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File 137475613854.png - (262.68KB , 800x650 , battlequest-2-0.png )
527296 No. 527296 ID: ba8629

Part 1: http://tgchan.org/kusaba/questarch/res/366586.html

Two decades ago, a Tozol starship discovered this barren planet, desolate and unremarkable save for a Precursor-built spire which seems to defy entropy. An abandoned landing team has stood guard since then, uncontested until today, when two hostile species filled the sky with ships. Astranians and Scellor now do battle for the artifact, as yet unaware that someone else claimed it first.
Expand all images
>>
No. 527297 ID: 34cbef

YEAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
BOOM BANG, SET OFF THE FIREWORKS CUS IT'S BACK
>>
No. 527298 ID: ba8629
File 137475633474.jpg - (101.00KB , 800x600 , battlequest-2-1.jpg )
527298

The fight hasn't been very even. Scellor psionics and soft-power tricks prove outmatched by the raw firepower the Astranian Alliance can bring to bear.

Here, southeast of the prize, the sky rains fire in long, straight lines. Ritualist-Commander Ekia's carrier engages with impunity. Beneath her guns, Scellor combat drones and sentient coordinators scramble to reorganize, scramble to respond to a target their weaponry can't scratch, or just scramble for cover.
>>
No. 527299 ID: ba8629
File 137475641671.jpg - (85.92KB , 800x600 , battlequest-2-2.jpg )
527299

Many kilometers away, Tozols watch their screens and reconsider their situation.
>>
No. 527302 ID: ba8629
File 137475660117.jpg - (101.83KB , 800x600 , battlequest-2-3.jpg )
527302

"Admit it. You're a little jealous," says Sergeant Ota.
"Return fire's just bouncing off," Lt. Vaejra says softly. "Nothing we have can hurt that thing."
"Yeah, I'm short on ideas. The prisoners haven't been flush with suggestions, either. Kinda got me wondering."
"Yes?"
"If we do manage to trash the ground forces, and any of us are still alive, do you think they'd blow up the Spire?" asks Ota. "Could they even do that?"
Vaejra stares in silence for long instants.
"There is nothing the evolved cannot destroy," he says. "Because there is nothing they cannot covet."
>>
No. 527303 ID: ba8629
File 137475672763.png - (15.25KB , 600x600 , BQ_select.png )
527303

Choose your faction:

TOZOLS or SCELLOR?
>>
No. 527304 ID: 933f92

>>527303
TOZZELS. ALWAYS TOZZELS
>>
No. 527307 ID: 989992

Scellor.
>>
No. 527309 ID: 34cbef

toz
>>
No. 527311 ID: f3bef6

TOZOLS GOTTA TOZ!
>>
No. 527315 ID: c95833

Scelzols.
>>
No. 527316 ID: 014f9c

Scellor. Because logically it is time for the Daring Raid on the Sky Fortress.
>>
No. 527320 ID: b1c062

I think about now is the time schellor heros are born!
>>
No. 527323 ID: 207ae7

tozzles 4 life yo
>>
No. 527328 ID: 54af1f

Scellor
>>
No. 527329 ID: 1fcf1d

TOZZLS

There isn't room for more plant people in /quest.
>>
No. 527341 ID: 3e4b6e

scellor
>>
No. 527342 ID: 81234f

Tozols! :D
The best kind of Battle Weasel. <3
>>
No. 527344 ID: 4a20fa

>>527303
Scellor, because they most need to react.
>>
No. 527346 ID: 35edd4

>>527344
Scellor, because they've got open and altruistic goals.
>>
No. 527347 ID: 0eef61

Tozels
>>
No. 527348 ID: 7f0da5

tzls fo rzls
>>
No. 527350 ID: acb7da

Toz.
>>
No. 527351 ID: d87442

Tozols.
>>
No. 527352 ID: 9dba7d

Scellor, they need a turn
>>
No. 527353 ID: 9ddf68

Scellor just because I would like to lend them a hand before they bit it.
>>
No. 527360 ID: 60bf07

Scellor, because if they don't do something clever soon the rest of the battle will basically consist of Astranians bombing the site from orbit repeatedly.
>>
No. 527366 ID: 8247d0

Scellor!
>>
No. 527367 ID: da4ec6

There's pretty much nothing the Tozols can do right now but watch as the opponent they can't fight destroys the one they can.

Scellor.
>>
No. 527368 ID: 580e7e

Scellor ahoy
>>
No. 527397 ID: a01b62

Scellors because GOD DAMMIT I MISS WILL OF THE UNDERMIND
>>
No. 527408 ID: 8b9215

tozols gonna toz
>>
No. 527409 ID: 76b151

tozols
>>
No. 527419 ID: cf49fc

Scellor. Maybe one of them can go back in time and suggest an alternate course of action.
>>
No. 527429 ID: 5869f6

Scellor, we should reduce casualties, also maybe kill a few more astranians.
Seriously, they're dicks.
>>
No. 527485 ID: 45a4bf

Tozols
>>
No. 527486 ID: c23ab0

Tozols!
>>
No. 527494 ID: bc8d67

Tozols
>>
No. 527614 ID: 5869f6

So far...
Scellor: 16
Tozols: 14
Scelzols(?): 1
>>
No. 527630 ID: 10ac57

tozols
>>
No. 527639 ID: 5612af

tozols
>>
No. 527658 ID: c13e4a

TOZOLS
>>
No. 527673 ID: 913fa0

tozazzle
>>
No. 527687 ID: cf49fc

Okay, Scellor it it.
>>
No. 527708 ID: acb7da

Scellor, for the same reasons everyone else has been mentioning.
>>
No. 527711 ID: 068b9b

>>527360

Trying to do something 'clever' was what got them in this mess in the first place.
>>
No. 527713 ID: a23afd

>>527711
NO ARGUING IN THE QUEST THREAD.
>>
No. 527790 ID: 84b8a7

Scellor please!
>>
No. 527842 ID: ba8629

[I'm calling it.

Scellor: 18
Tozols: 19 ]
>>
No. 527853 ID: a01b62

>>527842
nooooooooooooooooooooo so close
>>
No. 527859 ID: 76b151

talk about neck and neck.
>>
No. 527861 ID: 5869f6

>>527842
You forgot
>>527315
(Which I still don't get unless they're some sort of joint science project)
>>
No. 527877 ID: 5869f6

Either way, I hope we'll get to beat some asteranian behind.
They're a bit to... what's the word?
Nationalist? Xenophobic? Full of utter douchebaggery?
>>
No. 527879 ID: a01b62

>>527877
Belligerent?
>>
No. 528081 ID: a186fc

[Test saying "I'm calling it" means "I'm going to start making the update now". It was 19-19 but one person had voted twice.

That means stop voting.]
>>
No. 528146 ID: acb7da

>>528081
I voted twice, meaning switch my earlier vote from Tozol to Scellor.
>>
No. 528175 ID: 1517c5

"The Avalanche has begun, it is too late for the pebbles to vote."
>>
No. 528679 ID: ba8629
File 137500226490.png - (773.86KB , 1450x1400 , BQMapTZL_Ch2.png )
528679

Baj and Rinis return without fanfare. A look at the screens brings them up to speed. The two left base before the enemy arrived in system to perform maintenance on the sensor network, and now swap toolkits and cameras for heavy weapons.

The network’s serving them well. Both groups of aliens landed just beyond its outer cordon. It’s producing excellent intel, for now.

Despite this, Vaejra has a big problem. More than the battlecarrier, or the enemy in general, the problem is that he doesn't have a plan. The eight of them have been preparing and practicing together for many years, but they never put serious thought into the possibility that two separate groups might arrive at the same time and fight each other.

...Granted, most plans are going to be about the carrier. He’s got to find a way to deal with it, or convince himself he can worry about it later.
>>
No. 528682 ID: 4a20fa

>>528679
Now would be a good time to do some damage to the Astranian force, with its carrier support far away.

As for the carrier itself, since we can't harm the machine, we need to find a way to get on board and harm the crew.
>>
No. 528683 ID: 57a559

>>528679
Isn't taking out the carrier going to take artillery? It's going to either be that, or setting off explosives in the most sensitive of spots in a sneaking mission inside the ship itself. Isn't their a scellor ship of equal size anywhere? You could also grand theft auto something like that and crash it into the fucking thing.

You don't have to worry about that that much if you remain out of the spotlight. Little sabotage here, little sabotage there, make sure the fight stays equal until they spend all their resources and pull out.
>>
No. 528687 ID: 9ac640

Possibility of Weaponizing the spire?

IIRC it was mentioned that monkeying around with it caused a power-drain on Tozol power-packs, is there any way to direct this effect and project it at-range to the Battlecarrier?

You know, the battlecarrier with the invincible shields, that is currently Heavily Engaged with the Scellor and not bothering to try and evade incoming fire because fuck-them it's got invincible shields?
>>
No. 528688 ID: d87442

Yeah. I kind of like the ship-wide power failure idea. At least if the spire can become a focused siphon. The last thing we need is for the weapon power packs to be drained, since I don't imagine there's much in the way of melee weapons. Even though it would render the astranians basically useless without their heavy armour.
>>
No. 528689 ID: b1c062

I thought it was that we could basically go BLIZZARD MODE! And crank the bad weather up, or down. Which...Might be something we'd want to do.
Bad weather is not good for aircraft, even if the 'stranners have 'screw you, I've got shields!' I imagine dealing with that weather will probably help.
The Scellor though...It's hard to say. Ice is a traditional weakness of plants? But I can't see a reason why it would be particularly bad for them. Plus, their psychic powers probably would come in handy navigating around something like bad weather.
But yea, I'm pretty sure air superiority is a pain and a half to deal with, so we want to drop those carriers out of the sky!
>>
No. 528690 ID: 9ac640

>>528688

Doesn't even have to be a total power failure.. if we can just weaken their shields while they're busy 'LOLNOPE' tanking Scellor missiles and one or two of them get through that changes the game massively.
>>
No. 528720 ID: cf49fc

>>528687
Is the carrier inside the atmosphere? If we use the Spire to generate inclement weather effects, it might jam their sensors, forcing them to break off the attack and allowing the Scellor a chance to regroup.
>>
No. 528734 ID: 5869f6

I'm going with the EMP'ing-the-carrier-plan. If it's possible.
>>
No. 528742 ID: 9ac640

>>528720

>>527299

I highly doubt the Battlecarrier is so fuggoff-HUGE that it looks like that from the ground while in low-orbit.

So, we seem to have consensus to at least looking-into seeing what weaponized effects we can coax from the spire. Might should see about that before further deciding on a definite plan of action.

Also, what's up with the Astrannian ground-base and it's big walker? (and isn't Tactica Command there?) One thing at a time I know, but keeping track of that for now would be a good idea.
>>
No. 528767 ID: c23ab0

Someone explore the spire! Its mysteries could provide essential to surviving this conflict.
>>
No. 528786 ID: cf49fc

>>528767
We're already in the Spire. We've been here years. We have troops positioned on top of the Spire.
>>
No. 528809 ID: 01c571

Two Questions: First how does Tozol biology interact with Astranian shields (and do our vehicles have the same capacity)? If responds with the same mocking laughter it does to Displacer missiles and Psionics it should be possible to infiltrate either the carrier or the base.

Second: How stealthy is that dropship we've got? If it's sufficient we could probably convey some troops to infiltrate the carrier or one of it's support ships.

If either of those questions are no, I'd recommend infiltrating or harassing the Astranian base while they're focusing on the Scellor. If those ground forces are threatened and outmatched there's a chance they'll realize they're overextended and retreat to defend themselves. Even if not we can eliminate some of the ground forces that will be needed to capture the spire.

Toying with the Spire settings may well add some snowstorm based cover or other support but it should be in addition to our main attack, not the bulk of it.
>>
No. 528860 ID: 8b9215

We are going to have to use the tower to drain its power. That's the only thing I know we have that can touch it.
>>
No. 528866 ID: fee736

IIRC we can't actually aim the tower, we don't know what might happen if we crank it up(might it, you know, explode?), and the carrier's presently a ways off, it's potentially out of range, and turning it up would almost certainly drain all Tozol equipment dry well before it shut the carrier down.

I'd say that that's a card we're going to have to save for later.
>>
No. 528869 ID: 5869f6

>>528866
Well, we need to weaken that carrier SOMEHOW, otherwise the Astranians are going to pound the Scellor into paste.
>>
No. 528880 ID: 54af1f

>>528682

Yeah, attacking them while the carrier is away is a good plan.
>>
No. 528904 ID: 91c1b3

2 Plans of attack at once then? Small group to the tower to try to lower the energy shields, 1 or 2 to stay and watch the base, and the rest to raise hell at the camp.
>>
No. 529018 ID: ba8629
File 137509391188.jpg - (104.31KB , 800x600 , battlequest-2-6.jpg )
529018

Lt. Vaejra assembles his tozols. This might be the last chance to gather this many together. Maybe the last chance ever.

Baj, young and impetuous, leads the discussion.
“What happens to a force field if we crank up the Spire?” he says.
“We fucked with it more when you were a squealer,” says Rinis. “The carrier’s a good thirty kilometers from the Spire. We’ll lose every power pack and freeze the jungle before its reactor feels the strain.”
“Could we board it, then?” asks Baj. “Like, drive through the shields in the dropship?”
“Heh. Once,” says Thaen. “Maybe. Best case scenario, we fall out of the explosion in a cloud of wreckage and land on top of the carrier, then fight our way inside. Then crash the carrier, because there’s no way out.”
“Cool...” says Baj.
“We don’t have enough tozols to be suicidal, Baj,” says Ota. “Now, the talky prisoner, name’s Rook, says you can go through a shield, but only in an Astranian craft, with an Astranian flying it.”
Rinis grunts. “Convenient for Rook.”
Ota shrugs. “I’ll hold a gun to his head. Keep him honest.”
“Doesn’t matter since we don’t have one of their planes,” says Kaselir. “We’d need to raid their camp. We should do that anyway.”
“Also cool,” says Baj. He idly thumbs his tribarrel’s stock.
“Could we really steal a ride before the Scellor finish getting fucked?” asks Thaen. “Doesn’t sound like they have a lot of time.”
“The Scellor are only useful insofar as they kill Astranians,” says Lt. Vaejra.
“So, what do we do, boss?” asks Ota.
>>
No. 529019 ID: ba8629
File 137509396395.jpg - (31.54KB , 700x700 , battlequest-2-7.jpg )
529019

Reya takes over the network while Vaejra holds his meeting.
"How you holding up, Anak?" she asks. She knows already. He’s cold. It’s cold as fuck up there, but Anak’s too professional to say it.
"Saw some energy spikes earlier,” he says. “Psionics. Flashed right through the Spire’s interference. The Scellor are stepping up their game."
"Okay,” says Reya. She missed the psi flash, forced to watch with cheap cameras instead of tozol eyes. “The sensors aren’t- wait, the battlecarrier’s changing course. Losing sight through the cloud layer. Call contact?”
“Contact,” says Anak. “It’s still firing. Reckon the Scellor just won some breathing room.”
>>
No. 529037 ID: 9d6823

Now while the 'stranners are going 'WTF did the Scellor jus do?' would probably be a good time to organize a raid on the Astrannian camp.

Best case, get an Astrannian flyer and 'cooperative' pilot and go raid the Battlecarrier.

If not, settle for snagging some more deep intel, maybe some command codes to launch an infowar attack on the 'carrier?
>>
No. 529121 ID: 4a20fa

So it sounds like a shopping trip to the Stranner base is in order. Ideally a sneaky one to increase the odds of getting away with something working and hopefully not even give away that it wasn't a Scellor action.
>>
No. 529125 ID: 54af1f

Yeah, hit the Astrannian's now.

Send a recon team out to keep tabs on the Scellor though. Don't want them to do something that messes up our plans while we don't notice.
>>
No. 529127 ID: 2f4b71

Playing the long game: lower the spire's output the closer the battlecarrier gets to it. Let the Astranians draw the conclusion that their shields, or something else aboard their ship, diminished the effect. Lure them in.
>>
No. 529206 ID: 9ddf68

I think the best time to hit the Astrannian would be now when there battleship is focusing on other things. As for what to do... well it seems like the Astrannian are the best contestants for coming out on top in the fight of Astrannian vs Scellor so I say find there camp and and use the Tozol's "invisibility" (the fact that nothing can pick you up on there sensors) and locate ammo caches and fuel storage areas and put a nice big explosive on them to not only get yourself a distraction to steal a ship but also if it comes down to you guys vs the entire Astrannian fleet here, it would help even the playing field a bit in your favor.
>>
No. 529263 ID: b0d1a8

If we are going to attack the Astranians then it might be a good idea to steal some Scellor weapons to use in the raid.
>>
No. 529309 ID: 9d6823

>>529263

The Scellor are IIRC on the opposite end of the disputed territory from the Astrannar camp.. and currently having the bejeesus blasted out of 'em.

Let's not forget, Tozols are great commandos, we don't have to go all-or-nothing yet. We Have the basic encryption of the Astrannian infonet cracked don't we? If we can't engage in Cyber-Warfare now maybe we'll get some intel from the camp that'll let us do so?
>>
No. 529472 ID: b0d1a8
File 137516770333.png - (692.05KB , 1450x1400 , akjsdfhksdfh.png )
529472

If we are going to attack the Astranians I think assaulting from two different positions would be best. The primary assault squad would attack from the south as it is also along the likely path of their advance. Their goal would be to provide a distraction for the flanking assault squad, which will attack from the east, to do direct damage to Astranian assets.

The predictions I have marked of which directions the Astranians and Scellor will attack is based off the path of least resistance and does not take into account of enemy intel of mine locations and air assets. I marked out some sites where the tozols can ambush from along both the Astranians and the Scellor predicted path of assaults as they move to capture the spire.

