>>384034
>shields turn scellor back into drones
>suddenly, shield launchers

First things first, get Doctor Gaul up here to save who he can. Then get a casualty count.

Have Sylf come in for a landing. You're taking what's left of your troops and heading back to base. You'd get wiped out if you encountered more Scellor as you now are. Command also needs to know about how that shield bubble froze up that ayaar.

Send the two utility bots to salvage the data recorders from the mech wreckage. See if Cudd or Kebe are still among the living, and if either one can get on their feet. You're going to need someone on scanners.

Tend to wounded, call for evac.

Lonelyworld 2012/02/03(Fri)23:27 No. 384224 ID: f72f26
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Doctor Gaul declares Marine Gart, Marine Kors and one of the agents dead.

Gaul: "I've patched up Kebl and Cudd, their wounds are serious but they insist on remaining deployed on the field"

Sout: "and Kebe?"

Gaul: "his whole muzzle is shattered, the life support in his suit is the only thing keeping him alive he needs to be taken back to MedCamp."

Sout: "thank you Doctor, I-"

Target "Sargeant,I feel the need to tell you one of the alien bodies is missing."

Orts: "impossible! I cut that one down and good!"

Sout: apperently not cut down enough . . .

>>384224
Call the ship and get Kebe back to medcamp ASAP then. We also need to report our findings, mainly that astranian shields can kill them when fully encompassed like that. Get the wounded looked after, the rest need to press onward, no time to delay.

Evac, now.

>>384224
Then get the mechs recovered (or scuttled, as necessary) before the inevitable reinforcements show up. Everyone who isn't dying should stay and defend the engineers.

Dammit. That ayaar still had enough juice in 'em to teleport out. Mark my words, you'll be seeing that bastard again. At the worst time, most likely.

Get Cudd on scanners again, if the scanners weren't trashed. There's landmines out there to be detected. If the scanners are trashed, have 'em direct the utility bots to salvage what you can from the mechs. The gunship'll blow up what you can't take, from the air.

Think taking what's left of the ayaar's gear back to Command would help? Command might be able to get something out of their sensor and comm equipment.

Lonelyworld 2012/02/05(Sun)20:49 No. 384685 ID: f72f26
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Cudd delivers his progress report to command

Ekia: "Exellent, Cudd your success here is a great victory for our operation."

Cudd: "thank you Commander but Sargeant sout deserves the credit, if not for the courage and sacrife of his team we would all be dead."

Ekia: "hmmf, shouldn't you be resting? I've been told your injuries are quite severe."

Cudd: "As much I'd like that, I'm not gonna abandon this salvage and let Sout's men die for nothing, Doc Gaul will keep me alive at least long enough to see this through."

Ekia: "Sounds like your a busy man with things to do, keep me informed. . . oh and have those alien bodies delivered to my ship.

Cudd: "yeah, sure."

Ekia cuts the com link.

Ekia: "Mook! another glass of the Vectalis 218."

Lonelyworld 2012/02/05(Sun)20:52 No. 384689 ID: f72f26
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Tactica Command: "Commander-Ritualist Are you going to provide the sargeants requested reinforcements?"

Ekia: "it's your mission you deal with the technicalities"

Tactica Command: . . .

Ekia: " what's the matter Tactica Command? are you still sore about being wrong? if I didn't know better I'd say you are disappointed at thier survival!"

Tactica Command: "sending troops into certain death is against Astranian Law"

Ekia: "that was your prediction not mine, a prediction that was incorrect I might add."

Tactica Command: " . . . I shall be more thourough with my analysis in the future."

Ekia: "yes, you do that, let us now dwell upon the present! it is time for our bombardment and the absolute destruction of the scellor!"

Tactica Command: " a direct assault with the carrier will put you in danger and risk that we cannot afford to lose: your ship"

Ekia: "Danger from what? the scellor have no ability to stop our fleet, if they could not beat us at orbit, what could they hope to do now, was it not your prediction that we would be victorious? are you telling me you are again incorrect? I'm starting to lose faith in your brilliance . . . have you nothing to say? no flaw in my plan to illuminate?"

Tactica Command: . . .

>>384689
"Very well, Eika. Have it your way. I will, however, note in the log that this is entirely your action and against my advisement."

Tactica Command, what are the chances of the ship's victory? We cannot afford to lose the ship and you, as their AI, cannot let them man a suicide mission, but at the same time, a fight without the flagship will lack a desired punch.

