Having the TacArms run distraction while somebody else sneaks in the demo charge worked out well before. If the artillery cannon can be made easily detachable (or if it doesn't encumber Mech unduly) then we can do both plans: soften them up with artillery and force them to mobilise to stop it (or at least keep their counter-battery occupied), then sneak in the demo charge.

In a perfect world you'd try and time setting off the charge with an artillery strike, masking that anyone ever infiltrated in the first place. That way you can use the same strategy against multiple targets before they figure out that there are infiltrators as well as the artillery.

except we held them and then ran into a secret escape route when the mission was completed. but this time we have open terrain to escape across meaning no way to hold and then disengage. we fight until one side is dead.

...Which plan is more favorable depends entirely on the destination I'd think.

I'm leaning towards artillery though, because we'll be better able to ambush those coming after us, and simply have a better ability to scout and plan. Trying to sneak through the enemies, with noone who's particularly sneaky, is not the best time to be making escape plans, changing strategy, ect ect. Scouting out a good spot to perform an artillery strike from means we'll be able to plan our escape, determine the enemies optimal cover/route and set up some surprises for them, and it lets us actually talk with our allies while we plan so we can make use of their expertise and experience without potentially giving ourselves away.

But seriously, none of us are particularly stealthy. I do not advise a stealth mission in a heavily guarded area when we're not stealth experts.

>>554945
and we won the last battle because we ran away. unless the gun is in another ruined city we will not have as good an ambush location ether.

Going with both plans won't work. If we sacrifice maneuverability and speed on the tac arm for stopping power, that'll interfere with stealth.

And I don't know why anyone would argue we're not good at it. Sure, we're no ninja squad, but Grey's abilities snuck us around a lot of enemies before. This has a chance of working.

>>554950
>>554950
The first time was an area with few enemies. The second we had a guide who knew a less traveled path, and who also knew of an area the aliens didn't go in which ended up being a good escape route once we were already deep in enemy territory. And if you recall, it's been said we're not trained with stealth.

I expect this to be much better guarded as it's purely a military asset. Even if we can get in stealthily, which I doubt, getting out is my main concern. I just don't see us managing to avoid all contact, and once a fight starts we will be far less able to deal with it. The stealth option is the one where unexpected problems will screw us the hardest. And unexpected things will happen.


Unlike
>554886
>The artillery plan is more straightforward. It's likely to work, but it's also likely to get us in a fight and make us take loses. The stealth approach will either work or blow up in our face. We're looking at reliable middle of the road versus an unknown up/down tradeoff.

I see the the stealth option as guaranteeing the loss of somebody.

>>554951
except we have a soliton radar IN OUR HEAD. and can make guards notice things. like when obiwan pinged the storm troopers while he was fucking with the tractor beam. and explosives don't go off RIGHT when you put them down. hide it and have a timer on it. then BOOM. will be searching for saboteurs that are long gone.

>>554950
The TacArm would not be part of the stealth group. It would stay far outside and only engage in battle if necessary.

"... Wolf, that cannon. How long would it take you to get it on Mech?"

"Few hours, tops. I got other Steelworks here to help me, so I can easily get it installed."

"She'll be less slower though, right?"

"Yup. still fast enough to keep pace with us, but she won't be outrunning anything faster than that. We going with my plan?"

"No. We're doing both."

"Both?"

"TNT, get those charges ready. Bring a couple sets, just in case. Never hurts to have backups. Wolf, get that cannon installed, and see if you can't get Mech ready to test fire it before sundown. I want to make sure we can reliably hit something before betting anything on it. Anyone got a list of things they need?"

There aren't thanks to the relatively autonomous nature of the camp right now. Guards keep an eye on the munitions, but in a combat environment, there isn't much point to denying your soldiers access. Besides, manufactured don't care to turn on their fellows. After making sure everyone is aware of what they need to do, you set the to their tasks, while focusing on some things you've thought of that bother you. They can't expect you to go in with only 5 people, especially against something like a military installation. Which is why, minutes later, your entering the command post and stopping in front of a rather surprised trueborn officer.

"Um... May I help you?"

"Sir. I've been made aware my team is to destroy a surface-to-space installation tomorrow. Therefore, I was wondering what, in the way of resources, temporary or permanent, would be granted to me to complete my mission. Sir."

The officer looks even more surprised, if that were possible, before he hastily scribbles out a quick note and hands it off to an aide. Barely a minute passes before the aide returns with another slip of paper. The officer scans the note, then extracts what appears to be a form from somewhere, muttering to himself as he begins filling in spaces.

"Men or Equipment, Sergeant?"

"Excuse me, sir?"

"We can only spare so much. As per the Major's orders, I've been instructed to give you either men or equipment. Well, one man or one piece of equipment. So I say again. Men or equipment? Which do you need more of?"

"I... it would depend on what I could gain from either, sir."

"For men, you'd be allowed to take an additional manufactured into your squad. Of course, you'd have to find them yourself from among those who lost most of their own, so you'd have to ask around a little bit. Equipment is easier. I already know what we have that you could easily take. We have an auto-turret lying around I think, although it's not in the best condition. A stealth suit as well, although that could be a bit harder to get for you. If you really want to push it, I could see about lending you another TacArm, but you'd have to give that back."

"I understand sir."

"So what's it going to be?"

>>>Input Command

We need to know more about what a stealth suit is good for, but if it's not essentially a magic-bullet for our next mission that just won't cut it. If it's not so helpful I'm inclined to ask Wolf if we're better off borrowing a tacarm or gaining an autoturret.

>>555057
The stealth suit would be pretty useful for this mission. Given that we will try not to engage enemies this time, I don't think the other options are as good. On the other hand, we will in all likelihood be forced to fight anyway unless we manage a perfect mission.

I'm voting for the suit for now.

You consider a moment, but eventually, you settle on the stealth suit. While the device seems a bit like it would be useless for the most part, at least in open combat, the help it'll provide for the stealth portion of this mission should prove invaluable. Besides, you're always going to want to sneak into something at some point, so it can't hurt to have it on hand. Of course, it would probably help if you knew what exactly the stealth suit did and what it looked like, but in the end, you've made your choice. The officer simply nods and waves you away, saying that the item will be delivered to you when it's ready.

You leave, headed towards where you hope to find Mech, only to be intercepted by one of those guards from earlier, the ones with Miss Rain. While his presence itself isn't very alarming, his words catch you somewhat by surprise, bolstered only by the feeling of animosity that seems to come from him, aimed exclusively at you.

"You were disrespectful to Miss Rain."

"She wanted the truth. I gave it to her."

"What she wanted was and is irrelevant. You hurt her with your words, and I am to protect her from ALL harm. You are, by my authority as her guard and protector, forbidden from continued interaction with Miss Rain, to be enforced through punitive action or, if need be, lethal force. Is this understood?"

It is, of course, this particular moment that the object of this discussion chooses to arrive, although she seems just as surprised to see you with one of her guards as her guard is to see her here at all. Regardless, your presence seems to make her uncomfortable, her emotions projecting embarrassment, confusion and uncertainty.

"Oh! Uh... Grey... uh... How... What a coincidence, huh?"

You glance between the two, mind working through the problem. Miss Rain technically has a small amount of authority of who she involves herself with, but unfortunately, her guard has identified you as a source of possible harm, physical or otherwise. Therefore, you'd fall under his authority, not her's. Sill, you could. politely, tell him to keep his nose out of your business. Or not so politely. Still, it might also be best to distance yourself from the trueborn woman. She seems to have identified as somehow being kin to you, something like a batch-sibling. That was not a good mindset for her to be in.

>>>Input Command

You're not the one initiating contact. She is. In that situation it's a question of who has more authority over her, not you. I'm guessing She has greater authority over herself then a manufactured guard.

Besides, clearly she sees greater gains, be they either emotional or in regards to information from continued contact with you than potential harm. And I think both she and the empath are both better equipped to determine what's emotionally damaging to her.

Obviously we need to speak to this guard in front of her.

"She seems determined to speak with me. If you would prevent her from speaking with me it is not me you need to convince. She can command both of us to disregard your command to me to avoid speaking with her.
"You may be right that her speaking to me is a source of harm, but you are being too narrow of your interpretation of your duties. You have failed to account for three things:
"First, I am a manufactured and it is therefore also my duty to protect her. I have judged it necessary to inform her even if this causes emotional distress, because to do otherwise is to endanger her.
"Second, as the only other psychic around, trueborn or otherwise, she would find isolation from me distressing. She has no other peers in that regard besides myself here.
"Third, you are presuming to control a trueborn civilian here without any alien threats being present. Preventing her from chasing after me when I go on my mission tomorrow is one thing, but here you overstep your authority. As someone used to protecting herself she will not stand for that.
"So do something useful instead like attempting to tutor her in her missing education or find her grief counseling. Attempting to prevent her from speaking with me is misguided and probably ineffective."

a lot of people never voted. because we all asked questions in the discussion thread abut things that would influence our decision. such as "what is a stealth suit" and "what is an auto-turret" , as such i must protest you updating like this.

and if you could not answer them out of character then SAY that instead of leaving everyone hanging. just a simple "i can't say that here" and everyone would have instead voted to ask the guy in here what those things are/do.

