I am horrified at the fact that nobody in this thread has mentioned TUBES or suggested feeding the metroid hybrid Phazon.
What kind of Space Pirates are you people?

>>833155
We got that out of our systems already. The subjects were cloned in TUUUUBES and we were told that we lack sufficient Phazon to mutate so much as a paperclip.

>>833155

We can focus on the tubes once we get done with this stupid soldier project. So put your backs into it or we will not be mutating tubes anytime soon!

>>833155
We can't feed it something we don't have. All of our phazon supplies deteriorated after The Hunter destroyed Phaaze.

>>833156
speaking of paperclips... I might have used all of the paperclips making a prototype of a long range multi directional grappler system. Also several coils of wire, two small toolboxes, a box of serrated blades meant for ration preparation, and the pull handle from the scape pod release mechanisim (nobody was going to use that anyway. come on.) I got the idea from an old human entertainment video we have in the research archives for some reason. Though their design was silly and had the mechanisim on the hips, as if mounting a free-hanging mobility system below the center of mass was somehow smart. It's mountable on the suit's shoulders.

Though if you want to use it, the production model should use something sturdier than electrical cable. I was improvising.

1/2 IMO Unit-02 2017/11/25(Sat)23:18 No. 848093 ID: 2efb36
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>>824253
Processing. Assessment complete.

A turret mounted enhancement of the Garden Trooper's railgun system is strongly supported in combination with a grapple beam system, integration of the Boiler Trooper's thermal cutter claws and a basic beam weapon.

Ports for the Garden Trooper's tendrils will be installed however they will not be provided any protection while extended.

>>825191
No.

>For reference, how hard is the hormone injections the garden trooper needs to synthesise or otherwise obtain? With such a potentially long term mission this may be important.
The Garden Trooper will be given a one decicycle supply of the hormones. Development of a portable chemical synthesiser for this purpose is cost-prohibitive with current time and resource constraints.

Additionally, a chemical dependency that requires return to base at periodic intervals is arguably a feature, not a bug.

>Please ensure a discrete watch on Trooper 15-O-OL. She's clever enough to make some attempt at slipping away if left alone for long. I stress the word discrete, as her noticing could very well cause her to panic.
The courier craft, the only spacecraft with functioning faster-than-light capabilities on this frigate, is under heavy lockdown. There's nowhere for the test subject to go.

As an additional precaution, the energy cell will be removed from the docking clamps and put into secure storage.

>Allow me to abandon professionalism for a moment, awww the Boiler trooper looks adorable. As for the trolley shortage, check with the assault team, I've heard they've been racing them down one of the angled corridors when on break.
Excellent observational skills. Rations will be increased for two centicycles.

>When she wakes up, let's check on her to make sure she still remembers important things and make sure that she can move the body.
Brain scans appear normal but full evaluation will be conducted during rehabilitation.

>Regarding the out-sized reactor, would it be possible to build a core eject or emergency shutdown into the suit? Given that the Garden Trooper is heavily integrated into the suit, a critical malfunction without such measures would not be pleasant for them.
An emergency shutdown is feasible however that would result in severely degraded performance during the reset.

2/2 IMO Unit-02 2017/11/25(Sat)23:20 No. 848094 ID: 2efb36
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>We should have a handheld rifle that can be used in or out of the suit, since I don't think they'll realistically have it everywhere.
>I propose it not be built into the suit since, outside of the suit, the Ignole clone is a melee powerhouse but lacks a consistent ranged option
Such a weapon has the significant disadvantage that it can't be supplied with energy from the power suit's reactor while detached from it. This would mean a significant drop in firepower.

>As Boiler will be ejecting, I therefore recommend a sort of Zero Suit be provided to Boiler to armour them while outside and exploring.
Development of the Boiler Trooper's separated kit will begin after finalisation of the power suit's feature set.

