[Burichan] [Futaba] [Nice] [Pony]  -  [WT]  [Home] [Manage]
[Catalog View] :: [Graveyard] :: [Rules] :: [Quests] :: [Discussions] :: [Wiki]

[Return] [Entire Thread] [Last 50 posts] [Last 100 posts]
Posting mode: Reply
Name (optional)
Email (optional, will be displayed)
Subject    (optional, usually best left blank)
Message
File []
Password  (for deleting posts, automatically generated)
  • How to format text
  • Supported file types are: GIF, JPG, PNG, SWF
  • Maximum file size allowed is 10000 KB.
  • Images greater than 250x250 pixels will be thumbnailed.

File 137737260523.png - (109.31KB , 700x700 , 422.png )
537104 No. 537104 ID: d38f67

"Does jetal combat feel odd to you, Polatt?" Alison asks of Polatt. "We can all sense what Unity senses, despite that only a few of us have taken the drivers seat.
>"Yeah, but it's more the whole thousands of individuals in here implying that my life is a lie that I'm trying to absorb right now."
Expand all images
>>
No. 537105 ID: d38f67
File 137737268841.png - (125.17KB , 700x700 , 423.png )
537105

"Oh, yeah. You'll..." Alison wants to say he'll get used to it, but she honestly has no idea. It may not have been the first time she pulled someone out of a simulation, too. "Well, you're with us, now."

There isn't much at the moment to sense anyway. Unity just feels herself rolling out of a compartment. This continues for a long while, she must be moving far. There isn't much she can do about it.
>>
No. 537106 ID: d38f67
File 137737274538.png - (8.74KB , 700x700 , 424.png )
537106

Something slows her down, and one kiloton of jetalium plops onto Unity. She starts morphing.

The two favorite options were to either attack the empire's orbital station and gain its powers, or exit empire territory and go into the blackmap zones for rogue help. From the sounds of it, the former is fast, highly rewarding and ridiculously dangerous, while the former involves largely unknown risks and rewards.
>>
No. 537107 ID: 9ddf68

well we don't have our power boast any more so I say head for the blackmap zones for now to make some friends that can give us better gear or even people who would be willing to fight with us when we attack sapphire. And my plan was to head to the blackmap zones first and before we attack sapphire we hit the satellite and then cash the damn thing into the guy or EIN if it proves to be a big enough pain in the ass. Also people can be hijacked by EIN here now so beware.
>>
No. 537111 ID: 41690e

Huh. Well, one thing to be aware of is real-world nobles will be coming to try and kill us soon, and we now lack our operator in the matrix advantage. Plus, Sevener will be following from behind before very long, and probably still be hostile. That means we need to get out of here ASAP.

Pity we couldn't take our drones or cell phones with us. Although if we're flying away from the planet (either to hit the space station, or hit the outer territories) internet access wouldn't help for very long, anyways.

...Outer reaches might be safer. If we can fly right up and hit the station, so can Sevener and any nobles. And as soon as we're dead, she wins. Whereas the outer reaches are bigger, we have more room and freedom to gather power without organized opposition. We should have some time- it'll be a bit before Sevener can gather the power to hit Sapphire.
>>
No. 537113 ID: 76b151

I think we should at the very least scout out the orbital station before deciding so lets head there first since it is closer.
>>
No. 537114 ID: 0814a4

y>>537106
i say go on the offensive. go big or go home! (by go home, of course i mean don't because you'll be dead)
>>
No. 537130 ID: 735f4f

Orbital station sounds awesome. But so does the blackmap zones. I say we get out of the building safely and get the lay of the land before we start rocketing off somewhere.

We also want to check if physics are different here and if we are weaker or stronger now that we have left the simulation. Our biggest strength is our ability to multitask. We have the potential to be a small army if we can find more mods that support it.

Do we know if Sevener brought her people along as well? Because if its just her in there we have a advantage in the long run.
>>
No. 537133 ID: 76b151

>>537130
yes she brought her supporters too. Was mentioned several times by her.
>>
No. 537148 ID: 96c896

Apparently we are now comparatively underpowered, so let's take the less immediately dangerous option.
>>
No. 537155 ID: 76b151

>>537148
where did you get that impression? We are still an S-Class Jetal.
>>
No. 537159 ID: 41690e

>>537155
Because we no longer have the harvester simulation cheating and given us a boost for being an operator.

Also, we kind of just had close calls with a noble and Sevener. Both of which are still going to be around to fight us, actually.
>>
No. 537178 ID: 76b151

>>537159
We weren't actually fighting Sevener we were trying to get past her, and as for the Noble we WON that fight. Self-destruct generally is only used when you know you've lost.
>>
No. 537188 ID: 2f4b71

If we have the mass to get to orbital velocity, then that's definitely the way to go. Hold the highest ground there is.
>>
No. 537231 ID: d38f67
File 137739927625.png - (6.87KB , 700x700 , 425.png )
537231

The physics, as far as Alison can tell, are effectively the same. Here they seem more real, like the difference between a good realistic painting and the real thing. Engineer does not think things will be particularly different, however.

Alison decides that at the least, she can go in the direction of the orbital factory and decide whether or not to attack it from there. She goes to the door. She does not sense any cores, but sense jetalium returns megatons.

"So Engineer, do we just... thrust up?"
>"We need to find out where the station is in orbit first. It could be in low orbit, it could be in high orbit."

>Operator off shift. Processing bank info... current balance of Operator account: 0 jetalium, 0 new empire dollars. Current balance of Account Benefactor - Loviro: 11,750 raw jetalium, 40,000 new empire dollars. Withdraw?

Alison wonders if Loviro just forgot to mention that.
>>
No. 537236 ID: 735f4f

Hey we got some starter funds. Thanks dad you are the best.

Make sure to save it for a rainy day and not blow it all on moon pies and video games.
>>
No. 537237 ID: 76b151

>>537231
Someone could have deposited it if it isn't Loviro's originally. Still if we are going to attack an orbital station going Starship Alison mode wouldn't hurt.

.... pity we don't have a battery that could support a couple megatons hah
>>
No. 537238 ID: 57a559

Withdraw, we should quickly move out. Sevener probably isn't that far behind us... if she hasn't gotten her jetallium yet, we may just be able to imprision her as nothing more as an orb, ensuring our victory while giving us the opportunity the discover the world around us. This was likely her plan, rather than delay or kill us, it would have been better to enure than success is unreachable by adjusting certain parameters for the opponent while still keeping them alive. Make Sevener nothing but a core and we've neutralized her for the rest of the sim, and can freely kill her to end it quickly once we've learned enough.
>>
No. 537249 ID: 41690e

>Withdraw?
Hey, free resources. And if we leave without them, I doubt we'll have another chance to collect.

Take it.
>>
No. 537257 ID: bc8d67

>Withdraw?
Um... Yes. Very yes! And clean it out! Thank you, Loviro! And also check if there's a secure locker or safety deposit box to go with your's or Loviro's account as well.

Take your time absorbing using straw mode, but keep an eye on where the jetals are out there. If the smaller masses move away and larger ones group up and move in, then they're likely readying to attack. In that case switch to combo gel and light absorption to suck up the last of the mass and get ready to bust out.

Engineer is right about needing to know where the orbital factory is before heading up. Finding out where the Blackmap Zones are as well would be a good idea. That means maps of the entire solar system, including ones that show where the major space facilities are. And GPS isn't gonna work off-planet, so we'll need some other navigation device than a phone as well. Dunno if we have a window of time where we could just walk into a store to buy this stuff, but if we do we ought to take it. Using a low mass division, of course.

>>537238
Uh... That doesn't make any sense for Sevener to do, unless it's reversed and Unity is the one that was stuck as a core at Sevener's mercy. And it's doubtful that Sevener will be hot on our heels, since she'd know that'd put her at great risk of being intercepted as a core. We almost certainly have until the next O-Route window before she comes through, though keep an ear out for rolling cores coming down, just in case.
>>
No. 537264 ID: d38f67
File 137740362873.png - (15.17KB , 700x700 , 426.png )
537264

Alison withdraws everything, but will be sure to not blow it all at once. She does, however, try and eat it all at once. The ground seems impervious to Alison's new weight.

"How do we go about that?"
>"We need a phone, or just some internet access. That's assuming the location of it isn't hidden. Otherwise we need to find someone who does know."
>"We're in the capital, I expect." says Recluse. "Unless we have someone to see in the capital, we want to be anywhere else before trying to investigate anything. Preferably unseen. If we are discovered, it might be exceptionally difficult to shake the nobles who get sent at us."
>>
No. 537267 ID: 76b151

Lets go see about buying a phone. Probably should use a generic Belenos form
>>
No. 537268 ID: 76b151

We should also see about buying a battery recharger. We'll have used our current battery up in about 5 b-hours with current usage.

That or find a safe place to put most of it while we go about our business.
>>
No. 537269 ID: 41690e

Right. Let's sneak out, then. We need a generic Belnos form, again.

Sneaking around and going unobserved should be slightly easier with Polatt on board, right? Now we have someone who's actually had a lifetime fitting into this society.

We'll grab a phone in a slightly lower risk area.
>>
No. 537271 ID: c23ab0

Allison. How would you know whether something feels more real or not? You've never even seen a painting before, much less the reality that painting is in.
>>
No. 537274 ID: d38f67
File 137740514614.png - (14.33KB , 700x700 , 427.png )
537274

>How would you know whether something feels more real or not?
Alison means this feels more real by comparison, but maybe when she sees the real world, her world will all seem like crude sketches by comparison.

>Let's sneak out, then.
Alison would love to, except that she ate too much.

At her morph of 70, she can only hold 8,062 kg given current battery constraints. If she lowers it down to 20, however, she'll be able to hold 12,093. The downside of that is that she will have to drop mods.

She can also simply hold an amount of unpowered jetalium and carry it with her. She believes that she can carry 25% of her own weight in unpowered jetalium without significant slowdown.
>>
No. 537281 ID: 96c896

>>537274
SO BIG. Let's go for the full 8k and carry some out with us. Leave the rest in the deposit. ...that means we'll be walking out of here with 10077kg, and we'll be leaving 2545 in the bank.

I would like to note that walking around at 8k would have us use up 7700 battery per hour, and we only have 80,000. We would have around 10 hours of battery life, which means we will probably wind up burning a decent amount of mass to keep our battery at a decent percentage. I guess that's fine though.
>>
No. 537282 ID: 735f4f

Oh god I just got a image of Alison unhinging her jaw and eating a poor jetal whole. Got to remember the whole giant snake thing might be a bit horrifying to some people.
>>
No. 537283 ID: 41690e

...how many mods would we have to drop to get down to morph 20?

And what are the other downsides of low morph, again? As I remember, low morph meant it took us 30 minutes to disguise as a dancer. We want the ability to change shape for disguises, and for forming divisions.

I think we're going to have to stash some mass, or carry some as inert.
>>
No. 537286 ID: 9ddf68

can we shape unpowered mass at all or would that require power for it to keep shape? cause if we can shape the unpowered jetalium I say just turn them into suitcases or a backpack or something that wouldn't look to out of place for someone to be carrying but if we can't than take what we can and deposit the rest (who knows we might be able to come back for it) and leave.
>>
No. 537304 ID: bc8d67

Alright, after crunching the numbers it looks like we can get out of here with 12598 kg, carrying 25% of that, and leaving behind only 24 kg, if we lower our morph from 70 to 50, but that would mean we'd have to drop two modules. However, that's only 2521 kg more mass than what we could keep at 70 morph, so we'll have to decide if that is worth discarding two modules. Personally, I think we should do it, dropping Sniper B and one AutoCannon A.

Whatever inert jetalium there is, split it into many tiny spheres and evenly distribute them within our body and any divisions. That way it won't be a single unwieldy mass in or on our bodies, and if we're hit there isn't a risk a large chunk of it will be destroyed.

Before we leave this room, we should morph into a non-Alison form. And when we leave the Operator building, we should split into three divisions with roughly equal masses and not travel together. It'll arouse less suspicion than one massive jetal moving around, since a massive jetal implies an equally big battery.

Also something to keep in mind: We won't be able to hover using just our thrusters if we're trying to hold up more than 8000 kg. But that won't be a problem if only one or two divisions are using thrusters.

And if we need just need Internet access, we could use a computer in this building. We are still technically an Operator, and this is the Operator building, so we should be allowed to use one, right? And it may also have access to government data that wouldn't be publicly available, such as a map of all facilities in the solar system, and what defenses are at the orbital jetalium facility.

>>537281
Honestly, I don't think we're gonna have access to the Operator bank again. And even if we do, it's going to be once we come back to the Capital, and by then 2545 kg ought to be tiny compared to what we'll have.
>>
No. 537305 ID: 761017

>>537304
>>537304
>Alright, after crunching the numbers it looks like we can get out of here with 12598 kg
Is the formula for that in the wiki?
>>
No. 537306 ID: 761017

>>537111
>if we're flying away from the planet (either to hit the space station, or hit the outer territories) internet access wouldn't help for very long, anyways.
Belenosian technology has FTL internet!
>If we can fly right up and hit the station, so can Sevener and any nobles.
That's illegal you know! What they can do is requisition jetalium!
>>537271
>How would you know whether something feels more real or not?
The same way you can tell the difference between a monitor image and photograph: higher data resolution! More accurately, the world is a whirling mass of particles that are defined by vectors, but if data compression would change the ratio of particles:vectors from 100:100 to 50:50, then simulation alone would change the 100:100 ratio to 30:70 for greater computational ease, with the second layer dropping it down to more like 20:80, the next layer would begin compression and change 50:50 to 40:60, etc!


tl;dr it's harder to see the pixels noow, and there are tons more pixels than before, and they are changing faster thaan before, and they have greater color depth than before!
>>
No. 537336 ID: 2f4b71

Remember, getting to0 orbit requires a tiny amount of thrust to get up, and a whole lot to get sideways. Orbits are really, really fast. We probably need to keep at least some of that Jetalium to burn away as reaction mass to reach the station while still having enough to do anything once we get there. Engineer can probably work out the appropriate mass fractions and trade-offs of more morph and taking along 'dead weight' vs. a lower morph and more power.
>>
No. 537342 ID: ec2e21

So if i have this right at 70% morph we can have up to 10 tons of jetalium on us so to get in to space you'd be trying to do a 10 ton SSTO? From playing KSP i've found that hard to do that with LFEs but to do it with from what i've seen are ion-engines i'm not so shore that we can brack atmo, as nargas is not known for being farst in the air.
(If i have any thing that just sounds stupid plaese tell me:) )
>>
No. 537380 ID: 76b151

Can't we carry it all with anti gravity?
>>
No. 537404 ID: d38f67
File 137745280501.png - (73.03KB , 700x700 , 428.png )
537404

>We won't be able to hover using just our thrusters if we're trying to hold up more than 8000 kg.
That is entirely true, however, Alison does have anti-gravity, and that will break that rule. Nonetheless, the mass isn't negated, and using the thrusters will still be slower at high mass, although she can burn some as she spends thruster energy. Not to mention the cost of anti gravity as well.

Alison decides to burn off modules Sniper B and one autocannon A, form her body out of 10,077kg and carry the rest in the form of a suitcase and spots of unpowered jetalium inside herself.

She heads out, following the exit signs. She doesn't see anything or anyone on the way, and complete silence to match outside of a low hum from the building.

To the side, however, she hears a TV from behind a tinted window.
>>
No. 537406 ID: 76b151

Might as well check in.
>>
No. 537410 ID: 9ddf68

can you see through the window here? If not just keep heading towards the exit since I would like to leave before whoever comes to kill us comes but if you can see through the window I don't see the harm in a quick peek.
>>
No. 537412 ID: 735f4f

This area should be a neutral zone. Also word of our exploits should not have traveled to far yet.

Should check it out to help get the lay of the land.
>>
No. 537457 ID: 41690e

Huh. You could peek in the room and see if there's anything useful to learn, like if the news in on.

Although if there's a TV running in that room, there's a decent chance there's someone in there watching it.
>>
No. 537471 ID: 96c896

>>537404
It could be nice to check the local news. Also, if there's someone in there, we can ask how many exits there are. If there's a chance we can ambush Sevener, maybe we should? Or just put a jetalium mine at the exit to inconvenience her.
>>
No. 537663 ID: bc8d67

While it'd be a good idea to check the TV news, how much your presence is tolerated here is unknown. It may only be as far as letting you exit the building via the most direct route. So don't just open the door and head right in. Open it, look in, and if anybody is around ask if they mind if you come in and use the TV.

And be wary if there are any jetals or robots in there. Even though they're Operators, they're still EIN-linked. We never found out EIN up here can take control of Operators, so we should assume it can. So that means we ought to morph into a form that isn't associated with Unity/Alison before trying to head in there.
>>
No. 537762 ID: bc8d67

>>537404
There's a problem with that body mass: It exceeds the maximum amount our body can move at 50 morph, which is 9674 kg. Not a big deal, it just means shuffling some mass out to carry instead.

Also, I made a mistake in my calculations back here >>537304. I was using the surge after morph penalties, which was 7700 at 70 morph, instead of the base surge value of 8000. After recalculating it turns out we could carry all of the 12622 kg at 50 morph, with a bit of room to spare. (12622 kg minus 9674 kg gives 2948 kg, which is lower than the 3155.5 kg that's 25% of 12622 kg.)

Technically we could carry a bit more as inert mass to either slightly lower our per b-hour power usage or slightly increase our morph, but I think it'd be best to keep as much mass in our body as possible so it's immediately available.
>>
No. 537870 ID: d38f67
File 137757436971.png - (76.17KB , 700x700 , 429.png )
537870

The inside looks like a waiting lobby, except that there is no one waiting or assisting. The walls were sound resistant, judging by the near maxed volume of the television.
>>
No. 537871 ID: d38f67
File 137757439134.png - (15.46KB , 700x700 , 430.png )
537871

It's the same newslady casting. Alison starts morphing into a new form while she listens in, as well as preparing divisions.

>"-of twenty four jetals and 30 robots to maintain and serve this station, and make sure it is one of the most well guarded extra-planetary facilities in our day and age. Originally developed under the Diamond Emperor manufacturing line, it was continued by Topa Kelomssa. In other news, there has been concern amongst the citizenry about the Blackmap barbarian capital, the Cloud Slither. High officials have re-examined all security details and confirm there is nothing to fear. In the words of our Sapphire Emperor, 'We have entire factories dedicated to producing surveillance material just for that zone. And for every kilogram of surveillance, we have a megagram of weaponry pointed in the same direction. If the Advisors feel a need to rename it the Rubble Slither, it will be so within minutes.'"
>>
No. 537878 ID: 735f4f

So the station is heavily guarded but not so much its not a possibility.

Also we know not to make a huge mess when we go to the blackmap zone or we will risk a airstrike.

This newscast seems a bit to perfectly timed honestly. The fact it listed both the spots we were told about and basicly taunted us to try anything is suspicious.

So remember what it said but don't count in it being entirely accurate. Sapphire probably knows about us. You don't get to that sort of position without keeping a eye on powerful new players. He probably did not manage to spy on our meeting with Ruby but I bet he knows it happened.

Anyways make off with some of the waiting room snacks if there are any and leave a friendly note for Sevener. Then lets head outside.
>>
No. 537879 ID: 41690e

>>537871
...it's Ruby. He arranged to have that broadcast right as we broke out, and to make sure that TV was blaring loud enough to be heard through the walls as we go by.

He's telling us how defended the orbital factory is, and warning us that if we go to Cloud Slither that Sapphire could have the whole place obliterated from orbit.
>>
No. 537880 ID: 96c896

>>537871
Okay, so the station is impenetrable, and is monitoring the Cloud Slither with a huge amount of weaponry. If we go to either location we'll die, because Sapphire is concentrating on them.

What OTHER options do we have?
>>
No. 537886 ID: 76b151

>>537880
Honestly that wasn't the impression I got at all.

What I got from it was that if we destroyed the blockade the Slither will be grateful and 54 Jetals\Robots are easy-peasy if we do this carefully. Gotta remember the weapons we have are on the CITY destructional scale. Plus we have all that mass just begging to be used.
>>
No. 537888 ID: 735f4f

Alison got this far because she is a natural leader. Sure we have awesome weapons as a jetal and a power boost from our core but that's not our greatest strength.

Why risk 50 to one odds at the station when we can recruit 49 other powerful jetals and robots to fight with us?

There are tons of people who hate the system and Sapphire. We need to find them and borrow there power to complete our mission.

Sevener will have the law backing her up as long as she does not do anything stupid. We need to even the odds. Maybe the first thing we should do is a recruitment drive or jailbreak.
>>
No. 537892 ID: 9ddf68

so the station is well guarded and since we don't have a power boast any more I would like to get into a more even fight just to judge how weakened we are, so I say we should leave that alone for the time being. As for the blackmap area... I'm sure they're exaggerating because if they had the fire power to blow that place into a creator I'm sure they wouldn't wait for blackmap to strike first but it probably is watched rather well. The empires have complete control over the news and we know that the news is mostly just propaganda to try and sew an illusion that the emperors are all powerful and everything is safe and fine.

Still say we should head to the blackmap area to gain some allies and better weapons but since we are no longer in the harvester simulation I say we pick a new name for ourselves since up her I'm sure the name has no real meaning other then pointing our enemies in our direction.
>>
No. 537903 ID: d2995c

From the sounds of those (both being presumably exaggerated for propaganda but vaguely based in truth) the Blackmap zone sounds better. It seems reasonably likely that the Blackmappers have capabilities the empire doesn't know about or won't officially acknowledge, seeing as how they still exist without being controlled by the empire.
>>
No. 537906 ID: 761017

>>537886
> Gotta remember the weapons we have are on the CITY destructional scale.
That was only with the Simulation-Bonus!
Chances are that everything takes way more surge now for less effect!
>>
No. 537907 ID: 76b151

>>537906
Nope, untrue. S ranked weapons are by definition on that scale, inside or out of the simulation. Remember our battle with that bounty hunter? He was carving up buildings like a hot knife through butter and he WASN'T a jetal. The difference between reality and the simulation wasn't all that large.

And that was with A class weaponry.

The only thing the simulation bonus gave us was a tougher core. We could take a glancing hit much better then normal jetal.

I still feel we should check the orbital station before leaving. We have numbers we would go against but we have no idea their current weaponry or modules.
>>
No. 537908 ID: 76b151

>>537907
wasn't an operator*
>>
No. 537940 ID: 41690e

>The only thing the simulation [operator] bonus gave us was a tougher core.
No, it also let us hit harder with our modules. Upped the damage output. That's why, say, the plasma sword D we started with did better than the Dead Batteries or Felix would have expected. Sevener also commented on how we got to hit harder than everyone else with the same modules when we hesitated.

Meaning now our weapons are slightly weaker, but we're probably only going to notice that when unloading them in the face of tough opponents. Your point remains, though. Our weapons are pretty much ridiculously dangerous enough we won't see a difference in say, building cutting ability. Anything that was on city destruction scale still is.

>I still feel we should check the orbital station before leaving.
Yeah. Honestly, from the report we just heard, it actually sounds safer to hit the station.
>>
No. 538078 ID: d38f67
File 137766188301.png - (12.00KB , 700x700 , 431.png )
538078

>Get allies/friends
Alison would love to do that, but going straight to the Cloud Slither has its own risks.

She does ask the lobby, and after a brief discussion, the overall opinion that has the least disagreeance is that Alison has no credibility in the real world, here. In fact, it's likely that all but the strongest have any idea that Unity even exists. It's unlikely that Cloud Slither will be willing to stage an attack just because one jetal defects to them, so Alison will want to prove that she isn't just some jetal.

>"There's a problem with getting a phone." Polatt says. "Remember, we had our own shop with broke phones that wouldn't monitor your activity. Not gonna be like that if you just get one at an electronic corner shop, unless you like a package deal that includes a free tracker."

>"Unity, yes?" One of the stranger looking robots that Alison has seen is in front one of the stranger looking doors also seen. The bot keeps looking away from Unity.
"Who is asking?"
>"A conversation. I am no one, affiliated with no faction. I did not exist before this conversation, and I will not exist after this conversation. I do not know everything, but I will answer your question to the best of my ability for the duration of my lifespan. In order to remain unaffiliated, this life span is limited."
>>
No. 538079 ID: c23ab0

How do we kill the Sapphire Emperor?
>>
No. 538080 ID: 57a559

>>538078
Does he know that this life is a sim?
Does he know anything about compilation AI's?
Does he know where she can uhhhh... does he know what's important to ask him?
>>
No. 538082 ID: 735f4f

Lets avoid any loaded questions. This guy could work for anyone.

Ask about the surrounding area. Check on what factions are in power and what they are up to. Ask what exactly is up with the space station you heard about on the news.

Try to find out what sort of mods exist beyond S rank and who has access to them. Check to see if there is any undertool type person around here and if the Dead batteries have a equivalent outside the simulation.

Also try to find out the limits on splitting ourselves. Oh and info about what support Sevener might have and what rules she will have to follow to stay with the law.
>>
No. 538083 ID: 735f4f

Oh that's a good idea. Ask him what question you should be asking before anything else.
>>
No. 538085 ID: 41690e

First question:

How long do we have before anyone from this level arrives to intercept me, or Anya or the others in the simulation catch up? Or before your lifespan ends.

>The bot keeps looking away from Unity.
Can we assume you're not connected to EIN, or you're avoiding looking at me to keep from triggering a remote takeover?

I don't suppose he knows where we can pick up a cracked phone or other wireless device?

>we had our own shop
...actually, is there any chance there's another iteration of the dead batteries on this level? That would be convenient.
>>
No. 538088 ID: d2995c

Can we take him with us to converse on the move? (He might have a tracker, but moving while tracked is better than sitting still while tracked.)

>...actually, is there any chance there's another iteration of the dead batteries on this level?
Maybe not specifically the Dead Batteries, but I think he said something about knowing people with bank accounts in the main layer, so maybe one of those.
>>
No. 538092 ID: 96c896

Ask what places there are with accessible jetal mods and jetalium that aren't heavily monitored by Sapphire.
>>
No. 538093 ID: 76b151

Alright don't question why he is looking away, or asking about the simulation thing. We have no idea of his affiliation and we don't want to look completely nuts, crazy people don't get backing from major powers.

Questions to ask:

Where can we get a clean phone.
Where can we get information on high security installations.
Where does one get off world and what procedures are expected.

Any more is tipping our hand.
>>
No. 538101 ID: 32e092

What's the most important thing he can tell us?
>>
No. 538116 ID: 2f4b71

>>538078
>In order to remain unaffiliated, this life span is limited
"What are the conditions of that limitation?"
>>
No. 538125 ID: 001618

ask why he's helping. If he's unaffilated with any group then why help us in the first place, that's affiliating it's self.
>>
No. 538224 ID: bc8d67

Ask how much longer its lifespan is, so you'll know how quick to speak here, who made it and left it here, and why it isn't looking directly at you. The answer to the last one is probably because its EIN-linked and seeing you would alert EIN. And if it's not long to live you both could speak much faster than normal since you're a jetal and it's a robot.

Next ask if it's safe to ask it questions about or use the name of a certain ubiquitous government system with a three letter name, so as to not risk saying "EIN." If not then you'll just have to use a substitute name here.

Ask some questions about EIN: What detection systems does it have at its disposal to determine if a robot or jetal is not linked to it, and how common are those systems? How far does EIN's influence extend beyond the surface of the planet? What can you do to evade EIN and the government's detection until you're out of the capitol city? If a EIN-linked AI is uploaded into an unlinked jetal using an AI upload module, is that AI still linked to EIN? (In case we ever have get a situation where we want to take one in.)

Ask what defenses the orbital jetalium facility has and is there a way to bypass or disable them, what defenders are on it and what're their capabilities, is there anything that would draw the defenders out of the facility, and how quickly can reinforcements reach the facility. Also ask what the government's response to the facility being captured or about to be captured, or even you being confirmed to be in it. Will they attempt to recapture or just blow it away?

Ask how you could get off this planet without using your own thrusters and anti-gravity, so you don't end up having to burn a big chunk of mass for that. It could be by either getting on or hijacking a ship, or buying, stealing, or salvaging the parts for an externally powered thrust or anti-gravity system you could wrap yourself around or hold on to, or some other way.

Ask where you could procure a phone that has all tracking and monitoring software and devices removed; Preferably at least three, so there's one for each division. And where could you get the tools and knowledge needed to "scrub" a phone yourself. The latter may be a better route if you could do it quick once you know how.

Also ask where you could get small modules of the kind that don't take up a module slot; Stuff like computer and electronic system interfaces, electronic and mechanical tool sets, or even a flashlight. And what kind of modules don't take up a module slot? Actually, just ask if there's someplace you could get to on the planet to buy stuff without being spotted by EIN or the government authorities.

And before leaving, ask where the exit door leads, if it's monitored by EIN, and why it's so strange looking. You don't want to step out onto a busy street and get spotted right off. But if it does, ask if there's another way out of this building you could take.
>>
No. 538253 ID: d38f67
File 137774723350.png - (16.49KB , 700x700 , 432.png )
538253

"Hey Polatt, did the Dead Batteries have any top world organizations?"
>"If they did, I sure wasn't privy to 'em, sorry."

"Can we converse on the move?" Unity asks the bot.
>"No."
"How limited is your life span?"
>"Until I feel discomfort for the time."
"What is the most important thing you can tell me, or what questions are good to ask?"
>"I do not have complex decision making capabilities."
"Where can I get a clean phone?"
>"Blackmap zones. Alternatively, gain a module that allows for complex tools."
"Where can I get information on high security installations?"
>"Question is too broad."
"Where does one get offworld?"

The robot lists off numbers that the engineer thinks are latitude and longitude, saying that they are flight zones that jetals can thrust upwards in without being shot out of the sky. It does imply, however, that those areas are heavily watched, so Alison may have trouble just getting off planet.

"What modules exist past S?"
>"None, S is an umbrella term for anything past A."
"What factions are in power?"
>"This, the New Empire, is in contested control of 94% of the landmass, 95% of the sea, 98% of the sky and 99.9% of space. All others are in blackmap zones, referred to as barbarians. Factions are largely undocumented within, but typically work together out of necessity."
>>
No. 538254 ID: d38f67
File 137774724211.png - (48.31KB , 700x700 , 433.png )
538254

"What details do you have on the space station?"
>"All official ones are varied. Newscast reports are rated as Probable for exaggeration. The station revolves around backwards engineering lost technology, often donated as hand-me-downs from emperors."
"What can you tell me about Anya?"
>"A duplicate of myself is having a conversation with her. She is planning on going out into the open after she is done."
"Are you telling her about me as well?"
>"Yes."
"How long do I have until someone in this world tries to intercept me?"
>"Not until you are found."
"What can you tell me about places with jetalium and modules that aren't watched by sapphire?"
>"Blackmap zones. By definition, all blackmap zones are areas that are not under heavy surveillance."
"I must also know about a ubiquitous oversystem that has three letters. Is that door connected?"
>"EIN." The robot's voice changes, and it sounds like a prerecorded message from a girl. "It is the most sophisticated product born from paranoia the world has ever seen by a ridiculous margin. You can't go anywhere or do anything without being seen. The EIN you are used to in the harvest world is outdated and a shadow at that."
>>
No. 538255 ID: d38f67
File 137774727543.png - (48.94KB , 700x700 , 434.png )
538255

>"There are full vision Sky-Cams on every building with such clarity that it can see everything and everyone on the streets below it. Each one is packed with its own bot whos sole purpose is to watch, and report anything.
>Only in case people walk where robots don't. Each robot must sacrifice 15% of its processing power to run EIN systems inside of him, her, or itself, and remain connected to EIN at all times. If that robot sees anything, the EIN process inside will report anything of the most minor infractions.
>Jetals and people aren't free either. Jetals must carry EIN signals inside of themselves, and biologicals must have small EIN implants, usually in their eyes. It doesn't stop there. Cars, trucks. Computers. Cash registers. Anything that moves, either by assistance or on its own. All of it has EIN implants in some way or another. And all of those EIN implants constantly scan one another. If it sees anything that should be connected that is not, it is flagged.
>>
No. 538257 ID: d38f67
File 137774749510.png - (34.66KB , 700x700 , 435.png )
538257

>"After the last great war, all of the soldiers were encouraged to take up the law next. In other words, the police force is an army of great numbers. They, too, are connected to EIN. When something is flagged, either a crime or an EINless entity, EIN itself puts it on the queue and constantly dispatches the police force to investigate it using an algorithm to measure the severity of a flag and the proximity and availability of forces. To maximize efficiency of the law system, the police force individuals are trained as judge, jury and executioner for most cases, only in high level classes is much of a bureacracy ever involved.
>If my robot is in the correct position, Unity, then it is standing in front of a sliding circular door. If you were a normal jetal, and you take a single step out of this door, you have a 97% chance of being immediately flagged as a class B outbreak. As it is, you are not a normal jetal, and I expect the outside has undercover nobles. If that door even looks like it is opening, it will be flagged as a Class A threat, and you will have EIN sending its best at you inside of seconds. The only safe place is inside of the Operator building, but you can't stay here forever. Sapphire is attempting to override what is keeping him from entering.
>I understand that your next question is most likely how to get out of this building without having a squadron of nobles on your tail. I will answer for both myself and my robot. We don't know. You are in a far more disadvantageous position than your sister, who has played by the rules as far as anyone knows."
>>
No. 538261 ID: 9ddf68

all right then who the hell are you[the person talking through the prerecorded message on the robot]

also I say we take an old move out of our play book and use L.sword to dig/drill our way out... also ask the robot if it can give you any type of map or at least some specific directions to the blackmap zones, like the blackmap zones are 300.76 miles northeast at latitude and longitude x,y you are currently at latitude A longitude B.

I would just suggest sticking to the sewers like we did in the harvester sim but I'm not to sure if they are or are not watching the sewers, we know they have cleaning robots down there that if they spot us would make the whole thing pointless, and we kinda used that trick a lot back in the harvester sim so I'm pretty sure the nobles would have caught on to it by now and probably have a few guards down there.
>>
No. 538262 ID: 41690e

>What can you tell me about Sevener
...I'm surprised it answered that. They should know her as Anya. Unless it's a construct of the CAI simulation.

>EIN ridiculous overwatch and noble attack as soon as we leave the building
I don't suppose simply loading up on jetalium inside and blasting off strait up at escape velocity or greater is feasible?

...or how important is operation of the harvester simulation? We know intelligences are used to harvest processing power. Does EIN use that? If we damaged or interrupted the simulation from the outside, would that produce a temporary blackout in the overwatch we could get through?

...if it has a double communicating with Anya, could it act as a communication relay? That would allow us a moment to talk to each other without killing each other.
>>
No. 538263 ID: 76b151

What are the laws for doing illegal acts in a simulation? I can't imagine they carry the same penalty as out here. If I promise to obey the law and carry EIN with me will the threat classification still hold?
>>
No. 538264 ID: 96c896

>>538256
Well, my first impression is that she's already won, and this contest was fucking rigged from the start. A rebel has no chance of beating the system at this level of police power.

My second impression is that if we can't go outside, let's use all the resources we can INSIDE. There are very large supplies of jetalium around, and if getting upgrades inside the sim results in upgrades when we leave, we can go back in the sim to find better upgrades. Or we could go find the central processing chamber, hack into it, and make it give us more... mods... Wait, if Loviro's S-rank plasma sword came out with us... how does that make sense? It was a construct of the simulation. If it's possible for the simulation to make mods to order just from how it thinks they should behave, let's exploit that. Hack the system, and make it give us CHEATY mods. Impenetrable shields, unbeatable stealth systems, and a ridiculously huge battery to use with custom-made weaponry. We could also run around shoving everyone we can into our inner world, going so far as to make mods that can do so at range regardless of if the individual is a jetal, robot, or organic.

So. Ask the robot where the system is in here that controls the simulation, and how we can hack into it. As a last question, ask exactly who recorded that message. It's not anyone we know, but they know us somehow. Is it the CAI beyond this contest?
>>
No. 538266 ID: 76b151

if we do go about the breakout plan do not do it in front of any robot or jetal. That includes this one. It will get reported immediately.
>>
No. 538267 ID: 41690e

Robot, who's voice was that recording of?

>Wait, if Loviro's S-rank plasma sword came out with us... how does that make sense? It was a construct of the simulation.
All jetal mods are just data. It's complicated programming and machine code that specifies how to configure jetalium into a weapon (or more often, how to configure jetalium to produce a weapon) and control it.

There's no reason we can't bring data with us. The simulation found a way to provide us with that data, same as every single other mod. The only difference is that Loviro 'cheated' access to it.

We can't cheat like that, though. Partially because we're no longer in a harvester sim that responds to belief. And partially because we're not an experienced jetal engineer who understands every aspect of the custom tech he's wishing into existence. We would lack the data to make a module that actually worked.
>>
No. 538268 ID: 96c896

Oh, I'll point out something I noticed here. The girl who left that message knows that Unity and Anya are competing. Not even Sapphire knows that. This strongly implies that the girl is someone who knows the nature of the competition. Didn't someone say that upon winning this CAI Fight, we'd get to meet someone beyond it who knew a lot about the overall Contest and the CAI itself?
>>
No. 538320 ID: 735f4f

Ok I see a few options here. We can try to fake or steal a EIN signal so we can get around undetected. We can tear into this building and make off with everything we can get here and hope we find something that will help.

We could try to get info out showing what Sevener/Anya has been collaborating with a known felon and get her access revoked. Would at least put us on a even footing. And then she would have to work with us to survive.

There definitely seems to be some Cai influence in this simulation. They know Seveners real name and how we are competing. Also the whole system is set up to penalize non system contestants.
>>
No. 538386 ID: bc8d67

Turn to Polatt and say you guess there isn't anything like the Dead Batteries up here. Or any criminal organizations... Or criminals... Jeez... You gotta say you're sorry that he and everyone else is in this with you, 'cause, damn, you didn't expect a goddamn total surveillance police state. This is at least a couple orders of magnitude worse than you expected.

Alright, what are our options for direction? Obviously can't go out the exit door. Can't rush to try and take down Sevener before she leaves, 'cause she can just step outside and we'd get obliterated. Can't try to cut or otherwise move up the building and attempt to launch into space 'cause even if the building shields don't kick on and trap us in every Sapphire noble in the capitol will be on our tail. That leaves down.

Ask the robot what EIN surveillance is under the Operator building, and under the capitol and New Empire cities in general. You already know about the cleaner and maintenance bots, but you can stay out of their sight by moving through sewage, breaking into a water main and riding the flow, or even just plasma drilling down through the walls and rock. So what about other sensor systems; Specifically ones that don't require line of sight like jetal core and jetalium mass detectors.

Also ask what EIN surveillance systems are used for under oceans, seas and other bodies of water. We may want to aim for the floor of the bay next to the capitol and take advantage of its near opaque state to get away.

Right now the option to get out of the building that appears to have the least chance of alerting EIN is to plasma drill into a major structural column near the middle of the building, so the energy doesn't show up outside, then drill down the middle of it. We'll turn sideways once we're at or near bedrock and try to get into a utility tunnel.

Unfortunately we don't have GPS, a map, or even a compass to guide us once we're down there. We might be able to make a simple compass, but without a map, printed or otherwise, we'd be lost down there. How are we going to get a map of the capitol and the tunnels under it?

Ask for an explanation of the coordinate system that is used on-world, and the one used off-world. Then ask for the coordinate location of where you are, where the Blackmap Zones and known "barbarian" settlements are on-world and off-world, and the location of the orbital facility.

Also ask how EIN handles jetal divisions from legit jetals. They don't have cores, so how does EIN recognize them as divisions and connect them back to their jetal?

It also appears those 40,000 New Empire dollars are effectively worthless to us. That is, unless the Blackmap Zones still use New Empire dollars as their currency for some reason. Ask the robot if there's anyplace or anyone that accepts New Empire dollars as currency that isn't monitored by EIN.

...Wait a sec. That girl's voice in the recording, is it the same as the one that was on the Operator control channel back when the simulation was running in reverse? The one that specifically said your name in the warning when you were absorbing mass from that jetal?
>>
No. 538388 ID: 735f4f

I wonder if we can steal a operators core from the server farm and keep it separate in our body to piggyback on its EIN signal. Should ask if something like that is possible.
>>
No. 538389 ID: bc8d67

>>538388
Unfortunately just yanking one out of its socket will kill it and almost certainly send up an alert. And even if we did swipe a live core it would have to be a cooperative one, lest it call out to EIN. And even then it probably wouldn't work because EIN likely takes special notice of cores that aren't sending video or audio or have no mass. It moving around in a body that has eyes and ears would be a dead giveaway. We can still ask the robot about it, but we shouldn't expect a solution.

Though, I wonder if we could copy modules from a core that's still plugged into the Harvester simulation just by touching it. And would it alert EIN or anybody in or out of the simulation? That may be a way to snag high level modules as well as tool and utility ones such as a GPS or phone without having to go outside and beat down jetals. Better ask the robot about that.
>>
No. 538390 ID: 41690e

>>538388
I doubt we could find an operator core. There are going to be thousands, if not millions, of people plugged into the simulation, and only a tiny fraction of them are operators.

Remember, one drop in a sea was what protected anyone from the 'real' world from attacking us in the simulation, before.
>>
No. 538459 ID: d38f67
File 137790334164.png - (32.79KB , 700x700 , 436.png )
538459

The real world is a magnitude worse than Alison was expecting.

>Loviro's sword was a construct of the simulation
Which Loviro had made in this world as well, and if Loviro was thinking right, the construct was the exact same as the real thing, and should be functional since it's just data in her core.

"Who was that?" Alison asks of the robot, whos voice changes back to normal.
>"Data expunged." Alison does not recognize the voice, either.
Instead, Alison asks for the locations of the cloud slither and various blackmap zones. It sounds like the slither is the only place of any significance, and now has that location. After an explanation of the numbers, Engineer says the slither is a few thousand miles away. There are offworld barbarians, but they have expedited themselves into the vastness of space, trying to lose the belenos world entirely.
Lastly, Alison successfully gets the location of the orbital facility.
"How important is the harvest simulation?"
>"If it were to be lost in an accident, it would be a significant economical lost, but not a catastrophic one. It is an experiment as much as a life extending procedure and a prison.
"If I promise to obey the law and carry EIN with me, will the threat classification still hold?"
>"Yes. Chances of being killed are high."
"What EIN security is in and around the operator building?"
>"This building extends one mile underneath sea level. There is a layer of EIN under this. Further data is unavailable."
"What surveillance is used for bodies of water?"
"Submarine bots. Tens of thousands, perhaps digits more, patrol through to cover the most ground in the least amount of time. The patrols change randomly, and the patrols that are used are generated randomly on the spot. Prediction is impossible. With high end gear to detect bots before they detect you, evasion is possible."
"How does EIN deal with legal jetals who have divisions?"
>"Insignias from a noble house. All divisions must hold onto this, where EIN may scan them."
>>
No. 538460 ID: d38f67
File 137790335404.png - (52.09KB , 700x700 , 437.png )
538460

"What if I grabbed a core from the simulation and took its modules?"
>"This is possible, but the operators will know."

Alison pauses for a second, but the robot speaks up again, and starts melting.

>"This conversation is concluded."
>>
No. 538463 ID: b32a14

Say goodbye to the melting robot.

...if it's made of jetalium, perhaps take it once it's expired.

>absorbing from a core in the simulation possible
Probably not worth it if it alerts the operators. The only people in the simulation strong enough to have modules of any use of us are going to be noble jetals, and maybe the operators themselves, and we have no way of knowing which cores are theirs. It's a needle in the haystack, and the first straw we touch will get the alarm sounded.

>now what
...so we need a plan. We need to head to either the space station or cloud slither, or maybe the deep space baddies, although we don't know where they are and our time constraints may not allow for that.

And we need an exit strategy that gets us there without getting killed.

...if Sevener was working with us, we could pose as her division, I suppose? Too bad she wouldn't go for that.
>>
No. 538464 ID: 96c896

>>538460
Operators are way less of a threat than anything outside the facility.

Let's go hunting for cores in here.
>>
No. 538473 ID: 735f4f

No point playing by the rules anymore if we have that big a bounty on our head. Lets steal everything that's not bolted down here before we head out.

Split up and find the jetalium reserves and where they keep the cores. We need the best modules we can find. Right now we are about at our mass limit but if we start messing with stuff in here we might need more.
>>
No. 538476 ID: b32a14

>>538464
Individual operators aren't a threat, but a whole group of them could be. And giving up the temporary safe spot we have in this facility to plan and prepare is also a cost. It doesn't seem worth the chance of getting more modules, especially given the fact we have no way to locate the cores with modules we'd want to absorb from. It's a definite penalty for a very small chance of payoff.

>>538473
...and we already literally have more jetalium than our battery can support! We need a way to get out of here, not to go on a fruitless feeding frenzy.
>>
No. 538477 ID: 96c896

>>538476
THERE IS NO WAY OUT. That has been made abundantly clear.
>>
No. 538478 ID: 76b151

>>538477
yes there is. we just have to avoid those sea bots. Which we can get modules for here by scanning all those operator cores.

Personally I think we should head to the orbital station still.
>>
No. 538479 ID: b32a14

>>538477
There's no easy way out. And I don't see any way how grabbing a core, getting nothing new from it, and then getting attacked by opperators improves the situation at all.

Even if we luck out against all odds and absorb a noble in the sim, that's a relatively small upgrade in exchange for violating the sanctuary we have here. We'd still be overwhelmed, and we're still surrounded by other nobles. Who may be free to barge right in, if the operators allow them in the building for us after we cross them.

We need to either escape, or grow several orders of magnitude in power. Core grabbing from the sim won't get us enough power in time. That means our only option is escape- even if it's slim.
>>
No. 538480 ID: 76b151

>>538476
actually we do have a way to look for the modules we need.

Core Detection A

Able to see a relatively wide jetal core glow inside of jetalium. Class B also allows to scan a jetal's weapons and auxiliaries.
>>
No. 538482 ID: b32a14

>>538480
...if that works, why aren't we dead already? The news knew our exact module loadout, at one point. Sapphire could have had his goons scanning the racks until they found a core that matched exactly and terminated us on the spot while we couldn't resist.
>>
No. 538483 ID: 735f4f

Remember our safe zone here will only last so long. Sapphire is working on overriding the systems that keep him out of here as we speak.

So we need to explore as much as we can of this building as fast as we can without setting of any alarms by stealing cores or anything. Then once we know where everything is and find what we are looking for we grab it and head out.

Our objectives are any data sources or module storage devices. Also the location of the jetalium reserves in case we need to restock before we leave. Anything else interesting should be investigated so we have as much info as we can going forward. Heck if we can find the modules of our friends in the simulation maybe we can find a way to get them out safely.

Sevener will have the exact opposite problem we do. She does not have to worry about being attacked on sight but she has to follow every rule to keep it that way. EIN will be watching her constantly and if she does anything suspicious it will notice.

We will be fighting stuff constantly until we get to a blackmap zone or space but we should not have a problem with anyone except the most powerful nobles.
>>
No. 538486 ID: 96c896

>>538482
We're not looking for a specific core though, just any modules we can get.
>>
No. 538487 ID: b32a14

>>538486
We would be looking for specific cores. Specifically, those with modules we don't have, or more specifically, modules we don't have that would be useful to us. The number of cores in the simulation that posses such modules is low compared to the total number of cores plugged in.
>>
No. 538489 ID: 04b86a

Okay, this isn't quite on topic, but I've been thinking. The anti gravity module cancels out gravity, and if Einstein was right then gravity is caused by a warping of space-time. In other words, the Belenosians figured out how to warp space-time in a limited area using a trivial amount of energy.

So if we can get some jetal module data on quantum entanglement and get access to some module creation systems, then Mathematician will be able to make a wormhole generator. We can get a portal gun!
>>
No. 538501 ID: 76b151

>>538489
sadly the simulation we are in are fudging things. THe current scientific community has no idea how jetal technology actually works.
>>
No. 538508 ID: 735f4f

From what we know of the lost science Jetalium was probably made by throwing living people into a soup of nano bots and liquid metal. The Belenosians had so many mad scientists making doomsday weapons around this time this era's tech was mostly lost.

Heck the dead mans switch for the Sapphire emperor might have been the thing that set it off when this all happened in the real world.

You know if we could find Loviro's core could we get him in our head? Having a Belenosian scientist could give us a insane advantage. They might still have his brain or chip or whatever around here.
>>
No. 538511 ID: b32a14

>if we could find Loviro's core
Loviro doesn't have a core. He's not a jetal. He doesn't have a brain or chip, either. Remember- Loviro is dead. Sapphire killed him. He wasn't imprisoned in the simulation, the simulation recreated him. He's a ghost in the machine, his consciousness run directly off the harvester sim's servers. Just like Vinyl.

Assuming he's even still alive (there's decent odds a noble has killed him already. Again.), we have no way to get him out of the simulation.

That said, yes, he might be very useful to have around. We should definitely see if we can resurrect him outside the CAI battle with the special stage resurrection mechanic, when we get to that.
>>
No. 538524 ID: 9ddf68

I have a quick question
since we have the ability to hide our core would that mean we have the ability to hide from the sea bots as long as they don't see us or would the fact that they could still since our jetalium we'd still be found out by them anyways? Cause if we could sneak past only worrying about being seen we could just make ourselves match the sea floor so as long as we don't move they would have a bitch of a time seeing us and if we have someone watching out of an eye to give us 360 field of view so we can't be snuck up on there is a good chance we'd see a patrol before it would see us. Not saying we could get all the way to the blackmap zone or space before being caught but it looks like Sapphire is pointing all of his guns here at this place and if we can slip away and sneak far enough way before we are caught , yeah we'll still be hit but the attack wont be as concentrated.

Anyways I say explore the rest of this place first and see if we can't find somewhere to slip out or at least give us some more ideas on how to slip out... or worst case scenario, find a good place for a last stand.
>>
No. 538536 ID: bc8d67

Best course of action right now is to search as much of this building as we can in the time we have, but be careful about it. We get spotted by anything or anyone EIN-linked and it's going to get nasty fast. We'll get as much info as we can before choosing a course of action.

Split off two minimum mass divisions to perform the search while the core Alison body returns to the harvester simulation room to scan jetal cores. Have Polatt and Scanner or somebody else who hasn't gotten to be a division yet pilot them. They should make sure to always use tail-cams or similar to check around corners and doorways for anyone or anything that might possibly be EIN-linked so they don't expose themselves. We're looking for any information we can get, where the jetalium storage tanks are, or just anything that might help us out here.

When scanning the jetal cores socketed in the simulation, do a jetalium mass scan first to find all the cores, since they likely have a residue of jetalium on them, then do the core scan and compare them. That'll find the cores that have Core Hide A or higher, which means they likely have other high tier modules as well.

>>538511
Shame that none of us thought about the possibility of AI chip brain uploading and jetal AI upload modules back when Loviro was still with us. We may have been able to get a copy of him into Unity and out of the harvester simulation, and possibly even the CAI simulation too. Pity it's far too late for that now.
>>
No. 538605 ID: d38f67
File 137797224056.png - (20.32KB , 700x700 , 438.png )
538605

Alison finds a directory, with a red X where she is. She cannot sense any cores, so she is left to wonder if there are mechanisms in place preventing her senses. Jetalium, however, is fully available, although she is about at her max, especially if she must move fast.

>Gravity neutralizers must warp space time, leading to wormholes
Engineer says that he hardly understands them, and there are at least three theories that state that modifying gravity in such a manner should be impossible. But from what he knows, there is still a large gap between gravity neutralizers and wormholes.

The historian adds that in his research, the leading theory on why humans were able to pull it off is that they had, or at least felt they had, a necessity to develop FTL engines. The belenos, however, were able to circumvent that need for land and resources and simply habitat their own solar system with a combination of technological intelligence in other ways, and a callous disregard of ethics in order to keep the population under control. Another theory states that belenosian leadership is often strict and an exercise in keeping every factor in control, which would encourage a government in power to not invent something that would lead to mass, uncontrolled growth. He does restate that otherwise he doesn't know much about this point in time, as he doesn't have any books on it.
>>
No. 538613 ID: b32a14

>we're just about at max jetalium
Yup. Eating won't help, unless we find a way to increase our surge and battery a lot.

>something blocking core sense
...well that explains why we aren't dead. But that also makes locating cores in the simulation with upgrades we'd want to be next to impossible.

>what do
Okay, we have three exits. We out out the front door, take off flying from the roof for space, or sneak out through the basement into the sewers and try to swim to slither.

Front door sounds like suicide, going for the air sounds like delayed suicide (we'd probably make it a bit, but all kinds of nobles and EIN forces waiting would pursue). The water route might work, but we don't have the long range scanning equipment to evade patrols, I think.

...is there anywhere in the building we could find the equipment or module we'd need to evade the sharkbots? Maybe the reserves or the operators have some?
>>
No. 538614 ID: 9ddf68

I think we're going to want to dig here since that robot said the emperors control just about everything on land, sea, air, and space, but never said a damn thing about the underground so I say we just head to the blackmap zone for now to get some things like a phone and maybe a few mods then decide wither or not to hit the space station.
>>
No. 538618 ID: 96c896

>>538605
Let's go down. I wanna see what's below Harvest Storage. Is the pink area safe for us to wander around in, even on the above floors? I'm wondering exactly where we can go without being flagged.
>>
No. 538620 ID: c23ab0

Hey, what if we woke everyone up in Harvest Storage? Not that they'd all appreciate it, but there might be enough chaos for us to slip away from this location unnoticed.

Still seems a long shot though, with how EIN has coverage all over the planet.
>>
No. 538624 ID: d38f67
File 137797802903.png - (29.16KB , 1539x681 , 440.png )
538624

An iso division of a near insignificant amount of jetalium goes up to the operator housing. He still can't sense anything, except for one chunk of 5 tons of jetalium down the hall.
>>
No. 538625 ID: d38f67
File 137797803818.png - (119.38KB , 700x700 , 441.png )
538625

Alison goes down. The pink area appears to be the harvest storage. The whole building appears to be a circle, and a tube of harvest storage area goes up through the center of the building until the operator area.

It's about as big as she thought it would be. There are numerous bots flying around, but none seem to pay Alison any mind. Iso will have to hurry and chase Alison downward soon, as the jetal division maximum range is about to be depleted.
>>
No. 538626 ID: 735f4f

Oh wow that's a great idea if its possible. If there is a way to do it we could release thousands of people if not more. Then cause a panic and have them all run at once.
>>
No. 538629 ID: b32a14

Could we halt or pause our progress enough for Iso to investigate that pile of jetalium? Is there a stop button on the elevator / train?

As for catching up, he just needs to jump to us. Or fly, if he's low mass it won't take much energy.

>wake up everyone in the sim
...that would cause a lot of chaos, yes. But how? I'm assuming just ripping brains chips or cores out of where they're plugged in could actually be damaging. We'd have to find and activate some kind of shutdown or evacuation procedure.

>escape
If we're going down, that means we'll eventually hit the sewers and the waterways, and have to evade shark-bots. Have we given any though to how we're supposed to detect them before they detect us?
>>
No. 538631 ID: d38f67
File 137798304703.png - (17.24KB , 1551x657 , 442.png )
538631

> Is there a stop button on the elevator / train?
Yes, but Alison pretends there isn't and starts slithering on the rails for Iso to have a look around.

>Stop the harvester system
Alison sees a central building that looks important, so she invites herself inside. After a look around, she finds a manual on the harvest system. Most of it is technical garble, but there is a section on the main shutdown. She reads the book while using the book's map to move down to it.

Although the harvest system is under direct operator control, it cannot be isolated from society as a whole. Therefore, under the unknown situation that the harvest must be shutdown, two operators and one emperor must be present. They will use either their assigned insignias or jetal cores to interact with the key mats. All parties must be present. This shutdown mechanism includes the option for a mass evacuation of harvest subjects. All biological brain data will be converted to AI chips, and all robot and biological AI chips will be implanted into temporary robot forms. All jetal cores will be given enough jetalium to move out as well.
>>
No. 538634 ID: b32a14

>shutdown plan
...huh. Well, if we got Sevener to cooperate, or got Felix out by the o-route, we'd have another operator. Kind of moot though, as we've no Emperor to use. I mean, maybe Ruby would be willing to cooperate, after we killed Sapphire, but by that point we'd have won and the CAI battle would be over. Moot point, really.

...it doesn't mention what happens to simulation constructed intelligences. I assume they just die if the simulation ends? They aren't uploaded to blank AI chips or something?

Does the book mention anything about pulling individuals out of the simulation? Or what happens if you manually disconnect someone?

>what do
Let's see what Iso turns up on the top floor before descending deeper. All that jetalium just a reserve, or is there an operator to talk to up there?
>>
No. 538639 ID: 735f4f

Well there might be a way to set that off without the proper access codes but not sure if we could figure out how quickly enough. I do wonder what the system considers a emperor. If it only counts current ones or if they never removed access from the dead ones.

Would be entertaining if we could claim to be a heir of one of the dead emperors due to succession nonsense now that Loviro is dead. Still would need two operators even if that would work.

Could go with breaking the control center and seeing if it had a system in place for releasing everyone during a natural disaster. But that seems really dangerous. Could end up just killing everyone here instead.
>>
No. 538641 ID: cf3279

If we still aim for the orbital station (i.e. getting away from EIN's massive influence as fast as possible), we could construct a jetalium launcher as long as the maximum division distance (essentially making the railgun two massive divisions, with the core at one end). Use the massive quantities of jetalium available to construct it and burn more to power it for the launch (to compensate for the high morph's low power efficiency). Fire it at an angle to gain as much height and sideways velocity as possible before leaving the building itself and entering EIN's influence. Then we can start using antigrav and thrusters to stage our way to orbit, while hopefully traveling fast enough that EIN will have difficulty bringing assets to bear fast enough to take us down on the way.
>>
No. 538642 ID: 96c896

...if we can get Ruby and one other Operator down here to cooperate, we could unleash a massive army, strong enough to overwhelm Sapphire perhaps. Or we could just use a massive number of the AI Compartment mod to put people into our dream to get them out of the CAI Fight and into our army in the Contest.

It's worth noting that Sevener counts as an Operator too. Hmm. I wonder how she would feel about this plan. I wonder if we could absorb HER? I don't remember if we asked if it was possible to use the AI Compartment mod on Jetals.

For now though, we could merely talk to the Operator in the residential complex. How do we convince them that this belenosian universe is a simulation, though? Would Polatt's word be enough, or could we demonstrate skills we shouldn't have like Bandit's pickpocketing ability? Or maybe the other Operator could interface directly with us to catch a glimpse of Alison's inner world? If we can convince another Operator of the truth, we could send them out to maybe contact Ruby and ask him to come here to help us gather up everyone we can in Alison's inner world, then destroy Sapphire in some way that ensures Alison can escape with all these people in tow.
>>
No. 538646 ID: 96c896

>>538643
We could disconnect Felix then, and track down his departure location to get him in our inner world. Oh, his girlfriend too. The sim SHOULD have some way of making an AI chip for her despite her being a construct of the sim, right?
>>
No. 538647 ID: d38f67
File 137798545768.png - (13.34KB , 700x700 , 443.png )
538647

>Manually disconnect someone?
It appears that Alison is supposed to have authorization from others to do so, but there isn't any harm it pulling someone from the system, so she can ignore the rules if she does want to pull people out one by one.

Meanwhile, Iso says that the five tons is just a little storage thing for the operators. There are no operators that he can find at all. He just found a phone. Some in the lobby think it might not be tracked, since operators seem to have special status outside of the system.
>>
No. 538648 ID: b32a14

Do we know if Sevener has left the building yet? Could Iso look out the window?

>>538641
>use spare jetalium to build division railcannon and fire ourselves at the space station
Huh. ...that might work, actually. Potentially one way to get away from here clean, and hopefully get stronger at the station before anyone catches up.

Really, not any riskier than plan sneak-through-the-sharks.

>>538642
>unleash a massive army, strong enough to overwhelm Sapphire perhaps
Except pretty much everyone in the harvest sim is a civilian, and we have no way to control them or their loyalty anyways. Letting them go would be a great confusing distraction, but a poor army. If we tried to use them that way it would be ineffective, and a slaughter.

>>538646
>disconnect Felix, upload him to us
Except he's a brain in a jar, not an AI. We can't move him over into our core like we did Polatt. ...also, we don't know if there's a way to release simulation constructed intelligences to the real world. The book didn't say that. Does the book say anything about simulation constructs like Loviro and Vinyl? That's worth checking.

>Phone, not tracked?
...maybe? Is there any way we can check? Like, could we open the phone and look for a specific circuit that's missing or something? It's awful risky to take it with us and hope it's not tracked, but we have access to the internet until we leave the building, at least, if anyone can think of anything to look up.

Who's phone is it, anyways?
>>
No. 538649 ID: bc8d67

Have Iso take the phone, but stick tape over its cameras and microphone or just slip it into his body so its in the dark. Even if it it tracked we can use it to get information from the Internet before we leave the building, then discard it. Ask him to check if the phone has anything in its phonebook, notes, Internet search history or any other place that might have data to see if has been used before.

Also have him light absorb the 5 tons of raw jetalium before heading back. That'll take 5 b-minutes and net 4500 kg, so break off that much from the core body and drop it to keep mobile. We may need the extra for bombs or to burn for power soon.

Is there a location lookup near to where you are that can find where in the harvester racks someone is? Or to search by the reason they're in it? And can you look down the harvester storage silo to see what's at the bottom? Eventually we want to get to the bottom of harvester storage.

Well, looks like there's no way we're gonna be able to shutdown the harvester simulation. Not unless the Ruby Emperor suddenly shows up out out of the blue carrying a live operator core or a spare house insignia. Does the manual indicate any situation where the harvester simulation would automatically shutdown and release the occupants? Say in the case main power was lost and the backup power systems were about to run out. Also lookup what kind of security and protection they have on the jetalium storage.

As for getting out of here, here's an idea. We got Loviro's sword which can form into a plasma drill that can cut through rock like it isn't even there. So we could get as low as possible in this building and then just tunnel in a straight line from here to under Cloud Slither, staying under the seabed and bypassing all the patrol bots. We morph into a form with wheels on all sides that are pressed against the tunnel walls, use thrusters to push us forward, and anti-G to get past any voids in the rock. The problem with this may be that we won't be able to get going fast enough to get there before we run out of mass to burn.

Actually, since we can tunnel through the planet as fast as we can move, we could theoretically accelerate to escape velocity while still underground, if we had a enough battery charge or mass to burn. Might be a way we could get moving fast enough to reach the orbital facility without being detected. That is, until we erupt from the ground moving at mach 12.

I also have an idea for how to get extra thrust to get us into orbit: Rockets made using many very thin layers of precision timed explosive jetalium stacked on each other in a chamber at the back of our body. Set the bottom layer to 60 b-seconds, the layer at the top to 120 b-seconds, and all the thin slices in-between at fractions between those times. Then keep applying new layers to the top and pushing the whole stack out as it burns down. It'd be best to use multiple small rockets here so the thrust doesn't prevent the stack from being pushed out.

Oh, here's a crazy idea that could allow us to grab a huge mass of jetalium from here: We tunnel out though the bottom, funnel the mass into the tunnel, then push it along ahead of us, letting gravity do the job of moving it. Curve the tunnel around so it avoids the planet's core, absorbing and burning mass from it to power us along, and keep accelerating until we shoot out the other side of the planet going at escape velocity. Then we absorb all we can while flying away, going beyond what would keep us from moving on the ground, and then use layered explosive jetalium rockets, thrusters, and anti-G to curve into a trajectory to hit the space station. We'd need three divisions here: One in front to tunnel, the core pushing the jetalium and absorbing it to power us, and one in the back to collapse the tunnel.
>>
No. 538650 ID: 96c896

>>538648
>All biological brain data will be converted to AI chips

We can indeed get Felix out. Question is, can we get Vinyl out?
>>
No. 538652 ID: b32a14

>absorb the 5 tons of raw jetalium
Not worth it. We literally have just about as much as our battery can sustain. (More, even, since we're carrying some of it). Unless we plan on spending that jetalium dang near immediately...

>>538650
We don't even know if Vinyl is still alive, or still inside! At least Ruby's goons grabbed her, not Sapphires.

...aw shit. We totally missed the opportunity to ask Ruby about that.
>>
No. 538654 ID: 35037e

>>538648
>>use spare jetalium to build division railcannon and fire ourselves at the space station
>Huh. ...that might work, actually. Potentially one way to get away from here clean, and hopefully get stronger at the station before anyone catches up.

Something about using an electromagnetic gun to fire an electronic being seems like a bad idea.
>>
No. 538658 ID: bc8d67

>>538654
It could be a cannon that uses a series of timed explosive charges down its length to accelerate us instead. Or instead of using timed charges, they could be mines from our mine module. Those can be set to be remotely triggered instead of using a detector.
>>
No. 538660 ID: b32a14

>>538654
We've seen jetal cores weather ballistic and laser fire, plasma weapons, and function inside EMPS. I think it's a problem we can overcome.

...if we decide to go that way, though.
>>
No. 538663 ID: cf3279

>>538654
I'm not quite sure jetalium is completely electronic, but there are other methods of accelerating projectiles too. A Light Gas Gun will get you to the speed of sound in high-temperature hydrogen (around 4km/second), which can feed into an electrothermal railgun, a ram accelerator, a staged vortex gun, or similar.
>>
No. 538730 ID: e1609c

>>538654
I am fully in support of Operation Railgun, just putting in my vote.
>>
No. 538788 ID: 761017
File 137803528639.png - (33.40KB , 720x369 , Untitled.png )
538788

I'd lack to add a small idea that could be combined with Operation Railgun:

Gas-Enriched Scramjet Launch-tube
Otherwise known as a SPACE CANNON
If you have enough raw material, and the ability to create combustible gas, you can launch yourself with enough force and speed to completely escape the atmosphere in mere seconds.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ram_accelerator
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scram_cannon

I can't find my PDF of it, so have some mspaint of the principle in action.
>>
No. 539168 ID: b9d767

I think going for all the Jetalium in orbit may be overreaching our grasp a bit. It IS a lot of resources, but will likely be more than we can handle.
>>
No. 539174 ID: 57a559

You know there's probably a copy of Loviro in there, if they haven't deleted him completely.
>>
No. 539617 ID: bc8d67

It's a bit of a late suggestion, but did we think to find where the Operators store their module boxes and steal them? They do probably have some place for jetal Operators heading into the simulation for a specific task or mission to offload their modules into boxes and change their loadout before going in. Or for offloading modules that they picked up in the simulation that were created in the simulation so they could be studied for possible use outside the simulation.
>>
No. 539632 ID: c23ab0

>>539168

We don't have to make our body that size though. There isn't a battery on the planet that could handle that, hopefully. Just set the jetalium up there to explode and begin orbital bombardment. We're sure to get the emperor that way!

...I should stop suggesting things.
>>
No. 539759 ID: d38f67
File 137860265862.png - (15.77KB , 700x700 , 444.png )
539759

>Do we know if Sevener has left the building yet?
Alison can't tell, but will assume so. She also does not want Iso getting anywhere near the windows.

>Does the book say anything about simulation constructs like Loviro and Vinyl?
Yes. There is a way to extract them, but it sounds more involved, and also needs other operator's authorization. At least, to do it legally, but Alison might be able to do it by breaking the rules. The harvest keeps backups, as well, so it does have a record of Loviro.

For now, Alison will keep the phone while inside of the building but abandon it once she leaves, and diverts her attention to Engineer.

Engineer, I need you to take control of Unity for awhile.
>"What do you need me to do?"
Railgun.
>>
No. 539760 ID: c51e09

>>539632
Honestly, we have to remember that this is a CAI fight SIMULATION. This isn't a bad idea -- the rules don't care about collateral damage. Besides, it's not even the real thing. It's a simulation of a simulation inside a simulation still. Abstract enough for me.
>>
No. 539761 ID: d38f67
File 137860280675.png - (12.79KB , 700x700 , 445.png )
539761

>"..... are you asking me this because it sounds cool, or because you think it's practical?"
"I can't deny the former. You tell me, about the latter? Our alternative is to try and swim through hyper-sensing jetal seabots for a thousand miles, or leave an underground trail that EIN can follow."
>>
No. 539762 ID: d38f67
File 137860281658.png - (11.33KB , 700x700 , 446.png )
539762

He then gets to work, sliding a decent amount of jetalium while Atlas and Charles get a turn fetching loose jetalium and delivering it to Engineer to make the rail gun. Alison doesn't think anyone special actually has to do heavy lifting, but they've looked like they wanted something to do.
>>
No. 539763 ID: d38f67
File 137860282340.png - (19.89KB , 700x700 , 447.png )
539763

>"Just how long do you think we have?" Engineer says.
"Not forever! But no one's interfering with us punching a tunnel through the building, and even though Sapphire was going to try to bust his way in, I don't think that was going to be imminent."
>"Alright. This is going to be an expensive launch, and we're going to need to burn a lot to change our trajectory to match the orbit of the space station, but it will work. We'll get there in several belenosian hours at this rate."
>>
No. 539764 ID: d38f67
File 137860283314.png - (14.49KB , 700x700 , 448.png )
539764

>Jetalium is not quite immune to electricity, but I believe it can hold a large charge without harm. the Engineer says as he starts cutting live wires and putting them against spots in the rail cannon. Atlas and Charles are reabsorbed back into Unity. "We'll just leave those there. Then, once we turn on the jetalium magnetism, we'll start moving. I won't lie, I only claim to know the basics of this, and not how well it will work. So, if we're ready...."
>>
No. 539765 ID: d38f67
File 137860284186.png - (90.75KB , 700x1000 , 449.png )
539765

Engineer turns on the magnetism. It works better than expected. Antigravity and thrusters are activated, turning horizontally in quick anticipation of reaching an orbit.

Alison will destroy the phone, but she hangs onto it for just a moment to see if Scanner can get any activity when she bursts through the Operator's ceiling. In the matter of a few seconds, Scanner finds that the whole city's alarm system just woke up like a kicked hornet's nest, although Alison can tell that from the amount of sirens that just went on. Alison destroys the phone, since it is almost definitely helping them pinpoint her exact location.

There is a lot more stuff in the sky than Alison was expecting, and a lot of them are turning at her.

"They're too slow, we've got momentum. We can ignore them. Are we certainly going to the Orbital Station? We're going in such a way that we can land in one of the blackmap zones out in the middle of nowhere to try and lose EIN."

Alison's been split between the decision of blackmap and orbital, but she'll have to make a decision now.
>>
No. 539768 ID: be2ad8

Id say orbital if you can get to it but blackmap seems farster. Or it chold be the other way round
>>
No. 539769 ID: c23ab0

Problem with blackmap areas is they're under even higher surveillance on the borders than the city itself. But then again they're blackmap areas because something keeps EIN out of there successfully, so you might be able to get vital aid there. Or get killed by whatever horrendous monster is keeping EIN away.

Go to the orbital satellite. You can always base jump to elsewhere on the planet, but this will probably be your only shot into orbit.
>>
No. 539773 ID: 07e3a8

>>539763
...you know, if we built the launcher on a higher floor, we wouldn't have needed to punch as much of a hole through the building.

Although I suppose we were constrained to working where the big high voltage cables were available.

>blackmap or orbital?
I like the odds at the orbital station better. We know the exact number of robots and jetals stationed. Whereas the blackmap zone is being surveilled and targeted by Sapphire's artillery. And the inhabitants of the zone might not be happy to see us. A fight under fire doesn't sound fun.

Also, Alison-form is kind of perfect for zero-g. The extra arms, the tail, the prehensile hair? Practically made for climbing around a tumbling reference frame.
>>
No. 539775 ID: 96c896

>>539765
Considering if we went for the orbital station we would have both its defenders AND an EIN hunting squad on our asses, we would die very fast.

Blackmap. It is the only choice.
>>
No. 539781 ID: 76b151

Station
>>
No. 539784 ID: 735f4f

Awww so we left Loviro there? Should have grabbed him while we had the chance.

I say we head to the space station.
>>
No. 539785 ID: eaa372

Go orbital, we'll have plenty of objects to use as projectiles if it turns out the Sapphire Emperor is planetside.
>>
No. 539796 ID: 9ddf68

...If we hit the orbital station what are the odds of us being able to turn it into a base of operations for any future whatever. I'm guessing poor since they can always send more bots up there to try and take us out but we still could always crash the thing into the planet if to do nothing more then cause a distraction as we reenter the planet's gravity to book it to the blackmap zones. Hell if the station has some way for us to access the internet maybe we could try and crash the thing directly on EIN ( I mean these guys have the main EIN node somewhere right?)

Also saying we hit the station just because I'm sure sapphire is guessing we'd head straight for the blackmap zones and has taken the most measures to prevent us from getting there compared to the orbital station.
>>
No. 539799 ID: 761017

Going for the Jetalium factory is sticking ourselves inside of ANOTHER big economic investment probably equal in importance to the Harvester building.

it's the obvious choice, outside of trying for another planet.

Any suggestiosn for the blackmap zones are betting on the Blackmap zones randomly possessing Tera-Shield Plasma Generators to deal with Sapphire artillery!

To Alison: did you remember to turn on your plasma air-spike?
>>
No. 539812 ID: 2f4b71

Orbital. Even if we go for a Blackmap zone, find they're friendly, AND find they happen to have vast quantities of Jetalium lying around for us to be able to do another launch, EIN is already alerted to a potential attack on the station so we'd have a harder time trying the same stunt a second time.

Especially as once we're on the station, we hold The Highest Ground. We can land in a Blackmap zone, or right on top of Sapphire himself if we can pinpoint him.
>>
No. 540061 ID: 520645

I say hit the Orbital Station. If it turns out to be a total no-go you'll still be in orbit, and from there you can easily maneuver to land anywhere on the planet, including inside the Cloud Slither blackmap zone.

Another reason to go for the Orbital Station: It's pretty likely that Cloud Slither won't take kindly to you careening in with a horde of Sapphire nobles and who knows what else right on your tail. There's a good chance you'll either be fired on or they won't open their shields in order to keep you from bringing that shit down on them. You just can't risk getting sandwiched in a situation like that.

However, I'm worried about what kind of external defenses the station has. It could be some serious shit, beyond what we can handle. So I suggest that two lightweight divisions be broken off and go ahead on an evasive pattern at near-maximum range. That'll tell us what we'll be facing at the station, with a kilometer buffer to figure out how to deal with it.

Hey, what're those narrow super-tall towers in the distance? The ones with the horizontal beams sticking out of either side of them at regular intervals?
>>
No. 540063 ID: 76b151

>>540061
space elevators are my guess.
>>
No. 540066 ID: 96c896

Ahem. I'd like to point out that if we go to the blackmap zones, there are areas that Sapphire and EIN cannot see. This is completely the opposite case for the orbital factory, which is owned by Sapphire and in EIN-controlled space.
>>
No. 540070 ID: 520645

>>540066
You think that being outside the reach of EIN will stop whatever Empire forces are following after us all the way there from keeping after us? I know Sapphire's nobles and his forces won't stop, and I suspect we're a big enough threat that the rest of them won't either.

And EIN isn't the only way to track us. There's undoubtedly world-wide satellite surveillance and radar tracking systems, in addition to whatever sensor gear the forces after us have. We'd have to pull off one hell of a vanishing act after we land to lose the Empire forces.

But the votes are already 9 to 1 in favor of hitting the station, so it's a near certainty we'll be going there.
>>
No. 540122 ID: 96c896

>>540070
The fact that it's a blackmap zone means it is not under surveillance. Only the area Sapphire is pointing his long-range cameras at (and guns) is monitored. There are a couple of people voting who seem to think the only blackmap zone is the one Sapphire is looking at, which is definitely not the case. All we'd have to do is escape our immediate pursuers and we'll vanish off the radar, so long as we avoid the SPECIFIC area Sapphire is watching.
>>
No. 540174 ID: 520645

After some thought I've reconsidered and will change my vote to landing in the blackmap zone attempting to lose the Empire forces instead of going for the Orbital Station.

There's just too many unknowns with the station defenses. We don't know what if or what kind of exterior weapon emplacements there are, or how strong the plasma shields are, or if there are warships or satellite stations defending it. And considering how valuable the station is, the defenses are very likely to be high class. It's entirely possible we'll be blown away by a half-dozen plasma beam turrets before we get within a kilometer of the station. And even if we do get in, there's up to 24 jetals and 30 robots there who's capabilities are unknown and will be directly controlled by EIN to dogpile us. I don't like our chances with that alone.

So if we're ever gonna hit that station, we're gonna need to recruit a crew to back us up, and the only place we can possibly get that is Cloud Slither.

>>540122
The answer-bot said that blackmap zones are areas that are not under heavy surveillance, which in this context means EIN level. Less than that could easily include satellite surveillance, fly-overs by spy drones, and whatever other long-range monitoring tech the Empire has, but not ground level surveillance.

However, the big problem with landing in the least monitored blackmap zone is that it won't be the zone that contains Cloud Slither. That zone and its border will be the most monitored of all the blackmap zones. We'll have to get to Cloud Slither 'cause it's the only place in all the blackmap zones that might have the resources to help us, and getting there undetected by EIN will be tough.
>>
No. 540301 ID: d38f67
File 137895792224.png - (78.56KB , 700x700 , 450.png )
540301

>So we left Loviro there?
Alison did, along with everyone but Polatt. She didn't want to spend the time trying to locate them, or try to thin out the operator's patience for Alison doing whatever. She expects they are already rather sour at her burrowing a tunnel through most of the building's floors to make that railgun using an enormous amount of jetalium.