Yeah, talking to him in front of her will tie up a lot of this. Addressing the guard:

Your commitment to your duty is commendable, but your inability to sense emotions has given you a flawed perspective. If you consider your duty to protect Miss Rain to include defending her from words she finds painful, you will have to isolate her from far more than myself. Including the other trueborn. It is not a task at which you can be successful. (Can we try to work a bit of an example into how she feels into that? Not enough so she's upset at our intrusion, but enough that he sees her react, and realize we're right).

And ultimately, it would have been the greater harm to allow her to see manufactured as other than we are. We are on a battlefield. Can you imagine what may have happened if she continued to believe our lives equal in value to her own? Humans risk their lives for equals.

That's the polite argument- that he can't protect her from this threat, and the risk of allowing her to keep her illusions is far greater than the emotional harm we inflicted. Where we go from here depend on how he reacts:

Best outcome: he accepts our logic, and backs down, and we both brush off the discussion in front of a confused Rain.

Worse outcome: he rejects our logic, and we're left with an annoyed guard and and annoyed and frustrated Rain.

>distance yourself from her?
Even if her attachment to you isn't the best idea, it is understandable (you're the first person she met in years, and the only person who might be able to give her answers about herself she's had for her entire life). When we have the chance, answering some of her questions about her power might be a big help to her (and increase her chances of survival). There's also the chance you could learn something yourself, that would help you better do your duty.

That's worth a little emotional risk.

>>556115
Revised:

"I somewhat agree with you: Her speaking to me can be emotionally hazardous. Still, a prohibition is a mistake. I would advise against it for three reasons:
"First, Miss Rain has been in hostile territory for extended periods of time, responsible for herself. She is used to self-determination and will not give that up gracefully. Therefore you must limit your prohibitions or she will simply disregard you, as she apparently already has.
"Second, it is also my duty to protect her. You have misunderstood the risks. I explained the status and purpose of manufactured because to do otherwise is to endanger her. To her perspective manufactured are oppressed amd this causes her distress. She needs to understand that we are as we should be, at least until the aliens are pacified.
"Third, beyond merely being her rescuer I am also the only other psychic nearby. She would find isolation from me distressing for multiple reasons, including her need for psychic peers."

"Now, if you still judge it appropriate to isolate her from me I suggest you be less direct. You should give her other things to occupy her she would find preferable, or more important. Suggestions for such that occur to me include debriefing her about all she has learned of the aliens, tutoring to make up for years of missing education, and perhaps job-responsibilities to hold her attention and help her feel productive. Someone should speak to her about such possibilities."

"I somewhat agree with you: Her speaking to me can be emotionally hazardous. Still, a prohibition is a mistake. I would advise against it for three reasons:

"First, Miss Rain has been in hostile territory for extended periods of time, responsible for herself. She is used to self-determination and will not give that up gracefully. Therefore you must limit your prohibitions or she will simply disregard you, as she apparently already has.

"Second, it is also my duty to protect her. You have misunderstood the risks. I explained the status and purpose of manufactured because to do otherwise is to endanger her. To her perspective manufactured are oppressed and this causes her distress. She needs to understand that we are as we should be, at least until the aliens are pacified.

"Third, beyond merely being her rescuer I am also the only other psychic nearby. She would find isolation from me distressing for multiple reasons, including her need for psychic peers."

"Now, if you still judge it appropriate to isolate her from me I suggest you be less direct. You should give her other things to occupy her she would find preferable, or more important. Suggestions for such that occur to me include debriefing her about all she has learned of the aliens, tutoring to make up for years of missing education, and perhaps job-responsibilities to hold her attention and help her feel productive. Someone should speak to her about such possibilities."

You pause, waiting for a response. You feel that you should afford the guard a chance to respond, at least so that you understand where you stand now that your argument is made. Still, in the small silence that follows, the woman in question seems to pick up at least a little on what's going on, and is noticeably agitated, even without your empathic abilities. The guard reacts first however, seeming to come to some sort of conclusion.

"I... understand your point. Can I at least ask that you will refrain from answering questions regarding society? That is not our place to instruct her in."

"I can. I will limit myself to questions regarding myself, or regarding the Gift. Is this acceptable?"

"Wait a minute... what the hell is going on here?"

The guard tenses visibly, and you can feel agitation and uncertainty coming from him. Clearly he was expecting to have this conversation without his charge present, and you expect that he know it won't go well if she gets a clear idea of what he's doing. It doesn't help, however, that she's already heard you, and she's putting the pieces together quickly.

"Are you...? You're trying to keep Grey away from me! Who the HELL gave you the right to tell anybody what to do!"

"Miss, uh-"

"NO! Shut up!"

"Miss Rain. He is doing only what he believes to be his duty. He is not in the wrong."

"So what then? I am? Or you?"

"He is within his right if he believes me to be a-"

"FUCK THAT! It doesn't matter! I'm doing what I want to do, not what he wants me to d-"

"Is there an issue here I need to be aware of, Miss?"

The flow of conversation is interrupted by the arrival of the Major, and every Manufactured immediately drops whatever they are doing to go to attention, salutes being rendered as one. The Major gives a lazy half-hearted salute back, and the Manufactured return to their duties, but the tense atmosphere continues. No one wants to draw the current head of the command chain to themselves. You and the Guard however, remain at attention, while Miss Rain seems to deflate slightly, looking the picture of a fresh Manufactured just out of the tube, caught doing something he shouldn't be.

"Um.. sir... I um... I was just... unhappy with one of my guards attempting to restrict my interactions with Grey..."

"Grey? The manufactured, Grey?"

"Uh... yes... sir..."

"I see... Do I need to deal with this?"

"No sir. The issue has already been concluded." You cut in before Miss Rain can cause more of a scene. You doubt that would end well for anyone, most importantly Miss Rain. And you'd rather not seem like you can't command after all. That would probably be just as bad for you.

"Good. Miss Rain, walk with me. It seems I have things to talk to you about. Ah! Before I forget. It seems that a number of established squads will be dissolved before the end of the day. Of course, that is a logistical nightmare, and I'm sure that if a soldier were to be... overlooked... it would not cause too much of an issue."

The Major eyes you meaningfully, and you say nothing, as is expected of you. He departs, the guard and Miss Rain with him, and you turn away, heading instead for where you know those available for acceptance into another squad might be hiding. You take a quick look around, and identify a few that might serve you well enough.

>>>Input Vote

Your final vote can be placed here, but the details regarding the Manufactured available can be found in the Dis thread

So far the currently valid choices are:
Hive: Sensor Drone Steelworks
Bear: Close Combat Genetech
Rally: Mobile Transport Steelworks

>>556556
Rally if only for lighting strike raids but if they are out voted hive well do:)

Hrrrm...
Hive I think.
It honestly is a hard decision, but this way Grey can be more focused on doing his Distracting thing, and make our squad's point more obvious-we're infiltrators and sneaky guys.

Uh, I dunno. It seems sort of silly to stack two of the only scouting builds they have in the same squad. Shouldn't that be spread out? And the drones would only really be useful if they did something mapping can't, or if we're doing a lot of that "I need to focus on one thing" stuff.

...which could potentially happen this mission, if we're guiding a saboteur to plant the explosives. We might need someone else to watch the other angles.

Looking at the others, Bear does sort of fill a role no one else quiet does. Close combat hopefully shouldn't be necessary this mission though (or even something we should want much of, if mapping lets us choose our battles). Rally's fast movement could be a plus, especially when it comes time to haul ass out of there- although vehicles have this nasty habit of getting targeted. I'd worry about noise, but I'm sure the Tac arms are louder. ...and we can't exactly retreat at full speed with that cannon on mech, can we.

Flying camera drones could be very useful for splitting the party and scouting hostile territory from a distance, and in this case as an artillery spotter. How useful depends on the chances of enemy detecting and responding to them, which I don't know. If they could also have armed drones, or drones capable of package drops, that would be very, very nice.
Rally is the most obviously useful for the upcoming mission; a jeep would be good for drive-by shooting to harass enemy forces, or retrieve the bomb-setting squad perhaps. The problem is that a jeep can't go everywhere a person can go: Swamps, forests, stairs, ladders, hills, indoors and such are impassable for a large vehicle. I also doubt a jeep would survive our next hostile landing.
Bear is a fraction of a storm-team, and doesn't give us the rest of it. He does have the brawn to run carrying wounded on each shoulder and is a good addition to any bomb-setting team though. He probably wouldn't be slowed much by carrying a satchel charge on his back, which is worth considering since it'll let us do more damage.
I want all of them, plus a lot more damnit. Particularly I want a pilot and a vehicle more likely to come down safely than the tin can we were chucked at the ground in when we started this operation.

Mental note: The major was probably watching us, and investigating our fitness for command in that last encounter. We've just convinced him that we can control and inspire respect in disciplined manufactured, but can't calm down a little girl. We should have been reassuring her that what she feared wasn't going to happen because we had just finished making it not happen, and then distracting her from thinking about it by changing the subject. Is 50% a passing grade?

>>556556
Man it's close by I guess I'm going with Hive.

>>556857
>is 50% a passing grade.

Actually, I think we did better (and in a way worse) than that. What you're forgetting is that we correctly prioritized our mission and the conflict with the guard over the short term emotional state of a civilian. That is a good thing in a commander. Unfortunately, it also shows that we do not dogmatically serve the trueborn. So I'd say we get partial credit for our dedication to the cause and that should land us in the 65-70% range at least. Still, we have popped a few red flags today...

