Humanity has spread out into a massive sprawling empire throughout the galaxy. The edges of the sprawl remain poorly guarded and sparsely settled after all humanity throughout a thousand stars has always been alone save for their own creations which once waged war against them. This is no longer true now an unknown force has begun to attack sector 63 and other sectors and it is up to poorly supplied and desperate sailors to hold them back.


You are the Admiral of the naval fleet of sector 63 one of nearly a 100 rimward sectors on the edge of settled human space. The war for that is what this truly is now apparently has seen you as the last of the remaining Rimward commands in the area. The loss of the other commands has seen a significant number of refugees swarm your bastion in the form of the sector command of Cartha, the increased strain on the industrial world's food supply has seen you plan and launch a large scale raid on the recently lost world of New Garcia.


The raid has gone fantastic so far and as the last of the food is being stuffed into the few remaining empty places aboard one of the light cruisers, an enemy counterattack makes itself known. The corvettes left on a picket around one of the jump points just make it clear as an enemy battleship exits the swirling green vortex and then another and another. This continues on for several minutes as a total of 10 enemy battleships, 3 battlecruisers, 22 heavy cruisers,8 light cruisers and to your surprise 8 seemingly rare bird corvettes.


The enemy has yet to shake out into a proper formation but should do so very quickly, you have at your disposal. The Essex, 2 light cruisers, 7 destroyers and 9 corvettes 5 old 6 modern, a much smaller force than the enemies and you will need to hold on long enough for the army division to remount their transports and then fight your way to the jump point

>Be defensive around the planet
>take the fight to the enemy

sorry about no new thread link in the last one I literally bumped it off myself

Past Threads: https://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/qstarchive.html?tags=BrinkQM

>>6232365 (OP)
>take the fight to the enemy
Harass them with small craft, keep ships back. Our goal is to just slow them down

>>6232365 (OP)
>>take the fight to the enemy
we haven't fought defensively yet other than the boneyard fight, which didn't go the way we wanted it to, so let's be aggressive.

>>6232365 (OP)
Their lasers give them a distance advantage, so unless we can hide behind the planet to force them into a shorter-range engagement, it would make sense to charge them and try to close the distance.

>>6232759
yeah maybe use the planet itself to lure them in to where we can charge them?

>>6232365 (OP)
>>take the fight to the enemy

Rolled 63 (1d100)

>take the fight to the enemy

alright could I get a 1d100 best of three for for your formation, and im rolling for theirs

Rolled 82 (1d100)

>>6232955
Delay and harass.

Rolled 33 (1d100)

>>6232955

Rolled 99 (1d100)

>>6232955
Bam

You figure there aren't many crews in the galaxy who have more practice at forming up into a good picket line then your men and you are sure they wouldn't have the breadth of combat experience your crews do. The formation is a simple one, a light cruiser on each end of a line abreast the destroyers spread out with a corvette or two between them. They do spread the formation a bit wider this time due to the sheer number of enemy vessels, intent on making each of their torpedoes count for more disruption than normal to the enemy formation to slow them down.


The enemy meanwhile shakes out into two separate line astern five battleships each with the heavy cruisers, light cruisers and the corvette splitting up evenly around them in a very basic 360 screen around them. The battlecruisers meanwhile are sailing to the extreme left of the enemy formation and seem intent to flank your own line.


Your CAG officer reports all 24 of the Essex's strike group are launched and ready to fly to their target, the question is do they focus on the battleships or the battlecruisers.

>Battleship formation
>Battlecruisers

>>6233680
>>Battlecruisers
I feel like we should disrupt whatever plan they have for the battle cruisers while the rest of our ships focus on the main line

>>6233680
>Battlecruisers
Just because they're faster and have no escort cover

holy shit. this is back? YEAH BOY!

>>6233680
>>Battlecruisers

Rolled 85, 23 = 108 (2d100)

>Battlecruisers

The army report they are halfway done with loading their force and should be done soon

Could I get 2d100 best of three first is for the strike group the second for the picket line


My rolls are first for the battlecruisers second for the battleships

Rolled 4, 56 = 60 (2d100)

>>6234278
This does not bode well

Rolled 35, 89 = 124 (2d100)

>>6234278

>>6234278
Please be merciful

>>6234333
>>6234278
It atemy roll
Let's hope this works

Rolled 40, 51 = 91 (2d100)

>>6234334
I put "roll" instead of "dice" lol

>>6234335
I guess i should have continued to fail at typing instead of failing at rolling

Rough rolls for the strike group

No post tonight due to work

Aight, all caught up, I was actually i nthe first thread before my internet died......

I am liking this. Its got a feel between Warlordnob's SW quest and Thunderheads Halo WP.

All we need now is some illustrative tactical maps and we're set.

Rolled 89, 73 = 162 (2d100)

The picket line push as fast and steady as possible at the enemy battleships lines until they begin to enter the extreme range of the enemy's big laser turrets which begin to flash in the general direction of your ships. Your pickets don't even really react to the lasers as they flash by the ships communications, still calm and collected as hard won professionalism takes over. The first wave of torpedoes fire in a wide spread at each of the two battleship lines intending to more slow the formations down than actually do damage.


While your sailors calmly fire at ships that outnumber them, your strike group act more like hot shot stun pilots than actual aviators racing each other to see who gets to claim a kill on the battlecruisers and add the fast capital ships to the wall of the canteen. They are not at all prepared for a change the enemy battlecruisers have made as dozens of much smaller laser turrets begin to fire at them the sheer volume of fire making up for the clearly manually aimed guns when one of your strike craft is hit and flashes out of existence as the crafts high density battery detonates. Its despite the loss of one of their own the strike group loose their fish and turn back for the essex having taken the first casualty of the air group.