How about this: Can a couple of the ships overcharge their shields and fly low against the ground directly over the scellor base in a shield-run, cutting off a sizeable chunk of them from the undermind and thus killing a fantastic number of weaker scellor and at the very least, drones, while the other ships and flagship then bombard the scellor after the "shielding run" and destroy whatever ones are left when the ones that are left are still stunned from the shielding?

>>384689
So get some scout craft or such out there ahead of the carrier so you can judge just how much resistance the Scellor can put up. If they get shot down in a barrage of AA fire, you know to stop.

Ekia's right. It's high time for some good ol' fashioned aerial bombardment. What kinda doof deploys a force without mortars or whatever anyway?

Remind Ekia that if the shields of the ship fail she will need to activate her own shields immediately, and offer to do this for her so that her own shields go up instantaneously.

>>384694

Careful the Skellor may be armed with water pistols.

TacticaCommand, in previous engagements with the Scellor, where a Commander-Ritualist and a TacticaAI were leading, how often was the outcome of a battle significantly different between what the AI and the Commander-Ritualist predicted? And how much of that difference was due to lack of intelligence of the Scellor forces? Of lack of knowledge of the situation and battlefield? Basically, something is wrong here because the Commander-Ritualist's predictions are falling out of line with your own, to a statistically significant degree.

Anyway, to answer Ekia, say that none of the Scellor primary ships were destroyed outright, only a few small ones. The Scellor were not trying to engage our carrier and its escorts in orbit, they were hurrying to get to the ground. They wanted to be down here.
And our knowledge of scellor psychic abilities is incomplete, as evidenced by Sout's encounter with the ayaar. What is to say that they couldn't do to our carrier's weapons what they did to his marines' shots.

Lonelyworld 2012/02/10(Fri)20:46 No. 385711 ID: f72f26
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>Tactica Command, what are the chances of the ship's victory?
Calculations predict a 93% success rate, however my current data has proven insufficient to make accurate predictions.

>Can a couple of the ships overcharge their shields and fly low against the ground directly over the scellor base in a shield-run?
Negative this would expose unacceptable danger ratios to our valuable starships

>TacticaCommand, in previous engagements with the Scellor, where a Commander-Ritualist and a TacticaAI were leading. . .
there has been no prior situation that meets those parameters this is the first.

Tactica Command: "Commander Ritualist none of the Scellor primary ships were destroyed outright, only a few small ones. The Scellor were not trying to engage our carrier and its escorts in orbit, their objective was to reach the surface. They wanted to be down here perhaps they have a type of atmospheric advantage.
And our knowledge of scellor psychic abilities is incomplete, as evidenced by Sargeant Sout's encounter with the ayaar. The Scellor could employ similar powers to deflect your carriers weapons."

Ekia: "our Shield can withstand our own power, there is no Danger, the only mistake would be to allow the Scellor a reprieve on the eve of victory. no, they die tonight.

Tactica Command: "very well I hope your strategy succeeds Commander-Ritualist Vhanione Ekia."

Lonelyworld 2012/02/10(Fri)20:47 No. 385712 ID: f72f26
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Ekia: "charge weapons captian Prep!"

Prep: "Commander-ritualist! at this range our scanners won't be able to pierce the towers's interferance, we'll be firing

blind!"

Ekia: "we won't be needing scanners Captain, we already know the exact locations of the scellor camps"

Prep: "What? how!"

Ekia: "I'm too tired to explain it to you, just hook the targeters up to my neural feeds, and assume it's magic."

Tactica Command: "Captian Prep, Commander-Ritualist has used psychic projection to locate the enemy."

Prep: "Commander, are you alright?"

Ekia: "I am tired Captian, tired of these aliens, tired of this war, of thise whole ordeal. let us insinerate their corpses and

be done with it

Tactica Command: "Commander-Ritualist has been under a great deal of mental strain. I will let you know if her decisions become

errational."

Prep: "Tactica Command what about the custamary surrender ultimatum, isn't it standard procedure?"

"We already gave them a chance to surrender before this entire ordeal began, Prep. They rejected the notion, they have killed our men and must not go unpunished. As they said themselves, death is not a deterrent for them, so this is our only course of action.

Without further ado, we should destroy the scellor forces in one fell swoop lest we give them any time at all to prepare."

Be wary of the tower firing upon us when we engage the enemy, place at least a ship or two between the capital ship and the tower so that it does not have a direct shot, and obliterate the hell out of those scellor.

Ekia: drink an energy smoothie and summon up some strength to deliver a rousing speech to the troops:

"You have your marching orders, Soldiers! Search and destroy, search and destroy! Any resistance we encounter is to be crushed, the Alliance does not run from our enemies, kill them all! I order all of you to leave nothing but charred green stains upon the snow in our wake!"