>Unfortunately, it also shows that we do not dogmatically serve the trueborn
Actually, I'd say our worse slip in that regard was that we added a qualifier to our statement on the manufactured status quo. ("we are as we should be, at least until the aliens are pacified"). Acknowledging things will or should change when the war is over strikes me as a pretty radical position for a manufactured to take. (Even if it's probably true, we aren't supposed to be thinking that, much less saying it).

I doubt the guard noticed the implications of that in the moment, being much more concerned with other things, but if Rain reviews our words sometime when she's not so busy being angry about people deciding her fate for her, she's going to notice the significance. That the oppressed left the door open to be otherwise. I think there's a good chance she's going to bring that up again later.

>>556956
I'm pretty sure the purpose of the manufactured is to be cannon fodder. We suffer the attrition so that humanity can survive and reverse the alien assault. There aren't enough trueborn left to staff the military with solely; we exist to do the highest-risk parts of the war and boost the personnel supply.
The dehumanizing detachment demonstrated by many trueborn is rational when one considers that our projected life expectancy is measured in months.

And upon reflection, I'm gonna support Hive too because an artillery spotter would be very useful for this next mission. We're probably gonna be stuck as part of the bomb-setting team or the feint, so Mech's tacarm team will need recon as well as a spotter.

i vote when we are done with this we spend next down time sorting things out with rain. you know, without any orders hanging over our head forcing us to choose something.

Nice Surprise Grey 2014/01/13(Mon)02:58 No. 557075 ID: d77784
File 138961073073.jpg - (615.44KB , 1280x1810 , Foto_Ghost_Recon_Future_Soldier.jpg )

The manufactured you eventually choose is a somewhat small Steelworks, typical of the manufactured produced by the company. The thing that sets him apart, however, is the drones that seem to hover around him, the things producing a high pitched whining noise that grates on the nerves. The manufactured, Hive by callsign, hardly seems to notice at all, and simply smiles when you tell him to pack his things and get to your squads small sleeping area. You get a look at the implants shoved into him as he turns his back on you, and you observe what looks like a small beacon drilled into his right shoulder, nestled against the standard nerve implant. Likely it lets him stay in contact with his drones.

You leave the man to check in on the rest of your team, and find TNT finished with his own task, charges packed and ready to be placed and used. Mech is prepped, the final checks on the new cannon installed onto the free shoulder of her TacArm running even as you walk up to ask, and Wolf seems pleased with her work. She apparently didn't finish her own project due to the time needed to ready Mech, but overall, it shouldn't be a problem. Hive follows soon after, and he is quickly introduced to his two company siblings. As it turns out, Mech comes from the same origin factory as him, and the two hit it off rather well. It's ends up being a good thing, as once the drones go out, Mech can key into the smaller devices computers and fire use them to aim her own shots, and the ring of a large caliber artillery shell being fired is satisfying, defeated only by the dull thump as the shell impacts its target dead center, cratering the ground. It seems the pair working together is extremely effective, as long as both can be allowed to concentrate on their work without interruption. Managing multiple systems is a heavy toll on Hive, after all, and Mech can't move while aiming. Still, all told, a good turnout, and hopefully a winning team. The rest of the day is spent checking equipment once again and making sure everyone is well stocked with munitions and supplies. It would be hardly worthwhile to head out only to find you didn't have the food required to make the journey.

About an hour before your due to get to bed, however, a manufactured assistant arrives, carrying over his shoulder a man-sized case. He deposits the thing at your feet and has you sign a paper denoting you the new owner of the device carried within, and as soon as he leaves your entire crew is gathered around in interest. You crack the seals, and a hiss can be heard as the locks release the case opens to reveal the prize within.

The suit contained inside is, decidedly, not what you'd been expecting. The main portion looks rather conveniently like regular combat armor, albeit with a few additional pieces fitted across the right shoulder and along the legs. A set of clothing came with it, a light material that you struggle to find an equivalent for, that goes over the wearer before the armor pieces. A backpack like computer system, complete with power-source, is also similarly covered in the material, along with some pieces of combat armor shaped around it, to provide an almost hump look to the user. This, it seems, is the central nervous system of the stealth capabilities. Similar electronic components, what you'd guess to be the control system is set alongside the computer, and a helmet jammed with various other electronic equipment is similarly placed within the case. You regard it with no small measure of curiosity, and as you place your hands on it, you feel a rush of feelings, emotions, impressions and thoughts. You find yourself incapable of extracting anything useful out of it, at least with only a passing empathic touch, and the actual use of the device eludes you, but you do manage to understand one thing, especially after checking over the receipt handed to you by the aide.

This system is far beyond what you'd expect as a manufactured to receive. Either someone has no idea what it is, or someone else is looking out for you. Of course, that does little to curb the enthusiasm among your fellows.

"What the hell is this?!"

"Easy there, Wash-Out. Wouldn't want you hurting yourself."

"Shut it, Wolf! This thing is clearly not something we should be getting. What the hell did you do to get this thing, Grey?"

"Who cares where he got it from? All that matters is we have it!"

"Wolf? Hive? Someone? I would like to know what I am missing. I am rather large to fit inside the tent."

"Oh! Sorry, Mech. It's uh... well... um... Grey? What is this thing?"

>>>Input Command

yeah explain to the team what it is, and what it does.

we have two ways to go with this. long range leader, or solo super soldier.

leader is we have someone else with the bombs go in and we communicate with them as well as lead threats away from them and tell them when to vanish

super soldier is we go in ourselves. pointing every patrol we can away and going invisible to dodge the ones we can't.

>small beacon, stays in contact with drones
Right, don't break that.

>stuff
Oh, upgrading Mech means no franken-tacarm for Wolf. Didn't think of that. Hive being able to interface wit and spot of the tacarms is nice, though. That's definitely something Grey's senses don't allow us to do directly (unless we get to the point where we can mental-interface as cleanly and with as much bandwidth as the drones and bots are doing).

>Either someone has no idea what it is, or someone else is looking out for you.
Pity empathy can't pick up on which. Problem is, whoever made the actual deployment decisions or orders probably never even touched the suit or even the box. Meaning we have no way to know if this is deliberate.

>what is it?
I requested something to assist with the success of the stealth portion of the mission. This though appears to be... much more than I expected.

Well, it's highly unlikely we'll be allowed to keep this equipment, long term. But in the mean time, the tool was assigned to us, and we have a mission to do. And it's our duty to use the resources we've been trusted with to do the best job we can- mistake or no.

First priority is determining how the thing works, or course. Then we need to decide how to apply it / who uses it. (Obvious choices would be either Grey or TNT. Is it better to have the senses guy stealth and plant the bombs, or to have the bomb guy stealth-ed while guided by the senses guy?).

"I did something very simple. I walked up to an officer and asked for additional personnel and equipment to cover our unit losses, and was offered a choice. The other options were a busted autoturret, authority to go fishing for one unassigned manufactured, and, a loaner tacarm we'd have to give back, so I picked the stealth suit.
"If you want me to speculate further the major seems to be watching me. Apparently I'm the first manufactured psychic to be promoted. Maybe he thought I had a point about being under-strength and wanted to give us something to fill the gap despite the tacarm shortage. It's also possible this was reclaimed from a trueborn that died in the drop, or a reserve spare that he wanted to assign before it got stolen.
"The important questions are who should wear it, what's our route, and what our tactics are. Anybody know who I should ask for maps? I'm pondering landmines and remote-trigger charges for this one, we're really low on personnel. If it's not too hazardous or far out of our way I'd also like to take a return-route that includes some salvage."

Perhaps instead of talking, we should step outside, and show Mech, and see what she thinks of it.

>>557075
Someone gave you Stealth Powerarmor? Huh. Maybe one of your gene-donors is aware of your existence and has a weird sense of humor.

Wash-Out knows it's more than ordinary. His input regarding it would be nice. Making Mech aware and getting her input is also probably good. Steelworks+possibly having run into it with Washout means we could learn a good bit.

"I requested something to assist with the success of the stealth portion of the mission. This though appears to be... much more than I expected."

"I'll say! This thing looks a little like something I've seen before. What did they call it... a Stealth Suit I think."

"... Did I hear that correctly?"

"Mech? You got anything else?"

"I... believe I do. It's a Steelworks creation, jointly with Genetech if I am remembering correctly. They are somewhat able to hide the user from being detected, by a rather large number of detection methods. I... don't recall much more than that, I'm afraid."

"Well, it's highly unlikely we'll be allowed to keep this equipment, long term. But in the mean time, the tool was assigned to us, and we have a mission to do. And it's our duty to use the resources we've been trusted with to do the best job we can- mistake or no. First priority is determining how the thing works, of course. Anyone?"

The silence that greets your question is both expected and very unwelcome. Still, you've got a little bit of an advantage on your side. You've got a Steelworks that seems to love tinkering with things.

"Wolf. Your up. Figure out how to make it work, but don't break it. It does us no good in useless pieces."

"On it, Grey! Oh man, this is gonna be fun!"

You turn away, sure that if Wolf will figure it out in time. Instead, you decide to focus on the next step, and hopefully figure out some things you knew you'd need to plan.