Another Idea I have is instead of turning the spire up why not instead try to turn it almost off so that the pond it is resting on melts denying both forces to heavy ground assets. The ice may take awhile to melt but the water would make it harder of heavy vehicles to traverse the melting lake.
>>
No. 529473 ID: c23ab0

So is there just like, a big knob dial on the wall that says "Winter <---> Summer"?
>>
No. 529491 ID: b3ce49

>>529473
Well, they had 20y to experiment and already said something about tampering heavily with it...
If it is some quiet way to disable it temporarily then the astr. will maybe think it works periodically and is naturally weakened. Then we have time to wait for the ice to melt.
If you plan to shut it off with some heavy explosives or easy to read electroweak fields, then you probably won't have enough time to use this advantage. As those plant-man doesn't seem to be able to produce such, your existence will be supposed and at least counter measurements taken to either take you out fast or turn the artefact back on...
>>
No. 529567 ID: fee736

>>529491
Tozols aren't going to destroy a precursor anything, they're charged with protecting it, that's their purpose here.

If anything they should be prepared to abandon it if it proves untennable and continue an asymetrical campaign from the land and hidden bases, with the goal of disrupting attempts to damage the structure(disassembly/research/etc.) and weaken enemy forces to the point they can be displaced or destroyed in time; they can't afford to let an enemy pin them down defending a stationary point against overwhelming force.

Lt. Vaejra is also wrong about the Scellor; beyond killing Astran, they are, obviously, useful in distracting them, and screening Tozol activity. Their continued presence in force substantially increases Tozol freedom of action. Although I'm going to assume that line was just to underline that the enemy of my enemy is my enemy's enemy, no more, no less, for the benefit of the readers, and that they're perfectly aware of how the Scellor presence benefits them.


As for what we do now, I'd say recon/probe the Astran camp, with the goal of determining if they can successfuly 'jack an aircraft such as to enable an attack on the carrier, and otherwise identify high value targets. Let's see what we have to work with.
>>
No. 529763 ID: cee89f

The longer the Scellor and Astranians are fighting each other, the longer they aren't directly engaging you. Considering your limited personnel, that is a good thing.

The Scellor are getting hammered right now. Which is good, since the fewer forces they have the less likely they can take you. However, leading an attack against them right now is pointless. Focus on the Astranians.

Two suggestions:
-Astranians are well known for their tendency to engage in infighting. We should learn what we can about their commanders, see if we can't drive a wedge between them and/or their officers.
-Lead a raid on the Astranians, as suggested previously, and seize one of their ships. We'll decide whether or not to risk Rook's suggested action later. If nothing else, you'll have access to one of their ships' communication systems and tech to study for weaknesses.
>>
No. 529855 ID: ba8629
File 137526177566.jpg - (77.35KB , 800x600 , battlequest-2-8.jpg )
529855

"We infiltrate the Astranian camp," says Vaejra. "Very soon. Before the Scellor cease to be a useful distraction."
"Yessir!" says Baj.
"Finally," says Rinis. "My trigger itched watching those transports coming in fat and slow."
"Careful now. According to the prisoner, even the aircraft are shielded," says Ota.
"Think we can make this look like we're Scellor?" asks Thaen.
"Not actively," says Vaejra. "But if we're unseen, they'll rationalize."
"Unseen til we eatfuck the carrier, you mean," says Rinis.
"Ideally," says Vaejra.

Reya, listening in from the Spire's command post, interrupts: "Sir, I'm having serious misgivings about how much you're trusting the prisoner. Is this shit at least being confirmed by the other captive?"
"No," Ota says. "The female's uncooperative, and we don't have time for a real interrogation."
"Then how do you know this isn't garbage?"
"He seems to get that we'll kill him for lying."
"But you're bringing him to their assembly area! He'll figure he can just escape and call the guards. Or sacrifice himself to kill you."
"It's a gamble against unknown odds," says Vaejra. "We don't have a lot of options."
"But you do have a choice," says Reya. "We could wait and- Oh shit, we just lost a camera in the main tunnel, near the Spire."
"How?" says Thaen.
"Hang on," says Reya.
>>
No. 529857 ID: ba8629
File 137526207468.jpg - (96.34KB , 800x600 , battlequest-2-9.jpg )
529857

"A Scellor's in the tunnel," says Reya. "A fucking one-armed Scellor's bleeding in the main tunnel."
"How?" repeats Thaen, with emphasis.
"It's a teleporter," says Vaejra.
"How do you stop a teleporter?" asks Baj.
"Grab it," says Ota. "Or kill it."
"What, me?" asks Reya.
"Take me fifteen minutes to get there," says Ota.
>>
No. 529859 ID: 9ddf68

eh just keep an eye on it while however deals with it. and how to deal with it, just have whoever run at top speed once they have eyes on the scellor and just bash it's head in. I mean even if the blow doesn't kill it, it should still knock it out.

As for the Astranian. Even if the little shit is lying do you see yourselves getting a better chance at scoring an Astranian ship. If you don't get one now you're just going to have to hope the scellor have enough fire power to take out that ship's shield so you can board it with something else. Even if the mission is a bust then you'll still be putting a few dents in the Astranian war machine which will, if nothing else, slow them down.
>>
No. 529860 ID: 8b9215

We can't trust the astranian. They are either cowards or death-seeking fools. It's very possible that it would kill itself to harm you.

And the scellor. Send someone to kill that motherfucker. We can't have him breaking our cameras.
>>
No. 529866 ID: d87442

Yeah, that scellor kinda needs to be dealt with. Breaking things? No thanks. Besides I'm sure the tozols need as many cameras as they can get to make sure they aren't, y'know, taken by surprise.
>>
No. 529868 ID: 01481a

Leave the prisoner in lock-up, this is to be a scouting mission not an immediate set-up for a raid on the Battlecarrier. Too many unknowns going in and the prisoner would be an undue liability.

Reya, time to Tozol-up.
>>
No. 529891 ID: 4e21dc

Hmm. You know, a scellor prisoner would probably be happy to tell you anything you want to know about their enemies. Vice versa, too. This one should be halfway to unconsciousness already, so the trouble would be keeping it rather than getting it. Maybe putting it in a room where it can't see or sense what's where outside, so it can't safely teleport out?
>>
No. 529899 ID: cee89f

>>529857
We can't trust the Astranian as far as we can throw it.

... On the other hand, we could leave it naked. Anything that makes going back to its people seem like a bad idea is good for us. They reacted pretty badly to the loss of their suits, if you recall.

If we can get an Astranian ship, we have immediate access to their communications, plus tech to study. We could find out if the Astranian was telling the truth about the shields before heading in with the crazy suicidal plan >.>
>>
No. 529906 ID: b4594e

Remember, Tozols are immune to teleportation, and that immunity extends to everything in their immediate vicinity. Assuming Reya is Tozol enough to do so once she wrassls this guy he's pretty-much stuck there.
>>
No. 529910 ID: 54af1f

Remember the Scellor are undermind linked. If one of them knows we're here, they all do. So if we don't want it to wander around, then we should shoot it from surprise.

A single Scellor's not that much of a threat though, so maybe just ignore it.
>>
No. 529914 ID: 54af1f

Send Reya to deal with it. She's the closest
>>
No. 529917 ID: c23ab0

Scellor put self interest before all else so reasoning with them isn't likely to be of much help. They're also the most powerful psychics in known space due to their bogarting of all the psykonium; you may be protected against telepathic shenanigans but if there's a way around that a Scellor will find it. And finally they don't exactly die when you kill them; it just sets them back one body and 18 years. Kill enough of them and the psykonium residue can start doing Strange Things, but just one is practically nothing.

You don't want them to know there are living organisms for them to manipulate in this spire. You don't want them mapping the inside to undermine your defenses. And they care less if they die. So sneak up on him and cap his ass. Head shot should be easy if you go chameleon mode. They might even think it was an automated security system.

...technically you guys are an automated security system, but putting that aside.
>>
No. 529921 ID: 54af1f

If Reya does go, shunt the sensor network to someone else, or somewhere else. For instance the tank destroyer.
>>
No. 529974 ID: 01c571

In addition to sending someone to deal with the Scellor, it might be a good idea to keep one or two Tozol at the base or send them to the spire; We're lucky to be up against only one guy at the moment but being attacked in force while we're at the Astranian base is a real possibility, especially now that the Scellor know someone has been here for a while. Given a well maintained corridor, They may well deduce it was Tozols as soon as the Ayarr gets captured or killed by something he can't sense psychically.

Would recommend sending Kaselir (Because if we're attacked in force a tank destroyer will be more useful than another soldier in a stealth mission.) No preference for second.

As to attacking the base: At this point I'm inclined to say "Fuck the carrier infiltration mission". Our objective should be to do as much damage as we can, steal or ground anything we can use, and get away before they can get organized. If the Astranian can get us past shields so, for example, Ota can lay explosives on anything sensitive: good take him but don't rely on an asset we, emphatically, cannot trust.

>>529891
Paralyzers should be able to take care of that. Agree with capture method. A Scellor captive could be useful for a lot of reasons and they'll know something's up anyways.
>>
No. 530079 ID: 8b9215

>>529860
Kill the scellor without revealing what you are. You'd do the gun around the corner thing.

Put some sort of camera on top of it so you do not reveal you can see without looking. That is a vital piece of information that will cause the enemy to underestimate us.
>>
No. 530191 ID: bc8d67

Check the sensor net to see if this scellor is attempting to report in via radio. If it is, than that's very good evidence that it's out of telepathy range or something else is interfering with its telepathy. In that case, if there's any chance of its radio signal breaking through from down here, jam it, if possible. Otherwise monitor the scellor radio channels for a reply or acknowledgement.

Even if it doesn't use its radio, it's still and unknown if it reported in psychically, but if its left for too long then it'll definitely recover enough to teleport away, and at that point it's pretty much a given it'll get what it knows back to the scellor forces. So the best course of action here is to kill it before it can get away. At the very least it'll mean one less teleporting fucker to deal with later.
>>
No. 530240 ID: 66bd58

Just killing it out of the blue is more likely to encourage more probing to see WTH happened.

But why don't we let Reya, our resident Xenopsychologist (or closest to one) weight-in?
>>
No. 530241 ID: 8a3061

may I add: Reya's surprised face is absolutely adorable
>>
No. 530271 ID: 66bd58

>>530241

Indeed, if all else fails Reya can just take her helmet off and cute it into submission. ;3
>>
No. 530522 ID: cee89f

Actually, why do we need to take Rook? He's probably got some kind of plan. Could we bring the other prisoner?
>>
No. 530526 ID: 66bd58

>>530522

Right, the one that refuses to cooperate at all, not even talk to us, will be much safer and more cooperative when we drag her into the middle of the enemy camp.
>>
No. 530631 ID: ba8629
File 137544347679.jpg - (83.27KB , 800x600 , battlequest-2-10.jpg )
530631

"Pursue and engage, Reya," orders Lt. Vaejra.
"Yes sir," she says. Apprehension fills her, but that's no excuse to hesitate. "The Spire is yours, Anak."
"Good hunting," Anak says.

Reya almost says 'I love you' back. She doesn't.

She advances into the ice tunnels with speed and caution. The main line is a racetrack-like straightaway designed to let the tozols move at a full run, but it branches off into lots of little tangles. She'll need to be careful.

She knows the Scellor play tricks. A psychic illusion won't fool a tozol, but it can fool a camera. Worse, maybe they hacked the network. Maybe they know everything. Maybe this is the first step in a plan to isolate the tozols and eliminate them.

She hears something in an ice tunnel ahead...
>>
No. 530632 ID: ba8629
File 137544349398.jpg - (59.35KB , 600x600 , battlequest-2-11.jpg )
530632

>>
No. 530633 ID: ba8629
File 137544350729.jpg - (60.46KB , 600x600 , battlequest-2-12.jpg )
530633

>>
No. 530634 ID: ba8629
File 137544354499.jpg - (59.10KB , 600x600 , battlequest-2-13.jpg )
530634

>>
No. 530636 ID: ba8629
File 137544360668.jpg - (78.73KB , 600x600 , battlequest-2-14.jpg )
530636

>>
No. 530637 ID: ba8629
File 137544375473.jpg - (71.09KB , 600x600 , battlequest-2-15.jpg )
530637

Maybe Reya worries too much.

"Hey babe, wanna Synchronize?"

"What."

"Think you'll still go to Psychic Heaven if a tozol kills you? One telepathic whisper and you'll find out."

"Oh shit."

Reya isn't sure how well that'll work. The plan for psychics was to lock them up in the Spire and hope that jams them, but this is an Ayaar Scellor.
>>530240
She's read about people strapping psi-inhibitors to their orels, the little forehead antennas, but the tozols don't have equipment like that.
>>
No. 530639 ID: 54af1f

You don't have much choice really. However it might be best to interrogate it for now.

Just them knowing you exist isn't a game ender though, so don't worry about it too much.
>>
No. 530642 ID: b8ceae

>>530637
Scellor are more trouble dead than alive. Take it captive and get it medical attention.
Interrogate it, but nothing rough. Keep it to simple Q&A, and keep it friendly; if you can warm them up and get them talking they're terrible at keeping secrets, but Scellor are absurdly hard to break if you try to use force.

It's certainly worth noting that their side is in deep shit, and the Stranners are mopping the floor with both of you. Consider cooperating against the bigger threat, and once the Stranners are dead you and the Scellor can work this out diplomatically or with bullets.
>>
No. 530646 ID: a01b62

That's not how Scellor work, Reya, goddammit. You totally flubbed that.

You might as well kill her, it's pretty much just an inconvenience to her anyway and it's going to be waaaay more annoying to try and keep her penned up in here. Maybe question what she's doing here first. Say the Soldier's Prayer over her body:

"Dear God /
Please let me get this bastard /
Before he gets me"

Amen.
>>
No. 530665 ID: b5df96

>psychic heaven, isolate her
If I remember right, you can't isolate a scellor from the undermind. Their consciousness is on that side of the equation. If you somehow figured out a way to jam the connection, you'd be isolating the scellor from it's body, not vise versa.

Not that they have seamless long range communication with others via that connection, though.

Hmm. Ayaar are teleporters and spys, and their tails make a memory suppressing goo. Probably the most difficult type to try and keep prisoner.

...well, she's pretty badly injured, she's potentially a valuable source of intel, and hopefully the spire will fuck with her powers. And if she does try anything, you can kill her without guilt or hesitation. Scellor do get to respawn, after all.
>>
No. 530672 ID: f8bfd7

Ceiling Tozol is watching you Bleed.
>>
No. 530674 ID: 57a559

>>530637
Hurry up and snap the neck, we don't have time for bullshit. Interrogation is next to useless in this situation at the moment while we're short on time and just gives the boys more dumb ideas.
>>
No. 530676 ID: cee89f

>>530637
"Let's start with an easy one. Name, rank, likelihood of cooperation against the Astranians. In reverse order, please."
>>
No. 530678 ID: 01531c

>>530665
Scellor connection to the Undermind is completely independence of Scellor Hivemind.
It's easy to sever a link to the Scellor Hivemind, you can either jam the psychic connection, or knock out the scellor.
It's takes a shitload to knock out a scellor, IIRC. Like taking a wooden oar made of solid oak and beating them with it for two hours straight.
>>
No. 530753 ID: 4912c2

EAT THAT OREL. Then take it captive and put it in the Interrogation Bucket.
>>
No. 530770 ID: 4912c2

Delete your old suggestion if you change your mind, dude
>>
No. 530848 ID: d87442

>>530770

That is a thing you can do, isn't it. It slipped my mind. Oops.

I'm going with trying to cooperate with them. Instead of torturing.
>>
No. 530852 ID: b5df96

We're not the commanding officer. We don't get to make decisions like 'offer the enemy an alliance'. We were sent to kill or capture her at our discretion.

There's no reason an interrogation has to resort to torture, anyways.
>>
No. 530866 ID: 65ddc7

My vote is capture. We need them for the cross interrogation. We can't trust either of the captives answers alone, but maybe we can get some solid info if we compare the two. Plus, captives make for good bargaining chips.

But if it turns out we have to have someone holding them down at all times to keep them from porting away, just kill em.

How much do other species know about Tozols? This one might be quite cooperative if they know their link to the Undermind might be severed forever if we kill them by hand.
>>
No. 530871 ID: 8b9215

tell him "We're not at war yet. Keep that in mind."
>>
No. 530882 ID: cee89f

>>530852
Not offering an alliance, probing for one. 'Testing the waters', so to speak. Whether or not the scellor are willing to consider an alliance against the Astranians is a good piece of intel, it'll inform our future interactions with them. At the moment, they're getting hammered pretty hard and will (probably) be desperate for a leg up.

Eventually we'll have to destroy them anyway but there's little point in ignoring the potential for manipulation here.

>>530871
Her.

>>530866
Agreed, capture.
>>
No. 530899 ID: c23ab0

Capture. The only reason to kill was for the element of surprise, which you used on a witty one-liner instead.
>>
No. 531057 ID: 2a2cb2

>>530899

Yeah, pretty-much this.
>>
No. 531303 ID: bc8d67

May as well go for a capture since you've already blown the element of surprise you could have used for a kill. Just make sure that the Ayaar can't telepathically communicate at all, since even "tozols" getting out before you sheathe your mercygiver in her brain would be bad.

Don't give the Ayaar any more time to regain it's wits and decide to risk not returning to the Undermind. Quick as you can ram your mercygiver through the base of its orel and rip that thing off. That'll remove its ability to psychically focus, and presumably the ability to send a coherent message any distance telepathically. Also let the wound bleed to weaken the Ayaar from blood loss before bandaging it.

Call in your capture of the Ayaar while you pin it to the ground, strip its armor, and bind, blindfold, earplug and gag it. The gag won't keep it from talking since scellor don't have vocal chords and use telekinesis to vibrate the air to speak, but it will keep it from biting.

When it comes time to interrogate focus much more on getting what intel the scellor forces know of the Astranian forces and their tech out of the Ayaar than anything about the scellor forces. That might get you a corroboration on what Rook said as well.

Also, the glands in Ayaar tails are known to secrete a compound that interferes with memory formation in most organic beings. Definitely wouldn't work on tozols, and very likely not on for scellor either (though it could be tested on the Ayaar to make sure,) but on Astranians it's almost certain to work. Might be useful to collect some, just in case there's a situation where it'd be better for a 'Stranner to not remember than to end up dead.
>>
No. 531326 ID: ba8629
File 137562110946.jpg - (72.10KB , 600x600 , battlequest-2-16.jpg )
531326

Reya hauls the captive back to the Spire. This close, the tozol's senses should detect any psionic funny business. She's noticing little flickers when it speaks, but nothing strong.

