Destroying the Dark: SB leads the Commonwealth in ME! (Thread XIV)

You guys want me to ditch the Psionic Indoc R&D and plug in "More Nanocyberbrains"?

EDIT: Or any other last-minute changes?

Nothing that I really feel needs mentioning... Although given that we have XCOM working on the Rachnai/Rannoch problem, couldn't we have another action in that place? Like starting to fortify the Rannoch star system for the inevitable Reaper Attack? Or getting the Geth to set up warpgates behind future enemy lines?

Fortification will somewhat rely on production, recall.

And the Force Recon team is literally that, Reconnaissance in Force. I generally imagine XCOM troops as more light infantry. Also, considering the severity of this potential situation, I really would prefer to "hedge our bets" regarding finding their source.

I agree that production and fortification are correlated, but that doesn't mean we can't start sending weapon satellites through the warpgates. We have several thousands of them, we can spare a few from other battlefields that aren't using them.

Also, another project to consider: Lengthening Salarian lifespans. Might not have too big of an effect right now, but long-term having them around longer would be a great benefit, and would help bind them closer to us.

Yes.

We also need to fix 6 & 7.

For 6, we basically need to tell them "Reapers are coming" show surveillance footage, agree to reasonable peace terms (up to limited autonomy with surveillance within the Commonwealth), if they continue to lolno us drop them to a 20th century level, put a few dozen surveillance frigates in their home systems, and leave. Keep subduing their colonies.

For 7, we have overlap with XCOM. Let's use this one to implement my plan to trap and try to kill off Reapers as best we can.

I'll see if i can find out just how many defense buoy's we have.

Thank god, i was dreading doing that. Check until around the time we meet the zerg, since from what i remember after that we never did talk about buoy's. Even if they should have been in constant production.

I'll swap out using Force Recon, but if XCOM doesn't get it this turn I'm going to vote we use them.

My last 2 writeups explicitly mention space-based defenses, and QQ has given us numbers for buoys (at least on the last turn), and I've got space-based defense mentioned this time as well.

Writing update.

Yeah that's going to make it a pain, as I've noticed as am going though the update thread that exact numbers are not really mentioned all too often.

XCOM Actions -

http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/3560792/


1 - Continue expanding or Maintaning if expansion is deemed unfeasible the Shadow Broker network.Expand on other facilities. Spend time with family. The expansion will use all methods available while maintaining secrecy. Companies will expand at an even pace, no new tech will be released, beyond those developed by hired scientists. Make sure using inside information gathered by other Shadow Broker assets they will buy other promising companies, but not in such a way or in great number as to call attention to them. Continue expanding use of Clones as assets. In low levels, using previous assets to enable their infiltration.

1d100 → [60] = (60)

Situation stable. No expansions possible, but no recessions or bad things happening either. Clones network grows slowly but so far in a steady manner.

2 - Expand and/or enhance the 'Red Sun' mercenary company, aqcuiring Commonwealth assets as well as attaining legal permission to continue acting in Commonwealth territory.

1d100 → [32] = (32)

Because you have access to the council and can smooth things over + 20.

Legal and bureaucratic stuff proceed normally. Nothing peculiar happens.


3 - Continue working with Vortex Weaponry.

1d100 → [62] = (62)

43 + 62 + 23(Previous turn research) = 128/250 points towards unlocking Vortex Weapons.

SS Actions -

http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/3560793/


1 - Locate all Tal’shiar and Reaper assets, active or passive, and misinform, confound, contain, take over, incarcerate or eliminate them – as best the situation dictates. Purge all STG assets that we know information about.

1d100 → [38] = (38)

STG teams have been already dealt with. Traces of the others are either traps – and many Bothans agents died because of that – or very cold trails.

2 - Develop ways to counteract and detect the new method of indoctrination. Test to see if nano-cyberbrains remain effective.

1d100 → [60] = (60)
60/190 Research has started.

