Tavern 2014/12/30(Tue)01:28 No. 616750 ID: 189a54
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"Switching to public for a sec, I'll try to--"

"*ksshk* KSSSSSSHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH--*ksshk*"

"They got static up, no chance of talking then.... Raise altitude and form up, we'll go for the engines. Does anyone have torpedoes, or anything that can get through the shields?"

"I hagve fougr breagkers!"

"We get solid hits with those things and even this big fucker's engines will burst easy."

"Gunship, keep pounding this thing, concentrate on breaking through to their weapons!"

"Of course!"

"Their fighters are coming up dude, we'll need someone keeping them off whoever goes for the engines! Who do you want intercepting them?"

You and your pal should hold them off and let the bugs hammer the ship.

Whoever has the missiles go with a blue wingman to hit the ship, the other blue fighter should engage the incoming fighters with the other two greens.

1/2 Tavern 2014/12/30(Tue)05:27 No. 616761 ID: 189a54
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"Mac, you and me could take them, right?"

"Your ship's got a couple busters in them, you should keep for the engines. Leave it to me and the bugs man, go on with breaker bug here!"

"Alright then, keep them busy!"

"Kereshkamen, ekye-val!"

"Ekye-val!"
"Ekye-val!"

2/2 Tavern 2014/12/30(Tue)05:30 No. 616762 ID: 189a54
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"Alright, let's--geeze!"

"Augh, aighr defegnse! Howgh we ghet thgrough?!"

Fire a missile or something to let the turrets go for it, and you go for a strafing run and destroy them.

1/3 Tavern 2014/12/30(Tue)13:17 No. 616846 ID: 189a54
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"I'm firing my distractor, we'll go in while the fire's off!"

"Ekye-val, khyumen!"

2/3 Tavern 2014/12/30(Tue)13:19 No. 616847 ID: 189a54
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"They're back already--! Busters away!"

"Breagkers--oof!"

3/3 Tavern 2014/12/30(Tue)13:27 No. 616850 ID: 189a54
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"You alright?"

"Yeh, yeh...oughnly ligttle higt."

"My shots hurt the turrets, but the engines are still intact. Your turn!"

"Yeh, breagkers awaygh--huh?"

"What is it?"

"Augh no...weng dagmage hurgt weagpons sygstegms!"

"How can we destroy the engines without the breakers? Our main cannons alone can't cause nearly enough damage to them!"

If you can't directly destroy an engine then find a secondary way, like setting it on fire or go straight for the "cockpit".

tell em to set their ship on a suicide burn with weapons hot and eject, you'll scoop em up.

>>616855
NO

Can you land next to the engines and overload or short-circuit an engine? If not, fire anything you got at that thing!

You think that red tube might do something?!

Tavern 2014/12/31(Wed)13:25 No. 617070 ID: 189a54
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"The problem with Diamante's Fingers, sirs, there isn't a secondary way! Argh, just hit it with whatever we have!"

"Gelne!"

"I think this place works a bit like space, having him jump out may not work too well--"

"Waight, wat?"

"What, the tube? It's just a hunk of Plate, we left that back where we found it!"

"*kssssshhhh*lp me! F*kssshh* get these guys off me or I'm--the fuck are you guys doing back here, the engines aren't done yet?! Since you're not doing jack-shit back here could you get these two off my tail for me?"

Help him out, I guess that the objective with the engines has been postponed.

1/4 Tavern 2014/12/31(Wed)14:09 No. 617085 ID: 189a54
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"Don't worry, we got you--whoa."

"You feel it too, yeah? No games man, smoke them while you got the jump!"

2/4 Tavern 2014/12/31(Wed)14:17 No. 617087 ID: 189a54
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"Kilt!"

"Got this one, too. They were tough, huh?"

"You're fuckin' crazy but you still got good feel, man. Aces, all four of them, it was hell trying to fight them head-on like that."

"Looks like the other bugs're cleaning the last one up now."

"Now if only the fuckin' engines were down like they were supposed to be!"

"The bug got hit by some turret fire going in, his weapons malfunctioned."

"Perekhne, I'm faiglugre..."

"Not your fault, kereshkamen. But now how're we supposed to--?"

"What is it?"

"What is Yakovmehen doing?"

3/4 Tavern 2014/12/31(Wed)14:22 No. 617088 ID: 189a54
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"Nogt syure, higs shieglds agre dowgn. Whagt is...?"

"He's not really--!! Quick, climb!"

4/4 Tavern 2014/12/31(Wed)14:35 No. 617091 ID: 189a54
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"Holy--!"
"Geregeresh!"

"Maniac fired his shield at the ship! He could've blown that Flying Hourglass apart trying that, not to mention he almost fuckin' vaporized us!"

"Incoming audio on one of the open channels, patching it through to command--"

"God, everyone in this place is insane!"

"*ksshk* For the condemned our final words hold no length. We've discussed and our words are as such. 'Well played. Now end us.' Respond."

GG

"how do we leave the void?"

If their terms of surrender are "Noble death," then simply ask them how they want to go.

