Osmen 2009/10/27(Tue)20:05 No. 69971 ID: f98e0b
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-Mmnh."

>>69972
Aw man she is blushing so hard.

>>69972
Mission success.

>>69972
I'm convinced that the orb's true purpose is to spread love to the whole universe. To hell with epic quests or anything, people can do that shit on their own.

>>69976
Either that, or to get everyone to have sex with everyone else. Who knows?

>>69970
I think she was going to say something about them having a more liberal outlook on mixing violence and sex.
This should probably be considered a hint.

>>69972
$5 says the other mall/shopping centre patrons are staring at them.

John 2009/11/13(Fri)16:59 No. 76325 ID: f98e0b
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Bracilius is the place we'll meet Theseus, Terrens says.

John 2009/11/13(Fri)16:59 No. 76326 ID: f98e0b
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It's a rough town, a backwater world in backwater space. Notable for having one of the Alliance’s largest prison complexes, home to some of the Alliance’s worst criminals.

Perfect vacation spot, no?

>Admiral Theseus. Reading incoming ship, Mk V Neuphrale Experimental.
“The Glory, I would presume. Put me on a direct link with their bridge, would you, corporal?”
>Of course, Admiral.

>>76326

Sure, if you're in a helicopter and have a rifle.

John 2009/11/14(Sat)17:31 No. 76648 ID: f98e0b
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>>76467
Sounds like Seth's wet dream.

>Captain Terrens, this is Theseus. You are cleared to come aboard HQ Vessel. See you in the control room, over.

He sounds distracted somehow.John wonders if they've interrupted something.

"Roger, Theseus. We're heading over now." Terrens replies.

John 2009/11/14(Sat)17:36 No. 76650 ID: f98e0b
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Terrens asked me, Seth, and Oberan to come along. Not sure why exactly. The four of us are inside a small landing/transport vehicle headed toward Theseus' experimental, the Thracia.

Terrens looks in from the cockpit. "We're going to dock in about a minute. I've got to go meet with Theseus and the captain of the Triumph. His name's Duke or something. Does anyone want to come meet him, or do you want to just hang out on the ship until the meeting's over? It'll probably just be some boring administrative stuff, but you'll be able to meet Theseus. He's a living legend."

>>76650
If you feel like meeting a Living Legend, go for it. But expect boring.

>>76650
It can't be more boring than sitting in a cramped room with the others, can it?

...Wait, yes it could. Stay here and see if anyone has any cool stories to tell to pass the time!

Go talk to Theseus.

John 2009/11/14(Sat)18:31 No. 76685 ID: f98e0b
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"This is outrageous. I can't believe the council is even considering offering a pinko Alliance Citizenship. Have they forgotten what happened last time we let an untested, underscreened race into our society? Or will we need another Dult before the message gets across?"

>It is only one human, after all, Admiral. And Doctor Ford has given us nothing but positive reports on his progress. He's already got a fully functioning uplink, apparently.

"That just makes him more dangerous. And anyway, it only took one Dultian to nearly bring the Alliance to its knees, and force us to glass one of our colonies and wipe out an entire species. The council's forgotten, it seems. I haven't, Councilor. You're taking a huge risk, and as a soldier there's only so much I can do to clean up after you if it all goes pear-shaped."

John 2009/11/14(Sat)18:38 No. 76689 ID: f98e0b
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Theseus looks up as John and Terrens enter.

"We'll continue this conversation later, Councilor. I have business to attend to."

He flicks the channel to some Delter Soap Opera.

"Welcome, Captain Terrens! Congratulations again on your new vessel and assignment. Glad to have you in my fleet, as small as it is at the moment. I've heard nothing but good things about you and I'm sure that is a trend that'll continue."

Terrens looks proud. "Thank you, sir."

"You must be Gunnery Sergeant John," Theseus moves on to John. "Used to be a janitor, yes? Well, you've done a hell of a good job if you're where you are now! I hear you beat First Hand Oberan one-on-one as well. Admirable."

