Luv and Hate [SupCom/Muv-Luv Alternative] (Story Only Thread)

The last thing you remember? That's easy. You, Colonel Steele, UEF commander, stepping into the quantum rift on Earth with a great big bomb 'liberated' from the Seraphim strapped to your ACU's back. The Aeon princess was right – the rift had to be closed. She was definitely right about that. But you and her had a disagreement over who exactly had to do the closing. It being a very one way trip and all.

The calculus was simple. The Aeon Illuminate's foremost political leader, a pacifist who could maybe convince the Aeon to not go on another murderlicious rampage after everyone was battered from the aliens' assault, or you, just another UEF commander? You, the one who's ultimately responsible for the aliens' invasion in the first place, for the purge of Earth? Even if General Hall's coverup of that little tidbit didn't blow wide open after the war, it's a pretty simple concept. Your fault. Your responsibility to fix. Earth is a dead world because of you. You fired the Black Sun superweapon. You opened rift those monsters used to come through. Even if you didn't mean to, it all comes back to one push of a button, with your finger doing the pushing.

So when Dr. Gustav Brackman, bless his disembodied cybernetic genius brain, told you that a sufficiently powerful quantum explosive detonated on the other side of the rift would close it, you leaped at the opportunity. You went through the rift and set those aliens up their own bomb. It was to be your heroic sacrifice, like all the old stories.

You were never supposed to survive.

You don't even know how. Because none of that, none of your memories explain how you got here. Wherever here is. Your ACU's critically damaged; armor integrity's down to 40% and her left leg actuator is trashed. The ACU's autorepair systems are already working on the damage. An easy fix for an ACU, she'll be like new before your base is even finished building.

But for what it was supposed to be, it's damn good. Her last action reports show successful release and detonation of the Seraphim experimental supernuke you'd pilfered. A 98.21% chance that the rift would be permanently destabilized. And a flat 100% chance that you'd be utterly destroyed in every way it's possible to be destroyed. And a few that defy human understanding. Because being at ground zero of a strategic nuke, much less an ungodly huge Seraphim uberbomb taken from an experimental launch site that uses strange and malicious physics in ways not even the Aeon really understand is a one way ticket to hell.

Given how close you were to the detonation point, you should be so much free-floating energy. ACUs are tough, but not that tough.

But then, discontinuity. Bam. Press the button, not die with no suitable explanation for what happened in between.

Your head hurts too; your vision swims in front of you, and you feel the urge to retch. Traveling via quantum gate leaves everyone a little nauseous, especially to destinations without a gate on the receiving end to buffer the transport, but you've never felt it like this before.

“Wake up, Commander.” Your ACU's computer helpfully repeats. You get the impression she's been saying that for quite some time, going by your parched throat and general grogginess.

“Blue?” You ask. You have to remind yourself that she's not intelligent. Given how much trouble QAI got up to when it decided the Seraphim were gods, nobody sane would allow it. Still it helps you to humanize your unit, keeps your morale up just a little bit even if she's physically incapable of responding in real intelligent manner. Nothing but canned responses and some very clever scripting. And some heavy duty hardware shackles, just in case. “How long have I been out? Scratch that, how are we alive?”

“Unknown,” Blue's monotone voice replies. “I have no suitable explanation."

You shake your head.

“The bomb. Did the bomb go off?” Desperation clouds your voice. “Did the rift close? Did it work?”

“Last records indicate the bomb was successfully deployed. Probability dictates that the rift is closed,” Blue replies. “This unit is currently in an unknown location. Would you like me to activate passive and omnisensors?”

You rub your temples, trying to bash through your confusion and headache with sheer will. “Do it.”

“Activating sensors. Omnisensor online. Environmental factors within human physiological preferences. Atmospheric salt content indicates we are near to a large body of salt water. Two midrange mass deposits detected nearby. Alert. Unknown light assault bots detected within twenty kilometers. Configuration unknown. No quantum IFF detected. Possibility of Seraphim ownership: Four percent.”

“No IFF?” You blink. Even backwater colonies with homegrown militias use Q-IFF to coordinate and almost eliminate friendly fire. Still, at least they weren't Seraphim. You've seen enough goddamn aliens to last a lifetime. “What are they doing?”

“They are approaching at flank speed.”

“Recon elements then, probably here to confirm our location for heavier forces,” You shake your head again, still trying to clear it. “Give me a visual.”

The holomap, the throbbing nerve-center of every commander's strategic operations, lights up. It flickers for a few moments, the colors inverting and reverting before it all settles down and shows you the feed from Blue's head-mounted cameras. Suitably magnified. They're still kilometers off; the fine details are fuzzy, but you've got enough to get some idea of what they are.

You also see that you're on either an island or a peninsula, and that these LABs are approaching you from the other end of it.

There's seven of them. Each one's colored blue and white, and despite yourself, you feel a little more at ease because of it. At first glance you'd almost think they're flying UEF colors just like you are, but you're utterly familiar with UEF military equipment and you're certain there's no weapons like that in your arsenal. These look far more humanoid than the hulking, boxy mech marines that you field in the light assault bot role. They're almost deceptively slender compared to what you're used to, though they've got just the right amount of boxiness in the form of armor plate to make them feel familiar. They also have actual hands rather than dual autocannon.

And that's doubly strange. While hands are certainly technologically feasible, the only 'bots with hands you've seen are search and rescue models. Perhaps these are converted civilian variants? Certainly it would fit with the notion of a backwater milita scrounging for resources.

“...Configuration unknown is right.” You mutter. “Never seen a design like that. Doesn't look alien, but it's not one of ours either. It's got just the right amount of blue though.”

“I am detecting low energy levels, consistent with LAB power sources. They are unlikely to carry sufficient firepower to breach my hull armor even in its damaged state,” Blue adds. “No evidence of quantum communications technology detected.”

“Right,” You nod. “Well. First order of business-”

“Alert. I am also detecting a single squad-size formation of light infantry within one kilometer. They are on a ridge overlooking our position.”

“Focus the image on them,” You watch the image switch. “Enhance. Magnify.”

Blue does so, the image resolving into clarity.

“They're just kids,” You mutter. The soldiers in question appear somewhere between the ages of eighteen and twenty two, though one oddity is that there's only two boys; the rest are girls. They appear to be mostly unarmed, only one of them has a rifle; your unit's omni-sensors aren't picking up any radiological or electromagnetic signatures consistent with anti-ACU weapons either. No tac nukes or anything big. They aren't wearing any appreciable armor, just cloth uniforms – sleeveless tops and camouflaged leggings suited for tropical operations.

They're also looking down at your unit with no small amount of nervous awe, and some of them glance towards where the LABs are coming from, reminding you of twitchy rabbits.

One of them is speaking into a large box-like communicator, though, while another, a particularly small girl with oddly styled hair has a large rifle, probably a long range marksman model going by the optics, trained on your unit. Though from the way she's trembling, you suspect she knows as well as you do that her gun won't even scratch the paint.

They're probably the ones who found you and are calling in reinforcements.

You tap your chin. No quantum comms, but they're clearly talking somehow. “Blue, scan the electromagnetic spectrum for signals.”


“Signals detected. Breaking encryption. Decoding. Analyzing. The language they are using is an eighty percent match for ancient Japanese, circa late twentieth century. I can upload a language package to your command chip. Accuracy is not guaranteed.”

You blink. A dead language? Sometimes colonies got isolated, but the late twentieth century was well before even Mankind's first diaspora. If these people really had been isolated from the galaxy at large even as it burned around them, you'd still think the language would've diverged much further than that.

This whole situation makes no sense to you. You've got a man that shouldn't be alive listening to a language that shouldn't exist watching LABs without q-comms on approach. “Do it. And give me a feed of what they're saying.”

“Would you like me to selectively jam their signals?” Blue asks.

You shake your head. “Not quite yet. Let's hear what they say when they think nobody's listening first.”

“Affirmative. Replaying recorded transmissions.”

A tinny but distinctly young and female voice bounces around your command cabin. “-Instructor, this is cadet leader Sakaki, we think the thing just moved.”

A more mature and womanly voice calls out from the other end. “Are you sure? We didn't see anything on our end.”

“Tamase's looking at it through a scope right now. She's sure she saw something moving in the head. She says-”

You hear muffled words, ones too low to make out. The girl talking to her comrade, perhaps? “-She says it feels like we're being watched. Could you tell those reinforcements to hurry up? We'd all feel a lot better with some TSFs to keep an eye on this thing.”

TSFs? Is that what they're calling the bots? Rather sterile; even a hardass military like the UEF had fun naming their war machines. Then again, maybe it's just a role designation like LABs. And new fish probably don't know the slang anyway. It's odd though, you think they'd know your ACU for what it is given how many thousands of years the technology's been in use. But they almost seem confused. Surely they'd know of ACUs even if they're so backwater that they've never seen one.

Though you're still not sure how that's possible. The infinite war wasn't kind on groups who thought they could hide from one of the big three factions. And then after that, the Seraphim were too good at ferreting out human colonies to burn.

Mysteries aside, you figure the incoming light bots are the reinforcements these cadets are waiting for.

Of course, that still leaves you with a conundrum. What are you going to do about it? These people could be hostile, or they could be friendly.

Three options occur to you immediately:

The first is to build a base. ACUs are incredibly powerful war machines in their own right, but their true strength is their ability to construct a self-sustaining base and assault force within minutes of deployment. It might spook the strangers, but right now you're in the black ten; the ten minutes after deployment when an ACU is at its most vulnerable to attack. Once you've got yourself set up, you'll be able to approach these strangers from a position of strength and to give them your full attention.

Alternatively, though it goes against your instincts as a commander, you can forego building a base at the moment and instead focus on opening communications with these strange people. It's a gamble, but it's probably less likely to provoke a hostile response. On the other hand, if they are hostile, or if there's another hostile force nearby, losing time on diplomacy might be the difference between survival and your ACU cooking off like a hundred megaton thermonuke.

Another option occurs to you; you can play possum; nobody's going to take jittery cadets seriously you hope, so they probably won't realize your ACU's active unless you do something or send out more active scans. You can continue to eavesdrop on their communications and generally see what they do when they think you're still disabled. Your weapons are fully functional; you can destroy them at any time, assuming Blue's analysis is accurate. As with talking, though, you're losing time you could be spending building.

So with that in mind, you elect to:

[]Build a base first, talk later.
-Pro: Less time spent vulnerable. Con: Unpredictable natives.
[]Attempt communications first, build later.
-Pro: Potentially open dialog with the natives. Con: More time spent vulnerable.
[]Play Possum, see what these people do.
-Pros: More opportunities to examine the natives without them being aware. More time to figure out what the hell's going on here. Con: More time spent vulnerable.
[]Something else entirely [write in]
-Pro: SB's plans can be very good. Con: SB's plans can be very bad.

Also, you have the opportunity to customize your character before the game begins in earnest. Choose wisely, commander, as these options may shape your character just as much as the actions you take in the future.

What is your first name?
[]Roland
[]Michael
[]William
[]Write in (Subject to GM approval.)

What is your quest?
[]Kill all aliens.
[]Save Earth.
[]Protect Mankind.

When you stepped into the rift and detonated that bomb, what did you feel?
[]Tired.
[]Scared.
[]Regretful.
[]Relieved.
[]All of the above.

In the Infinite War and the Seraphim War that followed, you were most known for:

[]Your compassion.
[]Your will.
[]Your friends.
[]Your hate.

{CHOMP CHOMP}

Hey guys, this is the story only thread, so please don't post here. Please use the main thread instead. Thanks.

 

You are Colonel Michael Steele, and you are driven to protect humanity. You were most infamous for your will. When others succumbed to madness or despair, you fought on, snatching victory from defeat no matter how stacked the odds were against you. They told you Black Sun would never be complete. You proved them wrong. They told you that the Seraphim could never be beaten if they finished stabilizing their rift. You stopped them.

Your compassion for others tempered your will, always reminding you why you were fighting, keeping you from the committing the atrocities that were so common during the infinite war.

You had a dream. A dream of peace, of all mankind united under Earth's banner. You saw that dream realized in the worst way possible. You saw Earth die even as mankind united to fend off the aliens. You fought on because even if Earth was dead, even if the UEF's soul was gone, her children still needed someone to shield them.

When you stepped through the quantum rift, you expected to die. You were prepared for that fact. You were scared, yes. Who wouldn't be? You regretted that it came to that, regretted how many lives it cost to reach that point, how many sacrifices had to be made. Quietly, you promised yourself that this was the last sacrifice.

But more than your regret, you were tired. You'd felt crushed under the weight of your responsibility, only your raw will carrying you through day to day as more and more friends and comrades met their end. When the end came, you were actually relieved because now, at last, you could rest, your task done and your soul... perhaps not redeemed, but at least you'd sold your life for a good price.

But now... Now you don't even know what's happening.

 

[X]Why build when you can talk?

You are a commander. All ACU pilots, or at least the ones that survive battle, have certain instincts. But for all of them, their first instinct is the same: Build a base as soon as possible.

In the academy, they always told you to follow your instincts.

The battlefield's what taught you when to follow and when to reject them.

You reject those instincts for now. You have no idea whether these people are hostile, who they are or what they want. The best option, you decide, is to speak with them. Too much death came from blind provocation; if you, the Aeon, and Cybrans had just sat down and talked with one another, perhaps there could have been peace sooner.

These people, you won't attack them unless they give you reason. You won't provoke them if you can help it.

You order Blue up, shaking dust and debris from her form as she stands. You queue up everything, hammering out production orders like a machine gun with bullets, but you don't order her to execute anything yet.

Instead, you turn towards the infantry. You gaze down at them, though not too far down. They are on a ridge, one that was above but is now just below your unit's head. Your unit's running lights cast a cool blue light over them.

They all look at you, eyes wide. Several of them are trembling.

You aren't entirely sure how to handle this. Just saying “hello there, can I have directions? I seem to be a bit lost” seems ill-fitting.

One of the boys is the first to recover, followed quickly by a blue haired girl. He quickly grabs the comms device from his platoon leader and brings it to his ear.

“Marimo, this is Shirogane. This thing just got up and started moving on its own. It's... Staring at us.”

You thumb your ACU's microphone. It's best if you don't frighten the poor jumpy cadets too much. “I won't hurt you.”

The cadets freeze, all of their eyes widening. Once more, one of the boys is the first to break his fugue, the blue haired girl recovering almost as quickly, though she's staring at you with considerably more suspicion.

And... By Earth, how many innocent cans of hair spray died to make her hair like that?

“Er, thank you?” He replies.

“Shirogane, are you okay? What happened?” You hear the woman's voice, this 'Marimo' in a sort of double echo from your eavesdropping via radio and external audio feed. “Shirogane, do you copy?”

“It says it's not going to hurt us?” He replies. “In stilted Japanese.”

“What?” This Marimo woman replies.

Stilted? Bah, it's not your fault these people are speaking a two thousand year old dead language that nobody could possibly know without technological assistance. Hell, they're lucky you can speak it at all.

“Blue, collate that last comms burst with what we have before,” You order. “Let's find out where these people are based and talk to them directly, none of this cadets as middlemen crap.”

“Affirmative,” Blue replies. “The transmissions appear to have gone to the same position: A point several kilometers away on another part of this land mass.”

“Good enough for me. Now, open a channel on the same frequency and point the antenna towards them. Let's see who these people are and what they want,” You reply.

“Channel open. Speak when ready.”

You clear your throat. “This is Colonel Michael Steele of the UEF 88th Armored Command Battalion to whoever owns those assault bots approaching my position. What are your intentions?”

You hear a gasp, then the line goes silent.

And it stays silent. And stays silent for at least three minutes.

You're about to try again when a new voice breaks in on your transmission, this one deeper than Marimo but still distinctly feminine.

“This is Doctor Yuuko Kouzuki, Vice Commander of UN Yokohama base. Who did you say you served again, Colonel?”

“UEF 88th Armored.”

“UEF?” She asks, voice plainly curious. “Hm.”

“Yes?” Your eyes narrow. Your hands wrap just a little more tightly against Blue's weapon controls. Was this some colony who somehow both retained a grudge against the federation and didn't get carpet nuked by the Seraphim? Talk about bad odds. “The United Earth Federation.”

Another bout of silence greets you, leaving you to ponder this alone. This Yuuko woman isn't talking.

“Blue,” You temporarily mute your receiver. “Check your database for references to a 'UN' and a 'Yokohama.' Omit anything unrelated to military, or governmental organizations.”

“One reference found. UN. Short for United Nations, the UN was an international forum in pre-FTL Earth used by nations to settle disputes amongst themselves. The UN also included humanitarian and peacekeeping agencies. Rendered defunct in the late twenty first century, some scholars believe the UN was the predecessor to the Earth Empire's senate. Records from the time of the formation of the Empire are sketchy, however, leaving them unable to corroborate this claim.”

That just leaves you with more questions. The only conclusion you've come to so far is that you've died and hell is full of reenactors with a fetish for ancient history.

On the upside, you pick up a transmission between Yuuko's position and the LABs, which stop and hold position soon after. Unfortunately, Blue can't crack that transmission, because it either uses much stronger encryption, or possibly a one time pad. Still, you imagine the content was fairly clear: Halt.

It takes another minute after that before she finally replies on your channel, and it's with a sagely “I see.”

“Right, I'm happy that someone does,” You mutter. “Now can you tell me where I am, Doctor? Last I knew, I was on Earth, about to stop the aliens.”

Technically you were in the quantum realm, which was merely connected to Earth, but you're not going to split hairs, and namedropping Earth might be helpful given how they seem to love ancient Earth history.

“Stop the aliens, you say,” She says, so low you can barely hear. Though you can hear an odd emotional undercurrent to her voice. Finally, she clears her throat and replies more loudly. “Well, Colonel, you're still on Earth.”

Your teeth clink together, then they start grinding practically of their own volition.

“Doctor,” You say. “Earth is dead, I watched it die. Don't bullshit me.”

You can practically hear the smile in her voice. “Really? Then how is it you're on Earth right now? Because I can promise you that you are-”

Another voice interrupts, though you don't think it's talking to you. “Vice Commander, we have a problem.”

“It had better be a very big problem if you're bothering me with it now, Lieutenant.” Sounds like Yuuko forgot to mute the channel.

“A herd of BETA, roughly brigade size just pushed through the IJN's 34th naval squadron. Based on their direction, they're coming here. ETA is roughly ten minutes. We have to go, now.”

“Ten minutes? That's no good, we're already in their laser envelope.” You hear Yuuko mutter. “But why here, why now. Why didn't he-Hoh, of course. They're here for our unexpected guest.”

She clears her throat. “Colonel, I know you've been listening in. I have a situation. In the next ten minutes, we are going to be up to our necks in aliens. They're almost assuredly heading for you but they'll kill us as a bonus. I have a team in the area but they can't handle that many BETA alone. Can I count on your support?”

She almost had you at “kill aliens.” Almost. But your hate isn't that strong, not enough to override your sense. “BETA? Who are these beings? Why are you fighting them?”

“They're the aliens who're currently threatening to wipe mankind out. If you want to know more you'll have to wait until after we're off the dinner menu.”

Well, that cinches it. You were already inclined to support humans over aliens anyway. It occurs to you that Yuuko might be lying, but you don't think so. Not with the cold hate you heard in her voice, not with the way she spat the word "alien".

"When I stop them, I'm hoping you'll have some answers for me," You reply.

“Confident are you? Good. Oh, and Colonel? I'd appreciate it if you kept my cadets alive. I'm rather fond of one of them.”

The line goes dead.

So, ten minutes? You have enough time to build a base.

[]Build a large Tier 1 base.
-Pro: You'll have a lot of fixed defenses and light units. Con: T1 units are the weakest in your inventory.
[]Build a midsize Tier 2 base.
-Pro: You'll have Tier 2 units, which are considerably stronger than Tier 1 units. Con: You'll have less of them.

If you upgrade to T3 you don't think you'll have enough units produced to repulse the attack when it arrives, so that option isn't viable.

You also have to decide what area to focus your defense on:
[]Land.
-Pro: UEF land units are cheap and durable, so you'll be able to produce a lot of them. Con: Not as much firepower as naval or air units.
[]Sea.
-Pro: The UEF navy is arguably the most powerful in the galaxy. Con: Naval units are more expensive than ground ones; if any aliens get by your navy you won't have much to stop them with except your ACU and whatever support Yuuko's team can provide.
[]Air.
-Pro: High firepower, mobility, and UEF aircraft are only a bit less durable than UEF tanks. Con: It sounds like the aliens have laser AA, which might be problematic for unshielded T1 or T2 aircraft depending on its strength.

 

[X]T2 Land Base

You've decided to focus your forces on the ground as opposed to tackling the aliens in the water or in the air. That way you'll have more mobile forces to respond to any breakthrough, and you'll be able to rely on your fixed defenses more effectively by actually falling back.

You've also decided that a Tier 2 base is what you need. While it might make you more vulnerable in an immediate sense, if you can hold out against the first wave the stronger economy combined with the broken wrecks of both your and your enemy's units should pay dividends.

It's the work of a few taps and verbal commands to Blue to modify your original action plan to take these new circumstances into account.

In all honesty, this is the worst part of being a commander. That time when you've queued up your orders and have nothing left to do but bite your nails and wonder if the enemy's done something too clever by half, eyes always glued to the holomap looking for unidentified contacts.

Commanders have gone mad looking at those screens, working themselves into circles with gnawing doubts.

To alleviate that, you've developed coping strategies. Sometimes you glance over at the far wall of your command cabin. That's where you keep the pictures of all your friends and comrades, the ones who didn't make it. Arnold, dead when you had to take him down to fire Black Sun after the Aeon brainwashed him. Clarke, dead protecting refugees on Capella. Dostya, dead when the Seraphim ambushed you during the Hades op. Alina... Dead on Blue Sky, at least she died protecting what was important to her. You can't bring yourself to crack her black box. She probably left you some sappy message that'll just remind you that you couldn't do shit to save her.