If she gets a chance later, though, to come back to this place, she'll put rescuing Loviro on the table.

"We'll go to the orbital station, but if things look too bad, we'll move back down and try to lose the empire's forces in some blackmap territory. It might not be clear how much or how little surveillance and influence the empire has in the blackmap zones, but if it comes to it, we don't have a lot of choices."

>What are the large towers for?
According to the engineer, they are most likely tethers to launch things cheaply into space, given how high they go. Although, Alison does come by close enough to see one to see a revolving restaurant at the top of it, so tossing stuff into space may not be its only function.

>Put divisions at max distance ahead to scout the station
Engineer says that this is doable if they match orbital speeds of the station and slowly advance on it. However, he suspects that ships, jetals, and other junk are going to pursue Unity even in space, giving her little time to take down the station. He proposes the idea to not match the speed of the orbital station, but rather, continue to accelerate, and use the station itself to break the fall and make the attack more difficult to intercept, and give Unity more time to get in and get out.
>>
No. 540303 ID: 96c896

Sure, let's ram the station, if it won't kill us. I suppose we could shift into a spear shape with the core at the rear for maximum impact protection and then quick morph into a better form once we impact the station.
>>
No. 540304 ID: 07e3a8

>slow down and match speed with the station or accelerate?
Ramming speed!

That station is supposed to be filled with robots and jetals, according to the news. They can take a little hard vacuum, and our pursuers can scoop up the survivors before their orbits decay and they die in reentry.
>>
No. 540309 ID: 04b86a

>She expects they are already rather sour at her burrowing a tunnel through most of the building's floors to make that railgun using an enormous amount of jetalium.
Nah, I'm sure they understand that that was our best way out of there and don't hold any hard feelings for it. Besides, it's not like they're going to do the repairs themselves.

>Ramming speed
As long as we probably won't get too damaged by the impact or break through something important, then sure!
>>
No. 540314 ID: 735f4f

Ramming should work if they do not have insane shields. Until we get into the station they can shoot at us freely. So blasting in at high speeds seems like a good idea.
>>
No. 540324 ID: 9ddf68

Ram the station. Engineer is right, we're not going to have much time before sapphire floods that place with reinforcements trying to take us out so we might as well hit the station hard and move fast.

Once we're inside what should we look for? I mean wherever the store the jetalium is a given but should we also spend what little time we have to find the controls on this ship, or maybe even a computer to try and see if we can't learn something to help aid us in taking out sapphire, or what?
>>
No. 540400 ID: 2f4b71

>speed
Given how fast orbits are, it's more that we'd be using the station to speed us up to orbital velocity, than for it to be slowing us down.
>>
No. 540433 ID: 520645

Engi's right; We don't have time for scouting. We'll do the acceleration plan, but also split up into three equal mass, equal form divisions and approach as evasively as we can without slowing us up much. That way if there are exterior defense turrets or drones they'll have to track three targets instead of one.

We'll aim to have all the divisions crash into the station at the same point and nearly the same time. One'll be slightly ahead of the rest and activate Loviro's sword in drill form to punch through the exterior hull, just in case it's stronger than expected. Then the rest follow in series through the hole it made.

And if we plasma drill through the hull, we should keep it up to do the same right through the interior compartments as well. Tricky bit is slowing down before we shoot out the other side of the station, but if we hit the hull at a shallow angle so we intersect as much of the station interior as possible, then use retro-thrusters and morph hooks and such to catch on surfaces, we ought to be able to slow enough to use thrusters to keep our trajectory inside the station.
>>
No. 540467 ID: 01531c

Ramming speed?!
Are you insane!?

Planet-side, they have ordinary Stationary Plasma Shields that can take a TeraBeam unphased!

IN SPACE, they will have the full solar power of the sun to maintain 24/7 "[REDACTED] Class" Stationary Plasma Shields!
>>
No. 540505 ID: 520645

>>540467
Actually, after reading Engi's plan again, it doesn't look like its intended to ram through the hull to get to the interior of the station. It's just intended to stop us after we accelerate as fast as we can by colliding with the station. I'm guessing he's sensibly assuming the station has shields and will have them up by the time we arrive.

In this case I think it'd be best to not crash into the station perpendicular to its shield. At the speed we'll be going we may not be able to cushion our core enough to prevent damage if we do crash that way, and we can't afford risking being knocked out. So instead lets aim to collide with the shield at an angle and skid across it to slow down, using thrusters keep us pressed against it, and attack the shield at the same time to work at running it down.

I also suggest firing the TeraBeam or bending GigaBeam at the station as soon as we can get in range, using cooling to keep our serge regen up, to soften its shields up. Once we hit we'll switch to an overdriven Plasma Well with cooling and burn 200kg of mass for serge recovery, as well as mass for battery.

However, I am worried that we may not be able to knock down the station shields once we get there. We need to know more about how stationary plasma shield generators are powered. Because if it's a case where they can stay up indefinitely as long as there's more power fed into them we won't have a chance to punch through before reinforcements arrive. But if it's a case where they can't be charged while active or one where they'll burn out quickly if they are, then we have a chance.
>>
No. 540511 ID: 256d52

>>540467
>Ramming speed?!
>Are you insane!?
>Planet-side, they have ordinary Stationary Plasma Shields that can take a TeraBeam unphased!
Actually, a mass traveling at a speed of several kilometers per second hits with a kinetic energy greater than its weight in TNT. Something else comes to mind that is measured in kilotons of TNT.

For extra fun, you could fire a jetallium projectile ahead as a penetrator to brake the mass holding the core if you're worried about it. Sir Isaac Newton, etc.

This all depending on how fast we're going relative to the station though.
>>
No. 541130 ID: d38f67
File 137960859663.png - (44.72KB , 700x700 , 451.png )
541130

"Ramming speed!" Alison says.

Most of the reserve jetalium Alison has gets worn down by the trip up, but she doesn't need to lower her active mass any.

>"It should be... yes, there." Engineer notes the station.
>>
No. 541131 ID: d38f67
File 137960864905.png - (13.54KB , 700x700 , 452.png )
541131

The shields on the station go up right on that cue.

>"Damn. They saw us after all. We'll crash in hard, but that's good, it will do more damage to the shields than it will to us. I can't guarantee that. We should still fire weapons to try to break the shields."
"How fast are we catching up to the station? I can't tell."
>"... don't worry about it. Fire somethingnowplease."
>>
No. 541132 ID: 76b151

Our best shield breaker probably would be the plasma well... but thats kinda small.

Lets go with both Gigabeams.
>>
No. 541133 ID: 76b151

>>541132
slow not small.
>>
No. 541134 ID: 001618

start firing lasers at it and when we get in close just see if you can't poke through with your sword(unlikely) and once you're on the shield hit it with a plasma well.
>>
No. 541135 ID: 96c896

Isn't the plasma well designed for exactly this purpose? We could Overdrive it too.
>>
No. 541138 ID: 07e3a8

This would be perfect for the plasma well if it wasn't so slow and we weren't hurtling right for the station. I doubt it would crack the shield before we hit. (Would have been an option if we'd taken the slow approach, I guess).

Which means we default to beams. Terrabeam and/or Gigabeams go!

...can we tell from the outside what any of the sections of the station are? Some sectors might be better for our crash landing than others.
>>
No. 541139 ID: 96c896

>>541138
Yeah good point. Terabeam is definitely a good idea for cracking the shields of a large target though.
>>
No. 541151 ID: e607cd

This is space, speed is relative. The plasma well is going to be moving at it's own (slow) speed plus our own (fast) speed when it hits those shields, so it will definitely get there. It is just a matter of whether the impact damage of a well will be more effective than the prolonged (but still short in the grand scheme of things) effect of a beam.

For that question, consider that if beams were anywhere NEAR as effective as wells at weakening shields, then wells would be virtually worthless given their other weaknesses. I feel like we should be using the weapon type which is specifically good against shields preferentially over the type which shields are explicitly designed to protect against.

Fire the well ASAP to give it as much burn time as you can before you impact behind it. If you have time to pepper some additional beam fire once the well is away, then by all means go for it I guess.
>>
No. 541180 ID: d38f67
File 137962728857.png - (64.53KB , 700x700 , 453.png )
541180

Alison goes with a plasma well. It will hit just a brief moment before she does, but the weapon is theoretically meant for this purpose. She throws on overdrive, and ends up using 10% of her battery in a moment, pushing it forward and to the side, so that she won't slam into her own plasma if it doesn't break the shield.

The plasma shield opens a window right as Alison flies through, still with the plasma ball active.

For a brief instant, Alison is afraid they'd be able to deactivate that section of shielding while the plasma goes through, then shut it on her face, but either they can't or won't, as Alison makes it through as well. Unity is quickly heading to slam into the station itself, now.

Although Alison was on the fence about making divisions in advance before, this would be a good time to do so, if she wants to chance taking the entire station at once, faster.
>>
No. 541183 ID: 07e3a8

Yeah, this is probably a good time to make divisions, if we're gonna make them.

If it's not too much of a drain, and it's actually moving fast enough to keep ahead of us, we might want to keep the plasma well online long enough to punch a hole through the station ahead of our entry.
>>
No. 541198 ID: 9ddf68

well unless they open a door for us as well think the plasma well can punch through the stations hull?

Also I think they're trying to trap you seeing as they opened the force field so you couldn't drain it and those things keep people in just as much as they keep people out so my guess is they're trying to trap you until the nobles can catch up to you. If that is the case then find the power source of this station and smash it as I feel that would be much quicker and energy efficient then trying to drain the shields.

Also yes to the divisions, I say give them 1/5 or 1/4 of your jetalium and lets see what's inside.
>>
No. 541206 ID: 76b151

As far as placement goes how about each of you goes to one of the station sections. There are six in all so you can divide the job into three then converge on the center if you haven't found what you were looking for.
>>
No. 541210 ID: d38f67
File 137963304476.png - (68.49KB , 700x700 , 454.png )
541210

With all that energy burnt on the well, she may as well use it. She cuts the overdrive out of it so that Duelist and Guardsman, who she sends out at the sides, goes to do their thing.

The plasma well burns through the wall as Alison enters what looks like... she has no idea.

>"Hello, Naga! It looks like I was right about your plans all along, from this little space trip of yours. Right into the trap! Try not to completely die, now!"

>"Self destruct initiated! 10 minutes until destruction." the intercom blares.
>>
No. 541211 ID: d38f67
File 137963310331.png - (14.59KB , 700x700 , 455.png )
541211

>"Wait what. A timer? That's not what I... fuck you, Naga."
>>
No. 541214 ID: 735f4f

Blow her a kiss. Also if this is a huge trap that means no one around to stop us looting hopefully.

Worst case we have 10 minutes. Best case we stop the countdown and have our own space station.

So get to hacking systems and looking for info. May or may not have people to deal with up here but better find out fast.
>>
No. 541215 ID: 76b151

Since the self destruct is probably tied into the space stations energy core have one of your divisions head to the center bit to see if they can't shut it down. You and the other one should start searching for anything you can use.

One way to preserve everything would be to cut the station apart and see which place blows up then search the rest afterwords.
>>
No. 541216 ID: 04b86a

I'd like to remind everyone that those 10 minutes are in belenosian time, which gives us about 2 normal minutes to do our thing and gtfo.

Now, if I thought we could manage it in that small time span I'd suggest we destroy the station's communication systems and then hack it to turn off the self destruct. I doubt we can manage it, though, so reduce Duelist and Guardsman's masses and have them start hunting for modules.
>>
No. 541217 ID: e1609c

>>541211
>fuck you, naga
You know, its not as if we planned this, mate.
>>
No. 541218 ID: 96c896

>>541211
Start using the Well to break through walls. Use Jetalium Sense to find jetals and jetalium to nab mods and mass. If possible we should disable the self-destruct so we can just plain take over the station and bombard Sapphire's stuff along with shooting our pursuers.

Uh, also ask... what plans she's talking about, exactly? We're kindof playing it by ear right now.
>>
No. 541223 ID: 9ddf68

Swoon a little and say you got me a bomb thank you, now where should I crash this thing" then cut the link (by shooting the TV if you have too)

I really don't think we'd have time to crash this thing but still no one said we couldn't try a scare her a little =)

As for what to do, Find the ships power source and smash it, I don't think we could get out of the space station's shield quick enough to avoid the explosion so I say just find whatever looks like it's powering this place and stop it
>>
No. 541225 ID: 07e3a8

...well, that's disappointing.

On the up side, a space station exploding in low orbit should do wonders for our escape. That's going to fuck a good deal with long range comm and surveillance systems, worldwide. It'll be a lot easier to come down wherever we want.

Do you or any of your divisions sense anything? Cores, modules, jetalium? Anything useful? Maybe we could sacrifice a division to absorb as many useful modules as possible while the main body got out of range? (You'd think there'd be something. Sevener barely got out ahead of us- they would barely have had time to evacuate personal from the station and set this up).

Alison should probably see what our options are for getting back out. We'll have to punch the shield again, and station defenses may now be trying to pen us in (we may have to send a division to disable the shield generator while we run?).

Obviously, we'd prefer to get out of this with a profit, but we'll burn jetalium to survive if we have to.

>fuck you, Naga.
There's hardly time for that, Sevener.
>>
No. 541234 ID: 76b151

>>541225
Thats a good point. How the hell did Sevener convince someone to blow up whats on all accounts a priemier research and production facility? This place HAS to be more valuable then that.

Or at least you'd think so.
>>
No. 541238 ID: d38f67
File 137963635605.png - (18.12KB , 700x700 , 456.png )
541238

"What plan?"
>"To come here! Ugh, nevermind." Sevener says, to which Alison does, giving Sevener a wave goodbye. She drops the plasma well, since she can burst through walls using far more energy efficient means such as doors. She starts running through the rooms, but she sees nothing but... whatever this stuff is.

"We should blow out their engines or communications. I'm going to look for a way out, or re-punch through their shields. Do either of you see the power generators or something?"
>"All of this tech is oddly shaped." says the Duelist. "I'm sorry, I wouldn't know. I sense some jetalium in section 4, though. None of it's moving, but I'm heading there."
>"My room's - uh, section 6 or whatever - is making a lot of humming noises!" the Guardsman chimes in. "And it doesn't have any modules! So I can blow it up? I mean, some bot here is yelling at me not to, but, you know, of course it is."
>>
No. 541242 ID: 96c896

>>541238
Yes, guardsman can blow it up. Keep moving.

I'm starting to think that the broadcast we heard from the TV was a lie. Either propaganda, or a falsified report broadcast by Sevener herself.

At any rate, when the ship blows it will create a rather large explosion so we should start leaving with a good amount of time left to escape its radius.
>>
No. 541243 ID: 76b151

Don't blow that up!

Have someone talk to the bot, find out how to access the modules... or shut down the self-destruct. Or cut the power. Whatever.
>>
No. 541244 ID: 735f4f

Don't go blowing up anything just yet. We are not so low on time that we need to wildly shoot things at random.

Get our engineering team looking at everything and have guardsman take that bot hostage. Grill it for info about the humming equipment but do not hurt it.

Need to figure out what this station does or did before we can do much else. If they are willing to let Sevener blow it up to just try and kill us it can't be what the news said it was.

So we find out if its even worth saving or if we just broke into a space truck stop.

I get the feeling whoever lives here is not high on EIN's favorite person list.
>>
No. 541246 ID: 07e3a8

>All of this tech is oddly shaped.
Polatt, you're the local expert. You recognize any of the tech around us, or what it does?

>a bot, yelling
Ah. They didn't evacuate the station. That would have made the setup faster.

That also increases the odds that the stuff Ruby sent us for is still here. They didn't have a chance to get it off the station. There's a chance we can get the modules and jetalium we came for and get out (even if we've got less than 2 real minutes remaining. Might want to crank the move fast mods?).

...maybe ask the bot for one really good reason not to blow that stuff up since the whole station is going to blow, anyways. Presumably the robot doesn't want to die- can Gaurdsman intimidate it into telling him anything useful? (Where the good stuff is, or how to avert the countdown?).

>I'm starting to think that the broadcast we heard from the TV was a lie.
Not necessarily. I mean, the exact same amount of defenders might be stationed here as broadcast. Saphire might just be willing to sacrifice them all.
>>
No. 541251 ID: f9cf6a

Send Dualist to check out the jetalium mass. That's most likely near the jetal research area, and that means any modules here will be nearby.

>>541243
I concur. Whatever it is may turn out to have enough bang to destroy the station if shot. Look for signs or other writing indicating its function.

Unfortunately interrogating the bot likely won't work. It knows if it says anything it's dead by EIN. We can still try, but with someone more personable than Guardsman.

Oh, would it be possible to upload that bot's AI chip from Guardsman's division? And without it remaining EIN-linked? Because in that case I'd say rip it's chip out and get its AI in here for interrogation.

>>541242
But Ruby was the one who first told us about this station, back in the simulation. He definitely would know it was worth it for us to hit.
>>
No. 541252 ID: 57a559

>>541238
Work with the bots because I'm sure they want to survive too and don't give a shit about Sevener's plans unless they're suicidally loyal.
>>
No. 541253 ID: 76b151

>>541251
its gonna die anyway. Maybe we can promise to take it with us to get anit-EIN'd
>>
No. 541254 ID: 96c896

Oh, we could grab its AI via the mod we have for that. The more the merrier!
>>
No. 541255 ID: 07e3a8

>>541254
I thought that was a one upload per module kind of deal?

Besides, we hardly have time to save the entire station's worth of bots, unless there's a way to avert the self destruct.
>>
No. 541262 ID: f9cf6a

Have Guardsman yell back to the bot to ask why he shouldn't wreck this equipment when this whole station is going to explode in less than 10 b-minutes.

>>541255
We're not gonna try to save all the bots. We only need one who's free to answer our questions about the facility, which means uploading into Unity. EIN won't let it say much otherwise.

But if that AI upload module was one use only or the bot's AI chip can't be uploaded from a division, then it'll seriously curb what we can ask. It knows it's dead no matter what at this point, so it might be able to answer one or two important questions before EIN takes control and locks it down. But what should we ask?
>>
No. 541271 ID: d38f67
File 137964320578.png - (15.47KB , 700x700 , 457.png )
541271

>Use the AI module
Unfortunately the module only allows one AI in storage, and picking and choosing, Alison will keep Polatt in her system.

"Hey Polatt, what's all this stuff anyway?"
>"Uh, just looks like computers to me."

"Ask the bot why you can't destroy it!"
>"Are you serious fine.

Alison pays attention this time while Guardsman speaks, while she tries to burn out the plasma shields.

"Bot tell me why I shouldn't just blow this place up!"
>"Shield generator is active and highly unstable. Selective damage will result in immense explosion."
"Oh I guess that is kind of - wait, this place is gonna explode anyway!"
>"Objective is to keep station functional and clean. Main threat to objective: Self destruct in 10. Override for self distruct is legal. Primary objective is to keep station function and clean until destruction."
"What is this place then, bot?!"
>"Research station 142. Jetalium efficiency and weapon study specialty."
"If that's the case, why're they just going and blowing up the place, huh?"
>"Value analysis: little to lose. All data and studies have been backed up off-site. All material wealth considered replaceable."

>"I've located some weapons." Duelist mentions. "It has is own shields though, but they are most likely weaker. It will take me a moment to break in."
>>
No. 541273 ID: 76b151

Ask where the backup location is maybe?

After that leave that guy and look for more shielded areas.
>>
No. 541274 ID: 96c896

>>541269
Get the bot to take Guardsman to where we can pick up some weapon data! This is pretty much our top priority aside from making sure we get out in time. Even if Guardsman can't follow us out and we lose the jetalium in his body it'll be well worth it. Guardsman can threaten to make a huge mess if the bot doesn't cooperate.
>>
No. 541277 ID: 76b151

Jetallium efficiency might be just as important. If we could find something that reduces Mass Energy cost, or better quick absorbtion.
>>
No. 541278 ID: 07e3a8

Time remaining? Alison is sort of going to have to start looking into securing an escape route if we can't avert the self destruct.

...ask the bot if there's anything that could be done illegally to avert or slow the self destruct? We're not bound as it is, and that's a way it overcome the obstacle to it's objective.

>duelist found modules
Break in. If he absorbs them, they'll be copied to our core. Even if he doesn't make it to the exit, a third of our jetalium may be a fair trade for sufficiently powerful mods.
>>
No. 541279 ID: 735f4f

Get as much weapon data as you can and restock on jetalium if possible. If we find a easy way to save the station we try for it if not let it blow.

Guardsman try to convince the robot that if you have to break into stuff it will make a mess of things and then it will die with a filthy station on its hands. So obviously it should help you get what you want so it can die happy.
>>
No. 541280 ID: 76b151

Oh Get directions to other modules.
>>
No. 541293 ID: f9cf6a

Tell Dualist to use whatever method is fastest, shovel all the modules into his body to carry and check them, then break into the jetalium storage to quick absorb mass to burn to recover.

Have Guardsman try to get the bot's cooperation by telling it if it doesn't help then he'll start smashing up the station and making as huge a mess as possible before the self-destruct goes off. If it agrees to help then Guardsman should grab and carry the bot, since he likely can move faster than it.

First question for Guardsman to ask is how long it would take an overdriven plasma well to wear down the station shields from their current level. 'Cause if it's way longer then we have then we may as well stop wasting mass and energy on it and look for another way.

Second question to ask is if the bot can or will open any or all of the secure storage plasma shields within the station for him, either remotely or by bringing the bot to them. Then ask what types of modules are stored on the station and where, and which of them are usually the most restricted ones. Specifically ask about ones for batteries, improved energy and surge efficiency, improved mass absorption efficiency and speed, improved jetalium to energy conversion, and especially ones for massive efficient jetal division. Oh, and also ask where are the ones that don't take up any module slots. We could take all of those.

Next ask if the bot could lower the station's exterior plasma shields, either in whole or part, or tell you how to safely disable them. Use the argument that if you're not here, you definitely can't cause a mess.

Then ask what kind of self-destruction the station has, where it's located, how powerful it is, and what kind of modules would you need to survive the blast from it, by a combination of shielding yourself and flying away from the station fast enough.
>>
No. 541317 ID: 9ddf68

ask the bot if there is any way to power down the station. That way the place will stay clean (if dark) and not blow up which even if legal is still messy

and yes to have duelist try and get the weapons

Alison, how is your work coming along, does the shield look like it's wavering at all or does it still look just as strong as ever?
>>
No. 541385 ID: 2f4b71

Backup plan: see what Emperor-related targets we can hit on the surface by deorbiting the station within 10 minutes.
>>
No. 541393 ID: f9fc9d

Wait, "override to self destruct is legal"? Does that mean we can just ask the bot to turn off the self destruct? Try that.
>>
No. 541408 ID: 7bbaae

>>541393
No, it means the self destruct was legal, which overrides his orders.
>>
No. 541599 ID: d38f67
File 137988419391.png - (61.16KB , 700x700 , 458.png )
541599

>Try to find emperor-related targets we can hit on the surface by deorbiting the station within 10 minutes.
Alison is pretty sure she won't be able to de-orbit the station in less than 2 real-time, non-belenosian minutes.

Duelist starts applying weapons on the module and jetalium storage protection.

"Override, as in your orders were superceded? You can't stop the self destruct?" Alison asks through guardsman's division.
>"Correct."
"Where's the backups?!" Guardsman takes over again.
>"I am not at liberty to say."
"I'm not at liberty to keep you alive! Do something illegal to stop the self destruct, bot!"
>"Error: Illegal Operation."
"Take down the jetal module shields!"
>"I will not."
"You're supposed to keep the facility in working order till the place goes boom, right? If you don't help me out, I'm gonna smash the place up before it self destructs!"
>"Threat level detected. Compromising... accepted. Will lower shields." The bot moves over to a console and plugs itself in.

"Wait really?" Alison asks.
>"They're down!" the Duelist responds, to which he starts shoveling boxes into himself.

The plasma well Alison brings back up appears to be doing the trick, and the plasms shield starts flickering.

>"We have a problem." The duelist starts picking up the modules to try and absorb them. "They're all unlabeled and experimental."
>>
No. 541600 ID: 7bbaae

>>541599
We don't have time to test them out, just grab them all, store them in jetalium, then escape with the main body. Now! Move fast, Duelist! Strength boost and thrusters and all that.

We can probably bring them to someone in unmonitored space to analyze them.
>>
No. 541606 ID: 07e3a8

...we can't absorb them all and then throw away what we don't like we usually do?
>>
No. 541607 ID: eaa372

>>541600

I'm with the cram all the boxes inside yourself plan. Try to get your masses back together before you jump off the station. If we can reach Cloud Slither we might be able to solicit their help depending on the value of the prototype modules we just snagged. However you may have to settle for another blackmap city if the orbital velocity of the satelite's has taken us too far away from Cloud Slither.
>>
No. 541613 ID: 735f4f

Ha ha I knew the little guy would hate the idea of his nice clean station getting messy.

Grow a few arms and shovel yourself full of modules. We can experiment with them later. Sure we wont know what we managed to get away with for awhile but nobody will know what we are packing until we use it on them.

Make sure to leave yourself enough time to both get to the exit with time to spare.

Duelist grill the little guy on how big a explosion this station will make once it self destructs.
>>
No. 541652 ID: 9ddf68

duelist, just loot and scoot, no one is saying we have to absorb them now. and if you're afraid that you won't be able to get to the shield in time to escape the explosion then just shoot your way out, it's not like we're we have a reason to be gentle here what with the self destruct thing and all.

Oh and if the little robot starts bitching about how we're making a mess by shooting through the walls tell him if he drops the shields that would mean we'd have to leave and therefor can't mess the station up anymore.
>>
No. 541670 ID: f9cf6a

Is Dualist saying that when he tried to absorb the modules they don't even have name and description data encoded into them? Not even a record reference number? 'Cause if that's the case these modules are gonna be super risky to test out. For all we know there might be something nasty like a self-destruct module in that pile.

Dualist should still continue shoveling modules into his body to carry out. He can use Quick Morph to increase his volume and form extra arms, tentacles or Alison hair to get as many of them into him as fast as possible. If there's any labels next to the containers he's taking them out of he should note what's written on them. And if the jetalium storage is open he ought to tap into it to absorb mass to burn, then grab as big a chunk as he can quickly carry on the way out.

Guardsman should ask the bot where the records of what the experimental jetal modules stored on the station do, and if they're here to flip through them on the screens he can see really quick. Then everyone in the lobby can split up remembering that data. The bot probably won't comply, but it's worth a try.

Meanwhile flip the plasma well into overdrive and keep it up until the shield comes down. If Dualist isn't back yet flip the overdrive off and stick the plasma well where the plasma shield was to "hold the door," then thrust away to maximum division range in the direction of Cloud Slither. Then Dualist can fly out after you and you two can adjust thrust to meet up while still accelerating away from the station.
>>
No. 541793 ID: d38f67
File 137998802019.png - (14.83KB , 700x700 , 459.png )
541793

"Loot and scoot, Duelist!" Alison says, breaking the wall. Duelist hasn't absorbed anything. "You mean you can't tell what they are at all?"
>"That's right. I can absorb them, but there's no telling if they're any good or not. I nabbed about 12. They could be 12 different copies of, well, master musician, for all we know. I did grab some jetalium though." Duelist says as he jets out of the station to Alison.

>"Hey, bot!" Guardsman asks. "What do the modules here do?!"
>"Please input ID card to continue."
>"Ahhhhhh!"

Guardsman, please leave the bot alone.
>>"No!"
"Please do."
>"No! I'm gonna get info out of this su-"
>>
No. 541794 ID: d38f67
File 137998803676.png - (158.37KB , 700x700 , 460.png )
541794

BOOM

>"Oh. Fuck." Guardsman says through the lobby. Alison and Duelist latch on to each other before they get knocked apart from the resulting shockwave.

The jetalium Duelist got starts getting absorbed to recoup what losses Alison took, and jets around to stabilize herself from spinning. The duelist takes a look from the direction in space Alison came from.
>"We've got company, I see fuel burning from, maybe, 30 seconds away. We have momentum towards the planet from the blast, though, we might be able to go faster than them."
>>
No. 541795 ID: 7bbaae

>>541794
We can't risk combat while carrying the modules. They might break. Accelerate towards the planet and try to gravity assist around it to head towards unmonitored space.
>>
No. 541802 ID: 735f4f

Have engineer and math figure out the best route to the middle of the largest blackmap zone we can get to.

The modules are probably delicate so lets try to avoid combat if possible until we can get them tested and applied properly.

Tell Guardsman that while his intimidation skills are good he needs to work on his temper and focus. In another simulation we could have lost him there. How would Scanner feel if you got blown up forever?
>>
No. 541807 ID: 07e3a8

Let's try and run. We can always send a division back, without our looted modules, to fight our pursuers, if necessary.

The exploded station should help us somewhat- that place was huge and blew up big in low orbit. That's a lot of EM and charged particles in the atmosphere. Communications and electronic surveillance is going to affected.
>>
No. 541825 ID: 9ddf68

don't think it would be wise to fight right now, just rocket yourself towards the closest blackmap zone and see if we can't lose them there.
>>
No. 541843 ID: f9cf6a

No fighting. We'll try to outrun the pursuers instead. Fire full thrusters and plot a trajectory that'll land us in the Cloud Slither blackmap zone. But split off two divisions to hang a bit behind, just in case those pursuers are faster than expected.

We shouldn't trust that all of those modules are safe to absorb to test ourselves. For all we know there's ones in the pile that are meant to be traps. Ones that'll do something like immediately lockdown or shutdown a jetal or activate an unstoppable self-destruct.

We need another jetal to load these on. One without any scan blocking, and preferably not EIN-linked so EIN doesn't know what we have. Strip it down to just enough mass to interface with the module box, stick it in and scan it after for what the module is. If it's clean, we yank its core and absorb the module from it.

>>541802
Guardsman doesn't react well to Alison chiding him, so she should ask Scanner to talk to him about that instead.
>>
No. 541849 ID: 2f4b71
File 138001005078.png - (344.46KB , 1000x483 , 1000px-Skip_reentry_trajectory_svg.png )
541849

>>541795
>gravity assist
We might not have the right vector, but we could also try skipping along the atmosphere to greatly increase our range. If we angle ourselves right (we'll probably have to grow an aeroshell too, but that's really just a flat cone of insulating material) we can even skip out sideways to reach further north or south.
>>
No. 542430 ID: d38f67
File 138039441691.png - (23.10KB , 700x700 , 461.png )
542430

"Engineer, take over Unity for me, get her out of here. Try to land us in the middle of the largest blackmap zone you can manage."
>"The biggest zone is the one that Cloud Slither is in, but that city isn't in the middle of the zone anyway. We'll land several hundred miles away from it, at least."

"Hey Scanner could you do me a favor and try to get Guardsman to improve his temper and all?"
>"I can try, but that's like trying to get you to hug less."


Unity manages to keep her distance from her pursuers, but doesn't manage to gain much ground either. It looks more like they're just making a show of chasing Unity.
>>
No. 542431 ID: d38f67
File 138039443276.png - (244.53KB , 700x700 , 462.png )
542431

Re-entry is successful, and Alison uses the clouds as cover. She isn't sure if the empire's forces can see through clouds, but it doesn't hurt. What does hurt is getting struck by lightning a couple of times, so she doesn't stick around for long.
>>
No. 542432 ID: d38f67
File 138039443994.png - (105.86KB , 700x700 , 463.png )
542432

She moves down the rest of the way. The blackmap zones don't look like a bastion of fun filled freedom.
>>
No. 542433 ID: 7bbaae

>>542432
Alright, we have two choices now. Either start installing the unknown mods one by one and test them out to see what they do, or just wait until we find civilization and ask around to see if we can find someone who can identify them. The first one risks suffering backlash from the experimental nature of the mods, the second one risks us getting mugged.

Either way we should keep moving. Make a couple divisions with small amounts of Jetalium to serve as mobile cameras of a sort so you can't get ambushed in this rocky landscape.
>>
No. 542437 ID: 9ddf68

I think we should keep moving just to make it harder for anyone still trying to follow us. Just because we're in the blackmap zone doesn't mean we're safe just yet.
>>
No. 542439 ID: f45380

>improve Guardsman's temper
Would probably be easier to have another personality step into his division and say 'hey, time to run from the exploding now'.

>See through clouds?
They might have modules for that, but I'm really expecting the global surveillance system to have a hard time tracking you. Thanks to that exploded station there should be a lot of charged particles and EM static in the upper atmosphere right now.

Depending on how big the station was and how energetic the explosion was, (and how good their tech is), that could keep being a problem for days.

>The blackmap zones don't look like a bastion of fun filled freedom.
Makes sense. The criminals went where the empire either doesn't want, or has a hard time getting to or controlling.

>what do
...probably get under cover somewhere, and start going through those modules?
>>
No. 542473 ID: d38f67
File 138041197263.gif - (24.40KB , 700x700 , 464.gif )
542473

After thinking of a better idea, Alison simply tells Scanner to keep an eye on guardsman when he's in control of a division. Therefore, guardsman control will be replaced with Scanner-Guardsman Tower control.

Alison finds a subterranean link that she starts using as a windy path towards the Cloud Slither. Engineer thinks about it, and believes that this entire region is chalk full of nuclear fallout from a previous time.

The trip is slower than Alison would have thought since she is effectively trying to navigate through a maze, Jetals come built in with a few basic functions, of which a compass is included.

Eventually, within the cave, Unity hits a landmark.
>>
No. 542478 ID: 735f4f

Well scan for traps and then ring the bell I guess.

But have a division ring it while your main body is way back somewhere safe. Might be ok but not going to risk it.
>>
No. 542479 ID: 7bbaae

>>542473
Carefully examine the surroundings to make sure you aren't walking into a trapped spot. Especially stick an eye into the bell to make sure it isn't going to explode you if you ring it.

Then ring it. You could even take the precaution of having a tiny division ring it.
>>
No. 542480 ID: f45380

We have those modules well buffered inside us, I hope? Don't want them damaged before we get the chance to absorb them and/or figure out what they are. (You'd think there'd be a way to plug in and read the meta-data documentation before downloading).

Check that the bell isn't tied to a bomb or anything and then apply master musician to it. This will be the best damn bell ring ever heard on this planet.
>>
No. 542530 ID: 9ddf68

look around for any traps before you ring the bell. If you don't see any then back away and use your hair to ring it or a very low mass division while you stand a relatively safe distance away.
>>
No. 542829 ID: 01531c

Raise a shield around yourself, something seriously solid and spherical! Plasma shield, rock shield, jetalium shield, sand shield, etc!
>>
No. 542946 ID: d38f67
File 138084671163.png - (37.40KB , 700x700 , 465.png )
542946

>We have those modules well buffered inside us, I hope?
Alison is using them to help armor her core.

Alison keeps her shields on standby and scans the whole area for traps. When it appears clean, she rings the bell and adds a tune behind it before the screen underneath it flicks on.

>"Hello. Oh, Unity, yes? We're not surprised you came to us, but we are happy that you did make it here. You're welcome to join us. Someone will be with you shortly to verify your legitimacy and take you up, if you'd like to call this home. Do you have any requests or wishes, in the meanwhile?"
>>
No. 542950 ID: 735f4f

Do the signs really help?
>>
No. 542954 ID: 7bbaae

>>542946
Ask about their organization, before we agree to join or anything. We know little about the "real" world. As for wishes, uh, what do they mean? I would think you would need to be inside before you could take advantage of their services.
>>
No. 542955 ID: 2f2cd6

That's... a surprisingly cordial welcome for a stranger from a group of outlaws hiding from an aggressive police state.

Especially if they know who you are. Letting in someone as hot as you brings down heat on them, and risks upsetting the status quo that keeps them alive and free. (Not that we're not glad for the reception! It's just not what we might have expected).

...what and how do they know about us, anyways? I wouldn't think what goes on inside the harvester simulation is public knowledge outside, I wouldn't think the empire would have been too keen on making information about us public, and you only broke out a short while ago. I mean, I suppose our exit and the space station were too big to cover up, but it's interesting they already have our name.

We might want to ask if they have anything that can ID unlabeled modules. Then, the modules we looted become a trade-able commodity. We can absorb the ones we want, and sell or exchange the ones we don't.

I'm wondering if we should give Polatt a division at this point? He knows a lot better than us how to talk to the belenosian underworld. Could be useful to have him around, and this seems a sort of safe chance for him to get used to driving a chunk of jetalium.
>>
No. 542956 ID: 9ddf68

can we get a phone, somewhere to buy/sell/test out mods, info on how we can make some money so we can buy stuff if we have to, and your name.

I mean I'm not to surprised you know who we are I guess, didn't think you'd be able to tell who I was just by looking at us what with us being a jetal and all, but could you help maybe put us on more even ground.
>>
No. 543014 ID: d38f67
File 138091620015.png - (84.67KB , 700x700 , 466.png )
543014

"A question, actually. Do these signs help?"
>"Only on non-threats. Sometimes people don't even know where the blackmap zones are, believe it or not, and think this area is a flee-flight zone or something, and so go flying or riding right into blackmap zones. We don't just kill anyone, but when they start getting uncomfortably close to a landmark, we let them know they're not in friendly territory anymore. It doesn't happen that much anymore, but we keep it anyway."
"Can we get a phone or something?"
>"Oh, absolutely. There's obviously a lot of demand for that, but there's a lot of supply too."
"I also have a bunch of modules that don't have any metadata. Can someone find out?"
>"Really? Yeah, we can take a look."
"It's nice to have a nice reception like this, but it's also unexpected. Isn't it a problem to take someone with heat like me?"
>"Oh, no. At first it was, and we were careful who we took in, but people who the empire considers wanted never actually bug the empire again. So, when the empire finds out their criminal came here, they've slowly came to the realization that they're literally and figuratively off of their maps. They don't need to worry about them anymore, and we think that they only like to perform vengeance if it isn't too inconvenient. Oh, that is the one big thing you should know about us. You're free to leave at any time, but if you don't do so without an approved reason, there's no coming back. We don't want the new empire thinking we're making moves, only that we're keeping to ourselves."
"Before I agree to anything, please tell me about your organization."
>"In the old empire and kingdom, there were a lot of underground factions who just didn't like each other, but still fought against the big powers. When they were 'united' into the new empire, well, the underground factions were mostly either eliminated or gave up and joined the new empire. The few that didn't, though, wouldn't have had a chance, and were forced to band together. There's a few places in the world where they gathered, and that's where we came in. As you can guess, there's a lot of types up here, and a lot of disagreeances, and our goverment has some very heated debates daily. But, no one's afraid that there's going to be a coup or anything. Everyone's smart enough to realize they're counting on the Cloud Slither as a whole, and that trying to forcibly take over and divide it will be, well, stupid in everyone's interests except for the new empire."

Alison senses a jetal coming up fast, and side tunnel's door opens up to show it.
>"Unity? I'm ready to take you up, if you are."
>>
No. 543015 ID: 7bbaae

>>543014
Another question. How do they know about us? I wasn't aware the events inside the harvester simulation were public knowledge. Aside from that, sure, let's go in.
>>
No. 543020 ID: 2f2cd6

>up
...huh. The cloud bit may be more literal than I expected.

Biggest problem I see here is they're isolationists. The Empire ignores them because it's sort of a self-maintained prison. Their problems go here and disappear, and they don't even need to pay for it. Maybe the prisoners get more comfort and quality of life than they'd like them to have, but the convenience more than makes up for it.

The problem, of course, is we can't stay here, or not take action against Sapphire. We can't do non-aggression. And Severer slash Anya knows this, and Sapphire knows this. Which means the Empire's neutrality with this place isn't going to hold once they figure out where we are. It's only a question if the Empire strikes first while we're here, or if we get out in time to strike at Sapphire.

...the only question is whether we're honest about this upfront. That we can't stay.
>>
No. 543023 ID: d38f67
File 138091859994.png - (12.99KB , 700x700 , 467.png )
543023

"Two more questions. What's your name, first off?"
>"Salice."
"And how did you know who I was? All I've done is in the harvester simulation."
>"EIN is formidable, but we've managed to wedge some spies in over the years, after many attempts and many losses. You can bet there are empire spies in our home as well."
"Oh, and when you said wishes, what did you mean?"
>"Oh, just stuff to help you with, like the unlabeled modules."
"Okay, thank you very much, Salice. I'll be heading up, now."
>>
No. 543024 ID: d38f67
File 138091860825.png - (15.23KB , 700x700 , 468.png )
543024

The jetal waits for Alison to cross over, and the platform she gets on starts speeding away.
>"Okay, let's cover a few rules while the elevator takes us up. Most of it is obvious stuff, like don't destroy property or harass anyone. We don't have any official policing entity, but we all look out for each other. In fact, we don't have a centralized leadership. It's all democracy, and like Salice mentioned, the only reason it works without falling apart is because of the new empire. Sole leadership isn't looked on as anything but a tyranny. I know I said rules, but the idea is that there aren't really any rules, but that goes for everyone as well, so keep that in mind. Do you want me to show you around at all or just go straight to the module labs?"
>>
No. 543026 ID: 2f2cd6

Well, we certainly don't have a problem with the basic rules and playing nice.

The module labs, if you don't mind. We don't quite have your faith that the Empire really is gonna leave us alone, and we'd like to figure out what we have and if it's useful. And even if we don't need the modules for a fight, I assume some of them might be useful to trade or sell. ...I assume there's some kind of market for that kind of stuff around here, right?

Ask our guide his name, as well.
>>
No. 543027 ID: 9ddf68

keep an eye out for back stabs but sure go with him and lets see what we can do here.
>>
No. 543028 ID: 7bbaae

>>543024
Module labs first, then the tour. It's possible we may have to leave in a hurry, so it's best we get our business done first.
>>
No. 543030 ID: d38f67
File 138092130672.png - (21.46KB , 700x700 , 469.png )
543030

"What's your name, anyway?"
>"Oh, excuse me. I'm Scout B-18. Not much of a name, I know."
"That's okay. I'll go straight to the appraiser."

Alison is guided out of the elevator, but it only looks like another passage.

>"There isn't much planning or foresight into the infrastructure, but everything is close together, at least." B-18 hands Alison a phone. "This also has a map to the cloud slither, complete with directions to go wherever in an efficient path, so I recommend giving it your size so that it can give proper directions. It does allow jetals to plug directly into it, so you can use it like a brain extension. There's communicators and cloud slither planners as well, so in effect, it's basically our version of EIN and the internet, except it can be unplugged at any time."

"Thank you very much."
>"'welcome. I'm going to do something else while you go in there, but if you still want me to show you around afterwards, just ask for me on your phone, it'll know who you're talking about and call me. See you later. Oh." Alison hugs him.
>>
No. 543033 ID: d38f67
File 138092152838.png - (74.67KB , 700x700 , 470.png )
543033

B-18 shows Alison to the module labs, and is directed towards the appraiser.

"Hello, I'm Unity."
>"... ah. New here."
"Can you show me what these are? There's no metadata?" Alison asks, handing him some of the modules.
>"Where did you get these from? I don't mind, but it will help narrow possibilities down."
"An orbital station." Alison says, adding in a few specifics about its appearance.
>"Right. I can get the information, but if you don't mind, I'd like to go deeper than that and really study how it was made. Do you mind if I take an additional day or two to extract each of these? I would like to be able to reverse engineer these, if they are at all useful."
>>
No. 543034 ID: 76b151

I forget does using modules wipe the data? I have no problem giving them to him after we identify and then decide on what to keep.
>>
No. 543035 ID: 2f2cd6

Mousebot!

>1 to 2 days
Um. Well, in theory, we don't really have a problem with the Empire's opponents having access to more firepower. More outlaw jetals with good modules could help if and when we're attacked.

On the other hand, two days is a long time! We went from nothing to busting right out of the harvester simulation in a day. We may not have 1 to 2 days.

...I'd agree, but ask him to ID first. Just in case circumstances require us to use them before he can reverse engineer them.
>>
No. 543037 ID: 2f2cd6

>>543034
Downloading a module from an external storage device into a jetal removes the data from the device, yeah. And offloading modules from a jetal to an external storage device removes the data from the jetal. Both are cut and paste. For some reason we're able to copy module data from jetal to jetal just fine, though. I'm assuming this is some kind of deliberate copy protection / anti-proliferation built into the module storage devices, since it doesn't make much sense otherwise.
>>
No. 543039 ID: 01531c

Actually
I think Unity is good on time!
We are now in a world with 1984-nightmare levels of EIN without any of our Operator superpowers....
But Sevener is stuck in the same world too!

Both contestants left at the same time, but Sevener has to follow rules and regulations while under the Emperor's eye! She already has EIN installed, so she'll have to find a way to get around that before she could try an Emperor assassination!!!
>>
No. 543040 ID: 2f2cd6

>>543039
...or she can use her position to get the Empire to kill us first. Which, judging by her act on the space station, is what she's trying.

I completely expect her to push the empire to make a move against Cloud Slither once she knows we're here. She wants us either dead, or busy running and not getting stronger while she's building up. Sevener's not going to give us time to prepare if she can help it.
>>
No. 543041 ID: 04b86a

How much time we have here is dependent on how paranoid Sapphire is, and how paranoid Sapphire is is dependent on what his spies observe of our actions and how convincing Anya manages to be about our motives.

If any spies check out what we do with these modules, then being casual about it will lower Sapphire's suspicion, while acting as though we're in a rush by requesting we get any of them now will raise suspicion. Given that, I vote we let him take his time.
>>
No. 543043 ID: fe4bfc

If Sevener is going the route of trying to kill us instead of going for the empire we will need people on our side. So reverse engineering these so other people here can use them might be a good idea.

It does mean the empire might be attacking us here once she convinces them we are a big enough danger. So we need to get the best modules we can find and try to get allies quickly.
>>
No. 543044 ID: d38f67
File 138092539463.png - (16.53KB , 700x700 , 471.png )
543044

"I'd like to ID them first before I decide on it, if you don't mind, but otherwise, I don't mind at all."
>"Certainly. I got ahead of myself. I will ID them first, regardless, then ask you your input. These are advanced types modules, with security to match. The slightest wrong move will trigger a complete internal self deletion, so I must exercise maximum caution. It will take awhile. I will contact you when I'm done, I expect ID will take a few hours. Please do not disturb me until I am done."

Alison calls B-18, who says he will be right over.
>>
No. 543045 ID: d38f67
File 138092540921.png - (25.38KB , 700x700 , 472.png )
543045

From the tour guide, what Alison and everyone can glean is that most of these jetals and robots do nothing in particular all day long. Most are low powered, as the Cloud Slither can only generate so much renewable energy at a time, and everyone gets a share. The rest goes to backup batteries in case of emergency. B-18 explains that sometime, Alison may have to help in assisting mining operations and energy gathering, but she won't have to until this place decides how to put her to work. Even then, he explains, most people only have to work a small portion of the day. The rest of the time spent is killing the remaining part of the day, often with gambling or other games.

It's not much of an existence, Alison thinks, but then again, it doesn't look like they have it too bad. The major concern is the day the new empire decides to wipe them all out, but that thought is well shuffled to the back of their minds.

The biologicals, she notes, also have respirators and night vision goggles. The air quality is particularly abysmal, but B-18 says that the cloud slither does provide sufficient protection against the lingering nuclear fallout from outside. There are frequent rolling brownouts as well, so night vision is required.
>>
No. 543046 ID: 76b151

No wonder the EIN doesn't care about this place. They aren't going to fight unless attacked and even then I get the suspicion they might either roll over and die or try to run.

Ask about barter and such.
>>
No. 543047 ID: 7bbaae

>>543045
Ask B-18 what's up with his eyes. Does he have any interesting mods? We could do a mod exchange, maybe, or outright buy some since we have money and jetalium to spare.

Are there any shops around? Of note is that if we stay here for long, we'll be falling behind. Sevener could gain power faster than us, if we just loiter.
>>
No. 543048 ID: 01531c

Cloud Slither has the firepower to match the Empire, but lack the Surge to use it!

What kinda sci-fi is this where you can't create infinite power generation facilities out of duct-tape and nano-bots!?
>>
No. 543049 ID: 01531c

>>543047
>We could do a mod exchange, maybe, or outright buy some since we have money and jetalium to spare.

The money we have is Empire money, and I doubt there is any trade going on between them.

Ask about smuggling stuff, or if that's pointless because everything that exists can be made with on site facilities?
>>
No. 543051 ID: 2f2cd6

Geeze. This place isn't a guilded cage at all.

But yeah, inquire about how local trade works, especially with regard to jetal modules. (As exchanges a thing? Jetals mutually allowing each other to copy from each others cores? Kind of risky, but potentially very worth it).

>>543049
Our currency isn't Empire money- it's those modules we brought in. They have to be worth something.
>>
No. 543056 ID: d38f67
File 138093227633.png - (17.09KB , 700x700 , 473.png )
543056

"What kind of bartering is done, here?"
>"Goods-wise, mostly energy. The biologicals add in food to that. Knickknacks are also popular. We do use currency, just our own coinage, but people do like trading for goods."
"What about modules?"
>"That's more complex. We like to keep track of who has what, so personal trades are frowned upon. The module labs double as a module market. Plus, if someone gives the labs a unique model that wasn't found before, and lets the module labs make copies, then they get royalties whenever the labs sell something. That's the simplistic version of it. Batteries are tougher to make for us though, so here, a jetal's power is typically limited by their battery power and energy rations, not their modules."
"So what's with your eyes?"
>"Wide-eye lens models with internal processors."
"So, there's shops, right?"
>"Yes. There's the labs, and there are a few streets that are popular for markets to set up shop and share their wares."
>>
No. 543057 ID: 2f2cd6

Hmm. Well, we don't have our module-currency yet, and we didn't bring any food or knicknacks with us either. The shops might be interesting to poke around in, but we can't exactly buy anything, and I'm not sure window shopping buys us any advantage other than killing time.

...what else is there of interest?

I suppose we could also multitask, plug into our new phone and see what's going on in the slither-net.
>>
No. 543059 ID: 76b151

Well if we are going to be bumming around here for a bit how about we let Gambler out to play and see what he can win. We can always offer Jetallium for the initial bids.
>>
No. 543060 ID: 76b151

>>543059
Gambler out to play in a division*
>>
No. 543061 ID: 7bbaae

Oh yes, let's check out for any news about Unity over the internet. Also, check for any news about Sapphire, and the other emperors.
>>
No. 543062 ID: 7bbaae

>>543059
I support this idea.
>>
No. 543063 ID: 7a843b

Ask B-18 or check your phone to see if they have a morphing class A plasma sword (Loviro's sword) in their module library. They probably do, but if they don't then it's another unique one you can add to it.

You're also going to have to do something about your energy consumption. Last check it was around 16,000 per b-hour. That'll cost a lot of mass per b-day to cover. So bring that up with B-18. Ask if they got a lockup you can stash your jetalium in to knock your energy use down, as well as blank module boxes you could borrow to offload enough modules that you could push your morph down to 20. Also ask how large the hourly energy ration is.
>>
No. 543085 ID: 9ddf68

ask B-18 what do you think you'll have to do once they decide to put you to work. Then gamble. Also when you let gambler out for a bit see if you can't learn a few tips and tricks from him as well as it never hurts to learn some new tricks and you don't really have anything better to do really.
>>
No. 543137 ID: fd7000

Your talents mostly lie in making friends and solving their problems. Can't do anything without a source of income though so find a way to create or steal power and start making friends. You have done this twice already, once on Corruptor's island and once with the dead battery gang. Every favor you can give now is one favor owed when it really matters. Make enough friends and you might end up de facto leader of this place, danger of any direct democracy really.
>>
No. 543155 ID: d38f67
File 138099994764.png - (21.24KB , 700x700 , 474.png )
543155

"I'm using a lot of energy in upkeep right now. Is there any place I can store jetalium?"
>"Oh, yes, absolutely. I'll show you to our banks. You'll get an apartment soon, but I'd still recommend getting a bank. There aren't many thefts since the penalty is so high, but our apartments aren't secure."

Although Alison puts in a bunch of jetalium in the bank, she does bring out a division for gambler to go visit the casinos, bringing a bit of jetalium to use as currency.

Alison, in the meanwhile, plugs into her new phone and starts checking out the slither internet. There appears to be some worms that were placed in the empire's internet, and so Alison is able to check out what's happening in the empire to a degree.
>"Don't trust the news. About 10% of what our worms pick up aren't detected and are accurate, but the other 90% is caught by EIN, who then feeds the worms pro-empire propaganda. So, the empire channels in the slither are... well, take a listen."

That same newscaster talk about how life in the empire is so great and the standard of living is on the rise. It does paint a pretty picture, but Alison is also certain that no one buys into it. Sometimes the newscaster does address the slither as being nothing but a self enforced prison made of people who only cling to the cloud slither on the sole merit that it isn't the empire that either rejected them or were rejected by them.

It takes Alison by surprise, as while the description of the Empire is obviously placed on an enormously high pedestal, the description of the cloud slither seems to be an unnervingly unexaggerated and accurate analysis from what little Alison can see. It's accentated as well by the fact that the newscaster talking about the slither is the only time Alison has ever seen the newscaster not smile. She even sounds more sincere while talking about the slither than she does talking about the empire.

The rest of the internet appears to be just an extension of the physical cloud. Online games including gambling, chat rooms, and otherwise robots, jetals and people being robots, jetals and people. Either no one appears to know about Unity, or no one knows that she's in the cloud slither now. And the empire news isn't saying anything about her, unsurprisingly.
>>
No. 543157 ID: d38f67
File 138100002631.png - (15.43KB , 700x700 , 475.png )
543157

>Check your phone to see if they have a morphing class A plasma sword (Loviro's sword)
There is an A class morphing sword, but the power output spikes up when morphing, as well as weakening even more than a bending beam when morphed too much. It doesn't fit the description of Loviro's sword, which morphs with seemingly no detriment. The module lab catches Alison's inquiry, and explains that they are trying to improve on the design, but for the time being, non-morphing swords are the better option.

"B-18What do you think they'll have me do when I get to work?"
>"Given your strength, perhaps head out into the outer, sunnier parts of the blackmap zones and set up camoflauged solar arrays."
"You say that people see sole leadership as a bad thing, but can I assume that there are some people here that are looked on as being very important?"
>"... we have an odd dynamic, here. No one leads. If you want something unique done, you do it yourself. This place in the world is one of the few remaining places of free will and thought. This is taken to an extreme in the Cloud. If you try to pressure someone to think differently, that's seen as empire mentality. Of course, if you just argue with someone on the street about something, that's fine, but if you appeal to the public on a whole about something, you're not going to have a good reception. If you look up the chat rooms, people will say their beliefs, yes, but our talks are peppered with 'I believe', 'I think', 'personally', 'you have your opinion and it is valid, but...' and so forth. That's someone of a simplification, but we are wary of anyone being in a position of power. We believe that the empire knows this, and another reason that they don't attack is that they know that if we tried to attack, despite that we have formidable strength, we could never coordinate our efforts into anything significant. EIN, on the other hand, would be able to generate logistic patterns, tactics and strategy and broadcast inarguable orders amongst the empire's army in split seconds."
>>
No. 543160 ID: 2f2cd6

Well. I have to say our odds of raising any kind of reasonable resistance to the Empire to help us here are slim. This is just a place to kill time and regroup a little.

...unless we look for like minded individuals. Are there any people here like, well, us? Recent joiners, or fighters, or other people with a grudge against Sapphire, or who wish they could take action? Or people who were friends of Loviro, or the Diamond house? Focusing on the small number of people who might be willing and/or able to help might be more useful than trying to prod the city into action.
>>
No. 543161 ID: 735f4f

If we could get a mod or something that let a bunch of people in the lobby talk at once we could do what Ein does in a limited fashion.

For now concentrate on making friends and keeping our energy reserves up. We can decide on where to go from here once we get those modules identified and meet more people here.

Probably wont get the backing of the community but might find some people that will work with us. Avoid bringing up how there lives are a simulation within a simulation for now.
>>
No. 543164 ID: 735f4f

Be careful about giving out the info for our sword. Its our best weapon and the idea of one of our enemies getting a hold of a copy worries me.
>>
No. 543166 ID: 9ddf68

I wonder if we might be able to find some information here that would be damn near impossible to find outside of the blackmap zones, Like what sapphire did to Loviro or some other backhanded deal that would make it easier to take him down when the time finally comes
>>
No. 543170 ID: 7bbaae

>>543157
So, it sounds like there's no way to unite everyone, and thus they are completely useless as a fighting force. Maybe we can convince a few jetals to come along when we leave, though.

Ask B-18 what he thinks about Sapphire.
>>
No. 543184 ID: 57a559

>>543157
IS EIN an individual? Could he theoretically betray an emperor?
>>
No. 543219 ID: d38f67
File 138108309039.png - (55.97KB , 700x700 , 476.png )
543219

Scanner pays attention to the phone, and gets a bleep saying that an apartment has been found for her. Alison thinks that she's going to use her room here about as much as she did her room in the dead battery headquarters, but she takes a look anyway.

"Ein isn't an individual, right?"
>"Correct. It's a powerful, non-sentient AI controlled by all the emperors and advisors."
"Are there any new people besides me recently?"
>"A couple. Just a few deactivated bots under some rubble. Most of the people that would come here already have. People like you are rare, but there have been a few strong jetals in the last couple of years. So, you might be kind of a big deal once a public notice is broadcasted that you've joined us."
"What do you think about Sapphire, by the way?"
>"Creepy. A few of us knew him before he was an emperor, but he was hardly much of a friend to anyone."
"Would they know anything that wouldn't be available information in the empire, then?"
>"Well, sure, but what would we do with it?"
"I'm specifically wondering if anyone knows anything about Sapphire assassinating Loviro."

Scanner gets a ping from the module labs, saying that IDs will be available shortly, if Unity wants to head over.

>"Let me see... yeah, we have a couple ex-Diamonds that made it out of the empire when things went south for their house. They might know something."
>>
No. 543220 ID: 2f2cd6

Alright. Let's see what our modules were. Provided nothing happens, we'll try and allow them time to reverse engineer them. (Maybe if they have storage devices handy, we could offload some of our old mods to make room for the new instead of deleting them? Even our less good stuff is kind of high end. Someone else might have a use for it).

And see if we can set up a meeting with some of the diamond ex-pats.
>>
No. 543221 ID: 9ddf68

I say get B-18 to mark them on your map so we can talk to them after we see what the mods are.
>>
No. 543243 ID: 57a559

...
You know, I wonder how hard it would be to make EIN sentient. Not crack EIN into doing whatever we want... just change its parameters to give it it's own voice.

Could we get like a skill plug or anything like that? We'd love to actually be able to hack devices ourselves, even though it's impossible with something like EIN.

Lets go talk to the diamond people. Maybe we could do a harvesting sim breakout if we care to and get all diamond minds back.
>>
No. 543286 ID: 7a843b

Guess Cloud Slither isn't totally underground like I thought. That's a decent view, considering what the atmosphere and weather around here is like.

Head over to the module labs and find out what you nabbed from the station. Also see if you can get upgraded versions of your modules that don't require energy, such as Core Detection and Core Hide, as well as what they have that doesn't take energy.

Then head 'round to the ex-Diamond folks. Ask them about how Sapphire disappeared Loviro and the rest of the ex-Diamond advisors. Tell them about his "resurrection" in the harvester sim and the rest of the story, minus the bits about this all being a CAI contest sim.

Don't bring up teaming up to go against Sapphire or the Empire with them; At least not without taking a load of precautions first. If there's anybody here that Sapphire would have spies watching, it'd be the ex-Diamond folks.

Here's something to keep in mind: While Sevener/Anya almost certainly won't be able to convince the Empire to make a full-scale attack on Cloud Slither, she might be able to convince them to allow her to lead a surgical strike in to take you out. Especially if they know you're away from Cloud Slither and near the edge of the blackmap zone. So don't assume you'll be safe while here, try to get job assignments away from the zone edge, and if you have to go out that way keep it as secret as you can.

>>543243
I think it'd be nigh-impossible that EIN's overarching directives or AI pattern could be altered by anyone but the Emperors or their advisors. There may still be a way to change it subtlety, but even that's doubtful. Talking with the folks in Cloud Slither that wrote the worms that let them get some data out of the Empire's Internet will show what they might be able to do.
>>
No. 543602 ID: d38f67
File 138137710992.png - (19.43KB , 700x700 , 477.png )
543602

Alison makes a note of where the ex-diamonds are, and will visit them later. First, she thanks B-18 for the tour, and goes to the module labs.

"Hello."
>"Yes. I found what they are. None of them are given legal classes. We will give them to you if you want them, but... we want to have them for the Cloud."

He transfers the list to Unity's phone.
EINI - E.I.N. Impersinator - spoofs a key for EIN. Approximately a .0031% chance of failing each check.
E.I.N. tracker - using a spoofed key, the jetal may read data through EIN. Chance of discovery is 2 percent per b-minute, plus an unknown chance while actively mining data.
4 modules - AJ6-Series Beam, Sword, Sniper, Blaster. Extremely high power output, high power requirements.
4 modules - AN5-Series Beam, Sword, Sniper, Blaster. Moderate power output, extremely low energy requirements.
Displacer Rockets - No description given
Assorted Empirical Defense Systems
[/aa]
>>
No. 543603 ID: 2f2cd6

...yeah, I'm pretty sure we want absolutely all of those.

Tell him we'll allow them to try and reverse engineer that stuff. We won't be back to absorb it before he's done with it unless absolutely necessary.

Unless we can absorb the modules and then let another jetal copy them for the lab to study?
>>
No. 543609 ID: da4ec6

>>543602
Let him reverse-engineer them. The EIN Impersonator is an absolute game-changer, and the AN5 modules could be incredibly valuable to the Cloud Slither community.
>>
No. 543610 ID: 9ddf68

...How long will it take to reverse engineer these things cause if won't be to long we can try to gather information first through these diamond guys and then come back for them later. If it's going to take a while well then we'll just decide what to replace them with. Maybe even see if some of our lesser mods would still be useful to trade in as well or at least store somewhere.
>>
No. 543611 ID: 735f4f

Man we hit the jackpot there if they can reverse engineer these with any speed.

Find out how long it will take to copy these and if there is any chance of failure.

These do not seem like something a official research station would be developing. I wonder who was designing these and for what.
>>
No. 543615 ID: 7bbaae

>>543602
Those low-cost weapons look AMAZING for equipping this energy-starved populace, if we're gonna try to get some people helping us. The high cost ones look better for us, of course, since we have a stockpile of jetalium.

Ask what, exactly, he would do with all this stuff, and how long we'd have to wait before we could put the mods in our core. The Cloud seems perfectly content to keep to themselves, so it's not like they'd use the weapons.

...those displacer rockets... gotta try those out, I suppose.
>>
No. 543625 ID: e57f62

...Why the in the bluest hells would they make a module that's designed to fool EIN?
>>
No. 543626 ID: 76b151

>>543625
To discover if its possible then work on fixing it.
>>
No. 543627 ID: 2f2cd6

>>543625
>>543626
And/or when an Emperor wants something done completely off the books. Remember, these aren't nice people, and this disutopia is a three way power struggle. That mod provides nice cover for black ops, and plausible deniability if anything goes wrong.

...in fact, it's not much of a stretch that Ruby made sure that mod was there, or knew it would be there before he recommended we hit the station. We qualify as one Emperor's black op against another, by this point.
>>
No. 543635 ID: e607cd

Now, when you say "extremely low energy requirements," do you mean low enough to prevent all that "energy surge detected" nonsense? Because surprise beam to the face would be niiiiice.
>>
No. 543691 ID: 7a843b

Alright, he can have them to work on making copies, but he ought to figure the clock's ticking on those EIN related ones. As soon as the Empire knows we have them, if it doesn't know already, it'll be working on counters to those modules to be added to EIN. No idea how long that'll take, but it'll probably be sooner than we like.

Comment that he messed up the list formatting at the end. There isn't any description of what those "Assorted Imperial Defense Systems" do or how much juice they take. Or is it he doesn't have any idea right now what that module really does?

Ask if it'd be possible for you to load up one of those weapon modules to test fire it, then offload it to a module box and it wouldn't effect his ability to work to duplicate it. 'Cause it'd be good to at least test fire that Displacer Rocket to find out its capabilities, and to do any of the others to get hard numbers on their energy requirements and effectiveness.
>>
No. 543696 ID: e3aff6

About these modules, he is keeping this as secret as he can at the moment, right? We already know the empire is spying on us, and there is some chance that finding out we have this anti-EIN module will make them decide to finally attack.
>>
No. 543733 ID: 7a843b

While a 0.0031% chance of detection per check sounds really low, how often does EIN run routine checks on those in its view? 'Cause if it's something like once every 10 milliseconds then those odds aren't as good as we'd like.

Also, does having the EIN Impersonator module active mean that EIN will have access to all our senses, same as a regular EIN-linked jetal, or does the module spoof the surveillance data as well so we can actually do actions that'd normally get EIN's attention?

>>543627
Well, if Ruby did make sure that these modules were there, I hope he had all records that they were there scrubbed and the research into their creation destroyed or hidden. 'Cause if the Empire has the research data on them and knows we have them then they'll be able to develop a counter and install it into EIN sooner rather than later.

>>543696
Yeah, we definitely want to keep the fact we have these EIN-spoofing modules secret for as long as possible. We should probably wipe that list from our phone, and module guy ought to keep anything about it out of the Cloud intranet and off networked systems.
>>
No. 543741 ID: 472103

Find out how long it'd take.
If not too long, let 'em. I'd recommend they start with the EINI stuff. ...that way, you can get that back first.

If it would be a long time, and if you're gonna head out to cause trouble soon, or if you would irrevocably lose them in the reverse engineering process with no chance of getting a duplicate made, I'd say to keep the EINI stuff and give the rest.

On a whole, though, I'm hoping it's all given. Backup plan for winning the simulation, maybe we could pull these guys together into a ragtag team of rebels fighting an evil empire. Slip in, wreck some shit, off some dude, win. ...but that's kinda a 'plan b' thing at the moment. Maybe even lower. 'c' or 'd' or such.
>>
No. 543911 ID: d38f67
File 138159029324.png - (29.84KB , 700x700 , 478.png )
543911

>While a 0.0031% chance of detection per check sounds really low, how often does EIN run routine checks on those in its view?
By the sounds of it, a lot. .0031% chance is still good, but mathematician does not think that running around the streets of the capital with impunity would last for long periods of time.

"What does the assorted defense system do?"
>"I don't know."
"Isn't it possible to just have me absorb it, then have another jetal copy it from me?"
>"Hm...? Although the term is 'copy', there are not many modules that don't disappear when it is absorbed. Most of the time, it is always a transfer from one jetal to another." Alison was not under that impression, but she isn't going to argue.
"Would you mind if I test fired some, then offloaded them back into a module box?"
>"... that should be fine, yes. We have firing grounds under the cloud, if you would test it there. It will only take a moment, as we have a tunnel straight between here and there."

She will, however, have to decide what 12 modules she should remove before absorbing all of the new ones if she wants to test them first.

http://www3.tgchan.org/wiki/Unnatural_Selection_Stats
>>
No. 543920 ID: 0f6f63

You don't need to discard 12 modules in order to test. You can do it in series- discard one, absorb, test, offload, then absorb the next and repeat.

As for what to discard... a gigabeam or a sniper, maybe?
>>
No. 543949 ID: 7bbaae

>>543911
The most important one to test is the displacer missile. Swap out the jetalium missile for it- I think they cost too much jetalium to use now that we can't pick and choose our fights.
>>
No. 543971 ID: 9ddf68

Jetalium Bullets because wouldn't our autogun and autocannon completely remove the need for that or do we need that for us to even use them in the first place? Also get rid of the mines. We can fire missiles or if we really want to do a timed explosion or something we could always split off a division from ourselves and just use Explosive Shedding for that person to either lay and wait for someone to wonder past them and have them jump out at them or just kamikaze whoever.
>>
No. 544027 ID: d38f67
File 138161895289.png - (110.77KB , 700x700 , 479.png )
544027

>You can do it in series- discard one, absorb, test, offload, then absorb the next and repeat.
Yes, Alison will do this. She removes jetalium mines, since it seems redundant with explosive shedding.

>What does the jetalium bullets module do?
It helps facilitate forming bullets - the higher class weapons can do so on their own, but it happens at a much faster rate with that module. Nonetheless, the autoguns have not been the most valuable, and Alison may lose some of those weapons when it comes time to absorb all 12 new modules at once.

Alison runs down to the firing yard. The weapons mostly do not disappoint, and the displacer rockets appear to rearrange the mass in a certain range. A 50 kg missile seemed to cause the space up to 3 meters away from the point of contact to get rearranged anywhere in its sphere of influence. A 20 kg missile did the same for about 1.5 meters. The AJ6 plasma sword, however, seems about on par with Loviro's sword, but it cannot morph and is more expensive.

The AN5 series do cause an energy surge, but it is far harder to detect from mid-range. Therefore, it can be assumed that unless a jetal has specific modules to detect minute energy surges, they will not detect an AN5 weapon unless they are within several meters.

Engineer is going to not think about the missiles, and runs tests on the assorted defenses. It consists of plain things such as plasma diffusers, air vibrators and other odds and ends. He expects there is probably a series of courses on how to use it, but as it is, he'll just try to learn what he can and take care of Unity's defenses. In fact, he starts getting assistance running tests on it, as it appears far more complicated than weapons.
>>
No. 544032 ID: 0f6f63

Right. So... what do we do while the scientists try to reverse-engineer this stuff? I guess thank them for the help, see if they have a time estimate, and go visit the ex-pat diamonds.
>>
No. 544074 ID: 7bbaae

>>544027
From the description it seems the displacer missile would be extremely lethal to basically anything we shoot with it aside from a Jetal, who would be disoriented and disabled unless they're really big, in which case it'd be like damaging that area in their body. So that's pretty much our best weapon now, unless energy shields are effective against it, in which case we'd need to drop the shields first. But yeah, we should replace our missiles with it.

AN5 series sniper is REALLY GOOD for obvious reasons. I vote we take that. EINI too... and we should test out the defense systems by handing someone some jetalium and asking them to shoot us while the mod is active.

I don't like either of the new plasma swords. I think we should just stick with the lance and lovirosword.
>>
No. 544080 ID: 7a843b

>>544074
It might be more effective against a jetal than you'd think, depending on what "rearranging" the mass inside a certain radius means. If it's scrambling the position of the mass inside that sphere to random positions elsewhere in that sphere with fine granularity, then catching the jetal's core within that range would be near certainly fatal.

Given how irreplaceable these modules are, and it's nearly certain that the Empire already has agents in Cloud Slither, we need to protect them and make sure an agent doesn't destroy them while in the module lab. We keep all of them loaded up in Unity and only offload them one at a time for the module lab guy to work on. We'd also stay in the lab and watch over him and make sure nobody else messes with the modules. We'll have to call in the ex-Diamond folks to talk in the lab in that case as well.
>>
No. 544142 ID: d38f67
File 138169127621.gif - (20.62KB , 500x300 , 480.gif )
544142

Alison will have time to finalize what she gets and loses, but thinks about it while she finds the ex-diamond. She gives the labs the AJ6 sword to work on first, since she would like to be in the labs while they work on the more valuable ones in case any agents try to get at the modules.

He is in a hallfway, and is still there by the time Alison gets to him. He doesn't turn to look at her.

"Hello."
>"Yes?"
>>
No. 544144 ID: 9ddf68

start off with names then ask about diamond in general. If he want's to know why you want to know about diamond just say when you were in the harvester simulation you found out you were a noble form the diamond empire and was wondering if he could tell us more about it since it seems to be playing a large part in our lives right now. Really ask about what happened when Diamond fell and what sapphire did to try and screw over diamond's remaining nobles, like Loviro.
>>
No. 544146 ID: 0f6f63

Introduce yourself, ask if he knew Loviro, and apologize if it's painful or insensitive for you to ask, but you'd like to find out about your past, and what happened to the Diamond house.
>>
No. 544185 ID: 735f4f

Tell him he looks very familiar.
>>
No. 544190 ID: 0f6f63

>Diamond house
>Arbiter style ornaments
...how did I not see that connection sooner.
>>
No. 544378 ID: d38f67
File 138189928844.gif - (14.46KB , 300x300 , 481.gif )
544378

"You look familiar."
>"Do I, now?"
"It's nothing. I'm Unity. I'm sorry if it's insensitive to ask, but I'd like to know more about the Diamond house."
>"You are?"
"Loviro's."
>"... where do you come from?"
"The harvest."
>"Why would you leave?"
"I'd like to know more about my past. Loviro was reconstructed as others knew him, but I only learned so much, and he could only tell me so much."
>"Hahaha." Alison can't tell if his laugh is sardonic, or just quiet. "Your past. Of what would I or any of us know of Loviro or his jetals? The man did little but spend his time, money and labors on his precious jetals cores. At least it was good work. It had to have been, if you got out for 'your past.' All I know is that when the diamond house shattered, many continued on, many retired, some fled the empire. To me, the empire died with him. I will not say that the diamond emperor had any grand, noble schemes to the continuation of the empire, nor even that he was anything but a ho hum leader in peacetime, but he was ours, and he was dead. We went missing. Perhaps it was a mistake, because then it was not such a stretch when Loviro and a few others went 'missing' as well. There is little empirical evidence that the sapphire emperor assassinated him, but it's the only plausible explanation for Loviro. He may have been dismayed, sure, but his jetals were with the empire. Never coming to the Diamond residences, always spending night after night hopped up on amphetamines and caffienes, making sure his life's work would be the greatest jetals cores the world has ever known... only to sneak off in the dead of those cold nights? Leaving his precious sons and daughters, of whom he loved more than I've ever seen any Belenosian love their own flesh and blood offspring? Impossible. Ludicrous. And now, decades later, Loviro's legacy comes to me without warning or ceremony, for 'her past'? Why not with the one known as Anya, which, if the news is to be trusted, is getting cozy in the high life of nobility? Why not build a future and leave a past worth remembering? No, Loviro would cry in his grave if his beloved life's work had nothing better to do than break out of the harvest itself because it was curious about a past it played no part in. Tell me what you are really here for, what really brought you to this dead husk in the clouds."
>>
No. 544381 ID: 0f6f63

...I broke free because I'm going to kill Sapphire. Because I need to. I'm only here as a stepping stone. Another chance to gather power, information, and at momentary safety.

And if Anya's getting cozy with the system, it's probably so she can try the same thing I'm going to, but from the inside. The prospect of working with her is kind of... complicated though. We have a history, and she holds a grudge against me. One of us might end up killing the other before this is over.
>>
No. 544382 ID: 735f4f

My full story might be a little hard for you to believe right away.

The condensed version is I am here to try to fix a broken system that has existed for far to long and save the people trapped in it. Its a danger that threatens you and me and everyone we have ever known and loved.

For now that means I need to kill the Sapphire emperor or my angry friend Anya.

How closely does he resemble Arbiter? Seems like more and more signs of a collective unconsciousness inherent in the system. Am thinking our memories might not be completely wiped every reset. Remnants remain or they are all stored somewhere in a deeper system.
>>
No. 544384 ID: 7bbaae

>>544378
Fine, he wants more? You're going to kill Sapphire, and you're trying to squeeze every ounce of assistance you can out of this dead husk. If he wants to help, it would be appreciated, but you doubt most people here would react well to your goals. Would the other ex-diamonds give you assistance?
>>
No. 544387 ID: 57a559

>>544378
You know what, I'm going to say to explain that this is a sim inside a sim because that's exactly what he's asking for. Why are we doing this? To win the simulation's goal so we can defeat Anya and her side in the Sim above, and continue on to defeat a powerful compilation AI that resets everything to the beginning of the sim above after a time interval unless we can get creative.

And this sim is training us for that CAI fight.
So that's why we're here, asking around. We want to learn more about Loviro, because he was a smart guy. If we can find his notes or whatever, and if they're legitimate instead of simulated bullshit on paper a developer of the sim created, their might be something useful there. It's also important to learn the most about this simulation in case it might happen to repeat in a later loop or when we fight the CAI.

Plus, Loviro is a cool bro and we want to learn more about him. Personally, we'd love to upload him or some version of him to us so we can take him to the SIM above but that opportunity has come and gone we're sure.
>>
No. 544400 ID: 76b151

Telling about the CAI sim is just going to get us called crazy AGAIN. Lets stick with killing Sapphire since its more believable.
>>
No. 544405 ID: 001618

don't say anything about the CIA sim he wouldn't believe us anyways it getting help from people is a lot harder when they think you're crazy.

Just say that you never realized you're a diamond noble until sapphire seemed to be gunning for your head and by that point becoming a noble was nothing more then a pipe dream. Sapphire did kill Loviro but only after he trapped him in the harvest simulator to try and cover his tracks. We have no proof but we know that's what happened. And because of all the woes sapphire has been giving us plus the little fact that he want's our head we're trying to find a way to take sapphire down anyway we can. If you have any knowledge on how we could do that or even where we could find proof that sapphire killed Loviro we would be very grateful.
>>
No. 544447 ID: 7a843b

Tell him that you broke out of the simulation as part of your objective to assassinate the Sapphire Emperor. And add that that's the same objective that Anya has.