Reya contacts Lt Vaejra about their new prisoner. An Ayaar commando is a good find, but dangerous. She doesn't trust their planned methods of blocking a psion. She has an idea. She asks permission. With hesitation, he grants it.

"You talk fast," says the Ayaar. "Suppose I know your tongue?"

"I strongly doubt it," says Reya, in standard.

"How do you figure?"
>>
No. 531327 ID: ba8629
File 137562132394.jpg - (47.97KB , 600x600 , battlequest-2-17.jpg )
531327

Reya cuts off the Ayaar's orel.

"Ah! AAAAAAAAH!!"

"You've got a great poker face if you knew that was coming."
>>
No. 531328 ID: ba8629
File 137562144013.jpg - (57.73KB , 600x600 , battlequest-2-18.jpg )
531328

"AAAAaahhhhuhhuhhhh! You fffffffuck!" says the Scellor. Its voice has changed. Reya realizes that they use psi just to talk. It's good that it can still speak. "Thahaat hurt worse than the arm. Hhhhhhhhh... Running out of ffffucking manipulators hhhere..."
"Sorry. It's for your own good. Can't leave you alive and broadcasting."
"Scellor don't fear death. Hhhh. Lots of us fear pain, thhho."
"Then it's for our good."
"Hhhhehh... Honesty suits you, Gun."
"I want to ask questions about the Astranians," asks Reya. "Will you cooperate?"
"Aheh. Certainly. Certainly. The mutual foe looms o'er us," says the Ayaar. "Quhestions about Scellor come later, and with the body parts removed more slowly, and in smaller pieces, I trust. My name is Ellatriz Gundain."
"Cooperation isn't out of the question," says Reya. It feels like a formality. "Rank?"
"I am Ayaar. Not how it work. I'd like to get moving again before I freeze."
"The cells are the only heated room in the place," says Reya.
"Gentle killing machines."
"Hardly going to interrogate a corpse."
"You can, if you do it just right. If it's fresh. Heh."

Reya considers what to ask. She'd better hurry. Vaejra will make a move towards the Astranian camp soon.

>Scellor do get to respawn, after all.
Reya doesn't actually believe in the Scellor religion. She was just trying to get in the target's head. However, she knows that important Scellor are wired to transmit partial backups their memories when they die. An Ayaar commando is definitely going to have that. Reya assumes the memory-upload is long ranged and hard to block, because it's so central to their religious beliefs.
>>
No. 531329 ID: 4a20fa

>>531328
What did the main Scellor force do to drive the Carrier away?
>>
No. 531331 ID: a01b62

Why are you here missing an arm?
>>
No. 531335 ID: 5663f2

!!!
I'm not sure, but I think that Schellor is getting ready to stab you with it's tail! Watch out for that!
>>
No. 531336 ID: fee736

What do you know about the Astran leadership of this expidition, their forces, deployment and disposition, and exploitible weaknesses?
>>
No. 531337 ID: fee736

>>531335
If it is it must not know tozols very well. That's a good way to lose a tail.
>>
No. 531338 ID: d8e6ee

Ask what the Ayaar knows about Astrannian tech, particularly about shields and their supposed species-specific tech-lock.

Ask what they know about the Astrannian command structure. The ones you've encountered so far were just rank-and-file, but their airs of professional soldierdom turned out to be a pretty weak facade rather quickly once shit went down, knowing if this is a tendency that goes all the way up the command chain could be helpful.
>>
No. 531341 ID: a01b62

>>531335
...The tail is made of flesh. It's a bulb. It's not a spike.
>>
No. 531352 ID: b5df96

She's not going to stab her with her tail. Theoretically, she could spray her, though. Ayaar get tail-goo that blocks long term memory formation (amnesia dust!). Not sure if that would work through armor, though.

>questions
...we could confirm some of the stuff the Astranian told us. Third party verification, see how much of his claims are bullshit.
>>
No. 531379 ID: 13a36d

>>531328
Well then, let's interrogate this prisoner.

We can see if there's any way to quickly and soundly hinder the Scellor, possibly wipe them out and bring the battle down to two factions, much easier to manage and focus on for your already limited resources and personnel.
>>
No. 531385 ID: 3690ba

...Sorry, I should have said WHY I got that vibe. That last image had the tail pointed seemingly right at the Tozol's face, so I was scared it was because the Schellor in question was getting ready to stab the Tozol in the face or something.
>>
No. 531418 ID: fee736

>>531379
Are you trying to help the Astrans win?
>>
No. 531420 ID: cf49fc

>>531418
We CAN'T exterminate the Scellor, or the Terrorists Astranians win! I recommend Interrogation and possibly imprisonment. Or tranquilization and examination, if that's actually possible with Scellor.
>>
No. 531437 ID: 57a559

>>531328
Why did the Astranians come here? And what effective tactics have the Scellor come up with for stopping them?
Put up a lie that the tozols built the spire and that they are both attacking your home. You're merely defending it, you've lived here for many decades now, so it's important to understand how this meetup was possible. It seems hardly a coincidence they would show up on the same day for conflict.
>>
No. 531446 ID: a01b62

Seriously though, if we want to hinder a faction, it's the Astranians hand down, because the Scellor are already pretty far on the back foot.
>>
No. 531448 ID: 8b9215

If he attacks you with his tail, grab it and cut off the sharp part of it. I'm sure you'd be able to stop it.
>>
No. 531450 ID: a01b62

>>531448
There is no sharp part! It's a tail-armored bulb! :facepalm:
>>
No. 531461 ID: 8b9215

>>531448
May as well take her other arm as well as the tail piece since she insists on attacking you.

And she's lost a lot of blood so try to cauterize it or turnakit or something.
>>
No. 531468 ID: b5df96

>>531461
Let's not mutilate her further unless it becomes necessary.
>>
No. 531469 ID: cf49fc

>>531461
What is WITH you and cutting things off?!
>>
No. 531470 ID: a01b62

>>531461
It's like you're not even reading a word I say.
>>
No. 531478 ID: 65ddc7

Can we dial back the meta gaming for a bit?

We can't trust any information about Scellor from this prisoner. Same deal with the Astranian prisoners, they will lie to suit their purposes. Especially since this one is a spy, they will know how to subvert and twist information. But we can more or less trust them to reveal the enemy secrets if they know any.

Ask about the Astranian tech, numbers, location, stuff like that. Specifically ask about the shields. Then throw them in a warm room as a reward for cooperation. Also, tie up the tail.

As for alliances, lets hold back on that for now. We don't know how zealous either party is about taking control of the tower. Remain mostly as a hidden faction until lines of communication can be opened. Preferably after we have successfully hacked into their tech, acquired more prisoners, and crippled some of their devices.
>>
No. 531495 ID: cee89f

>>531328
Ask about Astranian shields. If rook was outright lieing to us, we need to warn Vae right the fuck now.

((As an ooc side note, I love seeing you guys draw each others' stuff))

>>531478
Perhaps. But I don't think we can trust the Astranians' information on the Scellor either. The two we have are (basically) field grunts. They'll know very little that we could turn into a game-shifting advantage.

...It was a mistake to ask about Astranians from the Astranian. Anything our prisoners say about their own faction is suspect. Ask them about the Scellor, and ask the Scellor about the Astranians.

Keep the two groups of prisoners separate if at all possible.

>>531446
Agreed.

>>531379
Any information that a spy gives us on their own faction is highly suspect. We need info on the Astranians - the Scellor are already scrambling and, as someone else put it, "on their back foot". Sure, we can't ignore them forever, but for now the Astranians are a bigger threat.

>>531461
... When the fuck has she attacked us? We dropped down like a ninja, held her at knifepoint and are now dragging her through the tunnel. We ripped off her orel basically for safety, if anything, we're attacking her.

>>531352
Agreed, but don't tell the scellor we have Astranian prisoners. Keep her in the dark as much as possible - spies are very good at using that kind of info against their foes.
>>
No. 531511 ID: c23ab0

Wuh oh, now you've done the only thing that can piss off the scellor collective, caused inordinate amounts of pain. I hope for your sake it's just a religion after all, and not an actual hive mind.
>>
No. 531524 ID: 65ddc7

>>531495
>The two we have are (basically) field grunts. They'll know very little that we could turn into a game-shifting advantage.

Actually they are the first strike heavy mech pilots. They might know something. Being deployed to be the first to encounter the scellor first strike teams. They should have information on scellor battle psyonics, where they landed, and targets of interest.

Maybe nothing game changing, but knowing who is important is pretty important. Give a Tozol a name and a face and you can expect that name and face to get fucked or abducted.
>>
No. 531562 ID: cee89f

>>531524
I'll grant you that they would definitely have info on positioning, but I don't think they'd give faces or names to the guys whose job is to blow shit up with heavy artillery =/ They wouldn't need faces.

>Battle tactics
We're Tozols, we have that in spades.
>>
No. 531574 ID: 13a36d

>>531418
Destroying one of the two factions when you're facing two factions is pretty much always a good idea.
>>
No. 531583 ID: ba8629

[OOC: Please try to keep discussions in the discussion thread:
http://tgchan.org/kusaba/questdis/res/45791.html
Thanks]
>>
No. 531907 ID: fc5469
File 137578595529.jpg - (91.52KB , 800x700 , battlequest-2-19.jpg )
531907

"How did you lose the arm?" asks Reya, leading the Ayaar to the cells. Ellatriz offers no resistance. She's amicable, despite the bleeding. The smell makes Reya hungry.

"We found some Stranners picking over some downed Stranner mechs. You wouldn't know anything about those, ah?"
"I might," admits Reya. "But go on."
"We didn't know that," says Ellatriz. "We think, maybe they fucked up their drop? Got the trajectory wrong, smashed them into the ground. Figure it's just engineers and some guards. So we move in, ambush them, get our asses kicked. The little bastards brought a whole pile a marines. One chops through me like my armor's made of candy. I'm down, but they don't finish me off. Think they forgot. Coupla minutes later, I teleport away. Spent the time in between making little jumps, til I find a burrow underground. Seek shelter, patch myself up. Then, next thing I know, there's a fuckin' tozol in my face."

"So you don't know about the bombardment?" Reya asks.
"I didn't say that."
"Do you know how the Scellor forced the battlecarrier to back off?"
"Magic," says Ellatriz. "Won't last. Hey, not my business or anything, but maybe you guys could I dunno shoot it down before the rest of my friends die."
"I thought you didn't fear death?"
"It's inconvenient."
"So's killing warships," says Reya. "This isn't a negotiation."
"It's advice, Gun. That thing's everyone's problem. Why'd you let it get that close? This place just you and a fake radio?"
"It might be," says Reya.
"Heh. Some day you guys gotta let the Precursors go, Gun. Makes me sad to watch. Ah, don't get mad. Just how you're built."
Reya ignores it. "Tell me how to bypass their shields," she says.

Ellatriz cooperates, freely answering questions that don't compromise the Scellor. She seems to confirm what Rook yammered. Astranian shields let Astranians through, plus guests, without alerting control system. Astranian guns won't work if you aren't one. Astranian vehicles won't work if you aren't one. Their shields stop at the ground level, so they slip over things. Ellatriz thinks a tozol could powerslide right underneath. She says that would be cool.

"What can you tell me about their leadership?" asks Reya.
"What, you miss the broadcast?" asks Ellatriz. "There's a drunk bat in a fancy dress on a huge throne in the middle of a carrier bridge yelling at the AI. Figure she's a fuckin' secretary, ah?"
"So you don't know anything."
"Not really, no."
>>
No. 531908 ID: 9d8047

Gods i like ell alot and y is she naked?
>>
No. 531909 ID: 5663f2

(missed one)
Even Quest can miss things. Well, sounds like she's pushing us to do what we already decided to do-kill the stranners.
She knows a surprising amount about Tozols as well-curious. Makes me wonder if she knows about the Precursors or is just guessing from reconizing the architecture or something. I wanna ask her about that...Oh man. Respawning Schellor, functionally immortal-she could be old enough to have SEEN The Precursors!
>>
No. 531910 ID: 9d8047

>>531909
Holy... i think you maybe right there ask her something only some one who has faced tozol well know if she says the right thing ask how old she is not that body but her conscoius is? she may be older then you think
>>
No. 531922 ID: 65ddc7

I suppose molesting the prisoner would be a bit too much.

Doesn't surprise me too much she knows a fair bit about Tozols and the precursors. She is a spy after all, probably several hundred years old at least too. Consider asking her about that latter, we have bigger fish to fry.

I think it would actually be easier to let the Astrinams think they have won, or let them assume they have a massive superiority on the situation, and let them land. We don't have much along the lines of ground to air firepower. Unless we opt to team up with the Schellor, but I'm still on the fence about that. It is out mission to defend this place from everyone. On the other hand, 20 fucking years. We kill this group and then what? another 20? Or do more ships come flying in wanting to take over the tower. I do not think we have the luxury of time anymore.
>>
No. 531927 ID: 8a3061

> I suppose molesting the prisoner would be a bit too much.

for shame. Reya and Anak are going steady
>>
No. 531928 ID: 41690e

Hmm. Right. Time to lock her up, then. I don't think we have the time to press her for information about the scellor she's less willing to give up, and the Astranians are the bigger problem right now.

Not sure if we need to offer her a minimum of first aid to keep her alive? She seems to be doing a pretty good job not bleeding to death on her own. (...and I'm not sure how much tozols would bother stocking medical supplies anyways, with their own crazy regeneration).

>y is she naked?
Because smart captors don't let enemy commandos keep their gear. ...and she's scellor.
>>
No. 531932 ID: 9ddf68

well if they fly the ship over some of the mountain ranges we could try and slip on when there shields brush against one since she said the shields stop working when there close to the ground, but that would be more luck then anything so we shouldn't rely on it but if we see a chance we should take it since it would let us bypass a lot of issues... like relaying on a Astranian prisoner to get us to the ship that only he can pilot and expecting him not to try and screw us over.
>>
No. 531940 ID: a01b62

Inform her that if the Scellor did not have the equipment to kill the battlecarrier themselves they made a huge mistake coming here at all, and that it's not your problem.

Should we guard this room? I don't think she can teleport without her orel, but she's full of surprises, and it might be unwise to leave her alone.

I'm really tempted to put her in a cell with an Astranian.
>>
No. 531941 ID: 41690e

>I'm really tempted to put her in a cell with an Astranian.
And give the prisoners the chance to exchange information and possibly conspire against us? And risk losing one source of information if one kills the other? No.

We don't want them to have to opportunity to cooperate (unlikely as that is). And as long as they can't communicate, we can fact-check information from one against the other more easily. As soon as we put them together, everything they say is suspect. (Well, more suspect, anyways).
>>
No. 531944 ID: cee89f

>>531907
Okay, so Rook's telling the truth, at least to a point. Let's raid the Astranian camp, get a ship. Then we can get on the carrier and take down it's shields. At that point it'll either get blown up by the scellor or retreat.

>>531927
Threesome! =D

>>531908
Because she was naked under the armor and we need her gear where she can't use it, I presume.

>>531922
>Twenty years
You and I know that the Precursors and the Tozol command structure are, for all intents and purposes, gone. These Tozol don't know that and have little reason to think so. To them it's just a long period of silence from command. At worst, they might think they've been abandoned.

You wanna try convincing the supersoldiers to commit what is, as far as they know, treason, good luck :p

>>531940
Also do not even /imply/ that you don't have the resources to bring it down at the moment.
>>
No. 531948 ID: a01b62

>>531941
>And give the prisoners the chance to exchange information and possibly conspire against us?
>Scellor
>Astranian
>cooperate
:laughingspacegirls:

>And risk losing one source of information if one kills the other?
It's unlikely that the Scellor would try to kill the Astranian because they are both noncombatants and Scellor are mellow. It's unlikely that the Astranian would succeed in trying to kill the Scellor because they are marshmallows, and it's naked. It really doesn't strike me as much of a worry.

>>531944
I don't think we should do anything that directly compromises our presence on the battlefield. Any direct action we made would be traceable because there's simply no firepower small enough to do that that doesn't make a big show of it. Now, if the equipment necessary to take out the carrier's shields were to happen to appear in the Scellor's possession anonymously, well... who could say where it came from or who did it?
>>
No. 531954 ID: 8b9215

"I fully expect you to be gone when I get back. If you make it back to your friends without freezing to death, tell them to pack up and go home."
>>
No. 531957 ID: c23ab0

>>531909

Precursors are ancient, in galactic terms. 100 years or two is nothing. Too bad the Undermind is just a silly religion because it may have run into them at one time or another.
>>
No. 531985 ID: 4a20fa

>>531907
Well, lock her up, tell the raiding party what you found, return to the watching the computer stuff.
>>
No. 532031 ID: 65ddc7

>>531944
>You wanna try convincing the supersoldiers to commit what is, as far as they know, treason, good luck :p

You got a point. I remembered from the general thread that the Tozols are prepared to be here for a century if need be. An alliance of convenience may be the only way to go, and would be up to the Scellor to make happen.

So yeh, lock the door, relay information, and start fucking shit up.
>>
No. 532409 ID: ba8629
File 137591469861.jpg - (119.52KB , 700x700 , battlequest-2-20.jpg )
532409

In the meantime, Lt Vaejra assembled a team, consisting of Rinis, Baj, and Thaen, (plus Rook, the Astranian prisoner, stuffed in a bag) and moved out. Ota and Kaselir remain at their hidden home base. Ota, so she could monitor the network. Kaselir, in case they need her Tank Destroyer. Vaejra's hesitant to deploy the vehicle. It's the most firepower the tozols have, but it's also visible, which makes it vulnerable.

With Reya back on station at the spire's command post, he can also call for Ota and Kaselir to fight as infantry. In the meantime, Reya's relayed what she learned from the Ayaar prisoner.