""The important questions are who should wear it, what's our route, and what our tactics are. Anybody know who I should ask for maps? I'm pondering land mines and remote-trigger charges for this one, we're really low on personnel. If it's not too hazardous or far out of our way I'd also like to take a return-route that includes some salvage."

"Already got it covered, Grey... sorta."

Hive pulled a small computer from its place on his hip and tapped at it irritably before depositing it in your hands. What you see before you is a haphazard map, with rough placements of possible enemy defensive positions and the ultimate goal. It was, however, not the best of maps by any stretch of the imagination, and you glance at your newest squadmate. He can answers you with a shrug.

"Most intel is derived from scans from orbit, usually from a satellite sent in before, or failing that, the recon ships as they orbit. Unfortunately, we have neither. From what I could gather asking around, the Kairos Vengeance managed to make it out before getting turned into scrap, but the Paladin bit it. We've got no eyes in the skies, at the moment. All on our lonesome."

"I... see. Well, hopefully, what we do tomorrow can help pave the way for the fleet. We'll have to make do with what we have for now. How'd we get all this?"

"Scouting teams mostly. The Major doesn't like doing anything blind, as far as I can tell. Um... there should be downed craft... here and here. We could easily sidetrack on our way back and search the wreckages. I don't know if we'll find much though. I mean, they have just been sitting there since they went down, you'd think there would have been something."

You consider the newest additions, and find that both are not far off from your possible routes to and from your destination. You try a few things in your mind first before settling on three major routes.

The first was the quickest, but it lead straight through enemy territory. It would take, at most, half a day, if you somehow managed to avoid fighting everything in your path. You counted at least three defensive positions along the route, and you weren't sure you'd be able to slip by them. Still, on the other side, you noted what looked to be a small, hilly area near your destination, and, if you were reading the map right, well within range of the artillery cannon Mech now had. You could easily set up there, and lead anyone attempting to halt the Mech's barrages into an ambush.

The second was a longer route, but bypassed most of the alien defenses. The terrain was what made it rather difficult, but you were sure that you could, given time, easily navigate it. You might run into a few patrols, at most, but nothing you wouldn't be able to handle. The issue was that on the other side, there was little in the way of defensible positions. You be embroiled in constant combat fairly quickly, and it would be a straight exchange of fire.

Of course, there was always a middle ground as well. If you tried, you think you could push through an area that has been marked as extremely difficult for travel. You couldn't hope to estimate the time needed to traverse the area, but if you made it, you'd only have to bypass one defensive emplacement to reach that defendable area you'd spotted.

Whatever route you took, once you'd reached your destination, you were on your own. Scouting teams weren't going to be wasted on alerting the enemy to your intentions after all.

>>>Input Command

What is an enemy defensive emplacement like? I'm tempted to suggest the first option simply because we are a small unit with vastly above-average reconnaissance capabilities here, but I don't know what we'd be committing to sneaking through.

Hrrm...Number 2 I think is out.
We're low on manpower and reliant on Mech to save our kissers from getting killed in a firefight I think. Straight fights are something we should still avoid in my opinion.
Beyond that...I'd say probably 3- I'm confident in this group's ability to path-find, given the mapping and drones, and I don't recall a time-limit on how long we had to get the job done, either. The only issue with it is increasing our chance of detection, but we'll be basically out in the boonies-better chances of staying undetected even if they do search for us.

>>557314
The time-limit is getting better medical facilities available for the wounded, and resupply. I dunno about you, but I'm not keen on having increased casualties on my conscience.

I would love to have a harassment/skirmishing team backing us, what are the odds the mission plan has supporting mission plans to do just that? If not, can we ask?

Huh. Okay, bit of a weird situation here.

Obvious question: which of these terrain hazards will our new teammate and the stealth suit best help us counter?

Seems to me that would probably be the first route. The between your mapping and distracting the enemy, Hive providing backup scouting / mapping when you're occupied putting your mind to other things, and the option of someone in a stealth suit making surgical strikes against the enemy when needed, we're well equipped to try and avoid or circumvent the defenses on route 1.

Problem is we really don't want constant fighting (hard to sneak up on the target if we're killing everything on the way in a strait line). It's also dependent on a lot going right around enemy troops.

Route 2 looks easy to navigate (especially with the mapping and deception) but things get a lot hairy in close. You're committed to planting the bombs and getting out undetected, or else we're going to lose a lot of lives. The squad isn't built for fair, direct fire combat.

Route 3 might work- it all depends on if your abilities would allow you to find a good route the orbital scanners couldn't. (Map the terrain? Empathy to follow routes the animals use?). It's also more of a problem if the tac-arm can't get through, at all.

Another question: you've only thought about approach. After we've blown this place, where would you like to retreat? Which routes look good for that, and does it change if you get out hot or not? (IE, if we had to blow the place with Mech's cannon, or if we successfully plant the bombs and sneak out unnoticed).

Let's look at how what we have relates to the routes.

>No. 1
>straight through enemy territory
We can distract end handle small groups of enemies. However, there is a high chance of quick hostile reinforcements should we be noticed. It's likely we would manage, but the risk of everything going to hell is too high for my tastes.

>No. 2
>trivial defenses, difficult terrain
Sound nice. Given that we have two units who are good at mapping, the way should be no problem.
>constant combat and hard to defend position once we are there
I think it's kind of safe to say this is the suicide option. Two of our units will be tied up with attacking the building and Grey is not much of a fighter.

>No. 3
>Extremely difficult to traverse area
Well, navigation is the speciality of our group now.

I think the third path is the one most suited to our group. The first might be fine as well, but it seems be a bit more risky. The second option goes straight against what we are good at and should not be taken.


>>557329
I think it was made quite clear that we are currently already far beyond the resources we would normally be allowed to use. Another whole squad is completely out of question.

i have to agree with that logic. we are a living sensor array and we have a mechanical sensor backing us up. between the two of us we should be able to find a way through.

"What are chances we have support teams providing distraction? And what are these emplacements looking like?"

"Minimal, if at all. From what I've gathered from other teams, we're all going after installations of one kind or another. Trying to do as much damage as possible to let the fleet come in. As for the defensive positions, we know they have about 30 members in each. Troop compositions and weapon placements, however, would be guesses at best."

"Right. Makes sense, in a way.... What about retreat?"

"Easiest way would be to rig the explosives we set up to blow long after we're gone. Would make leaving as easy as using one of the routes we've already established. If we make a loud exit though... well, the options we have will be more limited, and largely up to what the enemy does. There's a nearby city we can escape into if necessary, but intel on the area is limited. It'll have to be snap decisions from there."

You frown in annoyance. The amount of information you have is, from what you can tell, both a miracle and generally unhelpful. You have the barest scrapings of what you think you'd normally be getting, but you doubt you'll be able to get any more on such short notice.

The third route was looking the most tempting at this point, confident that between you and Hive, you could navigate the area, but still... if there was something that Mech couldn't traverse, you'd be completely out of luck, and stuck to only one plan of attack. Not what you wanted at all. You let the issue tumble around in your head a bit more, even as you turn to you fellows for an entirely separate question.

"Wolf! You got it working yet!"

"Mostly! Sorta..."

"She can get it to work, but she can't use it. It wasn't designed with her implant in mind."

You head outside at this, and find Wolf standing in front of a table, a shimmering form you can only guess is the suit in front of her. She taps at a few things on it's wrist, and you watch the suit flicker back into existence. Another tap of the wrist pad, and the suit suddenly lets out a hiss as steam is expelled from a vent along the back. Wolf looks properly pleased at her progress, before turning to you to get your opinion and give her report.

"I can get it to go invisible, and I activated the thermal dampening. There's a couple of other functions I haven't puzzled out yet, but give me more time, and I'll get it eventually. Still, Mech's right. It doesn't work for me, it doesn't seem to know what to do with my implant. Should work for everyone else though."

"Which leaves the question of who's going to wear it."

"Ah... yeah, that would be something to figure out, wouldn't it?"

>>>Input Command

the only person i can trust to be completely protected via our mapping is our self. so we go.

get some bombs pre-made. want small shaped charges for any sealed doors. and the big bomb that will chunky salsa the generator.

Does the suit conceal gear its wearer is carrying?

I expect there to be limits on that, which limits who we could choose / what they can carry. For instance, Wash-Out doesn't work as an invisible sniper if his rifle sticks out. Hive might also be a poor choice, since his drones would still be visible.

Second question would be for TNT. What does the person planting these explosives need to know?

Because we need to know how much expertise is required in the arming and placement of our demolition rounds. If it requires a high degree of skill or specialization, that means he's going to need the suit, and we'll do what we can to help him with ranged mapping and distraction / communication.

If it doesn't require a lot of specialization, and he can instruct us in what to do, Grey would probably make a better sneak himself, since he wouldn't need to relay the information anywhere. He could map for himself, and distract / third eye when needed. And we'd still have Hive providing eyes for the rest of the group.

Biggest drawback is that puts the person in command in a forward position, away from the group. We'd have to designate a second in command- someone to make quick decisions if they're needed while we're away, or if we don't come back (the squad can't afford what happened before, where they locked up when the chain of command was severed).