>Speaking of paperclips... I might have used all of the paperclips making a prototype of a long range multi directional grappler system. Also several coils of wire, two small toolboxes, a box of serrated blades meant for ration preparation, and the pull handle from the scape pod release mechanism (nobody was going to use that anyway. come on.) I got the idea from an old human entertainment video we have in the research archives for some reason. Though their design was silly and had the mechanism on the hips, as if mounting a free-hanging mobility system below the centre of mass was somehow smart. It's mountable on the suit's shoulders.
Yes. What purpose could mounting such a system on a sturdy anchor point that minimises any rotational force applied to the subject and balances their centre of mass possibly serve?

Weapon mounting does, however, need to be finalised.

There are four basic options:

An arm cannon is a high power weapon that effectively commits that arm to that purpose.

A forearm mounted weapon allows use of the hand the gun is mounted on, however it suffers in performance compared to an arm cannon.

Next, the turret system could fit a secondary weapon adjacent to the railgun. This is an out-sized, powerful weapon but may be cumbersome to use at close range or against agile enemies

Finally there is the option of mounting it elsewhere on the body of the power suit. This generally suffers in firing arc but may offer unusual options for firing or combination with other systems.

The grapple beam system only requires a forearm mount for the usual power settings but it may be desirable to use a body mounting instead.

The beam weapon would be suitable for any of the proposed mounting options, nothing that there is also an intention to use at least one hand for the Boiler Trooper's thermal cutters.

Secondly as a basic beam weapon is being used, there's sufficient time to integrate one last weapon modification. Strongly backed proposals thus far include: special ammunition for the railgun, an alternative firing mode for the beam weapon such as a charge beam, a limited use shield or a disposable missile pack.

>>848094
Arm Cannon with Grapple Beam, it's CLEARLY good enough for The Hunter so it's good enough for our bountyhunter. Maybe the Federation will be dumb enough to idolize ours too.

Some kind of Limited Charge Shield.

Disposable missiles are wasting resources we DO NOT HAVE.

We go all Energy Weapons and supplement it with the Thermal Cutters and the Railgun should Metroids go rogue and kill everyone again.

Regardless, I think we've all done an excellent job in the design phase of the suit so far, and look forward to rehabilitation.

Charge beam, surely! The increase in firepower will make up for the lower power of the forearm-mounted system. Oh, yes. The forearm cannon is preferable to allow the use of two claws in melee. The railgun's primary fire will more than suffice for punching through heavy targets.

ok so what I'm seeing with each option is

>An arm cannon is a high power weapon that effectively commits that arm to that purpose.

the basic of the basics here. Both Boiler and Garden get a gun so both can shoot things and the hand canon (as we've seen from the hunter) is a highly versatile weapon that can be kited out to met almost any situation. Only problem I see here is it does kinda take away form Boiler's melee damage output by taking away one of her claws but that's only while she's wearing the suit

>A forearm mounted weapon allows use of the hand the gun is mounted on, however it suffers in performance compared to an arm cannon.
A little less basic but still pretty basic. Like it says less fire power from afar but still let's boiler keep both her claws to rip and tear... this added with the grapple beam could be a nasty 1 2 punch

>the turret system could fit a secondary weapon adjacent to the railgun. This is an out-sized, powerful weapon but may be cumbersome to use at close range or against agile enemies

So just to be clear, the idea here is to basically give GARDEN more firepower since she'll be the one shooting from the turret but will this still leave BOILER with 2 free arms in the suit with one equipped with the grapple beam right? Because if so while it would mean that BOILER would focus mostly on movement and CQC while GARDEN would focus mostly on shooting and I guess hacking should the need arise. Only problems I could see arising from this is that without training GARDEN's aim might be thrown off if BOILER is on the move and would take some teamwork for them to coordinate the actions and the other problem I see is that if we need GARDEN to hack something then we lose all our ranged attacks while she needs to focus on hacking whatever it is she needs to hack, although I don't know why we'd try hacking something under fire but still I felt like it should be pointed out

>Finally there is the option of mounting it elsewhere on the body of the power suit. This generally suffers in firing arc but may offer unusual options for firing or combination with other systems.

this one is kinda vague. I mean I guess we could throw whatever big gun we were going to toss on the turret somewhere Boiler could use it to not lose our range attacks if we ever need to hack while in a fight, place it somewhere to cover a blind spot on the suit so it would be hard to flank/exploit the suit, or I guess we could put a mortar on the back of the suit for some indirect fire for whenever we need to shoot something that isn't in our line of sight but yeah I guess this one mostly depends on what we toss on and where we put it.