His team arrives at the treeline, where the narrow savannah meets jungle. From here, they can observe the Astranian 'camp,' two kilometers distant, and closing.
>>
No. 532411 ID: ba8629
File 137591478001.jpg - (65.09KB , 700x700 , battlequest-2-21.jpg )
532411

The enemy is on the move. The large, shield-generating structure the tozols first took to be a prefab base actually has legs, and trudges sedately, making two to three kilometers per hour.

The only things outside its dome shield are three scout walkers, like the ones the tozols fought.

Inside is crowded with slowly moving materiel. The tozols count five combat walkers, larger than the scouts. Rook claimed their shields aren't weak to the rear, unlike the scouts. Around them floats a cluster of boxy hover-trailers. Infantry robots and Astranian marines march alongside, leaving or entering structures seemingly at whim. The tozols estimate a company of infantry, all told; mostly robots.

At irregular intervals, a shuttle or other craft finds enough space to land, to exchange troops and supplies.
>>
No. 532412 ID: ba8629
File 137591482487.jpg - (121.55KB , 700x700 , battlequest-2-22.jpg )
532412

"Looks like a fucking parade," scoffs Rinis.
"Nah. Parades are organized," says Thaen.
"Maybe this is what they're organized to look like," suggests Baj. "I mean, they're aliens."
"Looks like a shitty plan, if so," says Rinis.
"Technology informs tactics," says Vaejra. "They may know something we don't."
"Damn, what I wouldn't do for a nuke," says Rinis. "You ever seen a target begging for a nuclear mine harder than that?"
"No, ma'am," says Baj.
"Well I know you haven't."
"One time," says Thaen. "Visited a planet with these giant fuck-off tanks. Never saw one in action, but it didn't look fast."

Ota comes in over the radio, low-powered tightband connecting the team to landlines.

"Surviving Scellor have had time to find defensive ground," she says. "They're still shooting back, but less often. Dunno if their shit's suppressed, destroyed, or it's just not worth wasting ammo against the carrier's shields. Ships on the ground seem, eh, intact-ish."
>>
No. 532414 ID: 4a20fa

>>532412
How well do you reckon you can bury yourselves shallow in the jungle soil, ready to pop up play surprise hugs as they pass over, visibility cluttered by foliage? Because if "well", do that. Knobbling that thing is looking as important as the carrier.
>>
No. 532420 ID: 54af1f

The obvious way past the carrier shield is to build a laydown position with good top cover and the Stranner and you guys in it and just let the shield roll over you.

Alternatively plant a large mine relatively deep and detonate it once the stranners pass over it.
>>
No. 532423 ID: d87442

Burying down and waiting is a dubious idea with that many troops and so few of our own, robots or otherwise those are almost suicidal odds, even if it was something as discreet as sabotage. And as much as I'm sure Kaselir isn't happy with it, the destroyer should remain concealed, if at least ready, until the odds are at least a little more favorable. Or the air threat is removed.

Although there IS an idea. If there is ANY way to cripple that walking shield tower, it'll force them to lose mobility. Either forcing them to stay inside until they affect repairs, or until someone gets impatient enough to leave.

Best bet in my opinion is to set extremely high explosives, mines or otherwise, in the thing's path. Either time it to cripple that behemoth's legs, or make it pressure (in)sensitive, so that only something that heavy could set it off. Or spread as many lesser explosives around as possible to cripple as many soldiers and assets as can be managed.
>>
No. 532424 ID: 54af1f

>>532420
Derp. The command walker, not the carrier
>>
No. 532425 ID: 54af1f

>>532423

Any defences they have are primarily the shield and the walker vanguard. Once we get past those we can sneak about and Tozol to our hearts content against the relatively soft interior.
>>
No. 532427 ID: 1a3884

Technology informs tactics...

I think in this case and from past observation it means the 'stranners are too reliant on their tech-advantage, it makes them sloppy and complacent.
>>
No. 532480 ID: 65ddc7

Gotta take out the main shield generator, then maybe the Scellor will take care of the rest. Let them do the heavy lifting for us. Hopefully they will take advantage of the window we give them.

Too risky to have us go against so many troops with so little we know about their weapons.

Set mines and/or Tozols in its path. Have someone stay unburied and out of sight to tell the one buried when to pop up and to book it in case they are discovered.
>>
No. 532486 ID: 8b9215

The walker base is headed for the minefield at E4.
http://tgchan.org/kusaba/questarch/src/132204742917.jpg
That should be the opening attack. Infantry weapons are no use against those base shields. Fall back to wherever you may have a good view. Get the tank killer in a position to hit any air support that flies in for the walker base. Fire and leave. No loitering.
>>
No. 532491 ID: cee89f

>>532412
The ambush ideas presented here are good, but we'd probably have to do them in thicker bits of the jungle for it to be properly confusing.

And if we want a ship, we're going to have to wait until a ship comes in. This is gonna be a pain to time properly...

Recommended tactic: Plant a bomb in such a way that the command walker will be crippled, preferably deep enough in the foliage that planes can't land within the shield. If not, enough to make manuvering difficult for their troops.

Then, stay back and wait for a ship to land before moving in and going Tozol on their asses. Remember, we're here for a ship. While it would be nice to utterly obliterare this half of the Astranian's forces, it's unlikely even with four Tozols.

>>532425
As well as the troops and robots that walk around at random (apparently >.> i mean, wtf?)

>>532486
Negative: the walker is just now moving into C3, nowhere near our mines at D4-H4.
>>
No. 532511 ID: fee736

If they're good enough, with the right camo, it's entirly possible to hide in the grass, let the shield pass over them, and then grab a ship. A stationary expert with proper camo is insanely hard to spot, functionally invisible even up close; you can walk right over them and not know it unless you actually step on them. Even somewhere as 'open' as grassland, tho denser cover would probably be better and aid in prepositioning.

But that's a big if, and their bag of marshmallows could spoil the opt if they don't... apropriate... a pilot on site. Also depends on them being able to defeat Astran sensors, but they *are* tozols, so that's not impossible.

Real qestion is, are these tozols up to pulling something like that off?

Also, now I'm wondering if those forcefields would contain smoke. Tozols probably have something that'll block scanners; good for cover if infiltrating once in, or just plant it with some mines; blind them and get them shooting... heh.
>>
No. 532515 ID: bdb3f8

>>532491
>Negative: the walker is just now moving into C3, nowhere near our mines at D4-H4.
They will reach the mines eventually. It's either that, or climb that thing up the side of a mountain.
>>
No. 532537 ID: 757292

Are the shuttles landing within the main field or outside it, that space around the big walker looks crowded..

Maybe try and guestimate where the next landing will be and arrange Tozol-party? Just something subtle at first, something that'll cause a minor problem so the marching camp will leave it behind and then *pounce*
>>
No. 532562 ID: f0357f

>>532511
>I'm wondering if those forcefields would contain smoke.
That's affirmative, commander.
Astranian force shields are also kinetic barriers. You can also just guess that by the need for 'slip-space' underneath the edge of the shield.
What do you plan, that the Tozols' should start a pre-placed brushfire inside the shield?They lack the quanity of smoke bombs to produce such an effect.
>>
No. 532583 ID: 9d8047

What heavy weapons do the tozols have with them? Do they have any AT-mines or the like on them if so can they be romote det'ed or timed for the best K/U? If not the smoke idea is best for this with the data we have at hand
>>
No. 532956 ID: bc8d67

The big worry I'm having with any plan that involves digging up the ground and placing stuff in the path of the command walker is its scanners. They prolly got nearly every sensor and scanner available to them in the front of that thing, and every one that is used for terrain and subterranean scanning and mine detection, since it has to know where to safely plant those legs without blowing up or sinking in, and to detect enemy that are attempting to hide and slip under the shield.

While they certainly won't detect a tozol, or anything attached to a tozol (I assume,) they may be good enough to detect our mines. They could even be good enough to detect the disturbed soil over a buried tozol. I really don't want the first that we know of this being a mine-clearing charge burrowing in and blowing up next to one of our tozols.

We ought to place a test for this in the path of the command walker, as close as possible without being detected. Send a single tozol to crawl out into the tall grass to dig a patch out of the sod and disturb the dirt, like what would be over a "tozol hole," then crawl back a bit and bury a mine before returning. Time this for right after one of their cargo fliers has lifted off and is out of visual range so there's minimal risk of being spotted from above. Then have a spotter stay back to see if they respond to either while the rest of the team moves into the jungle to prepare. If the enemy does not appear to spot the mine, deactivate it before one of them steps on it and it raises an alarm.

For the hiding spot, the tozols and mines should be arranged so the tozols are within the shield when the mines blow up under the command walker. It ought to be easy to predict the command walker's path to place them, since it's apparently stuck to mostly even terrain and is likely moving on a course to the Spire. We're close enough to the main base that more mines could be brought in for this. Perhaps in addition to AT mines, some incendiary "fountain" type mines could be mixed in. The smoke from their fire will be much less suspicious than smoke from a mine.

There's also another problem we're going to have to deal with: Rook. The mere fact of his squishy physiology is going to get in the way. Whichever tozol is holding that bag of marshmallows is gonna have to check their actions so he doesn't end up dead or injured to the point of worthlessness, and that limit on that tozol will have to be taken into account. Special care is also going to have to be taken so he doesn't die while buried with a tozol. While the tozol can protect him from being crushed by arching over him, he'd likely asphyxiate before before the shield passed over. Making an air pocket big enough for him to breath would show on the command walker's sensors, so he's going to need an air tank and breathing mask, which will have to be made in the fabricator back at the main base.
>>
No. 533370 ID: c16a16

I smell a big ol' pile of Catch-22/chicken-and-egg. Need a way to bypass the shields here to get a way to bypass the shields there...

Think, dammit!

A company. That ought to be anywhere between around 100 to 200. Probably... sixty to eighty percent of that being 'bots?

Regardless of the odds, fragging up the mobile camp is bad. We need a shuttle, whilst it's landed there. Worst case scenario they throw up a general alarm to the fleet that things are going pearshaped on the camp, and if a shuttle is known to have been stolen then it'll probably get iced before it can get anywhere near the carrier. This calls for stealth and infiltration.

And maybe a distraction.

A big one.
>>
No. 533374 ID: c044b7

If the command walker is expected to pass over any tunnels then one option would be to pack the tunnel with explosives and collapse it while the walker is above. Potentially it could trap the walker in place or even do some significant damage if done right
>>
No. 533500 ID: f95239

POWER-SLIIIIIIIDE!
>>
No. 533513 ID: ba8629
File 137621202110.jpg - (67.83KB , 600x600 , battlequest-2-23.jpg )
533513

"Why not... why not just build a huge mine in the big walker's path?" asks Baj.
"Could work," says Thaen.
"I was actually just thinking that," says Rinis.
"Predicting its route through the jungle will be difficult," says Vaejra.
"True," admits Rinis. She makes a sound, watching the way the machine's feet fall. "But I think I can do it. I think it's worth a shot."
"You thought the volcano was worth a shot, too," says Thaen. "And that was rather a damp squib, to say the least."
"The charges on the southern volcano weren't finished," says Rinis. "Who cares? The Astranians are butt fucking the Scellor camp to death anyway."
"We'll risk it," decides Vaejra. "Fall back for supplies, then build an IED at the best guess for a chokepoint.
>>
No. 533515 ID: ba8629
File 137621223818.jpg - (56.00KB , 600x600 , battlequest-2-24.jpg )
533515

They contact Ota at the main base. She helps work out the details.

"...After that, wire the transmitters and the main charge together," she says. "That way, the detonator also arms the normal mines, so the enemy's trapped inside a mine field. Pack pyrolytic grease over the main charge and it'll fill the forcefield with smoke, too."
"Laying mines. We've spent twenty fucking years laying mines," says Thaen.
"So you're good at it," says Ota.
"Fine. Then what?" asks Thaen.
"We pop out of spiderholes and move in, obviously," says Rinis. "We can finish off the big walker that way. Break in, kill the crew, leave before the smoke disperses."
"That could put us under a huge volume of fire," says Thaen. "I thought we were here to steal a shuttle? We've got to deal with the carrier."
"Do we? That's not our problem right now. Tozols can hide from air power," says Rinis.
"Also, isn't that carrier in a pitched battle right now?" asks Kaselir, cutting over the channel. "You're gonna fly past all their excited gunners, through active Scellor air defenses, which are still putting up missiles, by the way, and try to land through their shield? Wait, check that. You're gonna have your critter-in-a-bag fly you there. Now, if you take out that force field, I can bring out Syel and hunt their heavy assets, one by one."
"What are you all talking about?" asks Rook, in standard. "I can't understand any of you."
"Technically, just for the record, we can just detonate it, laugh, and start building the next IED, without getting close. Target's slow as fuck," says Ota.

>If the command walker is expected to pass over any tunnels then one option would be to pack the tunnel with explosives and collapse it while the walker is above.
Ordinarily, not a bad idea. But it'll be quite some time before the target crosses a main tunnel, and Vaejra's worried it's simply too large.
>>
No. 533518 ID: 4a20fa

>>533515
The large mine + smoke + spiderholes sounds like a plan. Then fuck up the walker, because this seems like our best chance to deal with another huge shield bubble.
>>
No. 533520 ID: f95239

Someone needs to babysit rook, now's not the time to bring him into the middle of a shoot-out.
>>
No. 533523 ID: c16a16

...Kas has a pretty good point there.

Frag the basecamp. Denying them that is more important than getting a shuttle for now.

Should offer some exploitable opportunities in the long run too, played right.
>>
No. 533536 ID: a01b62

Yeah, let's put a check on that plan. It was probably never a good idea to begin with. IED the shit out of that walker.
>>
No. 533543 ID: cee89f

>>533515
Kas makes a good point. Even if we got a shuttle now, the situation the carrier's in makes it too dangerous to get on.

Blow 'em up, get in, get out. Make it quick. If the Scellor get lucky, the sudden destruction of ground assets combined with whatever the scellor pulled earlier will make the carrier back off.

If not, fuck 'em.

... Come oooooon, Scellor! D= you can make it!

>>533520
We've got him in a bag. He won't be doing much, and if Astranian tech only responds to Astranians in other ways we don't know about yet, we might need him.

Also, I think he's still naked. He's not gonna be too eager to run off on his own.

>>533536
For now, no, but we need to deal with that carrier eventually and our only other plan was a suicide run.
>>
No. 533548 ID: 8b9215

Primary objective is taking the walker base force field offline.

Move fast and get inside the walker base. I predict panic and mass friendly fire inside the shield.
>>
No. 533566 ID: 65ddc7

Spiderhole it up. But again, keep one on overwatch. Don't want it walking over one of the Tozols, stopping to kill it, then moving on. High tech means good scanning equipment. In all likelihood they will be able to scan the bombs unless we make them out of wood or something, no metals. We need backup plan.

We want to fuck the shield generator beyond all repair. Then when it's properly fucked, get the fuck out before all the smoke dissipates. After that we can start the war games with guerrilla tactics, sniper fire, and Kaselir can use her tank a bit. Lets get Baj his first stealth kill.
>>
No. 533567 ID: 65ddc7

>>533520

We will probably need his hand to open doors or something like that. Question is, do we need it attached or not? Lets ask it.
>>
No. 533639 ID: 54af1f

>>533518

This. Let's get in there and kill the command walker.
>>
No. 533642 ID: f394ed

Suggested priority list for after the boom..

Personel targets:

Priority 1: ANYONE AND EVERYONE THAT GETS IN YOUR WAY AND/OR POINTS A WEAPON AT YOU.

Priority 2: Senior NCOs

Priority 3: Mid-grade officers.

Priority 4: Flag-level officers.

Priority 5: lower/lowest-rung personnel.

Put a Big honkin' hole in their command chain right in the part which transmogrifies Ideas into Action. Between generals shouting useless indignation and the PBI's and REMF's pissing themselves with fear they'll flail themselves to bits.

Material priorities:

Grab as much as you can carry of anything and everything not bolted down that looks like it might contain intel.

Go Penji on all robots within range.

EatFuck as much of everything else as is practicable.
>>
No. 533753 ID: c16a16

Reviewing prior events...

If 'company' is indeed accurate, then this mobile camp contains roughly 30 to 60 percent of the Alliance forces.

Taking it out - completely or otherwise - would be a pretty major blow to their side of the fight.
>>
No. 533762 ID: 9ddf68

got a quick question with this plan, Can we get out of the shields from the inside while they're up or not? cause if we can't, short of picking up an Astranian and fleeing for the shield we won't be able to run away as long as those shields are up. Oh and about that nuke plan you guys had earlier... if that thing has the same amount of shield power as the ship that the scellor are bombing the hell out of now then whatever is powering that walker is likely to go up real nice if you could put something explosive in it and would probably take a good chuck of the Astranian's ground forces with it or at the very least take out an enemy command center which is always a plus. Of course unless you can bring the shields down then kinda S.O.L. if you go through with that plan though.
>>
No. 533770 ID: f394ed

Presumably the shields do not have an independant power-source. Find whatever powers the Big Walker, do Tozol to it, should bring down the shield as well.
>>
No. 533800 ID: 207ae7

>>533642

I support this plan. If we cut off the snake's head the body shall wither!
>>
No. 533935 ID: 54af1f

Stealing a shuttle and running a short distance might be a bad exfil plan actually.
>>
No. 533989 ID: cee89f

......

What exactly are the odds those shields can push the trees aside like a giant bulldozer?
>>
No. 538147 ID: e1609c

this is entirely unrelated to the current situation, however I would like to pose a temporary truce in the future between any remaining scellor forces and the tozol squad until the Astranians are dealt with. Terms can be argued on later, but for now this seems like a mutually beneficial plan if only because it gets rid of a major threat to both factions.
Shame we psychically neutered the one prisoner we had, that could bite us when it comes time to talk about these.
More on topic, I am gonna throw my lot in with the spiderhole thing. Taking out that mobile base's mobility is gonna help a lot.
>>
No. 538214 ID: c16a16

>>538147

Maxim 29: The enemy of my enemy is my enemy's enemy. No more. No less.

A truce would reveal too much.