I think that we may be overthinking this: Even if we spend a half a day backtracking or sidetracking to get through the dangerous route it's still the quickest and most certain of the three choices. Some extra landmines/claymores to take out pursuit and setting up that pursuit to chase phantoms seems like it's a viable tactic if it turns out we simply can't dodge or sneak past one of them. If the optics are good Hive could send the drones flying up right now to get long range views of the three sites.

As far as the suit goes, the way I figure it we have three main options here: Grey, Wash-Out and TNT: There's little point in giving the suit to Hive because their drones are noisy and visible and they should avoid direct combat or hazard anyway if possible. Who should wear it is then further limited by equipment concerns. We may end up wearing it and playing this one as a RTS.

"Wolf, does this thing conceal gear?"

"Uh... up to a point, I'd guess. The little machines in the suit can cover smaller things, like extra magazines and grenades and a pistol, maybe. Larger things like rifles and the like are not going to work though. Too much for the things to cover. Unless you coated the rifle in the machines I guess. That might work. Wonder if I could-"

"Don't destroy the suit trying. We can figure that out later. TnT?"

"Yeah boss?"

"How much experience does someone need to plant these bombs?"

"Uh... shouldn't need any. You stick it to something, tap the switch and move on. Later, someone flips this little switch here and BOOM! Fireworks."

"I see... I'll be going then. Get everyone prepped. Then get some sleep. We leave tomorrow. I'm gonna stay up a bit, practice with this thing."

There is a chorus of affirmatives, then everyone splits off to do their thing. You stay with Wolf, who helps you into the slightly bulkier stealth suit, and she gives you a quick rundown on what she's figured out so far. The suit can maintain "invisibility" for about a minute straight before it shuts down to let the machines running the show cool down. The same can be done for the thermal dampening functions, although the cool down is much faster, but a bit louder, as it simply vents steam out the back. Both functions, however, are not perfect, and you shouldn't rely on them for perfection. The invisibility granted by the suit is much closer to simply blending in very, very well, and can still be picked out if not careful. The same can be said for the thermal dampening. All of it is triggered by the wrist computer on your left arm.

As the helmet is lowered onto your head and locked into place, images start to appear in front of you. A start-up sequence by the looks of it. The images quickly flash through diagnostics and systems tests, then bring up comms and something called an "Integrated Unit Network". That throws up an error, stating there isn't one to link to, so you ignore it for now. You spend an hour or so getting the feel for the limits of the suit and testing it as best you can before turning in for the night. Tomorrow, it's go time.

-----------------------------

The next morning is a swarm of activity as your crew gets its gear together, suits up and preps to move. Before long, your team has gathered at the edge of the camp, staring off towards your destination. From here on out, you're on your own again. Before you can say anything, however, you get intercepted by another aide from the officers, who hands you a radio.

"That's one of the few long range radios we have. Using it will give away your position, so keep chatter to a minimum, and only call if you need to. Report in when you're sure you're safe."

"Understood."

"Good luck, Sergeant."

The rank catches you somewhat by surprise, but you brush it aside. You should have expected that. You turn to leave again, only to hear your callsign getting shouted, and you barely restrain an exasperated sigh before turning to meet the next person, who turns out to be a disgruntled trueborn woman you know, arriving amongst a swirl of agitated psychic energy.

"Miss Rain."

"I told you to- Forget it! Why didn't you say anything about this?"

"About what, Miss Rain?"

"This mission!"

"It wasn't your concern."

"The hell it was- Dammit! Fine! You come back alive, you understand? I have questions you still haven't answered! And some things I wanted to talk to you about!"

"Understood, Miss Rain. If you'll excuse me."

"Yeah, yeah. Get going."

The trueborn woman leaves in annoyance, but the psychic storm brewing around her from before has calmed somewhat. You leave it at that, not wanting to delve too far into something with not time on your hands. And you finally get your mission underway. The team begins to move out, and the only thing remaining to decide is which path to take and how cautious you are being about it.

>>>Input Command

third path, it has tricky terrain but with both you and hive scanning the place it should be rather easy to find a path. main things to watch out for are loose rock and caves underground.

course, this is because it sounds like it's a canyon. if it's something else really weird then maybe i'll change my mind.

>You stick it to something, tap the switch and move on.
I was wondering if it matter what you stuck it to. Effective demolitions can require a certain understanding of the architecture of a place, and smart placement of the changes.

I suppose we can ask TNT when we see the place if he has any suggestions as to where the bombs should be placed. If not, we'll use our mapping to try and place them where it's structurally critical.

If Grey's rifle won't be covered by the stealth suit, he should hand it off to one of the others when he goes to do sneaking stuff.

>Invisibility not perfect
Hopefully we can use distract to compensate for that.

>where go
Generally consensus before was leaning towards the third path. I guess I don't really see a reason to change that. Grey and Hive are going to have to work together to find a navigable path, though.

>>558289
we aren't doing demolition, we are blowing up a specific machine.

I reiterate my (previously outvoted) support for taking the direct path, for the previously given reasons.

>>558301
Well, it's a cannon designed to shoot ships out of orbit. That's fairly large artillery- I'm assuming it's more the size of a building, and it may have additional housing to harden it from the elements and enemy fire. I figure that's large enough that a poor placement of charges could result in repairable damage instead of permanently wrecking the installation.

Although there's the added problem of how hardened the future building materials are, or how high yield our explosives are. ...problem might be moot if depending on what it uses for ammunition or a power source, and if we can place the charge there.

>>558308
>Although there's the added problem of how hardened the future building materials are, or how high yield our explosives are.

I'd expect there are generally two doctrines for deployment for AA: Mass and disposable, or hardened and resistant to return fire. Judging by the fact that this is defended from our advance by ground-based defenses and distance it seems likely to be hardened against return fire and probably defended against conventional attack. I'm hypothesizing that we're going to need the artillery fire just to deal with exterior defenses and to distract/attract the defenders in order to set charges somewhere effective.
That's why I imagine we need the most advantageous approach to the final assault possible. If we have some intel on that however....

You direct your team down the third path, hoping to avoid most of the enemy emplacements. The first few hours of travel are relatively easy, making good time across flat ground. Then you hit the rocky terrain and narrow pathways of a more mountainous region, complete with unstable rocks, and you begin having to guide your team through carefully. Mech has particular trouble with it, her TacArm having to go rather slowly to pick its way up the trails, but she manages, especially with Hive guiding her almost exclusively, leaving you free to lead the way. Another hour is spent just climbing, but you soon reach the top, and you begin making your way down the other side. About halfway down, Wash-Out spots the distant emplacements of the enemy. And you find that you can just barely make them out on the horizon. Another hours is spent picking your way down, and then the team is on the move across easy terrain once again. You've bypassed most of the enemy emplacements, and only one lies in your pathway. Thankfully, however, your team is overly prepared for bypassing something like this, and with a few well placed distractions you make it past them without any issues.

You eventually reach your destination, a small hilly area that gives you a good place to launch the artillery cannon from, as well as reasonably defensive. You let your team take a break as you eye the cannon in front of you. The base of the structure is massive, likely containing the more sensitive devices. The barrel of the cannon itself, however, is long and thin. You can only guess that it fires some form of plasma, and from what happened as you were dropping, you would guess it hurls large balls of the stuff. Regardless, you observe what you think is an entryway, and Wash-Out quickly confirms this, looking a bit unhappy.

"Hey, Grey?"

"Yeah?"

"The entryway there. It only opens up when one of the aliens goes through."

"That... could be a problem."

"Could be. I'm sure you could still get through it if you wanted to. Unfortunately, we don't really have too many better options here. There's what looks like an exhaust port too, although I can't really tell from here. Stuff comes out of it every minute or so, though. It's got to lead somewhere."

"You'd suggest I go down an exhaust port?"

"I'm not suggesting anything, Sergeant. I'm just laying the only other options I see."

"Alright. Well, I'll keep it in mind. TnT! What do you have for me?"

"I have three packages for you. You set them on things you think will cause some damage, and I'll handle the rest when you get back. Setting is easy. Got an adhesive sticker on the back of each, place it, then tap the button there and it'll arm."

"Understood. Any targets you think I should hit?"

"A generator is usually a good idea, but on things like that, I'd assume it's heavily guarded. Same for wherever they're keeping munitions, if there is any, and the command post. Otherwise, you're going to have to settle for structural damage. Go for whatever is keeping the rest of it standing."

"Alright. Thanks. Mech, Hive! You two ready?"

"Ready as we're going to be. Once Mech deploys the artillery cannon, she's a sitting duck. I'll be the same, once I start zeroing her in on targets. It'll be up to everyone else to keep us covered."

"Yeah, that's what they're here for. You got anything you think will cause a stir?"

"Well... I was thinking we might try bombarding that emplacement behind us. It would make getting out a little easier. Mech here would have to turn around though, and that means you'll get no fire support of any kind in case something goes wrong. At least, not until she turns back around. Otherwise, we can just start causing damage when things go crazy."

"Alright. I'll keep that in mind... Everyone! Check your gear one last time! I don't want any surprises!"