Could I get 2d100 for torpedo hits

First roll is for the picket line second for the strike group who have -10 because of casualties

Rolled 79, 72 = 151 (2d100)

>>6235759
This is going poorly, we need a turnaround.

Rolled 38, 99 = 137 (2d100)

>>6235759

Rolled 65, 12 = 77 (2d100)

>>6235759
Wasn't sure if you wanted 3 rolls of 2d100 but here is mine just in case.

>>6235787
ah yes I did just forgot to put the best of three on there

Rolls look very good for the strike group and the pickets do ok its not like they were aiming to really kill anything

The strike group don't let the battlecruisers off easily for the death of their comrade and each of the three capital ships is targeted by multiple of the craft. There isnt a single miss among the swath of torpedoes fired at them, each of the smaller devices slamming into the hulls of the ships blowing gigantic holes into them. Two of the battlecruisers simply cease to really exist as they detonate in blinding and you swear bigger flashes then usual while the last one begins a rapid tail of tip spin. The usual cheers and jubilation are missing from the strike groups comms as they fly back and land on the essex.

The torpedoes from the picket line don't do anywhere near as well in terms of hits but they still force both of the battleship lines to break up their formations for a time avoiding the torpedo spreads. There is only one real hit with one of the heavy cruisers catching a fish right in its nose causing the ship to begin to trail behind the rest of the formation.


As the picket line draws out of enemy laser range, you're informed that the army has finished embarking, and they along with the rest of the freighters are ready to begin heading to the jump point with the Essex. You do so begging to pull away from the planet even as your strike group begins to rearm in the hangar. The picket line requests to know if they should engage in gun duels with the two remaining enemy formations to buy more time or to fall back alongside you.

>Keep skirmishing
>fall back

>>6236441
Have we finished off all of the big ships that are trying to escape yet? What is the status of the other smaller ship flotilla trying to get away?

Can we do a bombing run over the planet to deny them our infrastructure, and hopefully kill some birds hiding in the trees?

If there are still ships left its best to finish them off now. A damaged ship can be put back into full service. A destroyed one, not so much.

>>6236508
>Have we finished off all of the big ships that are trying to escape yet?

You are being chased by a much larger fleet made up of nearly two dozen capital ships so no


>Can we do a bombing run over the planet to deny them our infrastructure, and hopefully kill some birds hiding in the trees?

Your strike group does actually have capability for ground strikes actually however by the time they switch over to regular bombs from their anti ship torpedoes you should be at the jump point

>>6236509
Okay seems I forgot or mixed up the earlier ships with the new ones that arrived.

Well now why do we have to switch to bombs when we can just fire our coil/rail guns or shoot them with the torpedos?

What happened to all the enemy shuttle transports that where fleeing? Did we capture and board them? Force them to follow us at gunpoint?

>>6236441
>fall back
Lets not push our luck here. We can sink a few and maybe damage bunch more but they can replace even their biggest and heaviest losses, we probably won't be able to even replace our corvettes.

If possible do a drive by shooting of the planet and its settlement and position of enemies the infantry made contact with. Not switching to bombs, just use whatever can be fired right now.

>>6236441
>fall back

>>6236441
>>fall back
Yeah we got what we came for, and we need to leave with it because people are depending on us.

>>6236441
>>fall back

Rolled 93 (1d100)

>fall back

alright could I get a 1d100 best of three please

Rolled 27 (1d100)

>>6237032

Rolled 66 (1d100)

>>6237032
>that roll
Please, at least let me get close to it...

Rolled 13 (1d100)

>>6237032
God, please.

Rolled 68 (1d100)

>>6237098
Disappointing.

Lets see if I can still roll gud anyways.

>>6237032
oh no

Rolled 2 (1d2)

rough rolls rolling to see whether the freighters or the combat ships are hit

1 for freighters
2 for combat vessels

>>6237135
at least the ships that got hit are the ones that can take it better.

had a work thing come up no post tonight

You order the fleet to fall back alongside your formation of freighters not wanting to risk more damage or even the destruction of one of the handful of ships you have. The two formations give chase as your force falls back toward the jump point, the occasional long range shot flashing past one of your ships. Its just as you reach the jump point and begin to activate a lucky shot from one of the battleships hits one of your destroyers a glancing blow but even still it's enough to send the ship spinning until her captain can arrest the wild spin. The destroyer rejoins formation still combat capable but slowed by her damage.

A destroyer damaged but the food loaded and ready its just as your about to order the fleet t jump the CAG officer informs you the strike group are ready to launch again. You could leave or you could try for another strike to cripple this fleet and stop them from following you at the risk of taking more damage or the loss of another strike craft

>leave
>go for another strike

>>6238104
>leave
Whatever damage we can deal they can repair, while our small craft is precious

>>6238104
>leave
Set up mines and a recon bouy on the other side, we need to get ready for retaliation.

>>6238104
>leave

Why aren't we dropping hidden buoys in every system we visit? This should be standard from now on, Task a ship to drop a hidden buoy or two in every system we visit.

>>6238104
>leave

>>6238104
>>leave
We need to feed the population

It's tempting to do even more damage to the force chasing you however, but you haven't lasted this long taking risks like that, you need every ship and strike craft to hold for god knows how long until the rest of the fleet arrive. The order is given and your fleet makes its way into jump space lasers flashing around you as they enter the ethereal green tear in reality.