Assuming the mobile camp is successfully neutralized, a follow-up attack against the Scellor may be necessary (assuming the Astranian commander doesn't flip out on the Scellor and rip them to pieces) to ensure that neither side gains too much of an advantage over the other.
>>
No. 538412 ID: e6d0be

So long as the battlecarrier remains operational, every moment the Scellor live and remain a viable threat is a good one for the Tozols.
>>
No. 540182 ID: ba8629
File 137886702282.jpg - (43.91KB , 600x600 , battlequest-2-25.jpg )
540182

His decision made, Lt. Vaejra calls down Ota and Kaselir to help build the ambush. They load up a pallet of explosives, tools, and supplies leaving Reya to take over surveillance and communications from her post in the Spire.
>>
No. 540185 ID: ba8629
File 137886707361.jpg - (65.23KB , 600x600 , battlequest-2-26.jpg )
540185

"Network's all yours, Reya," says Ota.
"Mmh," replies Reya.
"Something on your mind?"
"Oh, it's just, those forehead antennae on the Scellor? They taste fucking amazing. Wow."
"I did not know that. How's the prisoner handling it?"
"One moment," says Reya. "They're fine. Just pacing around in their under-clothes."
"You left it equipment?"
"It's just a thermal underlayer."
"Remove its equipment, Reya."
"It's cold."
"You ate part of its body and that's what you're worried about?"
"I didn't want to hurt it more by accident," she says, but relents a moment later. "Okay. Fine."
>>
No. 540187 ID: ba8629
File 137886710394.jpg - (92.13KB , 600x600 , battlequest-2-27.jpg )
540187

The tozols have one hour, and a lot of preparations to make. They get to work. They've been laying mines and building traps for many years, but Sergeant Ota still knows more tricks than anyone.

"Hey, Baj," she says. "Come help me program the radio mines. Key drive's set up already. You remember how to do that, right?"
"Yeah, I know," he says. "You watch and transmit the key, and they all activate at once."
"Close," she says. "We're laying fiber optics to remote transmitters. That way their direction-finding sets won't home in on my position. Plus, we don't know if their shield's opaque to radio, or if they've got jamming."
"Can't they jam the remotes?" asks Baj.
"That's where it gets tricky. Our transmitters are shit, so I'm laying down three to hit more channels at once, and spacing them away from the main explosive charge. I got a networks box already rigged for this, because I'm so fuckin' smart, but you have to make sure they're listening on A through G. Got it?"
"Yes, ma'am."
"Good. I gotta go make sure they're digging the hole the right way."
>>
No. 540188 ID: ba8629
File 137886717729.jpg - (95.41KB , 600x600 , battlequest-2-28.jpg )
540188

Kaselir approaches Vaejra.
"What about the prisoner?" she asks. "He's our only intel source, and we're dragging him into a real fight."
"What are you suggesting?" asks Vaejra.
"I can take him back to base to swap with the other Astranian. The uncooperative one. She can get you through the shield just as well as the male."
"You, specifically?" asks Vaejra. He can tell she has another angle.
"I can come back in my tank destroyer," she says. "Sir, this is the perfect time for it. They've got heavy armor. As soon as you drop their force field, I'll bring down the fuckin' lightning. I'll cover your escape. I'll get kills, too. I'm sure of it."
"You're not going to win a stand-up fight," he says.
"I won't have to. They don't even know Syel exists. They're shitty soldiers. You know that. They're shitty tankers, too. I know the terrain. I'll be gone before they realize what's happening."

Vaejra considers. There is enough time to make a round trip to base before go-time. Should they...
a) Swap Astranian prisoners? (Removes serious risk of information source dying, but means they can't steal a shuttle if the opportunity presents itself)
b) Let Kaselir bring her tank destroyer? (Less help before the shield drops; more firepower/distraction value after it drops)
c) Both?
d) Neither?
>>
No. 540189 ID: 9dba7d

B. it's time to show that there is more to tozols than light infantry!
>>
No. 540190 ID: d87442

I feel kind of sorry for poor Kaselir, I kind of want to let her bring Syel to the fight. :< Although I honestly don't know if the tactical advantage of having a stranner on the field in general is a good one, the useful pilot, or the uncooperative shmuck.

I feel maybe option c, if he's cooperative and a source of information, that's more important than hijacking a shuttle that's a suicide mission in the making anyway, and they're gonna find the tank destroyer eventually, use the surprise while you have it?
>>
No. 540192 ID: c16a16

As far as plans go, stealing a shuttle has already been pretty much tossed aside.

I'd be wary of revealing the tank destroyer unless some comm-jamming can be done. The Alliance might be all mad about privacy but surely somebody around there is going to have their shit together enough to call the fleet about an unknown/probably-non-Scellor tank destroyer wrecking their shit.

What do you guys think?
>>
No. 540197 ID: cee89f

>As far as plans go, stealing a shuttle has already been pretty much tossed aside.

Agreed. It's pretty much our only shot at taking down the carrier, but we can't use it right now. So yeah, switch out the male prisoner... but make sure we also gag the female prisoner. We're trying to keep the fact we're Tozols secret. Hard to do with a squealing mouse on your back.

But our objective is to sow disarray in their command structure and take down their shields. Bringing Syel in will keep a Tozol (possibly two?) out of that mission and put her (Syel) in unnecessary danger.

Even if we bring the giant shield down, we don't have any guarantee the rest of the shields can't stand against Syel's cannon. Infantry'll die, sure, but you can probably handle those anyway. What about their walkers? They'd probably last long enough to counter-attack, and with the jungle, there's a good chance you'll be cut off even WITH knowledge of the terrain. No, leave Syel behind for now. You'll get your chance, Kaselir, but it's the wrong mission.

...Also, we should check in on Reya before we go in. She's alone with an Ayaar commando... psychic powers or no, you can't underestimate spies and warriors of that caliber.
>>
No. 540215 ID: 4a20fa

>>540188
Since the plan to get under the shield was to be underground, just return/leave the stranners at base?

Only bring the tank destroyer if it fits down the tunnels. If it's got to flee back to base on the surface it'll get spotted and possibly destroyed by aircraft.
>>
No. 540239 ID: 0a84f1

B, bring up the tank destroyer. Just be careful of enemy aircraft.
>>
No. 540243 ID: fee736

C) Both

The Tozol's know their stuff, if plans have shifted slightly then it's probably because this is the most workable way to pull off what we're trying to do. That tank destroyer should also be able to crack any armour or walkers that give the Tozols trouble their infantry can't handle, and, well, it's a tank destroyer - hit and fade. It should be kitted out to disengage rapidly, and the tozol's planning and prepwork incorperate facilitating that.
>>
No. 540247 ID: abd8bf

If there's any situation where the Tank Destroyer would be much of any use, it'd be this one... so plan C.

Also, idea.. seems Psychonnium is if not one thing healthy Tozols need, it's something their metabolisms can very easily break down into something Tozols need, another possible reason to open a dialogue with the Scellor...

Can't guard that spire if the troops are half-starving.
>>
No. 540252 ID: 02a377

Stop cannibalizing another sentient race this instant.

I vote C. But be careful about it. Don't tip your hand.
>>
No. 540257 ID: 226049

B). I can't think of anything else for the tank to be used on. Since we can already take down their mechs and I don't think the scellor have any massive ground targets. Keep the co-operative prisoner with you, since that air carrier has gotta be taken down. Plus having a second shuttle may be useful if it doesn't get used to board the carrier.
>>
No. 540264 ID: 8b9215

B. Time to wreck shit. Above all, don't get hit.
>>
No. 540269 ID: 13a36d

A. The tank hunter will draw too much fire towards it and just make you down a tozol.
>>
No. 540292 ID: 5e2a8d

>>540185
i see that tasteful art in the background
>>
No. 540833 ID: 520645

Voting for A; Rook is too valuable to risk putting in harms way as a shield and door opener here. And I say keep Syel out of this fight. We want to keep the odds the Astranians will attribute what we're gonna do to the Scellor and not a third party as high as possible. A tank killer of obviously non-Scellor origin showing up will blow that chance out of the water.

Make sure the female prisoner is not only gagged, but bound, blindfolded, and stunned right before the fight starts. We do not want her being noisy or struggling in any way once the "party" starts.

Outfit as many tozols with stunners as possible. They'll give us the chance to snap up more shield openers if the opportunity presents itself. And if we run across any command staff or others that may have valuable intel this way we can stun and bag 'em for later interrogation. Also bring extra bags.

If there's smoke bombs or grenades available back at base, Kaselir should bring them back with her. We're gonna need them to hide us if we need to break inside the command walker or a hover-trailer, since the smoke outside won't get in those places. Priority here is to make sure that we're not seen, and those that do see us we kill before they can report a description back.

Ask Reya to ask the Ayaar prisoner about Astranian reactors. Specifically ones of the size that'd be in this command walker and what their catastrophic failure mode is. It may turn out that breaking into the command walker to sneak a timed anti-armor charge onto the reactor core would send the entire enemy ground force up in a mushroom cloud, or at least wreck the command walker for good.

Reya should also ask if the Ayaar prisoner thinks she could still act as a lie detector against an Astranian even without her orel if their heads were put together. Because if it's possible then not only could we find out how Rook is probably going to try and screw us over if we pick up any enemy commanders then we could get intel out of them even while they're uncooperative.

Radio jamming units would be great for this operation, if we have any. Not just to stop the ground forces from radioing back to the command carrier, but to also disrupt local radio communication. It'll keep all units from coordinating, but especially the robotic ones. Keeping those robots from being able to instantly exchange data and intel will be important. If they catch a glimpse of a tozol we do not want that getting out before the 'bot is destroyed.

Best way to set the jamming units up would be at least two high-power directional ones pointed towards the command walker, positioned equidistant from each other, and set to operate in series. If one is destroyed the next one will pop on. But if that setup isn't possible then burying an omni-directional one deep under where the command walker will probably go would work for awhile. They'll have to blow the ground out from under the walker to get to it. Of course these would activate after the minefield does.

Could the Spire's power be ramped up enough to block the Astranian ground forces' communication back to their carrier without causing too many other problems for us?
>>
No. 549916 ID: ba8629
File 138548193502.jpg - (98.13KB , 800x600 , battlequest-2-29.jpg )
549916

While the other tozols finish setting up ambush, Vaejra sends Kaselir back to retrieve her vehicle and swap prisoners. She locks up the valuable, cooperative astranian (who screamed the whole run home), and fires up the tank destroyer.

Kaselir is giddy. Keeping Syel running for the last twenty years hasn't been easy, but the old girl's driving like a dream.

I'm coming for you motherfuckers, she thinks.

The other prisoner, Sout, is tied up in the secondary crew position. She finds little to say.
>>
No. 549917 ID: ba8629
File 138548204737.jpg - (122.83KB , 800x600 , battlequest-2-30.jpg )
549917

The team takes their positions. Kaselir sets up a good pop-up firing position outside the shield. Ota overwatches, detonator in hand. The other four tozols, Rinis, Thaen, Lt. Vaejra, and Baj, hide in spiderholes, near where the action will be. Vaejra's elected to babysit the prisoner.

The walker looms. Birds scatter as its shield passes through thick foliage. The ground shakes with slow, thunderous, wet footsteps.
>>
No. 549919 ID: ba8629
File 138548235929.jpg - (120.52KB , 800x600 , battlequest-2-31.jpg )
549919

Sergeant Ota watches, thumb rested lightly on the detonator.

There's a problem.

The walker has strayed slightly from its expected path. One of its feet might come down on a spiderhole, burying its occupant.

Ota has to make a call. She can jump the gun and detonate the IED early. It probably won't disable the walker, but it will kill and startle nearby astranians, and fill the forcefield with thick smoke to cover the attack.

Instead, she could wait for the best moment. That's more likely to immobilize the walker, but there's a risk it might step on a tozol, probably Rinis or Thaen.
>>
No. 549920 ID: c311d1

... My liking everyone aside, I don't think it's wise to risk a casualty this early into the engagement. Especially if you're still going to attack inside of the shield bubble. While on the other hand a debris/smoke screen would be quite useful in keeping surprise up. Since Kaselir is bringing Syel up as well, bringing down the shield is more important than immobilizing the beast anyway since I'm sure the destroyer can do that easily enough.

My opinion? Detonate it early. Use the smoke/debris as cover for an early assault into the panicked astranians' confusion, try to bring down the shield.
>>
No. 549922 ID: 4a20fa

>>549919
Risk it. This is looking like one of very few chances to disable something that huge and that shielded.
>>
No. 549926 ID: 8b9215

Blow it early. We will do our best to disable the walker manually.
>>
No. 549927 ID: 64dd23

>>549920
i highly doubt a step from that thing can kill a tozol. at most bury them and keep them out of this fight. the issue is that if complete victory isn't accomplished, recovering the tozol will be an issue.

it is, however, very important to destroy that thing. i don't think you'll be able to win the all out fight without a sufficient surprise attack to engage it.
don't blow it early, don't blow anyone's cover, wait for the best opportunity to detonate. if Rinis or Thaen can get out of there unnoticed, good. if not, they should brace for impact.
>>
No. 549930 ID: c16a16

Consider; on top of the chance of a spiderhole getting stepped on, there's a chance of that spiderhole being the one with Vaejra and the prisoner - even if Rinis or Thaen are probably the ones most at risk.
>>
No. 549942 ID: 226049

Advise Rinis and Thaen of the situation, then risk it.
>>
No. 549948 ID: 54af1f

I don't know if we should let the perfect be the enemy of the good here. Unless the Tozol can dig themselves out of a collapsed spider hole it seems like you've got to go early.
>>
No. 549972 ID: cd4d28

>>549919
...Check my thinking here.

We have a way to bring down the walker without this bomb. If we bring down the shield, which is the plan anyway, Kaselir can knock the walker down by shooting its legs with her tank. On the flip side, we only have a few Tozols. Each one we lose is a blow we won't be able to recover from.

Granted, we could probably recover the Tozol in question eventually. But at that point, the enemy knows we're here and we lose an advantage anyway. And the Astranians aren't exactly the friendliest bunch. They could very easily just kill any Tozol they capture.

As such, the risk of losing a Tozol outweighs the benefit of bringing the walker down.

>>549942
Agreed. Warn them if possible, then blow it.
>>
No. 549988 ID: 409746

>>549972

Agreed, the one thing that's keeping the walker safe is the shield.. if we have Tozols under the shield all it'll take is a satchel charge or two to cripple it, and Tozols move damn fast..

I don't trust that any Tozol in a spider-hole will survive being stepped on, not with that kinda mass comming down.

So, try and signal that plan's gone pear-shaped.. blow early, try for the shield generator or a crippling blow with the Tozols under the shield.. whichever is most expedient.. let Kaselir take her shots of opportunity.
>>
No. 549993 ID: 7bbaae

Blowing it early and taking out the shields is fine since we have the tank here, which can strike the mech to disable it as if we blew the bomb not-early.
>>
No. 550039 ID: 96b823

Detonate the IED early. The objective to take out the walker's shields so Kaselir can open fire is more important than immobilizing that lumbering beast, and that requires mobile tozols. Risking taking one out of the fight before the battle even begins is an unacceptable risk to completing that vital objective.

The walker is very likely going to be holding still during the whole battle, so Kaselir can pre-target on one of it's leg joints and make blowing that away her opening shot as soon as the shield drops. That'll likely end up immobilizing the walker more than the IED anyway.

>>549972
Uh, did you misread >>549942? 'Cause if you agree with >>549942 then that runs counter to the rest of your suggestion, since >>549942 appears to be in favor of waiting for the best moment to detonate and risk a tozol getting stepped on.
>>
No. 550079 ID: 64dd23

>>549988
you are seriously underestimating tozols and overestimating the rigidity of the mud under them.
>>
No. 550084 ID: cee89f

>>550079
I would contend that you underestimate the strength and weight of a giant walker stepping on someone and possibly collapsing while still on top of them, if we're particularly unlucky.

Tozols are tough but there are limits even for them.

>>550039
......

Yes, yes I did misread it. *facepalm* I thought 'risk it' meant 'risk the walker get away'. Thanks for pointing out that out.

I still think that we should warn them before blowing it.
>>
No. 550160 ID: 2f4b71

>>549988
>the one thing that's keeping the walker safe is the shield
And any armouring of the walker itself. It would be damn embarrassing for Tozols to get stuck inside the shield without anything powerful enough to take out the generator.
>>
No. 550357 ID: ba8629
File 138581680275.jpg - (72.92KB , 600x500 , battlequest-2-32_fuckit.jpg )
550357

>we should warn them before blowing it
No can do.

Ota waits for the shield to pass over her position, still too soon to hurt the command walker, and triggers the charge.

Here goes everything.
>>
No. 550358 ID: ba8629
File 138581683483.jpg - (75.86KB , 800x600 , battlequest-2-33.jpg )
550358

A terrible noise splits the earth, churning mud and targets skywards.
>>
No. 550360 ID: ba8629
File 138581724113.jpg - (54.45KB , 800x600 , battlequest-2-34.jpg )
550360

A thick blanket of smoke rolls in like a fog in fast motion.

Twenty antivehicle and dozens of antipersonnel mines are now armed.
>>
No. 550361 ID: ba8629
File 138581736244.jpg - (38.63KB , 800x600 , battlequest-2-35.jpg )
550361

The explosion, still thundering, masks the rush of air and rapid footfalls of high-speed tozols.

Coordinating in ultrasonic battle-language, the team rapidly assesses the situation. It's crowded inside the shield, but they knew that already. Around them are five combat walkers, eleven active Astranian marines, and fifty-eight combat robots, not counting whatever's inside the eight boxy hover-trailers arrayed behind the unharmed command walker.

Locations: Everything is right next to everything else, all distances are point blank, and the team can reach anything in seconds.

Please suggest an action.
>>
No. 550364 ID: 1ab2ad

As tempting as it is to kill every last soul inside, it's not very viable, I don't think. Not right now anyway. Priorities I feel would be to find some way to drop the shield for Kaselir, followed by disabling the drone/robot controls if that's available. Remove their strongest assets. Even if it's just locally.
>>
No. 550365 ID: 54af1f

Get to the walker. Kill anyone who tries to stop you or seems organized.
>>
No. 550371 ID: 4a20fa

>>550365
That.