Now you suppose you should put up one of Fletcher. Granted he went mad and tried to rebuild Black Sun, but he was still a comrade. Even if you were ultimately the one to put him down.

Gah, this melancholy feels like oily phlegm in your gut. You wrench your attention to something more interesting. The cadets are, all of them, looking at your growing base with jaws planted firmly on the ground.

Ah, that's what you needed.

Of course, you realize that you should probably put them somewhere safer. Otherwise it's a very good chance they'll be killed simply through a side effect of the fighting. Overpressure from nearby detonations has a nasty habit of killing unprotected infantry.

You consider putting them in your ACU but discard that immediately. You couldn't fit them all and still be able to fight effectively. A bunch of teens breathing down your neck would just ruin your zen. Plus you still don't trust these people fully. All it'd take is one of them with a rock when you're distracted and wham. Granted Blue would then self destruct to prevent capture, but you'd still be dead either way.

And you can't die yet, Yuuko still owes you answers.

So you decide to stash them somewhere out of the way. Your air factory should be good. The tower will give them a good vantage point to watch, and it'll be reasonably behind your lines.

You just have to build it. You idly order one of your engineering units to start that a bit early.

“Attention, Cadets,” You say, electronically amplified voice booming. “In about six minutes, we're going to be under attack from a brigade of filthy aliens. The good doctor asked me to keep you safe. I've decided that the best place to do that is the airbase three hundred meters behind you. Go there and wait for further instructions, you'll find the door open. When the battle's won, I'll remand you to her custody.”

Except the cadets are still staring.

“Clock's ticking, kids.”

This time it's the blue haired girl who recovers first. “If he wanted us dead, he surely possesses the capability. I see no reason for such a complicated ruse.”

"Right." The Shirogane kid nods at this. Apparently he has a strong influence in the squad, because even the nominal squad leader doesn't question it when he starts moving towards the air factory, the rest of the team in tow.

Good. Now you can direct your attention to more important things. Right about now, your first land factory should be finished upping to Tier 2.

You start building Tier 2 units, a good mix of Pillar heavy tanks and Mongoose gatling bots, along with some parashields to keep them all in working order to deal with the first wave.

And of course artillery. You've always loved using artillery pieces as impromptu point defense emplacements. Really, the klink hammer is a very versatile gun. With such a satisfying sound.

That's not to say you don't build any air units or naval units, of course. You certainly do. A flight of Cyclone interceptors to deal with any air support the enemy brings, and some Scorcher bombers as a fast response unit. Just T1 units though. And some subs to harass and get your first look at the approaching enemies.

You give a low whistle as your subs approach the targets. The sonar returns are off the charts; you haven't seen that many units in one place since last assault on Earth to seal the rift.

Either you're facing five enemy commanders right up against the command cap, or you're facing an enemy without any ACUs at all.

You hope it's the latter. Because five on one odds aren't fun. Doable, certainly. But not fun.

Your subs are generally ineffective, the torpedoes simply being too few to make a dent in the horde approaching.

You elect to pull them back and reclaim them for mass. An attrition battle favors you for so long as your base is intact and you have a period in between attacks to rearm.

Their advance continues; now some of the larger LAB-size contacts are starting to pick up speed. They'll be surfacing soon, and you'll have your first look at these aliens.

Still, you have attention to spare; you check on Yuuko's team on your radar. They'd moved to her position earlier when you were bossing around the cadets, but now they've set up on a hillside one kilometer distant. Good, they're not in any of your fields of fire. Their lack of Q-IFF could've made things problematic.

You've got one minute before the aliens surface from the water and your units can open up. You have time to finalize your strategy:

[]Use your ACU as bait; Yuuko said they're here for you, and you don't have reason to doubt her yet. Lure the enemy into the teeth of your defenses, through calcicrete choke points under cover of artillery, plasma turrets, and the odd triad PD turret. Your mobile units will crush any that break through. This will allow you to minimize the enemy's large numerical advantage.
-Pro: If it works, it'll break their momentum on your defenses. Con: You don't know what their capabilities are. See also the dictionary definition for 'risky.'

[]ACU bait's too risky. Use your mobile units to lure them into your defenses instead. Otherwise, this is the same as the ACU bait plan.
-Pro: Same as above. Con: The bait might not be as tantalizing. If they don't go for it, the entire plan will fail.

[]Have your mobile units ready to meet them on the beach; if you hit them as they surface, you'll clog their advance with their wreckage and bog them down in the sea where whatever weapons they have probably won't be as effective.
-Pro: Enemies crawling onto the beach probably won't be at full speed. If it works it will be glorious. Con: Lose the immediate benefit of your point defenses (but not your artillery.) Reliant on the ability of your units to kill large numbers of enemies in a quick fashion, which is an unknown.

[]Order your bombers to make bombing runs on them as the aliens surface. (Not compatible with the baiting plan because intelligent enemies would scatter and advance to cover instead of charging while waiting for their AA units to surface.)
-Pro: Plasma napalm will thin the herd even on the beach. Con: If the enemy AA units surface too soon, you risk losing your air reserves before the battle's even begun in earnest.

[]Something else entirely. [Write in]
-Pro: SB's plans can be very good. Con: SB's plans can be very bad.

In the time since your awakening, Blue has repaired her leg actuator and brought her armor integrity to 85%.

You have a midsize T2 base complete with shield generators, point defenses, fixed artillery, and factories due to reclaiming nearby sources of mass (rocks, wrecked native artillery turrets, etc). Your mobile units consist primarily of a small number of pillar heavy tanks and mongoose gatling bots (12 each), with a handful of lobo artillery vehicles with your choke points dialed in. (6) You also have a handful of combat engineer vehicles (3), ready to swoop in and reclaim all available mass as soon as the enemy's initial thrust is broken.

There are 4 parashields protecting your tanks and bots. Due to the limited radius of the shield domes, your units are lined up fairly close together. If the enemy has artillery, your units will be fairly protected under the shield domes.

You have a wing of bombers in reserve, and a wing of interceptors available to shoot down any enemy air support.

Yuuko's team is observing everything from a ridgeline approximately a kilometer away. You may open a channel and request that they do something, but that will require a write in.

The enemy force numbers approximately 5000 taking into account losses from your torpedo harassment. Of these, roughly 30% are LAB-size combatants. (1500). 50 are slightly larger than power-armored infantry , 50 are smaller than T2 bots but larger than LABs, (1%), and 50 (1%) are the size of T3 HABs. 2250 are the size of small land cars (45% of total force).

The remainder (1150) are infantry. Currently half of the LAB-size opponents have outpaced the main force; these will be your first contact. The remainder are slower, giving you a couple minutes of breathing room between the first wave and the second. Kill efficiently, commander.

 

[X]Make with the talking and the beaching and the retreating.

You've decided that using your ACU as bait is too risky, definitely against a force of that size. Instead, you elect to use your mobile units instead, hoping that they are sufficient bait to lure the enemy into the teeth of your guns while you and Blue will stay behind and focus on your economy.

But not immediately. Against a force like that, you're going to have your T2 units stay on the beach for as long as possible and make as many wrecks as they can to break the enemy's momentum and slow their deployment.

Something nags at you though. Something you've forgotten to do. As you watch the tide of enemy units approach ever closer, you wrack your brain in search of an answer.

Oh right. Intelligence. Perhaps you're more out of it than you thought from the whole rift event if you forgot that each of those LABs and infantry might well be something totally different than anything you've ever seen, with totally different capabilities.

Come to think of it, when was the last time you slept? Or showered, for that matter?

You open up a channel to Yuuko.

“Doctor, I have a minute before contact. Is there anything you can tell me about these BETA aliens? Tactics, units, that sort of thing?”

Seconds tick by with no response.

“Doctor?”

“Yes, yes,” Her voice sounds distracted. “Let me put Captain Isumi on. She knows more about the military relevancies than I do.”

“Hello?” Yet another woman's voice breaks in. What, are they a matriarcy like the Aeon? The only other men you've seen were a couple of cadets.

You shelve those thoughts. “What can you tell me, Captain?”

“BETA don't have tactics. They swarm heedless of losses. Most of them are only dangerous at close range except for the laser classes. Those are the things to beat. The small ones can punch through TSF armor in about a second. The big ones... I don't think anything you have will take those. Fortunately they're rare, usually a force this size won't have more than a hundred of them counting both types. They'll shoot down any artillery you have and basically turn the entire island into a no fly zone. But we've never seen them shoot through other BETA, so at least there's that.”

“Hm.” You nod. “Lasers. Focus on them. Got it. Wait a second, the first wave is surfacing now. Please stay on the comms.”

“Blue, give me a visual from the lead Mongoose.”

Your holodisplay shifts, displaying a -

What. What is that. Is that thing alive?


It's a short, squat unit with a vaguely delta-shaped green and purple mottled, armored crest, one with six very organic legs and a slouching doglike posture.

It's honestly one of the strangest things you've ever seen on the battlefield. Seraphim units are all glowy and willowy and look like they can't stand up on their own, but they were clearly machines. Aeon weapons look like failed ergonomic mouse designs come to take revenge on more sensible weapons, sure, but they're all clearly artificial.

But this... It's alive.

Rather, they're alive. Because there's a lot of them and the vanguard is just beginning to step from the surf.

You order your units to open fire. You zoom in further, eager to see and assess the results against the enemy.

Your Pillar tanks' shots are just a bit faster than the plasma; they slam into the writhing horde first.

Their effects are spectacular. Your Pillars are optimized for anti-armor work, for punching through even the absurd supermaterials used by the Aeon and Seraphim with brute force. Their railcannon shells make a mockery of these aliens' armor, tearing through as if it wasn't even there. Sometimes they even overpenetrate to the alien behind, shattering their armored crest as well.

Your Mongeese's shots are slightly less impressive; it takes repeated hits before the armor glows molten red, then molten white before collapsing. But that's okay; your Mongeese have gatling cannons, firing many shots in a burst. They sweep across the horde with precision, scything down dozens.

And then... Your artillery opens up. Where a Klink Hammer fires, aliens explode. The Lobos have considerably more trouble owing to their much smaller shells and lack of optimization for piercing armor.

Thick gouts of steam rise up all over the battlefield from all the vaporized water. You brace yourself, expecting a laser attack that never comes.

So... These aren't the laser units that Isumi mentioned. They're not fast by your standards – just a bit faster than your ACU, with the ACU being fairly sluggish – but they are relentless. And just like Isumi said, heedless of losses.

Which is honestly nothing new to you. In the Infinite War, units exist to be sacrificed as needed, discarded whenever doing so will further the objective. Clearly these aliens are drones too, just made of squishy meat rather than hard steel.

However, they're nowhere near as fast as the T1 LABs you were expecting based on their size. They're more armored, sure, but you wouldn't have any trouble kiting them back to your kill zone even with your sluggish tanks.

Except for one problem. You Tier 2 units are sinking into the sand due to their tremendous mass. They can push through, but it does slow them down. The aliens, meanwhile, are apparently considerably lighter. They aren't hampered to nearly the same extent.

You honestly didn't expect to be able to kite them effectively, but you were laboring under the idea that they were higher performance than they apparently are. You still can't kite them, but it's a terrain limitation, rather than a mechanical one.

These aliens have apparently taken quantity over quality to an art form.

You order your Pillars forward to absorb the brunt of the charge; their thicker armor and inability to be knocked down renders them less vulnerable to physical attacks than your taller and lighter Mongeese.

It's clear from what Isumi said and your own observations that these are close range enemy units; they seem to almost behave as battering rams.

You're fortunate in that they haven't had much time to build up speed yet; they're not going fast enough to completely wreck your tanks. Dented armor, slipped tracks, and wrecked optics are the name of the game here.

Still, if you stick to this strategy, you'll be cut off and surrounded. More Mongeese and Pillars joined the battle, fresh off the factory, but the horde is truly immense. Already your Mongeese have to fire their fragmentation-submunition launchers down directly into the top of these creatures as they collide with the Pillars, so close are the aliens.

You decide it's time to fall back-

A hazy bluish-white beam of light scythes through the air and into one of the parashield bubbles protecting your units. The bubble flickers and dims substantially; it won't be able to take another hit.

Backtracking its trail of ionized air, you see the source. Off in the distance, you see a hideous cyclopean eye just barely poking out from the sea.

These must be the laser units.

But by Earth, that thing hit like a small nuke.

And based on the depth of that part of the sea, it's only one of the T2 units. The T3 units are still deeper, still submerged.

You bite your lip. Fifty enemies with the firepower of a Monkeylord or a Galactic Colossus? This'll take some finesse.

Another T2 laser eye pokes up out of the sea. And another. And another. And another. And another. They're advancing fast. You expect the others will be popping up soon too.

They lance out, popping three of your parashield bubbles in one salvo. Another eye rises, nailing the disabled parashield and oneshotting it.

Right. That's your cue to leave. You've already pulled your Mongoose bots back, using the slower Pillars to run interference. Isumi was right, these lasers aren't willing to shoot through their own to kill your units.

Which you find a bit odd, in all honesty. The aliens charge into your guns instead of seeking cover, but then they don't fire through each other even when it'd be tactically efficient?

Well, it's good for you in any event.

Of course, then the lasers switch to interdicting your artillery, something they do very well.

At least lasers shooting down shells are lasers that aren't lasering your units.

You tap your chin. “Hm. Thirty second recycle time on those lasers?”

“Based on thermal readings, I estimate that they are benefiting from the water as a heat sink, allowing them to fire more quickly than they would on land,” Blue adds helpfully.

“Makes sense,” You nod.

Meanwhile, several of your more damaged pillars have fallen behind, but they've done their job. The Mongeese and Parashields have retreated back further into the island's interior.

Its glorious hard packed dirt interior. The enemies pursue, but your units are faster on solid ground than they are; your remaining units are able to disengage and continue to your defensive line, firing all the while.

In total, you've wiped out 500 of these armored ram BETA during this initial engagement, a majority of the enemy's vanguard. Approximately 250 are left; the remaining LAB-size BETA are moving more slowly, and will be surfacing imminently. You no longer have line of sight to the beach; your radar system is more than enough to continue spotting for artillery, even though laser units are interdicting it.

The most effective weapon thus far: Klink Hammer T2 artillery, distantly followed by Mongoose gatling cannons, closely followed by Pillar 200mm railcannons. Your Lobo T1 artillery cannons were relatively ineffective against these armored aliens.

You lost some Mongeese to ramming attacks in spite of your best efforts; Mongeese are particularly vulnerable to such attacks, as they can be knocked over and trampled instead of merely bashed around like a tank.

You lost eight Pillars holding the rams back from your Mongeese on the beach. It takes repeated attacks to destroy them, but with a numerical disparity like this, the aliens can afford it.

You lost one parashield to a lucky laser strike.

Taking into account production and losses, you currently have:

15 Mongoose T2 bots
5 Pillar T2 tanks
6 Lobo T1 artillery vehicles
3 Parashields. You do not have sufficient Parashields to cover the entire force.
3 Sparky combat engineers

You also have 1 wing (6) T1 bombers and 1 wing (6) T1 interceptors currently in reserve. You should deal with the laser threat in some fashion before using them.

Your base is deeper in the island, and is situated such that the laser units will have to advance to within your fields of fire or take higher ground to strike your defenses.

You have a brief breather to ponder strategy while the enemy climbs over the mounds of their dead; you do not have enough units to advance back to reclaim the wreckage. Hopefully the aliens do not have any production units of their own in this engagement.

You elect to:

[]Stick to the plan; lure those aliens into your defenses.
-Pro: Defenses should let you hold out unless the next wave is nastier; terrain will hamper enemy laser effectiveness. Con: Cedes tactical initiative to the enemy.

[]Construct additional plasma turrets on the hillsides.
-Pro: Will keep you from being flanked by T2 Laser BETA. -Con: Resources going into hillside turrets are resources not going into mobile units or turrets to deal with the enemies in the choke point.

[]Give those laser eyes a painful burning sensation. Build a few dozen lobos to distract their attention, then use your bombers to hit them while they're recharging. Use your Cyclones as decoys as needed.
-Pro: If it works, it'll remove the laser threat until those heavy lasers Isumi mentioned arrive, allowing your artillery free reign. Con: Might waste your air reserves for no gain. Unsure of durability of T2 laser units. Lobos ineffective vs armored BETA.

[]Why stay here for those T3 units to show up? It's not like this is a strategic locale. Vamoose! Ask Yuuko where her base is, fab up some hovertanks for transport, grab the cadets and her team, and evac.
-Pro: Can probably avoid T3 units. Con: You might get caught away from your defenses. Yuuko probably won't be happy if you get her cadets or subordinates killed.

[]Something else entirely [Write In]
-Pro: SB's plans can be very good. Con: SB's plans can be very bad.

You may also consult Isumi and Yuuko further about BETA capabilities in addition to any of the above options.

[]Yes.
-Pro: May prevent you from making incorrect assumptions re BETA. Con: You'll owe them.

[]No.
-Pro: You won't be further indebted to these people. Con: Continue flying blind.

 

[X]Operation: Brain Caster.

The last of the armored BETA charge your defensive lines in one great tidal wave of chitinous flesh.

DM-1 plasma turrets open up, their powerful azure-purple bursts melting alien armor with every shot. Your remaining Mongoose bots and Pillars add to the carnage. Your calcicrete walls serve to funnel them into your guns, the aliens not tall enough to step over and not strong enough to break them.

The few Triad turrets you built are such gratuitous overkill you almost regret building them.

Certainly their constant ramming attacks cause cracks in your defenses, but calcicrete is very tough stuff. It weathers the tide of ramming alien chitin while your turrets do their job. Very few indeed can push through your defense, and those that do find themselves quickly dispatched and converted into mass to feed the growth of your force. It seems that your decision to hold them at the beach was fortuitous; your defenses might not have killed enough alone to prevent a major breakthrough had you not thinned the herd beforehand.

You find yourself with time, now. Just enough to get some more information on what you face. And rebalance your force.

“Captain, I've dispatched the enemy's initial thrust, the slow armored chitin monsters. What can you tell me about the next enemy wave?”

“Slow? Destroyers are the fastest BETA around,” Isumi replies. “But the next wave will probably consist of grapplers and tanks. Grapplers are fairy slow and are mostly unarmored, but their armored claws make them tough to take from the front, and they're strong enough to tear right through a TSF. Don't bother shooting the head, they don't need it. Tank class BETA... They're small and weak individually, but they latch on like ticks and bite through your armor. Most pilots underestimate them and get taken down. Also they can jump.”

“Thanks for the tip,” You say. “Also, do you have any suggestions for the big lasers? The small ones fired at me from the water, but the sixty meter ones are still submerged, and I'm not looking forward to fighting those. I've got a plan for the twenty meter light lasers, but the big ones probably have too much firepower to deal with without going to T3.”

There was a pause on the other end of the line. “...The twenty meter tall lasers are the heavy lasers, Colonel. The sixty meter tall BETA are the fort class, equipped with an acid-coated stinger attached to a long tether, but no lasers.”

You blink. “Then what are the small lasers you mentioned before?”

“The laser class BETA are just under three meters tall. Less firepower, but much faster rate of fire, and they have two eyes they can fire lasers from instead of only one.”

“Wait, wait just a second. You mean to tell me that the incredibly threatening lasers are the T2 units and the power armor? Not the T2 and the T3s? What kind of ass backwards logic is that?” You mutter. “I think I'm going to have words with the alien who designed these things. And those words will probably involve the phrase 'mass strategic launch'.”

Isumi clearly doesn't have anything to say to that. Though you think you hear Yuuko laugh in the background.

You clear your throat. “Right. Thanks, Captain. Any other surprises? Are the infantry actually packing nukes or something equally absurd?”

“No. The soldier and warrior strains are not much of a threat to armored units,” Isumi replies.

“Okay. Thanks. Steele out.”

Well, that certainly puts things in a new perspective.

So much so that you elect to shift your forces. Mongeese and pillars have proven effective vs these 'destroyers', but you suspect they'll be wasteful overkill against these 'grapplers' and 'tanks'.

Tanks. That's going to cause confusion in the future, you just know it.

You order your factories to cancel Mongoose production, and instead focus on the production of Mech Marine LABs and Parashields to protect your force from laser-class units via an overlapping shield phalanx formation.

The hundreds of BETA corpses your combat engineers reclaim gives you the resources to shift focus like this easily. Particularly given how cheap Mech Marines are in terms of resources. At full tilt, it almost takes longer for a Marine to clear the buildspace than it does to actually make one, and you can produce them for a pittance.

Soon you have dozens of the things to meet horde.

They're all advancing towards your choke points; on radar it looks like one big blob of units, but as they step round the bend and into range of your guns, you can see what's going on.

And they are hideous. The 'grapplers' look almost like hideous crab people with sickly pale pink-white flesh and toothy grins, and heads on tall stalks like a sub's periscope. The 'tanks' look like the ticks Isumi compared them too. Ugly red ticks the size of land cars.

You see none of the lasers or other types you've heard about, and that has you concerned. Still, there's not much you can do about it now, and there's no odd clumps of units near the hills that your radar can detect. The heavy lasers are still happily interdicting your artillery, and appear to be following the same pathing as the main horde of tanks and grapplers.

So you order your Mech Marines to open up, spraying forth a literal torrent of fire onto your choke points.

Mech Marine shells are simply not powerful enough to pierce the grapplers' armored claws. However, the sheer volume of fire they put out lets them catch many grapplers in the points not covered by the claws, though your Mongeese, Pillars, and DM1s kill many more.

