Damn, they can afford to just throw these things at us en mass?
Felix moved his frame forward, speeding up to reach the nearest drone. "I've had a pretty shit morning so far, so thanks for giving me an outlet to wale on!" He roared into the vacuum, bringing the Dawn's right Jian up to slash at the sapper.
((3 AP: 3 East, 2 North; 1 AP: Melee attack on Drone 2))
I think every idea is a good one, except for the ones that are bad.Charlotte grimaced. She had a single-shot weapon and optimization for long-range combat; this was not her scenario. And there were far too many of the enemy. Still. She frowned as she noticed: two types of drones...
She called up the infoscreen again, a plan beginning to spin into place.
"All callsigns in the cavern, this is Circus," she said, quiet despite the hammering of her heart. "Propose we get to the factory node and reprogram it. My Frame is equipped for that. If we do that we can equalize the numbers and set the mining drones against the sappers. Lead, request authorization." After all, this would involve a number of Frames here in the cavern, not just herself.
In the meanwhile there was no time to waste. She maneuvered toward the factory array, eyes on the lines of drones on the rockshelf.
"Easy, boys," she whispered. "I'm on your side..."
Exactly what action Charlotte will undertake will be determined by Hydrall's answer in the discussion thread, but reprogramming the factory node—or at least getting somewhere where we can have our backs secure and attempt a Zulu gunline defense—will be crucial.
Charlie Stross's cheerful, optimistic predictions for 2017, part one of three."Careful Wolfpup," Isra said over the comm, "We want to draw clear battle lines. Valkyrie, try to finish off Nishida-4 unit with your Zhao, keep an eye on Apollo though. Baldur, help me secure the perimetre; suppress our flanks from Six and Seven. Don't know if you can finish it, but suppression would be nice. I've uploaded numbers for the units to hud to ease communication here. We need someone to unload a few rounds into three."
edited 27th May '14 11:54:47 AM by Fauxlosophe
Charlotte locked onto the closest mining drone, showing up on her HUD as "2". A series of quick acceleration and deceleration burns got her there, albeit with more fiddly maneuvering than she would have liked.
[accel: 1 AP >>, 2 AP ^<, 3 AP v<. Dead stop next to Mining Drone 2.]
Now for the tricky part. As the battle raged on behind her, Charlotte reached out with her Frame's reprogramming arm to the thus-far-quiescent drone. "Good boy," she whispered, and ordered the system to initiate a connection. They were outnumbered here; fighting fair wasn't a concern. And every last dirty trick would help.
[4AP : initiate computer connection to Mining Drone 2.]
edited 27th May '14 1:31:18 PM by SabresEdge
Charlie Stross's cheerful, optimistic predictions for 2017, part one of three."Roger that, commander!"
Lydia had had her sword ready in an instant, a wide grin on her face. Her wish of combat had been granted! The dot on her hud indicating her enemy showed that it was in range, though behind her. But...that wasn't a problem for the Zhanmadao!
Grabbing a solid hold of her blade with both of the Einherjar's hands, she activated the movement rockets in her right arm and brought the heavy blade around in a wide arc. The momentum brought the blade around in a perfect circle, before finally delivering it into the side of the Sapper Drone with great destructive force.
However, when she had come around after delivering the slash attack, the Cobalt was still going. The heavy frame made its way through the remnants of the first sapper drone, the useless pieces of metal harmlessly bouncing off of her metal body. And slowly, the next sapper drone came into range.
"You're next to taste my blade!"
Raising her sword again, she let momentum drive her blade forward in addition to her arm rockets, so that once she was in range, she could slash at the drone with her greatsword.
Attack SD 4, then Prepare Attack on SD 2.
Join us in our quest to play all RPG video games! Moving on to disc 2 of Grandia!The drones, still burning their way out of their hiding spaces, were quite vulnerable to the attacks being thrown at them - The machines were hardly durable, no doubt produced on the cheap and intended as expendable support instead of a major combat force.
Which made it all the odder that they'd been left here without any kind of backup.
Asteroid Relay
The drones here, already fairly close to the predominantly close-range Aces... Were really quite doomed.
- Baldur fires at SD 6 and SD 7 with his KRAG! [8] [12] He deals 38 damage to SD 6 and 55 damage to SD 7! (SD 6: 49% remaining SD 7: 27% remaining) His weapon has 4 shots remaining.