Personally I think I'm going to go with the arm canon here simply for the sake of keeping it simple although I wouldn't be to opposed against the forearm mounted weapon either.

>>848094
>Such a weapon has the significant disadvantage that it can't be supplied with energy from the power suit's reactor while detached from it. This would mean a significant drop in firepower.
It's essentially a backup weapon, like a non-power-armored trooper's pistol, meant for soft targets in relatively close quarters. Not something to be used against a tank unless other options (including throwing improvised bombs, and retreating) have been exhausted. Maybe even something deliberately nonlethal, for live-capture bounties, or petty self-defense in situations where lethal violence would attract undesirable attention?

We could use a standard design that the subjects would already be familiar with, and keep the power supply entirely separate apart from recharging when it's in storage. This would minimize development, logistics, and training costs, and preserve the backup weapon's full capabilities in the event of an emergency reactor shutdown.

>special ammunition for the railgun,
>or a disposable missile pack.
If we don't go with one of these two, the trooper should at least be issued some hand grenades, including specialty loads for whatever known or plausibly-speculated threats are excessively resistant to conventional weapons.

Two grapple beams in the forearms, in case one hand is disabled or to swing around for extra velocity - they'll need it.

Add a beam turret on the side that doesn't have the railgun. Something weak, but accurate, for picking off ninjas.

>Charge Beam
This. Apply this to the turret so that the few times you get an opportunity to use it, it gets used well.

>>848094
I'd rather have both hands available for when they're needed for grabbing things and it won't restrict the Ignole's thermal cutters to just one hand. So let's just have a forearm mounted gun.

>>848099
All of this!

Forearm gun. Let the Garden soldier deal with the shooting, and the Boiler soldier can deal with anyone getting too close. As for a secondary weapon, cannons usually get machine guns coaxially, so a beam weapon or other fast-firing weapon would be the classic solution. Gives a ranged option for something the railgun will be overkill for.

Speculation: Targets that require a full arm cannon typically fall into one of three categories.
1: Heavily armoured vehicles or buildings: Slow and heavy, thus vulnerable to close combat with claws. Often have hostile energy fields to repel such assaults. The Violvanti's energy-feeding traits should nullify most such measures.
light weapons with heat-blades is preferable to full cannons.
2: Energy shields: Generally rely upon a highly vulnerable energy source or cycles of vulnerability. Precision firing is more valuable than weapon power. suggest forearm charged cannon.
3: "miniboss" class adversaries: Elite forces vary greatly. Full arm-cannons highyl desireable, but result in glasshouse being vulnerable to close assault tactics which some of the most dangerous elites utilise extensively.

Recommendation: Retain maximum limb viability.

a heavy weapon on the arm isn't necessary as the turret already fills that role. we should focus on maximizing viable options in the field.

on that topic, we've made grappler devices, energy blades, and energy weapons that are all wrist mounted before, but have we ever tried combining all three into a single multifunction device that can switch between the three modes on the fly?

A dual pair of these on the backs of both arms would offer the greatest versatility.

Would it be viable to make an arm cannon that's removable, or perhaps being capable of changing it from an active mode where it covers the arm and a standby mode where it slides back and acts as a bracer of sorts?

A limited use shield could come in handy - no pun intended - if we find ourselves needing to swat away enemies every five seconds. What if we mount it on the hand across from the forearm cannon and move the grapple beam mounting to the turret? It's unlikely that system will be usable simultaneously with the railgun. That leaves room for adding the charge beam to the weapon itself.
Regarding the railgun, is there any power left over for suit thrusters? In addition to boosting jump control, a properly timed burst could reduce recoil.

i just thought of something... forget what i said earlier about re purposing old hardware. with the prevalence of portable scanning devices, and the distinctive design of our traditional weapons, anything we equip this duo with needs to be an entirely new design internally and externally, otherwise it will give away where they came from. the cybernetics shouldn't be an issue since they're custom tailored to their bodies, but everything else is one scan away from someone going, "Wait, isn't that space pirate tech?"

