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File 137737260523.png - (109.31KB , 700x700 , 422.png )
537104 No. 537104 ID: d38f67

"Does jetal combat feel odd to you, Polatt?" Alison asks of Polatt. "We can all sense what Unity senses, despite that only a few of us have taken the drivers seat.
>"Yeah, but it's more the whole thousands of individuals in here implying that my life is a lie that I'm trying to absorb right now."
Expand all images
>>
No. 537105 ID: d38f67
File 137737268841.png - (125.17KB , 700x700 , 423.png )
537105

"Oh, yeah. You'll..." Alison wants to say he'll get used to it, but she honestly has no idea. It may not have been the first time she pulled someone out of a simulation, too. "Well, you're with us, now."

There isn't much at the moment to sense anyway. Unity just feels herself rolling out of a compartment. This continues for a long while, she must be moving far. There isn't much she can do about it.
>>
No. 537106 ID: d38f67
File 137737274538.png - (8.74KB , 700x700 , 424.png )
537106

Something slows her down, and one kiloton of jetalium plops onto Unity. She starts morphing.

The two favorite options were to either attack the empire's orbital station and gain its powers, or exit empire territory and go into the blackmap zones for rogue help. From the sounds of it, the former is fast, highly rewarding and ridiculously dangerous, while the former involves largely unknown risks and rewards.
>>
No. 537107 ID: 9ddf68

well we don't have our power boast any more so I say head for the blackmap zones for now to make some friends that can give us better gear or even people who would be willing to fight with us when we attack sapphire. And my plan was to head to the blackmap zones first and before we attack sapphire we hit the satellite and then cash the damn thing into the guy or EIN if it proves to be a big enough pain in the ass. Also people can be hijacked by EIN here now so beware.
>>
No. 537111 ID: 41690e

Huh. Well, one thing to be aware of is real-world nobles will be coming to try and kill us soon, and we now lack our operator in the matrix advantage. Plus, Sevener will be following from behind before very long, and probably still be hostile. That means we need to get out of here ASAP.

Pity we couldn't take our drones or cell phones with us. Although if we're flying away from the planet (either to hit the space station, or hit the outer territories) internet access wouldn't help for very long, anyways.

...Outer reaches might be safer. If we can fly right up and hit the station, so can Sevener and any nobles. And as soon as we're dead, she wins. Whereas the outer reaches are bigger, we have more room and freedom to gather power without organized opposition. We should have some time- it'll be a bit before Sevener can gather the power to hit Sapphire.
>>
No. 537113 ID: 76b151

I think we should at the very least scout out the orbital station before deciding so lets head there first since it is closer.
>>
No. 537114 ID: 0814a4

y>>537106
i say go on the offensive. go big or go home! (by go home, of course i mean don't because you'll be dead)
>>
No. 537130 ID: 735f4f

Orbital station sounds awesome. But so does the blackmap zones. I say we get out of the building safely and get the lay of the land before we start rocketing off somewhere.

We also want to check if physics are different here and if we are weaker or stronger now that we have left the simulation. Our biggest strength is our ability to multitask. We have the potential to be a small army if we can find more mods that support it.

Do we know if Sevener brought her people along as well? Because if its just her in there we have a advantage in the long run.
>>
No. 537133 ID: 76b151

>>537130
yes she brought her supporters too. Was mentioned several times by her.
>>
No. 537148 ID: 96c896

Apparently we are now comparatively underpowered, so let's take the less immediately dangerous option.
>>
No. 537155 ID: 76b151

>>537148
where did you get that impression? We are still an S-Class Jetal.
>>
No. 537159 ID: 41690e

>>537155
Because we no longer have the harvester simulation cheating and given us a boost for being an operator.

Also, we kind of just had close calls with a noble and Sevener. Both of which are still going to be around to fight us, actually.
>>
No. 537178 ID: 76b151

>>537159
We weren't actually fighting Sevener we were trying to get past her, and as for the Noble we WON that fight. Self-destruct generally is only used when you know you've lost.
>>
No. 537188 ID: 2f4b71

If we have the mass to get to orbital velocity, then that's definitely the way to go. Hold the highest ground there is.
>>
No. 537231 ID: d38f67
File 137739927625.png - (6.87KB , 700x700 , 425.png )
537231

The physics, as far as Alison can tell, are effectively the same. Here they seem more real, like the difference between a good realistic painting and the real thing. Engineer does not think things will be particularly different, however.

Alison decides that at the least, she can go in the direction of the orbital factory and decide whether or not to attack it from there. She goes to the door. She does not sense any cores, but sense jetalium returns megatons.

"So Engineer, do we just... thrust up?"
>"We need to find out where the station is in orbit first. It could be in low orbit, it could be in high orbit."

>Operator off shift. Processing bank info... current balance of Operator account: 0 jetalium, 0 new empire dollars. Current balance of Account Benefactor - Loviro: 11,750 raw jetalium, 40,000 new empire dollars. Withdraw?

Alison wonders if Loviro just forgot to mention that.
>>
No. 537236 ID: 735f4f

Hey we got some starter funds. Thanks dad you are the best.

Make sure to save it for a rainy day and not blow it all on moon pies and video games.
>>
No. 537237 ID: 76b151

>>537231
Someone could have deposited it if it isn't Loviro's originally. Still if we are going to attack an orbital station going Starship Alison mode wouldn't hurt.

.... pity we don't have a battery that could support a couple megatons hah
>>
No. 537238 ID: 57a559

Withdraw, we should quickly move out. Sevener probably isn't that far behind us... if she hasn't gotten her jetallium yet, we may just be able to imprision her as nothing more as an orb, ensuring our victory while giving us the opportunity the discover the world around us. This was likely her plan, rather than delay or kill us, it would have been better to enure than success is unreachable by adjusting certain parameters for the opponent while still keeping them alive. Make Sevener nothing but a core and we've neutralized her for the rest of the sim, and can freely kill her to end it quickly once we've learned enough.
>>
No. 537249 ID: 41690e

>Withdraw?
Hey, free resources. And if we leave without them, I doubt we'll have another chance to collect.

Take it.
>>
No. 537257 ID: bc8d67

>Withdraw?
Um... Yes. Very yes! And clean it out! Thank you, Loviro! And also check if there's a secure locker or safety deposit box to go with your's or Loviro's account as well.

Take your time absorbing using straw mode, but keep an eye on where the jetals are out there. If the smaller masses move away and larger ones group up and move in, then they're likely readying to attack. In that case switch to combo gel and light absorption to suck up the last of the mass and get ready to bust out.

Engineer is right about needing to know where the orbital factory is before heading up. Finding out where the Blackmap Zones are as well would be a good idea. That means maps of the entire solar system, including ones that show where the major space facilities are. And GPS isn't gonna work off-planet, so we'll need some other navigation device than a phone as well. Dunno if we have a window of time where we could just walk into a store to buy this stuff, but if we do we ought to take it. Using a low mass division, of course.

>>537238
Uh... That doesn't make any sense for Sevener to do, unless it's reversed and Unity is the one that was stuck as a core at Sevener's mercy. And it's doubtful that Sevener will be hot on our heels, since she'd know that'd put her at great risk of being intercepted as a core. We almost certainly have until the next O-Route window before she comes through, though keep an ear out for rolling cores coming down, just in case.
>>
No. 537264 ID: d38f67
File 137740362873.png - (15.17KB , 700x700 , 426.png )
537264

Alison withdraws everything, but will be sure to not blow it all at once. She does, however, try and eat it all at once. The ground seems impervious to Alison's new weight.

"How do we go about that?"
>"We need a phone, or just some internet access. That's assuming the location of it isn't hidden. Otherwise we need to find someone who does know."
>"We're in the capital, I expect." says Recluse. "Unless we have someone to see in the capital, we want to be anywhere else before trying to investigate anything. Preferably unseen. If we are discovered, it might be exceptionally difficult to shake the nobles who get sent at us."
>>
No. 537267 ID: 76b151

Lets go see about buying a phone. Probably should use a generic Belenos form
>>
No. 537268 ID: 76b151

We should also see about buying a battery recharger. We'll have used our current battery up in about 5 b-hours with current usage.

That or find a safe place to put most of it while we go about our business.
>>
No. 537269 ID: 41690e

Right. Let's sneak out, then. We need a generic Belnos form, again.

Sneaking around and going unobserved should be slightly easier with Polatt on board, right? Now we have someone who's actually had a lifetime fitting into this society.

We'll grab a phone in a slightly lower risk area.
>>
No. 537271 ID: c23ab0

Allison. How would you know whether something feels more real or not? You've never even seen a painting before, much less the reality that painting is in.
>>
No. 537274 ID: d38f67
File 137740514614.png - (14.33KB , 700x700 , 427.png )
537274

>How would you know whether something feels more real or not?
Alison means this feels more real by comparison, but maybe when she sees the real world, her world will all seem like crude sketches by comparison.

>Let's sneak out, then.
Alison would love to, except that she ate too much.

At her morph of 70, she can only hold 8,062 kg given current battery constraints. If she lowers it down to 20, however, she'll be able to hold 12,093. The downside of that is that she will have to drop mods.

She can also simply hold an amount of unpowered jetalium and carry it with her. She believes that she can carry 25% of her own weight in unpowered jetalium without significant slowdown.
>>
No. 537281 ID: 96c896

>>537274
SO BIG. Let's go for the full 8k and carry some out with us. Leave the rest in the deposit. ...that means we'll be walking out of here with 10077kg, and we'll be leaving 2545 in the bank.

I would like to note that walking around at 8k would have us use up 7700 battery per hour, and we only have 80,000. We would have around 10 hours of battery life, which means we will probably wind up burning a decent amount of mass to keep our battery at a decent percentage. I guess that's fine though.
>>
No. 537282 ID: 735f4f

Oh god I just got a image of Alison unhinging her jaw and eating a poor jetal whole. Got to remember the whole giant snake thing might be a bit horrifying to some people.
>>
No. 537283 ID: 41690e

...how many mods would we have to drop to get down to morph 20?

And what are the other downsides of low morph, again? As I remember, low morph meant it took us 30 minutes to disguise as a dancer. We want the ability to change shape for disguises, and for forming divisions.

I think we're going to have to stash some mass, or carry some as inert.
>>
No. 537286 ID: 9ddf68

can we shape unpowered mass at all or would that require power for it to keep shape? cause if we can shape the unpowered jetalium I say just turn them into suitcases or a backpack or something that wouldn't look to out of place for someone to be carrying but if we can't than take what we can and deposit the rest (who knows we might be able to come back for it) and leave.
>>
No. 537304 ID: bc8d67

Alright, after crunching the numbers it looks like we can get out of here with 12598 kg, carrying 25% of that, and leaving behind only 24 kg, if we lower our morph from 70 to 50, but that would mean we'd have to drop two modules. However, that's only 2521 kg more mass than what we could keep at 70 morph, so we'll have to decide if that is worth discarding two modules. Personally, I think we should do it, dropping Sniper B and one AutoCannon A.

Whatever inert jetalium there is, split it into many tiny spheres and evenly distribute them within our body and any divisions. That way it won't be a single unwieldy mass in or on our bodies, and if we're hit there isn't a risk a large chunk of it will be destroyed.

Before we leave this room, we should morph into a non-Alison form. And when we leave the Operator building, we should split into three divisions with roughly equal masses and not travel together. It'll arouse less suspicion than one massive jetal moving around, since a massive jetal implies an equally big battery.

Also something to keep in mind: We won't be able to hover using just our thrusters if we're trying to hold up more than 8000 kg. But that won't be a problem if only one or two divisions are using thrusters.

And if we need just need Internet access, we could use a computer in this building. We are still technically an Operator, and this is the Operator building, so we should be allowed to use one, right? And it may also have access to government data that wouldn't be publicly available, such as a map of all facilities in the solar system, and what defenses are at the orbital jetalium facility.

>>537281
Honestly, I don't think we're gonna have access to the Operator bank again. And even if we do, it's going to be once we come back to the Capital, and by then 2545 kg ought to be tiny compared to what we'll have.
>>
No. 537305 ID: 761017

>>537304
>>537304
>Alright, after crunching the numbers it looks like we can get out of here with 12598 kg
Is the formula for that in the wiki?
>>
No. 537306 ID: 761017

>>537111
>if we're flying away from the planet (either to hit the space station, or hit the outer territories) internet access wouldn't help for very long, anyways.
Belenosian technology has FTL internet!
>If we can fly right up and hit the station, so can Sevener and any nobles.
That's illegal you know! What they can do is requisition jetalium!
>>537271
>How would you know whether something feels more real or not?
The same way you can tell the difference between a monitor image and photograph: higher data resolution! More accurately, the world is a whirling mass of particles that are defined by vectors, but if data compression would change the ratio of particles:vectors from 100:100 to 50:50, then simulation alone would change the 100:100 ratio to 30:70 for greater computational ease, with the second layer dropping it down to more like 20:80, the next layer would begin compression and change 50:50 to 40:60, etc!


tl;dr it's harder to see the pixels noow, and there are tons more pixels than before, and they are changing faster thaan before, and they have greater color depth than before!
>>
No. 537336 ID: 2f4b71

Remember, getting to0 orbit requires a tiny amount of thrust to get up, and a whole lot to get sideways. Orbits are really, really fast. We probably need to keep at least some of that Jetalium to burn away as reaction mass to reach the station while still having enough to do anything once we get there. Engineer can probably work out the appropriate mass fractions and trade-offs of more morph and taking along 'dead weight' vs. a lower morph and more power.
>>
No. 537342 ID: ec2e21

So if i have this right at 70% morph we can have up to 10 tons of jetalium on us so to get in to space you'd be trying to do a 10 ton SSTO? From playing KSP i've found that hard to do that with LFEs but to do it with from what i've seen are ion-engines i'm not so shore that we can brack atmo, as nargas is not known for being farst in the air.
(If i have any thing that just sounds stupid plaese tell me:) )
>>
No. 537380 ID: 76b151

Can't we carry it all with anti gravity?
>>
No. 537404 ID: d38f67
File 137745280501.png - (73.03KB , 700x700 , 428.png )
537404

>We won't be able to hover using just our thrusters if we're trying to hold up more than 8000 kg.
That is entirely true, however, Alison does have anti-gravity, and that will break that rule. Nonetheless, the mass isn't negated, and using the thrusters will still be slower at high mass, although she can burn some as she spends thruster energy. Not to mention the cost of anti gravity as well.

Alison decides to burn off modules Sniper B and one autocannon A, form her body out of 10,077kg and carry the rest in the form of a suitcase and spots of unpowered jetalium inside herself.

She heads out, following the exit signs. She doesn't see anything or anyone on the way, and complete silence to match outside of a low hum from the building.

To the side, however, she hears a TV from behind a tinted window.
>>
No. 537406 ID: 76b151

Might as well check in.
>>
No. 537410 ID: 9ddf68

can you see through the window here? If not just keep heading towards the exit since I would like to leave before whoever comes to kill us comes but if you can see through the window I don't see the harm in a quick peek.
>>
No. 537412 ID: 735f4f

This area should be a neutral zone. Also word of our exploits should not have traveled to far yet.

Should check it out to help get the lay of the land.
>>
No. 537457 ID: 41690e

Huh. You could peek in the room and see if there's anything useful to learn, like if the news in on.

Although if there's a TV running in that room, there's a decent chance there's someone in there watching it.
>>
No. 537471 ID: 96c896

>>537404
It could be nice to check the local news. Also, if there's someone in there, we can ask how many exits there are. If there's a chance we can ambush Sevener, maybe we should? Or just put a jetalium mine at the exit to inconvenience her.
>>
No. 537663 ID: bc8d67

While it'd be a good idea to check the TV news, how much your presence is tolerated here is unknown. It may only be as far as letting you exit the building via the most direct route. So don't just open the door and head right in. Open it, look in, and if anybody is around ask if they mind if you come in and use the TV.

And be wary if there are any jetals or robots in there. Even though they're Operators, they're still EIN-linked. We never found out EIN up here can take control of Operators, so we should assume it can. So that means we ought to morph into a form that isn't associated with Unity/Alison before trying to head in there.
>>
No. 537762 ID: bc8d67

>>537404
There's a problem with that body mass: It exceeds the maximum amount our body can move at 50 morph, which is 9674 kg. Not a big deal, it just means shuffling some mass out to carry instead.

Also, I made a mistake in my calculations back here >>537304. I was using the surge after morph penalties, which was 7700 at 70 morph, instead of the base surge value of 8000. After recalculating it turns out we could carry all of the 12622 kg at 50 morph, with a bit of room to spare. (12622 kg minus 9674 kg gives 2948 kg, which is lower than the 3155.5 kg that's 25% of 12622 kg.)

Technically we could carry a bit more as inert mass to either slightly lower our per b-hour power usage or slightly increase our morph, but I think it'd be best to keep as much mass in our body as possible so it's immediately available.
>>
No. 537870 ID: d38f67
File 137757436971.png - (76.17KB , 700x700 , 429.png )
537870

The inside looks like a waiting lobby, except that there is no one waiting or assisting. The walls were sound resistant, judging by the near maxed volume of the television.
>>
No. 537871 ID: d38f67
File 137757439134.png - (15.46KB , 700x700 , 430.png )
537871

It's the same newslady casting. Alison starts morphing into a new form while she listens in, as well as preparing divisions.

>"-of twenty four jetals and 30 robots to maintain and serve this station, and make sure it is one of the most well guarded extra-planetary facilities in our day and age. Originally developed under the Diamond Emperor manufacturing line, it was continued by Topa Kelomssa. In other news, there has been concern amongst the citizenry about the Blackmap barbarian capital, the Cloud Slither. High officials have re-examined all security details and confirm there is nothing to fear. In the words of our Sapphire Emperor, 'We have entire factories dedicated to producing surveillance material just for that zone. And for every kilogram of surveillance, we have a megagram of weaponry pointed in the same direction. If the Advisors feel a need to rename it the Rubble Slither, it will be so within minutes.'"
>>
No. 537878 ID: 735f4f

So the station is heavily guarded but not so much its not a possibility.

Also we know not to make a huge mess when we go to the blackmap zone or we will risk a airstrike.

This newscast seems a bit to perfectly timed honestly. The fact it listed both the spots we were told about and basicly taunted us to try anything is suspicious.

So remember what it said but don't count in it being entirely accurate. Sapphire probably knows about us. You don't get to that sort of position without keeping a eye on powerful new players. He probably did not manage to spy on our meeting with Ruby but I bet he knows it happened.

Anyways make off with some of the waiting room snacks if there are any and leave a friendly note for Sevener. Then lets head outside.
>>
No. 537879 ID: 41690e

>>537871
...it's Ruby. He arranged to have that broadcast right as we broke out, and to make sure that TV was blaring loud enough to be heard through the walls as we go by.

He's telling us how defended the orbital factory is, and warning us that if we go to Cloud Slither that Sapphire could have the whole place obliterated from orbit.
>>
No. 537880 ID: 96c896

>>537871
Okay, so the station is impenetrable, and is monitoring the Cloud Slither with a huge amount of weaponry. If we go to either location we'll die, because Sapphire is concentrating on them.

What OTHER options do we have?
>>
No. 537886 ID: 76b151

>>537880
Honestly that wasn't the impression I got at all.

What I got from it was that if we destroyed the blockade the Slither will be grateful and 54 Jetals\Robots are easy-peasy if we do this carefully. Gotta remember the weapons we have are on the CITY destructional scale. Plus we have all that mass just begging to be used.
>>
No. 537888 ID: 735f4f

Alison got this far because she is a natural leader. Sure we have awesome weapons as a jetal and a power boost from our core but that's not our greatest strength.

Why risk 50 to one odds at the station when we can recruit 49 other powerful jetals and robots to fight with us?

There are tons of people who hate the system and Sapphire. We need to find them and borrow there power to complete our mission.

Sevener will have the law backing her up as long as she does not do anything stupid. We need to even the odds. Maybe the first thing we should do is a recruitment drive or jailbreak.
>>
No. 537892 ID: 9ddf68

so the station is well guarded and since we don't have a power boast any more I would like to get into a more even fight just to judge how weakened we are, so I say we should leave that alone for the time being. As for the blackmap area... I'm sure they're exaggerating because if they had the fire power to blow that place into a creator I'm sure they wouldn't wait for blackmap to strike first but it probably is watched rather well. The empires have complete control over the news and we know that the news is mostly just propaganda to try and sew an illusion that the emperors are all powerful and everything is safe and fine.

Still say we should head to the blackmap area to gain some allies and better weapons but since we are no longer in the harvester simulation I say we pick a new name for ourselves since up her I'm sure the name has no real meaning other then pointing our enemies in our direction.
>>
No. 537903 ID: d2995c

From the sounds of those (both being presumably exaggerated for propaganda but vaguely based in truth) the Blackmap zone sounds better. It seems reasonably likely that the Blackmappers have capabilities the empire doesn't know about or won't officially acknowledge, seeing as how they still exist without being controlled by the empire.
>>
No. 537906 ID: 761017

>>537886
> Gotta remember the weapons we have are on the CITY destructional scale.
That was only with the Simulation-Bonus!
Chances are that everything takes way more surge now for less effect!
>>
No. 537907 ID: 76b151

>>537906
Nope, untrue. S ranked weapons are by definition on that scale, inside or out of the simulation. Remember our battle with that bounty hunter? He was carving up buildings like a hot knife through butter and he WASN'T a jetal. The difference between reality and the simulation wasn't all that large.

And that was with A class weaponry.

The only thing the simulation bonus gave us was a tougher core. We could take a glancing hit much better then normal jetal.

I still feel we should check the orbital station before leaving. We have numbers we would go against but we have no idea their current weaponry or modules.
>>
No. 537908 ID: 76b151

>>537907
wasn't an operator*
>>
No. 537940 ID: 41690e

>The only thing the simulation [operator] bonus gave us was a tougher core.
No, it also let us hit harder with our modules. Upped the damage output. That's why, say, the plasma sword D we started with did better than the Dead Batteries or Felix would have expected. Sevener also commented on how we got to hit harder than everyone else with the same modules when we hesitated.

Meaning now our weapons are slightly weaker, but we're probably only going to notice that when unloading them in the face of tough opponents. Your point remains, though. Our weapons are pretty much ridiculously dangerous enough we won't see a difference in say, building cutting ability. Anything that was on city destruction scale still is.

>I still feel we should check the orbital station before leaving.
Yeah. Honestly, from the report we just heard, it actually sounds safer to hit the station.
>>
No. 538078 ID: d38f67
File 137766188301.png - (12.00KB , 700x700 , 431.png )
538078

>Get allies/friends
Alison would love to do that, but going straight to the Cloud Slither has its own risks.

She does ask the lobby, and after a brief discussion, the overall opinion that has the least disagreeance is that Alison has no credibility in the real world, here. In fact, it's likely that all but the strongest have any idea that Unity even exists. It's unlikely that Cloud Slither will be willing to stage an attack just because one jetal defects to them, so Alison will want to prove that she isn't just some jetal.

>"There's a problem with getting a phone." Polatt says. "Remember, we had our own shop with broke phones that wouldn't monitor your activity. Not gonna be like that if you just get one at an electronic corner shop, unless you like a package deal that includes a free tracker."

>"Unity, yes?" One of the stranger looking robots that Alison has seen is in front one of the stranger looking doors also seen. The bot keeps looking away from Unity.
"Who is asking?"
>"A conversation. I am no one, affiliated with no faction. I did not exist before this conversation, and I will not exist after this conversation. I do not know everything, but I will answer your question to the best of my ability for the duration of my lifespan. In order to remain unaffiliated, this life span is limited."
>>
No. 538079 ID: c23ab0

How do we kill the Sapphire Emperor?
>>
No. 538080 ID: 57a559

>>538078
Does he know that this life is a sim?
Does he know anything about compilation AI's?
Does he know where she can uhhhh... does he know what's important to ask him?
>>
No. 538082 ID: 735f4f

Lets avoid any loaded questions. This guy could work for anyone.

Ask about the surrounding area. Check on what factions are in power and what they are up to. Ask what exactly is up with the space station you heard about on the news.

Try to find out what sort of mods exist beyond S rank and who has access to them. Check to see if there is any undertool type person around here and if the Dead batteries have a equivalent outside the simulation.

Also try to find out the limits on splitting ourselves. Oh and info about what support Sevener might have and what rules she will have to follow to stay with the law.
>>
No. 538083 ID: 735f4f

Oh that's a good idea. Ask him what question you should be asking before anything else.
>>
No. 538085 ID: 41690e

First question:

How long do we have before anyone from this level arrives to intercept me, or Anya or the others in the simulation catch up? Or before your lifespan ends.

>The bot keeps looking away from Unity.
Can we assume you're not connected to EIN, or you're avoiding looking at me to keep from triggering a remote takeover?

I don't suppose he knows where we can pick up a cracked phone or other wireless device?

>we had our own shop
...actually, is there any chance there's another iteration of the dead batteries on this level? That would be convenient.
>>
No. 538088 ID: d2995c

Can we take him with us to converse on the move? (He might have a tracker, but moving while tracked is better than sitting still while tracked.)

>...actually, is there any chance there's another iteration of the dead batteries on this level?
Maybe not specifically the Dead Batteries, but I think he said something about knowing people with bank accounts in the main layer, so maybe one of those.
>>
No. 538092 ID: 96c896

Ask what places there are with accessible jetal mods and jetalium that aren't heavily monitored by Sapphire.
>>
No. 538093 ID: 76b151

Alright don't question why he is looking away, or asking about the simulation thing. We have no idea of his affiliation and we don't want to look completely nuts, crazy people don't get backing from major powers.

Questions to ask:

Where can we get a clean phone.
Where can we get information on high security installations.
Where does one get off world and what procedures are expected.

Any more is tipping our hand.
>>
No. 538101 ID: 32e092

What's the most important thing he can tell us?
>>
No. 538116 ID: 2f4b71

>>538078
>In order to remain unaffiliated, this life span is limited
"What are the conditions of that limitation?"
>>
No. 538125 ID: 001618

ask why he's helping. If he's unaffilated with any group then why help us in the first place, that's affiliating it's self.
>>
No. 538224 ID: bc8d67

Ask how much longer its lifespan is, so you'll know how quick to speak here, who made it and left it here, and why it isn't looking directly at you. The answer to the last one is probably because its EIN-linked and seeing you would alert EIN. And if it's not long to live you both could speak much faster than normal since you're a jetal and it's a robot.

Next ask if it's safe to ask it questions about or use the name of a certain ubiquitous government system with a three letter name, so as to not risk saying "EIN." If not then you'll just have to use a substitute name here.

Ask some questions about EIN: What detection systems does it have at its disposal to determine if a robot or jetal is not linked to it, and how common are those systems? How far does EIN's influence extend beyond the surface of the planet? What can you do to evade EIN and the government's detection until you're out of the capitol city? If a EIN-linked AI is uploaded into an unlinked jetal using an AI upload module, is that AI still linked to EIN? (In case we ever have get a situation where we want to take one in.)

Ask what defenses the orbital jetalium facility has and is there a way to bypass or disable them, what defenders are on it and what're their capabilities, is there anything that would draw the defenders out of the facility, and how quickly can reinforcements reach the facility. Also ask what the government's response to the facility being captured or about to be captured, or even you being confirmed to be in it. Will they attempt to recapture or just blow it away?

Ask how you could get off this planet without using your own thrusters and anti-gravity, so you don't end up having to burn a big chunk of mass for that. It could be by either getting on or hijacking a ship, or buying, stealing, or salvaging the parts for an externally powered thrust or anti-gravity system you could wrap yourself around or hold on to, or some other way.

Ask where you could procure a phone that has all tracking and monitoring software and devices removed; Preferably at least three, so there's one for each division. And where could you get the tools and knowledge needed to "scrub" a phone yourself. The latter may be a better route if you could do it quick once you know how.

Also ask where you could get small modules of the kind that don't take up a module slot; Stuff like computer and electronic system interfaces, electronic and mechanical tool sets, or even a flashlight. And what kind of modules don't take up a module slot? Actually, just ask if there's someplace you could get to on the planet to buy stuff without being spotted by EIN or the government authorities.

And before leaving, ask where the exit door leads, if it's monitored by EIN, and why it's so strange looking. You don't want to step out onto a busy street and get spotted right off. But if it does, ask if there's another way out of this building you could take.
>>
No. 538253 ID: d38f67
File 137774723350.png - (16.49KB , 700x700 , 432.png )
538253

"Hey Polatt, did the Dead Batteries have any top world organizations?"
>"If they did, I sure wasn't privy to 'em, sorry."

"Can we converse on the move?" Unity asks the bot.
>"No."
"How limited is your life span?"
>"Until I feel discomfort for the time."
"What is the most important thing you can tell me, or what questions are good to ask?"
>"I do not have complex decision making capabilities."
"Where can I get a clean phone?"
>"Blackmap zones. Alternatively, gain a module that allows for complex tools."
"Where can I get information on high security installations?"
>"Question is too broad."
"Where does one get offworld?"

The robot lists off numbers that the engineer thinks are latitude and longitude, saying that they are flight zones that jetals can thrust upwards in without being shot out of the sky. It does imply, however, that those areas are heavily watched, so Alison may have trouble just getting off planet.

"What modules exist past S?"
>"None, S is an umbrella term for anything past A."
"What factions are in power?"
>"This, the New Empire, is in contested control of 94% of the landmass, 95% of the sea, 98% of the sky and 99.9% of space. All others are in blackmap zones, referred to as barbarians. Factions are largely undocumented within, but typically work together out of necessity."
>>
No. 538254 ID: d38f67
File 137774724211.png - (48.31KB , 700x700 , 433.png )
538254

"What details do you have on the space station?"
>"All official ones are varied. Newscast reports are rated as Probable for exaggeration. The station revolves around backwards engineering lost technology, often donated as hand-me-downs from emperors."
"What can you tell me about Anya?"
>"A duplicate of myself is having a conversation with her. She is planning on going out into the open after she is done."
"Are you telling her about me as well?"
>"Yes."
"How long do I have until someone in this world tries to intercept me?"
>"Not until you are found."
"What can you tell me about places with jetalium and modules that aren't watched by sapphire?"
>"Blackmap zones. By definition, all blackmap zones are areas that are not under heavy surveillance."
"I must also know about a ubiquitous oversystem that has three letters. Is that door connected?"
>"EIN." The robot's voice changes, and it sounds like a prerecorded message from a girl. "It is the most sophisticated product born from paranoia the world has ever seen by a ridiculous margin. You can't go anywhere or do anything without being seen. The EIN you are used to in the harvest world is outdated and a shadow at that."
>>
No. 538255 ID: d38f67
File 137774727543.png - (48.94KB , 700x700 , 434.png )
538255

>"There are full vision Sky-Cams on every building with such clarity that it can see everything and everyone on the streets below it. Each one is packed with its own bot whos sole purpose is to watch, and report anything.
>Only in case people walk where robots don't. Each robot must sacrifice 15% of its processing power to run EIN systems inside of him, her, or itself, and remain connected to EIN at all times. If that robot sees anything, the EIN process inside will report anything of the most minor infractions.
>Jetals and people aren't free either. Jetals must carry EIN signals inside of themselves, and biologicals must have small EIN implants, usually in their eyes. It doesn't stop there. Cars, trucks. Computers. Cash registers. Anything that moves, either by assistance or on its own. All of it has EIN implants in some way or another. And all of those EIN implants constantly scan one another. If it sees anything that should be connected that is not, it is flagged.
>>
No. 538257 ID: d38f67
File 137774749510.png - (34.66KB , 700x700 , 435.png )
538257

>"After the last great war, all of the soldiers were encouraged to take up the law next. In other words, the police force is an army of great numbers. They, too, are connected to EIN. When something is flagged, either a crime or an EINless entity, EIN itself puts it on the queue and constantly dispatches the police force to investigate it using an algorithm to measure the severity of a flag and the proximity and availability of forces. To maximize efficiency of the law system, the police force individuals are trained as judge, jury and executioner for most cases, only in high level classes is much of a bureacracy ever involved.
>If my robot is in the correct position, Unity, then it is standing in front of a sliding circular door. If you were a normal jetal, and you take a single step out of this door, you have a 97% chance of being immediately flagged as a class B outbreak. As it is, you are not a normal jetal, and I expect the outside has undercover nobles. If that door even looks like it is opening, it will be flagged as a Class A threat, and you will have EIN sending its best at you inside of seconds. The only safe place is inside of the Operator building, but you can't stay here forever. Sapphire is attempting to override what is keeping him from entering.
>I understand that your next question is most likely how to get out of this building without having a squadron of nobles on your tail. I will answer for both myself and my robot. We don't know. You are in a far more disadvantageous position than your sister, who has played by the rules as far as anyone knows."
>>
No. 538261 ID: 9ddf68

all right then who the hell are you[the person talking through the prerecorded message on the robot]

also I say we take an old move out of our play book and use L.sword to dig/drill our way out... also ask the robot if it can give you any type of map or at least some specific directions to the blackmap zones, like the blackmap zones are 300.76 miles northeast at latitude and longitude x,y you are currently at latitude A longitude B.