- Theia reloads and fires her LAM-4 Deluge at SD 5 and 6! [7,9,12] [7,8,8,11,11,11] She deals 21 damage to SD 5 and 41 damage to SD 6. SD 6 is destroyed! (SD 5: 54% remaining) Her weapon is out of ammo.
- Dark Angel takes aim at SD 4 and fires with his Boiler! [12] It deals 12 damage. (84% remaining)
- Wolf Pup
- Apollo attacks SD 2 with his twin Jian, hitting twice! [8, 11] He deals 70 damage to it! SD 2 is disabled. (6% remaining)
- Valkyrie swings at Sapper Drone 4! [7] With the damage already inflicted, SD 4 is destroyed! She moves on and smashes through SD 1, taking no damage in the process. She attacks SD 2 and... Really overkills the poor thing. [12] SD 2 is destroyed!
Already half their number destroyed, the remaining drones nevertheless launched into an attack. Most of them, anyways - Theia's barrage of fire had one limping away, letting off a few shots as it went - weak thermal weaponry, hardly able to scratch the frames in all honesty.
It was their melee weapons that were the more pressing threat - as Apollo was shortly to learn. The drone's engines flared and it leapt forward from the asteroid, a stream of incandescent plasma boiling forth to strike at his Frame!
- SD 3 moves and attacks Apollo twice! [12] It deals 60 damage to him! (60% remaining)
- SD 5 moves to retreat, firing once at Theia as it goes! [8] It deals 6 damage. (98% remaining)
- SD 7 and 8 both focus entirely on moving.
- Ally Momentum / Health / Status
- Theia: ^2 / 244
- Baldur: Null / 250
- Apollo: ^3<2 / 90
- Wolf Pup: ^6 / 150
- Dark Angel: ^1<3 / 150 / Stealth
- Valkyrie: <4 / 250
- Enemy Momentum / Health / Status
Factory Relay
Malmsbury switched off his mic for a moment, letting out a string of curses before turning it back on. "You heard the Ace! Get your asses out of that cave, it's a death trap in there if you're not fast!"
The two mediums at the cave's mouth hastened to obey, thrusting back as they opened fire on the two probes still working their way out of the stone. At the same time, though, the lighter Frames within the cave leapt into action, the twin quicksilvers darting towards the nearest enemy drone and striking at them! But in those close quarters... The Drake, meanwhile, did the smart thing and moved away from the robots.
- Magellan 1 attacks SD 8 with his MFR-M! [10] He deals 31 damage! (59% remaining)
- Magellan 2 attacks SD 7 three times with his Saint! [5, 8, 9] He deals 53 damage. (29% remaining)
- Magellan 3 attacks SD 3 three times with his MFR-A! [6, 12, 12] He deals a total of 58 damage! (22% remaining)
- Magellan 4 attacks SD 7 twice with his MFR-M. [9] He deals 29 damage. SD 7 is destroyed!
- Peacemaker 1 attacks SD 6 with his HFR-C. [9] He deals 45 damage. (40% remaining)
- Remora 1 attacks SD 9 with his FAS-X. He misses.
- Drake 1 attacks SD 15 with her Hunter. [11] She deals 31 damage. (59% remaining)
- Quicksilver 1 attacks SD 14 with her Chanzhang. [6] She deals 17 damage. (77% remaining)
- Quicksilver 2 attacks SD 16 with his Chanzhang. [12] He deals 50 damage! (33% remaining)
The Aces, however, were free to act as they saw fit.
Circus's interface would go unmolested by the Centauri drones, who likely hardly noticed the Shark. The Federation mining robots were still, but not unpowered; they appeared to be in a 'sleep mode'. From the immediate diagnostics the probes were simply waiting for an 'all clear' signal from the automated factory to continue their work - one that had never been sent.
It would be possible to reprogram them to target the Centauri drones - in fact, the code was already there, requiring only an official's authorization. Presumably an Ace would do. But that would only affect this single drone.
But the factory node...
- Crim takes aim and fires at SD 6 with his MLW 10! [12] He deals 46 damage! SD 6 is destroyed.
- Rocketgirl attacks SD 10 with her Qiang! [12] It deals extra damage due to her speed, for a total of 75 damage! SD 10 is destroyed!