>>76689
Oh hey. It's that guy we saw blowing up the human ship in that weird vision. I guess we don't really know much about him though.

Thank him for his kind words, and say you hope you can continue to serve the Alliance well in your new position.

>>76697
And make a mental note to try to initiate contact with Osmen (The human) somehow, John. Orb bearers, shards or no, should stick together.

>>76689

Just nod, or give him some short thanks; I don't trust him.

OOC: Is this quest still active? It's awesome

IC: Thank him like you would thank a legendary general who complimented you. We have some reasons not to trust this ma- er... Shirm, but being impolite to him would be rather unwise. Even if we suspect that he's a xenophobic son-of-a-bitch, there's absolutely no point for you to show it. Be polite and respectful, and try not to attract too much of his attention to yourself.

>>76689
Say something about how it was pretty much even and you won by luck.

John 2010/01/22(Fri)19:52 No. 116974 ID: f98e0b
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>>107804
>>107920
>>76697
"Thank you, Sir," says John. "Really, it was mostly luck. Oberan is a more capable soldier than me."

"Modesty. I like that," says Theseus gravely. "Keep working at it and you might be as good as I am one day." He looks up at John's blank face. "It's a joke, gentlemen."

John and Terrens nervously titter.

"Okay. Down to business. Sit down, fellas." says Theseus. "Let's talk about this mission and your role in- shit, Duke, how do you mute this thing?"

"Little red thingy. Button," says Duke, lazily gesturing.

"Righto, thanks," says Theseus. "Let's take a look at what we'll be doing on Bracilius, shall we?

...um, Duke? Channel change?"

"Green arrow," mumbles Duke.

John 2010/01/22(Fri)20:16 No. 116986 ID: f98e0b
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"Right." says Theseus. "Ahem. This is the imaginatively named Bracilius Prison, orbiting the planet. We're here because they've just undergone a bit of a change in management. The prisoners have taken over, and they're not entirely keen on leaving. Now they've got respawners, so we can't just board them all at once, and we can't blow the facility up, believe me, or we would have. The thing's a giant tax sink, a testament to the security and might of the Alliance, blah blah blah. We have to take out the weaponry and the upper central column, where they've got the respawners set up. So we blow it up. Simple enough. I'll take point, Duke's got his ship set up for support and fighter-killing, so that's his job.

Terrens, I understand your Gunnery Sergeant has outfitted the Glory to be a jack of all trades. That's good, you'll counter any heavier ships they try to send at us. Apparently they have at least a couple frigates in there waiting for us, but to ships like ours this'll just be a blue milk run. Just try to minimize damage to the station and to ourselves, our craft take priority. We'll board and clear with away teams once we've taken out their respawners. Questions? Queries? Concerns?"

>>116986
Any chance of taking prisoners?

>>117004
Considering where he's headed, I'd say it's very likely.

John 2010/01/22(Fri)21:30 No. 117025 ID: f98e0b
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>>117004
"Any chances of taking prisoners?" asks John.

"That's the goal, in fact," says Theseus. "Once their scanners are knocked out, we'll divert them to the HQ ship where I've got some other respawners behind bars waiting for them. We'll figure out who's a guard and who's a prisoner or whoever else you shoot down on the ship. Simplifies things. Just enter the ship, kill anything that moves, and let us sort 'em out.

Terrens, you've got the fewest men right now, so just send a small away team. Three or four guys. They're going to breach the right column, fight their way up, and knock the escape shuttles out, quick, so they can't evacuate anyone. Duke, enter from the postern at the far side of the facility and sweep the facility. Clean up house. I'll send my men in through the hole we bust in the respawners room and meet you in the middle. My team'll be the ones with red sashes, try not to shoot them. It's not too big a deal, but you know how friendly fire fucks with morale. John, since you're the only noncom in the room, I'm putting you in charge of Terrens' aways. Pick your team and let's get this done asap, gents, before they can escape."