Fabricate a story that Loviro's group of "resurrected" Diamonds had a falling out and split over how to try to kill Sapphire. Anya's side wanted her to go legit and climb up the ranks until she could strike from inside, while Loviro's side wanted you to strike from outside. So you two worked independently and acted your parts. And it would have been a decent enough plan, except for the unfortunate fact that none of you knew just how massively powerful and ubiquitous EIN was up here.

Don't say anything about this being a CAI battle simulation. At least, not yet. Those in the harvester simulation were more receptive to the concept since they more or less knew they were in a simulation themselves. But those up here in the "real world" won't be nearly so, and you'll come off sounding crazy.

And don't forget to get his name, if he's willing to give it.
>>
No. 544511 ID: 9ddf68

>>544447
wait, since Loviro actually come from the outside world unlike us, wouldn't he realized that the outer EIN is much more powerful then the one inside the harvester sim? If we're going to lie keep it simple so we're less likely to sound like we're lieing.

And telling him that Sevener/Anya is trying to kill sapphire as well is also iffy to me. On one hand if we tell him and it leaks to sapphire that Sevener is trying to kill him it would make it much harder for her to get a shot at him leveling the field more in our favor but at the same time maybe she's going for overtime to learn more and is planing to team up or at least use us to try and take out sapphire and outing her might make it that much more difficult to slay sapphire. Just some food for thought

IF we do tell him about Anya's plans (assuming he even believes them) just say the 2 of you had never really got to met each other in detail but you both had different plans to take out sapphire. We wanted to go for directly approach as although harder to pull of, leaves less to chance and She wanted to take him down by kissing his ass so she could put a knife in his back. Safer yes, but far to much left for fate to decide for our liking.
>>
No. 544513 ID: 75a612

The only reason not to be honest about what Unity and Anya are up to is if we suspected this was an imperial spy, or maybe if we thought being open with our aggressive stance would get us kicked out of Cloud Slither before we ready. But if we want to recruit help from anyone in the diamond old guard, we kind of need to tell them what's up.

The only reason we'd want to be completely honest about the CAI battle and Alison and Sevener was if we wanted him to think we were crazy or making stuff up. That kind of honestly doesn't help without proof, and the only proof we have to offer is absorbing people.

...or letting Polatt out, but they have no reason to believe his testimony any more than ours, or that he's anything but a normal division lying.
>>
No. 544522 ID: 7a843b

>>544511
The Loviro we met never came from outside the harvest simulation. He and the other "resurrected" Diamonds were constructs generated by the simulation when that one student was totally convinced they would reappear. And as far as we know they were generated with memories that were twenty years out of date, so they'd only have known of EIN's capabilities back then.
>>
No. 544525 ID: 75a612

>>544524
No. That would contradict what the Diamond ex-pat knows to be true about Loviro and his character. Loviro loved his creations too much to give them that kind of mission, or to tie a kill switch to it. He was glad of the path we chose, but he made sure we had a choice. (Even if the rules of the simulation didn't give us one).
>>
No. 544532 ID: 01531c

>>544525
Then let's merely claim that we 'think' it was Loviro. Who else could have knowledge of the systems to access and alter something that has otherwise avoided all scans? The only version we knew was his harvest-clone!
>>
No. 545043 ID: d38f67
File 138250412552.png - (49.11KB , 700x700 , 482.png )
545043

>How closely does he resemble Arbiter?
He looks a little similar to Arbiter, but she would't have trouble telling them apart. It's just the ornaments.

"I'm going to kill Sapphire."

He doesn't respond.

>"How did you meet Loviro?"
"Some people who thought he was alive went to meet him. I guess the harvest was okay with that, since he wasn't considered dead."
>"So you never knew him."
"I knew him as others knew him."
>"He asked you to kill sapphire?"
"No, he didn't."
>"There is nothing I can give you, but there is one jetal that owns a single module of Loviro's. There is nothing special about it that I can see. However, Loviro made many of his weapons for his jetals and his alone by simple application of making his jetal cores abnormal and building his modules around that. To you, it may be devastating. Or maybe not. I can show you to him, but it will almost certainly be a waste of time. He clings onto his modules like his core depended on it, and clams up when asked about it. If you do convince him to part with the unnamed module, there is no guarantee that it will be any good at all. It could be Loviro's trash."
>>
No. 545044 ID: 7bbaae

>>545043
Sounds good, but I bet we're gonna have to take it by force, which means it should be the last thing we do here.

Ask him if any other former Diamond house members would be willing to help you.
>>
No. 545045 ID: d2b9fe

>Loviro designed his modules to exploit the specific hardware of the custom cores of his jetals
Taking advantage of the hardware is only smart.

>jetal who has a Loviro module
Probably still worth out talking to him. Alison is surprisingly good at getting people to cooperate, and if this guy is just module hungry, we have bargaining chips. We could trade him some of our stuff we picked up in the simulation (we're going to have to delete for space anyways once the labs are done), or we can get him on the short list for copied modules when the lab has them figured out (or spend some of what the lab would pay us to buy him some, whatever).
>>
No. 545047 ID: 735f4f

We will just have to meet him then. He may have his own personal reasons for holding on to the module or could be something else. But is worth a shot.
>>
No. 545049 ID: 6b89a0

I don't know if this is relevant or not, but maybe we should ask about the ornaments. They are diamonds, and wasn't Diamond the first House? What if it was the shape first, and it was Ruby and Sapphire and whoever else that corrupted that idea into the gem? Would that be relevant in the slightest?
>>
No. 545070 ID: 4f201e

thank him for the information and head off to see the other guy. Even if he doesn't want to give us the mod we could always see what he knows to see if that could help us.

Right now in my opinion the most important thing we can find is information.
>>
No. 545078 ID: fe4bfc

Ask him if he knows Arbiter.
>>
No. 545083 ID: d2b9fe

>>545078
That won't work. Even if Arbiter was someone from this simulation, or modeled off someone here, he'd have used a different name.
>>
No. 545126 ID: 64fac5

>>545083
And what will asking cost us?

Ask.
>>
No. 545132 ID: d38f67
File 138258721533.png - (16.98KB , 700x700 , 483.png )
545132

"I'll talk to him."

He starts walking away, and Alison follows.

"Do you have a name?"
>"Tuck."
"This might seem out of the blue, but do you know of anyone named the Arbiter?"
>"No." It was a long shot, especially for a name given to him after this cycle began.

Tuck opens a door, and there's a jetal staring back at them.

>"Uh.... knock, please?"
>"What would you ever do in here that needed privacy?" Tuck asks.
>"Stuff! Something! It's none of your business, Tuck! Who's that?" the jetal speaks, but Tuck walks off.
>>
No. 545133 ID: 735f4f

Hello my name is Unity. Sorry for intruding on your privacy.
>>
No. 545134 ID: d2b9fe

Thank Tuck as he's walking away, because you may not get another chance.

Uh, sorry about that. Hello, I'm Unity. Can we talk?
>>
No. 545135 ID: 7bbaae

>>545132
Can you sense where his core is?

Introduce yourself and ask if he knew Loviro.
>>
No. 545141 ID: 9ddf68

well tell him you're unity and then ask for his name... or at least something for us to call him by if he doesn't want to give us his name. He seems to be the paranoid type.
>>
No. 545165 ID: 01a9d6

Would be polite to introduce ans give your intentions first
>>
No. 545233 ID: d38f67
File 138267569933.png - (10.99KB , 700x700 , 484.png )
545233

>Can you sense where his core is?
Alison can, and he has various modules. There are no modules that stand out on their own, except that none of them are classed for legality.

"Thank you, Tuck!" Alison first says, before turning back to the new jetal. "Hello, my name is Unity. Can I ask who you are?"
>"Kellopy. What do you want?"
"Tuck said you have a module of Loviro's. He also said you were protective about it, but I would still like to know if there is anything I can do to get it from you?"
>"No. Don't even try."
"You wouldn't trade it for any other modules?"
>"I don't care if you have better modules."
"It's a sentimental module, then?"
>"None of your business."
"Are you one of Loviro's jetals?"
>"It's none of Tuck's business, either!"
"He didn't tell me anything."
>"... it's still none of yours. I'm not giving this module away! Loviro himself gave it to me!"
>>
No. 545237 ID: 735f4f

Ahh I can understand you being protective of it then.

We mostly ask because we were his last creation and are trying to find out more about our creator.

If you knew him well could you tell us a bit about him? He was taken away before we could get to know him.

Lets not bother him much about the module for now. Focus on getting to know him better if possible and finding out what his relationship with Loviro was. We have a bit of free time at the moment and maybe if we get to know him better we can at least find out what the module is.
>>
No. 545238 ID: 7bbaae

>>545233
Tell him he can keep it then, since he is supposed to have it. Then tell him about your time in the simulation, and about Loviro.

I wonder if he would help you kill Sapphire?
>>
No. 545239 ID: cf16c8

Say Loviro gave you something too, and shake your snake booty and/or jiggle your gazongas. It is the most reasonable way to break the ice and tell him that you are Loviro's creation.
>>
No. 545244 ID: 57a559

Loviro himself gave me life, we are like brothers/sisters if you and me are made by him, or family friends if not.
>>
No. 545245 ID: d2b9fe

>Loviro himself gave it to me!
Really? ...that would have been a long time ago, wouldn't it.

Would you mind telling me about that? I never knew the real Loviro, just his duplicate in the Harvest. He gave me my sword before I escaped.

(Maybe we could show him the sword too? If he asks, I guess. An unexpected "Energy Surge Detected!" around a nervous civilian ain't such a good idea).

The idea here is the only chance we have is connecting with this guy. Common bond. Figure out why Loviro was so important to him, and relate through that, so he ends up wanting to help us.
>>
No. 545254 ID: 9ddf68

ask him about Loviro. We only know a simulated Loviro and even then not very well. Maybe trade stories with him, like what you knew about him and what he knows about him. Try to figure out why sapphire gunned for him directly.

I mean I know Sapphire never really liked Diamond all the much and the hate transferred over to Diamond's nobles as well but he seemed very interested in taking down Loviro more so then the other Diamond nobles and I don't buy it was because he was really good at making jetals. I'm sure that played a part in it but there has to be more to it then that.
>>
No. 545336 ID: d38f67
File 138275290666.png - (19.57KB , 700x700 , 485.png )
545336

>Say Loviro gave you something too, and shake your snake booty and/or [ss]jiggle your gazongas[/s] and/or tell him about your sword.
"Loviro gave me a module too, as well as, well, life here."
>"What, really? Which one?"
"A morphing sword. Well, to be honest, it wasn't the real Loviro, it was a projection of him in the harvest."
>"You've been in there?"
"I just got out. I didn't know about Loviro very well. If he gave you it, it must have been a long time ago."
>"Shortly before..."
"I understand. One thing I wonder, is that it seemed like Sapphire really had it out for diamond. Was it really just because he was good at making jetals?"
>"Yes. I think so. Sapphire's done a lot of things to make sure he's the most powerful person in the solar system. Wait a minute, how do I know you're telling the truth?! Use your sword!"

It's a cost of energy that Alison may need to be cautious about while in this energy starved place, but this seems like a worthy risk.

>"Ohh. Okay, okay. Welllll... Loviro said that I've got to protect this module, because it's not been put through its paces, testwise, and he said that the security on it wasn't as good as he wanted to. And that if competitors got their hands on it... Loviro trusted me with it, okay?"
"If you don't mind my asking, when were you made?"
>"Well, 103 years ago, but I've gotten upgrades, and everything, so I'm not really the same person anymore."
"Did Loviro make you?"
>"Y... well, mostly. He was just starting out. But he was the one who spent the most time with me. Why do you want the module from me anyway? Mayyyyybe you'll be better at guarding it than I am."
>>
No. 545337 ID: 7bbaae

>>545336
Tell him you heard Loviro modules were best used by his own Jetals, so you thought it might be as useful as the morphing sword has been in fighting Sapphire.
>>
No. 545338 ID: 735f4f

We want to help protect people against Sapphire and the best modules we have seen have been made by Loviro. So when Tuck mentioned you had one we thought you might be willing to help out.

That and we like making friends.

Ask him about life here. If he has been hiding from everyone for that long guarding this module it seems like a lonely existence. I do admire his loyalty though.
>>
No. 545339 ID: d2b9fe

...I was one of the last jetals he made, I think.

I asked because I'm kind of in a fight against Diamond. And I've heard that Loviro designed his cores different, so his modules worked better or different for them than anyone else. So there's a chance that your module could be a big help for me, and I need all the help I can get. Although I don't know for sure.
>>
No. 545340 ID: c23ab0

Seems like he really wants to see your tool. I guess just this once. Erect your pulsing spire of authority and penetration.
>>
No. 545364 ID: 761017

>>545339
>I asked because I'm kind of in a fight against SAPPHIRE.

Fixed!
>>
No. 545367 ID: d2b9fe

>>545364
Whups. Yes. Good catch.
>>
No. 545369 ID: 7bbaae

>>545340
I think she already did.
>>
No. 545416 ID: d38f67
File 138280845517.png - (19.56KB , 700x700 , 486.png )
545416

>Seems like he really wants to see your tool.
Alison did flip it on for just a quick moment to show him.

"I heard that Loviro's models were best used by his own jetals. So, I think there may be a good chance that that module would be good when I fight Sapphire."
>"... excuse me. What was that last part?"
"I'm going to try and kill Sapphi-"

Kellopy runs up and almost tackles Alison. His intention is clear when Alison feels his core pop out by Alison's jetalium.
>"It's the one called Plasma Driver."

Plasma Driver obtained - no description. Must remove one module to absorb.

>"It makes a sword, like the one you have, but it behaves more like a rocket. You can move it around and all, and it will explode when you want it to. I haven't really tested it much. Oh, and you can make three at once, unlike most modules."

>"That was easy." Scanner says. "Maybe we should just start telling everyone we're going to kill Sapphire."
Alison wants to assume she is joking.
>>
No. 545418 ID: 9ddf68

that's probably not for the best seeing as our greeter did say that sapphire more then likely has spies here.

Anyways thank Kellopy for putting so much trust and faith into you. Then ask if he knows anyone that could give us some good information or at least point us to someone that could give us good information on sapphire, EIN, Where they're located, what kind of defenses do they got (both for security detail and personally), basically anything that will help us come up with a better plan then just kick down the front door.
>>
No. 545420 ID: d2b9fe

Do we need to delete a module to make room, or can we just pass something off Kellopy?

(As for what we don't need, maybe one of the weaker beams? Or the weaker sniper?).

Be sure to thank him. I take it you don't like Sapphire, much.

>Maybe we should just start telling everyone we're going to kill Sapphire.
Well, diamond ex-pats, or people close to Loviro, etc, would probably be interested. But considering Cloud Slither as a whole survives largely by not being a threat worth the effort it would take the Empire to stamp out, there are probably people who wouldn't be happy with that stance.

...although depending on closely this place monitors it's people and/or guests, they may already know.
>>
No. 545426 ID: 735f4f

If we can trade him one of our weaker options rather than just deleting it.
>>
No. 545441 ID: 7bbaae

>>545416
That reaction was very likely because this Jetal thinks highly of Loviro and hates Sapphire for what he did. We should only assume to get this reaction from Loviro's Jetals. Tthe other ex-diamond didn't seem to be particularly impressed by our statement of intent.

Give this guy a hug! Also comment that Tuck said the module in question wasn't particularly special.

I say trade our vanilla Plasma Sword A to him.
>>
No. 545442 ID: d2b9fe

>Tuck said the module in question wasn't particularly special.
Hey, we're having a moment here. No need to spoil it.

>trade vanilla Plasma Sword A to him.
But we only have two swords, and there may be a situation in which we need to dual wield, or have multiple divisions wield a sword.
>>
No. 545502 ID: 4b13ab

We could ask him what kind of module he wants, something that would actualy be useful to him.
>>
No. 546171 ID: d38f67
File 138327331787.png - (11.87KB , 700x700 , 487.png )
546171

"Thank you for your trust, Kellopy. I'm full, though, would you like one of my own modules to replace?"
>"Yes, please."

Alison gives away Sniper B. He doesn't sound like he's interested in powerful ones.

"Do you know anyone else who can give me information on Sapphire?"
>"Well... there's one of our surveillance guys that keeps an eye on the empire. I mean, there's more, but the one I'm thinking of is really into his job. I can show you to him, if you want."

A quick text to the labs says that the AN5 sword is almost ready, and would like to get another new module from Alison.
>>
No. 546172 ID: 7bbaae

Okay, let's get directions and then stop by the lab before we meet the surveillance guy.
>>
No. 546180 ID: d2b9fe

I would like to meet him, if you're willing to introduce us.

And ask if he minds swinging by the labs so you can swap another of your stolen modules for them to study.
>>
No. 546183 ID: 9ddf68

yes to his invitation just hit the labs as you going to meet this guy. If the labs are out of the way just ask if he would mind if we take the long way around, maybe also ask about him a bit.
>>
No. 546395 ID: d38f67
File 138343579636.gif - (108.67KB , 900x500 , 488.gif )
546395

"Yes, please."

Alison returns to the lab to retrieve the sword and give the AN5 sniper to the labs for study. Kellopy then leads Alison to a surveillance room. Alison could find her own way, but Kellopy doesn't seem to want to go back to his room just yet.

>"Hello. Do you have business?" the one in the middle asks.
>"Hey, Auxelan! Oh, uh, Unity, this is the person I was talking about. And we were wondering if you knew anything about information on sapphire?"
>"What, a history lecture, or what he's up to?"
>"Oh, uh... I guess what he's up to?"
>"His advisors are up to the usual panicked state thinking everyone is out to get them, which I hope is true, which means that's what he's up to. As for where he is, the palace, his estate and his hometown are the obvious locations, so he's probably anywhere else."
>>
No. 546396 ID: 7bbaae

>>546395
Well, alright, let's exchange contact information in case anything new comes up. A history lesson could be neat too, though!
>>
No. 546399 ID: 735f4f

Compliment him on the suspicious mood lighting.

So do you know if he has any body doubles? Also whats the emperors relationship with EIN? Do they get spied on as well? Or are they immune to its watch somehow?
>>
No. 546405 ID: d2b9fe

Do the lights normally do that, or is something wrong?

Any way possible locations could be narrowed down? If someone wanted to find Sapphire, how would you go about it? Realistically, he has to conduct business, receive information, give orders somehow. That means there must be trails connected to him in one form or another.
>>
No. 546408 ID: d38f67
File 138343820241.gif - (118.98KB , 900x500 , 489.gif )
546408

"Do the lights normally do that?"
>"Yeah. I doubt it'll get replaced when it goes out, at least not anytime soon. It's not like biologicals have much business up here."
"Well, it's good for moody lighting. Do you mind exchanging contact info in case you do learn anything?"
>"Sure."
"Do you think sapphire has any body doubles?"
>"Plenty, yes."
"Do they get spied on, on EIN?"
>"EIN doesn't pretend not to see them when they cross a view, but the emperors aren't actively tracked like everyone else. I'm not entirely sure what measures are in place for EIN to recognize an emperor as opposed to one of his doubles."
"How does anyone find him, then?"
>"The nobles in the sapphire house, and even then, they don't always know where he is at a single given point. I assume that the other emperors are occasionally in contact, as well."
"Can we narrow that location down?"
>"I meant to ask, why are you interested in what Sapphire's up to anyway? Plan on having a stern talking to with him?"
>>
No. 546410 ID: 76b151

Yes. I wish to discuss his retirement.
>>
No. 546411 ID: d2b9fe

>>546410
Perfection. Say this with a completely strait face.
>>
No. 546412 ID: 57a559

>>546408
Sure.
Stern is the correct word here.
>>
No. 546413 ID: 57a559

Oh, can you ask what happens to nobles when their emperor retires? I forgot if it was said or not, point is I'd like to know if there would be nobles that would betray his location.
>>
No. 546415 ID: d2b9fe

>>546413
When an emperor is removed, his nobles are suppose to be protected. There are laws about that. That's part of the reason some people have such a low opinion of Sapphire- he crossed that line going after Loviro when Diamond fell.
>>
No. 546418 ID: d38f67
File 138343976257.gif - (118.79KB , 900x500 , 490.gif )
546418

"Yes. I want to discuss his retirement." From what Alison has heard, sapphire nobles would hold their positions, and become some of the many advisors and nobles that don't have a direct emperor above them.
>".... oh. You realize you won't receive any assistance from the Cloud, correct?"
"I've heard that.
>"I'm not happy to be involved in this, but as long as you understand you won't be affiliated with the cloud in this, I'll give you some unaffiliated help." He starts walking to the other side of the room. "If you're going to go run off on a suicide mission, I may as well give you a non-zero chance of success. Give me some time. Perhaps a few hours. I'll see what I can investigate."
>>
No. 546419 ID: d2b9fe

Thank him for the help. You understand the Cloud's position, and that he doesn't have to do this. You'll do what you can to keep them out of it.

...hmm. Maybe when we leave, we should arrange to be thrown out, or expelled? Give the Cloud plausible deniability, especially for the empire's spies to see. Not sure who we would discuss setting up that kind of show with, though.
>>
No. 546424 ID: 7bbaae

>>546418
What about that other guy standing there hearing all this? Can he be trusted?
>>
No. 546425 ID: d2b9fe

>>546424
Well, it's a little late if he can't. (And if we do ask about him, I'd think we should be more polite than that).
>>
No. 546432 ID: 735f4f

We can trust anyone here up to the point when we cant. Anyone could be a spy for someone but its not worth worrying about to much right now.

Might be a good idea to send out some divisions to go out and get the lay of the land. We have not seen much of the area and it would be nice to know where the exits and entrances are.
>>
No. 546445 ID: d38f67
File 138345440844.png - (88.42KB , 800x800 , 491.png )
546445

"Thank you. Who is that over there?"
>"Just Pin. He doesn't care too much about the internal cloud affairs, just the external."

Alison excuses herself, and kills some time by sending out Polatt and Scanner to take a look around to get a lay of the land. The verdict is a mess. There's exits all over the place, although they are all covered. It likely doesn't matter too much, given how easy it is to make ones own entrance. Many panels in the outer walls are completely missing.

Kellopy says he'll be in his room if Unity needs anything, and Alison continues gathering each weapon as they're unlocked.

After several hours, Alison gets a text to come back up to the surveillance room.
>>
No. 546446 ID: d38f67
File 138345441772.gif - (141.17KB , 900x500 , 492.gif )
546446

>"Bingo." Auxelan walks up to her. "Didn't get a lockdown on sapphire, but I did get a noble who likely does. Her name is Kolexia, and she is taking a small vacation back at her home, well into the middle of nowhere. I can't guarantee what her loyalties are. Maybe she won't talk, maybe you don't even need to ask her politely. All I got on her is official statements, and of course she'll say sapphire's the best ever. If you think it's worth the chance to run in town, grab info out of her and shake EIN on your way out, I got the info. I'll state the obvious. You get no help."

"Should we try and get ourselves kicked out of the slither, to make it clear we're not part of them?
>"We could try to commit some terrible taboo that doesn't actually harm anything too much, if we can find a law like that." Clarence says.
>"If we do do this, we could simply publically tell everyone that we're leaving the cloud. That alone may be enough." suggests Duelist.
>>
No. 546447 ID: 9ddf68

what's our window of opportunity on this? do we need to leave right now are can we think on it a bit.

Cause there is always the chance that this is a trap ( I mean come on, alone in the middle of nowhere and possible intel we need to beat sevener? after that whole satellite thing I'm a bet weary)
>>
No. 546449 ID: d38f67
File 138345541395.gif - (130.32KB , 900x500 , 493.gif )
546449

"What's my window of opportunity on this?"
>"It's not a long vacation, but it is one. She might go back to work tomorrow, maybe the next day, but you can bet her today is off."

Alison sends another ping to the lab about her progress. At the moment, the AN5 series of weapons and the AJ6 Sword are unlocked for the Cloud's use, and they are working on the AJ6 blaster. The rest of the AJ6's should go smoothly. The labs think, however, that the Empirical Defenses, rockets and the two EIN modules are going to be far tougher to crack. It is currently 28:00, and at this rate, they may have everything done by tomorrow morning, however, due to those last 4 modules, it may take several hours longer to several days longer.
>>
No. 546455 ID: 735f4f

I think its worth the effort if we are sure we will be allowed back in afterwards.

We should have the lab focus on the Ein impersonator module first and grab it before we head out if possible. That gives us the best chance of sneaking in and having a polite conversation with the noble.

Also if it ends up being a trap we can lower the amount of possible spy's down to just a few people.

We can do it without the module but there will be much more shooting and we will have to eat a few jetals to keep our mass up.
>>
No. 546456 ID: 7bbaae

Do we even know what the ED module does? Regardless, we do need the EINI module before we leave, so that if we don't need to fight the noble we can get in and out without a fight. How about we tell them to work on that next instead of the AJ6s?
>>
No. 546473 ID: d2b9fe

Well, we could wait till the 'easy' to crack modules are done before going noble hunting at least. And before we go out, we'd have to absorb those modules and discard some other stuff, I think.

Is going after one noble enough that we wouldn't be allowed back afterwards? ....although, I suppose, if we get Sapphire's location out of the noble, it'll only be good for so long. We'd kind of have to press onwards.
>>
No. 546491 ID: 9ddf68

tell him to work on the mod that lets you travel without EIN picking you up as soon as you set foot outside of the city First cause we NEED that one most of all.
>>
No. 546679 ID: d2e35b

Letting the cloud have those modules will be good for us: we may be able to find allies here, with those excellent modules to supply them.
>>
No. 546735 ID: 01531c

>>546455
> I think its worth the effort if we are sure we will be allowed back in afterwards.

Cloud Slither official policy says 'if you leave, you leave forever'
>>
No. 546809 ID: d38f67
File 138372235688.png - (121.16KB , 1102x558 , 494.png )
546809

>Do we even know what the ED module does?
It is mostly unknown. Alison gives Engineer a division, and has him start experimenting with it. Most weapons so far have been straightforward, but the Engineer is finding that this is not. It allows for manual destabilizing of plasma and can create shockwaves capable of destabilizing kinetic weaponry. There are also other uses, engineer thinks, but the module didn't originally come with a name let alone an instructional manual.

Alison confirms that if she leaves, she won't come back, even if she manages to have a nice chat with the noble and is never discovered by EIN.

She imagines that the module labs will want the EIN Impersonator and the EIN Tracker the most, so she gives the EINI to them for study first and wanders nearby. Nevertheless, she imagines that she'll want just the majority of her modules, even if she has to take them back before the labs are done with them.

>"We should at least get our surge overdrive back from storage in return for the worthless AJ6 sword, if nothing else. Not like the others in storage are worthless." says Engineer.
>"Master Musician?" Iso asks.
>"That's not exactly what I was thinking."
>"The only singing we're going to be doing is the song of kicking sevener's butt at kicking emperor butt!" Guardsman says.
>"I dunno, I really liked that one." someone Alison doesn't recognize chimes in.
>"With EIN impersonating, maybe it'll come up." another says.
>"Sure didn't stick around here for long." Polatt says.
>"Can't say I'll miss the place." Atlas replies.
>>
No. 546824 ID: 7bbaae

Master Musician is a free module, there's no reason not to keep it.

Alright, I think it's time to switch gears here. Instead of asking ourselves what weapons are superior in general, we should be asking ourselves what weapons give us a distinct advantage in specific situations. We should come up with a strategy for using single weapons for multiple situations.

AN5 weapons are amazing for dealing with lots of weak opponents, because they're so efficient. We should therefore have an AN5 Sniper, and an AN5 Sword. The Sniper is for long-range opponents (especially multiple robots, which can't handle bisections), the Sword is for dealing with opponents that get in close, and can be left on for long periods of time so it can be efficient at killing multiple opponents. AN5 weapons are ALSO good for sneak attacks. So maybe the AN5 KiloBeam would be a good idea too. The Blaster seems like it would only kill one thing at a time, so maybe it's not quite worth it... perhaps I'm underestimating it though.

AJ6 weapons are for dealing with tough opponents. The AJ6 Beam seems appropriate here. Considering that, I think we can safely sell the other non-bending beams- the AJ6 Megabeam is probably more dense than the S-class Kilobeam. Anything we'd want to use the Terabeam against we could use a Plasma Well instead. I think we can use the bending GigaBeams for anything we'd want to use bending MegaBeams against. The AJ6 Sword is useless as described, and I don't really like the AJ6 Blaster either, but I could see it being useful for being able to squeeze in as much damage as possible in the shortest amount of time... so maybe we should take it. The AJ6 Beam seems pointless since our strongest opponents will either deflect it outright, disperse it, or quick-morph around the beam.

I think we should sell the regular missiles. Displacers seem to be a straight upgrade. I'm not sure autoguns are any good anymore either. They use up mass way too fast for the damage they do. I don't know how effective the autocannon is in comparison. If the exploding jetalium gives more bang for our buck if the projectile is larger, it might be worth using... Mostly we've been using them as chaff, right? The ED system seems better at that.

The Stunner could be a great equalizer against a superior opponent in close range. EMP Field is anti-robot, which is good too since robots can apparently be on par with jetals.

EINI we need, obviously, and EIN-T would be great too.

Most of our passive abilities seem to have proven their usefulness aside from Signature Sense. That is a bit of insurance, really. It can prevent us from being fooled by decoys or ambushed by Sevener.

SO:
Sword Loviro
Sword AN5
KiloBeam AN5
MegaBeam AJ6
Gigabeam bending S (x2)
Plasma Well S
AutoCannon A?
AN5 Blaster?
AJ6 Blaster?
AN5 Sniper
Displacer Rockets
EMP Field
Stunner

EIN Impersonator
Ein Tracker
Assorted Empirical Defense
Explosive Shedding
Jetalium Surge Conversion
Core Dodge S
Jetalium Magnetism B
Core Magnetism A
Jetalium-Acid Resistance S
Core Hide A
Core Detection A
Surge Detection B
Cooling Systems
Jetalium Bullets
Reflection Shield Class B
Light Absorption
Anti Gravity
Thruster A+
Jetalium Sense
Jetalium Division (2)
Signature Sense
Sticky Jetalium
Surge Overdrive
Quick Morph C
Master Musician(free)

These we have but aren't listed for some reason, even in storage:
Core Launcher
Power Move
Reflection Shield
Shield Generator

43 total. We can only hold 41 at 70 morph. We'd need to go to 85 morph to hold 43. We could drop the AN5 Blaster and Autocannon. We could also drop Jetalium Bullets if we're not using an autogun or autocannon. Or we could drop the Magnetism mods? Are they even useful aside from turning Divisions into kamikaze missiles?
>>
No. 546857 ID: fc937d

Master musician got reclassified as free at some point, meaning there's no downside to carrying it. Plus, hey, it might be useful, eventually.

>is the ED system an effective replacement for using the autoguns to provide chaff against incoming fire?
Obviously, we should have Engineer test this while experimenting with the ED system. Figure out if autogun chaff is obsolete, or a useful supplement.

Similarly, he should test the new Loviro-weapon. I suspect it'll be a lot better than the missiles, since we don't have to sacrifice all that mass to make them up.

>are magnetism mods useful?
They make reclaiming scattered jetalium after a fight somewhat faster, I think. Might be useful.

>other fixes
Before we leave, can we take advantage of the credit or whatever we're earning from letting the scientists study our new modules? The most obvious use would be to buy upgrades. Can we replace any of our useful passive modules at level B or A with equivalents at level A or S? (Like core detection, core hide, surge detection, the reflection shield, quick morph, etc).

Also, it would be smart to sell or trade off modules we don't want, rather than deleting them, so we net some some profit, and since we're in a place where others could use them.
>>
No. 546862 ID: 9ddf68

well with magnetism, since we like to use swords whenever we can it would make it more difficult for enemies to evade us and if we ever have to deal with a runner we could us it to either slow him down our to slingshot ourselves at him so there's that angle if you want.

But yeah I know they said batteries are a bit hard to come by here but see if they got on that's better then what we're using now. Just saying with all the firepower we have and are going against our jetalium cap is kind of crippling to us right now so any upgrade we could get could be far more useful than most mods right now.
>>
No. 546893 ID: d38f67
File 138377617779.png - (26.82KB , 800x800 , 495.png )
546893

"What do you think about autoguns, Engineer? Useful to knock away missiles, or does the ED handle that?"
>"It's a supplement. I'm not confident it's worth the module taking up room."
>"Hey, the whole reason why we have that jetalium bullet module is so we can make bullets on the fly efficiently, right, and couldn't get ammo? I'm sure the people here have crafted a lot of generic ammunition." Clarence says. "We could just keep an autogun, and store some bullets in ourselves for it."
>"It fires absurdly fast. I'd rather have the autocannon if we use something like that." says Charles.
>>
No. 546903 ID: d38f67
File 138377941581.png - (127.11KB , 800x800 , 496.png )
546903

Everyone continues discussing module management and the final payload. Alison, in the meanwhile, starts gathering and haggling for module credit from letting the labs use her things. She refills her battery, but unfortunately is not able to find a better one. That, the lab director explains, is one of the cloud's bottlenecks, if she couldn't tell.

She does, however, get several upgrades for her passive abilities. Alison now has Surge Detection A, Reflection Shield A, Quick Morph B and Core Hide S. Courtesy of the surveillance team, for Alison's EIN tracker studies, Alison also gets Core Detection S.

Lastly, Scanner starts gathering info on the Sapphire noble, Kolexia. She is staying in her estate, which could pass as a dense, small town in the middle of a snowing mountain range. A conspicuous glass dome overlooking the town and the terrain is the noble's main residence.
>>
No. 546909 ID: fc937d

So... how does one go about approaching a glassed in snowglobe of a town? It's isolated, which means our approach will probably be obvious (although I guess we could use a snow storm as cover?), and a dome means entrances are limited and controlled. We either need a way to sneak in, or a way to walk right in undetected using our EIN bluff.
>>
No. 546919 ID: 735f4f

We should find out where the normal entrance is and what sort of security they have in place. Could be we just waltz in the front door in disguise with our Ein camo up.
>>
No. 546951 ID: 7bbaae

>>546893
Yeah, carrying some autocannon ammo sounds good. That would free up one mod. We might even be able to get some specialty ammo, rather than the exploding bullets we normally use. That, and drop Core Magnetism. Because honestly I see no use for that at all, unless we form a Supercore somehow with someone.

Oh, let's see if we can get some drones or grenades or other consumables. I wonder how much money Gambler made for us?
>>
No. 547204 ID: d38f67
File 138402099523.png - (38.29KB , 800x800 , 497.png )
547204

Alison checks up on Gambler. It looks like he's gotten a decent amount of spare battery power and jetalium back, and Alison thinks she can trade it for things like drones, mundane weapons and other objects.

She goes to the storage jetal in the module labs to start tweak her modules, and everyone else discusses possible options about getting to the noble.

Most people don't think the estate is open to just any visitor showing up, and there is supposed to be a snowstorm well into the night. The main entrance is on the outer rim, but it is possible that Alison will be able to sneak right into the glass dome in the cover of night.

Gambler claims that he found an interesting trade that might make that feasible, a jetalium hiding core. In return, the person would want a rare module. He is also gambling, though, and gambler may be able to goad him into putting that on the pot, if Alison wants to risk it.
>>
No. 547211 ID: fc937d

Define 'rare'. We have a lot of things after all, some we'd miss more than others.
>>
No. 547214 ID: 57a559

>>547204
The new modules you just gave the lab ought to qualify as rare, when they're done copying them, guarantee first customer status and that will be free. Just have to make some deal with the lab, like forfiet royalties for x number of purchases. We won't need the royalties anyway, seeing as how before we'll get any the sim will probably stop because we've won or lost, not to mention we can't come back after we go.
>>
No. 547222 ID: 9ddf68

well let's see what the guy thinks is rare cause we could give him the A6 sword since we don't seem to want it. Or if he want's something that we have and want to keep then gamble. We really need stealth if we're going to abandon our only sanctuary and be forced to travel in a world that likes to keep it's nose firmly in everybody's business.
>>
No. 547225 ID: 7bbaae

Yeah, the A6 sword seems like a possibility.
>>
No. 547284 ID: 735f4f

Lets not show our cards this early. We really want that module but don't go showing the owner everything we have. We could also set up some sort of deal where they get first pick of what we are dropping off at the lab.

As for goading him into putting it in the pot let gambler make the judgement call on it. He is our expert in the field and would know best. But make sure anything we have to put against it would not cripple us if lost.
>>
No. 547349 ID: d38f67
File 138410586666.png - (17.60KB , 800x800 , 498.png )
547349

With Alison's permission, the gambler gets the other jetal in a game, and puts the first call to the AJ6 Sword module on the pot in return for his jetalium hiding.

Gambler wins it cleanly and absorbs the prize, forcing Unity to have to get rid of another module. Aside from waiting a bit longer for the module labs to get a couple more modules studied, Alison doesn't think there's much left to do in the cloud. Now's the time to make sure of that, though.
>>
No. 547353 ID: 735f4f

Lets get our divisions checking any areas we have not already been just in case.

Also find out if there is any way to contact anyone here once we leave. They might not want to get involved but we can at least warn them if we see anything headed this way later on.
>>
No. 547354 ID: 76b151

Actually you know what? Lets just up our morph to max. We can burn jetallium if we need to once we leave.
>>
No. 547355 ID: fc937d

Well, we might as well say our goodbyes (hugs) to our friends slash people who were helpful to us.

And might as well drop whatever we're not keeping at the lab or somewhere. Letting someone else use it beats deletion when we have the choice.

>>547354
I dunno. There are other costs to max morph besides just consumption and surge penalties. I'm not sure it's worth it just to not have to discard one more module.
>>
No. 547359 ID: 76b151

>>547355
we still have all those modules in the labs. And we are going to have to leave soon.

I suppose we could sell like half the jetallium we've gathered. If we had found a better battery in this place it'd be a different story but right now so much jetallium is more an hindrance then anything.
>>
No. 547367 ID: fc937d

>>547359
I'm pretty sure if you check the wiki we don't have anything stored at the lab anymore. We went and sold some stuff when we were buying upgrades. So we're only one module over our current limit, not lots.
>>
No. 547376 ID: d38f67

I'm trying to get the list of the modules that are in storage to put on the wiki, I dropped the ball there.

For now, you can assume that the recent influx of spare modules have been placed in storage, and can be exchanged or retrieved in the case of bumping up morphability.
>>
No. 547387 ID: 7bbaae

Let's bump up Morph 10 points so we can get this new mod, then later ditch uh... the AN5 Blaster. We can just use the AN5 Sniper or KiloBeam instead of it.

Wait shit I didn't put Plasma Driver on my list! So uh... ah. Ditch Light Absorption. We will probably never again have to absorb a lot of jetals at once. Alternatively we could bump ourselves up to 80 Morph, and avoid dropping the AN5 Blaster.
>>
No. 547420 ID: d38f67
File 138412244208.png - (26.78KB , 800x800 , 499.png )
547420

Alison kills the time via letting some divisions look around based on lottery drawing of those who have not controlled a jetal yet. They take a look around, and while they make some interesting observerations about the melancholy culture of the cloud, such as how many sleep and dream to save energy until something interesting happens, there isn't much that has significance to Alison's goal. While they do that, Alison uses her own division to dispense hugs to the people who helped.

Unity's morphability is bumped up 20 points so that she can get that mod as well as get the Plasma Driver back, as that was not supposed to be given up.

With that, Alison believes she is done hanging out in the cloud. She tells the module director that they can have the modules that she leaves behind. As per the rules, Unity won't be coming back.

Gambler was able to get a couple of battery packs, and one will be good to use to get to the noble estate in time for what is anticipated to be the height of the snowstorm.
>>
No. 547421 ID: d38f67
File 138412244979.png - (133.28KB , 800x800 , 500.png )
547421

Alison makes sure that her EINI is on, but she hangs low to get to the estate. Thankfully the lights are on indoors, so she goes to the middle of it and gently lands down. It's a snowstorm, alright, and an interesting choice for a vacation getaway.
>>
No. 547423 ID: 735f4f

Ok with our high end non detection mods we could try to disguise our self as a bounty hunter looking for Unity. Trying to impersonate a noble seems like it would probably not work out so well.

Scan everything we can and see what entrances we have to choose from.

Whatever we choose make sure to look nothing like our base form.
>>
No. 547425 ID: fc937d

>an interesting choice for a vacation getaway
Maybe the noble likes skiing? Or hiking? Or enjoys the snow or cold? Or enjoys looking at someplace that's still mountain wilderness and not a developed supercity? Or a remote place where she's unlikely to be hassled. Lots of reasons this choice might make sense.

>arrived
So... what are our chances of sneaking in? If we've got EINI and a jetalium hide and core hide we just need to avoid cameras. Or shapeshift into something or someone who belongs. Although we need an entrance, first. Problem is they're likely to be guarded or watched. We could just punch in, but that would give us away, and lower our already low odds of just talking to her.
>>
No. 547426 ID: 7bbaae

>>547421
Definitely switch to a different form. Perhaps a more humanoid Corruptor?
>>
No. 547429 ID: 9ddf68

scoop out the outside first so we can try and get an idea of where enter.
>>
No. 547448 ID: 735f4f

While unlikely this all could be another trap so before we get to far in lets make sure its not all wired to blow up once they know we inside.

Probably not something to be that worried about but keep a eye out for anything that seems off.
>>
No. 547503 ID: d38f67
File 138413873965.png - (172.43KB , 800x800 , 501.png )
547503

Alison scurries around and makes a snake angel in the last few moments as a snake, before she turns into something else.
She also bumps her morph back down to 85 afterwards, since she doesn't need 90 to hold that last module.

She is on metal, but things look tightly sealed and welded. She could continue trying to look for a maintenance panel or something by scraping away snow, although there is a realistic fear that she will crawl right over some glass, where someone happens to be snow gazing.

Alison doesn't know what her chances of sneaking in are, but unfortunately just pummeling through the top will leave things up to chance. Then again, so will trying to go to a main entrance, so Alison will just choose whether to sneak in through a melted ceiling, or try to talk her way in from whoever is guarding whatever actual entrances are around.
>>
No. 547504 ID: 7bbaae

>>547503
Melting through costs power immediately. Talking doesn't. So that is the choice I prefer.
>>
No. 547507 ID: fc937d

Ooh. Nice snowsnake.

I vote we try and find a place to melt in. I don't think there's any good reason for anyone to be out here in the middle of nowhere- I don't see you talking through without raising alarms.

Granted, cutting in without altering security will be tricky, and the hole will eventually be found, but we have a chance.
>>
No. 547519 ID: 9ddf68

how small a hole can you fit through? cause if you can just make a small easy to miss hole and just morph through that you'll be in and the chances of people finding a small hole is less then a big one. Also do we have to burst in from the top? can't we just cut our way in from the side?

But if we can't make a small whole or just don't want to waste the energy we could always try the front door. I mean I bet the last thing they'll expect is for us to waltz right through the front door so we have that at least.
>>
No. 547687 ID: d38f67
File 138423211816.png - (31.76KB , 800x800 , 502.png )
547687

>How small a hole can you fit through?
Now that she thinks about it, with high morph, a tiny one.

Alison melts a small hole on the ceiling, since she figures it's just as good as on the side, and sticks her tail-eye down. It's pitch black inside, although that doesn't hinder her. She thinks she's in an attic. There's insulation all over, so Alison then melts herself downward carefully and quietly.
>>
No. 547688 ID: d38f67
File 138423217195.png - (241.88KB , 800x800 , 503.png )
547688

So far, she's in the clear. She doesn't sense anything coming after her, but this place is populated with jetals. After all this time, she still does not have much senses for robots, although it has been a long time since she's actively had to deal with one. She gets the impression that while jetals are comparatively less common, robots stick to their own world a lot of the time.
>>
No. 547690 ID: 7bbaae

>>547688
Um... head over to the biggest signature. See if you can get some audio. We want to hear them using names, because a name is all we have.
>>
No. 547691 ID: fc937d

>sneak in through a tiny hole
Ooh, good thinking.

>where go
So... we don't actually know if this noble it a bot or borg or jetal. That makes this harder.

How powerful is that big jetal you sense off the the left? Big enough to be a noble? You've encountered noble jetals before, you should have a sense of the powerscale.
>>
No. 547692 ID: fc937d

>>547690
That, and/or use a spy drone. Although with high morph we can be pretty sneaky ourselves.
>>
No. 547693 ID: 735f4f

Guessing the biggest signature is either the noble or one of her bodyguards. Could also be someone else but if they are the most powerful we need to know about them anyway.

I would avoid any form that's to snakelike once we end up in areas with actual people. Something cute and unassuming would be nice if we could jam our mass into it. I know people tend to look like whatever they want here but appearances still affect how people react to you.
>>
No. 547698 ID: 76b151

We can use our divisions as drones as well since we do have that jetallium hiding module. (Which isn't listed for some reason.)
>>
No. 547699 ID: 9ddf68

If i had to guess the biggest power surge is most likely the noble, but it could be security for this place for all we know. From what I know even if this noble is a jetal they could have hide core and hide jetalium as well. As such I say we should start our search in the most expensive looking part of this city since as a noble she should have some of the best service available to her so it's as good as place as anywhere to start.
>>
No. 548225 ID: d38f67
File 138449522873.png - (22.79KB , 800x800 , 504.png )
548225

"I'd like to be able to hear better. I'm going to morph to something less imposing than a crawling snake too, even though this is really convenient for getting into small places." says Alison, beginning to morph into a crawling slug, or what could pass as a rounded snake.
>"I was just thinking about that." Scanner says. "And I have an idea for both."

Scanner forms gigantic rabbit ears on the snake and occasionally flops them and swivels them to pick up the most insignificant of noises. She also gets a team of people to help isolate different noises. Engineer, in the meanwhile, crafts the absolute thinnest strand of jetalium he can manage that has eyes, in order to peak around corners. Once the second level is penetrated, the amount of cameras located starts rising dramatically, and Alison has to get into some exceedingly creative shapes to get through the blind spots.

The big core off to the left is definitely big enough to be a noble, Alison thinks, and so that is where she starts moving.

She starts moving extremely slowly as she gets above the noble, just close enough for Scanner to hear the conversation.

>"There's a female voice talking in code, I can't understand it at all. But right now there's also a team of bots coming close. We might not be had yet, because there's a huge number of bots rolling around. They're prgobably just service bots.
>"If this is a noble estate, I'm betting there's a fuckton of bots on patrol on top of the usual cameras." Polatt mentions. "Might want to scram, and if not, make use of that high morph. Failing that, hope EINI does it's thing and that the bot's just scanning around for illegals."
>>
No. 548227 ID: 7bbaae

>>548225
It occurs to me that we have basically no way of getting to her without being spotted. Talking in code while on vacation is... strange.

I wonder if we could just plain knock on the front door and ask to speak with her, considering we don't look illegal? Then we wouldn't have to worry about being spotted.
>>
No. 548257 ID: 735f4f

The talking in code makes me suspicious. For avoiding the bots could you melt a hole in the floor or a wall and ooze into it fast enough? Keep part of your body flush with the hole so no one would see it?

If not it might be best to morph into a more presentable form for company and just knock on the door.
>>
No. 548263 ID: fc937d

...you know, if you're a robot or a jetal, and your friends are robots or jetals, it would actually be pretty trivial to develop a code-language, and run a program to speak in it. Bam. Instant protection against eavesdropping. Kind of makes sense, giving the extremely widespread surveillance in this place.

For now, try to avoid the incoming bots. Things may come to a fight, but I'd rather not force one right away by popping out in front of the noble.
>>
No. 548299 ID: 9ddf68

well if she's talking in code she either knows we're coming, or is just saying things she doesn't want the crap ton of bots to overhear. Still would be nice to know who she's talking to but for some reason I have a feeling it's sevener.

If you want you could try scouting around first to see if you can't find a better way to... introduce yourself. Failing that there is always the front door.
>>
No. 548305 ID: fe4bfc

With Ein spying on everyone all the time anyone of any importance would encrypt there communications whenever possible.

If things do go badly make sure you have several exits available. Also we could try talking to some of the smaller cores first to get a lay of the land if we do not want to start here.
>>
No. 548569 ID: d38f67
File 138466254962.png - (14.96KB , 800x800 , 505.png )
548569

Alison melts a floor down, and uses morph to take the place of the depression.

The bots move by Unity without making any sign that they've seen her.

Alison thinks that with some patient maneuvering, she might just be able to knock on the front door. There is a small jetal, though, heading toward's the room with the big jetals that may cross Unity's path.
>>
No. 548576 ID: 735f4f

Can we wait here and spy on the jetals coming by? If they are headed this direction maybe they are coming to talk to the people in the room.

Also whats below you right now.
>>
No. 548597 ID: 9ddf68

ask polatt if he know's what kind of bots those are. Also if we can get eye's on the incoming jetal then I say lets see what it does first.
>>
No. 548733 ID: d38f67
File 138472237708.png - (14.83KB , 1097x638 , 506.png )
548733

"Do you know what kinds of bots those are, Polatt?"
>"Far as I can tell, they're just some surveillance bots. Those panels on the sphere are probably legs in case they have to climb up stuff or just stand still."

Below Unity is just another maintenance shaft, but below that is a walkway. Alison continues to slither and ooze down towards a vent, where she sees the incoming jetal that's carrying food towards Unity's destination.
>>
No. 548737 ID: 9ddf68

oh neat, another sweeper jetal. anyway for you to follow it? cause I'm guessing that it's heading towards our target.
>>
No. 548738 ID: 735f4f

Well we can follow this one and watch what happens or we can core him and take his form so we can listen in directly. But he might be able to get a alarm off so would have to be careful.
>>
No. 548740 ID: 7bbaae

>>548733
Hmmm... we could throw down a piece of jetalium onto the food with a note inscribed on it, asking to meet the noble outside. Or heck, ask to meet her right here. Wait, does separated jetalium keep its form? Err, do we have a pen and paper?

I kindof like hopping down and coring the sweeper then impersonating it, for the cool factor, but do we have a way of doing that without causing a detectable surge?
>>
No. 548741 ID: fc937d

I don't think killing and impersonating this thing is a viable option. EIN will notice when it goes offline or calls for help, and there's no way none of the food that's going in won't get messed up or disturbed in some way. (Kinda hard to mug the butler with the huge tray of food and not disturb any of it).

...maybe we could sneak a small drone or division in with him?
>>
No. 548821 ID: d38f67
File 138475076138.png - (17.08KB , 1097x638 , 507.png )
548821

Alison drops a strand of soft, low density jetalium through the vents. She swings it to match the jetal's pace, and gently places down a jetalium bulb that she will use as a tiny division to send through.
>>
No. 548822 ID: d38f67
File 138475077258.gif - (46.50KB , 1329x465 , 508.gif )
548822

The jetal pushes the doorbell with its face, and the doors open up. There's a small, quiet party going on. No one appears to notice Alison's strand.

>"Wow, funny that the code talk was all that got through. The walls annihilate the noise in here." says Scanner.
>>
No. 548824 ID: fc937d

Right. So... spy and listen for a bit.

Can you sense which one is the noble? I'm kind of assuming the tall gall in the middle there.

Though I don't like the look of those three seal-looking jetals with the sapphire emblems on their packs.
>>
No. 548826 ID: 9ddf68

some bots here look familiar like those guard bots but then there are some that I haven't got a clue about. Ask polatt if he knows what any of them are and can offer any advice. Other then that I guess just keep spying and see if we can't pinpoint our target.

Also why was it that only the coded message got through the walls? that makes me feel that this is a trap even more now.
>>
No. 548827 ID: 7bbaae

>>548822
I wonder if the code talk was meant to go through the walls, so that someone outside this room could hear it.

Anyway, wait for the food tray to reach the jetal with the highest mass(which I presume is the unique one standing roughly in the middle of the room), then try to catch her attention privately. Ask if they are the noble on vacation here, first off. Then ask if we could convince them to give us some information on Sapphire.
>>
No. 548828 ID: fc937d

>try to catch her attention privately
I think we should try and see if we can overhear anything useful before we risk talking. We don't exactly have any reason to think this noble will be happy to see us, or cooperative.
>>
No. 548831 ID: 735f4f

Lets just wait and watch for now. We need to get more info before we go blundering in anywhere.

Also if the noble is at all interested in talking to us it would have to be somewhere private with no one knowing it ever happened. Its like our dealing with the original floater on the rooftop. Even if they want to help us they have to keep up appearances in public or face severe consequences.

Guessing the three jetals with the emblems on there backs are bodyguards for the noble.
>>
No. 548930 ID: d38f67
File 138482120902.gif - (59.42KB , 1329x465 , 509.gif )
548930

"Polatt, do you recognize what those people are?"
>"That's some kind of business man attire. They're probably pretty high up on the food chain and all, but they're no nobles. The bots are bots, I don't know how powerful they are here, and the girls are the entertainment, unless the real world's got some funny idea of what businesswomen dress like."
>"Hey, look at those seal things." Scanner says. "They've each got one, two and three flaps on each side. I bet they're a supercore, and the number of flaps on each side is for identification. There's also a fourth big core walking back to this room."
>"How do you know that?" asks Atlas.
>"It's just a hunch, I don't think there's a way to know until they start doing supercore things."

Everyone focuses on the multiple conversations taking place, but it's all management and business, largely by mooching to Kolexia for funds, protection, and otherwise attempting to further their own goals. Kolexia does not appear entertained by any of it, and Iso can't blame her, since this probably isn't what people do on their vacation.

Alison lets her division get carted around until the catering jetal rolls by Kolexia, as she takes a look at what to eat. This is probably about as private as Alison will get while on top of a cake.

There's a lot to say and ask, but there's only so many appropriate things that can be said while revealing oneself to be pretending to be the icing on the cake.
>>
No. 548932 ID: 7bbaae

>>548930
"The cake is a lie."

Asking about the location of Sapphire is a given. So would the location of any actual rebel groups, not the useless Slither. However, first, we could ask if there's anything we can do to make her vacation better.
>>
No. 548936 ID: 735f4f

Can your division move much? If we could slide off and get on her shoulder somehow we could talk fairly privately. Or have her "eat" you.

Can we spell out "Eat Me" in blinking letters when she looks at us? Or something to that effect. If the cake starts talking someone nearby is probably going to notice. If she asks who you are say you are someone who has been in the news a lot lately.

As for questions our biggest one is how to track down the emperor and tell him apart from his body doubles. Might not want to lead with that one though. Should probably start with small talk and see if we can arrange a more private meeting later.

Finding out where Ein is located would also be nice. Just in case we want to try anything with its systems.
>>
No. 548938 ID: 735f4f

Oh now that you are close can you tell if she is the big energy signature or if its the supercore bodyguards? With two of them so close any noise we make seems really dangerous.
>>
No. 548939 ID: fc937d

Well, if she's bored by this, that gives us an opportunity. We could catch her attention, or her interest. And if we do that, it's easy to get a little alone time- since all she has to do is pick up the piece of food we're attached to or pretending to be.

I wouldn't speak at this distance though, we could be overheard by someone we don't want hearing us.
>>
No. 548940 ID: 9ddf68

so what we're just going to for words with our little jetalium icing and see if we can't get her attention? if so we should keep it short, sweet, and attention getting but only to her. like maybe changing the icing to something like "bored?" then change it to something like "grab a piece of cake and excuse yourself"

not really those words but just something to try and get her attention so she'll leave with our little jetalium division so we can have a proper chat without worrying about eavesdroppers.
>>
No. 548952 ID: d38f67
File 138482460410.gif - (60.27KB , 1329x465 , 510.gif )
548952

>Oh now that you are close can you tell if she is the big energy signature or if its the supercore bodyguards?
The bipedal large woman appears to have the biggest energy signature to Unity's senses, so Alison will continue thinking she is Kolexia.

Alison thinks to morph, but instead just makes a finger and spells out 'please take a piece of cake and excuse yourself, I'd like to speak alone' in the icing.

Kolexia turns to the single flapped seal and speaks in code. Alison can hear various doors slamming around her as the dome appears to go under a lockdown.

>"No, no one is leaving. Continue your discussions." she says to the biologicals. She then tosses Alison's drone to the single flap seal, and speaks in code again. It doesn't look ideal, but there isn't a red alert blaring in Alison's ears, so Kolexia may not be as hostile as she could be. She does, however, find as secluded a spot as she can, and drills a small hole to seep through to hide inside the walls. There are bots on the move all around her.

>"What do you want?" the single flap asks, who Alison will just call Seal One from now on.
>>
No. 548954 ID: 735f4f

Figured something like this would happen. We could be a assassin after all.

Tell him we wanted to chat with Kolexia and are trying to not disrupt the party.

No tricks just some polite conversation. If we had wanted to cause trouble we would have gone for more than a module on the cake.
>>
No. 548956 ID: fc937d

>what do you want
You came to talk to Kolexia. Forgive the subterfuge, but you don't exactly make yourself easy to reach.

>Seal One
...he's a seal with a seal. :V
>>
No. 548963 ID: 9ddf68

"to talk"

also have some people keep an eye out where the whole of you is since they're likely going to search this whole dome trying to find the real you.
>>
No. 548973 ID: 57a559

We wanted to talk. Maybe start a friendship and get a hug. Kolexia looks like she'd be really good at hugs. Especially in that kimono.
>>
No. 548975 ID: 7bbaae

>>548952
Ask if it's possible to have a private conversation, just the two of us. It would be best for both of us if her bodyguards did not hear.
>>
No. 548977 ID: d38f67
File 138482845034.gif - (22.96KB , 500x400 , 512.gif )
548977

"I came to talk, preferably in private." Alison asks, to which Seal one passes on the message through code.
>"There are thousands who exhaust their resources for a chance to earn so much as a glance from me at a dinner party, and you think so highly of yourself to not just cut in front of that, but ask of me to talk to you in private? What makes you so special, aside from having the suicidal nerve to sneak in?" Kolexia doesn't make any attempt to keep her voice down.
>>
No. 548979 ID: 7bbaae

>>548977
Ask if she's heard of Unity.
>>
No. 548982 ID: d38f67
File 138482921214.gif - (18.12KB , 500x400 , 513.gif )
548982

>Maybe get a hug
She looks good at hugs, but Alison's drone has insufficient surface area for an effective hug.

"Have you heard of Unity?"
>"Yes." Kolexia turns and makes a hand gesture to everyone else, who then vacates the room. "What do you want?"
>>
No. 548986 ID: fc937d

Well, no need to bandy about. She'll either give us the information or not.

I'm looking for Sapphire.
>>
No. 548987 ID: 7bbaae

Okay, I guess her bodyguards are more loyal to her than Sapphire. Ask for the location of Sapphire. The real one, not a body double. If possible it would also be nice to know of any people willing to help take him down.
>>
No. 548993 ID: fc937d

>>548987
Open asking for aid seems like pushing it.

Our only real hope to get the information diplomatically is if she's disloyal enough to allow us through, or to convince her that this is in her best interest. Better to let us find him and end this then allow things to drag out (especially if she thinks we can't beat Sapphire, anyways).
>>
No. 549005 ID: d38f67
File 138483110649.png - (20.83KB , 800x800 , 513.png )
549005

"How disloyal are you to Sapphire?"
>"My loyalties are where they should be."
"I ask because I'd like to know where Sapphire is. "
>"Oh, would you, now? As a matter of fact, I do contain the knowledge of Sapphire's whereabouts."

Energy Surge Detected!

>"Come and get it."
>>
No. 549006 ID: d38f67
File 138483112274.png - (65.57KB , 800x800 , 514.png )
549006

Drone has been destroyed!

Alison hears some code, then feels the walls shaking from the seals splitting up and sprinting in various directions.
>>
No. 549007 ID: fc937d

Well, at least we know she has what we want. We just need to take her alive and hope she'll honor the implicit agreement she just made to talk.

Battle stations.
>>
No. 549012 ID: fc937d

Okay, with actual plans this time: the enemy split up, right? That means if we're fast and sneaky, we have the chance to divide and conquer. To take out one before the others cane help. ...although that strategy really doesn't work well with supercores, does it? Since whichever one we hit will still be getting bonuses from the others.

I don't see much way around that, though. We can't hit Kolexia first and expect to take her out before the seals have time to reinforce her, unlike vice versa.

I'd think we'd want to fight numbers with multiple divisions. And choose appearances such that you're not giving away which division has the core.
>>
No. 549013 ID: 7bbaae

>>549006
This is a test.

A noble is probably still beyond our power. Let's take out her supercore first. As soon as one gets near you, open up with an AJ6 megabeam. Try to aim it so it doesn't have a chance of hitting bystanders.
>>
No. 549017 ID: 57a559

>>549005
Yeah I'm guessing this is a show of some sort. She's left just enough of a hint that you can still get the info. Otherwise, she'd say she didn't and not start a fight until you actually started some shit.

Not that I think she'll hold back, she has nothing to gain from holding back. If she manages to destroy you, all the better for her, and if she can't, she has an out.

So divide and conquer.
>>
No. 549021 ID: 9ddf68

wow, subtly is not our strong suit is it?

anyways time to do things the simple way. But remember we're dealing with a noble AND her supercore. I say hit the super core first and then we go for the noble, but we're probably going to have to deal with security bots as well. Question, are we going to try and do the thing were we try not and kill everybody or are we going full force her?
>>
No. 549026 ID: 735f4f

This is perfect for her. If we are not strong enough to take out her bodyguards and beat her in battle we have no chance of winning against the emperor. So if she wins its pats on the back and a raise and if not she knows we have the power to possibly kill her boss.

We can take on Nobles as we are a noble and have one of the strongest cores out there. The only thing we really need is a better battery at this point.

Take out the supercore one at a time. They might be able to share powers but they can not multitask like we can. we should distract two of them with divisions that will just keep them occupied while we take out the third. Should be plenty of smaller jetals around to recharge our mass.
>>
No. 549029 ID: 735f4f

You know the fact they did not notice us yet means there might not be anyone here capable of detecting us other than by direct line of sight. Sure the bots will be out in force but if we keep mostly hidden we might be able to get the jump on a few people before we start blowing up the place.
>>
No. 549203 ID: d38f67
File 138491908094.png - (20.01KB , 800x800 , 515.png )
549203

Alison shoots a question to the general lobby public.
"Is it possible to divide and conquer with the supercore being what it is?"
>"They can only funnel their energies to one core at a time." Recluse says. "If we sneak up on one successfully, then they won't have any reason to funnel their energy towards our target. Supercore transfers are fast, but I doubt they're instant. If we unleash a strong attack as our opener, we may be able to take out a core before they can do anything about it. We haven't confirmed they are a supercore, though."
>"We may as well have with that formation they're taking! Cores one to three are making a triangle, and each one's right around 100 meters off of the center, where the unseen seal is. That's max supercore range as far as we know. I bet that one's got all the good modules and stuff, because he's the only one who can assist the other three." says Scanner.
>"Not holding back has the additional bonus of helping get rid of this mass we've got." says the Duelist. "We're using well over 20,000 energy per belenoshour, which I remind is over a quarter of our battery in 20 real minutes. We sucked a good deal from the slither, and had to use a battery pack just to cover the cost of getting to this outpost."

It's discussed that Superseal 1 is heading close to Alison's position. She'll be able to get the drop on him. There is discussion to how far Unity will be going offense wise, but most people believe that this is not a good time to hold back against these forces. They recommend that Unity fires to kill sooner than fire to attempt a disable.

Supercore recap:
http://tgchan.org/kusaba/questdis/res/48871.html#68173
>>
No. 549204 ID: 7bbaae

>>549202
We should go all out at first, because we cannot safely attempt to disable a jetal until we know how tough they are.

I say go with the megabeam.
>>
No. 549209 ID: 735f4f

As much as we would like to be non lethal its time to up our game and take this serious. We can not handicap ourselves to save lives that will just be destroyed anyway if we fail.

Besides if we manage our ultimate goal we can probably save the people here as well.

Although if we can pull off a trick with our sword and core this one in a suprise attack the others might be slightly less willing to start cutting the building in half with beam weaponry.

If we can get close enough we can use our morph sword as our primary weapon and use the new triple rocket sword to help pen him in. Biggest trick to a surprise attack is to delay surge warnings until its almost to late to counter the attack.
>>
No. 549213 ID: 9ddf68

lets try one of those A5 weapons to see weather or not they ping on the enemy sensors... or if he's really close we could try to core him with our sword and maybe leave the core somewhere to set up a trap or a decay. just some thoughts.
>>
No. 549215 ID: fc937d

I vote to hit a seal hard and fast, but not to deliberately try and cook him core. We're plenty capable of just blowing him up.
>>
No. 549232 ID: 2f4b71

If we're going the sneak-attack route, we REALLY want to take out the central core first. Even if it turns out not to be the module-carrier, it will break their network and force them to reorganise themselves before they can effectively redistribute energy again.
>>
No. 549347 ID: d38f67
File 138500547702.png - (30.62KB , 800x800 , 516.png )
549347

Whether or not the center seal is the module carrier, it may be worth having them break their network. And if it is a carrier, then it will cripply the supercore threat.

However, on scouting forward, there are a greater amount of robot encounters the closer Alison gets to the center. A patrol of nearly a dozen starts passing her by when she's crawling through a hollow column. She doesn't think that that's a coincidence, assuming that the 4th seal is important enough to go after. In fact, it reinforces the idea that the fourth is crucial to the other seals, and will be difficult to snipe if she chooses to do so. Plus, if she does so, she will have 3 remaining supercores that are not that far from her.

As far as Alison can tell, they aren't searching in the walls themselves yes. Kolexia has not moved from her party room, but a lot of small time jetals appear to be moving in to guard it.
>>
No. 549355 ID: 9ddf68

if these are just small fries leave them, we can scoop them up if we need to recharge but right now lets just hit the seal so we don't lose the element of surprise... what little surprise we have left anyways. They still don't know where we are.
>>
No. 549356 ID: 7bbaae

>>549347
Go for the snipe. The other supercores will be regular jetals at that point, and we can rush for one of them afterwards and take them out second. Then we'll just have a two-core supercore to deal with. Not as bad.

Also we might get some good mods, and bumping our morph to 100 to use them would work well in this jetalium-rich environment.
>>
No. 549357 ID: fc937d

I still think we want to get as close to number 4 as possible before hitting it.

>snipe
>get modules from it
...if we overkill the core from range, those are kind of mutually exclusive plans.
>>
No. 549383 ID: 7a6a22

I still think it's strange that they don't know how this place is constructed... hollowed pieces making hallways to most crucial places are things I would fire my security-team for if it stays unnoticed for long...

The conclusion would be, they are knowing you are coming to them and are just shutting off escape-routes...
I don't think they made a trap (looks more like a 7er-char. to me, so if traps, than unpredictable/untested ones)...
>>
No. 549391 ID: d38f67
File 138508162462.png - (17.15KB , 800x800 , 517.png )
549391

Unity makes the big move to go after the central seal.

"Are they just closing off the exits? They're not searching the hollow sections."
>"They might only have so many robots capable of looking at every crawlspace. They've still got cameras in there, but we've been able to avoid them. It's not complete coverage, that's for sure." Clarence says.

While the path isn't straight, the core does follow major hallways. Unity ends up under the floor where it looks like seal 4 is coming.

>"I think we'll get close, but not so close that we can sword him from right under the floor." says the Scanner. "I hear some bots that seem like they're running low, probably through this crawlspace. There's got to be a dozen or two bots surrounding the seal, too. We'll have to think of our opening now, cause we're gonna have to spring as soon as we get visualed."
>"Remember, we have batteries in backup, so we can get a full recharge." the Duelist says.
>>
No. 549393 ID: f44ca3

The bots will find us eventually I say we take this opportunity before we squander it.

Might not be able to sword him under the floor but we can get close. In these enclosed spaces a few seconds is all we need to engage. Once we do we will know how willing they are to start using beam weaponry on us or if they will stick to short range stuff. One or two S ranked beams going off down here and half the complex could be destroyed.
>>
No. 549398 ID: fc937d

Well, even if we can't get close enough to sword him, we have plenty of other arsenal to unleash.

>lots of robots
Firing up the area-emp when we strike should prevent them from interfering. (Can we overdrive that stronger if they're shielded?)

>coverage and search pattern problems
They probably never seriously expected this kind of attack. Who would be brazen and powerful enough, or have a reason? The defenses are more built to keep people out, or respond to conventional attacks. They haven't been training or drilling search patterns for a lone jetal infiltrator.
>>
No. 549413 ID: 7bbaae

Well, we could see how big a blast we can get out of the AJ6 blaster.
>>
No. 549418 ID: d38f67
File 138509785953.png - (98.29KB , 800x800 , 518.png )
549418

Alison makes sure she's got complete 360 vision around, above and below her. As soon as a bot comes, she fires the thrusters to help boost her leap outwards and activates cooling. An EMP is fired, and the robots are apparently not cannon fodder, as they are not completely shut down. They are made to be too slow to interfere in time.

There may be reservations against launching heavy beam weaponry right in the middle of the vacation getaway, so Alison launches two of her swords as she tries to get into melee range. As tempted as she is to use the AJ6 blaster, it's still largely untested, and she wants to stick when what she knows for the moment.
>>
No. 549419 ID: d38f67
File 138509787696.png - (52.61KB , 800x800 , 519.png )
549419

The seal uses Jetalium Magnetism, a strong one, furthering Unity's velocity. The seal sends a few spikes of jetalium at Unity. Alison attempts to slice it off, but while both swords quickly fry through each spike, there's too many to dodge and not enough time to launch any more weaponry.

A core dodge, however, prevents the spikes from striking anywhere close to the core, and Alison's density prevents his from piercing deep.

>"I got a read!" says Scanner. "I can read his module load!"

>"Fool jetal!" Seal 4 says, at an accelerated speech. "We can stand here trading plasma blasts all day, but you are in the big leagues now, and we have ways of dealing with your kind with modules you couldn't imagine existed!"
>"He's... using his interfacing mod with us?" Scanner thinks. "Yeah, yeah, he's trying to hack us!"

Alison can't help but recall that hacking others was one of the first things she imagined to attain.
>>
No. 549420 ID: d38f67
File 138509788722.png - (16.37KB , 800x800 , 520.png )
549420

>"So, this is your true form? Not many jetals can handle one, let alone two drones with such focus, but that will not save you from me!" Seal 4 continues, "You, like many, are far too used to fighting externally, trading plasma blast for blast. Not once have I ever met a jetal, save for my superiors, that could fight me internally on anywhere close to my level. I expect you to be no better, Unity! This was a mod designed to exact superiority over your kind!"
>>
No. 549421 ID: d38f67
File 138509790468.png - (16.88KB , 800x800 , 521.png )
549421

>"...... what is this? Who are all of you people? Which one of you is the real Unity?"
>>
No. 549422 ID: d38f67
File 138509792238.png - (13.46KB , 800x800 , 522.png )
549422

>So how does this work?" Atlas asks. "Do we just punch him into submission?"
>>
No. 549423 ID: 7bbaae

>>549422
I think it's time for a short speech. "This is why we named ourselves Unity! The many have become one!" Then let's dogpile her.

Also, holy shit, if we get this mod, we can defeat ANY JETAL. I think we just won.
>>
No. 549424 ID: fc937d

>hack mod
We need that, so friggen bad. That is practically the best upgrade we could have. It allows us to directly apply our numerical advantage. We blatantly overpower anyone in this setting but Sevener with this.

>Who are all of you people? Which one of you is the real Unity?
None of us. Unity is not a name. It is a descriptor.

And we're quite used to fighting this way, thank you. Trading plasma blasts is something we picked up pretty recently.

...you've made a severe tactical error, I'm afraid. Would you care to surrender?

If he refuses, or attempts escape, I suggest constricting him. And yes, a dog pile of infinite punches.

>other stuff
See if anyone can go down the hole or connection he left behind and grab control of his core. Exploit multitasking- make sure someone is still driving Unity in the real world and we're not helpless before the robots or other seals.

And someone try absorbing his modules and jetalium while he's in here trying to fight us.
>>
No. 549425 ID: c23ab0

First punch him into submission. A little.
>>
No. 549430 ID: d6c045

>>549422

"DOGPILE"
>>
No. 549436 ID: d38f67

I forgot to include the supercore's module listing:

http://tgchan.org/wiki/Unnatural_Selection_Stats#Supercore_Seal-4
>>
No. 549440 ID: 150992

>>549422
PULL THAT FUCKER INSIDE
>>
No. 549441 ID: 57a559

Group hug the seal, and tear him from his body.

He will become one with us. He is now Unity. He is now... A CONTESTANT!
>>
No. 549445 ID: 9ddf68

"there's a reason we called ourselves Unity."

Then grab him, let see if we can't have him become part of us well for two reasons.
1. this would give us a way to get others like we did with Polatt should they want us to take them with us
2. I bet it will scare the piss out of our enemies if they think we can just eat them.
>>
No. 549452 ID: 2f4b71

>>549440
Hell yes! And because we can split our attention way better than he can, start sending some of our pals through the hole to hack him at the same time.
>>
No. 549455 ID: ef1879

...My, my. What a delicious turn of events. This is just about the best opportunity we could get in this situation. Only gonna get one, so lets not fuck it up.

You really can't afford to spend any time speaking to Seal-4, or even responding to Atlas. Seal-4's gonna figure out real quick that this isn't the cakewalk he expected and pull back, and if he isn't nailed down by then we're not gonna get another chance. So dispense with any talk and act immediately.

Lunge out and grab Seal-4 by the horns, with both hand and hair, and get your tail coiled tight around his neck. Then you call out to Atlas and everybody else to grab on and pull hard to keep this guy in here; They can add punches and kicks if they want to. If we're lucky we'll be able to yank him completely out of his core, but don't count on that.

Next ask everybody here who has a small body (preferably Guardsman, since he's crazy enough) to try squeezing in between Seal-4 and the wall of the tunnel he used to get here and see if they can wriggle their way back up it and into his body. If they make it they may be able sever him from it and temporarily take control. However, they shouldn't stay long, since the eye of EIN may fall on them if they linger.

While this is going on we've gotta continue the battle outside. Keep up the max EMP, keep burning mass and split off two divisions, one for each sword. They'll cut down those two bots, then start slicing chunks out of Seal-4's extremities to whittle him down to his core.

Meanwhile our core body'll shoot out spikes of our own to keep us connected, just in case Seal-4 can retract his spikes even while pinned in here, then pull us closer into his body and start working tendrils in to try and locate his core.

Possible error on the wiki for the supercore's module list: There's no module listed for the strong jetalium magnetism used. Was he using a module from a linked supercore?
>>
No. 549473 ID: f44ca3

Everyone needs to grab him quick and hold him inside so he can not pull out. Then we either pull him into our core or take over his core or both.

If we could hack him so we could send people to take over his body and have another core to work with that would be great.

No speeches for now every second counts even in accelerated time mode.
>>
No. 549529 ID: d38f67
File 138517379280.png - (21.73KB , 800x800 , 523.png )
549529

"Unity isn't our name. It's our descriptor." Alison says this as she uses her hair and tail to coil around and constrict the seal. "Dogpile!"

Duelist takes over Unity to continue dealing with the robots above. Atlas throws the first punch.

>"You're all winning, I take it, because I was just able to absorb some of the seal." Duelist says.

Atlas and everyone begins punching him, which apparently weakens his control of his body. Duelist begins light absorbing the jetalium, burning the mass to power his blasts on the robots, and recover Unity's stock as she's hit by the bots.
>>
No. 549532 ID: d38f67
File 138517433453.png - (30.22KB , 800x800 , 524.png )
549532

For the sake of a test, Alison tells guardsman to try to go down the hole the seal came up through, but that hole appears gone. Unity will need that interface module to enter another jetal. Seal 4 tries to scurry away, but it appears that having the module doesn't guarantee an escape.

Duelist uses Loviro's sword to core him, and he dissolves from Alison's coil. It doesn't appear that interfacing allows a jetal to join the lobby like Polatt. A few sword waves and a beam thrown in, and the robots are quickly dispersed, but half the dome is converging on Unity.

She can now absorb any of the modules from seal 4, then get out of there. Kolexia is still in the party room, and the three supercores are closing the 100m distance fast.

http://tgchan.org/wiki/Unnatural_Selection_Stats#Supercore_Seal-4
>>
No. 549533 ID: 76b151

Hmm, well obviously replace everything with the better versions.

Pity this guy doesn't have a better battery then we do to go along with all the S-Class stuff.

Stuff we can upgrade with:
Quick Morph S
Shields S


Stuff we really want:

Personal Electric Interface S-5
Robot Sense S
Biological Sense S
Plasma Exposion A

Class S Weapons:
I dunno, maybe grab the class S Terabeam instead of one of our bending Giga?

I noticed he had Thruster Boost, but no actual thrusters. Can we get those details?

Stuff to get rid of:
... No clue
>>
No. 549534 ID: 7bbaae

>>549532
Well obviously we want PEI S-5. Shields S should replace our Shields A. Core Detect S can replace our Core Detect A. Quick Morph S replaces our Quick Morph B.

The fuck is Thruster Boost? Also check out what Plasma Explosion does. We could check out how good the Plasma Sword S is compared to the Lovirosword... but I expect it to be weaker than the AJ6 sword. I would like Robot Sense S, because we know Sapphire isn't a jetal, and Robot Sense probably shows us cyborgs too. Pure biologicals are no threat at all so we don't need bio sense aside from preventing collateral damage... which we're already good at.

