if the aliens try to take off, but we need to do something about the situation in Ohio."
"Sybille, something came up, you can go." and with that you order the door for her to leave to be unlocked.
You then order the teams you've got downstairs and tell them "Get aboard an Avenger ASAP, the aliens have made their move, and it isn't friendly in the slightest!"
Alien Abductions: Cleveland Ohio
[] Write in strategy for ground team (note: one of the Gauss weapon squad has a C-10 and 2 magazines)
-[] sub-strategy? (contingencies, little extra details, that sort of thing. Maximum of 3)
[] Write in strategy for aerospace battle
-[] sub-strategy? (contingencies, little extra details, that sort of thing. Maximum of 3)
Sybille answers "Over the centuries, I've often taken an interest in others sort of like me. I've therefore developed a passive technique to detect the distortions in reality from a Savant Bursting, and use them to triangulate their location. You won't need to worry about someone else knocking on your door for the same reason at least, it took me over 250 years to figure out how to do that, I haven't shared it with anyone, and I'm the only immortal both inclined to and old enough to have managed it. Besides, your Burst long since faded."
You think on this for a while, and it makes a startling amount of sense. Regardless, there's one other thing that caught your interest, and you ask "You mentioned other types of magic user? I'd like to know how they operate."
Sybille sits down and groans, saying "This'll be a long one. You already heard the basics of madness being used as fuel, so I'll describe the most common ways of using it. Broadly, casting can be divided into two categories; External in which you use the madness of others, and Internal, in which you use your own madness. While any caster could theoretically use any spell if they got their hands on enough madness, in practice they tend to gravitate to either indirect or direct effects depending on how easy it is to generate and store the stuff with their methodology."
You request for her to continue, and she does with "I'll start on the External casters. They come in a few categories, Therapists, Torturers, and Technomancers. Therapists are the least morally dubious, merely using madness that already exists, preferably from someone who consented to have their emotional baggage dealt with or such. They vary from those who just care about the power and money they get from it, to those who legitimately want to help people and the magic is just a side benefit. In addition to my innate powers I've also taken the path of the Therapist, which is how I made that light dove I used to demonstrate."
"Continue."
"Certainly. Torturers are scum. They abduct people and deliberately drive them mad with methods varying from psychoactive drugs, to horrifying night terror spells, to invasive brain surgery in at least one particularly horrid case. The worst part is, enough Torturers are smart enough to cooperate on maintaining a worldwide memory-altering spell to conveniently censor knowledge of magic out of public perception. Savants are immune due to any attempts to mess with out minds being consumed as fuel for our powers, and it doesn't really work on those who are exposed to magic on at least a weekly basis, but most attempts to break the masquerade so far have been derided as a hoax within the month."
"You sound bitter over it."
"As I should given I've lost several friends to those wastes of Oxygen. Now for the last variety of External caster, Technomancers. Technomancers are a recent phenomenon, only coming into being about a decade ago. That's because, while machine intelligence is still in its infancy, it's gotten smart enough that it's capable of going insane. Technomancers are an offshoot of Torturer who decided to take advantage of this, and they can literally generate more madness to use at the push of a button. Still, the comparative simplicity of a machine intelligence means that they can't store much madness at once, limiting Technomancers to rather small spells if they want to keep their rig portable, though that's not likely to last long given how fast AI tech is advancing."
"And now for Internal casters, correct?"
"Yes. Victims are what most magic users besides Savants start as. Basically, someone goes really, really, thrown off the deep end crazy, and sets off the same 'safety valve' as leads to Savants. Approximately 80% of Victims come from inexperienced Torturers getting greedy and driving someone too far into madness, which is where the name comes from. Victims start with a large supply of Madness to fuel spells with, but those spells are comparatively inefficient. There are two possible fates for a Victim, either they put 2 and 2 together and come up with a way to get more madness to fuel their spells with and become one of the other types of caster, or they run out of madness and eventually fade back into the veil of memory the Torturers set up."
"One more besides Savants, correct?"
"Yes, Nutcases are those who deliberately drive themselves mad in order to get more magical power. They favor the most direct spells, and they're the easiest to spot once you know what to look fo-"
Ms. Perkins taps your shoulder and says "The aliens just moved out, 3 ships just landed in Cleveland, Ohio and they're dragging random civilians into the ships after shooting them with some variety of device, we aren't sure if it's lethal or not. Firestorms have been launched, along with the Vikings to cover the airspace if the aliens try to take off, but we need to do something about the situation in Ohio."