The whole crew goes through a final check of their equipment, and Wolf goes over your's as well, double checking the stealth suit's systems and computers. It takes a few minutes, and you find it oddly disconcerting to watch your hands disappear in front of your eyes, then simply reappear. Still, Wolf gives the ok, and goes over the system restrictions one last time. The suit works, at most, for a few minutes, so you'll have to find places to hide so that suit can "cooldown". It'll hide you from thermal and eyesight, but not anything else, although that shouldn't be an issue. You also can't move very quickly, a mild walk at best, maybe, otherwise the suit auto-disengages to save itself the computing power. Otherwise, you are ready to go.

You take a moment before setting out yourself, glancing at all the members of your team as they begin to build makeshift fortifications in case the worst happens. Was there anything else you needed to do before starting out on your own part of this mission?

>>>Input Command

i don't think so.
put up a list of all powers we have so we have a quick reference.

once we get closer we need to confirm how the door works. is it a detector or does it have a pad? if it's a pad we may be able to empathy the combination off of it. if it's a tracker we may be able to hide next to the door and slip inside with someone, if they move through the door regularly enough, do not want to risk waiting too long. if those both fail then we go for the exhaust.

First consideration: what's the time on these bombs set to? We want to know how long we have after we set them.

Second consideration: chain of command. We don't want these guys locking up if something happens and you're not here, or if you don't make it back. Meaning we should give them some standing orders, and probably put someone in charge (Geeze, who's suited for that).

(Remember, the best case outcome is we plant the bombs and get gone before anyone notices, and we're well away when the fireworks start. Fire support or blowing up the group behind us only happens if we're discovered, or we don't think we can get out or complete the mission without being discovered).

We'll pick which point of entry looks better when we get closer. Mapping lets us see through walls, after all. We'll be able to see what's on the other side of each, and what paths to possible targets there are.

>>560269
bombs are remote det.

If we're willing to make sure we take out the higher priority targets, I suppose there is also the option of using a bomb to open an entrance and use the stealth suit to get through. Not sure I trust two(or three really) charges to take out structural supports of an important military emplacement with Grey's probably less than stellar understanding of architecture.

>>560269
>probably put someone in charge (Geeze, who's suited for that)

Mech or Washout. Probably Washout, being genetech.

>>560286
unless we can use empathy to ASK the building where the most important places are.

Hindsight being 20:20, sneaking Grey through that unavoidable enemy camp and leaving a single bomb in a vulnerable position would have made for an excellent trial run of the suit and helped with opening a way to retreat. Oh well.

What we REALLY want to hit is Fire Control. Taking out a generator knocks out the cannon until they can rig another or repair it. Taking out Fire Control leaves them with a functioning cannon that can't hit shit. After that, you want to damage the barrel itself. At surface-to-orbit ranges, even minor damage will make boresight aiming worthless. Once you have mined those two, then we can hunt around for a generator or other power equipment if there's spare time and the suit is working well.

>>560299
another thing would be... what TURNS the gun? completely static emplacement blow up a giant gear and they have to IMPORT a new one.

>>560302
>what TURNS the gun?

If it's plasma it might not need to turn: Possibly they just kick a different spin or angle on the plasma electromagnetically or using lasers as it exits the barrel, which makes sense to me since electromagnetism and laser are likely candidates for what accelerates, heats and/or contains it before it's shooting off in the first place. This does however suggest that dropping a couple mortar rounds into the barrel itself could do some disabling damage.
Structural damage seems like a no-go unless we get inside and find load-bearing main supports. It's probably hardened against spaceship-scale return fire, so I wouldn't bother with external structural damage. Anything as critical as a vent is probably designed with redundancy and fault clearing/tolerance as well, damn.

It looks like we need to walk in the front door and have fun with field-expedient use of empathy and distraction powers. It would be nice if we could set a charge on it and some remote/timer activated mines for when we leave.

>>560236
First things first: Map the fuck out of that building. You don't care about walls, do you? Then preplan some routes: Were do you want to go in the building (likely points of structural importance etc) and were you can most likely hide on the way. We have time to prepare, use it!

Also:
-We need at least one secondary firing position prepped, for after we've taken a shot with the mortar: If they have anything like radar (old radio tech) and trajectory tracing/calculation they should be able to figure out where the mortar was fired from after one or two hits. Never count on your enemy being incapable of return fire, and it would suck to lose the entire team from a long-range enemy response.

-We know where the nearest enemy reinforcements are stationed. Can we set some landmines or other traps/surprises for them?

-Is it possible we could use some terrain offensively?

Power List:
Map: Gives layout of area around you, increases if concentrated on.
Empathy: Can glean information from objects, places and people when concentrated on(exceptions exist).
Distract: Causes target to notice "something".
Third-Eye: Places an psychic sentry "eye" at a given point within mapping range, noting all mental signatures within it's detection range.

You pause before heading off on your own, and turn back to face the group. Final considerations had popped into your head, one of the most pressing being...

"Wash-Out."

"Yes?"

"You're next in command should it come to that."

"Understood."

"Also, since we know where the enemy is, it should be possible for us to set up-"

"Grey?"

"Yes?"

"In case you've forgotten, we've been at this longer than you have. I think we'll manage. Should we need your input, we'll contact you."

"... I see. Alright then. I'm off."

Minutes later, after carefully making your way down to the side of the building, you stretch out your mapping and get a general feel for the structure. It seems to be built mainly on a ring design, with two outer layers and an inner core section. It consists of three floors altogether, the ground floor, one above that, and one below. If you had to guess, the generator would be on the floor below, for keeping it safe from possible damage. Rooms seems to be built into the spaces between each section of the rings, although you can't figure out what each room is for. You also detect what feels like a lot of activity, the enemy is here in full force. You don't think, however, that they are expecting to be attacked, most are loitering around in what you'd guess are the equivalent of common areas, or bunk areas. Still, regular patrols occur in each ring, and there seems to be guards posted in front of certain doors.

Which leads you to your first step. You need to determine a way in. The front door, after a brief examination, seems to be inaccessible in any normal way, leaving you wondering how anyone comes and goes. You quickly discover the method, however, when a group of aliens passes through on their way in. Something seems to be telepathically checking them, a brief burst of psychic power becoming detectable as each approaches the doorway, and you would guess that it is looking for familiar mental signatures. Given the time, you are reasonably sure you could spoof a proper signature, but you would need a signature to copy from, which would require an empathic touch. In other words, you need an alien prisoner to copy from.

The other suggested pathway, the exhaust vent, seems to lead directly down to the basement level, and has an access panel down near the bottom, likely for maintenance purposes. You could easily enter through there, if it weren't for the periodic emissions that came through, blasts of superheated steam that would likely boil your instantly. It would be a test of your physical abilities to make it in time, but you would be dumped directly into what you think would be the generator room.

Of course, any other methods for getting in you could think of were always on the table as well.

>>>Input Command

move around looking for an alien on it's own. if they can loiter that means they have personalities, which means there is probably a loner in the base somewhere. and then distract it into a dead end where you ambush it.

Normally I'd perfer vent shenanigans...But well, I've heard it said that one can't tell where someone is in the vents not because they are quiet but because it's too loud to tell where they are coming from. Prisoner it is!

Dang. Wish we'd gotten empathy+, now.

Still, the door relies on your ability to ambush (relying on our very good stealth suit and empathic distraction abilities) and to use your mental powers. The vent relies on physical timing. We're pretty obviously better suited to the former.

Also, the problem with the vent entrance is finding a way back out. If we go in through the door, we can leave, too.

Kind of worrying they have any kind of mental tech, through.

>>561161
we do have empathy+

>>561162
Oh, whoops, you're right. We did choose improved empathy last time we upgraded. It just wasn't specified on the summary, there.

Even more reason to favor the door plan, then.

It's pretty obvious that our first choice is trying to crack or break their psychic ID system here.

Any chance we can learn more about the structure itself through empathy? I'd rather have more information than less when it comes to trying something that could bite us on the ass. Once we've exhausted our likely avenues of non-invasive investigation we should proceed further. If we don't turn up anything useful try the following:

We have distraction powers, surely we can convince some single enemy to come stumbling out the door. We need to see how the system reacts to a legitimate, unscheduled solitary entrance/exit anyway, because it is plausible that this could trigger an investigation or some other response.

You take a moment to make sure you're are definitively alone before you press one of your hands against the side of the building, releasing the mental lock on your empathy. For a moment, there's the cold uncaring feeling of stone and metal, then a flood of feelings assaults your senses. You begin trying to force them into something of a more manageable size, and while it takes a few minutes, you order everything nicely and begin to sift through everything. Another few minutes pass before you come to a conclusion you hadn't expected.

Whatever is scanning people, it's alive. They're using someone, or something, sensitive to mental patterns to detect and verify approaching individuals. What it is, you can't tell, and it doesn't seem to notice or care that that you've identified it's presence. You test it further, setting off a couple of distractions into one of the guards to come outside, and there doesn't seem to be any major reactions at all from the detection system, just the normal ping of psychic power and then all is quiet again. You let the guard get back to his post, and then simply wait. It would be dangerous to lure out someone, not to mention difficult to simply distract them through all that. A returning patrol, however, well... that makes a lot more sense.

You wait for a long while, descending into a meditative trance to pass the time more quickly, and rouse yourself only when you feel the familiar presence of more minds. Sure enough, a patrol is making their way back, and as they come up to the door, you focus on one of those in the rear, snapping a distraction closer to you. He halts in his tracks, head angled towards the place you'd put it, before he waves away a concerned ally and starts treading towards it slowly. His fellows decide to ignore him, clearly capable of succumbing to indifference just the same as humans, and soon, he is alone, being guided easily by you with small distractions. Eventually, he is in place for your ambush, but you find yourself hesitating. The issue you suddenly find yourself in is expected, although you should have seen it coming.