Try not to be seen by anyone who's not dead shortly thereafter. Ideally we want them to conclude that the Scellor did this.
>>
No. 550373 ID: c16a16

>>550364
>>550365

Seconding. Top priority is to get to the command walker and disable its shields, so that Kaselir can provide effective supporting fire.
>>
No. 550374 ID: 13a36d

Do a suicide attack
>>
No. 550376 ID: 8b9215

Nades under hover thingys. Take shots at anything you pass as you get inside the walker. You need that shield down.

If the mechs don't have their shields up, add them to your list of things to shoot at while running.
>>
No. 550383 ID: cee89f

>>550365
>>550373
Agreed. Focus on bringing down the shield. I would also like to recommend you don't take shots or attack anything if it can't see what you are.

Once the shield is down, feel free to teach them how a soldier is supposed to fight.
>>
No. 550415 ID: 1f8505

>>550361

Attempt to hijack one of the mechanized units and turn it against the Astranians.
>>
No. 550426 ID: c23ab0

Don't attempt to hijack anything they're gene locked. Just fuck up the shield generator.
>>
No. 550443 ID: ba8629
File 138589071443.jpg - (81.44KB , 800x600 , battlequest-2-36.jpg )
550443

The tozol battle language rises like a song: An instinctive, encrypted, transcendental, high-bandwidth exchange of perception and intention.

>Kill anyone who tries to stop you or seems organized.
No one is trying to stop them. The enemy is still assessing the blast. They aren't moving around much, perhaps aware of the mine threat, perhaps awaiting instructions, perhaps just confused.

The tozols search for anyone who looks to be in charge, but radio traffic suggests the command walker is managing them down to the squad level.
>>
No. 550444 ID: ba8629
File 138589074307.jpg - (94.09KB , 800x600 , battlequest-2-37.jpg )
550444

The team ascends the walker, careful not to alert anyone or snap the prisoner's fragile neck.
>>
No. 550445 ID: ba8629
File 138589080389.jpg - (83.45KB , 800x600 , battlequest-2-38.jpg )
550445

"Not seeing any sign we were spotted. Pretty ninja, so far," says Ota.

"Fucking yes," whispers Baj. "I can't believe we just-"

"How's it going with the lock?" interrupts Rinis.

"One moment," says Vaejra, pressing the prisoner's hand to a palm scanner. "The door should open in moments."

"How do you want it?" asks Thaen.

No one knows the walker's internal layout or how to disable the shields, but guidelines can be useful.
>>
No. 550446 ID: fce8ce

>>550445
blowing it up sounds like a good enough idea.

an even better one would be to commandeer it, i guess, but it's not a very tozol sort of tool.
>>
No. 550447 ID: 829d36

Possibilities...

1) Go for command-central, try and power-down on command.

2) Try and isolate and destroy the shield generators.

3) Find main power and destroy/deactivate that.


#1 I would put at lowest priority, too many failsafes in 'stranner tech to make that a convinient option.

#2 or #3 depends. #3 might be harder to find but would completely disable the walker.. at least for awhile. The Shield, the weapons, the C3, everything. #2, I think the shield generators may be external, like on top of the walker.. might not need to navigate the interior at all to take that out, and anyway there's Kaselir out there waiting to drop the big bastard.
>>
No. 550450 ID: 34b2f2

Smashing everything is tempting, but impractical due to lack of specs and the possibility of failsafes. Triggering a self-destruct or reactor explosion or something could be unfortunate.

I'd say neutralize personnel as a primary focus and then asses the walker for vulnerabilities. Neutralize doesn't necessarily mean kill, member of staff could be useful, but we don't want any transmissions getting out so take no chances. Keep an eye out for anything that might be coordinating those combat robots. Remote self-destruct/shutdown would be ideal, but anything that would reduce their combat effectiveness would be welcome.
>>
No. 550452 ID: 4a20fa

We've got enough captives. Find the biggest glowy thing and cover it in explosives, probably somewhere in the middle. Kill anyone you can't ninja past.
>>
No. 550453 ID: c16a16

Not even the prisoner has any idea? Figures. if I had to guess though - this thing is a walking dome, from what I remember - it probably has a bunch of primary ring corridors that run all the way around, with stuff branching off that.

Important shit'll probably be close to the center. Easy to defend and rally forces about quickly in case of a critical breach.
>>
No. 550454 ID: 54af1f

Look for the control room. Just go as quickly and explosively as possible. Astrans don't seem all that organized. Exploit their cowardice against them.
>>
No. 550455 ID: 1ab2ad

Fuck yes I love you guys so much.

Although I don't think anyone can speak 'stranner? Which is unfortunate, since I'd say ask that prisoner what the layout looked like.

I still hold that trying to find a power source and disabling it would be a good idea. No explosives unless necessary, the quieter the better. Might bring the shield down AND get the walker to stop moving, which would be super good great.

Kill only if necessary, the less noise you make or have to make until things get really loud, ultimately, the better.
>>
No. 550466 ID: cee89f

>>550455
They SHOULDN'T be able to speak Astranian given they didn't know what they were, but judging from the fact that they could tell what the three walkers were saying during first contact I'd say the Astranians are speaking basic. Or tozols can translate everything they hear/see.

>>550445
...Well, my recommendation is simple: find something that looks big and important and shoot it. If nothing else you could potentially melt the walker's controls to slag.
>>
No. 550473 ID: 96b823

Stealth it up for as long as possible and get as far in as you can without detection, otherwise we're gonna have to punch through all the internal defenses. Unfortunately that may not be possible if this entrance has a camera or sentry watching from the other side. You won't have the benefit of smoke to hide your entrance up here like you did below.

Speaking of smoke, did you bring smoke grenades? Even if your presence is known they'll still be useful in a fight.

Alright, we can make some informed guesses about the internal design of this command walker; Run them by Rinis in case she spots any flaws. It's dome shaped so the assumption is there's concentric ring corridors on each level with offset spoke hallways between them. The most hardened and armored locations would be in the center. Presumably those are the power core and command center. But we've seen that the shield generators are mounted on or near the exterior, so that means there's big, fat power conduits leading from the core to them. And they likely follow the near-shortest path from core to shields, so their position can be estimated.

So target the power conduits running from the core to the shield generators. They'll be less protected than the power core itself. Rinis can make a guess as to their general location, and from there you can use your senses to detect the EM flux or whatever of them to zero in.

Potential next targets would be the power conduits running to the walker's weaponry and its leg drives. In fact, getting near the core and destroying all the conduits leading out of it would be quite effective.

Also, how possible and risky would it be for you to hook your cybernetic computer interface into the walker's internal network at some point and attempt to hack some of its systems?

...Wait a sec... How come the lock here is accepting our prisoner's palm print? You'd expect a MIA unit such as her to have had her security access frozen by now to prevent exactly what you're doing... Or marked to raise a silent alert and flag it for immediate investigation when it is. Though, it wouldn't be surprising if the palm scanner just checks if the palm is an Astranian's.
>>
No. 550506 ID: e511a3

blast the bits that look important, kill all officers as rapidly as possible.
>>
No. 550524 ID: 617d93

Also remember, the Stranners are heavily dependent on robots.. anybody remember to bring EMP charges?
>>
No. 550903 ID: 8b9215

Prisoners, prisoners, prisoners, and more prisoners. Take fucking everyone captive. Blow the bots. Get to the control room and shut the thing down.

We've killed 2 so far. Try to keep it small in case we can get the astranians to fuck off our planet.
>>
No. 550904 ID: cee89f

>>550903
Interrogation 101: The most important thing that you do to whomever you're interrogating is to isolate them, mentally and physically. Getting an additional batch of prisoners just gives the Astranians we have more opportunity and motivation to escape. It's not like we can hide that we're taking more than just Sout back with us.

Moreover, how exactly would we be able to take them back? It's not like we planned to contain half a dozen Astranians (in the middle of a battlefield with hundreds, i might add) we came to blow shit up.

Taking all bets! Odds of running into the other Sout, now that we have his mate with us.
>>
No. 551035 ID: 34b2f2

There's a middle ground between killing or avoiding everyone and everything and cuddle-hugging a giant pile of tiny furries all day long, and it's quick, violent interrogation.

See an isolated Astranian? Grab them, disable their com equipment, make one or two to the point inquiries. If they don't talk immediately, kill them. If they do, still kill them, we don't need more long-term captives.
>>
No. 555109 ID: ea42cb

>MIA Palm Print Accepted.
IT'S A TRAP!
>>
No. 555111 ID: ea42cb

>>555109
More seriously, head in quietly, hit anything which looks like a power system or ammo dump, capture anyone who looks even vaguely important*, grab a shuttle and GTFO. Be ready to leg it if this does turn out to be a trap.

* Quite aside from the info thing, if we ever have Tozols taken captive, we could have a prisoner exchange.
>>
No. 570197 ID: ba8629
File 139730383055.jpg - (75.43KB , 800x600 , battlequest-2-39.jpg )
570197

>Stealth it up for as long as possible and get as far in as you can without detection
>Neutralize personnel as a primary focus
>Find the biggest glowy thing and cover it in explosives, probably somewhere in the middle. Kill anyone you can't ninja past.

"Quietly at first," says Lt. Vaejra. "Bypass the chaff. Try to ambush shielded targets."

The tozols don't know how effective their weapons are against shielded Astranian marines. They want to go into their first fight with as big an advantages as possible, in case the answer is 'not at all.'

Baj keeps his own shield generator switched off. The squad only has the one, and nobody else wanted it since it lights up sensors and might not help at all.

>Grenades?
The tozols have flashburn, frag, and smoke grenades, and a single Antitank grenade apiece.

>EMP?
Flashburns and AT grenades produce some EMP, but it might do nothing.
>>
No. 570200 ID: ba8629
File 139730404383.jpg - (83.69KB , 800x600 , battlequest-2-40.jpg )
570200

The five creep silently, avoiding compartments that sound occupied. The walker's smooth, sparse, and sterile inside, but not clean enough to trick a tozol nose.

"I think ten Stranners," whispers Thaen.
"I call it twenty," says Ota. "Rinis?"
"Using mask canisters," says Rinis. "First contact situation."
Vaejra suspects fifteen. Any or all could have shields, in addition to other duties.

The tozols don't trust themselves to hack alien hardware, and didn't bring a jammer because they didn't think it would work. If they want to interrupt enemy commands, they'll need to knife a commander.

From muffled voices, blindsight mapping, and energy signatures, the the team guesses the command deck is near the top of the vehicle, and the reactor room near the belly.

They can rush for one of those, or stay quiet and hunt for marines.
>>
No. 570203 ID: 1ab2ad

All three are tempting enough.. The problem is incase their shields are stronger than the tozol's weapons.. If we had any details on that, I'd just say kill the marines. Less resistance on exfiltration...

As tempting as the reactor is, in retrospect, might be a bad idea. Blowing something that large and probably powerfully unpredictable, is literally suicide..

So to the command deck, cutting down the senior staff and electrically disabling the thing instead of physically would (probably) be safest, and probably one or two marines to get combat data on instead of just trying to stomp on a whole group from the start. Might also provide the most data if it's possible to even get any. Don't think taking prisoners would be a good idea though. Last thing they need is to drag off a high profile target to make themselves a big bright target.

Problem is getting out again while making sure the thing stays down though. Especially since they'll know where the tozols are afterwards. might be easy to be trapped (or trap) depending on the internal structure of this thing.
>>
No. 570206 ID: 54af1f

Hunt down the marines first, then hit the command room.
>>
No. 570208 ID: f290a2

>>570200
i'm worried the command would have shields as well. getting all the way to the command and finding out that you can't kill anyone would suck pretty bad.
>>
No. 570210 ID: 4a20fa

>>570200
><TestPattern> Argh I forgot to mention that they packed explsoives too.
Huge explosions are the solution to all problems. Go cover the reactor in little blinky-light hugs, and we should be able to cripple the command team('s ability to command) as well when it pops.
>>
No. 570214 ID: cee89f

>>570200
Remember, our mission (for now) is to bring down the walker's shield so that Kaselir can start hunting. The fact that she could blow up the walker's legs to bring it down is half the reason we decided it was okay to blow early. Go for the reactor first.

Hell, if we can find a way to make the entire walker blow up, that'd be even better =3
>>
No. 570236 ID: 6ac26d

If the marines are suited-up there's no real way to take them out 'on the quiet'.

Command deck, that could get noisy real quick, and potentially for not much gain given all the gene-locked equipment.

I vote, reactor.
>>
No. 570242 ID: ba8629

Either the command room or the reactor room is good, but don't hang about trying to pick off marines. They're probably annoyingly hard to kill!
>>
No. 570243 ID: 0df3a1

Hmm...

>The Astranian Alliance: A spiteful people boasting mechanization, automation, heavy weaponry, and technology far beyond their peers. But, for all their technical skill, they are physically weak, complacent, greedy, arrogant, and prone to infighting.

>>greedy, arrogant, and prone to infighting.

I think we could do more lasting damage by blowing up their command centre upstairs. Even if we have to bug out and flee, or worst case scenario: all die, we'll be leaving the ground Stranner units completely isolated and without orders. Who knows what will happen then? Maybe they'll ragequit the battlefield. Maybe I'm completely wrong.

Imma vote for heading straight to the command deck upstairs. Try to avoid the marines.
>>
No. 570264 ID: a5c85a

Head up to command deck. Take over the walker. Avoid killing or fighting as much as possible. If confronted, attempt to disarm/disable.
>>
No. 570281 ID: d0e0a2

That 10 to 20 estimate doesn't include mechanicals, though. As we've seen, 'Stranners love to throw around combat 'bots. It'd be very surprising if there weren't any in here just waiting to pop out, or some kind of internal defense with auto-turrets. Perhaps combined with shield gens in the corridors.

>>570214
Yep, that's the reason we came here. Turning off the shields from the command deck is a no-go 'cause we don't have any idea what kind of locks are on the controls. The reactor is the most direct way. Take out the power conduits to the shield gens. Then when the shields go down Kaselir can blow out one of the walker's knees; Tip the whole thing over and send it crashing onto the enemy forces below. That'd also make the interior much harder for the Astranians to traverse and fight in.

Voting for reactor.
>>
No. 570285 ID: 2c6ff1

>>570200
Head for the reactor room. If we don't secure it, the enemy can blow up the mech as a last ditch method while we're still in it.
>>
No. 570547 ID: 6c6fbc

Hit the power conduits.
>>
No. 570613 ID: ba8629
File 139748064870.jpg - (82.59KB , 800x600 , battlequest-2-41.jpg )
570613

>Our mission is to bring down the shields.
The tozols aren't sure how to do that directly, without clambering onto the walker's roof. That could be a problem, since they were hoping for Kaselir to cover their escape.

Cutting the power should do the trick. They aren't sure how to do that either, but at least they know where to look. The reactor's energy signature is detectable through dozens of deck and wall plates.

The squad packed satchel charges with radio/timed detonators. They weren't listed earlier because they aren't grenades. At least not by design. Tozols can throw just about anything smaller than themselves and not welded down. (And thanks to weasel bars, welds are a temporary problem.)

They make for the reactor room. They have to pry two sets of doors apart on the way. If the enemy's sounded an alarm, it's a silent one, but it's only a matter of time before they realize what's going on.
>>
No. 570615 ID: ba8629
File 139748067072.jpg - (88.01KB , 700x600 , battlequest-2-42.jpg )
570615

4 signatures, tailsigns Thaen. 1 robot/1 marine/2 soft targets.

The team pauses outside, building a mental picture of the engineering space.

Getting through the door in a hurry will be challenging. Explosives are risky and might not work, while prying it open will consume many precious seconds. There also appears to be a second entrance of some kind. Splitting a few tozols off to find those doors and ingress from there increases risk of detection, but has obvious benefits.

They absolutely no idea what the reactor is, how it works, how well protected, or how it might react to stray shots.
>>
No. 570617 ID: 1cbcf1

That soft one on the left worries me terribly. It's behind some sort of door or airlock and being in the reactor means they're a techie of some sort. At best they might be able to seal the door and sound the alarm but that's enough to fuck everything to hell.
It also looks like they've anticipated our arrival. The bot appears to be covering the doorway and the marine is hanging back covering the scientist while the scientists are doing science stuff to protect the reactor. Could just be the way they're stationed normally, but I wouldn't put it past them to have noticed us and taken positions.
By the way, how fast can we exfil? We really don't want to be anywhere near the core if we blow it, but if we just want to damage the conduits, that'd be safer, faster, and more efficient. The problem is finding out which tubes are conduits and which ones are coolant lines, or the spehss equivalent.
>>
No. 570623 ID: 2a806e

Most likely it will react to stray fire by exploding, but it's entirely possible the reactor has its own shielding.

Bot'll probably notice if you cut through right there, unless weaselbar cutting is super-quiet?

No guarantee the other door will be easily opened though either, nevermind getting to it will require going through other doors. No chance the hostage could be used on this one?
>>
No. 570624 ID: 54af1f

Focus fire on the robot and the marine, those have shielding, the others probably don't. Cover the left doorway with whichever weapon is least good at shield penetration.
>>
No. 570625 ID: 54af1f

What's beyond the door over to your right?

I'd suggest breaching the door with a charge. You guys have frame charges right?
>>
No. 570626 ID: 54af1f

Triple post but double up the explosive on the door so you're very sure it'll be knocked in. The reactor can't be *that* fragile even on an Astrian walker.
>>
No. 570627 ID: fa1499

we still have the 'stranner POW, Can we use her to open the doors like upstairs?

That marine is too cozy in his corner, I'm voting for continuing the exterior sweep to cover the other entrance and build-up map data before locking-in a battleplan.
>>
No. 570628 ID: fa1499

Also.. how is this place set-up for ventilation or utility acces?

Sure, a Tozol would never design a system that would allow the old 'creeping through the duct-work' cliche, but these aren't Tozols.. and from past experience they're not all that operationally savvy.
>>
No. 570633 ID: a5c85a

Split and send two tozols to see if you can find a short path to that other door. If it will take more than 20 seconds, forget about it.