'Tanks' don't live up to their name at all. They're apparently unarmored; Mech Marine autocannons wipe them out easily, though you find the most effective weapon against them is actually the Mongoose's fragmentation launcher, as it is able to blast through whole formations of them at once with its exploding submunitions.

You imagine your artillery would be even more effective were it not for the laser classes interdicting it.

Unfortunately, there is a problem. In order to keep your Marines within the Parashields and thus safe from potential laser fire, they can't use their mobility to their fullest extent; they have to stay in formation. This gives the swarming tank units opportunities, hundreds of them literally leaping over your calcicrete and charging into the midst of your marine formations. Tens of Marines find themselves brought down by sheer weight of alien flesh. The aliens take time to chew through their thick armor, but they have that time, as attempts to clear them with other Mech Marines causes more damage than the aliens!

Your Parashields, too, find themselves defenseless against this tactic. Many of them are destroyed.

Still, attrition favors you here; while it might be a tsunami of BETA, your factories are pumping out a river of steel. And even as the tsunami loses steam and putters out, the river is still going strong. Your combat engineers ensure it, their riot guns proving very able to keep errant tank class BETA from getting too close while they work.

Soon, your defenses and units have wiped out much of this wave. There's just stragglers left.

Against the grapplers, your DM1s achieved the most kills. Your Mongeese the next most, and your few remaining Pillars the most after that, due to the choke point allowing for maximum overpenetration.

Your Mech Marines proved their worth against the tank class, however, generally achieving more kills in total even though the Mongoose launchers were more effective ton for ton.

The third and final wave is coming. It consists of the BETA infantry, the 'fort' class BETA, and both varieties of laser BETA.

You have one final opportunity to refactor your strategies.

[]Stick with what's worked so far. Lure them into your killzone and swarm them with Mech Marines under cover of Parashields to prevent laser shenanagins.
-Pro: It's worked so far. Con: Might not work so well against these radically different units.

[]Upgrade to T3 using the resources gained from recycling this past wave.
-Pro: T3 units are very powerful. Con: You'll only be able to produce a few T3 units by the time the third wave hits.

[]Cease production of Mech Marines; this wave consists predominantly of heavier units as far as threat goes. Switch to Pillars under Parashield umbrellas.
-Pro: Pillars will almost assuredly wipe out the laser type BETA. Con: Fort type BETA are a question mark. Pillars will probably not be very effective vs BETA infantry.

[]You're tired of this. Take your ACU out under a shield umbrella and hit their formation with an Overcharge shot as they get close to your choke point.
-Pro: Overcharge will almost assuredly wipe out huge numbers of BETA. Con: Risks the ACU.

[]Something else entirely [Write in]
-Pro: SB's plans can be very good. Con: SB's plans can be very bad.

 

[X]Operation: Pillars of Pwnage.

You've got a brief breather before the final wave hits. You can see them on your radar, advancing. Fortunately, none of them seem to have deviated from the course the previous waves held to. Your fears of being flanked by laser class units haven't materialized, and it doesn't look like they will, either.

Isumi told you that the enemy infantry are no threat to armored units. Her intel's been spot on so far. And your forces consist of nothing but armored units. The infantry are secondary targets at best. No, the main threat are the laser units and these 'fort' T3s.

You decide that replacing your Mech Marine production orders with Pillars will work. Your Parashields should serve to give the T2 Pillars sufficient durability to survive for a time even against the 'heavy' lasers, and hopefully they'll be able to take down the Fort T3s with massed fire. Though you think - or hope, really - that your tanks will be able to outrun them. Assuming their current speed is flank, the tanks are faster by far, but that's assuming the aliens are going all out rather than advancing more cautiously now that you've annihilated the rest of their force. It's also assuming the terrain will allow maneuvers.

You aren't sure the Pillars have the firepower to take on the forts, but you are almost certain they've got the firepower to take down the heavy lasers, and if they don't have the firepower to take down the light lasers you are going to call shenanigans and overcharge the entire force because they are clearly cheaters.

Using the reclaimed mass of the BETA you've already slain, you're able to get a good number of Pillars operational. You know you could've upgraded to Tier 3 with this many resources, but ultimately you decide against showing your full hand too soon. You never know who might be watching. Besides, you wouldn't have enough resources for more than a few T3 units, and your T2s have proven sufficient so far.

The last wave of BETA is certainly a motley sort. First you see a lumbering, sixty meter tall bony maggot on stilt-like legs step into view, its tail hanging low with a bright red stinger.

Your Pillars and Triads open up first. These creatures seem to rely more on sheer body mass to absorb hits, rather than any form of armor, but your Pillars and their railcannons are more than up to the task of punching through the layers of thick flesh to get to the vital organs underneath. It seems that while it might be as large as a T3 unit, it's nowhere near as tough as one.

From its ruptured innards spew dozens of smaller, human-size units. The infantry. The taller ones look almost comical, like two legged alien elephants. The others look hideous, with bulbous bodies, ugly heads, and beady black eyes like coal.

You resolve to have some fun later and run around squashing stragglers with your ACU's foot.

That's when you notice a blue-white beam scythe out from a heavy laser that just passed around the hill and into your field of fire, splashing over the first layer of your shields. You pull it back to recharge and bring another forward, even as you get your first good look at the heavy laser class BETA.

It's quite possibly the ugliest thing you've seen in your life. A thick, fat, hairy eye and a pair of thin legs jutting down from a bloated torso, one that looks almost cancerous. A set of red wings that shimmer like hot asphalt on a summer's day.

The splatter of alien blood as a three-gun barrage from a Triad slams into it is very satisfying, you must admit. The thing crumples to the ground completely and totally dead.

Soon more BETA stomp into view. Lasers lash out, some popping your shields before you can pull them back to recharge and exposing the units underneath to enemy fire. The smaller lasers, just as grotesque as the larger ones, swarm around their brethren's feet. Their lasers are weaker, but they fire more quickly, fast enough to melt through even your Pillars' thick hull armor now that the shields are down.

Your artillery continues its barrage through this, forcing the laser units to choose between the artillery and your exposed units. They choose the artillery. There's too many lasers still for the artillery to get through, but you only lose a handful of Pillars to their attacks because of it.

Unfortunately, the fort class units charge forward, forcing your tanks to choose between whether to pull back and engage the melee combatants, or to focus on the greater threat of the lasers. You select the latter, firing under the larger BETA strains to target the most dangerous ones while ordering your tanks to take evasive maneuvers.

Some of them are lost - Fort stingers are more than sufficient to punch through a Pillar's hull if they can get within range - due to your tanks not having the most room to maneuver without crashing into something, be it another unit, your base, or a BETA/BETA corpse.

They're all expendable.

Meanwhile, your remaining Mongeese open up on the smaller laser classes, sweeping them from the field with robotic precision. Your remaining Mech Marines stand behind, trying to keep the carpet of infantry types from getting in the way of your T2 units, something they're somewhat successful at. The need to prevent fratricide hampers their efforts a bit.

With every laser that falls, your artillery barrages are intercepted a little later, a little closer to their targets.

The enemy pushes through your choke point, smashing and lasing your turrets. You've reduced their force of laser and fort units by half by the time you order your units to fall back to your second defensive line around the base.

Your units continue firing even as they retreat, earning still more kills.

More tanks roll off the factory floor as the aliens advance. Your second line of turrets opens up, firing plasma bursts at the vulnerable laser units.

It's satisfying seeing those ugly and annoying things burn and melt.

Soon, you've killed enough for the first of your artillery barrages to get through. Much diminished, true, but your satisfaction seeing a heavy laser BETA literally explode from a Klink Hammer can't really be overstated.

There's just something about these things you hate.

You order your Pillars to switch targets now, focusing on the fast-approaching fort classes while your Mongeese and artillery clean up the lasers.

A third of the fort class make it to your base. Acid-stingers lash out, slamming into defenses and Pillar tanks, wrecking one with every hit. You have to admit that those things can really use their tails to good effect; you watched as one looped it around to hit a Mongoose that was flanking it.

Your forces aren't idle either; they lash out with plasma and railcannon, taking down fort after fort.

The battle's basically over when the last laser falls. There's just another two forts left, and almost a thousand infantry. Granted you lost much of your force to the enemy's final charge and your units' inability to maneuver effectively in the tight confines of your base, but all those units, every last one, was utterly expendable if it furthered this victory.

You send up your bombers to clear the stragglers out, something their plasma napalm makes easy indeed. You also push to produce more bombers to help this task. Your lobo artillery vehicles also finally pull their weight, wiping out wide herds of alien infantry.

In the end, only a handful of infantry survive by fleeing into the sea. You quickly produce subs to go after them, but they escape; your sonar has difficulty telling them apart from rocks when they're not moving, and they always stop when your subs get within sonar range. Perhaps you could have killed all of them had you embraced a different strategy before, but this is about as clear a victory as you can get even so. And it's not every day you crush five commanders worth of units with just a T2 base.

Plus, your ACU didn't even have to fire a shot.

Now comes the aftermath.

“The aliens are defeated, Doctor,” You reopen the communications channel. “Thanks to your captain's intelligence.”

“Ah!” You hear Isumi gasp. “Thank you, Colonel.”

“It's a well deserved compliment,” You reply. “But Doctor, I'd like those answers you promised.”

“Of course,” Yuuko says. “I'd like answers of my own. But this isn't really the best place for them. Come back to my base, I'll explain all I can there.”

“Your base, huh?” You tap your chin.

“Yes,” She replies. “Surely after that display you're not scared?”

“No, you're right,” You reply. “Though you should know that if Blue loses contact with me for too long she'll self-destruct with the force of a megaton-scale thermonuke, so I hope your offer is genuine.”

“Charming,” Yuuko replies. “Well, you'll be under my protection for now, and that counts for a lot in this world. Consider it payback for beating the BETA, even if they were probably here because of you in the first place. Follow our TSFs, we'll take you there. It's a few hundred kilometers, so it might take awhile depending on your speed. Ah, but don't worry about my cadets, I'll call a helicopter to pick them up.”

“Hold on, let me get an air transport,” You reply, trying not to sound too eager. But you haven't seen someone face to face since before the battle of Earth. Talking to people through a holoscreen just isn't the same. And you haven't even done that since you arrived here.

You rapidly deconstruct your base and forces, using some of the resources to produce a C-14 Star Lifter T2 air transport and storing the rest, then you settle in for a field trip. At least, you do once you see the cadets off with a cheerful wave of your ACU's arm.

Honestly, you've never seen LABs move like this. These TSFs are fast when they want to be; you can see they've got jet thrusters placed strategically on their bodies, letting them achieve speeds more consistent with aircraft than ground units.

Soon, you arrive at Yokohama base.

You aren't sure what you were expected, but this wasn't it. The base itself is fairly large. Not the biggest you've seen, pre-X-day Earthcom takes the cake there, but it's a respectable base. It's built right up next to a ruined city, and you can see artillery ranges, small LAB-scale hangars, training fields, plus a great many generic buildings you can't identify...

...And not a protocrafter to be seen anywhere. But how can you have a base without protocrafters? What, does that mean it's units have to be carted in by air?

It does have gun turrets, at least, and you can see a number of the natives' TSF mechs on exercises in the ruined city.

They all stop and stare at your air transport as it approaches. You detect a transmission between Yuuko's unit and somewhere in the base, but you elect not to listen in out of politeness. These people have earned at least a little trust. You imagine it's warning of your imminent arrival. And even if it's a kill order, well, your threat wasn't exactly an idle one.

Still, you have blue do some surreptitious scans of the area with your omni. There's seven mass points near to or within the base. The ruined city can be reclaimed for still more mass at need, though given how they seem to use it for training exercises, they probably wouldn't take too kindly to that.

But manned units? You hadn't had a chance to give it much thought before, thought maybe Yuuko's team was an anomaly. But it's looking more and more like these TSFs are manned by default. Drones don't turn to gawk at something as it passes, drones don't need to be jostled by other drones to get them to return to their task.

These people must have balls of steel to actually fight in death traps like that. Fighting in a heavy tank or a T3 HAB or something you could see, maybe, but these? Just one shot from most any gun worthy of the name would take them down, even if they can use their jumpjets to dart around the battlefield and avoid shots.

You also detect an odd power signature emanating deep from underground. In magnitude it's consistent with a T3 power generator, though you're getting odd readings more consistent with an Aeon or Seraphim quantum generator than the ion or fusion based designs used by the UEF and Cybrans.

Beyond that, the only other power signatures are six small ones barely equivalent to a single T1 generator in total. Strange, but you suppose with a T3 generator to power everything, they wouldn't have much need for T1s or T2s. You usually deconstruct your lesser reactors once you hit T3 yourself. But putting it so deeply underground? Certainly it's better protected there, but it must have taken a long time, far longer than you'd have on the battlefield, to actually bury it down there.

Oh well.

You notice that Yuuko's team has landed outside a guarded and fenced-in gate. You order your T2 transport to set you down nearby. Whatever paving material they use here cracks and deforms under your ACU's immense weight.

It's the moment of truth. You take a deep breath and pop your hatch, ordering Blue to lower herself to a kneeling position such that you can get out more easily. You also activate her anti-theft functionality, just in case. Every 24 hours you will need to return to her or she will self-destruct.

A wave of cool air hits your face as you step into the dying afternoon sun. There's something in this air, in the light of this system's star. It seems familiar. Reminds you of Earth. You can see why these people are so convinced. You would be too if you hadn't had a front row seat to Earth's death.

Your lungs drink deeply of this familiar air; you already clipped your helmet to your suit before, because you've been cooped up in your ACU for days now and you just have to feel real air on your skin again.

In the distance, the TSFs are also opening up. Guards and technical personnel are swarming them, most shooting incredulous glances your way. And then, the first of the pilots disembark from their mechs and-

What in the name of all that's holy are they wearing? They're all very beautiful women, yes. Reminds you of your time with the Aeon loyalists, fighting against QAI and Crusader Selene on Copernicus. They're all wearing lightweight exosuits, black and dark blue.

But those exosuits have no armor! Why would you have power armor with no armor? It's like they put on their undersuits but then forgot about the armor, the whole point of an armored suit! It's as form fitting as an aeon battlesuit and it certainly flatters their figures but where is the armor? The thick slabs of alloy plate over vital organs to keep dismounts from getting splattered all over the landscape?

Two of them walk over to you. One has short, wavy brown hair and red eyes, the other longer violet hair and violet eyes. From the labcoat hastily thrown on over her exosuit (you refuse to call it armor), you surmise that the violet haired woman is Doctor Yuuko Kouzaki.

You suddenly feel a little self-conscious. You haven't shaved in days, you're sure you've got dark rings under your eyes, they're probably bloodshot from the stims you took to keep alert back on Earth... Yeah, not the best first impression.

Yuuko chuckles a bit at the face you're making. “Is it polite to stare where you come from, Colonel?”

You blink, recovering your wits quickly. You give her a smile of your own. Two can play at this teasing game. “What can I say, staring at beautiful women comes naturally to me.”

Yuuko laughs a bit, while the brown haired woman, who you presume is Captain Isumi, blushes.

“But your beauty isn't what had me so shocked. It's these,” You gesture towards their bodies. “Where's the armor?”

Isumi just stares at you. Yuuko laughs. “That's the first thing you noticed?”

You tap your own chestpiece. “See? Armor. Nice thick chunks of wonderful, vital-organ-covering metal armor. Were you guys just in a rush and didn't have time to put on the other half of an armored battlesuit?”

“Sure, let's go with that,” Yuuko smiles. But it's not a nice smile. It's a mischievous one, filled with mirth and schadenfreude. Beautiful, sure, but mischievous. Somehow, you get the feeling she's going to bring this up in the future.

“Ah, that's not...” Isumi starts.

Yuuko clears her throat. “I don't believe you've been formally introduced. Colonel, meet Captain Michiru Isumi of UN Special Tasks A-01. 9Th squadron.”

Isumi extends her hand, clearly to shake, but Yuuko slaps it down with a rolled up paper magazine she fishes out of her coat pocket. “No physical contact until I've made sure nobody has any diseases that can affect the other. In fact, don't even get too close to one another.”

“Aye Ma'am,” Isumi replies.

You shrug, rotating your arm to get some of the kinks out of it. “Reasonable precaution.”

Somewhat unnecessary; your geneboosted immune system is strong enough to kill damn near anything, even the deconstructive nanoviruses QAI released into refugee populations, but you don't begrudge Yuuko a little prudence.

“Now, come with me. Both of you.”

“Ah, Ma'am. Won't the general want to be briefed?”

“Mm, yes, probably,” Yuuko waves her hand idly. “But I'm sure I'll have a little time before he comes to visit.”

You still aren't sure how the internal political structures work here. Like, how did a doctor actually get to be vice commander of a large military base like this? A doctor who delegates the actual military responsibilities at that?

The three of you set out across the base. You see several guards with the letters MP stenciled across their bright blue helmets, but they don't challenge Yuuko at all. Is she that infamous here?

Soon you enter the base proper, and Yuuko carefully leads you to an elevator. “My lab is deep underground.”

Near the quantum reactor.

A few minutes into the descent, Yuuko sighs and says “for what it's worth, Colonel, my condolences for your men.”

You blink. “My... Men?”

“The pilots of the mechs and tanks you lost.”

“What? You think those things were manned? Doctor, those were all drones. Robots. Most all my units are. It'd be awfully hard to build an army after gating in if you had to ship in men to drive it all.”

“Build an army.” Yuuko turns to look at you. “You mean to tell me you built that force here. Not calling it in from somewhere else. But that's – hm.”

“What?” You ask.

“No. That's nonsense. You can't just make tanks out of thin air. We surveyed that island, there's no resources worth note. You'd need some kind of – of alchemy device, and that's insane.”

“...Doctor, is this some kind of joke?” You ask. “ I know this base doesn't have any protocrafters, at least none I saw on approach. But I thought you just put them off site for some reason. How do you not know about protocrafters? Everyone has protocrafters. They've been around since the days of the Empire. They're what keeps – kept the infinite war going. They're the backbone of the entire ACU war paradigm. The ability to make an army anywhere at any time. No protocrafters, no ACUs.”

“So that's why... I'd thought you were sucking up the BETA corpses for resources to send back home, but you were actually using them in situ. That's...” Yuuko steadies herself against the elevator door. “But that kind of capability. With something like that...”

“Infinite war?” Isumi breaks her silence.

Yuuko, meanwhile, is looking at you with a calculating expression.

The elevator chimes and the doors open, saving you from having to explain. “We're here. We can discuss that later.”

Yuuko's lab is, honestly, not too different from any lab. Scientific instruments beep and hum. Papers and notes are scattered haphazardly everywhere. The scent of chemicals hangs thickly in the air. It-

Wait. Is that a brain?

There, in the center of the room is a strange, almost organic or flowery clear tube. It's holding a human brain in some kind of goopy fluid.

You go up to it, dazed, and tap on the tube. “Dr. Brackman?! Is that you?”

You only realize how foolish you're being when you take a good look at it. The obvious lack of cybernetics should've been a big clue. But you were so eager for a familiar face, brain, whatever that you ignored it.

Still, just looking at it you half-expect to hear his grandfatherly voice going “oh yes” as he explains some new theory that's honestly way above your head, but which you listen to politely anyway because this is the man who helped UEF refugees escape Earth after you'd just hit his people with Black Sun.

You see a small stream of bubbles escape the brain, and you almost get the feeling that the brain's irritated at you, despite how insane a notion that is. You certainly don't see any sort of sensors or cameras that would let it see the world, and how would you know how a brain's feeling anyway? It's not like it has facial expressions.

The poor thing's probably going insane from sensory deprivation.

Yuuko clears her throat from behind you. “Easily distracted are you, Colonel?”

You turn back and give her a look. “Hey, I thought it was a friend of mine. You usually don't see brains floating around without their bodies.”

“I'm sure there's a fascinating story behind that,” Yuuko smiles. “But come. The biolab is this way.”

First, she takes a blood sample after putting on a set of gloves and making you remove your armor. She has to jab you a few times to get enough because your veins automatically tighten to staunch bleeding in case of injury. Though if she thought this odd, she didn't remark on it.

Next she takes a sample from herself, and then one from Isumi. She looks at yours first under some kind of microscope.

“What. What is this. What are these things floating around in, they almost look bacteria, but your immune system isn't attacking them at all. No inflamation, no lymphocyte response...” Yuuko mutters.

“Oh, the blue things?” You ask. “Probably the artificial antibodies.”

“...Like the BETA.” She says, not even looking up. “Fascinating.”

Hrm. Well that puts a dampener on your mood.

She looks a few minutes more. “Well, I'm not seeing any major infectious vectors here. Let's just stick this sample in the centrifuge...”

She looks at you. “In all honesty, I don't expect to find anything. But I can only imagine what they'd say if they started getting biohazard warnings from my lab.”

“Probably “that mad scientist's projects escaped! We tried to play God and now we pay the price! Burn the whole place to the ground!!!” Ma'am,” Isumi adds.

“It's not my fault that they can't understand my genius!”

“I note you're not denying their charges, Ma'am,” Isumi replies.

Yuuko keeps you there for another hour before she pronounces you cleared.

“I'd love to run some additional tests,” She says. “But I don't think you'll agree. Oh, Isumi, you're free to go.”

Isumi looks between you and her commander. “May I stay, Ma'am? I'm curious about our guest.”

Yuuko rubs her chin. “You are already involved... I'll allow it. Obviously anything you hear here is classified.”

With that, the three of you make your way over to another part of her lab. It's an awfully big lab for one person.

Yuuko settles down into a comfy-looking chair and powers up some sort of personal computing device. “Now, you want answers, I take it?”

You nod.