The damage destroyer reports she's suffered severe damage to her engineering space and one of her torpedo launchers is simply gone, sheared off by the laser. In a much better report the army suffered zero casualties during the entire operation and are fairly sure youve captured enough food for a better part of a year for the current population of Cartha.

>>6238619
>one of her torpedo launchers is simply gone, sheared off by the laser.
You know, that went about as well as losing a torpedo give could have possibly gone, since the torp didn't detonate in our destroyer.

Your fleet makes its way back to Cartha over the course of a week laying signal buoys during each of the five stops you make for maintenance or simply rest for your crews. Its during one of the last jumps you receive several blips from various sensor buoys you've left behind during your other actions. They show large concentrations of enemy ships moving around some in the direction of cartha others in the direction of your middle sector counterpart in sector 63

Happy mothers day Anons call your mom if you talk to her

>>6239327
Do we have any way to let our middle sector know they're about to get rolled?
We better do what we can to prepare.

>>6239351
You able to send one way messages to them although pretty much all communications go to them with only a handful of notable things come back to you so for all you know they aren't receiving most of your messages

We should find the smallest isolated concentration and ambush them, hopefully leading more of the forces on a wild goose chase or mislead them to our home base.

If the works we can plan a larger trap for their fleet.

You finally arrive back in Cartha thankfully no enemy attack had taken place during your absence the freighters and the damaged destroyer are sent to the planet the freighters to offload and the destroyer for repairs. There is good news however as one of the converted light cruisers you ordered is done and can join combat operations. There are several things that have come to your attention on returning to Cartha. The heavy movements of the enemy are troubling and may need your intervention. The Kestrel Light carrier that you have been given should soon be entering your sector and may need a significant escort to reach your capital.

>Deal with the scattered fleets
>go escort the Light Carrier
>stay in Cartha

>>6239997
>go escort the Light Carrier
Grab ship, deal with fleets, go on offensive skrimishes.

>>6239997
>go escort the Light Carrier

>>6239997
>>go escort the Light Carrier
Get our new toy

The carrier is going to need an escort through the sector with the amount of movement currently happening so you plan to set out within the next day to go pick it up. You're down a destroyer and up a light cruiser but you may not need your whole force for the escort. You figure you could leave behind half of your fleet here at Cartha and be fine. While you mull over that you receive the preliminary reports from the intelligence are on their efforts to communicate with your captured birds. Things have gone slowly with most communication being via pointing and shouting in each other's languages but the spooks have figured out the birds probably cant speak English with the way their mouths are shaped but humans should be able to make most of the sounds in their language. They guess without the use of one of the shackled AIs back in more settled space it should take around a month to learn how to understand and maybe speak some of their language.

>take your full fleet
>take half the fleet

Full current fleet comp

1 Tooucan class light carrier
3 Light cruisers
8 Destroyers
5 old corvettes 6 new

>>6240670
>>take half the fleet

>>6240670
>>take half the fleet
if shits brewin we should have some reserves.

>>6240670
>take your full fleet

Send half the fleet to die?

We should be full on total mobilization of every able bodied person to make weapons, rockets and drones for space and planetary defense.

If we can produce more mines, we should do so and start laying them. If we have any then grab a bunch so we can leave them behind to hamper anyone chasing us preventing them from having freedom of movement.

>>6240670
>take your full fleet
We keep meeting fleets of tens of capital ships at a time. I wouldn't want to meet one with half a fleet.

>>6240860
Those fleets are enroute to another sector, with more scattered in small chunks across ours, our likely hood of encountering a full squadron is low, but the chance of them attacking Cartha is higher.

>>6240670
>take half the fleet
The other half can have a minor refit. The optempo is probably putting a strain on the fleet's material condition.
Also, as soon as new pilots can be trained, some of the veteran pilots should be detached as instructors.

>take half the fleet

Alright taking half the fleet

Could I get 3d100 best of three please

First is for how well resupply goes, Second for crew morale (You get a +25 to this one ebcuase folks really like you) and last one is for going ons in the sector

Rolled 33, 76, 75 = 184 (3d100)

>>6241215

Rolled 36, 73, 41 = 150 (3d100)

>>6241215

Rolled 76, 14, 30 = 120 (3d100)

>>6241215
big haul shippin

No post tonight having some PC hardware issues I have to trouble shoot

>>6242017
I hope they're not too expensive problems

>>6242017
What sort? Do you use Windows 11?

When training at the Naval aviation school in Alpha Centauri you were once told a fleet will never sail on time on short notice and until today you believed that to be true. Your fine crews prove you wrong though easily refilling the fleet's stores and getting ready for the trip to the edge of the sector for the Light carrier. The force you're taking with you will be made up of the 6 new corvettes, one of the light cruisers, the essex and 4 destroyers, the ones in the best condition specifically.


You were also warned in your early years as an officer that you had to be careful of fatigue among your ships crews. Your men however just keep going without complaint and the loss of one of the strike pilots has really pushed the crews from their cold professionalism to a simmering rage that makes them eager to go kill more birds. The signal bursts from the sensor buoys throughout the sector continue to show the enemy heading deeper into human space


>>6242056
>>6242465
thankfully no to either, I was replacing my old dying gpu with a newer more powerful one however I discovered my motherboard being a circa 2016 era board is not wide enough for a modern gpu, so I spent most of yesterday instead of a quick gpu swap, swapping everything to a new motherboard

>>6242527
Ah that's not so bad, at least you didn't mess up like me and put a cable connected to the power supply into the wrong slot and fried the motherboard.