- Dr. Snipes fires at SD 1 with his MFR-S. [10] It deals 31 damage! (59% remaining)
- Rodeo fires at SD 4 with his MFR-A! [6, 11] He deals 29 damage! (61% remaining)
The drones were injured, but they had no concept of retreat - what's more, many of the frames were within the cave they they were surrounding...! They leapt towards the frames with dreadful intent.
It was worse for those who had rushed into melee range and not finished off their targets - the probes responded by their 'heads' splitting open to uneash an unfocused blast of plasma. Much more inaccurate, perhaps, but undoubtedly devastating - much like the attacks they'd unleashed just as they burrowed from the stone.
- SD 1 fires at Dr. Snipes three times with its laser! [8, 9] It deals 12 damage. (94% remaining)
- SD 2 fires at Rodeo three times with its laser! [5, 8, 12] It deals 21 damage. (89% remaining)
- SD 3 fires at Crim three times with its laser! [3, 4, 12] It deals 20 damage. (92% remaining)
- SD 5 attacks Quicksilver 2 with its plasma cutter! It misses.
- SD 8 attacks Magellan 1 with its plasma cutter! [8] It deals 32 damage. (36% remaining)
- SD 9 fires at Remora 1 three times. [4, 9, 9] It deals 17 damage. (48% remaining)
- SD 11 attacks Rocketgirl with its plasma cutter! It misses.
- SD 12 fires at Drake 1 twice. [10, 11] It deals 17 damage. (89% remaining)
- SD 14 attacks Quicksilver 1 three times with its plasma cutter! [8] It deals 32 damage! (79% remaining)
- SD 15 fires at Drake 1 three times. [4, 6] It deals 10 damage. (82% remaining)
- SD 16 attacks Quicksilver 2 three times with its plasma cutter! [7, 8] It deals 58 damage! (61% remaining)
- Ally Momentum / Health / Status
- Crim: <2 / 200
- Dr. Snipes: >2 / 188
- Tachyon: ^2<1 / 150
- Circus: Null / 150
- Rodeo: Null / 179
- Rocketgirl: ^3 / 150
- Monkey Squadron
- Peacemaker 1: v1<1 / 250
- Magellan 1: <3v1 / 89
- Magellan 2: Null / 200
- Magellan 3: Null / 200
- Magellan 4: ^1<1 / 200
- Remora 1: <4 / 119
- Drake 1: v3>1 / 123
- Quicksilver 1: ^2<2 / 118
- Quicksilver 2: v3>1 / 92
- Enemy Momentum / Health / Status
edited 27th May '14 7:41:58 PM by Hydrall
Calvin's teeth clenched as the drones poured out from the asteroids around him. The familiar electric rattle of his KRAG started up as the barrels began to spin, their explosive torrent smashing into two of the drones cleanly as the rest of his squad returned fire.
"What the fuck are these things doing out here?" He snarled over the comm line. "Nobody sends drones after Frames and expects them to win, we need to get back to the Hole now. We're sitting ducks without comms."
He braced the Krag again and let out two more bursts of fire at the moving drones.
Your legacy shall drift away, blown into eternity, like the sands of the desert."That's the plan," Isra said, "There doesn't seem to be a lot of them and there doesn't look like there are frames supporting them. Let's mop up here and move out; we're going to pursue drone 5. If it leads us away from the base, we'll split up."
She moved quickly to replace the magazine to unload another charge into her target.
- AP 1: Reload
- AP 2: Fire on 8.
edited 27th May '14 6:49:41 PM by Fauxlosophe
Charlotte grinned. All in sleep mode, hmm? And consequently being ignored by the sappers. There were even nastier tricks that she could think of, but the nearest sapper drone was a fair distance away. Until then, the next step was to get to the factory node. Until then, though...
Before she disconnected from the drone, she grabbed the drone's IFF codes: ideally now, to the factory and to other drones, she was also Mining Drone 2.
[AP use: >>, vv, cruise, ^^. One AP in reserve. End location, same north-south latitude as the factory node, v>> from the current location of Mining Drone 8, with >> momentum.]