IMO-02, how much of the hardware assembled so far is potentially recognizable?

>>848414
An easy cover story for that would be, "Yeah, I raided a few of their abandoned hideouts. They weren't using this tech, so I took it for myself."

>>848415
You don't need a Scan Visor to see through that bullshit instantly.

>>848417
Not really. It's still believable, but they'll have a hard time convincing anyone to actually believe it.

For an infiltrator, anything that raises suspicion is an unnecessary risk even if there are plausible explanations.

>>848415
My idea for a cover story was that both girls were picked up by a scavenger that liked collecting space pirate things to sell and tinkered with in his free time. Guy died and since neither of them were as good at the scavenging trade as him, grabbed some of his left over junk and became bounty hunters. There's more to it then that but I figured I'd wait until we were asked to come up with a cover story as to not clog up the thread unnecessarily.

>>848435
You don't even need to mention Space Pirates in the cover story. Why, they could be the products of any old military-industrial research black ops. We won't ask who made the Feds' gear (*cough* raided the prototypes from space pirates) if they don't.

What about a dome shield emmitter on the back, a launchable blade/grapler combo device on the back of one arm. Like it's a parrying blade normally, but it can launch and get stuck in things like a harpoon, attached to its emmitter by a grapplebeam. And a full-size fusion cannon on the back of the other arm. No kill like overkill right?

>>848094
>>We should have a handheld rifle that can be used in or out of the suit, since I don't think they'll realistically have it everywhere.
>>I propose it not be built into the suit since, outside of the suit, the Ignole clone is a melee powerhouse but lacks a consistent ranged option
>>Such a weapon has the significant disadvantage that it can't be supplied with energy from the power suit's reactor while detached from it. This would mean a significant drop in firepower.

How about some kind of detachable battery charger for such a weapon? It could be supplied with energy and charge while attached to the armor, and when detached, it'd be able to remain at a relatively stable level of power for at least a while.

Any possibility of a grapple beam mounted in a orbital socket on the chest?

Near-center of mass, potential for surprise use.
How flexibly can a grapple beam be used? Can it repulse things? Can it full-on pick up and manipulate objects, or just pull the lighter of the user and target towards each other?

"center mass" isn't even a good spot to put a single grapple beam. You want it anchored to a point that can point upwards. Because otherwise you hang there at some odd angle.

If you've got two grapple beams then that's different. In that case you want them on either side of center mass, to act like a sort of swing. If they can't be exactly center mass in all situations you want them to be above center mass so that you're guaranteed to be upright during the swing.

>>849499
I realized this was a little unclear, I meant building a battery directly into the weapon, so the weapon can hook up to the suit to feed directly from it while charging.

Personally I'd say we should not jump into any hasty decisions, as vague and unhelpful as that is to say. Rather, we should plan to maximize our versatility and adaptability while playing to our strengths. We cannot afford to get distracted with trivialities. The powered suit is both bulky, and cumbersome, traits which inevitably will lend it to being fairly slow regardless of our attempts to minimize the impact. As such it is recommended that we turn it into the biggest, meanest, walking turret of shit fuckening upperization possible.
To specify, for instance most bounty contracts are liable to take place in areas that are rather pointedly not wide open and excessively spacious/vulnerable. Such locales are anathema to individuals that wish to remain hidden and low profile. We should assume that our Troopers will frequently operate within hideouts, secret bases, or ship board environs, thus our emphasis being on short and mid range functionality. Particularly if one takes into account that specialized ammunition in the form of high explosive, armor piercing, and high impact would turn our railgun design into a monstrous "Jack of all trades, unexpectedly highly competent at all" any and all long range concerns can be addressed to our helpful long range heavy weapon,...

A forearm mounted weapon, while not as powerful as a full arm cannon will still allow for a large degree of fire power to be brought to bear, while maintaining Boiler's melee capability. As an added bonus, having an extra free hand will allow Boiler to be able to make use of any weapons or improvised equipment that may be found in the field, which may just so happen to include heavier weaponry than we can currently mount. As well, being able to procure as much material one site as possible greatly alleviates our development constraints. Further, it can also be safely assumed that if weapons can be procured, then so too can the ammunition.