“Right. When I was a young girl, I came up with a theory. The idea was that there are multiple parallel universes, and that each universe is subtly different. Eventually though, they diverge so much they're almost unrecognizable. For instance, a world without BETA,” Yuuko begins. “The difference is that I showed the math to prove it, or at least prove it's possible.”

You drum your fingers on her desk; it's a thick dark brown wooden one. Things are starting to slide into place. All these differences. No Protocrafters. No Seraphim. No Q-comms or Q-IFF or Q-anything. BETA, BETA everywhere. “It's definitely possible.”

For what else was the Seraphim's realm but another universe entirely, one where the laws of existence were just ever so slightly different? After having stepped foot in that universe, how could you possibly deny the notion that there were other, more homey universes?

But that'd mean... Your breath hitches. That'd mean that Yuuko wasn't lying. This was Earth. A green living Earth. Oh sure it wasn't your Earth, but who cared about details like that?

Yuuko raises an eyebrow. “Oh?”

“When we first spoke,” You start. “I mentioned I was going to stop the aliens, right? Well, our aliens aren't these BETA things you have. They're called the Seraphim. They live in their own universe, and came into ours – mine – through a rift that...”

You trail off.

“...A rift that opened. They killed Earth and then set about trying to wipe out the galaxy. We had to unite to stop them. I volunteered for the suicide mission to seal their rift. With a quantum bomb like that, I must have, it would've been like a normal unstable gate tunnel. That's why I felt so out of it when I woke up.”

You look at Yuuko. You're rambling and not making sense, but it doesn't seem like she's having much trouble following your train of thought. “But if these aliens are fighting on Earth, you must have been beaten back as far as we were. How many colonies did you lose?”

“Colonies?” Isumi asks.

“Ah, Colonel,” Yuuko looks at you. “In this reality, the closest mankind has come to colonizing other worlds is a moonbase. The BETA destroyed that several decades ago.”

You blink. “But that'd mean I didn't just swap universes, I went back in time. The galaxy's been colonized for thousands of years in my timeline.”

Both Yuuko and Isumi gasp. You can see Isumi look at you with wide, almost disbelieving eyes. Yuuko, meanwhile... You can see the gears turning in her head. You don't know what it means, but she's definitely thinking.

“But that could be theoretically possible,” You struggle to recall your lectures at the academy. “Or my universe started just a few thousand years earlier. That's just a blink on astronomical scales. Or we advanced more quickly than you. Or maybe just sideways and while we developed protocrafters and q-gates you developed something else. There's too many possibilities. I'd need more to narrow it down.”

Yuuko gives you a smile. “It's nice to see that your mind functions. I can only imagine how frustrating I'd find it if I had to deal with a dimension traveler who was ignorant.”

“Right,” You nod. “Can you give me a briefing on your world?”

Both Yuuko and Isumi look at you. “You don't wish to return to your home dimension? I thought I'd have to use Isumi's charming personality to entice you to say.”

No, in all frankness, you don't. Suicide missions tend to be one way; you'd put your affairs in order before hitting Earth because you never expected to leave it.

And this. You swore an oath to protect Earth and to protect Humanity. Your conscience won't let you turn your back on people who need help, not against depraved aliens, not when you can help stop them.

You shake your head. “As a UEF colonel, my oath is to protect Earth and to protect all mankind, no matter the cost.”

Isumi smiles. “My oath was similar.”

“I didn't swear any kind of oath, but it sounds like our goals align for the moment,” Yuuko nods and fiddles with her computer.

She gestures towards a large bare wall on the other end of the lab, upon which you see a projection of the Earth.

You see a red cross on some point in China.

“The first hive landed in Kashgar. Initially, the Chinese and Russians were able to contain the BETA via artillery and airstrikes. Then the aliens deployed the laser class units and turned the tide almost immediately. Due to the laser class units, we were generally unable to stop their expansion,” Yuuko begins. “This was almost thirty years ago. The war has been going ever since.”

You watch as more red crosses spread out from the one in Kashgar, spreading across Europe and Asia.

“Hives are almost impossible to destroy,” The globe spins to display North America and with a red cross in Canada that then winked out. “Unless you strike with overwhelming nuclear force before it can establish itself, as the Americans did.”

You nod. “A sound strategy.”

Isumi looks at you askance. “They contaminated half of Canada with fallout.”

“Fallout can be cleaned. Armies of killing machines can't.”

“Regardless,” Yuuko switches the image, this time to a LAB-like machine similar to what Isumi was driving during the battle. “We developed new weapons such as the Tactical Surface Fighter to try and stop them, but all this has done is allow us to hold the line.”

“Through great sacrifice,” Isumi murmurs.

“Quite. But after so long at war, everything's starting to break down,” Yuuko sighs. “Nations are starting to look at one another as sacrificial lambs to be led to the slaughter, hoping the BETA will one day decide they've consumed enough. They all beg for any scrap of salvation, no matter where it comes from or what it might cost.”

You hold your tongue at how long this 'long war' is to you, because here, in the harsh flourescent lights overhead, she looks as exhausted as you do.

“In all honesty, I think we've said enough tonight,” She says. “I have work to do, and you look like you're dead on your feet. I'll have my secretary, Lieutenant Piatff, find a room for you. Dinner should be served at the PX shortly, I think. We'll meet tomorrow and we can discuss things in full then. There's just one other thing that can't wait.”

She sighs. “What I'm going to do with you.”

“A nice candlelit dinner sounds like a good idea,” You tease.

“Oh, that confident are you?” She chuckles. “But seriously, I can deflect questions by acting coy for only so long. Long enough to explain your arrival and debrief you, but not long enough to support you in any major fashion. I have a day at most before those I answer to start making inquiries that I can't brush off.”

She taps a pencil to her lip. “But nobody really knows what I do down here. I could imply you're a part of my project. That would allow me to requisition more resources to help further our mutual goals, and your, hmm, enhancements would lend credence to the half-truth should anyone acquire a blood sample. After all, who knows what I get up to in my underground lab?”

“Which would 'imply' that I'm tied to you,” You reply.

“There is that, yes,” She shrugs. “It's the only way I can give you any significant support. My power in the UN is vast, but it's limited to what I can suitably explain to the council as part of my mandate. You aren't some cadet I can make appear or vanish at a whim. Everyone saw your arrival at this base. I imagine I'll be getting quite a few calls about you tonight.”


“No matter what, I will not be your willing pawn,” You say. “That is non-negotiable.”

“A fair enough demand,” Yuuko nods.

“Then my answer is...”

[]“...Together we'll crush these aliens like the roaches they are.”
-Pro: Yuuko will be able to give you considerably more support in the form of resources, troops, research aid, and other perks if you're ostensibly within her political hierarchy. You will gain the benefit of whatever political connections shehas. Con: You will be associated with her in the eyes of any enemies she has.

[]“...No. I swore an oath to the UEF, not the UN. I will fight the BETA on my own terms.”
-Pro: Greater independence. You will be approaching the politics of this world as an outsider. Con: You will be approaching the politics of this world as an outsider. Yuuko will not be able to assist you to nearly the same extent. You will have to secure access to your own sources of troops, research, intelligence, and political connections. Or try to go it alone.


[]Something else entirely. [Write-in]
Pro: SB's plans can be very good. Con: SB's plans can be very bad.

 

[X]Plan Delta Green. [Write in with some editing]

You lean back, pondering your reply. Yuuko, she's looking at you expectantly, waiting for your answer.

You see what she's doing here. You might not know the specific political situation, but you can tell she's trying to maneuver you for the greatest personal advantage. If she can claim you're here because of her, she'll have power over you in the eyes of the world. She'll control access to you and your technology. Her power will most certainly wax.

Well, two can play at that game. You honestly don't mind her power increasing, not if she wants to beat the BETA like you do; what troubles you is the notion that you will appear subordinate to her. Her enemies, of which you're sure exist, will become your enemies.

You lean forward, resting your fists knuckle-down on her desk.. “Let's tell them the truth and be done with it. UEF technology is far too advanced and diverse to be explained as the work of a single scientist, no matter how brilliant and beautiful you are. Any ruse you brew up will be too thin to hold up to scrutiny.”

Her reaction is stony faced silence; you can't tell what she's thinking, so you continue on with your thoughts. You can tell you'll need to offer her a carrot to secure her support. “Instead, I'll simply insist on having you as my liaison with the UN command structure while I acclimate to my new surroundings.”

One of her eyebrows goes up. You're sure she knows what you mean. You're sure she sees how she can use this arrangement to her advantage even more than she could you being under her. You can see it in her eyes. With her proposal, you'd be firmly in her camp. Her enemies wouldn't waste resources turning you against her, would move quickly to undermine her before she could exploit you for her benefit.

This way, there's more uncertainty. Her enemies won't be opposed to you on principle. Some of them will attempt to court you instead of striking her. Some will wait and see what you do, whether you can be swayed or whether you're her loyal dog. She will have more time, her enemies less resources to throw into opposing her directly if they spend them on you.

You, meanwhile, will still be free to pursue your own agenda while retaining access to some of her resources.

Granted this way she will have to prove herself worthy of your alliance. But you're sure she's up to the challenge.

“To be clear, because I'm still woozy and tired, I'm perfectly alright working alongside you. But, as I said, I'm not your pawn, and 'implying' I'm a result of your research is telling everyone else that I am… Which achieves much the same result, doesn't it?”

You give her a light smile. “Hell, if the UN really asks too many questions for you, join the UEF! We're always looking for good minds.”

Yuuko blinks once. She blinks twice. You see her tremble, struggling to contain some emotion.

You hope you haven't pissed her off here in the seat of her power.

Then she throws her head back and laughs, loudly and gregariously. She laughs so hard that tears come to her eyes, so hard that she goes red in the face.

You share a glance with Isumi, but she looks as confused as you are.

It takes her a few minutes to come down from her laughter. “Ah, thank you, Colonel. I needed that. It's been a long time since – well, nevermind. Your proposal is acceptable to me. The truth it is.”

You smile right along with her. Then, you stand and offer your hand. “I look forward to working with you, Doctor.”

She stands herself and takes it. “And I look forward to a long and fruitful collaboration as well.”

“Now then, I'm sure your exhausted. You'll find my adjutant at the elevator, she'll get you situated in temporary quarters. I would like to see you at eight tomorrow morning to discuss more about your universe and ours,” Yuuko releases your hand.

You thank her and take your leave. Isumi accompanies you to the elevator where you meet Yuuko's secretary. She's a tall blonde woman who introduces herself as Lieutenant Elena Piatif.

“So, Colonel,” Isumi says as the elevator begins its laborious climb upwards. “Before you mentioned an Infinite War. What is that?”

You look at her. How do you just describe the Infinite War? How do you explain it to someone who's never seen it? In your home universe, the war touched everything and every one. Even behind your lines, the culture was inexorably shaped by it. Just saying “oh, it was a thousand year war” means nothing. It's just words. Isumi won't understand what it actually means without having lived it.

Without having lived not understanding what peace even is as a concept. The notion that you don't have to send commanders to the front, don't have to keep one eye overhead in case you need to get to the shelters to survive a nuke or T3 bomber strike, don't have to repulse some new Aeon or Cybran thrust every hour of every day.

The idea that you might even be scared of peace because the war had gone on so long that it's all you know, and all your father knew, and all his father knew and so onwards and backwards...

Finally, you clear your throat. “It was a war my people fought against two other human groups. It lasted for one thousand years and consumed the entire galaxy. I fought in the tail end of it.”

Your words are sterile, hollow. Like what you'd find in a history book. You don't want to think more about the Infinite War. Because then you think about how you were, how desperate you were to end it. Then you think about what you did to end it.

“A thousand years,” Isumi's eyes widen. You can tell she's having difficulty with the concept. You don't blame her. “How did it end? You said it ended, how could something like that just stop?”

You turn away from her with a pained expression plastered all over your face. “I'd prefer not to discuss it.”

“I see.” Isumi nods. You realize there's not much more she can say.

The lieutenant's been completely silent, eyes fixed straight ahead as though she didn't hear you, but you're sure she did.

The three of you then return to the base proper. Isumi takes her leave here, heading off to debrief her unit. Lieutenant Piatif takes you down to the barracks. She explains that due to your unexpected arrival, the only free spaces they have at the moment are in the cadet's barracks.

She's very contrite about this, but you shrug it off. It's not a big deal. You've slept in worse.

She then points out the head and showers, before telling you that she delivered a small toiletries kit to your quarters along with a meal voucher for the base's post exchange.

Thanking her quickly, you send her off and head off to the showers after grabbing the kit.

After stripping off your battle armor and securing your weapon, you slip into the refreshingly warm stream of water.

It feels so wonderful to get all the sweat and grime off your body.

Granted the only soap you can find is a sweet smelling cherry blossom-strawberry mix obviously intended for women, but you're secure enough in your masculinity to make it work.

Next you set about shaving.

When you emerge from the shower, you feel revitalized, and ready to tackle the BETA and wrestle sharks. Possibly both at once.

You also run headfirst into a young brown haired and green eyed woman with glasses. She's knocked to the ground, but due to your greater body mass, you're able to remain upright, though your folded up battlesuit goes flying, or rather, clanging to the ground.

Fortunately for your modesty, you're able to save your towel.

The girl's looking up at you with a mix of surprise and indignation, a basket with her own soaps and such having scattered as she fell.

Wait, you remember her. She's one of the cadets from the battle. Saki, Suki, ah, Sakaki. That's what it was. Cadet leader Sakaki. The incompetent one who froze and let Shirogane make all the decisions.

“Who are you and what were you doing in our shower?” She demands, pointing at you and backing away in fright. “Answer me before I report you to the MPs!”

You cross your arms. “That's enough, Cadet. I'm here as the vice-commander's guest because you don't have anywhere else to sleep on such short notice. As for what I was doing... It should be obvious. I was taking a shower.”

She looks up at you and squints a bit. “Wait. I remember that voice. Y-you're-”

“Colonel Michael Steele, UEF 88th armored command, at your service.”

“Colonel?” Her eyes go wide. You can tell what she's thinking.

“Yes. Not part of your military so you don't have to salute.”

“Ah, er, sorry, sir. It's just when I saw a strange man in our bathrooms, I thought you were setting up cameras or something equally perverse.”

“Schoolgirls are not relevant to my interests,” You offer her a hand up.

“Class rep? We heard a noise, are you okay?” You see the boy, Shirogane, approach from down the hall with the rest of his squad in tow. “Wait, who's this and why's he in our barracks?”

Class rep? What? What's a Class rep? Why would classes have representatives? Is this some kind of translation error? Blue did say your translations might have errors. Though frankly, for what it is she's done exceptionally well.

“Colonel Michael Steele, UEF 88th armored command. We've already met.”

Their reactions are varied. Shirogane takes it in stride. The blue haired girl's eyes widen in surprise, but she says nothing. The black haired girl with the purple eyes, she just nods and says “Colonel.” The short blonde, Tamase you think you recall from your eavesdropping, she gasps and gives you a very jittery salute. The other boy of the squad, he just stands transfixed, trying to figure everything out.

“Boy,” You say to him. “On the battlefield freezing like that's a death sentence.”

“Boy?” Shirogane asks. “Ah, sir, Mikoto is a girl.”

What. You look closer. Well, you suppose you can see it. He – she does have soft features, but the lack of curves and, ah, womanly attributes threw you off.

“Right, sorry about the mixup, Cadet.” You apologize. It looks like Mikoto's almost on the verge of crying. “Totally my fault. I've been in combat for the past few days, I'm not noticing the things I usually do.”

Mikoto doesn't look happy, but at least her eyes stop watering so much.

“Why are you here, sir?” The blue haired girl asks. She wrinkles her nose. “Using our shower facilities?”

“Like I told cadet Sakaki, I'm here as the Vice-Commander's guest. I'm here specifically because there's no other place for me on such short notice,” You reply.

Certainly you could produce a hab complex or a hangar facility with attached barracks with your ACU, but you want to secure permission from Yuuko first before you build anything on her base. Besides, it'd feel awfully empty in those cold metal halls. At least this way you can see other human faces, even if you bump into them and have to explain yourself repeatedly.

“Where are you from?” Shirogane asks the question you're sure is on everyone's mind.

“I don't mind indulging your curiosity but can I at least get dressed, first?” You reply. “In fact, I need directions to the... PX, I think the lieutenant called it? The mess hall. I'll answer your questions on the way if you'll show me how to get there.”

“Bargain accepted,” The black haired girl nods.

What an odd thing to say.

Well, in any event it seems to have put the lid on their curiosity, enough that you can secure your kit and make it back to your room.

But honestly, power armor and a plasma gun will draw a lot of attention, and you're sure you'll have enough questions to deal with from the cadets and perhaps Isumi's team if they're there. You'd rather the entire base not swamp you with questions before you've had a good night's sleep.

So you check the room's closet, hoping there's something else to wear.

Ah, perfect. Unmarked exercise fatigues; blue cargo pants and a black tank top. Just what you need to blend in.

You set your combat gear down and activate the locator beacons in case it's stolen, then you step back into the hallway where the cadets are waiting.

“So where are you from?” Shirogane asks almost as soon as you've stepped from your room. He steps forward, gesturing down the hall. Presumably towards the PX.

“A little colony on the front called Seton,” You shrug, following him and the rest of the cadet squad. “Moved around a lot as a refugee when I was young. Eventually signed up with the army, got into West Point on Earth, graduated, and here I am.”

“Eh?” Shirogane asks. “West Point? Isn't that in America?”

“I have never heard of a 'Seton'” The blue haired girl adds. “And what do you mean, 'on Earth'? Isn't everything on Earth?”

You think. Eh, screw it, you already told Yuuko that you intended to tell the truth. There's no reason to lie or misdirect here. “I'm from an alternate future where we never had BETA.”

“What?!” Pretty much everyone gasps. Everyone except Shirogane. He's looking at you with an odd expression. Then again, he's already established that he doesn't freeze fast under pressure.

“You'd have to ask the vice-commander about the specific science of it,” You shrug. “I haven't studied that stuff for years and I only took that elective to get close to a cute girl so I wasn't giving the lecture my full attention. But suffice to say I ended up here. And now that I'm here, I'll definitely help against those filthy aliens.”

“You were impressive.” The black haired girl nods. “Back on the island.”

“I was lucky.” You shrug. “The aliens took the bait and walked right into my killzones. It could've been a lot more dicey than it was.”

“What's the future like, Colonel Sir?” Tamase asks.

That makes you frown. “Well, we just got through with a very long war. Nobody quite knows what to do now that it's over.”

You can only hope that Brackman, Hall, and Burke will be able to keep the peace.

The girl nods, seemingly satisfied with your answer.

“Ah, here's the PX,” Sakaki says, gesturing to a door. Looks like further questions will have to wait. Your stomach is starting to hijack your brain, and the scent of cooking food is starting to overpower your senses.

Inside, you see a large number of other soldiers in the process of grabbing dinner. Including Isumi and the other women who debarked from the TSFs when you arrived. Men, it seems, are in a distinct minority in this force. Just like the Aeon.

Isumi smiles and waves at you, beckoning you over to her team.

Well, you have a choice.

[]Stay with the Cadets for dinner. Their hunger for answers is probably not slaked yet.
-Pro: Get to know the Cadets better. Con: Not get to know Isumi's team better. Might provoke questions at your choice of companions.

[]Head over to Isumi and her team for dinner. They're probably curious too, and spending time with other officers and adults will probably feel more comfortable. The Cadets know where to find you if they want to talk more.
-Pro: Get to know Isumi's team better. Feel more comfortable back in officer country. Con: Not get to know the Cadets better.

[]Eat alone.
-Pro: ? Con: Lonely. May offend both teams.

[]There aren't many other options immediately obvious, but perhaps a superlative [write in] will emerge.
-Pro: SB's plans can be very good. Con: SB's plans can be very bad.

 

[X]Disregard cadets, acquire Valkyries.

You look back at the cadets. They're still curious, you can tell. You see the questions in their eyes.

But you have no real connection to them. They were bystanders to one of your fights, that's it. And you're an officer. It's poor morale for everyone involved for someone of your rank to be too familiar with mere cadets without good reason.

No, better to spend your time with people more on your level.

You consider asking the cadets if they want to join, but that's both very rude to the Captain, and would simply open you up to being mobbed with questions. Already you can see the dining soldiers casting glances your way.

So with a quick, terse “thank you for the directions”, you make your way over to Isumi.

From the way every one in her unit except her is looking at you, you wonder if you've done something wrong. They all seem shocked at something, whether it's your presence or something else, you can't say.

And yet she still has that smile on her face.

Observing her team getting their meals, you think you figure out how the base's food distribution system works. You actually have to give out the ticket as some kind of currency, like a mass unit except for food. It's an utterly bizarre concept, trading paper for food.

Still, you select some food that looks relatively appetizing and move to sit with Isumi's team.

“I'm glad you could join us, Colonel,” She says once you've chosen a seat.

“I'm not in the habit of turning down invitations from pretty women,” You give her a smile of your own.

“Oh? A flirt are you?” One of her teammates, this one with brown hair, rubs her chin. “Do I detect the scent of romance in the air?”

“No!” Isumi denies. “Of course not! Munakata, what is wrong with you? I invite the Colonel here so he has a friendly face to eat with and here you are extrapolating things!”

You chuckle. “You're probably smelling my shampoo. I simply love how pretty it makes me feel.”

Munakata leans forward, examining you. She's still rubbing her chin. “Hmm. I think you'll pass.”

“Oh?” You ask.

“When the captain beds you, do your best to satisfy her. She's quite insatiable, as befits our leader. Oh, and take pictures.”

By now, Isumi's gone completely red in the face. “Munakata, that is extremely unprofessional.”

“You told me to make him feel at home, Captain.”

“In the UEF at least, elite units tend to be a bit more informal off the field. Nice to see that's a multiversal constant,” You say. “They also tend to be a bit odd. Again, multiversal constant.”