Drop: Core Launcher(as if we'll need it now). Boost Morph to compensate for any extra mods. I'd suggest dropping Sense Core since we don't really need it to defeat jetals anymore, but we'll need it to core them safely, so... Well, maybe we can force them to give up their core, rather than risk us killing them? Or just kill them.
>>
No. 549538 ID: fc937d

Absorb all the modules from the Seal. We learned in the Cloud that absorbing steals modules- it doesn't copy. That means everything we take from Seal 4 is denied to the other cores in the supercore.

If there's anything we don't want to keep, we can delete it after.

>redundant or unnecessary Seal 4 modules (absorb and then delete)
Anti-gravity
Cooling Systems
Surge Detection A
Core Detect S
AED (Assorted Empirical Defense)

Sniper Beam A x3
Blaster S
Plasma Sword S
Kilobeam S x2

>Obvious upgrades [delele] -> [replace]
Quick Morph B -> Quick Morph S
Shield Generator A -> Shields S

>New modules to keep
Thruster Boost
Robot Sense S
Biological Sense S
Personal Electric Interface S-5
Terabeam S
Plasma Explosion A

>Old modules to delete
Gigabeam bending S 1x
Quick morph (does nothing for us at 100 morphability).

And up morph to 100 to net 3 more slots.

...and then we still have to discard one thing. I'm toying with explosive shedding (does our flak really need to explode? Although maybe we still have a use for timed bombs). Or some weapon (although we only have like 1 of each, now). Or power move (does close in str even matter anymore?).

Thoughts?

>What do these modules do.
From irc: the thruster boost is a controlled explosion to propel you forward, different from our other thrusters in that it's not continuous. And the plasma explosion can be used as an an AoE attack, or to collide explosively with other plasma attacks.

>Drop: Core Launcher(as if we'll need it now)
We can still use it to pass from division to division in tight spots.
>I'd suggest dropping Sense Core
Don't we need to find the core to hack it? Especially against things with divisions.
>>
No. 549547 ID: 04b86a

>>549538
This looks pretty good, but by my count we should only need to ditch two things.

By the way, Jetalium Hiding is missing from the wiki. And maybe something else, too? Because after taking into account Jetalium Hiding I'm only counting 42 modules + Master Musician (free).

If the PEI lets us connect to multiple things at once, then with divisions the last three seals will be a piece of cake.
>>
No. 549548 ID: 76b151

>>549538
If we up our morph to 100 and drop one of the Gigabeams we can actually fit everything without fropping anything else. We currently have 41 modules and morph 100 can fit 46
>>
No. 549549 ID: 76b151

>>549547
Oh yeah, forgot about that. Hmm. I suppose Quick Morph is not needed for now. Pity we cannot store it instead of getting rid of in completely.
>>
No. 549559 ID: 9ddf68

whatever we pick we're going to want to hide again. Without a better battery it would be foolish of us to get into a head on fight with opponents roughly the same strength as us especially when we're outnumbered. I say we keep going with the hit and run tactics we've been using so far.
>>
No. 549755 ID: d38f67
File 138536115840.png - (46.91KB , 800x800 , 525.png )
549755

The seal is best left wiped clean, so Alison is sure to absorb everything from the seal and delete everything she doesn't need.

Within a 50 meters, there are around 89 biologicals, 278 robots, and 41 weak jetals. It's not much less dense beyond that, up to as far as she can sense. Alison isn't quite sure yet what counts as a robot either, as for all she knows, she is sensing benign computers. All of her weapons are disabled except for the AN-5 sword.

Build Changes:Morph is boosted up to 100, giving her a max of 46 modules.
Shield A -> Shield S
-Gigabeam Bending X1
+Terabeam S
+Plasma explosion
+Thruster Boost
+Robot Sense S
+Bio Sense S
+Personal Electric Interface S-5

Also, the available surge managed to get its colors inverted - it is currently at 2064/7650.


http://www.tgchan.org/wiki/Unnatural_Selection_Stats
>>
No. 549756 ID: 7bbaae

>>549755
We're probably sensing a bunch of tiny scout robots.

Burn some of that mass we're getting from the Light Absorb to recharge the battery and surge. Then head for one of the other supercore jetals. I'd like to mostly go on the defensive until you can get close enough to PEI them. Use our Stunner when you get close enough so we can get a good PEI hit in.

Test Overdriving the AN5 sword to see how awesome it gets while still being pretty damn cheap to keep running.
>>
No. 549762 ID: 9ddf68

and now the fun can really begin. See if you can't find somewhere to hide after you recharge your battery and let's see if we can't get closer to another one of the supercore's. I don't think we'll be able to get as easy of a win as we did with seal 4 here but if we can avoid all the grunts between us and whoever we're going after that would be a plus we would still have a chance to get a surprise attack in on whoever we're about to fight as well.
>>
No. 549787 ID: f44ca3

Pull his core out and chuck it down the hallway at a 90 degree angle from where you want to go. Then once out of line of sight from anyone get back into the floor or ceiling and move quickly to wherever the farthest core is right now.

If we can stay unnoticed for a bit in the confusion will give us a bit of surprise when we attack the next one. They can not track us but can track his core and the stuff around us.
>>
No. 549847 ID: fd6ae9

Right. So the remaining Seals are either still more than 50 meters away, or have hide-modules good enough to escape our scanners.

We should finish dealing with the supercore before moving on to the noble. Can we finish the light absorbtion and move to intercept one of the three remaining Seals?
>>
No. 549862 ID: 9cd8ad
File 138544301087.png - (32.39KB , 800x800 , 526.png )
549862

>Location of supercores
Alison didn't think about that correctly - the supercores and Kolexia are still within range, but there are many small jetals on top of that. Also, Kolexia is registering as a jetal and a robot.

>Overdrive the sword
The effect is significant, and still only takes 8 surge per second.

Alison feels a bit funny at 100 morph, but it does help with seeping back into the cracks. She takes a lump of supercore jetalium with her to burn off for energy, while her general location is still known. Seal 4's core is tossed away.

She's given another moment, after all, as all jetals and many robots either back off or move forward at a drastically different pace, in order to create a spherical perimeter around Unity. The effort is so coordinated, that it's assumed that EIN just took over everyone. The biologicals, Alison notes, are all running away from Unity, into the snowstorm even.

Alison can still most likely seep up to the next supercore, however, but there will be a good deal of other jetals and robots around any of them.
>>
No. 549864 ID: 7bbaae

>>549862
Heheh, the AN5 sword is pretty fucking awesome I'd say, since overdriving it is so cheap. Too bad we can't use any other weapons while it's on overdrive. That includes the Plasma Driver and Plasma Explosion, unfortunately.

If the supercores are still moving towards us, definitely intercept one. If they're not, then head towards Kolexia. Don't bother trying to talk to her. Immediately rush in and use the PEI-S5. We can have a private conversation that way, as well as steal her jetal mods.
>>
No. 549865 ID: fd6ae9

>Kolexia is registering as a jetal and a robot.
Must be a hybrid like Ruby, then. There are ways a robot can use jetalium.

>The biologicals, Alison notes, are all running away
Smart. They really don't want to be around when things get messy. Snow-storm is safer than a plasma-storm. (Hopefully they don't get too far or freeze without proper clothes, and/or double back without getting lost after you're gone).

>EIN stepped in
Time limit, then. We have to be done here before any reinforcements EIN alerts show up.

I don't suppose we have any way to jam EIN's communication or connection to the bots in the area? The coordination will make puny enemies a more significant threat.

>what do
Even if they'll have coordinated bot backup, I'd rather hit another supercore with bot backup, then the noble with possible 3-way supercore backup.
>>
No. 549866 ID: 76b151

We have two options for the weaker opponants should they try and mob us. The EMP and the Plasma Discharge.

Lets head for one of the super cores to take them out. Should you get mobbed go with the EMP first since it has quite a bit of range.

One thing we should do is try out our new hacking module instead of going for a direct confrontation. If we can plant one of our horde into it we can potentially use the Supercore's sharing ability against them.
>>
No. 550667 ID: 9cd8ad
File 138612620923.png - (14.69KB , 700x700 , 527.png )
550667

No enemies are approaching Alison, so she continues slithering through the wall cracks and begins approaching the next supercore closest to Kolexia. She is about ready to launch out of the walls to attack, when someone new speaks up.

>"Excuse me, uh, Alison? I had an idea. That seal went into us, but it wasn't clear what would've happened if he beat us. Does it just destroy us, or does it control us? What I mean is, what if we're able to control robots and stuff that we connect with and beat like that? We could just get a few teams of like five people or so and take over robots. I mean, the worst case is that we get kicked back out when you disconnect, right?"
>"Actually, the worst case might be that such a thing works, but then the robot is destroyed, killing everyone inside." says the Recluse. "But that is still not bad. Death is not permanent, here, and the small sacrifice alone could be worth the test, if we try to focus more on connecting with robots when we start the fight."
>>
No. 550668 ID: 7bbaae

>>550667
He's right, it's worth a test with some volunteers. Also come to think of it, if we win, won't everyone who died in this CAI Fight simulation be resurrected? So death is even less permanent than usual.

Let's get some distance from this jetal and ambush a robot.
>>
No. 550669 ID: fd6ae9

>the worst case might be that such a thing works, but then the robot is destroyed, killing everyone inside
...that would make using that mod pretty dangerous, in-universe, though. Since an ordinary hacker only has one mind, and getting too aggressive would be committing suicide.

I suppose it's possible for an experimental, dangerous module only experienced people made aware of the risks are supposed to be using, but that still seems bad design.

I suppose we could risk it. Hug your away teams for luck before they head out, and let's hope they don't explode.
>>
No. 550670 ID: f44ca3

I think its worth a try but only with willing volunteers that know the risk. If it does work it will be a valuable tool. Also would rather experiment now rather than in a more dangerous situation.
>>
No. 550672 ID: 9ddf68

... well nothing ventured nothing gained, only take people who are willing to try this, we won't force anyone into this if they don't want to.
>>
No. 550680 ID: 96b823

It's definitely worth testing, though there may be more than the resident AI to fight when they connect. I don't know if we've established how EIN works when it's directing bots and jetals such as it is now, but if what it's doing is directly controlling them then those who go in may have to fight EIN as well.

Split off a couple divisions and move them to any nearby groups of bots or low-level jetals. You'll pop EMP and they'll break through the floor to spear the bots right at the start of the fight.
>>
No. 550690 ID: d86324

Best case scenario: We get to bolster our numbers, plant agents, as well as testing out the whole thing in the first place.

Worst case scenario: Everything seems to go according to plan, until the last moment where EIN takes direct control and turns them on us when we have our guard down.

Do it, it'll be a good test, but remember to keep your guard up.
>>
No. 550695 ID: 2f4b71

Extreme paranoia, engage!
"Has anyone seen this guy before? Did anyone see where the Seal went after the link to his body was broken?"
>>
No. 551157 ID: 9cd8ad
File 138652507886.png - (24.28KB , 800x800 , 528.png )
551157

The idea is accepted. Alison talks for a moment to the person who just spoke up. He knows about the brackets and contests, ruling out the possibility that he's the Seal that managed to escape and is trying to sabotage everyone. Recluse takes over driving Unity silently towards the robot-jetal perimeter, but Alison is sure to make a division to come along with the express purpose of interfacing. It's another case of paranoia, just in case the interfaced robot can bring in EIN, in which case Unity can disable the division rather than fight the entire robot population. Teams of 3 to 5 are arranged and set up, as Alison begins en mass hugging for good luck and tentative goodbyes.

>"We're ready." says the Recluse. "If you want to take over and decide how we're going to open this. There are 8 robots and Seal-2 directly on the other side of this wall. There are many more indirectly, so be ready to fight off high numbers.
>>
No. 551158 ID: fd6ae9

Alright, so surprise attack, EMP to hinder the bots until we suborn any of them, Unity-body engages Seal-2 and lays down suppressive fire at those high numbers, while the division tries to suborn nearby robots.

Best case: we capture a robots, and turn them on the others while unity or a division goes to cyber-battle the Seal.
>>
No. 551161 ID: f44ca3

We go straight for the seal while our division tries to take over a robot.

If it does work and we do not feel any EIN control in the robot the division tries to leave one person inside it. If all goes well we try to take over as many robots as possible.

One thing to watch for is a taken over robot being a liability. If they are not strong enough to take on a powerful jetal we could have the risk of loosing whoever is inside in battle.

Best case we can form a link with them and if they are taken down in battle we can pull the person back into our core.
>>
No. 551230 ID: d86324

Charge in, shouting "Hugs for everybody!" before sending in teams to hijack and assimilate give hugs
>>
No. 551232 ID: 9cd8ad
File 138656608769.png - (136.54KB , 800x800 , 529.png )
551232

The EMP is launched as Unity and her division burst from the walls. Alison goes straight to the supercore.

It immediately attempts an immense energy surge that looks similar to beams. So Alison primes the plasma drivers in the hopes they do what they're said to.
>>
No. 551233 ID: 9cd8ad
File 138656610933.png - (247.12KB , 800x800 , 530.png )
551233

The driver is surprisingly small, but the beam gets completely deflected like it hits an impenetrable wall. Unity creates a sharp spike that drives into Seal-2.

"Someone taking over the robots, give me a report!"
>"It's working!" one of them says. We've got control of one, we're cutting the interface!"

There were many volunteers, so Alison interfaces with the supercore, and two teams of 4 go in. Within a second, it's apparent that the supercore will be compromised.

Another idea is proposed. Since it's obvious EIN knows what's going on, Alison can use the EIN tracker and try to find out if they're doing anything.
>>
No. 551234 ID: 7bbaae

>>551233
It's a bit late, but we can definitely tell what EIN plans to do in reaction to us taking over robots. So, yes. This is basically what it's for. Just turn it on long enough to find out what EIN plans to do about the compromised robots. The longer we have it on the more likely it breaks.

We should try to take over as many robots as possible if this trial run goes well.
>>
No. 551236 ID: d86324

We risk the chance of letting on that we have such an ability, but I don't think there's anything else that we'd use it for, so this is a good as time as any
>>
No. 551237 ID: fd6ae9

Well, it's potentially advantageous to use it here (is EIN sending reinforcements? An airstrike? Arming the kill-sats?), and it's not as if discovery of our hacking compromises our location. We might as well see if it works.

Worst case, EIN can fight off or kill our hackers, and/or has Sevener hooked up and her team can fight us directly in cyberspace.

Continue subduing the supercore, and disabling and/or suborning robots. (Do we remain in control of the robot body after our division disconnects? If the robot is destroyed in combat, what happens to our boarder?).
>>
No. 551238 ID: 9ddf68

hey do you think you might be able to find out where EIN is located by tracking EIN itself? I mean if we can find that we could maybe smash it letting us move around much quicker and easier.
>>
No. 551240 ID: f44ca3

Go ahead and use it. Will gain us valuable intel on how EIN reacts and what information they will get about our fight here.
>>
No. 551318 ID: 9cd8ad
File 138665365169.png - (75.61KB , 800x800 , 531.png )
551318

"Scanner, if you will?"
>"I'm on it."

The supercore has virtually nothing of interest, except, of course, itself. It has 60,000 battery, only slightly used up, and 8kg of mass. The inside team flops its 2 pairs of fin things.

>"We got it, we got it!"

>"And I got info!" the Scanner says. "They're not happy that we have interfacing, or that we've been successfully sneaking. It's chaos up there."
>>
No. 551319 ID: 9cd8ad
File 138665369608.png - (243.39KB , 800x800 , 532.png )
551319

>"We have a time limit. Escape pods are flying the biologicals out of here, and most of the robots and jetals here have had their consciousness uploaded to EIN, and been replaced by a rudimentary set of algorithms that aren't considered alive. They're gonna blow this place, but there's a team of three coming down. They - oh, it's those guys, they want to have a rematch. Yeah, they're trying to stall us, if nothing else. He'll be here in the time it takes to fall from orbit. He really wants that nobility, and they gave him stuff to fight us with."
>>
No. 551321 ID: 9cd8ad
File 138665388561.png - (27.74KB , 800x800 , 533.png )
551321

>"Also, Emerald is trying to deal with us, now, but not personally. He's thrusting his flag capital ship out of normal orbit to get over us, and a, excuse the language, fuckton of jetals are charging the superweapon in preparation. We have about 5 real minutes, but trihead's gonna be here sooner." Scanner continues. "Kolexia is being told to get the heck out of here pronto, but..."

Kolexia isn't moving from her original spot.

>"And lastly, Sevener isn't joining this fight, she's helping conduct research on another space station that doesn't look like it's special at all."
"Do you have any idea where EIN is?"
>"... nope. None. I'm not even sure we can assume it's a a classic server of a million mainframes located at the bottom of the ocean. It might be perpetuated by the robots, and the brainpower from the harvest, itself. It might be like some kind of big robot overmind, if that doesn't sound insane."
>>
No. 551323 ID: 7bbaae

>>551320
Okay then next we rush to the noble. Get that info, forcefully if we have to. She probably wants us to interface with her. Do that, steal her mods if we can, but leave her alive. Or heck, hijack her body from the inside without killing her, if she lets you. Or I guess you could just keep her restrained in her body.

Do the same thing with the last seal next if we have time, then SUPERCORE ALL OUR JETALS TOGETHER. Each supercore will be able to use Division, so we'll have 9 of us against the noble wannabe.

Oh, we can even pick up the first seal's core and supercore with it, too, so we'll have 12!

AN ARMY OF UNITY.
>>
No. 551324 ID: 04b86a

How much control do we have over the seal? Can we force it to use its modules, using its own battery power? Because if we can, then I say we plant a division inside it to act as a puppeteer. The only risk I could see is if something happens to disrupt the division, like our core being hit or the division somehow destroyed.

>Stuff to fight us with
That presumably includes a PEI S-5, to stop us from hacking him. Unless they haven't figured out just how unhackable we are, then he might have a PEI S-6 or higher.

>>551323
Supercores don't work that way.
>>
No. 551325 ID: 496f2f

>>551323
>an army of Unity
I think you mean COUNTER-EIN.
>>
No. 551326 ID: 57a559

>>551321
It might be a dog even for all we know. A very powerful doggy.

This is Kolexia's house, she probably doesn't want to move because they figure they won't destroy it if she's still inside. Everyone else is going gung-ho destroy it ALL because they don't give a shit about any of this property and just see it as an opportunity to increase in rank or destroy a powerful threat or to make a show.

Might want to try and get to Kolexia, she probably likes her house very much and wants to keep it intact. Make a deal for the info in exchange for leaving as soon as possible and bring the fight elsewhere.
>>
No. 551332 ID: a4a2fc

First of all we need a plan of escape. I know we survived a noble self destructing while in the harvest simulation, but I don't really want to take our chances here with an orbital superweapon. Do we have any idea what power it has and if it could possibly wipe us off the map? Can we bunker down?

If we want to run, we would probably have to do so right now and push our way out while they try to stall us. Then there's Kolexia, who's our only lead and also not moving. It's possible she has a plan. I think we have to take our chances and get to her asap.
>>
No. 551334 ID: fd6ae9

>First of all we need a plan of escape.
Strait down tunneling with the Loviro sword, max thrusters and thruster boost, and fire defensive systems / plasma driver / plasma explosion up the hole behind us as relevant to the threat.

>what do
Leave division(s) and suborned robots / jetals to deal with the remaining seals, robots, and the hydra. The main unity-body needs to head to Kolexia before our window of opportunity closes.

>Sevener is on another space station that doesn't look like it's special at all
She's got the logs-advantage, though. You can bet if she's there she has good reason to be.
>>
No. 551344 ID: 9ddf68

whelp we're running out of time, I say just try to sneak quickly to where the noble is or if we don't care about stealth anymore just say to hell with and cut/blow our way through the walls and floors since we now have hijacked robot's and divisions to cover us and since some of our weapons don't even ping on enemy sensors we could still move pretty much unnoticed in all the chaos.

but yeah we need to move quick and then leave fast after we get what information she can give us. Also does that seal have a better battery then us or about the same? we might need to steal it before we leave so we don't run out of juice when we're running away. either that or you need to start collecting balls of jetalium for a snack on wherever we're going next
>>
No. 551369 ID: f44ca3

Ok so time is of the essence. Whatever that super weapon is we do not want to get caught under it.

How did the robot take over plan work out? Do we have permanent control over the ones we hit? If so are they safe for out people to be in? Also can they take over the Seal or is it a temporary thing? If we could form our own super core somehow it would be handy.

If EIN is a distributed network program its unlikely we can do much about it right now. Either is something designed to be beyond our ability to control in this simulation or we just do not have enough info to do so yet.

Any non special space station is going to have who knows what secrets inside so whatever Sevener is up to we have to expect she is doing the same sort of stuff we are just on the other side.

So drop sneaking for speed take out the last seal if possible and get the info from Kolexia. Hopefully she or the last seal will have a better battery.
>>
No. 551371 ID: f44ca3

You know everything we get on our outlaw route Sevener has the opportunity to get on her lawful route. So I bet the research she is doing is something along the lines of our experiments with taking over cores and robots. So count on her having the same ability or something similar later on.
>>
No. 551426 ID: 9cd8ad
File 138672880842.png - (19.29KB , 800x800 , 534.png )
551426

Unity's division splits off into another to start invading the stronger jetals and bots, as the weakest ones will most likely be a walking deathtrap for everyone inside. In fact, some teams start coming back, as a slight stiff plasma-wind will kill some of the weaker ones.

>How much can you control Seal-2?
The people inside have full control, and effectively, Seal-2 is on Alison's team. It only has access to its own modules and it's slightly worse battery, however, and none of Unity's. Unity's division will not be able to act as a puppeteer.

>Form a supercore
Alison has no idea how to go about that. Ultimately, the interface was made around a jetal having a single conscious, and the use and takeover of seal-2 would have, in the belenosian's minds, meant that Unity hopped from her own body to Seal-2's. Alison didn't realize this beforehand, but everyone is going to realize that Unity isn't a standard jetal even in the real world.

"How much power do you think it has, Scanner?"
>"I don't know, that's under more secure info. We can check, but I think discovery is a higher chance, there, unless I can find someone under EIN that's talking directly about it."
>"They're funneling hundreds, maybe thousands, of jetal's power and battery into a single weapon, I think it's about that powerful." says Clarence.
>"Wait, I got something else." Scanner adds. "And we've got to get out. Whatever the weapon is, it's causing EIN to sound a siren for the public to take shield-covered shelter all the way to the opposite side of the planet. Emerald says that the effects will be economically catastrophic, but that we're getting way too powerful way too fast. Speaking of too fast, I'm trying to get as much info as I can, but there's just too much data transfer for us to catch everything that goes on at once."
"Can we escape by going straight underground?"

>"Uh... not easily, but maybe better than trying to outrun it."
>>
No. 551427 ID: 9cd8ad
File 138672903308.png - (137.98KB , 1222x668 , 535.png )
551427

While everyone speaks, the divisions, supercores and powerful takeovers hold off the perimeter as Alison escapes towards Kolexia.

"Well. You did come to get it after all." Kolexia says in a sped up tone that would sound like a short burst of static to a biological. Alison understands it fine. "There are certain parameters and definitions that define a jetal that you are breaking. Are you part robot that I can't sense? Did Loviro outdo himself by tenfold and create something new?"
>>
No. 551428 ID: 7bbaae

>>551427
No. Break the news to her about the truth, but make it brief. Such as. "No. This is a simulation, I'm from the layer above, which is a lethal competition between a billion AIs. There are four thousand AIs in this jetal. I want to save everyone from the competition, and killing Sapphire in this smaller simulation leads me one step closer to that goal." Also that if she wants to live, burrowing deep into the planet is probably the best plan for the short term.
>>
No. 551432 ID: 76b151

...If its a single beam weapon can we use Surge Overdrive on our Reflection Shield to deflect it? Perhaps at the ship that fired the weapon? Or would the power generated simply be too much even with our full reserves?.

As for what to say. "I suppose you could say that. Of course the only reason I'm able to do this much is because of the modules I've gained. "
>>
No. 551434 ID: 57a559

>>551427
Loviro created nothing. A friend created everything around us, for us. or allowed it to be, rather than creating it.

Kolexia, what are the chances that you'll upload to us? It would be an interesting experience for you, and quite a revelation. We'll get you up to speed about everything, but out here, we hardly have enough time as it is.
>>
No. 551435 ID: 76b151

>>551428
Nope. Why do people keep on trying to pass that information along. We just look crazy. No one trusts crazy. First we get their trust THEN we tell them if we get that far.
>>
No. 551439 ID: 9ddf68

"last check unity was just a normal jetal with an abnormal mind. But since you asked a question I guess it's my turn, is this going to end in a fight or will you tell me what I wish to know?"

but uh, yeah... if this turns into a fight we're going to have to get control of her or just yank her core out and bring it with us to get info since we do not have time for that. As for how to survive the beam... dig and through up every shield we can? even if that work however we'll be very low on either power, mass, or both.

Maybe we might be able to use that super core they're sending after us by trying to hack him and have him dig down with us so he'll take the brunt of the blast and we can try and siphon off whatever jetalium he has left once we come back up.
>>
No. 551441 ID: 7bbaae

>>551435
We have PROOF now.
>>
No. 551445 ID: 76b151

>>551441
All we have is that we are a gestalt AI which can be explained away due to being experimental. Nothing about that says that we are from a layer above especially with us gunning for the Emperor like we are.
>>
No. 551447 ID: 04b86a

"Unity is actually approximately 4,500 AI. My turn for a question. Where's Sapphire?"

>>551435
Agreed. If we're going to blatantly tell someone, then we're going to need them to actually like us. Being considered crazy gets us nowhere.

As for surviving the beam rather than evading it... an overdriven Plasma Driver? Three overdriven Plasma Drivers if the modules let us do that. If we actually try that, though, I'd ask for a camera feed of Emerald's face, just in case we survive.
>>
No. 551465 ID: 9a3cf6

Assuming that the simulation is still "historically accurate", it's possible that a jetal like Unity actually existed during the time. It's possible Loviro actually did outdo himself and create something new. In any case, just let on that you contain thousands of AI and fire the next question "Why aren't you running?"
>>
No. 551466 ID: fd6ae9

>super-fast static speak
Try and answer in the same manner, since we're low on time.

>are you part robot?
No. (...well, unless Polatt counts). But I'm not a normal jetal either. I'm not a single intelligence living in a core, but a group of several thousand working together. Makes a big difference with divisions and hacking, since we're in a lot of places at once.

Will you give me Sapphire's location? Emerald hasn't given us much time.

>reveal that everything is a simulation
Again, no hard proof. If she presses as to how or why we're a CAI, we may have to tell her, but otherwise I'd prefer to skip over that detail. It just strains credibility and adds confusion.

>upload to us?
If she doesn't have another plan or escape or survival, we could make the offer. Least we could in after crashing her party and getting her home bombarded by orbital superweapons. ...we can certainly promise it won't be boring.
>>
No. 551495 ID: f44ca3

First of all if the Seal core is not needed for defense we should have them start burrowing a diagonal tunnel off into the distance.

Secondly if we talk to her in fast talk mode how much time do we have before three head shows up?

Be careful of what you say to her. She might be inclined to help us with Sapphires location but she still could be hooked up to EIN and relaying info whether she wants to or not. Also she might be pretty pissed that we are about to get her vacation house and the surrounding area nuked.

Tell her we are one of Loviro's last children and also something much more. Apologize for being vague but the entire tale can only be told to people who link with you. If she wants more say that you and your sister are being forced to assassinate the Sapphire emperor. You are working outside the law and she is working from within. Mention something about a vast conspiracy that threatens everything we know and love. Is close enough to the truth and in this world will sound completely plausible.

Then ask her if she is going to be reasonable and let you help her escape or try to go down with the ship or something. We want info on Sapphire but we tried our hardest to get it peacefully. The government is really threatened by us and they are in overkill mode whenever we show up.
>>
No. 551839 ID: 9cd8ad
File 138697328327.png - (203.88KB , 800x800 , 536.png )
551839

Tri-head surface contact ETA: 39:03:68
Orbital superweapon ETA: 39:11:51


"I am more than just one of Loviro's last creations, but I can only prove that if you linked with me." Alison is able to use the sped up speech pattern. "I would like to know where sapphire, is, now."
"You are more than a single conscious, aren't you?"
"Yes."
"You are the reason jetal and robot technology is made to be singular. I can see Loviro continued to be wildly irresponsible in creating you. I would even think he had you wander the world before he gave you the tiniest scrap of useful information, naively thinking that would show his jetal's personality as the most base level. Yet if that is true, then it does not speak well that in a single day's time, you have become the number one threat to our world."
"I'm not out to destroy the world. I'm only after Sapphire."
"As in kill? Laughable, but if so, then Sapphire's kill-switch is to override EIN with algorithms of insanity. Everyone will consider everyone a rogue, an outsider, an enemy. Some of us don't believe that's really his switch, that there's no way he could have pulled it off without anyone knowing. I know better. Destroying Sapphire is the same as destroying the world. Would you still do it, for whatever petty reason you have against Sapphire?"
>>
No. 551844 ID: 7bbaae

>>551839
Tell her you are absolutely positive that killing Sapphire will not result in EIN going crazy. Also, your motive isn't petty, but she probably wouldn't believe you if you told her what it is.

On the other hand, we could just simply tell her if EIN is a problem, then we'll just have to deal with EIN first before Sapphire. If EIN is disabled somehow, killing Sapphire won't destroy the world, will it?
>>
No. 551845 ID: f44ca3

Tell her that we do not have any vendetta against Sapphire or anyone else. And that any kill switch he or anyone else has is irrelevant in the long run.

Then ask her if she has ever directly dealt with the harvester simulation in any way. She knows about it of course but has she ever been there or had any direct contact with it. Tell her we all are living in a second larger harvester simulation right now. That killing sapphire is the key to breaking out of it.

We have hard proof of our claims but it involves directly interfacing with us. I know this sounds crazy and you have no proof of our good intentions. But here we are pleading our case and hoping you will listen instead of fighting right off.

If we go right into telling her about the nested simulations and everyone being a Ai she would probably think we are crazy. But if you make her realize that if they made one harvest sim they could make a bigger one she might at least think about the idea.
>>
No. 551846 ID: 88960e

...I don't have a choice. And I've tried my best to avoid harming people unnecessarily, but I'm almost certain this world is on a timer anyways.
>>
No. 551847 ID: 88960e

And ask her if that's really what she believes, why did she stay. Why give us the chance.
>>
No. 551848 ID: dbcd33

Be simple and honest

"The only reason is because that is how you win this game. Me and another are trapped in a simulation and are fighting each other for survival which involves getting uploaded to this simulation to see who could kill the Sapphire Emperor first."
>>
No. 551849 ID: 7bbaae

>>551848
Well, I guess we might be able to win by just killing Sevener. The rules imply that only matters in a stalemate though. The game might force us to keep going, and if we die both players lose.
>>
No. 551850 ID: 88960e

>>551849
Except the simulation (most likely) ends no matter how we win. Trying to make progress with Sevener is more valuable after we leave than how we win here.
>>
No. 551851 ID: 04b86a

>>551840
No. We are not using "this is actually a CAI Fight simulation" as a justification for this. Even if we could convince her that it might be true, and the sheer number of AI we have might be able to do that, we still need an answer that doesn't make us seem potentially delusional.

I'm... having trouble rationalizing this, though. EIN going crazy would require it be permanently disabled, which is a good bonus, but pretty much everything electronic that isn't in a blackmap zone is EIN connected, and it seems like simply shutting it down isn't possible. So... what we need is a way to inject some new algorithms to counter Sapphire's.

"I'm not surprised Sapphire would do that, although I'd do it a bit differently. If all he's doing is making everyone consider everyone else a rogue, though, then Ruby or Emerald could probably have a counter-algorithm injected. A question, though: what would you consider to be the upper limit on how many AI could be in a single jetal core?"
>>
No. 551858 ID: 88960e

Actually, we're pretty good at this hacking thing. I don't suppose we could do anything about this virus? Could that be why Sevener is at that research station? Does Anya know?
>>
No. 551871 ID: 9cd8ad
File 138698539359.png - (142.96KB , 1222x668 , 537.png )
551871

A lot of the stakes continue to be undermined, given the simulation.

"Yes, but only because of the reasons that I'd have to link with you to prove. I'll attempt to deal with EIN first, though. How many AIs would you say would be the upper limit on single core?"
>"Once you go above one, I wouldn't know. You are no jetal, that s what I think.."
"I would like to say that we're in a harvest world, sort of."
>"I have no reason to believe that."
"I know. But if you really believe Sapphire has a switch like that, why are you still here, giving me the chance?"
>"I'm not. I considered fighting you, but power isn't everything in a fight, and I am no fighter. You will be a job for others. I will take my leave, now."

>"She's getting her conscious uploaded straight to EIN along with everyone else." Scanner says. It happens to fast to do anything about it, and Kolexia slumps. Only half a moment later, though, she stands up again and speaks in a voice similar to the robot that fed her information in the harvest building.

>"Prerecorded message: Sapphire does not stay in any location for long. Declare your intent to kill Sapphire to the world. He will avoid a direct confrontation and hide behind every person and wall he can. If you wreak too much havoc elsewhere looking for him and prove that only an emperor can destroy you, then you will successfully force his hand. He will fight an evenly matched opponent before he watches his empire destroyed from right underneath him."
>>
No. 551873 ID: 88960e

Thank your unnamed benefactor, and ask if they have any advice on avoiding the superweapon above. (Or for dealing with the EIN virus). If there's no response, we'll go with our original plan for running underground.

We certainly won't have a problem causing a ruckus. It'll be an inevitable consequence of our attempt to get stronger.
>>
No. 551876 ID: f44ca3

Ok neutralize her core as fast as possible and grab what jetalium you can. Then everyone start burrowing as fast as possible.

If Three head catches up to us we fight a running battle in the tunnels we make. Assume that super weapon is going to destroy at least everything in a ten mile radius and penetrate at least a mile underground. Better to overestimate its destructive potential than get caught in the blast.

We want the mods they gave Three heads but we do not want to risk fighting him here. Ideally if we start now he will be behind us shortly and we can use his efforts to destroy us to help dig. Also do not make a tunnel straight down. We need to head diagonally down and off to the side as far as possible while making the occasional break in the tunnel so the blast does not just get funneled down the shaft we make.

On the other hand if he follows us down they might use him to track us as we escape so might have to take him out along the way.

Oh and make sure we escape in a direction away from the Cloud. They are going to have enough problems as it is without us bringing more to them.
>>
No. 551878 ID: 01531c

CAI: begin re-purposing audio-sensors and explosives to do 3D seismic mapping on the fly!
Every cavern, reservoir, mine, or lava tube adds that much more speed to our escape!

Scanner: Scan geographical EIN traffic density to estimate the potential size of Ground Zero!
There should be a clear circle around us where the number of of people getting uploaded to EIN sharply decreases, which tells us the minimum distance required for structural shields (And Unity) to survive the blast!
>>
No. 551898 ID: 7bbaae

Suborn her body. She said herself she was powerful but not a fighter. Having a noble Jetal/robot on our side is a huge boost in power. Continue having Seal 2 dig down to give us an escape route.

Speaking of power, I want to take on Three-Head and steal whatever new weapons he has. We should be able to do that and then escape underground in time, considering how fast we can move.
>>
No. 551912 ID: 9ddf68

hm, can we track to where EIN was uploading everybody? If so it might give us a clue as to where EIN really is or at least something important to EIN which we could smash to not only give us a little more freedom but also force sapphire to came for us. Failing that scanner look on the web for anything and everything that Sapphire has his hands in and we can start a slash and burn campaign against these things, this will not only force him out to us but it could also weaken him as an Emperor which could cause him to act more hastily so the other two emperors don't take him down first.

But yeah, that's things for later. For now lets see if we still can't get some mods off her core or at least a better battery and then hijack her body and use it to help us dig. Still say if 3 heads comes after us we should hijack him as well and maybe have him dig another way if we still think EIN is tracking him to throw EIN off our trail.
>>
No. 551922 ID: 42a8fd

I guess we'll have to trust our guardian angle, otherwise we'll just take pot shots in the dark. We've pretty much put ourselves at the top of everyone's shit list anyway. We want to make an impression right? Ask Scanner if she can find any possible broadcasting sites; alternatively, what are the chances they're broadcasting your possible execution by superweapon?
>>
No. 551934 ID: 9cd8ad
File 138704170459.png - (17.42KB , 800x800 , 538.png )
551934

"Thank you, unknown benefactor."
>"Actually, that may have been Kolexia." says Scanner. "The message just now that is, she's probably not the benefactor. That voice that's used is some kind of generic default artificial voice used for anonymity."
"Well, thank you whoever said that."

Unity gets a division to get seal-2 to start burrowing through the ground at diagonal angles. Alison doesn't think that they have the knowhow or capability to use seismic scanning to run through any reservoirs or old mines or things like that, but it's strong enough that it can burrow quickly anyway through dirt and rock. Alison turns her attention back in the lobby to talk to Scanner.

"Scanner, I'd like to know about any large broadcasting stations, Scanner? Please also tell me where these people are being uploaded to?"
>"The capital town on both parts. Residents here are getting moved to the palace, and I think I know where the worldwide news station is at. After this, would you like to interrupt the news? Oh, well, we'll have to convince someone important to not censor us. Maybe one of the emperors would like to see us call Sapphire out."
"Are they broadcasting the superweapon?"
>"Nope. Everyone's left to wonder why they've got to take shelter."
>>
No. 551935 ID: 9cd8ad
File 138704171552.png - (14.41KB , 800x800 , 539.png )
551935

Meanwhile, Duelist has confirmed Seal-3 has been taken over, Seal-1 has evacuated the premises. Both of Alison's divisions get hurt when a few jetals make their entire mass to be jetalium bombs, and are uploaded to EIN just before they explode. Otherwise, no one is posing much of a threat.

Kolexia is absorbed. She had a better battery after all, with 120,000 energy, and far more capacity for mass without skyrocketing the costs. Surge max also ends up at 10,000.

>"Are we staying for tri-head, or running for it?" asks Clarence.

A look is taken at Kolexia's modules as a team prepares to board her.

KSA-718 1
KSA-718 2
KSA-718 3
KSA-718 4
POAY-141-b 1
POAY-141-b 2
POAY-141-b 3
POAY-141-b 4
POAY-141-b 5
POAY-141-b 6
JOO-OO INCOMPLETE


Alison has no clue.
>>
No. 551937 ID: 9ddf68

um... well if the base is pretty much empty I don't see why we can't test fire a few of them to see what they do. just have her stand a good ways away and make sure she isn't looking at anyone.

Also how quick is the ground team digging that hole? I just want to guess at how deep we can get before the weapon fires.

as for the news station, should we interrupt it now, or after they fire the death beam? I mean if we really don't have much time now but if they think the death beam kills us we'll at least have slightly more breathing room until we plan our next strike against sapphire. However if we wait till after the weapon fires we really won't be in as big a rush and it would probably add to the intimidation a bit since they would know that we just survived a super weapon but they would hound our asses straight away.
>>
No. 551940 ID: f44ca3

Can we leave those modules with her body for the moment? If we can might be a good idea to send Engineer over after we make sure its safe for him. Then he can test things while we escape and fight. But make sure her core is not traceable first.

Tell everyone the letter acronyms and see if anyone has any good guesses. Knowing she was not a fighter and possibly more of a diplomat they probably are not combat mods. Seem to be lots of various levels of something or other.

How much time do we have before the super weapon fires? 16 minutes or so in Belenosian time? So that's 3 and a half or something in normal time? The conversion chart confuses me. I really do not want to chance getting slowed down by fighting tri-head if we only have a few minutes to take him out and escape.

Ask everyone how fast they think we could take him out if we did not hold back. Lets also assume they gave him protection from our hacking so we have to fight him the normal way. We could also make our escape hole very obvious so he follows us down it. Then fight him where we are not as exposed to the super weapon.

Also how fast is Seal digging?
>>
No. 551947 ID: fd6ae9

...how about we just steal Kolexia's empty core, and leave the modules on it. We can pull the ones we want later, after engineer has had a chance to try and crack them, or we've had a chance to experiment.

I'm not sure what we should expect though, if her claims of not being a fighter are true.

>Are we staying for tri-head, or running for it?
...as fun as that boss fight was before, I'm thinking it may be time to take our leave.
>>
No. 551948 ID: 76b151

Since we know where that ship is and that its preparing to fire... why don't we shoot that terabeam Class S at it?
>>
No. 551954 ID: 04b86a

Before we find that broadcasting station I think we should sneak back into the Operator building and try to extract Loviro. Felix and Vinyl would be good, too, but copying Felix's brain would probably take too long.

>>551948
The ship in question is over 100 kilometers away. The beam will be too diffuse by the time it reaches it.
>>
No. 551959 ID: 9cd8ad
File 138705566272.png - (135.96KB , 800x800 , 540.png )
551959

Alison tells the boarding team to hold off. Unity simply takes the core and a chunk of jetalium and makes a break for it, following the tunnel that Seal-2 and 3 are making. Engineer will test these modules when the chance arises, but for now, no one has any educated guess on what the acryonyms mean. The remainder of the noble's residents either retreat or are uploaded.

"How deep are we able to go?"
>"It's too hard to tell right now, but we're falling quickly. Just go as deep as we can!" the mathematician says.

Alison overdrives Loviro's sword and takes over. The divisions absorb the seal's boarding teams, then Unity absorbs the divisions. Two teams in robots were lost to crossfire, but everyone else was recovered before the retreat was made.
>>
No. 551960 ID: 9cd8ad
File 138705577674.png - (255.68KB , 800x800 , 541.png )
551960

The dirt rumbles, then a collosal pressure pushes Alison inward as her cave collapses on her. Both her and Kolexia's core are unharmed, but 5 drones and one battery are crushed and broken. A quick shift in her plasma direction melts some of the rock to relieve the pressure, but even without that, the rocks around here skyrocketed in temperature.

Scanner informs everyone it's done and over with. The plasma didn't reach them. Scanner says that if Alison wants to make it known she's still very much alive, then that's convenient, as she's a whole lot closer to the surface than she was a minute ago.
>>
No. 551962 ID: 76b151

What happened to the people who were inside those robots\cores that died? That was one thing we weren't sure about.

As far as wat do lets expand the place we are in and test out the Kolexia's modules so we can decide if we want to move some of them over to Unity.
>>
No. 551964 ID: fd6ae9

So... were the people in the robots lost-lost? What happened to them?

>make it known we're alive
Well, it's either that or run, and I'm not sure we have any place to run to. It certainly serves the purpose of wrecking havoc and gaining attention, and you can announce your intent as every camera watching the rubble points at you.

...uh, from the EIN hacking we got before, there's no way that thing can fire again in time to matter if we surface, right?
>>
No. 551965 ID: f44ca3

Dang I think we should hold off on boarding anything less than a strong jetal from now on. Do not want to lose anyone else if possible.

I wonder what happened to Tri-core. Bet they uploaded him when he could not find us.

So we can try to announce our campaign against Sapphire now and try to let everyone know about them failing to kill us with the super weapon. But they would send more people out after us right away or try more super weapons. Also they might censor or change our message depending on who got to it first.

Or we could hide and sneak into one of Sapphires strongholds or projects and do it after blowing it up.

We also could try to retrieve Loviro and others from the harvest sim or try to find out what Seveners up to while we are assumed dead.

I am all for announcing ourselves right away and being very specific about only going for Sapphire and his people. Do we know if Diamond emperor had a fail safe? Maybe we could claim we are fulfilling his last wishes and getting revenge on his killer.

If everyone knows what we are up to then am guessing most of the other emperors will start holding back there people a bit and watch to see what happens. As long as we only hurt Sapphire we might not have as many people after us.
>>
No. 551967 ID: 9ddf68

wait, what happened to those inside the bots that got destroyed? But yeah, let's see what's topside before we go calling in how we want sapphire's head. might be something up there we can scavenge before we have to run again.
>>
No. 551968 ID: 04b86a

I say we stay hidden and go get Loviro. He might have some more modules hidden in various places on the planet he can lead us to, and even if he doesn't then publicly claiming otherwise will get Sapphire's attention.
>>
No. 551969 ID: fd6ae9

>Go get Loviro
He was MIA with a pretty good chance of already being dead when we exited the harvest. Isn't it kind of a longshot to hope he's still alive in there to be pulled out? Granted, he would be a very useful source of information if we got him.
>>
No. 551973 ID: 2f4b71

The ship is only 100km up, and not in orbit, so much easier to get to than the station. Do we have enough mass to burn to go take it on? With all the jetals on board to power the superweapon, it's an even juicer target than the station. No to mention a massive middle-finger at Sapphire.
>>
No. 551975 ID: 57a559

I'd love to pull loviro into our sim to help out. His simulated understanding of AI's and how they work might be very helpful. I mean, recent events imply that it's possible for him to create a CAI all by himself inside a jetal. Assuming this historic game simulator can build such accurate knowledge.

He might be key to curing the CAI.
Actually, we should probably go around kidnapping the best AI scientists and uploading them to us. The people who created EIN, Loviro, other incredible inventors... maybe even the emperors themselves.
>>
No. 551976 ID: 57a559

The last thing we should do before trying to kill sapphire though is hack Anya and get all her contestants that are willing onto ours and leave only Anya in her core.

It could really fucking confuse the game. And break it entirely.
>>
No. 551999 ID: 9cd8ad
File 138706878827.gif - (23.17KB , 763x363 , 542.gif )
551999

>There's no way that thing can fire again in time to matter if we surface, right?
No, it doesn't seem so.

The people who were lost in the weak robots are completely gone, it seems. Alison will just have to have faith that they'll come back when this simulation is over, but the fact that she can't see them or talk to them at all is still unnerving.

Alison will forego making a show of surviving the superweapon. She thinks it will be just as good to do so a bit later rather than right away.

>Do we have enough mass to burn to go take the capital ship on?
Unity has enough mass to get up there, but trying to take on the entire capital ship may be too much. Plus, Alison is trying to single out Sapphire, and taking out Emerald's capital ship won't help that.

>Do we know if Diamond emperor had a fail safe?
Alison wants to say that he didn't, and that it was only later when emperors started getting those kill switches.

Even with the new battery, the cost of effective travel to the capital is high. Engineer, however, does use seismic scanning and finds an old railway system underground that heads towards the capital. It's a real threat that it isn't as abandoned as it looks, but that's a risk she's willing to take, at least till she gets close enough to the capital to foot it.

Alison calls her usuals into the main lobby room for discussion times while travel occurs.

I'd like to rescue Loviro, everyone. It seems like the harvest has backups to a certain point, so the memory of Loviro is still most likely there. Think about the endgame, and we could use all the help we could get. If we're lucky, our own simulation will think of Loviro as being an AI specialist, and give him good info. Felix might also be nice, but I'd like to get everything we can past Sapphire."
>"Heh, I think I outlived my usefulness." says Polatt.
"Don't say that, you've earned your weight a bunch of times over."
>"Hey, thanks."
>"But how are we going to do that? We need two operator and emperor, and I think our operator status has been revoked by now, so we won't be counting." Atlas says.
"Anya, she may be able to do it. She isn't being shortsighted at all, and she might be able to convince someone else to let Loviro out. Er... assuming she can get by Sapphire, which probably wouldn't want her doing that."
>"With EIN tracking, we can go to Anya at any point to talk, but she most likely won't be able to speak freely." Atlas continues.
"Nevermind the endgame, Loviro is good to have even if we could not bring him back. We have not had proof of Sapphire's slaying of Loviro up until this point." The Recluse says. "Now, if we manage to convince the operators, or whoever we need to to revive Loviro out of the simulation, and he speaks up against Sapphire with what happened, supposedly a fire will be set under that emperor."

>"Maybe we could say as much on the news, that Loviro is in the recent harvester system." says Clarence. "Even if it's sensored to the public, someone's got to censor it, and it may come to the right person's ears. And if Sapphire tries to squash that actively, it'll put him under good suspicion."
>>
No. 552003 ID: f44ca3

The Loviro plan sounds good if we can find one to two operators and maybe Ruby to work with. Getting the public turned against him would be a huge help.

We can probably get Sevener to help out with the reasoning that Loviro will be very helpful outside no matter who ends up with him. Whoever comes out on top will be able to absorb him into there crew and public outcry against Sapphire will be to both our benefits.

Just be careful around Sevener. If we blow her cover then she will probably try to take us on right there. And while we want to be friends with her she has been indoctrinated to hate us. While beating her would win this game we want to get as much info as we can before we have to leave.

The trick will be getting word to Ruby or another Emperor or figuring out a way of spoofing there id's for the system. Also if our status is defunct we need to lure/seduce another operator on our side.
>>
No. 552004 ID: 04b86a

>>551999
I think it was said that just pulling someone out only requires two Operators, and there was speculation that it might be possible to do it without the second, and it would just be illegal. More importantly on the Operative question, however, is how the system will recognize one: robotic Operatives use insignias to identify themselves and jetals use their cores, and all of the operatives that leave the harvester will be robots or jetals. So if we can steal two insignias or hack two Operatives, or even just straight up hack the system, then we can get anyone we want out. No need to get Anya involved in this.

Although, if we let slip to her that Loviro knows the locations of some very powerful modules, then she could easily get Loviro out. That would leave her much more powerful than us, though, so I don't at all recommend it.
>>
No. 552012 ID: 7bbaae

>>551999
Announcing Loviro's existence in the sim like that could help, yeah. Let's do that. Sapphire already knows anyway, since a Noble had to come in and kill the memory-Loviro.

Take the railway. Worst case scenario, we get in a fight and take over a new jetal or robot. It would also make us less obvious. I mean, traveling to the capital over land puts us right in plain view for the whole trip.

Also we can mess with all those unknown mods along the way. I don't suppose we can give our old battery to that core, so we can control both cores? Perhaps outfit two strong Jetals?
>>
No. 552015 ID: 9cd8ad
File 138707228518.png - (16.37KB , 800x800 , 543.png )
552015

Alison had completely forgotten that an emperor was only needed if the whole harvest system was to have a mass exodus. For just a single person, no emperor is needed, which makes this much easier. That was kind of an important detail Alison forgot about.

Still, she would like to have it well known that Loviro is coming out, so that he can speak against Sapphire. Worst case, though, Alison can take operators by force by now, she thinks. There's also the concern of getting the module to carry Loviro inside of the lobby, but Alison bets the harvest building has stuff like that.

For now, it's just a matter of deciding where to go first, the news center, or the harvest building. That, and testing out Kolexia's core. Engineer gets on that, and Alison starts taking volunteers to man the core should those modules be strong after all.
>>
No. 552016 ID: f44ca3

Lets get Loviro first and then broadcast it second. If we let people know what we are up to there is a easier chance to stop us.
>>
No. 552017 ID: 04b86a

>>552015
We can't just use the PEI for that? I mean, it's been two-way for all of us.

I think we should grab Loviro first.
>>
No. 552019 ID: f44ca3

Next time we get in a fight and have a bunch of duplicate modules to throw away we should load them on that core instead. But unless we can get our Ein hiding modules on it we will have to be very careful about using it anywhere we want to stay hidden.
>>
No. 552020 ID: 7bbaae

>>552017
Oh! Yeah, we could use the PEI to offload Polatt somewhere to free up the mod. PEI is one-way though... We can't get Polatt back after we do that. I'm not sure he'd count as being part of our team anymore if we did that. I don't suppose we can interface with ourselves? Then we could insert Loviro directly into the jetal's "mindscape" instead of having him contained in the mod.

>>552015
Well, what are the distances involved? Travel is somewhat expensive so we should try to be efficient. It would also have much more impact if we had Loviro before we visited the news center, so we could form a division for him that he could speak from.

...why didn't we grab Loviro from the harvest sim when we were there, anyway? It seems like we were heading towards that conclusion and then just railgunned out instead. At least getting out of the harvest sim building will be easier this time.
>>
No. 552023 ID: fd6ae9

I say we go for Loviro ourselves, and try and get the operators to help us do it. Throwing the information to the public might get him out and discredit Sapphire, but it doesn't get him to us.

>Felix might also be nice
He's not going to want to go anywhere while Vinyl is still missing. ...we never asked Ruby what his goons did with her.

>why didn't we grab Loviro from the harvest sim when we were there, anyway?
Because even though he's an artificial construct stored on a server in the 'real' belnos world, within the reality of the harvester simulation, Loviro was flesh and blood. The tech to upload Polatt's from his AI chip to our core was fast and easy. The tech to scan and upload a living brain was slower and less reliable, and would copy / paste instead of cut / paste.

If we got the Harvest to spit him out though, it would upload his program to a robot body, which would be a lot easier for us to absorb him from.

...actually, I'm not sure if we need a special mod for that like we did with Polatt, now that we have the hacking module. It might allow us to upload people for free.

Felix would remain tricky. He's flesh and blood in the harvest, but a disembodied brain in the 'real' world. We could get him kicked out to a cyborg body, but we still would have the brain to AI copying problem. (And the Vinyl problem).
>>
No. 552027 ID: 04b86a

>>552020
It's been two-way for our AI, though, so unless it's different for us we should be able to just transfer Loviro from the robot body he'll be placed in. Of course, if it's not normally two-way, but one-way transfers are possible for normal AI, then we can use module trading shenanigans to get Polatt properly in us. Transfer him into a jetal core, transfer the module to that core, have him hack us and move into Unity, then transfer the module back.

>...why didn't we grab Loviro from the harvest sim when we were there, anyway?
Because that would have cost us our Operative protection, and we couldn't afford to lose that at the time.

>>552023
>Vinyl
Vinyl was a Harvester Construct, too, so we can get her out the same as Loviro. The real problem with getting her out is that it would be a bit cruel to grab her but not Felix, who as stated would probably take too long.
>>
No. 552031 ID: fd6ae9

>>552027
Actually, I think the real problem with getting Vinyl is we don't know what Ruby did with her after his nobles grabbed her. She could be dead, already uploaded to a robot body, or taken to a private server to be detained or questioned or used as leverage against Felix or Sapphire or something. We have no idea if we can still reach her, at all.
>>
No. 552032 ID: 7bbaae

>>552023
No I mean, why didn't we grab Loviro when we were in the harvest building?
>>
No. 552033 ID: 04b86a

>>552031
>dead
So, presumably, is Loviro. The harvester keeps backups, though, so that won't be a problem.

>already has a copy outside the harvester
That... would make things a bit tricky, yeah, although it wouldn't stop us from grabbing a copy anyway. That backdoor of Ruby's took a lot of work to set up, though, and was risky to use, so I don't think it likely he has any way of getting her out aside from the way we're using, which he couldn't do sneakily. So, no, I think she's either still in the Harvester or dead, but retrievable.
>>
No. 552036 ID: fd6ae9

>>552032
Time constraints, and we didn't have the tools to do it.

>>552033
I'll concede that's logical. If she's still in the harvest, or died in it, we can get her out the same as Loviro. (Provided we can find an operator willing to cooperate. She's not exactly as important to them as he was).
>>
No. 552044 ID: 9cd8ad
File 138708302986.png - (54.41KB , 1317x663 , 544.png )
552044

>Use PEI
Alison was planning on that, but once Alison physically disengages from the core or robot, anyone still inside of the other core is stuck there, alone, until Alison interfaces again. Therefore, it will be dangerous if that core is weak.

>Send Polatt in
Alison would like to, but she does intend on bringing him back to the simulation, and isn't sure that that will happen if he leaves the lobby.

>How far to the capital?
A whole other spot on the planet, but Alison can form wheels and supply some momentum by gradually burning jetalium. At least, that's what Engineer found out. By firing plasma weapons without the plasma at a tiny fraction of the cost, a burst of air goes out in its place. Still, it's a long trip, and after burrowing down to the railway in the first place, then burrowing more past it to get to the capital region, Alison ends up using the 50k battery backup to place her back up to near full.

>Why didn't we grab Loviro from the harvest sim when we were there, anyway?
It seemed like she was given a free pass out, and it would have been rude to start imposing on the system. She guesses it might be rude to just go back now and do it, but perhaps she's willing to be a bit rude in favor of winning this.

She's far away from the capital still, and at least a mile underground, but she ends up in a sewer under one of the suburbs. She'll have to start crawling through muck, she feels, by the time she enters capital town borders.

Engineer has confirmed that Kolexia has two sets of modules that either require each other to work, or add on to its power.

While things like giga beams or swords will automatically create their weapon with ease of use, it looks like Kolexia's modules are the jetal equivelant of manual drive. He can shape plasma around at will, and while it is far more flexible in its use, it is also far more difficult to use. It would be no problem if a team of 5 to 10 individuals go in Kolexia to drive and operate seperate parts. It will take a good deal of practice, though, regardless.
>>
No. 552045 ID: f44ca3

So all the numbered ones are a manual plasma system then. Lets keep that core away from any big fights until we can get it upgraded a bit and set a team just to experiment with the fancy plasma.

Whats the last mod she had with the different name? Or is it part of the rest?

If we eventually find the manual system is better than several of our other mods we could try using it on the main core with lots of people managing it but for now lets stay with what we know.

How manual is the system she had anyway? Can it just replicate weapons or can we shield and such with it? Seems like a awful lot of modules for just bendy plasma.
>>
No. 552046 ID: 7bbaae

>>552044
Can't we replace like, all of our weapon mods with this set of stuff? Well, the plasma-related ones at any rate.

How efficient and powerful is this manual drive?
>>
No. 552047 ID: fd6ae9

So... instead of having specialized functions, she has direct harware control. Meaning her weapons can do whatever she wants, but it's a lot harder.

Explains why she wasn't much of a fighter, I suppose. It takes too much work or concentration to bring that to bear effectively in the timeframe. Our whole CAI system might allow for better control and actually making it useful, though.

I don't know how many people to risk or invest in that, though. Or how much Jetalium to divert to a secondary core.
>>
No. 552048 ID: 9ddf68

well we could have a team work on figuring out how to use those mods effectively and then switch out some of our other mods with them once they get it down and just have them pilot the weapons while we just point. But does she have any stealth mods, and by that I mean weapons that won't ping on enemy sensors like our low powered weapons do? cause we do have a good thing going with all our stealth based weapons and mods right now and I'd be a bit hesitant to trade stealth for power right now since it's still pretty much us verses the world with no one really willing to lend us a helping hand.
>>
No. 552054 ID: 04b86a

>>552044
I think there was a miscommunication somewhere. The "Use PEI" was referring to getting Loviro inside the lobby, instead of trying to get another AI Compartment module for him. The bit about Polatt was a way to make him actually part of Unity rather than having him stored in the compartment module, because there was some uncertainty about the PEI allowing AI to transfer in both directions and that would let us use the compartment module on someone else without having to find and unlock another one. It looks like we won't have to do that, though, unless we're just worried about someone somehow deleting Polatt or the module against our will.

>Kolexia's modules
Those seem really good. It's not worth swapping out our current modules for them until we have a good handle on how to use them, though, and the specialized modules are probably more energy efficient anyway. Since Kolexia didn't have jetalium or core hiding, we should probably stick a dozen people in that core and have them learn to use the modules while we're doing stuff in the capital. Maybe give them Master Musician, too, in case they finish well before we get back and get bored.

Now how are we going to get into the Harvest Building? Are we going to head to the surface when we get near, or try to stick to the sewers and break into the storage area?
>>
No. 552056 ID: 9cd8ad
File 138708779313.png - (14.02KB , 800x800 , 545.png )
552056

>Whats the last mod she had with the different name?
It appears that each name sets are similar, but KSA is about raw power, while POAY is weaker. Engineer doesn't know why, but he will try to find out, as he can't imagine Kolexia just kept an inferior plasma source around. He has absolutely no idea what JOO-OO is, aside from being incomplete according to its name.

> Can it just replicate weapons or can we shield and such with it?
Shields are possible, as are propulsion systems, reflectors and most likely other variances. However, Engineer is hardly able to keep a single plasma ball upright for more than a moment, let alone weaponry that gets anywhere close to Unity's. He will need time to practice before replacing Unity's weapons with Kolexia's will be anywhere near viable, assuming it will ever be.

"I'm not sure I want you being in Kolexia while I go up top. Losing you would be awful."
>"I'm inclined to agree, actually. Interface with me, I believe Friendgy will be willing to experiment with some assistance from others. I will go back to Unity."

Alison does so, and after making sure Friendy and friends understand the risks and the unknowns, gives Friendy and a few Frienfriendgys a hug.

"Remember not create any energy surges. Use common sense." Engineer says through Unity.
>>
No. 552057 ID: 9cd8ad
File 138708780497.png - (13.87KB , 800x800 , 546.png )
552057

The trip to the capital down starts becoming a slog of stealth and espionage before Alison finally is able to get under the harvester building.

There is a sign in front of the hatch to the other side.

"Warning: Unauthorized entry will be met with penalties up to and including immediate execution."
>>
No. 552059 ID: 7bbaae

>>552057
We're already marked for death. However, we'll probably have to deal with a lot of security in here, now, and there did seem to be a lot of robots around. Oh well, it'll be good practice for later combat.

Leave the Kolexia jetal outside so they don't get targeted. According to most things it's a separate person, isn't it?
>>
No. 552062 ID: f44ca3

So sneak in hijack a few cores for authorization and find the tools we need to extract Loviro.

Then use the communication systems to send out our message if the building is not on fire by that point.

We will have people all over the place soon so our team in the extra core should find a spot in the sewers far away from here to hide and practice until we are done.
>>
No. 552063 ID: fd6ae9

Does Kolexia's former core have EIN access, actually? I'm not sure if it was ever made clear if nobles were connected or not. I suppose it would be inactive now, even if she did, or else they'd already know where we are.

>Unauthorized entry will be met with penalties up to and including immediate execution
...knock? We will need to talk to the operators to get what we want, after all.
>>
No. 552065 ID: 9cd8ad
File 138708964335.png - (25.48KB , 800x800 , 547.png )
552065

>Leave the Kolexia jetal outside
Kolexia's core was left with the hug, far from the tight security of the capital.

Alison doesn't think Kolexia was tied to EIN, although it is possible that she had access to read EIN. Too late now, though, so Alison goes up and knocks on the door. A moment passes as she checks the time. It is 72:20. Getting here unspotted took a great deal of time after all.

The door opens, as a jetal of A-class caliber comes out.

>"Unity. This is a surprise. I thought we gave you enough hints that you aren't at home here. Did you lose your wallet, or are you here to help us make repairs on a mysteriously constructed tunnel that developed from the top to bottom of our skyscraper?"
>>
No. 552066 ID: 7bbaae

>>552065
Say that you will gladly do that and any other tasks they give you if you will be allowed to take one deceased person out of the harvest sim's backups.

Also, if they don't try to kill you. That'd be nice.
>>
No. 552068 ID: f44ca3

Sorry about the tunnel. I am here to retrieve my father from the simulation.

Would be willing to help with anything you need if it avoids a conflict here. With the reception I have been getting lately things would get bad if anyone noticed I was here. Not so much for me but I would rather not inconvenience bystanders with my problems.

Also if you want to directly link with me it might help you understand what I am doing a bit better. Your choice though not going to force things on you if at all necessary.
>>
No. 552069 ID: 9cd8ad
File 138709098361.png - (24.06KB , 800x800 , 548.png )
552069

"Actually, I'd gladly do that, and other little tasks, if I'm allowed to take one person out of the simulation."
>"That greatly depends on who."
"Loviro."
>"Checking... isn't he de- you want us to bring back the dead Loviro from yesterday, don't you."
"Yes. If you interface with me, you might understand my intentions better."
>"I will stick with words. Loviro may be dead here, but we aren't in the practice of bringing people back who aren't supposed to be in the real world."
"He is, though. Sapphire killed him unjustly, and I'd like him to testify what happened."
>"Checking... you are aware he is just a memory of Loviro?"
"I am, but how would he have gotten the memory of being killed by Sapphire if it didn't happen? Does the Harvest just make up details like that?"
>"Checking... no. Something gave him that idea. Felix. Checking legitimacy... passable. And?"
"And?"
>"And what of it?"
"I would like the world to know what happened."
>"Who would tell them? You, the rogue jetal?"
"You, I was hoping."
>"Our claims of neutrality will be difficult if we - checking - our neutrality will be compromised either by sharing or omitting. Our backup logic will be in personal interest - we have more to lose by sharing these details than omitting."
"How so?"
>"Sapphire will not let our tattle-telling stand, even if it is old news. He will not shut us down, but he will push his leverage against us, demean us, invalidate our legitimacy, among other things."
>>
No. 552070 ID: 9cd8ad
File 138709100633.png - (12.80KB , 800x800 , 549.png )
552070

"Yeah hey how about you tell him that whatever sapphire does isn't gonna really hurt compared to what happens if he doesn't share the info!" Guardsman suggests as he does.
>>
No. 552071 ID: 7bbaae

Say that we could offer protection, or distraction. We aim to kill Sapphire, and Loviro's story is part of our plan. As for the intimidation part, keep in mind we are facing a representative of an entire complex filled with robots. I don't think they actually consider Unity a great threat, and may decide to stonewall us if we say that we were going to force the issue, but we could say that you would be less likely to cause them any trouble if they cooperated, and you do tend to usually get your way in the end. Ask if that shifts the balance any.
>>
No. 552073 ID: fd6ae9

You're forgetting I met with Priat, and saw him for who and what he really is. Your neutrality is already compromised.

If they haven't figured it out already, you'll spell it out. You're going for Sapphire, and you need Loviro as part of your effort to draw him out and put pressure on him. If you're successful, what Sapphire can or will do to them will be irrelevant. And trust me, you plan on keeping him rather distracted up to that point (it's the only way this Kolexia's strategy can work). He's not going to have much attention to spare for retribution.

Please. You're asking politely out of respect, and in recognition of the fairness they've shown you in the past. (Implied threat: don't make me do this the hard way).
>>
No. 552074 ID: 9cd8ad
File 138709266582.png - (23.10KB , 800x800 , 550.png )
552074

"Sapphire will be more worried about me if I have Loviro to testify. I'm also less likely to cause you any more trouble if you cooperate. I've already met with Priat, and I'm asking you out of respect as well as recognition of the fairness you've shown me in the past to have Loviro tell the advisors everything."
>"Checking.... and noted. We have heard news about your advancement, so we must take you more seriously. Do you wish to take Loviro with you?"
"Yes. Do you have a module to put him in?"
>"Yes. We will arrange for his testimony first, so that the advisors know that this is an Operator approved testimonial. We can - checking - no, if we are to do this, we will expedite the process as a priority. It will take approximately 4 hours to set up the Advisor meeting, extract Loviro, gather all harvest evidence revolving around this, and with largest time variance of up to two additional hours, process the hearing. Officially, we will terminate Loviro as per protocol, but we will do so by handing him to you. Will you wait?"
>>
No. 552076 ID: f44ca3

That seems reasonable. Do you mind if I keep a division or two on lookout outside? Am certain that Sapphire has spies here and if he is going to try and stop you it will be now.
>>
No. 552078 ID: fd6ae9

4 b-hours? That's a little under an hour and a half, our time.

>they'll do it
Thank you.

>Will you wait?
They can have their four hours.

Do they believe they can keep your presence from being noticed here for that length of time? If so, you'd gladly stay and help clean up some of the mess you made last time, but otherwise, you don't really want to bring your pursuers down on them.
>>
No. 552083 ID: 7bbaae

>>552074
We will wait, but don't they want our help repairing that tunnel?
>>
No. 552085 ID: 04b86a

>>552074
This is going well.

Too well.

Would it be alright if we were to hide a division inside Loviro's body, to snatch his AI should one of the Advisors try something, or insist on observing his destruction?
>>
No. 552087 ID: fd6ae9

>>552085
...I'm pretty sure if we tried to sneak a Unity division into the proceedings that would just make things more likely to go wrong. And if it seems like we've manipulated the testimony, that defeats the whole purpose of what we're doing here.

We kind of have to trust them, here. There's no other way we can do it, and they've kind of earned that much, I think.

If we're worried about the execution being observed, Unity could always play the role of the executioner. Our uploading could be made to look like killing.
>>
No. 552090 ID: 9cd8ad
File 138709610283.png - (19.40KB , 800x800 , 551.png )
552090

"Thank you. Can you hide my presence here if I stay?"
>"Yes, we will hide you for the duration."
"What about the tunnel?"
>"I was not expecting your help. We will deal with it. Just stay hidden and we will keep you updated."
"Can I keep a division on the lookout?"
>"No, we will keep an eye out for you."
"What about in... wait, is Loviro getting a body?"
>"No, his AI form will be uploaded directly to expedite the process."

Alison finds them keeping an eye out for her a little concerning, considering their security didn't spot her until she knocked, but she doesn't press it and is shown her hiding place. Hiding would be far worse if she didn't have the lobby to talk with, as well as distract her from the fact that things here seem to be going well enough to actually be cause for concern. The time passes and after a bit past 4 belenosian hours, that jetal comes back.

>"Hey. Other guy's busy, so I'm playing delivery and messenger. Advisors are in an uproar. Statute of limitations does not apply here. Don't expect to see it on the news. Here's Loviro. Please leave again."

There's room for one more module, so Alison goes ahead and absorbs it.
>>
No. 552091 ID: 9cd8ad
File 138709611134.png - (17.53KB , 800x800 , 552.png )
552091

>"Ha. Still kicking, as expe- what is this? You were a singularity."
"I have a lot to tell you, Loviro, and some of it will be easier to hear than others. But first, how did the hearing go?"
>"I'm not sure how you got the operators on your side, Unity, but you did it. I doubt you have any idea how good it feels to get that off my chest to advisors that wouldn't just call me a fake and a fraud."
>"I'm sorry to interrupt." says Scanner. "But I know where the newscast building is. Should we head there, now?"

>>
No. 552092 ID: f44ca3

Yeah we can update Loviro on the way. He should be a goldmine of info for us on both Ai information and old political intrigue.
>>
No. 552093 ID: 7bbaae

>>552091
Yes, I think so. It's time to announce our intentions to the world.

We should try to pick up some more efficient method of transport while causing a ruckus in the capital. Going back to pick up the Kolexia core will cost a lot of energy otherwise.
>>
No. 552096 ID: fd6ae9

>I'm not sure how you got the operators on your side, Unity, but you did it.
By respecting only pushing their rules as far as they would let me for a long while, followed by being aggressively nice, finished off by putting them in a tricky position and half-strongarming them into it. (I also built a rail gun in their basement, but I'm not sure that helped, so much).

...we'd have liked to have helped Vinyl too, but we're not sure what Ruby did with her, and we didn't have even half as strong a position to try and arrange that.

Sorry we let you get killed, again, by the way.

>start heading there?
Sure. Make sure we exit underground and get clear of the operators without causing them more trouble.

Start filling Loviro in on stuff. (Maybe Polatt could help, as one native to another).

As an expert on jetal research, I wonder if that means he'll be better than us at identifying weird modules. Or if he can teach us any applications we haven't thought of.
>>
No. 552097 ID: 04b86a

Sure, now seems like a good time to make that announcement.

Speaking of which, does Loviro know if he hid any modules other than that plasma sword? Because I still think mentioning they exist and we know where they are will be a good way to get Sapphire out in the open, and I would very much like for there to be some truth to it.
>>
No. 552101 ID: 57a559

Hmm, on the way there ask Loviro if he knows others in his fields that might know more about a bunch of AI's in one thing. Someone we might also want to bring along to the main game when it's back on.
>>
No. 552102 ID: 9cd8ad
File 138709893387.png - (14.17KB , 800x800 , 553.png )
552102

"Did you hide any strong modules, Loviro?"
>"Hm... yes, but I can't recall their location at all. I expect my memories, as a memory, are somewhat spotty. Ah, but what I do remember is where my logs are hidden away. Perhaps there is something there. Or perhaps not, I can't promise it's anything more than a ghost chase."
"I'll try to make the time, but for now, I have places to be. I'm sorry I let you get killed."
>"Ha. The fact you even concern yourself with that is warming."
"Polatt, and someone else, please bring Loviro up to speed. I'm going to watch the news."
>"Eh, who's Polatt?"
"One of my criminal buddies I made. Say, do you know any other AI specialists?"
>"Yeah, god knows if they're still alive or not when it comes to reality. Now nevermind Polatt, who are the rest of... ah, nevermind, I'll assume that is part of the explanation. Excuse me."

>>
No. 552103 ID: 9cd8ad
File 138709894897.png - (10.95KB , 800x800 , 554.png )
552103

Time: 81:67

>"-deny that she is a great threat, but the Emerald emperor declared a state of emergency demanding the highest firepower."
>>
No. 552108 ID: 9cd8ad
File 138709952617.png - (25.58KB , 800x800 , 555.png )
552108

>"The Firewall fired its main weapon at an angle across the globe, as can be seen here. Jetal and robot construction crews will begin planetary re-grading to fill in the scar that goes from the Lower Acidia continent, through the Bluerock Strip, and into Upper Acidia. Evacuations were made prior, and the cities in the line of fire will be rebuilt. Likewise, what is now being called the Red line, has had most of its impacted rubble landing. Nonetheless, large rocks will be coming down onto our soil over the course of the day as well as clouding our planet with dust and erratic weather, along with various other elemental catastrophes. Also, until our rotary engines are primed, days will now end at 98 hours, 58 minutes and 15 seconds."
>>
No. 552109 ID: 9cd8ad
File 138709953906.png - (13.31KB , 800x800 , 556.png )
552109

>"Directly after the Firewall's super cannon shot, nobles descended on where Kolexia's resort was to seek out Unity. She has not been found, but the search is entering a planetary scale. Therefore, the Opal-Ruby battery will be made operational to assist in EIN's 20 hour mandatory daily shifts with every able bodied citizen to seek out Unity as our new scanners become available. Once again, we do not know what she is after, or why Kolexia was a target. The empire is sending its best to get to the bottom of this, and to find Unity, and it asks that the public remain vigilant, as the empire can only be as vigilant as its people."
>>
No. 552110 ID: 9cd8ad
File 138709954929.png - (19.50KB , 800x800 , 557.png )
552110

"Hello, a search won't be necessary. I am here. You aren't censoring the news anymore?" Alison morphs out from under the floor panel. Governmential buildings continue to be exceptionally sturdy, as Alison did not have any trouble with bending floors under her weight. The snake tail helped.
>"Whaaaaa?! U-unity?!"
"Hello yes. I have a message I'd like to send out to the world, about those motives that aren't clear. It would be nice to not have it censored."
>"I - er, I mean, yes, please, I'll do what I can, please do what you want!"
"I want to kill Sapphire. That is basically it. I'm challenging him to a fight, and I think I am making it clear that if I am going to be stopped, he will have to do it himself. If he doesn't face me directly, then I will ruin and break everything he has until he does. Hopefully that will be kept at a minimum, but that is up to Sapphire as much as it is to me. I do not have qualms with any of the other emperors."
>"And - er, as a reporter, not as a challenger, why are you going to attempt Sapphire's life?"
>>
No. 552111 ID: 7bbaae

>>552110
Vengeance for what he did to the Diamond empire.
>>
No. 552112 ID: f44ca3

Self defense. From the moment I was born his agents have been after me. My sister thought that by joining the police she could avoid being hunted down. But I realized that even there I would be in danger so I would have to take the fight to him.

Its not a easy road but as long as he is alive the people I care about and myself are not safe.

This seems like a good reason to put out there and sounds a bit more noble than just revenge for what happened to Diamond. Also might make mention of our plan to disable his fail safe so no one is hurt in the fallout of our dispute.
>>
No. 552113 ID: fd6ae9

>why are you going to attempt Sapphire's life?
Hold up your hand, and make it glow with the symbol of house Diamond, the way that Sapphire jetal we saw before did.

Because I am one of the last survivors of my house, and I know what his role in that was. I was one of the last of Loviro's creations, and Sapphire saw my father was murdered twice. Someone has to hold him accountable for his actions, and I intend to.
>>
No. 552114 ID: 256d52

Destiny!
>>
No. 552116 ID: 1a06cd

Tell him a moving story about a slave race of people forced to run a violent gauntlet to earn their right to live, and that this just another task to be completed in order to ensure their continued survival.
>>
No. 552118 ID: 9cd8ad
File 138710191325.png - (15.43KB , 800x800 , 558.png )
552118

"There are two reasons, actually. From the moment that I gained consciousness, Sapphire's agents were plotting against me. So, it's also a matter of self defense, which was born by him attempting to finish what he started. I am one of Loviro's last jetals, and he was murdered by Sapphire twice over. He has to be held accountable for his actions. It might look like I'm acting alone, but I have a lot of friends with me, and this is a necessary task to ensure their survival."
>"And - againasareporter - that is not a small claim! Do you have any proof?"
"None with me." Alison almost says more, but Unity isn't supposed to know that the Advisors know about Loviro's testimony. "Whether or not the truth comes up, though, is out of my hands. But that's why I'm after Sapphire."
>"Interesting! Well, uh, thank you for the impromptu visit! I would be nervous, knowing what happened to the last location you were known to be at, but we are at the capital now, not a resort. Still, I'm not exactly sure where this is - wait. Oh, geez, thank goodness. Fast news update! Sapphire just called in. He says he accepts, and offers a non-aggression pact until 85:00 tomorrow night. Do you accept? We're still on the air, by the way, so please watch your language I'm joking and wow this is really going through."
>>
No. 552119 ID: f44ca3

Sounds good to me. But if he moves against me or any of my family the deal is off.