A grapple beam would be of surprisingly little utility, considering our troopers would not in any way be nimble nor acrobatic enough to make use of it when suited up. And I for one have yet to see a grapple beam long enough to scale buildings or cliff faces perform better than standard, cheaper, reliable physical kit that likes to say "fuck you" to the requirement of grapple capable surfaces/structures. "Tactical combat applications" not withstanding, what with our design currently geared towards murdering the ever loving gentle caresses out of any valid targets for this. Thus, this should only be a concern for Boiler's equipment when disembarking. It would be of far more use to a more vulnerable infiltrator that need not concern themselves with blowing open every door and crack they come across. Hyperbolic, sure, but the validity remains.

In closing, any further development resources really should go towards maximizing the suit's capacity for field improvement/expansion such as an array of extra hard points and mounting brackets. As well, the reinforcement of vulnerable areas is paramount. More armor for the suits power source and legs in particular, as well as extra bracing and servos for the legs to increase weight capacity, shock absorption, and movement speed. Remember kids, if it's not ready to be half destroyed at any given time, it's not ready to function in the cold uncaring universe at all.
I will also second my colleague b9b4da's suggestion of suit thrusters. Even if we can only manage a split second burst that pushes our troopers a foot or so in any direction, it still provides the chance that a particularly strong attack directed at them can be avoided entirely with the liberal spam of quick, erratic jerks in random directions.

This means that what little we can get done on schedule should be of superior quality, and combined with superior space pirate training our troopers will be able to adapt or improvise unforeseen complications to death and carry on their mission. Meanwhile, since we're not doing anything productive here on board this glorified coffin we can mothball most of the ship and just have science teams and maintenance crews keep Cacophane from falling apart. Resources procured by our troopers can then be split between repairs and continued R&D in support of the troopers. Working out kinks and providing upgrades to their capabilities until they can finally commandeer ships we can start ripping the engines out of.

I personally liked the idea of a coaxial weapon. That seems like it'd help with the mid-range part of the equation.

Not a bad idea by any stretch, just tricky to pull off. Any ideas? I know I've started entertaining the idea of making our own "upgrade" attachments, such as in the form of a barrel extension for the arm cannon. Mostly just extra lenses and heat sinks to focus the beam for longer ranges. Alternatively we might even develop some contraption for scattering a more intense beam, increasing bloom until it turns into a short ranged cone on death. Like a "laser shotgun" but one big vague area of death to everything in it instead of splitting the beam into "buckshot."

Best part is, we can always just E-mail the damn things to the troopers while they're deployed or even in the field. With the added benefit being that if these parts are damaged or lost the weapon proper remains functional.

Quality over quantity, I guess, still applies.

1/2 IMO Unit-02 2018/03/15(Thu)05:32 No. 873728 ID: 31b497
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>We go all Energy Weapons and supplement it with the Thermal Cutters and the Railgun should Metroids go rogue and kill everyone again.
Metroids are extinct according to all official reports. Space Pirate science has not yet been successful in resurrecting the species.

>I'd rather have both hands available for when they're needed for grabbing things
>Charge beam, surely! The increase in firepower will make up for the lower power of the forearm-mounted system. Oh, yes. The forearm cannon is preferable to allow the use of two claws in melee. The railgun's primary fire will more than suffice for punching through heavy targets.
Understood. The beam weapon will be a lighter and high rate of fire complement to the turret weapon. The grapple beam will be mounted in the opposite forearm mount.

Use of charge mode will draw off energy from that hand's thermal cutter system but no major incompatibilities are foreseen.

>We've made grappler devices, energy blades, and energy weapons that are all wrist mounted before, but have we ever tried combining all three into a single multifunction device that can switch between the three modes on the fly?
No, not even while on a derelict frigate with limited resources.

>Would it be viable to make an arm cannon that's removable, or perhaps being capable of changing it from an active mode where it covers the arm and a standby mode where it slides back and acts as a bracer of sorts?
It would be non-functional or have a limited internal battery while not deployed The power connections would also be a potential weak spot.