>>6242527
Our next mission after we grab the reinforcements should be deploying more buoys around the sector or see if we can make and deploy proper stealth spy satellites later on. We don't have to put them everywhere, just roughly around Cartha and in strategic choke points or crossroads, places that likely see frequent travel.

>>6242527
lol I have an rtx 4070 in a mobo from 2014
the fun part is the oblivion remaster telling me I can't run it on a i7-4790K (hyperthreading; has 4 physical cores and 4 logical cores) and 8GB of ram (16GB of VRAM) and then having the game run just fine on high settings.

>>6242827
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YPN0qhSyWy8

Your fleet form up together at the jump point, the commander of the fortress wishing you well as you begin your trip to the rendezvous with the light carrier. This is the first real chance you've gotten to see what amounts to the back line of your sector and what you see is bad. It seems like nearly every system you stop in to drop a sensor buoy has a wreck of a civilian ship or a planet where a smaller colony was at one point. Its not a complete slaughter of course you do also find the occasional destroyed enemy ship where a pirate, mercenary or even armed merchant had fought back.

could I have a 1d100 best of three please?

>>6242827
Thank you todd very well made game

Rolled 83 (1d100)

>>6243059

Rolled 6 (1d100)

>>6243059

Rolled 8 (1d100)

>>6243059
Rolling

Rolled 27 (1d100)

>>6243059
I suppose we could do a little search and rescue. If there's anything left to rescue.

You enter the designated system for your rendezvous with the kestrel. The system you find appears to be a silent and dead system, a pair of gas giants and a single small exo planet being the only real entities of note. The bridge of essex is silent for several long moments as they stare out into the barren system the ship you had come to pick up nowhere to be seen. The kestrel class is fast; it should have beat you here by several days and you begin to wonder if the ship had been picked off by the enemy before it had gotten here.

You're about to order the fleet deeper into the system to look for debris when a shape slowly rises out of the upper atmosphere of the larger of the two gas giants. The shapes rises and rises until its clear to you its the Kestrel class light carrier; her captain must have hide the ship in the gas giant to avoid detection while they waited.

The ship contacts the Essex not long after and you get to know the newest addition to your fleet, the Vegas as it was named, had rolled out of dry dock in Alpha Centuari only a scant 10 years ago making it the youngest of any of your ships. Her captain is like his ship, young barely 25 Aaron Muller and he seems very eager to, as he says, go out and kill some aliens. She brought with her 12 strike craft with pilots as well. The captain even manages to tell you of the going ons of the rest of local sectors.


The news is grim Sector 62 like you had thought is fully gone, its fleet destroyed outright in battle, sector 64s fleet was halved and retreated to his mid rim counterpart. The sector to your own rear midrim 63 is holding the line but just barely and reinforcements from the inner sphere already have begun to flood into the sector. The birds seem to have hit nearly a full dozen sectors with the center of the enemy effort being directed seemingly on Sector 62, your direct neighbor. Your new ship in tow you could return directly to Cartha or go destroy some of the enemy groups that are passing through your sector to the next.

>Head back to Cartha
>Go hunting

>>6244510
>Go hunting
Let's play intercept for our brothers at 63.

>>6244510
>Go hunting

I want to scout Sector 62.

Is it possible to send a drone out there, or have a custom made spy drone sent on a one way trip out there?

>>6244588
Most all machines work under very basic software if at all a drone could be programmed to travel in a straight line and record but not actively detect anything, AI of any sort are a big cultural hang up for humanity

>>6244510
>>Go hunting
If we don't go hunting and stay in Cartha, the birds will eventually find us. If we keep them busy sending QRF fleets out to random systems to stare at smoldering wreckage, they're less likely to get a fix on us.

>>6244606
Double that if we pop out at random and tactically or militarily nonsense locations.

>>6244598
I assumed there are some hangups about full blown AI, but not sure to what extent and how far one can go before its forbidden.

well more advanced scripted programming can have predetermine conditions for action. It really depends on how good our programmers are.

But that more or less if what I want done. Maybe not a straight line pointing back to Cartha, maybe a path pointing back to sector 62.

>>6244510
>>Go hunting

>Go hunting

alright could I get a 1d100 best of three please

Rolled 65 (1d100)

>>6245134

Rolled 74 (1d100)

>>6245134
I really shouldn't, but...

>>6244611
Yeah it's basically also recon by fire. We might find something interesting of we look ourselves instead of using beacons. Also, we have to get the Vegas up to speed with our tactics of close-in brawling and extreme aggression as a way of offsetting the range advntage of birb lasers.

Rolled 100 (1d100)

>>6245134

>>6245256
Hot DAMN, we got a side of biscuits and gravy with this roll.

Are we allowed to bank crit rolls?

>>6245612
I have in the past so sure why not

Would you like to bank this crit for some other horrible occasion?

>yes
>No

Quest fun fact when I bank crits I tend to write them down on a post it note at work this has confused coworkers in the past and my boss probably thinks Crit is some term for our in house logistics software

>>6245640
>>yes
>boss thinks
Based

>>6245640
>yes

No post today however please do vote on keeping the crit or not

>>6245640
>yes
That's a cool fact.

>>6245640
>Quest fun fact
I was gonna say maybe no, but now I must say YES!
POST MOAR NOTES AT WORK!

you must also put in notes like 69 Nice! 88 Kanye West, 33 Masoons, 9+11 Towers, 45 ACP, and 47 AK
For teh LuLzs

>>6245790
Oh and 40K War Ham'ers.

>>6245640
yeah let's bank it.
we've had a few "everything almost goes spectacularly wrong" moments so far and we might have another.