In the meanwhile, Circus kept an eye on the tactical map. "Remora 1, Magellan 1. Focus fire on target Sapper Eight and escape into open space if you can." Switching over to datalink, she sent out bulletin, typing out a message as quickly as she could, as well as the IFF code of Mining Drone 2.
Bulletin to all callsigns. Attached is IFF code of friendly mining drone. Sapper drones appear to be ignoring these for now; cannot guarantee they will work. After activating friendly mining drones, will attempt to acquire data from opfor sapper drone.
edited 27th May '14 7:59:42 PM by SabresEdge
Charlie Stross's cheerful, optimistic predictions for 2017, part one of three.Angus snapped off two more shots at the drone and fired his jets to check the momentum that was carrying him toward it. Confidant that his rounds had destroyed the thing, he looked to his HUD's tactical display of the surrounding battlefield. There were three drones remaining nearby, not counting the one he'd certainly just fragged, two of which were already under fire from his squadmates.
"Guys, leave that undamaged one by the asteroid's edge alone! I'm going to give capture another shot while you back up the guys inside."
Fire twice on SD1 and accelerate one left.
Becky grinned in delight as the drone in front of her burst into lifeless debris. One down, and only a billion to go! Warnings sounded as another enemy closed in from behind, the Quicksilver's superior maneuverability allowing her to avoid the attack. A message from a side monitor said something boring about IFF codes, she decided not to spare it a second glance.
"Suffer severe pokey trauma!" Lightning Bug stabbed at the attacking drone while drifting past. Glancing at the readouts there weren't any more enemies close by, she had to get moving back to the other frames if she wanted to get more kills.
Melee Sapper 11 three times or until dead, Accelerate Down 2. If it dies in two hits, equip Mar Mar. If it dies in one hit, accelerate Down 2 more!
Cursing his weapons low damage, James made sure to take a good look at the armory next time, so that he wasn't limited to either having no ammo or no damage. Sighing at where his carelessness had gotten him, James caught sight of one of the drones he could fire at trying to retreat. No way was any drone escaping this on his watch. Following in pursuit of the drone, James shot at it twice.
Spend 2 AP going East, moving 4 squares, and shoot twice at Sapper Drone 7
edited 28th May '14 2:49:24 AM by Tricksen
If you're reading this you have 5 seconds to...Arath deftly input the IFF code into his frame's system. Hopefully, the drones would not realize that there were duplicate codes.
Arath took the time to reload his weapon. Then, watching his speed, he accelerated around the curves of the asteroid.
1: Reload 2: Accelerate left 3: Accelerate downwards.
edited 28th May '14 4:13:41 PM by neobowman
— Christine Hepner —
Christine watched as one of the drones was fleeing, while another began moving back in towards the relay.
Christine opened the throttle back solward; regardless of which target she was going to gun for next, she had already opened up more than enough distance. Not that she wanted to close too much until it was clear which target would be the easier kill.
((3AP South 6; 1AP Reserve: Either burn south 2 more to close to the group, unless Drone 8 moves to try to close to melee range, she opens fire on the drone as it closes))
Fear the Gothilolions! | Anime list"IFF codes... Might as well try it." Oliver muttered as he input the codes before drawing his Qiang. With his weapon out and his target locked, he piloted the Mizael forward to the nearest Sapper Drone to unleash a vicious lunge at the target.
Equip Qiang. Accelerate up 1, left 3. Attack Sapper Drone 15.
"Why does everything have to loop back to YGO?" -Guy who ruined YGONoticing that her momentum was making her drift away from the battle, Lydia looked around to see if she should maybe slow down and regroup in a formation. Still...she would have liked more action. To her joy, she noticed that one of the remaining drones was moving parallel to her current course. So if she just adjusted it a little bit...she tweaked the position of her movement rockets and readied her blade.
Move up two, prepare sword attack.
Join us in our quest to play all RPG video games! Moving on to disc 2 of Grandia!Asteroid Array
The drones really didn't have a chance at this point - the lucky jump at Apollo aside. His frame didn't appear to be moving, but it hadn't yet been damaged enough to be breached.
Curiously, it seemed that the drone ignored him as soon as his frame slowed its motions... That could be an important detail, though it was likely too late in the battle to make use of it immediately.