Another girl clears her throat, this one with green hair. “Please don't mind Misae's teasing, sir. We're kind of like a family here in the 9th, and Misae teases everyone to keep their spirits up when we're off duty. It might not seem it, but she's being welcoming right now.”

“I'm also holding back in respect to the fact that you're the Captain's guest,” Munakata adds.

The green haired girl speaks up again. “Ah, I'm Second Lieutenant Touko Kazama. The woman with the long blue hair is Lieutenant Mitsuki Hayase, the one with short blue hair is 2nd Lieutenant Haruko Kashiwagi. The girl with the braid is Lieutenant Haruka Suzumiya, she's our CPO, while the one with the hairband is 2nd Lieutenant Akane Suzumiya.”

“Sisters?” You ask.

“Exactly,” Touko nods. “There's three other members of the team, but one was injured in our last operation and the other two are down with the flu, so they're all in the infirmary.”

“Right, well, it's good to meet you all,” You nod.

“Now that we've gotten all the formality out of the way,” Hayase begins. “You mind telling me who you are and where you came from? And toss in “what you want” too.”

Wow, she's aggressive.

“I'm a dimension traveler from the future here to destroy the BETA and save humanity,” You smile, knowing exactly how ridiculous your story sounds. “No joke.”

“Bullshit.”

You grin at her. “What's your explanation then?”

“You're...” She pauses. “...Err...”

“Some sort of secret American supercommando!” Akane steps in. “With a prototype mobile fortress!”

“Then how did I get onto a random island in the middle of nowhere?” You ask. “Seriously, I really am from an alternate future. I didn't arrive intentionally, but now that I'm here I will absolutely help against the aliens. I'll be working with Doctor Kouzuki in the coming days. Right, Captain?”

Isumi nods. “Yes. The Vice-Commander did not dispute his claims, no matter how outlandish they are.”

She pauses. “Though I suppose it helped that he had evidence.”

“Yes,” Touko nodded. “That display was amazing. I've never seen BETA die so quickly to so few units. I was honestly expecting you to be overrun.”

You shrug. “I went into it blind and made several mistaken assumptions about their forces. Still, it went well.”

Isumi taps her chin. “Yes. I remember, you felt the forts were heavy lasers and the heavy lasers were light lasers. Then you mentioned not being able to tackle such a unit without going to, 'T3', you said. What is that?”

Given how the BETA are apparently a worldwide threat, you doubt you'll be able to hide your capabilities for long, so you elect to tell Isumi the truth. “Each ACU, that's the blue unit I drove, has schematics for four levels of unit. You've got the first tier, tanks and mechs about the size and armament of your TSFs. I fought back the BETA advance with tier 2 units; those heavy tanks, the gatling mechs, fixed artillery and the like. But for most commanders, tiers 3 and 4 are where it's at. Each tier's a huge upgrade in capabilities; I would've upped to T3 in that battle but I didn't have the time and resources for it.”

“I see,” Isumi nods.

“And those units, they're all unmanned aren't they?” Hayase says.

You nod. “Yup, everything but the ACU itself and any subordinates attached to its command. Where I come from, war's all about the hardware.”

Hayase looks troubled at that.

“I love me some powerful hardware, but there's just something impersonal about killing with robots.”

You frown. She has a point; it's almost like a game sometimes. Only when there's real human lives at risk – when you're tracking down an enemy commander or defending civilians – does it feel differently. Still, war ultimately doesn't care about feelings or sentiment. It's all about the math. And in that, ACUs and their armies are simply better.

“Aren't the BETA like that?” You ask. “That's the feeling I got fighting them. Meat robots.”

Haruka nods. “That's one of the theories, given how little they care for self preservation.”

“Why are you helping us against the BETA?” Kashiwagi asks. “It's not your fight. I would've thought you'd try to get home.”

“Doctor Kouzuki thought that too. But I think you all understand why. I haven't heard your UN oath, but it sounds like it's similar to the UEF oath I swore,” You shrug. “Besides, that war was over. Now it's time to win the peace, and that's just not something I - something I'm good at.”

“But I've got a question,” You look at Isumi. “Why are you going to such trouble to welcome me? I appreciate it, but I know most units wouldn't welcome a strange foreign officer into their mess with open arms.”

Isumi glances away with a blush before she meets your eyes again. “That is... Earlier, I got the feeling that you've lost a lot of friends. Call it captain's intuition. We've all lost friends here, we all know how that feels.”

All the girls nod.

“Hmm. The captain's clearly approaching your seduction like a military campaign. As expected of our glorious leader,” Munakata says. “Well, I for one am ready to do my part to achieve victory in the name of the 9th! Captain, I'll let you borrow my conquest panties, the ones with the frilly black lace.”

Isumi closes her eyes and sighs. “Munakata... Please stop deliberately misunderstanding my intentions.”

She shakes her head and turns back to you. “Also I got the impression you'd be working with the vice-commander closely in the future, so that means we'll be working together closely too. The 9th is her right arm. Whenever she needs something smashed-”

“-Or grabbed.” Akane adds.

“-Or smashed and grabbed.” Hayase adds.

“-We're there. So I wanted to make you feel comfortable with us.” Isumi finishes.

“Well, I appreciate the sentiment.”

The rest of dinner passes relatively uneventfully; you and the members of the 9th generally make small talk, discussing all sorts of inconsequential topics.

It seems everyone else is too scared of this unit to harass you for details – several times you see an individual work up the nerve and start to get close before veering off at the last minute.

And that suits you just fine.

The food itself is... You're rather amazed at how bad it is. Field rations taste better, and UEF field rations are notorious for being so bland as to be almost inedible.

Once dinner is over, you thank Isumi and her team for the pleasure of their company, then you make your way back to your quarters.

Your gear's just where you left it, everything untouched.

You pretty much just flop into bed. What you've experienced these past few days takes its toll; you're out within seconds and if you have any dreams, you don't remember what they are by the time you wake at dawn the next day.

Yuuko requested your presence, didn't she?

You don your battlesuit and clamp the carbine to its maglock mount. Not because you expect to need it, but because if you're going to debrief with Yuuko, you'll want to look the part of a UEF commander.

Lieutenant Piatif is there to greet you at the elevator and use her access card to get you into the lab. “Doctor Kouzuki is expecting you.”

The sound of the elevator door shutting behind you is very loud, almost final.

You step defiantly into Yuuko's inner sanctum even so.

“Well,” She greets you. “Are you ready to explain more about the world you come from?”

“Did you get any of those annoying calls you expected?” You ask.

“Dealt with. I imagine that in a week's time my base will be inundated with more spies than I can effectively screen, but I did tell certain interested parties the truth, and said you would be willing to meet with them. But enough about that, tell me about your universe.”

You do so, making sure to keep certain elements – like Black Sun – out of the retelling.

When it's over, she leans back, eyes distant and lost in thought. “I imagine I'd like this Brackman.”

“Probably. He's the smartest man in the galaxy,” You reply. “A bit old for you though. And I don't think he's up to performing in the bedroom these days...”

"Probably not if he's little more than a brain," She chuckles a bit. “The idea of integrating the AI hardware into the brain directly is intriguing though... But how would you deal with the waste heat from the hardware? And how could you fit enough semiconductors into such a small space to make a meaningful contribution to the brain's natural capabilities?”

“I'm sorry, Doctor,” You shake your head. “I'm not an expert on symbionts or their tech. I suspect, and this is just an educated guess, that it's not semiconductor based. It's probably a small quantum computing rig.”

“Quantum computer?” Her eyes go wide. “Tell me more.”

“Well, most everyone used quantum computers for most high end computing tasks where I'm from. Blue – ah, my ACU – has one. Most UEF research lab designs have one. If you'd like, I can build a lab on the base and show you.”

She gives you what's possibly the first genuine smile you've seen from her. “I'd like that.”

[](Science!) “Let's do it now. Right now.”
-Pro: Start Science(!) vote for a research project. Yuuko will undoubtedly be pleased. -Con: Research projects take time, time you can't spend doing other things.

[]”It's a date.”
-Pro: Doesn't alienate Yuuko while allowing you to put it off. Con: You're making a promise she'll expect you to keep at some point in the future.

[]“Not yet. When you've come through with your end of our bargain, then you get to play with my toys.”
-Pro: Put the onus for this on Yuuko, encouraging her to hurry up with those liaisons, in theory. Con: Yuuko will probably be disappointed she doesn't get to examine your technology immediately.

 

[X]Operation Blinding her with Science is Go.
-[X]Project: UEF Compsci analysis.

Looking at Yuuko, just seeing that smile, it feels good. The smiles you've seen before out of her, they're not fake per se, but they aren't totally genuine either. She's always keeping something back, always looking as though she's having some sort of joke at your, and everyone else's, expense.

This is different. It's like for one brief moment, you see the woman beneath the facade.

You decide you want to see that smile more. So you say something outrageous.

“Then let's do it now. Right now.”

It's ridiculous. Common sense says you should hold back, that these people who you've just met are not to be trusted, that they're allies of convenience until they prove themselves. You should dole out only what technology you absolutely must, leveraging it to force mankind under one banner.

But someone has to be the first one to offer their hand in friendship. And that smile, the fact that she's still capable of something like that says that maybe, just maybe, this isn't a horrible mistake.

Or maybe she's just such a good actor that she can play you like a fiddle, a drum set, and a Stradivarius all at once.

She's looking at you though, eyes wide. “Now?”

She blinks, then her normal predatory smile returns. “Certainly. Sounds like fun.”

You give her a smile of your own, refusing to be intimidated. “Sure. Just give me permission to build a base here. After all, I'll need resources to build a science lab, won't I?”

Her eyes take on a calculating glint; you can see the gears turning. “And give you the chance to attack my base from within?”

“Just as I'm giving you the chance to attack mine. Besides, after coming here, alone, into the seat of your power, I think I've earned a little reciprocity; you could've always thought my threat about the bomb was a ruse. Don't you think so?”

She gives you another of those cruel half-smirk smiles. “I suppose you could have caused a considerable amount of damage if you wished it either way.”

“If I wished it. But why would I wish it when you've promised to be my middlewoman with the rest of the UN? At least for the moment we're allies. Our goals coincide – we both want the aliens gone. Cooperation flows naturally from that.”

Her face takes on a wistful expression. “The idea that everyone would simply relinquish their old grudges in the face of a new threat... I think it fantastic in the literal sense of the word. That more than anything makes me question your story. How could your people reconcile after a thousand years of war?”

You shrug. “Maybe it's because of that. After so long, maybe everyone's so tired they want to give it a chance. But it has to start somewhere here, so let's start with just the two of us. I gave you a little trust, now give me a little trust. Not much; I'm not asking you to spill all your secrets, just that you trust that right now in this spot of time, this stranger doesn't mean you harm.”

She looks at you. You get the feeling she's weighing you. “I'll speak to General Radhabinod. I don't expect any objections if I use the right track. Though I imagine he will be rather insistent on meeting you. Perhaps he'll be the first contact I broker for you, Spaceman.”

“Spaceman?” You ask.

She waves her hand nonchalantly. “I find excessive formality stifling. Calling you 'Colonel' all the time grates at me. Since we're not on a first name basis, I need something to call you. You're a man from space. Hence, Spaceman. Try to keep up.”

“No, I understand your logic. It just feels strange. I'm used to being called Colonel. Only one other person really called me anything else, and only off the field at that.”

She raises an eyebrow. “And was this other person a woman? Did she matter to you? I'm surprised you flirt so casually if that's the case.”

“Our relationship was complex,” You mutter. “It's also personal and none of your business... Doc...Tor.”

“Hmm?”

“Nah, just Doc doesn't sound good. I'll keep calling you Doctor,” You smirk at her. “Or would you prefer I call you something else? Well, since you called me by a personal attribute, maybe I should call you... Uh... Earthwoman?”

“Hm, eight for the effort, two for the boyish execution. Still, at least you're trying to reach my level.”

“Not every shot's a bullseye,” You shrug. “I'm a bit out of practice at verbal fencing. Robots, aliens, and the fanatics who worship them don't make for good sharpeners of wit.”

“You'll simply have to step up your game.”

“Too true,” You nod. “Now, about the base?”

Yuuko steps up, walking over to her desk. After digging through the sea of papers, she finds a red... device which she holds to her ear. Is that some kind of communicator? “Yes, this is the Vice-Commander. Get me the General, it's important... Yes, General. I need permission for our guest to build some facilities near the base. Yes. Yes, they are important to Alternative IV's progress.”

Alternative four?

She looks at you. “No, I do not believe they are a threat at this time. Yes, thank you, General.”

You give her a smile as she places the communicator back on its holder.

The two of you then return to the surface. You climb back into Blue and power her up while Yuuko remains in Yokohama Base itself.

And then, you start to build. It feels like with every step your ACU takes, more onlookers come to watch, roused by the sounds and vibrations you're making so early in the morning. Within a matter of minutes, the base you've constructed rivals Yokohama itself as far as sheer size goes; but while Yokohama builds out, your base builds up, the spires of hundred meter tall unit factories scraping the skies. Mass pumps drill deep, liquifying and slurping up mass. T2 power generators hum and throb softly.

You don't produce any units, nor turrets. Simply giving you permission for this base is enough, you don't want to try Yuuko or her superior's limits further just yet.

Instead, you select an out of the way location and build your research lab there.

During the dark days of the Seraphim war, it looked like humanity would find itself totally extinguished. So every ACU received an upload, a colonization package designed to rebuild humanity if even a single commander could hide. You draw upon that data, putting up a large and multidisciplinary UEF lab complex.

Then, your task complete, you set your base to standby and power down Blue.

The sea of faces surrounding you look shocked and amazed and generally unsure what's going on.

But they all part like the sea when you approach. Yuuko steps forward confidently, daring any of her subordinates to question her.

None dare.

You lead her deeper into your lab, towards the computer research division.

Along the way, you take surreptitious glances at your guest. You can tell she's trying hard not to be awed by everything she sees. It's a losing battle though.

Especially when you sit her down at one of the lab benches and start showing her how to actually access the computers. Whether she's just that smart or UEF computers are just that intuitive, she's able to pick up the basics incredibly quickly, even if she can't actually read any of the words since galactic basic apparently isn't something she groks.

You fix that fast, punching in the autotranslate commands.

Then, you start explaining everything you know. It's not as much as you'd like – you're no Cybran, and you're no computer researcher. But every commander has to know at least a little about how his units run 'under the hood'.

<Twenty minutes later>

“So yeah. That's the underlying theory behind how quantum computers work. Honestly, the math here is beyond me so you're on your own with that part.”

She very hastily pockets the math formula she printed out, but not before clutching it to her chest protectively with a soft smile on her face.

<Forty minutes later>

Yuuko apparently had her brain surgically replaced with some kind of sponge at some point in her life, because she's able to absorb all this distressingly quickly. You run out of ready answers very fast, forcing you to delve into the facility's database you downloaded from Blue during construction just to keep up.

It is nice being so close to a woman though. Even just rubbing shoulders and crowding together with her as you both peer at the holoscreen displaying the next lesson feels pleasant, the feel of her breath on your cheek and tickling your hair intoxicating.

Yes, it really has been too long since you've been close to another living human being. And this reminds you of your days back in the academy, too, those times you partnered up with a pretty girl to learn some new topic. No teachers, just independent study with aid of a database.

Her though, you notice her wrinkle her nose and turn to you. “Why do you smell like flowers?”

“Because cherry blossoms and strawberries are the manliest of scents,” You reply. “So mixing them is doubly manly.”

She blinks at you. “I will simply assume this is a cultural difference.”

“Yet another example of the superiority of UEF culture,” You nod sagely.

She looks at you. “You're teasing me, aren't you?”

You give her your most innocent smile. “Of course not, why would I do that?”

“Why indeed,” She smiles before returning to her work.

Damn, why do you feel like you just got flanked?

Soon, though, she's absorbed in learning.

“But how do you deal with the inherent fragility of the quantum matrix-”

<Two hours later...>

“Why is the matrix in that configuration? Wouldn't the excess heat generated from the processing cook the brain without some sort of alternative cooling system-”

<Four hours, some sandwiches, and one bathroom break later...>

You're starting to have flashbacks to Pearl II. Yuuko is absolutely relentless, worse than QAI at its meanest. She's outpaced you and now you're having to struggle to keep up.

“This Brackman is a genius. Maybe even to my level-”

But struggle you do. Perhaps it's ego or something else, but you don't want to lose to this woman. Not when the pride of the UEF is at stake! As the sole representative of the UEF here, you refuse to let some woman from the distant past outpace you with your own technology!

<One day and two quick returns to Blue to cycle the lojack system later...>

“I don't even need fifteen billion semiconductors if I-”

“Easy there, girl. The Empire wasn't built in a day,” You gently grab her shoulder. Somehow, she looks both energetic and tired all at once. She's got rings under her eyes, and yet there's a sort of excitement to her movements. Her hair's frayed and unbrushed, but still she's insisting on continuing even though she hasn't slept for a day. The notes she's taken have piled up; were it not for the lab's protocrafter, you would have despaired at how many innocent trees met their end to feed her insatiable thirst for notebooks.

“I'm so close. So close...” She looks at you. Her eyes, they're big and watery and bloodshot. She grabs your collar, pulling you close to her face. “I can feel it. It's right on the tip of my tongue. Just a little more time.”

This, whatever it is, must be really important to her.

<Two hours later...>

Yuuko is laughing.

It's not a pleasant laugh.

“Why do I feel a chill whenever you laugh like that?”

“My theories, they were so wrong and right at the same time! Two plus two doesn't have to equal four every time, and then-”

“So you're happy?” You ask.

“Am I happy,” She mutters. “He wants to know if I'm happy.”

She throws her arms around you and pulls you in close. She smells faintly of lavender.

You feel a set of very soft lips on your cheek.

She pulls back. “That's your reward for helping me solve a very bothersome problem.”

You raise an eyebrow at her. “I hope you're not expecting me to swoon like some love struck boy, Doctor.”

She smiles. “It is the polite thing to do when a woman shows a gesture of affection in my culture.”

“Is it now?”

“It is,” She nods. “Just as strawberries are a manly scent in your culture.”

You frown. “One of these days I'll outmaneuver you, Doctor. Some day you'll slip up and then, victory will be mine.”

“Perhaps,” She nods, giving you a challenging smile. “Nobody's perfect. Not even me. ”

“False modesty doesn't suit you.”

She stands. “You've done me a great favor here, greater than you know. I think it's time I fulfilled my end of our bargain. Come with me.”

Then she looks around, as if trying to get her bearings.

You give her a smirk. “You've forgotten how to get out, haven't you? I understand, it's a big lab. Not even a genius could be expected to remember her way around the first time she's there.”

Your smirk explodes into a full blown grin. “Fortunately I know my way around these labs very well. They're all based on a single template, you see.”

“Excellent. Then I'll let you carry the notes,” She replies.

You glance at the mounds and mounds of notes she's taken over the past day and a half.

“No, I don't think so,” You shoot back. “This is an equal alliance. I'll carry half, and you'll carry half. That's fair, isn't it? More than fair, really, considering they're all your notes.”

“And yet you are considerably larger and stronger than I am,” She leans forward, tapping your chestpiece. “And you're still wearing that armor. It enhances your strength, doesn't it? Obviously what's fair is for you to carry them. You'll need me to use my keycard at the elevator down to my lab.”

You give her a half hearted glare. She does have a point. Strictly speaking you're probably much stronger than she is.

But there's so many papers.

“I'll tell you what. Carry as many as you can and I'll carry the rest,” You look at her. “I'm not going to have you not pulling your own weight in this partnership.”

She chuckles and gathers up an armful of notebooks. “Very well.”

You sigh. What was it that cadet said? Bargain accepted? Yeah, that.

You gather up your own much larger pile of notebooks and fab up a nice easily carried box to store it all in. Yuuko can sort through it later, on her own time.

With that, you leave the lab, then the entire science facility. You pass the platoon of guards who'd camped out right outside the building's blast doors.

You realize you must look quite a sight, the mysterious visitor and the doctor both carrying huge reams of papers with strange, arcane writings on them after leaving the equally strange and arcane building.

Certainly all the soldiers you see passing in the halls stop to stare. Doctor Yuuko Kouzuki, looking at once pleased and exhausted, walking side by side with you and carrying dozens or even hundreds of thick notebooks.

You decide that next time you do this, you're giving her a digital tablet and teaching her to use it regardless of how “nice the sensation of pen on paper is.”

As you ride the elevator down to her lab, a question occurs to you. “Hey, Doctor?”

“Hmm?”

“Why were you so happy about this? What did I just help you do?”

“Why, this was our first date of course! That's why I'm so happy,” You can tell she's toying with you again.

“Somehow I don't believe you. Seriously, I saw you there, I saw the look in your eyes. This mattered to you. Maybe it was the big thing that mattered to you,” You reply.

“And if it did? Are you regretting our time together now? What a horrible thing to say to a woman.”

“If you're going to play games, Doctor, let's play a fun one,” You reply. “I'll guess and you tell me how close I am. You were very interested in the quantum computing equations. So you need a large amount of processing power for something. You were interested in the symbiont program and not in larger quantum mainframes, so you're looking for a quantum comp that fits within a human form factor. You have a brain floating in your lab, a live one, and I doubt it's just there for ambiance. The symbiont data helps with that too. You're probably not producing your own symbionts though, because you would've tried to see if I can make symbiont hardware but you didn't, So...”

You pause. “You're making an android for some reason. The brain's an example of human neural configurations to copy. Yeah, that's all I've got.”

She chuckles softly. “This is why I keep you around, Spaceman. Your wonderful, delicious mind.”

“How close was I?” You ask.