There is a breadth of targets to pick from heading through your sector to the next, some are massive formations of capital ships, others small patrols made up of a few cruisers and destroyers. The one you eventually decide to ambush is an odd one, made up of a dozen warships and about 30 what you think are transports. It should pass by you quite soon so an ambush is more than possible so you head to a good system to ambush them in. Its a textbook location for an ambush two jump points the one they should exit from and the one you plan to use as your own route of retreat if things go bad, there's even a small planetoid to hide both of the carriers behind your men set up the picket line much smaller than normal is near the jump point with the strike group ready to launch once the enemy arrives the question is do you want to focus on the transports or the warships?

>focus the warships
>focus the transports

>>6246189
>>focus the warships
They are focusing military power on our allies. The main priority is to reduce total enemy firepwoer that can be focused on any given sector. Focus the ships and we can prevent them from breaking through defenses as strongly as they otherwise would. Transports are likely logistics, but a fleet of sufficient size will still get too much damage done regardless of logistical issues down the line.

>>6246189
>>focus the warships

>>6246189
>focus the warships
take out the warships, then decide what we want to do with the transports.

>>6246189
>focus the warships

>>6246189
>focus the transports
Death to the bird flu colonizers!

Rolled 18 (1d100)

>focus the warships

alright 1d100 best of three please

Rolled 96 (1d100)

>>6246741
Like ducks in a barrel.

>>6246745
I ain't rollin after that. That's a whole 96.

Rolled 41 (1d100)

>>6246741

I will

Rolled 28 (1d100)

>>6246741

>>6246823
same

>>6246823
It is the superior position to be anyways.

>This is getting out of hand. Now there are two of them!
>t. birds

Your friends behind you can take out and the transports that do escape with ease if you take out the warships and that's what you plan to do. The wait is only one of a few hours and the enemy make their appearance 2 battleships 5 heavy cruisers and 5 light cruisers escorting 33 transports. Your picket line begins to push toward the enemy formation which at best resembles a blob hoping to hit them before they form up. The line gets closer and closer and closer still and yet the enemy doesnt react and just goes about the business of what looks like maintenance between jumps. Your entire bridge crew are honestly in shock as they watch the picket line sail right within optimal torpedo range without any enemy response the strike groups of the Essex and the Vegas following shortly behind

Could I get 3d100 best of three and the birds dont even get a roll to respond

>>6247286
Surprise, motherfucker!

Rolled 26, 27, 19 = 72 (3d100)

>>6247287

Rolled 34, 52, 91 = 177 (3d100)

>>6247286
TOTAL BIRD DEATH

Rolled 45, 3, 41 = 89 (3d100)

>>6247286
Rolling
Please rng, be kind.

Meh damage rolls for everyone but the Vegas's strike group, however no post tonight

>>6247719
they're gonna give us so much shit for that

The resulting ramshackle series of hits from both the picket line and your own strik group can probably be explained away as nerves or even shock at the nonreaction of the enemy ships. This doesn't really explain how every single one of the Vegas’s strike group manages a hit the resulting explosion and panic caused by said hits even manages to causes the destruction of several of the transports as the picket line and both strike groups back off you get your first real good look at the full extent of the damage done. The 2 battleships are simply gone, an expanding cloud of debris and gas being the only sign of them all but 1 of the heavy cruisers are burning hulks, the light cruisers the hardest to hit of the enemy warships had been left to the experienced pilots of the Essex. Essex's strike group only managed to destroy a single one of the light cruisers leaving 4 still in the fight.

>>6248526
yeah.... they're gonna give us so much shit.

so fun fact I had not realized I had forgotten to post yesterdays vote with the post so

>have the picket line move in with their guns
>wait for the torpedoes to reload

>>6249037
>>wait for the torpedoes to reload

>>6249037
>>wait for the torpedoes to reload
Yeah

>>6249037
>have the picket line move in with their guns

Push the advantage while they are still disoriented and unorganized

>>6249037
>have the picket line move in with their guns

>>6249080
I can get behind that. I'll change my vote if it's a tie
(I'm >>6249076 if my trip changed)

Rolled 42 (1d100)

>have the picket line move in with their guns
GUNS GUNS GUNS

Could I have a 1d100 best of three please you have a +20 to your roll because of the mess the enemy are in

Rolled 25 (1d100)

>>6249412
Time to scramble these eggs.

Rolled 20 (1d100)

>>6249412

Rolled 96 (1d100)

>>6249412

>>6249614
Clutch

The enemy are in disarray and while you would love to wait for the torpedoes to be reloaded and just deal with them that way, doing so might give them enough time to regroup and run. The picket lines are ordered forward and told to open fire with their coilguns. The enemy light cruisers try to fight back but the transports keep getting the way of their lazer fire a fact your own ships don't really care about as streams of rapid fire tungsten core rounds slam into the hulls of the enemy with the occasional much slower railgun round from the light cruiser punching wide gaping holes straight through the lightly armoured ships.


The four warships begin to drift and vent the atmosphere as they are ripped into by your own ships and unlike their capital ship brethren none of them explode, their much smaller batteries and reactors not having the energy for the usual tremendous explosions. Your ships even have time to destroy 10 of the transports before the 20 odd survivors jump out of the system.

>continue your patrol
>return home

>>6249966
>continue your patrol

>>6249966
>>continue your patrol
Should we like, give chase to the transports?
20 enemy transports heading through the sector is probably bad, and these ones are currently undefended.

>>6249966
>>continue your patrol

>>6249966
>return home
Tow as much of the wrecks home for salvage and studying the enemy ships and tech. Make sure to clear the ships of any tracking and communication equipment that might locate us.