Why would a prison station have frigates and fighters?

Brom 2010/01/22(Fri)21:57 No. 117043 ID: f98e0b
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>>117028
"Why would a prison station have frigates or fighters on board, exactly?" asks John.

"You haven't been out on the backwater of Alliance Territory much, have you, John?" grins Theseus. "Whole different class of criminal out here. Believe me when I say it sometimes isn't enough. We had a Delter Warlord cooped up in here once, Rafael I think his name was. His men besieged Bracilius with a stolen ship-of-the-line. That was an interesting day. Right now there's only a few on station, though, and they're staffed by a bunch of freed criminals. I can't imagine we'll have much trouble. Now will this be all? We have an assault to prep and you have a team to assemble."

>>117043
Yeah, that sounds about right.

Sooo, we have to weaken the place's defenses in order to render it inoperative, in order to kill everyone.

Huh.

Makes me wonder if the rebellion was started in order to have the defenses disabled, in order to have someone released.

John 2010/01/23(Sat)08:15 No. 117133 ID: f98e0b
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>>117115
Does it? Oh. That can't be good.

John wanders into the Marine Prep Chambers to meet up with Seth and Oberan. He finds them talking and laughing with a Qal marine. At first John thinks he's wearing some sort of helmet, but then he realizes the marine is so heavily body-modded he looks almost robotic.

"So then," he's saying, "Keats like, fucking leaps on this pirate, and he's like tearing his armor off and stabbing the shit out of him, right? Well he looks up, and we all see that before he died the pirate pulled the pins on all Keats' grenades."

"What did you do?" asks Oberan.

"We all started gesturing frantically at our chests, going, 'YOUR GRENADES! YOUR GRENADES!' And Keats just looks up with this dumbfounded expression..." he mimics it. "...then looks down, then throws himself at this big group of pirates with an MG. Wham. We were still picking up his pieces when he came back on deck and he just looked around and he said, 'Next time I'm just doing that from the start.'" This elicits a guffaw from Seth.

"John," says Oberan, "This is Darman, the most body-modded fucking frankenstein in the service. He's leading Duke's Aways. He'll be equipping us,"

"At your service," grins Darman. "Wanna come pick the boomsticks you'll be packin', sergeant?"

It unfortunately does. Hmn

If the plan is to kill everyone so they'll respawn somewhere else, what if there's a third place to receive said dead?

Is everyone SURE there are no other ships that shouldn' be around nearby?

Yea, call me the paranoid voice.

John 2010/01/23(Sat)13:49 No. 117241 ID: f98e0b
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"Oberan's got his pussy little riot shield 'cause he can't take a bullet," says Darman, dodging Oberan's vengeful fist jabbing at his arm, "and a little designer SMG. Seth has his big ol' Dick Replacer,"

"Hey now," says Seth.

"I calls 'em as I sees 'em," says Darman. "For you, Sergeant, I have a slugthrowing assault rifle, an antimatter semiauto, or a big ol' automatic shotgun. Your pick. Pistols include a dinky little stealth model, or if you have balls a laser pistol or a basic pistol. You can switch up your squads' loadout, but good luck separating Seth from his darlings. You'll get a few grenades too, of course. Watch the pins. I heard from that sonofabitch Strausberg you were interested in body mods too, John-boy. I happen to be an expert in this field, as my lasernipples will vouch for. I'm kidding, John, don't look at me like that. Talk to me after we win. We'll see about moddin' yourself. Now pick your weapons."

Damn, I've forgotten the attributes of the various antimatter/laser weapons.

Ask how much ammo you would get, and if we can get more than one pistol. I'm thinking autoshotty and suppressed pistol, in addition to a normal pistol. Otherwise Autoshotty and normal pistol.

John 2010/01/23(Sat)15:27 No. 117315 ID: f98e0b
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>>117273
"I'll take the autoshotgun," says John, grabbing it and testing its weight. "Could I get two pistols?"