1/4 Tavern 2015/01/01(Thu)14:12 No. 617306 ID: 189a54
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"How do you want to go?"

"Quickly. Decisively. Respond."

"We can do that. But first, how do we leave this void?"

"For the condemned, there is no way out. For the hunters, there is the Door. Respond."

"And where is that?"

"For the condemned? Through the fingers of death. End."

"So I'm guessing you won't want to explain just what the fuck that even means, or anything--"

"KSSSSSSHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH"

"Wonderful. God, there's not a sane person in this place!"

"Alright. If that's all, then..."

2/4 Tavern 2015/01/01(Thu)14:16 No. 617307 ID: 189a54
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"GG."

"Hang on, what is this?"

3/4 Tavern 2015/01/01(Thu)14:18 No. 617309 ID: 189a54
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"This blast is too large, everyone eva*KSHHHHHH*"

Command, what's--

We'll see you in the other side.

4/4 Tavern 2015/01/01(Thu)14:23 No. 617311 ID: 189a54
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"Are you alright out there?! Kereshkamen, rekte!"

"......."

"Gelene, gelegehe gelene..."

"Oh fuck, my eyes! It's all white dude, I'm fuckin' blind!!"

"Kekren, kehke-ke ereh?!"

"Er, Command? What exactly's happened? Please advise?"

Hmmmm maybe the explosion caused a hole in the area and that is a reversed universe, like a mirror universe where everything has been switched. The humans switched roles with the bugs and vica versa.

Oh I get it. The only way out is to battle something, be a 'Hunter', Being hunted is losing, winning opens a 'door.' Which is that explosion. You escape by killing basically. My guess is someone is playing a game with you.

Most likely there are several of these places and that is going to have to happen again. You made the right choice by allying yourselves with the bugs. You have more firepower together and can hunt more successfully.

this is probably level 2.

You've still got the note, right? Maybe the bugs can translate it?

It might actually be the 'rules' of this game. The pin could actually be some sort of 'participation' thing. I don't think it's too likely though. Might be a 'seal' denoting who sent the message.


Also judging by mysterious words person, you're one of the 'condemned'. Or that they thought you were. Or that they were. In any case it was stupidly vague.

Status report from all ships, NOW!

Tavern 2015/01/03(Sat)06:54 No. 617682 ID: 189a54
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"Status report from all ships, now!"

"The Hourglass didn't take much damage, everything looks alright."

"My eyes are on fire but my ship's fine...."

"My heagvy weagpons agre stigll brogken."

"Uks akre okay, yeks?"

"Huh? Yeks, yeks..."

"Command's come up with their best analysis, and they're thinking that someone's playing a game with us."

"I'm not quite sure who 'command' is, but they're correct. Bah, I should've guessed when I saw that pin!"

"We found a note with the pin. Mac can send an image, maybe you can translate?"

"I doubt I have to see it to know what it says. It's in a jumble of languages, yes?"

"I guess? I dunno what any of it says."

"'Beware: Your crimes are recorded. You fly our fields alone. If you are reading this, you are condemned. We are the hunters and your lives are our game. You will never see the Door.' That's what it reads, I'm certain of it. We're in the void of the Phoenix Fleet, kereshkamen."

"Darn, I was hoping it might be the rules to whatever this is."

"There's no written rules, but I'm well aware of how this works. The Phoenix Fleet is spread through multiple...'layers' of this void, I'd guess would be the way to describe it."

"So this is like level two?"

"Er, yes, something like that. Each 'level' holds a stronger presence of the Fleet than the last, leading to the Door, their flagship. The only way to proceed, as we just experienced, is to destroy the Fleet's main ship in the level, which will open a gate to the next one. To escape this, we'll have to somehow manage to destroy the entire Phoenix Fleet, level by level."

"We're a gunship and four fighters following a lunatic, how the fuck can we do that--"

"Shhhhhh!"

"We can't, by ourselves. If we're to reach the Door, we'll have to locate and ally ourselves with as many others of the condemned to have gotten to each level before the Phoenix Fleet's ships find and destroy them."

"And how're we gonna do that? If this is like the last place, it's enormous. It took months just to bump into you!"

"It will be a time sink, I'll admit, but setting up some sort of patrolling system and simply searching for as long as necessary is the only way we'll have a chance of getting out of here. Perhaps your Command has some ideas of how to proceed?"

"I'll ask them. What do you think, sirs, orders on what to do from here?"

pyramid to cylinder. each small fighter points in one of five directions, as far apart from the others as you can, and move away from the station while moving in an overly dramatic barrel roll that is several hundred meters wide.

Idea send some sort of long range message out in all frequencies in human, bug, or any race language.

Try to figure out the topology of this layer of the void. Do some experiments and figure out how space works here.

Use your computers to draw a multi-dimensional simulation of the void, and then calculate the statistically best method of finding other ships, as well as communication pings and escape routes.

If the layer is in realspace (normal), just use a normal searching heuristic.

>>617689
...Did you forget that we don't possess long range radios? Except for the one geared to talk only to Command 4, that is.