“Oh, a little right and a little wrong.”

“That's all I'm going to get, isn't it?” You ask.

“Yes. Though maybe if you're a good boy, I'll let you in on some secrets.”

“And maybe if you're a good girl I'll let you take a look at some of my other toys.”

“Oh, I already have all I want from you.”

“Do you now?” You cock an eyebrow at her. “Somehow I doubt that. No scientist can resist so much knowledge just dangling in front of her. Even if I did give you enough information to achieve whatever it is you want, I don't think you've had enough. Not nearly.”

“You win this round, Spaceman, but the war is far from over,” She replies. “Ah, we're here. Just leave the notes over there somewhere. I'll get to them later.”

She leads you back to her desk and gestures for you to take a seat.

“Right. Liaisons. First I should give you an overview of the political situation.”

“Go ahead,” You nod.

“Right now, there's a few major powers in the world. There's the European Union, the Americans, the United Nations, the African Union, the Soviets, COSEAN, and the Japanese. There's also South America, but they don't have much power. They're all jockeying for power and influence and trying to defend against the BETA. I'm with the UN, and we generally represent all of Earth, with most nations providing weapons and funds to us to coordinate the global war effort against the aliens.” She looks at you. “You follow so far?”

“Yes.”

“Well, I received calls from just about all of them last night, all of them very interested in what I had to say about you,” She continues. “Though, frankly, most of them thought I'd finally lost my mind when I told them. Showing them the battle recordings from Isumi's team was enough to, at least get them to pause and think. I think that, should I contact them, I could arrange a meeting on your behalf. None of them know quite what to make of you yet, so now's a good time.”

You nod. “Okay. I plan to meet with all of them, but who do you think I should meet first?”

She pauses. “Well, the Americans are the most powerful, militarily and economically. The EU is mainly on its last legs, so they're desperate for anything that can turn the tide. Japan is close and you'll probably have to meet with them soon anyway. My superiors in the UN are interested in meeting you as well, though they seem to have assumed that since I'm representing you, you're already sympathetic to their goals. The Russians are dangerous, but... Then again, everyone is dangerous.”

She shakes her head. “Of everyone vying to meet with you, I think the first one should be either the Americans, the EU, or Japan. The UN council seems more interested in asking me about you than in meeting you themselves right now. I suppose technically you're already meeting the UN right now.”

You nod. “Okay. Then...”

[]Set up a meeting with the Americans.
-Pro: America is the strongest nation. Con: America is the strongest nation.

[]Set up a meeting with the EU.
-Pro: The EU is desperate, may be easier to sway. Con: The EU is depleted from fighting BETA.

[]Set up a meeting with the Japanese
-Pro: The Japanese are immediately accessible. Con: Not as powerful as the other organizations.

[]Set up a meeting with someone else (specify).
-Pro: An unexpected political choice. Con: An unexpected political choice.

[]Attempt to set up a summit with all of them at once. “Humanity doesn't have time for petty political games. We must unite or we will die.”
-Pro: Unprecedented. Speak to everyone at once. Steele is an unknown quantity. Con: Might not agree; Steele is an unknown and unproven quantity.
[]“I feel I need solid proof of my abilities before I meet with these groups. You said humanity can't destroy established hives, right? Let me have every scrap of info you have on BETA hives.”
-Pro: Ballsy. Can strike immediately. If successful, you will be making an incredibly powerful statement. Con: Risky.

[]Something else entirely. [Write-in]
-Pro: SB's plans can be very good. Con: SB's plans can be very bad.


Research results:
Yuuko has acquired competency: UEF Computer Science (Uneducated → Middling)
Yuuko has acquired: Quantum computing proof equations.
Steele has increased his competency: UEF Computer Science (Basic → Middling)
Time taken: 2 days, including all necessary downtime.

 

[X]Meet with those Europeans. Fuck that, you're going to wow them.

You frown. There's so many options. A large part of you yearns to take the fight to the BETA. From everything Yuuko's told you, humanity needs a symbol. A piece of hope, something to carry with them and tell them that no, mankind is not on its way to extinction.

For the UEF, Black Sun was this hope. Your hope, meanwhile, would be considerably less self-destructive. Hopefully.

Destroying a hive – something Yuuko tells you is just this side of impossible, would do this.

That would be a powerful symbol. An undeniable one. It would instantly give your words credence in the highest echelons of power.

It's exactly what you need. Go big or go home, as the old saying goes.

“Yuuko, I have a plan and I need your help.”

“Oh?”

“First, I need you to call up any data you have on BETA hives. Their layouts, their expected forces, any surprises you know of...” You smile.

Yuuko's eyes widen. Even exhausted, she can see where you're going with this. “Destroying a hive isn't like wiping out a herd from a prepared position. I'll compile a briefing for you, but I'll be honest, nothing you've displayed thus far will be enough to tackle a hive.”

“Doctor,” You chuckle. “You've seen toys. Trust me, what I do for this will blow your mind.”

Yuuko nods slowly. “I certainly hope so. Because that's what it will take to destroy an established BETA hive.”

“Once I've been briefed on hives, I'd like you to arrange for contacts from the EU to be present for a... Let's call it a demonstration. Make sure they are. It's open to whoever you feel should attend, but I'd absolutely like the EU to be represented.”

“Why the EU?” She asks.

“Because I asked you to,” You smile at her. “Just now in fact.”

“Humor me,” She replies. “I want to make sure you've considered this from every angle.”

You shrug. “From what you've told me, and from the hive map you showed me yesterday, the EU is in extremely dire straits. Rationally, they should be the most receptive to my overtures.”

“And yet somehow I get the feeling that's not your main reason,” Yuuko replies. “As I just said the EU is on its last legs. They don't have much to offer you.”

You sigh. “The east was hit first; there would have been less survivors turned refugees due to surprise, enemy momentum, and simple time. Europe had years to watch the battle lines shift. I'm certain they evacuated as many people as possible. Probably a lot of them went to England, given how it was the only place in Europe not marked in BETA red. But England is an island nation like Japan. If you people don't have protocrafters, how are those people being fed and housed? Not easily, I'm guessing. I'd like to make inroads to the EU in order to rectify this issue without complication.”

“You're too soft, Spaceman,” Yuuko shakes her head sadly. “But I don't know how that's possible considering you fought in a war like the one you described to me. You should be very familiar with hard choices. The fact of the matter is that you can save more people if you make overtures to a more powerful nation. The refugees' suffering is terrible, truly, but you can save more by focusing on the big picture instead of courting the weakest nation out of some childish desire to save the meek and helpless.”

You look at her. For one brief moment, you can't help yourself. You feel your emotions well up and slip past your mask, the one you use to keep your comrades and superiors convinced that everything's alright. “Sometimes when you focus on the big picture, you forget the little picture's even there.”

Yuuko's eyes widen. You watch a series of emotions flash across her face, so fast you can't even identify them before they're gone.

But then she settles down. Her eyes, they narrow. “Such naivety. I didn't expect this from you.”

You shut your eyes and sigh. “Nor did I expect such callousness from you.”

She frowns. “I will do as you ask and arrange a meeting with the European Union. They won't be able to get someone here before tomorrow, so we both have some time to rest. Though I should warn you, the EU and I do not see things eye to eye. They dislike my project while proposing no solutions of their own. Your association with me may be... Problematic. But that's something you'll have to deal with on your own if it comes up. I'd suggest downplaying our association. But if there's nothing else, I have things to do. Meet me tomorrow for the hive data.”

You nod stiffly. “Thank you.”

But you leave troubled.

As you turn to leave the room, though, a thought occurs to you. “Yuuko... What happened to you to make you like this?”

“What happened to make you like this?” Yuuko counters.

You sigh and shake your head, heading back to the elevator.

That night, you take sedatives specifically to avoid dreaming.

It doesn't work.

Your mind drags you back to X-Day. You remember it well; you can't forget it no matter what you do.

It's seared into your mind with the force of a million Seraphim q-bombs.

General Clarke found you drunk in your quarters. She hit you with the detox syringe herself then shoved you, armor and all, into the shower to get cleaned up.

Then she marched you straight to your ACU.

Because you were the victory parade's star attraction, so by God you were going to do your duty and perform like a prize poodle even if Clarke had to drag you into it herself. Clarke was the kind of woman who didn't take no for an answer.

'I'm too drunk' and 'I'm a war criminal who doesn't deserve a parade like this' both counted as 'no' in her lexicon.

Faced with such fury, even you found yourself bending. You led the parade just as she demanded.

And then, of course, the Seraphim hit.

You wake up at three AM, your bed soaked in cool sweat. You try to fall asleep for two more hours but X-Day lingers in your mind and sleep eludes you.

So at five AM, you get dressed in the casual clothes you wore to dinner and make your way to the base's track field purely in hopes of burning off some of that memory with good hard exercise.

But when you arrive, you find you're not the only one there.

The blue haired cadet is too, the competent one who recovered almost as fast as Shirogane to the shocks you put her though. She's doing warm up exercises and doesn't seem to have noticed your approach.

You give her a nod as you start going through your own stretches. “Cadet.”

She gives you a nod of her own. “Sir.”

“No need to call me sir. I'm not a member of your military. Just Colonel is fine.”

“Very well, Colonel,” She nods. “You're here early.”

“So are you. I couldn't sleep, what about you?”

“This is part of my daily routine. A strong body is a vigorous mind,” She replies.

You chuckle. “Yeah. Someone important to me once told me pretty much the same thing. She was always up at the crack of dawn doing her katas no matter what. Still, you must be dedicated to be up so early to run.”

“I have a goal to strive for,” She shrugs, finishing her stretching. She moves up to position on the track. “I must become stronger to protect what's important to me.”

“An admirable goal,” You nod, moving to your own position. “Just remember not to focus overmuch on just one kind of strength. Stone's hard, but you can still break it with a hammer.”

She looks at you. “There is wisdom in your words.”

The two of you then do several dozen laps at your own paces. To your surprise, she's almost able to keep up with yours, though she is sweating and breathing harder than you are by the time you're done.

She wipes her face with a towel. “If I might ask you a question, Colonel...”

“Go ahead,” You nod.

“You move like someone bearing a great burden,” She says. “What are you fighting for, that you'd take on such a weight?”

“That's the million mass question,” You sigh. “There's not just one thing I fight for.”

Seeing the unsatisfied look on her face, you add “I suppose the thing I fight for the most is humanity. Other people, just as a general concept. But sometimes it's hard.”

“In what way?” She asks.

“Because you can't connect to something as big as 'all humankind' on an emotional level. It's just too big. It doesn't provide the same kind of fire as fighting for someone precious to you in particular.”

She nods. “I... Have encountered similar difficulties. The nation of Japan and its people are important to me... But sometimes I almost feel as though they are faceless, that I am protecting an idea instead of a people.”

“Yeah,” You shrug. “People are hardwired to care more about the people they know instead of the faceless masses.”

You pause. “One of my comrades, Alina, had a suggestion for that. In the wider sense she was fighting for her people and her religion and all mankind. But when it came down to it, she chose to fight for a single person. Someone she loved with all her heart. It kept her going even when the war was bleak and hope was missing in action.”

“You?” She asks.

You give her a snort. “Her Princess. See, Alina was the Princess' champion, her representative on the field of battle. Alina might have cared about me, but I think her lady was the one she loved above everyone else.”

“There is wisdom in this woman's words as well,” The cadet nods. “I thank you, Colonel, for sharing these insights with me.”

You smile. “Thanks for keeping me company and listening to my rambling, Cadet.”

You head back and take a shower, don your battlesuit, then proceed to head to your meeting with Yuuko.

What she said yesterday is still bothering you. Just what has she seen, that she'd outright dismiss humanitarian concerns out of hand? Certainly she had a logical point in one way, but it was almost like she didn't even care about those people.

So it's with an awkward silence that you begin your meeting with Yuuko.

You take some small consolation in the fact that Yuuko apparently feels as awkward as you do, given that she doesn't open the talks either.

You both sit there staring at each other, daring each other to make the first move.

You break the stalemate first. “You look better now. That beauty rest must have done you wonders.”

Yuuko's face remains neutral. “Before bed last night, I contacted the European Union. It cost me some favors, but I was able to get them to send a contact with expediency. He or She should be here in two days. I also contacted the Japanese government. They should be sending a... Representative, shall we say. I've also secured permission for you to build a 'temporary staging facility' in Niigata from the Prime Minister. He doesn't actually understand what that means in your context, but it should give you enough room to avoid stepping on toes.”

“Niigata?”

“The closest land point to the BETA hive at Sadogashima,” Yuuko replies. “The look in your eyes yesterday was very clear. You intend to strike a BETA hive as a show of force.”

“I see,” You nod. “Truly you're even more competent than I thought, Yuuko.”

“Flattery won't win me over,” Though the faint blush that colors her cheeks implies otherwise.

“Anyway, did you compile the hive data?” You ask.

“Yes,” She gestures over to her projector and taps some keys on her computer console. You see a general computer representation of a hive. Certainly, it looks like nothing humans would build. “As far as we can tell, hives go through at least nine stages of growth after landing. Each stage gets progressively larger, and at stage 5 and above, they gain the ability to launch unknown items at subluminal speeds out of the solar system. The largest hive on Earth is the original hive in Kashgar, at stage 6.”

The image changes. Now you're seeing combat footage. “The Russians were once able to penetrate a hive. The data they brought back was incredibly useful in future offensive planning operations, but of the battalions sent in, less than twenty troops, all TSF pilots, made it out.”

“It's as though the aliens are lining the walls and the floors,” You mutter.

“Yes,” Yuuko nods. “The walls of the hive also tend to absorb radio and radar waves and make detecting targets hard. There's a reason we haven't ever taken a hive before, Spaceman.”

You give her a grin. “This? This will be like Tuesday for me.”

“I can only hope your confidence is rooted in reality,” She shakes her head. “The only upside is that laser classes will generally not fire within the confines of a hive due to the risk of damaging it or hitting other BETA. Not that it matters due to the fact that terrain favors melee BETA combat styles.”

“Those aliens won't know what hit them, Yuuko. I promise you that.”

She nods. “A word of caution, though. I would very strongly recommend against hitting the hive with strategic weaponry of any sort. Each hive has a number of g-elements in its chambers, and these will not react well to large amounts of heat or pressure. Smaller weapons – low kiloton level at the most – should be doable, but even those should not be used in the presence of the reactor itself. If you possess any other weapons on the level of your ACU's antitheft device, leave them at home.”

“G-elements?” You ask.

“Exotic elements not native to Earth, which the BETA produce in their hive reactors. They range from things like room temperature superconductors to things that outright break the laws of physics as we know them, like the one with negative mass,” Yuuko replies.

“Negative mass?” You frown. “Oh. Oh! I think you're talking about superelements. We use the difficult to replicate ones in ACU construction, and some of easily produced ones, like the superconductor, in almost everything else. So you're saying BETA bases have the rare supers? Well that's good to know. Why spend years making my own when I can just crack open this hive and profit off the aliens' hard work?”

Yuuko's eyes widen. “You mean you can produce g-elements? In seconds with your magic alchemy machine?”

“Some of them,” You nod. “The really exotic ones need a lab and a lot of time, but yes. The superconductor one, for example, is used in all UEF shields and energy weapons.”

She takes a breath. “I... See.”

Then she reaches into her desk and hands you a thick folder. “Here's all the hive data we have. Study it at your leisure. Now if you'll excuse me, I am a busy woman.”

“Before I go, Doctor, are you angry with me?” You ask.

She gives you a smirk. “Less angry, more... Reevaulating. It'd be very impressive if you could pull this off, though. I am looking forward to seeing how you perform.”

You smile. “I'll bet you are.”

You take your leave, then. So you have two days before your audience has assembled. And on top of that, Yuuko came through and got permission to build a forward base without you even having to ask. She's truly an intelligent woman.

You don't need two whole days to build; you'll run up against your ACU's unit cap in a matter of hours, not days.

[]Spend one day on research with Yuuko, one day on production at Niigata.
-Pro: Can further optimize your forces to deal with BETA. More time spent with someone you enjoy spending time with. Con: Just one day on research.

[]Spend one day on production and one day preparing yourself for the battle emotionally.
-Pro: Will be more well rested. Con: No research will be possible.

Either way you will study the hive data in detail. This choice merely decides what research you'll do, if any, and who you'll spend your time with.

Also, select your initial strategy for this battle:

[]Steel Sea: Build several hundred fatboys supported by naval units and stage a multipronged amphibious invasion.
-Pro: Fatboys are amongst the most powerful weapons in your arsenal. Con: Vulnerable in its early stages.

[]A Summit of Summits: Focus your initial thrust on mass T3 naval units to clear the surface of BETA, then deploy fatboys and other units to secure a beachhead.
-Pro: BETA generally lack anti-naval units; only fort and laser classes will be able to retaliate against your ships. Con: Vulnerable to laser interception/Neptune plasma beams will find themselves troubled by terrain.

[]Our Broadswords Shall Blot Out The Sun: Pump your efforts into mass producing T3 air units and overwhelming the aliens with sheer numbers.
-Pro: If it works your broadswords will be able to efficiently clear the heavy lasers, allowing you to sweep the entire island's surface of aliens. Con: Laser effectiveness vs T3 units untested.

[]Something Else Entirely [Write in]
-Pro: SB's plans can be very good. Con: SB's plans can be very bad.

 

[X]Let us Do Science Together
-Laser Analysis
[X]Operation: Steel Sea

You see several options available to you for this coming battle. Right now, you're in a very, very rare position for an ACU pilot. You have days to build up the biggest, killiest force you have.

You have days to build a force that will impress your guests – and Yuuko – the most.

And you do want to impress Yuuko.

You know you could try everything from a mass naval push to the largest swarm of air units in the world, to artillery bombardment from Mavors, but you decide that the most viscerally impressive attack you could make is also one of the most effective.

The Steel Sea, an endless parade of fatboys; a mobile city of steel, rolling forward and crushing the filthy aliens beneath their treads of power.

You run some quick mental math; you'll have enough time to get the force you want within one day, not two, leaving today free.

So you decide to spend it in the most productive fashion possible. You turn right around and head back down to Yuuko's lab. Not only will optimizing your forces against BETA help the coming battle, you enjoy your verbal sparring matches with the good doctor. Given how unsettled you woke today, you figure spending time with a beautiful woman is the best therapy.

There's just one problem. Yuuko's elevator. You have no way of opening it. That hateful steel slab bars your access to the doctor's domain, and thus far she hasn't given you a keycard to penetrate its defenses.

You're about to head out and try to find some other way to get in touch with her when you hear soft – very soft – footsteps approaching from the side.

You turn, coming face to face with the new arrival. Or rather, you would, were she not considerably shorter than you are.

She's a child, very young; no older than fifteen, and wearing a uniform similar yet different to the other UN uniforms you've seen on the base. Her hair is long and sort of silvery-white, but the most notable thing about her right now is the pair of strange hair clips attached to her head. They look like bunny ears.

What.

These people must truly be desperate if they're drafting literal kids. You decide you'll mention it to Yuuko and see what she says.

Something on her uniform catches your eye, though – a unit patch on the shoulder, marked with “UN” and “Alternative IV.”

Alternative IV. That's Yuuko's project. So this girl works with Yuuko in some fashion.

“Maybe you can help me,” You say to her. “I'm trying to get down to see the Doctor, but I don't have a card. It looks like you're riding down, you mind taking an extra passenger with you?”

She just looks at you blankly, like some kind of doll or mindless machine.

She reaches out towards the card reader; a plastic card held in one hand. With one swipe, the door slides open.

“Is that a yes, Miss?”

She says nothing, so you step into the elevator with her and begin the long ride down to Yuuko's lab. She didn't say no, so obviously it's fine.

“Black Sun.” Her voice is low and quiet, like a whisper.

Your eyes widen, your head turning to look at her like a tank's turret. “What did you just say.”

She says nothing, just staring at you.

You grab the rabbit's shoulders. “Where did you hear that.”

She says nothing, just staring at you, though now she has a mildly frightened look on her face.

The doors slides open.

“Oh? I didn't know your tastes ran so young,” Yuuko's chuckle hits you from the side. “That's a crime you know.”

You give Yuuko a smile without relinquishing your hold on the rabbit. “I think you know exactly where my tastes lie, doctor, and it certainly isn't with little bunnies. Now if you'll excuse me for a moment...”

You kneel down until you're eye level with the child. Your armored kneepads tink on the concrete floor. “I'm sorry if I scared you. What you said startled me and I didn't think, I just reacted. Where did you hear that phrase though? Please tell me, it's very important.”

The girl says nothing, and you realize you'll get nothing out of her.

You let her go, and she flees, taking up a position behind Yuuko and using her labcoat to hide herself from your gaze. Though she peeks out from behind it, apparently unwilling to let you out of her sight.

Now you feel bad about scaring her.

“So to what do I owe the pleasure?” Yuuko asks. “I thought I made it clear I had things to do. And certainly you have things to do as well, don't you? Or are you just here to terrify my lab assistant?”

“Oh, I do have things to do, Doctor,” You laugh. “But I was thinking you and I might do science together again. While I don't necessarily need it, I'd like your help in optimizing my forces to deal with the BETA lasers so that our inevitable victory is even more crushing.”

She looks at you, making a soft humming noise to herself. “Well, I suppose I could use a break.”

She looks down at the bunny. “Yashiro, please see to refilling Kagami's nutrient broth. When you're done with that, I'd like you to finish up the new OS debugging. I did most of it last night while I was still running high on this breakthrough, but there's still a couple thousand lines to check.”

The rabbit nods.

Yuuko stands, and the two of you step into the elevator.

You decide that you'll corner Yuuko and ask her about her 'assistant' as soon as you're both neck-deep in science; based on what you've seen of her so far, that's when her defenses will be lowest.