"Sure," says Darman. "You wanna like charge in and fire them akimbo?"
"Well, um, I was thinking normal and surpressed for stealth," says John.
"Oh. Well, we can't all be badasses."

"Watch who you're talking to, Darman," says Seth. "John's a beast,"
"Really?" asks Darman.
"Took on two marines by himself. He pulled this crazy karate shit," says Seth.
"And he beat me in CQC," says Oberan.

"Well I'll be damned, sir." says Darman, retracting his claws and shaking John's hand. "Whenever I fight Oberan he rips my arms off and beats me to death with them. You're the most hardcore janitor I've ever met,"

"We should get back to the ship, unless you want to do anything else on HQ, sir," says Oberan. "You want me to prep the Gun Battery on full or mid power? Mid means less overheat and we can divert more energy to shields and speed."

>>117315
Mid. You can sustain fire for longer and take more punishment, maybe even maneuver into weak spots in the enemy's defenses easier to take them out faster, regardless of the less-powerful punch of your weapons.

Do they have two model 1887s?

John 2010/01/23(Sat)18:39 No. 117422 ID: f98e0b
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>>117396
"Don't even joke about that."

>>117396
Or maybe even a semtex nade and a javelin?

You know, Oberan should be able to kill just about anything with that shield and a bandolier of throwing knives. (heh) Don't actually say that.

Say "Okay man whatever, let's go."

John 2010/01/25(Mon)13:48 No. 118405 ID: f98e0b
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John and Darman head to the briefing room to give the plan before everyone heads off to their respective ships. They go up to the front to stand with the leader of Theseus' Aways, a delter John doesn't know.

The combined teams are talking, laughing, and cleaning and preparing weapons.
"Okay, okay everyone shut the fuck up, please," says Darman. "So here's my wonderful art of the plan we've got going-Attention Keith and Sophia, we're all very glad you finally hooked up, now stop playing grabass during the briefing, and save it for after the mission, okay? Aw, it's so sweet it's giving me diabetes -So this is direct from Theseus, you guys know him, he doesn't fuck around. Anyway, it's simple enough, your individual COs'll brief you on it when we split up, but before you go I just wanna wish you all good luck, try not to get iced, talking to you specifically Seamus-Don't look at me like that, everyone knows you're a respawn junkie." There's a shouted reply, muffled by the crowd's laughter.

"Oh, really? Then what do you call that jumping in front of a rocket on Gardea Prime? Shut up. Right. It's gonna be pretty fucking easy, just some pirates who think they can play soldier or something. That's not an excuse to just sit with your thumb up your ass the first time you die, by the way, Aaron. Yeah, you. Okay. I know Ryan doesn't want to give a pep talk, since he's the strong silent type," he gestures to the delter, who nods.

"John, you wanna say something to your boys?"

"Not particularly."

Tell them to stay frosty, check their vectors, and for god's sake tell Ramirez to pull his fucking weight this time.

"Like what? Try not to kick too much ass so there is enough to share with everyone? They have it covered."

John 2010/01/25(Mon)18:02 No. 118526 ID: f98e0b
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>>118500
"Like what? Try not to kick too much ass so there is enough to share with everyone? They have it covered."
This gets a cheer out of the soldiers. "Alright, alright, asspatting time over, children. Get back to your ships and get ready to kill," says Darman. "and die a lot too, so take your damn pain pills." They empty the hall and Ryan goes with them.

"Have a good one out there, man," says Darman, shaking John's hand. He seems pretty big on handshaking. "So. Body modding. Grenade-launching anushands?"
"I was thinking about it," says John.
"We can do that," says Darman. "I know a guy."

>>118526
>anushands
How would that even work? Also, does handshaky here have them?

>>118526
Alright, I'm thinking that if one hand is a grenade launcher, the other hand should have an extending blade. A big one. A little plating on the arms and legs, too.

>>118526

Why do you need bodymods? Can't you alter yourself?

...For that matter, could you conceal weapons inside your body?