I would just suggest sticking to the sewers like we did in the harvester sim but I'm not to sure if they are or are not watching the sewers, we know they have cleaning robots down there that if they spot us would make the whole thing pointless, and we kinda used that trick a lot back in the harvester sim so I'm pretty sure the nobles would have caught on to it by now and probably have a few guards down there.
>>
No. 538262 ID: 41690e

>What can you tell me about Sevener
...I'm surprised it answered that. They should know her as Anya. Unless it's a construct of the CAI simulation.

>EIN ridiculous overwatch and noble attack as soon as we leave the building
I don't suppose simply loading up on jetalium inside and blasting off strait up at escape velocity or greater is feasible?

...or how important is operation of the harvester simulation? We know intelligences are used to harvest processing power. Does EIN use that? If we damaged or interrupted the simulation from the outside, would that produce a temporary blackout in the overwatch we could get through?

...if it has a double communicating with Anya, could it act as a communication relay? That would allow us a moment to talk to each other without killing each other.
>>
No. 538263 ID: 76b151

What are the laws for doing illegal acts in a simulation? I can't imagine they carry the same penalty as out here. If I promise to obey the law and carry EIN with me will the threat classification still hold?
>>
No. 538264 ID: 96c896

>>538256
Well, my first impression is that she's already won, and this contest was fucking rigged from the start. A rebel has no chance of beating the system at this level of police power.

My second impression is that if we can't go outside, let's use all the resources we can INSIDE. There are very large supplies of jetalium around, and if getting upgrades inside the sim results in upgrades when we leave, we can go back in the sim to find better upgrades. Or we could go find the central processing chamber, hack into it, and make it give us more... mods... Wait, if Loviro's S-rank plasma sword came out with us... how does that make sense? It was a construct of the simulation. If it's possible for the simulation to make mods to order just from how it thinks they should behave, let's exploit that. Hack the system, and make it give us CHEATY mods. Impenetrable shields, unbeatable stealth systems, and a ridiculously huge battery to use with custom-made weaponry. We could also run around shoving everyone we can into our inner world, going so far as to make mods that can do so at range regardless of if the individual is a jetal, robot, or organic.

So. Ask the robot where the system is in here that controls the simulation, and how we can hack into it. As a last question, ask exactly who recorded that message. It's not anyone we know, but they know us somehow. Is it the CAI beyond this contest?
>>
No. 538266 ID: 76b151

if we do go about the breakout plan do not do it in front of any robot or jetal. That includes this one. It will get reported immediately.
>>
No. 538267 ID: 41690e

Robot, who's voice was that recording of?

>Wait, if Loviro's S-rank plasma sword came out with us... how does that make sense? It was a construct of the simulation.
All jetal mods are just data. It's complicated programming and machine code that specifies how to configure jetalium into a weapon (or more often, how to configure jetalium to produce a weapon) and control it.

There's no reason we can't bring data with us. The simulation found a way to provide us with that data, same as every single other mod. The only difference is that Loviro 'cheated' access to it.

We can't cheat like that, though. Partially because we're no longer in a harvester sim that responds to belief. And partially because we're not an experienced jetal engineer who understands every aspect of the custom tech he's wishing into existence. We would lack the data to make a module that actually worked.
>>
No. 538268 ID: 96c896

Oh, I'll point out something I noticed here. The girl who left that message knows that Unity and Anya are competing. Not even Sapphire knows that. This strongly implies that the girl is someone who knows the nature of the competition. Didn't someone say that upon winning this CAI Fight, we'd get to meet someone beyond it who knew a lot about the overall Contest and the CAI itself?
>>
No. 538320 ID: 735f4f

Ok I see a few options here. We can try to fake or steal a EIN signal so we can get around undetected. We can tear into this building and make off with everything we can get here and hope we find something that will help.

We could try to get info out showing what Sevener/Anya has been collaborating with a known felon and get her access revoked. Would at least put us on a even footing. And then she would have to work with us to survive.

There definitely seems to be some Cai influence in this simulation. They know Seveners real name and how we are competing. Also the whole system is set up to penalize non system contestants.
>>
No. 538386 ID: bc8d67

Turn to Polatt and say you guess there isn't anything like the Dead Batteries up here. Or any criminal organizations... Or criminals... Jeez... You gotta say you're sorry that he and everyone else is in this with you, 'cause, damn, you didn't expect a goddamn total surveillance police state. This is at least a couple orders of magnitude worse than you expected.

Alright, what are our options for direction? Obviously can't go out the exit door. Can't rush to try and take down Sevener before she leaves, 'cause she can just step outside and we'd get obliterated. Can't try to cut or otherwise move up the building and attempt to launch into space 'cause even if the building shields don't kick on and trap us in every Sapphire noble in the capitol will be on our tail. That leaves down.

Ask the robot what EIN surveillance is under the Operator building, and under the capitol and New Empire cities in general. You already know about the cleaner and maintenance bots, but you can stay out of their sight by moving through sewage, breaking into a water main and riding the flow, or even just plasma drilling down through the walls and rock. So what about other sensor systems; Specifically ones that don't require line of sight like jetal core and jetalium mass detectors.

Also ask what EIN surveillance systems are used for under oceans, seas and other bodies of water. We may want to aim for the floor of the bay next to the capitol and take advantage of its near opaque state to get away.

Right now the option to get out of the building that appears to have the least chance of alerting EIN is to plasma drill into a major structural column near the middle of the building, so the energy doesn't show up outside, then drill down the middle of it. We'll turn sideways once we're at or near bedrock and try to get into a utility tunnel.

Unfortunately we don't have GPS, a map, or even a compass to guide us once we're down there. We might be able to make a simple compass, but without a map, printed or otherwise, we'd be lost down there. How are we going to get a map of the capitol and the tunnels under it?

Ask for an explanation of the coordinate system that is used on-world, and the one used off-world. Then ask for the coordinate location of where you are, where the Blackmap Zones and known "barbarian" settlements are on-world and off-world, and the location of the orbital facility.

Also ask how EIN handles jetal divisions from legit jetals. They don't have cores, so how does EIN recognize them as divisions and connect them back to their jetal?

It also appears those 40,000 New Empire dollars are effectively worthless to us. That is, unless the Blackmap Zones still use New Empire dollars as their currency for some reason. Ask the robot if there's anyplace or anyone that accepts New Empire dollars as currency that isn't monitored by EIN.

...Wait a sec. That girl's voice in the recording, is it the same as the one that was on the Operator control channel back when the simulation was running in reverse? The one that specifically said your name in the warning when you were absorbing mass from that jetal?
>>
No. 538388 ID: 735f4f

I wonder if we can steal a operators core from the server farm and keep it separate in our body to piggyback on its EIN signal. Should ask if something like that is possible.
>>
No. 538389 ID: bc8d67

>>538388
Unfortunately just yanking one out of its socket will kill it and almost certainly send up an alert. And even if we did swipe a live core it would have to be a cooperative one, lest it call out to EIN. And even then it probably wouldn't work because EIN likely takes special notice of cores that aren't sending video or audio or have no mass. It moving around in a body that has eyes and ears would be a dead giveaway. We can still ask the robot about it, but we shouldn't expect a solution.

Though, I wonder if we could copy modules from a core that's still plugged into the Harvester simulation just by touching it. And would it alert EIN or anybody in or out of the simulation? That may be a way to snag high level modules as well as tool and utility ones such as a GPS or phone without having to go outside and beat down jetals. Better ask the robot about that.
>>
No. 538390 ID: 41690e

>>538388
I doubt we could find an operator core. There are going to be thousands, if not millions, of people plugged into the simulation, and only a tiny fraction of them are operators.

Remember, one drop in a sea was what protected anyone from the 'real' world from attacking us in the simulation, before.
>>
No. 538459 ID: d38f67
File 137790334164.png - (32.79KB , 700x700 , 436.png )
538459

The real world is a magnitude worse than Alison was expecting.

>Loviro's sword was a construct of the simulation
Which Loviro had made in this world as well, and if Loviro was thinking right, the construct was the exact same as the real thing, and should be functional since it's just data in her core.

"Who was that?" Alison asks of the robot, whos voice changes back to normal.
>"Data expunged." Alison does not recognize the voice, either.
Instead, Alison asks for the locations of the cloud slither and various blackmap zones. It sounds like the slither is the only place of any significance, and now has that location. After an explanation of the numbers, Engineer says the slither is a few thousand miles away. There are offworld barbarians, but they have expedited themselves into the vastness of space, trying to lose the belenos world entirely.
Lastly, Alison successfully gets the location of the orbital facility.
"How important is the harvest simulation?"
>"If it were to be lost in an accident, it would be a significant economical lost, but not a catastrophic one. It is an experiment as much as a life extending procedure and a prison.
"If I promise to obey the law and carry EIN with me, will the threat classification still hold?"
>"Yes. Chances of being killed are high."
"What EIN security is in and around the operator building?"
>"This building extends one mile underneath sea level. There is a layer of EIN under this. Further data is unavailable."
"What surveillance is used for bodies of water?"
"Submarine bots. Tens of thousands, perhaps digits more, patrol through to cover the most ground in the least amount of time. The patrols change randomly, and the patrols that are used are generated randomly on the spot. Prediction is impossible. With high end gear to detect bots before they detect you, evasion is possible."
"How does EIN deal with legal jetals who have divisions?"
>"Insignias from a noble house. All divisions must hold onto this, where EIN may scan them."
>>
No. 538460 ID: d38f67
File 137790335404.png - (52.09KB , 700x700 , 437.png )
538460

"What if I grabbed a core from the simulation and took its modules?"
>"This is possible, but the operators will know."

Alison pauses for a second, but the robot speaks up again, and starts melting.

>"This conversation is concluded."
>>
No. 538463 ID: b32a14

Say goodbye to the melting robot.

...if it's made of jetalium, perhaps take it once it's expired.

>absorbing from a core in the simulation possible
Probably not worth it if it alerts the operators. The only people in the simulation strong enough to have modules of any use of us are going to be noble jetals, and maybe the operators themselves, and we have no way of knowing which cores are theirs. It's a needle in the haystack, and the first straw we touch will get the alarm sounded.

>now what
...so we need a plan. We need to head to either the space station or cloud slither, or maybe the deep space baddies, although we don't know where they are and our time constraints may not allow for that.

And we need an exit strategy that gets us there without getting killed.

...if Sevener was working with us, we could pose as her division, I suppose? Too bad she wouldn't go for that.
>>
No. 538464 ID: 96c896

>>538460
Operators are way less of a threat than anything outside the facility.

Let's go hunting for cores in here.
>>
No. 538473 ID: 735f4f

No point playing by the rules anymore if we have that big a bounty on our head. Lets steal everything that's not bolted down here before we head out.

Split up and find the jetalium reserves and where they keep the cores. We need the best modules we can find. Right now we are about at our mass limit but if we start messing with stuff in here we might need more.
>>
No. 538476 ID: b32a14

>>538464
Individual operators aren't a threat, but a whole group of them could be. And giving up the temporary safe spot we have in this facility to plan and prepare is also a cost. It doesn't seem worth the chance of getting more modules, especially given the fact we have no way to locate the cores with modules we'd want to absorb from. It's a definite penalty for a very small chance of payoff.

>>538473
...and we already literally have more jetalium than our battery can support! We need a way to get out of here, not to go on a fruitless feeding frenzy.
>>
No. 538477 ID: 96c896

>>538476
THERE IS NO WAY OUT. That has been made abundantly clear.
>>
No. 538478 ID: 76b151

>>538477
yes there is. we just have to avoid those sea bots. Which we can get modules for here by scanning all those operator cores.

Personally I think we should head to the orbital station still.
>>
No. 538479 ID: b32a14

>>538477
There's no easy way out. And I don't see any way how grabbing a core, getting nothing new from it, and then getting attacked by opperators improves the situation at all.

Even if we luck out against all odds and absorb a noble in the sim, that's a relatively small upgrade in exchange for violating the sanctuary we have here. We'd still be overwhelmed, and we're still surrounded by other nobles. Who may be free to barge right in, if the operators allow them in the building for us after we cross them.

We need to either escape, or grow several orders of magnitude in power. Core grabbing from the sim won't get us enough power in time. That means our only option is escape- even if it's slim.
>>
No. 538480 ID: 76b151

>>538476
actually we do have a way to look for the modules we need.

Core Detection A

Able to see a relatively wide jetal core glow inside of jetalium. Class B also allows to scan a jetal's weapons and auxiliaries.
>>
No. 538482 ID: b32a14

>>538480
...if that works, why aren't we dead already? The news knew our exact module loadout, at one point. Sapphire could have had his goons scanning the racks until they found a core that matched exactly and terminated us on the spot while we couldn't resist.
>>
No. 538483 ID: 735f4f

Remember our safe zone here will only last so long. Sapphire is working on overriding the systems that keep him out of here as we speak.

So we need to explore as much as we can of this building as fast as we can without setting of any alarms by stealing cores or anything. Then once we know where everything is and find what we are looking for we grab it and head out.

Our objectives are any data sources or module storage devices. Also the location of the jetalium reserves in case we need to restock before we leave. Anything else interesting should be investigated so we have as much info as we can going forward. Heck if we can find the modules of our friends in the simulation maybe we can find a way to get them out safely.

Sevener will have the exact opposite problem we do. She does not have to worry about being attacked on sight but she has to follow every rule to keep it that way. EIN will be watching her constantly and if she does anything suspicious it will notice.

We will be fighting stuff constantly until we get to a blackmap zone or space but we should not have a problem with anyone except the most powerful nobles.
>>
No. 538486 ID: 96c896

>>538482
We're not looking for a specific core though, just any modules we can get.
>>
No. 538487 ID: b32a14

>>538486
We would be looking for specific cores. Specifically, those with modules we don't have, or more specifically, modules we don't have that would be useful to us. The number of cores in the simulation that posses such modules is low compared to the total number of cores plugged in.
>>
No. 538489 ID: 04b86a

Okay, this isn't quite on topic, but I've been thinking. The anti gravity module cancels out gravity, and if Einstein was right then gravity is caused by a warping of space-time. In other words, the Belenosians figured out how to warp space-time in a limited area using a trivial amount of energy.

So if we can get some jetal module data on quantum entanglement and get access to some module creation systems, then Mathematician will be able to make a wormhole generator. We can get a portal gun!
>>
No. 538501 ID: 76b151

>>538489
sadly the simulation we are in are fudging things. THe current scientific community has no idea how jetal technology actually works.
>>
No. 538508 ID: 735f4f

From what we know of the lost science Jetalium was probably made by throwing living people into a soup of nano bots and liquid metal. The Belenosians had so many mad scientists making doomsday weapons around this time this era's tech was mostly lost.

Heck the dead mans switch for the Sapphire emperor might have been the thing that set it off when this all happened in the real world.

You know if we could find Loviro's core could we get him in our head? Having a Belenosian scientist could give us a insane advantage. They might still have his brain or chip or whatever around here.
>>
No. 538511 ID: b32a14

>if we could find Loviro's core
Loviro doesn't have a core. He's not a jetal. He doesn't have a brain or chip, either. Remember- Loviro is dead. Sapphire killed him. He wasn't imprisoned in the simulation, the simulation recreated him. He's a ghost in the machine, his consciousness run directly off the harvester sim's servers. Just like Vinyl.

Assuming he's even still alive (there's decent odds a noble has killed him already. Again.), we have no way to get him out of the simulation.

That said, yes, he might be very useful to have around. We should definitely see if we can resurrect him outside the CAI battle with the special stage resurrection mechanic, when we get to that.
>>
No. 538524 ID: 9ddf68

I have a quick question
since we have the ability to hide our core would that mean we have the ability to hide from the sea bots as long as they don't see us or would the fact that they could still since our jetalium we'd still be found out by them anyways? Cause if we could sneak past only worrying about being seen we could just make ourselves match the sea floor so as long as we don't move they would have a bitch of a time seeing us and if we have someone watching out of an eye to give us 360 field of view so we can't be snuck up on there is a good chance we'd see a patrol before it would see us. Not saying we could get all the way to the blackmap zone or space before being caught but it looks like Sapphire is pointing all of his guns here at this place and if we can slip away and sneak far enough way before we are caught , yeah we'll still be hit but the attack wont be as concentrated.

Anyways I say explore the rest of this place first and see if we can't find somewhere to slip out or at least give us some more ideas on how to slip out... or worst case scenario, find a good place for a last stand.
>>
No. 538536 ID: bc8d67

Best course of action right now is to search as much of this building as we can in the time we have, but be careful about it. We get spotted by anything or anyone EIN-linked and it's going to get nasty fast. We'll get as much info as we can before choosing a course of action.

Split off two minimum mass divisions to perform the search while the core Alison body returns to the harvester simulation room to scan jetal cores. Have Polatt and Scanner or somebody else who hasn't gotten to be a division yet pilot them. They should make sure to always use tail-cams or similar to check around corners and doorways for anyone or anything that might possibly be EIN-linked so they don't expose themselves. We're looking for any information we can get, where the jetalium storage tanks are, or just anything that might help us out here.

When scanning the jetal cores socketed in the simulation, do a jetalium mass scan first to find all the cores, since they likely have a residue of jetalium on them, then do the core scan and compare them. That'll find the cores that have Core Hide A or higher, which means they likely have other high tier modules as well.

>>538511
Shame that none of us thought about the possibility of AI chip brain uploading and jetal AI upload modules back when Loviro was still with us. We may have been able to get a copy of him into Unity and out of the harvester simulation, and possibly even the CAI simulation too. Pity it's far too late for that now.
>>
No. 538605 ID: d38f67
File 137797224056.png - (20.32KB , 700x700 , 438.png )
538605

Alison finds a directory, with a red X where she is. She cannot sense any cores, so she is left to wonder if there are mechanisms in place preventing her senses. Jetalium, however, is fully available, although she is about at her max, especially if she must move fast.

>Gravity neutralizers must warp space time, leading to wormholes
Engineer says that he hardly understands them, and there are at least three theories that state that modifying gravity in such a manner should be impossible. But from what he knows, there is still a large gap between gravity neutralizers and wormholes.

The historian adds that in his research, the leading theory on why humans were able to pull it off is that they had, or at least felt they had, a necessity to develop FTL engines. The belenos, however, were able to circumvent that need for land and resources and simply habitat their own solar system with a combination of technological intelligence in other ways, and a callous disregard of ethics in order to keep the population under control. Another theory states that belenosian leadership is often strict and an exercise in keeping every factor in control, which would encourage a government in power to not invent something that would lead to mass, uncontrolled growth. He does restate that otherwise he doesn't know much about this point in time, as he doesn't have any books on it.
>>
No. 538613 ID: b32a14

>we're just about at max jetalium
Yup. Eating won't help, unless we find a way to increase our surge and battery a lot.

>something blocking core sense
...well that explains why we aren't dead. But that also makes locating cores in the simulation with upgrades we'd want to be next to impossible.

>what do
Okay, we have three exits. We out out the front door, take off flying from the roof for space, or sneak out through the basement into the sewers and try to swim to slither.

Front door sounds like suicide, going for the air sounds like delayed suicide (we'd probably make it a bit, but all kinds of nobles and EIN forces waiting would pursue). The water route might work, but we don't have the long range scanning equipment to evade patrols, I think.

...is there anywhere in the building we could find the equipment or module we'd need to evade the sharkbots? Maybe the reserves or the operators have some?
>>
No. 538614 ID: 9ddf68

I think we're going to want to dig here since that robot said the emperors control just about everything on land, sea, air, and space, but never said a damn thing about the underground so I say we just head to the blackmap zone for now to get some things like a phone and maybe a few mods then decide wither or not to hit the space station.
>>
No. 538618 ID: 96c896

>>538605
Let's go down. I wanna see what's below Harvest Storage. Is the pink area safe for us to wander around in, even on the above floors? I'm wondering exactly where we can go without being flagged.
>>
No. 538620 ID: c23ab0

Hey, what if we woke everyone up in Harvest Storage? Not that they'd all appreciate it, but there might be enough chaos for us to slip away from this location unnoticed.

Still seems a long shot though, with how EIN has coverage all over the planet.
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No. 538624 ID: d38f67
File 137797802903.png - (29.16KB , 1539x681 , 440.png )
538624

An iso division of a near insignificant amount of jetalium goes up to the operator housing. He still can't sense anything, except for one chunk of 5 tons of jetalium down the hall.
>>
No. 538625 ID: d38f67
File 137797803818.png - (119.38KB , 700x700 , 441.png )
538625

Alison goes down. The pink area appears to be the harvest storage. The whole building appears to be a circle, and a tube of harvest storage area goes up through the center of the building until the operator area.

It's about as big as she thought it would be. There are numerous bots flying around, but none seem to pay Alison any mind. Iso will have to hurry and chase Alison downward soon, as the jetal division maximum range is about to be depleted.
>>
No. 538626 ID: 735f4f

Oh wow that's a great idea if its possible. If there is a way to do it we could release thousands of people if not more. Then cause a panic and have them all run at once.
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No. 538629 ID: b32a14

Could we halt or pause our progress enough for Iso to investigate that pile of jetalium? Is there a stop button on the elevator / train?

As for catching up, he just needs to jump to us. Or fly, if he's low mass it won't take much energy.

>wake up everyone in the sim
...that would cause a lot of chaos, yes. But how? I'm assuming just ripping brains chips or cores out of where they're plugged in could actually be damaging. We'd have to find and activate some kind of shutdown or evacuation procedure.

>escape
If we're going down, that means we'll eventually hit the sewers and the waterways, and have to evade shark-bots. Have we given any though to how we're supposed to detect them before they detect us?
>>
No. 538631 ID: d38f67
File 137798304703.png - (17.24KB , 1551x657 , 442.png )
538631

> Is there a stop button on the elevator / train?
Yes, but Alison pretends there isn't and starts slithering on the rails for Iso to have a look around.

>Stop the harvester system
Alison sees a central building that looks important, so she invites herself inside. After a look around, she finds a manual on the harvest system. Most of it is technical garble, but there is a section on the main shutdown. She reads the book while using the book's map to move down to it.

Although the harvest system is under direct operator control, it cannot be isolated from society as a whole. Therefore, under the unknown situation that the harvest must be shutdown, two operators and one emperor must be present. They will use either their assigned insignias or jetal cores to interact with the key mats. All parties must be present. This shutdown mechanism includes the option for a mass evacuation of harvest subjects. All biological brain data will be converted to AI chips, and all robot and biological AI chips will be implanted into temporary robot forms. All jetal cores will be given enough jetalium to move out as well.
>>
No. 538634 ID: b32a14

>shutdown plan
...huh. Well, if we got Sevener to cooperate, or got Felix out by the o-route, we'd have another operator. Kind of moot though, as we've no Emperor to use. I mean, maybe Ruby would be willing to cooperate, after we killed Sapphire, but by that point we'd have won and the CAI battle would be over. Moot point, really.

...it doesn't mention what happens to simulation constructed intelligences. I assume they just die if the simulation ends? They aren't uploaded to blank AI chips or something?

Does the book mention anything about pulling individuals out of the simulation? Or what happens if you manually disconnect someone?

>what do
Let's see what Iso turns up on the top floor before descending deeper. All that jetalium just a reserve, or is there an operator to talk to up there?
>>
No. 538639 ID: 735f4f

Well there might be a way to set that off without the proper access codes but not sure if we could figure out how quickly enough. I do wonder what the system considers a emperor. If it only counts current ones or if they never removed access from the dead ones.

Would be entertaining if we could claim to be a heir of one of the dead emperors due to succession nonsense now that Loviro is dead. Still would need two operators even if that would work.

Could go with breaking the control center and seeing if it had a system in place for releasing everyone during a natural disaster. But that seems really dangerous. Could end up just killing everyone here instead.
>>
No. 538641 ID: cf3279

If we still aim for the orbital station (i.e. getting away from EIN's massive influence as fast as possible), we could construct a jetalium launcher as long as the maximum division distance (essentially making the railgun two massive divisions, with the core at one end). Use the massive quantities of jetalium available to construct it and burn more to power it for the launch (to compensate for the high morph's low power efficiency). Fire it at an angle to gain as much height and sideways velocity as possible before leaving the building itself and entering EIN's influence. Then we can start using antigrav and thrusters to stage our way to orbit, while hopefully traveling fast enough that EIN will have difficulty bringing assets to bear fast enough to take us down on the way.
>>
No. 538642 ID: 96c896

...if we can get Ruby and one other Operator down here to cooperate, we could unleash a massive army, strong enough to overwhelm Sapphire perhaps. Or we could just use a massive number of the AI Compartment mod to put people into our dream to get them out of the CAI Fight and into our army in the Contest.

It's worth noting that Sevener counts as an Operator too. Hmm. I wonder how she would feel about this plan. I wonder if we could absorb HER? I don't remember if we asked if it was possible to use the AI Compartment mod on Jetals.

For now though, we could merely talk to the Operator in the residential complex. How do we convince them that this belenosian universe is a simulation, though? Would Polatt's word be enough, or could we demonstrate skills we shouldn't have like Bandit's pickpocketing ability? Or maybe the other Operator could interface directly with us to catch a glimpse of Alison's inner world? If we can convince another Operator of the truth, we could send them out to maybe contact Ruby and ask him to come here to help us gather up everyone we can in Alison's inner world, then destroy Sapphire in some way that ensures Alison can escape with all these people in tow.
>>
No. 538646 ID: 96c896

>>538643
We could disconnect Felix then, and track down his departure location to get him in our inner world. Oh, his girlfriend too. The sim SHOULD have some way of making an AI chip for her despite her being a construct of the sim, right?
>>
No. 538647 ID: d38f67
File 137798545768.png - (13.34KB , 700x700 , 443.png )
538647

>Manually disconnect someone?
It appears that Alison is supposed to have authorization from others to do so, but there isn't any harm it pulling someone from the system, so she can ignore the rules if she does want to pull people out one by one.

Meanwhile, Iso says that the five tons is just a little storage thing for the operators. There are no operators that he can find at all. He just found a phone. Some in the lobby think it might not be tracked, since operators seem to have special status outside of the system.
>>
No. 538648 ID: b32a14

Do we know if Sevener has left the building yet? Could Iso look out the window?

>>538641
>use spare jetalium to build division railcannon and fire ourselves at the space station
Huh. ...that might work, actually. Potentially one way to get away from here clean, and hopefully get stronger at the station before anyone catches up.

Really, not any riskier than plan sneak-through-the-sharks.

>>538642
>unleash a massive army, strong enough to overwhelm Sapphire perhaps
Except pretty much everyone in the harvest sim is a civilian, and we have no way to control them or their loyalty anyways. Letting them go would be a great confusing distraction, but a poor army. If we tried to use them that way it would be ineffective, and a slaughter.

>>538646
>disconnect Felix, upload him to us
Except he's a brain in a jar, not an AI. We can't move him over into our core like we did Polatt. ...also, we don't know if there's a way to release simulation constructed intelligences to the real world. The book didn't say that. Does the book say anything about simulation constructs like Loviro and Vinyl? That's worth checking.

>Phone, not tracked?
...maybe? Is there any way we can check? Like, could we open the phone and look for a specific circuit that's missing or something? It's awful risky to take it with us and hope it's not tracked, but we have access to the internet until we leave the building, at least, if anyone can think of anything to look up.

Who's phone is it, anyways?
>>
No. 538649 ID: bc8d67

Have Iso take the phone, but stick tape over its cameras and microphone or just slip it into his body so its in the dark. Even if it it tracked we can use it to get information from the Internet before we leave the building, then discard it. Ask him to check if the phone has anything in its phonebook, notes, Internet search history or any other place that might have data to see if has been used before.

Also have him light absorb the 5 tons of raw jetalium before heading back. That'll take 5 b-minutes and net 4500 kg, so break off that much from the core body and drop it to keep mobile. We may need the extra for bombs or to burn for power soon.

Is there a location lookup near to where you are that can find where in the harvester racks someone is? Or to search by the reason they're in it? And can you look down the harvester storage silo to see what's at the bottom? Eventually we want to get to the bottom of harvester storage.

Well, looks like there's no way we're gonna be able to shutdown the harvester simulation. Not unless the Ruby Emperor suddenly shows up out out of the blue carrying a live operator core or a spare house insignia. Does the manual indicate any situation where the harvester simulation would automatically shutdown and release the occupants? Say in the case main power was lost and the backup power systems were about to run out. Also lookup what kind of security and protection they have on the jetalium storage.

As for getting out of here, here's an idea. We got Loviro's sword which can form into a plasma drill that can cut through rock like it isn't even there. So we could get as low as possible in this building and then just tunnel in a straight line from here to under Cloud Slither, staying under the seabed and bypassing all the patrol bots. We morph into a form with wheels on all sides that are pressed against the tunnel walls, use thrusters to push us forward, and anti-G to get past any voids in the rock. The problem with this may be that we won't be able to get going fast enough to get there before we run out of mass to burn.

Actually, since we can tunnel through the planet as fast as we can move, we could theoretically accelerate to escape velocity while still underground, if we had a enough battery charge or mass to burn. Might be a way we could get moving fast enough to reach the orbital facility without being detected. That is, until we erupt from the ground moving at mach 12.

I also have an idea for how to get extra thrust to get us into orbit: Rockets made using many very thin layers of precision timed explosive jetalium stacked on each other in a chamber at the back of our body. Set the bottom layer to 60 b-seconds, the layer at the top to 120 b-seconds, and all the thin slices in-between at fractions between those times. Then keep applying new layers to the top and pushing the whole stack out as it burns down. It'd be best to use multiple small rockets here so the thrust doesn't prevent the stack from being pushed out.

Oh, here's a crazy idea that could allow us to grab a huge mass of jetalium from here: We tunnel out though the bottom, funnel the mass into the tunnel, then push it along ahead of us, letting gravity do the job of moving it. Curve the tunnel around so it avoids the planet's core, absorbing and burning mass from it to power us along, and keep accelerating until we shoot out the other side of the planet going at escape velocity. Then we absorb all we can while flying away, going beyond what would keep us from moving on the ground, and then use layered explosive jetalium rockets, thrusters, and anti-G to curve into a trajectory to hit the space station. We'd need three divisions here: One in front to tunnel, the core pushing the jetalium and absorbing it to power us, and one in the back to collapse the tunnel.
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No. 538650 ID: 96c896

>>538648
>All biological brain data will be converted to AI chips

We can indeed get Felix out. Question is, can we get Vinyl out?
>>
No. 538652 ID: b32a14

>absorb the 5 tons of raw jetalium
Not worth it. We literally have just about as much as our battery can sustain. (More, even, since we're carrying some of it). Unless we plan on spending that jetalium dang near immediately...

>>538650
We don't even know if Vinyl is still alive, or still inside! At least Ruby's goons grabbed her, not Sapphires.

...aw shit. We totally missed the opportunity to ask Ruby about that.
>>
No. 538654 ID: 35037e

>>538648
>>use spare jetalium to build division railcannon and fire ourselves at the space station
>Huh. ...that might work, actually. Potentially one way to get away from here clean, and hopefully get stronger at the station before anyone catches up.

Something about using an electromagnetic gun to fire an electronic being seems like a bad idea.
>>
No. 538658 ID: bc8d67

>>538654
It could be a cannon that uses a series of timed explosive charges down its length to accelerate us instead. Or instead of using timed charges, they could be mines from our mine module. Those can be set to be remotely triggered instead of using a detector.
>>
No. 538660 ID: b32a14

>>538654
We've seen jetal cores weather ballistic and laser fire, plasma weapons, and function inside EMPS. I think it's a problem we can overcome.

...if we decide to go that way, though.
>>
No. 538663 ID: cf3279

>>538654
I'm not quite sure jetalium is completely electronic, but there are other methods of accelerating projectiles too. A Light Gas Gun will get you to the speed of sound in high-temperature hydrogen (around 4km/second), which can feed into an electrothermal railgun, a ram accelerator, a staged vortex gun, or similar.
>>
No. 538730 ID: e1609c

>>538654
I am fully in support of Operation Railgun, just putting in my vote.
>>
No. 538788 ID: 761017
File 137803528639.png - (33.40KB , 720x369 , Untitled.png )
538788

I'd lack to add a small idea that could be combined with Operation Railgun:

Gas-Enriched Scramjet Launch-tube
Otherwise known as a SPACE CANNON
If you have enough raw material, and the ability to create combustible gas, you can launch yourself with enough force and speed to completely escape the atmosphere in mere seconds.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ram_accelerator
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scram_cannon

I can't find my PDF of it, so have some mspaint of the principle in action.
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No. 539168 ID: b9d767

I think going for all the Jetalium in orbit may be overreaching our grasp a bit. It IS a lot of resources, but will likely be more than we can handle.
>>
No. 539174 ID: 57a559

You know there's probably a copy of Loviro in there, if they haven't deleted him completely.
>>
No. 539617 ID: bc8d67

It's a bit of a late suggestion, but did we think to find where the Operators store their module boxes and steal them? They do probably have some place for jetal Operators heading into the simulation for a specific task or mission to offload their modules into boxes and change their loadout before going in. Or for offloading modules that they picked up in the simulation that were created in the simulation so they could be studied for possible use outside the simulation.
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No. 539632 ID: c23ab0

>>539168

We don't have to make our body that size though. There isn't a battery on the planet that could handle that, hopefully. Just set the jetalium up there to explode and begin orbital bombardment. We're sure to get the emperor that way!