Waste the bots. Try to disable rather than kill anything living. Soft targets you can probably get away with telling them to surrender. For the marine, strip shield and weapons and it will get the idea.
>>
No. 570637 ID: cee89f

Don't split up - the other door probably has protection as well. You'll probably have to blow the door to get through anyway.

Okay. Here's a plan (feel free to critique, add, or adjust as you will)

First, when you get through the door check the marine for shielding. If he doesn't have it up, focus fire and kill him first before he can get it up. Then the robot, followed by the soft targets. Destroy any cameras as well.

If the marine is shielded, first kill the robot. Then, the soft targets and the cameras. Then, have 3 focus on the marine while the other goes to plant charges on the reactor. Make sure to put yourselves between the reactor and the marine: if his weapon is likely to blow the reactor, he'll fire less if at all.

Once all of the hostiles are dead, have all four tozols plant the charges, keeping blindsight up for foes. You should then probably get out of the walker as quickly as possible.

Alternatively, we could try to capture the soft targets and threaten them to turn off the shield, at which point we destroy the console so it can't be reversed. But this seems risky, as it relies on the foe being just as cowardly as Rook, if not moreso.
>>
No. 570660 ID: 4a20fa

>>570615
Blow the door and antitank grenade the bot (assuming you can't just lance it through the door) because it's probably the only thing fast enough to react to tozols. One of you to the left to stop the isolatable stranner doing anything, the rest on the marine. Lob flash or smoke if the opportunity arises. It doesn't look like either party has worthwhile cover so with luck four near-simultaneous highly mobile targets firing at/closing on them will make it difficult to react coherently.
>>
No. 570689 ID: cee89f

>>570637
Er, sorry, I miscounted. I meant ONE goes to plant the charges and the other four do the things.
>>
No. 570769 ID: 2c6ff1

What's with those red lines amongst the walls? Indication this is using blindsight? What I want to know is why you can see so far into that room but nothing past the other door. Get a read on what's past the other door; if it's clear go on in and use the second entry to surround them. If it's FULL of enemy units then they're planning to surround you and maybe use the reactor to irradiate you. I don't expect them to blow it up to kill you lot because they have no indication you're dangerous enough for that to be needed. However, being surrounded is bad, so you should probably try to sabotage the door in that case to keep that from happening, and get into the reactor room before they can reinforce it much. I say get in, take down the bot hard and fast, then nail the marine and capture the scientist by the closer control panel while two others go to take care of whoever's in that side room.

We get the scientist to... uh, actually you know what I'm sure the scientist would only hamper us in trying to shut down the reactor. Maybe you should just shoot everyone and get your captive to translate the controls.
>>
No. 570801 ID: d477fa

The bot is probably the least threatening thing there, if it's anything like the bots that assisted the downed mech-pilots.

If the soft targets have any of those insta-gib sidearms it would be the ultimate foolishness not to splatter them on sight.

Looks like there's a door immediately to the right of our position. Could be a closet, could be a hallway running right past the second entrance.

Scout that shit!

If it is a quick way to the second entrance, here's a plan.

One or two tozols hang back and set up charges on door #1, the rest head for door #2. Blow door #1 and try and snipe the bot but don't enter, use that as a distraction while prying open door #2 then all focus-fire on the marine (and be sure to take pot-shots at any squishies that poke their head out.)

Pushing everyone through door #1 is unideal, sure we could EatFuck the bot easily enough but then we'd be in a perfect position for the marine to pin us down.
>>
No. 570810 ID: 54af1f

Thinking about it a bit, let's do a multi door breach. Move one element up to the other door, attach explosives to both. Breach both, kill the marine and the robot, then soft targets.

Simple.
>>
No. 570883 ID: 39a45c

Blowing up one door can serve as a good distraction while you assault from the other, if you can force it open fast enough.
>>
No. 571009 ID: 3068fa

>>570883

The tactical briefs delays in the order of Seconds for just prying a door open. A sufficiently loud BANG on the opposite end of the room should provide enough distraction to cover those precious seconds.
>>
No. 571216 ID: d2af1b

So...

Recon towards the second door.

If access is unobstructed, set charges on first door, detail one or two Tozols to hold at that breach and engage targets of opportunity (i.e. snipe the bot.)

On detonation, remaining tozols manually breech the second door and attack focusing on the marine.

Once Marine is down, standard room-clearing formation and link-up with Tozols at first door, take out last squishy, prepare BANG party on reactor.

EXFILTRATE!


Sound like a plan?
>>
No. 571251 ID: 6c6fbc

>>571009
>>571216
Either of these is good from my viewpoint.
>>
No. 571460 ID: ba8629
File 139790426357.jpg - (105.44KB , 700x600 , battlequest-2-43.jpg )
571460

>Ventilation ducts
Nothing his tozols can fit through. Not with equipment.
>What I want to know is why you can see so far into that room but nothing past the other door.
A tozol's signal processing abilities are finite. Mapping rooms through bulkheads using only passive senses is difficult.

>split up to breach both doors at once
>two tozols per door
That makes sense. It's a tight space, and someone should pull security instead of going in. Baj's blindsight is probably nowhere near as clear as the others. He's never trained in terrain like this. (There was nowhere to train. Only the Spire has enough metal, but that's like learning to fly a kite in a tornado) The older tozols are merely rusty.

Yeah. Better go in with two at each entrance.

Vaejra takes Rinis with him to try the other door. Luckily, it's just a straight shot through two doors. These they opened as quietly as possible, but not in silence. Better make this quick.
>>
No. 571461 ID: ba8629
File 139790432908.jpg - (74.26KB , 800x600 , battlequest-2-44.jpg )
571461

Ota's pretty sure they can blow through both doorways without expending too much explosive. Vaejra needs to decide whether to blast both entryways at once, to maximize speed, shock, and surprise... or distract with a bomb at one entrance, then attack first from where they (hopefully) aren't looking.

He must also consider how best to engage the targets themselves. The bot and the soft targets should each go down with a headshot, but the Marine's shields are a dangerous question that must be answered.

The current breaching elements:
Door 1:
-Sgt Ota with a fusion rifle (a beefy, slow-firing, mid-ranged thunderstick) and a paralyzer.
-Thaen with a laser (long-ranged precision weapon) and a plasma gun (short-ranged blasty sidearm) and no idea which is better against astranian shields.
Door 2:
-Lt Vaejra with an autocannon (currently loaded with armor piercing sabots) and a paralyzer.
-Rinis with another fusion rifle, and a pulsar (fast-firing mid-ranged energy sidearm). Pulsars sometimes have usefully weird effects on exotic technology, but she trusts in the whispers of her rifle.

All have grenades. Flashburns are standard to deplete force fields, but that might not work. An antitank grenade is almost guaranteed overkill, but that might be suicide with the reactor right here.

Vaejra isn't worried about stray shots from his team. Any tozol worth their lanthanides won't make those. However, fragments, ricochets, and return fire they have less control over.
>>
No. 571463 ID: 2a806e

>>571461

Delay. Blow the east door first, so that the marine and the bot bring their attention away from the southern door. Hit the marine with distraction of kinetic and energy fire. Then blast the other door and smack them in the back with main energy fire. Marine will be forced to turn and engage the new (higher-priority) threat. Concentrate energy fire again. Once shields are weakened or broken by energy fire, kinetic fire to faceplate/dome.

Bot can be splashed by team 1 - it'll probably have to move up towards team 2 to get a shot on them, so it will have its back turned when team 1 breaches. Soft target in the main area is probably low priority, but hard to tell. If they get torched by convection or the Marine exploding or something, well, shit happens.
>>
No. 571464 ID: 4a20fa

>>571461
>blast both entryways at once, to maximize speed, shock, and surprise
Yes.

Ota: Fusion Rifle, on the bot first then the marine if it's still standing.
Thaen: Head left for that one dude in the little room and plasma them. Potshot the bot on the way if opportune.
Vaejra: Open with a flashburn, then autocannon on the marine.
Rinis: THE GUN IS GOOD.

If the Marine is still firing back after Ota gets her shot at it, we're ATing that fucker in the face. From Ota, so as to not use the reactor as a backstop.
>>
No. 571465 ID: 54af1f

Blast both doors at once. If you don't fully breach then fire into the room through the hole and clear the room externally. Don't stick around in the fatal funnel of the door trying to break it more open. Do external clearance through the holes.

Select your short distance weapons for this breach.
>>
No. 571481 ID: 730040

Blow both doors as simultaneously as possible.

Door 2: After breach lead with flashburn, focus-fire on Marine until ded.

Door 1: Thaen and Ota focus-fire on the bot, wait for flashburn, then move up into the entryway and sight right. Ota fire on Marine, Thaen lases the squishy. Once squishy is dead Thaen moves attention to cover the room the last squishy is in while Ota continues suppressing the marine.

After immediate hostiles are suppressed, Tozol pair with most experience with demo sits tight while the other pair moves in to sweep the last room and murder that squishy. Once clear, expedite BANG party.
>>
No. 571491 ID: cee89f

>>571461

Blow the southern door first and take down the bot. Blowing up the northern door will get the marine on your ass, but southern will get him moving out of position. Blowing up both may confuse the enemy, but their actions would then become less predictable.

South door: Get the bot, then move up and focus down the marine. If the door isn't fully breached, focus down the bot and have one tozol open the door further while the other fires on anything dumb enough to go after you.

North door: Spare a shot for the soft target, but then focus down the marine. We need to ascertain as soon as possible which weapons are most effective against enemy shields.

Baj: Be ready for anything, and observe as much as you can. You're gonna have to learn under fire.

On that note, Weapons:
Ota: Fusion rifle. We're not taking prisoners this time.
Rinis: Pulsar sidearm. Ota already has a fusion rifle.
Vaejra: Autocannon. Make the marine go boom until there's no more anything.
Thaen: Plasma gun. You're fighting in close quarters and should act as such. If we knew lasers had a greater effect, it'd be a different story, but we don't.
>>
No. 571567 ID: a5c85a

Blow south door, blitz, wait half a second, blow east door, blitz.

I would have liked both fusion rifles on the marine. If it isn't too late to swap, do that.

Waste the bot outright. Squishies, try to not kill them. You have the accuracy to shoot any weapons they have rather than them. Breach the west room as soon as you can without risking being shot.

Consider it a show of force for each person you subdued or disabled instead of killing.
>>
No. 571582 ID: 730040

This is not puppy-pickup ops, this is superblack search-and-destroy ops. We're not hear to be carebears, we're here to EAT-FUCK THESE MOTHERFUCKERS.

*ahem*

Seriously, we don't have the time or resources to worry about collecting fresh prisoners, and leaving them laying about unconscious when we blow this popsicle stand is just plain cruel.

Not to mention those squishies might be carrying sidearms, sidearms that can splat a Tozol in one shot.

As Jr. Gong said, "Make et Bun Dem."
>>
No. 571590 ID: ba8629

>>571461
Delay. The stranners are fucking idiots - they'll fall for a simple ruse like that hook, line, and sinker.
>>
No. 571596 ID: cee89f

>>571567
>Leave them alive
Unless we're taking prisoners I'm not sure that's a good idea. It's not our primary goal to remain undetected or to make this look like a Scellor attack, but we should do so if we can, right?
>>
No. 571673 ID: 2a806e

>>571582

Indeed. Having one that knows how to operate the reactor systems might be useful, but ultimately not an especially high priority.
>>
No. 571682 ID: 1628c0

>>571463
This is best.
If the soft is a non-combatant focus on the marine so the soft can get out of the way, and if they are combatants it gives the other soft a chance to move into the main room right in front of the second breach.
Also if the softs are non_com we can capture them if need be.
>>
No. 571683 ID: 6c6fbc

>>571673
I disagree. A reactor tech might have the knowledge how to blow the fucker sky high while leaving us a window to run, not just cut the power and leave. Might be the most valuable thing in the room.
>>
No. 571690 ID: cee89f

>>571683
I thought we were planting a bomb on it and putting THAT on a timer that would give us a window to run?
>>
No. 571699 ID: 2a806e

>>571683

Causing an explosion should be relatively simple; unlikely they know much about how it actually works. But having one that knows what all the stuff on the consoles means and how to operate it would be helpful.
>>
No. 571782 ID: 730040

We're just gonna blow everything up, we don't need to know how it works to do that.

Taking steps to try and safely subdue (a creature who's increadibly fragile) without casualties (a creature who may have a very compact insta-jib weapon on them) a new prisoner (who'll take time to break/interrogate) who may not be useful (our sample-size of 2 shows 50% chance of either total cooperation or absolute intransigence) is not a good allocation of our time.

Remember, every second we waste here is a second the enemy has to re-organize the troops outside who are still befuddled by the huge-ass IED we detonated out there.
>>
No. 571812 ID: 6c6fbc

>>571782
If we know how it works, we can make a better boom.
>>
No. 571848 ID: 7f15d5

>>571812

Really, you think we actually have a snowball's chance of extracting useful intel from one of the squishy targets that will allow us to make boom superior to the boom Tozol demolitions training could provide, and do so in a timely manner?

Remember, (update schedule notwithstanding) this isn't a super-silent 'nobody suspects a thing' op. This is an ambush op, we ambushed them with the Super-IED and we're burning precious seconds while the enemy is all 'Guuuh-Gwah!' before they get their shit together.

What if the kind of info you think we need requires a sit down and pour-over of remedial Astranian reactor-engineering 101? What if the squishy flat refuses to cooperate? Or worse, pretends to cooperate and feeds us nonsense and filibuster to buy time for a full squad of marines to come down on us?

We're Tozols, we're awesome, but we're not invincible. This is not a cheesy 80's action-movie.
>>
No. 571878 ID: ba8629

((Friendly reminder: Discussion goes in the discussion thread: http://tgchan.org/kusaba/questdis/res/45791.html ))
>>
No. 571903 ID: 6c6fbc

>>571848
>What if the kind of info you think we need requires a sit down and pour-over of remedial Astranian reactor-engineering 101?
Than we've not gained much useful this trip, but the squishy might be worth taking home and interrogating later, as said knowledge may prove useful in the long term, not just now.
>What if the squishy flat refuses to cooperate?
Than we take him home, like I said and study him at our leisure.
>Or worse, pretends to cooperate and feeds us nonsense and filibuster to buy time for a full squad of marines to come down on us?
Risk we'll have to take.
>>
No. 572024 ID: a54ae1

>>571903

No.

No-no-no-no-no.

It is NOT a risk we have to take.

It is almost certainly a risk we should Not take.

And shouldn't we be taking this to the discussion thread?
>>
No. 572025 ID: ca65e6

I have to agree with skipping a field interrogation. Take a captive if it's convenient (is there more rope to secure one to another Tozol's back?)- a scientist captive could be useful later.
>>
No. 572026 ID: fee736

Taking prisoners is purely on a 'if reasonably practical' level of priority. If we can nab one for negligible cost in time or risk, only then *might* it be worth it. Otherwise, neutralise everything that moves in that room as efficently as possible; this is already a high-risk mission, no need roll more dice than we have to.
>>
No. 572893 ID: 6c6fbc

Can we come to a conclusion so that the quest can get moving again?
>>
No. 572932 ID: cee89f

>>572893
I thought we had, and were just waiting on TestPattern/Lonelyworld =/ We're going in, killing everything and placing a satchel charge.
>>
No. 575098 ID: f08e35

Scellor are aggressive expansionists with no fear of death, granted, but they're not xenophobes, and they don't know what orders you're operating under or who kicked that volcano onto their camp. Talk to the scellor prisoner, propose some straightforward contract mercenary work. You help them blow up stranners, they pay you by importing specific exotic materials (baby tozol ingredients, although they don't need to know what you need the stuff for). Once tenatative terms of alliance are worked out, press for information about their strategic interest in the spire, on the pretext that it'll be easier to recognize the best opportunities to earn your pay if you know what your employer most wants.

Ideally, work out the timing sudh that you're 'on the clock' when that big walker explodes, and the scellor think taking it out was their own idea.
>>
No. 577493 ID: ba8629
File 140212594003.jpg - (98.28KB , 800x600 , battlequest-2-45.jpg )
577493

The charges detonate.
>>
No. 577494 ID: ba8629
File 140212595005.jpg - (78.44KB , 800x600 , battlequest-2-46.jpg )
577494

The soft target goes flying. Before it has time to inhale a scream, Vaejra's flashburn, pitched through the blast, lights up. The marine's shields flare. The soft target is now on fire.

Meanwhile, Ota takes no chances with the robot. Her fusion rifle sounds a thunderclap. The bot explodes. Thaen moves in with his plasgun drawn, but there's nothing left to engage, save the marine.
>>
No. 577495 ID: ba8629
File 140212599368.jpg - (100.38KB , 693x600 , battlequest-2-47.jpg )
577495

Rinis fires her fusion rifle. The room, already chaotic from four detonations in quick succession, blooms hot.

The tozol battle language is not easily translated, but tozols lie when they call it impossible. It might, now, sound something like this:

Ota: "Damage assessment: Shot penetrated destructively / target BOT-g-41 neutralized with high confidence / Advancing to contact"
Thaen: "Damage assessment: target SOFT-g-8 neutralized with moderate confidence / Engaging target MARINE-g-16"
Rinis: "Damage assessment: Shot bounced / target MARINE-g-16 still active / Reengaging"
Vaejra: "Engaging target MARINE-g-16"
>>
No. 577496 ID: ba8629
File 140212599710.jpg - (54.33KB , 800x600 , battlequest-2-48.jpg )
577496

Vaejra: "Damage assessment: Shots bounced / target MARINE-g-16 still active / Reengaging"
Thaen: "Damage assessment: Shots bounced / target MARINE-g-16 still active / Please advise"
Ota: "Weapon cycling / target MARINE-g-16 still active / Please advise"


This is fucking horseshit.
>>
No. 577497 ID: ba8629

FUCKING STRANNERS
>>
No. 577498 ID: a5c85a

I have a crazy idea. Have Baj go melee with the guy. He's got a shield gen too. If they are similar enough they should mesh instead of collide and basically Baj ends up inside the shield bubble with the target.