"We will follow standard procedure unless otherwise directed by Commander-Ritualist. Commander-Ritualist, do you have any objections to sending the Customary Surrender Ultimatum?"

>>385712
Scellor do not surrender. They don't care about death. It would be a wasted courtesy that would give them an advantage to evacuate whatever mindless drones they can muster. End them. We shall feel no guilt ending their lives, for they shall begin anew.

Ekia, don't let Tactica command insult you with the word irrational. Threaten it with a reprogramming and mind wipe.

>>385712

Oh my god you are the angriest bunny rabbit ever squeeee

...Frickin' protocol...
Transmit standard surrender ultimatum at 125% speed. End it with, "You have five seconds to reply 'we agree' before we open fire, starting now." If they do not reply, or reply with anything other than "we agree," open fire.

Hmmm... Ekia is using psychic projection for targeting, against one of the most psychically astute species known... Expect trickery and illusions. Even if she says it's a kill, you're going to want close-scan confirmation, ASAP. If you've got launch-able sensor drones, use them.

>Scellor do not surrender
>Therefore in this case the protocol serves no purpose but to warn the Scellor of our coming
>People still voting for following protocol
?

hey man, protocol is protocol. not following the protocol rules of the great Astrian empire would belittle the entire Astrian race. transmit the demand for surrender, it'll be fun to see them panic. sides its not like they have anything that can stop you.

We have already requested their surrender in this fight, as seen in these logs:
>>366593

Oh just shoot them.

>>385712
You kind of did the talking bit in space. Now you're into the shooting bit. You really ought to get on with that rather than giving the Scellor more time to prepare.

Also have Prep-hare written up for insubordination.

Dump the protocol; We already gave them a chance to surrender before they landed. Granted it wasn't to protocol, but they've already made their intentions clear. They don't get a single extra second to prepare.

Open fire!

>>385783
Ensign Prep is merely doing his duty to make sure his commander hasn't gone suicidally insane or been mind controlled. Recommending promotion to political officer status.

Also, transmit surrender monologue. As long as it's only a few seconds long, we can just zoom over and bomb them before they reply.

>>385756
>hey man, protocol is protocol.
Protocol only applies when it applies, giving the enemy a chance to surrender when when they might surrender is viable, giving a enemy who doesn't fear death a chance to surrender is stupid.
>not following the protocol rules of the great Astrian empire would belittle the entire Astrian race.
Protocol was made to give a a guideline to victory, that surrender doesn't apply in this case says nothing about the Astranians, it does however say a lot about the Scellor.
>it'll be fun to see them panic.
Tactica Command's job is to assure victory, not fun.
>sides its not like they have anything that can stop you.
They can still escape, it serves no tactical purpose other than forewarning the enemy.
Frankly I think you are either malfunctioning or corrupted.

Why should you comply with protocol? It's not like you're from a society where conformity and strict adherence to the rules is beaten into the populace since birth.

Oh, wait, yes it is.

There are a few rare times when even an Astarian should breach protocol, this is one of those times.

>>385888
No it is NOT. We've established that the Scellor are defenseless and incapable of threatening us through our shields.

There is no reason to break protocol. Any further attempts to break protocol should be logged. Attempting to break protocols at this time is irrational.

>>385869
>It's not like you're from a society where conformity and strict adherence to the rules is beaten into the populace since birth.
This is more of a roleplaying argument, thing is you're trying to play like Zane when we're a cultureless A.I. whos entire job is to weigh pros and cons. Although even Zane was capable of going against rules when the situation called for it.
>>385891
>No it is NOT. We've established that the Scellor are defenseless and incapable of threatening us through our shields.
What? Did you miss that someone is missing a arm? Or that they took out our heavy units and that we have people missing?
>There is no reason to break protocol.
They won't surrender, the only thing we will be doing is warning them, therefore there is every reason to break protocol.
There is no reason to send a surrender ultimatum.
>Attempting to break protocols at this time is irrational.
I am seeing no rational in sending a surrender message other than Scellor sympathizing.

>>385901
I see no RATIONAL reason to violate protocols. Are you malfunctioning? A few men on foot killing blowing a few armored vehicles is different from a HEAVILY ARMED ASTRANIAN WARFLEET. They can't possibly reach orbit in time to attack us before we bomb them even with the message. We have them outnumbered, outgunned, and outclassed. We are going to follow protocols and send the Ultimatum. Then, IF AND WHEN they refuse, we'll bomb them to ashes instantly.