...I should stop suggesting things.
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No. 539759 ID: d38f67
File 137860265862.png - (15.77KB , 700x700 , 444.png )
539759

>Do we know if Sevener has left the building yet?
Alison can't tell, but will assume so. She also does not want Iso getting anywhere near the windows.

>Does the book say anything about simulation constructs like Loviro and Vinyl?
Yes. There is a way to extract them, but it sounds more involved, and also needs other operator's authorization. At least, to do it legally, but Alison might be able to do it by breaking the rules. The harvest keeps backups, as well, so it does have a record of Loviro.

For now, Alison will keep the phone while inside of the building but abandon it once she leaves, and diverts her attention to Engineer.

Engineer, I need you to take control of Unity for awhile.
>"What do you need me to do?"
Railgun.
>>
No. 539760 ID: c51e09

>>539632
Honestly, we have to remember that this is a CAI fight SIMULATION. This isn't a bad idea -- the rules don't care about collateral damage. Besides, it's not even the real thing. It's a simulation of a simulation inside a simulation still. Abstract enough for me.
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No. 539761 ID: d38f67
File 137860280675.png - (12.79KB , 700x700 , 445.png )
539761

>"..... are you asking me this because it sounds cool, or because you think it's practical?"
"I can't deny the former. You tell me, about the latter? Our alternative is to try and swim through hyper-sensing jetal seabots for a thousand miles, or leave an underground trail that EIN can follow."
>>
No. 539762 ID: d38f67
File 137860281658.png - (11.33KB , 700x700 , 446.png )
539762

He then gets to work, sliding a decent amount of jetalium while Atlas and Charles get a turn fetching loose jetalium and delivering it to Engineer to make the rail gun. Alison doesn't think anyone special actually has to do heavy lifting, but they've looked like they wanted something to do.
>>
No. 539763 ID: d38f67
File 137860282340.png - (19.89KB , 700x700 , 447.png )
539763

>"Just how long do you think we have?" Engineer says.
"Not forever! But no one's interfering with us punching a tunnel through the building, and even though Sapphire was going to try to bust his way in, I don't think that was going to be imminent."
>"Alright. This is going to be an expensive launch, and we're going to need to burn a lot to change our trajectory to match the orbit of the space station, but it will work. We'll get there in several belenosian hours at this rate."
>>
No. 539764 ID: d38f67
File 137860283314.png - (14.49KB , 700x700 , 448.png )
539764

>Jetalium is not quite immune to electricity, but I believe it can hold a large charge without harm. the Engineer says as he starts cutting live wires and putting them against spots in the rail cannon. Atlas and Charles are reabsorbed back into Unity. "We'll just leave those there. Then, once we turn on the jetalium magnetism, we'll start moving. I won't lie, I only claim to know the basics of this, and not how well it will work. So, if we're ready...."
>>
No. 539765 ID: d38f67
File 137860284186.png - (90.75KB , 700x1000 , 449.png )
539765

Engineer turns on the magnetism. It works better than expected. Antigravity and thrusters are activated, turning horizontally in quick anticipation of reaching an orbit.

Alison will destroy the phone, but she hangs onto it for just a moment to see if Scanner can get any activity when she bursts through the Operator's ceiling. In the matter of a few seconds, Scanner finds that the whole city's alarm system just woke up like a kicked hornet's nest, although Alison can tell that from the amount of sirens that just went on. Alison destroys the phone, since it is almost definitely helping them pinpoint her exact location.

There is a lot more stuff in the sky than Alison was expecting, and a lot of them are turning at her.

"They're too slow, we've got momentum. We can ignore them. Are we certainly going to the Orbital Station? We're going in such a way that we can land in one of the blackmap zones out in the middle of nowhere to try and lose EIN."

Alison's been split between the decision of blackmap and orbital, but she'll have to make a decision now.
>>
No. 539768 ID: be2ad8

Id say orbital if you can get to it but blackmap seems farster. Or it chold be the other way round
>>
No. 539769 ID: c23ab0

Problem with blackmap areas is they're under even higher surveillance on the borders than the city itself. But then again they're blackmap areas because something keeps EIN out of there successfully, so you might be able to get vital aid there. Or get killed by whatever horrendous monster is keeping EIN away.

Go to the orbital satellite. You can always base jump to elsewhere on the planet, but this will probably be your only shot into orbit.
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No. 539773 ID: 07e3a8

>>539763
...you know, if we built the launcher on a higher floor, we wouldn't have needed to punch as much of a hole through the building.

Although I suppose we were constrained to working where the big high voltage cables were available.

>blackmap or orbital?
I like the odds at the orbital station better. We know the exact number of robots and jetals stationed. Whereas the blackmap zone is being surveilled and targeted by Sapphire's artillery. And the inhabitants of the zone might not be happy to see us. A fight under fire doesn't sound fun.

Also, Alison-form is kind of perfect for zero-g. The extra arms, the tail, the prehensile hair? Practically made for climbing around a tumbling reference frame.
>>
No. 539775 ID: 96c896

>>539765
Considering if we went for the orbital station we would have both its defenders AND an EIN hunting squad on our asses, we would die very fast.

Blackmap. It is the only choice.
>>
No. 539781 ID: 76b151

Station
>>
No. 539784 ID: 735f4f

Awww so we left Loviro there? Should have grabbed him while we had the chance.

I say we head to the space station.
>>
No. 539785 ID: eaa372

Go orbital, we'll have plenty of objects to use as projectiles if it turns out the Sapphire Emperor is planetside.
>>
No. 539796 ID: 9ddf68

...If we hit the orbital station what are the odds of us being able to turn it into a base of operations for any future whatever. I'm guessing poor since they can always send more bots up there to try and take us out but we still could always crash the thing into the planet if to do nothing more then cause a distraction as we reenter the planet's gravity to book it to the blackmap zones. Hell if the station has some way for us to access the internet maybe we could try and crash the thing directly on EIN ( I mean these guys have the main EIN node somewhere right?)

Also saying we hit the station just because I'm sure sapphire is guessing we'd head straight for the blackmap zones and has taken the most measures to prevent us from getting there compared to the orbital station.
>>
No. 539799 ID: 761017

Going for the Jetalium factory is sticking ourselves inside of ANOTHER big economic investment probably equal in importance to the Harvester building.

it's the obvious choice, outside of trying for another planet.

Any suggestiosn for the blackmap zones are betting on the Blackmap zones randomly possessing Tera-Shield Plasma Generators to deal with Sapphire artillery!

To Alison: did you remember to turn on your plasma air-spike?
>>
No. 539812 ID: 2f4b71

Orbital. Even if we go for a Blackmap zone, find they're friendly, AND find they happen to have vast quantities of Jetalium lying around for us to be able to do another launch, EIN is already alerted to a potential attack on the station so we'd have a harder time trying the same stunt a second time.

Especially as once we're on the station, we hold The Highest Ground. We can land in a Blackmap zone, or right on top of Sapphire himself if we can pinpoint him.
>>
No. 540061 ID: 520645

I say hit the Orbital Station. If it turns out to be a total no-go you'll still be in orbit, and from there you can easily maneuver to land anywhere on the planet, including inside the Cloud Slither blackmap zone.

Another reason to go for the Orbital Station: It's pretty likely that Cloud Slither won't take kindly to you careening in with a horde of Sapphire nobles and who knows what else right on your tail. There's a good chance you'll either be fired on or they won't open their shields in order to keep you from bringing that shit down on them. You just can't risk getting sandwiched in a situation like that.

However, I'm worried about what kind of external defenses the station has. It could be some serious shit, beyond what we can handle. So I suggest that two lightweight divisions be broken off and go ahead on an evasive pattern at near-maximum range. That'll tell us what we'll be facing at the station, with a kilometer buffer to figure out how to deal with it.

Hey, what're those narrow super-tall towers in the distance? The ones with the horizontal beams sticking out of either side of them at regular intervals?
>>
No. 540063 ID: 76b151

>>540061
space elevators are my guess.
>>
No. 540066 ID: 96c896

Ahem. I'd like to point out that if we go to the blackmap zones, there are areas that Sapphire and EIN cannot see. This is completely the opposite case for the orbital factory, which is owned by Sapphire and in EIN-controlled space.
>>
No. 540070 ID: 520645

>>540066
You think that being outside the reach of EIN will stop whatever Empire forces are following after us all the way there from keeping after us? I know Sapphire's nobles and his forces won't stop, and I suspect we're a big enough threat that the rest of them won't either.

And EIN isn't the only way to track us. There's undoubtedly world-wide satellite surveillance and radar tracking systems, in addition to whatever sensor gear the forces after us have. We'd have to pull off one hell of a vanishing act after we land to lose the Empire forces.

But the votes are already 9 to 1 in favor of hitting the station, so it's a near certainty we'll be going there.
>>
No. 540122 ID: 96c896

>>540070
The fact that it's a blackmap zone means it is not under surveillance. Only the area Sapphire is pointing his long-range cameras at (and guns) is monitored. There are a couple of people voting who seem to think the only blackmap zone is the one Sapphire is looking at, which is definitely not the case. All we'd have to do is escape our immediate pursuers and we'll vanish off the radar, so long as we avoid the SPECIFIC area Sapphire is watching.
>>
No. 540174 ID: 520645

After some thought I've reconsidered and will change my vote to landing in the blackmap zone attempting to lose the Empire forces instead of going for the Orbital Station.

There's just too many unknowns with the station defenses. We don't know what if or what kind of exterior weapon emplacements there are, or how strong the plasma shields are, or if there are warships or satellite stations defending it. And considering how valuable the station is, the defenses are very likely to be high class. It's entirely possible we'll be blown away by a half-dozen plasma beam turrets before we get within a kilometer of the station. And even if we do get in, there's up to 24 jetals and 30 robots there who's capabilities are unknown and will be directly controlled by EIN to dogpile us. I don't like our chances with that alone.

So if we're ever gonna hit that station, we're gonna need to recruit a crew to back us up, and the only place we can possibly get that is Cloud Slither.

>>540122
The answer-bot said that blackmap zones are areas that are not under heavy surveillance, which in this context means EIN level. Less than that could easily include satellite surveillance, fly-overs by spy drones, and whatever other long-range monitoring tech the Empire has, but not ground level surveillance.

However, the big problem with landing in the least monitored blackmap zone is that it won't be the zone that contains Cloud Slither. That zone and its border will be the most monitored of all the blackmap zones. We'll have to get to Cloud Slither 'cause it's the only place in all the blackmap zones that might have the resources to help us, and getting there undetected by EIN will be tough.
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No. 540301 ID: d38f67
File 137895792224.png - (78.56KB , 700x700 , 450.png )
540301

>So we left Loviro there?
Alison did, along with everyone but Polatt. She didn't want to spend the time trying to locate them, or try to thin out the operator's patience for Alison doing whatever. She expects they are already rather sour at her burrowing a tunnel through most of the building's floors to make that railgun using an enormous amount of jetalium.

If she gets a chance later, though, to come back to this place, she'll put rescuing Loviro on the table.

"We'll go to the orbital station, but if things look too bad, we'll move back down and try to lose the empire's forces in some blackmap territory. It might not be clear how much or how little surveillance and influence the empire has in the blackmap zones, but if it comes to it, we don't have a lot of choices."

>What are the large towers for?
According to the engineer, they are most likely tethers to launch things cheaply into space, given how high they go. Although, Alison does come by close enough to see one to see a revolving restaurant at the top of it, so tossing stuff into space may not be its only function.

>Put divisions at max distance ahead to scout the station
Engineer says that this is doable if they match orbital speeds of the station and slowly advance on it. However, he suspects that ships, jetals, and other junk are going to pursue Unity even in space, giving her little time to take down the station. He proposes the idea to not match the speed of the orbital station, but rather, continue to accelerate, and use the station itself to break the fall and make the attack more difficult to intercept, and give Unity more time to get in and get out.
>>
No. 540303 ID: 96c896

Sure, let's ram the station, if it won't kill us. I suppose we could shift into a spear shape with the core at the rear for maximum impact protection and then quick morph into a better form once we impact the station.
>>
No. 540304 ID: 07e3a8

>slow down and match speed with the station or accelerate?
Ramming speed!

That station is supposed to be filled with robots and jetals, according to the news. They can take a little hard vacuum, and our pursuers can scoop up the survivors before their orbits decay and they die in reentry.
>>
No. 540309 ID: 04b86a

>She expects they are already rather sour at her burrowing a tunnel through most of the building's floors to make that railgun using an enormous amount of jetalium.
Nah, I'm sure they understand that that was our best way out of there and don't hold any hard feelings for it. Besides, it's not like they're going to do the repairs themselves.

>Ramming speed
As long as we probably won't get too damaged by the impact or break through something important, then sure!
>>
No. 540314 ID: 735f4f

Ramming should work if they do not have insane shields. Until we get into the station they can shoot at us freely. So blasting in at high speeds seems like a good idea.
>>
No. 540324 ID: 9ddf68

Ram the station. Engineer is right, we're not going to have much time before sapphire floods that place with reinforcements trying to take us out so we might as well hit the station hard and move fast.

Once we're inside what should we look for? I mean wherever the store the jetalium is a given but should we also spend what little time we have to find the controls on this ship, or maybe even a computer to try and see if we can't learn something to help aid us in taking out sapphire, or what?
>>
No. 540400 ID: 2f4b71

>speed
Given how fast orbits are, it's more that we'd be using the station to speed us up to orbital velocity, than for it to be slowing us down.
>>
No. 540433 ID: 520645

Engi's right; We don't have time for scouting. We'll do the acceleration plan, but also split up into three equal mass, equal form divisions and approach as evasively as we can without slowing us up much. That way if there are exterior defense turrets or drones they'll have to track three targets instead of one.

We'll aim to have all the divisions crash into the station at the same point and nearly the same time. One'll be slightly ahead of the rest and activate Loviro's sword in drill form to punch through the exterior hull, just in case it's stronger than expected. Then the rest follow in series through the hole it made.

And if we plasma drill through the hull, we should keep it up to do the same right through the interior compartments as well. Tricky bit is slowing down before we shoot out the other side of the station, but if we hit the hull at a shallow angle so we intersect as much of the station interior as possible, then use retro-thrusters and morph hooks and such to catch on surfaces, we ought to be able to slow enough to use thrusters to keep our trajectory inside the station.
>>
No. 540467 ID: 01531c

Ramming speed?!
Are you insane!?

Planet-side, they have ordinary Stationary Plasma Shields that can take a TeraBeam unphased!

IN SPACE, they will have the full solar power of the sun to maintain 24/7 "[REDACTED] Class" Stationary Plasma Shields!
>>
No. 540505 ID: 520645

>>540467
Actually, after reading Engi's plan again, it doesn't look like its intended to ram through the hull to get to the interior of the station. It's just intended to stop us after we accelerate as fast as we can by colliding with the station. I'm guessing he's sensibly assuming the station has shields and will have them up by the time we arrive.

In this case I think it'd be best to not crash into the station perpendicular to its shield. At the speed we'll be going we may not be able to cushion our core enough to prevent damage if we do crash that way, and we can't afford risking being knocked out. So instead lets aim to collide with the shield at an angle and skid across it to slow down, using thrusters keep us pressed against it, and attack the shield at the same time to work at running it down.

I also suggest firing the TeraBeam or bending GigaBeam at the station as soon as we can get in range, using cooling to keep our serge regen up, to soften its shields up. Once we hit we'll switch to an overdriven Plasma Well with cooling and burn 200kg of mass for serge recovery, as well as mass for battery.

However, I am worried that we may not be able to knock down the station shields once we get there. We need to know more about how stationary plasma shield generators are powered. Because if it's a case where they can stay up indefinitely as long as there's more power fed into them we won't have a chance to punch through before reinforcements arrive. But if it's a case where they can't be charged while active or one where they'll burn out quickly if they are, then we have a chance.
>>
No. 540511 ID: 256d52

>>540467
>Ramming speed?!
>Are you insane!?
>Planet-side, they have ordinary Stationary Plasma Shields that can take a TeraBeam unphased!
Actually, a mass traveling at a speed of several kilometers per second hits with a kinetic energy greater than its weight in TNT. Something else comes to mind that is measured in kilotons of TNT.

For extra fun, you could fire a jetallium projectile ahead as a penetrator to brake the mass holding the core if you're worried about it. Sir Isaac Newton, etc.

This all depending on how fast we're going relative to the station though.
>>
No. 541130 ID: d38f67
File 137960859663.png - (44.72KB , 700x700 , 451.png )
541130

"Ramming speed!" Alison says.

Most of the reserve jetalium Alison has gets worn down by the trip up, but she doesn't need to lower her active mass any.

>"It should be... yes, there." Engineer notes the station.
>>
No. 541131 ID: d38f67
File 137960864905.png - (13.54KB , 700x700 , 452.png )
541131

The shields on the station go up right on that cue.

>"Damn. They saw us after all. We'll crash in hard, but that's good, it will do more damage to the shields than it will to us. I can't guarantee that. We should still fire weapons to try to break the shields."
"How fast are we catching up to the station? I can't tell."
>"... don't worry about it. Fire somethingnowplease."
>>
No. 541132 ID: 76b151

Our best shield breaker probably would be the plasma well... but thats kinda small.

Lets go with both Gigabeams.
>>
No. 541133 ID: 76b151

>>541132
slow not small.
>>
No. 541134 ID: 001618

start firing lasers at it and when we get in close just see if you can't poke through with your sword(unlikely) and once you're on the shield hit it with a plasma well.
>>
No. 541135 ID: 96c896

Isn't the plasma well designed for exactly this purpose? We could Overdrive it too.
>>
No. 541138 ID: 07e3a8

This would be perfect for the plasma well if it wasn't so slow and we weren't hurtling right for the station. I doubt it would crack the shield before we hit. (Would have been an option if we'd taken the slow approach, I guess).

Which means we default to beams. Terrabeam and/or Gigabeams go!

...can we tell from the outside what any of the sections of the station are? Some sectors might be better for our crash landing than others.
>>
No. 541139 ID: 96c896

>>541138
Yeah good point. Terabeam is definitely a good idea for cracking the shields of a large target though.
>>
No. 541151 ID: e607cd

This is space, speed is relative. The plasma well is going to be moving at it's own (slow) speed plus our own (fast) speed when it hits those shields, so it will definitely get there. It is just a matter of whether the impact damage of a well will be more effective than the prolonged (but still short in the grand scheme of things) effect of a beam.

For that question, consider that if beams were anywhere NEAR as effective as wells at weakening shields, then wells would be virtually worthless given their other weaknesses. I feel like we should be using the weapon type which is specifically good against shields preferentially over the type which shields are explicitly designed to protect against.

Fire the well ASAP to give it as much burn time as you can before you impact behind it. If you have time to pepper some additional beam fire once the well is away, then by all means go for it I guess.
>>
No. 541180 ID: d38f67
File 137962728857.png - (64.53KB , 700x700 , 453.png )
541180

Alison goes with a plasma well. It will hit just a brief moment before she does, but the weapon is theoretically meant for this purpose. She throws on overdrive, and ends up using 10% of her battery in a moment, pushing it forward and to the side, so that she won't slam into her own plasma if it doesn't break the shield.

The plasma shield opens a window right as Alison flies through, still with the plasma ball active.

For a brief instant, Alison is afraid they'd be able to deactivate that section of shielding while the plasma goes through, then shut it on her face, but either they can't or won't, as Alison makes it through as well. Unity is quickly heading to slam into the station itself, now.

Although Alison was on the fence about making divisions in advance before, this would be a good time to do so, if she wants to chance taking the entire station at once, faster.
>>
No. 541183 ID: 07e3a8

Yeah, this is probably a good time to make divisions, if we're gonna make them.

If it's not too much of a drain, and it's actually moving fast enough to keep ahead of us, we might want to keep the plasma well online long enough to punch a hole through the station ahead of our entry.
>>
No. 541198 ID: 9ddf68

well unless they open a door for us as well think the plasma well can punch through the stations hull?

Also I think they're trying to trap you seeing as they opened the force field so you couldn't drain it and those things keep people in just as much as they keep people out so my guess is they're trying to trap you until the nobles can catch up to you. If that is the case then find the power source of this station and smash it as I feel that would be much quicker and energy efficient then trying to drain the shields.

Also yes to the divisions, I say give them 1/5 or 1/4 of your jetalium and lets see what's inside.
>>
No. 541206 ID: 76b151

As far as placement goes how about each of you goes to one of the station sections. There are six in all so you can divide the job into three then converge on the center if you haven't found what you were looking for.
>>
No. 541210 ID: d38f67
File 137963304476.png - (68.49KB , 700x700 , 454.png )
541210

With all that energy burnt on the well, she may as well use it. She cuts the overdrive out of it so that Duelist and Guardsman, who she sends out at the sides, goes to do their thing.

The plasma well burns through the wall as Alison enters what looks like... she has no idea.

>"Hello, Naga! It looks like I was right about your plans all along, from this little space trip of yours. Right into the trap! Try not to completely die, now!"

>"Self destruct initiated! 10 minutes until destruction." the intercom blares.
>>
No. 541211 ID: d38f67
File 137963310331.png - (14.59KB , 700x700 , 455.png )
541211

>"Wait what. A timer? That's not what I... fuck you, Naga."
>>
No. 541214 ID: 735f4f

Blow her a kiss. Also if this is a huge trap that means no one around to stop us looting hopefully.

Worst case we have 10 minutes. Best case we stop the countdown and have our own space station.

So get to hacking systems and looking for info. May or may not have people to deal with up here but better find out fast.
>>
No. 541215 ID: 76b151

Since the self destruct is probably tied into the space stations energy core have one of your divisions head to the center bit to see if they can't shut it down. You and the other one should start searching for anything you can use.

One way to preserve everything would be to cut the station apart and see which place blows up then search the rest afterwords.
>>
No. 541216 ID: 04b86a

I'd like to remind everyone that those 10 minutes are in belenosian time, which gives us about 2 normal minutes to do our thing and gtfo.

Now, if I thought we could manage it in that small time span I'd suggest we destroy the station's communication systems and then hack it to turn off the self destruct. I doubt we can manage it, though, so reduce Duelist and Guardsman's masses and have them start hunting for modules.
>>
No. 541217 ID: e1609c

>>541211
>fuck you, naga
You know, its not as if we planned this, mate.
>>
No. 541218 ID: 96c896

>>541211
Start using the Well to break through walls. Use Jetalium Sense to find jetals and jetalium to nab mods and mass. If possible we should disable the self-destruct so we can just plain take over the station and bombard Sapphire's stuff along with shooting our pursuers.

Uh, also ask... what plans she's talking about, exactly? We're kindof playing it by ear right now.
>>
No. 541223 ID: 9ddf68

Swoon a little and say you got me a bomb thank you, now where should I crash this thing" then cut the link (by shooting the TV if you have too)

I really don't think we'd have time to crash this thing but still no one said we couldn't try a scare her a little =)

As for what to do, Find the ships power source and smash it, I don't think we could get out of the space station's shield quick enough to avoid the explosion so I say just find whatever looks like it's powering this place and stop it
>>
No. 541225 ID: 07e3a8

...well, that's disappointing.

On the up side, a space station exploding in low orbit should do wonders for our escape. That's going to fuck a good deal with long range comm and surveillance systems, worldwide. It'll be a lot easier to come down wherever we want.

Do you or any of your divisions sense anything? Cores, modules, jetalium? Anything useful? Maybe we could sacrifice a division to absorb as many useful modules as possible while the main body got out of range? (You'd think there'd be something. Sevener barely got out ahead of us- they would barely have had time to evacuate personal from the station and set this up).

Alison should probably see what our options are for getting back out. We'll have to punch the shield again, and station defenses may now be trying to pen us in (we may have to send a division to disable the shield generator while we run?).

Obviously, we'd prefer to get out of this with a profit, but we'll burn jetalium to survive if we have to.

>fuck you, Naga.
There's hardly time for that, Sevener.
>>
No. 541234 ID: 76b151

>>541225
Thats a good point. How the hell did Sevener convince someone to blow up whats on all accounts a priemier research and production facility? This place HAS to be more valuable then that.

Or at least you'd think so.
>>
No. 541238 ID: d38f67
File 137963635605.png - (18.12KB , 700x700 , 456.png )
541238

"What plan?"
>"To come here! Ugh, nevermind." Sevener says, to which Alison does, giving Sevener a wave goodbye. She drops the plasma well, since she can burst through walls using far more energy efficient means such as doors. She starts running through the rooms, but she sees nothing but... whatever this stuff is.

"We should blow out their engines or communications. I'm going to look for a way out, or re-punch through their shields. Do either of you see the power generators or something?"
>"All of this tech is oddly shaped." says the Duelist. "I'm sorry, I wouldn't know. I sense some jetalium in section 4, though. None of it's moving, but I'm heading there."
>"My room's - uh, section 6 or whatever - is making a lot of humming noises!" the Guardsman chimes in. "And it doesn't have any modules! So I can blow it up? I mean, some bot here is yelling at me not to, but, you know, of course it is."
>>
No. 541242 ID: 96c896

>>541238
Yes, guardsman can blow it up. Keep moving.

I'm starting to think that the broadcast we heard from the TV was a lie. Either propaganda, or a falsified report broadcast by Sevener herself.

At any rate, when the ship blows it will create a rather large explosion so we should start leaving with a good amount of time left to escape its radius.
>>
No. 541243 ID: 76b151

Don't blow that up!

Have someone talk to the bot, find out how to access the modules... or shut down the self-destruct. Or cut the power. Whatever.
>>
No. 541244 ID: 735f4f

Don't go blowing up anything just yet. We are not so low on time that we need to wildly shoot things at random.

Get our engineering team looking at everything and have guardsman take that bot hostage. Grill it for info about the humming equipment but do not hurt it.

Need to figure out what this station does or did before we can do much else. If they are willing to let Sevener blow it up to just try and kill us it can't be what the news said it was.

So we find out if its even worth saving or if we just broke into a space truck stop.

I get the feeling whoever lives here is not high on EIN's favorite person list.
>>
No. 541246 ID: 07e3a8

>All of this tech is oddly shaped.
Polatt, you're the local expert. You recognize any of the tech around us, or what it does?

>a bot, yelling
Ah. They didn't evacuate the station. That would have made the setup faster.

That also increases the odds that the stuff Ruby sent us for is still here. They didn't have a chance to get it off the station. There's a chance we can get the modules and jetalium we came for and get out (even if we've got less than 2 real minutes remaining. Might want to crank the move fast mods?).

...maybe ask the bot for one really good reason not to blow that stuff up since the whole station is going to blow, anyways. Presumably the robot doesn't want to die- can Gaurdsman intimidate it into telling him anything useful? (Where the good stuff is, or how to avert the countdown?).

>I'm starting to think that the broadcast we heard from the TV was a lie.
Not necessarily. I mean, the exact same amount of defenders might be stationed here as broadcast. Saphire might just be willing to sacrifice them all.
>>
No. 541251 ID: f9cf6a

Send Dualist to check out the jetalium mass. That's most likely near the jetal research area, and that means any modules here will be nearby.

>>541243
I concur. Whatever it is may turn out to have enough bang to destroy the station if shot. Look for signs or other writing indicating its function.

Unfortunately interrogating the bot likely won't work. It knows if it says anything it's dead by EIN. We can still try, but with someone more personable than Guardsman.

Oh, would it be possible to upload that bot's AI chip from Guardsman's division? And without it remaining EIN-linked? Because in that case I'd say rip it's chip out and get its AI in here for interrogation.

>>541242
But Ruby was the one who first told us about this station, back in the simulation. He definitely would know it was worth it for us to hit.
>>
No. 541252 ID: 57a559

>>541238
Work with the bots because I'm sure they want to survive too and don't give a shit about Sevener's plans unless they're suicidally loyal.
>>
No. 541253 ID: 76b151

>>541251
its gonna die anyway. Maybe we can promise to take it with us to get anit-EIN'd
>>
No. 541254 ID: 96c896

Oh, we could grab its AI via the mod we have for that. The more the merrier!
>>
No. 541255 ID: 07e3a8

>>541254
I thought that was a one upload per module kind of deal?

Besides, we hardly have time to save the entire station's worth of bots, unless there's a way to avert the self destruct.
>>
No. 541262 ID: f9cf6a

Have Guardsman yell back to the bot to ask why he shouldn't wreck this equipment when this whole station is going to explode in less than 10 b-minutes.

>>541255
We're not gonna try to save all the bots. We only need one who's free to answer our questions about the facility, which means uploading into Unity. EIN won't let it say much otherwise.

But if that AI upload module was one use only or the bot's AI chip can't be uploaded from a division, then it'll seriously curb what we can ask. It knows it's dead no matter what at this point, so it might be able to answer one or two important questions before EIN takes control and locks it down. But what should we ask?
>>
No. 541271 ID: d38f67
File 137964320578.png - (15.47KB , 700x700 , 457.png )
541271

>Use the AI module
Unfortunately the module only allows one AI in storage, and picking and choosing, Alison will keep Polatt in her system.

"Hey Polatt, what's all this stuff anyway?"
>"Uh, just looks like computers to me."

"Ask the bot why you can't destroy it!"
>"Are you serious fine.

Alison pays attention this time while Guardsman speaks, while she tries to burn out the plasma shields.

"Bot tell me why I shouldn't just blow this place up!"
>"Shield generator is active and highly unstable. Selective damage will result in immense explosion."
"Oh I guess that is kind of - wait, this place is gonna explode anyway!"
>"Objective is to keep station functional and clean. Main threat to objective: Self destruct in 10. Override for self distruct is legal. Primary objective is to keep station function and clean until destruction."
"What is this place then, bot?!"
>"Research station 142. Jetalium efficiency and weapon study specialty."
"If that's the case, why're they just going and blowing up the place, huh?"
>"Value analysis: little to lose. All data and studies have been backed up off-site. All material wealth considered replaceable."

>"I've located some weapons." Duelist mentions. "It has is own shields though, but they are most likely weaker. It will take me a moment to break in."
>>
No. 541273 ID: 76b151

Ask where the backup location is maybe?

After that leave that guy and look for more shielded areas.
>>
No. 541274 ID: 96c896

>>541269
Get the bot to take Guardsman to where we can pick up some weapon data! This is pretty much our top priority aside from making sure we get out in time. Even if Guardsman can't follow us out and we lose the jetalium in his body it'll be well worth it. Guardsman can threaten to make a huge mess if the bot doesn't cooperate.
>>
No. 541277 ID: 76b151

Jetallium efficiency might be just as important. If we could find something that reduces Mass Energy cost, or better quick absorbtion.
>>
No. 541278 ID: 07e3a8

Time remaining? Alison is sort of going to have to start looking into securing an escape route if we can't avert the self destruct.

...ask the bot if there's anything that could be done illegally to avert or slow the self destruct? We're not bound as it is, and that's a way it overcome the obstacle to it's objective.

>duelist found modules
Break in. If he absorbs them, they'll be copied to our core. Even if he doesn't make it to the exit, a third of our jetalium may be a fair trade for sufficiently powerful mods.
>>
No. 541279 ID: 735f4f

Get as much weapon data as you can and restock on jetalium if possible. If we find a easy way to save the station we try for it if not let it blow.

Guardsman try to convince the robot that if you have to break into stuff it will make a mess of things and then it will die with a filthy station on its hands. So obviously it should help you get what you want so it can die happy.
>>
No. 541280 ID: 76b151

Oh Get directions to other modules.
>>
No. 541293 ID: f9cf6a

Tell Dualist to use whatever method is fastest, shovel all the modules into his body to carry and check them, then break into the jetalium storage to quick absorb mass to burn to recover.

Have Guardsman try to get the bot's cooperation by telling it if it doesn't help then he'll start smashing up the station and making as huge a mess as possible before the self-destruct goes off. If it agrees to help then Guardsman should grab and carry the bot, since he likely can move faster than it.