I'm sure you can figure out the rest.
>>
No. 577500 ID: 7f9410

Anyone in front of the marine: take cover, don't get hit by that weapon. Anyone behind: keep shooting.
>>
No. 577509 ID: 495be5

Fuck this horseshit.

Fall back, avoid return-fire at all costs, return fire just enough to keep the marine's interest. Try and kite that bastard out of the OE and get those charges set-up Tozol!

Also, see if Rinis can get a shot-off with her Pulsar if at all practicable.
>>
No. 577510 ID: 7f9410

Hang on, I see a vulnerability. His shield stops at the floor. He'd trigger a landmine just like anything else. Grenades might even go through if they were moving slow enough.
>>
No. 577512 ID: 495be5

>>577510

If you could get an AT grenade through there it'd be all she wrote, but how to exploit that and not eat a facefull of whatever that big gun shoots...
>>
No. 577513 ID: 4a20fa

>>577496
Well, I guess Rinis could try her pulsar, but:
>>571464
>If the Marine is still firing back after Ota gets her shot at it, we're ATing that fucker in the face. From Ota, so as to not use the reactor as a backstop.
Tozzles are an even more scarce and irreplacable resource than fancy grenades.
>>
No. 577515 ID: 2f4b71

Throw large heavy objects at the Marine (e.g. chairs, loose 'Stranners). The shield may block them, but the momentum transfer should be sufficient to temporarily disable the marine for close-in work.
>>
No. 577516 ID: 54af1f

>>577515

Yeah. Thaen, if that's you by the console throw the console at it to keep it down and pour fire/grenades into it.

Everyone get out of its arcs though.
>>
No. 577525 ID: 16903a

Baj: complain that defenders are OP.
>>
No. 577605 ID: 18aecb

>>577496
>Solar marines swear nothing kills a stranner like a goold ol' fashioned punch-down.

CLOSE TO MELEE!
>>
No. 577645 ID: 6b9918

Oh, aim your guns to the point where floor and shield meet. May slip some shots through and hurt it.
>>
No. 577667 ID: cee89f

>>577496
You have the Astranian prisoner - you might be able to slip through the shield.

Whichever one of you has the prisoner, CLOSE TO MELEE. If that doesn't work, use the prisoner as a projectile.
>>
No. 578219 ID: ba8629
File 140253078749.jpg - (117.67KB , 800x600 , battlequest-2-49.jpg )
578219

The Marine turns. Vaejra and Rinis duck away from a stream of red bolts. Ota bounces another fusion blast off the screaming Astranian.
>>
No. 578221 ID: ba8629
File 140253081760.jpg - (92.14KB , 693x600 , battlequest-2-50.jpg )
578221

>improvised physical attack
>get a grenade under the shield
Thaen has an idea. He rips a control console from the wall and forces a grenade inside it.

An armed grenade.
>>
No. 578223 ID: ba8629
File 140253102494.jpg - (115.64KB , 800x600 , battlequest-2-51.jpg )
578223

Thaen charges, wielding the console like a battering ram. The shield resists, tearing the face of the console to a shredded, flaming wreck, but there's too much metal here to blast away.
>>
No. 578224 ID: ba8629
File 140253110842.jpg - (133.53KB , 800x600 , battlequest-2-52.jpg )
578224

By the time the grenade detonates, the Astranian's already had its last breath crushed out. Chunks of smashed armor and smoking bone go flying.

"Room fucking clear," says Thaen.
>>
No. 578227 ID: a5c85a

Permanently disable the reactor. Strip any good shit to eat or use as materials. Fashion some makeshift shields out of plate if you think it would help at all and wouldn't slow you down.

Call in assault gun after reactor is offlined to cause a small distraction by pinging a walker before you exit.
>>
No. 578228 ID: 54af1f

See if you can salvage the marine's weapon.
>>
No. 578229 ID: ac14c0

>>578224
Pry open the door to where the other noncombatant was. Find out how bad an idea ripping a console off the floor was. We may have to evacuate very quickly.
>>
No. 578233 ID: 53ba34

look in to getting clubs made of whatever is the densest material you tozols can make it from. should fair well against shields.
>>
No. 578267 ID: bbafb0

>>578229

THIS! Don't leave that last squishy unmolested, they could un-do all your hard work.
>>
No. 578272 ID: cee89f

>>578223
I like Thaen.

>>578224
Get the other soft target (in the next room - i think we only got 1?) and set up charges to blow this reactor straight to hell.
>>
No. 578297 ID: 410c24

Work fast, guys. The alarm will have been sounded, and we wasted precious seconds taking down that marine. You won't have the luxury of squishing shielded reinforcements if they show up in a group.
>>
No. 578310 ID: 4a20fa

Get through that side door and see if it offers a better view at something that looks fragile and unstable to cover in explosives. Smashing control panels might not put this out of action hard and long enough.
>>
No. 578349 ID: c27f85

Perhaps it's not pertinent now, but this encounter does open up new ideas for how to attack the Battlecarrier..

..once things have settled here of course.

Since we've seen demonstrable proof that the Strannertech shield's ability to deflect mass isn't nearly as strong as it's ability to absorb energy that means if we could find something massive enough and just hit the carrier with it really hard it could breach the shield and destroy or cripple it outright.

Something as big and as heavy perhaps as one of those big mining ships the Scellor have adapted to serve as landing-ships?
>>
No. 578453 ID: d0e0a2

Gonna have to remember that 'Stranner marine shields don't stand up as well to kinetic mass as they do to energy weaponry. That'll be useful knowledge later. Perhaps use a high caliber, high mass kinetic firearm against them, or maybe fabricate a dense strong metal javelin a tozol could throw through the marine. But that's for later.

Right now there's still one soft target remaining in the side room. It's probably a reactor tech or engineer so it'd be a good idea to capture it instead of immediately killing it in order to try and wring some info out of it about this reactor and where the power conduits are. Rip the doors to the side room open, rip the soft target's clothes off and threaten to rip off parts of the soft target if it doesn't tell you the truth of what you want to know.

Get Ota's opinion on how we're gonna use the explosives here without accidentally blowing the reactor containment while we're still in or near the walker. While we'd love to see this walker go up in a mushroom cloud, we'd rather not be part of said cloud.

Remember, our objective here is to take down the walker's shields so Kaselir can pound the ground forces and also so we can get out of here. That means either blowing the power conduits to the shield gens or forcing the reactor into auto-shutdown by blowing the coolant system, fuel lines or severing part of the power lines to the containment system. The second objective is to either destroy the walker or render it powerless. That means either blowing the containment on the active reactor or wrecking the reactor after its auto-shutdown.

So there's two options here: First is blow the power conduits and then hide explosives in the reactor containment system with timers long enough that we can get to a safe distance before they blow. Downside to this is that the enemy might be able to find and remove the explosives before they detonate, or shutdown the reactor before they go off. Second option is blowing the coolant system, forcing the reactor into auto-shutdown, then ripping out and shooting up as much of it as can before stuffing explosives into the most vital parts of it. That'll wreck it so much that the walker will be down for days while repairs are done or they'll abandon it.

There's something else of note: The burning chairs haven't tripped the fire suppression system. Either it has a high threshold or there isn't one in this room. We could use that to our advantage by turning this room into a raging inferno when we leave. That'll impede the enemy from finding any explosives with a long timer we've planted.
>>
No. 578465 ID: 742b6b

>>578453

Perhaps the amount of energy we just dumped into the room skragged the fire-suppression systems?
>>
No. 578479 ID: cee89f

>>578465
if the way the flames are spread out in this image is any indication
>>578221
then the marine's shields are their fire suppression systems.

This could be the fact that I've seen them used that way in another quest talking, though =/
>>
No. 578591 ID: 0dfb75

Sweep and clear the next room.

Set charges on anything that looks important.

Diddy-Mao
>>
No. 578917 ID: ba8629
File 140298086049.jpg - (66.35KB , 700x600 , battlequest-2-53.jpg )
578917

Thaen makes a note to extort some gratitude for that stunt, but there's no time for it now.

The reactor lock cycles.

"DIE Y-"
>>
No. 578918 ID: ba8629
File 140298087194.jpg - (77.28KB , 700x600 , battlequest-2-54.jpg )
578918

Rinis disarms the Astranian. Ota ties him up. His enraged shouting does little to soften the sudden guilt in the team's youngest tozol.

"Maybe," Baj says. "Maybe we should've tried talking before we started killing them?"

"Late to worry about that, kid," says Ota.

Meanwhile, the tinkers in the group coax open the reactor door.
>>
No. 578919 ID: ba8629
File 140298092430.jpg - (53.22KB , 700x600 , battlequest-2-55.jpg )
578919

"It's, uh..." theorizes Rinis.
"It looks sort of like. Uh..." suggests Thaen.
"It's red," says Baj. "Is it safe for us to stand here?"
"No clue," says Rinis.

"Cease your alien demon babble!" screeches their new friend. "The reactor will detonate like an atom bomb if soiled by your dirty hands!"

"Neat," says Rinis.
"Yeah, but not useful," says Ota. "We need the shield down before we leave, remember?"
"That was the plan," says Rinis. "Plans are flexible."
"I bet he's lying," says Thaen. "Though... that is a pretty hefty power source. Maybe big enough."
>>
No. 578921 ID: ba8629
File 140298105366.jpg - (58.49KB , 700x600 , PerhapsACarefulReviewOfYourOptionsIsInOrder.jpg )
578921

Lt. Vaejra feels uncertain. He's never seen anything like this, either. It's a tight bundle of... something, throwing off red and infrared light, and exotic energy signatures visible to the tozol eye. It's easy to believe it can go up like a nuke. That doesn't mean it will, however.

If they can't bring down the shield without killing themselves, they'll need to exfiltrate without any help from Kaselir's vehicle. The enemy will have intact command and control with which to direct forces against them, and Vaejra saw five Astranian heavy mechs, a platoon of combat robots, and a dozen marines active under the shield.

Vaejra knows he needs to act quickly, but should he make a snap decision now (and if so, what), or take a minute to work out some options with the team?
>>
No. 578927 ID: ba8629

Honestly, I don't trust that thing not to scatter incredibly toxic and radioactive rare elements around the place if it goes, soiling this place forever and failing your primary strategic objective. Not worth the risk.

You don't need to disable the reactor, you need to disable the shield. Maybe your little friend can tell you how.

> Compel your prisoners to tell you how to disable the shield.
>>
No. 578930 ID: bb78f2

Why don't you just hold the angry astranian by the neck while you inch a finger closer and closer to the generator, to see how it reacts? It will probably be visibly terrified if it's telling the truth.
If it's lying at least, it'll be really obvious. Then we can get to work on it as planned right?
I admit, it might just be fun to see it squirm if it is telling the truth and just taunt blowing you all to hell and them like it would be a big fat joke while they panic going NO NO NO NO NO NO and the person doing the finger pointing would probably be giggling like a maniac.
>>
No. 578932 ID: ac14c0

>>578921
Threaten to torture your first captive if the scientist doesn't tell you how to shut down the reactor safely in some way that will at least take a while to repair.
>>
No. 578935 ID: a5c85a

Shoot everything but the glowy ball. Trash all the controls. Leave two remote detonated explosives or really any explosives you've got on the orb, one obvious so they know about it. Second one a bit better placed. Also rig up some ghetto trap with whatever you've got that will go off when they open the doors to the reactor. Take your two new prisoners with you along with a sizable chunk of metal to fuck the next shield dude. Maybe fashion a pike of some sort out of a good material? Head to shield room or next thing that looks important.
>>
No. 578936 ID: 80d903

Torture is never a reliable method of extracting information, it is ultimately self-defeating.

I do like the idea of threatening to do 'stuff' to the reactor if the new prisoner doesn't make with a plan to 'safely' disable the shield.

We now know how to neutralize Astrannian Marines, we can operate at milisecond reaction-times, we can spare maybe a full minute on not atomizing our entire force.
>>
No. 578941 ID: df21db

>>578932
Have you seen the look the scientist gives to the first captive? He *wants* to see that traitor suffer.
>>
No. 578946 ID: 4a20fa

Smother that thing in explosives. If we don't take the walker down we're completely fucked anyway.

Otherwise, >>578935. A vehicle bay is also acceptable if you find one. We just need to run away without getting melted by the shield on the way out.
>>
No. 578952 ID: 65e647

>>578936
This. Also, take the scientist home. We've got a potential bonanza
>>578927
Agreed. We need to know how mission kill this fucker without shitting our bed.
>>
No. 578953 ID: 54af1f

Better go destroy the command room first. There's probably a system up there to just shut the shield off without having to blow the reactor.
>>
No. 578958 ID: 038e8f

>>578953

Ummm.....

So you want to assault the most heavily defended room in this walking tin-can, AFTER they've been alerted to our presence?
>>
No. 578960 ID: 54af1f

>>578921

He should take a minute to plan. Push out the parameter but if the Strainers want to try to counter assault then we've got the advantage on them.
>>
No. 578965 ID: cee89f

>>578919
>Demons
"Demons? Ha! You wish."

>Talk over options or snap decision
... Okay, we've made good time, but that doesn't mean we have a lot of it. We're still in the middle of enemy territory, and if blowing up one of their marines didn't catch their attention I'll make out with myself.

Put up a timed and/or remote detonated explosive. We already know that the signals from your detonators can travel inside of the Astranian's shields, and judging from the new prisoner's reactions, blowing this thing up would do horrible damage to the walker.

>>578952
Also this.

>Baj
"It's a war, kid. People die."

>>578941
Eh, maybe. Looked to me like he was just angry and screaming.

...

He's an Astranian, they do that a lot.
>>
No. 578967 ID: 4a20fa

>>578946
(Also, what the hell is Baj doing in here? Get back to watching the corridors! If we get cornered in here by marines while rigging explosives/standing around talking we're going to run out of control panels to use as bludgeons.)
>>
No. 578969 ID: 2eb028

>>578921
hey here's a thought, tell the new guy "ok, so what should we avoid doing, specifically? unless you feel like exploding today"
if he's dumb enough maybe he'll tell you exactly how to blow the fucker up.
>>
No. 578972 ID: 95170a

Which shield are we trying to take down again?
I thought the mission was to steal a ship?
>>
No. 579021 ID: cee89f

>>578972
Go back and read through the bomb set-up again. We put Rook back in the spire because he was cooperative, which means we keep our main source of info, but it also means we couldn't steal a ship.

Our primary goal is to disable the walker, our secondary is to hunt enemy assets, and our tertiary is to learn what we can of the enemy's tech.
>>
No. 579062 ID: 038e8f

Remember, if screamy-tech is right keep in mind the scale of something 'atom-bomb' sized. An explosion like that would kill our entire team, And Kaselir, leaving Reya and Anak as the only ones around to defend the Spire.

Oh, and remember, we can't get to minimal safe distance because of the shield.. which we're on the wrong side of for that. And there's the fact that Kaselir doesn't have any idea what we're doing.

Take a minute, come up with better plan.
>>
No. 579092 ID: f461c5

If you plant bombs around the reactor, you may as well take the time to get some blood in a weak container, and set it to crush against the reactor with the explosion, so as to 'soil' it with your biomass. Otherwise, go for the shield room.
>>
No. 579106 ID: 1a6ffe

Tozol biomass contains Tozol genetic material.

Tozol genetic material is classified.

We are NOT deliberately leaving classified materials as a calling-card for where we've been.


Also, Jesus Christ Guys, has anyone here actually Read the last plot-post? We're not figuring out plans right now, we're deciding whether to do A THING (Whatever A THING might be) right the fuck now.. or take a breather and try and examine and discuss all THE THINGS we might be able to do.

Do we take a moment, and risk the Astrannians un-fucking themselves and mounting a counterattack?

Or do we do shit Right Now, and risk fucking-up and getting 75% of the Tozol team wiped out?

That is the question we're being asked to solve now, we can discuss pissing in the Astrannian's Cheerios later.
>>
No. 579133 ID: cee89f

>>579106
I point you to this:
>(and if so, what)
The suggestions for specific actions are a plenty fine response.
>>
No. 579527 ID: 1ab2ad

Honestly if you can understand that critter, talk to them. Get them to drop the shields or tell you how to drop the shields. Or else the reactor is the only way things'll go. Then abscond with them. Witnesses and all.
>>
No. 579591 ID: f08e35

Granted, torture is all but completely useless for extracting information that can't be verified independently. Thing is, though, the tozols don't need information; they need the shield dropped.

Tell the new prisoner "This reactor is going to shut down now. By you, the safe way, or by us, the hard way. Your choice." On any response other than immediate cooperation, slap a remote-detonated bomb on the inside of the reactor room door, but tell the prisoner it's got a timer and an anti-tamper proximity fuse.

Then, head for the command center. Maybe leave some actual pursuit-deterrent grenades on the outer doors to the reactor controls, to make the threat more credible.
>>
No. 579650 ID: ad9487

>>579106
ACTUALLY, If I remember correctly tozol biomass doesn't contain genetic material. Instead of every cell having DNA their genes are stored in sort of a central "core" that controls what cell is generated where.
>>
No. 579796 ID: 16bea1

>>579650

Tozol biomass does contain Tozol genetic material, it's just that only a few specialist cells contain the complete Tozol genome (unlike most other species) while all other cells only contain that much of the genome as is pertinent to their function.
>>
No. 579798 ID: ac14c0

>>579796
I remember this being correct.
>>
No. 579874 ID: fee736

Take a minute, get it right; you have no idea what you're dealing with.

But have some of the others monitoring the aproaches for enemy reinforcments.
>>
No. 586880 ID: 257e78

Also, for the assault on the command center: are there any big pieces of door left? If so, bring 'em along. If not, breach subsequent doors (particularly heavy/armored doors) in such a way as to leave big pieces, preferably as long as the full height of the door. Use 'em as shields, which is likely to come in particularly handy if whoever built this place was competent enough to set up multiple lines of fire on some critical hallway and you end up flanked. More importantly, though, use 'em like poleaxes against anybody with a personal shield.
>>
No. 597972 ID: ba8629

[Sorry, but this quest has ended.

Explanation here: http://tgchan.org/kusaba/questdis/res/45791.html#85998 ]
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