1/3 Tavern 2015/01/04(Sun)12:18 No. 617927 ID: 189a54
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"How about a long range--oh wait, our long-range radio still doesn't work...Yakov, can you use your ship's computers to find out more about this layer of the void? Maybe run some simulations or something?"

"I'm sorry, but our Hourglass doesn't have anything capable of doing that. Our higher-ups had those sorts of computers taken out for more guns."

"Darn. Looks like there's nothing to it but spreading out, then.... Everyone pick a different direction, I guess, we'll just have to each search until we find something. Keep rolling wide, try to cover as much area as possible."

"Oh, boy, more flying in a strai*kshhh* wonder how l*ksshhhh* time, fou*kssshhhhhhh*"

2/3 Tavern 2015/01/04(Sun)12:27 No. 617932 ID: 189a54
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"Looks like it's just you and me for a bit, sirs.

"Uff, maybe I should've suggested we rested for a bit before we took off again. That fight drained me a little more than I'd thought...I'm fine though, there'll be plenty of time to sleep when we're out of this mess. But how long will it take, you think? It was months before that action happened, do you think the other layers are larger than the previous ones or smaller?

"My apologies, sirs, I'm just rambling some. I think I'm a little more tired than I'm letting myself

3/3 Tavern 2015/01/04(Sun)12:34 No. 617939 ID: 189a54
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"*kssshhhhh*, pilot! Wh*ksshhhh*d what is your detachment? Respond, dammit!"

"Waugh!!! What? Huh?"

"Asleep on the fly, were you? Damned amateurs.... For the fifth time,pilot, I'll require your name and your detachment. Be quick about it, boy, this is Coalition-infested space and we're trying to be out of here as soon as possible!"

tell him your info, but not about us. they probably wont believe that you could contact us when their larger more powerful systems couldn't. careful not to lose your bearings, you have been flying straight since you slept so a perfect 180 should take us back.

also, "negative on the coalition infestation, they did not come here willingly, this is Phoenix Fleet territory."

Could be they're calling Phoenix Fleet the Coalition. Tell them your name and rank, and the task you're on, Hafner.

Tavern 2015/01/05(Mon)17:12 No. 618380 ID: 189a54
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"This is flight leader Hafner of Flight Two-Three, 'Devil Dogs,' sir!"

"You speak to Commander Ornel of Rifles 3. You've an awful dated name and an awful dated rank, pilot. What detachment is your flight with?"

"Combat Fleet A, sir, from Home!"

"Ah, that makes more sense, then. But I thought the legacy fleets were all still stationed near Home? How have you gotten out here, pilot?"

"I'm not entirely sure how we entered this place, sir. Me and Mac, we've been stuck in the first layer of this place for months. We only got here with the help of some bugs, you see, and we were trying to get out together. If the bugs're this Coalition you're talking about, they're actually in the same place as us, you know--this is Phoenix Fleet territory, not theirs."

"I, ah......I see."

"I was flying this way as a scout for them, actually; in fact, if I could turn around and tell my friends, we could link up and--"

"Flight leader Hafner, would you care to land aboard the Cannonade?"

"If I could have a bit sir, just to head back and tell--"

"I insist, pilot."

"Oh. Oh.... Command, what do I--!"

"Pardon?"

"Er, just a moment, sir...."

flee, they seem to hate bugs. they are gonna want to interrogate you.

Hrrrm...Let's do it.
I'm reading these guys as having four large ships and one mega-carrier in the center, and you're only a dinky fighter.
Thus, even if it comes down to chosing between these guys and the bugs, these guys win in terms of firepower and might.

They might be wanting to interrogate you for using OUTDATED information. Or at least outdated to them. If someone can mess with space, surely they can mess with time.

In any case, you're way outnumbered and outgunned. Especially since you're alone now.

I guess you could ask about who is the coalition before you land. To get better knowledge of what's going on.

Hold on, just thought of something. How believable would it be if you claim that the date on your ship computers went on the fritz at some point? And use that as an excuse to ask what the date is. Specifically the year, as well. Add in the long distance radio being broken, and you might be able to get what year these people think it is.

And if it's way off...

Like before, add them to your squad but don't trust them any farther than you can throw them.

You still need a larger army, so request that you keep searching for the end. Explain your goals and how obtaining the largest army (and honor-bound meatshields, to keep them entertained at the idea of bug front-soldiers in a human army) is vital to victory against these tournament-obsessed psychopath bosses.

Tavern 2015/01/06(Tue)15:19 No. 618543 ID: 189a54
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"Uh, before I land...I think my ship's calendar is on the fritz--"

"Classic. This unit supposes your long range radio is shot too, yes? Maybe your map chips, as well?"

"Map chips? I don't--"

"--ARM: HANGAR DEFENSE 1, 2."

"Wait, wait--!"

"You Coalition bastards are getting dumber and dumber. Hero, burn him."

"With pleasure."

"Hang on a second! What is--"

"--FIRE."

"Command, I--!!"

You okay there?

god dammit, this is why i said run, i knew they would be enormous assholes. no matter what you try to run from assholes, cause all you will get by trying to work with them is a knife in the back.