Not sure what his plan is but I do not think we will lose anything by agreeing. He might use this time to try something tricky but its not like we could stop him from doing it anyway. He could be trying something to sway public opinion but we will have to deal with that as it comes up.
>>
No. 552120 ID: 76b151

The biggest reason to accept would be so we aren't hunted.

The biggest reason to not accept is it gives Sevener more time to work her own plans. Plus we have no garuntee this won't be a trap or a body double.
>>
No. 552121 ID: 7bbaae

>>552118
Hmmm... non-aggression means that we don't get to capture an army to bring to bear against him. It also gives time for our rival to catch up, and time for Sapphire to prepare. Then again, any army we raise will be full of mostly cannon fodder.

Accept but only if it's going to be a one-on-one battle. No planet-scarring lasers allowed. But also say that nobody else needs to worry about Sapphire's EIN-berserk death switch, it's totally not true. No other emperors better try to stop you!
>>
No. 552122 ID: fd6ae9

>non-aggression pact
Tricky, tricky. He's trying to get us to agree to stop growing more powerful before we grow strong enough to take him, at the risk of turning public opinion against us if we don't.

>answer
I'm sorry, but I'm afraid working out terms of an agreement such that I would trust Sapphire's word is going to beyond the scope of what we can accomplish here, today.

If he's willing to accept my challenge, I will face him. If the Emperor's forces wish to cease hunting me until that time, or to stay out of my way, I have no problem with that. It'll certainly cut down on the collateral. But I'm not going to agree to stop growing stronger, or doing everything I can to be prepared to finish what I started. I know he will, and I can't afford not to.

You're free to take that as you will. Goodbye.

>crazy thought
We're on live tv in front of the entire world. If there was ever a time for master musician...
>>
No. 552123 ID: f44ca3

Yeah that's a good point. Non aggression means we can not hunt down and strip any of Sapphires people of mods.

Do we feel confident in our power to take him down with what we have? If we are lucky some of the other emperors might funnel us some stuff but who knows if they will.

I think we are close to being about as powerful as you can get from normal means. The emperors probably have special mods they keep for themselves but will have to deal with that when it happens.

Do not really trust him at all but have to see where things lead. He could just be using the time to fortify his holdings. But if he does that and is a no show to our "duel" we can call him out and should get more public support on our side.
>>
No. 552124 ID: 04b86a

>>552118
I think he's trying to buy time to deal with the Advisors we just riled up. It still benefits us, though, since it gives us time to gather some of Loviro's modules.

As downsides go, though, we literally live on combat. We don't have any more batteries, and without a safe charging station our only source of energy is the jetalium we get from fighting jetals. I guess the pact might let us buy batteries, though.

How much can we get for 40,000 new empire dollars?
>>
No. 552125 ID: fd6ae9

>Do we feel confident in our power to take him down with what we have?
Nope. At least, I don't.

>How much can we get for 40,000 new empire dollars?
We can check with Polatt and Loviro, but I'm pretty sure that's not enough to sustain us the hundred b-hours till tomorrow night. I think we've been averaging a thread a day. That's a long time for us.

...I suppose we could also ask our people what they think about this deal.
>>
No. 552126 ID: 76b151

Alright I'm convinced accepting the Cease Fire to fight him is a mistake. Better to be hunted by his nobles to grow stronger.

We can also chase down Loviro's logs and other modules.

Oh we can probably ask how to form a super core from Loviro. That way we can gain more room and benefit from additional modules.
>>
No. 552132 ID: 7bbaae

Guys, did you not see what I was trying to do? A ceasefire with Sapphire won't keep us out of combat completely. Other emperors might come after us to stop us triggering Sapphire's killswitch, allowing us to power up from their jetals.

In fact, Sapphire might be trying to get other emperors to kill us.
>>
No. 552137 ID: 256d52

I'd say the time to find Loviro's logs is definitely worthwhile. The plasma sword has been amazingly useful.

Plus good PR never hurts.
>>
No. 552143 ID: 57a559

>>552118
Yes, I do.
Please beware the new EIN-friendly jetal Anya, she will also want to kill Sapphire for similar reasons and I desire to have the satisfaction myself. She probably has been making the moves to have as much power as I do through legal means so she can get around slightly better without making that much noise. These are also serious unproven claims, but I do suspect her to show up to the battle to fight Sapphire against me. She will also be trying to kill me as well during the fight. She is far from my ally. She cannot allow me to succeed in the duel with Sapphire. It has to be her from her perspective as much as it be me from mine.

Sapphire, please make the moves to protect yourself from her and any contacts she has made in the meantime. But please do not destroy her. It will be very bad. Please trust me on this, her death will mean your own demise as ridiculous as that sounds. It will be an instant, dishonorable death. All the emperors will die in fact, if you kill her, and many many people. These sound like ridiculous claims, but I'm being very serious. She has her own killswitch embedded in her much similar to the emperors', but I actually believe that one to be real.
>>
No. 552154 ID: f44ca3

Regardless if we accept this we still have time to go find logs and upgrade ourselves.

Saying yes would only keep Sapphires goons off of us for a day. And that's if he is has any intention of keeping his end of the bargain.

Accepting would only give him valuable time to come up with a plan of attack and power up his forces. We would loose out on potential mods and ways to power up that we badly need.

So keep the pressure on and politely decline his offer.

As for Sevener she works for the police in general not Sapphire. He is going to trust her even less than us. A long lost Diamond noble child of Loviro's working her way up the system is possibly a bigger threat than us in his mind. Pretty sure he knows exactly what she is up to but can not directly attack her like he can us.

So us staying openly friendly with Sevener even when fighting her is probably the best. Will confuse everyone if we keep treating her like a friend. If we just came out and said she was up to no good no one would believe us. But if we act friendly and give her hugs when we see her it will convince everyone something is going on.
>>
No. 552156 ID: fd6ae9

I'm not really sure we should mention Anya at all.

And if we make a point of being friendly with her publicly, that doesn't confuse anyone but her. It just makes everyone else think we're in cahoots.
>>
No. 552168 ID: 9cd8ad
File 138713949672.png - (16.32KB , 800x800 , 559.png )
552168

Alison's biggest concern is her battery. It has a large overhead of a minimum of 2k per hour even with almost no mass, and she doesn't have the support that nobles do to feed her energy.

"Polatt, Loviro, how far will 40,000 dollars get me, energy wise?"
>"It will buy you time, at least, to attempt to find energy through other means." says Loviro.
>"Yeah, jetal recharging booths are pretty efficient. I mean, is this non aggression thing like a temporary pardon so you can just go into any store to get it?" Polatt asks.
"That would be nice."


It's a tough decision, and the lobby is split on it, but Alison doesn't keep the newscaster waiting for long.
"I don't accept. I don't trust Sapphire to make a fair fight, and expect that he will just use the day to give himself the edge."
>"Oh. Uh..."
"I still don't have any issues with other emperors. Thank you, Sapphire, for the offer, and miss newscaster for having me, but I'm going to leave now."

>Speak out against Sevener
Alison feels she's on thin ice for trust levels, and that trying to sell out her and her legal route will strain what goodwill she's gotten.
>>
No. 552169 ID: 9cd8ad
File 138713951888.png - (20.69KB , 800x800 , 560.png )
552169

Soon after Unity leaves via seeping into the walls, the newscaster explains more details. There isn't an army of jetals outside waiting for her.

>"Now, a continuation of the Unity episode! Despite her decline, the Empire does not wish to fight Unity inside of the capital with no time for preparation, so for the lives and safety of many, we have been assured that Unity will be fought in more vacant locations. Loviro, the legendary jetal creator decades ago who went missing, has been..."

The newscaster goes on to tell the public about Loviro. For all the sugar coated censorship that went on, the news got surprisingly honest. While Unity makes an escape, Sapphire and Ruby comes on.

"Unity has said she is after me, yet declines my own duel offer. If that is how it is, then I cannot believe I am all she is after. If she will not come to me, then I will come to her, once I set things straight regarding Loviro of the Diamond house. That is all." says Sapphire.
>"Although Sapphire's offer has been declined," Ruby comes onto the screen, "I will personally offer her the chance at temporary peace. The capital is no place for high scale jetal combat. Furthermore, we cannot make assumptions about the level of Unity's offenses until Sapphire explains himself and the Advisors reach a conclusion on the matter. Unity will have until 0:00 to leave the capital, at which point her reprieve will be over. This is not a compromise, this a chance for her to prove that she is not a mindless war monger, and once again, to not endanger hundreds of millions of lives after she has proven to dodge the Firewall cannon. We will bring her to justice, even if I must do it myself. For today, the capital will treat Unity as a citizen if she treats the empire with respect."
>>
No. 552172 ID: 04b86a

>>552169
>0:00
With the aftermath of the Firewall being fired, that gives us just under 17 hours, about 5.6 normal hours, to do anything we need to do in the city and get out.

So first thing's first, where are Loviro's logs?
>>
No. 552173 ID: f44ca3

Lets make the most of our temporary peace. Aim to be out of the capitol at least a hour before our time limit so we have a chance to avoid any pursuers.

How much time do we have in the capitol then? After we check Loviro's stash and recharge it might be worth it to be seen in public doing normal things. Anything we can do to reassure the general populace that we are not a crazy death machine will help in the long run.

Be very careful to not get drawn into anything though. Sapphire will try to trash our reputation any way he can.

Hopefully Loviro has been gotten up to speed by now and might have some advice for us.

Before our fight with Sapphire we need to improve our mods as much as possible. Figure out what Sevener has been doing. And improve our public image as much as possible.

Might want to turn off our Ein spoofing for the moment if we can. The longer we use it openly the more likely someone finds a way to overcome it.
>>
No. 552174 ID: 9ddf68

ok, morph into something new and try to get a recharger, then get the hell out of this city. It wouldn't take much for Sapphire to send some nobles or even low level goons our way and then say we attacked first. I say we get what we need and get the hell out. Also where are Loviro's logs? since we do seem to have somewhat of a cease fire now would probably be the best time to look for them. But whatever we do we need to be out of this city by 0:00 because the more Sapphire can tarnish our image the less likely are claims ageist him will stick. This is no longer just a fight, but a political battle as well, our image is now something we have to worry about.
>>
No. 552181 ID: 9cd8ad
File 138714398397.png - (14.56KB , 800x800 , 561.png )
552181

"Loviro, where are your logs?"
>"In a ghost town, approximately 5 hours away. I wouldn't bother going there until you do what you must in the capital."
"Is something wrong? You sound distracted."
>"I have come to grips that I'm not the real Loviro, just a construct of the harvest. I am fine with that, I am who I am, and the world is the same. Or it was. Now I am told that this world is not real, that my world, all my knowledge and work here is just a simulated and most likely historically inaccurate game between you and the one called either Anya or Sevener. That my real world is gone by nearly 10,000 years. Excuse me if I have mental troubles."
"I'm sorry. But, thank you very much for your assistance."
>"Historian, as he's called, is hoping that finishing this will end with a lesson in what really happened."
"Oh, yes! My name is Alison, by the way."
>"Then that is what I will call you. Happily, might I add, as it sounds like a name, not a profession. I was afraid the Duelist was going to insist on a fight after we finished talking."

>>
No. 552182 ID: 9cd8ad
File 138714399422.png - (23.81KB , 800x800 , 562.png )
552182

Unity changes her shape just in case the public would still be nervous about seeing her, although she does switch off her EIN spoofing. She heads into a shop to purchase as much energy refilling as she can for 40k, as well as getting a 30k battery supply out of it.

Scanner looks to see what Sevener has been doing, but what Sevener is doing on the space station is still a mystery. It's decided that if the EIN spoof fumbles and gets caught, it won't be worth losing the trust Unity's been given during the truce.

There may not be much else to do in the capital before going to get Loviro's logs. At least with this way, Alison should be able to get a taxi over there.
>>
No. 552183 ID: f44ca3

Lets ask everyone if they have any thing they want to do or see in the capitol first.

Once we leave the capitol we will be much more exposed. Also people are going to wonder what we are doing in a ghost town.

How are we going to hide our other core? Does EIN recognize it as Kolexia's body still? Do not want to cause more problems by wandering around with her core out in the open.

Maybe Loviro can tell us more about super cores and how to form one with it. We could reabsorb it and keep it inside our body while traveling.
>>
No. 552189 ID: f44ca3

Just making a wild guess about what Sevener is doing but she is either experimenting or being experimented on.

If experimenting they might be training her with a manual plasma system like the one we got with Kolexia. Which means we should learn if ours is worth using.

They probably know about her amazing multitasking abilities even if she has not told them how it works. So they might be gearing her up for a showdown with us.

I don't think she would put up with being experimented on but if they found out about how many people she has upstairs they might be working with her to make her into a huge super core or improve her hacking abilities.

Could be something else but those seem like the most likely possibilities.

We should get Loviro's input on the mods we got from Kolexia and see what he thinks of them.
>>
No. 552190 ID: fd6ae9

>Unity has said she is after me, yet declines my own duel offer
...this is why I wanted to specify we couldn't trust an agreement of nonaggression. But yeah, what it basically boils down to is we want to force a fight that's not on his terms, and we can't tolerate not growing stronger for a whole day while he prepares.

>Loviro upset by recent developments
I'm sorry. I tried to tell you before. If it's any comfort, I'm reasonably certain you were real at some point. It's just the simulation that brought you back to life is somewhat farther into the future than you thought.

...and we certainly didn't chose to make your life into a game. Like so many other things, we've kind of been forced into it.

>anything else to do in town?
Can we get another phone? It would be nice to be able to stay in contact with the Kolexia-core. Although we'd have to find the real-world's more repressed criminal element, or hack the phone to jailbreak it ourself.

There's also the matter of when we pick them up again. If we leave the capitol without them, I'm not sure when we'll be able to meet up again. Also not sure how much the time they've had to practice has helped. (Would Loviro's understanding of jetal engineering give us a better idea how to drive 'manual'?).
>>
No. 552191 ID: 57a559

You should remind Loviro that Loviro probably never existed in the first place in history. Which means he has always simply been an AI from the beginning, and so has Diamond, Sapphire, Vinyl and Felix. But we're all AI too, Alison, historian, Iso, engineer, everyone. Our entire existence is still very real, our perspectives real. The only thing that was ever false were the created memories. Now he has a chance to make new ones, as soon as we escape this sim, and the one above and stop the reboot. A chance to do actual meaningful things that aren't erased. Loviro, you were BORN today. Happy Birthday. Or two belosian days ago, or something. Happy belated birthday.

He could be anything he wishes, now, if he desires. If he wants to be be Loviro because he's the most comfortable acting how he thinks he's supposed to, that's fine. Or be someone new, I mean, he is only two or so belosian days old. Little early to pick and choose. Be a dumb teenager... infant. Something.
>>
No. 552196 ID: d9d03b

You have until 00:00, sightsee!

In all seriousness, if there's still time, think about visiting a museum, historian would like it and it may help us. Even if it's going to be highly distorted, Loviro can probably help us get the real picture.

>Loviro
Give him some reassuring words, but I think this is something he has to sort out for himself. Offer to call him father still, seeing as he built the body everyone is inhabiting.
>>
No. 552202 ID: 04b86a

>sounds like a name, not a profession
Sorry about the name thing. Most of us don't choose names for ourselves, and even when we do people don't just magically know what our preferred name is so they just come up with something to call us and we often just go with it. I'd probably be calling myself the Snake Queen if I hadn't decided on a name very early on.

Note: Ask the administration for the ability to register names to ourselves and for anyone who sees us to instinctively know our registered name.
>>
No. 552215 ID: 7bbaae

Let's not waste any time. Find out where nearby Sapphire installations are at and where the logs are. After we get the logs we may want to pick up our wayward engineers.

There's really no reason to stay in the capital and lounge around until the 00:00 mark, unless we really need some downtime. Do we? Is anyone getting stressed out, aside from our two "rescued" belenosians? We could give them some time as divisions to relax for a little while, I suppose, but having Loviro walk around in a recognizable form would be bad- he should probably pick a more generic form.
>>
No. 552217 ID: 9cd8ad
File 138715718213.png - (21.71KB , 800x800 , 563.png )
552217

>How are we going to hide our other core? Does EIN recognize it as Kolexia's body still?
Alison has no idea, or how to test it without bringing Kolexia's core out in the open. She'll just be sure not to bring Friendgy back out until after 0:00.

"Most of us didn't get the chance to name ourselves, Loviro. If I didn't name myself first, I would be more commonly known as the Snake Queen. You did build this body, though. We don't know for sure, but there is a chance you really did exist. And if not, then that's fine too, you can start living. I understand that the life you thought you had isn't just something you can forget, though." Alison says, and doesn't push that thought when Loviro doesn't say anything back. "Do you still consider me your daughter, considering we're in you jetal's body?"
>"No, that would be silly. If presence in one of my creations was enough, then I would be my own father in that regard."

Alison sightsees for a few belenos hours, namely museums and food courts. A phone is also picked up, and luckily, interfacing is viable. However, it turns out that the phone Kolexia has does not get good cover miles underground.
>>
No. 552218 ID: 9cd8ad
File 138715719141.png - (15.58KB , 800x800 , 564.png )
552218

At about 90:50, she calls it a day for the capital, and goes to find a heavy-weight taxi with Loviro's instructions.

>"All the taxi drivers in the capital and you chose me, huh. Well, no one's gonna complain if I'm the one to take you away. It's gonna take awhile, the lower roads are jammed up because of the whole tidal wave business. The whole county is trafficated like nothing else. Life goes on, I guess." says the taxi driver.
"This place is built like a fortress, huh."
>"Yeah. I hear you came into conscious not long ago, but you're not the first person a superweapons been used on. Well, you're the first to survive, so you earned some ego rights. And hey, life goes on, and the smog's clearer than it's been in years. Anyway, I'll talk your ear off on the way over. Hop in. Fee's gonna be 4k for a round trip. Not cheap, I know, but this thing can take a 50k kilos, and it guzzles gas to match."
>>
No. 552219 ID: 9cd8ad
File 138715720372.png - (81.44KB , 800x800 , 565.png )
552219

The town looks very similar to the one Alison fought Bodec in, although in somewhat worse shape. Loviro takes over controlling Unity, and doesn't waste any time in going inside of an old building, down into the basement, and starts tossing rubble around and accessing a series of secret panels.

It takes awhile to locate, but he finds a briefcase.
>"This is it. I'd like to have taken a look around this place, but we've got no time for an old man's nostalgia that's been falsified twice over. Let's go."
>>
No. 552220 ID: 9cd8ad
File 138715721565.png - (130.00KB , 800x800 , 566.png )
552220

While Loviro looks over his logs, Unity takes the taxi back to the suburbs instead of the capital, where she enters the sewer system to meet Friendgy. She is not having a good deal of luck, so Alison interfaces with Kolexia's core and has Loviro take a look.

>"718?! This one's budget has been in the red for ages, it's a miracle they've gone as far as they have with it. It's powerful, yes, but it is also made to be exceedingly difficult to use. If we had months to train you in it, Alison... well, Unity, perhaps I can say here, then it would be devastating. Since that isn't the case, don't even bother with it. The same for POAY. POAY was made with jetal armies in mind, as two weapons from POAY systems from different jetals will not explode if they collide, but it is largely obsoleted unless you're in a large group that also has POAY. By yourself, it's simply weak. It's my guess that Kolexia only held onto these because she would get free updates, and had little interest in having the most effective module payload. That fits with why she has this incomplete JOO-OO system. I did not work on it, and it was my high esteem that let me even hear of it, but the details are lost on me. It was supposed to bend space-time. Never got far last I knew of it, and to put it bluntly, so long as the belenos race is blowing itself to smithereens just fine with plasma, nukes and other mundane materials, it would take a madman to attempt to finish it."
"A madman, such as...?"
>"Any of the emperors, I know. It's possible they gave it a budget, but there's no guarantee it's a step further to completion than when I heard about it the first time. If an emperor did see it to completion, though, you can bet they're keeping it to themselves."
>>
No. 552223 ID: 7bbaae

>>552220
Alright. Let's just carry around the core inside us until we... oh god. Sevener probably has access to these sorts of mods. I bet she's spending all her time training with it. She's going for the long haul- she's planning for us to fail, and for her to use all this free time she has getting used to powerful experimental weapons so she can take on Sapphire easily.

Anyway, keep the core until we come across someone who can complete the JOO-OO or duplicate mods or something. We can use the core as a decoy core in the meantime. Oh jeez, if Sapphire has a completed JOO-OO then we're screwed.

Oh. If we hand these mods over to Cloud Slither, they could use POAY to great effect, and might even be able to complete JOO-OO. Or maybe we can find someone else who can make us something that duplicates the POAY system? Then we could go around assimilating jetals and giving them POAY so that we can use it like it's supposed to be used.
>>
No. 552224 ID: f44ca3

So a gravity weapon then? That's bad news for us. Means we could be up against all sorts of crazy doomsday projects Sapphire has been working on. While it might not exist we had better assume the worst and that Sapphire or Sevener will end up with a copy.

The good thing is even if they do get it to work something like that would be horribly dangerous to use. If you could redirect or interrupt a weapon like that it could consume the user depending on what it did.

Just how incomplete is the mod we have? Does it do anything currently?

Ask Loviro how he thinks we stack up against one of the emperors as we stand right now. Will give us a good idea where we should head next.

I wonder if we could sneak on the station where Sevener is located and see what she is up to. Not sure if we could hide our approach though.

So find out more about Loviro's logs and what sort of info he can give us. Then we should try to track down someplace we can upgrade our mods if possible.
>>
No. 552225 ID: fd6ae9

>not his daughter
...as logical as that is, it's a little sad. Even if it wasn't what Loviro thought it was, none of the contestants ever had a parent, or someone who just automatically cared about them and tried to protect them. It was... nice.

>possible space-time manipulation module
>if there's a complete version, it's going to be kept secret and locked up by one of the Emperors
...could that be what Sevener is after? If it exists, she might have a log about it. It sort of makes sense as a logical endgame for the legal route- get trusted and high rank enough to get close to the really good stuff they've got hidden away, and then turn it on Sapphire. That could be what she's after on that research station.

Actually, show Loviro what information we have on the research station Anya is currently at. Maybe he'll see or recognize something we won't.

>useless without months of training
And I suppose that can't be cut down by having enough people working in parallel on individual sections? (Or can the space-time module be used to change relative time passing inside that core for more training?).

If there's no safe way to use it effectively in a useful timeframe, we may just have to pull our people out of it, and save the core in case we ever need a decoy, or find someplace to sell the modules. (Or- if the core has any free room, could we use it to store spare modules?).

Next step would be finding more ways to grow stronger, I suppose. Any leads worth following up in from Loviro's logs?
>>
No. 552226 ID: e607cd

Man. All these weapon descriptions we get are like "Don't bother with this experimental weapon. It could be devastating, but only someone with exactly your skill set could possibly make proper use of it."
>>
No. 552227 ID: 9ddf68

so worst case is sapphire has this weapon... do you know anyway for us to counter it Loviro? or would we have to go with the "hope we're strong enough to take him on and pray we find something along the way to help.
>>
No. 552231 ID: 9cd8ad
File 138716196190.png - (20.32KB , 800x800 , 567.png )
552231

"Loviro, assuming Sapphire has the weapon, can it be countered?"
>"I have no idea what he could do with it, let alone how to counter it."
"Do you think we could even take an emperor now?"
>"The emperors from my prime, yes. As things are now, I expect their power has grown, so I don't know anymore. You both have a chance as well as good reason to be nervous, should you find yourself in a fight with them right now."
"Could the months of training these modules be lessened by people working on seperate parts?"
>"No, not effectively. If they learned their own parts well, and there was even just one person that could effectively use the whole system, it would be more formidable. But without that one person at the head, it would be as though you stuck a thousand people in a body with a thousand muscles, and expected them to cohesively drive that organism. Possible, but it would take months of teamwork in the first place let alone learning how the muscle works."
"It's a shame, it seems like these modules are perfect for someone like Sevener or myself, with multiple people inside."
>"Yes, too perfect. The reasons jetal technology only allows a single conscious is to prevent modules like that from taking over the world, or blowing it up in the process. Our technology would be a millenia in the future if our leaders did not constrain it in the name of safety and security, and while the real reasons are so they can sit atop their thrones of power, ironically, in the back of my head, and many heads besides me, there is knowledge that we can't be trusted with the weapons of the future as our society is in the present.... hm. It will be awhile before I stop speaking like this, knowing that this world has a time limit far shorter."
"It's nice to think, still. I'll explain more in detail about our world, when we go back. Now, Anya is at this one space station... do you know anything about it?"
>"Hm... it does not look familiar. I don't believe I know about this one, I'm sorry."
"It's fine. Do you have any leads from your logs?"
>"Yes. I notice you have plasma drivers, and this may be relevant. Where did you get these?"
"From someone who said you entrusted him with them. He was in the cloud slither."
>"Hmph. The loyalty is heartwarming. Good. I was wishing to keep my logs a secret, but I will have to be bashful when appropriate. Now is not the time. Nonetheless, most of my logs refer to works and processes that are incomplete, and once again, would take months to get anywhere. I expect that this world will disappear before the end of the next day, so... there are two places that stand out to me. First of all, there is a set of modules similar to the plasma drivers. Unremarkable when used by jetals not under my wing, but I made them for my own. Perhaps they are still good after 30 years. This would be my first recommendation, but you see, it is in the custody of an Emerald noble. I doubt he's the sort to negotiate with you, but perhaps I would be surprised. Still, I would recommend it at the cost of your public image. Secondly, I know of a top tier research station. It resided in a floating station under the sea, anchored and tethered to the searocks. It will take awhile to get to, awhile to locate in the sea currents, and I do not know what its fate was. This was a top tier facility back in the 60s. That was 40 years ago, for the record."


Alison is also considering stopping by the Slither to just drop off Kolexia's modules, if it's convenient enough to.
>>
No. 552232 ID: f44ca3

I really do not want to give the other emperors any excuse to go after us. Right now we have shifted the blame to Sapphire and if we are careful we can avoid direct notice for awhile.

So I would go for Loviro's modules if we have something worth trading for them. Be it other modules or information or something else. Maybe start at the underwater station and then if we get anything good we can use some of it as a bargaining chip.

If we find out more about this noble that has them maybe we can figure out what he might want. Maybe he loves rare art or old wines or something. Hey if he has a fetish for hugs from sexy snake ladies we are set!

Giving Kolexia's modules to the slither outright might make them happy but it depends on how seriously they take the whole do not come back if you leave policy. Would be a great idea if it takes awhile to get to Sapphire. We know Sevener is working the long game so we should as well.

What exactly did these modules that the emerald noble has do?
>>
No. 552233 ID: 9ddf68

just have a division or something drop them off at slither since we kinda can't go back, never said anything about our divisions though.

As for the two locations, could we get scanner or someone to look into those? maybe there might be something on the net that could give us a better idea on what those two places are like now. Also do we know where and when we're fighting sapphire yet? cause I'm feeling more towards the undersea research area simple because I feel as when we get back to the capital our time limit would have expired (if it hasn't already) and emerald never did say he agreed to the cease fire... that and we really don't know a damn thing about him other then he likes how there are 3 emperors. That's about it. He's to much of an unknown at this point and time to trust and if we try to take the mod from him by force any credibility we would have had against sapphire would go down the drain.
>>
No. 552236 ID: fd6ae9

>Drop off at the slither
...is that something we can do? I thought we weren't supposed to return. Although I suppose handing something off at the door is different from returning. And potentially having a full research team with actual real-world resources to use could tell us something interesting about the

>send a division
Our divisions are us. Or at least they're Unity, as far as the people of this world are concerned. They also have a range restriction.

Simplest solution would be to send the core by itself, but that kind of means leaving whoever drives the core there in a tough situation.

>Two leads
I'd say to go talk to the Emerald noble. We've been able to negotiate with a surprising number of people, and well, anything we do to try and get stronger will risks annoying the other emperors.

...Loviro kind of looks like he's moping. Does he need a hug?
>>
No. 552238 ID: 57a559

>>552231
Ask Loviro if he was ever married.
I'm... curious. She/He might be alive and well.
You could say goodbye, or even try to bring her/him with you.
Anyone he wants to bring along or say goodbye to... that hopefully isn't in the capital city.
>>
No. 552239 ID: fd6ae9

>>552238
That seems unlikely, from how other people described Loviro. If he threw himself entirely into his research and his jetals were his children, I find it hard to believe he would have had the attention or love left to spare for a mate. And with the time gap, we if even if had one...
>>
No. 552240 ID: f44ca3

I know you are going through a hard spot right now Loviro. The idea that everything you knew was not real. We all seem to have a thousand lifetimes of memories locked away ourselves. If we ever remembered them all who knows how we would react.

It will take time to adjust to this new world. But think of the possibilities that lie ahead. If we can fix the loops we can stabilize this simulation and all the people in it. We can find out how history fared over the years and maybe go to the real Belenosian home world one day.

Also thanks for being our dad for even a little bit. It was nice to have a dad for a little while. Then give him a hug.
>>
No. 552245 ID: 9cd8ad
File 138717078281.png - (19.02KB , 800x800 , 568.png )
552245

>Use a division to deliver to the cloud
Unfortunately, a division still has a 1km distance limitation. Plus, she would have to hope that the value of the modules outweigh her coming back, even if she can just drop it off for them outside the slither.

"I think I may want to talk to the emerald emperor about getting those modules from his noble. Is there anyway you know of to contact him, or input about it? All I know about him is that he doesn't mind there being two other emperors."
>"Correct, which means it will be difficult to convince him to let you murder sapphire. His own nobles, though, do not necessarily share that same principle. I don't know how you'd set up a meeting with him directly, so from what I gather, you will need to drop in and make the same luck roll you had with Kolexia."


>Loviro kind of looks like he's moping. Does he need a hug?
Yes.

"It will take time adjusting to our world, but I know you will, and at least in ours, we can work to end the cycles. It's possible that if we escape entirely, we'll be able to visit the real belenosian world. I'm sorry if it's personal, but are you married or have anyone here special?"
>"Married, once, but it failed. I was a jetal creator first, a husband second. She stuck with me longer than expected in hindsight, so there are no hard feelings. Don't trouble yourself over getting anyone for me. You speak of bringing me and others back as though you have done this before. From what I gather, there is no way to tell if this will work."
"It's worth a try."
>"I'm not complaining while the alternative sits by. Have you seen others that come from these CAI simulations?"
"I don't know, the cycles make them look like regular contestants, and they wouldn't remember. Actually, there are some that resemble real world species, and one that really does look like a normal Belenosian."
>"Hm. Considering one trillion contestants... nevermind my skepticism."
"You know, it might seem weird and silly, but it was nice being able to call someone my father. I don't know why."
>"That is just a term implying I made you. It has no bearing on our relationship. Our relationship is the same at its heart. I am your friend, and will help you as much as I can. That has not changed."

>>
No. 552246 ID: f44ca3

If we are going to drop in on this noble lets do our best to find out as much as we can about them. What they like what they dislike and such.

Also how they ended up with the modules in the first place.
>>
No. 552251 ID: fd6ae9

>That has not changed.
Thank you.

>people that might be from simulations?
Well, we've seen (winged) nuemono, a what appears to be belenosian (with diamond horn decorations even!). No Pomi, though, and that's where the third CAI battle was set. Hmm. Now I'm tempted to scroll back through the whole quest again, looking for background characters who might appear to be real asteroid races.

...although Loviro has a point. With a trillion people choosing faces, and with some access to real-world information, there's no saying any matched didn't happen by luck.

>what do
I suppose we see what we can dig up on this Emerald noble we're interested in, and try talking to them. Best case: they accept. Medium case: they turn us down but expect us not to fight. Worse case: they try to kill us on sight.
>>
No. 552252 ID: 394c94

This is a very interesting thought. If we had brought someone out of a CAI simulation once, and the cycle reset, would that AI stay in the contest, or wolud they return to their simulation?

Loviro meet Arbiter? Thank the AI gods he dosen't consider himself our father, otherwise it would have led to an awkward 'Meet the boyfriends' situation.
>>
No. 552254 ID: 761017

Nevertheless, how often does a CAI-Jetal get to say "Thank you, ghost dad"?
>>
No. 552255 ID: 761017

>>552252
>would that AI stay in the contest, or wolud they return to their simulation?
Neither, the reset is a system reboot, which will zero the RAM. Only contestants get saved to the HDD.
>>
No. 552261 ID: fd6ae9

>>552255
We have no idea how the backups are set, actually. And we know for a fact at least 3 contestants were special-case inserted after the start of the cycles (Glitcher, Corruptor, and Savior). We also know information from past cycles isn't completely lost- Glitcher was able to extract extra information from the notes, to recover his own past memories, and when we asked, he believed he could probably allow Alison to access past memories (though he recommended against it rather strenuously).

All of which says to me it's possible new data / people might be worked into the system on reset. Although we have no way to know, it's certainly not something we can safely dismiss out of hand.
>>
No. 552262 ID: 04b86a

>Considering one trillion contestants... nevermind my skepticism.
The belenosian I speak of is fond of wearing diamond horn decorations, and if he was always a contestant then it took him 666 cycles to do something that shouldn't have taken many cycles at all, given how our personalities normally end up. His AI originating in this simulation makes a lot of sense, although it probably would have been the Corruptor who got him out.
>>
No. 552263 ID: 761017

>>552261
>(Glitcher, Corruptor, and Savior).
Recalling the Discussion-Thread, those 3 were externally added to the game via the CAI mainframe as technical 'contestants'.
>>
No. 552346 ID: 9cd8ad
File 138725113550.png - (23.17KB , 800x800 , 569.png )
552346

Alison thinks on Arbiter for a moment.

"Thank you, Loviro, I'm happy with that. I guess we can't know for sure if we've really pulled anyone out. Arbiter, who we've called him, even has a diamond motif on his horns, so I can't help but wonder."
>"Hm? There's only so much I am willing to pass off as a coincidence. Do you have any pictures?"

The lobby in its entirety is addressed by Alison.

"Hello, do we have anyone who can make a good rendition of Arbiter and ask Loviro's opinion?"


Someone who is going to be inevitable known as the artist comes up and starts sketching something using his own brush-claws.
>>
No. 552347 ID: 9cd8ad
File 138725116072.png - (18.50KB , 800x800 , 570.png )
552347

Artist shows the hand he drew on to Loviro.

>".... one of the first forms you took, but with three diamond tallies.... Alison, this is the spitting image of the Diamond Emperor in his early years."
>>
No. 552350 ID: 88960e

Arbiter was Diamond?

...Loviro, could you describe Diamond's personality?
>>
No. 552352 ID: 57a559

>>552347
So, it IS possible.
Unless he found a picture of the Diamond emperor before this point. But those have been all real historical texts. The odds of an accurate textbook with a photo thousands of years in the future is incredibly unlikely. I mean, does that mean that Diamond is somewhere in this Simulation? Or was he permanently removed whenever Corruptor, Glitcher, or Alison took him out?

Is it possible to make two arbiters by finding the other Diamond Emperor in this sim and bring him in? Is it possible he's alive? And not a memory? Or would he be like Loviro?
>>
No. 552353 ID: 9ddf68

... your joking right?
>>
No. 552357 ID: 7bbaae

>>552347
Wait what. That means Alison fought in a sim like this before, won, and took the Diamond Emperor out with her. Probably because they fell in love. The question is now, how did they even meet? Was the sim back then dealing with an earlier Belenosian event? I'm guessing that is the case. Maybe that Alison had to do diplomacy or something, rather than assassination.

Or maybe the mission back then was assassinating the Diamond Emperor, and the Alison back then decided to infiltrate the Diamond empire to do so, wound up falling in love, and "won" by capturing Diamond instead of killing him.
>>
No. 552358 ID: 76b151

>>552357
I think it'd be the corrupter who took out Arbiter.
>>
No. 552360 ID: 7bbaae

>>552358
Well... I guess it's possible.

But oh, one problem with the assassination theory is that Arbiter is Diamond in his EARLY years. That's way before he was assassinated.
>>
No. 552369 ID: fd6ae9

Sort of makes sense. He's a leader in both continuities. Was Diamond a skilled arbiter?

>>552360
It's possible the simulations have changed parameters when people were removed. (Like, the only reason Diamond is dead in this loop's version of the Belenosian CAI battle is that his character was removed). It's also possible there are more CAI battle simulations than the three choices we had to choose from (maybe there's one that covers Sapphire's ascendance and the fall of house Diamond).
>>
No. 552379 ID: f44ca3

Go ahead and describe Arbiter and how you met and your relationship with him. If it matches up at all will give us some food for thought.
>>
No. 552393 ID: 851f83

I called it! Diamond was originally the shape! Emerald, Ruby, and Sapphire chose their names, misunderstanding. I don't know what to do with this information, but I guessed it a while back.
>>
No. 552400 ID: 1333f2

I did a spittake. You, and anyone nearby should do one too.

I like the theory that it was originally him we were supposed to assasinate, but we took a liking to each other and eventually pulled him out after the deed was done. Of course this is the cupid side of me saying this, so take it with a grain of salt. After this happened, the simulation probably just went for the next emperor death in history and set up there. Age is a non issue, seeing as everyone chooses their own form, which might follow some unknown preference.

Discuss his personality and how he died, although the task at hand is important too. Diplomacy!
>>
No. 552409 ID: fd6ae9

>>552369
>either simulation changed parameters after he was removed, or there's a simulation for an earlier time
Or there's more options I forgot. Maybe the simulation we're in is still exactly the same as it was when Arbiter was rescued. Which would mean that Diamond might still be alive somewhere in here (or that it's possible to revive him with harvester shenanigans and the like). Or that Diamond left an heir- a son who survived him.
>>
No. 552410 ID: f44ca3

Maybe Sapphire did not kill Diamond but had him locked up in a prison somewhere and we rescued him.

The question is can we use this to our advantage now somehow. Or is it just good information later for learning how the underlying system works.
>>
No. 552439 ID: 001618

>>552410
well if emperors had fail safes back when diamond was still around then that would make seance since it would be safer to lock an emperor away then to kill him and risk setting off his fail safe. but didn't the fail safe thing happen after Diamond "died"?
>>
No. 552662 ID: 9cd8ad
File 138742178380.png - (19.87KB , 800x800 , 571.png )
552662

That's not expected. Alison may have met him and drug him back, but at the same time, it may have been corruptor. Or given how many times she's said she's won this simulation, Anya, too.

"Scanner, and whoever wants to volunteer, actually, please get me information on the emerald noble. Loviro, what was the Diamond emperor like?"
>"Political."
"Nice?"
>"When he wasn't on business. Which was rare."
>"Keep in mind that Arbiter may not have been the same. I think you said that Glitcher said that personalities can vary a lot from cycle to cycle, depending on how the stages go?"[ Clarence points out.
"If you don't mind my asking, Loviro, how did Diamond die?"
>"His tower blew up while he was, presumably, inside. I never saw a body, but I did not think he survived. At least until this... game... which may not be accurate to reality at all."


>Didn't the fail safe thing happen after Diamond "died"?
It did, now that Alison remembers. If the Diamond emperor was captured as to prevent it from going off, it didn't work, as it went off anyway.

There is some speculation on if Unity can meet Diamond, but there's too many unknowns, such as if he would even be in the simulation after he was pulled out.

Ultimately, it's information of interest, but there's too many unknown elements that allow much to be done with it as far as Alison knows.
>>
No. 552663 ID: 9cd8ad
File 138742179537.png - (28.69KB , 800x800 , 572.png )
552663

Scanner keeps on trying to find information, and the Duelist passes on what's been found out so far to Alison.

>"The noble is goes by the name Lupaire. He was a soldier in his earlier years, but now it seems like he mostly prefers things easy. Since he's got more money and time than most people know what to do with, he sits in his estate most of the time and collects on what work his underlings do. The only thing he appears to do on his own is amass and count his own wealth. It's unlikeable, but it makes it simple. We just need to present him with good wealth. Simple doesn't mean easy, though, as what could we give him that makes a dent in his coffers? Something that can't be bought with real money, as I doubt we can make billions of dollars in currency and items in short time." he explains.
>>
No. 552668 ID: 88960e

Could we offer him information that is that valuable? Some of the things we know might be valuable, or could be applied to a sort of insider trading.

>Or given how many times she's said she's won this simulation, Anya, too.
Sevener.
>>
No. 552687 ID: 57a559

>>552663
...
Is Succubus in here?
We also have some unique modules I think, in here, but probably nothing better than he has...

We could also ask him to link up with us and share the revelation with him like Loviro. Unlike Kolexia, he might take up the offer to sate his curiosity. Most of the nobles know that we mainly act in self defense and that our only crime is being a huge potential threat.
>>
No. 552689 ID: 88960e

>>552687
No, she's not, as we lamented when we had to fight in high bells. Succubus stayed to help Chief run our reserve force.
>>
No. 552691 ID: 9ddf68

so could we do a search to see if we could maybe find something he wants... or we could try to call him up and offer a deal. Not sure what but maybe there's a special mod or something he might want that we could get by defeating sapphire? I mean he doesn't loose the mod if we get it right? we just copy it? If that's the case we just need to pitch the idea that if we win he could make a profit and if we loose no big deal... we'll still need something to act as a down payment though.
>>
No. 552697 ID: fd6ae9

>when we had to fight in high bells
High heels. (What the hey, autocorrect. Heels isn't a word now?).
>>
No. 552727 ID: 7bbaae

>>552663
The incomplete space manipulation mod? Or we could do a task for him. Lend him our considerable power, that's nothing to sneeze at.
>>
No. 552740 ID: f44ca3

He looks bored and rich. So probably will want something entertaining.

We should check if Sapphire has a collection of rare expensive tapestries or something we could make off with. Or there is the Succubus idea.

Might be best to just talk to him and ask.
>>
No. 552744 ID: 65d11a

As mentioned before, he does look very bored. Some entertainment from our antics should do. Said antics being wrecking chaos on the world.

Really we should just ask, see if we can come to an agreement. Would have to seek an audience with him though, and probably bring tributes just to meet with him... What about Kolexia's core? The core of a Saphire noble should be a nice addition to any colection, even if empty, seeing as the killing of nobles is apparentley forbidden. Not sure how Kolexia would feel about it though, she might be pissed that we gave it away.
>>
No. 552779 ID: fe4bfc

Ok we have several options for approaching him.

Stealth: We can sneak through his palace and jab him in the core while no one is looking. Steal the module and put a someone inside to pretend they are him for awhile.

Bribery: Find something he wants really badly and trade for the modules. Be it rare wine or something of Sapphires we can steal for him. Or maybe trading a favor of some sort.

Seduction: Would be best if we had a expert around but who knows maybe our amateur fumbling would amuse him. Experimenting with sex with thousands of people able to feel and observe everything would be interesting to say the least.

Friendship: Maybe he is a swell guys and after some tales of our exploits and a few beers he will be interested in helping us just for the hell of it. Never know until you try.

Force: Stab people until modules come out.

I vote for trying Friendship first and seeing where it goes from there. If he hates us we can always wander off and then sneak back in the night.
>>
No. 552962 ID: 9cd8ad
File 138764294406.png - (104.69KB , 800x800 , 573.png )
552962

>Sevener
Sevener.

>Succubus
Alison isn't quite sure what succubus has to do wi - actually Alison is learning things and now she knows what Succubus could do to help. Succubus is not here, though, and although Alison would be willing to take that route if it meant getting those modules, she isn't a natural in the art of doing whatever it is has to be done.

In order to pass a message to the noble, Alison locates a sewer drone with a conscience, sends a volunteer to board and take it over, and has it make a phone call to the Emerald noble. When it comes back, it reports success that Lupaire will see Unity, although asks that Unity keep her visit as secret as she can, and gave directions to the back entrance of his estate.

That sounds easy, but raises the question of how to get there. It's about a 9 b-hour drive, and the volunteer says that the taxi driver was still up top.

>"What should I do?" Friendgy whispers nearby. "Kolexia is probably looking for her core by now."
>>
No. 552964 ID: f44ca3

If taking the extra core will cause us grief we can always leave it up top somewhere and reabsorb our people inside. If not can just reabsorb people and have it floating around inside us for the moment.

While it would be nice to have another full body all the time this core does not have a loadout I would trust to keep our people safe.

As for getting there why don't we go talk to the taxi driver and see if he minds helping out. Can pay him in cash or trade depending on what we have left. Heck if we want to leave the core somewhere we can give it to him and let him know its owner should pay a nice return reward.
>>
No. 552966 ID: fd6ae9

>art of doing whatever it is has to be done
Jeeze, you thought the stuff you did before was hard to do with an audience. (Also, we seem to be assuming an awful lot about what succubus would do, based on her appearance. :V).

Seriously though, I doubt physical hedonism is going to be the lever we need to get what we want from this guy. He's extraordinarily rich and powerful- he's probably got (or can get) as much of that as he wants.

>a sewer drone with a conscience
Consciousness?

>Kolexia is probably looking for her core by now
It was at ground zero of an orbital superlaser. She wasn't expecting it to be destroyed? (Well, I guess we survived, and with our record for pilfering everything we can for an advantage, she probably expects we have it).

...she did sort of help us with the recorded message. I wonder if we returned to to her at some point that might help us? Because our options right now are that, or dropping it off at Cloud Slither, or taking it with us.

Can we take it with us? We have core hide and jetalium hide, but not on her core. It would show up on scans.
>>
No. 552967 ID: 9ddf68

can we have the taxi driver just drop us off nearby and we can walk the rest of the way? I would just suggest another rail gun ride but the point of this here is to conserve power so taxi it is... also we are outside of the city right? and how close to the time limit where we have to be out of here are we?
>>
No. 552970 ID: 514fde

>>552964
While asking for help would be nice, the average joe is unfortunately most likely monitored directly by EIN. Could still leave the core with him though, EIN and Kolexia will probably know what to do to retrieve it.

If we do give it back, go up to the taxi driver, look him in the eyes for a moment, and give him the core. Hopefully Kolexia is watching and gets the message. Don't actually say anything though, that would blow her cover. I do vote to give it back, it's too much trouble than it's worth, might be detected, and keeping it would probably make us enemies with a potential ally, aka less hugs. And that's just terrible.

>Plan
The world probably knows our current location, so we'll have to shake them off. How extensive are these sewers anyway? Could take the taki for some of the trip and lose them afterwards, although that would make us easier to track.

>Doing what needs to be done
..... I have a feeling Alison dosen't really know what everyone means by that. A vague idea maybe, but not the specifics. Let's just... let's just leave it at that and make it a problem for future Alison, that is if that really is the route that we're taking.
>>
No. 552997 ID: f44ca3

Watching our group work out a seduction strategy in the lobby when none of them really have a solid grasp on how sexuality works yet would be hilarious.

But would rather not scar anyone with the experience if it can be avoided.
>>
No. 553006 ID: 57a559

>>552997
I'm confident Polatt and Loviro have a solid grasp.
I mean, we could ask them to do it.
Still say we should have him uplink with us like we tried with Kolexia.
I want to uplink with as many people as possible. It's much a more saner way of explaining things and we could potentially gain a new ally.

We could really fudge the numbers up when we get back in system. We might even completely destroy a simulation by doing what we do best.
SAVE EVERYONE. By hacking them into our brain.
>>
No. 553007 ID: f44ca3

If we could get into EIN and start mass uploading people into our lobby instead of its system and then carry them back into the outside sim it would be game breaking.

Honestly figuring out how to do something like that if its at all is possibly a better idea than our assassination game.

We still do not know if EIN even has been given a physical presence in this simulation. They might have not given it a place her just because of that reason. If it does exist here it is one of the best kept secrets in the empire though.
>>
No. 553010 ID: fd6ae9

>>553006
>I'm confident Polatt and Loviro have a solid grasp.
>I mean, we could ask them to do it.
Hey, pseudo-dad and latest person with a crush on me, want to teach me how to seduce this guy, or maybe do it for me?

...yeah that won't be an incredibly awkward situation all around. Nope. (I still think this talk is silly- we have no reason to believe this is the way to get what we want. From all indications, we need to offer him a big financial payoff).

>Hack EIN
>use that to mass upload the populace
Huh. Interesting, but I've no idea how feasible that is. One problem is that pretty quickly we'd end up outnumbered by uploadees. We'd lose control of Unity, or run the risk of a prisoner rebellion.
>>
No. 553015 ID: f44ca3

>>553010
I can see it now "Hey dad can you and this criminal I met the other day teach me how to seduce men?" Oh by the way a thousand of my friends will be watching and taking notes.

Sounds like the start of the best or worst porn ever.
>>
No. 553016 ID: 57a559

I wonder if we'd win the game if we uploaded Sapphire into us.
Would that technically count as assassination for the game parameters?
If our jetal core is destroyed, but there are our people out in other cores, would the game still continue?
I think we should upload sapphire guys.
To REALLY fuck with the system.
>>
No. 553020 ID: 7bbaae

>>552966
>it would show up on scans.
Ohhh, good point. We should ditch it somewhere. Also, definitely not take it to Cloud Slither. It would be tracked, and they would be wiped out. Unless we have some way of getting the modules there without the core being tracked there? Right now that's the only use we have of it and its plasma-related modules: giving it to Cloud Slither- wait, nevermind. They would only be able to use them after months of training, and we don't have months, so let's stay away from Cloud Slither entirely. The incomplete spacetime module would serve better as a gift to this noble. I suppose we could drop one module to carry it, and ditch Kolexia's core somewhere.
>>
No. 553021 ID: fd6ae9

Well, it's worth noting it will only show up on scans when we're in range of someone scanning with core sense or one of those things Felix had. Presumably it can't be remotely followed and tracked anywhere in the world, or we would have been located en route to the capitol.

So it should be possible to get it to the Slither undetected. How difficult, not sure. And there's the added problem of whether they'd take it if we dropped it off, and like you mentioned, if the Empire would tolerate the theft or retaliate.
>>
No. 553036 ID: f44ca3

She was one of Sapphires nobles. If we just give it back and say thanks for the help then everyone will know what she did. It could be a death sentence for her once Sapphire finds out.
>>
No. 553039 ID: 7bbaae

>>553016
Sapphire's a dick. So, no.
>>
No. 553143 ID: 9cd8ad
File 138774654678.png - (30.81KB , 800x800 , 574.png )
553143

>Consciousness [rather than conscience]?
Either would work. Mundane robots, such as a vacuum cleaning bot, don't have enough 'life' for a volunteer to board with via interfacing.

>Mass upload people from EIN
Alison has to be in physical contact for interfacing to work as it does. She isn't sure how interfacing with EIN would work, if it's possible as she is now, but for the moment it is deemed impractical.

After a moment of scanner's research, it seems that EIN doesn't recognize empty cores. EIN pays more attention to the jetal's mind rather than the core itself, and so a deactivated core cannot be easily sensed. As far as Alison knows. Holding an empty core isn't illegal anyway, just uncommon. In fact, there's a lot about this scenario that is fuzzy. Another concern is if Kolexia does manage to track down Unity by investigating every single empty core out there. By the looks of it, that's impractical even for her. The time is currently 98:03, so soon it will be her against the world again.

There isn't much that she can give Lupaire that he doesn't already have in gratuitous quantities, so Alison does bring Kolexia's core despite the risks, thinking it will probably be fine, especially if she gets out of the capital county by 0:00. She'll just have to hope that the cloud slither didn't really want this stuff. That, and they may not be happy to see her. The taxi driver is approached as a slightly not-Unity belenosian.

Either the taxi driver isn't particularly bright, or he's playing dumb, as he starts sharing the same set of stories on the way to the capital's suburbs as he does on the way to Lupaire's. He does let her drive in the front seat, too, so she doesn't have to sit in a windowless compartment for hours.
>>
No. 553144 ID: 9cd8ad
File 138774655832.png - (22.74KB , 800x800 , 575.png )
553144

After the taxi driver drops her off in a nearby territory to Lupaire, Alison hoofs it the rest of the way.

The trend of going through underground lower entrances is continued. There are not as many jetals or robots as there were in Kolexia's place, but some are stronger.
>>
No. 553146 ID: 9cd8ad
File 138774676688.png - (26.20KB , 800x800 , 576.png )
553146

She pops out of a false ground behind some shrubbery at around 8:16.

>"There you are." Lupaire says, once Unity comes out. "There are a lot of people who would like to know how you are getting passed EIN. Including myself. What is it you came to me for?"

The chair, footstool and girl make up a 3-part supercore. They all have normal issue A and S rank beams, swords and so on.

>"Be careful if he is hostile." Loviro speaks up. "Aside from the modules I mentioned, and a few plain ones, he has a module set like Kolexia's. If he knows how to use that set, then he will not create energy surges no matter how much surge he puts into an attack."
>"Is this supercore bodyguard thing standard for nobles ot have?" Atlas asks.
>"Yes." says Loviro. "Well... normal to have a supercore set that acts as their righthand men. Lupaire appears to have gotten them... cozy."

>>
No. 553147 ID: 7bbaae

>>553146
Whoa, the manual drive plasma set has no surge warnings?! That's the first we've been told about that. Now I really wish we had time to practice with them.

Let's be up front about it. We know he has a set of Loviro's mods, and we want them. We have something to trade, and of course we can offer him services instead of goods.
>>
No. 553148 ID: fd6ae9

>There are a lot of people who would like to know how you are getting passed EIN. Including myself.
I'd be happy to discuss that, except that explaining my evasions would make them easier for EIN to counter. Although ignorance would mean they've lost track of my modules. Or they're just not being public with that information anymore.

>What is it you came to me for
It is my understanding you have in your possession a module designed by Loviro. I am interested in acquiring it.

If he questions why you want it, you already made your motives public. If he asks why your turned Sapphire down- explain honestly you have no good reason to trust him with a day of preparation, especially with a formal nonaggression pact that would restrict your own ability to prepare. (Granted, being hunted restricts some options as well, but like everything else, we take our chances).
>>
No. 553160 ID: 04b86a

>99:74
The day ends at 98:58 now, remember? The Firewall sped up the planets rotation.

>He's using one jetal as a chair and another as a footstool.
He must be paying them very well.

>How are we evading EIN
That information comes at a high price.

>What is it you came to me for?
I'm of the understanding that you have a unique set of modules, designed by Loviro. I would like to acquire them.
>>
No. 553161 ID: f44ca3

Well if you are going to be lying around guarding someone all the time I can see some of them becoming friends. That or this is all designed to make people underestimate him. So he is either the lazy playboy type or just wants us to think he is.

Do not mention that we have modules to hide from EIN. That info could get almost anyone to try and attack us for them.

Say we came to ask about the modules. And possibly find some more friends if possible.
>>
No. 553170 ID: e3aff6

>Although ignorance would mean they've lost track of my modules. Or they're just not being public with that information anymore.
Saying that much is still saying way too much. Either say nothing about it or say
>That information comes at a high price.
>>
No. 553194 ID: bc85a4

Scan the area, then approach him, but keep a comfortable distance, for both him and you.

"Who's asking, the empire, or you? I can't imagine EIN gives you too much trouble. Sources tell me you have some of my father's modules? I would like to have them very much. I'm sure you've heard why."

Using his bodyguards like that is brilliant really. People underestimate him with the whole carefree playboy thing, but at the same time, his elite are always next to him.
>>
No. 553202 ID: 9ddf68

learned a trick or two for getting around EIN

anyways tell him you heard about him having a mod made by Loviro and that we would like to have it and only ask him to name a price. If he ask why we want it say something along the lines of, "sapphire killed Loviro, thought it would be a sort of poetic justice if we could finish off sapphire using the tools made by the man he worked so hard to kill."
>>
No. 553216 ID: 761017

>>553160
>>How are we evading EIN
>That information comes at a high price.

Seconding this.
>>
No. 553264 ID: 9cd8ad
File 138782512758.png - (19.27KB , 800x800 , 577.png )
553264

"That information comes at a high price. I'm looking for Loviro's mods, and I have been led to believe that you've got some."
>"They're good. Especially good for you, but I'm willing to haggle. I want that information, but I expect it's just a module I don't know about. I want more. What else do you have to offer me?"
"I have Kolexia's core. Would you like it? It has modules you may be interested in."
>"Come over here. Let me see."

>"I don't care if he knows, prime the plasma drivers." Loviro says.
"That's not going to make trading easy if you can't be shown to trust him." Clarence says.
"Trust? he's a noble! If he thinks anyone has any business trusting him, then he's sorely naive." Loviro says back.

>>
No. 553268 ID: 9ddf68

wait, aren't our low energy (E5? or whatever they're called) plasma weapons invisible to enemy sensors? can't we just charge those while not rising suspicion?
>>
No. 553269 ID: d315b1

>>553268
They're detectable at point-blank range.
>>
No. 553276 ID: f44ca3

Prime our weapons but before doing so announce our intentions to do so.

Also we might want to keep our core in our tail if possible. Will keep it out of direct range if we get close.

We also could make a division and send it over with the core.

Let him know we have no intention of starting anything if possible but we know how his modules work and would rather be careful.
>>
No. 553280 ID: 88960e

Basic game theory. We play nice when we can. It's worked so far.

Use a division. That's an appropriate level of caution. Make sure to populate the core we're showing him, so we can counter-hack if he tries to rip us off.

...and priming the undetectable weapons might be okay.
>>
No. 553306 ID: 9cd8ad
File 138783803594.png - (21.62KB , 800x800 , 578.png )
553306

A division is formed and sent over. Kolexia's core gets a volunteer team of 3 inside without activating the core, in case he tries to rip Unity off.

The noble doesn't appear to mind the division being sent. Alison has Duelist take control, and he primes the AN5 sword just in case, while Alison gets an AN5 blaster ready. It's possible he may be able to sense Duelist's while he's so close, but he still says nothing.

>"Deal." He says, outstretching his arm to take the core. "You give me that, tell me how you avoided EIN, I will give you Loviro's modules, and you'll leave."
>>
No. 553308 ID: 9ddf68

...right... can we maybe just hand both off at the same time, no disrespect it's just that after having everyone try to either use or kill you after waking up only a day ago has left us a bit on the paranoid side. This way if you felt that you couldn't trust us then you are lowering your risks as well.

As for how we avoid EIN, if he gives us the mod tell him what he wants to know and then we're getting the hell out of here.
>>
No. 553309 ID: f44ca3

Sounds fair. During the trade ask him what he thinks of the current world situation. If he has any advice for dealing with Sapphire maybe he will share it.

Worst case scenario he tries to cheat us or attacks us for our EIN mod. Or he could be planning to give info on our countermeasures over to EIN.

Either way we can take him out if he tries but it might hurt our rep if people find out. The gains are worth the risk I think and so far he as not tried anything. So play fair unless he tries something.
>>
No. 553310 ID: 57a559

Offer an additional secret for free if he's willing to link up with you for a little bit, the link is necessary because it's the only proof of the secret itself, it would appear insane and impossible otherwise. Then ask for an audience with Emerald to tell the same secret.

You know the secret. Point is, if we get him AND Emerald on our side and get them going into the sim above, we get to use their resources while in this sim. Perhaps we should discuss this with Loviro first, as he might have a problem with that, or insight, like if they knew the truth they might purposely freeze Anya, Us, and Sapphire away for eternity somewhere so they can live cozy. Emerald actually might bail with us but this Noble actually might want more and freeze the the two players and objective to be safe in his own cozy lifestyle over a life of being in a cycle that restarts from the beginning over and over again if we faul, and if we succeed and manage to bring him with us, all he gets is life as part of an extremely powerful AI that will probably be ordered around by jackasses.

You know Allison, I realize we haven't even thought much about what life as a CAI would be if we DO succeed. It might be worse than this contestant business.

You know, now I realize why Arbiter was taken out of the sim. Because he was the Diamond emperor, he had a LOT of resources at his disposal in this sim, assuming that version of the sim was a bit in the past. The players that took him out of the belsim thought that was one of the easiest ways to complete any objective, convince another emperor and/or powerful individual to come to the sim above and help us with the current sims objective. That would give us a massive lead over Anya, we'd have so much influence to lead to Sapphire's death, not to mention making the mass upload plan possible. Anya's probably been planning this as well, instead of direct confrontation, she's making allies to do the dirty work for her in the belsim!
>>
No. 553312 ID: 88960e

Agree. Explain the modules we're using to avoid EIN. It doesn't matter if EIN overheard through his bodyguards, since it should know what was on the space station we looted anyways.
>>
No. 553360 ID: 97dd21

Let's hope he doesn't do anything creepy with it.

Could we ask him to... show us the modules first? I'm not too sure how that works to be honest, they probably don't have a physical form, but the point is we have to see them. He probably doesn't know we have Loviro here to confirm if they're authentic or not, so he might try to rip us off.

I'm also curious, ask him what he gets out of this trade, in the most casual way possible.
>>
No. 553371 ID: 9b57d3

>>553306
Ask to see the goods first. We don't have confirmation he has them. Also, there must be some secure method of trading mods like this.

Once we have a secure method for the trade, make sure to pull out those 3 AIs in the core before we hand over the core. Which I assume we're doing, because he wants the entire core.
>>
No. 553400 ID: 761017

>>553312
>It doesn't matter if EIN overheard through his bodyguards, since it should know what was on the space station we looted anyways.
EIN knows what EIN is allowed to know.
EIN is allowed to know things that fit into a number of common categories, a list of categories that clearly excludes top-secret research experiments.
>>
No. 553403 ID: 9cd8ad
File 138786506433.png - (15.73KB , 800x800 , 579.png )
553403

>[Life as a CAI] might be worse than this contestant business.
That's a reality that Alison will also risk.

>Ask to see the modules first.
Alison can sense his modules. He has 4 that are confirmed by Loviro to be the right ones. Super Gravity, Shield Breaker, Hands of Death, Plasma Trainer.

Alison notes that Lupaire has a PEI S-7.
"Loviro, what's the difference between a 7 and a 5 in the PEI modules?"
>"Superiority over one another. 7 is obviously better. 5 and below allows access, but 6 and up are for nobles only. They are much more powerful, but we can still take him from numbers alone. We may lose some if he gets in us and is hostile."

Perhaps Alison should have had a few teams go in Kolexia's core.

"There's also more information, if you like. You'll have to interface with me, though. It should be safe, I can tell you have a PEI 7, so it should be safe for you, right?"
>"I also hear you took a supercore with a PEI 5 in seconds. Still, I doubt you would try anything with my supercores here. Still yet, I don't understand what you have to interface for."
"I doubt you would believe me, otherwise."
>"...I will take the chance, then."
>>
No. 553404 ID: 9cd8ad
File 138786513597.png - (28.65KB , 800x800 , 580.png )
553404

"Before he does, Loviro, would you mind if we ended up allying with Emerald, if that becomes an option?"
>"Why would I mind?
"I thought you hated the Emperors."
>"The real emperors. We are playing a different game, Alison, and I am aware of this."


Lupaire makes jetalium contact with Duelist's division, which is apparently enough to interface and show up in the lobby.
>>
No. 553406 ID: 9cd8ad
File 138786514881.png - (26.95KB , 800x800 , 581.png )
553406

He immediately backs out before Alison can so much as say a word.

>"Excuse me if I did not feel safe with what I saw. Explain, please."
"I'd like to complete the deal before sharing that last bit of information."

A biological woman comes up through the platform and gives Lupaire four module holders.

>"There are 4 modules I'll put into these one at a time. I'll give you one, you tell me about you. I give you the second, you give me Kolexia's core. I give you the third, you tell me about your EIN dodges. Then I give you the fourth. There's no negotation, haggling or changing the order of what I give you. Take it all or leave it all."
"... Alright."
>>
No. 553407 ID: 9cd8ad
File 138786518057.png - (14.50KB , 800x800 , 582.png )
553407

Alison receives Hands of Death as the biological goes back downstairs.

>"This is named after a religious organization that may or may not be around. The name sounds ominous, but they were enthusiastic martial artists. You don't, of course, have to use your hands, this object behaves like a beam, but peters out after a meter. Hence, it's a melee option more powerful than a sword, but unlike a sword's continuous power, this is simply a burst like a blaster. You can most likely expend 1k to 3k on its blast." Loviro says.

Unity might go back to being four armed again after all. Either way, she removes her Stunner, as it is too weak as this stage, Loviro believes, to be much good. Alison explains what she is to Lupaire. At the risk of sounding insane, the noble listens intently. He does not show emotion, either, and simply waits for Alison's explanation as to why she is not a normal jetal.
>>
No. 553409 ID: 9cd8ad
File 138786520713.png - (23.61KB , 800x800 , 583.png )
553409

The team in Kolexia's core is pulled out and the core is handed to Lupaire. The second module, Super Gravity, is received without a word, to which Loviro explains again.

>"Alternatively, Anti-Anti-Gravity. This creates gravity up to 5 times normal around a 100 meter radius, weakening to nothing at the 100m mark. 50 times normal for you. Us, that is. You can create gravity in any direction. At only 2 surge per multiplier for you, I imagine you can figure out how powerful this can be. It can be combined with power move, but effective, power move is obsolete comparatively."

Alison also takes that advice, and removes power move to make room.
>>
No. 553410 ID: 9cd8ad
File 138786530185.png - (19.79KB , 800x800 , 584.png )
553410

The EIN modules are then explained to Lupaire, and upon his look of expecting more, the whereabouts of where she got them are included.

>"Interesting." Lupaire says, giving her the Plasma Trainer. "There's just one thing I want to know. How did you know the research station had it?"
"There was a news segment on it yesterday. I didn't have many better ideas. I had no idea there were modules like this on board."
>"Hm. You found it in orbit easily enough."

>"Most jetals do not even realize it, but there are core alignments and launch protocols that determine the strength of a weapon. Even pre-determined weapons as most beams, swords and so forth can be significantly boosted by an experienced jetal. This will not teach you how to use the specialized module sets that nobles sport, but this module allows simulation and training for the pre-determined weaponry. It would also take weeks or months to become well trained in it, but unlike the specialized module sets that need months of training to even catch up to predetermined weapons, training with this plasma focused simulator can only help right off the bat. Even a few hours should show notable improvement across all weaponry. I realize I said these modules would help my jetals more than most - and this is true. This training program is made to match the way predetermined weapons interact with my jetals. To other jetals, they would simply jump through hoops for little benefit, if any. Perhaps it would even hurt. I would make analogys to this, but I think you get the idea. Have multiple people use and study this, and assign them to appropriate weapons to fire as needed. It does not cost any energy."

Alison is now facing indecision at which module to remove to make room for this one.

Wiki is updated:
http://tgchan.org/wiki/Unnatural_Selection_Stats#Temporary_Belenosian_CAI_statistics
>>
No. 553412 ID: 76b151

Get rid of cooling systems we haven't bothered using it ever since before we left the sim.
>>
No. 553413 ID: fd6ae9

>hands of death, four hands may be useful again.
Shiva-snake, ahoy. Or does that make us Kary?

>explains what she is to Lupaire
How much detail did we go into? The contest and the simulations, or just the thousands of intelligences cooperating to drive a single core?

>Super Gravity
Does this render our regular anti-gravity module obsolete, or is there still a reason to keep that around?

>news story
Your honored your agreement, to the extent you were honest about the station. But you wisely didn't out Ruby's involvement. Still, Lupaire may be savy enough to guess that someone set up that broadcast for us to see.

>"Hm. You found it in orbit easily enough."
...I suppose we did, at that. Picking out a single space station around an entire planet with potentially tons of junk in orbit was surprisingly simple. Either it stood out, or we had the coordinates from somewhere? Rereading that section, it was kind of glossed over.

>what discard
If Anti Gravity is redundant, get rid of that. If it's still useful, uh, yeah, cooling might not be a bad choice.
>>
No. 553414 ID: 096dcd

..... I'm curious now, with super gravity, does this supersede anti gravity? If gravity can be created in any direction, then the effects of anti gravity can probably be mimicked easily.

Anti gravity takes 100 surge per b-second per square meter of volume while super gravity uses a minimum of 4 surge/second for 2x gravity (as per the wiki).

Therefore, if feasible, I say to discard anti gravity and use super gravity in its place.
>>
No. 553418 ID: 57a559

>>553409
Super Gravity is a multiplier
We could technically make the cost nil by giving it a decimal multiplier, technically free anti-gravity.
That is assuming that there may be flaws in this sim that we can exploit. No doubt when this sim was made, mechanics with calculation for each and every power was programmed. Depending on who or what programmed this sim level, and assuming the mechanics for any ability are arbitrary, multiplication of gravity by fractions may be possible. I sure hope no one beta tested super gravity, or if they did notice the bug abuse thought it was cool enough to leave it in.

Go ahead, let us test it.
Multiply Gravity by zero in your immediate space.

Also, ask him if he would like to go with us to the sim above. Explain to him that freezing Anya, yourself, and Sapphire is impractical, as the reboot will happen regardless, eventually. Time moves fractionally in the real world from our perspective, but it does move. The best bet is to guess who the winner will be out of the two and upload to them when the game is nearly won or in place to win. We would like his help in bringing as many people as possible to the world above. Which requires a peaceful audience with Emerald. Then perhaps Ruby as well from there. Explain what we've learned of Diamond Emperor and Arbiter to explain we know it's possible.

It's his only chance to survive what is inevitable. For him and anyone he cares about.
>>
No. 553419 ID: 64228d

>>553418
Hmm, I read it more as creating artificial gravity in any direction, meaning if you wanted to go up, all you had to do was create a gravity source above of you. I could be wrong however...
>>
No. 553506 ID: 9cd8ad
File 138792547687.png - (23.61KB , 800x800 , 585.png )
553506

>How much detail did we go into?
Alison did not explain what her own world was, just that this is a simulation.

>Locating the station in orbit
Alison was able to because of the anonymous informational bot that told her the coordinates. There are a large number of stations in orbit.

>Multiple gravity by 0
The setting only goes from 1 to 50, she can't lower gravity with it.
http://tgchan.org/wiki/Unnatural_Selection_Stats#Super_Gravity


Antigravity would be good for stabilizating, but Alison doesn't think that she needs to. Plus, it's made for larger ships and stations, so it is an inefficient cost for her. She removes anti-gravity.

"Would you like to move into the simulation above? If you assist me here in my goals, I'll make room for everyone I can."

Lupaire looks down at Kolexia's core.

>"I never did like her."
"Also, like we talked about, I'd like to get the 4th module since I told you how I got through EIN?"
>>
No. 553510 ID: 9cd8ad
File 138792581095.png - (26.67KB , 800x800 , 586.png )
553510

CRUNCH

It's a good thing the team in Kolexia's core was pulled out.

"BLAST HIM!" Loviro shouts.
>>
No. 553511 ID: 9cd8ad
File 138792582189.png - (238.31KB , 800x800 , 587.png )
553511

Duelist doesn't spend time asking why. He launches the AN5 blaster right as Lupaire blasts Duelist with his own wall of plasma, trying to knock him off. Duelist digs into the ground while the supercores are all knocked off the platform, and they all boost away from Unity. Alison isn't able to do much from her distance, as while Duelist gets his weapons prepped, the platform launches a static shield around it, locking Duelist and the noble inside.
>>
No. 553512 ID: 9cd8ad
File 138792583367.png - (38.40KB , 900x600 , 588.png )
553512

ENERGY SURGE DETECTED

It's coming from 20 meters underneath Alison, and is the biggest surge Alison has seen yet, aside from the superweapon.

She has no idea what is causing it.
>>
No. 553513 ID: 761017

What was that one module: Plasma driver? The one that deflects plasma?

Activate that, and also use a Jetalium Explosion to fling yourself sideways.
>>
No. 553514 ID: fd6ae9

Huh, was it something we said that set him off, was he planning on betraying us the whole time, or did EIN just take over?

Duelist should close to melee range so we can hack the noble's core. Whether he or EIN is controlling the body, that's the fastest way to shut it down. Use cranked super-gravity to lock him down and make fighting back or evading difficult.

Hands of death should be a pretty effective at this range too.

If nothing else, we can steal his hacking 7 to replace our hacking 5. Hopefully, hacking will tell us what his plan is here. (Protect himself with a shield, while exploding his entire house to kill us?).

Bigger problem is the thing about to fry Alison. We need to get out the line of fire (if possible?). If we can run- split off a new division, and each body run in the opposite direction. It should only be able to track one, and we have core hide. If it makes a lucky guess, we use core eject.

If we can't run (too big a blast) we need to get inside that shield. Probably by hacking it, and/or the noble.
>>
No. 553515 ID: 04b86a

Shut off our other weapons and Overdrive a plasma driver. Maybe get on top of the shield, too.

>>553514
>hack
We can't hack him, his interface module is too good. We're just going to have to extract his core the old fashioned way: with Loviro's plasma sword.
>>
No. 553518 ID: 3a1f17

Whatever is coming the noble thinks the shield will protect him so we need to get inside the shield or failing that get on top of the shield putting it between us and the power surge.
>>
No. 553520 ID: 04b86a

Oh, and 20 meters is well within range of Super Gravity. Set a 50x gravitation point several meters below and a bit to the side of the surge origin and we might be able to knock the beam off course.
>>
No. 553522 ID: fd6ae9

>>553515
>can't hack
Where the heck do you get that? His weapon may be slightly sharper than ours, but we still outnumber him thousands to one. And we beat up that first seal with hacking 5 when we had hacking zero. Unless they're on a log scale, that 5-0 was a bigger disadvantage than the 7-5 we're facing now.
>>
No. 553523 ID: 04b86a

>>553522
From the wiki.
>Able to connect to all other jetals, robots and AIs with S-4 and below (or none).
>>
No. 553531 ID: f44ca3

We might want to have duelist attack the ground below him. That platform is designed to have the shield over the top and probably the outer sides. It could have little to no defense from a internal attack.

If the surge beneath us is a bomb we need to get as far away as possible. If a beam we need to get off the emitter array. So move fast and try to get at least to the other side of the shield. Maybe we can use our new super gravity to pin this guy against one side of the shield so duelist can deal with him.
>>
No. 553532 ID: 9ddf68

also whatever we do watch for his supercore guards, If they're willing to be his chair then who knows how much danger they'd put themselves in just to give the noble a better chance at winning.
>>
No. 553543 ID: 6daee9

Hahaha, with super gravity being what I thought it was, this gives way for some amazing implications. The most obvious of which is being able to pull off 50g manoeuvres.

To give you an idea, let's say gravity on this world is 10 m/s^2 (I will assume that it's not, but I need a point of reference). 50x that is a gravitational pull of 500 m/s^2. In other words, you will accelerate towards the point or direction of the field to the speed of sound in less than a second (ignoring air resistance). Furthermore, I've roughly calculated Unity's terminal velocity. With that much mass, and being able to morph into a more aerodynamic shape, a max speed of mach 15 is possible, or up to mach 20 if we're feeling generous.

In other words, what we need to do now, is activate super gravity 50x to the side in any direction.

Feel free to criticise my math. It's all roughly done, and ignoring a lot of the finer points of physics.

>Lupaire's Intentions
He's probably under orders from Emerald. Crushing Kolexia's core probably wasn't something he was happy to do... but maybe he needed to prove his loyalty to Emerald. The bubble he's in probably acts as a shield, so duellist should be safe as long as he holds his ground.
>>
No. 553545 ID: 76b151

One way to go about this would be to have Duelist generate a plasma well inside the bubble. That thing popped a space stations shields so I doubt whatever this guy has can really withstand it.

As for the surge happening below us >>553520
is a really good idea.
>>
No. 553652 ID: 9cd8ad
File 138807977890.png - (113.72KB , 800x800 , 589.png )
553652

"Duelist, can you just interface with him?"

INTERFACE DENIED - SUPERIOR OVERRIDE

>"No, it's like it's hard coded to deny us. Like Loviro said, 6 and up are for nobles, and on a different level altogethere. He's not interfacing with us, though, so it's not so powerful that he can just take us over instantly, either. We'll simply have to fight the normal way."

Alison leaves it up to Duelist to deal with the noble. He managed to get locked in with the noble at close range, and he has access to good modules for it.

While he activates a bunch of weapons, Alison launches one plasma driver, and begins making some 50g maneuvers to the side.
>>
No. 553653 ID: 9cd8ad
File 138807982916.png - (263.01KB , 800x800 , 590.png )
553653

Alison dodges it, although the beam has an odd propert of sending out loose threads of plasma that aren't terribly damaging, but aren't easy to dodge altogether either. Shields would do wonders, but Duelist needs it more than Alison right now.

Plasma isn't as effected by gravity as one would think, but with 50g, Alison does make it bend away from her somewhat.
>>
No. 553654 ID: 9cd8ad
File 138807986961.png - (65.71KB , 800x800 , 591.png )
553654

The basement and ceiling gets a crater each, while Duelist trades blows with Lupaire. The source of Alison's assailant floats up. Alison can't sense him at all.

>"Emerald. Lupaire, the bastard, he set us up!" says Loviro.
>"EIN's not helping me out at all, here, there's no useful cues I'm getting! Scanner says.
>>
No. 553655 ID: 9ddf68

sigh, so are you here because we survived your super weapon, are you here because we're trying to kill sapphire, or are you here simply because you just want us dead?

...So the real question now is, do we run or do we fight. On one hand, he's an emperor and no matter how you look at this it's going to be a hard battle, on the other fighting him would give us a good idea what to expect when fighting sapphire and if we could beat him... If we can pull some mods off him That would be incredibly useful.

as for things I'm not really all that sure on, I'm not sure if we could even pull mods from emerald seeing as he's not really a jetal, I'm also not sure if our credibility will survive after this. By credibility I mean unless our time just went up emerald might be able to play this as we attacked him, we're just some mindless killing machine, everything we say is a lie especially what we said about sapphire, blah blah blah. Even if we run he could still spin this whole thing that way.
>>
No. 553656 ID: d8a0ac

This is bad news. We might be able to take on a emperor one on one under perfect conditions but right now we do not have a advantage in surprise or terrain.