>>6249966
I am inclined to kill the transports too. By the way, are there any specialized guerre de course warships in this universe? We probably need some of those.

>continue your patrol

alright could I get a 1d100 best of three please

The enemy merchant ships youve notice din the past are as fast if not faster than your own warships a fact thats the opposite with your own transports

>>6250414
Commerce raiding is for sure a thing however you dont really have anything fast enough or strong enough to catch up to transports and fight off their escorts

Rolled 86 (1d100)

>>6250423
Guess we'll keep that in mind for later.

Rolled 43 (1d100)

>>6250423
Search & Destroy

Rolled 39 (1d100)

>>6250423

>>6250423
They are not faster than our bullets and missiles.....

But are they so fast even our cruisers and frigates cannot get close enough to shoot at them?

>>6250719
The transports yes, they are shockingly fast the current theory from naval intelligence is they have the same incredibly powerful reactors the warships have but without the need to power the energy hungry laser weapons but everything into the engines

>>6250719
>>6250727
Hmm, seems like we need to intensify our mine-laying campaign then. Perhaps the Armed Merchant Cruisers can perform this task deliberately, rather than the ad-hoc approach of the carrier group.

You still have ammo and plenty of targets so back to your most recent set of reports from the network of spy buoys. There is a promising group of what you can guess are mobile shipyards but that report is too old to be any use, you search dn search and finally come to two really good targets. There's a large group of escort ships escorting a single battleship nearby to the frontline from the blurry photos youd guess about 20 escorts for the single battleship which does look somewhat odd. The other option is another transport fleet with a slightly larger escort force in the form of 6 battleships and 10 heavy cruisers and no smaller escorts.

>The lone battleship
>The transport fleet

>>6250857
a dedicated minelaying force is an option Ill add it as an option for the next build order for the shipyard

>>6250881
>>The lone battleship
Why are they escorting it? Why is it so important it requires an escort?
Better blow it up to be safe.

>>6250881
>The lone battleship

>>6250881
>The lone battleship

>>6250881
>>The lone battleship

>>6250881
>>The lone battleship

Well the birds certainly consider it important if it has 20 goddamn ships escorting it. Ergo, we should blow the everloving shit out of them.

Rolled 91 (1d100)

>The lone battleship
Alright could a 1d100 best of three please

Rolled 73 (1d100)

>>6251351

Rolled 25 (1d100)

>>6251351

Rolled 81 (1d100)

>>6251351

good set up rolls for the attack however no post tonight

Its a bit harder to find the battleship and her horde of escorts but you do eventually track is down to a system that had been home to a small asteroid mining colony. The battleship sits near the scattered debris of the colony station as you come out of the jump point its escorts 15 destroyers and 5 light cruisers you see are arranged in a 360 formation around it. Your own formation is your escorts surrounding the Essex and the Vegas as you begin to launch your strike groups. The resounding thump of the magnetic catapult as it launches the craft shakes the ship 23 times before your hangars are empty.

The enemy formation does notice your arrival and turns toward you but doesnt charge at you like the birds usually do; instead they tighten up their formation intent on defending the lone battleship. With your strike group and the vegas you have a total of 35 strike craft, 4 destroyers 6 corvettes and a lone light cruiser.


>strike all at once hoping to overwhelm the enemy defensive fire
>try to feint with the picket line to distract the enemy fire for the strike group

>>6252244
>strike all at once hoping to overwhelm the enemy defensive fire
They ain't moving. They're gonna defend that ship with their own, they are basically like pins and we are a bowling ball. Lets go for a strike.

>>6252244
>strike all at once hoping to overwhelm the enemy defensive fire
Their PD has been poor before, here's hoping it continues.

>>6252244
>try to feint with the picket line to distract the enemy fire for the strike group

>>6252244
>>try to feint with the picket line to distract the enemy fire for the strike group
They're already behaving oddly, and we've encountered birb ships that have clearly had their designs revised to counter us, however effectively it ended up being.
We should see if they go for the feint because it will tell us more about what their new tactics are.

>>6252244
>>try to feint with the picket line to distract the enemy fire for the strike group
This might be from another sector passing through ours. Its best we act accordingly.

>>6252244
>try to feint with the picket line to distract the enemy fire for the strike group

Rolled 67 (1d100)

>try to feint with the picket line to distract the enemy fire for the strike group

alright a feint it is could I get a 2d100 best of three

and you want everyone to focus on the battleship or the escorts

>Yes
>no

Rolled 64, 71 = 135 (2d100)

>>6252787
>Yes
The escorts can run from us, unlike the flagship.

Rolled 3, 39 = 42 (2d100)

>>6252787
I sure hope this works

Rolled 52, 89 = 141 (2d100)

>>6252787
>>Yes

>>6252787
ship

The birds up to this point seem to struggle with sailing in complex formations, not for the first time this odd fleet does something new as they begin to move toward you while you do the same toward them. The enemy fleet begins to zig zag something a novice fleet commander from your own side would struggle to do. The strike groups try to circle around to the side of the enemy formation but they cant get a good angle on it. The pickets dont have so much trouble continuing in a straight line intent of looseing their torpedoes.

Could I get a 1d100 for damage for the picket line

Rolled 78 (1d100)

>>6253198
Tone to popcorn some chicken.

Rolled 61 (1d100)

>>6253198
Rng plz

Rolled 39 (1d100)

>>6253198

Daddy wants some tenders.