First question for Guardsman to ask is how long it would take an overdriven plasma well to wear down the station shields from their current level. 'Cause if it's way longer then we have then we may as well stop wasting mass and energy on it and look for another way.

Second question to ask is if the bot can or will open any or all of the secure storage plasma shields within the station for him, either remotely or by bringing the bot to them. Then ask what types of modules are stored on the station and where, and which of them are usually the most restricted ones. Specifically ask about ones for batteries, improved energy and surge efficiency, improved mass absorption efficiency and speed, improved jetalium to energy conversion, and especially ones for massive efficient jetal division. Oh, and also ask where are the ones that don't take up any module slots. We could take all of those.

Next ask if the bot could lower the station's exterior plasma shields, either in whole or part, or tell you how to safely disable them. Use the argument that if you're not here, you definitely can't cause a mess.

Then ask what kind of self-destruction the station has, where it's located, how powerful it is, and what kind of modules would you need to survive the blast from it, by a combination of shielding yourself and flying away from the station fast enough.
>>
No. 541317 ID: 9ddf68

ask the bot if there is any way to power down the station. That way the place will stay clean (if dark) and not blow up which even if legal is still messy

and yes to have duelist try and get the weapons

Alison, how is your work coming along, does the shield look like it's wavering at all or does it still look just as strong as ever?
>>
No. 541385 ID: 2f4b71

Backup plan: see what Emperor-related targets we can hit on the surface by deorbiting the station within 10 minutes.
>>
No. 541393 ID: f9fc9d

Wait, "override to self destruct is legal"? Does that mean we can just ask the bot to turn off the self destruct? Try that.
>>
No. 541408 ID: 7bbaae

>>541393
No, it means the self destruct was legal, which overrides his orders.
>>
No. 541599 ID: d38f67
File 137988419391.png - (61.16KB , 700x700 , 458.png )
541599

>Try to find emperor-related targets we can hit on the surface by deorbiting the station within 10 minutes.
Alison is pretty sure she won't be able to de-orbit the station in less than 2 real-time, non-belenosian minutes.

Duelist starts applying weapons on the module and jetalium storage protection.

"Override, as in your orders were superceded? You can't stop the self destruct?" Alison asks through guardsman's division.
>"Correct."
"Where's the backups?!" Guardsman takes over again.
>"I am not at liberty to say."
"I'm not at liberty to keep you alive! Do something illegal to stop the self destruct, bot!"
>"Error: Illegal Operation."
"Take down the jetal module shields!"
>"I will not."
"You're supposed to keep the facility in working order till the place goes boom, right? If you don't help me out, I'm gonna smash the place up before it self destructs!"
>"Threat level detected. Compromising... accepted. Will lower shields." The bot moves over to a console and plugs itself in.

"Wait really?" Alison asks.
>"They're down!" the Duelist responds, to which he starts shoveling boxes into himself.

The plasma well Alison brings back up appears to be doing the trick, and the plasms shield starts flickering.

>"We have a problem." The duelist starts picking up the modules to try and absorb them. "They're all unlabeled and experimental."
>>
No. 541600 ID: 7bbaae

>>541599
We don't have time to test them out, just grab them all, store them in jetalium, then escape with the main body. Now! Move fast, Duelist! Strength boost and thrusters and all that.

We can probably bring them to someone in unmonitored space to analyze them.
>>
No. 541606 ID: 07e3a8

...we can't absorb them all and then throw away what we don't like we usually do?
>>
No. 541607 ID: eaa372

>>541600

I'm with the cram all the boxes inside yourself plan. Try to get your masses back together before you jump off the station. If we can reach Cloud Slither we might be able to solicit their help depending on the value of the prototype modules we just snagged. However you may have to settle for another blackmap city if the orbital velocity of the satelite's has taken us too far away from Cloud Slither.
>>
No. 541613 ID: 735f4f

Ha ha I knew the little guy would hate the idea of his nice clean station getting messy.

Grow a few arms and shovel yourself full of modules. We can experiment with them later. Sure we wont know what we managed to get away with for awhile but nobody will know what we are packing until we use it on them.

Make sure to leave yourself enough time to both get to the exit with time to spare.

Duelist grill the little guy on how big a explosion this station will make once it self destructs.
>>
No. 541652 ID: 9ddf68

duelist, just loot and scoot, no one is saying we have to absorb them now. and if you're afraid that you won't be able to get to the shield in time to escape the explosion then just shoot your way out, it's not like we're we have a reason to be gentle here what with the self destruct thing and all.

Oh and if the little robot starts bitching about how we're making a mess by shooting through the walls tell him if he drops the shields that would mean we'd have to leave and therefor can't mess the station up anymore.
>>
No. 541670 ID: f9cf6a

Is Dualist saying that when he tried to absorb the modules they don't even have name and description data encoded into them? Not even a record reference number? 'Cause if that's the case these modules are gonna be super risky to test out. For all we know there might be something nasty like a self-destruct module in that pile.

Dualist should still continue shoveling modules into his body to carry out. He can use Quick Morph to increase his volume and form extra arms, tentacles or Alison hair to get as many of them into him as fast as possible. If there's any labels next to the containers he's taking them out of he should note what's written on them. And if the jetalium storage is open he ought to tap into it to absorb mass to burn, then grab as big a chunk as he can quickly carry on the way out.

Guardsman should ask the bot where the records of what the experimental jetal modules stored on the station do, and if they're here to flip through them on the screens he can see really quick. Then everyone in the lobby can split up remembering that data. The bot probably won't comply, but it's worth a try.

Meanwhile flip the plasma well into overdrive and keep it up until the shield comes down. If Dualist isn't back yet flip the overdrive off and stick the plasma well where the plasma shield was to "hold the door," then thrust away to maximum division range in the direction of Cloud Slither. Then Dualist can fly out after you and you two can adjust thrust to meet up while still accelerating away from the station.
>>
No. 541793 ID: d38f67
File 137998802019.png - (14.83KB , 700x700 , 459.png )
541793

"Loot and scoot, Duelist!" Alison says, breaking the wall. Duelist hasn't absorbed anything. "You mean you can't tell what they are at all?"
>"That's right. I can absorb them, but there's no telling if they're any good or not. I nabbed about 12. They could be 12 different copies of, well, master musician, for all we know. I did grab some jetalium though." Duelist says as he jets out of the station to Alison.

>"Hey, bot!" Guardsman asks. "What do the modules here do?!"
>"Please input ID card to continue."
>"Ahhhhhh!"

Guardsman, please leave the bot alone.
>>"No!"
"Please do."
>"No! I'm gonna get info out of this su-"
>>
No. 541794 ID: d38f67
File 137998803676.png - (158.37KB , 700x700 , 460.png )
541794

BOOM

>"Oh. Fuck." Guardsman says through the lobby. Alison and Duelist latch on to each other before they get knocked apart from the resulting shockwave.

The jetalium Duelist got starts getting absorbed to recoup what losses Alison took, and jets around to stabilize herself from spinning. The duelist takes a look from the direction in space Alison came from.
>"We've got company, I see fuel burning from, maybe, 30 seconds away. We have momentum towards the planet from the blast, though, we might be able to go faster than them."
>>
No. 541795 ID: 7bbaae

>>541794
We can't risk combat while carrying the modules. They might break. Accelerate towards the planet and try to gravity assist around it to head towards unmonitored space.
>>
No. 541802 ID: 735f4f

Have engineer and math figure out the best route to the middle of the largest blackmap zone we can get to.

The modules are probably delicate so lets try to avoid combat if possible until we can get them tested and applied properly.

Tell Guardsman that while his intimidation skills are good he needs to work on his temper and focus. In another simulation we could have lost him there. How would Scanner feel if you got blown up forever?
>>
No. 541807 ID: 07e3a8

Let's try and run. We can always send a division back, without our looted modules, to fight our pursuers, if necessary.

The exploded station should help us somewhat- that place was huge and blew up big in low orbit. That's a lot of EM and charged particles in the atmosphere. Communications and electronic surveillance is going to affected.
>>
No. 541825 ID: 9ddf68

don't think it would be wise to fight right now, just rocket yourself towards the closest blackmap zone and see if we can't lose them there.
>>
No. 541843 ID: f9cf6a

No fighting. We'll try to outrun the pursuers instead. Fire full thrusters and plot a trajectory that'll land us in the Cloud Slither blackmap zone. But split off two divisions to hang a bit behind, just in case those pursuers are faster than expected.

We shouldn't trust that all of those modules are safe to absorb to test ourselves. For all we know there's ones in the pile that are meant to be traps. Ones that'll do something like immediately lockdown or shutdown a jetal or activate an unstoppable self-destruct.

We need another jetal to load these on. One without any scan blocking, and preferably not EIN-linked so EIN doesn't know what we have. Strip it down to just enough mass to interface with the module box, stick it in and scan it after for what the module is. If it's clean, we yank its core and absorb the module from it.

>>541802
Guardsman doesn't react well to Alison chiding him, so she should ask Scanner to talk to him about that instead.
>>
No. 541849 ID: 2f4b71
File 138001005078.png - (344.46KB , 1000x483 , 1000px-Skip_reentry_trajectory_svg.png )
541849

>>541795
>gravity assist
We might not have the right vector, but we could also try skipping along the atmosphere to greatly increase our range. If we angle ourselves right (we'll probably have to grow an aeroshell too, but that's really just a flat cone of insulating material) we can even skip out sideways to reach further north or south.
>>
No. 542430 ID: d38f67
File 138039441691.png - (23.10KB , 700x700 , 461.png )
542430

"Engineer, take over Unity for me, get her out of here. Try to land us in the middle of the largest blackmap zone you can manage."
>"The biggest zone is the one that Cloud Slither is in, but that city isn't in the middle of the zone anyway. We'll land several hundred miles away from it, at least."

"Hey Scanner could you do me a favor and try to get Guardsman to improve his temper and all?"
>"I can try, but that's like trying to get you to hug less."


Unity manages to keep her distance from her pursuers, but doesn't manage to gain much ground either. It looks more like they're just making a show of chasing Unity.
>>
No. 542431 ID: d38f67
File 138039443276.png - (244.53KB , 700x700 , 462.png )
542431

Re-entry is successful, and Alison uses the clouds as cover. She isn't sure if the empire's forces can see through clouds, but it doesn't hurt. What does hurt is getting struck by lightning a couple of times, so she doesn't stick around for long.
>>
No. 542432 ID: d38f67
File 138039443994.png - (105.86KB , 700x700 , 463.png )
542432

She moves down the rest of the way. The blackmap zones don't look like a bastion of fun filled freedom.
>>
No. 542433 ID: 7bbaae

>>542432
Alright, we have two choices now. Either start installing the unknown mods one by one and test them out to see what they do, or just wait until we find civilization and ask around to see if we can find someone who can identify them. The first one risks suffering backlash from the experimental nature of the mods, the second one risks us getting mugged.

Either way we should keep moving. Make a couple divisions with small amounts of Jetalium to serve as mobile cameras of a sort so you can't get ambushed in this rocky landscape.
>>
No. 542437 ID: 9ddf68

I think we should keep moving just to make it harder for anyone still trying to follow us. Just because we're in the blackmap zone doesn't mean we're safe just yet.
>>
No. 542439 ID: f45380

>improve Guardsman's temper
Would probably be easier to have another personality step into his division and say 'hey, time to run from the exploding now'.

>See through clouds?
They might have modules for that, but I'm really expecting the global surveillance system to have a hard time tracking you. Thanks to that exploded station there should be a lot of charged particles and EM static in the upper atmosphere right now.

Depending on how big the station was and how energetic the explosion was, (and how good their tech is), that could keep being a problem for days.

>The blackmap zones don't look like a bastion of fun filled freedom.
Makes sense. The criminals went where the empire either doesn't want, or has a hard time getting to or controlling.

>what do
...probably get under cover somewhere, and start going through those modules?
>>
No. 542473 ID: d38f67
File 138041197263.gif - (24.40KB , 700x700 , 464.gif )
542473

After thinking of a better idea, Alison simply tells Scanner to keep an eye on guardsman when he's in control of a division. Therefore, guardsman control will be replaced with Scanner-Guardsman Tower control.

Alison finds a subterranean link that she starts using as a windy path towards the Cloud Slither. Engineer thinks about it, and believes that this entire region is chalk full of nuclear fallout from a previous time.

The trip is slower than Alison would have thought since she is effectively trying to navigate through a maze, Jetals come built in with a few basic functions, of which a compass is included.

Eventually, within the cave, Unity hits a landmark.
>>
No. 542478 ID: 735f4f

Well scan for traps and then ring the bell I guess.

But have a division ring it while your main body is way back somewhere safe. Might be ok but not going to risk it.
>>
No. 542479 ID: 7bbaae

>>542473
Carefully examine the surroundings to make sure you aren't walking into a trapped spot. Especially stick an eye into the bell to make sure it isn't going to explode you if you ring it.

Then ring it. You could even take the precaution of having a tiny division ring it.
>>
No. 542480 ID: f45380

We have those modules well buffered inside us, I hope? Don't want them damaged before we get the chance to absorb them and/or figure out what they are. (You'd think there'd be a way to plug in and read the meta-data documentation before downloading).

Check that the bell isn't tied to a bomb or anything and then apply master musician to it. This will be the best damn bell ring ever heard on this planet.
>>
No. 542530 ID: 9ddf68

look around for any traps before you ring the bell. If you don't see any then back away and use your hair to ring it or a very low mass division while you stand a relatively safe distance away.
>>
No. 542829 ID: 01531c

Raise a shield around yourself, something seriously solid and spherical! Plasma shield, rock shield, jetalium shield, sand shield, etc!
>>
No. 542946 ID: d38f67
File 138084671163.png - (37.40KB , 700x700 , 465.png )
542946

>We have those modules well buffered inside us, I hope?
Alison is using them to help armor her core.

Alison keeps her shields on standby and scans the whole area for traps. When it appears clean, she rings the bell and adds a tune behind it before the screen underneath it flicks on.

>"Hello. Oh, Unity, yes? We're not surprised you came to us, but we are happy that you did make it here. You're welcome to join us. Someone will be with you shortly to verify your legitimacy and take you up, if you'd like to call this home. Do you have any requests or wishes, in the meanwhile?"
>>
No. 542950 ID: 735f4f

Do the signs really help?
>>
No. 542954 ID: 7bbaae

>>542946
Ask about their organization, before we agree to join or anything. We know little about the "real" world. As for wishes, uh, what do they mean? I would think you would need to be inside before you could take advantage of their services.
>>
No. 542955 ID: 2f2cd6

That's... a surprisingly cordial welcome for a stranger from a group of outlaws hiding from an aggressive police state.

Especially if they know who you are. Letting in someone as hot as you brings down heat on them, and risks upsetting the status quo that keeps them alive and free. (Not that we're not glad for the reception! It's just not what we might have expected).

...what and how do they know about us, anyways? I wouldn't think what goes on inside the harvester simulation is public knowledge outside, I wouldn't think the empire would have been too keen on making information about us public, and you only broke out a short while ago. I mean, I suppose our exit and the space station were too big to cover up, but it's interesting they already have our name.

We might want to ask if they have anything that can ID unlabeled modules. Then, the modules we looted become a trade-able commodity. We can absorb the ones we want, and sell or exchange the ones we don't.

I'm wondering if we should give Polatt a division at this point? He knows a lot better than us how to talk to the belenosian underworld. Could be useful to have him around, and this seems a sort of safe chance for him to get used to driving a chunk of jetalium.
>>
No. 542956 ID: 9ddf68

can we get a phone, somewhere to buy/sell/test out mods, info on how we can make some money so we can buy stuff if we have to, and your name.

I mean I'm not to surprised you know who we are I guess, didn't think you'd be able to tell who I was just by looking at us what with us being a jetal and all, but could you help maybe put us on more even ground.
>>
No. 543014 ID: d38f67
File 138091620015.png - (84.67KB , 700x700 , 466.png )
543014

"A question, actually. Do these signs help?"
>"Only on non-threats. Sometimes people don't even know where the blackmap zones are, believe it or not, and think this area is a flee-flight zone or something, and so go flying or riding right into blackmap zones. We don't just kill anyone, but when they start getting uncomfortably close to a landmark, we let them know they're not in friendly territory anymore. It doesn't happen that much anymore, but we keep it anyway."
"Can we get a phone or something?"
>"Oh, absolutely. There's obviously a lot of demand for that, but there's a lot of supply too."
"I also have a bunch of modules that don't have any metadata. Can someone find out?"
>"Really? Yeah, we can take a look."
"It's nice to have a nice reception like this, but it's also unexpected. Isn't it a problem to take someone with heat like me?"
>"Oh, no. At first it was, and we were careful who we took in, but people who the empire considers wanted never actually bug the empire again. So, when the empire finds out their criminal came here, they've slowly came to the realization that they're literally and figuratively off of their maps. They don't need to worry about them anymore, and we think that they only like to perform vengeance if it isn't too inconvenient. Oh, that is the one big thing you should know about us. You're free to leave at any time, but if you don't do so without an approved reason, there's no coming back. We don't want the new empire thinking we're making moves, only that we're keeping to ourselves."
"Before I agree to anything, please tell me about your organization."
>"In the old empire and kingdom, there were a lot of underground factions who just didn't like each other, but still fought against the big powers. When they were 'united' into the new empire, well, the underground factions were mostly either eliminated or gave up and joined the new empire. The few that didn't, though, wouldn't have had a chance, and were forced to band together. There's a few places in the world where they gathered, and that's where we came in. As you can guess, there's a lot of types up here, and a lot of disagreeances, and our goverment has some very heated debates daily. But, no one's afraid that there's going to be a coup or anything. Everyone's smart enough to realize they're counting on the Cloud Slither as a whole, and that trying to forcibly take over and divide it will be, well, stupid in everyone's interests except for the new empire."

Alison senses a jetal coming up fast, and side tunnel's door opens up to show it.
>"Unity? I'm ready to take you up, if you are."
>>
No. 543015 ID: 7bbaae

>>543014
Another question. How do they know about us? I wasn't aware the events inside the harvester simulation were public knowledge. Aside from that, sure, let's go in.
>>
No. 543020 ID: 2f2cd6

>up
...huh. The cloud bit may be more literal than I expected.

Biggest problem I see here is they're isolationists. The Empire ignores them because it's sort of a self-maintained prison. Their problems go here and disappear, and they don't even need to pay for it. Maybe the prisoners get more comfort and quality of life than they'd like them to have, but the convenience more than makes up for it.

The problem, of course, is we can't stay here, or not take action against Sapphire. We can't do non-aggression. And Severer slash Anya knows this, and Sapphire knows this. Which means the Empire's neutrality with this place isn't going to hold once they figure out where we are. It's only a question if the Empire strikes first while we're here, or if we get out in time to strike at Sapphire.

...the only question is whether we're honest about this upfront. That we can't stay.
>>
No. 543023 ID: d38f67
File 138091859994.png - (12.99KB , 700x700 , 467.png )
543023

"Two more questions. What's your name, first off?"
>"Salice."
"And how did you know who I was? All I've done is in the harvester simulation."
>"EIN is formidable, but we've managed to wedge some spies in over the years, after many attempts and many losses. You can bet there are empire spies in our home as well."
"Oh, and when you said wishes, what did you mean?"
>"Oh, just stuff to help you with, like the unlabeled modules."
"Okay, thank you very much, Salice. I'll be heading up, now."
>>
No. 543024 ID: d38f67
File 138091860825.png - (15.23KB , 700x700 , 468.png )
543024

The jetal waits for Alison to cross over, and the platform she gets on starts speeding away.
>"Okay, let's cover a few rules while the elevator takes us up. Most of it is obvious stuff, like don't destroy property or harass anyone. We don't have any official policing entity, but we all look out for each other. In fact, we don't have a centralized leadership. It's all democracy, and like Salice mentioned, the only reason it works without falling apart is because of the new empire. Sole leadership isn't looked on as anything but a tyranny. I know I said rules, but the idea is that there aren't really any rules, but that goes for everyone as well, so keep that in mind. Do you want me to show you around at all or just go straight to the module labs?"
>>
No. 543026 ID: 2f2cd6

Well, we certainly don't have a problem with the basic rules and playing nice.

The module labs, if you don't mind. We don't quite have your faith that the Empire really is gonna leave us alone, and we'd like to figure out what we have and if it's useful. And even if we don't need the modules for a fight, I assume some of them might be useful to trade or sell. ...I assume there's some kind of market for that kind of stuff around here, right?

Ask our guide his name, as well.
>>
No. 543027 ID: 9ddf68

keep an eye out for back stabs but sure go with him and lets see what we can do here.
>>
No. 543028 ID: 7bbaae

>>543024
Module labs first, then the tour. It's possible we may have to leave in a hurry, so it's best we get our business done first.
>>
No. 543030 ID: d38f67
File 138092130672.png - (21.46KB , 700x700 , 469.png )
543030

"What's your name, anyway?"
>"Oh, excuse me. I'm Scout B-18. Not much of a name, I know."
"That's okay. I'll go straight to the appraiser."

Alison is guided out of the elevator, but it only looks like another passage.

>"There isn't much planning or foresight into the infrastructure, but everything is close together, at least." B-18 hands Alison a phone. "This also has a map to the cloud slither, complete with directions to go wherever in an efficient path, so I recommend giving it your size so that it can give proper directions. It does allow jetals to plug directly into it, so you can use it like a brain extension. There's communicators and cloud slither planners as well, so in effect, it's basically our version of EIN and the internet, except it can be unplugged at any time."

"Thank you very much."
>"'welcome. I'm going to do something else while you go in there, but if you still want me to show you around afterwards, just ask for me on your phone, it'll know who you're talking about and call me. See you later. Oh." Alison hugs him.
>>
No. 543033 ID: d38f67
File 138092152838.png - (74.67KB , 700x700 , 470.png )
543033

B-18 shows Alison to the module labs, and is directed towards the appraiser.

"Hello, I'm Unity."
>"... ah. New here."
"Can you show me what these are? There's no metadata?" Alison asks, handing him some of the modules.
>"Where did you get these from? I don't mind, but it will help narrow possibilities down."
"An orbital station." Alison says, adding in a few specifics about its appearance.
>"Right. I can get the information, but if you don't mind, I'd like to go deeper than that and really study how it was made. Do you mind if I take an additional day or two to extract each of these? I would like to be able to reverse engineer these, if they are at all useful."
>>
No. 543034 ID: 76b151

I forget does using modules wipe the data? I have no problem giving them to him after we identify and then decide on what to keep.
>>
No. 543035 ID: 2f2cd6

Mousebot!

>1 to 2 days
Um. Well, in theory, we don't really have a problem with the Empire's opponents having access to more firepower. More outlaw jetals with good modules could help if and when we're attacked.

On the other hand, two days is a long time! We went from nothing to busting right out of the harvester simulation in a day. We may not have 1 to 2 days.

...I'd agree, but ask him to ID first. Just in case circumstances require us to use them before he can reverse engineer them.
>>
No. 543037 ID: 2f2cd6

>>543034
Downloading a module from an external storage device into a jetal removes the data from the device, yeah. And offloading modules from a jetal to an external storage device removes the data from the jetal. Both are cut and paste. For some reason we're able to copy module data from jetal to jetal just fine, though. I'm assuming this is some kind of deliberate copy protection / anti-proliferation built into the module storage devices, since it doesn't make much sense otherwise.
>>
No. 543039 ID: 01531c

Actually
I think Unity is good on time!
We are now in a world with 1984-nightmare levels of EIN without any of our Operator superpowers....
But Sevener is stuck in the same world too!

Both contestants left at the same time, but Sevener has to follow rules and regulations while under the Emperor's eye! She already has EIN installed, so she'll have to find a way to get around that before she could try an Emperor assassination!!!
>>
No. 543040 ID: 2f2cd6

>>543039
...or she can use her position to get the Empire to kill us first. Which, judging by her act on the space station, is what she's trying.

I completely expect her to push the empire to make a move against Cloud Slither once she knows we're here. She wants us either dead, or busy running and not getting stronger while she's building up. Sevener's not going to give us time to prepare if she can help it.
>>
No. 543041 ID: 04b86a

How much time we have here is dependent on how paranoid Sapphire is, and how paranoid Sapphire is is dependent on what his spies observe of our actions and how convincing Anya manages to be about our motives.

If any spies check out what we do with these modules, then being casual about it will lower Sapphire's suspicion, while acting as though we're in a rush by requesting we get any of them now will raise suspicion. Given that, I vote we let him take his time.
>>
No. 543043 ID: fe4bfc

If Sevener is going the route of trying to kill us instead of going for the empire we will need people on our side. So reverse engineering these so other people here can use them might be a good idea.

It does mean the empire might be attacking us here once she convinces them we are a big enough danger. So we need to get the best modules we can find and try to get allies quickly.
>>
No. 543044 ID: d38f67
File 138092539463.png - (16.53KB , 700x700 , 471.png )
543044

"I'd like to ID them first before I decide on it, if you don't mind, but otherwise, I don't mind at all."
>"Certainly. I got ahead of myself. I will ID them first, regardless, then ask you your input. These are advanced types modules, with security to match. The slightest wrong move will trigger a complete internal self deletion, so I must exercise maximum caution. It will take awhile. I will contact you when I'm done, I expect ID will take a few hours. Please do not disturb me until I am done."

Alison calls B-18, who says he will be right over.
>>
No. 543045 ID: d38f67
File 138092540921.png - (25.38KB , 700x700 , 472.png )
543045

From the tour guide, what Alison and everyone can glean is that most of these jetals and robots do nothing in particular all day long. Most are low powered, as the Cloud Slither can only generate so much renewable energy at a time, and everyone gets a share. The rest goes to backup batteries in case of emergency. B-18 explains that sometime, Alison may have to help in assisting mining operations and energy gathering, but she won't have to until this place decides how to put her to work. Even then, he explains, most people only have to work a small portion of the day. The rest of the time spent is killing the remaining part of the day, often with gambling or other games.

It's not much of an existence, Alison thinks, but then again, it doesn't look like they have it too bad. The major concern is the day the new empire decides to wipe them all out, but that thought is well shuffled to the back of their minds.

The biologicals, she notes, also have respirators and night vision goggles. The air quality is particularly abysmal, but B-18 says that the cloud slither does provide sufficient protection against the lingering nuclear fallout from outside. There are frequent rolling brownouts as well, so night vision is required.
>>
No. 543046 ID: 76b151

No wonder the EIN doesn't care about this place. They aren't going to fight unless attacked and even then I get the suspicion they might either roll over and die or try to run.

Ask about barter and such.
>>
No. 543047 ID: 7bbaae

>>543045
Ask B-18 what's up with his eyes. Does he have any interesting mods? We could do a mod exchange, maybe, or outright buy some since we have money and jetalium to spare.

Are there any shops around? Of note is that if we stay here for long, we'll be falling behind. Sevener could gain power faster than us, if we just loiter.
>>
No. 543048 ID: 01531c

Cloud Slither has the firepower to match the Empire, but lack the Surge to use it!

What kinda sci-fi is this where you can't create infinite power generation facilities out of duct-tape and nano-bots!?
>>
No. 543049 ID: 01531c

>>543047
>We could do a mod exchange, maybe, or outright buy some since we have money and jetalium to spare.

The money we have is Empire money, and I doubt there is any trade going on between them.

Ask about smuggling stuff, or if that's pointless because everything that exists can be made with on site facilities?
>>
No. 543051 ID: 2f2cd6

Geeze. This place isn't a guilded cage at all.

But yeah, inquire about how local trade works, especially with regard to jetal modules. (As exchanges a thing? Jetals mutually allowing each other to copy from each others cores? Kind of risky, but potentially very worth it).

>>543049
Our currency isn't Empire money- it's those modules we brought in. They have to be worth something.
>>
No. 543056 ID: d38f67
File 138093227633.png - (17.09KB , 700x700 , 473.png )
543056

"What kind of bartering is done, here?"
>"Goods-wise, mostly energy. The biologicals add in food to that. Knickknacks are also popular. We do use currency, just our own coinage, but people do like trading for goods."
"What about modules?"
>"That's more complex. We like to keep track of who has what, so personal trades are frowned upon. The module labs double as a module market. Plus, if someone gives the labs a unique model that wasn't found before, and lets the module labs make copies, then they get royalties whenever the labs sell something. That's the simplistic version of it. Batteries are tougher to make for us though, so here, a jetal's power is typically limited by their battery power and energy rations, not their modules."
"So what's with your eyes?"
>"Wide-eye lens models with internal processors."
"So, there's shops, right?"
>"Yes. There's the labs, and there are a few streets that are popular for markets to set up shop and share their wares."
>>
No. 543057 ID: 2f2cd6

Hmm. Well, we don't have our module-currency yet, and we didn't bring any food or knicknacks with us either. The shops might be interesting to poke around in, but we can't exactly buy anything, and I'm not sure window shopping buys us any advantage other than killing time.

...what else is there of interest?

I suppose we could also multitask, plug into our new phone and see what's going on in the slither-net.
>>
No. 543059 ID: 76b151

Well if we are going to be bumming around here for a bit how about we let Gambler out to play and see what he can win. We can always offer Jetallium for the initial bids.
>>
No. 543060 ID: 76b151

>>543059
Gambler out to play in a division*
>>
No. 543061 ID: 7bbaae

Oh yes, let's check out for any news about Unity over the internet. Also, check for any news about Sapphire, and the other emperors.
>>
No. 543062 ID: 7bbaae

>>543059
I support this idea.
>>
No. 543063 ID: 7a843b

Ask B-18 or check your phone to see if they have a morphing class A plasma sword (Loviro's sword) in their module library. They probably do, but if they don't then it's another unique one you can add to it.

You're also going to have to do something about your energy consumption. Last check it was around 16,000 per b-hour. That'll cost a lot of mass per b-day to cover. So bring that up with B-18. Ask if they got a lockup you can stash your jetalium in to knock your energy use down, as well as blank module boxes you could borrow to offload enough modules that you could push your morph down to 20. Also ask how large the hourly energy ration is.
>>
No. 543085 ID: 9ddf68

ask B-18 what do you think you'll have to do once they decide to put you to work. Then gamble. Also when you let gambler out for a bit see if you can't learn a few tips and tricks from him as well as it never hurts to learn some new tricks and you don't really have anything better to do really.
>>
No. 543137 ID: fd7000

Your talents mostly lie in making friends and solving their problems. Can't do anything without a source of income though so find a way to create or steal power and start making friends. You have done this twice already, once on Corruptor's island and once with the dead battery gang. Every favor you can give now is one favor owed when it really matters. Make enough friends and you might end up de facto leader of this place, danger of any direct democracy really.
>>
No. 543155 ID: d38f67
File 138099994764.png - (21.24KB , 700x700 , 474.png )
543155

"I'm using a lot of energy in upkeep right now. Is there any place I can store jetalium?"
>"Oh, yes, absolutely. I'll show you to our banks. You'll get an apartment soon, but I'd still recommend getting a bank. There aren't many thefts since the penalty is so high, but our apartments aren't secure."

Although Alison puts in a bunch of jetalium in the bank, she does bring out a division for gambler to go visit the casinos, bringing a bit of jetalium to use as currency.

Alison, in the meanwhile, plugs into her new phone and starts checking out the slither internet. There appears to be some worms that were placed in the empire's internet, and so Alison is able to check out what's happening in the empire to a degree.
>"Don't trust the news. About 10% of what our worms pick up aren't detected and are accurate, but the other 90% is caught by EIN, who then feeds the worms pro-empire propaganda. So, the empire channels in the slither are... well, take a listen."

That same newscaster talk about how life in the empire is so great and the standard of living is on the rise. It does paint a pretty picture, but Alison is also certain that no one buys into it. Sometimes the newscaster does address the slither as being nothing but a self enforced prison made of people who only cling to the cloud slither on the sole merit that it isn't the empire that either rejected them or were rejected by them.

It takes Alison by surprise, as while the description of the Empire is obviously placed on an enormously high pedestal, the description of the cloud slither seems to be an unnervingly unexaggerated and accurate analysis from what little Alison can see. It's accentated as well by the fact that the newscaster talking about the slither is the only time Alison has ever seen the newscaster not smile. She even sounds more sincere while talking about the slither than she does talking about the empire.

The rest of the internet appears to be just an extension of the physical cloud. Online games including gambling, chat rooms, and otherwise robots, jetals and people being robots, jetals and people. Either no one appears to know about Unity, or no one knows that she's in the cloud slither now. And the empire news isn't saying anything about her, unsurprisingly.
>>
No. 543157 ID: d38f67
File 138100002631.png - (15.43KB , 700x700 , 475.png )
543157

>Check your phone to see if they have a morphing class A plasma sword (Loviro's sword)
There is an A class morphing sword, but the power output spikes up when morphing, as well as weakening even more than a bending beam when morphed too much. It doesn't fit the description of Loviro's sword, which morphs with seemingly no detriment. The module lab catches Alison's inquiry, and explains that they are trying to improve on the design, but for the time being, non-morphing swords are the better option.