How were you going to take the target down silently?

>>>Input Command

>living scanner
So they have their own psychics. I suppose that's interesting. Although it's interesting that it's so specialized it only gives a damn about it's particular task.

>How were you going to take the target down silently?
What are we armed with, again? Just a sidearm? (Rifle too big for the cloak). Do we have a combat knife or anything?

Could we get a much more detailed description of the alien? What it is, how the biology appears to be set up, how and where it's armored, stuff like that, is going to factor into how we try to hit it.

Do we need to take it alive, or can we still take the mental imprint we need from a copse?

...is distract an option? If all it does is deliver (false) sensory information to a target, could we try turning that up to 11? Hit it with sensory overload? That might disable it, or at least incapacitate it long enough for us to hit it over the head or something.

Can we not lead our target to fall into a hole or trip over something? I prefer to avoid attacking in any way that leaves obvious signs of enemy action at this stage.

once it place jump it and apply pistol to gap on neck.

Your mind casts around for a whole, or something that you could use to make it look like an accident, and not an enemy trying to raid the base. Unfortunately, nothing catches your attention as being suitable, and you find yourself starting to grow frustrated. It would have made things simpler to knock him out, a live body is more useful than a dead one, easier to copy off of. But if you have to...

Still, there might be a way to bring it down alive still. You just have to hope it's similar enough to human biology. It certainly looks human enough. For an alien. It's armor has noticeable gaps in it, easy enough to slip your pistol into, or even the small utility knife used as part of you field equipment, although the knife might not kill it instantly. Or even kill it at all, if not applied right.

It might be possible to overload it's senses as well, but that might just backfire on you. You'd essentially be hurling sensory data at the target, and without having trained your mind to do that easily, you'd essentially be applying your Gift towards something made up on the spot. Although, with your knowledge of Distract, it might be made easier... all you'd be doing is distracting the target... a lot...

You need to decide what to do fast, however, the enemy is getting ready to dismiss the distraction as his mind playing tricks on him and leave. You think.

>>>Input Command
There's a description of the four main aliens encountered in the First War over in the dis thread, for any who care to take a look.

Garrote: NA
Punch/Hand-to-hand: No, we are weak and even with an element of surprise I wouldn't be surprised if we're too much of a noodle-wrist to pull it off. An elbow in the right part of the enemy anatomy should be capable of killing though.
Gun: This would seem to be loud, wouldn't the enemy have acoustic sensors tuned to pick up human firearms as well? You'd think that a serious defensive installation could manage to have a few area mics and some basic sound-recognition software running on it if they can have a brain-in-a-can security-key doorway.

Unconventional: Vertigo, make the enemy so dizzy they fall down and don't notice us touching them to mind-rape 'em.
The method we start with is distracting them towards points in circles and spirals, because that's probably the least stressful for us to try to start and might get us there with a generous application of thrown mud in the face as we progress.

We don't really have much training in hand to hand, and this thing's biology is entirely guesswork to us. Our only advantage there would be the stealth suit.

Whereas if we make a mental attach there's also the chance of a backfire, but at least we're practiced with doing sort of that kind of thing, and have stats to help there.

Basically, they're both chance rolls outside of our core competencies, but the psychic attack has slightly better odds to roll with, I'd say.

You take a silent breath to steady yourself, then dip into your Gift and begin your assault. You start with simple things, hoping to somehow buildup to your full mental overload, and throw distractions all around the enemy, forcing him to spin to try to catch things occurring at the edge of his vision. Then comes the flashes of light, of sound, of smells, of touch, of taste. Every sense you could get your hands on was hurled at him. As you begin to increase the power level however, you feel yourself lose hold of the Gift, and the amount that rips through you nearly makes you scream with pain. You feel yourself start to lose your grip on consciousness, but force yourself to fight through the pain, pushing the overwhelming psychic energy the other way along the connection you'd made. Unfortunately for the recipient, this results in the most unpleasant of endings.

The enemy's head explodes violently, spraying blood, skull and brain matter across the earth. It's body collapses forward with a dull thud, and you stare at it for a minute or two before you get to your feet and examine the now decapitated alien. A brush of your fingers confirms that some residuals of it's mind remain, perhaps just enough to construct a mental key, but you can't be sure this one won't be missed eventually. You can't be sure of your time frame, though. Perhaps only a few minutes before someone starts asking questions. You'd have to work quickly.

You drag the body somewhere a bit more out of sight and, despite the residual discomfort from your last attempt, force your Gift back to work. You take the residuals of the alien's mind and fashion it into a sort of mental cloak over your own thoughts. You can't being to hope it will hold, not for very long, but it'll do. You deposit the body into the venting tunnel, confident the superheated steam will dispose of the body, then it's time to test your makeshift key.

You slide hesitantly up to the door, body tense and uncertain, before taking another deep breath to steady yourself, activating the stealth suit's camouflage and approaching the door as quickly as you can. You feel the door's mental "eye" pass over you, then the door slides open to metallic hallways. You can hear footsteps echoing down the halls, and your mapping alerts you to a pair of the enemy coming towards you. You slip down the corridor and find an empty room, fumbling with the opening mechanism a moment before your empathy provides the answer and you disappear inside. What you find seems to be a simple storage room, containing pieces of equipment and such, and the pair strolls past you, completely unaware.

You deactivate stealth, letting the system cool down, and you reach out with your mapping again, hoping to gain more insights. Into the building now that you're inside. Nothing seems to have changed much, at least, not yet, and you quickly locate the ramps taking you up and down. You could easily get to either the generator or the control room from here, although you might no be able to access them with the guards stationed in front of each. You'll need a way to get the gone. There's also the issue of the workers within each.

Maybe if you had a major distraction of some kind...

>>>Input Command

>head exploded
...I'm going to assume that means we rolled poorly.

>where go?
I think I'd prefer to blow the generators over the controls. They're going to be bigger, with more places to hide explosives, and the potential to set off a bigger explosion. Also, the control will will likely be manned, but it's less likely there will be creatures doing in depth maintenance all over the generator.

>you deactivate stealth, letting the system cool down
How long is that going to be offline?

>distraction
Like if your allies took this chance to blow that other group up? Or... maybe you could throw a distract at the control room. Make them see something on their sensors that isn't there. Then let it blip out. They'll be frantically looking for the threat in orbit they lost track off, trying to verify if it was a false positive or not. If they're busy looking up for enemies, they're less likely to notice one sneaking around below.

>>562548
actually, it could also have been a 20. i mean, we killed a guy with a non-combat power.
key here is, could we do it again, or better next time now that we practiced? and can it be done at range? i am sure the guards by the generator would freak the fuck out if one's head just explodes.

other idea of making everyone scramble to battle stations could also work. they would all move to fight a space enemy, when the real one is right here.

Uh, good thing we didn't try to do that with a *friendly* then.

Too bad we know so little about the in-base procedures for unexplained death like what we just caused. If we knew them we might even be able to exploit those for an opportunity to do our sneaky deed.

Unless they're using some kind of freaky, permanent-wormhole tech to connect the generators and the gun then the power conduits between those systems (and their cooling, capacitor banks and such) are another productive target. Alternatively, with a big or focused enough blast we don't necessarily have to set explosives in either the control or generator rooms to disable either.
Last but not least, we are in enemy territory here: Theft is a really fucking cool idea.

You check the computer on your arm and confirm the cool down time, about 30 seconds. Not the maximum amount of time needed, but then again, you hadn't push the device to its limit yet. Still, in the time you have waiting around, you might as well do something. And what better thing to do when in a storage area than loot. Unfortunately, you'll be limited in what you can take, small items at best, and not much of it, but it's better than nothing.

A quick and quiet ransack of the room gives you only a few options of loot-able goods. Small, egg shaped objects are the first find, a small button at the bottom(?) of them giving you the idea that they are grenades of some sort. The second find is a small device shaped like a box. While you can't quite figure out what it really does, it might have some sort of important function. The last was a case, hidden amongst a bunch of other boxes in a corner. Inside is a needle injector and a number of small vials, containing various liquids. A quick count reveals three of each of the three liquids, for a total of nine vials.

You place each find on top of a nearby box, do a quick check of your surroundings to find nothing amiss so far, and then go over your distraction plans. You could have Mech begin firing upon... anything, really, although that would draw attention to you squad. You could also try faking something in the control room, but you aren't certain you'd be able to fake a blip on the tracking system. You have no idea where that would be. Or, while a bit more violent than you'd hoped, you could simply cause some... ah... selective head popping, and get rid of the guards that way.

>>>Input Command

how many items can you take? order of priority is grenades, box device, case of vials.

for control room, look at it and see if you can tell if any seem to be watching something intently. then just induce massive paranoia in them. make them keep thinking they see something on their screen.

If I knew more about their generator(s) I would strongly suggest convincing some of their technicians that they have mechanical problems. If you're REALLY lucky with that you could get them to power down to investigate, disabling some of their security. It might still be worth doing even without knowing how to be convincing simply because their tech staff are aware that problems with their hardware are serious right now because there are already human expeditionary forces on the planet.