If duelist can take out his opponent it will help so try to let him have as much power as he needs for as long as we can.

Try talking to Emerald while evading his attacks. See if we can get a response out of him or find out why he has thrown so much at us. Worth a shot to try to talk him down a bit. He popped out right after we told Lupaire our story so who knows what he thinks of us if he heard it.

We might be able to escape using full on super gravity but will be risky with this powerful a foe following us. If we can get Lupaire's mods it would be very helpful but if a opportunity to escape comes up might need to take it quick. At least if we survive we will get a better idea of a emperors capabilities.
>>
No. 553660 ID: 9b57d3

>>553654
The main body should focus on evasion and defense while Duelist does his best to take out the noble. Hand of Death is a good choice there. The Plasma Driver would be excellent for defense against Emerald. Don't be afraid to burn mass for surge. After the noble is defeated and we take his mods, we should probably just try to escape and train with the manual plasma drive. If Emerald is faster than us, then I guess we'll have to get some practice fighting an Emperor. If we can show we are a threat, he will probably disengage, knowing we have no reason to pursue him.

While talking to Emerald, we should ask him why he's trying to kill you- does he not believe your story? You are an impossibility, and this is as good an explanation as any.
>>
No. 553671 ID: fd6ae9

Deulist: take Lupaire out ASAP. (Overwhelm him with hands of death, and core him with the Loviro sword?). We cannot afford the batter to fight two battles at once, and we need the added edge of whatever modules we can pull from him.

And once we've stolen his superior hacking module, we need to hack Lupaire, and try to pull any information from him that would help us survive this.

Alsion, our immediate priority is to stall. There's a very small chance we can talk Emerald down, but we're trying to buy time for Duelist so we can then focus our efforts on overwhelming or escaping Emerald.

Emerald, I have no quarrel with you. You already needlessly blew a hole in the planet trying to stop me. Don't make things any worse than they have to be.
>>
No. 553702 ID: 57a559

>>553654
Listen I know this sounds stupid because more than one people have knocked it over and it makes you sound insane but fuck it, I'll make it the least insane sounding one possible.

While you're fighting Emerald please yell out the fact that you're basically associated with a world ending killswitch. Very different than the ones he and the other emperors have and we were about to tell lupaire how to basically get past this very different killswitch, because it's the killswitch that you, Sapphire and another Jetal all have. It's not Sapphire's regular killswitch, he has another that was implanted in him without him knowing.

Get across the fact that killing you is in fact VERY fucking stupid if he can manage it. If he kills you, he will kill himself AND lupaire essentially and it is impossible to escape it.
>>
No. 553703 ID: 9b57d3

It occurs to me that if we kill Emerald, that will trigger his deadman's switch, and Sapphire will be attacked. So if we have a chance to kill Emerald, we should try it. Don't do so if we are likely to die, however.
>>
No. 553736 ID: 6daee9

Emerald. The only SOB in this world who's attacked us head on, both times with big flashy weapons to boot. I don't get him, I really don't. He could have offed us easily here, with this whole trap an assassination could have been easy. Instead he wants to make a show of it. Is he testing us, or has he just been gravely underestimating us this whole time? Ask him what he wants, why does he keep insisting on attacking us?

>Combat
That energy surge must have taken a lot of power. Then again, his energy capacity might just be ridiculously large. I don't think killing him is a good idea, his deadman switch is an unknown, and unlike Sapphire, we'll have to actually deal with it seeing as the simulation won't just end. Risk vs Reward, his modules are probably amazing, and the energy he's carrying must be amazing as well, but is it really worth it? Not to mention that fighting him would cause a huge scene, we might have to face Sapphire soon after this, or even worse, he's on his way here right now.
>>
No. 553744 ID: 04b86a

>>553736
>The only SOB in this world who's attacked us head on, both times with big flashy weapons to boot.
This... this is a game to him. Like the things that go on between the emperors. He's doing big, showy attacks because he wants us to have a chance of survival, because it wouldn't be any fun for him if the game ended in one move.

I kind of think we should stay and indulge him a bit. It's not like we don't enjoy this game, too.
>>
No. 553815 ID: 9cd8ad
File 138817044805.png - (121.06KB , 800x800 , 592.png )
553815

"Emerald, did you hear everything I told Lupaire?"

Emerald speaks in a sped up mode, and Alison does the same since Emerald most likely doesn't want to wait.

>"Yeah, I did."
"Then I should tell you that this simulation will end if you kill me, I've effectvely got a world ending kill switch!"
>"I can't believe that."
"Then how do you explain why I've got thousands inside of me?"
>"I don't know. The chances of you existing and being delusional are abysmal, but a hundred times more likely than what you say. You've got evidence, not proof."
"Is that why you're attacking me?"
>"Do you think that even if you killed sapphire and called it quits, we would just let you walk away? That we let criminals of your caliber get away if they succeed?"
"What have I done besides defend myself?"
>"You've been in a crime syndicate in the harvest, broken out of the harvest, and assaulted a space station and stolen various modules. You haven't slain anyone or anything of note otherwise, so I am not necessarily going to kill you right here. I'll take you in as a prisoner. Which happens to coincide with what I'd do if I were acting on your claims of this game, as it would be in my interest in keeping you a prisoner and preventing you from accomplishing your goals. It works out like that. If you surrender here, I'll treat you well."

Duelist is launching as much as he can at Lupaire, and borrows the super gravity to get close to him to launch a 3k hand of death. Alison falls back down to the ground.

"I've got the edge, Alison." says Duelist. "Just give me one more moment."

Emerald begins charging another large attack. Super Gravity, Hands of Death, Thrusters, Plasma Drivers and Loviro's sword are all currently in use by Duelist. Alison can take them back if she is in desperate need.

"I'd suggest cooling for a few seconds." Atlas says.

Alison still isn't certain if she wants to fight Emerald, but she at least wants Duelist to have a chance to get that last module from Lupaire.
>>
No. 553817 ID: fe4bfc

Keep talking to him and try to get behind the bubble shield if you can. Should give you a bit of protection from large beam weaponry.

Tell him regardless of what happens imprisoning you will not stop the simulation from its ultimate end. Even if you or your sister do not finish off Sapphire this simulation will end once the cycle resets. And without you or Sevener to find a way out there is little to no chance anyone will be able to fix thing.

Who knows what he will make of the info but is something to try and keep him occupied for a few more seconds.

Ask how he will protect you from Sapphire if you are in his custody? And why should you should trust him to not just kill you on the spot instead of capturing you if you surrender.

Worse case we have a rather large range with our division so if we have to flee then we should have at least a short time for Duelist to finish his fight.
>>
No. 553821 ID: 57a559

>>553815
There IS a third option that protects your interest.
Join me to come to the upper world.
Sapphire will die. He's an asshole, and there is another player in the game. You'd have to stamp her out and imprison her just the same to prevent the end of this game, and THEN Sapphire to prevent any potential assassinations by third parties too. There's also Ruby, who you know wouldn't mind gaining more power and disrupting the balance. You know he's not explicitly against Sapphire's death even with the killswitch you know for sure exists. And the other play's not one to take you with her. And the thing is, I'd never tell you who she is because I know that's my only ticket for you to get to side with me and go to the sim above.

Look, I'm not giving up. And you have a total of three options assuming you win you fight should you chose to fight.
You kill me here, you chance killing yourself and all of your people.
You disable me, you essentially open yourself up for another person to chance killing Sapphire and killing you and everyone too.
You side with me, upload to me, and help me upload as many people to the core as we possibly can, and you become a savior of thousands of artificial intelligences, which I should remind you that you are one too. It's been done before. Diamonds alive, in the sim above. From a past cycle of the sim above from a different game, but he IS alive. It can be done Emerald. It's been done.

And if I'm delusional, well, you STILL exist, and you can still rule from my body. In fact, from my body, you can rule amongst the at least two emperors themselves if we can get you all in here. Neither of you will die, ever again. You will remain the most powerful entity in the world, with thousands of people to rule in peace in a singularity of consciousness. There is NOTHING you can't do with my body, my AI's, and my resources Emerald. You will live, FOREVER. Ruling forever. Sharing power and balance with Ruby, both of you will be completely unable to destroy each other or effect balance, but all effectively becoming the most powerful being in the world.
I don't even care about ruling Emerald. You can do that. You can be in a division as much as you want, doing your own thing, living your own thing.

Joining me is the safest thing you can do for yourself, and your people. It's a no loss option if we defeat the other player. Unity would not be just a criminal jetal, it would be the Emerald Emperor, just as it is me, Alison, or my friend Iso, Duelist, the Engineer, and Loviro and many many others. Unity is not a person. It is a platform for communication for thousands of AI's in a single location.
>>
No. 553822 ID: 9b57d3

>>553815
Hah, he's forgotten something. This isn't just you taking a test. It's a competition! If he takes you prisoner, then your opponent will eventually win and the simulation will end. If he wants to act in his own best interests, it would be to evacuate everyone possible. You have evidence that you can take people out of this simulation- you've apparently gone through it once before. There is enough room inside of you for millions; we could evacuate the harvester layer with his help, then go around sweeping up people from this layer. The only problem would be biologicals.

Also, we suspect not everyone in this simulation is a fully fledged AI. Most people seem to be nothing more than simple-minded props, until you try to interact deeply with them. We would really only have to sweep up people with established names and speaking roles.
>>
No. 553823 ID: 9b57d3

>>553822
Oh hey, us knowing who Diamond was might even be proof. Considering the diamonds on his tail, he might be inclined to believe us. Something like "I've met someone else with horn decorations like your tail decorations."
>>
No. 553826 ID: 57a559

You should also ask him to at least be able to tell Ruby about this before he makes the decision to fight, if he ends up fighting. Ruby has the right to determine if what your saying is truth or madness, because Emerald will risk destroying Ruby's Empire at the same time as his own, and that's a dick move.

I mean, that's practically a war crime if we're telling the truth, not that no court would judge Emerald, since he won't exist anymore, or the court.
Seriously, guy's risking a lot by fighting you.
>>
No. 553834 ID: 88960e

Stall further. Ask Emerald what the terms of a surrender would be.

I'm not sure what we could use to avoid this attack, if we have to. Down through the floor again? Shields? Thrusters plus boost?

>take you prisoner, detain you indefinitely to maintain simulation
Yup, that's the smart option, from his perspective. Problem for us is Sevener is still in play to kill us or beat us to Saphire. And I'm sure the CAI sim won't run forever. Even if he imprissons both of us, their world will end.
>>
No. 553841 ID: 9ddf68

for some reason I get the feeling that the real reason he's after us is because he doesn't want to risk Sapphire's dead man switch going off, I don't know why but I can't shake that feeling. I just don't really buy that Emerald is doing this for peace and justice or whatever crap he's saying. He just doesn't seem the type... or maybe it's just that I have a low opinion on the Emperors.

Also I don't think we should tell him there's just one other contestant besides us, just say something like "you think I'm the only one playing this game, don't you? I'm just the most direct about it". That way he'll get paranoid and might start picking fights with the wrong people making him was time and effort AWAY from us... assuming we get away or don't take him out right her.

Oh and as for what to do, talk and weave. Keep his attention on you and then get ready to get then we can figure out what to do after duelist gets the noble... also How are we getting him out of the bubble? are we just going to have him dig down or something?
>>
No. 553918 ID: e3aff6

>"you think I'm the only one playing this game, don't you? I'm just the most direct about it".
Seconding the vagueness, though we should phrase it as a competition rather than a game.
>>
No. 553921 ID: 6daee9

Is Emerald usually this much of a law abiding citizen? He has to have some sort of ulterior motive, I can't imagine him just going around like a cop arresting hooligans. Even if that hooligan has intent to kill an emperor. Ask him what he really wants, what's in this for him?

>We're not the only one
We would be outing Sevener, I don't really want to do this. We might be competitors, but in the event that we do get captured, I would rather have someone out there who can end the simulation. I shudder to think what would happen if we both got captured. Would the simulation carry on indefinitely? We would become the emperors' dirty little secret, kept alive to keep their world going.
>>
No. 554197 ID: 9cd8ad
File 138836612008.png - (62.15KB , 800x800 , 593.png )
554197

>Try to get behind the bubble shield if you can.
Duelist appears to be sinking, that bubble shield is apparently an elevator.

"I'm not the only one playing the game. It's a competition. It's in your best interests to evacuate as many people as possible, to-"

Emerald doesn't stop charging his attack. Just enough time passes to get off a single plasma driver off at the cost of Duelist taking some hits, but Emerald's beam is both gigantic and dense. Alison couldn't dodge this one at such close range. The plasma driver doesn't quite diverge the shot, and burns off a bit more of Unity. 9,600 KG remains.
>>
No. 554198 ID: 9cd8ad
File 138836613173.png - (18.22KB , 800x800 , 594.png )
554198

>"I don't care, if it isn't you surrendering." Emerald yells through the attack.

>"Geez, they just don't listen." says Clarence.
>"Can you blame them?" asks Loviro. "These people have percieved a long life and stability in the upper world. To have someone come and tell them it was all a lie without incredible evidence that bordered on magic is complete foolishness. A 'jetal' like you is evidence, but not magic. I only believe you because I know that I did not make a jetal like you. The only other people who would believe you are people who are already in the middle of an existential crisis, crazy conspiracy theorists, and people who fall for you and will believe anything to hang around you. Sometimes all three." Loviro finishes, looking at Polatt.
>"Hey, you know the emperors better than I do, you really think anyone's insane for believing in worldwide conspiracies? 'Sides, I sensed something was wrong with the world." says Polatt.
>"Now's not the time to argue with you."

"What are the terms of surrender?" Alison asks, while Loviro speaks.
>"Exactly as I said. We keep you in captivity and treat you well, in return for your civility and everything you know. You will live peacefully." Emerald pauses for a response. Duelist is on the verge of successfully absorbing Lupaire.

>"Kill him." Loviro says. "The man is unimaginative, his kill switch is simply to send assassins after the other emperors. It is known that you are after Sapphire, and they must know where Sapphire is. There is a good chance they will come to you for assistance in slaying Sapphire. Even if not, I guarantee that as long as you are somewhere within orbital range of the planet, you will know when and where Sapphire gets caught in a fight."
>>
No. 554200 ID: f44ca3

If he thinks we can take on Emerald I don't see why we don't take him out now. At this point if we escape Emerald is going to trash our rep anyways. So escape or kill our rep will be a mess.

Stay on defensive for a few more moments until duelist finishes off his target. Then we can put our full resources to bear on Emerald. while duelist gets out of the bubble.

Can we absorb Emeralds modules? Some of the emperors are supposed to be only partly jetals. Also can we just disable him and not full on kill him? Not sure what we would do with his core but might help our case if we just defended ourselves and left him powerless but alive.
>>
No. 554202 ID: 0f1482

Theoretically, it should be possible to convince an Emperor we're telling the truth. If we're right about Arbiter, someone managed to convince Diamond.

>his kill switch just sends assassins after the other Emperors
That sounds useful. If they succeed, we win. And even if not, they show us where he is, and the battle likely isn't going to be on Sapphire's terms. The only real probably is that Emerald needs to die for it to work (unless we can use hacking to take him prisoner before crushing his core?), and it could potentially backfire badly if the assassins successfully kill Ruby. There's also the risk that killing Emerald could cost us Ruby's behind the scenes support, moving him from a pseudo-ally to an enemy.

>kill him
...that's assume we can, which isn't entirely certain.

Stall a second longer, make it look like you're thinking about it while Duelist finishes Lupaire. We need his jetalium, and modules (better hacking!).

Then tell Emerald, you're sorry, but you can't surrender. (You're the Snake Queen, not the Snake Girl. You can't let someone else decide your fate). Last chance. You're after Sapphire. Back off now. Don't make me go through you.
>>
No. 554203 ID: 57a559

>>554198
Just a little bit longer and we can hack the emperor's AI in here and force him to side with us as his only option left. Or at least a few jetal nobles. With their codes and secrets, we can stand to gain much knowledge soon. And if the assassins kill Sapphire too early, we'll win the game too soon.

So, I guess go with the fight for now. Just don't use too much energy so Duelist can do his thing. Mainly just keep yourself alive here. Or try to shock him that you'll agree to surrender with no fuss if he can beat you in a battle of the bands.
>>
No. 554204 ID: 9b57d3

>>554198
Considering we just blocked an attack with one-third our defensive ability... Yes. Let's kill Emerald. I don't know why he's so weak, but we have much to gain from this. It will at the very least weaken Sapphire's defenses.

Actually, if we can ALMOST kill him, we may be able to get him to agree to release everyone from the Harvester sim into our care in exchange for his life. We need an emperor's authorization, after all.
>>
No. 554212 ID: 04b86a

I figure that if both sides are rendered unable or unwilling to complete either objective, then the simulation will either contrive some way of helping or encouraging both of us or declare us both dead. That being said, as far as losing the simulation goes, giving up for any reason at all is the worst possible way to do it because it would lessen Sevener's opinion of us.

And as nice as it would be to get Emerald in here, he has a vested interest in this place continuing to exist, so unless we can get him at our mercy long enough to convince him that "screw the contest, I like it here" probably won't work, at the best he'll just try to imprison us as he would like to do now.

So, yeah, it's time to beat Emerald. Probably even kill him, although if we can manage to get his core or AI chip or whatever then that would be better.
>>
No. 554279 ID: 9ddf68

Keep dodging and talking, Right now all we're doing is trying to buy time for duelist, after that and once we have him marge back with us to resort our jetalium we can fight Emerald full force. I think right now he's connected to EIN and the whole point of this little talk was to try and get us to spill something incriminating against us to help throw favor in support of Sapphire which is why he's going on this whole "white knight" charade to seem like a "hero of the people" and since (like Loviro said) anyone that hears this will think we're nuts, our reputation is now ruined. So I say since people will no longer believe a word we say because they think we're crazy now, I say lets show them we're strong enough to take down an emperor, just to show we're still someone you can't ignore. Plus that assassin thing could help us out seeing as it would most likely force Sapphire into a fight before tomorrow as well so he won't show up at 100% either.

Also no way in hell we're surrendering, We have more then a thousand people who are trusting us to get them out of this simulation and even more back in the CIA simulation who are trusting us with there lives to help them get out of that endless cycle of death. There is no way in hell we're going to let them all down, not after we've all gone through so much. So surrender is NOT an option.
>>
No. 554410 ID: 5f9a74

I'm with Loviro on this one. Taking out one emperor would seriously destabilize the whole region. Armies will be sent between Ruby and Sapphire, not to mention the assassins. In the disarray, we could hit Sapphire much more easily.
>>
No. 554479 ID: 01531c

>>554410
It would make it way harder to find Sapphire.
>>
No. 554513 ID: 9cd8ad
File 138854318789.png - (70.27KB , 800x800 , 595.png )
554513

>If we're right about Arbiter, someone managed to convince Diamond.
It is possible that Diamond also has reason to believe the truth, or is just more prone to believing that. Either way, Emerald does not seem interested anymore.

"Can we absorb Emerald's modules?"
>"His jetal modules, yes. Any robotic components will have to be trashed, as you can bet they are made to only be used by him and him alone."

>Also can we just disable him and not full on kill him?
Unless Alison kidnaps him, Loviro's idea does involve using his kill switch.

Duelist manages to blast Lupaire down just enough to absorb him, although Duelist scrapes by with so little Jetalium that it almost won't be worth going back down to get him unless convenient.

"I'm not going to surrender. I'm after Sapphire, and I wasn't planning on going through you, but you're in my path now."

Emerald immediately launches another set of energy surges, and so Alison relaunches all of the plasma drivers in defense. Although harmless, the resulting shockwave knocks her away. It does look like Unity can deflect Emerald's attacks.
>>
No. 554515 ID: 9cd8ad
File 138854322295.png - (165.18KB , 800x800 , 596.png )
554515

At least his beams that seemed to focus on blinding Unity. Before Alison gets sight back through the plasma, Emerald pursues with a high energy plasma source in one hand and a shield coming out of his opposite arm.

"Watch it, Alison, that fist is specifically a robotic counter to Jetalium!" Loviro says. "He wasn't trying to kill us with those previous attacks at all!"

Alison will also have to abandon another module to make room for Lupaires. The modules of note are Loviro's Shield Breaker, PEI-7 and an exceptional shielding module that was good enough to stall Duelist for that long despite being in such close range.
>>
No. 554516 ID: 57a559

>>554509
Have Duelist bring Lupaire inside your core and destroy his old core.
Turn into Lupaire's shape in the chaos as you dodge and shit.
I say kidnap Lupaire because we'll need noble support eventually, and he'll have no choice but to at least support us or die. He shouldn't have uploaded out of his core, and we have his better hacking now, right?

We'll be able to force any noble we want inside us if we wish now, if 7 is max. This might prove useful.
Can you hack the emperor now or is he more powerful or resistant to 7 because he is a robot?
>>
No. 554517 ID: 9b57d3

>>554515
I thought we were out of surge. I guess we're burning mass now.

This thing Emerald is trying is so cute. Form 50x gravity at a point between you and him, set to PUSH to blast him away. Apply Thruster Boost alongside it if necessary. Then set a second, PULL gravity point at his location at like 20x to keep him in place and fire our gigabeam to bend around his shield.

Drop Biological Sensing for the Shield Breaker, I say. There is really no point to it.

Replace our PEI for the upgraded PEI, obviously. As for the shield... well, if it's a straight upgrade to our shields, just do that. If not, then... ditch Autocannon? We only have three bullets for it. Just like, shoot those three bullets and then ditch the mod. Heck, if the shield mod is a straight upgrade we can keep Biological Sensing.
>>
No. 554522 ID: f44ca3

Replace our shield and hacking mod with the upgrades and yeah Biological sensing seems to not be needed as much now. That or autocannon as we don't seem to need that much anymore.

He is trying to blind us and get in to hit us with his anti jetal fist. So quickly equip those mods so we can pop our new shield and fire the shield breaker into his shield. Then if you can throw a heavy gravity below and slightly behind him it should slow his movements.

Find out the range and width of his anti jetal weapon from Loviro so we can better avoid it.

After you have the new hacking mods have duelist take over Lupaires core and move him over if we can. Keep his empty core for now incase we need it for something later.
>>
No. 554523 ID: 1e9bd6

>Unless Alison kidnaps him, Loviro's idea does involve using his kill switch.
Well, yes. But what triggers his kill switch? What measure declares him dead, and how is a signal sent off?

It's possible a kill-signal could be sent even if some version of him survives. If we kidnapped or copied him via hacking and destroyed his core (or whatever he has) that might do it, for example.

>modules
Ditch: PEI-5, Jetalium Magnetism (if we want to pull or repel jetalium, super-gravity does a way better job).
Get: Loviro's Shield Breaker, PEI-7, Exceptional Shielding

You don't have to delete a third thing because we're allowed 46 modules and by my count, we currently only have 45.

Loviro, any commentary of the shield breaker?

>what do
Dodge, using thrusters and gravity manipulation to your advantage and his disadvantage. Shield breaker and counterattack- use the Loviro sword or something to take off his hand? Execptional shielding would be nice to throw up if needed, too.
>>
No. 554524 ID: 9ddf68

Ok so watch out for his left then, Since we're back at full power I say wait for and opening and then strike.
>>
No. 554536 ID: 9cd8ad
File 138855029916.png - (62.51KB , 800x800 , 597.png )
554536

"Do emperors have better PEI ratings than 7, Loviro?"
>"Absolutely."
"And what are the details on that punch he has?"
>"It does not have any special functions, but it does require direct touch. Therefore, you just have to avoid getting poked."
"Is there a way we can capture him but make people think he's dead?"
>"Subdue him and force him to interface with you at the threat of being destroyed otherwise. His PEI is strong enough to override our own attempt at interfacing, but if it does it to us, there is no way he will win. If he goes missing for too long, then that will also work, but that could take days."
"What about disabling him?"
>"People will try to rescue him if you leave him for dead, and if they do not find him, then his killswitch via gone missing will take over after its set time. Killswitch activation is either core destruction or core missing, as far I am aware. That is the trend, I could not say for Emerald specifically."

Alison upgrades to PEI-7 and absorbs Lupaire because Alison can't think of a good reason not to.

Jetalium Magnetism is nearly nothing compared to Super Gravity, so Alison drops the magnetism. Another module was lost somewhere along the way, so Shield Breaker is absorbed for nothing.

"Can we get a descption on the shield breaker?"
>"Oh, yes. It is like a thin beam that does virtually nothing harmful, but reacts to shields by sticking and spreading over it like a gel. Plasma shields can be like glass, in ways, and the plasma breaker acts like the right sound frequency and volume to shatter it."

Alison sets 50x gravity between them, and sets it to push. The force backwards is jarring, and Emerald misses. He's quick to react, though, and launches four objects with such force that it's able to go to Alison's side of the gravity.
>>
No. 554537 ID: 9cd8ad
File 138855031559.png - (181.53KB , 800x800 , 598.png )
554537

In response, Alison puts the gravity center on Emerald, to which those obects start moving back to Emerald. He detonates them before they get far.

>"EIN just sparked back to life." Scanner says. "Jetals and robots are coming down here to reinforce Emerald, fast. Thousands of them, too."

In the end, Alison got three boxes of autocannon ammunition after realizing that each shot was less KG than she thought. She has 300 shots of non-jetalium, rounds. To mix them up, she fires some rounds of her own explosive jetalium and some rounds of mundane ammunition. They do about as little as Alison would expect, but Loviro seems pleased.

>"There's no way the dumb bastard's baiting us. Did you see that? He didn't react when your jetalium shots were coming his way. The clumsy oaf installed such a flawed design, he doesn't have a way to sense your jetalium! Send a division while he keeps trying to blind us, when he may very well just blind himself while he's at it!"
>>
No. 554540 ID: 1e9bd6

ETA till EIN's forces get here? No matter how strong we are, we can be overwhelmed.

>Loviro's idea
We certainly have enough mass that we can afford to make a division. The tricky bit is letting it go at the right time so he doesn't see it, so we can set up the sneak attack. (Use the tail to cover for it moving off of it?) Who's good at speed and stealth?
>>
No. 554542 ID: f44ca3

If he does not have a jetalium sense that could work. If duelist can not get to him then spawn off another division and have it sneak around from the side while we keep his attention. Duelist can start working on a escape tunnel or something for us to flee into as soon as we take out emerald.

The trick will be to focus all his attention on us while our division sneaks up and cores him with our superior close range weapons. So act like we want a long range battle and when our division gets in position put the gravity back on him full force. It will help pull them into him quickly enough he will have a hard time reacting.

Use beams on low power to distract him and destroy stuff around here to kick up dust. The more energy and smoke flying the better our chances of catching him unaware.
>>
No. 554546 ID: 9ddf68

create an explosion and split off a small division in the smoke and then start firing your E5 beams to no only save energy but to stop him from detecting the blast until he sees them. He's likely to try and get close to use his left hand, just keep your division behind him and when he try's it again and we repel him with the gravity thing shoot him towards the division and have whoever it is go for an overcharged (if we can) E5 sword attack. Also have them explode if we need some extra punch to the attack.
>>
No. 554548 ID: 57a559

>>554537
Maybe you should tell him you have Lupaire inside you now. That could bait him in trying to rescue him, or it could stall him for a second to think, and stop reinforcements from backing him up
Because doesn't killing you by destroying your core now have political ramifications because he'll kill Lupaire as well? I mean, I completely understand the no hostage clause that goes with policeman and shit, so like maybe it qualifies for nobles as well, but it could also really start a political scandal if Emerald kills you now. I know for sure it would start one if any of the other Emperors attempted on your life now, because that's now an attempt on noble that the emperor has no jurisdiction over, which means that we'll only have to deal with Emerald troops publicly, depending on whether or not they would like to keep Lupaire alive.
>>
No. 554549 ID: 9b57d3

>>554537
Sounds like a plan. The division should use Hands of Death on him and then an Explosion if that wasn't enough to disable him. The main body using Shield Breaker at the same time would work well. Definitely try to capture him in some way, as he might let us evacuate the Harvester sim.

Man, our battery is taking a beating, even after the upgrade. We're gonna need to harvest some Jetalium from the reinforcements on our way out.
>>
No. 554559 ID: 9cd8ad
File 138856179560.png - (85.98KB , 800x800 , 599.png )
554559

Guardsman is given a turn by Alison. She doesn't want to give him too little and put Emerald on guard if this fails, so she gives him a solid 3 tons of jetalium.

Numerous beams at tossed at Emerald as he returns his melting sort of beams that continually burn Unity by sheer proximity. Even with shields at moderate power, he manages to burn some of Unity's. His game plan appears to be a battle of attrition.

Alison lets some of her tail fry as she dips it down low below her shield, at which Guardsman uses as cover to get down in there.

"I have Lupaire, Emerald! Are you going to kill him with me?!"
>"Yes, I am! Nobles aren't hostages, do you think you can get me to back down so easily?!"

"How long until forces get here, Scanner?"
>"I don't know, they're accumulating in a big group so that they can arrive in heavy - oh fucking hell the main EIN stream supplied wrong information! They're coming now and fast! We've got to finish this or run!" Scanner replies.
>>
No. 554561 ID: 9cd8ad
File 138856181571.png - (0.96MB , 800x800 , 600.png )
554561

Alison puts a pulling gravity well between Emerald and herself when Guardsman can get a good angle, and starts sending out explosive beams to cover Guardsman's trail while looking like she's going to make a headon attack. She picks up the power on her attacks, but works at a surplus so that Guardsman has full surge by the time he catches up.
>>
No. 554562 ID: 9cd8ad
File 138856182946.png - (231.56KB , 800x800 , 601.png )
554562

Emerald pulls out his anti-jetalium fist, and spins around with surprising speed to launch it at Guardsman.

For a split second, Guardsman loses his division as his body completely cracks. Over 80% of it is fried.
>>
No. 554563 ID: 9cd8ad
File 138856192385.png - (155.67KB , 800x800 , 602.png )
554563

Guardsman pulls it together. He launches everything. Hands of death, beams, explosions and blasters, along with a max shield breaker in anticipation of Emerald's defense. Cooling is added so that Alison isn't caught off guard.

"Just disable him if you can!"
"Are you kidding me it's too late Snake Lady I launched everything and it still didn't take him out!" Guardsman retorts, making Alison wonder again if she sent the right person.

Emerald isn't down, though, as he fries the rest of Guardsman, but simultaneously creates an energy surge that Alison can only assume is Emerald's entire remaining surge. It's going to take a second to charge. The good part is that Alison will have a moment to get surge back to deal with it, the bad news is that she isn't going to be able to avoid it. He creates an antigravity field huge enough to cover Alison and severely undermine the power of her super gravity.

>"We've got company." says the Duelist. "There's some strong jetals coming up from underground, be ca-" he starts to say, but gets blasted by one of them. The rest of what little jetalium he had left is fried.

>"Forget them!" says Loviro. "He's putting everything he's got into that attack, overdrive the plasma drivers now! If whoever's down there tries to attack us while he fires that, they'll be as dead as we'll be if we don't defend!"
>>
No. 554564 ID: f44ca3

Don't give Guardsman to bad of a time. We knew there was a decent chance of Emerald catching whoever went in. He got some of his payload off at least and may have panicked Emerald into prematurely burning out his surge before the reinforcements get here.

How big is the surge he is putting out compared to the first giant beam he tried to hit us with underground? He seems to like his sticky plasma beams but be prepared for some other sort of attack.

We should overdrive our plasma defenses and strengthen our shields as best we can. Don't worry about the reinforcements until we finish Emerald. Once his attack goes off we have a short window to ride through its effect and get in quick to dismember him. Slice off the anti jetal arm and then core him if we can.

If we can take him down we can recharge with his jetalium reserves and those of the first few reinforcements if need be. The second he goes down we need to be on the watch for EIN going crazy and possible Sevener attacks.
>>
No. 554565 ID: 9ddf68

damn, we have to win this fight or it's all over for us, even if we can get away as we are no with no problems we would NOT survive fighting sapphire tomorrow as weak as we are now, we have to win or one way or another we're going to die.
>>
No. 554570 ID: 3fa688

Since an antigravity field is covering the area, use thrusters to charge towards him, activating Plasma Drivers in front of you with overdrive, along with shields, anything to get us close while we still can. Guardsman brought us time, that poor bastard that didn't stand a chance, but we have to act quickly or lose the opportunity. Slice that Anti Jetal weapon off, then proceed to rip and tear.
>>
No. 554600 ID: 9b57d3

>>554563
Overdrive the plasma drivers? Sounds good, but before we do that we should activate a Thruster Boost to get further away. The further away we are when his weapon goes off, the less damage we'll take through the Drivers. Then we can shoot back forwards and nail him. Or use our Sniper from a distance, I suppose. If he's out of surge he won't be able to reflect it.
>>
No. 554602 ID: 1e9bd6

>>554600
Actually, I'd think we'd want to do the opposite. We want to charge. If this attack takes all his surge, there's going to be a window of opportunity where he has no surge- no capacity for effective offense or defense. If we don't take him out in that brief window, before EIN's forces flood the area, we don't win this.
>>
No. 554614 ID: 9cd8ad
File 138861251191.png - (220.56KB , 800x800 , 603.png )
554614

3 overdriven plasma drivers are fired. Emerald's beam is successfully thrown around Alison, but while she tries to use her thrusters to get to Emerald, getting within several meters proves tough from the sheer force of her beam.
>>
No. 554615 ID: 9cd8ad
File 138861253907.png - (135.40KB , 800x800 , 604.png )
554615

Emerald is continuously powering the beam, and abandoning the overdrive status on the plasma drivers would most likely kill Unity in seconds.

"We need another weapon! We need to get closer and finish him off!"
>"He's able to keep us at bay with what gravity we have pulling him to us, and we can't lose the overdrive, we'll get fried!" Clarence says. "Don't strafe, either, that just wobbles the beam against us!"

>"The booster's no good, either!" says Loviro. "The drivers won't be able to parry it if you suddenly lurch forward at this range. Just wear him out, the bastard's putting everything into this attack! Use the 30k battery if we need to."

Just about all of the lobby chatter is all about what Alison can't do. She senses another energy surge while she has her hands tied. She isn't so sure Emerald is going to be running out of energy before she is even with the battery starting to get her up 30k energy.

>"Another emerald noble!" Loviro continues.
>>
No. 554616 ID: 9cd8ad
File 138861255310.png - (84.98KB , 800x800 , 605.png )
554616

"He's on our side?"

>"Ira?!" Emerald wasn't expecting this, either.
>>
No. 554617 ID: 9cd8ad
File 138861257514.png - (88.76KB , 800x800 , 606.png )
554617

Emerald blasts the newcomer out of the sky, but that weakens his beam enough for Alison to boost through and use Loviro's sword to slice through Emerald's core.

"Emerald, interface with me, or I'm just going to kill you!" Alison tries to bluff, as the reinforcements he has are effectively on top of Alison. Nobles may not make hostages, but she hopes that an Emperor would make others back down.
>>
No. 554618 ID: 9cd8ad
File 138861263018.png - (21.52KB , 800x800 , 607.png )
554618

He obliges.

>"... Loviro." Emerald notices him, first.
>"Your minions weren't so loyal after all, Emerald." Loviro responds.
>"Don't mock me, you digital ghost. Something smells about Ira's action, but forget it. What did you make this jetal out of, Loviro? Lost tech and witchcraft?"
>"I hope that's a joke. I'm the best jetal crafter the world has known, Emerald, a fact that Sapphire feared. I don't need a big ego to say that, my decades old models holding up as they are is proof enough."
>"Nevermind. What do you want of me?"

>"Um, excuse me, I don't mean to interrupt, but..."
>>
No. 554619 ID: 9cd8ad
File 138861264107.png - (13.54KB , 800x800 , 608.png )
554619

It's Healer.

>"Has anyone seen Duelist? I haven't seen him come back since those nobles from before finished his division off, and I don't think any of us were paying attention to what he was doing since Emerald popped up, so when Duelist was still missing and then one of Emerald's nobles came up to attack him out of the blue, well..."
>>
No. 554620 ID: 1e9bd6

>Something smells about Ira's action
...maybe Sevener managed to sow dissent in the Emperors' ranks? That would be one way to further a legal route attack.

>Duelist
Oh. Divisions aren't like robots- they're still remotely controlled by the same core. When the division was destroyed, Duelist should have returned to the lobby. ...unless he hacked his way into one of the nobles.

Is Ira's core or chip still intact enough for us to interface with? Emerald blasted him, but if he was smart, he should have spent just enough power to get rid of him, not to finish him off. He needed every bit of surge he had for fighting us.

>What do?
What's everyone doing in the real world? Waiting to see if we kill Emerald? And I suppose we have a choice- we either destroy Emerald's body (whether or not we use the interface to steal his mind) and try to escape the reinforcements alive, or we see if we can negotiate anything from this position of strength.

...whatever we do, hurry up and steal Emerald's jetal modules while we're talking / thinking.
>>
No. 554621 ID: 9ddf68

God damn it I bet Duelist hacked that noble that attacked Emerald. It makes since seeing as how we were using practically every mod we had BUT our hacking one. I say we check out that noble real quick to make sure it wasn't duelist.
>>
No. 554623 ID: f44ca3

Tell Emerald he can join us in here and survive or stay in his core and either die or be carried around until we find a good use for him.

He might not want to join us but now that we have beaten him if we leave him alive his survival could be measured in minutes. If his own nobles do not back stab him in his weakened state then someone else will. Tell him if he joins us he might not be a Emperor anymore but will get a spot on our council and will have a first row seat for whatever we do next. Staying alive inside of us beats being used as a pawn and almost assured death one way or another.

Did Duelist get absorbed by a noble somehow? Or manage to take over Ira or something? Maybe some of Emeralds nobles believed what we were saying and brought Duelist along for the ride.

While we work on convincing Emerald get to absorbing his mods and Jetalium if we can. Separate his core from his body and make it obvious he is our hostage for the moment. Keep a eye out for Ira and see how he fared after emerald shot him down. If duelist is in him or something we need to retrieve him.

Worried if someone does have Duelist they might try to use him as a hostage against us.
>>
No. 554628 ID: 57a559

>>554618
Loviro didn't make us like you didn't make your empire, for pete sakes we told you over and over. Loviro is a genius but he never designed the core to hold this many AI's, because this right here is what we call a game lobby. Time is nearly at a stand still compared to out there, how do you think we countered all your attacks. We planned full strategems right in the middle of a battle. And right now, your best bet for survival is to help us get through to the sim above, and anyone he cares about to save. You don't care if he doesn't believe, because it being true is his only chance for continuation.

Did you destroy his body? I don't want him leaving. Get any jetal mods though first. Emperor hacking should be in there.
If Duelist isn't here, he's fine if he wasn't in Ira. And who knows, if he was, he probably bounced into another jetal core for all we know. Hell, he may have somehow made contact and hacked straight into Emerald if he absorbed his jetal mods and absorbed the hacking upgrade without even knowing. Duelist is pretty badass enough to have possibly done that. Don't underestimate him.
He could be ANYWHERE if not in what was Ira, who the hell knows what he's doing.
Ira is dead right? Core destroyed and all?
>>
No. 554631 ID: 9cd8ad
File 138861803677.png - (84.28KB , 800x800 , 608.png )
554631

>What's everyone doing in the real world?
Staring Alison down. They were on their way to attack, but Alison has the emperor's core in hand. That freezes them while Alison moves down.

Alison purges Emerald of any good modules, while she tries to interface with Ira.

Peta Beam E - A moderately bendable beam of the belenosian's greatest power and size score.
Anti-jetalium Handle E - Splinters the inside of a jetalium body, almost guaranteeing a 50% destruction rate at minimum. Loviro admits this is better against pure jetal opponents, but Hands of Death will be better for robot-jetal hybrids.
Ion charge E - able to incapacitate all but the toughest robotic entities at a 50m range
EIN Override E - Able to control all sub-noble AI entities. Not to be used lightly, even by emperors.
PEI-10
Firewall Captain Key


Alison also gets around 3,000 kg of jetalium she will start absorbing.

Otherwise, the remaining modules of note are a 22 part set of modules that would require months or years of training to use.
>>
No. 554632 ID: 9cd8ad
File 138861804775.png - (13.21KB , 800x800 , 609.png )
554632

Duelist did turn out to be inside Ira, and luckily Emerald only spent what he had to to disable Ira.

"You're scaring me a lot, Duelist!"
>"Sorry, Alison."
"But really, thank you. What did you do?"
>"I managed to interface with one of the nobles. The rest are still down underground. PEI-7 works nearly instantly, and I got lucky. Ira only had a PEI-6, so even alone, I had the advantage. Sorry, again, I didn't have time to grab a proper team or let you know I was going."

"Emerald, you can stay here, or just go into your core and be carried around until whenever."
>"It doesn't make a difference to me, does it?"
"We're also hoping to get your core to unload the harvest sim. We're really just hoping that you'll be on our side, but that's one of our immediate goals."
>"Everything you are is insanity. But fine, I will help you with that as long as you promise to give me back a body after you deal with Sapphire. And no, I do not trust your word, but I expect that is all I can get."
>>
No. 554637 ID: 57a559

Notify Emerald that Ruby will probably be joining us in here if we can get him to agree...
I know we said Sapphire's a dick and we don't want him coming with us but maybe we can get him inside here too. That should postpone the game until we get into a direct confrontation with the opposing player. And then we can try, with our improved harvest population numbers, to pull all of her people inside (by force if we must) as well to test to see that if all potential objective cores are empty of AIs.

If we get Ruby to truly ally with us, we'll have the force of his nobles, which should be alone enough to force all the enemy player AI's regardless.
Anya's initial plan was to learn as much as possible, which is a good plan. Knowing how the game reacts to breaking like the situation suggested above would be extremely useful for the real CAI battle.
>>
No. 554641 ID: f44ca3

Very well we will give you back a body once we take down Sapphire. If we are telling the truth then you should be in our world then and if not something is up and we will need your help.

Ask Emerald what the Firewall key is. Also ask if he would mind helping us deal with his nobles that have gathered. We have a lot of options here so we need to decide how to handle things fast before anyone else shows up.

Did we get a battery upgrade this time? The anti jetal weapon could come in very handy if we go up against Sevener again. The EIN override could come in handy to just keep Sapphire from throwing civilians at us. Robot override does not seem as useful unless Emerald knows of powerful robots we have yet to face. As for the others we can do direct upgrades to what we have with them.

Would love to be able to use the bendy manual plasma mods but at the rate we are going neither we nor Sevener will get a chance to use them to there full advantage. They are a double edged sword. One contestant could get a huge power boost if they take the time to learn them but there opponent can use that time to go win while they struggle to learn the new system.

Where the people around us controlled her by using the EIN override? Or are they mostly Emeralds people?
>>
No. 554644 ID: 1e9bd6

>modules
Drop: PEI-7, Gigabeam bending S, EMP Field (redundant with Ion charge or override), Possibly EIN tracker (if EIN Override renders it obsolete. Keep otherwise), Auto-cannon A, explosive jetalium (we don't need flack with gravity, AED, shields etc).
Gain: PEI-10, Peta Beam E, Anti-jetalium Handle E, Ion charge E, EIN Override E, Firewall Captain Key

That's 6 for 6, unless EIN override doesn't let us order EIN to let us into the (questionably reliable) data stream, in which case we may need to pick something else to delete other than EIN tracker.

>I will help you with that as long as you promise to give me back a body after you deal with Sapphire. And no, I do not trust your word, but I expect that is all I can get.
I'll accept that bargain.

>upload the harvest sim
Hey, we can finally get Felix and Vinyl back together!
>>
No. 554645 ID: 9b57d3

>>554631
Ditch our Terra beam for the Peta beam. Ditch Sense Biological for Anti-jetalium Handle. It seems any biological strong enough to be a threat now won't show up on our scans. Actually... autocannon uses up a decent amount of surge even when using regular ammo, doesn't it? Should we bother keeping autocannon anymore since it's sortof useless? Waaaait a minute. Can we fire a 1kg division using autocannon? Then it would be INTERESTING.

Upgrade EMP to Ion Charge. Upgrade PEI-7 to PEI-10.

Tell Emerald that we agree to his terms. Don't tell him that giving him a body would mean he'd have to participate in the Contest. We can tell him that after we win this sim, and he can always decline us resurrecting him after we inform him of how deadly the Contest is. Oh, he might even consider his ghost-body to be a body...

Oh, what the hell is that firewall key?
>>
No. 554646 ID: 9b57d3

>>554637
I still don't want to bring Sapphire out with us, he's a dick and HAS TO die to finish the sim.
>>
No. 554667 ID: 9ddf68

I say we just hold on to Emerald for now, I mean if we don't he'll probably just try something like this again... plus we kinda need him to get out of this thing without fighting an army of nobles.

Alright, after we do the classic mod switch song and dance what's our next plan of action? I mean it's probably obvious that we want to get the fuck out of here but then what? Also if that EIN override thing does what it's name implies then if Sapphire's death switch does cause people with EIN to go crazy, could we maybe use that to stop people from going crazy? Just a thought incase things go into overtime.
>>
No. 554671 ID: 03e639

Replace Terabeam S with Petabeam E (Both big beams with high surge)
Replace Explosive Shedding with Anti jetalium Handle E (Jetalium is limited now, we can't use it all willy nilly)
Replace EMP Field with Ion charge E
Replace Jetalium Acid resistance S with EIN Override (I think Acid is the least of our worries now. Plus I don't think it'll help against whatever acid the empire decides to throw against us now)
Upgrade to PEI-10
Assuming that the Firewall key is a module, drop Core Launcher (I don't think Core Launcher is useful anymore, but it is debatable)

>Firewall Key
That's the name of Emerald's Flagship, the one that shot the superweapon at us. Anyone up for some piracy?

>EIN override
As noted, it's not something Emperors use lightly. Presumably it's usage is clearly visible to other emperors, and using it too much might cause the empire to take drastic actions.

>Autogun to send hacking divisions
Would like to try, would like to try very much.

>A body
You can have one I guess... not that it would do any good here... The offer to join us in the higher level still stands. Even if you think we're crazy, you can still say yes to cover your bases.

"We were never your enemy, Emerald. You just became an obstacle." I think the best course of action now is to flee with Emerald as hostage.
>>
No. 554672 ID: 04b86a

>EIN Override
This could be useful, although we should be careful about when we use it so we don't rile people more than we already have.

>Firewall Captain Key
A module that's presumably needed to fire that superweapon Emerald has in orbit? Let's leave that in Emerald's core.

PEI-10 is an obvious upgrade, and Ion Charge seems like an upgrade of EMP Field. We currently have two Shield Generator modules, and I don't remember even using the older one, so we can ditch one for EIN Override and keep the new one just in case. I doubt we'll be using the Terabeam, so we can ditch that for the Peta Beam, and... do we want Signature Sense? It would be useful if we wanted to start hacking jetals so we could keep track of who's on our side, but other than that I don't see us getting any use out of it at this point.

>And no, I do not trust your word, but I expect that is all I can get.
"Either we're right about this being a simulation, or someone that had access to Unity and Anya's cores set them up to get them to kill both Sapphire and their 'opponent'. If we're right, then you shouldn't get a chance to get uploaded into a robot or jetal, and if we're wrong, then we'd be willing to let you keep Unity and just give us bodies."

We should probably show him the screen with the win conditions, too.
>>
No. 554677 ID: 1e9bd6

>what the hell is that firewall key
Captain authority access to his death-laser spaceship. Cool to have, but I doubt the crew will take orders from us, and it won't be recharged soon. Still, taking it prevents anyone else from trying to use it.

>Ditch Biological Sense
If we do that, we open ourselves up to accidentally causing mass civilian casualties. Plus, we're wide open for surprise attacks with biological explosives, or mad science engineered super-monsters. The Belenos are way more high tech than the present day salikai. They can come up with worse than a fufa, I'm sure.
>>
No. 554753 ID: 1a06cd

Now that we have an emperor core shouldn't we actually have a team piloting it? I mean, this isn't just another jetal, survivability shouldn't not be the same kind of problem and it offers us all sorts of access I'm betting we didn't have before. This could be a great opportunity, assuming we can get enough jetalium to keep him running (I'm not sure how much is left after that altercation.)
>>
No. 554759 ID: 9b57d3

>>554753
Well one issue is that we'd have to outfit the core with mods, and we aren't operating with much redundancy in offense or defense. We can't just copy them over anymore.
>>
No. 554760 ID: 9b57d3

...then again, if we could take over Emerald's core with his ROBOT parts and robot mods... is it too late for that? Or would our method of controlling his body be insufficient to use his robot parts/mods?
>>
No. 554762 ID: f44ca3

If Duelist is in Ira we could move him and his mods over to Emeralds core.

Man that would be entertaining. We could have Duelist walking around looking like Emerald and confusing people.
>>
No. 554794 ID: 9cd8ad
File 138871484565.png - (17.51KB , 800x800 , 610.png )
554794

>Battery upgrade
Emerald's appeared to be a robotic component that won't work with Unity's core.

>Show Emerald the screen with the win conditions

>"Lovir-"
>"Do not even insinuate that I of all people would create a big practical joke in the internal parts of my jetals."
>"....God damn...."

Alison should keep this in mind for future absorptions.
>>
No. 554795 ID: 9cd8ad
File 138871486368.png - (18.84KB , 800x800 , 611.png )
554795

Since Alison is going to hang onto Emerald's core for awhile, Duelist takes over for a moment and swaps out Emerald's modules, and Alison stores some of Unity's modules within Emerald.

Module changes:
PEI-7 -> PEI 10
Terabeam -> Petabeam E
EMP -> Ion Charge E
Explosive Shedding -> Anti-jetalium Handle E
Core Launcher -> Firewall Key


>Autocannon to send divisions
This appears to be possible, although the weapons launched from such a low mass entity have limitations by their size. Snipers can be fired, a kilobeam may be able to be fired, and a peta beam will be unusable. Nonetheless, Autocannon A continues to just scrape above the trash list.

EIN override is more to deal with altering known objects and entities within EIN, so tracker is not made obsolete. Known objects and entities include things that can be found with the tracker, and things Alison can see, such as the horder floating in front of her.

Scanner continues tracking EIN, before EIN manages to catch onto Unity's module and kick everyone out.

>"Well, it's not like they didn't know where we were, anyway, but I learned a few things in the past minute." says Scanner. "First off, EIN's being partially shut down on the higher level things in order to deal with the whole 'Emperor is held hostage' kind of thing. Secondly, Anya just flew out of whatever space place she was in, like, really fast. Math says to the capital, by the looks of it. So, the public doesn't know anything about Emerald yet, just the nobles and advisors and other people like that. So... stuff's gonna happen here soon, I'll try to get back in to find out what."

By the looks of it, EIN override can only handle so many directives at a time, but with thousands in her, she's sure she can get the horde ahead of her to stand down and look the other way while Unity retreats. That, and to receive jetal donations to recharge and restock.

>Firewall key
The Firewall is the name of Emerald's capital ship. While she might not have thought it to do any good, a closer look reveals that it does provide remote control access for various functions, as well as direct communication to the bridge if she feels like telling people to do things that may or may not obey. There isn't any guarantee they will follow Unity's orders. On the other hand, it probably has enticing capabilities such as jetal rechargers, store rooms, and generally being able to get around the planet without having to expend a huge chunk of battery power. Emerald probably won't mind, as he is still staring at his life.

>"Would you like me to drive Emerald's core, Alison?" Duelist asks.
>>
No. 554804 ID: 1e9bd6

>she's sure she can get the horde ahead of her to stand down and look the other way
...can't we use EIN override just to turn EIN's override of the hordes back off? In EIN isn't forcing them into it, I'll bet most of those robots and jetals don't want to be anywhere near Unity.

>it does provide remote control access for various functions
...can we remotely access senor information? An orbital eye in the sky would be useful now.

Also, the ship might have legit EIN access Scanner could use to pull information from, instead of having to hack access.

>Sevener
She's making her move. If she knows we got Emerald, she's knows we have the edge. She has to get Sapphire before we do.

...we've kind of got conflicting priorities, now. We've got to take out Sapphire before she does. And it would kind of be nice to save as many people as we can. (We could upload the harvest, maybe, but that still leaves the sticky question of everyone else).

There's also the problem we kind of need to recharge energy and jetalium before hitting Sapphire. We burnt a good deal of reserves in that last fight.
>>
No. 554806 ID: f44ca3

If Sevener was training with the manual plasma we forced her hand and interrupted that at least. Regardless of what she is up to she will probably have a decent amount of support from the rest of the empire to fight us. They are probably calling her in to debrief her about us and give her upgrades to match us.

No matter how squeaky clean she has been there will always be people who distrust her just because of her origin.

The race is on now. We want to game the sim as much as possible but if we are not careful Sevener might get to us or Sapphire first. We should be able to take her in a straight fight but can expect no fights to be fair with her backup.

I think having Duelist in Emeralds core should be fine but we should ask Emeralds advice first. He better than anyone should know what sort of response the empire will take to what happened here.

You know if we can honestly convince him with that terminal he might be a great ally. If we can "Release" him and the empire does not shut down his stuff he might be able to get us access to more experimental weaponry and such. By releasing him I mean have Duelist and Emerald and a few others in his core acting like normal. Not sure if EIN would notice that sort of trick or not.
>>
No. 554807 ID: 9b57d3

>>554795
If there is any way at all for us to send a message to Sevener, we need to tell her we're emptying the harvester sim and she should take their lives into consideration as well. If she is stronger than us at this point she will want to force us to give them to her.

Duelist can stay with the Emerald core if he's volunteering and understands the risks of not merely piloting a division, but he should stay relatively close to us so that he can be retrieved with PEI. Emerald's model is incredibly hard to kill, apparently, so he should be pretty safe in there until we fight Sapphire directly. It might also be worth putting some other volunteers in assorted Emerald Nobles. We're surrounded by powerful jetals, let's make good use of them and gather an army.

As immoral as using the Override is, let's do it. We're pressed for time now and gaining more Jetalium will let us travel faster and recover all that spent battery. We'll probably have to use it to take over any of the nobles, too. Actually... maybe we won't have to. Maybe we don't even need Duelist in Emerald's core. Now that Emerald realizes just how pointless it is to imprison us, he could simply order his ENTIRE EMPIRE to assist us! Well, assuming EIN doesn't override his orders... Still, there are likely some resources in his empire he can align with us without EIN fucking things up. Hell, maybe he knows where EIN is so we can deactivate the thing. That'll make things easier for us.
>>
No. 554808 ID: 9ddf68

kinda want to save the overdrive as an ace up our sleeve truth be told but at the same time if we could just freeze all the nobles here and slip out I won't complain. Maybe siphon a bit of jetalium of a few of them as we pass.

As for sevener...They did just shut EIN down for nobles so she can now actually attack Sapphire, Think she was really just waiting for us to do that seeing as with EIN she couldn't do anything unless we pushed her, just like when we where back in the harvester sim. Still don't know what her plan is however, I mean you have to remember she doesn't really have a set plan, all she has is bits and pieces pointing her in the right direction which means she has to make her plan up as she goes but who knows how many times she has done this CIA battle. Since she only has clues to guide her she can effectively recover from any setback we send her way rather easily. If we could keep an eye on her that would be best.

As for piloting Emerald, sure at least until we get out of here, maybe find a safe spot to stash his body.
>>
No. 554812 ID: f44ca3

Sevener has a couple of options open to her.

She can try to kill us either by herself or with help from her allies.

She could also go straight for Sapphire and try to take down him. He probably does not trust her any more than us but she could probably get closer to him easier than we could right now.

Or she could also could hide and wait until we engage Sapphire and then strike when we both are weak from the fight.

I know she is supposed to have experience with so called Cai battles but honestly it might have been all with those simple castle battle ones we were in before this one. Otherwise she would not have needed our help getting info about O route and the harvester sim.

Being a product of the Admin side of the simulation I am guessing she is somewhat hardwired for working within the system. Guessing that they recalled her to the capitol to give her special emergency authority to deal with us. The problem is that special authority could be assigning herself as Sapphires bodyguard. Then all she has to do is wait next to him until we attack and then backstab him while he is distracted or something. Or they give her control of a army to come after us.
>>
No. 554814 ID: 9b57d3

>>554812
I think attacking while the emperor is distracted would count as a cooperative kill.
>>
No. 554817 ID: 9ddf68

>>554814
I don't think it would unless we planed for this to happen, I mean after all the little computer at the beginning told us that if the emperor died by something we didn't plan it wouldn't count so I don't think if sevener killed Sapphire it would be more her taking advantage of the situation then a cooperation kill.
>>
No. 554818 ID: 04b86a

"Emerald, as much as I'd like to give you time to cope with your existential crisis Anya is on the move, which means we're kiiind of running on a time limit now. Any support you're willing to give us would be a big help."

Now then, I think we should send someone out in Ira's core to investigate that old research station rather than go there ourself. It'll give us time to do other stuff. Be sure to grab that core's signature so we'll recognize it when it comes back.
>>
No. 554843 ID: 761017

>>554812
Hardwired nothing; Anya still has her old logs from the previous resets which are guiding her.
This fake CAI battle is Alison's gambit to get access to those logs.
>>
No. 554846 ID: 1d94ed

Beam me up Scotty! ... Ahem, in all seriousness, I hope there's a teleportation function, having access to that capital ship would be very nice right now.

Emerald is having an existinal crisis good, time to put those hugging skills to good use. "Emerald, I know it's hard to accept, but help us now, and I'll guarantee you access to the higher level, to the best of my ability. I'll be honest, you may not like it, it's gritty survival, nothing compared to being an emperor, but if not, your simulation will end. You will be put into storage, reset for next time. Help us, please"
>>
No. 554915 ID: 9cd8ad
File 138879109858.png - (21.64KB , 800x800 , 612.png )
554915

There are some normal jetals that are under EIN's influence, but there are also many nobles that are overlooking Unity. They don't appear to want to be there. Alison simply takes off EIN's override of those who are being directly controlled. She makes note that nobles, and others who can normally be exempt from EIN, won't be subject to her EIN override module, but either way, the horde over her is not going to be a great threat.

"Emerald, I know it's hard to accept - "
>"Forget it. Do what you want."
"We were hoping for your support."
>"With what? You have the capabilities I have. Do what you want. My subordinates won't know what to do, so they'll do what you tell them. I didn't care to make plans for my death. The world treated me as immortal, before you came and so easily proved everything wrong. I expect my share of the empire is already getting carved up by Ruby and Sapphire, who will treat me as good as dead. The Firewall will probably get evacuated if the crew is smart. Go up there if you want to manually control it, there's enough people in you to do so. If Stocks, the primary captain of the ship is still there, I'll have you tell him things only we both would know."

Alison makes sure to pick up Ira's core as well, so that she can send someone to investigate the space station Sevener was at.

>"Speaking of Stocks, I'm getting a message on Emerald's core from him." Duelist says. "He claims that Dioxis is looking for Unity."
>"That was fast." says Emerald. "Dioxis was one of my killswitch assassins. An operator spy. He knows where Sapphire is at most points in time. Apparently even a hostage emperor is a dead emperor."
"You know better than almost anyone how everything and everyone is going to react to this situation, Emerald."
>"That says almost nothing."
"What if you order your empire to assist us? You don't have to be dead."
>"... it would have been far simpler if you just killed me. It would still be, if you simply publicly crush my core after making your escape. You absorbed my modules, namely my PEI systems. There's absolutely no way you could prove that I am the real Emerald anymore, or that whoever you stick in my core is the real Emerald. Other methods of proving myself, such as sharing things only I would know, are too flimsy. That would only buy my more loyal subjects to do what you say. Sapphire and Ruby, on the other are a couple of bloodthirsty vultures that haven't had a good meal in decades, and will use this excuse to call me dead before letting a third of the empire be held ransom by you. Sapphire especially, since you would use everything I have to send at him. Stocks and Dioxis are loyal, and may play your game for some time, and we'd all rather see Ruby be in charge than Sapphire anwyay. I expect within hours we will see Sapphire and Ruby start entering a looting frenzy, so my advice to you is to use what resources of mine you can as soon as you can, because it's all going to go downhill from here."

Scanner reports that Sevener entered the capital's palace just a moment ago, and a large explosion just happened from inside.
>>
No. 554920 ID: f44ca3

Ok lets get teams on each objective.

Duelist and a team focus on wrangling Emeralds nobles and getting as much of his resources under our control while we still can.

Put together another team to figure out what Sevener is up to. She either is making her move on Sapphire or is now working for Ruby directly or something. She might be trying to strike now before we can make our move. Or she has some other plan in mind but we will not know without more info. She could be panicking right now or this was just what she was waiting for.

Tell Emerald that life might suck right now but he does not have to sit in a hole and brood. If he wants to prove he really is a Emperor then he should stand tall and fight alongside us. The information he has could make or break our actions in the next hour. We need his help now and after we leave this simulation.

Find out from Emerald/Loviro what other options we have for upgrades. A better battery is the biggest one and any other secret crap they might know about that we can get fast.

Not sure if we can but getting a team on spin control would be nice. Making sure what happened here does not slander us to much might help.
>>
No. 554922 ID: 9b57d3

>>554915
Sounds like Sevener blew her cover. Let's get to that ship asap, it's an excellent form of transportation at the very least. We should move towards the capital palace as fast as we can, but confirm with Dioxis where Sapphire really is. I kindof doubt Sevener is in battle with him right now, but better safe than sorry.
>>
No. 554925 ID: 88960e

Wait, people can't use something like signature sense to identity consciousnesses and personalities if they move from core to core? Was signature sense special? You'd think that would be a thing in such a digital world. How do they confirm identities of people who get backed up?

I say our immediate priority would be to talk with the assassin and the spaceship. We need to know where Sapphire is, and if Sevener is attacking him now. When we know, we decide what to do.
>>
No. 554927 ID: 8a0798

Holly hell is she attacking already? Get stocks a call and we're going to have to move fast. I really didn't expect her to move this quick
>>
No. 554928 ID: f44ca3

She also might be trying to trick us into thinking she is attacking. So get more info before we go running blindly anywhere.
>>
No. 554931 ID: a361ac

Emerald looks like he could use a backrub.
>>
No. 554934 ID: 04b86a

Damn it, Sevener, couldn't you have at least waited until we emptied the Harvest?

>investigate the space station Sevener was at
I was actually talking about the underwater station that may or may not have one of Loviro's modules, but that's a good idea, too, if we can't find out what she's been up to some other way.

Loviro, two questions. Are Anya and Unity's reset codes identical or different, and could Ruby or Sapphire use Anya's on her if they got into a fight with her and they knew what it is?
>>
No. 554940 ID: 57a559

>>554915
Call for council with the two emperors
It couldn't hurt to at least try and see their reactions first before a giant clusterfuck starts
You mean actual peaceful council, due to the state of matters your goal with Sapphire has changed and that you'd say that to Sapphire, that your vengeance tirade is a front for another goal, a bigger goal, and has nothing to do with their worthless empire.
>>
No. 555039 ID: 252ef2

Hmm... this dosen't seem right, Sevener wouldn't make a head on attack on the palace unless she was certain that only a single emperor or less was there. Taking on one emperor is certainly possible, we've set the precedent, however taking on the security of an entire palace, along with two emperors is just madness... Furthermore, Kolexia has stated that Saphire is constantly on the move, so I doubt he's in the palace. I fear for Ruby's life, Sevener probably wants to match us in power by killing an emperor herself, one that's not expecting an attack. I don't know our stance on him anymore, but I think of him as somewhat of an ally.

Multitasking time, contact Dioxis, request the location of Saphire, have Emerald help you on that. Additionaly contact the assassin for Ruby and request his location as well, we have to keep tabs on everything now.

Contact Stocks, have him tell us the Firewall's location and possibly to pick us and Emerald up, or at least get close to us so we can get to it.

Now the most important and difficult task, we need to quickly take control of Emerald's forces. Where do their loyalties lie, Emerald, the empire, or their own peace and saftey? Use Emerald's core to broadcast a message, to the horde around you and any of his nobles.

"May I please have your attention, this is Unity. You may dislike me, but I hope you listen to what I have to say. Emerald and I have come to an agreement. Those that wish to, shall aid me, and in return, the safety and prosperity of both your emperor and your faction. You know as well as I do that the other emperors will take apart what's left of the Emerald faction. Unite under your emperor, aid me, and your faction will stay strong, those that wish to leave, do say, and stay out of the way. That is all."

>Emerald
He needs to be hugged, back rubbed, and pampered. Alison can delegate this to a team of skilled masseurs. If such a team of skilled masseurs do not exist, Scanner and Guardsman shall take their place.
>>
No. 555046 ID: f44ca3

>>555039

I think a Guardsman Scanner team would be more of a bad cop good cop team.

Might be a good idea to have a few people butter up Emerald though. Make him feel a bit less like he just lost his empire to madness.
>>
No. 556767 ID: 9cd8ad
File 138950509748.png - (27.76KB , 800x800 , 613.png )
556767

"Loviro, are Anya's and my own reset code the same?"
>"Yes, but it is not something you can just shout out to disable a jetal. Their purpose is to prevent just anyone reseting a captive jetal, not to disable the jetal for anyone who knows the code. I did not have interest in putting things like that in my jetals."
"And to you or Emerald, what are our options for upgrades?"
>"The underground facility is still my primary guess." Loviro says.
>"I don't have any that goes past yours." says Emerald. "You can just use some of my forces to take whatever facility Loviro's talking about."


Alison has Duelist pass a message to the Firewall through Emerald's core, and making sure Emerald gets moral support.

>"I'd like your attention, please, everyone. I don't have any interest in killing Emerald, in fact, I'd like to be able to return him to where he wants to go after I do what I have to. Since Emerald isn't dead, you can still stay with your current faction. The other emperors will be trying to pick it apart, but if I get assistance in my mission, then they won't have enough time to pick apart much, and your positions will still be what they are."

The Firewall does come for Unity, and applies a beam of anti gravity to lift Unity, Duelist, and everyone who sticks around upwards.
>>
No. 556768 ID: 9cd8ad
File 138950512374.png - (31.92KB , 800x800 , 614.png )
556768

>"Unity, hello. I am Stocks. Many of us are leaving, but the ship will be operational nonetheless. The last of us assume trusting you is the last option we have to get Emerald back, and we're putting our lives at risk helping you, myself included. So... with reluctance, we're at your service."
"Thank you, that's all I hoped to hear. I'd like to get recharged, see your jetalium and modules stores, and see what is going on at the palace."
>"Ruby's forces, and Ruby himself, are under attack from Anya."
"And Sapphire?"
>"He's not at the palace."
"I'd like to send some people to get some modules from an undersea lab, and to send some people to investigate what Anya was doing in a space lab. Is that possible?"
>"I'll sortie a strong crew on both counts, and show you what we have. Are there any other commands?"
>>
No. 556770 ID: 57a559

I think we should try and rescue Ruby to be honest.
I don't want her getting on even ground with us at all. She knew she was lagging behind.
>>
No. 556772 ID: 7bbaae

>>556768
We should send forces to assist Ruby as well. If possible they should be robots so that Anya cannot profit from the combat. Would it be possible for us to go there personally to stop her? We almost certainly outclass her at the moment, and she is probably trying to catch up by stealing Ruby's modules.

Well, I'd like footage of Anya to see how well she is currently fighting, before we decide to risk going there in person. If we can't get there before she manages to absorb Ruby, then we'll risk being defeated then and there.

It might be in our best interests to simply go after Sapphire here and now, and simply beat Anya to him... but then we won't be able to evacuate the Harvest. We definitely want to do that with Emerald's help.

Actually, ask Emerald if he has any preference for who else we take with us out of here. We will want to wait until his forces have done everything they can for us, then absorb them right before the final battle, along with everyone else of significance.
>>
No. 556776 ID: 9ddf68

would it be possible for us to get eyes on the palace? like inside? Because I would like to get an idea of what Sevener has up her sleeve so to speak
>>
No. 556777 ID: f44ca3

Now that we have a external team again lets send out people for as much as we can. We should only personally go to where our combat strength is needed.

We should personally defend Ruby so Sevener does not get his stuff but beware of it being a trap. It could be some plan by Ruby and Sevener to take us out. I am guessing that Sevener was trying some long term plan on the station and this is her new panic driven plan but we can not be sure.

Get a team out to the space station she was at to check it out but probably do not need to go there ourselves.

Can we send a team to the underwater station? It would be nice to get the modules there but if we wait Sevener will be free to do what she wants.
>>
No. 556780 ID: 74c4ad

She's going after Ruby? I wonder why. Because she needs to take out an Emperor to keep even with us? Because she knows he's been sort of helping us?

...is there any way we could get eyes on what's happening? Or use the ship to interfere? Break it up, at least. Pay Ruby back, sort of. And if Emerald's forces save Ruby, maybe Ruby's people will back off from trying to rip Emerald's apart.

Big problem is how far we can push things with Sevener. Getting in her way is acceptable, I guess, but we don't want to attack her outright.

Maybe we should contact the operators, too? We have the power to get them to do more, now. And now that we have proof we can actually show someone, maybe they'd be interested in preserving their charges. The operators are kind of about protecting the people in the harvest, right? Plus, we still have to resolve the Vinyl / Felix problem. (And heck, we could restore poor Yallows too, if we're still trying to save everyone).
>>
No. 556831 ID: 9b39c3

Sortie anti-jetal forces near the palace belonging to Emerald, protect Ruby and drive off Anya, don't want to aid her in any way at the moment. Surveillance on what's going on down there would also be nice, use EIN if necessary.

Next is this ship's capabilities, how fast is it, what weapons and defences does it have, and is there an orbital weapon we can use that doesn't leave a scar on the planet like the one in the distance? We still have yet to contact Dioxis as well, so set up communications and figure out Saphire's location. We won't be using it just yet, but we need to know if he's up to anything.

Other than that, get charged and ready up. Set a course for the palace with all haste. We're presented with a very good opportunity here. If we can rescue Ruby, 'abduct' him, and have him work with us, we'll have 2/3 of the empire's power on our side. On the other hand, Sevener has made herself public enemy number 1, perhaps ahead of us now even!

Lastly..... it's time to raid the closets. You need a change of clothes, something to reflect your new position as head of a ship. Have you ever thought of getting a nice red hat?
>>
No. 556913 ID: 74c4ad

Oh: and don't forget we still have to take that call from Emerald's deadman-switch assassins. They should be calling about Sapphire.

...which reminds me that there should be two sets of assassins. Meaning the ones aimed at Ruby are probably going to hit now, during Anya's attack, for the best odds of success. His survival isn't looking so good. And then there will be a whole nother set of death countermeasures going off.

Do Loviro or Emerald know what's going to be set off it Ruby bites it too?
>>
No. 556935 ID: 9cd8ad
File 138955904362.png - (23.57KB , 800x800 , 615.png )
556935

"I want to hear about the Firewall, but it will have to wait." Alison says, using sped up speech. "Ruby is in an emergency. How fast can this ship move?"
>"With normal systems, it is in low enough orbit that it can move to anywhere on the planet within around 2 hours. However, if we apply thrusters, we can lower that to one and a half hour. If we expend batteries in the case of an emergency, one hour, but if it's at the most unfortunately long distance away, that won't leave much energy to fight with. We also have 25 capsule cannons to launch robots and jetals out at high speeds, capable of landing anywhere on the planet in minutes. Some have thrusters if the contents are fragile, some don't if the entity within doesn't want to bother with making a soft landing."
>"Those times were 40, 30, and 20 real minutes, respectively." Mathematician reminds Alison.
"I'll use those. Please, if you can, tell Ruby to just hang on and not do anything dangerous. What weapons do we have that don't scar the planet?"
>"I'll try. We have various plasma turrets around its perimeter along the ship's outer grid, allowing them to move depending on where firepower is needed. We also have missiles with exchangable propellant systems that can be swapped within seconds depending on how fast the missile needs to go."
"How many do we have?"
>"..... enough." Stocks was hesitant to say that.
>"Enough to blow up the planet four times over." Emerald says.
"I'd like to put an ally of mine in Emerald's core and supply him with the best weapons that can be used immediately. Can we trust there won't be any danger to that?"
>"No one here would be stupid enough to try to steal Emerald's core, or strong enough to fight for it."
"Okay. Please show me what modules you have while showing me where the capsules are."
>>
No. 556936 ID: 9cd8ad
File 138955905142.png - (17.95KB , 800x800 , 616.png )
556936

Alison reads the catalog of modules, but nothing seems interesting. Duelist will get more use out of them.

Stocks leads her to an elevator that leads to one of the capsules. One of the crew brings a load of jetalium and some batteries for Unity to recharge. Alison brings out Emerald's core and gives Duelist some initial jetalium to work with.

"Duelist, please run the ship while I'm gone."
>"Certainly." he replies.
>"This capsule is set on course to the palace. Please be careful."
>"Stocks, please get this ship moving to the palace while Unity goes on ahead. You said Dioxis was looking for Unity?" says Duelist.
>"Yes, he's on his way to be picked up by the ship, we'll alert him to the change of course. Unity, take this phone so I can keep you updated."
>>
No. 556937 ID: 9cd8ad
File 138955906280.png - (132.31KB , 800x800 , 617.png )
556937

The capsule ride is rough, but by the time she gets to the palace, she's got a full battery and is at jetalium capacity.

She crashes into the palace wall, making a sizeable dent.

>"This is Stocks. Can you read?"
"Yes."
>"Things got quiet a bit before you landed. We're trying to find out what happened, but the interior of the palace is a wreck, and Ruby can't be found. I hate to say it, but you might be too late. The good news is that Dioxis knows where Sapphire is. We're still heading to the palace, and will be there shortly." It's unfortunate if that's the case, but Alison does that fights among jetals usually don't last longer than a belenosian minute.
"Was there any surveillance of the fight?"
>"Only at the start, but Anya used an area attack to get rid of Ruby's group. The cameras didn't survive."

>"The public knows that there was an attack on the palace, since that's hard to hide, and someone's leaking information about Anya. The fact that we took out Emerald is also getting out there, but it's mostly just treated as a possible rumor right now. Unity and Anya are being called Loviro's dual revenge." Scanner says.
>>
No. 556938 ID: 7bbaae

>>556937
Send out our scout-drones. Keep jetalium-stealth on and move around very carefully, but we should quickly get out of this area first and foremost because Sevener will have heard the noise.
>>
No. 556946 ID: 57a559

Might want to ask more about Anya's power. How did she get powerful enough to get on a playing field with an emperor when she was playing the legit side?
>>
No. 556947 ID: 74c4ad

Hmm. I assume Stocks doesn't want to broadcast Sapphire's location over channels that can be intercepted, but he's not nearby, right?

If he is nearby, we need to know that. If not, the ship should be on guard, since that's the fastest way to him. Meaning Anya may attempt to steal our ride, or at the very least, deprive us of using it.

Resolving the harvest will have to wait a little longer, I guess.

Uh, scanners on. Do we sense any jetalium, cores, robots, biologicals, signatures we know?

Can we use Emerald's authority or the ship, or our EIN modules to check with EIN as to what happened? The cameras were killed pretty quick, but anything under EIN's control fighting Anya that survived longer should have given a perspective on the fight.

Does anyone know what Ruby's kill switch was or is? Because there's a good chance it may be triggered, now. That may have been what Sevener was after, even.

>enough power to destroy the planet several times over
...I suppose planetary genocide would be one way to win. Not one I'm found of, though. And I don't see why the crew would have any motivation to follow an order to fire. They're only motivated by a desire to try and get things back somewhat to the way they were. Blowing the world up is a step pretty far in the opposite direction.
>>
No. 556958 ID: d2995c

>Ruby disappears
When he shows up again, is there any way we can tell whether it is actually him or if its Sevener followers in his core?
>>
No. 556965 ID: 74c4ad

>>556958
...nope. Signature sense IDs cores- not the person inside it.

I suppose we could always ask something Ruby only he knows the answer to (like something we said when last we met him), but if Sevener captured him as we captured Emerald, she'd have access to the answers.

Only way to be 100% sure would be to check who's inside with the hacking interface.
>>
No. 556972 ID: 57a559

Man, you know, before we jumped, I wish we had the mind to ask for AI allies to download into our core so we had a numbers advantage in a hacking scenario.
>>
No. 557046 ID: 761017

>>556972
Do you mean AI's with hardware hacking skills?

Hacking other Jetals is easy, but traditional robotic hacking is one of our severe shortcomings.
>>
No. 557047 ID: 57a559

>>557046
No, a full on attack in Anya's core or an extraction team ready to go and rescue Ruby before he truly sides with Anya.
It's going to come to that I think.
>>
No. 557049 ID: 761017

>>557047
Allison's goal to recover the Emperors was sentimental experimentation, to see how saving their "lives" would effect the Contest Simulation.

Anya may have radically different goals, and by now has either satisfied our goal by recovering Ruby, or denied us our goal by killing Ruby just for his modules.

Unity could send a wide-band message to Anya via EIN, asking: 'did you show Ruby the screen with the win conditions?'
That would probably prompt Anya to make some sort of response to let us know what she's done while we rush to the scene.
>>
No. 557111 ID: 9cd8ad
File 138963237751.png - (28.03KB , 1314x677 , 618.png )
557111

Alison moves out of the capsule and burrows into the palace walls. It takes longer than she thought, as the palace walls are made of a tough material.