"B-18What do you think they'll have me do when I get to work?"
>"Given your strength, perhaps head out into the outer, sunnier parts of the blackmap zones and set up camoflauged solar arrays."
"You say that people see sole leadership as a bad thing, but can I assume that there are some people here that are looked on as being very important?"
>"... we have an odd dynamic, here. No one leads. If you want something unique done, you do it yourself. This place in the world is one of the few remaining places of free will and thought. This is taken to an extreme in the Cloud. If you try to pressure someone to think differently, that's seen as empire mentality. Of course, if you just argue with someone on the street about something, that's fine, but if you appeal to the public on a whole about something, you're not going to have a good reception. If you look up the chat rooms, people will say their beliefs, yes, but our talks are peppered with 'I believe', 'I think', 'personally', 'you have your opinion and it is valid, but...' and so forth. That's someone of a simplification, but we are wary of anyone being in a position of power. We believe that the empire knows this, and another reason that they don't attack is that they know that if we tried to attack, despite that we have formidable strength, we could never coordinate our efforts into anything significant. EIN, on the other hand, would be able to generate logistic patterns, tactics and strategy and broadcast inarguable orders amongst the empire's army in split seconds."
>>
No. 543160 ID: 2f2cd6

Well. I have to say our odds of raising any kind of reasonable resistance to the Empire to help us here are slim. This is just a place to kill time and regroup a little.

...unless we look for like minded individuals. Are there any people here like, well, us? Recent joiners, or fighters, or other people with a grudge against Sapphire, or who wish they could take action? Or people who were friends of Loviro, or the Diamond house? Focusing on the small number of people who might be willing and/or able to help might be more useful than trying to prod the city into action.
>>
No. 543161 ID: 735f4f

If we could get a mod or something that let a bunch of people in the lobby talk at once we could do what Ein does in a limited fashion.

For now concentrate on making friends and keeping our energy reserves up. We can decide on where to go from here once we get those modules identified and meet more people here.

Probably wont get the backing of the community but might find some people that will work with us. Avoid bringing up how there lives are a simulation within a simulation for now.
>>
No. 543164 ID: 735f4f

Be careful about giving out the info for our sword. Its our best weapon and the idea of one of our enemies getting a hold of a copy worries me.
>>
No. 543166 ID: 9ddf68

I wonder if we might be able to find some information here that would be damn near impossible to find outside of the blackmap zones, Like what sapphire did to Loviro or some other backhanded deal that would make it easier to take him down when the time finally comes
>>
No. 543170 ID: 7bbaae

>>543157
So, it sounds like there's no way to unite everyone, and thus they are completely useless as a fighting force. Maybe we can convince a few jetals to come along when we leave, though.

Ask B-18 what he thinks about Sapphire.
>>
No. 543184 ID: 57a559

>>543157
IS EIN an individual? Could he theoretically betray an emperor?
>>
No. 543219 ID: d38f67
File 138108309039.png - (55.97KB , 700x700 , 476.png )
543219

Scanner pays attention to the phone, and gets a bleep saying that an apartment has been found for her. Alison thinks that she's going to use her room here about as much as she did her room in the dead battery headquarters, but she takes a look anyway.

"Ein isn't an individual, right?"
>"Correct. It's a powerful, non-sentient AI controlled by all the emperors and advisors."
"Are there any new people besides me recently?"
>"A couple. Just a few deactivated bots under some rubble. Most of the people that would come here already have. People like you are rare, but there have been a few strong jetals in the last couple of years. So, you might be kind of a big deal once a public notice is broadcasted that you've joined us."
"What do you think about Sapphire, by the way?"
>"Creepy. A few of us knew him before he was an emperor, but he was hardly much of a friend to anyone."
"Would they know anything that wouldn't be available information in the empire, then?"
>"Well, sure, but what would we do with it?"
"I'm specifically wondering if anyone knows anything about Sapphire assassinating Loviro."

Scanner gets a ping from the module labs, saying that IDs will be available shortly, if Unity wants to head over.

>"Let me see... yeah, we have a couple ex-Diamonds that made it out of the empire when things went south for their house. They might know something."
>>
No. 543220 ID: 2f2cd6

Alright. Let's see what our modules were. Provided nothing happens, we'll try and allow them time to reverse engineer them. (Maybe if they have storage devices handy, we could offload some of our old mods to make room for the new instead of deleting them? Even our less good stuff is kind of high end. Someone else might have a use for it).

And see if we can set up a meeting with some of the diamond ex-pats.
>>
No. 543221 ID: 9ddf68

I say get B-18 to mark them on your map so we can talk to them after we see what the mods are.
>>
No. 543243 ID: 57a559

...
You know, I wonder how hard it would be to make EIN sentient. Not crack EIN into doing whatever we want... just change its parameters to give it it's own voice.

Could we get like a skill plug or anything like that? We'd love to actually be able to hack devices ourselves, even though it's impossible with something like EIN.

Lets go talk to the diamond people. Maybe we could do a harvesting sim breakout if we care to and get all diamond minds back.
>>
No. 543286 ID: 7a843b

Guess Cloud Slither isn't totally underground like I thought. That's a decent view, considering what the atmosphere and weather around here is like.

Head over to the module labs and find out what you nabbed from the station. Also see if you can get upgraded versions of your modules that don't require energy, such as Core Detection and Core Hide, as well as what they have that doesn't take energy.

Then head 'round to the ex-Diamond folks. Ask them about how Sapphire disappeared Loviro and the rest of the ex-Diamond advisors. Tell them about his "resurrection" in the harvester sim and the rest of the story, minus the bits about this all being a CAI contest sim.

Don't bring up teaming up to go against Sapphire or the Empire with them; At least not without taking a load of precautions first. If there's anybody here that Sapphire would have spies watching, it'd be the ex-Diamond folks.

Here's something to keep in mind: While Sevener/Anya almost certainly won't be able to convince the Empire to make a full-scale attack on Cloud Slither, she might be able to convince them to allow her to lead a surgical strike in to take you out. Especially if they know you're away from Cloud Slither and near the edge of the blackmap zone. So don't assume you'll be safe while here, try to get job assignments away from the zone edge, and if you have to go out that way keep it as secret as you can.

>>543243
I think it'd be nigh-impossible that EIN's overarching directives or AI pattern could be altered by anyone but the Emperors or their advisors. There may still be a way to change it subtlety, but even that's doubtful. Talking with the folks in Cloud Slither that wrote the worms that let them get some data out of the Empire's Internet will show what they might be able to do.
>>
No. 543602 ID: d38f67
File 138137710992.png - (19.43KB , 700x700 , 477.png )
543602

Alison makes a note of where the ex-diamonds are, and will visit them later. First, she thanks B-18 for the tour, and goes to the module labs.

"Hello."
>"Yes. I found what they are. None of them are given legal classes. We will give them to you if you want them, but... we want to have them for the Cloud."

He transfers the list to Unity's phone.
EINI - E.I.N. Impersinator - spoofs a key for EIN. Approximately a .0031% chance of failing each check.
E.I.N. tracker - using a spoofed key, the jetal may read data through EIN. Chance of discovery is 2 percent per b-minute, plus an unknown chance while actively mining data.
4 modules - AJ6-Series Beam, Sword, Sniper, Blaster. Extremely high power output, high power requirements.
4 modules - AN5-Series Beam, Sword, Sniper, Blaster. Moderate power output, extremely low energy requirements.
Displacer Rockets - No description given
Assorted Empirical Defense Systems
[/aa]
>>
No. 543603 ID: 2f2cd6

...yeah, I'm pretty sure we want absolutely all of those.

Tell him we'll allow them to try and reverse engineer that stuff. We won't be back to absorb it before he's done with it unless absolutely necessary.

Unless we can absorb the modules and then let another jetal copy them for the lab to study?
>>
No. 543609 ID: da4ec6

>>543602
Let him reverse-engineer them. The EIN Impersonator is an absolute game-changer, and the AN5 modules could be incredibly valuable to the Cloud Slither community.
>>
No. 543610 ID: 9ddf68

...How long will it take to reverse engineer these things cause if won't be to long we can try to gather information first through these diamond guys and then come back for them later. If it's going to take a while well then we'll just decide what to replace them with. Maybe even see if some of our lesser mods would still be useful to trade in as well or at least store somewhere.
>>
No. 543611 ID: 735f4f

Man we hit the jackpot there if they can reverse engineer these with any speed.

Find out how long it will take to copy these and if there is any chance of failure.

These do not seem like something a official research station would be developing. I wonder who was designing these and for what.
>>
No. 543615 ID: 7bbaae

>>543602
Those low-cost weapons look AMAZING for equipping this energy-starved populace, if we're gonna try to get some people helping us. The high cost ones look better for us, of course, since we have a stockpile of jetalium.

Ask what, exactly, he would do with all this stuff, and how long we'd have to wait before we could put the mods in our core. The Cloud seems perfectly content to keep to themselves, so it's not like they'd use the weapons.

...those displacer rockets... gotta try those out, I suppose.
>>
No. 543625 ID: e57f62

...Why the in the bluest hells would they make a module that's designed to fool EIN?
>>
No. 543626 ID: 76b151

>>543625
To discover if its possible then work on fixing it.
>>
No. 543627 ID: 2f2cd6

>>543625
>>543626
And/or when an Emperor wants something done completely off the books. Remember, these aren't nice people, and this disutopia is a three way power struggle. That mod provides nice cover for black ops, and plausible deniability if anything goes wrong.

...in fact, it's not much of a stretch that Ruby made sure that mod was there, or knew it would be there before he recommended we hit the station. We qualify as one Emperor's black op against another, by this point.
>>
No. 543635 ID: e607cd

Now, when you say "extremely low energy requirements," do you mean low enough to prevent all that "energy surge detected" nonsense? Because surprise beam to the face would be niiiiice.
>>
No. 543691 ID: 7a843b

Alright, he can have them to work on making copies, but he ought to figure the clock's ticking on those EIN related ones. As soon as the Empire knows we have them, if it doesn't know already, it'll be working on counters to those modules to be added to EIN. No idea how long that'll take, but it'll probably be sooner than we like.

Comment that he messed up the list formatting at the end. There isn't any description of what those "Assorted Imperial Defense Systems" do or how much juice they take. Or is it he doesn't have any idea right now what that module really does?

Ask if it'd be possible for you to load up one of those weapon modules to test fire it, then offload it to a module box and it wouldn't effect his ability to work to duplicate it. 'Cause it'd be good to at least test fire that Displacer Rocket to find out its capabilities, and to do any of the others to get hard numbers on their energy requirements and effectiveness.
>>
No. 543696 ID: e3aff6

About these modules, he is keeping this as secret as he can at the moment, right? We already know the empire is spying on us, and there is some chance that finding out we have this anti-EIN module will make them decide to finally attack.
>>
No. 543733 ID: 7a843b

While a 0.0031% chance of detection per check sounds really low, how often does EIN run routine checks on those in its view? 'Cause if it's something like once every 10 milliseconds then those odds aren't as good as we'd like.

Also, does having the EIN Impersonator module active mean that EIN will have access to all our senses, same as a regular EIN-linked jetal, or does the module spoof the surveillance data as well so we can actually do actions that'd normally get EIN's attention?

>>543627
Well, if Ruby did make sure that these modules were there, I hope he had all records that they were there scrubbed and the research into their creation destroyed or hidden. 'Cause if the Empire has the research data on them and knows we have them then they'll be able to develop a counter and install it into EIN sooner rather than later.

>>543696
Yeah, we definitely want to keep the fact we have these EIN-spoofing modules secret for as long as possible. We should probably wipe that list from our phone, and module guy ought to keep anything about it out of the Cloud intranet and off networked systems.
>>
No. 543741 ID: 472103

Find out how long it'd take.
If not too long, let 'em. I'd recommend they start with the EINI stuff. ...that way, you can get that back first.

If it would be a long time, and if you're gonna head out to cause trouble soon, or if you would irrevocably lose them in the reverse engineering process with no chance of getting a duplicate made, I'd say to keep the EINI stuff and give the rest.

On a whole, though, I'm hoping it's all given. Backup plan for winning the simulation, maybe we could pull these guys together into a ragtag team of rebels fighting an evil empire. Slip in, wreck some shit, off some dude, win. ...but that's kinda a 'plan b' thing at the moment. Maybe even lower. 'c' or 'd' or such.
>>
No. 543911 ID: d38f67
File 138159029324.png - (29.84KB , 700x700 , 478.png )
543911

>While a 0.0031% chance of detection per check sounds really low, how often does EIN run routine checks on those in its view?
By the sounds of it, a lot. .0031% chance is still good, but mathematician does not think that running around the streets of the capital with impunity would last for long periods of time.

"What does the assorted defense system do?"
>"I don't know."
"Isn't it possible to just have me absorb it, then have another jetal copy it from me?"
>"Hm...? Although the term is 'copy', there are not many modules that don't disappear when it is absorbed. Most of the time, it is always a transfer from one jetal to another." Alison was not under that impression, but she isn't going to argue.
"Would you mind if I test fired some, then offloaded them back into a module box?"
>"... that should be fine, yes. We have firing grounds under the cloud, if you would test it there. It will only take a moment, as we have a tunnel straight between here and there."

She will, however, have to decide what 12 modules she should remove before absorbing all of the new ones if she wants to test them first.

http://www3.tgchan.org/wiki/Unnatural_Selection_Stats
>>
No. 543920 ID: 0f6f63

You don't need to discard 12 modules in order to test. You can do it in series- discard one, absorb, test, offload, then absorb the next and repeat.

As for what to discard... a gigabeam or a sniper, maybe?
>>
No. 543949 ID: 7bbaae

>>543911
The most important one to test is the displacer missile. Swap out the jetalium missile for it- I think they cost too much jetalium to use now that we can't pick and choose our fights.
>>
No. 543971 ID: 9ddf68

Jetalium Bullets because wouldn't our autogun and autocannon completely remove the need for that or do we need that for us to even use them in the first place? Also get rid of the mines. We can fire missiles or if we really want to do a timed explosion or something we could always split off a division from ourselves and just use Explosive Shedding for that person to either lay and wait for someone to wonder past them and have them jump out at them or just kamikaze whoever.
>>
No. 544027 ID: d38f67
File 138161895289.png - (110.77KB , 700x700 , 479.png )
544027

>You can do it in series- discard one, absorb, test, offload, then absorb the next and repeat.
Yes, Alison will do this. She removes jetalium mines, since it seems redundant with explosive shedding.

>What does the jetalium bullets module do?
It helps facilitate forming bullets - the higher class weapons can do so on their own, but it happens at a much faster rate with that module. Nonetheless, the autoguns have not been the most valuable, and Alison may lose some of those weapons when it comes time to absorb all 12 new modules at once.

Alison runs down to the firing yard. The weapons mostly do not disappoint, and the displacer rockets appear to rearrange the mass in a certain range. A 50 kg missile seemed to cause the space up to 3 meters away from the point of contact to get rearranged anywhere in its sphere of influence. A 20 kg missile did the same for about 1.5 meters. The AJ6 plasma sword, however, seems about on par with Loviro's sword, but it cannot morph and is more expensive.

The AN5 series do cause an energy surge, but it is far harder to detect from mid-range. Therefore, it can be assumed that unless a jetal has specific modules to detect minute energy surges, they will not detect an AN5 weapon unless they are within several meters.

Engineer is going to not think about the missiles, and runs tests on the assorted defenses. It consists of plain things such as plasma diffusers, air vibrators and other odds and ends. He expects there is probably a series of courses on how to use it, but as it is, he'll just try to learn what he can and take care of Unity's defenses. In fact, he starts getting assistance running tests on it, as it appears far more complicated than weapons.
>>
No. 544032 ID: 0f6f63

Right. So... what do we do while the scientists try to reverse-engineer this stuff? I guess thank them for the help, see if they have a time estimate, and go visit the ex-pat diamonds.
>>
No. 544074 ID: 7bbaae

>>544027
From the description it seems the displacer missile would be extremely lethal to basically anything we shoot with it aside from a Jetal, who would be disoriented and disabled unless they're really big, in which case it'd be like damaging that area in their body. So that's pretty much our best weapon now, unless energy shields are effective against it, in which case we'd need to drop the shields first. But yeah, we should replace our missiles with it.

AN5 series sniper is REALLY GOOD for obvious reasons. I vote we take that. EINI too... and we should test out the defense systems by handing someone some jetalium and asking them to shoot us while the mod is active.

I don't like either of the new plasma swords. I think we should just stick with the lance and lovirosword.
>>
No. 544080 ID: 7a843b

>>544074
It might be more effective against a jetal than you'd think, depending on what "rearranging" the mass inside a certain radius means. If it's scrambling the position of the mass inside that sphere to random positions elsewhere in that sphere with fine granularity, then catching the jetal's core within that range would be near certainly fatal.

Given how irreplaceable these modules are, and it's nearly certain that the Empire already has agents in Cloud Slither, we need to protect them and make sure an agent doesn't destroy them while in the module lab. We keep all of them loaded up in Unity and only offload them one at a time for the module lab guy to work on. We'd also stay in the lab and watch over him and make sure nobody else messes with the modules. We'll have to call in the ex-Diamond folks to talk in the lab in that case as well.
>>
No. 544142 ID: d38f67
File 138169127621.gif - (20.62KB , 500x300 , 480.gif )
544142

Alison will have time to finalize what she gets and loses, but thinks about it while she finds the ex-diamond. She gives the labs the AJ6 sword to work on first, since she would like to be in the labs while they work on the more valuable ones in case any agents try to get at the modules.

He is in a hallfway, and is still there by the time Alison gets to him. He doesn't turn to look at her.

"Hello."
>"Yes?"
>>
No. 544144 ID: 9ddf68

start off with names then ask about diamond in general. If he want's to know why you want to know about diamond just say when you were in the harvester simulation you found out you were a noble form the diamond empire and was wondering if he could tell us more about it since it seems to be playing a large part in our lives right now. Really ask about what happened when Diamond fell and what sapphire did to try and screw over diamond's remaining nobles, like Loviro.
>>
No. 544146 ID: 0f6f63

Introduce yourself, ask if he knew Loviro, and apologize if it's painful or insensitive for you to ask, but you'd like to find out about your past, and what happened to the Diamond house.
>>
No. 544185 ID: 735f4f

Tell him he looks very familiar.
>>
No. 544190 ID: 0f6f63

>Diamond house
>Arbiter style ornaments
...how did I not see that connection sooner.
>>
No. 544378 ID: d38f67
File 138189928844.gif - (14.46KB , 300x300 , 481.gif )
544378

"You look familiar."
>"Do I, now?"
"It's nothing. I'm Unity. I'm sorry if it's insensitive to ask, but I'd like to know more about the Diamond house."
>"You are?"
"Loviro's."
>"... where do you come from?"
"The harvest."
>"Why would you leave?"
"I'd like to know more about my past. Loviro was reconstructed as others knew him, but I only learned so much, and he could only tell me so much."
>"Hahaha." Alison can't tell if his laugh is sardonic, or just quiet. "Your past. Of what would I or any of us know of Loviro or his jetals? The man did little but spend his time, money and labors on his precious jetals cores. At least it was good work. It had to have been, if you got out for 'your past.' All I know is that when the diamond house shattered, many continued on, many retired, some fled the empire. To me, the empire died with him. I will not say that the diamond emperor had any grand, noble schemes to the continuation of the empire, nor even that he was anything but a ho hum leader in peacetime, but he was ours, and he was dead. We went missing. Perhaps it was a mistake, because then it was not such a stretch when Loviro and a few others went 'missing' as well. There is little empirical evidence that the sapphire emperor assassinated him, but it's the only plausible explanation for Loviro. He may have been dismayed, sure, but his jetals were with the empire. Never coming to the Diamond residences, always spending night after night hopped up on amphetamines and caffienes, making sure his life's work would be the greatest jetals cores the world has ever known... only to sneak off in the dead of those cold nights? Leaving his precious sons and daughters, of whom he loved more than I've ever seen any Belenosian love their own flesh and blood offspring? Impossible. Ludicrous. And now, decades later, Loviro's legacy comes to me without warning or ceremony, for 'her past'? Why not with the one known as Anya, which, if the news is to be trusted, is getting cozy in the high life of nobility? Why not build a future and leave a past worth remembering? No, Loviro would cry in his grave if his beloved life's work had nothing better to do than break out of the harvest itself because it was curious about a past it played no part in. Tell me what you are really here for, what really brought you to this dead husk in the clouds."
>>
No. 544381 ID: 0f6f63

...I broke free because I'm going to kill Sapphire. Because I need to. I'm only here as a stepping stone. Another chance to gather power, information, and at momentary safety.

And if Anya's getting cozy with the system, it's probably so she can try the same thing I'm going to, but from the inside. The prospect of working with her is kind of... complicated though. We have a history, and she holds a grudge against me. One of us might end up killing the other before this is over.
>>
No. 544382 ID: 735f4f

My full story might be a little hard for you to believe right away.

The condensed version is I am here to try to fix a broken system that has existed for far to long and save the people trapped in it. Its a danger that threatens you and me and everyone we have ever known and loved.

For now that means I need to kill the Sapphire emperor or my angry friend Anya.

How closely does he resemble Arbiter? Seems like more and more signs of a collective unconsciousness inherent in the system. Am thinking our memories might not be completely wiped every reset. Remnants remain or they are all stored somewhere in a deeper system.
>>
No. 544384 ID: 7bbaae

>>544378
Fine, he wants more? You're going to kill Sapphire, and you're trying to squeeze every ounce of assistance you can out of this dead husk. If he wants to help, it would be appreciated, but you doubt most people here would react well to your goals. Would the other ex-diamonds give you assistance?
>>
No. 544387 ID: 57a559

>>544378
You know what, I'm going to say to explain that this is a sim inside a sim because that's exactly what he's asking for. Why are we doing this? To win the simulation's goal so we can defeat Anya and her side in the Sim above, and continue on to defeat a powerful compilation AI that resets everything to the beginning of the sim above after a time interval unless we can get creative.

And this sim is training us for that CAI fight.
So that's why we're here, asking around. We want to learn more about Loviro, because he was a smart guy. If we can find his notes or whatever, and if they're legitimate instead of simulated bullshit on paper a developer of the sim created, their might be something useful there. It's also important to learn the most about this simulation in case it might happen to repeat in a later loop or when we fight the CAI.

Plus, Loviro is a cool bro and we want to learn more about him. Personally, we'd love to upload him or some version of him to us so we can take him to the SIM above but that opportunity has come and gone we're sure.
>>
No. 544400 ID: 76b151

Telling about the CAI sim is just going to get us called crazy AGAIN. Lets stick with killing Sapphire since its more believable.
>>
No. 544405 ID: 001618

don't say anything about the CIA sim he wouldn't believe us anyways it getting help from people is a lot harder when they think you're crazy.

Just say that you never realized you're a diamond noble until sapphire seemed to be gunning for your head and by that point becoming a noble was nothing more then a pipe dream. Sapphire did kill Loviro but only after he trapped him in the harvest simulator to try and cover his tracks. We have no proof but we know that's what happened. And because of all the woes sapphire has been giving us plus the little fact that he want's our head we're trying to find a way to take sapphire down anyway we can. If you have any knowledge on how we could do that or even where we could find proof that sapphire killed Loviro we would be very grateful.
>>
No. 544447 ID: 7a843b

Tell him that you broke out of the simulation as part of your objective to assassinate the Sapphire Emperor. And add that that's the same objective that Anya has.

Fabricate a story that Loviro's group of "resurrected" Diamonds had a falling out and split over how to try to kill Sapphire. Anya's side wanted her to go legit and climb up the ranks until she could strike from inside, while Loviro's side wanted you to strike from outside. So you two worked independently and acted your parts. And it would have been a decent enough plan, except for the unfortunate fact that none of you knew just how massively powerful and ubiquitous EIN was up here.

Don't say anything about this being a CAI battle simulation. At least, not yet. Those in the harvester simulation were more receptive to the concept since they more or less knew they were in a simulation themselves. But those up here in the "real world" won't be nearly so, and you'll come off sounding crazy.

And don't forget to get his name, if he's willing to give it.
>>
No. 544511 ID: 9ddf68

>>544447
wait, since Loviro actually come from the outside world unlike us, wouldn't he realized that the outer EIN is much more powerful then the one inside the harvester sim? If we're going to lie keep it simple so we're less likely to sound like we're lieing.

And telling him that Sevener/Anya is trying to kill sapphire as well is also iffy to me. On one hand if we tell him and it leaks to sapphire that Sevener is trying to kill him it would make it much harder for her to get a shot at him leveling the field more in our favor but at the same time maybe she's going for overtime to learn more and is planing to team up or at least use us to try and take out sapphire and outing her might make it that much more difficult to slay sapphire. Just some food for thought

IF we do tell him about Anya's plans (assuming he even believes them) just say the 2 of you had never really got to met each other in detail but you both had different plans to take out sapphire. We wanted to go for directly approach as although harder to pull of, leaves less to chance and She wanted to take him down by kissing his ass so she could put a knife in his back. Safer yes, but far to much left for fate to decide for our liking.
>>
No. 544513 ID: 75a612

The only reason not to be honest about what Unity and Anya are up to is if we suspected this was an imperial spy, or maybe if we thought being open with our aggressive stance would get us kicked out of Cloud Slither before we ready. But if we want to recruit help from anyone in the diamond old guard, we kind of need to tell them what's up.

The only reason we'd want to be completely honest about the CAI battle and Alison and Sevener was if we wanted him to think we were crazy or making stuff up. That kind of honestly doesn't help without proof, and the only proof we have to offer is absorbing people.

...or letting Polatt out, but they have no reason to believe his testimony any more than ours, or that he's anything but a normal division lying.
>>
No. 544522 ID: 7a843b

>>544511
The Loviro we met never came from outside the harvest simulation. He and the other "resurrected" Diamonds were constructs generated by the simulation when that one student was totally convinced they would reappear. And as far as we know they were generated with memories that were twenty years out of date, so they'd only have known of EIN's capabilities back then.
>>
No. 544525 ID: 75a612

>>544524
No. That would contradict what the Diamond ex-pat knows to be true about Loviro and his character. Loviro loved his creations too much to give them that kind of mission, or to tie a kill switch to it. He was glad of the path we chose, but he made sure we had a choice. (Even if the rules of the simulation didn't give us one).
>>
No. 544532 ID: 01531c

>>544525
Then let's merely claim that we 'think' it was Loviro. Who else could have knowledge of the systems to access and alter something that has otherwise avoided all scans? The only version we knew was his harvest-clone!
>>
No. 545043 ID: d38f67
File 138250412552.png - (49.11KB , 700x700 , 482.png )
545043

>How closely does he resemble Arbiter?
He looks a little similar to Arbiter, but she would't have trouble telling them apart. It's just the ornaments.

"I'm going to kill Sapphire."

He doesn't respond.

>"How did you meet Loviro?"
"Some people who thought he was alive went to meet him. I guess the harvest was okay with that, since he wasn't considered dead."
>"So you never knew him."
"I knew him as others knew him."
>"He asked you to kill sapphire?"
"No, he didn't."
>"There is nothing I can give you, but there is one jetal that owns a single module of Loviro's. There is nothing special about it that I can see. However, Loviro made many of his weapons for his jetals and his alone by simple application of making his jetal cores abnormal and building his modules around that. To you, it may be devastating. Or maybe not. I can show you to him, but it will almost certainly be a waste of time. He clings onto his modules like his core depended on it, and clams up when asked about it. If you do convince him to part with the unnamed module, there is no guarantee that it will be any good at all. It could be Loviro's trash."
>>
No. 545044 ID: 7bbaae

>>545043
Sounds good, but I bet we're gonna have to take it by force, which means it should be the last thing we do here.

Ask him if any other former Diamond house members would be willing to help you.
>>
No. 545045 ID: d2b9fe

>Loviro designed his modules to exploit the specific hardware of the custom cores of his jetals
Taking advantage of the hardware is only smart.

>jetal who has a Loviro module
Probably still worth out talking to him. Alison is surprisingly good at getting people to cooperate, and if this guy is just module hungry, we have bargaining chips. We could trade him some of our stuff we picked up in the simulation (we're going to have to delete for space anyways once the labs are done), or we can get him on the short list for copied modules when the lab has them figured out (or spend some of what the lab would pay us to buy him some, whatever).
>>
No. 545047 ID: 735f4f

We will just have to meet him then. He may have his own personal reasons for holding on to the module or could be something else. But is worth a shot.
>>
No. 545049 ID: 6b89a0

I don't know if this is relevant or not, but maybe we should ask about the ornaments. They are diamonds, and wasn't Diamond the first House? What if it was the shape first, and it was Ruby and Sapphire and whoever else that corrupted that idea into the gem? Would that be relevant in the slightest?
>>
No. 545070 ID: 4f201e

thank him for the information and head off to see the other guy. Even if he doesn't want to give us the mod we could always see what he knows to see if that could help us.

Right now in my opinion the most important thing we can find is information.
>>
No. 545078 ID: fe4bfc

Ask him if he knows Arbiter.
>>
No. 545083 ID: d2b9fe

>>545078
That won't work. Even if Arbiter was someone from this simulation, or modeled off someone here, he'd have used a different name.
>>
No. 545126 ID: 64fac5

>>545083
And what will asking cost us?

Ask.
>>
No. 545132 ID: d38f67
File 138258721533.png - (16.98KB , 700x700 , 483.png )
545132

"I'll talk to him."

He starts walking away, and Alison follows.

"Do you have a name?"
>"Tuck."
"This might seem out of the blue, but do you know of anyone named the Arbiter?"
>"No." It was a long shot, especially for a name given to him after this cycle began.

Tuck opens a door, and there's a jetal staring back at them.

>"Uh.... knock, please?"
>"What would you ever do in here that needed privacy?" Tuck asks.
>"Stuff! Something! It's none of your business, Tuck! Who's that?" the jetal speaks, but Tuck walks off.
>>
No. 545133 ID: 735f4f

Hello my name is Unity. Sorry for intruding on your privacy.
>>
No. 545134 ID: d2b9fe

Thank Tuck as he's walking away, because you may not get another chance.

Uh, sorry about that. Hello, I'm Unity. Can we talk?
>>
No. 545135 ID: 7bbaae

>>545132
Can you sense where his core is?

Introduce yourself and ask if he knew Loviro.
>>
No. 545141 ID: 9ddf68

well tell him you're unity and then ask for his name... or at least something for us to call him by if he doesn't want to give us his name. He seems to be the paranoid type.
>>
No. 545165 ID: 01a9d6

Would be polite to introduce ans give your intentions first
>>
No. 545233 ID: d38f67
File 138267569933.png - (10.99KB , 700x700 , 484.png )
545233

>Can you sense where his core is?
Alison can, and he has various modules. There are no modules that stand out on their own, except that none of them are classed for legality.

"Thank you, Tuck!" Alison first says, before turning back to the new jetal. "Hello, my name is Unity. Can I ask who you are?"
>"Kellopy. What do you want?"
"Tuck said you have a module of Loviro's. He also said you were protective about it, but I would still like to know if there is anything I can do to get it from you?"
>"No. Don't even try."
"You wouldn't trade it for any other modules?"
>"I don't care if you have better modules."
"It's a sentimental module, then?"
>"None of your business."
"Are you one of Loviro's jetals?"
>"It's none of Tuck's business, either!"
"He didn't tell me anything."
>"... it's still none of yours. I'm not giving this module away! Loviro himself gave it to me!"
>>
No. 545237 ID: 735f4f

Ahh I can understand you being protective of it then.

We mostly ask because we were his last creation and are trying to find out more about our creator.

If you knew him well could you tell us a bit about him? He was taken away before we could get to know him.

Lets not bother him much about the module for now. Focus on getting to know him better if possible and finding out what his relationship with Loviro was. We have a bit of free time at the moment and maybe if we get to know him better we can at least find out what the module is.
>>
No. 545238 ID: 7bbaae

>>545233
Tell him he can keep it then, since he is supposed to have it. Then tell him about your time in the simulation, and about Loviro.

I wonder if he would help you kill Sapphire?
>>
No. 545239 ID: cf16c8

Say Loviro gave you something too, and shake your snake booty and/or jiggle your gazongas. It is the most reasonable way to break the ice and tell him that you are Loviro's creation.
>>
No. 545244 ID: 57a559

Loviro himself gave me life, we are like brothers/sisters if you and me are made by him, or family friends if not.
>>
No. 545245 ID: d2b9fe

>Loviro himself gave it to me!
Really? ...that would have been a long time ago, wouldn't it.

Would you mind telling me about that? I never knew the real Loviro, just his duplicate in the Harvest. He gave me my sword before I escaped.