>you aren't certain you'd be able to fake a blip on the tracking system. You have no idea where that would be
Couldn't we let their own fears guide you? Or object empathy- what they've displayed before to get the right emotional emotional response?

>what loot?
Depends on if we're looking for short-term tactical advantage, the grenades are it. If we're looking for longer term advantage, and stuff for us to study, the drugs and box are more interesting.

Thoughts whirl in your mind as you try to puzzle out an effective distraction. Could you try to simply play on the various workers emotions? No. You couldn't touch people's emotions at range yet, you wouldn't even be able to understand surface thoughts, much less intent. But... the best idea you can come up with at the moment is forcing aliens who seem to be staring at the same thing to notice things on that thing right in front of them. Here's to hoping it works. You target one specifically, having no idea what they are staring at, and hope like hell it ends well. Then you start throwing distractions at the thing. For a moment, there is not response. Then all hell breaks loose.

Sirens begin wailing through out the station, screaming in your ears, and your mapping explodes with movement as xenos at rest suddenly burst into motion. Guards begin to move to predetermined locations, and workers being to head to their stations. Whatever you did, you got them riled up. The generator room fills with workers quickly, although the guards abandon their post to move to a new location. It seems Now would be your best chance. You ready yourself, make sure you have everything with you, then snatch up the egg-grenades and shove them into a spare pocket. It'll have to do. Then, activating the suit, you slip out the door when the coast is clear and head off, slipping from room to room as best you can and avoiding coming into any contact with any guards. With the help of the base wide alert, no one seems interested in searching for any impossible intruders, and you easily make your way to the doorway of the generator room. You halt, checking the computer on your wrist, and frown. You have ten seconds of stealth left before the system needs to shut down, and a room full of what you assume are technicians. And this is the only room down here.

You need to get out of sight. NOW.

>>>Input Command

Is there a closet nearby.
If yes-throw distractions, run for closet, get inside, and distract anyone who comes nearby for any reason to buy more time.
Once the suit cools, Mass distract again, then get out of there!

should be a closet or nook in the room. need to distract and hoof it in.

...really? Geeze. Maybe we should have hid the the supply room longer. Wonder how bad this problem would be if we'd rolled less than a top of the line stealth suit.

>where hide
Are there any common or rest areas nearby? A break area, lunch room, quarters? Storage? Places that aren't likely to be occupied while they're scurrying around dealing with an alert.

Heck, behind the door or around a corner if we're desperate.

You're going to need stealth to get in, plant the explosives, and get out again. You could grenade your way in and plant the bombs, but that's a desperation move. You take that approach and you're not getting out alive.

Too bad we don't know how to send our team status updates, maybe that comes with higher level empathy powers.

You check your mapping quickly, studying the generator room within two seconds before identifying a hiding spot. A burst of distractions occur, sent at every single technician in the room, a "burst of light" from the generator itself, and then you slip into the room and duck into the small alcove within, just as the system forces a shutdown of the suit. You control your breathing, heart rate calming as you calm down. You'd spotted at least six of the aliens, the numerous kind, although your mapping confirms at another four. This was not going to be easy. Regardless, the aliens soon go about their business, and you take an opportunity to get a look at the room itself, scanning for possible targets. Unfortunately, you can't say you're well versed in plasma generators.

The actual generator itself looks much like a small glowing sun, held suspended in an odd sort of container. Whatever it is, you can feel the heat from it, and you can't say it's very comfortable to be here, temperature wise. Still, the most pressing issue, where to plant the charges, is a difficult one. Without any real knowledge as to what makes it work, you can only guess at what might be good, but all of those lie among the technicians running the thing. Control panels adorn the room, tubes lead into the container itself, and all manner of electrical equipment seems to be taking readings.

Either way, you have three charges to set.

>>>Input Command

the most reinforced point of the container would be the best spot. it has the most strength because a breach there would be the worst.

a way to get some info without killing anyone would be to hide behind a dark nook and make a tech think they see something in it. they reach in from one side you touch their hand from the other.

>Where plant charges
I would guess losing containment or suspension of the glowing sun is probably a bad thing for them. I would target systems doing that. Power regulation might good to disrupt, also (if we can get it to overload?).

Obviously, you're prefer to place the charges where they won't be discovered long enough for you to get clear. I'd suggest placing a third-eye in the room, though. That way, you'll know the moment it happens if and when the charges are discovered, and you can thumb the detonator before they can be deactivated or removed.

Trying to blow up parts of a device designed to in normal operation withstand direct exposure to a compact fusor probably isn't going to work. But if it's not contacting the walls of the container, then that means that it requires active containment to remain stable. And a whole bunch of busy technicians to keep the thing tweaked means it's not going to remain stable for long without supervision.
Disrupting the physical container probably won't work, but destroying the controls for the active containment system will likely be a lot more effective. Connected between the consoles the technicians are operating and the generator itself will likely be a systems bank. That's what you want to take out.

I'm tempted to suggest taking out the technicians. Considering how many of them there are in here this thing must need lots of skilled TLC or else at a minimum it won't work. Taking out their tools and consoles seems like a great secondary measure in case they have lots of trained backups to replace them--we don't know if they have more surplus of personnel or tools. If we can do a good job of breaking the floors, walls, ceilings and other equipment it probably doesn't matter if the reactor itself gets damaged in the attack.

You flick your will out, placing a psychic "eye" in a corner of the room, where you can observe the work going on with ease. As you place it, you feel a strange stinging in your right eye, and as you close it to rub at it, you suddenly find yourself watching the room. Your eye snaps open in surprise, and you're back to normal, but when you close your eyes again, your seeing things from your new "eye's" position. You smile a little to yourself, not expecting it to work quite so well as that, before you being to use this new vantage point to find places to destroy. You scan for a few seconds before locating a few places of interest. You straighten out your eyes, that irritation in your right one easily ignored now that you know what's going on, and you slip out from cover as the suit's system blankets you in invisibility. You slips between technicians as they go about their tasks and begin placing your charges. The first goes on a central console, or at least, what looks like one, hidden on the underside of the fragile electronic equipment. The second finds it's home among what looks to be a system that is measuring something. You hope it's something important, like pressure controls or power regulation, but you could say for sure. The last goes on another console similar to the second, but measuring something else. You can only hope it goes well. You slip back into your hiding place between placing each charge, and once more before you leave the room again completely.

Still, you find yourself feeling a bit pleased with your work. At least until a different set of alarms starts to blare through out the facility, and something spoken in a harsh, guttural sounding voice is heard announcing something. You find the good feeling you have disappear when you notice guards scrambling through rooms, hunting for something. Or somebody. Just as you reach the halfway point on the ramp to the 1st floor, a pair of guards starts to make their decent, and you freeze in place, mind working to find a solution. It seems likely that they've discovered the missing soldier, or at the very least have somehow identified that there is an intruder of some kind.

Either way, you'll have to decide now how to deal with the issue.

>>>Input Command
Stealth Time: 5s

Well that's just lovely.
Okay, so how far are these guys from Grey?
We might be able to just walk past them, so when we drop stealth, we're out of their viewpoint, get to a hiding place, and then resume the sneaking. We could also toss out a Distraction (I think?) to help ensure the gaurds don't notice us once the stealth falls.
Alternatively, we could get ready to just enter full 'crap hit the fan' mode and try to gun them down, but I don't see that ending well.

So they're looking for an intruder, huh? Easiest way to buy yourself an opening might be to give them one with distract. Send your searchers running in the wrong direction, chasing after someone who isn't there.

>halfway up the ramp to the first floor
So... that means we're out in the open with nowhere to hide if stealth goes offline? We need to make it to the next floor or double back down if we want a room to hide in.

>full 'crap hit the fan' mode and try to gun them down
Seems suicidal to me. We left the rifle behind, I think. It was too big to cloak. One pistol versus two alien toughs isn't a good match up for us.

If we really needed to kill some of them, the grenade might be the best option. Although we don't know how big the boom is, or what a safe distance would be. Also could potentially be used as a distraction- give them an explosion to investigate.

Make sure you keep tabs with that third eye. If the planted bombs are discovered, you need to thumb the detonator immediately, before they can be removed or disarmed. Preferably, we'd like to be outside before we blow the place but...

yeah, they WANT an intruder. if they think they see one they will dash after it.

Heightened security sweeps can only be sustained for a limited period of time before they just give up if they don't find anything. The problem with that is they could do some force recon and discover our team even if we manage to find a great place to hide in here. That team may have already begun mobilizing for such a sweep, or even perhaps have begun the sweep. Sneak out as quickly as possible is the obvious preferred answer because it gives them less time to either find you or the team.

Practical considerations: How much space do you have to travel inside the installation before you reach the outside? How many autonomous weapons emplacements and guard stations do you have to pass on the way?
If it's a short distance with few hazards/obstacles then we may be better off whipping out our gun, deactivating the stealth and shooting some bitches while they're caught on a ramp and can't dodge or hit the dirt to avoid our fire. If revealing ourself now gives them too many chances to catch us before we leave then you have to slide over the side of the ramp out of the way of these two. Even if you can kill them it may be better to avoid the fight, since the enemy having a knowledge of where you are decreases your odds significantly.