“New OS?” You ask. “Is that what you're working on?”

Yuuko shakes her head. “No, that's just a distraction. One of the cadets came to me with a new idea for better TSF performance, and as it turned out it was a pretty good idea, so I humored him and made it. Some of the coding tricks you taught me should help us squeeze even more performance out of the units.”

“It was Shirogane, wasn't it?” You ask.

“How did you know?” She looks at you with interest.

“Because he's the most competent one there. And before you mentioned how you'd be troubled if one of them died, so I assume it's him,” You shrug. “And then there's the fact that I doubt you go out of your way to associate with cadets unless they catch your interest in some fashion. Also he's the only male cadet I know.”

“Rightly so,” She smiles. “So what exactly are you looking to do today?”

“I'm thinking I want to look at how your people deal with lasers, show you how my people deal with lasers back home, and see if there's anything we can kludge together to improve effectiveness versus the BETA.”

She nods. “We'll have to stop by the hangar and get a few barrels of anti-laser coating. I assume that fancy lab of yours can analyze the chemical composition of materials?”

You nod.

Yuuko leads you towards the base's primary hangar complex. It's a bit hard to get used to how claustrophobic it feels. Normal hangars are big, big enough to store ACUs. These, you literally couldn't fit an ACU unless it was lying down, and even then it'd take up a lot of the floor space. You could just barely fit a small squad of Mongeese, and even then it'd be cramped.

One thing that's odd, though, is that you see a large TSF covered in a huge white curtain.

“What's the deal with that one?” You point to it. Its contours are different than any of the other TSFs in the hangar.

“Hm,” Yuuko taps her chin. “I'm not – ah. I think I recognize that silhouette. That must be a Type-00 Takemikazuchi. Only the royal guard are allowed to use these.”

“Royal guard?” You ask. “Doctor, just who did you invite to our party?”

“Oh, just the Shogun of Japan,” She replies idly.

If she was expecting you to be awed, she's in for a disappointment. You still haven't fully learned the politics of this world.

“So, the Shogun. I assume he's like a president or ruler?”

Yuuko laughs. “Don't let the royal guard hear you talk like that. She, her highness Yuuhi Koubuin, is just one step removed from divinity here in Japan.”

“I see,” You nod. “Like the Aeon Princess.”

“Based on what you've told me, that's a reasonably accurate comparison.”

Yuuko pauses, and points over to where a small crowd, including her cadets, has gathered. “Oh look, something interesting is about to happen.”

And then the curtain comes down and you see the Type-00 in all its glory.

…

You find yourself distinctly underwhelmed. So it's another TSF colored in dark purple. Okay, that's nice. You don't feel the same sense of awe you feel from being in the presence of an ACU; you don't have to crane your neck up to see its top, its design doesn't say “I am a planetary siege unit and you better have another ACU like me or you're about to get take an express gate straight to planet pain.”

“Oh, I suppose you would find such a thing boring, Spaceman,” Yuuko laughs and points at the cadets. “But they most certainly do not. Keep watching, that's not what's interesting.”

Tamase's even going so far as to rub her cheek against it like a cat. The other cadets, save the blue haired one who's watching with a half-sour look on her face, are all staring at it with some kind of awe. Shirogane's the only other one who looks disinterested, as though he expected something like this. “Tama, it's probably not a good idea to touch-”

Another woman, this one with green hair and wearing a dark red uniform with a tabard-like cloth strip steps forward, her arm cocked back in preparation to deliver a slap to the short pink-haired cadet.

Nope.

You seize her arm from behind. “That's quite enough of that.”

“How dare-” She starts to reply.

You cut her off. “-Name and rank, soldier. Now.”

“First Lieutenant Tsukuyomi, 19th Independent Guard Flight,” She replies, still glaring.

“Colonel Steele, 88th Armored Command. Your CO and I will be having words about this.”

Her eyes narrow and you see her bite her lip, but there's no apology coming, you can tell that right now.

“Tsukuyomi,” You hear the blue haired cadet approach from behind. “Please let it go.”

You see one of Tsukuyomi's veins twitch before she loses her defiant eyes and with a sigh, nods. “I apologize for my shameless actions.”

What?

“Good save, Meiya,” Shirogane says.

Meiya? So that's her name? You file it away for future reference.

“Do not be so familiar with Lady Meiya!” Tsukuyomi gasps, pointing at Shirogane.

This drama must be what Yuuko was talking about. How did you even let yourself get roped into this? And Lady Meiya? Who was she that she could tell a lieutenant to shut up and have it stick? Why would anyone with power like that join the UN army as just another grunt?

You shake your head. “Lieutenant, you're already in the hole. Don't dig any deeper. Cadets, disperse. Show's over. You've oohed and ahhed at the shiny mech. Now get back to your training or I'll work with the vice-commander to punish all of you in the most horrible ways possible.”

Maybe it's the tone of your voice or maybe the threat of punishment with Yuuko, but all of the cadets obey. Tsukuyomi gives you another glare before departing, but she too gives up in the end.

Yuuko's looking at you with an interested expression. “Why did you intervene? I wanted to see how that would play out.”

“Because that guardswoman could've hurt one of your cadets. She was livid. You should've stepped in before I did,” You reply.

She shakes her head. “I would have if I thought there was any real danger,” Yuuko shrugs. “Regardless, while you were playing with the children, I ordered some of our anti-laser coating delivered to your laboratory.”

“Of course, let's head there now,” You nod.

It doesn't take you long to analyze the composition of the anti-laser coating used by these natives. It's a clever mixture given what they have to work with.

It's also fundamentally inferior to the reflective coating your units and larger munitions already possess to deal with cybran laser strikes, adding significant mass for no real gain in performance.

Yuuko seems very interested in the possibilities of equipping TSFs with your own anti-laser countermeasures though, so at least there's that.

You move on to a discussion of how the lasers targeting function works. If you can't resist the lasers at point of impact, perhaps you can take advantage of flaws in their target acquisition. Yuuko explains that they typically lase the target with a weaker tracking laser to evacuate the beam's length of debris before ramping up the power; TSFs have automated features that dodge randomly as soon as they're splashed by the targeting laser, but your units aren't fast enough to reposition enough to make use of this.

She also explains that they will typically focus on artillery and air units before ground ones, and as you already knew, they will not shoot through other BETA.

So far you're zero for two.

Then Yuuko tells you about anti-laser shells. They're a special kind of artillery shell the natives developed; essentially shells filled with lead dust designed absorb laser strikes and reduce their effectiveness.

She explains that they aren't game changers on their own, but every little bit helps against the BETA.

You though, your mind is racing. You have an idea, it's just that it's hovering right out of reach. Every little bit helps. Every little bit helps.

Your mind flashes back to Blue, when she mentioned the lasers benefitted from the water to increase their fire rate. You see in your mind's eye that first heavy laser firing, the ground around it shimmering from the heat like a summer desert.

Heat. Heat, these things have to vent it, they can't recapture the heat and transfer it elsewhere if they don't have a quantum connection...

Heat, that's it. Every little bit helps.

“Heat, Yuuko.” You say, finally. “Heat's the key. These things can't fire if they're overheated.”

She looks at you, amused. “And how exactly do you propose to overheat them?”

“Same way you overheat anything else. You set it on fire,” You reply. “We take a shell, we replace its warhead with aeresolized plasma napalm. When lasers hit the shell, it explodes and sprays burning plasma everywhere, eventually superheating the air around them. If they don't fire and play it safe, we're still ahead because they're not shooting down our other munitions.”

“Wouldn't that eventually turn the entire battlefield into one large fuel air bomb?” She asks.

“The lasers will vaporize most of it on approach. And if they do, great, I like when my enemies blow themselves up.”

“Very well, I'm willing to see how this works,” Yuuko nods.

With that, the two of you get to work on redesigning fatboy shells to carry the new payload. Counting the testing, it takes most of the day. But by the end of it, you have what you're looking for.

The natives could never use such a weapon; the logistics of it would break them. This will only be effective after dropping thousands of shells on target. But your fatboys don't have problems with that, and you suspect this will help with your assault.

Unlike last time, you were the one who took the lead on the research. Plasma napalm, that's something you're very familiar with. Yuuko was content to mostly observe as you explain some of the underlying physics of generating and safely storing plasma napalm.

She's actually a little amazed at how destructive it is, at how your people would willingly use such a substance in a weapon.

It doesn't feel quite as magical as your first time together, but you definitely feel better spending time with her than you would have brooding in your room or randomly roaming the base in hopes of finding a friendly face.

As you finish up, you decide it's the best chance to inquire about that bunny. You just have to do it in a way that doesn't call attention to Black Sun. “Say, Doctor, What was the deal with that rabbit girl earlier?”

She looks up from the computer console. “Mmm? Yashiro? She's my assistant.”

“And?” You ask. “She's definitely not some random intern.”

Yuuko looks at you for a moment. You get the sense she's trying to decide how much to tell you.

“She's an Esper, a product of the Soviet ESP research for purposes of communicating with the BETA,” Yuuko says. “The idea was that if the BETA won't talk with sound or radiowaves, maybe they'd talk with telepathy.”

You nod. “Huh. Well, I guess that makes sense. Granted I prefer to let the Fatboys do the talking when it comes to alien scum, but I suppose you can't totally rule out the idea it's all some horrible misunderstanding.”

“Fatboys?” Yuuko asks.

“What we were designing these shells for. You'll see them tomorrow. Believe me, it'll be a blast,” You grin at her. “But back to the psibunny. Did it work, talking to the BETA, I mean?”

Yuuko grimaces and shakes her head. “No. We sent them into hives to try and get a better reading. In exchange for 7% survival rates, we learned just one thing of value. The BETA don't consider us as alive.”

You frown. “Even the Seraphim admitted we were alive. Oh well, now I won't feel any guilt about killing them all.”

Yuuko looks at you. She's blushing and fidgeting in her seat. “How are you so confident about this? What do you know that I don't?”

You look at her. “I only have two modes, Yuuko. Victory and costly victory. The question isn't 'will we win', it's 'how many people will die along the way.'”

You grab her hands; her eyes go wide and the blush intensifies. You stare directly into her eyes. “And I refuse to have another costly victory.”

She stares at you for a moment, saying nothing.

Then she turns away. “One other thing about Yashiro, something you probably should know. She's not natural; she was grown in a tank. She's an artificial human. I ask that you don't treat her any differently, she's fragile about that.”

You look at her. “Why would I treat her any differently?”

“Because she was grown in a lab,” Yuuko replies, as if it's the most natural statement in the world.

“My mom is artificial,” You say. “It's really not important. The Empire and UEF relied a lot on iron wombs to keep the population strong and colonize new worlds. It's not something that anyone really cares about where I come from. Most people where I'm from probably have someone artificial back in the family tree. It's not like they're any different from anyone else.”

Yuuko frowns. “Our two cultures truly are different.”

You shrug. “Probably a case of mature technology. You were awed by protocrafters and what they represent, but to someone from my reality they're not even worth noticing. They've always been there so everyone's comfortable and grew up with them.”

Yuuko nods. “That makes sense.”

She gives you a smile. “I'll have to keep you away from my big sister. She'd surely monopolize all your time with questions about culture. Actually, remind me to keep you away from both my big sisters, Spaceman.”

You laugh. “Sure, sure.”

With that, the two of you leave and part ways early.

But not before Yuuko tells you that the Shogun will be arriving tomorrow, now that Lieutenant Tsukuyomi has verified the base's security status. The purple TSF was probably the Shogun's personal machine.

And that just makes you concerned. You can only hope these peoples' leader doesn't try to actually participate in the battle. It'd be horrible if she got killed by a stray tac nuke or something.

Unlike last night, you find yourself sleeping relatively easily. If you have dreams, they're gone by the time you wake.

Meeting with Isumi and her team in the mess for breakfast tells you that the rumors about you have only intensified. But now they're vyiing for attention with rumors that the Shogun herself is coming on a state visit just after lunch.

And then there's the other rumors. Apparently Haruka received a travel itinerary for the Europeans who'll be coming – Sieglinde von Farenhorst, the White Wolf, and Gerhard von Ralerstine, the infamous Sonic Baron.

When you ask who these people are, Isumi quietly explains that they're two of the Heroes of Britain, part of the legendary 44th Tactical Armored Battalion, Cerberus. They're not politicians, but they're such tremendous names in Europe that you realize Yuuko must have busted her ass enticing them to come.

You'll have to thank her later, she really is going out of her way to help.

“So what's going on?” Isumi asks, startling you out of your thoughts.

“What do you mean?” You ask.

Muakata leans in. “Well, you've been disappearing into that base with the Doctor. She tends to come out looking exhausted but very happy. Almost glowing, you might say.”

“Munakata!” Isumi gasps. “Ahem, what she means is you've been disappearing into that... Base you built, along with the Vice-Commander. Now the Shogun visits, and on top of that, we're suddenly going to be hosting representatives from the EU at the same time.”

She smiles at you. “Just try and tell me it's not connected. Go on, try it.”

“It's all connected,” You reply. “In fact, right after this I'll be heading to Niigata.”

“Niigata?” Haruka asks. “Why?”

“I've decided that the Sadogashima hive is a blight on the urban landscape and simply has to go.”

Munakata looks at you, then back at Isumi. “Hm. I'm sorry, Captain, but I think he and the Doctor deserve each other. They both have a penchant for saying the most outrageous things. Then again, perhaps she'll be willing to share. I'm sure the Colonel is man enough to satisfy both of you. Possibly at once.”

“Well, there was that one time with Thalia and Alina...” You reply, rubbing your chin.

Isumi gasps again, louder this time, and she's blushing bright red now.

“Nah, just kidding,” You reply. “I'm sorry, I shouldn't tease you like that.”

Isumi turns towards Munakata. “Munakata, you are a horrible influence on him. You've corrupted our guest's mind.”

The rest of breakfast passes quickly; every time they ask you how you intend to destroy the hive, you play coy. You're sure Yuuko will have at least Isumi there on hand for her input, and you don't want to spoil the surprise.

You bid your goodbyes to the Valkyries and make your way to Blue. Then, you hop into your air transport and set off to Niigata, though you make the last leg of the journey on foot to avoid being splashed by laser fire, just in case.

As Yuuko promised, the handful of Japanese Imperial Army units there stand back and let you through. Though you don't think they quite expected a 'forward staging base' of this size. Really, from their perspective it must look like a city sprung up before their very eyes. Twenty minutes later and your first fatboy is rolling into the water.

You're fortunate; the mountains on the enemy island shield your base from direct line of sight to the hive. And if that weren't fortunate enough, there's a heavy bout of volcanic activity nearby, enough to mask your activities. It's almost as though divine providence has smiled on you.

You continue construction, the pace of the fatboy tide increasing always increasing as more mass fabricators and T3 power generators come online.

You also idly construct a small defensive position and put down a UEF command center with direct access to your units' audiovisual feeds. That's where you'll host your little party.

Just in time, too, because you receive a call from Yuuko telling you that both the Shogun and the Europeans have arrived.

Your force isn't quite ready yet – you're starting to edge towards the unit cap but haven't reached it yet – but you ask her to bring them to your command center anyway. You're sure they'll find the construction of a fatboy instructive.

Several hours later, your T3 radar net detects an approaching convoy of land vehicles, TSFs and trucks, and you know your guests have arrived. An hour after that, your guests have arrived.

You have the facility's cameras zoom in on them.

Yuuko and Isumi hop out of the first truck, accompanied by Isumi's entire team and the cadets.

You make a note to ask Yuuko why she brought the cadets here. What, was it a field trip?

Out of the next truck, you see...

What.

Your eyes glance to Meiya. Then to the person getting out of the second truck. Then back to Meiya.

The Shogun of Japan is Meiya with less absurd hair?

Well, that would explain why Meiya holds sway with the royal guard, then. Obviously there's some sort of relation there.

Four of the escort TSFs power down and out step Tsukuyomi and three other pilots, these ones wearing white battlesuits; they take up guard positions around the Shogun.

Out of the third truck steps two individuals in gray, black, and silver-trimmed uniforms, though your sensors detect those ridiculous 'armored' suits underneath. The first is a tall and statuesque blonde woman with a kind face and a side ponytail going down her shoulder, obviously Sieglinde. The other can be no one else but the Sonic Baron.

The monocle and enormous mustache gave it away.

Once they're inside, you project your voice through the command center's speakers. “Greetings, greetings from the UEF. I am Colonel Michael Steele of the United Earth Federation's 88th armored command. Some of you already know me, but to those who don't, allow me to introduce myself. I'm a soldier from an alternate future who arrived on this world through a series of unfortunate events. I regret that I cannot be there to greet you in person, but I will be running the coming battle from my Armored Command Unit and providing today's entertainment in the form of witty commentary and more dead BETA than you can shake a bombardment cannon at.”

You wave Blue's arm for emphasis, watching the movements reproduced faithfully by the holograph projected in the middle of the building's atrium.

“Today, I asked you ladies and gentlemen here so I could give you a demonstration. Since I've arrived in this world, I've learned a lot about the enemy you're fighting and how much death and destruction they've caused, and I've decided that I can't just stand by and watch as innocent people suffer and die,” You gaze out towards the hive. “Today that hive falls.”

“Now, I'm sure you've all noticed the army of units covering much of this land. My thanks to the Japanese government for allowing me to temporarily set up shop on Niigata, and to Doctor Kouzuki and the UN for providing the intel that will make this victory possible. These are all robotic drones produced and controlled from my ACU. If you'll direct your attention to the left, you'll see one just about to finish construction now. For reference, it was started as you stepped into this facility.”

You take particular glee in the way Yuuko is staring at the display, mouth hanging slightly open.

You take even more glee in how she's muttering “impossible, the physics are impossible, those things shouldn't be able to move” under her breath.

Shogun Yuuhi, meanwhile, is watching with wide eyes and saying “It's like a steel sea.”

“Obviously,” You continue. “This has implications for what I can do for you. If I can produce these things in minutes, what else can I produce? Weapons? TSFs? Supplies? Apartments for refugees? Let me answer that with one simple word: Yes. All I ask in return... Is your support when it comes to the annihilation of the BETA.”

The Sonic Baron is the first one to speak up openly. “This is all very impressive, good sir, but you're not the first to talk a good show.”

He shoots a glance at Yuuko. “We in Europe are well familiar with plans that promise the stars but fail to deliver.”

“That, good Baron, is exactly why I asked your union to be represented here,” You reply. “Because you have every right to be skeptical. My claims are outlandish and require the firmest of proof. I hope that by the end of the engagement, you will feel differently.”

You smile “On that note, I think it's time to begin.”

You order your first thrust of Fatboys to advance. Three hundred Fatboys, split into three even groups drive down under the water towards your three chosen beachheads. You order your reserve, another one hundred, to open up on the hive from your position in Niigata.

As you expected, lasers streak the skies and detonate all of your initial barrage.

Now you know where they are, the thermal blooms as clear as day. You order your reserves to switch to the new napalm shells and for your supporting naval units to swing around into clear firing positions on those targets. You order the few Novax suborbital killsats to open fire on the heat blooms, taking down dozens of lasers and heavy lasers with their plasma beams.

Then your Novaxes get lasered down, crashing to kill even more BETA.

As it turns out, Novaxes don't fly high enough to avoid laser fire.

Destroyer-class BETA swarm out of the hive in the tens of thousands, just in time to charge the initial Fatboys crawling out of the sea.

You zoom in on one beachhead for your guests. The side mounted riot guns open up, but they aren't truly anti-armor weapons; their killing performance is underwhelming compared to the Fatboys' main guns opening up at near point-blank range with standard shells.

Then again, what wouldn't be? It's as if the destroyer charge simply evaporates under that kind of fire. Those precious few who make it through the bombardment ram the Fatboys impotently, only to get ground under by something as fast as they are but with orders of magnitude more mass.

Meanwhile, you watch as your Neptunes start headhunting lasers and heavy lasers who venture too close to the coasts. Your Summits do a good job of keeping those lasers distracted with shells, instead of with attacking your naval forces.

The barrage of napalm shells works as you hoped; the plasma napalm itself is too diffuse by design to burn through BETA flesh, but it is sufficient to raise the local air temperature by a noticeable amount; you can practically see the lasers struggling to maintain their rate of fire without burning out their lasing organs, and it'll only get worse as they intercept more napalm shells.

So far, so good. Almost too good. But something doesn't feel right about this. Particularly since you have no sensor coverage of the island beyond radar; the movement of the fatboys is simply too loud to detect anything seismically and your only mobile omni-equipped units are planes.

One platoon of heavy lasers emerges from a nearby tunnel, scything into your lead Fatboy in the first prong of your assault. Its shields pop and its hull melts to slag underneath the barrage. Your other Fatboys retaliate with artillery, overwhelming the lasers with sheer fire and wiping out the entire platoon. Then they push past the destroyed wreckage of their former leader.

This 'tactic' (though it may simply be local lasers responding to nearby activity) is repeated several times over the course you take establishing your beachhead, but losses thus far are more than acceptable. A dozen Fatboys is merely a drop in the bucket.

Though from the way your guests are gaping, they might not see it that way.

Either way, your beachhead is firmly established. Fatboys are streaming onto the island at your three thrust points and it seems like you've caught the BETA with their pants down. The battle's far from over, but this phase is a definite win. The BETA aren't routing, but you've established yourself and it will take an incredible amount of force to break your beachheads.

[]Stick with the plan: You'll get bogged down if you rely on the Fatboys; they're simply too large to effectively overrun the enemy in the mountainous terrain of Sadogashima given that BETA have tunnels everywhere. Switch to Titans while your Fatboys take up bombardment and unit production duties.

[]Continue your Fatboys' advance, accepting the unfavorable terrain and push through with an irresistible steel tide straight to the hive's monument. Casualties mean nothing to you.