3 - Continue research into nano-cyberbrains and mind relocation, editing and safe copying, Morphologic Freedom , implanting or deleting memories and inconvenient truths or habits in the targets mind, as well as agent backups and mind extraction. Basicaly improve until real-time and completly secure transfers.

Real-time and completely secure transfers are not possible. There will always be a delay, and no system is completely secure.

The Joint Actions results will have to wait until I speak with QQ.

Right lets see all mentions of the defense buoys's.


As of turn six

4,500 Prism buoys scatted throughout the Commonwealth, mainly at the core worlds and Arcturus Station
500 Ion Cannon Buoys, concentrated at Arcturus

mention of a moderate number made but no real number mentioned.
a bunch of high rolls for orbitals but no hard numbers.
Yeeeeaaaah no mention of any production numbers until turn 14 where 1100 were built.

500 built. turn 15
no mention in turn 16
or in turn 17 or 18 and 19.
300 for turn 20
2000 turn 21.

Mentioned amount: 7300 buoys.

Taking into account our industrial capability and the rolls i saw chances are we made 15-20k is my guess in the combined rolls where no mention of numbers were made.

1 - Investigate Rannoch extensivly, try to determine exactly how Rachni corpses appeared there. As well as following the investigation to the source.

1d100 → [90] = (90)

Good news, some search squad found some live rachni. Bad news, some live rachni have found some search groups. All contact has been lost and you know it has been them only because they managed to hold them off long enough to scream a warning. They had fallen into well planned ambushes.

Reinforcements were immediately sent, but by the time they arrived the rachni already had left. Traces indicate they emerged from the underground and escaped the same way.

2 - Investigate Enemy territory, trying to find if Turians and Romulans are expanding somewhere else. If possible use plenty of explosives to destroy and do general mayhem.

1d100 → [94] = (94)

You manage to find an extremely well hidden Romulan research facility in a remote star system. A shadow broker agent found a report about some strange readings on a very remote star system; an investigation team was supposed to head there and see what it was, but other more pressing issues appeared and the report was forgotten. Until now.

Following this lead, you sent a special team to the planet, where they found the doors of an enormous bunker blasted open from the outside and lots of husks equivalents littering the area. Wisely deciding not to head in with just one team, the leader decided to cover the entrance and call in some reinforcements.

And just to prove her right, the insides of the base were crawling with husks of various races, but the strange thing is that many of them were inside glass tubes or obviously broke out some.

http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/3561129/

The soldiers manage to clear out the base but suffered heavy losses due to the cramped corridors – giving the husks great opportunities to ambush them – and the sheer number of enemies presents.

Data about what they were doing exactly is not present, but you discover that many inhabitants of the base were not just Romulans, but Turians and Salarians too; and that many of it's laboratories seems dedicated to thee study and dissection of dangerous specimens.

Sig-worthy discussion...

[7:12:07 PM] orcobimbo: Romulans may be somewhat competent, but as cerberus they should manage to turn the products of a cheese factory into an eldritch abomination hell bent on galactic dominance and freedom to all the other cheese products in the galaxy
[7:12:45 PM] David Croteau: I
[7:12:52 PM] David Croteau: am so sigging that.

Right, offhand, next turn, I'm sending Force Recon and Spears to Rannoch. We'll find the bugs and squash them.

Send in backup and shipyards as well. I'd like to get the manufacturing stations there started on ground-based defenses, Rippers, buoys, and starships as soon as possible.

About the bugs... Perhaps squishing them is a little harsh. Not ALL of them, at least. Let's look into getting genetic samples of the Queen, so that we can rebuild them later at our own leisure. Let's look into doing the same for the Sangheli, actually... I wouldn't mind having eight-foot-tall killing machines on my side in the Star Wars universe. And an insectoid race like the Rachnai might come in handy eventually...

However, if we get the Queen on our side, we can turn her brood into helping us prepare for the Reapers.

As for the Romulan Husk Lab, I can foresee no good coming of that. While showing Cerberus-level incompetence, it also shows strong hints that there's indoctrination-causing devices somewhere in or near the base, possibly even a Reaper.