- Baldur fires at SD 7 and SD 8 with his KRAG! [10] [9] He deals 35 damage to SD 7 and 31 damage to SD 8! SD 8 is destroyed! (53% remaining)
- Theia fires at SD 8 with her Deluge! [7, 8, 9, 10, 10, 11, 11, 12, 12, 12] But there's nothing to hit...
- Dark Angel fires his Boiler at SD 8 twice! [3, 8] He deals a total of 21 damage. (25% remaining)
- Valkyrie attacks SD 3 at the end of her acceleration with her Zhanmadao! [10] She hits and deals 78 damage. SD 3 is destroyed!
The last partially functional drone, however, did not intend to go out without a fight.
- SD 5 continues to retreat.
- SD 7, spewing smoke and lurching badly from its badly-damaged engines, dives at Baldur and attacks once with its plasma cutter! [10] It hits and deals 42 damage! (83% remaining)
- Ally Momentum / Health / Status
- Theia: ^2 / 244
- Baldur: Null / 208
- Apollo: ^3<2 / 90
- Wolf Pup: ^6 / 150
- Dark Angel: ^1<3 / 150 / Stealth
- Valkyrie: <4 / 250
- Enemy Momentum / Health / Status
Factory Array
Things were beginning to look desperate inside the factory cavern. Extremely desperate. The sheer number of sapper drones pouring out would overwhelm the Federation and Samsaran frames inside unless something happened soon...
Unfortunately, the IFF did nothing like that. The sapper drones did not stop in their movements, still furiously attacking the beleagured Frames - who could do nothing but fight back.
- Dr. Snipes fires twice at Sapper Drone 1 with his MFR-S! [12, click] He deals 43 damage! His rifle runs out of ammo before he can make a second attack. (1% remaining) SD 1 is disabled!
- Rocketgirl attacks SD 11 with her Qiang three times! [7, 9, 11] It takes a total of 76 damage! SD 11 is destroyed!
- Tachyon attacks SD 15 with his Qiang. [11] He deals extra damage from momentum, for a total of 61 damage! SD 15 is destroyed. He takes 10 damage from the impact.
The Samsarans followed the lead of the Aces - though a little shakily at first, their movements obviously those of fairly green recruits.
"They're all over me!" came the panicked scream of one of the overly-brave quicksilvers, his engines flaring erratically as he darted back, blade flashing as he tried to swipe at the attacking drones.
At the same time, the two retreating medium frames grimaced at the orders they were recieving - from some foreigner, at that! They'd accept the flight leader ordering them around, but he'd been appointed and they hadn't much choice about it. This woman, however, had no lawful authority here.
That said, it was generally what they'd been going to do anyways. The Remora burned to escape, but fortunately the first burst from his companion finished off the pursuing drone.
- Magellan 1 fires at SD 8 with his MFR-M. [11] He deals 37 damage! (9% remaining) SD 8 is disabled!
- Magellan 2 fires at SD 4 twice with his Saint! [3, 7] He deals 34 damage. (16% remaining)
- Magellan 3 reloads and fires his MFR-A at SD 4! [7, 7] He deals 22 damage! SD 4 is destroyed!
- Magellan 4 fires at SD 3 with his MFR-M! [9] He deals 29 damage! SD 3 is destroyed!
- Drake 1 fires at SD 5 with her Hunter four times! [10, 11] She deals 57 damage in total. (24% remaining)
- Quicksilver 1 slows herself down and attacks SD 14 with her Chanzhang. [7,11] She deals a total of 64 damage. SD 14 is destroyed!
- Quicksilver 2 attacks SD 16 with his Chanzhang. [9] He deals 36 damage! SD 16 is destroyed!
The drones continued their bloody work.
Curiously, Sapper Drone 2 flew past Rodeo - even though it went near, it didn't bother to attack. Perhaps there was a reason for that.
- SD 5 attacks Quicksilver 2 with its plasma cutter! It misses.