"Sybille, something came up, you can go." and with that you order the door for her to leave to be unlocked.
You then order the teams you've got downstairs and tell them "Get aboard an Avenger ASAP, the aliens have made their move, and it isn't friendly in the slightest!"
Alien Abductions: Cleveland Ohio
[] Write in strategy for ground team (note: one of the Gauss weapon squad has a C-10 and 2 magazines)
-[] sub-strategy? (contingencies, little extra details, that sort of thing. Maximum of 3)
[] Write in strategy for aerospace battle
-[] sub-strategy? (contingencies, little extra details, that sort of thing. Maximum of 3)
Last edited:
Incoming 2
We Just Write
Blatantly Plural
- Location
- New England
- Pronouns
- Plural
As your troops begin their rapid trek towards the hangar where a pilot is getting an Avenger warmed up for their use, several things happen at once. First, you turned your gaze to the hologlobe in the center of the command center, and watched as it shrunk to show a color-coded map of Earth's Orbitals. The thousands of white dots representing satellites along with other civilian space assets only marginally clutter the display, but you still tune out all of them save the ISS and other ones of similar importance.
Your assets on the other hand, are colored in cyan for the 8 detection satellites allowing you to spot the alien ships with great accuracy. The Firestorms and Vikings streaking away to their objectives are a bright yellow, and the missiles streaking from your anti-orbital batteries are brilliant orange streaks rocketing up towards the red alien ships, each of which is tagged with a basic representation of its hull profile and size. Transient green lines lance out from the ground, representing plasma beams lancing into space.
You also place a phone call to the US National Guard, and get your techies to hack the system to ensure that you don't get stuck in the 'on hold' music for hours. The line opens up with "Greetings, as you no doubt know by now, there are hostile aliens attacking Cleveland Ohio. I am not affiliated with them, but I'm sending in troops armed with similar technology to stamp out the threat and wanted to curtail any possible misunderstandings. The aerospace craft carrying them will arrive in roughly 15 minutes."
the operator on the other end asks "Who are you and how can we be sure you aren't with the aliens?"
You briefly debate how much to reveal, before saying "I'm the man running the organization with the most advanced technology, including military hardware, on Earth." With that you hang up, hoping that the operator will pass the message up the chain well enough. As you hang up, you spot the indigo dot that is the Avenger streaking away from Switzerland.
At the same time several things happen. Your first salvo of Blaster Missiles strike home, blowing 4 of the largest alien craft clear out of the void. But then things start to go horribly wrong as a line of green plasma streaks from the remaining alien heavy ship towards Earth and the base rumbles. This far down the Weisshorn you don't feel it as anything but the most minor of tremors, but you still hear the alarm saying "Anti-orbital battery has been hit!"
You immediately ask "Is it still in good enough condition to fire?" one of the technicians tells you "Barely, only 2 plasmas and a single missile silo are still able to fire, but I'm not sure if we should." Wise, revealing that you were still alive too soon was liable to get your anti-orbital battery shot again, rendering it completely unsalvageable. Thus, you hold fire until your squadron of Firestorms engage.
By the time the Firestorms make it up there 5 minutes later, the remaining 9 ships in orbit have come together in a fleet only 1,000 km across. Your Firestorms slow to a 'mere' 12 km/s as they come in for their first attack run. It can't really be called an 'attack run' given the whole 'space' thing, but terminology tends to stick. Both sides fire, and 2 alien ships die. You gasp briefly as two of your Firestorms take glancing hits, but Flame 1 reports only losing the first 2 armor layers out of 5 off his belly, and Flame 4 only lost one of 3 on the rightmost weapons pod.
The next 10 seconds see the deaths of 3 more alien ships, one of which had been damaged by the first attack run. On the other hand, you gasp with panic as Flame 1 gets mission-killed. The pilot sends a transmission, saying "Main and secondary power plants are down, I've got no thrust whatsoever, and all my guns are shot. Pretty much the only sort of good thing is that my trajectory will have me re-entering Earth's atmosphere within an hour, but I'm not sure I'd survive the landing given that there's no power for the inertial dampeners. Here's hoping you see fit to send a rescue mission my way."