Worse, what if this means that the Reapers get Romulan stealth? Or warp drives?

Also, quick note: In the Star Wars RP next, I say that our group of force-sensitives are called the Grey Knights (credit for the name goes to Tylonius). Yes, that's a long way off, but if I write it down I won't forget it.

STOP JUMPING AHEAD. I DON'T EVEN KNOW IF THE STAR WARS RP IS GOING ON UNTIL OBI JUAN KENOBI GETS BACK FROM HIATUS.

*Sigh*

The list is a page or two back, I presume? I'll get to it after eating dinner.

Here's the action list, QQ. No need to go digging.

1.) Infrastructure (shipyards, planet-side production, replicators, etc). Work to start bringing Salarians into the fold, repairing their economy, and so on. Work on finishing technological and economical uplift for all members who might be "lagging behind". Salarians to be (cautiously) accepted into the Galactic Union.

51. Salarion Union accepted; Their fleet was demolished by the end of their involvement in the war, but their ground forces and intelligence arm were not. STG teams absorbed by XCOM; Vizzi gets to choose a +5 bonus to espionage actions or..1 extra roll per turn for the remainder of the game. Commonwealth get plenty of new troops to add to the fold, including tech specialists.


Considering the progress from prior turns, every race is now 'up to speed' regarding infrastructure.



2.) Keep building up fleet, hopefully boosted by reactivation of other forges. Keep fleet numbers balanced. Also work to help upgrade existing ships of all member races where appropriate and feasible, with an eye toward directing them to home defense.

89. Since two of the Forges were re-activated.. 1,200 new ships are now at your disposal. Vizzi, do your thing. All ships are now upgraded to the latest standards.


3.) Work to bring Forges at Vulcan, New Rannoch, Valkyrie, and Auir online.

57. Aiur and New Rannoch now have their Forges back online; action 2 reflects this. You have Vulcan and Valkyrie left to work on.

4.) Continue production of ground and space-based defenses of all Galactic Union worlds. Aiur is to receive a double-portion of these defenses, in recognition of its strategic importance. All Forge worlds will get more defenses than non-forge worlds, due to their strategic importance. All home/core worlds will be fortresses in the stars, and all other worlds (if possible) will be nearly as well-defended.

71. Another 2k Buoys added to defense network. In addition, Protoss and Vulcan scientists have constructed a new Prototype defense structure:

http://starcraft.wikia.com/wiki/Rip-field_generator

Can engulf a 50km radius with the generator in the middle. Slowly tears apart organic flesh..a normal human would be reduced to nothing within 30 seconds. Deemed useful for setting up barriers against large swarms of enemy ground forces.


5.) Secure our borders with patrols. Make it absurdly clear to our border patrols that they are to give the Sangheli a very wide berth with plenty of margin for error. But all borders are to be watched, not just that border.

51. Nothing special to report here. All is quiet along the borders.

6.) Try to finish war with Turians and Romulans. Continue blockade of their homeworlds out of reach of their guns; continue working to take over/subdue their colony worlds as efficiently as possible. Try to have the Salarians aid us in convincing the Turians (and maybe Romulans) to surrender. Make sure they understand the Reapers are coming, in less than a decade. Show them as much surveillance footage as possible. Propose reasonable peace terms (up to the point of limited autonomy under surveillance within Commonwealth territory). If they continue to stubbornly resist, we use precision strikes to reduce them to a 20th century level of tech capability, put a few dozen surveillance frigates in their systems at the edges, and leave.

48. Stubbornness. Bombardment strikes are carried out to make absolute sure they won't be spaceborne again within the next generation.. they simply don't have industrial capacity beyond feeding and sheltering their people.