- SD 9 fires at Magellan 1 with its thermal weapon three times. [7, 8] It deals a total of 12 damage. (39% remaining)
- SD 12 fires at Quicksilver 2 with its thermal weapon three times. [9, 11] It deals 15 damage! (51% remaining)
- It hits SD 5 by accident due to their proximity! [7] It deals 6 damage. (12% remaining)
- SD 13 fires at Tachyon with its laser weapon three times. [5, 9, 11] It deals 20 damage. (80% remaining)
- Ally Momentum / Health / Status
- Crim: v2<4 / 200
- Dr. Snipes: >1 / 188
- Tachyon: ^3<4 / 120
- Circus: Null / 150
- Rodeo: Null / 179
- Rocketgirl: ^1 / 150
- Monkey Squadron
- Peacemaker 1: v3<3 / 250
- Magellan 1: <7v1 / 77
- Magellan 2: <2 / 200
- Magellan 3: <2 / 200
- Magellan 4: ^3<1 / 200
- Remora 1: <8 / 119
- Drake 1: v3>1 / 123
- Quicksilver 1: Null / 118
- Quicksilver 2: <2 / 77
- Enemy Momentum / Health / Status
"Alright," Isra sighed as she loaded her rifle again, "Baldur, let's finish this."
With that, she levelled the gun and unleashed a stream of angry hot molten lead at the second last Drone.
"The rest of you, start to reform and let's head back. We need to make sure that Yaksha station is doing alright."
AP 1: Reload. AP 2: Fire at Drone 5.
edited 31st May '14 9:08:01 PM by Fauxlosophe
Becky glanced around, looking for another fun target to wreck. She scowled, finding nothing in range. But the wrecked mining drone was right next to her and officially she had orders.
"Hey bossman," she addressed Arath over the comm. "I'm next to that junky drone you were worried about. Do you want me to investigate it before or after the Monkeys get devoured?"
"We have time Rocket Girl. Just make sure it's not further damaged before we can take a look at it." Arath readied another shot. It seemed strange that the undamaged drone was not acting in any agressive manner. "Dr. Snipes. If you are bent on capturing the drone, do so immediately. Don't let it do anything to the array."
AP 1: Accelerate down
Becky's scowl turned more sour, she'd been hoping that pointing out the new recruits were in trouble would give her an excuse to leave the drone. Arath was too bloody-minded. At least she'd had a bit of fun, and with luck she could still get in on the action once she was sure the mining drone was a boring as it looked.
Equip MARMAR, Accelerate Down 1 to stabalize momentum, look at the mining drone!
Calvin hit his thrusters, jetting away from the drone as he let off another salvo, just to make sure.
"Been awhile since somebody's scratched my baby's paint." He grunted. "I was going to get it recolored anyway. Hope the Mole Hole's paint supply isn't exploded by the time we get there."
- 1 AP: Accelerate 2 up
- 1 AP: Fire once on SR 7
The inner intelligence gathering part of James not wishing to squander an opportunity to gain some valuable information, James gave a grim smile and got his claw ready for an attack. His main objective was getting communications back up, while a secondary one was to discover what the objectives of the Sapper drones were and if there were any traps lying ahead of their way.
Noticing the attacks bombarding the drone, that would likely kill it, James hurriedly radioed the rest of the team, "Request to stop firing upon 'Sapper Drone 7', i.e the one near me, Dark Angel. Preparing a flyby attack with my claw to hack the system and I believe that the shots already fired are enough to immobilize it. In any case, my claw will finish it off. I repeat, requesting for no more shots to be fired onto the drone."
With that done, James moved into position, thinking one step ahead.
Go south 1 and east 4 and use a flyby attack on SD 7
edited 1st Jun '14 2:23:14 AM by Tricksen
If you're reading this you have 5 seconds to..."No goddamn shit," Angus mumbled to himself at Crim's remark. "What do you take me for, a cadet?"
Glancing at his HUD as he swapped out his spent rifle for the repair gun and killed his momentum with a quick thruster burst, he saw that the remaining probe had launched itself for him faster than he had expected the little thing could move. It would be in range to attack him before he was ready to try to disable it.
"Shit," he grumbled again, and steeled himself to dodge whatever it was about to do.
1: Swap MFR-S for Repair Foam Gun. 2: Accelerate 1 left. 3: Prepare dodge action.

— Christine Hepner —
They're surrounded.
Christine adjusted her velocity slightly and opened fire on several of the newly emerged drones, trying more to get their attention than to actually do any damage. If she could draw off some of them it would give Baldur, Valkyrie and Theia more room to work with, and fewer directions to worry about incoming fire from.
((Accelerate South 1 and East 1; Open fire on drones 4, 5, & 8))
Fear the Gothilolions! | Anime list