You answer
[] Sorry, can't manage that (-1 skilled Firestorm pilot, -10 rep{X-COM}, all other aerospace craft available)
[] I'll send the other Avenger (no spare Avengers for rapid deployment, guaranteed success, recover partial Firestorm, +10 rep {X-COM})
[] I'll send a Medivac (have a spare Avenger on standby, lower Delta Vee budget gives less of a window for successful recovery, +10 rep {X-COM})
Also, now is when the aliens start to retreat, accelerating towards Sirius. Once it becomes clear to them that they won't be able to shake your Firestorms via conventional thrust, the surviving 2 ships jump to FTL. Your attention now drifts back to the Avenger you have en route to Cleveland, scheduled to be arriving in 2 minutes and already undergoing re-entry.
You've also got some orders for the base personnel at the time being, namely (pick 2)
[] damage control for the anti-orbital battery
[] write in
Your assets on the other hand, are colored in cyan for the 8 detection satellites allowing you to spot the alien ships with great accuracy. The Firestorms and Vikings streaking away to their objectives are a bright yellow, and the missiles streaking from your anti-orbital batteries are brilliant orange streaks rocketing up towards the red alien ships, each of which is tagged with a basic representation of its hull profile and size. Transient green lines lance out from the ground, representing plasma beams lancing into space.
You also place a phone call to the US National Guard, and get your techies to hack the system to ensure that you don't get stuck in the 'on hold' music for hours. The line opens up with "Greetings, as you no doubt know by now, there are hostile aliens attacking Cleveland Ohio. I am not affiliated with them, but I'm sending in troops armed with similar technology to stamp out the threat and wanted to curtail any possible misunderstandings. The aerospace craft carrying them will arrive in roughly 15 minutes."
the operator on the other end asks "Who are you and how can we be sure you aren't with the aliens?"
You briefly debate how much to reveal, before saying "I'm the man running the organization with the most advanced technology, including military hardware, on Earth." With that you hang up, hoping that the operator will pass the message up the chain well enough. As you hang up, you spot the indigo dot that is the Avenger streaking away from Switzerland.
At the same time several things happen. Your first salvo of Blaster Missiles strike home, blowing 4 of the largest alien craft clear out of the void. But then things start to go horribly wrong as a line of green plasma streaks from the remaining alien heavy ship towards Earth and the base rumbles. This far down the Weisshorn you don't feel it as anything but the most minor of tremors, but you still hear the alarm saying "Anti-orbital battery has been hit!"
You immediately ask "Is it still in good enough condition to fire?" one of the technicians tells you "Barely, only 2 plasmas and a single missile silo are still able to fire, but I'm not sure if we should." Wise, revealing that you were still alive too soon was liable to get your anti-orbital battery shot again, rendering it completely unsalvageable. Thus, you hold fire until your squadron of Firestorms engage.
By the time the Firestorms make it up there 5 minutes later, the remaining 9 ships in orbit have come together in a fleet only 1,000 km across. Your Firestorms slow to a 'mere' 12 km/s as they come in for their first attack run. It can't really be called an 'attack run' given the whole 'space' thing, but terminology tends to stick. Both sides fire, and 2 alien ships die. You gasp briefly as two of your Firestorms take glancing hits, but Flame 1 reports only losing the first 2 armor layers out of 5 off his belly, and Flame 4 only lost one of 3 on the rightmost weapons pod.
The next 10 seconds see the deaths of 3 more alien ships, one of which had been damaged by the first attack run. On the other hand, you gasp with panic as Flame 1 gets mission-killed. The pilot sends a transmission, saying "Main and secondary power plants are down, I've got no thrust whatsoever, and all my guns are shot. Pretty much the only sort of good thing is that my trajectory will have me re-entering Earth's atmosphere within an hour, but I'm not sure I'd survive the landing given that there's no power for the inertial dampeners. Here's hoping you see fit to send a rescue mission my way."
You answer
[] Sorry, can't manage that (-1 skilled Firestorm pilot, -10 rep{X-COM}, all other aerospace craft available)
[] I'll send the other Avenger (no spare Avengers for rapid deployment, guaranteed success, recover partial Firestorm, +10 rep {X-COM})
[] I'll send a Medivac (have a spare Avenger on standby, lower Delta Vee budget gives less of a window for successful recovery, +10 rep {X-COM})
Also, now is when the aliens start to retreat, accelerating towards Sirius. Once it becomes clear to them that they won't be able to shake your Firestorms via conventional thrust, the surviving 2 ships jump to FTL. Your attention now drifts back to the Avenger you have en route to Cleveland, scheduled to be arriving in 2 minutes and already undergoing re-entry.
You've also got some orders for the base personnel at the time being, namely (pick 2)
[] damage control for the anti-orbital battery
[] write in