(Maybe we could show him the sword too? If he asks, I guess. An unexpected "Energy Surge Detected!" around a nervous civilian ain't such a good idea).

The idea here is the only chance we have is connecting with this guy. Common bond. Figure out why Loviro was so important to him, and relate through that, so he ends up wanting to help us.
>>
No. 545254 ID: 9ddf68

ask him about Loviro. We only know a simulated Loviro and even then not very well. Maybe trade stories with him, like what you knew about him and what he knows about him. Try to figure out why sapphire gunned for him directly.

I mean I know Sapphire never really liked Diamond all the much and the hate transferred over to Diamond's nobles as well but he seemed very interested in taking down Loviro more so then the other Diamond nobles and I don't buy it was because he was really good at making jetals. I'm sure that played a part in it but there has to be more to it then that.
>>
No. 545336 ID: d38f67
File 138275290666.png - (19.57KB , 700x700 , 485.png )
545336

>Say Loviro gave you something too, and shake your snake booty and/or [ss]jiggle your gazongas[/s] and/or tell him about your sword.
"Loviro gave me a module too, as well as, well, life here."
>"What, really? Which one?"
"A morphing sword. Well, to be honest, it wasn't the real Loviro, it was a projection of him in the harvest."
>"You've been in there?"
"I just got out. I didn't know about Loviro very well. If he gave you it, it must have been a long time ago."
>"Shortly before..."
"I understand. One thing I wonder, is that it seemed like Sapphire really had it out for diamond. Was it really just because he was good at making jetals?"
>"Yes. I think so. Sapphire's done a lot of things to make sure he's the most powerful person in the solar system. Wait a minute, how do I know you're telling the truth?! Use your sword!"

It's a cost of energy that Alison may need to be cautious about while in this energy starved place, but this seems like a worthy risk.

>"Ohh. Okay, okay. Welllll... Loviro said that I've got to protect this module, because it's not been put through its paces, testwise, and he said that the security on it wasn't as good as he wanted to. And that if competitors got their hands on it... Loviro trusted me with it, okay?"
"If you don't mind my asking, when were you made?"
>"Well, 103 years ago, but I've gotten upgrades, and everything, so I'm not really the same person anymore."
"Did Loviro make you?"
>"Y... well, mostly. He was just starting out. But he was the one who spent the most time with me. Why do you want the module from me anyway? Mayyyyybe you'll be better at guarding it than I am."
>>
No. 545337 ID: 7bbaae

>>545336
Tell him you heard Loviro modules were best used by his own Jetals, so you thought it might be as useful as the morphing sword has been in fighting Sapphire.
>>
No. 545338 ID: 735f4f

We want to help protect people against Sapphire and the best modules we have seen have been made by Loviro. So when Tuck mentioned you had one we thought you might be willing to help out.

That and we like making friends.

Ask him about life here. If he has been hiding from everyone for that long guarding this module it seems like a lonely existence. I do admire his loyalty though.
>>
No. 545339 ID: d2b9fe

...I was one of the last jetals he made, I think.

I asked because I'm kind of in a fight against Diamond. And I've heard that Loviro designed his cores different, so his modules worked better or different for them than anyone else. So there's a chance that your module could be a big help for me, and I need all the help I can get. Although I don't know for sure.
>>
No. 545340 ID: c23ab0

Seems like he really wants to see your tool. I guess just this once. Erect your pulsing spire of authority and penetration.
>>
No. 545364 ID: 761017

>>545339
>I asked because I'm kind of in a fight against SAPPHIRE.

Fixed!
>>
No. 545367 ID: d2b9fe

>>545364
Whups. Yes. Good catch.
>>
No. 545369 ID: 7bbaae

>>545340
I think she already did.
>>
No. 545416 ID: d38f67
File 138280845517.png - (19.56KB , 700x700 , 486.png )
545416

>Seems like he really wants to see your tool.
Alison did flip it on for just a quick moment to show him.

"I heard that Loviro's models were best used by his own jetals. So, I think there may be a good chance that that module would be good when I fight Sapphire."
>"... excuse me. What was that last part?"
"I'm going to try and kill Sapphi-"

Kellopy runs up and almost tackles Alison. His intention is clear when Alison feels his core pop out by Alison's jetalium.
>"It's the one called Plasma Driver."

Plasma Driver obtained - no description. Must remove one module to absorb.

>"It makes a sword, like the one you have, but it behaves more like a rocket. You can move it around and all, and it will explode when you want it to. I haven't really tested it much. Oh, and you can make three at once, unlike most modules."

>"That was easy." Scanner says. "Maybe we should just start telling everyone we're going to kill Sapphire."
Alison wants to assume she is joking.
>>
No. 545418 ID: 9ddf68

that's probably not for the best seeing as our greeter did say that sapphire more then likely has spies here.

Anyways thank Kellopy for putting so much trust and faith into you. Then ask if he knows anyone that could give us some good information or at least point us to someone that could give us good information on sapphire, EIN, Where they're located, what kind of defenses do they got (both for security detail and personally), basically anything that will help us come up with a better plan then just kick down the front door.
>>
No. 545420 ID: d2b9fe

Do we need to delete a module to make room, or can we just pass something off Kellopy?

(As for what we don't need, maybe one of the weaker beams? Or the weaker sniper?).

Be sure to thank him. I take it you don't like Sapphire, much.

>Maybe we should just start telling everyone we're going to kill Sapphire.
Well, diamond ex-pats, or people close to Loviro, etc, would probably be interested. But considering Cloud Slither as a whole survives largely by not being a threat worth the effort it would take the Empire to stamp out, there are probably people who wouldn't be happy with that stance.

...although depending on closely this place monitors it's people and/or guests, they may already know.
>>
No. 545426 ID: 735f4f

If we can trade him one of our weaker options rather than just deleting it.
>>
No. 545441 ID: 7bbaae

>>545416
That reaction was very likely because this Jetal thinks highly of Loviro and hates Sapphire for what he did. We should only assume to get this reaction from Loviro's Jetals. Tthe other ex-diamond didn't seem to be particularly impressed by our statement of intent.

Give this guy a hug! Also comment that Tuck said the module in question wasn't particularly special.

I say trade our vanilla Plasma Sword A to him.
>>
No. 545442 ID: d2b9fe

>Tuck said the module in question wasn't particularly special.
Hey, we're having a moment here. No need to spoil it.

>trade vanilla Plasma Sword A to him.
But we only have two swords, and there may be a situation in which we need to dual wield, or have multiple divisions wield a sword.
>>
No. 545502 ID: 4b13ab

We could ask him what kind of module he wants, something that would actualy be useful to him.
>>
No. 546171 ID: d38f67
File 138327331787.png - (11.87KB , 700x700 , 487.png )
546171

"Thank you for your trust, Kellopy. I'm full, though, would you like one of my own modules to replace?"
>"Yes, please."

Alison gives away Sniper B. He doesn't sound like he's interested in powerful ones.

"Do you know anyone else who can give me information on Sapphire?"
>"Well... there's one of our surveillance guys that keeps an eye on the empire. I mean, there's more, but the one I'm thinking of is really into his job. I can show you to him, if you want."

A quick text to the labs says that the AN5 sword is almost ready, and would like to get another new module from Alison.
>>
No. 546172 ID: 7bbaae

Okay, let's get directions and then stop by the lab before we meet the surveillance guy.
>>
No. 546180 ID: d2b9fe

I would like to meet him, if you're willing to introduce us.

And ask if he minds swinging by the labs so you can swap another of your stolen modules for them to study.
>>
No. 546183 ID: 9ddf68

yes to his invitation just hit the labs as you going to meet this guy. If the labs are out of the way just ask if he would mind if we take the long way around, maybe also ask about him a bit.
>>
No. 546395 ID: d38f67
File 138343579636.gif - (108.67KB , 900x500 , 488.gif )
546395

"Yes, please."

Alison returns to the lab to retrieve the sword and give the AN5 sniper to the labs for study. Kellopy then leads Alison to a surveillance room. Alison could find her own way, but Kellopy doesn't seem to want to go back to his room just yet.

>"Hello. Do you have business?" the one in the middle asks.
>"Hey, Auxelan! Oh, uh, Unity, this is the person I was talking about. And we were wondering if you knew anything about information on sapphire?"
>"What, a history lecture, or what he's up to?"
>"Oh, uh... I guess what he's up to?"
>"His advisors are up to the usual panicked state thinking everyone is out to get them, which I hope is true, which means that's what he's up to. As for where he is, the palace, his estate and his hometown are the obvious locations, so he's probably anywhere else."
>>
No. 546396 ID: 7bbaae

>>546395
Well, alright, let's exchange contact information in case anything new comes up. A history lesson could be neat too, though!
>>
No. 546399 ID: 735f4f

Compliment him on the suspicious mood lighting.

So do you know if he has any body doubles? Also whats the emperors relationship with EIN? Do they get spied on as well? Or are they immune to its watch somehow?
>>
No. 546405 ID: d2b9fe

Do the lights normally do that, or is something wrong?

Any way possible locations could be narrowed down? If someone wanted to find Sapphire, how would you go about it? Realistically, he has to conduct business, receive information, give orders somehow. That means there must be trails connected to him in one form or another.
>>
No. 546408 ID: d38f67
File 138343820241.gif - (118.98KB , 900x500 , 489.gif )
546408

"Do the lights normally do that?"
>"Yeah. I doubt it'll get replaced when it goes out, at least not anytime soon. It's not like biologicals have much business up here."
"Well, it's good for moody lighting. Do you mind exchanging contact info in case you do learn anything?"
>"Sure."
"Do you think sapphire has any body doubles?"
>"Plenty, yes."
"Do they get spied on, on EIN?"
>"EIN doesn't pretend not to see them when they cross a view, but the emperors aren't actively tracked like everyone else. I'm not entirely sure what measures are in place for EIN to recognize an emperor as opposed to one of his doubles."
"How does anyone find him, then?"
>"The nobles in the sapphire house, and even then, they don't always know where he is at a single given point. I assume that the other emperors are occasionally in contact, as well."
"Can we narrow that location down?"
>"I meant to ask, why are you interested in what Sapphire's up to anyway? Plan on having a stern talking to with him?"
>>
No. 546410 ID: 76b151

Yes. I wish to discuss his retirement.
>>
No. 546411 ID: d2b9fe

>>546410
Perfection. Say this with a completely strait face.
>>
No. 546412 ID: 57a559

>>546408
Sure.
Stern is the correct word here.
>>
No. 546413 ID: 57a559

Oh, can you ask what happens to nobles when their emperor retires? I forgot if it was said or not, point is I'd like to know if there would be nobles that would betray his location.
>>
No. 546415 ID: d2b9fe

>>546413
When an emperor is removed, his nobles are suppose to be protected. There are laws about that. That's part of the reason some people have such a low opinion of Sapphire- he crossed that line going after Loviro when Diamond fell.
>>
No. 546418 ID: d38f67
File 138343976257.gif - (118.79KB , 900x500 , 490.gif )
546418

"Yes. I want to discuss his retirement." From what Alison has heard, sapphire nobles would hold their positions, and become some of the many advisors and nobles that don't have a direct emperor above them.
>".... oh. You realize you won't receive any assistance from the Cloud, correct?"
"I've heard that.
>"I'm not happy to be involved in this, but as long as you understand you won't be affiliated with the cloud in this, I'll give you some unaffiliated help." He starts walking to the other side of the room. "If you're going to go run off on a suicide mission, I may as well give you a non-zero chance of success. Give me some time. Perhaps a few hours. I'll see what I can investigate."
>>
No. 546419 ID: d2b9fe

Thank him for the help. You understand the Cloud's position, and that he doesn't have to do this. You'll do what you can to keep them out of it.

...hmm. Maybe when we leave, we should arrange to be thrown out, or expelled? Give the Cloud plausible deniability, especially for the empire's spies to see. Not sure who we would discuss setting up that kind of show with, though.
>>
No. 546424 ID: 7bbaae

>>546418
What about that other guy standing there hearing all this? Can he be trusted?
>>
No. 546425 ID: d2b9fe

>>546424
Well, it's a little late if he can't. (And if we do ask about him, I'd think we should be more polite than that).
>>
No. 546432 ID: 735f4f

We can trust anyone here up to the point when we cant. Anyone could be a spy for someone but its not worth worrying about to much right now.

Might be a good idea to send out some divisions to go out and get the lay of the land. We have not seen much of the area and it would be nice to know where the exits and entrances are.
>>
No. 546445 ID: d38f67
File 138345440844.png - (88.42KB , 800x800 , 491.png )
546445

"Thank you. Who is that over there?"
>"Just Pin. He doesn't care too much about the internal cloud affairs, just the external."

Alison excuses herself, and kills some time by sending out Polatt and Scanner to take a look around to get a lay of the land. The verdict is a mess. There's exits all over the place, although they are all covered. It likely doesn't matter too much, given how easy it is to make ones own entrance. Many panels in the outer walls are completely missing.

Kellopy says he'll be in his room if Unity needs anything, and Alison continues gathering each weapon as they're unlocked.

After several hours, Alison gets a text to come back up to the surveillance room.
>>
No. 546446 ID: d38f67
File 138345441772.gif - (141.17KB , 900x500 , 492.gif )
546446

>"Bingo." Auxelan walks up to her. "Didn't get a lockdown on sapphire, but I did get a noble who likely does. Her name is Kolexia, and she is taking a small vacation back at her home, well into the middle of nowhere. I can't guarantee what her loyalties are. Maybe she won't talk, maybe you don't even need to ask her politely. All I got on her is official statements, and of course she'll say sapphire's the best ever. If you think it's worth the chance to run in town, grab info out of her and shake EIN on your way out, I got the info. I'll state the obvious. You get no help."

"Should we try and get ourselves kicked out of the slither, to make it clear we're not part of them?
>"We could try to commit some terrible taboo that doesn't actually harm anything too much, if we can find a law like that." Clarence says.
>"If we do do this, we could simply publically tell everyone that we're leaving the cloud. That alone may be enough." suggests Duelist.
>>
No. 546447 ID: 9ddf68

what's our window of opportunity on this? do we need to leave right now are can we think on it a bit.

Cause there is always the chance that this is a trap ( I mean come on, alone in the middle of nowhere and possible intel we need to beat sevener? after that whole satellite thing I'm a bet weary)
>>
No. 546449 ID: d38f67
File 138345541395.gif - (130.32KB , 900x500 , 493.gif )
546449

"What's my window of opportunity on this?"
>"It's not a long vacation, but it is one. She might go back to work tomorrow, maybe the next day, but you can bet her today is off."

Alison sends another ping to the lab about her progress. At the moment, the AN5 series of weapons and the AJ6 Sword are unlocked for the Cloud's use, and they are working on the AJ6 blaster. The rest of the AJ6's should go smoothly. The labs think, however, that the Empirical Defenses, rockets and the two EIN modules are going to be far tougher to crack. It is currently 28:00, and at this rate, they may have everything done by tomorrow morning, however, due to those last 4 modules, it may take several hours longer to several days longer.
>>
No. 546455 ID: 735f4f

I think its worth the effort if we are sure we will be allowed back in afterwards.

We should have the lab focus on the Ein impersonator module first and grab it before we head out if possible. That gives us the best chance of sneaking in and having a polite conversation with the noble.

Also if it ends up being a trap we can lower the amount of possible spy's down to just a few people.

We can do it without the module but there will be much more shooting and we will have to eat a few jetals to keep our mass up.
>>
No. 546456 ID: 7bbaae

Do we even know what the ED module does? Regardless, we do need the EINI module before we leave, so that if we don't need to fight the noble we can get in and out without a fight. How about we tell them to work on that next instead of the AJ6s?
>>
No. 546473 ID: d2b9fe

Well, we could wait till the 'easy' to crack modules are done before going noble hunting at least. And before we go out, we'd have to absorb those modules and discard some other stuff, I think.

Is going after one noble enough that we wouldn't be allowed back afterwards? ....although, I suppose, if we get Sapphire's location out of the noble, it'll only be good for so long. We'd kind of have to press onwards.
>>
No. 546491 ID: 9ddf68

tell him to work on the mod that lets you travel without EIN picking you up as soon as you set foot outside of the city First cause we NEED that one most of all.
>>
No. 546679 ID: d2e35b

Letting the cloud have those modules will be good for us: we may be able to find allies here, with those excellent modules to supply them.
>>
No. 546735 ID: 01531c

>>546455
> I think its worth the effort if we are sure we will be allowed back in afterwards.

Cloud Slither official policy says 'if you leave, you leave forever'
>>
No. 546809 ID: d38f67
File 138372235688.png - (121.16KB , 1102x558 , 494.png )
546809

>Do we even know what the ED module does?
It is mostly unknown. Alison gives Engineer a division, and has him start experimenting with it. Most weapons so far have been straightforward, but the Engineer is finding that this is not. It allows for manual destabilizing of plasma and can create shockwaves capable of destabilizing kinetic weaponry. There are also other uses, engineer thinks, but the module didn't originally come with a name let alone an instructional manual.

Alison confirms that if she leaves, she won't come back, even if she manages to have a nice chat with the noble and is never discovered by EIN.

She imagines that the module labs will want the EIN Impersonator and the EIN Tracker the most, so she gives the EINI to them for study first and wanders nearby. Nevertheless, she imagines that she'll want just the majority of her modules, even if she has to take them back before the labs are done with them.

>"We should at least get our surge overdrive back from storage in return for the worthless AJ6 sword, if nothing else. Not like the others in storage are worthless." says Engineer.
>"Master Musician?" Iso asks.
>"That's not exactly what I was thinking."
>"The only singing we're going to be doing is the song of kicking sevener's butt at kicking emperor butt!" Guardsman says.
>"I dunno, I really liked that one." someone Alison doesn't recognize chimes in.
>"With EIN impersonating, maybe it'll come up." another says.
>"Sure didn't stick around here for long." Polatt says.
>"Can't say I'll miss the place." Atlas replies.
>>
No. 546824 ID: 7bbaae

Master Musician is a free module, there's no reason not to keep it.

Alright, I think it's time to switch gears here. Instead of asking ourselves what weapons are superior in general, we should be asking ourselves what weapons give us a distinct advantage in specific situations. We should come up with a strategy for using single weapons for multiple situations.

AN5 weapons are amazing for dealing with lots of weak opponents, because they're so efficient. We should therefore have an AN5 Sniper, and an AN5 Sword. The Sniper is for long-range opponents (especially multiple robots, which can't handle bisections), the Sword is for dealing with opponents that get in close, and can be left on for long periods of time so it can be efficient at killing multiple opponents. AN5 weapons are ALSO good for sneak attacks. So maybe the AN5 KiloBeam would be a good idea too. The Blaster seems like it would only kill one thing at a time, so maybe it's not quite worth it... perhaps I'm underestimating it though.

AJ6 weapons are for dealing with tough opponents. The AJ6 Beam seems appropriate here. Considering that, I think we can safely sell the other non-bending beams- the AJ6 Megabeam is probably more dense than the S-class Kilobeam. Anything we'd want to use the Terabeam against we could use a Plasma Well instead. I think we can use the bending GigaBeams for anything we'd want to use bending MegaBeams against. The AJ6 Sword is useless as described, and I don't really like the AJ6 Blaster either, but I could see it being useful for being able to squeeze in as much damage as possible in the shortest amount of time... so maybe we should take it. The AJ6 Beam seems pointless since our strongest opponents will either deflect it outright, disperse it, or quick-morph around the beam.

I think we should sell the regular missiles. Displacers seem to be a straight upgrade. I'm not sure autoguns are any good anymore either. They use up mass way too fast for the damage they do. I don't know how effective the autocannon is in comparison. If the exploding jetalium gives more bang for our buck if the projectile is larger, it might be worth using... Mostly we've been using them as chaff, right? The ED system seems better at that.

The Stunner could be a great equalizer against a superior opponent in close range. EMP Field is anti-robot, which is good too since robots can apparently be on par with jetals.

EINI we need, obviously, and EIN-T would be great too.

Most of our passive abilities seem to have proven their usefulness aside from Signature Sense. That is a bit of insurance, really. It can prevent us from being fooled by decoys or ambushed by Sevener.

SO:
Sword Loviro
Sword AN5
KiloBeam AN5
MegaBeam AJ6
Gigabeam bending S (x2)
Plasma Well S
AutoCannon A?
AN5 Blaster?
AJ6 Blaster?
AN5 Sniper
Displacer Rockets
EMP Field
Stunner

EIN Impersonator
Ein Tracker
Assorted Empirical Defense
Explosive Shedding
Jetalium Surge Conversion
Core Dodge S
Jetalium Magnetism B
Core Magnetism A
Jetalium-Acid Resistance S
Core Hide A
Core Detection A
Surge Detection B
Cooling Systems
Jetalium Bullets
Reflection Shield Class B
Light Absorption
Anti Gravity
Thruster A+
Jetalium Sense
Jetalium Division (2)
Signature Sense
Sticky Jetalium
Surge Overdrive
Quick Morph C
Master Musician(free)

These we have but aren't listed for some reason, even in storage:
Core Launcher
Power Move
Reflection Shield
Shield Generator

43 total. We can only hold 41 at 70 morph. We'd need to go to 85 morph to hold 43. We could drop the AN5 Blaster and Autocannon. We could also drop Jetalium Bullets if we're not using an autogun or autocannon. Or we could drop the Magnetism mods? Are they even useful aside from turning Divisions into kamikaze missiles?
>>
No. 546857 ID: fc937d

Master musician got reclassified as free at some point, meaning there's no downside to carrying it. Plus, hey, it might be useful, eventually.

>is the ED system an effective replacement for using the autoguns to provide chaff against incoming fire?
Obviously, we should have Engineer test this while experimenting with the ED system. Figure out if autogun chaff is obsolete, or a useful supplement.

Similarly, he should test the new Loviro-weapon. I suspect it'll be a lot better than the missiles, since we don't have to sacrifice all that mass to make them up.

>are magnetism mods useful?
They make reclaiming scattered jetalium after a fight somewhat faster, I think. Might be useful.

>other fixes
Before we leave, can we take advantage of the credit or whatever we're earning from letting the scientists study our new modules? The most obvious use would be to buy upgrades. Can we replace any of our useful passive modules at level B or A with equivalents at level A or S? (Like core detection, core hide, surge detection, the reflection shield, quick morph, etc).

Also, it would be smart to sell or trade off modules we don't want, rather than deleting them, so we net some some profit, and since we're in a place where others could use them.
>>
No. 546862 ID: 9ddf68

well with magnetism, since we like to use swords whenever we can it would make it more difficult for enemies to evade us and if we ever have to deal with a runner we could us it to either slow him down our to slingshot ourselves at him so there's that angle if you want.

But yeah I know they said batteries are a bit hard to come by here but see if they got on that's better then what we're using now. Just saying with all the firepower we have and are going against our jetalium cap is kind of crippling to us right now so any upgrade we could get could be far more useful than most mods right now.
>>
No. 546893 ID: d38f67
File 138377617779.png - (26.82KB , 800x800 , 495.png )
546893

"What do you think about autoguns, Engineer? Useful to knock away missiles, or does the ED handle that?"
>"It's a supplement. I'm not confident it's worth the module taking up room."
>"Hey, the whole reason why we have that jetalium bullet module is so we can make bullets on the fly efficiently, right, and couldn't get ammo? I'm sure the people here have crafted a lot of generic ammunition." Clarence says. "We could just keep an autogun, and store some bullets in ourselves for it."
>"It fires absurdly fast. I'd rather have the autocannon if we use something like that." says Charles.
>>
No. 546903 ID: d38f67
File 138377941581.png - (127.11KB , 800x800 , 496.png )
546903

Everyone continues discussing module management and the final payload. Alison, in the meanwhile, starts gathering and haggling for module credit from letting the labs use her things. She refills her battery, but unfortunately is not able to find a better one. That, the lab director explains, is one of the cloud's bottlenecks, if she couldn't tell.

She does, however, get several upgrades for her passive abilities. Alison now has Surge Detection A, Reflection Shield A, Quick Morph B and Core Hide S. Courtesy of the surveillance team, for Alison's EIN tracker studies, Alison also gets Core Detection S.

Lastly, Scanner starts gathering info on the Sapphire noble, Kolexia. She is staying in her estate, which could pass as a dense, small town in the middle of a snowing mountain range. A conspicuous glass dome overlooking the town and the terrain is the noble's main residence.
>>
No. 546909 ID: fc937d

So... how does one go about approaching a glassed in snowglobe of a town? It's isolated, which means our approach will probably be obvious (although I guess we could use a snow storm as cover?), and a dome means entrances are limited and controlled. We either need a way to sneak in, or a way to walk right in undetected using our EIN bluff.
>>
No. 546919 ID: 735f4f

We should find out where the normal entrance is and what sort of security they have in place. Could be we just waltz in the front door in disguise with our Ein camo up.
>>
No. 546951 ID: 7bbaae

>>546893
Yeah, carrying some autocannon ammo sounds good. That would free up one mod. We might even be able to get some specialty ammo, rather than the exploding bullets we normally use. That, and drop Core Magnetism. Because honestly I see no use for that at all, unless we form a Supercore somehow with someone.

Oh, let's see if we can get some drones or grenades or other consumables. I wonder how much money Gambler made for us?
>>
No. 547204 ID: d38f67
File 138402099523.png - (38.29KB , 800x800 , 497.png )
547204

Alison checks up on Gambler. It looks like he's gotten a decent amount of spare battery power and jetalium back, and Alison thinks she can trade it for things like drones, mundane weapons and other objects.

She goes to the storage jetal in the module labs to start tweak her modules, and everyone else discusses possible options about getting to the noble.

Most people don't think the estate is open to just any visitor showing up, and there is supposed to be a snowstorm well into the night. The main entrance is on the outer rim, but it is possible that Alison will be able to sneak right into the glass dome in the cover of night.

Gambler claims that he found an interesting trade that might make that feasible, a jetalium hiding core. In return, the person would want a rare module. He is also gambling, though, and gambler may be able to goad him into putting that on the pot, if Alison wants to risk it.
>>
No. 547211 ID: fc937d

Define 'rare'. We have a lot of things after all, some we'd miss more than others.
>>
No. 547214 ID: 57a559

>>547204
The new modules you just gave the lab ought to qualify as rare, when they're done copying them, guarantee first customer status and that will be free. Just have to make some deal with the lab, like forfiet royalties for x number of purchases. We won't need the royalties anyway, seeing as how before we'll get any the sim will probably stop because we've won or lost, not to mention we can't come back after we go.
>>
No. 547222 ID: 9ddf68

well let's see what the guy thinks is rare cause we could give him the A6 sword since we don't seem to want it. Or if he want's something that we have and want to keep then gamble. We really need stealth if we're going to abandon our only sanctuary and be forced to travel in a world that likes to keep it's nose firmly in everybody's business.
>>
No. 547225 ID: 7bbaae

Yeah, the A6 sword seems like a possibility.
>>
No. 547284 ID: 735f4f

Lets not show our cards this early. We really want that module but don't go showing the owner everything we have. We could also set up some sort of deal where they get first pick of what we are dropping off at the lab.

As for goading him into putting it in the pot let gambler make the judgement call on it. He is our expert in the field and would know best. But make sure anything we have to put against it would not cripple us if lost.
>>
No. 547349 ID: d38f67
File 138410586666.png - (17.60KB , 800x800 , 498.png )
547349

With Alison's permission, the gambler gets the other jetal in a game, and puts the first call to the AJ6 Sword module on the pot in return for his jetalium hiding.

Gambler wins it cleanly and absorbs the prize, forcing Unity to have to get rid of another module. Aside from waiting a bit longer for the module labs to get a couple more modules studied, Alison doesn't think there's much left to do in the cloud. Now's the time to make sure of that, though.
>>
No. 547353 ID: 735f4f

Lets get our divisions checking any areas we have not already been just in case.

Also find out if there is any way to contact anyone here once we leave. They might not want to get involved but we can at least warn them if we see anything headed this way later on.
>>
No. 547354 ID: 76b151

Actually you know what? Lets just up our morph to max. We can burn jetallium if we need to once we leave.
>>
No. 547355 ID: fc937d

Well, we might as well say our goodbyes (hugs) to our friends slash people who were helpful to us.

And might as well drop whatever we're not keeping at the lab or somewhere. Letting someone else use it beats deletion when we have the choice.

>>547354
I dunno. There are other costs to max morph besides just consumption and surge penalties. I'm not sure it's worth it just to not have to discard one more module.
>>
No. 547359 ID: 76b151

>>547355
we still have all those modules in the labs. And we are going to have to leave soon.

I suppose we could sell like half the jetallium we've gathered. If we had found a better battery in this place it'd be a different story but right now so much jetallium is more an hindrance then anything.
>>
No. 547367 ID: fc937d

>>547359
I'm pretty sure if you check the wiki we don't have anything stored at the lab anymore. We went and sold some stuff when we were buying upgrades. So we're only one module over our current limit, not lots.
>>
No. 547376 ID: d38f67

I'm trying to get the list of the modules that are in storage to put on the wiki, I dropped the ball there.

For now, you can assume that the recent influx of spare modules have been placed in storage, and can be exchanged or retrieved in the case of bumping up morphability.
>>
No. 547387 ID: 7bbaae

Let's bump up Morph 10 points so we can get this new mod, then later ditch uh... the AN5 Blaster. We can just use the AN5 Sniper or KiloBeam instead of it.

Wait shit I didn't put Plasma Driver on my list! So uh... ah. Ditch Light Absorption. We will probably never again have to absorb a lot of jetals at once. Alternatively we could bump ourselves up to 80 Morph, and avoid dropping the AN5 Blaster.
>>
No. 547420 ID: d38f67
File 138412244208.png - (26.78KB , 800x800 , 499.png )
547420

Alison kills the time via letting some divisions look around based on lottery drawing of those who have not controlled a jetal yet. They take a look around, and while they make some interesting observerations about the melancholy culture of the cloud, such as how many sleep and dream to save energy until something interesting happens, there isn't much that has significance to Alison's goal. While they do that, Alison uses her own division to dispense hugs to the people who helped.

Unity's morphability is bumped up 20 points so that she can get that mod as well as get the Plasma Driver back, as that was not supposed to be given up.

With that, Alison believes she is done hanging out in the cloud. She tells the module director that they can have the modules that she leaves behind. As per the rules, Unity won't be coming back.

Gambler was able to get a couple of battery packs, and one will be good to use to get to the noble estate in time for what is anticipated to be the height of the snowstorm.
>>
No. 547421 ID: d38f67
File 138412244979.png - (133.28KB , 800x800 , 500.png )
547421

Alison makes sure that her EINI is on, but she hangs low to get to the estate. Thankfully the lights are on indoors, so she goes to the middle of it and gently lands down. It's a snowstorm, alright, and an interesting choice for a vacation getaway.
>>
No. 547423 ID: 735f4f

Ok with our high end non detection mods we could try to disguise our self as a bounty hunter looking for Unity. Trying to impersonate a noble seems like it would probably not work out so well.

Scan everything we can and see what entrances we have to choose from.

Whatever we choose make sure to look nothing like our base form.
>>
No. 547425 ID: fc937d

>an interesting choice for a vacation getaway
Maybe the noble likes skiing? Or hiking? Or enjoys the snow or cold? Or enjoys looking at someplace that's still mountain wilderness and not a developed supercity? Or a remote place where she's unlikely to be hassled. Lots of reasons this choice might make sense.

>arrived
So... what are our chances of sneaking in? If we've got EINI and a jetalium hide and core hide we just need to avoid cameras. Or shapeshift into something or someone who belongs. Although we need an entrance, first. Problem is they're likely to be guarded or watched. We could just punch in, but that would give us away, and lower our already low odds of just talking to her.
>>
No. 547426 ID: 7bbaae

>>547421
Definitely switch to a different form. Perhaps a more humanoid Corruptor?
>>
No. 547429 ID: 9ddf68

scoop out the outside first so we can try and get an idea of where enter.
>>
No. 547448 ID: 735f4f

While unlikely this all could be another trap so before we get to far in lets make sure its not all wired to blow up once they know we inside.

Probably not something to be that worried about but keep a eye out for anything that seems off.
>>
No. 547503 ID: d38f67
File 138413873965.png - (172.43KB , 800x800 , 501.png )
547503

Alison scurries around and makes a snake angel in the last few moments as a snake, before she turns into something else.
She also bumps her morph back down to 85 afterwards, since she doesn't need 90 to hold that last module.

She is on metal, but things look tightly sealed and welded. She could continue trying to look for a maintenance panel or something by scraping away snow, although there is a realistic fear that she will crawl right over some glass, where someone happens to be snow gazing.