7.) Form fast-moving "ambush fleets" centered on our Gravity Ripper Dreadnoughts. Fleets are not large, and their goal is to not engage Reapers in direct combat. Instead, they will warp to points ahead of the Reaper advance, activate Rippers, and wait for Reapers to drop out of FTL, hopefully destroying a fraction of them in the process. Ambush fleets will FTL away as soon as destruction is confirmed and they've deactivated Rippers. Continue pattern as long as possible, with the goal of at least slightly reducing Reaper numbers.

55. Successful, but it seems you've tipped your hand too early. 30 Sovereigns and 200 Destroyers go down this way..but the Reaper fleet responds by spreading out by hundreds of thousands of kilometers per ship. There is no way you're going to be able to do this again with any success.

On the other hand, you haven't lost any ships during these skirmishes.


8.) Make sure our army is not only well-equipped, but well-trained and well-staffed. Fights will inevitably end up on the ground. Establish "bolt holes" on major worlds if we have to start up ground-based resistance movements while the fleets scramble to organize.

56. Large shelters, armories, barracks, etc. Are built either underground or in mountainous terrain among pretty much every Commonwealth world.



9.) Start scouting our territory for any signs of Reapers or Reaper-directed forces. Start putting together a force to travel to the Omega-4 Relay, and then to the Collector Base to take them out. Use the longest-ranged sensors possible to watch areas outside our own territory to also watch for signs of Reaper or Collector activity.

Half of this roll is rejected because, guess what? Collector homeworld is beyond the Omega-4 Relay, right? You know, part of the Mass Relay system that's gone inactive across the whole galaxy?

Your screw-up actually sidelined the Collectors in the coming war.

But on the other hand..84. You finally find Perfect Sovereign of Nazara... scans were spotty before, but somehow it got a hold of the schematics of Project Forge and made one of it's own. It is in a very gaseous nebula, unnamed, outside the Vahallan Threshold. The ship production of choice seems to be.. Romulan Warbirds. There aren't that many, maybe only a little over a hundred, but if left unchecked could multiply.

Research and Development List:

1.) Continue research into Nanocyberbrains, attempting to adapt them for any remaining species that lack them.

44+ an assumed 150 from prior research. 184/200. Even a shitty roll next turn will unlock the rest of the species.

2.) Subspace communication, goal of galaxy-wide instantaneous communications.

56. No more lagtime. You now have instant communication.

3.) Continue research into making stronger armor and shields, using "tried and true" methods, knowledge gleaned from the Relays, and any new ideas that our researchers can come up with.

Calling a plateau here.

4.) Try to refine Sunfire Missile system. Focus less on simply "larger warheads being lased" and more on getting as close to 100% of the explosion focused through lasing rods as possible. Perhaps use short-life gravity field generators to "channel" the explosion into a greater number of lasing rods. Work on reinforced Warp Drives that can be used to counter Reaper FTL jumping to avoid missile barrages. Work on rendering Sunfires capable of operating in Ripper fields, especially allowing them to use their Warp Drives in said fields. Work on improving general efficiency and performance.

68/200 research. Keep at it to unlock.

5.) Explore possibilities of Energy Weapons again. Try incorporating ideas from ME tech, using some of that Eezo we lifted from the relays. Explore trying to merge concepts of Energy Weapons and Thanix Weapons, or Thanix and Ion Weapons, Thanix and Phasers, or entirely new directions.

9. This was tried in a desolate wasteland in the Valkyrie system..well, let's just say that weapons testing didn't go as planned, and you've made man-made Grand Canyons. Thanix weaponry just doesn't seem to be compatible with much else.

Epic win rolls.

Damn, should've caught that we were going to the Omega 4 relay, when we have fast enough warp drive to just *go* directly to the Collector's system and not mess around with relays. Mega facepalm on my end.

QQ, what's the word on remaining Turian colonies? Any Romulan colonies we know of?

Good rolls, but why do we always seem to have bad luck whenever it comes to internal security?

Aliens.

It seem that a new thread has indeed worked to rid us of bad rolls.

Edit: But in all seriousness HOW THE FUCK DO PEOPLE KEEP GETTING OUR TECH.