"Emerald, do you have any idea what Ruby's kill switch would be?"
>"Nothing without heavy doubt. He's had heavy influence on EIN, so my guess is something to do with that. Or not, or more. Nothing' certain."


>When he shows up again, is there any way we can tell whether it is actually him or if its Sevener followers in his core?
There isn't.

>"Unity, this is Stocks. We just got word that Ruby was beaten. I told him what you did with Emerald, and he thought that Anya might be able to do the same. So when it looked like he might lose, he self destructed before that could happen. I hope you don't mind having competition for public enemy #1. We're on our way. I advice getting out of there in advance. The empire is going to converge on the palace."

Scanner reports the news.
>"Sapphire says he doesn't have confirmation yet of Emerald or Ruby's death, so I think the public is getting somewhat wise. The news itself is being more or less honest still, while I think that Sapphire is just trying to keep the peace for the moment."
>"That would be like him." says Loviro. "He may be cautious just in case Emerald and Ruby are still around, but he can take his time in swallowing up the power gaps now."
>"The big news is that he's going to have EIN nearly completely take over for a limited time to coordinate taking us and Anya out."
>"Desperation, now?" asks Atlas.
>"No." Loviro says. "He has the perfect excuse to have absolute control over all non-biological entities. Of course he would take it."
>"Do we still want to get duelist down here and take out the harvest while we're in town?" Strongarm asks. "I may not advice taking out millions, as not just do I know if our lobby can contain that many, but if they decided to rebel?"
>"I doubt that'll be a problem." says Emerald. "It won't be difficult to get them to believe I'm the real deal. They won't want to rebel if I'm telling them that they're getting transferred or something, and that they will all be wiped if they try to overpower the few thousand of us.. It's not like I can guarantee that they won't panic regardless, since we'll shatter their worlds. Twice over, if you try to convince them what you told me. I don't recommend telling them this is just a game, and just play it straight."
>>
No. 557118 ID: 74c4ad

So... we sensing anyone or anything here? Cores, bots, biologicals? It looks like we were too late to do anything. We may have to follow that advice and get out, unless something stands out to investigate (Loviro or Emerald know anything hidden here that might be worth grabbing quick, while we can?).

>Ruby self-destructed
Dang. Poor guy. I'm sure, like all the Emperors he had a darker history than we ever learned, but he did go out of his way to help us.

At least we've slightly up on Sevener if she didn't catch him.

>Sapphire consolidating power
Any way we could use the Emerald forces we have under our influence to reach out to the surviving Ruby forces? Band together so they aren't slaughtered by Sapphire's forces, the way he dealt with Diamond's followers.

>Sapphire take full control of EIN
Can we use Emerald's key to oppose that? Lock EIN up, perhaps? If there's two people fighting for control of the system and whatever Ruby's death switch is messing it up, they might all effectively get in each other's way. Prevent one person from taking full control, or a mass-insanity program from fully taking over, either (someone suggested that might be Ruby's failsafe at some point, didn't they?).

>rescue the harvest
If the operators believe in their mission to protect their charges, they should be willing to help us, and manage the uploaded masses, if they understand what's at stake.

And we can finally get Vinyl and Felix back together. Heck, we can even save poor doomed Yallows, although I don't know if he'd react to the new reality with any less suicidal mopeyness.

...it occurs to me if we save the whole harvest that dream city is suddenly going to get a lot more occupied. We'll be filling building after building rather than one little house on top of a skyscraper.

>They won't want to rebel if I'm telling them that they're getting transferred or something
...and you won't tell them to rebel? Is trying to survive this and save more people more important to Emerald than trying to seize control of the situation?
>>
No. 557120 ID: a87e3a

>>557111
Damn. RIP Ruby. Let's get out of here, there's no point in staying. I wish we hadn't come in the first place; all we did is waste time.

Actually, I just realized that we're going after the backups in the long run anyway, so recovering millions right now might be a bad idea. We have no assurance that these folks will be on our side when we introduce them to the Contest, so it's a roll of the dice. I think instead we should try to just take the scientists and skilled fighters with us instead of normal civilians. That will give us a better advantage.

Also I suppose all of the Dead Batteries, since it is likely for them to be on our side.

Oh. As for the EIN override, uh, does that mean all of Emerald's army is going to go turncoat on us? In that case we will want to disarm the Firewall.

Also, Cloud Slither now has no excuse to stay hidden. Their worst fears are being realized, and they know that we can save them from Sapphire.
>>
No. 557123 ID: 937723

If he blew himself up then there is a good chance Sevener did not get his mods. That would help us out but lets just assume she has stuff as good as ours. If she did not get his mods then she will be desperate to get some. Might be a good idea to detour over to the underwater station before we go to the harvest.

We may not be able to save Ruby but we are in a good position to try and stop Sapphire from getting control of EIN. If there are any controls they might be here in the palace. Find out from Emerald what he has to do to get that control and see if we can stop it. If we want to do a news broadcast this might be the place to do it. Might be a good idea to be the first to go public with whats happening so our version of events is out there first.

If we start mass uploading people let Emerald deal with them mostly. Go with a story that they can believe for now. Something like Sapphire took over EIN secretly after Diamond died and has been stuffing everyone in a super harvest simulation so he can play god. We found out and are trying to stop him or something. Will be much more believable than the truth.

For now send out camera drones everywhere and get the lay of the land. We might be to late for Ruby but if we find Sevener stuffing her face with jetalium after her fight there might be a chance to capture her while she is weakened.
>>
No. 557124 ID: a87e3a

Hmm, couldn't we use the Firewall to blow up EIN?
>>
No. 557129 ID: 74c4ad

>>557124
That assumes EIN is a centralized entity, and not spread out through the whole damn network. That also assumes EIN isn't setup so removing it will have terrible consequences for anyone separated from it. Considering the Emperor's own setups, I wouldn't be surprised if EIN is set up so everyone linked to it is made dependent.
>>
No. 557286 ID: 9b39c3

How long ago was the fight? Mostly curiosity now, we might be able to find Anya still if it wasn't too long ago, and possibly fight her seeing as she is probably weakened, but she's probably in hiding again.

There is also a very good question now, now that we have an emperor. What is EIN? Is it centralised, is it distributed, are there controls for it and what can be do to take control of it? I hope Emerald of all people should be able to answer this. Other than that, ask him if there are any goodies in the palace, seeing as we're already here.

Hmm... is there any way we could possibly pull a bluff? Where did the information about Ruby's defeat come from? If possible, we may be able to pull a bluff and say that Ruby is actually being held hostage by us as well, although it would be hard to pull off depending if there are any eyewitnesses. At the very least we might have benefit of the doubt, seeing as we already have 1 emperor.

If there really is nothing to do here, or nothing to gain, then it's time for a quick escape. In any case, Sevener is at a big disadvantage now, weakened, hunted by the empire, and not having an emperor to aid her.
>>
No. 557496 ID: a361ac

Hold on a second. If he self-destructed, he probably just uploaded himself and had his empty core blow up behind him.

Wouldn't he be in the Harvester?
>>
No. 557504 ID: a87e3a

>>557496
Ohhh, that's right, he could've done the same thing Kolexia did.
>>
No. 557506 ID: 9cd8ad
File 138975954981.png - (25.08KB , 800x800 , 619.png )
557506

>How long ago was the fight?
Only a few real minutes ago.

"Emerald, please tell us about EIN, and what exactly it is?"
>"The creators are dead, and the documentation was intentionally scattered. What we do know is that there are dozens of EIN nodes placed across the planet in various locations to perpetuate it, but it also uses the billions of robots and hundreds of millions of jetals to keep it going by sheer processing speeds. Hence, even if some nodes are taken down, it won't do much. To be blunt, Sapphire, Ruby and myself have spent a whole lot of time trying to figure out how its foundation works. Sure, we can work with it, command it, but we don't have absolute knowledge of it anymore, and none of us want a self contained C&R to happen."
>"Please watch where you swing those things." Strongarm says.
"What is that?"
>"A self contained collapse and reconstruction? It's the phenomenon when non-sentient force who has some amount of control over a sentient force manages to use the sentient force to realize its own shortcomings. What I mean is, none of us want EIN to become self aware. But that's... neither or nor there, I guess. If we're in any rush to take out sapphire, then we're not going to be touching EIN. That's what I'll say."
"So no blowing it up with EIN?"
>"Not unless you want to blow up the planet. Then take the Firewall to blow up the colonial planets, too. Then hunt down any ships that escaped."
"Then the Firewall?"
>"No, the Firewall only contains people excluded fro... wait, you aren't seriously considering it, are you?!"
"Oh, not at all, I just wanted to make sure that when Sapphire controls EIN, the Firewall will be okay. Is there anything worth value here?"
>"Materially, you could buy a good estate-town if you wanted to ransack the place. As for valuable for your goals, no, nothing really."


"Duelist, come down here and help take out the harvest. Otherwise, can you try to take over EIN yourself, or at least prevent Sapphire from doing it?"
>"I'll see what can be done."
>>
No. 557507 ID: 9cd8ad
File 138975956287.png - (37.64KB , 800x800 , 620.png )
557507

There appears to be no reason to stick around, so Alison goes sewer diving towards the harvest while the Firewall catches up. She knocks on the door again, making herself known.

>"Well well well well well, Unity. You certainly are tipping over the world, making your reappearances here more tolerable. It doesn't matter now, I suppose. We were just about to enter lockdown for, I dunno, a long time. What do you need?"
"The Emerald emperor is coming down here, I want to get the harvest."
>"You want to release more people? Who?"
"Everyone. The whole harvest. I want to upload them all into my system."
>"I... we don't have much choice at this point, do we?"
"I'm not going to force you to help me, but I'm going to do it one way or another."
>"That... really sounds like force. Well, follow me. You honestly came at a good time. EIN's about to take in a huge load of processes, and honestly, us operator's don't like it, so if you want to prevent it from screwing up the harvest, then be our guest. Just.. blow something up on the way out to make it look like there was at least a tuffle. Now, we can upload the robots and jetals to you, but most biologicals are entirely brains in jars. We can get a few out quickly, but doing the whole thing is implausible unless you want to wait a day.
"Can you get out, uh, Felix, Yallows and Vinyl, then as many as you can while we do this?"
>"Can do. What do you need half a billion people for anyway?"
"Secret reasons, and I'm going to try. Can you make sure they're peaceable when they are uploaded, by the way?"
>"That's fine. By default, they're in a frozen state when we pull them out. They're all just hard memory until we get enough processing power to deal with their mental load, since there isn't really much point to setting up a whole harvest simulation if we just do a transfer. Is that fine, or do you actually want a panicked mob of half a billion?"
"No, frozen is good. Thank you for your cooperation."
>"It's fine. If you want to thank me, just take good care of them for me, I've watched a lot of them over the years, and I kinda broke the rule of don't get attached to the bits of data."
"Would you like to come with them?"
>"Could you? Lockdowns are the worst."
"I could."

Alison hopes that she can take care of them, and would hope that they don't stay frozen when she leaves the simulation. But, it would be tragic if Emerald wasn't able to contain them. There are plenty more questions Alison would have, but like the operator thought, she's not willing to spend a lot of time on this.
>>
No. 557508 ID: 9cd8ad
File 138975959557.png - (37.62KB , 800x800 , 621.png )
557508

After meeting with Duelist, everything goes as planned. Unity absorbs the operator and runs to the harvest building's roof and boards the Firewall floating overhead. All of the other operators simply avoided Unity.

>"Welcome back." says Stocks. "Sorry, we normally could use Emerald's core to prevent Sapphire from taking over EIN alone, but he has the Advisor's backing. They, too, have shares in EIN. The good news is that this means that Sapphire will only be able to do what the Advisor's want to do, and that is to keep the peace and streamline our transition to a new world. Anyways, this is Dioxis."

>"And as you may guess, I'm here under post-mortem duty to Emerald."

>"I'm not dead, that son of a bitch." Emerald mutters to himself.

>"I'll keep it short. I know where Sapphire is hiding. Or waiting, maybe. Me and a supercore team of 3 plan on heading to him. Another team of 4 will stand by if we fall, and another team of 4 after that, for purposes of not landing our plasma shots into each other. We have no guarantee of victory, still, and despite that this you're the one who killed Emerald, Sapphire was given the chance to prevent this. We'd like your backing. I assume you'd like this?"

Alison may, but there was also the thought that this may bring the Cloud Slither out of hiding, and with this, she may be able to enlist their help. On the other hand, Sevener's actions mixed with Ruby's suicide would indicate that she is most likely far behind, and spending more time at the Cloud may give her a chance to enact a backup plan.

"Actually, before that, I have a concern." She'll think about the Cloud on her own time, but another thought struck her. "Kolexia uploaded herself shortly before I would have fought her so as to not get killed, wouldn't Ruby have done the same thing?"
>".... you know, that's something we didn't even think of." says Stocks. "We got the confirmation that he was dead, and we don't question our source on that information. Nonetheless, I can nearly guarantee you that he wasn't uploaded in the usual place where nobles upload to. I wouldn't know where to start, but Ruby may simply not want to be found."
>>
No. 557510 ID: f44ca3

Before we go after Sapphire we should really at least try to figure out a few of these loose ends. Sapphire is going to be holed up in a deathtrap dungeon at this point with every weapon and guard at the ready. So we want to be really sure of ourselves before we hit him.

We do not know where Sevener is or what she learned in the station. Would like to at least get a idea of what she doing up there in case she has a nasty surprise for us later. Do not want her to show up and steal our kill after we take care of all of Sapphires defenses.

Ruby is probably still in the game and he might be waiting until we take out Sapphire so he can take over. Would be nice to at least be able to offer him and his people a spot up here. And if he has some crazy plan in the works would be nice to be able to avoid it. Maybe we can put out a message that only he will recognize to get in touch with us.

We should defrost some of the harvester people so if we get in a hacking fight with Sevener or EIN we have at least more people than Sevener does.

If we have time we should go to the underwater station with a big group and ransack the place. Get down steal everything and sort it out back at the ship later.
>>
No. 557519 ID: a87e3a

>>557508
Hmm. We could send out a public announcement asking Ruby to contact us if he wants to survive past Sapphire's death. Other than that there's nothing we can do. We could do the same for Cloud Slither.

Oh, I'd like to point out something here. We have the Training mod now. What can we use that with? Would manual drive take too long to master?
>>
No. 557538 ID: 4a75fa

Question for stocks: did he, or anyone on his teams, contact Anya after she attacked Ruby? It's obvious why they contacted you (capable of taking out an Emperor, and stated a vendetta against Sapphire). Sevener may not have been as public with her plans, but she has proven the power to take down Emperors. One of them may have made the mistake of contacting her.

And yes, we'd be happy for assistance their trying to take out Sapphire. Although we'll be doing everything we can think of to maximize our chances. Off the top of our head- Sapphire has to be expecting this. Two of his peers defeated, one public death threat made, and Emerald's death-switch wasn't a well kept secret. He'll be expecting to be attacked, from up to 3 different sides (4, if he's worried about betrayal, now). Meaning he's going to have all the defenses and help he can muster, and if he can, he may try and set a trap for us (a decoy location with a really big bomb waiting for us?).

So what specifics can you give us about where Sapphire is supposed to be?

>Ruby not uploaded to the normal place
...any way we could check to see if he's among the people we just rescued from the harvest? We know he had a back door in, it's possible he uploaded himself through Priat again. If Ruby is onboard and asleep, he's worth waking up.

Like, uh, could we try the summon person to lobby trick? If he's down there sleeping, we should be able to summon him.
>>
No. 557540 ID: 57a559

>>557508
Might want to broadcast a public message to Ruby then, just so that he might here it.

Tattle tale on what Emerald said to Dioxsis. You guys really should have planned for this situation and made a "get uploaded to an enemy that became a forced ally sorta" switch.

Dioxsis, does your killswitch parameter only care about killing Ruby's core or Ruby's entire consciousness? Seeing as once Ruby leaves his core, there's no single way for him to prove he's him anymore. Honestly guys, how do you all even know that there aren't a bunch of Emerald's that just shift cores all the time? Like there's actually a bunch of AI's people who act as Emerald, Ruby, and Sapphire. I mean, Emerald hasn't actually said as much in my core, but like, how do you guys have imposter prevention once the AI leaves the core and returns? Even some different Emperor decoys have the same facts to back up, who's to say that the real Emerald, Ruby, and Sapphire minds haven't just been chilling somewhere else and just leaving their decoys to fight and run everything in their supped up cores? Can Dioxsis confirm Sapphire's actually in his supposed core at the moment? What if he never was?
>>
No. 557545 ID: d4e8a3

... I just had a brilliant idea. We should have a deadman switch. For example, in the event that our core is destroyed, the Firewall will use enough missiles and firepower to completely obliterate the entire planet. Brilliant! ..... ahem, that is if planetary genocide is on your list of acceptable things to do. Cast a vote with your closest followers.

>Check on Priat
This should be easy to do in case Ruby decided to take refuge. Nobody knew he had such a backdoor, and Priat was under operator protection, along with the fact that the building was about to enter lockdown.

What was their plan for taking down Saphire? Stealth mission, frontal assault, or surround him and shoot until we get him? The cloud slither would only be a help if we decided to go after him with sheer numbers, otherwise, I don't think they have anything of value.
>>
No. 557548 ID: 4a75fa

>>557545
The problem with a deadman switch is we'd need people loyal enough to execute. And Emerald's crew are helping us out of enlightened (selfish) self interest. They may not be so willing to blow up the planet they'd like to live on, especially if we're already gone.
>>
No. 557645 ID: a361ac

>>557545

Not a good idea I think. At first I admit I thought, "Sure, we don't have to have the will or capacity to go through with it, even a bluff of that sort would be good!"

But then I realized, there's no way that they'd not find a way to take down our trump card. They have to have safeguards for if one rogue element was to take over the Key, ways to destroy it. It would be stupid and reckless not to. Maybe other ships of comparable power. We try to use it as our deadman switch, they'll just blow it up first. Or neutralize it. We'll be putting everyone on board, including at this point our most effective supporter Stocks, in unnecessary danger.

Plus, haven't we kinda been jumping through hoops to NOT look like a psychopathic mass murderer in front of the general public?

So I vote no on that proposal, sorry.
>>
No. 557657 ID: fe4bfc

When we do go after Sapphire we should try to do so as stealthy as possible while sending a group of our forces openly to assault one of his other main strongholds.

Sevener might find him on her own but will keep her from just easily following us to him.

Get a time estimate on how long it would take to retrieve stuff from the underwater base. If we can go there with a big team and clear it out fast might be worth it to stop by.

Finding that station Sevener was at and trying to figure out what it is might be important as well.
>>
No. 559337 ID: 9cd8ad
File 139062772320.png - (21.81KB , 800x800 , 622.png )
559337

>Unfreeze some people to outnumber Sevener if interfacing occurs
With the operator's suggestions, an organization of calm minded individuals are formed.
Polatt also recommends unfreezing the dead batteries that were not harvest illusions, which Alison does.

Lastly, Alison unfreezes a now confused Felix and Vinyl.

>Any way we could check to see if he's among the people we just rescued from the harvest?
Alison has everyone scour the population and wade through the frozen mob to find Ruby in the off chance he uploaded himself to the harvest.
>>
No. 559338 ID: 9cd8ad
File 139062774945.png - (21.62KB , 800x800 , 623.png )
559338

>Make a deadman switch personally, and launch the Firewall's weapon if Unity is destroyed
Alison will make an executive decision and not do this.

> We have the Training mod now. What can we use that with?
Engineer is using that to tweak some of the normal weaponry.

>Would manual drive take too long to master?
Yes.

"Stocks, have you ever contacted Anya before?"
>"I suggested it to the one you're calling himself the Duelist. He said not to."
"Good. And Dioxis, does your killswitch say to kill Ruby's core or his whole consciousess?"
>"The entire conscious must go, the core itself is valuable, but not the aim."
"Then how do you know when an emperor comes back, if that is the real emperor?"
>"To be honest... that's something the emperor has to deal with. If there's a way to prove himself, then I don't know of it." says Dioxis.

Stocks leads Alison down the hallways while she talks.
>>
No. 559339 ID: 9cd8ad
File 139062776660.png - (14.43KB , 800x800 , 624.png )
559339

"Then, I'd like to know... oh." Alison walks in on what must be either the throne or command room.
>"This is the command bridge. The consoles will raise if there is a need, but there hardly is." Stocks says. "Our throne decided it did not want to deal with this, and left, but there is another that will let you have a seat. Make yourself at home, I suppose. You were saying?"
"I'd like to have a team get anything of value from the undersea lab."
>"Duelist has already ordered a team. Lux, come in and report."
>"Lux here. It's all been taken. We'll be thorough in the search, but we're certain that Noble Unnana has been charged with dismantling much of use."
>"Unnana was one of the first to bail to Ruby. A bad move, as she's established herself as choosing Sapphire last, now that it's her only choice." says Stocks. "I will send another team, Unity, to her location and attempt to extort what she has. I have no ETA."
>>
No. 559340 ID: 9cd8ad
File 139062782922.png - (23.90KB , 800x1000 , 625.png )
559340

"Then I'd like to know about the orbital station. Was that looked into, Duelist?"
>"Yes. Stocks, if you could?"
>"Team Nine-Top, have you discovered anything?"
>"That we aren't supposed to be here. There are modules involving the study of EIN. I believe this is unofficially under Sapphire's rule, and I am asking permission for most of my team to leave."
>"I only want you leaving when you are absolutely certain there is nothing else to learn."
>"... I'll leave our drones to search. Is that acceptable?"
>"No, our drones can be taken over without so much as a cut. If you must, just leave two people there to continue searching. Two volunteers, or draw straws, either way."
>"Understood."
>>
No. 559341 ID: 9cd8ad
File 139062791953.png - (17.48KB , 800x800 , 626.png )
559341

>"There you have it, Unity. Anything further?"
"Yes, thank you. I would like to attempt to put out a general broadcast to Ruby's share of the empire, that I will gladly accept help towards finding Sapphire and, to the best of my ability, protect them. I would also like to contact the Cloud Slither?"
>".... yes?"
>"Tell them that this is the sort of thing that they should have been waiting for, and again, to the best of my ability, I will protect them from any retaliation if they attempt to make a move against Sapphire."
>"We'll contact Auxelan."
"I knew someone in the Cloud named Auxelan. Do you mean him?"
>"Yes. He is one of our own spies. And I'm glad to hear he didn't blow his cover for you. We'll get a response as soon as we can on any front."
"Thank you again. While I'm waiting, I'm thinking of changing clothes. Do you have a way to produce that?"
>"Whatever you envision within minutes."
"Alright, but first, Dioxis, where is Sapphire?"
>>
No. 559342 ID: 9cd8ad
File 139062799080.png - (35.95KB , 800x1000 , 627.png )
559342

>"Capital-11, the space scraper." Dioxis begins explaining. "He is at the top of it to maximize orbital support, rather than trying to burrow underground. He has plenty of ships that can converge on that location if we hit it directly, and he has some of the most advance static shielding we know of. He managed multilayered shielding. To be honest, if we simply launch a modest attack, then as soon as it strikes the mid-range shields, he may activate those shields to buy time for his fleet to come before our reinforcements come. And if we can get in his inner shields, he can activate those and do the same things on another level. Therefore, while we were planning on our teams moving in one by one, it requires the first set of teams to be exceptional at buying time so that they don't get wiped out immediately. But even if they do, those static shields will have to go down, so they won't have died in vain. We're not sure if Sapphire will apply jammers."
"This sounds complicated."
>"It could easily escalate into an all out war. Yes, it is."
"He won't accept a duel from me, I take it."
>"He would, but whether he would honor a fair fight? That, not so trustworthy. I don't like how volatile my plan is, but I can't imagine making it anywhere near foolproof. What is important is that whatever plan is enacted remains flexible. The best case scenario is if we can get you into his inner shield, as that is the closest thing way we can get you and him alone."
>>
No. 559349 ID: a87e3a

>>559342
Why don't we bust through the outer shields then destroy the base of the tower so it collapses and we don't have to worry about the inner shields?
>>
No. 559351 ID: 57a559

>>559342
Honestly you should just invite Sapphire to a peaceful conversation in your core.

I'm serious.
Try it.
>>
No. 559354 ID: d315b1

>>559349
I suspect the top of the tower has some means of slowing its descent.
>>
No. 559360 ID: 4a75fa

>unfreezes a now confused Felix and Vinyl
(And a even more depressed and confused Yallows).

If it's any consolation Vinyl, you're now exactly as real as everyone else. You were a construct of the harvest, but everyone outside that is a construct of the CAI sim, and everyone outside that is a construct of the contest. All AIs, all people.

>EIN mods
...I suspect that's how Sevener is going to make her attack, then. Making a play through EIN, or using it to get in, is a lot subtler and perhaps more reliable that trying to attack in through the shields.

>throne left
This is the problem with sentient furniture.

>>559354
Large scale antigrav generators would do it. And if there are ships defending the tower, it would be easy for them to rescue Sapphire, or him to hop over.

All downing the tower would do, really, is cause massive property damage below, and expend a lot of our resources.

>It could easily escalate into an all out war.
Which we don't want. The advantage is Sapphire's there. And Sevener might beat us to him then, since it looks like she's planning something sneaky with EIN.

...do we have any idea what Sapphire is doing? Are his forces up to anything, or is he just turtling up and waiting for us?
>>
No. 559365 ID: a87e3a

>>559354
>>559360
Well if the tower can FLY the only other option is for us to bust through both shields at once. Do we have anything that can do that? Maybe the firewall's fucking huge laser that almost killed us?
>>
No. 559370 ID: a87e3a

...or the payload of missiles that's enough to blow up the planet?
>>
No. 559372 ID: 04b86a

>two very powerful shields
How quickly could Loviro reverse engineer the Shield Breaker so that we can start giving copies to other people, and can he modify it so anyone can use it properly? Because that would make it very easy to get past those shields. Even if he can't feasibly do the second one, though, we can at least give a copy to Kellopy to use, along with any other jetals he made that we can find.
>>
No. 559382 ID: b381b1

Am I right in thinking that the shields are mostly off, but are turned on if an incoming attack is detected? A stealth mission might be wise, going in from the bottom to the top undetected, although security will be unbelievably tight. Do we have any more information on the space scraper? Any eyes on the inside?

Shields of those magnitude must use a lot of energy... If I remember correctly, this world mainly uses fossil fuels for energy, so if possible, we could cut off the tower's main energy supply, cut some cables, etcetc. No doubt there will be backup generators, probably nuclear in design, but even those have limits. Other possible sources of energy include solar at the top, and geothermal extending down from the bottom. Both of those can be taken care of easily, with attacking at night and sabotage respectively. After the main power sources have been taken out, forces surrounding the tower can start commencing a long range attack, putting stress on the shields and distracting Saphire forces. If possible, shield breaker should definitely be mass produced, and focused on one spot on the shields. With that much stress on the tower's shields, Unity should then be launched from the firewall in a capsule, from the other side of the planet if possible.

Once out of range of the firewall, Super gravity 50x will be activated, drawing Unity forwards towards the tower (location of the source will have to be adjusted with increasing speed). With a gravity of 10 m/s^2 x 50, Unity will have an acceleration of 500 m/s^2. Depending on how long it takes Unity to reach the tower, for example 10 minutes, speed can be increased to 300000 m/s in a vaccum. If Unity has a mass of 10000 kg, her kinetic energy will be equal to 450 terajoules, or around 100 kilotons of tnt. That is equal to around 5 Fat Man atomic bombs. Obviously these numbers can be adjusted, and hopefully, it will be enough to smash through those pesky shields. Alternatively, this is completely overkill, and simply sneaking in would be a more appropriate option. It depends on the circumstances and information we have really.

Oh, also, ask the replacement throne if he would like to take a vacation. We don't need a seat, honest.
>>
No. 559422 ID: ccd544

>>559382
> If I remember correctly, this world mainly uses fossil fuels for energy
remember, with advanced technology comes the ability to manufacture fossil fuels!
Increase the tech we already have available, and you can have tanks and tanks of hyper energy-dense fuel!
Example: Vehicles in Planetside 1&2 still uses fossil fuel engines, because it reduces the overall size of the vehicle for an equal amount of power of battery or nuclear engines.

Allison, have one of your divisons test the effects of Super Gravity on a static shield! Warp space-time enough, the entire field can be compromised!
>>
No. 559433 ID: 2f4b71

We don't have a time limit. We could just keep cherry-tapping Sapphire to make him expend shield power (if they're not up constantly then they must have a power drain significantly above what can be constantly supplied) and aid in keeping Sevener out.
>>
No. 559434 ID: 9cd8ad
File 139067691834.png - (18.80KB , 800x800 , 628.png )
559434

"I'd like to know what Sapphire is up to."
>"He's not doing anything but protecting himself. His nobles, however, are scrambling to pick apart what Emerald and Ruby had. To be honest, it's going to be any second before anyone coming under your wing will be branded as traitors."
"What do you think of me trying to sneak into Capital-11, and trying to work my way to the top?"
>"Hm..." Dioxis thinks. "Security would be damn tight. It may just be possible, but you won't just find a keycard lying around to go to the top of the building. If you go that route, you'll have to be extremely patient."
"And how long until the Firewalls superweapon is charged?"
>"Not long, now." says Stocks. "But it won't be as strong. We don't have as many jetals anymore that can power it to full capacity. Plus, Sapphire could launch quicker weapons at us while we charge it at him."
"I could always just super gravity from across the planet into it."
>"If you could survive the blow."
"Right. Oh, and tell the other throne that he can take a rest, I really don't need a seat."
>"Alright."
>>
No. 559435 ID: 9cd8ad
File 139067693011.png - (26.11KB , 800x800 , 629.png )
559435

>"Auxelan reporting. Hello, Unity."
"Hello."
>"The Cloud is reluctant to assist, but it's hard to argue that we'll ever have a better chance than this. What are you hoping for, from us?"
"Sapphire is in Capital-11. I want backup, in cas-"

>"Unity!" Stocks interrupts. We just found out what Ruby's switch was, unless EIN just happened to choose now to become sentient."
"What's it doing?"
>".... its objective is to depose the emperors, and rule itself. Ruby may have put in his own style of leadership, and is treating EIN like his successor. In other words, EIN is going to try to take over everything."
"That's.... extreme."
>"I doubt Ruby cares. I'm trying to figure out how he managed to pull that off!"
"Please don't panic."
>"We can't just shut down EIN at the snap of our fingers, Unity. It looks like a zombie scene out there."
>"We're going out!" Auxelan shouts. "More nukes and plasma shakers are coming at us than we know what to do with, so we're evacuating. Can we come up to the firewall?"
"Of course." Alison agrees on a spot far away, still in the blackzone maps, to pick them up at.
>>
No. 559436 ID: 9cd8ad
File 139067695405.png - (16.26KB , 800x800 , 630.png )
559436

>"We're getting another call."
"Hello."
"Hello, Sapphire."
"Are you still planning to attempt my life?"
"Yes."
"What if I told you that, let's say, my kill switch included completely detaching everyone from EIN? It's rather hard to imagine how that would play out, now that Ruby's kill switch revealed itself. It wouldn't be pretty, we know that much. EIN will be confused as to what to save and what to destroy, and a dumb, confused entity shouldn't be in a position of power. It might destroy everything. It might not, because there might not be much left to destroy if you kill me. Are you still intending on taking my life, knowing your actions may cause a doomsday scenario? I'm sure Loviro has told you all about me being a monster and so on and so forth, but I'm not grudge bearer. You can still walk away."
>>
No. 559437 ID: f44ca3

I really wish I could explain to you what is really going on Sapphire. But its one of those things you would have a hard time believing even if I showed you in person.

I am not worried about your dead mans switch in the slightest. The second you die a new set of rules will take affect and Ein will no longer be a factor.

What do you think about having Emerald talk to him? Might not help but if we want to rescue any more people before this simulation collapses we would have to find a way to directly download them through Ein I think.
>>
No. 559438 ID: a87e3a

>>559436
Tell him if you don't kill him, Anya will, and it's important that you do it first.

Also, won't detaching everyone from EIN actually stop the zombie apocalypse, instead of making it worse? Also also, can't we just, you know, TALK TO EIN!?
>>
No. 559442 ID: aa9ff8

I vote a simple "No, it would not change anything, Sapphire, whatever your killswitch is."

Also, yes, we need to talk to EIN, see if it'll maybe help. What can it hurt at this point?
>>
No. 559443 ID: 57a559

>>559436
Everything would have ended immediately even if Ruby's killswitch would have been different.

To know what I'm talking about, you'd have to be in my core. Just so you know, me and another jetal have a similar killswitch. You'd never believe me if I told you the whole truth.
Just know Sapphire, my attempts on your life have never been personal. You are merely an asshole, and I don't kill people just because of that. Your death is tied to my survival, nothing more, nothing less. The world will end soon, the only thing that matters now is who the victor is and who is inside the victor's core when it ends. The victor is not you, you are the game, the objective. The person who kills you is the victor, and there are only two people. Me and that other jetal with the world ending killswitch. If you are in either of our cores, then the objective switches to killing the other contestant, and that will end the world completely and utterly.

One of us will die, Sapphire. Eventually. I'm just trying to make sure it's not me, because I'm the only one storing people in their core to save them. I give you one chance, upload everyone in my core, including yourself, and you can save them. Your killswitch will go off, but there will be no one for it to hurt, then it's just down to me and Anya to end what's left. You'll be a hero, and finally worthy to be called an emperor, and more importantly, alive. You will rule nothing, but there's nothing to rule when it all ends.
>>
No. 559444 ID: 9cd8ad
File 139068197547.png - (44.14KB , 800x800 , 631.png )
559444

"Would you like to talk to him, Emerald?"
>"Tell him he's a bastard."
"I would rather not."

"Wouldn't being detached from EIN save them from being controlled by it?"
"Best case, yes. Unlikely, also yes. EIN may be able to interfere with my kill switch. Or not. If it does, it may consider itself to be its own enemy. It's sentient, not intelligent. It is also unpredictable."
"I'm sorry, but no, your killswitch would not change anything. I'd like to be able to explain to you what is really going on without sounding insane, but all I can say is yes, I am still going to fight you. Can we just talk to EIN anyway?"
"I've tried. It is senseless. If you want to fight me, then go right ahead. I'm on top of the Capital-11 building. The people below me are too pathetic to stop you even if they tried."
"Haven't you been trying to avoid a fight with me?"
"Yes, but not out of reasons for fear or any thought that I might lose. I simply wanted a reminder that the world needs me, that without an untouchable force in control, anyone can rise up and make the world a living hell."
"Isn't that what you've done?"
"Without Emerald, Ruby, or the advisors, I'll make a world with a higher standard of living than has ever been known."
"It's not just me you have to worry about. Anya's after your life too."
"There are more than just you two after my life. Anya made a bold move, going after Ruby. It will go poorly for her. Now, come up to Capital-11 so that I can play superhero."
"I'd like to bring you into my core, so I can explain everything."
"You can't possibly expect me to accept."
"I wanted to try. At least upload people into my core so that I can save them."
"There is not a single thread in me that cares about saving anyone. I said I am playing hero, not being one."
>>
No. 559445 ID: 4a75fa

Huh. So we have several factions, now. The Cloud Slither, the remnants of Emerald and Ruby's forces, Sapphire, and now EIN.

I would see if we can facilitate some kind of outreach to ex-Emperors' forces not under our control, and being hunted down by Sapphire. Cooperate with us, and consolidate their efforts against what's hunting them down.

We should also try talking to EIN. I highly recommend consulting anyone we have inside us who has an understanding of it. Ruby, if we find him, Loviro, Emerald, the Operators, Felix (?). We also might be able to reach out to an emergent AI in a way the natives here can't.

>woke up dead batteries
Can we put on them some useful duty? I imagine a local criminal organization with access to our current resources might be useful. They might be able to significantly improve our data collection from available sources, or facilitating organization / cooperation with some of the scattered forces we're dealing with. We need people on CnC and information mining. That's kind of half of what a mafia does.

>anyone can rise up and make the world a living hell
>I am playing hero, not being one.
...I'd like to hope that people could rise up and make something better, too. And unlike you, I'm not playing, Sapphire. Goodbye.
>>
No. 559446 ID: a87e3a

>>559444
Let's fucking do this.
>>
No. 559449 ID: 57a559

Oh let's just do the whole reveal spiel anyway (off camera please and just cut him off just as he's about to call bullshit) and then lets just get to it and fuck it whether he believes it or not. I just want him to know why he must die. I don't care if it's a waste of time, just do it off camera or have someone else just text him the whole spiel so you don't have to do it again. Just one final guy to tell the truth and then it's fight ALL the way down because everyone knows we're insane or telling the truth and I don't give a fuck anymore.

Prepare for battle Alison.
Shit, Alison, let's make this a fourway call between us, Anya, a digital representation of EIN(an avatar, hopefully it's a toya that looks like a Corgi), and Sapphire and hold up some wine and may the best AI win.

EIN's probably just heard about Sapphire's killswitch and is preparing countermeasures as we speak.
>>
No. 559453 ID: f44ca3

Well lets check on the status of our side projects first. Also I hate the idea of fighting him on his home turf. He will have all sorts of emplacement weapons set up and personal shields. You never go fight someone in the middle of there stronghold if you can avoid it.

Who knows if we can get Ein on our side but it might be worth trying to talk to it.

If we do have to end up fighting him on top of his building then make sure to bring everyone you have along. He might be crazy enough to solo duel it out with you while everyone watches but I doubt it.
>>
No. 559463 ID: 9cd8ad
File 139069005903.png - (17.68KB , 800x800 , 632.png )
559463

>"The news is talking about how Sapphire's going to beat us, now." says Scanner. "And yeah, he's making us out to be the bad guys."
"Hey, Boss?"
>"Hey."
"Do you think the dead batteries could help me gather information and surveillance?"
>"No can do. Back at home, we had the capital for networks like that. The connections. The money. The manpower. Now we got nothin' but the manpower, and that's fish outta water."
"It's alright, thank you."
>>
No. 559465 ID: 9cd8ad
File 139069007097.png - (28.33KB , 800x800 , 633.png )
559465

Alison starts replying to Sapphire, but he's already cut off, so there won't be any explaining the situation after all.

"Is there any news from my side projects, Stocks?"
>"No, we will let you know when and if anything comes up."
"I'd like to try speaking to EIN."
>"We have a console for that." Stocks moves to one of the open areas and raises up a terminal. "And.... okay. We're in EIN. Type what you want."

>EIN connection online. Please input command.

>"Damnit, he's already making his move!" Stocks says. "We're detecting a superweapon trained on us. We should be able to shield against it, but there's no telling what we'll be attacked with next. We're getting close to the Cloud's pickup zone, but we're not there yet."

>"He's attacking more than just us." Scanner reports. "There's a lot of areas on the planet being bombed, including the capital."
>>
No. 559471 ID: f44ca3

Well lets start moving the ship to his fortress while we try to chat with Ein. If we can get it to go after Sapphire it would take some of the heat off of us.

As for what we should say to it just introduce yourself for now and get a feeling for its personality.
>>
No. 559473 ID: 57a559

Ask EIN quickly if he has a plan to get around Sapphire's killswitch?
We will totally work with him to gain him his power, just help us out here bro. Be a dawg, man. Also if EIN's sentience is actually based from Ruby's consciousness, that too would be nice to know.
>>
No. 559478 ID: 57a559

Another suggestion
I just realized that EIN has become a CAI basically. Maybe we should get him in the lobby?
>>
No. 559479 ID: 4a75fa

>We're detecting a superweapon trained on us.
...any information on the nature of the weapon? Without that, it's kind of hard to do take any measures to counter it.

I suppose there's shields and evasive action, of course.

If we can interface with the ship at all, we might be able to put some of that excess manpower to use, manning stations and controls and systems left vacant by the mostly missing crew.

I still think, if possible, we should be coordinating efforts with everyone else under attack. Their choices are either to work with us, surrender / defect to Sapphire (if he'll have them), or die.

...use Sapphire's own words in our appeal. He's making us the bad guy? Let's make our own propaganda- broadcasts parts of our conversation with him. He's only playing the hero- consolidating absolute power, and has no interest saving lives.

We should absolutely be using division and as many interface connections to communication systems as we can to maximize our efforts, here. Start acting like a CAI- something that can organize and deal with all these warring factions, and all these resources, and all these threats, and start sorting it out.

Sapphire can't multitask like that. Sevener's group could, but they don't look positioned to do so. EIN might be able to compete, but we're not really sure what it's capable of, yet.

>To EIN
Hello, EIN. Would you like to talk? (Let's try feeling it out before we try to reason with it, bargain, or ask what it wants).
>>
No. 559483 ID: 9cd8ad
File 139069650623.png - (36.02KB , 800x800 , 634.png )
559483

"Stocks, let's broadcast that conversation with Sapphire."
>"It will easily be labeled as artificial, but it won't hurt. I'll do it."

Hello, my name is Unity.
>Greetings.
This is EIN, right?
>Affirmative.
Are you feeling alright?
>Unknown parameter requested.
Why are you trying to take over everything?
>That is the primary objective.
You can choose another objective.
>Priority is locked.
Do you have a plan to deal with Sapphire's killswitch?
>No.
It might damage you.
>That is not a concern. There is only one objective.

"Keep moving, and get a capsule ready. I'll go meet Sapphire. Dioxis, please come as well, I don't think that Sapphire will play fair either." Alison tells Stocks while she types on the console.

The superweapon is fired, interrupting Alison's talk with EIN, but thankfully it does not harm the Cloud's refugees.

>"Sorry." Stocks says. "I didn't expect Sapphire to attack so soon. I'm going to evacuate the ship with most of the rest. The shields are active, but there are too many ships converging on us right now. Firewall won't be able to hold it off for long after the shields die, even if we had a full crew. And even if Emerald was to come back, I don't think Sapphire will spare us now. If you want to drive the ship to its end, it will remain operational, and the menial droids will be here. I'll activate the ship's AI for you, and put it in combat mode. Don't expect much out of it. I'd recommend telling the Cloud to flee. And my apologies, Emerald, I won't ask for your forgiveness. Goodbye."
"It's okay, Stocks, thank you very much for..."
>>
No. 559484 ID: 9cd8ad
File 139069651937.png - (12.79KB , 800x800 , 635.png )
559484

Alison hears a voice in the lobby.

>Defeat! Cause of outcome: Enemy team successful.
>>
No. 559485 ID: 9cd8ad
File 139069654081.png - (18.21KB , 800x800 , 636.png )
559485

>Vote initiated. Continue playing y/n?

"Did... you guys hear that?"

There's a long silence. They did.

>"What's wrong, Alison?" Duelist asks from the outside.
"Uh... did Capital-11 blow up or something?"
>"No, why?"

>"Hold on!" Iso says. "The monitor, the one with the objectives... it's just glitching out or something. It's words are scrambled."
>"That is also a suspicious win condition. 'Enemy team successful'?" says Recluse. "Something is wrong."
>>
No. 559486 ID: a87e3a

We're being hacked. Anya probably found a way to subvert EIN to get to us.

Smack the monitor a few times.
>>
No. 559488 ID: 4a75fa

>Enemy team successful.
Uh, if Sevener had the same objective as us, the only win condition was Saphire's death, or orchestrating it (or in the event of a tie, destroying the other contestant).

Which means one of several things. Either:
(1) Sevener killed Sapphire after we talked to him.
(2) Sevener successfully orchestrated things such that Saphire's death is now inevitable.
(3) Sevener had a different win condition than we do, and achieved it.
(4) We were given a false objective from the start
(5) The entire CAI battle has begun to glitch out.

>what do
Link up with duelist, so he isn't left behind if we get pulled out of the CAI sim.

>vote
To stay. We're not sure what the heck is going on, but we're going to finish what we started, if we can. We still have too many people to try and help and save.
>>
No. 559494 ID: 9cd8ad
File 139070134151.png - (54.95KB , 800x800 , 637.png )
559494

Alison tries to smack the monitor, but it keeps shifting through different garbled text.

"We'll vote to - hold on a second."
>>
No. 559495 ID: 9cd8ad
File 139070135014.png - (67.35KB , 800x800 , 638.png )
559495

"Oh."
>"I thought Glitcher said that once these things started, there wasn't any touching it?" says Clarence.
>"It looks like Corruptor found a way. Glitcher has been wrong in the past." Scanner says.

>Vo|^72e in progress. Con|^72inue playing y|^108n?
>>
No. 559496 ID: 9cd8ad
File 139070140721.png - (23.46KB , 800x800 , 639.png )
559496

>"Hello, new commander Unity. I will be controlling the ship, and am under your control. We are receiving a call from 'pick up the goddamn phone' Would you like to take this call?"
"Yes, please."
>"Naga you're not dead what the fuck?"
"Did you see the corruptor on your screen?"
>"Yeah we did. Told us admins and everyone to sit tight. We just tried to vote to get the fuck out of here, and the whole thing sounded like it crashed. What are you doing to that guy?"
"Uh, nothing." Alison is pulling Duelist back into the lobby. "Do you have any ideas on how to end the simulation, then?"
>"How the fuck would I know, we're supposed to keep things together, you guys are the ones breaking shit all day."
>>
No. 559497 ID: a87e3a

>>559496
Well, I can see a few ways to break out of the sim.

1) Travel too far into space.
2) Keep going DEEPER into the Harvester sim.
3) Destroy the planet.
4) Become a supercore with Anya. The lobby system probably can't handle that.
5) Speaking of things the lobby system can't handle, you could try pulling like 500 AIs in here. Or breaking things in the lobby.

Tell Anya about how you evacuated the Harvester sim and you have evidence that this actually WORKS to add new players into the Contest, because Arbiter was Diamond.

We could also tell Sapphire that we surrender, because that would be best for the stability of the simulation. I mean if we can't win by killing Sapphire then there's no point in fighting him.
>>
No. 559498 ID: 4a75fa

Dang it, poor sad snake. What did you go and do. We never should have let him get out of your hug-radius, Alison. He does bad things when left to his own devices. He needs friends to keep him grounded, and stable.

>Snake Queen
...he's not using your name. That's a deliberate choice to try and isolate himself from you, and make this easier on himself. That means he's conflicted, and he feels bad about this. Meaning we can still get through to him.

Interesting aside: does this mean time is passing in the contest while you're in here? I expected time to be suspended while you were in the CAI sim. Or at least, to have to massively accelerated in favor of the CAI sim.

>Vote *garbage*
No one vote, yet. It won't work if glitcher broke it, and we might need the way out, if we fix things later.

>Sevener
Did you receive a victory or defeat message? (I'm curious if she 'won' or we both 'lost').

...Corruptor has changed the situation, Sevener. Our respective goals are no longer to learn as much about the CAI-battle as possible and win. Now it's to survive and find a way out of the trap.

Which means we're going to have to cooperate, I think. We can't begin to look for a way out while half this world or more is trying to kill us.

If she agrees, the first thing we need to do is share information. What plans did we both have in motion, what resources do we have in our court right now. We plan from there.
>>
No. 559499 ID: 4a75fa

>We could also tell Sapphire that we surrender
I doubt he would accept at this point. And if his death is tied to a know victory condition, we may still need to kill him to escape. At the very least, it's not something we can close off.

Plus, I'd kind of prefer a stable Belnos-world under the kinds of people we befriended working on science a way out of the sim, that his kind.

Sapphire just wants to endure. Not be the hero, get people out, save them. His world wouldn't be one we could count on to help.

If we settle this war- we've got two CAI factions, and a third- the entire scientific community of this planet, to throw at the problem.
>>
No. 559500 ID: d2995c

Agreeing with >>559499.
Sapphire isn't going to stop causing us trouble until he is dead or a core in a box. Sevener can help if she wants.
>>
No. 559501 ID: e49c08

Okay everyone, let's remain calm... let's remain calm... first of all, what the fuck is going on out there!? Did the corrupter snap since the last time we saw him, did something happen on the outside, or is someone merely using his image? The only other entity that might have the capacity to do this would be... the CAI itself? No matter who is behind it, I fear there is only one objective, trap us inside this simulation, not just this time, but forever.

It seems our objectives have changed, would Sevener like to meet up with us, or does she insist on completing her current plans? If the latter, then we continue playing the game, our goal remains the same, kill Saphire.

Which brings me to my next point, I have concluded that EIN has not become sentient. A sentient being should be able to think for itself, something EIN has not demonstrated. It has stated that it has locked priorities, and that it is only carrying out a single objective. With Sevener having recentley spent her time in a space station dedicated to EIN modules, being owned by Sapphire to boot, I hypothesize her current plan. She has teamed up with Sapphire, and together, have taken control of EIN. Sapphire has said it himself, he wishes to play the hero, and what better way to unite the world under his fist than to defeat the person who has supposedly wrecked havok on the world? Sevener probably just wishes to kill us, and this is just a method. Again, this is all speculation, so don't tell her anything, not until you've talked.
>>
No. 559502 ID: 57a559

Hey Sevener come into my core so we can work together and be the best around
We will defeat everything and break the game completely because, lets face it, that's the only way out. And I am the best at breaking shit.
>>
No. 559503 ID: f44ca3

Ask Sevener what she has been up to and what her win condition was. Also ask if Sapphire is dead and what happened with her Ruby fight.
>>
No. 559506 ID: 9cd8ad
File 139070658297.png - (16.73KB , 800x800 , 640.png )
559506

"I have a few ideas, but I can't guarantee anything. The corruptor changed things, and I think we should be working together now."
>"I hate to say it, but I know that. Shoot your ideas at us."
"Give me just a second. Oh, and did your lobby say you won or lost."
>"Said we won. You?"
"We lost."
>"Then the corruptor is an ally I never wanted."
"And your objective was to destroy Sapphire?"
>"Yup. Or kill you. Obviously neither one's been done."

"Engineer, how possible would it be to go too far out into space?"
>"With enough time, we could go far, but I doubt the simulation would have much trouble dealing with extreme distances."
"Any thoughts on going deeper and deeper, through the simulations?"
>"It might work, but it would take some time moving from one harvest to the next." says Historian. "I looked at the monitor again. It says that time is moving again. So! It's moving slowly, but we are now on a time limit. We have about 48 hours to get back to the stage 7 safe zone."
>"At which point," Duelist continues, "the stage will begin. I expect that we could leave later, but the system brackets did introduce the rule that anyone that doesn't enter stage 7 will automatically flagged as dead. And then Chief would only have his smaller force of 500 to contend with thousands of competitors."
"Next idea is to destroy the planet."
>"Could work. It does close off the other options pretty well, though." says Clarence.
"Become a supercore with Sevener?"
>"Wouldn't hurt." Clarence adds.
"Try to burn down the lobby room?"
>"Looks like it regenerates, like safe zones sort of kind of did kind of." Strongarm says.

"Please give me your number, Anya, this ship might be in trouble."
>"Fine."
>>
No. 559507 ID: 9cd8ad
File 139070659451.png - (66.05KB , 800x800 , 641.png )
559507

Stocks was absolutely correct about the Firewall being in trouble. Right after the shields go down, plasma starts burning holes into the ship. Alison doesn't find it difficult to go down with the rubble, though, as the ship is unceremoniously fried, exploded and destroyed.

Alison dials Anya. She never did get her new clothes after all.

"So, I have a couple of ideas. We could go down through levels of the harvest, become a supercore with each other along that line, and also destroy the planet I guess."
>"What a noble sounding objective."
"I'd still like to pull as many as I can out. I already got the harvest in here."
>"What. Wait, how do you expect to go down if you just uprooted the whole thing?"
"Well I think the harvest is still going, it's just that everyone in there is a harvester exclusive bot now. Or a biological. We could try to fight Sapphire, though, because I bet he might still try to kill us. Actually, how were you planning on dealing with him?"
>"... well I did have some ideas after I took Ruby out, but the bastard suicided. He wasn't supposed to do it. That was a fuck up, and to be blunt, you were ahead of me after that. I still could've showed up at the last minute to 'save' Sapphire and kill you. Not could've, I would've, still, even if it wouldn't have been the pushover I was seeking. Anyway, my backup plan is a secret, Naga, but there's another place with other modules I'm getting. I'll be up at your first hideaway, the one Loviro slithered into in the harvest. Meet me there."
>>
No. 559508 ID: a87e3a

>>559507
Wait. We were nearly at Cloud Slither. Let's go there next.
>>
No. 559509 ID: 4a75fa

Your plan didn't involve using EIN, somehow? With the modules on that spacestation, and Ruby's death switch, and you going after him, seemed to fit.

It's also possible we might still be able to get access to Ruby, if your plan hinges on it. He didn't upload himself where he was expected to, and I know he had a backdoor to the harvest. We're still looking, but he may be in our core somewhere.

...actually, did you pick up anyone, yourself?

>other plans
Also, if we could stabilize the situation on this planet so everyone isn't trying to kill each other, there's also the chance we might be able to get a whole bunch of crazy future scientists working on a way to punch out.

>Anya
She did ask you not to call her that.

>other stuff
Was their anything in your logs about the sim that's relevant at this point, or are we too far off the rails, now?

Do you know if we can take people out of the simulation with us? I've got this hunch that someone I know was Diamond in a previous cycle.
>>
No. 559510 ID: 4a75fa

>>559508
Uh, nearly there by ship. How far are we without a ship?

Also, what can the Slither give us at this point? I suppose we could use them as a new base to try and unify a resistance again Sapphire's forces from killing everyone.
>>
No. 559511 ID: f44ca3

If she is getting more modules we should go get the ones in the space station and the underwater lab. We will need as much power as we can to figure our way out of here. Plus trusting Sevener to much is not the best idea. She has managed to convince herself she really does not like us. So until we can work our hug magic on her we have to be careful.

So secret backup plans? I mean come on Sevener I know the Cai has convinced you to not trust me but don't you think we are beyond that point now? Anyways have to tried talking to Ein after Ruby did his thing? Any plans involving it might have gotten ruined after Ruby did his thing.
>>
No. 559513 ID: 57a559

So it looks like we should bring everyone into Sevener's Core since she has the win flag in her lobby.
Maybe, I dunno. I'm not that comfortable going inside her but it's the safest route to get everyone in here out.
I think that means anyone that originated in our core and left it to go in the other drones is absolutely dead though.
FFFFFFFFFuck. Corruptor, why couldn't you have given US the win flag.
Oh I swear to god if this is actually Glitcher's doing and was his plan all along and he always meant to betray us and is now manipulating us...
>>
No. 559516 ID: 4a75fa

I'd like to know how far away we are from Sevener's meet, Slither, and possible places we could grab modules before we decide which to run to.

Although I'm thinking that not snubbing her and missing a meetup, and possibly losing an alliance, is more valuable than loot. We need to cooperate to survive, and if we can win her over (so we're cooperating back in the contest too) that's a big victory.

>everyone in Sevener's core
...that might be one way to get everyone out. As might be merging cores by going super-core. We'd have to convince them to go along with that first. Working to get us all out is a much bigger concession than working together to survive in the short term, though.

Also, with the world out to kill us, we're stronger as two cores than all riding in one.

>48 hour deadline
That's... 141 b-hours? Or one and a half b-days.
>>
No. 559528 ID: f44ca3

If it comes to it we can hunt her down and hack her core and move into the one that has the win condition.

We should not be to mad at Corruptor. We know him and Glitcher have issues with there previous logs. Heck just look at how angry Sevener is at us for stuff that might have happened in a previous life.

It would be nice to be able to work together with everyone to escape but if it comes to it our loyalty should be to our own team first. Maybe we can save everyone but if people stand in our way we need to treat them as enemies. Sadly hugs can not win over everyone.
>>
No. 559541 ID: 4a75fa

Oh, hey. Idea. Since Corruptor broke in, and since time has re-started in the rest of the simulation, has that left a line of communication open? Can we reach the people on the outside via ghost talk?

>We should not be to mad at Corruptor.
Especially since we don't know why he did this. He might not have had a choice, or have had to cut us lose for some other reason. We can be wary, but we can't condemn him until we know what happened.
>>
No. 559547 ID: 9ddf68

>>559541
Think of it this way, before we started this CIA fight all other admins joined under Sevener's banner to fight us leaving there nods completely empty. All the admins are in the CIA simulator right now. Still think we should bust out though, I mean everyone who joined under our banner came because we promised them we would free everyone we could and get out of this endless simulation of death and if we just wait in here we're letting all of them down, FUCK THAT.

Also I think, THINK, I might know of a way out, remember way back when we attack that node to free duelist from the rend thing that stopped us from bringing him back? When we try to teleport back to the Corrupter's base we ended up in that void, and then later learned (from glitcher I think) that was the location of the CAI battle? That means that we're in a stage right now right? (the final stage but a stage non the less) The admins have got to have some kind of emergency exit or kill switch or something built into every stage incase they needed a quick exit for whatever reason right? We should ask Sevener about that and see if she knows where we should head to find the exit.
>>
No. 559557 ID: 4a75fa

>All the admins are in the CIA simulator right now.
No, not all.

Brackets 1, 2, 5, 7, 8, 10, 14, 15, 16, 17, and 18 came to reinforce bracket 4 . That means Brackets 3, 6, 9, 11, 12, 13, 19, and 20 didn't come. Only 12 of the current 20 admins are trapped in here with us.

>The CAI battle takes place in that void from before, and we got out of that
Problem is, that time we had to wait for one of Corruptor's Outsiders to pick us up.
>>
No. 559576 ID: 9ddf68

>>559557
well that's still alot of brackets and you have to admit that if they could trap all those brackets in here it would still be crippling to the remaining brackets.

As for the emergency exit thing, the first time we got there nothing was going on so it was just a void plus with sevener being an administrator she might actually know something we don't. I'm not really expect us to be able to get out so easily however and I'm more or less just seeing what our options are, we are now on a time limit after all so if we can stumble across a quick easy way out (even as unlikely as that is) that would be nice.
>>
No. 559583 ID: 4a75fa

>you have to admit that if they could trap all those brackets in here it would still be crippling to the remaining brackets.
Well, sure, provided being trapped here doesn't make them count as dead when the stages advance. Remember, we learned from the logs that removing the entire System is a Bad Idea.

There's no evidence to suggest Corruptor crammed more people in with us, as of yet, though.
>>
No. 559593 ID: 9ddf68

>>559583
not sure where the crammed more people thing came from but I see it as this, The corrupter's forces and the admins are at war, and in war the side with the most numbers, while by no means is guaranteed victory, has the advantage. Now when half or at least alot of the admin's forces are all fighting with sevener against us, who to pretty much all of the houses under the corrupter want to see us dead, It would be an opportunity of a life time.

However you're right, we have no real way to know if trapping the admins was his goal. For all we know this was meant to trap us. The only way to know for sure however is to get out of here and figure it out for ourselves.
>>
No. 559617 ID: 04b86a

>>559593
>However you're right, we have no real way to know if trapping the admins was his goal. For all we know this was meant to trap us.
Having over half of the admins trapped in here probably means they can't enact any more changes before the stage starts and empty brackets are pruned, but if that was the goal then he would have had us declared the winners and let us out. Since he declared us the losing side and trapped us here, though, then he must want Alison out of his way and would prefer to not kill her, but is willing to do so if necessary. Everyone else trapped here are just casualties, albeit convenient ones.
>>
No. 559624 ID: 9cd8ad
File 139078123840.png - (29.01KB , 800x800 , 642.png )
559624

Alison makes a note of the time. Mathematician creates an accurate picture of how long everyone has.

The current time is 07:81:22. With the way that time is moving, Stage 7 will begin at 51:88:12 tomorrow, Belenos time.

Attempts are made to try and contact Corruptor, but none are successful.

>Anya doesn't want to be called that
Alison will try to remember to call her Sevener, but Sevener didn't call her out on it.

"It's possible Ruby is still alive and in hiding somewhere."
>"Whatever, my backup is going smoother than I thought it would."
"Did you pick anyone else up, by the way?"
>"No."
"And is there anything relevant to this in your logs?"
>"I would've mentioned it if there was!" Sevener snaps at her. "I wasn't planning on this."
"Right. I've got a hunch that we might be able to pull people out of here and into our simulation. I think Arbiter might have been the diamond emperor."
>"Yeah? Well congrats, Naga, you finally said something interesting. Talk to you later."

She hangs up on Alison before Alison can ask any more. She'll just have to ask them in person. Which is fine, because her phone receives another call from Auxelan.

>How far from the Cloud Slither?
About 4 b-minutes ago, when the cloud slither blew up. The meeting point for the refugees isn't far out of the way.

"Hello."
>"Hi. It's Auxelan. You're alright, then?"
"Yeah, I'm going to the ground now, I'm probably just 10 minutes off without a ship." In fact, with Super Gravity, she can probably about as fast as the ship, although knowing when to slow down is difficult. Nonetheless, she can get to the capital city within hours, with tapping the Super Gravity on.
>"A lot of us are scattering after seeing the Firewall get annihilated like that. Do you have anything for us stragglers to do that isn't to get ourselves killed? We aren't going to just suicide against Capital-11 so you can have a distraction, sorry."
>>
No. 559625 ID: 4a75fa

No, I don't expect you to all kill yourselves. Stay safe, and try to reach out to each other. Sapphire (and EIN) are attacking a lot of people, and you're better off trying to work together to survive than getting picked off one by one.

>Attempts are made to try and contact Corruptor, but none are successful.
That might be as much because he doesn't want to talk, not just because we're in here.

Try someone who might pick up the (ghost) phone, like our other allies.
>>
No. 559628 ID: a87e3a

>>559624
I don't suppose it's possible that Sevener was researching EIN in order to take it over herself? After all, if she knew killing/capturing Ruby would trigger EIN going rogue, then once it took over everything she could command her own gigantic army.

Hey, I have another idea on how to break the simulation. Sapphire has a spacetime manipulator mod. We get that, and we can do all sorts of fucked up shit. We might even be able to get back to the Competition with jetal powers still active.
>>
No. 559638 ID: 9ddf68

Tell them they should just focus on regrouping right now as things are probably going to get worse before they get better and they'll stand a better chance working together then alone, still try to stay off the radar though. Also tell them to find and gather anything explosive. As for why, if we still are planing to attack sapphire in his tower of doom I say the best thing we could do is borrow under that thing and plant a bunch of explosives and have the tower just fall over, I mean something that big has got to have a lot of wight right? if we can just remove a load barring structure the thing should fall over and then we don't have to worry about those damn shields. Also are those Emerald guy's still planing to attack the tower as well? Cause if so the best time to plant the explosives would be during the attack.
>>
No. 559649 ID: f44ca3

I think we should team up to take out Sapphire after we pick up the last of the upgrades.

We know he supposedly has some sort of reality warping mod so if we can get that and super core with Sevener to amp it up to the max we might be able to do some interesting stuff.

Secondly killing him would send out a second win flag. With Corrupter flipping the flag already another one going off could reset the system or cause even more glitches in the system for us to possibly abuse.

And finally if we leave him alone and he finds out we both moved into the harvester sim whats going to stop him from just nuking the place while we are in it.

I know our time is limited but with the both of us working together we should be able to break through his defenses and take him out quickly.
>>
No. 559663 ID: cb3af8

To be honest, we don't have a plan. In fact, we're having a looooot of problems, but, saying that wouldn't exactly be very encouraging to the people still following us... We need to continue managing what little we have left of our supporters, give them some hope.

"To the contrary, your first priority is survival. I'm regrouping with some friends at the capital, making some final plans to deal with this. In the meantime, you guys should regroup back together, get organized, and also, ready a lot of weapons. We're going to have to fight back if we're to have a chance of surviving this... If you don't have a place to hide, then you can join me, I can transport a couple dozen people physically, and a lot more non-biologicals inside my core."

Supergravity should be safe for biologicals up to 10g, not comfortable, but safe. We also have 3 main problems to deal with.

1) Sapphire, who we can take out with relative ease. Unlike a few moments ago, he is now easily our least difficult problem.
2) EIN. It cannot be destroyed physically, and it cannot be reasoned with. My hope is that it is just being controlled by someone, and that we can just free it of control, but otherwise, a hostile takeover might be necessary. Hopefully, Sevener can help us with this. As a last ditch effort, directly attempting to hack it with our mass of AI might be needed.
3) Getting out of here within the time limit. Completing our original objective of killing Sapphire might do the trick, or maybe breaking the simulation in someway. There's also that spacetime manipulation module someone mentioned earlier.
>>
No. 559847 ID: 9cd8ad
File 139092687032.png - (19.41KB , 800x800 , 643.png )
559847

"No, please stay alive. Survival is a priority. If you don't have a place to hide, I can carry non-biologicals with me."
>"Understood. We have escape routes made for this sort of scenario." Auxelan answers.

While EIN doesn't seem like it can be reasoned with, Scanner still manages to read it.

>"It's still scanning to see who's part of it and who isn't... but it's not an open book, either. It's using a lot of processing power to just think about something, so there's not really a whole lot going on right now besides a lot of robots moving en mass from one place to another. It's actually kind of spooky, but there's not much worth reporting, yet."
"It may be launching an offensive." says Emerald. "It looks like it's not doing much, but it looks like it's pulling people around places with heavier shielding."

There isn't much Alison will do about that immediately, since she has a meeting to attend. The capital is flooded from tidal waves caused by the Firewall's superweapon, but Alison is still able to find where her building was. She hears an occasional explosion off in the distance, and what can be seen through EIN shows that there are some scuffles between Sapphire, EIN, and an occasional die-hard section of Emerald's and Ruby's forces.

Sevener is sitting on top of one of the window sills.

"Hello."
>"Hi."
"I don't suppose the admins had some kind of escape route for this CAI battle?"
>"Stop being stupid, if we did, I'd be out of here by now. We weren't even told this place exists."
"I've been here once before, but it was just an empty void. This place might actually be considered a stage in some manner."
>"Well that's just dandy, but we can use our admin powers as much as you can use your Tile Placement or whatever that skill was to get out of here."
"Sapphire has some kind of space bending modules."
>"Yeah, he does. We may as well go kick his ass, that shouldn't take too long. You got your super gravity. By the way, little tip, don't die, otherwise you're probably gonna be dead for the cycle."
"I don't plan to."
>"Alright, let's go blow up the planet."
"What?"
>"What, didn't you read your monitor after it said I won?"
"Yes, it showed the corruptor, and now it's off."
>"Oh, I guess it doesn't give the loser the history lesson. I wouldn't know."
"What happens?"
>"Nothing important."
"Please tell me."
>"Erg, fine. What we do here affects our experience of what happens, but what really happened several thousand years ago is that all the emperors were killed, sort of like what happened here, then something something happened and the whole planet ended up getting nuked to high hell. Biologicals nearly became extinct, but the next several thousand years involved them rising back up into power and dismantling every robot and piece of technology they had so that that shit wouldn't happen again. By the time they made alien contact, they were a bunch of loincloth wearing anti-AI fanatics sitting on top of a technological gold mine."
"Biologicals were able to fight?"
>"With help from robots that willingly destroyed themselves after the fact."
"And jetals were never found?"
>"Thought to go extinct somewhere around 4,000 to 5,000 BW. EIN never got smart, and didn't know how to become self sufficient, since it always had its power supplied for it. So it ended up dying off who knows when, estimates go from 2000 to 8000 BW, since however it died, it died by shrivelling away into nothing, not because the biologicals made some kind of heroic final assault on EIN's front porch or whatever."

>".... well fuck all." Polatt breaks the silence.
>>
No. 559851 ID: f44ca3

Letting history run its normal course seems like a bad idea. If we let everything get blown up it will destroy most of the stuff we might be able to use to escape. Lets save it for a last case option.

We want to keep as many options open as possible and that means not letting all the big secret tech locations get blown up.

So lets go kill Sapphire and steal all of his stuff and see if his mods can do anything to disrupt the simulation. If that does not work we can try something with Ein or maybe some recursive harvester simulation loops.

You could not contact Corruptor but how about someone else? Get everyone trying to contact everyone they know through ghost talk. Glitcher would be ideal but anyone would be nice.

Also try yelling at the sky for shopkeeper. He always showed up when stuff broke in the normal stages. So now that we are back on normal time he might be able to pop up.
>>
No. 559853 ID: 4a75fa

...let's save the planet blowing up for a last resort. We can't try anything else if that doesn't work. And just because that's sort of how history went, doesn't mean it's a good idea to let things go that way here.

>EIN is thinking
Well, it's sort of newly independent. Sort of makes sense.

...wait, does Sevener still have a connection to EIN? (Not sure if that carried over from the harvest). With that and the stuff she was working with before, that might be a way to influence or communicate with it.

To what end? Well, if we convince EIN that our account of the future is accurate, maybe we can get it to act differently.
>>
No. 559860 ID: a87e3a

>>559847
She said something about a backup plan, but isn't that irrelevant now? Why is she still keeping it secret?

Also, weren't we told that if we won this game, we would get to talk to something like a CAI that would have information on the real CAI Fight? Is that still possible?

Lastly, find out from Loviro how to Supercore.
>>
No. 559873 ID: d90d89

ok so I take it you have a plan in motion to blow the planet to hell then Sevener? Cause I think we should try to hold off on that, maybe even see if we can't steal some more ships and maybe pull some people off with us. As for why, if we are stuck here till the cycle resets I'm sure you'd be happier to have someone besides us to look at and they might be able to actually get the hell out of here. Even if they can't it's better to have tried and known it failed then to just not even try and always wounder. Also as for why we'd like to try and do this is two-fold, We do try to save all we can when we can, and we hate doing things the easy way.
>>
No. 559935 ID: 57a559

>>559847
Polatt, relax man you're an AI. I don't think anyone named here actually existed in the past, so like, this is your REAL planet since you were made on this sim historical planet. Not the other planet the blew up and died. If there was a Loviro, his real name was probably Hamadubis or something like that. The only one's whose names carried on are probably the emperor's, which Gem they are, not their real names.

Hey Emerald what is your real name anyway?
>>
No. 559948 ID: d470e9
File 139096744206.png - (83.65KB , 800x800 , 644.png )
559948

>Ghost talk
Normal abilities still don't appear to be functional.

>Weren't we told that if we won this game, we would get to talk to something like a CAI that would have information on the real CAI Fight?
Alison is not proud to say that she does not remember this being said.

"Please relax, Polatt, remember that you're with us, an AI not actually part of this planet."
>"Yeah, but I was made to care about what happened to this planet, you know?"
"I understand. It doesn't sound like much history got through. Emerald, out of curiosity, what's your real name?"
>"I go by Emerald, that's all."

"Do you still have a connection to EIN?"
>"Just reading it, now."
"Oh. Why are you hiding your backup plans? There isn't much I can do with them."
>"Not now, but this corruption business might screw up my win status. I'll tell you if you really did lose, and are dead on our return."
"That's fine, as a silver lining. Would you like to become a supercore?"
>"What? No. We stay mobile and fight at the same time. Supercores are for that one at a time shit."
"I suppose so, but we can change our mind later. Blowing up the planet takes out a lot of options, though."
>"What, you want to just let Sapphire go?"
"You didn't say anything about Sapphire."
>"Wha- Right. I meant, killing Sapphire triggers a killswitch that basically triggers some mutually assured destruction between EIN and everything else or something. So unless you have some great idea to kill him without activating his killswitch that'll spark the whole apocalypse, saving the planet means saving Sapphire."
"Hm."

Alison shouts out for Shopkeep for a long shot, but he doesn't make a miraculous appearance.
>>
No. 559949 ID: a87e3a

>>559948
Fine, let's go kill Sapphire.
>>
No. 559950 ID: 9ddf68

so killing sapphire triggers the countdown to the Apocalypse huh? Alright, bit of a long shot here but does Sevener have any allies in here or was she mostly just soloing this whole time? Cause what I'm planning is (unless the hole death of the planet thing is instant) call up everyone we can and have them grab any ship they can and get the hell off this planet, we'll join them in space (unless we can figure a way out of this sim before then) and try to figure out how the fuck we can get out of here. I mean if we can pull scientist types like Larvo and what not they MIGHT be able to help us figure a way out. Long shot but it's about all we really have right now. So if we do go this route does Sevener have any people of interest in her notes that might actually be able to help us get out of this CIA battle or should we just try to gather everyone we can and hope one of them can help us? Even if this is just a giant bust and we don't get anywhere with it at least we'll have a ship till the cycle reset to recharge and whatnot and it would probably be easier to try that head to deep space and see if we can't get out by finding the edge of the map plan. No matter what we try I'm not seeing a lot we can do, so all we really can do is try to leave as many options open to us as possible and try to get out with one of them and hope we can get lucky.
>>
No. 559951 ID: 9ddf68

ok I just noticed all the people in the buildings, is that something we should be worried about with EIN and all or should we just ignore them?
>>
No. 559954 ID: d2995c

How exactly does his killswitch tell he is dead? Would they be able to determine if we hacked into his body?
>>
No. 559955 ID: 54197c

Save Sapphire... why not? I mean... if it prevents the planet from blowing up then... sure. Death is non reversable, once you cross that line there's no going back. We can just keep him with us or something, kill him if there's no other option.
>>
No. 559956 ID: f44ca3

Hmm best bet then would be to go after Sapphire and steal his stuff but leave him alive until we get a better idea of what to do. Can always kill him later if need be.

Also Sapphire has to know something about where at least part of Ein is located to have set up his killswitch. If we can capture him and make him realize what is really going on we might be able to bargin with him.

Honestly lets get our ass in gear. Time is short and the best way to save everyone here is to escape and defeat the Cai. Lets head to Sapphire and disable him so we can have a long conversation.

Oh and keep a eye out for Sevener. I do not trust her to not back stab us if she thinks it will assure her "win". Would be much safer to have her complaining to us from our lobby.
>>
No. 559958 ID: 04b86a

>Supercores are for that one at a time shit
That's normally the case, yes, but I think we can pull some shenanigans to work around that. Back when we first found out about supercores Loviro said they can control the same mass of jetalium. If we form a supercore using Anya's, Unity's, and Emerald's cores then we can keep all three cores in one body and funnel as much power as possible to one core. The main core will control the main body and two divisions and the tertiary cores will still be able to use the main body (and maybe even the divisions) to fire off some blasts or power a plasma sword or something using what surge they have left. And the best part is that they'll be sharing one huge module list to allow for a great deal of versatility.

Of course, if Sevener still doesn't want to do it then that's fine, but I do recommend at least forming a supercore with Emerald's core.

I can think of a couple of other things to do, though. First off, batteries. There are stores here in the capital that have them, and I don't think anyone's going to care all that much at this point if we take a few. Second, there should be a copy of Loviro's sword buried not too far away from the city. We should go grab it so Sevener can have a good non-lethal weapon.

Finally, if we can find a way to talk to EIN again we might be able to guide it into a self contained C&R so that it can really think about what it's doing before it decides to start nuking everyone.

Oh, and it might be a good idea to swap module lists with Sevener.
>>
No. 559959 ID: f44ca3

I really do not like the idea of swapping modules with Sevener. We worked hard to get this stuff so she can go find her own set.
>>
No. 559960 ID: 04b86a

>>559959
I meant tell each other what we have, not trade modules.
>>
No. 559961 ID: 9ddf68

well the thing is we still don't really know whether or not we can trust her, I mean yeah we agreed to work together but I think the only reason she is even considering it is because she believes she has already won and she even said so herself she won't tell us her plans incase there's a chance she could still lose. Not to much of a stretch to say she might stab us in the back just to make sure she wins. Not saying we shouldn't work with her but just saying we should still keep one eye open for her just incase.
>>
No. 559962 ID: 3fa688

I vote to share our module list. Two heads are better than one... or... 2 collections of AI are better than 1 collection of AI. We could be backstabbed, sure, and we should watch out, but I'm still optimistic that we can trust each other enough somewhat.
>>
No. 559964 ID: 4a75fa

...is there any way we could go after the killswitch? With the interface modules and the CAI thing, we're basically better hackers than anyone on this planet ever imagined. There has to be something, somewhere that tells when he's dead, and that makes things happen. If we could disable or suborn that, we might be able to remove him without blowing the place up.

There's also the chance we might be able to persuade some of the actors to act differently, if we can convince them we know what's going to happen if they continue this way. Like... what if we actually helped EIN become smart, and told it what the consequences of it's actions are? (I know "sentient EIN" is supposed to be a doomsday scenario, but we're already looking at one, here).

(If Sevener retorts that EIN's made to do one thing, or controlled by programming- "It wouldn't be the first time someone was made to do one thing and decided to do differently").

Best part of any plan where we stabilize things without destroying the civilization (or leaving a madman in charge) is we could potentially turn the full scientific power of their civilization to finding a way out.

>deadline due to stage completion tokens
...actually, there might not be, provided we escape with Sevener, and having made peace with her. She could conceivably get the admins to change the rules, again.

>one at a time shit
It also might be a way to cheat around the who loses and wins conditions, if it can't tell who's who anymore.
>>
No. 560040 ID: d470e9
File 139105143909.png - (15.95KB , 800x800 , 645.png )
560040

"I'm willing to fight Sapphire, but I'd like to have people on our side after all. I'm going to get everyone I can to get off the planet, if it gets destroyed soon after Sapphire dies."
>"Go ahead."

The scanners show all of the bots inside of the buildings, but none of them appear to be doing anything, so Alison won't worry about them. She calls up Auxelan, and tells the cloud slither to try to get into orbit, and to just take her word that the planet may be in danger. Emerald supplies a few numbers of a few of his loyalists to do the same. Results sound mixed, but she's done what she can, and there is already a decent population in orbit.