Alison doesn't know what her chances of sneaking in are, but unfortunately just pummeling through the top will leave things up to chance. Then again, so will trying to go to a main entrance, so Alison will just choose whether to sneak in through a melted ceiling, or try to talk her way in from whoever is guarding whatever actual entrances are around.
>>
No. 547504 ID: 7bbaae

>>547503
Melting through costs power immediately. Talking doesn't. So that is the choice I prefer.
>>
No. 547507 ID: fc937d

Ooh. Nice snowsnake.

I vote we try and find a place to melt in. I don't think there's any good reason for anyone to be out here in the middle of nowhere- I don't see you talking through without raising alarms.

Granted, cutting in without altering security will be tricky, and the hole will eventually be found, but we have a chance.
>>
No. 547519 ID: 9ddf68

how small a hole can you fit through? cause if you can just make a small easy to miss hole and just morph through that you'll be in and the chances of people finding a small hole is less then a big one. Also do we have to burst in from the top? can't we just cut our way in from the side?

But if we can't make a small whole or just don't want to waste the energy we could always try the front door. I mean I bet the last thing they'll expect is for us to waltz right through the front door so we have that at least.
>>
No. 547687 ID: d38f67
File 138423211816.png - (31.76KB , 800x800 , 502.png )
547687

>How small a hole can you fit through?
Now that she thinks about it, with high morph, a tiny one.

Alison melts a small hole on the ceiling, since she figures it's just as good as on the side, and sticks her tail-eye down. It's pitch black inside, although that doesn't hinder her. She thinks she's in an attic. There's insulation all over, so Alison then melts herself downward carefully and quietly.
>>
No. 547688 ID: d38f67
File 138423217195.png - (241.88KB , 800x800 , 503.png )
547688

So far, she's in the clear. She doesn't sense anything coming after her, but this place is populated with jetals. After all this time, she still does not have much senses for robots, although it has been a long time since she's actively had to deal with one. She gets the impression that while jetals are comparatively less common, robots stick to their own world a lot of the time.
>>
No. 547690 ID: 7bbaae

>>547688
Um... head over to the biggest signature. See if you can get some audio. We want to hear them using names, because a name is all we have.
>>
No. 547691 ID: fc937d

>sneak in through a tiny hole
Ooh, good thinking.

>where go
So... we don't actually know if this noble it a bot or borg or jetal. That makes this harder.

How powerful is that big jetal you sense off the the left? Big enough to be a noble? You've encountered noble jetals before, you should have a sense of the powerscale.
>>
No. 547692 ID: fc937d

>>547690
That, and/or use a spy drone. Although with high morph we can be pretty sneaky ourselves.
>>
No. 547693 ID: 735f4f

Guessing the biggest signature is either the noble or one of her bodyguards. Could also be someone else but if they are the most powerful we need to know about them anyway.

I would avoid any form that's to snakelike once we end up in areas with actual people. Something cute and unassuming would be nice if we could jam our mass into it. I know people tend to look like whatever they want here but appearances still affect how people react to you.
>>
No. 547698 ID: 76b151

We can use our divisions as drones as well since we do have that jetallium hiding module. (Which isn't listed for some reason.)
>>
No. 547699 ID: 9ddf68

If i had to guess the biggest power surge is most likely the noble, but it could be security for this place for all we know. From what I know even if this noble is a jetal they could have hide core and hide jetalium as well. As such I say we should start our search in the most expensive looking part of this city since as a noble she should have some of the best service available to her so it's as good as place as anywhere to start.
>>
No. 548225 ID: d38f67
File 138449522873.png - (22.79KB , 800x800 , 504.png )
548225

"I'd like to be able to hear better. I'm going to morph to something less imposing than a crawling snake too, even though this is really convenient for getting into small places." says Alison, beginning to morph into a crawling slug, or what could pass as a rounded snake.
>"I was just thinking about that." Scanner says. "And I have an idea for both."

Scanner forms gigantic rabbit ears on the snake and occasionally flops them and swivels them to pick up the most insignificant of noises. She also gets a team of people to help isolate different noises. Engineer, in the meanwhile, crafts the absolute thinnest strand of jetalium he can manage that has eyes, in order to peak around corners. Once the second level is penetrated, the amount of cameras located starts rising dramatically, and Alison has to get into some exceedingly creative shapes to get through the blind spots.

The big core off to the left is definitely big enough to be a noble, Alison thinks, and so that is where she starts moving.

She starts moving extremely slowly as she gets above the noble, just close enough for Scanner to hear the conversation.

>"There's a female voice talking in code, I can't understand it at all. But right now there's also a team of bots coming close. We might not be had yet, because there's a huge number of bots rolling around. They're prgobably just service bots.
>"If this is a noble estate, I'm betting there's a fuckton of bots on patrol on top of the usual cameras." Polatt mentions. "Might want to scram, and if not, make use of that high morph. Failing that, hope EINI does it's thing and that the bot's just scanning around for illegals."
>>
No. 548227 ID: 7bbaae

>>548225
It occurs to me that we have basically no way of getting to her without being spotted. Talking in code while on vacation is... strange.

I wonder if we could just plain knock on the front door and ask to speak with her, considering we don't look illegal? Then we wouldn't have to worry about being spotted.
>>
No. 548257 ID: 735f4f

The talking in code makes me suspicious. For avoiding the bots could you melt a hole in the floor or a wall and ooze into it fast enough? Keep part of your body flush with the hole so no one would see it?

If not it might be best to morph into a more presentable form for company and just knock on the door.
>>
No. 548263 ID: fc937d

...you know, if you're a robot or a jetal, and your friends are robots or jetals, it would actually be pretty trivial to develop a code-language, and run a program to speak in it. Bam. Instant protection against eavesdropping. Kind of makes sense, giving the extremely widespread surveillance in this place.

For now, try to avoid the incoming bots. Things may come to a fight, but I'd rather not force one right away by popping out in front of the noble.
>>
No. 548299 ID: 9ddf68

well if she's talking in code she either knows we're coming, or is just saying things she doesn't want the crap ton of bots to overhear. Still would be nice to know who she's talking to but for some reason I have a feeling it's sevener.

If you want you could try scouting around first to see if you can't find a better way to... introduce yourself. Failing that there is always the front door.
>>
No. 548305 ID: fe4bfc

With Ein spying on everyone all the time anyone of any importance would encrypt there communications whenever possible.

If things do go badly make sure you have several exits available. Also we could try talking to some of the smaller cores first to get a lay of the land if we do not want to start here.
>>
No. 548569 ID: d38f67
File 138466254962.png - (14.96KB , 800x800 , 505.png )
548569

Alison melts a floor down, and uses morph to take the place of the depression.

The bots move by Unity without making any sign that they've seen her.

Alison thinks that with some patient maneuvering, she might just be able to knock on the front door. There is a small jetal, though, heading toward's the room with the big jetals that may cross Unity's path.
>>
No. 548576 ID: 735f4f

Can we wait here and spy on the jetals coming by? If they are headed this direction maybe they are coming to talk to the people in the room.

Also whats below you right now.
>>
No. 548597 ID: 9ddf68

ask polatt if he know's what kind of bots those are. Also if we can get eye's on the incoming jetal then I say lets see what it does first.
>>
No. 548733 ID: d38f67
File 138472237708.png - (14.83KB , 1097x638 , 506.png )
548733

"Do you know what kinds of bots those are, Polatt?"
>"Far as I can tell, they're just some surveillance bots. Those panels on the sphere are probably legs in case they have to climb up stuff or just stand still."

Below Unity is just another maintenance shaft, but below that is a walkway. Alison continues to slither and ooze down towards a vent, where she sees the incoming jetal that's carrying food towards Unity's destination.
>>
No. 548737 ID: 9ddf68

oh neat, another sweeper jetal. anyway for you to follow it? cause I'm guessing that it's heading towards our target.
>>
No. 548738 ID: 735f4f

Well we can follow this one and watch what happens or we can core him and take his form so we can listen in directly. But he might be able to get a alarm off so would have to be careful.
>>
No. 548740 ID: 7bbaae

>>548733
Hmmm... we could throw down a piece of jetalium onto the food with a note inscribed on it, asking to meet the noble outside. Or heck, ask to meet her right here. Wait, does separated jetalium keep its form? Err, do we have a pen and paper?

I kindof like hopping down and coring the sweeper then impersonating it, for the cool factor, but do we have a way of doing that without causing a detectable surge?
>>
No. 548741 ID: fc937d

I don't think killing and impersonating this thing is a viable option. EIN will notice when it goes offline or calls for help, and there's no way none of the food that's going in won't get messed up or disturbed in some way. (Kinda hard to mug the butler with the huge tray of food and not disturb any of it).

...maybe we could sneak a small drone or division in with him?
>>
No. 548821 ID: d38f67
File 138475076138.png - (17.08KB , 1097x638 , 507.png )
548821

Alison drops a strand of soft, low density jetalium through the vents. She swings it to match the jetal's pace, and gently places down a jetalium bulb that she will use as a tiny division to send through.
>>
No. 548822 ID: d38f67
File 138475077258.gif - (46.50KB , 1329x465 , 508.gif )
548822

The jetal pushes the doorbell with its face, and the doors open up. There's a small, quiet party going on. No one appears to notice Alison's strand.

>"Wow, funny that the code talk was all that got through. The walls annihilate the noise in here." says Scanner.
>>
No. 548824 ID: fc937d

Right. So... spy and listen for a bit.

Can you sense which one is the noble? I'm kind of assuming the tall gall in the middle there.

Though I don't like the look of those three seal-looking jetals with the sapphire emblems on their packs.
>>
No. 548826 ID: 9ddf68

some bots here look familiar like those guard bots but then there are some that I haven't got a clue about. Ask polatt if he knows what any of them are and can offer any advice. Other then that I guess just keep spying and see if we can't pinpoint our target.

Also why was it that only the coded message got through the walls? that makes me feel that this is a trap even more now.
>>
No. 548827 ID: 7bbaae

>>548822
I wonder if the code talk was meant to go through the walls, so that someone outside this room could hear it.

Anyway, wait for the food tray to reach the jetal with the highest mass(which I presume is the unique one standing roughly in the middle of the room), then try to catch her attention privately. Ask if they are the noble on vacation here, first off. Then ask if we could convince them to give us some information on Sapphire.
>>
No. 548828 ID: fc937d

>try to catch her attention privately
I think we should try and see if we can overhear anything useful before we risk talking. We don't exactly have any reason to think this noble will be happy to see us, or cooperative.
>>
No. 548831 ID: 735f4f

Lets just wait and watch for now. We need to get more info before we go blundering in anywhere.

Also if the noble is at all interested in talking to us it would have to be somewhere private with no one knowing it ever happened. Its like our dealing with the original floater on the rooftop. Even if they want to help us they have to keep up appearances in public or face severe consequences.

Guessing the three jetals with the emblems on there backs are bodyguards for the noble.
>>
No. 548930 ID: d38f67
File 138482120902.gif - (59.42KB , 1329x465 , 509.gif )
548930

"Polatt, do you recognize what those people are?"
>"That's some kind of business man attire. They're probably pretty high up on the food chain and all, but they're no nobles. The bots are bots, I don't know how powerful they are here, and the girls are the entertainment, unless the real world's got some funny idea of what businesswomen dress like."
>"Hey, look at those seal things." Scanner says. "They've each got one, two and three flaps on each side. I bet they're a supercore, and the number of flaps on each side is for identification. There's also a fourth big core walking back to this room."
>"How do you know that?" asks Atlas.
>"It's just a hunch, I don't think there's a way to know until they start doing supercore things."

Everyone focuses on the multiple conversations taking place, but it's all management and business, largely by mooching to Kolexia for funds, protection, and otherwise attempting to further their own goals. Kolexia does not appear entertained by any of it, and Iso can't blame her, since this probably isn't what people do on their vacation.

Alison lets her division get carted around until the catering jetal rolls by Kolexia, as she takes a look at what to eat. This is probably about as private as Alison will get while on top of a cake.

There's a lot to say and ask, but there's only so many appropriate things that can be said while revealing oneself to be pretending to be the icing on the cake.
>>
No. 548932 ID: 7bbaae

>>548930
"The cake is a lie."

Asking about the location of Sapphire is a given. So would the location of any actual rebel groups, not the useless Slither. However, first, we could ask if there's anything we can do to make her vacation better.
>>
No. 548936 ID: 735f4f

Can your division move much? If we could slide off and get on her shoulder somehow we could talk fairly privately. Or have her "eat" you.

Can we spell out "Eat Me" in blinking letters when she looks at us? Or something to that effect. If the cake starts talking someone nearby is probably going to notice. If she asks who you are say you are someone who has been in the news a lot lately.

As for questions our biggest one is how to track down the emperor and tell him apart from his body doubles. Might not want to lead with that one though. Should probably start with small talk and see if we can arrange a more private meeting later.

Finding out where Ein is located would also be nice. Just in case we want to try anything with its systems.
>>
No. 548938 ID: 735f4f

Oh now that you are close can you tell if she is the big energy signature or if its the supercore bodyguards? With two of them so close any noise we make seems really dangerous.
>>
No. 548939 ID: fc937d

Well, if she's bored by this, that gives us an opportunity. We could catch her attention, or her interest. And if we do that, it's easy to get a little alone time- since all she has to do is pick up the piece of food we're attached to or pretending to be.

I wouldn't speak at this distance though, we could be overheard by someone we don't want hearing us.
>>
No. 548940 ID: 9ddf68

so what we're just going to for words with our little jetalium icing and see if we can't get her attention? if so we should keep it short, sweet, and attention getting but only to her. like maybe changing the icing to something like "bored?" then change it to something like "grab a piece of cake and excuse yourself"

not really those words but just something to try and get her attention so she'll leave with our little jetalium division so we can have a proper chat without worrying about eavesdroppers.
>>
No. 548952 ID: d38f67
File 138482460410.gif - (60.27KB , 1329x465 , 510.gif )
548952

>Oh now that you are close can you tell if she is the big energy signature or if its the supercore bodyguards?
The bipedal large woman appears to have the biggest energy signature to Unity's senses, so Alison will continue thinking she is Kolexia.

Alison thinks to morph, but instead just makes a finger and spells out 'please take a piece of cake and excuse yourself, I'd like to speak alone' in the icing.

Kolexia turns to the single flapped seal and speaks in code. Alison can hear various doors slamming around her as the dome appears to go under a lockdown.

>"No, no one is leaving. Continue your discussions." she says to the biologicals. She then tosses Alison's drone to the single flap seal, and speaks in code again. It doesn't look ideal, but there isn't a red alert blaring in Alison's ears, so Kolexia may not be as hostile as she could be. She does, however, find as secluded a spot as she can, and drills a small hole to seep through to hide inside the walls. There are bots on the move all around her.

>"What do you want?" the single flap asks, who Alison will just call Seal One from now on.
>>
No. 548954 ID: 735f4f

Figured something like this would happen. We could be a assassin after all.

Tell him we wanted to chat with Kolexia and are trying to not disrupt the party.

No tricks just some polite conversation. If we had wanted to cause trouble we would have gone for more than a module on the cake.
>>
No. 548956 ID: fc937d

>what do you want
You came to talk to Kolexia. Forgive the subterfuge, but you don't exactly make yourself easy to reach.

>Seal One
...he's a seal with a seal. :V
>>
No. 548963 ID: 9ddf68

"to talk"

also have some people keep an eye out where the whole of you is since they're likely going to search this whole dome trying to find the real you.
>>
No. 548973 ID: 57a559

We wanted to talk. Maybe start a friendship and get a hug. Kolexia looks like she'd be really good at hugs. Especially in that kimono.
>>
No. 548975 ID: 7bbaae

>>548952
Ask if it's possible to have a private conversation, just the two of us. It would be best for both of us if her bodyguards did not hear.
>>
No. 548977 ID: d38f67
File 138482845034.gif - (22.96KB , 500x400 , 512.gif )
548977

"I came to talk, preferably in private." Alison asks, to which Seal one passes on the message through code.
>"There are thousands who exhaust their resources for a chance to earn so much as a glance from me at a dinner party, and you think so highly of yourself to not just cut in front of that, but ask of me to talk to you in private? What makes you so special, aside from having the suicidal nerve to sneak in?" Kolexia doesn't make any attempt to keep her voice down.
>>
No. 548979 ID: 7bbaae

>>548977
Ask if she's heard of Unity.
>>
No. 548982 ID: d38f67
File 138482921214.gif - (18.12KB , 500x400 , 513.gif )
548982

>Maybe get a hug
She looks good at hugs, but Alison's drone has insufficient surface area for an effective hug.

"Have you heard of Unity?"
>"Yes." Kolexia turns and makes a hand gesture to everyone else, who then vacates the room. "What do you want?"
>>
No. 548986 ID: fc937d

Well, no need to bandy about. She'll either give us the information or not.

I'm looking for Sapphire.
>>
No. 548987 ID: 7bbaae

Okay, I guess her bodyguards are more loyal to her than Sapphire. Ask for the location of Sapphire. The real one, not a body double. If possible it would also be nice to know of any people willing to help take him down.
>>
No. 548993 ID: fc937d

>>548987
Open asking for aid seems like pushing it.

Our only real hope to get the information diplomatically is if she's disloyal enough to allow us through, or to convince her that this is in her best interest. Better to let us find him and end this then allow things to drag out (especially if she thinks we can't beat Sapphire, anyways).
>>
No. 549005 ID: d38f67
File 138483110649.png - (20.83KB , 800x800 , 513.png )
549005

"How disloyal are you to Sapphire?"
>"My loyalties are where they should be."
"I ask because I'd like to know where Sapphire is. "
>"Oh, would you, now? As a matter of fact, I do contain the knowledge of Sapphire's whereabouts."

Energy Surge Detected!

>"Come and get it."
>>
No. 549006 ID: d38f67
File 138483112274.png - (65.57KB , 800x800 , 514.png )
549006

Drone has been destroyed!

Alison hears some code, then feels the walls shaking from the seals splitting up and sprinting in various directions.
>>
No. 549007 ID: fc937d

Well, at least we know she has what we want. We just need to take her alive and hope she'll honor the implicit agreement she just made to talk.

Battle stations.
>>
No. 549012 ID: fc937d

Okay, with actual plans this time: the enemy split up, right? That means if we're fast and sneaky, we have the chance to divide and conquer. To take out one before the others cane help. ...although that strategy really doesn't work well with supercores, does it? Since whichever one we hit will still be getting bonuses from the others.

I don't see much way around that, though. We can't hit Kolexia first and expect to take her out before the seals have time to reinforce her, unlike vice versa.

I'd think we'd want to fight numbers with multiple divisions. And choose appearances such that you're not giving away which division has the core.
>>
No. 549013 ID: 7bbaae

>>549006
This is a test.

A noble is probably still beyond our power. Let's take out her supercore first. As soon as one gets near you, open up with an AJ6 megabeam. Try to aim it so it doesn't have a chance of hitting bystanders.
>>
No. 549017 ID: 57a559

>>549005
Yeah I'm guessing this is a show of some sort. She's left just enough of a hint that you can still get the info. Otherwise, she'd say she didn't and not start a fight until you actually started some shit.

Not that I think she'll hold back, she has nothing to gain from holding back. If she manages to destroy you, all the better for her, and if she can't, she has an out.

So divide and conquer.
>>
No. 549021 ID: 9ddf68

wow, subtly is not our strong suit is it?

anyways time to do things the simple way. But remember we're dealing with a noble AND her supercore. I say hit the super core first and then we go for the noble, but we're probably going to have to deal with security bots as well. Question, are we going to try and do the thing were we try not and kill everybody or are we going full force her?
>>
No. 549026 ID: 735f4f

This is perfect for her. If we are not strong enough to take out her bodyguards and beat her in battle we have no chance of winning against the emperor. So if she wins its pats on the back and a raise and if not she knows we have the power to possibly kill her boss.

We can take on Nobles as we are a noble and have one of the strongest cores out there. The only thing we really need is a better battery at this point.

Take out the supercore one at a time. They might be able to share powers but they can not multitask like we can. we should distract two of them with divisions that will just keep them occupied while we take out the third. Should be plenty of smaller jetals around to recharge our mass.
>>
No. 549029 ID: 735f4f

You know the fact they did not notice us yet means there might not be anyone here capable of detecting us other than by direct line of sight. Sure the bots will be out in force but if we keep mostly hidden we might be able to get the jump on a few people before we start blowing up the place.
>>
No. 549203 ID: d38f67
File 138491908094.png - (20.01KB , 800x800 , 515.png )
549203

Alison shoots a question to the general lobby public.
"Is it possible to divide and conquer with the supercore being what it is?"
>"They can only funnel their energies to one core at a time." Recluse says. "If we sneak up on one successfully, then they won't have any reason to funnel their energy towards our target. Supercore transfers are fast, but I doubt they're instant. If we unleash a strong attack as our opener, we may be able to take out a core before they can do anything about it. We haven't confirmed they are a supercore, though."
>"We may as well have with that formation they're taking! Cores one to three are making a triangle, and each one's right around 100 meters off of the center, where the unseen seal is. That's max supercore range as far as we know. I bet that one's got all the good modules and stuff, because he's the only one who can assist the other three." says Scanner.
>"Not holding back has the additional bonus of helping get rid of this mass we've got." says the Duelist. "We're using well over 20,000 energy per belenoshour, which I remind is over a quarter of our battery in 20 real minutes. We sucked a good deal from the slither, and had to use a battery pack just to cover the cost of getting to this outpost."

It's discussed that Superseal 1 is heading close to Alison's position. She'll be able to get the drop on him. There is discussion to how far Unity will be going offense wise, but most people believe that this is not a good time to hold back against these forces. They recommend that Unity fires to kill sooner than fire to attempt a disable.

Supercore recap:
http://tgchan.org/kusaba/questdis/res/48871.html#68173
>>
No. 549204 ID: 7bbaae

>>549202
We should go all out at first, because we cannot safely attempt to disable a jetal until we know how tough they are.

I say go with the megabeam.
>>
No. 549209 ID: 735f4f

As much as we would like to be non lethal its time to up our game and take this serious. We can not handicap ourselves to save lives that will just be destroyed anyway if we fail.

Besides if we manage our ultimate goal we can probably save the people here as well.

Although if we can pull off a trick with our sword and core this one in a suprise attack the others might be slightly less willing to start cutting the building in half with beam weaponry.

If we can get close enough we can use our morph sword as our primary weapon and use the new triple rocket sword to help pen him in. Biggest trick to a surprise attack is to delay surge warnings until its almost to late to counter the attack.
>>
No. 549213 ID: 9ddf68

lets try one of those A5 weapons to see weather or not they ping on the enemy sensors... or if he's really close we could try to core him with our sword and maybe leave the core somewhere to set up a trap or a decay. just some thoughts.
>>
No. 549215 ID: fc937d

I vote to hit a seal hard and fast, but not to deliberately try and cook him core. We're plenty capable of just blowing him up.
>>
No. 549232 ID: 2f4b71

If we're going the sneak-attack route, we REALLY want to take out the central core first. Even if it turns out not to be the module-carrier, it will break their network and force them to reorganise themselves before they can effectively redistribute energy again.
>>
No. 549347 ID: d38f67
File 138500547702.png - (30.62KB , 800x800 , 516.png )
549347

Whether or not the center seal is the module carrier, it may be worth having them break their network. And if it is a carrier, then it will cripply the supercore threat.

However, on scouting forward, there are a greater amount of robot encounters the closer Alison gets to the center. A patrol of nearly a dozen starts passing her by when she's crawling through a hollow column. She doesn't think that that's a coincidence, assuming that the 4th seal is important enough to go after. In fact, it reinforces the idea that the fourth is crucial to the other seals, and will be difficult to snipe if she chooses to do so. Plus, if she does so, she will have 3 remaining supercores that are not that far from her.

As far as Alison can tell, they aren't searching in the walls themselves yes. Kolexia has not moved from her party room, but a lot of small time jetals appear to be moving in to guard it.
>>
No. 549355 ID: 9ddf68

if these are just small fries leave them, we can scoop them up if we need to recharge but right now lets just hit the seal so we don't lose the element of surprise... what little surprise we have left anyways. They still don't know where we are.
>>
No. 549356 ID: 7bbaae

>>549347
Go for the snipe. The other supercores will be regular jetals at that point, and we can rush for one of them afterwards and take them out second. Then we'll just have a two-core supercore to deal with. Not as bad.

Also we might get some good mods, and bumping our morph to 100 to use them would work well in this jetalium-rich environment.
>>
No. 549357 ID: fc937d

I still think we want to get as close to number 4 as possible before hitting it.

>snipe
>get modules from it
...if we overkill the core from range, those are kind of mutually exclusive plans.
>>
No. 549383 ID: 7a6a22

I still think it's strange that they don't know how this place is constructed... hollowed pieces making hallways to most crucial places are things I would fire my security-team for if it stays unnoticed for long...

The conclusion would be, they are knowing you are coming to them and are just shutting off escape-routes...
I don't think they made a trap (looks more like a 7er-char. to me, so if traps, than unpredictable/untested ones)...
>>
No. 549391 ID: d38f67
File 138508162462.png - (17.15KB , 800x800 , 517.png )
549391

Unity makes the big move to go after the central seal.

"Are they just closing off the exits? They're not searching the hollow sections."
>"They might only have so many robots capable of looking at every crawlspace. They've still got cameras in there, but we've been able to avoid them. It's not complete coverage, that's for sure." Clarence says.

While the path isn't straight, the core does follow major hallways. Unity ends up under the floor where it looks like seal 4 is coming.

>"I think we'll get close, but not so close that we can sword him from right under the floor." says the Scanner. "I hear some bots that seem like they're running low, probably through this crawlspace. There's got to be a dozen or two bots surrounding the seal, too. We'll have to think of our opening now, cause we're gonna have to spring as soon as we get visualed."
>"Remember, we have batteries in backup, so we can get a full recharge." the Duelist says.
>>
No. 549393 ID: f44ca3

The bots will find us eventually I say we take this opportunity before we squander it.

Might not be able to sword him under the floor but we can get close. In these enclosed spaces a few seconds is all we need to engage. Once we do we will know how willing they are to start using beam weaponry on us or if they will stick to short range stuff. One or two S ranked beams going off down here and half the complex could be destroyed.
>>
No. 549398 ID: fc937d

Well, even if we can't get close enough to sword him, we have plenty of other arsenal to unleash.

>lots of robots
Firing up the area-emp when we strike should prevent them from interfering. (Can we overdrive that stronger if they're shielded?)

>coverage and search pattern problems
They probably never seriously expected this kind of attack. Who would be brazen and powerful enough, or have a reason? The defenses are more built to keep people out, or respond to conventional attacks. They haven't been training or drilling search patterns for a lone jetal infiltrator.
>>
No. 549413 ID: 7bbaae

Well, we could see how big a blast we can get out of the AJ6 blaster.
>>
No. 549418 ID: d38f67
File 138509785953.png - (98.29KB , 800x800 , 518.png )
549418

Alison makes sure she's got complete 360 vision around, above and below her. As soon as a bot comes, she fires the thrusters to help boost her leap outwards and activates cooling. An EMP is fired, and the robots are apparently not cannon fodder, as they are not completely shut down. They are made to be too slow to interfere in time.

There may be reservations against launching heavy beam weaponry right in the middle of the vacation getaway, so Alison launches two of her swords as she tries to get into melee range. As tempted as she is to use the AJ6 blaster, it's still largely untested, and she wants to stick when what she knows for the moment.
>>
No. 549419 ID: d38f67
File 138509787696.png - (52.61KB , 800x800 , 519.png )
549419

The seal uses Jetalium Magnetism, a strong one, furthering Unity's velocity. The seal sends a few spikes of jetalium at Unity. Alison attempts to slice it off, but while both swords quickly fry through each spike, there's too many to dodge and not enough time to launch any more weaponry.

A core dodge, however, prevents the spikes from striking anywhere close to the core, and Alison's density prevents his from piercing deep.

>"I got a read!" says Scanner. "I can read his module load!"

>"Fool jetal!" Seal 4 says, at an accelerated speech. "We can stand here trading plasma blasts all day, but you are in the big leagues now, and we have ways of dealing with your kind with modules you couldn't imagine existed!"
>"He's... using his interfacing mod with us?" Scanner thinks. "Yeah, yeah, he's trying to hack us!"

Alison can't help but recall that hacking others was one of the first things she imagined to attain.
>>
No. 549420 ID: d38f67
File 138509788722.png - (16.37KB , 800x800 , 520.png )
549420

>"So, this is your true form? Not many jetals can handle one, let alone two drones with such focus, but that will not save you from me!" Seal 4 continues, "You, like many, are far too used to fighting externally, trading plasma blast for blast. Not once have I ever met a jetal, save for my superiors, that could fight me internally on anywhere close to my level. I expect you to be no better, Unity! This was a mod designed to exact superiority over your kind!"
>>
No. 549421 ID: d38f67
File 138509790468.png - (16.88KB , 800x800 , 521.png )
549421

>"...... what is this? Who are all of you people? Which one of you is the real Unity?"
>>
No. 549422 ID: d38f67
File 138509792238.png - (13.46KB , 800x800 , 522.png )
549422

>So how does this work?" Atlas asks. "Do we just punch him into submission?"
>>
No. 549423 ID: 7bbaae

>>549422
I think it's time for a short speech. "This is why we named ourselves Unity! The many have become one!" Then let's dogpile her.

Also, holy shit, if we get this mod, we can defeat ANY JETAL. I think we just won.
>>
No. 549424 ID: fc937d

>hack mod
We need that, so friggen bad. That is practically the best upgrade we could have. It allows us to directly apply our numerical advantage. We blatantly overpower anyone in this setting but Sevener with this.

>Who are all of you people? Which one of you is the real Unity?
None of us. Unity is not a name. It is a descriptor.

And we're quite used to fighting this way, thank you. Trading plasma blasts is something we picked up pretty recently.

...you've made a severe tactical error, I'm afraid. Would you care to surrender?

If he refuses, or attempts escape, I suggest constricting him. And yes, a dog pile of infinite punches.

>other stuff
See if anyone can go down the hole or connection he left behind and grab control of his core. Exploit multitasking- make sure someone is still driving Unity in the real world and we're not helpless before the robots or other seals.

And someone try absorbing his modules and jetalium while he's in here trying to fight us.
>>
No. 549425 ID: c23ab0

First punch him into submission. A little.
>>
No. 549430 ID: d6c045

>>549422

"DOGPILE"
>>
No. 549436 ID: d38f67

I forgot to include the supercore's module listing:

http://tgchan.org/wiki/Unnatural_Selection_Stats#Supercore_Seal-4
>>
No. 549440 ID: 150992

>>549422
PULL THAT FUCKER INSIDE
>>
No. 549441 ID: 57a559

Group hug the seal, and tear him from his body.

He will become one with us. He is now Unity. He is now... A CONTESTANT!
>>
No. 549445 ID: 9ddf68

"there's a reason we called ourselves Unity."

Then grab him, let see if we can't have him become part of us well for two reasons.
1. this would give us a way to get others like we did with Polatt should they want us to take them with us
2. I bet it will scare the piss out of our enemies if they think we can just eat them.
>>
No. 549452 ID: 2f4b71

>>549440
Hell yes! And because we can split our attention way better than he can, start sending some of our pals through the hole to hack him at the same time.
>>
No. 549455 ID: ef1879

...My, my. What a delicious turn of events. This is just about the best opportunity we could get in this situation. Only gonna get one, so lets not fuck it up.

You really can't afford to spend any time speaking to Seal-4, or even responding to Atlas. Seal-4's gonna figure out real quick that this isn't the cakewalk he expected and pull back, and if he isn't nailed down by then we're not gonna get another chance. So dispense with any talk and act immediately.

Lunge out and grab Seal-4 by the horns, with both hand and hair, and get your tail coiled tight around his neck. Then you call out to Atlas and everybody else to grab on and pull hard to keep this guy in here; They can add punches and kicks if they want to. If we're lucky we'll be able to yank him completely out of his core, but don't count on that.

Next ask everybody here who has a small body (preferably Guardsman, since he's crazy enough) to try squeezing in between Seal-4 and the wall of the tunnel he used to get here and see if they can wriggle their way back up it and into his body. If they make it they may be able sever him from it and temporarily take control. However, they shouldn't stay long, since the eye of EIN may fall on them if they linger.

While this is going on we've gotta continue the battle outside. Keep up the max EMP, keep burning mass and split off two divisions, one for each sword. They'll cut down those two bots, then start slicing chunks out of Seal-4's extremities to whittle him down to his core.

Meanwhile our core body'll shoot out spikes of our own to keep us connected, just in case Seal-4 can retract his spikes even while pinned in here, then pull us closer into his body and start working tendrils in to try and locate his core.