Lasers fly past the picket line as they enter the extreme range of their torpedoes but they hold off on firing yet waiting for them to reach the fishes optimal range before firing and turning tail backward. The fish fly straight and true into the enemy formation, the smaller enemy destroyers purposefully moving into the way of the fish to protect the light cruisers and the battleship. The resulting flashes of the torpedoes' warheads detonating light up the space around the enemy capital ship but it remains unharmed. This can't be said for the enemies escorts as 8 of the enemy destroyers die in blinding flashes.

The picket line continues to fall back as the enemy formation continues its zig zag pattern as it chases the line. Your strike craft still all have their torpedoes not having gotten a chance to fire them with the enemies maneuvers. You can wait for the pickets tubes to reload and try for another coordinated attack or try to hit the enemy with just the strike group.

>try for a another coordinated strike
>strike now

>>6253652
>coordinated attack
Maybe have the strike fighters aim from another angle, in case the birds try their bodyguard tactic again

>>6253652
>try for a another coordinated strike

>>6253652
>>strike now
They are pushing for advantage, if we let them pressure our picket line too much, it'll lose most of its effectiveness. Alternative Strategy is to weaken their defense by targeting it, and then after creating an opening, focus the next volley on the ship. Right now we are just gambling that an opening will magically appear with this more competent enemy. We need to make it appear.

>>6253652
>>strike now
>>6253871
Seconding

>>6253652
>>strike now

>>6253652
8 out of 15 destroyers sunk on the first salvo, with remaining 7 destroyers and 5 light cruiser escorts plus battleship. That's a hell of an equaliser, but still a danger given that these guys are anti-capital.

>strike now
No time to reform their formation, and now they have destroyers littering their manuevers.

>>6253652
>strike now
keep the pressure up

Rolled 19 (1d100)

>strike now

Alright could I get a 1d100 best of three, rolling for enemy defense

OOC quest planing im always working on what my next projects will be, my question is in a quest with a single player character just controlling the one characters actions do yall prefer the second person perspective or first person perspective?

Rolled 16 (1d100)

>>6254231

Rolled 15 (1d100)

>>6254231

Rolled 78 (1d100)

>>6254231
damn guys, show some tact.

>>6254272
Tyfys

>>6254231
Re: perspective, do you mean second or third person perspective? Second person would be pretty fun, especially if done in a comedic manner.

The strike group all 35 craft form into a diamond and burn at full speed toward the enemy formation now much lighter in terms of enemy escorts. It seems the enemy after the disastrous torpedo attack have hyper focused the picket line no longer making their erratic zig zags instead burning full out at your destroyers and corvettes. The enemy escorts notice the strike groups at almost the last moment and some of the 35 fish are intercepted by a couple of destroyers and one of the enemy light cruisers. The rest however even as the strike group begin streaming back to the carriers slam right into the midships of the battleship which unlike almost any other capital ship you've seen struck does not detonate, instead the torpedoes warheads crack the ship right in half sending the rear flying off at what you guess is maximum burn without about half of its usual mass to push. The front half of the ship begins to spin lazily through space and even collides briefly with an enemy destroyer which simply stops existing as a separate entity.


The remaining enemy ships simply stop like they are shocked, engines shut off, no weapons fire, not even any communication that you can tell comes from the ships. You yourself blink in surprise the closest thing you had seen to this was the very first time you had fought the birds. This could be a chance to board the ships and finally take some examples of the enemy warships intact or they could open fire on whoever tries to board them and get a whole lot of marines killed.

>Order the remaining bird ships destroyed at a distance
>order them Boarded

>>6254879
>order them Boarded
Looks like it might've been a drone command ship

>>6254879
>>order them Boarded
order ONE boarded, depending on how that goes, we can decide if they are all worth boarding. If there is no resistance we are chilling, if we fight tooth and nail through what might be a a feral hive, we can bomb the rest.

>>6254879
>>order them Boarded
We might want to steal their laser technology

>>6254922
+1
If possible, prepare a ship to be towed back for our scientists to deconstruct

>>6254879
>>order them Boarded

>order them Boarded


Intact enemy warships prove a far too tempting target so one of the corvettes are ordered to sail past the stationary enemy as a test and no return fire comes. They do this three or four time but nothing happens so one of the destroyers sends out its whaleboat with just a pilot and still nothing. These tests are done, you order a boarding party to be made up of marines from the Essex, the light cruiser and Vegas.

Could I get a 1d100 best of three for boarding

Rolled 87 (1d100)

>>6255507
Rolling

Rolled 13 (1d100)

>>6255507

Rolled 49 (1d100)

>>6255507
rolling birbs

The marines are lucky this time unlike the last time they had to board a bird ship. This one is intact and they even confirm something that you had suspicions of but no proof, the birds do in fact have some form of gravity generator on board their ships similar to your own. The light cruiser they pick is very similar to other bird vessels you've seen, well built and designed but in a state of odd disrepair. The interior plating is worn and evey other light doesnt seem to work. Its very quiet on the ship as the marines pile into it from the hole they cut in the hull, their powered exoskeletons making moving into the ship an easy task even in the bulky vacuum suits they wear. Its the roar of gunfire that's the first sign of any life aboard the ship which the marines as they would follow the sound. They come to what best can be described as a regular ships canteen except instead of a flat floor they find a tiered set of seats going downward toward a center table at the bottom. It's chaos in this room as nearly 40 odd birds fight and kill one another with their large water cooled machine guns or even their bare claws and sharp beaks. The marines for their part only stand their shock for a few moments before slowly backing out of the room deciding to head for the enemy bridge first before dealing with whatever the fuck was going on in there.

>>6256083
>the birds are basically avian Brutes
Welp, at least know for sure there's no negotiating with them.