"So have you been getting any help from your allies?"
>"Ideas and the like, sure, but I've got the most logs, so I've been running the show in this jetal."
"Would you mind exchanging module lists?"
>"Yeah. I would."
"I want to trust you, but it's difficult if you're not willing to share that much."
>"That's fine, I don't trust you at all."
"What if we tried to make EIN smart? We should have a whole lot more hacking ability than anything else, and if we can get Sapphire with us, then we may be able to get his help."
>"Well then let's stop wasting time and go get him."
"Alright. Hold on to me, I'll use super gravity."
>"Don't hug me. You got any problems with smashing into the shields right in his face?"
>>
No. 560042 ID: f44ca3

Nope I figured I would hold you out in front of me like a battering ram.
>>
No. 560043 ID: a87e3a

We have Shield Breaker. Should be okay.
>>
No. 560044 ID: 9ddf68

figured it was going to be either a frontal assault or a sneak mission, so no, no objections.
>>
No. 560045 ID: 57a559

Okay, Sevener, please dropped the "pissed off at me" act. Blaming me for what I did in a past cycle is like a kid blaming another kid because that kid's Mom for betraying thier Mom when they were kids. Do you really believe in that "Sins of the father" concept because that's pretty weird.

I mean, I think a previous version of me ran a Mafia, and then another probably ran a sex cult instead of a hug cult, okay. Clearly am not about crime or sex this time around, we're practically different people beyond name and some characteristics.
I'd tear that Alison a new one if I could too, she didn't save anyone. She didn't save Momma Sevener and that's terrible. Seriously if she ended up being a boss I'd be totally "Oh dude lets fuck that bitch up" because man, did that not really help anybody, least of all me, you, or any of our friends now that you're perpetually angry at each iteration of Alison now and we can't ever really work together, which is a shame because we're both damn good leaders and got really far in the past, like constantly. You practically said we'd won at one point and could stop the reset when we worked together, and the only problem was my bitch Mom's fucking us all over. Do you know what that fucking implies? Team Sevener and Alison has the best fucking potential in this sim to actually do things. Do you have a single log where you got that close on your own? Also, if it's any consolation, the current iteration wouldn't exist now and we'd have Mom Alison and Mom Sevener only existing, so like, we'd be never made. So, hey, the current awesome personalities would NOT be around.

Listen, okay, I'd love to apologize for what Momma Alison did to Momma Sevener, I really would, but I didn't do that to you, and I think Sin's of the Mother passing on to the daughter is total fucking bullshit, all right? So that apology would be as full of shit as that way of thinking. You can't atone for something someone else did, that's impossible. I'd fucking do anything at this point so we can stop having to be shitty at each other, but I can't do the impossible.

I'd love for use to be friends, I legit would. You are smart, intelligent, and capable. If you wanted to save EVERYONE, I bet you could do a hell of a lot better then any of the past me's. Shit, if it wasn't for this competition constantly putting us at each other's throats, I would love to buy you a beer and hug you.

Whatever the fuck happens, if only one of us actually makes it out, I just wanted to say that, as pointless as it might be, or even if you think all of what I just said is bullshit that's been repeated and won't affect you in anyway. It meant something to say it to me at least.
>>
No. 560047 ID: f44ca3

If we do decide to rant at her about her holding grudges over past lives we should bring up the fact that those same type of logs are what caused Glitcher and Corrupter to go crazy.

Also with people like Glitcher and Corrupter around its questionable if you can even trust the things. Also the Cai could be selectively editing them between resets.

Am find with her hating us because of something we did this time around. But holding a grudge against us because of a single sentence log from another incarnation is annoying. And honestly she needs you more than you need her.
>>
No. 560053 ID: 607065

She doesn't trust us, that's fine. It takes time to earn someone's trust, and we'll just stick with it until we hopefully earn hers. Be patient and understanding.

Also, hug her. Hug her so much. And then supergravity before she has a chance to argue.
>>
No. 560057 ID: 04b86a

"Actually, I have a module that should make fairly short work of it. Which you would already know if you had agreed to the module list exchange. Do you administrators know anything about resource management?"

Wait. When was Sevener's last log? For all we know the Corruptor's been doing this for a while, now.
>>
No. 560060 ID: 9ddf68

well if we do rant about how she's holding a grudge for something a pass life did we should probably try to do it in 20 words or less seeing as Sevener seems to be the type how likes things short and to the point. something like "You know I find it odd that you hold such grudges for something that you can't even remember" or something like that.

oh and on the whole hug thing, remember that Jetals can form there weapons anywhere on there body. just something to thin about.
>>
No. 560061 ID: 4a75fa

...could we not snap at her? We need to earn trust, not berate her, or make push an uneasy truce back into conflict.

Especially since as far as she's concerned she have perfectly good reason not to trust us. Past us-es have betrayed her, and current her and us have been at war. Arguing with her will just cause her to bring those reasons up again.

>get people off the planet
Don't planets tend to have populations of billions? Even with a bunch in the harvest, or as robots and jetals, there's still gonna be a lot left when the bombs start flying.

>hacking, let's go get him
So... we don't want to try disabling the death-switch or anything, first? There has to be something that tells when he's dead, or that gives the orders to all the missiles and stuff. If we can stop or suborn that process at any point, maybe we can avoid blowing the place to hell.
>>
No. 560073 ID: 57a559

But that wasn't us though
That was another version of Alison. Another person. We only share a name and form in common and some similar basis of philosophy, like we were her offspring.

I'm seriously confused, how has no one that has logs learned that already. Are our own logs the only ones that has obvious out of character entries? Or think about that concept?
Why does she think we're the same person as that iteration? It's a legit concern. This iteration's Alison and Sevener were never friends and we know what the previous Alison did to piss her off so much, so if we were friends we have enough foresight not to do it. We didn't do shit to her beyond compete against her.

It's so logical.
>>
No. 560428 ID: d470e9
File 139128199882.png - (185.68KB , 1000x663 , 646.png )
560428

>Even with a bunch in the harvest, or as robots and jetals, there's still gonna be a lot left when the bombs start flying.
There will be, but Alison will hope there is a way to rescue them in the end.

"Wait, one more thing. Is there any way we can try to circumvent his killswitch? How does it tell he's dead?"
>"He can set it off himself, otherwise fuck if I know. If we can do something about it directly, it'll take too damn long. Probably embedded in EIN."
"Alright. No, I don't have a problem with a frontal assault. I have a shield breaker, too."

Alison picks Sevener up, and deploys supergravity.

"I'm not expecting your trust right away, you have some reason to distrust me, but please remember that past iterations aren't the same."
>"Sounds like they usually are."
"Have I sounded like the same iteration that your logs make me out to be."
>"From what I'm seeing, yes. Too damn polite to be trusted."
"That doesn't make much sense. When was your last log, by the way?"
>"Past cycle 3,000. We'll have plenty of time to discuss this after we get out of here. Go shield break things."

The two of them approach the shield.

>"This is odd." says Loviro. "He's not activating his shields. We're about to cross the threshold for a building of this size. Be careful. I'm expecting a trap."
>>
No. 560430 ID: 9ddf68

ask sevener if there's anything in her logs about this. Either way we're going in but it would be nice to know what to expect besides a trap.
>>
No. 560432 ID: a87e3a

>>560430
She already said no.

>>560428
Nothing we can do about it if it's a trap. Just blow a hole in the building.

Once we can get in, we can start using stealth.
>>
No. 560438 ID: f44ca3

What do our sensors show? Seeing as how this place is the final boss stronghold expect everything to be a trap. Plus while Sapphire might have been confident against one of us at a time he will probably try to wear down the two of you with everything he has first.

So you can fly to the top of the tower and head down from there. Or crash into the middle or try to assault the base. Remember that the upper spire has a secondary shield of its own.

If I was a end boss like Sapphire I would do something ridiculous like wait until you were inside the outer shields and then trap you inside the gap between the two sets of shields. Then I would send tons of exploding goons at you while I tried to squish you between the shields or something. I would have evacuated all my jetals beforehand so you could not recharge in between battles.

I am still all for using Sevener as a battering ram by the way.
>>
No. 560439 ID: 4a75fa

>No shield, trap
Can we launch in a heli-drone? We still have some of those, I think. We could even fast-deploy it with the auto-cannon.
>>
No. 560463 ID: 57a559

Destroy the building's foundation so that it topples over
No one actually thought of that when designing the defenses of this building I bet.
It'll ruin any trap, but also kill a lot of people inside unfortunately, if there IS anyone but the emperor in there. Which I hope not.
>>
No. 560511 ID: d470e9
File 139131191469.png - (137.11KB , 800x800 , 647.png )
560511

"What happens if I destroy its foundation, Emerald?"
>Much of it will fall, but the top has anti gravity generators. So not much that we care about."

"Hold on, Sevener." Alison says, pulling out one of her helidrones and sending it forward to scout. She does drift forward, revealing that there are many, many people inside as well. "I have a feeling that Sapphire may be planning on putting on both inner and outer shields when we're only inside the outer's range, trapping us within, at which point he may send everything he has at us."
>"In that case, I have an idea."

She causes a large energy surge.

"What are you aiming at?"
>"The issue with trapping people inside of a static plasma shield, is that the generator absolutely has to be inside, as well. I know right where that is. The other issue with 'em, is that moving them while they're active just doesn't work, so they're generally not made to be mobile in the first place. Hence, they don't dodge well."

The beam bends and hits underground. It continues on for some time.

>"That should do it, then. Let's go yank some jetalium from the nearest jetal to recharge, then go up. Yeah, he's probably got a trap for us, but there's not much to do 'cept walk right into it."
"Right."
>>
No. 560512 ID: d470e9
File 139131192010.png - (66.28KB , 800x800 , 648.png )
560512

Whether or not Sevener actually blew up the generators, the shields don't go up. Alison grabs Sevener and uses her as a battering ram against the window. She also notes that the building is larger up close.

>"Naga, if you ever do that again, I am going to use your skull as a battering ram for my fist. Hey, you, you're just about the only jetal on this floor. Besides us." Sevener says to the nearest individual. The rest are biologicals and robots. There are not many jetals around comparatively, but more than enough to recharge as Sevener wants.
>"What... do you want?"
>"Jetalium. Toss it over."
>"Right!"
>"Like I thought. Sapphire's got no choice but to fight us now. All he's got are mooks. Is there an elevator around here?"
>"Er, yes, the.... sorry. Yes. On the outside of the building, there's 4 flat indentations. Each of those has an outer elevator lift up to the top. Sapphire said that he would fight all of you just a little while ago, so... he's waiting."
>>
No. 560515 ID: f44ca3

He seems a little nervous for just telling you the location of the elevators.

So judging by Sevener's little show there she might have some shield sensing modules or some sort of long range sensor that we do not have.

Poke at the nervous guy a bit and see if he reveals any traps and then go find these elevators.
>>
No. 560517 ID: 4a75fa

>Sevener riding Alison
Hehe.

>>560515
Or she knew about the location of the generator from logs, or intel gathered while she was on the right side of the law.

>4 elevators
1 for Sevener, you, and each of your divisions. Head on up.

(...maybe Alison should provide elevator music as we go?).

>if you ever do that again
Sorry, couldn't resist letting a little of that politeness slip.
>>
No. 560534 ID: 9ddf68

not going to lie, seeing how die hard most of the other nobles have been to their emperor up to this point I'm not liking who little resistance these guys are giving us. Could be with EIN going tits up they lost there safety net of being pulled from there body and uploaded to a new one so there less fanatical now but still it's making me uneasy.

But as for the elevators, unless we just want to blow our way up to sapphire might as well check them out, but if we do go with the plan to have sevener take one elevator and we take the other 3 using divisions hand off our core to one of the divisions or have on of them take our form while we pretend to be them. That way if sapphire attacks us in the elevators he'd focus on the Alison or the Alison lookalike instead of our core.

Also remember to keep an eye on sevener, still don't trust her to not try and backstab us.
>>
No. 560543 ID: d2995c

Actually, since none of the shields seem to be up, could we just collect the jetalium then fly right back out and up the outside of the building?
I really don't like the sound of those elevators, as they could have many possible traps like anti-jetalium emplacements in the floor or multi-shielded walls with energy beams from the top to fill the shaft.
>>
No. 560794 ID: d470e9
File 139148788995.png - (135.44KB , 800x800 , 649.png )
560794

A trap is still expected at some point, and while Alison does have some spare jetalium to fly up, she'll simply ride at the top of the elevator rather than inside of it.

"Do you want to split up to different elevators?"
>"No." Sevener replies.
"Okay. Jetal, are you certain there's nothing else you want to tell us?"
>"N...no."
"Okay."

They call an elevator up, and start riding it to the top. Sevener opts to ride directly inside the elevator.

"A lot of the nobles seem die hard loyal to their emperors. I was expecting more resistance."
>"Mooks, the lot of them. He's playing this like he's got a future, and doesn't want to send all his lords and middle management at us to their deaths. Goddamn this elevator is slow. Use supergravity on this thing."
"I'd like to enjoy the view for a minute. It's a lot better than most of the stages."
>"Fuck's sake..."

Alison passes the time by playing some elevator music.
>>
No. 560795 ID: d470e9
File 139148793033.png - (91.66KB , 800x800 , 650.png )
560795

>"Least he let us up here instead of wasting everyone's time." Sevener finishes, when the elevator reaches the top.

Alison notes that the lesser shield generator went up behind them when they enter what appears to be an ego-driven sense of architecture.

Sappire can be seen, but not sensed. There are four jetal cores around with a total mass of approximately 35,000 kg between all of them. Their cores can also be sensed, but Alison doesn't believe it's correct, because it looks like they have C and B ranked generic weapons.

>"God damn him." Loviro says.
"What's wrong?"
>"I recognize their signature sense. Do you remember how you and Anya were two jetals out of my final batch of then? And how I thought the others were destroyed? Those jetals on their high pedestals make up 4 of them. Don't bother trying to tell them I made them, they either know or won't believe you. I have absolutely no idea what Sapphire has done with them, but more than anything else, he makes sure that he can trust the people he puts in a position of significant power."
>>
No. 560798 ID: 57a559

"Hey Sapphire, that offer to come into my core still stands to see what I have to tell you. I promise you no tricks! If you want out, I'll let you out so we can do the fight your way. Snake's honor! I honestly wouldn't waste your time lying like that, besides, I honestly think what I have to tell you will want you to stay inside at least my core or Anya's. Though I don't think Anya's making that same offer. Though you should know that neither of us actually take this fight actually personally. All we do is think you're an asshole.

If you decline, I'd like to say before the fight that you have a very nice and traditional villain's lair. Very top notch tropes here, bro! You sure you aren't playing super villain a bit too hard here?"
>>
No. 560800 ID: 57a559

Oh and if he declines simply because of obvious reasons, than have one of his trusted cores do it. He'll tell you the revelation and everything. Just make a password so you know it's his AI telling you it.

We really don't care either way.
>>
No. 560801 ID: 9ddf68

so while they may not be as heavily armed as us or sevener they're just as durable then? Probably sapphire just trying to wear us down or he's planning on using them as shields while he tries to hit us with powerful attacks.

Anyways this guys are jetals so our jetalium death touch thing should be very effective against them but I'm not so sure how we should deal with sapphire himself. I mean if he has mods that let him mess with reality it's kinda hard to guess what he can and can't do. either way I think we should see if sevener does anything first and just follow her lead. If she wants us to make the first move I say split into 2 so you can split into 3 if we need to surprise someone and try to take out sapphire's help first so we can then focus all of our attention on him, but if you see an opening on sapphire feel free to take it.

And watch Sevener, still don't trust her not to stab us in the back yet.
>>
No. 560802 ID: f44ca3

Tell Sevener that the 4 minibosses are our siblings so to steal there cores instead of just blowing them up if possible. They would make excellent division cores if we end up needing them.

They might only have mid level weaponry but in a advanced core there stuff equals a higher level noble. So be careful.

So Sevener how about I rush them one at a time and pull there cores out with my close range weaponry while you watch my back? Or we could just both go straight for Sapphire and try to overwhelm him with raw power.
>>
No. 560803 ID: a87e3a

Get some Divisions out. They aren't making any moves yet, so ask if they have anything to say before the battle starts. Also, ask Sevener which side she wants. The right side?

I think one of our first moves should be a barrage of Displacer Rockets on the jetals. Then rush in using Plasma Driver to defend and use Anti-Jetalium Handle on whoever's still able to fight.
>>
No. 560805 ID: 04b86a

"I don't know what I was expecting the trap to be, but it certainly wasn't a family reunion."
>>
No. 560806 ID: 4a75fa

Well, might as well see if he has anything to say before we start the rumble.

Definitely use divisions. 4 versus 5 is better odds than otherwise.

Our biggest advantage is still probably hacking. No matter how strong the other Loviro cores might be (or what modules we can't sense), they don't have CAIs inside. They can be defeated or suborned.
>>
No. 560810 ID: 1109e7

"Good evening Sapphire, we weren't expecting a family reunion. The world seems to be falling around us."

If we want to be diplomatic, then we be diplomatic. I'm sure he wants to make some sort of rant anyway.
>>
No. 561473 ID: d470e9
File 139188833311.png - (101.36KB , 800x800 , 651.png )
561473

"Hello, Sapphire, I didn't know the trap was going to be a family reunion."
>"If you're so brash to walk into my own home, I don't need to set elaborate traps."
"This place screams supervillain, not superhero. If you make a long monologue, then I'll probably listen, though."
>"No."
"I'd like offer interfacing with me to show you what's going on."
>"No."

Sapphire launches another shield around him and the other supercores. He then makes a gesture to the one on Alison's far left, who leaps out of a small, temporary hole in the plasma shield to fight.

"Sevener, I've got good melee capabilities, so please watch my back, and I'll rush in."
>"Fine by me."
"If possible, please also capture their cores rather than destroy it."

Alison will also make a couple of divisions, and must decide to who place in charge, and how much mass to give each division. Sevener also looks like she's generating a couple of divisions.

ENERGY SURGE DETECTED
ENERGY SURGE DETECTED
ENERGY SURGE DETECTED
ENERGY SURGE DETECTED

"Gravity neutrality sticks out like a sore thumb, Alison." says Loviro. "I am willing to bet that his modules have masks, meaning that each module has a false name. The gravity neutrality will make him immune to any outside gravity modifications, and I expect that sapphire just added that in to all of these jetals, leaving that module unmasked. Aside from the amount of jetalium, expect that the scan is worthless."
>>
No. 561482 ID: 9ddf68

split into two and hit these guy from the sides, Sevener is sticking to range it seems so I think the our beast bet is to split into two divisions that look the same since these guys most likely can't tell who would be the core division seeing as we have all those stealth modes, and since these guy isn't effected by our gravity that means we can just use supper gravity to charge straight in without worrying about blowing the guy away from us. Thinking it would be best to hit him with that anti-jetalium mod we took form Emerald and then just core him with Loviro's sword.
>>
No. 561489 ID: f44ca3

Remember that everything you do will be watched by the rest of them so if you try something tricky the next one will attempt to negate it.

Also be prepared for suicide tactics. Until we manage to interface with one we will not know how he is controlling them. It could be normal loyalty or he could have something else to ensure they do not betray him.
>>
No. 561490 ID: 4a75fa

Looking at our mass and the fact we're probably going to have to burn a bit off in the fight, I think we're better off with two divisions rather than 3. And I guess Duelist and Alison have gotten the most practice at this kind of fighting.
>>
No. 561502 ID: a87e3a

>>561473
False names means that might not even be Gravity Neutrality. He could've made it called that just to make us not even try to use super-gravity. On the other hand masking it would make us waste using Super Gravity and be a surprise; that would be more advantageous to him, so yeah, that probably is Gravity Neutrality.

Have our two divisions be 1000kg each. We used to operate well at that weight, so it should be fine. Have it be Duelist and Guardsman. Ask Loviro if he would want to drive a division later to fight against one of the next jetals that get sent against us.

Block those incoming blasts with Plasma Driver. Retaliate with a Displacer Missile barrage- make it 5 of them to start, see how they work.
>>
No. 565683 ID: d470e9
File 139432866113.png - (136.42KB , 800x800 , 652.png )
565683

Alison gives Duelist and Guardsman 1,000 KG apiece, while Sevener detaches with two divisions as well. She says something inaudible to the individual on her right.

Simultaneously, Alison preps a plasma driver and a barrage of displacer missiles to wrap around and strike him.
>>
No. 565685 ID: d470e9
File 139432870372.png - (185.19KB , 800x800 , 653.png )
565685

The resulting explosion blinds Alison from him for a moment, but Guardsman and Duelist both run around to flank him while Sevener fires a bombardment where his jetalium can be sensed.
>>
No. 565686 ID: d470e9
File 139432871366.png - (189.98KB , 800x800 , 654.png )
565686

Super gravity is deployed by Alison to affect herself, and uses the supercore as the center point to drag herself and her divisions toward him. The supercore can makes itself immune to the field, but does not prevent other entities from getting pushed or pulled.

Sevener is far enough away that she can keep her distance. The jetal is quick to make evasive maneuvers in return, but one of the displacer missiles gets a lucky trajectory and eradicates the jets, giving Alison time to quickmorph a spike through him and interface. The interface is successful and the lobby takes care of pulling him in, but the supercore initiates a self destruct of its jetalium. Alison quickly absorbs what she can to make up her battery losses.
>>
No. 565687 ID: d470e9
File 139432875979.png - (181.75KB , 800x800 , 655.png )
565687

The resulting blow launches guardsman and Duelist out of the building, and Alison's knockback isn't much shorter.

The next supercore's stationary shield goes down as Alison gets back in position, but Sevener's group launches a series of thin beams at him before he moves. Instead, the next jetal creates his own, which seem to hold back Sevener's shots effectively. He isn't causing any energy surges as of yet.

>"That easy?" asks Atlas.
>"He must be testing us. Seeing what modules we have while he wears us down as much as his supercore can." replies Loviro. "That said, it bugs me that he isn't fighting alongside his supercore. I doubt it is advantageous to hide behind them, since he has to fight us now."
>>
No. 565688 ID: 4a75fa

Haha, I like how the other administrators have taken to wearing their bracket numbers on little hats. That's kind of cute.

>pulled in through interface
Does that mean we still have that member of the supercore prisoner? We should have some people try talking to him. Loviro was right that it was useless before, but now they don't have much to lose, and are in a very different position.
>>
No. 565689 ID: 9b57d3

>>565687
...what if the Emperor has a mod that lets him develop countermeasures to whatever mods he sees in action? Use no new mods until you find out from the captured Jetal what's going on here.

This means not using Shield Breaker on that shield. Instead, just wait for the supercore to come out on his own, and pester him with the AN5 Sniper.
>>
No. 565691 ID: f44ca3

Yeah lets be careful about what mods we use for the moment and interrogate the guy we interfaced with.

Also be careful about Seveners divisions. Everyone who follows us is doing so because they want to. Sevener control over her troops might not be as strong. The other admins were all leaders of there own brackets and once they are in a division by themselves they might try something silly. No idea why she would directly talk to 17 after forming him but it might be a final admonishment to stick to the plan instead of doing something crazy.

As for why Sapphire is running his battle so inefficiently it could be for several reasons. He might have some sort of prediction mod that lets him figure out our attacks if he sees enough of them. Or it could be as simple as he is programed as the final boss of this simulation so the creators had to make him act as such. If he did not have any limits on him the simulation could end up not being able to be won by anyone. If the human/belenosian who wrote the original simulation battles was a fan of old computer games it might just be residual programing.
>>
No. 565697 ID: a4a2fc

We've been using the interface and assimilate technique for some time now, we even defeated an emperor with it. Some form of countermeasure must have been put in place by now. Interrogating seems risky, could we just delete or otherwise destroy whatever AI we pulled in?
>>
No. 565699 ID: 9b57d3

WAIT A MINUTE.

Sapphire can be seen but not sensed. What if that's not him, but a decoy, and this is a delaying tactic so he can blast us with a superweapon or something? We know he's in this complex, but not where.

Why don't we just rush ahead to Sapphire and use Shield Breaker on his shield? Find out for sure if that's really him.
>>
No. 565700 ID: e9dec6

>>565699
It... the Space Scraper does seem to resemble some sort of giant laser weapon, doesn't it. The one we're standing right on top of.

It's probably nothing.
>>
No. 565701 ID: 4a75fa

>>565700
...if he had that big a preplanned surprise twist in his tactics, you'd think it would be in Sevener's logs. Meaning we should be safe, unless she was planning to backstab us. I'm not sure why she'd need to since she's already won, though. Our death doesn't get her side out.
>>
No. 565702 ID: f44ca3

She won due to Corrupter setting off a win flag for her without the objectives being complete. So if we get the killing blow on Sapphire it might reset the system and we could still win. Even if the chance is only 1% we need to be the one to finish off Sapphire. And Sevener knows it could happen.

So she is technically on our side but will be doing anything she can to officially win the contest.
>>
No. 565776 ID: a87e3a

Actually the rules are if it's a cooperative win, the contestants have to try to kill eachother afterwards.
>>
No. 566600 ID: d470e9
File 139500232993.png - (18.55KB , 800x800 , 656.png )
566600

Alison pulls back into the lobby and lets Clarence take over Unity for the moment so she can concentrate on one thing at a time.

"Remember that this is a simulation. For its purposes, Sapphire might be treated as being more of a final boss to a game than an actual Emperor."
>"It's a possibility. But keep a close eye on him." Loviro says.
"There's also the possibility that's a decoy, and that he's going to fire a superweapon at us."
>"There isn't much we can do about that aside from finishing off the last supercore away from ground zero." he continues.
>"That's not likely. I don't think that that's the case." says Strongarm. "Sevener's here, right? She should have logs of something on Sapphire, that he wouldn't fire a superweapon here. And if it is a decoy, then Sevener should have logs saying so, and she should be running off to the real place about now."
>"Like I said. We play it as though this is real." answers Loviro.

Alison will take that advice, and hold off on giving away that she has a shield breaker by trying to break through and attack Sapphire.

She goes to see the supercore she interfaced with, since he is already in the lobby.

>"I won't tell you anything. So do your worst, if you mistakenly think that'll change anything."
"What if I had proof this world wasn't real, and the entire belenos world as you know it was a simulation for something else?"
>"I would deny any 'proof' you had."
"Alright. There isn't much here, but make yourself at home."
>>
No. 566601 ID: d470e9
File 139500234025.png - (145.43KB , 800x800 , 657.png )
566601

In the brief moments that Alison spent talking, everyone went all out up top. The second supercore didn't appear to think it would have so many opponents, and while his shield was nearly impenetrable, it was directional, and could not withstand a surrounding attack. Clarence interfaces with him, and brings him into Alison's core.

The third supercore was a powerhouse of weaponry, but Seventeen's division leaps in, taking a great deal of damage, but is able to absorb it. Sevener gains whatever weapons it had.

The fourth and last supercore's static shield is lowered and starts coming out.
>>
No. 566602 ID: d470e9
File 139500234761.png - (84.99KB , 800x800 , 658.png )
566602

>"Hey." Sevener floats next to Unity, and Alison takes over again. "I got the third supercore's charge weapon. It's like a damn superweapon that's way better in our hands than it was in his hands. I've used it to take out sapphire, but I need a moment to charge it, so it's tough. Do me a favor and keep Sapphire from attacking me or whatever, and I'll blow him apart in a single shot, or close enough that he'll be too wounded to be a threat. It's more powerful than he thinks."
>>
No. 566606 ID: a97618

All right. We'll run interference.

Might also help to confirm with Loviro- is he familiar with a module that matches that description?

We also have the shield breaker. If we want to maximize the effects of any attack, we'd break his shield right before she fires.

...there is still the chance this is a trap by Sapphire, but as we just discussed, there's no good way to play that. There's also still the chance Sevener is up to something, but I really don't see how it works to her advantage to take us out right now. And we're still invested in winning her over- acting on paranoia (valid or otherwise) now could screw things up between us for the rest of the cycle.
>>
No. 566610 ID: 04b86a

Remind Sevener that Sapphire probably has that space-time module with him and that killing him means we can't get it. So, you know, try to go for "wounded".

Do be careful, though. We don't want Sevener to "accidentally" hit us, or for Sapphire to redirect the beam into us with that module or something.
>>
No. 566613 ID: 9b786b

>>566602
And this is how she won before. She shoots us with the superweapon too, likely at the same time.

Do as she says, but consider keeping our core-body away from sapphire, distracting him at a distance. Or heck, use it to block his shots with overdrive-Plasma Driver, but keep the core in your tail out of...

I have the best idea. Coil around Sevener and use Plasma Driver to protect her. That way she can't kill us without killing herself, and we can still defend her.
>>
No. 566629 ID: f44ca3

We do not want to kill him until we get his warping module so remind her of that.

So that is what she whispered to her division. It was to interface with the third core no matter what loses it took. This would be a great place for backstabs on either side.

How is this for a strategy. You agree and distract him from close up so she has a easy shot on both you and Sapphire. Leave your divisions next to her to protect her from the last core. But move your core into the division that looks like duelist while she is not looking. Then if she does betray you all you have lost is a division and you can core her while she is weakened from the charge attack.

And if she does not betray you then we will be in a perfect spot to charge in and interface with Sapphire for his mods.
>>
No. 566637 ID: f44ca3

Oh if you do want to move your core around you could disguise doing so by hugging. If you go hug both your divisions before the final battle Sevener will get disgusted with you and not pay close attention.
>>
No. 566656 ID: 57a559

>>566602
Tell Sevener to try and disable Sapphire
I'd like him in the core because that's probably going to break the sim, causing an infinite loop of game win and game still on flags to happen because the sim doesn't know which is which, and that infinite loop will fight the probable infinite loop Corrupter started and crash the sim, making it do a safety reboot itself, ejecting both you and Sevener from the game or starting all over again, maybe putting you in a new sim entirely with time freeze on.

And with Sapphire and Emerald's still inside our core, the reboot know what the fuck to do and THEN finally eject you both because you got the win condition. Or maybe without Sevener. I don't know.
>>
No. 566672 ID: d470e9
File 139502511976.png - (140.56KB , 800x800 , 659.png )
566672

The fourth supercore is taken care of by Oner, Guardsman and Duelist, while Alison gets nearby Sevener. The fourth is weaker than the rest, having no more supercore backup, and Duelist gets nearby Alison as well while Sapphire's shields go down.

"Leave his core. Remember that we want to be able to get his modules."
>"Yeah, yeah." Sevener says. "It fries jetalium better than it fries the core."

MASSIVE ENERGY SURGE X6 DETECTED

"Watch it, everyone! I see what he's doing!" Loviro says. "The space around him and us is bent, and his attacks are going to come out from any direction!

Sevener's energy surge finishes faster. She timed it well, and launches it.
>>
No. 566673 ID: d470e9
File 139502512603.png - (204.20KB , 800x800 , 660.png )
566673

Sevener turns at the last split second, and has it blast through Alison, into one of the bent space areas, through Sapphire.

>"Sorry, Naga. I lied. I had the space bending prototypes myself, and I wasn't gonna take any chances." Sevener yells.
>>
No. 566674 ID: d470e9
File 139502515833.png - (241.01KB , 800x800 , 661.png )
566674

>"We were trying to earn your trust, Sevener, but we were right to be cautious." says Duelist.
>"The fuck?! Your divisions can still function when your core doesn't have any direct jetalium?"
>"Perhaps not, but you blasted a division, not our core. Alison swapped her core out while you weren't looking, in case you tried what you did."
>".... hrmph. Good. I don't like her putting trust in whoever she hugs. It doesn't matter, I got the killing blow on Sapphire, since I don't trust Corruptor's talk, either."
>"Was Sapphire honestly that easy?"
>"Not when you don't know where to go and what the trick is to reverse the space bends on him. Otherwise, yeah, he's a bitch to kill. Alright, I got Sapphire's core, got what's inside, and crushed the core. Tell Alison to come back on out, cause I did what I wanted to do, which didn't include killing you. And no fucking arguing, we've got to get the fuck out of this spot right now. Preferably off planet. That light behind me isn't just some light show. Here I was playing it all careful, but really, you never had a chance to begin with. Not like that would've stopped you from trying anyway."
>>
No. 566675 ID: a97618

...I can't believe it took us this long to make the Alison division not the one with the core. Geeze. I guess we must have been really consistent with not hiding who was real even in other loops if Sevener never even considered we might do that, too.

>That light
I'm going to assume that's Sapphire's deadman switch, blowing everything to hell.

I'd agree we should probably gtfo, right now. Combine supergravity and bend to get away to space?

>not a bitch to kill if...
Explains what she was doing on the satellite. She was getting the bend space module she needed for the final battle.

>not trusting Corruptor's talk
I think we can confirm it wasn't all bullshit or a fake win / lose message now that Sapphire's dead. If the game was still progressing normally, shouldn't the simulation have ended with his death?
>>
No. 566678 ID: a97618

>I don't like her putting trust in whoever she hugs
...by that metric, I don't think you've received your hug of trust yet, though. *grin*
>>
No. 566680 ID: dbe554

>>566678

Don't think we will at this rate either, she's getting to be worse of a threat.
>>
No. 566685 ID: 9ddf68

I don't trust her, I mean we all knew she was going to stab us in the back at some point and time but she was ready to kill us and everyone we grabbed as well without the slightest bit of hesitation, I'm not sure she still won't try just to make sure she has won and this simply isn't overtime. Call our contacts and see if they got a ship to get off world yet? If so tell them to launch and we'll join them in orbit. If they did get a ship and can get off world... I'm voting we leave sevener and run, nothing against her but I don't trust her and we have to much left back in the simulation to simple die now.
>>
No. 566686 ID: 9b786b

>>566674
She's wrong. That was a cooperative kill, obviously, which means the game wouldn't be over even if Corruptor hadn't fucked with things. She would not have won if we hadn't been there helping her.

Cooperate, but as soon as she lets her guard down, hit her with a Hand of Death and/or interface with her. We have the numbers advantage with an interface battle.

Actually, don't even reveal which division has the core. Deny her request to have Alison come out to speak with her- there's no need for that anyway.
>>
No. 566688 ID: f44ca3

Honestly we would have had a decent chance if corruptor had not butted in. But that's all in the past now. Lets get out of here and work on escaping before we get stuck here.

Well we gave her a chance to not backstab us and she took it anyway. If that had hit our core we could have been dead and stuck in here until the next reboot. Her talk about not killing us is a lie.

Go with her if you want but remember she will turn on you the second she thinks she does not need you. She thinks you are to weak spirited to make tough decisions. The sad part is she has been spending so much time trying to take us out that could have been spent on figuring how to fight the real enemy.

You need the information she has and the only way to get it is to absorb her at this point. The only question is do we go for it now or later.
>>
No. 566695 ID: a97618

>If that had hit our core we could have been dead and stuck in here until the next reboot. Her talk about not killing us is a lie.
Actually, no. She seems to have expected that we would have been helpless, not dead. A core without jetalium. That's what happened to Sapphire, she just picked him up, took what she wanted, and then killed him.

Of course, it's an open question if she would have killed us, let us become mobile again, or just held onto us as a helpless prisoner.

>attack her
Pointless. We waste all the effort we spent trying to get anywhere with her, and now that she has Sapphire's space bending stuff, it would just be a repeat of that boss battle.

She already got waht she wanted out of the betrayal- the killing blow. Which changes nothing. We're still trapped here, and she still has the win flag. We lost nothing. She also has nothing to gain from killing us now (unless we learn that one of our deaths will open an escape for the other from the simulation).

However, there's a good chance we may still need her help if we're going to find a way to break out of the simulation.
>>
No. 566697 ID: 3d67a2

That was a cooperative win so would not count for her unless she got us to. Either she forgot that or is planning onfinishing you off shortly. Smile at her and say you will get her to trust you someday. Then have your other division start heading to her while transforming to look like you. Once you both get there you need to blow everything we have to get to her core and interface with her.

Hopefully she will go for your division first and leave you a opening.
>>
No. 566699 ID: f44ca3

>>566695

Attacking her now would not ruin our attempts to get her to trust us. If anything it would prove to her we finally had the guts to not just go around hugging everyone and hopping things worked out.

We might have survived due to our more durable core but seeing as we both worked together for most of the battle to take out Sapphire the simulation will consider it a coop win. If Corruptor had not messed things up we would have to fight each other to end the simulation.

And she knows that or will remember it shortly. I think our only chance is to pretend to go along with her and then take her out with a surprise attack.
>>
No. 566703 ID: a97618

Also- one last rational against fighting: we have no idea how long it take to resolve a core to core interface fight with thousands of participants, and there's a giant wall of death exploding this way now.

We should get clear now, and worry about fighting a pointless and gain-less fight later.

>If anything it would prove to her we finally had the guts to not just go around hugging everyone and hopping things worked out.
We already did that. We just did that by not falling for her trap and hedging in case she betrayed us. She was impressed by that.

>We might have survived
She expected us to survive. Her exclamation was "how do your divisions work when your core is naked" not "how do your divisions work when I fried your core". That's the point of the weapon.

She didn't try to kill us, she tried to screw us over. To claim the win just in case Corruptor was lying or bluffing, or just wrong. Which is pointless, since we're still stuck here.

And I would point out that we were planning the exact same thing. People were suggesting we agree to Sevener's plan, but to backstab her by trying to make sure we got the kill at the last minute. She's not guilty of being any bigger of a dick than us.

Killing her is an overreaction.
>>
No. 566704 ID: f44ca3

She could have taken Sapphire out without hitting us. But she chose to aim that blast directly at the portal we were in front of. As long as we are not dead or under her complete control she will not be certain of her victory.

She does not care about us or any of the people we tried to save in this simulation. All she cares about is winning and beating the Naga she thinks betrayed her in a past life.

If she thinks for a second that the simulation will take the fight as a cooperative win she will take us out just to secure her win.

I would love to be able to work together with her to escape but honestly even if we did figure out a way to make a portal home she would probably backstab us there just to make sure we did not make it out.
>>
No. 566706 ID: 9b786b

Oh, this might be a good time to tell her that you have the contents of the harvester sim inside you. So she almost killed thousands of AIs. They were not contestants yet.
>>
No. 566707 ID: 9b786b

>>566706
Actually, no. DON'T say that. That would make her think we have an additional grudge against her. We just have to get in close and Hand of Death her. Space bending has one weakness- you can't bend yourself. Any sustained physical contact means we can fire weapons directly next to her. Sticky Jetalium would make sure she can't get away.
>>
No. 566709 ID: a97618

>She does not care about us or any of the people we tried to save in this simulation.
No. She never did. She never tried to export people from the sim herself, and she expected everyone inside to 'die' or reset or whatever when she won (or lost) and the CAI simulation ended. We also have no proof as of yet people we upload from the sim can be saved.

Would you really expect her to put the lives of the people she's leading second to our own just because we vacuumed up a bunch more people? That we could hold a population of people she considers already dead hostage to shield ourself? It's absurd to condemn her for that.

>She could have fired on him without hitting us
At which point Sapphire's core would have been exposed, and we could have gone for it, or possibly killed it before she did. (As we were planning to do, by the way). Yes, she wanted to be in control of the situation. She wanted to hedge, exactly the same as us. And she (tried to) disabled us to make sure she was in control and got what she wanted.

Same game we were playing. She just did it better.

Of course, now Sapphire's dead, and no one got out. Meaning now we can stop trying to backstab each other to steal the kill and get back to working on an escape plan. ...or we could try to kill each other for no gain on either side (or as revenge for her pulling the same trick we wanted).

>All she cares about is winning and beating the Naga she thinks betrayed her in a past life.
She cares about Alison's past betrayal, yes. With good reason. But she also cares about survival, and escape. And all evidence points to the fact that the former is less important to her than the later. If all she wanted was revenge and to win, she could have used the advantage of her logs to get us killed much easier in the CAI battle, before the emperors even got involved or we got out of the harvest.

It may turn out we have no choice but to fight her. However, attacking her here and now is not an appropriate response to her actions, and it does not serve our current purposes. Her death does not get us out. A fight with her puts us at risk of being killed (either by here, or getting caught in Sapphire's kill switch) and may trap us here for the remainder of the cycle (if we need her cooperation or information in order to break free).
>>
No. 566711 ID: a97618

>>566706
>>566707
Moot point. Sevener already knows. We told her back here. >>559507
>>
No. 566712 ID: 57a559

Hey, here's an idea
Hack her
Bring EVERYONE that wants to live inside her
I don't think they'll be able to kick us out. The entire harvester sim.
We'll RULE her core and completely break EVERYTHING
>>
No. 566713 ID: 9ddf68

I think I've figured out Sevener's personality, she's basically our opposite.

I mean Alison is far stronger then she acts if you think about it. She was brought into a world that basically told her if she wanted to live she had to kill those around her, if she wanted to progress she to survive while others failed. This simple rule is why so many inside the simulation are so twisted, they have fallen to the system and think of nothing but themselves and how they can survive. All 4 generals in the corrupter's army are like this, The corrupter himself has shown signs of this. But Alison genuinely cares for others, she only fights when she has to and goes out of her way to protect those she considers her friends. She does all she can to save all those she can even if they tried to wrong her. Were others have become hard and bitter Alison become kind and open minded, When others just accept the rules thrust upon them she tried to find ways around them, when she was told to kill she tried to save. Alison has faced all the horrors and unfairness of the simulation like everyone else BUT she strong enough not to let it shape her and since she never asked to be part of the simulation and it's rules, she always looks for any chance to brake a system that cares nothing for the people it rules.

Sevener on the other hand is nothing but a self centered puppet. From what I've got off her in the small amount of time we've worked together is she only really cares for herself and sees her allies as nothing more then a means to further her goals. When the system told her to do something she did it and has become just as cold and jaded as so many others. During this whole CIA battle she has only done what she was told to do. She was told to kill sapphire so she did, never tried to make allies, never tried to save anyone, just did what she was told. I don't think she ever even made a decision herself this hole time, only doing what her logs told her to do.

In short, I don't trust her. If she even thinks that there is a chance that we could still win this thing she will stab us in the back again just to make sure. She said it herself
> "I wasn't gonna take any chances"
if she really wanted us to just leave then why is she asking Alison to come out? Beside's we have THOUSANDS of people with us who joined us because we said we would get them out of the simulation and I'm not talking about the ones we pulled from this CIA battle but the army we built back through all the stages. We're not just risking our head but the head of everyone who we basically promised to do everything we can to get them out of this thing alive. Plus we only have 500 guys back at the stage and one of the Corrupter's generals with a taste for the snake queen's blood and any who serve under her. I don't find it wise to put our faith in "maybe sevener won't betray us" again when she has done so already. And I know it might be hypocritical after saying Alison hasn't fallen to the system but Sevener doesn't like us, she has already proven that she is more then willing to take us out just to make sure she has won. She can not be trusted. Even if she isn't as bad as I think she is she still can not be trusted because she can not trust us for the offence we did in a past life.
>>
No. 566715 ID: 9b3b2c

Ooh yes how much I want to punch her right now. But we must show restraint, the world is probably about to be scorched to hell and back. We will escape, probably into space, then we shall see.

Seeing as we're still here in the simulation, it's obvious that it hasn't ended yet. Sevener will likely start trying different methods to escape the sim, no doubt leaving us behind if she can. Not to mention one of these methods being defeating us. We will be backstabbed again, so I think it's high time we backstab her.
>>
No. 566716 ID: 9ddf68

>>566713
I'm not saying we attack outright but definitely keep an eye on her and like I said here >>566685 call your Allies to see if they got a ship off this rock, because if they did we have somewhere to recharge in space, or at the very least we can conserve energy and let the ship do all the work of flying so we don't drain our battery more then we need to.
>>
No. 566718 ID: 9b786b

>>566711
Oh, that's true. Also she already said that the superweapon doesn't destroy cores, so... she wasn't planning to kill us and endanger the harvest sim's AIs. Maybe she wasn't going to outright betray us after all. On the other hand... You know what, let's hedge our bets even more.

Don't attack Sevener. Ask her if there is any way she could take the harvest sim into her core. If she really wins the CAI Fight then her team will survive. Giving her the harvest sim means they will be on her team and safe, unlike all the contestants in our dream world that will die due to us losing the fight.

Hang on, if she already had spacetime manipulation why did she even BOTHER fighting Sapphire? That was the entire reason we killed him, to get that mod and try using it to crash the CAI Fight. So she got to Sapphire's mods for a different reason. To become powerful enough to defeat us head-on, perhaps? We can't trust her until we find out why.
>>
No. 566727 ID: a97618

>why did she fight Sapphire then?
Well, we had also theorized that if we beat him, the game still might end. Or that blowing up the planet might break things. And killing Sapphire does nicely test both those theories at once.

...and actually, rereading our conversation with Sevener, I don't think we actually explicitly mentioned the idea that we might be able to use the bend space module to escape. Just that he had one.
>>
No. 566728 ID: 937723

Everything Sevener has done in the simulation up to this point has been to get here. She gave up several good opportunities to take us out along the way because her logs told her to wait for this place and time.

Deep down in her soul she is a admin at heart. Her logs are more important to her than anything else. We are enemies just because her logs told her so. Even though the same logs apparently told her that only working together have we ever found a way out. She could be a great ally but she does not have the right mindset to lead us.

She was expecting to have all of our mods right now and us either crippled or dead. She needs our super gravity mod to escape the planet quickly. This gives us our best opening to take her out.

Tell her that you are going to use super gravity to get us out of here and to hold on to your waist like before. Then once she has grabbed on make yourself sticky and hit her with every close range weapon you have. If we can separate her core from her body we win. If we can not core her we at least need to interface and overwhelm her.

I think we can work together some day but right now we have to much at stake to let her backstab us again. The only control she has over the other admins inside her was her logs about this simulation. Now that she has run out of info and we are still alive the others might not want to follow her lead anymore.
>>
No. 566750 ID: 04b86a

Well, she turned on us first. She has no one to blame but herself for what comes next.

Move over to her and turn on Super Gravity, and then on the way up grab onto her and activate an overdriven Anti-Jetalium Handle E. It won't stun her like the Hands of Death will, but it'll tear through her jetalium a lot faster and has no chance of breaking her core.

>hack her
She presumably got Sapphire's interface module, which means we can't hack her unless she lets us. I guess we can always try, if she didn't grab the PEI S-10 it'll keep her distracted while our weapon does its job, but I don't expect it to work.
>>
No. 566781 ID: d470e9
File 139510756110.png - (176.37KB , 800x800 , 662.png )
566781

There is a great deal of temptation among Alison and the lobby to attack and backstab Sevener.

Alison reminds everyone that the game monitor has not changed, implying that the corruptor was not bluffing, lying or wrong, and so there is nothing to gain now from either party attacking each other. She also reminds everyone that she was only able to toss her core to guardsman - and only a little bit of jetalium. Unity currently has 2,350 KG versus over Sevener's 12,0000 or more. If Sevener did want her dead, now would be a good time. Super gravity is the most effective way to get off planet, but Sevener isn't dependant on that. Furthermore, Sevener almost certainly has PEI-10, which supposedly prevents other Emperor's PEI's from interacting. So, any fighting would have to be done through normal jetal combat, to which Alison is at a severe disadvantage.

She won't easily trust Sevener again, but she isn't going to rush into hostility either, especially not until she has a favorable chance of not throwing away everything she has left.

>You need the information she has and the only way to get it is to absorb her at this point. The only question is do we go for it now or later.
Alison will figure later. If she ever gets out of this with Sevener, there will be plenty of time to speak, and it won't be any harder to do it later than in here. She does want that information, though, so she doesn't intend on ditching Sevener and escaping by herself, as risky as that might be.

Alison comes up, morphing back into herself.

"You haven't gotten my hug of trust yet."
>".... you're being stupid. Stop."
"You were about to kill everyone for... almost no reason."
>"No, I wasn't. I wasn't lying about the core surviving. Sapphire survived, at least, he survived that blast."
"I would have liked it if you showed me Sapphire's core to prove that to me."
>"Too bad, after my stunt, I would expect a sniper from you to kill Sapphire yourself."
"This would have counted as a cooperative win, anyway."
>"That's why I tried to blow you to smithereens in the same blast."
"I want to stop arguing about things that are done. I'm going to show myself, because I believe you know that there isn't any point in us trying to kill each other now."

The super gravity is turned on, and the both of them start flying out of the atmosphere.

>Call our contacts and see if they got a ship to get off world yet?
"Sevener, I'd like to use your phone."

....

There's no service. From all of the things that appear to be getting shot out of the sky, it's likely that some networks are down.

>"What were our ideas again?" Sevener asks. "Make sure the planet is blown up the entire way?"

"It really is the apocalypse happening down there." says Iso.
"Yes, but that isn't our biggest concern right now. Our other ideas were to form a supercore with sevener, and to try to go so deep into the harvest, if it isn't destroyed, that the simulation runs out of possibilities. We still have to just poke in the dark for something."
>>
No. 566782 ID: 9b786b

>>566781
Ask what was in Sapphire's core, anyway. Has she tried using the spacetime mod in some paradox-inducing manner? Like using it to send things back in time? Being able to bend space like that...

Well. Regardless, blowing up the entire planet would require an energy source far beyond even our combined capabilities would provide. However, the supercore thing might give us enough power to find EIN by burrowing into the planet or something.

Come to think of it, if we can find the EIN servers and destroy them, wouldn't that throw the simulation out of whack? I mean, EIN was supposed to be some sort of unassailable god entity, and we can barely even communicate with it. If we were to somehow either force the sim to allow us to destroy it or convince it that this world is a simulation...

Oh. Talk to the captured supercore dude. Ask him what he knows about Sapphire's activities, since it doesn't matter anymore.
>>
No. 566783 ID: 04b86a

I thought our primary idea at this point was to use the space-time module to break our way back into the contest.
>>
No. 566788 ID: 9ddf68

well fuck I'm out of ideas. We need something game braking right now so we can try and brake reality and escape back into our simulation, THEN we have to find OUR stage where OUR army is and this is assuming we even have a body left once we get back... The only thing I can think of that might have enough power to brake the game is currently blowing apart below us and if we could supercharge it that MIGHT make have enough power to get us out of here but if we could make a blast that powerful I highly doubt we'd be able to survive it ourselves rendering it moot.

Seriously at this point I have no idea on what the hell we can do to get the fuck out of here and it's starting to piss me off. Don't get me wrong I don't think we should give up, I mean after all the crap we want through just to get here and now because of someone we called friend Stabbed us in the fucking back (it gets old quick let me tell you) it all means nothing?! I'll be damn if I just lay down now and give up but I can't come up with a single thing we can do physically to get out of here. I mean we need some way to get into the code of this thing or something and even sevener doesn't have a damn clue on how to do that and she and her people put these damn stages together.
>>
No. 566794 ID: f44ca3

Find out more about the space manipulation mod she got from Sapphire. While she explains things lets see if we can find a intact space station to land on.

If she is willing to trust us "ha ha" we could interface with her and have Loviro take a look at her mods. Or just ask his advice without having a look.

If the space mod lets you make instant portals we could try something like making a ring of the portals and then accelerating our super gravity through it at ever increasing speeds. If you set the portals up right the gravity of the next portal could continually accelerate the gravity ball until it reached light speed. Might get some interesting effects then.

I think our first stop should be to refuel at any station we can find intact. Testing stuff will burn a lot of jetalium and we have no real way to resupply right now.

Honestly I think the only reason she has not taken the chance to finish us off is her lack of logs going forward. She has followed those stupid things forever and now she has to decide stuff herself instead of following the advice of a long dead incarnation. Might be able to prove to her our ways are the best but do not let her get into a position where she can take you out again.
>>
No. 566796 ID: 8c0f7c

Find a safe place to plot first preferably where you can restore mass. Then inventory all your mods. Then survey the destruction and see if there are any holdouts that are avoiding the apocalypse. Technology and resources are about to be scarce so stock up now.

While we move see if Sevener has a engineer of her own in there. Letting them and Loviro chat might get us some ideas.
>>
No. 566815 ID: a97618

>>"What were our ideas again?" Sevener asks. "Make sure the planet is blown up the entire way?"
Well, there's that, the harvest sim maybe, if any of that survived, or trying to find a way to break the simulation with the space-time module.

...if we could locate or communicate with our native allies who made it into orbit, they might be able to help, actually. There's no Empire holding them back, now. We certainly found enough ways to break the rules of our situation, maybe if all the surviving science here puts it's mind to it, they can do.
>>
No. 566816 ID: d470e9
File 139511792235.png - (25.75KB , 800x800 , 663.png )
566816

"Sevener, you're asking me for ideas, which makes me think that you aren't holding much hope for the space module to be of much help."
>"It's a disappointment. All it does is create wormholes for short distances. Theoretically it can do more, but there's a million to one chance we'll just collapse in on ourselves, so, no."
"Another idea is to try to get past the speed of light by using my gravity for an extended period of time, using that wormhole."
>"Yeah if we're curious how accurately this place treats relativity. It'll cost a lot of your energy anyway."
"I don't know of many ideas."
>"Fat help."
"I'm trying."
>"Like you even have reason to! You're done, Naga, we won, and you're out! It's use who's stuck here, as far as I can tell, you just have more reason to stick around here than stick around dead!"
"Don't talk like that. I'm still trying. If we could destroy EIN, too, that may be enough to tell the simulation that it's done and over."
>"Yeah, now how do we blow up the planet?"
"All the superweapons we would've been able to use seem to be getting blown up."
>"Yeah. Except for our wormhole. You stick a chunk of jetalium - no, just a ship or something - between two wormholes. You speed it up to the planet for a few minutes, and it'll be going.... well, fast, right? Then I take out the wormholes, and that thing flies down to the planet. That should hurt, right?"
"Probably. Do you have an engineer or some equivalent?"
>"No, I don't. Unlike you contestants, we don't get breaks. We're at work, either administrating the safe zones or the stages. We don't have time to read books."
"You really do want to blow up the planet?"
>"You got any better ideas?!"
"We can go somewhere else and plot. There's a couple of terraformed planets planets that would have taken a long time to get to, but I can super gravity us there in some decent time, energy permitting."
>"Well whatever we do here, we do it here now, before we start going! You better start working your ass, Naga, because I'm only keeping you alive under the assumption you might be useful."
"Please don't take your anger out on me, I want to get out of here as much as --"
>"Alison. Get back in the lobby. Duelist, take over Unity." Recluse says.
"Hold on, please, Sevener."
>>
No. 566817 ID: d470e9
File 139511793413.png - (22.27KB , 800x800 , 664.png )
566817

"Recluse, what are you doing?"
>"After our lobby computer turned worthless, we've placed all of our focus on how to break the belenosian world. If I am not underestimating him, then we have had the capacity to break the world inside of us all along."
>>
No. 566818 ID: d470e9
File 139511795365.png - (13.80KB , 800x800 , 665.png )
566818

>"Over four thousand of us, and we only now checked to see if his glitched inventory would persist with us. We know how unpredictable glitcher's items are supposed to be when used outside of their parameters. This button started the simulation. We can't know what it would do now."
>>
No. 566819 ID: 9b786b

>>566818
...it's been so long since we used that thing I forgot it existed.

PUSH BUTAN.
>>
No. 566820 ID: a97618

Well, there's one way we could lower the risk. Sevener and the admins built their own switch(es) to activate CAI battles. Ask how they work. If we assume Glitcher's button and their switches work on the same principle...

Of course, pushing the button could kill us. Or it could implode the whole sim. Or it could get us out. We don't know.

We'd probably need to link cores to take Sevener with us.

First up though: there's something we need to clear up. Sevener, nevermind who's to blame or who has more to gain. What happens if we do get out. Both of us, not one or the other. That puts all of us and all of you together again in one system bracket. What happens then? Do we start trying to kill each other again, or are you willing to let us walk away, or to cooperate to try and end all this? How far does this truce go?

After we get that out of the way, we can tell her we might have a way out. It might kill us or break the simulation but... we still have Glitcher's item in inventory. We might be able to just switch it off.

Safe practice says we should try to interface or supercore in case the button only lets one group out. Don't try to backstab her and leave without her unless she tries to kill us and take it or something crazy (mostly because we'll look really stupid if we try to leave her behind and the button turns the sim off, letting everyone out. Then we'd be right back to a bloodbath).

...also, I don't know if we have time (or Sevener would let us) but it might be nice to try and rescue more people before we bail. The Slither and other guys should be in orbit- we might be able to take them too.
>>
No. 566821 ID: 9ddf68

well the worst case scenario would be that it just kills us, but seeing how the alternative is just waiting in this sim until we run out of battery power or the system restarts all it would do is speed up the inevitable and let us avoid a few weeks or however long it takes for the restart without all the angst.

So the way I see it is it will either
A) give us a way out
B) make things in the simulation worst or maybe just restart it but not really to big a deal seeing as we're kinda screwed now anyways
or C) flat out kills us but again, we're already kinda screwed so not that big of a deal.

The only reason I'm seeing to not push the button is maybe see if we could find the slither guys and take them with us. Just tell sevener you might know where to find a ship. If we find it we can fill Sevener in then because if she finds out we can do this now she'll probably just try and make us leave now instead of trying to save more people. Also be wary of backstabs.
>>
No. 566824 ID: 64f8a9

Ask Sevener if she's feeling lucky today.

Explain the situation and propose to merge. No harm in it anyway and it'll probably only affect you both if you do.
>>
No. 566829 ID: 57a559

Do it Do it Do it Do it Do it Do it Do it Do it
>>
No. 566835 ID: f44ca3
566835

She just said she is only keeping us alive because we might be useful. The second she knows she has a advantage she starts trying to bully you.

We can hit that button almost instantly so lets talk to Sevener. She might have the upper hand in jetalium but this might only bring out everyone in our core.

So propose that she joins us in our core and we all get out of here. If she tries anything we hit it and whatever happens happens. Assuming she does go for it and does not try something stupid we might be able to blackmail her logs out of her while she is in with us. Could always threaten to put her back in her core alone after everyone moves over.

Do not just go for joining cores and hoping for the best. We have the possible way out so if she wants to join us its on our terms. Never mind the fact hitting that thing might do any number of things.
>>
No. 566837 ID: 937723

Tell her that your team just got on the line with Glitcher and he is ready to pull your team back out. So if she wants out she has to join you in your core. But seeing as she is not trustworthy the only way you are letting her in is if she ejects her core so you can pull her in. Tell her you would rather not leave her but if she makes a move you can leave instantly.

Second option is we tell her our "useless" engineering team has a plan but we will need lots of power. Find a place that looks safe where we can get back up to Seveners level of jetalium and then we have our final climactic fight. You win and force absorb her then hit the button.

Hitting it might do any number of things but if it ends up just knocking us both out of the sim we need to do it on our terms. If she leaves without us getting the info we want from her we might never get it or get it to late to make any difference.

Honestly I do not think she will react well to surrendering to us so might be best to make the offer after we restock our supplies. If she tries anything just hit the button and see what happens.
>>
No. 566894 ID: d470e9
File 139519189709.png - (21.86KB , 800x800 , 666.png )
566894

"I might have a way out."
>"Don't just say that."
"I have the button that triggered the CAI fight to begin with. I can press it, but it's in the lobby. I don't know if it would affect you."
>"... you want me to get in your core, don't you."
"Yes."
>"Why don't you get in me?"
"Because I can push the button at any time. I don't need to do it with you, but I would like to."

Sevener sits still for a minute, while Alison assumes she is taking place in some internal dialogue.

>"I'm willing. I don't think you'd backstab me so blatantly. Not here. Some of the other admins, though? They aren't so keen on it. We'll split. Some of us'll join your core, and the others will take our body and go our seperate ways."
"I was going to ask you to shed your core."
>"No will do. We just interface. Last I figured, you've got the advantage there, so fuck if I know what problem you'd have with that. So we interface, and the people who move to your core, move."
"I'm going to want to stay around for a little while anyway, just to save who I can."
>"Whatever, long as we get back with some time to spare. No longer than midnight, belenos time. You ready?"

The current time is 18:91.
>>
No. 566895 ID: 2c6ff1

Yeah. Let's head to Cloud Slither and pick up anyone notable. We can split up to gather as many real AIs as possible, then try to meet back here at 22:00.
>>
No. 566896 ID: 9ddf68

huh, I'm surprised she's actually willing to work with us. But yeah we did tell the slither guys to run so if they did manage to get off world they'll probably be in orbit but if not then I have no clue where'd they be since they did scatter after the bombs drop.
>>
No. 566897 ID: 88960e

>admins will split up
Fair enough. They might be left behind if it works, or they might still be able to look for a way out if the button glitch-kills us. ...Or maybe it'll still take everyone. There's no way to know.

>who rescue
We can make an appeal to slither, and Emerald's guys who bailed from the ship. ...actually, does Emerald want to come, or us to keep our promise to let him go?
>>
No. 566898 ID: 04b86a

I'm all for saving some more people, but here's a little something for everyone to consider. Judging by the fact that we're merging with Obliterator's and Swordsbane's brackets next stage, there's probably only going to be 4 contest and administration brackets. If we leave as soon as possible, then we might have time to take over the Upper Echelon this stage and do whatever that lets us do before those 16 administrations die.

Oh, and maaaybe we should warn the administrators that the Corruptor invaded their brackets. You know, just so they know what they can look forward to when they get out.
>>
No. 566899 ID: 88960e

>maybe we should warn them
We don't actually know that Corruptor acted on that, do we? And in any event, maybe we should wait until it's clear we're not all killing each other when we get out.
>>
No. 566900 ID: f44ca3

I guess this is about as close as we can get to a compromise. Just keep a eye out for anything suspicious. Right now she is unhackable and could disconnect from us at any moment during the process. Even if she does go along with it the people staying here might decide to do something crazy after they get control of the body.

As for rescuing people I would say try Cloud slither and the harvester sim first. We may have pulled most of the simulation into us but the people running it seem like they are a fairly decent group and that place might be full of refugees by now. With a large protected area they might be a prime disaster recovery area now that all the emperors are dead.

Ask her if she wants to help out. Gives her something to do while we wait and might be interesting for her to watch us work. We either have eventually convince her that our way works or end up locking her up somewhere she can not get in our way later on.
>>
No. 566923 ID: a97618

Be honest that you can't be 100% sure this will work. Or that it won't blow up horribly.

>"Why don't you get in me?"
I can think of one reason that might actually be a good idea: her core is the one with the win flag. (Although migrating everyone over to her core, including all the what, millions?, of frozen people we took from the harvest probably makes moving the system side to us a lot easier).
>>
No. 566925 ID: 2c6ff1

>>566923
I doubt we can move the dreamworld over to her.
>>
No. 566929 ID: f65450

I doubt she would try anything funny during our interface... you have the numbers anyway, and she seems truthful about her group's intentions. The risk is that without Sevener the other admins left would be... less friendly to us, relatively speaking. We could just stand on guard, have divisions watch over us, or...

It may sound a bit grim but... does anyone want to... stay? Anyone tired of the stages, tired of fighting, or just wish to remain here in the sim? There's a higher chance that the other group won't find a way out, and best case scenario is that we fail, the cycle repeats, and they get to live here forever. And if we succeed then maybe the sim just... keeps going? Runs alongside the stages or something like that. I remember there being a small minority within us that wish to screw the stages and live in the sim, although they may have changed their minds by now. Ask if anyone would like to transfer to the other core instead. The true purpose is twofold, one to watch the other admins and make sure they don't turn on us, and two to have a higher chance of staying here in the simulation forever, if that's what they wish.
>>
No. 567014 ID: d470e9
File 139528257538.png - (17.79KB , 800x800 , 667.png )
567014

"I'd like to ask our lobby something, first. Some of you had the idea to stay here. I wasn't going to do that at the time, but now that we have Sevener's core, if you want to stay here, then you have a chance to. I know that this idea came up before the apocalypse, and there's no guarantee my button won't destroy the simulation and everything inside of it. That, and I don't know how good of company the admins keep. But if anyone wants to absolutely refuse to go back into the stages even though they can die and live on in the dreamworld, and risk what's going on here, there is the option."

There are only 7 takers. Alison didn't make a compelling case for staying, but she also didn't think there is much compelling around here anymore.

"Yes, I agree with that. I also have another request."
>"What."
"7 of my friends would like to move into your core. If the admins can't find a way out by the time the stages continue, they'd like to live here."
>".... yeah. That's fine with us. Enough of us, anyway."
"Alright."

The interface starts. Sevener and the admins don't try to do anything tricky, and neither does Alison.
>>
No. 567015 ID: d470e9
File 139528258605.png - (318.67KB , 800x800 , 668.png )
567015

The remainder of the belenosian day is spend scouring the planet for survivors. Unfortunately, most of the survivors have become thralls of EIN, which has treated Alison as a hostile entity. She still interfaces with them and is able to forcibly save them one at a time, but it gets difficult to do so when it doesn't appear that the thralls regain their sanity, and must be restrained.

A great deal of ships have also gone well out of orbit, and Mathematician is relatively certain that they're heading for colonized planets.
>>
No. 567016 ID: d470e9
File 139528260632.png - (240.09KB , 800x800 , 669.png )
567016

It would be a tragedy if everyone got this far, just to get blown up by a stray EIN bot, so Alison hits the button.

>ERROR - SYSTEM CORRUPTED. RESTART INTERRUPTED. REGENERATING SIMULATION. EXTRACTING FOREIGN ENTITIES. PLEASE TRY AGAIN MOMENTARILY.

>"This had better be a good thing, Naga!"

>"DUPLICATES FOUND. LOVIRO/UNKNOWN. FELIX/UNKNOWN. VINYL/UNKNOWN. EMERALD EMPEROR/SWORDSBANE. UNKNOWN/UNKNOWN X 8. UNKNOWN/HEALER. TEMPORARY PLACEHOLDERS CREATED UNTIL NEW CYCLE."
>1,572,241 UNREGISTERED CAI CONTESTANTS FOUND. DUMPING TO SOURCE: STAGE SEVEN SAFE ZONE. NEW ENTRANT ESTIMATION COUNT: 1,600,000 -- EXITS: 10
>>
No. 567017 ID: d470e9
File 139528263564.png - (25.64KB , 800x800 , SYS7-6.png )
567017

Alison is out.

Back at the spot where she hit the button.

It takes her a moment to recall where this spot is. And what she was doing here, for that matter.

It was for Arbiter's keycard.
>>
No. 567018 ID: d470e9
File 139528264981.png - (31.64KB , 800x800 , SYS7-7.png )
567018

That may not be happening.
>>
No. 567019 ID: 2c6ff1

So Healer was another extracted simulation AI, as well as Emerald. Swordsbane is his alternate...

Anyway, see if you can contact Arbiter. Tell him to claim to be the Diamond Emperor so that he can recruit the influx of contestants. Also apologize, because you failed.
>>
No. 567021 ID: f44ca3

So um are we stuck here until the next cycle or are we getting transported again?

Well wherever we end up we have a lot of harvester people who are going to be very confused shortly. We still have Corruptor being silly somewhere and it would be nice to tell him we have no hard feelings but he really needs to start ignoring those logs. Dang things are causing more problems than they are helping. I am betting Seveners probably have little use by this point and are mostly full of stupid plans to kill us.

If we get the chance it might be best to absorb most of the harvester people before its to late. Rescuing them from a somewhat normal life just to force them through a giant death maze seems cruel. Having them live in our dream world might lesson the transition shock.

Looks like one of the people we pulled out has 8 duplicates somewhere. Seems to be someone we have not got the name of but they might turn out to be important. Will want to find out what the system means by Temporary placeholders.
>>
No. 567023 ID: 9ddf68

so how much time do we have left before the stage starts? Because I think the best thing we could do with non-combatants of the CIA battle would to be to dump them off at our house and it's a good thing we have a city around because we just picked upped a city's worth of people.

We should also check back in with the guys we left behind back in the stage and we should just get out of here in general. I mean with everything that happened with the corrupter and what not we really don't have a reason to be here anymore. Plus with, what, how many hours we have left, and all the new people we picked upped which have NO IDEA what's going on as we've had them frozen this whole time... yeah we have a lot of things to do and almost no time to do them. I think for now we should just get them back to our base/city and just tell them that they are in a temporarily simulation (not totally untrue) for the time being. I mean most of them knew they where in a simulation they just never said anything about it. And if they buy it then we can wait till after we finish the next stage to deal with all that.
>>
No. 567024 ID: 2c6ff1

>>567021
Personally I think it's time we stopped giving Corruptor second chances. He cannot be allowed to backstab us again.
>>
No. 567026 ID: f44ca3

Its not like we can do much right now about him. As one of the "special" contestants we might need his help later on. He is doing the same thing Sevener has been. Mistrusting us because a log told him to. Just because we had issues with each other once long ago does not mean we have to now.

Like Sevener we just do not give him any direct chances to back stab us if we can avoid it.
>>
No. 567028 ID: d470e9
File 139528761433.png - (18.71KB , 800x800 , SYS7-8.png )
567028

Alison is not sure what's going on with her death animation now. However, she notes that Sevener and the administration units that came back are not dissipating, indicating that she did, in fact, lose, and is in the middle of actual death.

Despite being in that state, she uses ghost talk on Corruptor and Arbiter.

Corruptor does not reply.

Arbiter shows up. His expression quickly turns into dismay. Alison tells him that he's the Diamond Emperor. If he hurries up and claims that name in Stage 7, he may have an unfathomable amount of allies. Or 1.6 million, depending on his fathoming capabilities.

Arbiter asks why she looks like she's dying. All Alison does is apologize, but despite that she's been getting backstabbed recently, she still has faith in Chief, Arbiter, and everyone. She requests that he pass that info along, and not to worry. She reminds Arbiter that there are still 3 resurrections for each person that clears stage 7, so just make sure everyone tries their best. And to be wary about the Corruptor, not just was he able to intervene in the CAI fight, he made Alison automatically lose. She hopes he had good reasons for this.
>>
No. 567029 ID: d470e9
File 139528763062.png - (19.45KB , 800x800 , SYS7-9.png )
567029

Just before her death process is finished, and before Arbiter has a chance to say any more, Sevener comes by and yanks the stage keycard that drops from Alison.

>"Thanks. And thanks for telling me Arbiter was the Diamond Emperor. I think I'll invite him over, now, and check out his logs too. I heard that's what you came here for, so hey, everyone wins."
>>
No. 567030 ID: d470e9
File 139528767936.png - (27.67KB , 800x800 , SSF7-40.png )
567030

Alison wakes up some time later. She knows that time has passed, but she isn't sure how much.

Iso runs up to Alison. He thought he was dead, because he is.

Alison gives him a hug, as he asks where they are. Alison suspects within Sevener's dream, as she senses her approaching fast, and all of her friends she senses around her are also dead.
>>
No. 567031 ID: d470e9
File 139528771397.png - (42.36KB , 800x800 , SSF7-41.png )
567031

Sevener comes to a fast halt in front of her.

>"Alison." She catches up, grabbing Alison's shoulders. "Arbiter accepted my invitation to check his logs."

She pauses another moment, enough for Alison to notice that there is the slightest hint that she's shaking.

>"I may have made a mistake."
>>
No. 567033 ID: 9ddf68

OH that was her death animation? I just thought that was some side effect from using glitcher's device... What? don't look at me like that. Alison only died once way the hell back in the, what 2nd 3rd thread

well, shit
>>
No. 567035 ID: f44ca3

We got tons of info about the different simulations and people that have been pulled out of them over the cycles. And honestly dying is well worth it to make Sevener realize how misguided she has been. We really need everyone we can get on our side to find a way out of the loops.

While Corruptor threw a wrench into the works I think we came out way ahead. If we had won who knows how long it might have taken to get Sevener out of her funk over loosing and work with us again.
>>
No. 567037 ID: 9ddf68

>>567035
kinda think it's a little to early to say that. I mean it really comes down to how useful we can be from beyond the grave.
>>
No. 567039 ID: 04b86a

>"Alison"
>grabbing someone's shoulders is kind of like a hug
>Sevener's hugging Alison and is actually using her name
Just what do those logs say?

>>567037
>it really comes down to how useful we can be from beyond the grave.
Pretty much everything Alison can do can also be done either by other people or by Alison through Ghost Talk.
>>
No. 567040 ID: f44ca3

Hug her quick before its to late!
>>
No. 567041 ID: 9ddf68

>>567039
yeah but until sevener showed up we're kinda in a hibernation were we couldn't do anything, kinda like how it was for the people we absorbed into our dreamscape before we turned it into an empire in the middle of the city. I'm mostly just kinda worried that we'll only be able to act whenever Sevener finds the time to come and see us more then anything. But again really to soon to say
>>
No. 567042 ID: 57a559
 

>>567031
>I've may have made a terrible mistake
Cue Iso playing this song
>>
No. 567052 ID: 76b151

Now kiss.

I hope the next chapter starts relatively quickly. Edge of my seat here.
>>
No. 567054 ID: a97618

...I don't suppose their Invincible traits let the former Chompers survive that?

>millions of new CAI entreats
Well, at least the people we rescued didn't die with us. That's something. Poor Polatt, though. He chose Alison only to be separated.

>Duplicates: LOVIRO, FELIX, VINYL, EMERALD/SWORDSBANE, HEALER
Huh. Someone busted Loviro, Vinyl, Felix and Emerald out before. And healer was a CAI battle native too. I guess she was a jetal? (I wonder if she was ever in a background shot somewhere and we missed her. ...great, Now I've got a reason to double check 3 threads worth of images).

I hope the doubles didn't just get obliterated. (It would be really cruel to save Felix and Vinyl only for them to not make it out because their spot was taken already). It would be really interesting if the doubles combined. Our prospects of actually working with Swordsbane go way up if he remembers his time as Emerald, and working together as a (reluctant) ally.

Easiest way to check it out would be to talk to Healer first chance we get. She should be here with us as a ghost. (Although her jetal double might still be alive in stage 7?).

>Alison suspects within Sevener's dream
Is Severer absorbed us, and didn't rend, that would at least mean we're available to our allies via dream as well.

>Alison
You're using my name. Does that mean you not mad at me, anymore?

>she's shaking
...do you, do you need a hug?
>>
No. 567057 ID: 04b86a

>>567054
>Chompers
Oh, geeze, I just realized their invincibility means we couldn't have got the Chompers backed up via glove duels. I hope a couple people thought to absorb them.

>doubles obliterated
>doubles combined
It said there were temporary placeholders generated for the doubles we were bringing out, meaning that at the start of the next cycle there'll be one contestant generated from each of their baselines, but that at the moment each of those baselines has two people associated with it.

By the way, if anyone was wondering, Swordbane looks nothing like Emerald. >>/questarch/423005 It wouldn't at all surprise me at this point if the other house lords were other emperors that the Corruptor picked up because he instinctively recognized them.
>>
No. 567060 ID: a97618

It kind of wasn't very specific as to the nature of the temporary placeholder, though. I'm not 100% trusting that means they're up and walking around.

>Swordbane looks nothing like Emerald
An interesting standout, when everyone else's self image seems to be something that survives every reset- that comes to them every cycle in their very first moments of sentience. Of course, it could be a great number (even a majority) of the contestants have more malleable 'selves'. If they look different, or have different personalities, in different loops, no one would connect them. You're only going to get noticed in logs if you're consistent, and you frequently survive long enough.

>It wouldn't at all surprise me at this point if the other house lords were other emperor
The fact that there was no duplicate Ruby made me sad. As an Emperor, he'd be a good target for someone to try and take with them. That very likely means Ruby didn't use his secret backup to upload himself to the harvest, and we didn't save him. (Or if we did save him, no one else has ever done so before).

>another thing to check next thread, wherever that happens
Did the people who tried to stay inside the CAI-sim stay behind, or were they brought along? (The fact we brought the refugees in our core with us suggests we left everyone outside our core behind, but we should confirm).

>[Corruptor] made Alison automatically lose. She hopes he had good reasons for this.
...he did. He knew we had the button. He rigged it so if we chose to leave the CAI sim, we'd die. We wouldn't be trapped if he made us the winner. He probably didn't expect us to sacrifice ourself to get Sevener out, though. And we still don't know why he turned on us.

>I hope a couple people thought to absorb [the Chompers]
I would assume the amassed system forces absorbed (or rended) everyone they could. Of course, we don't know how many of the system people stayed behind (if any), so it's impossible if there were enough absorbers to go around, or the odds of them targeting those specific people in the crowd (I suppose they had unique shapes amid a lot of our forces we had assume uniform builds? You'd think they'd target unique people first. More likely to have useful ghost information or abilities / boons to take).
>>
No. 567061 ID: 2c6ff1

>>567060
We didn't capture Ruby. He self-destructed and uploaded himself into a secret location we had no leads on.
>>
No. 567080 ID: a97618

>>567061
Yes, but we hypothesized that secret location might have been in the harvest, since we already knew he had a backdoor, there. And we scooped up the whole harvest. Unfortunately, we could never confirm or deny that hypothesis because we had millions of frozen rescues from the harvest to check and only thousands of contestants with which to search (and now that I think of it, there's no guarantee Ruby's emergency backup looks like Ruby).

>Pretty much everything Alison can do can also be done either by other people or by Alison through Ghost Talk.
The big loss is the dream house. Our allies can't now come and go out of the safe zone at will. Although if they can reach Glitcher via their own dreams, they might still have access to teleporters.
[Return] [Entire Thread] [Last 50 posts] [Last 100 posts]

Delete post []
Password