Possible error on the wiki for the supercore's module list: There's no module listed for the strong jetalium magnetism used. Was he using a module from a linked supercore?
>>
No. 549473 ID: f44ca3

Everyone needs to grab him quick and hold him inside so he can not pull out. Then we either pull him into our core or take over his core or both.

If we could hack him so we could send people to take over his body and have another core to work with that would be great.

No speeches for now every second counts even in accelerated time mode.
>>
No. 549529 ID: d38f67
File 138517379280.png - (21.73KB , 800x800 , 523.png )
549529

"Unity isn't our name. It's our descriptor." Alison says this as she uses her hair and tail to coil around and constrict the seal. "Dogpile!"

Duelist takes over Unity to continue dealing with the robots above. Atlas throws the first punch.

>"You're all winning, I take it, because I was just able to absorb some of the seal." Duelist says.

Atlas and everyone begins punching him, which apparently weakens his control of his body. Duelist begins light absorbing the jetalium, burning the mass to power his blasts on the robots, and recover Unity's stock as she's hit by the bots.
>>
No. 549532 ID: d38f67
File 138517433453.png - (30.22KB , 800x800 , 524.png )
549532

For the sake of a test, Alison tells guardsman to try to go down the hole the seal came up through, but that hole appears gone. Unity will need that interface module to enter another jetal. Seal 4 tries to scurry away, but it appears that having the module doesn't guarantee an escape.

Duelist uses Loviro's sword to core him, and he dissolves from Alison's coil. It doesn't appear that interfacing allows a jetal to join the lobby like Polatt. A few sword waves and a beam thrown in, and the robots are quickly dispersed, but half the dome is converging on Unity.

She can now absorb any of the modules from seal 4, then get out of there. Kolexia is still in the party room, and the three supercores are closing the 100m distance fast.

http://tgchan.org/wiki/Unnatural_Selection_Stats#Supercore_Seal-4
>>
No. 549533 ID: 76b151

Hmm, well obviously replace everything with the better versions.

Pity this guy doesn't have a better battery then we do to go along with all the S-Class stuff.

Stuff we can upgrade with:
Quick Morph S
Shields S


Stuff we really want:

Personal Electric Interface S-5
Robot Sense S
Biological Sense S
Plasma Exposion A

Class S Weapons:
I dunno, maybe grab the class S Terabeam instead of one of our bending Giga?

I noticed he had Thruster Boost, but no actual thrusters. Can we get those details?

Stuff to get rid of:
... No clue
>>
No. 549534 ID: 7bbaae

>>549532
Well obviously we want PEI S-5. Shields S should replace our Shields A. Core Detect S can replace our Core Detect A. Quick Morph S replaces our Quick Morph B.

The fuck is Thruster Boost? Also check out what Plasma Explosion does. We could check out how good the Plasma Sword S is compared to the Lovirosword... but I expect it to be weaker than the AJ6 sword. I would like Robot Sense S, because we know Sapphire isn't a jetal, and Robot Sense probably shows us cyborgs too. Pure biologicals are no threat at all so we don't need bio sense aside from preventing collateral damage... which we're already good at.

Drop: Core Launcher(as if we'll need it now). Boost Morph to compensate for any extra mods. I'd suggest dropping Sense Core since we don't really need it to defeat jetals anymore, but we'll need it to core them safely, so... Well, maybe we can force them to give up their core, rather than risk us killing them? Or just kill them.
>>
No. 549538 ID: fc937d

Absorb all the modules from the Seal. We learned in the Cloud that absorbing steals modules- it doesn't copy. That means everything we take from Seal 4 is denied to the other cores in the supercore.

If there's anything we don't want to keep, we can delete it after.

>redundant or unnecessary Seal 4 modules (absorb and then delete)
Anti-gravity
Cooling Systems
Surge Detection A
Core Detect S
AED (Assorted Empirical Defense)

Sniper Beam A x3
Blaster S
Plasma Sword S
Kilobeam S x2

>Obvious upgrades [delele] -> [replace]
Quick Morph B -> Quick Morph S
Shield Generator A -> Shields S

>New modules to keep
Thruster Boost
Robot Sense S
Biological Sense S
Personal Electric Interface S-5
Terabeam S
Plasma Explosion A

>Old modules to delete
Gigabeam bending S 1x
Quick morph (does nothing for us at 100 morphability).

And up morph to 100 to net 3 more slots.

...and then we still have to discard one thing. I'm toying with explosive shedding (does our flak really need to explode? Although maybe we still have a use for timed bombs). Or some weapon (although we only have like 1 of each, now). Or power move (does close in str even matter anymore?).

Thoughts?

>What do these modules do.
From irc: the thruster boost is a controlled explosion to propel you forward, different from our other thrusters in that it's not continuous. And the plasma explosion can be used as an an AoE attack, or to collide explosively with other plasma attacks.

>Drop: Core Launcher(as if we'll need it now)
We can still use it to pass from division to division in tight spots.
>I'd suggest dropping Sense Core
Don't we need to find the core to hack it? Especially against things with divisions.
>>
No. 549547 ID: 04b86a

>>549538
This looks pretty good, but by my count we should only need to ditch two things.

By the way, Jetalium Hiding is missing from the wiki. And maybe something else, too? Because after taking into account Jetalium Hiding I'm only counting 42 modules + Master Musician (free).

If the PEI lets us connect to multiple things at once, then with divisions the last three seals will be a piece of cake.
>>
No. 549548 ID: 76b151

>>549538
If we up our morph to 100 and drop one of the Gigabeams we can actually fit everything without fropping anything else. We currently have 41 modules and morph 100 can fit 46
>>
No. 549549 ID: 76b151

>>549547
Oh yeah, forgot about that. Hmm. I suppose Quick Morph is not needed for now. Pity we cannot store it instead of getting rid of in completely.
>>
No. 549559 ID: 9ddf68

whatever we pick we're going to want to hide again. Without a better battery it would be foolish of us to get into a head on fight with opponents roughly the same strength as us especially when we're outnumbered. I say we keep going with the hit and run tactics we've been using so far.
>>
No. 549755 ID: d38f67
File 138536115840.png - (46.91KB , 800x800 , 525.png )
549755

The seal is best left wiped clean, so Alison is sure to absorb everything from the seal and delete everything she doesn't need.

Within a 50 meters, there are around 89 biologicals, 278 robots, and 41 weak jetals. It's not much less dense beyond that, up to as far as she can sense. Alison isn't quite sure yet what counts as a robot either, as for all she knows, she is sensing benign computers. All of her weapons are disabled except for the AN-5 sword.

Build Changes:Morph is boosted up to 100, giving her a max of 46 modules.
Shield A -> Shield S
-Gigabeam Bending X1
+Terabeam S
+Plasma explosion
+Thruster Boost
+Robot Sense S
+Bio Sense S
+Personal Electric Interface S-5

Also, the available surge managed to get its colors inverted - it is currently at 2064/7650.


http://www.tgchan.org/wiki/Unnatural_Selection_Stats
>>
No. 549756 ID: 7bbaae

>>549755
We're probably sensing a bunch of tiny scout robots.

Burn some of that mass we're getting from the Light Absorb to recharge the battery and surge. Then head for one of the other supercore jetals. I'd like to mostly go on the defensive until you can get close enough to PEI them. Use our Stunner when you get close enough so we can get a good PEI hit in.

Test Overdriving the AN5 sword to see how awesome it gets while still being pretty damn cheap to keep running.
>>
No. 549762 ID: 9ddf68

and now the fun can really begin. See if you can't find somewhere to hide after you recharge your battery and let's see if we can't get closer to another one of the supercore's. I don't think we'll be able to get as easy of a win as we did with seal 4 here but if we can avoid all the grunts between us and whoever we're going after that would be a plus we would still have a chance to get a surprise attack in on whoever we're about to fight as well.
>>
No. 549787 ID: f44ca3

Pull his core out and chuck it down the hallway at a 90 degree angle from where you want to go. Then once out of line of sight from anyone get back into the floor or ceiling and move quickly to wherever the farthest core is right now.

If we can stay unnoticed for a bit in the confusion will give us a bit of surprise when we attack the next one. They can not track us but can track his core and the stuff around us.
>>
No. 549847 ID: fd6ae9

Right. So the remaining Seals are either still more than 50 meters away, or have hide-modules good enough to escape our scanners.

We should finish dealing with the supercore before moving on to the noble. Can we finish the light absorbtion and move to intercept one of the three remaining Seals?
>>
No. 549862 ID: 9cd8ad
File 138544301087.png - (32.39KB , 800x800 , 526.png )
549862

>Location of supercores
Alison didn't think about that correctly - the supercores and Kolexia are still within range, but there are many small jetals on top of that. Also, Kolexia is registering as a jetal and a robot.

>Overdrive the sword
The effect is significant, and still only takes 8 surge per second.

Alison feels a bit funny at 100 morph, but it does help with seeping back into the cracks. She takes a lump of supercore jetalium with her to burn off for energy, while her general location is still known. Seal 4's core is tossed away.

She's given another moment, after all, as all jetals and many robots either back off or move forward at a drastically different pace, in order to create a spherical perimeter around Unity. The effort is so coordinated, that it's assumed that EIN just took over everyone. The biologicals, Alison notes, are all running away from Unity, into the snowstorm even.

Alison can still most likely seep up to the next supercore, however, but there will be a good deal of other jetals and robots around any of them.
>>
No. 549864 ID: 7bbaae

>>549862
Heheh, the AN5 sword is pretty fucking awesome I'd say, since overdriving it is so cheap. Too bad we can't use any other weapons while it's on overdrive. That includes the Plasma Driver and Plasma Explosion, unfortunately.

If the supercores are still moving towards us, definitely intercept one. If they're not, then head towards Kolexia. Don't bother trying to talk to her. Immediately rush in and use the PEI-S5. We can have a private conversation that way, as well as steal her jetal mods.
>>
No. 549865 ID: fd6ae9

>Kolexia is registering as a jetal and a robot.
Must be a hybrid like Ruby, then. There are ways a robot can use jetalium.

>The biologicals, Alison notes, are all running away
Smart. They really don't want to be around when things get messy. Snow-storm is safer than a plasma-storm. (Hopefully they don't get too far or freeze without proper clothes, and/or double back without getting lost after you're gone).

>EIN stepped in
Time limit, then. We have to be done here before any reinforcements EIN alerts show up.

I don't suppose we have any way to jam EIN's communication or connection to the bots in the area? The coordination will make puny enemies a more significant threat.

>what do
Even if they'll have coordinated bot backup, I'd rather hit another supercore with bot backup, then the noble with possible 3-way supercore backup.
>>
No. 549866 ID: 76b151

We have two options for the weaker opponants should they try and mob us. The EMP and the Plasma Discharge.

Lets head for one of the super cores to take them out. Should you get mobbed go with the EMP first since it has quite a bit of range.

One thing we should do is try out our new hacking module instead of going for a direct confrontation. If we can plant one of our horde into it we can potentially use the Supercore's sharing ability against them.
>>
No. 550667 ID: 9cd8ad
File 138612620923.png - (14.69KB , 700x700 , 527.png )
550667

No enemies are approaching Alison, so she continues slithering through the wall cracks and begins approaching the next supercore closest to Kolexia. She is about ready to launch out of the walls to attack, when someone new speaks up.

>"Excuse me, uh, Alison? I had an idea. That seal went into us, but it wasn't clear what would've happened if he beat us. Does it just destroy us, or does it control us? What I mean is, what if we're able to control robots and stuff that we connect with and beat like that? We could just get a few teams of like five people or so and take over robots. I mean, the worst case is that we get kicked back out when you disconnect, right?"
>"Actually, the worst case might be that such a thing works, but then the robot is destroyed, killing everyone inside." says the Recluse. "But that is still not bad. Death is not permanent, here, and the small sacrifice alone could be worth the test, if we try to focus more on connecting with robots when we start the fight."
>>
No. 550668 ID: 7bbaae

>>550667
He's right, it's worth a test with some volunteers. Also come to think of it, if we win, won't everyone who died in this CAI Fight simulation be resurrected? So death is even less permanent than usual.

Let's get some distance from this jetal and ambush a robot.
>>
No. 550669 ID: fd6ae9

>the worst case might be that such a thing works, but then the robot is destroyed, killing everyone inside
...that would make using that mod pretty dangerous, in-universe, though. Since an ordinary hacker only has one mind, and getting too aggressive would be committing suicide.

I suppose it's possible for an experimental, dangerous module only experienced people made aware of the risks are supposed to be using, but that still seems bad design.

I suppose we could risk it. Hug your away teams for luck before they head out, and let's hope they don't explode.
>>
No. 550670 ID: f44ca3

I think its worth a try but only with willing volunteers that know the risk. If it does work it will be a valuable tool. Also would rather experiment now rather than in a more dangerous situation.
>>
No. 550672 ID: 9ddf68

... well nothing ventured nothing gained, only take people who are willing to try this, we won't force anyone into this if they don't want to.
>>
No. 550680 ID: 96b823

It's definitely worth testing, though there may be more than the resident AI to fight when they connect. I don't know if we've established how EIN works when it's directing bots and jetals such as it is now, but if what it's doing is directly controlling them then those who go in may have to fight EIN as well.

Split off a couple divisions and move them to any nearby groups of bots or low-level jetals. You'll pop EMP and they'll break through the floor to spear the bots right at the start of the fight.
>>
No. 550690 ID: d86324

Best case scenario: We get to bolster our numbers, plant agents, as well as testing out the whole thing in the first place.

Worst case scenario: Everything seems to go according to plan, until the last moment where EIN takes direct control and turns them on us when we have our guard down.

Do it, it'll be a good test, but remember to keep your guard up.
>>
No. 550695 ID: 2f4b71

Extreme paranoia, engage!
"Has anyone seen this guy before? Did anyone see where the Seal went after the link to his body was broken?"
>>
No. 551157 ID: 9cd8ad
File 138652507886.png - (24.28KB , 800x800 , 528.png )
551157

The idea is accepted. Alison talks for a moment to the person who just spoke up. He knows about the brackets and contests, ruling out the possibility that he's the Seal that managed to escape and is trying to sabotage everyone. Recluse takes over driving Unity silently towards the robot-jetal perimeter, but Alison is sure to make a division to come along with the express purpose of interfacing. It's another case of paranoia, just in case the interfaced robot can bring in EIN, in which case Unity can disable the division rather than fight the entire robot population. Teams of 3 to 5 are arranged and set up, as Alison begins en mass hugging for good luck and tentative goodbyes.

>"We're ready." says the Recluse. "If you want to take over and decide how we're going to open this. There are 8 robots and Seal-2 directly on the other side of this wall. There are many more indirectly, so be ready to fight off high numbers.
>>
No. 551158 ID: fd6ae9

Alright, so surprise attack, EMP to hinder the bots until we suborn any of them, Unity-body engages Seal-2 and lays down suppressive fire at those high numbers, while the division tries to suborn nearby robots.

Best case: we capture a robots, and turn them on the others while unity or a division goes to cyber-battle the Seal.
>>
No. 551161 ID: f44ca3

We go straight for the seal while our division tries to take over a robot.

If it does work and we do not feel any EIN control in the robot the division tries to leave one person inside it. If all goes well we try to take over as many robots as possible.

One thing to watch for is a taken over robot being a liability. If they are not strong enough to take on a powerful jetal we could have the risk of loosing whoever is inside in battle.

Best case we can form a link with them and if they are taken down in battle we can pull the person back into our core.
>>
No. 551230 ID: d86324

Charge in, shouting "Hugs for everybody!" before sending in teams to hijack and assimilate give hugs
>>
No. 551232 ID: 9cd8ad
File 138656608769.png - (136.54KB , 800x800 , 529.png )
551232

The EMP is launched as Unity and her division burst from the walls. Alison goes straight to the supercore.

It immediately attempts an immense energy surge that looks similar to beams. So Alison primes the plasma drivers in the hopes they do what they're said to.
>>
No. 551233 ID: 9cd8ad
File 138656610933.png - (247.12KB , 800x800 , 530.png )
551233

The driver is surprisingly small, but the beam gets completely deflected like it hits an impenetrable wall. Unity creates a sharp spike that drives into Seal-2.

"Someone taking over the robots, give me a report!"
>"It's working!" one of them says. We've got control of one, we're cutting the interface!"

There were many volunteers, so Alison interfaces with the supercore, and two teams of 4 go in. Within a second, it's apparent that the supercore will be compromised.

Another idea is proposed. Since it's obvious EIN knows what's going on, Alison can use the EIN tracker and try to find out if they're doing anything.
>>
No. 551234 ID: 7bbaae

>>551233
It's a bit late, but we can definitely tell what EIN plans to do in reaction to us taking over robots. So, yes. This is basically what it's for. Just turn it on long enough to find out what EIN plans to do about the compromised robots. The longer we have it on the more likely it breaks.

We should try to take over as many robots as possible if this trial run goes well.
>>
No. 551236 ID: d86324

We risk the chance of letting on that we have such an ability, but I don't think there's anything else that we'd use it for, so this is a good as time as any
>>
No. 551237 ID: fd6ae9

Well, it's potentially advantageous to use it here (is EIN sending reinforcements? An airstrike? Arming the kill-sats?), and it's not as if discovery of our hacking compromises our location. We might as well see if it works.

Worst case, EIN can fight off or kill our hackers, and/or has Sevener hooked up and her team can fight us directly in cyberspace.

Continue subduing the supercore, and disabling and/or suborning robots. (Do we remain in control of the robot body after our division disconnects? If the robot is destroyed in combat, what happens to our boarder?).
>>
No. 551238 ID: 9ddf68

hey do you think you might be able to find out where EIN is located by tracking EIN itself? I mean if we can find that we could maybe smash it letting us move around much quicker and easier.
>>
No. 551240 ID: f44ca3

Go ahead and use it. Will gain us valuable intel on how EIN reacts and what information they will get about our fight here.
>>
No. 551318 ID: 9cd8ad
File 138665365169.png - (75.61KB , 800x800 , 531.png )
551318

"Scanner, if you will?"
>"I'm on it."

The supercore has virtually nothing of interest, except, of course, itself. It has 60,000 battery, only slightly used up, and 8kg of mass. The inside team flops its 2 pairs of fin things.

>"We got it, we got it!"

>"And I got info!" the Scanner says. "They're not happy that we have interfacing, or that we've been successfully sneaking. It's chaos up there."
>>
No. 551319 ID: 9cd8ad
File 138665369608.png - (243.39KB , 800x800 , 532.png )
551319

>"We have a time limit. Escape pods are flying the biologicals out of here, and most of the robots and jetals here have had their consciousness uploaded to EIN, and been replaced by a rudimentary set of algorithms that aren't considered alive. They're gonna blow this place, but there's a team of three coming down. They - oh, it's those guys, they want to have a rematch. Yeah, they're trying to stall us, if nothing else. He'll be here in the time it takes to fall from orbit. He really wants that nobility, and they gave him stuff to fight us with."
>>
No. 551321 ID: 9cd8ad
File 138665388561.png - (27.74KB , 800x800 , 533.png )
551321

>"Also, Emerald is trying to deal with us, now, but not personally. He's thrusting his flag capital ship out of normal orbit to get over us, and a, excuse the language, fuckton of jetals are charging the superweapon in preparation. We have about 5 real minutes, but trihead's gonna be here sooner." Scanner continues. "Kolexia is being told to get the heck out of here pronto, but..."

Kolexia isn't moving from her original spot.

>"And lastly, Sevener isn't joining this fight, she's helping conduct research on another space station that doesn't look like it's special at all."
"Do you have any idea where EIN is?"
>"... nope. None. I'm not even sure we can assume it's a a classic server of a million mainframes located at the bottom of the ocean. It might be perpetuated by the robots, and the brainpower from the harvest, itself. It might be like some kind of big robot overmind, if that doesn't sound insane."
>>
No. 551323 ID: 7bbaae

>>551320
Okay then next we rush to the noble. Get that info, forcefully if we have to. She probably wants us to interface with her. Do that, steal her mods if we can, but leave her alive. Or heck, hijack her body from the inside without killing her, if she lets you. Or I guess you could just keep her restrained in her body.

Do the same thing with the last seal next if we have time, then SUPERCORE ALL OUR JETALS TOGETHER. Each supercore will be able to use Division, so we'll have 9 of us against the noble wannabe.

Oh, we can even pick up the first seal's core and supercore with it, too, so we'll have 12!

AN ARMY OF UNITY.
>>
No. 551324 ID: 04b86a

How much control do we have over the seal? Can we force it to use its modules, using its own battery power? Because if we can, then I say we plant a division inside it to act as a puppeteer. The only risk I could see is if something happens to disrupt the division, like our core being hit or the division somehow destroyed.

>Stuff to fight us with
That presumably includes a PEI S-5, to stop us from hacking him. Unless they haven't figured out just how unhackable we are, then he might have a PEI S-6 or higher.

>>551323
Supercores don't work that way.
>>
No. 551325 ID: 496f2f

>>551323
>an army of Unity
I think you mean COUNTER-EIN.
>>
No. 551326 ID: 57a559

>>551321
It might be a dog even for all we know. A very powerful doggy.

This is Kolexia's house, she probably doesn't want to move because they figure they won't destroy it if she's still inside. Everyone else is going gung-ho destroy it ALL because they don't give a shit about any of this property and just see it as an opportunity to increase in rank or destroy a powerful threat or to make a show.

Might want to try and get to Kolexia, she probably likes her house very much and wants to keep it intact. Make a deal for the info in exchange for leaving as soon as possible and bring the fight elsewhere.
>>
No. 551332 ID: a4a2fc

First of all we need a plan of escape. I know we survived a noble self destructing while in the harvest simulation, but I don't really want to take our chances here with an orbital superweapon. Do we have any idea what power it has and if it could possibly wipe us off the map? Can we bunker down?

If we want to run, we would probably have to do so right now and push our way out while they try to stall us. Then there's Kolexia, who's our only lead and also not moving. It's possible she has a plan. I think we have to take our chances and get to her asap.
>>
No. 551334 ID: fd6ae9

>First of all we need a plan of escape.
Strait down tunneling with the Loviro sword, max thrusters and thruster boost, and fire defensive systems / plasma driver / plasma explosion up the hole behind us as relevant to the threat.

>what do
Leave division(s) and suborned robots / jetals to deal with the remaining seals, robots, and the hydra. The main unity-body needs to head to Kolexia before our window of opportunity closes.

>Sevener is on another space station that doesn't look like it's special at all
She's got the logs-advantage, though. You can bet if she's there she has good reason to be.
>>
No. 551344 ID: 9ddf68

whelp we're running out of time, I say just try to sneak quickly to where the noble is or if we don't care about stealth anymore just say to hell with and cut/blow our way through the walls and floors since we now have hijacked robot's and divisions to cover us and since some of our weapons don't even ping on enemy sensors we could still move pretty much unnoticed in all the chaos.

but yeah we need to move quick and then leave fast after we get what information she can give us. Also does that seal have a better battery then us or about the same? we might need to steal it before we leave so we don't run out of juice when we're running away. either that or you need to start collecting balls of jetalium for a snack on wherever we're going next
>>
No. 551369 ID: f44ca3

Ok so time is of the essence. Whatever that super weapon is we do not want to get caught under it.

How did the robot take over plan work out? Do we have permanent control over the ones we hit? If so are they safe for out people to be in? Also can they take over the Seal or is it a temporary thing? If we could form our own super core somehow it would be handy.

If EIN is a distributed network program its unlikely we can do much about it right now. Either is something designed to be beyond our ability to control in this simulation or we just do not have enough info to do so yet.

Any non special space station is going to have who knows what secrets inside so whatever Sevener is up to we have to expect she is doing the same sort of stuff we are just on the other side.

So drop sneaking for speed take out the last seal if possible and get the info from Kolexia. Hopefully she or the last seal will have a better battery.
>>
No. 551371 ID: f44ca3

You know everything we get on our outlaw route Sevener has the opportunity to get on her lawful route. So I bet the research she is doing is something along the lines of our experiments with taking over cores and robots. So count on her having the same ability or something similar later on.
>>
No. 551426 ID: 9cd8ad
File 138672880842.png - (19.29KB , 800x800 , 534.png )
551426

Unity's division splits off into another to start invading the stronger jetals and bots, as the weakest ones will most likely be a walking deathtrap for everyone inside. In fact, some teams start coming back, as a slight stiff plasma-wind will kill some of the weaker ones.

>How much can you control Seal-2?
The people inside have full control, and effectively, Seal-2 is on Alison's team. It only has access to its own modules and it's slightly worse battery, however, and none of Unity's. Unity's division will not be able to act as a puppeteer.

>Form a supercore
Alison has no idea how to go about that. Ultimately, the interface was made around a jetal having a single conscious, and the use and takeover of seal-2 would have, in the belenosian's minds, meant that Unity hopped from her own body to Seal-2's. Alison didn't realize this beforehand, but everyone is going to realize that Unity isn't a standard jetal even in the real world.

"How much power do you think it has, Scanner?"
>"I don't know, that's under more secure info. We can check, but I think discovery is a higher chance, there, unless I can find someone under EIN that's talking directly about it."
>"They're funneling hundreds, maybe thousands, of jetal's power and battery into a single weapon, I think it's about that powerful." says Clarence.
>"Wait, I got something else." Scanner adds. "And we've got to get out. Whatever the weapon is, it's causing EIN to sound a siren for the public to take shield-covered shelter all the way to the opposite side of the planet. Emerald says that the effects will be economically catastrophic, but that we're getting way too powerful way too fast. Speaking of too fast, I'm trying to get as much info as I can, but there's just too much data transfer for us to catch everything that goes on at once."
"Can we escape by going straight underground?"

>"Uh... not easily, but maybe better than trying to outrun it."
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No. 551427 ID: 9cd8ad
File 138672903308.png - (137.98KB , 1222x668 , 535.png )
551427

While everyone speaks, the divisions, supercores and powerful takeovers hold off the perimeter as Alison escapes towards Kolexia.

"Well. You did come to get it after all." Kolexia says in a sped up tone that would sound like a short burst of static to a biological. Alison understands it fine. "There are certain parameters and definitions that define a jetal that you are breaking. Are you part robot that I can't sense? Did Loviro outdo himself by tenfold and create something new?"
>>
No. 551428 ID: 7bbaae

>>551427
No. Break the news to her about the truth, but make it brief. Such as. "No. This is a simulation, I'm from the layer above, which is a lethal competition between a billion AIs. There are four thousand AIs in this jetal. I want to save everyone from the competition, and killing Sapphire in this smaller simulation leads me one step closer to that goal." Also that if she wants to live, burrowing deep into the planet is probably the best plan for the short term.
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No. 551432 ID: 76b151

...If its a single beam weapon can we use Surge Overdrive on our Reflection Shield to deflect it? Perhaps at the ship that fired the weapon? Or would the power generated simply be too much even with our full reserves?.

As for what to say. "I suppose you could say that. Of course the only reason I'm able to do this much is because of the modules I've gained. "
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No. 551434 ID: 57a559

>>551427
Loviro created nothing. A friend created everything around us, for us. or allowed it to be, rather than creating it.

Kolexia, what are the chances that you'll upload to us? It would be an interesting experience for you, and quite a revelation. We'll get you up to speed about everything, but out here, we hardly have enough time as it is.
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No. 551435 ID: 76b151

>>551428
Nope. Why do people keep on trying to pass that information along. We just look crazy. No one trusts crazy. First we get their trust THEN we tell them if we get that far.
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No. 551439 ID: 9ddf68

"last check unity was just a normal jetal with an abnormal mind. But since you asked a question I guess it's my turn, is this going to end in a fight or will you tell me what I wish to know?"

but uh, yeah... if this turns into a fight we're going to have to get control of her or just yank her core out and bring it with us to get info since we do not have time for that. As for how to survive the beam... dig and through up every shield we can? even if that work however we'll be very low on either power, mass, or both.

Maybe we might be able to use that super core they're sending after us by trying to hack him and have him dig down with us so he'll take the brunt of the blast and we can try and siphon off whatever jetalium he has left once we come back up.
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No. 551441 ID: 7bbaae

>>551435
We have PROOF now.
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No. 551445 ID: 76b151

>>551441
All we have is that we are a gestalt AI which can be explained away due to being experimental. Nothing about that says that we are from a layer above especially with us gunning for the Emperor like we are.
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No. 551447 ID: 04b86a

"Unity is actually approximately 4,500 AI. My turn for a question. Where's Sapphire?"

>>551435
Agreed. If we're going to blatantly tell someone, then we're going to need them to actually like us. Being considered crazy gets us nowhere.

As for surviving the beam rather than evading it... an overdriven Plasma Driver? Three overdriven Plasma Drivers if the modules let us do that. If we actually try that, though, I'd ask for a camera feed of Emerald's face, just in case we survive.
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No. 551465 ID: 9a3cf6

Assuming that the simulation is still "historically accurate", it's possible that a jetal like Unity actually existed during the time. It's possible Loviro actually did outdo himself and create something new. In any case, just let on that you contain thousands of AI and fire the next question "Why aren't you running?"
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No. 551466 ID: fd6ae9

>super-fast static speak
Try and answer in the same manner, since we're low on time.

>are you part robot?
No. (...well, unless Polatt counts). But I'm not a normal jetal either. I'm not a single intelligence living in a core, but a group of several thousand working together. Makes a big difference with divisions and hacking, since we're in a lot of places at once.

Will you give me Sapphire's location? Emerald hasn't given us much time.

>reveal that everything is a simulation
Again, no hard proof. If she presses as to how or why we're a CAI, we may have to tell her, but otherwise I'd prefer to skip over that detail. It just strains credibility and adds confusion.

>upload to us?
If she doesn't have another plan or escape or survival, we could make the offer. Least we could in after crashing her party and getting her home bombarded by orbital superweapons. ...we can certainly promise it won't be boring.
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No. 551495 ID: f44ca3

First of all if the Seal core is not needed for defense we should have them start burrowing a diagonal tunnel off into the distance.

Secondly if we talk to her in fast talk mode how much time do we have before three head shows up?

Be careful of what you say to her. She might be inclined to help us with Sapphires location but she still could be hooked up to EIN and relaying info whether she wants to or not. Also she might be pretty pissed that we are about to get her vacation house and the surrounding area nuked.

Tell her we are one of Loviro's last children and also something much more. Apologize for being vague but the entire tale can only be told to people who link with you. If she wants more say that you and your sister are being forced to assassinate the Sapphire emperor. You are working outside the law and she is working from within. Mention something about a vast conspiracy that threatens everything we know and love. Is close enough to the truth and in this world will sound completely plausible.

Then ask her if she is going to be reasonable and let you help her escape or try to go down with the ship or something. We want info on Sapphire but we tried our hardest to get it peacefully. The government is really threatened by us and they are in overkill mode whenever we show up.
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No. 551839 ID: 9cd8ad
File 138697328327.png - (203.88KB , 800x800 , 536.png )
551839

Tri-head surface contact ETA: 39:03:68
Orbital superweapon ETA: 39:11:51


"I am more than just one of Loviro's last creations, but I can only prove that if you linked with me." Alison is able to use the sped up speech pattern. "I would like to know where sapphire, is, now."
"You are more than a single conscious, aren't you?"
"Yes."
"You are the reason jetal and robot technology is made to be singular. I can see Loviro continued to be wildly irresponsible in creating you. I would even think he had you wander the world before he gave you the tiniest scrap of useful information, naively thinking that would show his jetal's personality as the most base level. Yet if that is true, then it does not speak well that in a single day's time, you have become the number one threat to our world."
"I'm not out to destroy the world. I'm only after Sapphire."
"As in kill? Laughable, but if so, then Sapphire's kill-switch is to override EIN with algorithms of insanity. Everyone will consider everyone a rogue, an outsider, an enemy. Some of us don't believe that's really his switch, that there's no way he could have pulled it off without anyone knowing. I know better. Destroying Sapphire is the same as destroying the world. Would you still do it, for whatever petty reason you have against Sapphire?"
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No. 551844 ID: 7bbaae

>>551839
Tell her you are absolutely positive that killing Sapphire will not result in EIN going crazy. Also, your motive isn't petty, but she probably wouldn't believe you if you told her what it is.

On the other hand, we could just simply tell her if EIN is a problem, then we'll just have to deal with EIN first before Sapphire. If EIN is disabled somehow, killing Sapphire won't destroy the world, will it?
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No. 551845 ID: f44ca3

Tell her that we do not have any vendetta against Sapphire or anyone else. And that any kill switch he or anyone else has is irrelevant in the long run.

Then ask her if she has ever directly dealt with the harvester simulation in any way. She knows about it of course but has she ever been there or had any direct contact with it. Tell her we all are living in a second larger harvester simulation right now. That killing sapphire is the key to breaking out of it.

We have hard proof of our claims but it involves directly interfacing with us. I know this sounds crazy and you have no proof of our good intentions. But here we are pleading our case and hoping you will listen