>Regarding the railgun, is there any power left over for suit thrusters? In addition to boosting jump control, a properly timed burst could reduce recoil.
The power suit currently incorporates thermal cutters to assist climbing, strength assistance for jumping, a grapple beam and is compatible with the Volviti's electro-repulsive jump. Given the limited time frame, limited resources and complexity already involved in development of a dual piloted suit, the integration of even more mobility systems will be shelved for now.

>Regardless, I think we've all done an excellent job in the design phase of the suit so far, and look forward to rehabilitation.
Work is slightly ahead of schedule. You are exempted from ration conservation measures for one meal, Science Team. Well done.

2/2 IMO Unit-02 2018/03/15(Thu)05:37 No. 873729 ID: 31b497
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>I just thought of something... forget what I said earlier about re-purposing old hardware. With the prevalence of portable scanning devices, and the distinctive design of our traditional weapons, anything we equip this duo with needs to be an entirely new design internally and externally, otherwise it will give away where they came from. The cybernetics shouldn't be an issue since they're custom tailored to their bodies, but everything else is one scan away from someone going, "Wait, isn't that space pirate tech?"
>IMO-02, how much of the hardware assembled so far is potentially recognisable?
Most Space Pirate technology is modified or improved versions of systems acquired via forced technology exchange or archaeological expeditions. Additionally, this specific suit is designed to obfuscate its origins.

>An easy cover story for that would be, "Yeah, I raided a few of their abandoned hideouts. They weren't using this tech, so I took it for myself."
As Space Pirate technology is desirable due to its sophisticated nature, this explanation may help if design elements hint at the Secret Troopers' true origins.

>You don't need a Scan Visor to see through that bullshit instantly.
A Scan Visor is an extremely rare and sophisticated system.

>For an infiltrator, anything that raises suspicion is an unnecessary risk even if there are plausible explanations.
Science Team should take a brief break from design matters while the power suit is fabricated. They might as well turn their brains onto development of the cover story for their bounty hunter team.

Both project subjects have been invited to critique any obvious flaws in Science Team's ideas.

This should assist in determining if the Boiler Trooper is suffering from neurological impairment following brain transplantation. The Volviti specimen is still undergoing final repairs before transplantation but the Garden Trooper candidate has been included. This is anticipated to convince the candidate that Science Team is confident in the probability of her surviving surgery. Studies show this creates a slight but measurable increase in survival rates for intrusive brain surgery.

>My idea for a cover story was that both girls were picked up by a scavenger that liked collecting space pirate things to sell and tinkered with in his free time. Guy died and since neither of them were as good at the scavenging trade as him, grabbed some of his left over junk and became bounty hunters. There's more to it then that but I figured I'd wait until we were asked to come up with a cover story.

"I don't understand! Why did this male sscavenger acquire two female members of species that rarely leave their homeworld? Was he planning to ssell them? Why didn't he?"

"Is it possible he was some sort of xenophile pervert?"

"Maybe they consspired to kill him?"

"Mutiny? How daring!"

Science Team should also assign the project subjects bounty hunter aliases.

This one would just like it noted that it would likely be better to keep the cover relatively simple, insofar as that's possible considering the seclusive species. Admittedly the most immediately viable option is simply being escaped slaves that have taken up bounty-hunting both for funding and as a form of revenge against those that enslaved them. That sort of occurrence isn't exactly rare, is it? The technology, and possibly even the alterations to the Volviti could be passed off by saying that it was a wealthy slaver.

>>873730
Or owner.

other backstory idea. Ex-mercs. Basically joined/pressed ganged (whatever one is more believable for the race) small time merc group. Eventually found/bought/scavenged enough gear they decided to giving bounty hunting a shot. Why, pays better, old group died in a fight that went wrong with only these 2 surviving, deserted because old crew were a bunch of dicks, feel free to pick whatever one sounds the most believable/ you like more or hell come up with one yourselves if you think you can come up with something better.