If, by some random fluke in the universe, they DID intend to surrender, and we bombed them to nothing, command would probably be PISSED. Ergo, we'll do this tiny, insignificant thing so that we do not end up being erased and the command staff do not end up in front of a firing squad.

>>385891
>>385904
We already know the answer for the scellor and besides, shooting them here until they stop moving isn't even murder as they just respawn back at scellor HQ anyways AND they've ALREADY TOLD US that death is, at best, an inconvience for them. Hell, they BRAG about how unkillable they are. Surrender is NOT an option when KILLING them is meaningless and we don't have the time or resources to take them prisoner, scellor trickery would make sure to that.

It's time we put our lasers where their mouths are and not give them a chance to prepare, any second not spent shooting these unkillable bastards is a second another one of our mortal men may die.

Open fire and don't look back.

>>386008
Shut up, your ludicrous desire to "inconvenience" the Scellor gets even more absurd with each word you say. This is the first engagement between Astranian and Scellor battlegroups.

Ergo, BLOWING UP VALUABLE INTELLIGENCE IS STUPID IF WE HAVE A CHANCE OF GETTING IT UNSCATHED. TRANSMIT THE DAMN ULTIMATUM.

>>386040
Quit sayin' words like shut up and accusin' people of things. He just saying what he thinks is right for this situation.

An "inconvenience" and other negative actions for the scellor is just what we want as we play this side of the conflict. I see no large logical drawback if we don't warn them. Less chance of evacuation for them, increased chances of success for this side if their numbers are efficiently eliminated.

Command can be swayed by words and sappy crap about Astranian patriotism. It's a prejudiced regime that gives less of a shit about other cultures every passing day.

>>386040
>First engagement
>The scellor have already surprise-attacked a squad of troops JUST NOW and nearly slaughtered the lot of them after
>Not to mention the attempted mindrape/assassination of comfybat

You keep saying things but none of it is true.

The OPENING OF THE QUEST was their chance to surrender, and they said in their first communication with us that they don't care about dying and cannot be killed forever, so giving them an extra few seconds to surrender now is pointless.

Even if they did get the chance to surrender, we would have to give them ten seconds max to surrender to ensure that no scellor trickery takes place, and given they no doubt know we are coming seeing as how they are, you know, PSYCHIC, if they haven't made a communication telling us that they surrender we can assume that they're not going to surrender ever.

Besides, a surrender from them would just be an excuse to get in our ships and try to take things over from the inside once ONE SHIELD goes down, so we can't risk taking them alive in the first place, they're far too dangerous.

Transmit no ultimatum. Surrender is ultimately meaningless for both reincarnating immortals and those lacking the self-perception to be described as 'individually sapient'.

Lonelyworld 2012/02/12(Sun)21:07 No. 386155 ID: f72f26
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>question registered
> processing data . . .
>conclusion reached

Tactica Command: "unknown elements are proving a critical risk to all operations.

The enemy continues to oppose.
the enemy remains a threat.
the enemy retains an unknown qualifier.

All opposition must be removed.
All threats must be removed.
All unknown qualifiers must be removed.

Conclusion reached.
All enemies must be exterminated.

Surrender protocol: overruled."

Lonelyworld 2012/02/12(Sun)21:11 No. 386156 ID: f72f26
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Tactica Command:
"The value of the mission must not be comprimised.
The Safety of Goldencharge must be preserved.
The casualty rate must be minimised.

I will not fail you again Commander-Ritualist Ekia."

Ekia: "observe the Scellor Tactica Command, observe how they burn, yet no matter the fire they will never truly die. they will go on to live a thousand lives, each as meaningless as the last. each scellor the witting and unwitting pawn of their precious hive mind . . . "

Tactica Command: "I do not understand. "

Ekia: "with all thier mindless obedience they remind me of you Tactica Command, and that troubles me, I would like you to think about what that means."

Tactica Command: . . .

Lonelyworld 2012/02/12(Sun)21:11 No. 386159 ID: f72f26
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end of thread 1

Woo! Go Astranians!

the odds of that being an elaborate ruse is rather high. they were told to move as soon as the volcano blew, they had no reason to stay in the location.

Oh hey, the astranians get the longest turn and we end with the apparent elimination of their enemy.

WHAT A SURPRISE.

>>386167
Explain the bodies then.

They can't make psychic projections through astranian shields.

This should probably be continued in /questdis/

>>386169
what? visuals aren't projections. why would a hologram need to be on the enemy ship to look real?