[]Slow the advance; have your Fatboys construct engineers and firebases with omnisensors to see what the BETA are up to.

[]Refactor your strategy entirely; switch from ground units to Broadswords and have your remaining Fatboys switch to bombardment duty.

[]Refactor your strategy entirely; switch to a [write-in].

-I've elected to drop the pro/con descriptions because since they're from Steele's perspective they might be inaccurate and confuse people. Also they might be confusing the voting script.

Research Complete:
Fatboy napalm anti-laser shells acquired. Your fatboys may switch between these and standard rounds at will.
Yuuko has gained competency: UEF Power Tech (Uneducated → Basic.)

 

[X]Stick with the plan
-[X]With just one minor revision. T3 radar towers.

Your attack thus far has gone very well; your Fatboys have overwhelmed the BETA far more effectively than even your most optimistic estimates. A large part of you yearns to continue the advance and force the BETA right back into the center of their hive tower.

But they call it victory disease for a reason. The battle is far from over, and overextending yourself now could cause problems later. Especially since you still don't even know exactly how many BETA there are. You've killed tens of thousands thus far, but something tells you that's a drop in the bucket.

You studied all the data on BETA that Yuuko could provide while you were building your base. Which was surprisingly little for a thirty year war, but you do know that a mere thirty thousand aliens are but a tithe of the hive's inhabitants.

So with that in mind, you settle in to methodically and meticulously clear the hive; your Fatboys won't stop their advance, but they will slow it, while you have some of them produce Titan T3 assault bots; their size, speed, shields, and firepower make them uniquely suited to fighting inside of hives amongst your many unis.

Your Fatboys aren't just landcruisers, they're mighty unit production engines as well.

And from the way Yuuko's staring at them as they pump out more units, she never expected anything like this.

Good. Maybe now she'll have a little faith in your abilities.

While you're deciding optimal points for the radar towers, you send in the first wave of Titans. Granted you have to time it just right; ceasing your bombardment of a given tunnel entrance just long enough for your Titans to make a breach, but it works. You consider but then discard digging your own tunnels with engineers. This hive material, you aren't sure how structurally sound it is, and it would probably take too long. Besides, this works.

Primarily because you elect to use your Titans' own size and mass as a weapon, much like destroyers. Certainly there might be a large number of BETA destroyers coming out of the tunnels every second, but your Titans are faster, bigger, and made of considerably denser materials.

Also shielded.

Plasma fire streaks out from each Titan, each shot blasting clear through a BETA destroyer and melting it down to so much organic slag. Titans rush forward, trampling the smaller armored destroyers, the sound of cracking and squishing exoskeleton the aliens only eulogy.

Lasers zap out on approach, firing over the heads of their smaller allies to strike your much taller Titans. The first wave is destroyed in seconds, a scene repeated at several points on the island.

But this is not a bad thing. Your second wave use the remains of the first as cover, allowing them to get within range of the Heavy Lasers.

As it turns out, Heavy Lasers are not particularly resistant to plasma cannons. Their flesh sizzles and melts like bacon from the heat. The stone and alien biomass that coats the walls of the hive glows red, then white hot.

Tank class BETA drop from the ceiling down onto your Titans as they pass down into the tunnels, but they find themselves stymied and unable to get a good grip on your units through their shields, so most simply slide off onto the ground to be trampled underfoot. It's only when a larger unit – a fort – enters the fray and depletes the shields that they can even start to dig in like ticks, and even then it takes a large amount of time for them to chew through your units' toughened armor.

You don't give them time. You have your titans rub up against the walls, squashing the tank-class BETA like tiny bugs.

Sometimes you suffer casualties when a Titan is swarmed by hundreds of grapplers at once with their enormous claws bashing and tearing.

But with your Fatboys parked right outside the tunnel entrances, there's not much the BETA can do. They simply can't kill Titans fast enough to keep up with the tide of reinforcements.

Meanwhile, your other Fatboys turn their attention, and their guns, towards the remaining BETA on the surface.

The outcome here isn't truly in doubt. The paltry few remaining lasers they have can't hold up to the ever-increasing bombardment. Soon, they're silenced.

And then the killing begins in earnest. You'd seen how effective artillery was against these aliens before, but your Fatboys take it to a whole new level.

Your European guests are both looking at the killing with smiles on their faces. The Shogun though, she's got a thoughtful expression.

She's also glancing every so often to Meiya.

Who's also wearing a thoughtful expression and glancing every so often to the Shogun.

The aliens coming out of the tunnels near the hive's central spike survive by dint of laser saturation, but your Fatboys are too numerous, too dispersed, and the terrain too broken to allow them to cover their fellows emerging from other tunnels.

And even then, they'll find themselves overheating under the barrage of your anti-laser shells eventually.

You spare another glance towards your guests. Their eyes are welded to your display. Even Yuuko.

You're not going to lie, that look she has on her face is very lovely. It's like for a brief moment, she's unguarded, like she's forgotten to put on her mask that day. None of that arrogance, none of the smirking or the expression that says she knows more than she's letting on. It makes your heart beat faster.

Or maybe that's just the adrenalin. You always get like this in a big battle.

Ah, it looks as though your omnitowers are finally done. It's time to get a clearer picture of the battlefield.

You let out a low whistle when your strategic map updates. The BETA hive is like an iceberg, it seems, what you see on the surface is merely the tip.

Your instincts were right, you've only cleared a tithe of the BETA. Most of them are underground, though they seem to be rushing up from the central tower as quickly as their legs will carry them. Your omnisensors can't actually map the tunnels to the extent you'd like, but what they can do is determine mass and energy signatures, and with Blue's quantum computing matrix, that's enough to get a clearish idea of what you're up against.

And what you're up against is almost five hundred thousand BETA. Counting what you've killed so far, it must have been more than six hundred thousand in total.

Of course, there's enough to respond to your Titan incursions as well as your Fatboy advance, now that you've slowed down to produce units. There's enough for everyone.

You glance down towards the central chamber. You see... Hm. It's a T3 quantum-reactor equivalent. One with disturbingly similar properties to the energy source you picked up under Yokohama.

“Alert: Large-scale mass signatures detected.” Blue helpfully intones, breaking that train of thought. “In the lower tunnels, west quarter. Wait. No, they appear to be moving through the ground.”

You look there. There's six of them, and each one... They're enormous. Bigger than anything you've ever seen, and vaguely wormlike in proportions.

Well there certainly wasn't anything like that in Yuuko's briefings.

You glance over to her. “Doctor, do you have any data on these?”

She blinks. “...No. It must be a new strain. Or possibly... Hm. It's always been a question mark how hives expand their tunnels. Most always supposed the BETA just dig themselves, but it makes sense that they'd have something specialized for construction like this.”

“That's an awfully big engineering unit,” You say.

“Most BETA moonlight as killing machines,” Yuuko replies. “Building's just their day job.”

“As if I'd let some weekend warriors stop me,” You laugh.

Of the enemy worms, one is remaining stationary near the hive's central chamber. The others are heading towards each of your beachheads. Based on their positioning, you think that a concerted push with Titans and Percivals could intercept them when they intersect with the main tunnels – the fact that the BETA appear to be clearing those tunnels with haste tells you the worms intend to barrel right on through, so you'd just have to punch through the BETA on the way.

“Alert. Experimental-scale energy signatures detected.” Blue adds.

You zoom in there; Blue helpfully paints those targets in a glowing blue, instead of the glowing red that normal BETA get on your omni. Based on the mass distributions, they appear to be like fort-class BETA that're fully loaded with troops, but those strange energy signatures are concerning.

There's four of these high energy BETA making their way to the surface through a different path to the worms, an escort of what looks like heavy lasers and other fort classes accompanying them.

“Any ideas on this new development, Yuuko?” You ask.

She shakes her head. “None. The BETA have never behaved in this fashion before.”

She nods. “Then again, this is uncharted territory. They've never been outright pushed back like this before, have they? The last time we took a hive, it was with strategic bombardment. We didn't give them time to do much of anything. Perhaps this is an adaptive response to counter your advance? Though I'm not sure what they could be doing.”

“BETA that can think?” Isumi shudders. You can tell who's faced the BETA before by the ones who shudder along with her.

To be fair, they're right to worry. The BETA's numbers backed by an actual intelligent commander would be problematic.

But Yuuko's right. This must be the BETA's counterattack. You can practically taste their desperation; it's all in the way their units move on the strategic scale. They're tossing units at you but both of you know that won't be enough. They've realized, same as you have, that there's no way they can overpower your Fatboys with numbers.

You estimate that if you focus the brunt of your resources on one enemy group or the other, you could stop them, at the cost of leaving the other group with relatively free reign to strike.

[]Focus on the worms. Taking them out before they have a chance to undermine your advance is very important. Six experimental-class units vs four experimental class units, that math is simple.

[]Focus on the high energy BETA. You don't know what the deal is with them and you don't want to find out. This will leave the worms free reign to do whatever they want, though. Those enormous, killer worms.

[]Attempt to split your attention and resources; deal with both while they're still in the tunnels.

[]Maybe you'll come up with something brilliant as a write in.

The situation is as follows:

Five of the six deathworms are pushing towards the surface. They'll cross several currently existing tunnels on their way. Steele sees an opportunity to bushwack them with heavy anti-experimental units before they have a chance to mess with your victory if you focus your penetration teams on those tunnels.

Meanwhile, four strange high energy BETA signatures are also pushing towards the surface via a different route than the worms. Steele spending units to push through to them will mean less units to try and stop the worms before they reach the surface.

Steele may attempt to stop both groups, but this will by necessity increase the risk of failure due to less units to go around.

Freebie from the GM: "Hurr durr Fatboys explode so the worms won't be able to do anything" is a very bad sentiment to run with. The BETA are aware of your Fatboys' explosive properties.

Freebie from the GM 2: Revenge of the Freebies: The high-energy contacts are not Laser Forts. Those don't exist yet. Don't panic about that.

Total time elapsed since first shots fired: About twenty minutes. Total casualties since beginning of operation: 16 fatboys, 45 titans. Total BETA casualties as of this post: 140,000 BETA of all types sans deathworms.

Your guests are very impressed so far. It's clear to them that your victory is not just possible but likely. Nobody's celebrating yet, but everyone is very happy at the results.

(You defective defense drones just had to luck out on both the terrain/weather and research rolls for this attack, didn't you? If more BETA were on the surface like I'd planned, or if you didn't ace those napalm shell rolls you would've had much more trouble on the beaches. )

 

[X]Ambush the graboids while they're still underground.
-[X]Walk without rhythm.

You have a dilemma. Two types of T4 unit, both unknown to you. You can only be sure of stopping one.

So you've got a choice. The enormous worms, or the unknown energy signatures. On one hand, the last time you saw energy signatures like this, it involved Seraphim T4 nukes. And that's just not good for anyone. But even if you get nuked off the island, that doesn't strictly matter. You have reserves.

Unless they're actually mobile strategic launchers. But a quick glance confirms that your strategic missile defense silos are online and filled, and they have to be on the surface to launch anyway.

The worms, meanwhile, they can do a lot more to stop your advance. If they undermine the terrain underneath your Fatboys, you'll be robbed of your forward unit production facilities. Worse, you don't have anything suited for slamming something of that size when they're underground.

In the end, your choice is clear. You focus the bulk of your efforts on the worms.

So you make your best anti-T4 units, Percivals, and send teams of them escorted into the tunnels with Titans in support.

This confirms what you already suspected: Percivals are tremendous overkill against all common strains of BETA. Their ionized plasma cannons melt right through fort and destroyer class carapace with an ease bordering on the pathetic.

Unfortunately, your Percivals are also more vulnerable than your Titans to tank classes dropping down from the ceiling, owing to their lack of shields. However, their amazingly thick armor still grants them enough protection versus the aliens for your purposes.

It does slow down your push into the tunnels, though; your units only barely reach the intercept points in time.

Seeing the worms in your units' cameras, it's really different than the sterile omni-sensor readout. Huge and brown and wriggling, it almost boggles your mind that something this big can even move. They dwarf anything you've ever seen, even during the infinite war.

Your units open fire, a wave of blue plasma cascading down onto them as soon as they breach the tunnels.

These things are very heavily armored, well and beyond anything you've seen from the BETA. They weather the first barrage very effectively.

And the aliens are single-minded in their advance. You'll have just one, maybe two more barrages from the Percivals.

You order your units to synch their targeting, focusing all their fire on one location; this works better. The carapace starts to melt and give way.

One of them falls, the second barrage burning through alien flesh to hit some vital organ beneath.

Three more join it as the plasma finds its mark.

One, however, escapes. It's too fast, the tunnel too short to effectively give chase.

Your units pursue through the tunnel it's making, firing after it, but only your Percivals have the firepower to burn through its carapace, and they don't have the speed to keep up.

Meanwhile, you keep an eye on the high energy BETA. But with all your forces tied up on the worms, that's pretty much all you can do; your units won't be able to redeploy through the tunnels to hit them before they reach the surface.

Of course, your Fatboys are covering pretty much the entire island save a zone around the central hive spire, and these BETA aren't going there.

The high-energy signatures and their escorts split as they approach the surface, each one taking a separate tunnel... The ones that lead closest to your beachheads.

You blink. How odd.

You order a new wave of Titans produced to investigate this, now that they're approaching your lines. What are they, suicide units? Some new kind of laser class unit?

You intercept them in the tunnels, your unit cameras getting a good look at them for the first time.

They're fort class BETA. It's just that their abdomens glow with a bright blue light. There's no obvious laser apertures, no hardpoints for different weapons, it's as if the BETA simply loaded up a bunch of forts with something that glows blue and gives off a large amount of energy.

“G-elements,” Yuuko mutters.

Yes, that would fit.

She clears her throat. “Colonel, be extremely careful around those BETA. They're loaded up with G-elements. I don't know what the BETA intend to do with them but you absolutely don't want to cause a detonation.”

“Understood,” You nod.

It's not like you have clear fields of fire to the G-element forts anyway; the normal forts are running interference for them. Unfortunately, the BETA lines are too deep to ram them either.

But then something odd happens.

The majority of each BETA's escort stops and falls back into the tunnels, including all the laser classes. Topside, the BETA on the surface all stop firing and also stream back into the tunnels, suffering heavy losses from your Fatboy bombardment.

“Alert. Gravity distortions detected.”

Wait, what?

“Doctor,” You say. “Tell me what I'm looking at.”

But Yuuko remains silent. She stares at the display, eyes wide. Her mouth's working, but there's no sound coming out.

“Colonel,” She says, voice utterly serious. “I want you to have one of your units shoot at those BETA.”

“Won't that risk detonating them?”

“If my theory is right, and I dearly hope it isn't, it won't,” Yuuko replies. “Humor me.”

You do so, ordering one of your lead Titans to open fire.

It's like the plasma just bends away from the aliens before striking them.

“Get your units off the island, now,” Yuuko gasps. “The BETA are going to G-bomb you.”

Well that doesn't sound good. You begin to order your units off the island, but you're not helped by the fact that there's only so many places to fall back into the sea.

Whatever defense these aliens have, it's not just a defense. It works just fine as a weapon; as the BETA get close to your Titans, the later start to crumple and crack, as if some godly fist reached down and crushed them into balls.

It's just like the gravity claws used by Aeon Galactic Colossus T4s in that sense.

The four BETA then advance upwards, reaching the tunnel entrances. You order your Fatboys to begin a retreating bombardment in hopes of collapsing the entrances on their heads, but that measure fails. Those damn shields just bend away the falling debris.

This might be a little tricky. Possibly massed artillery in hopes of overwhelming whatever defense these things use?

“Alert. Detecting thermal blooms consistent with laser activation.”

“Where?” You ask.

“...Inside the targets,” Blue replies.

And that's when your heart stops.

Reality breaks before your eyes. Strange and malicious physics play havoc with your sight. Your fatboys vanish, one by one, as the four domes expand to cover much of the island and its surrounding seas, leaving little more than the hive itself untouched. The ocean itself flows back into the holes left by the destruction.

You've seen this before. You've seen these explosions before.

Your face goes pale. You feel the urge to retch. Your limbs tremble. Your breath starts coming in staccato bursts like machine gun fire.

All blue and brown. No green.

The sound you make now is halfway between a sob and a roar.

These aliens, they... You'll kill them all.
Silence reigns in your command center. Everyone – everyone is looking at this with their jaws hanging open. Horrified expressions grace their faces.

“Yuuko,” You spit. “Do the aliens have enough G-elements to do that again?”

She shakes her head, as if to clear it. You can see her running the numbers in her head. “Doubtful. That attack represented most of the hive's stockpile.”

“Good,” You snarl. “Because that hive is mine.”

You jettison and reclaim your ACU's RAS and engineering modules in favor of the nanorepair and zephyr amp upgrades. You're through playing around. You will crush these aliens personally, bringing your reserves with you.

But first, you will deal with that last worm. Your underground Titans pursuing it are the only units you have left on the island. The pursuing Percivals were long since swarmed under and destroyed by weight of numbers.

The worm's bypassing your original beachheads now that there's nothing left there; it's heading straight for your base. For you.

Good. Your enemies are coming to you, rather than the other way around. Your Titans detect a tremendous swarm of BETA trailing behind them; the aliens' final push, to show up right in the middle of your base once the worm surfaces.

You switch your production from replacing your fatboy losses to more Titans.

Soon, you feel a deep rumbling beneath the ground.

It comes.

Your omnisensors ping. There it is.

You frown. It's projected surfacing point... It's behind the command center; it will be able to use your guests as cover from all but the titans and the defenses you scattered around it.

You order your fatboys to reposition, but they won't be fast enough.

The creature erupts from the ground, writhing from the ground like an enormous phallic monument, pink and brown and hideous.

You will Blue to move, putting yourself between it and Yuuk-your guests.

Its head opens, squeezing open like a disgusting sphincter.

Heavy laser-class BETA stare right back at you. Hundreds of them.

Hateful beams splash over your ACU's shields, but they hold.

Red warning lights explode into luminescence, bathing Blue's cockpit in crimson light.

More lasers scratch across your shields.

“Shields depleted.”

Even more lasers fire, gouging and melting holes deep in Blue's hull.

But you will not be stopped. Not by trash like this. You won't let them take anyone else, won't let them defile anything else.

“Never again,” You roar.

You raise your ACU's arm.

You slam the overcharge button.

Energy pulses, flooding your zephyr cannon's anti-matter chamber. More energy flows from the quantum links to your economy into your gun.

Heat refracts the light from it like a hot summer day; the surrounding air ionizes into plasma merely from the waste heat involved in its charging.

Normally, the zephyr only shoots a tiny amount of antimatter. The overcharge function overrides this. Instead of a trickle, the antimatter is a flood, a tsunami.

The blue burst erupts from your gun, streaking through the air and slamming right down the monster's gullet.

Some heavy lasers are flung from the creature by sheer concussive force. These fall to the base's defenses and the Titans you already produced.

The creature writhes, death throes calling it.

Your zephyr cools down enough to fire.

You hit the overcharge button again.

The process repeats.

You hit the overcharge button again.

The process repeats.

Only then are you satisfied.

You start reclaiming the worm's corpse. BETA, some still alive, crawl out of the biological wreckage only to be gunned down by your Titans and the Fatboys' riot guns.

Your Titans still in the tunnel turn, spraying plasma fire down onto the approaching BETA horde while you open the path for reinforcements.

Your ACU is the first into the breach. Your zephyr flashes, small bolts of anti-matter slamming into the onrushing BETA horde.

The shots detonate, killing hundreds in this tight space.

You continue firing, killing more and more and more. You don't stop. Even when the steady stream of Titans from the Fatboys topside breaks the BETA's thrust, you continue your advance.

But not before getting a fix on the final worm with the omnisensor of a spyplane you set orbiting over the hive. The BETA, they apparently put their all into this last attack. The worm's still right where it was, but they've made no moves to retake the surface – all their other units are focused on trying and failing to push back your relentless advance.

It's only when your units advance dangerously close to the hive's central shaft that the worm moves.

You tense, thumb on the overcharge trigger, but it doesn't attack. Instead, it shoots off towards the Asian mainland in clear retreat – your spyplane follows it for as long as you're able to maintain contact, but you lose it somewhere near China when your spyplane's stored fuel runs out and it's unable to resupply from your quantum network due to distance from the ACU.

The reactor, meanwhile, is alive. It's defended by several BETA, but you and your Titans make quick work of them with melee attacks.

Then you plant a UEF flag right in the hive's reactor chamber, followed quickly by a UN one and a Japanese one.

Your guests generally have shell-shocked expressions from everything they've seen today. There's only so many shocks to the system a human being can take. You expect they'll have a lot to say when you meet them face to face, after they've had a chance to process it all, but for now they're totally silent, all of them trying to make sense of what they see and feel.

But you have a choice to make:

The hive reactor uses superelements in its construction, the same elements you need for more ACUs. You can crack open the hive and harvest these G-elements; based on Blue's readings, you'll have enough to make one more ACU if you do this.

Alternatively, you can keep the reactor active and use it to produce those same elements over time; it looks like there's a partially-formed batch in production that will be ready in a week with sufficient resource inputs.

Finally, you can give the reactor as a gift to Yuuko. You're sure that once she's broken from her fugue, she'll be appreciative of a chance to do science to one of these things.

[]Crack the reactor open and harvest those delicious G-elements inside. (Chompslurpgulp)

[]Farm the reactor for G-elements over time.

[]The reactor will make a pretty present for Yuuko.

[]Perhaps there's another option you're not considering now? It might emerge in a [Write-in] though!

For reference: The worm interception and the thing with the G-bombs happens at the same time. Steele used his superlative micromanagement abilities to keep an eye on both engagements at once.