As for names
>boiler
red
ruby
flint
ember
crimson
igneous

>Garden
jade
rose
petal
mag
jolt
oleander

feel free to pick whatever one suits your fancy.

>>873729
Simplicity is worth considering, 'Boiler' and 'Garden' already seem to fall within the standard parameters for such an alias, since most arise from nicknames.

Project Boiler, codename: Gronk.
Project Garden, codename: Bloom.
Sophisticated, custom-tailored hardware suggests slightly more amiable relation to employers than slavery. Suggesting a reclusive, xenophilic cult sought to uplift two highly disparate species as proof of concept for their beliefs. Suggest said cult was wiped out as proof of concept for their battlesuit.

Technically, the Volviti is female and male. Unless those organs were also damaged. That may be relevant if we want to go with the "xenophile pervert" explanation.

Perhaps the best lie is one that contains as much of the truth as possible? A claim that you were captured and experimented upon by space pirates would explain away both any design similarities in your technology and any familiarity with space pirates that you might happen to reveal later. We would just have to come up with some convincing evidence that you are escapees and not agents. Fortunately, the psyops department tells me that their years of careful staging and information manipulation have convinced the galaxy at large that we are a race of idiots obsessed with tubes and injecting dangerous substances into ourselves, thereby causing them to underestimate us. They will never suspect that we would use something as subtle as secret clone agents. If desired, we could combine this with other cover story elements. Perhaps, for example, you were captured by slavers for xenophile pervert purposes, then they were raided by space pirates who captured you again and experimented upon you, then you escaped and were captured again by other space criminals, but then you used your experimental advantages to work for them and climb their ranks as a team, before killing them in a conspiratorial mutiny and striking out on your own?

Anyway, aliases. Most bounty hunters seem to just go by their own names. Do we have any resources suggesting what traditional ignole and volviti naming conventions are like? Or, as primitives, they might use simple descriptive names "translated" from their "native language". If their backstory has them as a team, they may also use nicknames supposedly assigned by each other, or by whatever space criminals they allegedly hung out with if we go with that story. You know how those space mafia types are for nicknames. Given their physiologies, a likely nickname for the pair in that style could be "Squash and Stretch"? That's not exactly intimidating, though.

Of course, it is imperative that their names sound good when introduced or called as a pair.

>>873729
Let's just go with something believable: They we're both kidnapped by space pirates and experimented on, then broke free and killed their way to safety. The Boiler can be named Seere, while the Volviti can be named Verde. The Federation loves theme naming, they'll buy it in a second, and considering how many times our experiments have broken loose in the past it's believable. The Volviti didn't even have a brain and it killed a tech and broke free! Via exploding of course, but still impressive.

I like "Cinder" and "Bloom" as names. As for the backstories, I'd actually rather that we distance them as much from the Space Pirates as possible--we don't want people even to think about the possibility that they're Space Pirate agents, and as soon as we mention that they escaped captivity, that will be a thought in people's heads. I like this >>873737 idea, though instead of suggesting that Cinder and Bloom betrayed their uplifters, which would cause people not to trust them and to hold them at arm's length, let's say that they were attacked and wiped out by Space Pirates while Cinder and Bloom were out running practice trials in their new gear. That would give them a reason to hate us, which would make the Federation more likely to trust them.

you know some of this does bring a question to mind. What exactly are the rules of engagement if team glasshouse does come across other space pirates while out in the field? I mean should we actively seek out space pirate bounties or try to avoid them? If we do come across other space pirates do we gun them down or try to see if they could provide aid to our battered ship? I'm just a little worried that if we start just gunning down other space pirate bases, even if it's just for us to raid them for parts, that we might be labeled rouge by the rest of the space pirate community... which would be bad. Also why I'm a bit hesitant to have glasshouse backstory be to space pirate heavy as if they claim to hate space pirates but never take any bounties against them it might raise a few eyebrows with the federation.

Obstacle: Lack of Federation Contact.
Solution: Outsource generation and review of pseudonyms to Human Brain Tanks.
Result: Projected high compatibility with Federation culture. Specifics unknown.

Boiler(B): Hard, Garden(G): Long, Mechsuit(M): Thrust.
B: Boromir, G: Dumbledore, M: Kenny.
B: Suede Shoes, G: Zoot Suit, M: Blue Jeans.
B: Who, G: (w)Here, M: What.
B: Adam, G: Eve, M: Garden.

Less is more. Murderhobos with no living ties have no past to investigate, no claims to contradict, they just show up and get paid, no questions asked. Keep Space Pirates out of it. If pressed, they could always say they're ex-special operations from a minor xenos power and their previous employment history is classified or got mind-wiped. (By saying 'minor', they'll never suspect it is the Space Pirates, for we are mighty and glorious!)

Cool names: Reaper (Boiler) and Thresher (Garden). Together, they form team Combine (Harvester?). Personally, though, they'll always be "Chio" and "Fool" to me.

>>873756

While this may be a believable cover story, the problem is this is that means that they are so gonna try and get that tech or be under watch.

>>873729
>"Is it possible he was some sort of xenophile pervert?"
>"Maybe they consspired to kill him?"
Yes. A xenophile pervert took both of you from your homeworlds and you both worked together to kill him and make your escape.

>Scavenger cover story
Also yeah, if you wanted more details My original idea was to have it that the scavenger met one of you on your species's home world via crash landing while trying to scavenge near said home world or simply passing by before hitting something or being attacked by something and forcing them to land on the planet. Really pick whatever reason you want the end result was the guy is now stuck on the home world and wants to get off before it kills him since either of you races' home worlds are rather harmful to any non native. Probably going to say he met Garden first since she's going to be the tech savvy one on the team so it would explain why she's so handing with technology even though she comes from a backwater planet. She saw the crash and went to investigate and found the scavenger's ship and the scavenger, who in short, asked for her help in recovering some of the parts of his ship that broke off in the crash to help him patch the ship together enough for him to leave. Reason she went along with it could be because she always wanted to explore the stars, was swept up in the moment and made in impulse decision, wanted to learn more about aliens, or hell she was the xenophile. Again pick whatever you're most comfortable with since this is going to be your cover story, in the end all the mattered is you helped and went with the scavenger into the stars.

As for Boiler, could have it that the scavenger and garden where collecting salvage from a downed ship on her home planet during the cold season and she stowed away on the ship because of adventure or something, met her and she asked to join the crew to travel, they picked her up on another ship they were scavenging, hell could just say she was a merc looking for a job. (Just because most of both of boiler and garden's species don't leave their home world doesn't mean all of them stay.) And as for why the Scavenger kept both of you. One of you is immune to fire and the other is highly resilient to radioactivity. The two of you could scavenge more dangerous wrecks much more safely then most others. Plus both of you are good in a fight and I do believe that space pirate tech is illegal so having some muscle when dealing with shady buyers probably isn't to far fetched of and idea.

As for what happened to the guy, died during a deal gone wrong. Meeting some shady contacts that felt that a price above free was highway robbery, in turn decides to comment some highway robbery, Scavenger dies and the two of you managed to escape. As for the Scavenger themselves, only things that really mater are that the were a scavenger to explain where you got space pirate tech, was a tinkerer to explain why said tech is custom made for the two of you, and that they died to criminals which is why the two of you became bounty hunters. (getting paid to get revenge? Sounds like a good deal to me) So they can be female, male, a saint, a prick, a xenophile, really whatever as long as you keep those first three details. Though the last one could be changed as long as either of you have a reason why the 2 of you wanted to become bounty hunters.

Granted I came up with this plan back before Glasshouse was a thing and Boiler's armor was going to be some less then power armor so the tinkerer thing seemed more plausible but seeing how their best bounty hunter was a child who lived through an attack by Riley of all people only to end up in the hands of a now dead alien race that decided the first thing they should do is to genetically modify her into a super solder and give her a space suit that has enough fire power to wipe out a small army and can be upgraded to be even more deadly, I don't think having an unrecognized and unknown genius scavenger throw a duel piloted mech suit together is too outlandish.

If there are gaps in the story, blame them on short term memory failure due to imbibing drinkable toxins. That's a thing other species do, right?

Or is that just humans that do that? I don't remember.