>>6256083
Okay that seems somewhat concerning.
At least we'll have plenty of nuggies for the flight home.

>>6256083
Interesting, the birds might be using some sort of penal legion crews? Could be what's currently happening is that we killed their warden/panopticon/central control ship, and fights broke out between the now-freed penal crew and the guards.

>>6256167
Also, the rout we caused generally indicates they have serious morale problems, they aren't committed to the cause like we are.
If we ever manage to establish communication with them, we might be able to liberate the living shit out of their lower classes and turn their society against itself.

The marine force makes its way through the ship occasionally seeing a bird corpse mutilated as they go and even come across a few groups also fighting. They do eventually come to what the believe is the bridge which looks somewhat similar to your own save for the three or four birds standing over the mutilated corpses of their fellows. You could order the marines to take the bridge hard and fast and be in control of the enemy warship within minutes, however all four of the birds on the bridge seem older and wear clothing that seems a higher quality of the the dead birds on the bridge, perhaps you should try to capture them.

>just take the bridge
>try to capture the birds and take the the bridge

>>6256572
>try to capture the birds and take the the bridge

These might be older, more reasonable birbs?

>>6256572
>try to capture the birds and take the the bridge
Actually just one bird. Capturing all four might be too much.

>>6256572
>try to capture the birds and take the the bridge

>>6256572
>try to capture the birds and take the the bridge
So it was a power struggle after the chief bird died in the battleship?

>>6256572
>try to capture the birds and take the the bridge
Time to find out what the cluck is going on here

Rolled 21 (1d100)

>try to capture the birds and take the the bridge

could I get a 1d100 best of three you will get a +10 to the roll as you understand some bird biology

Rolled 9 (1d100)

>>6257082
I really shouldn't, but...

Rolled 4 (1d100)

>>6257082
caged chickens

>>6257101
>>6257123
dem rolls

Rolled 9 (1d100)

>>6257082
I probably can't roll any worse

>>6257144
Technically it's not worse

>>6257101
>>6257123
>>6257144
SO hey do yall want to use your banked crit?

>yes
>No

>>6257156
>Yes

>>6257156
Yes

If only I remembered to roll this morning...

>>6257156
>Yes

>>6257156
we had a banked crit?

>>6257336
Yes you rolled a crit during a search roll at the beginning of your current patrol so I banked it for you guys

>>6257156
>>yes

The birds have once again sabotaged me and I will not be able to post tonight

>>6257156
yes.
goddamn all 3 rolls below 10. Clearly our marines show such profound dislike of caged chicken that they tried to kill themselves first.

You inform the marine officer you would like a captive from this group and after he confirms your order you get to watch through their helmet cams the ensuing action. The boys over in the Army/Navy Intelligence arm had done a lot of dissections on dead birds at this point and they had even done some, what would be very illegal if they were human testing on the live ones. They had figured out via this testing that the birds are very susceptible to bright lights so the marines who had received copies of the test results had fashioned what amounts to a flashbang which focused solely on the flash part.


The dull metal canister is thrown into the room and the four birds inside like any good creature with eyes all look at the canister and are all probably permanently blinded by a flash which is bright enough and hot enough it leaves a distinct burn mark in the floor plating. As the flash fades the marines storm into the room as the four birds writhe in pain on the floor they are quickly zip cuffed and injected with a specifically formulated cocktail of drugs to knock them out. The bridge secure the marines can now clear the rest of the ship the question being do you want them to just kill the rest of the crew or try to capture as many as possible.

>just kill them
>try to capture as many as possible

>>6258102
>try to capture as many as possible

>>6258102
>>try to capture as many as possible

I want to give the spooks an early Christmas present and figure out what is going on. Are these chickens invading us or running away from someone?

>>6258102
>>try to capture as many as possible
>>6258120
Second
Also if we can successfully communicate with one (1) of the damned things it will be a game changer

>>6258102
>>try to capture as many as possible
intel yay

>>6258102
>just kill them

>>6257336
Pepperidge farms remembers.

>>6258102
>try to capture as many as possible
Intel here would be worth a ships compliment.

>>6258102
>>try to capture as many as possible

>try to capture as many as possible

Alright there are roughly 40 odd birds left alive on this particular ship could I get 2d20s best of three please

Rolled 7, 7 = 14 (2d20)

>>6258645

Whelp, tendies to go.

Rolled 15, 3 = 18 (2d20)

>>6258645

Rolled 19, 12 = 31 (2d20)

>>6258621

>>6258645
I know we're mostly focused on collecting intelligence but I do want to steal as many of their lasers as possible with the intention of using them in our own defenses, because we have a finite amount of Dakka and a limited ability to produce more ourselves.
And reverse engineering them and testing them so we know their capabilites, sure. But we need guns and we needed them yesterday.

The wide majority of the remaining birds are still in the canteen which the marines make sort work of with the flashbang and drug cocktails. It's the sole stragglers and occasional pairs of birds that give real trouble either too engrossed in killing one another or in a far too tight space to flashbang without accidentally setting them on fire, which does happen to at least a single bird. Once its all said and done they manage to capture a total of 31 birds to be added to the quickly growing POW camps back on Cartha.

The single remaining enemy Light cruiser captured the question is do you want to try and capture the crews of the 7 enemy destroyers which you assume are in a similar state to the ones on the light cruiser or do you simply want to just vent their atmosphere and capture the ships.

>Capture the crews and the ships
>Just the ships

>>6259209
>Just the ships

>>6259209
>Just the ships
We have enough subjects for dubious research purposes when backup arrives. What we need are parts and parts to replace those that we break.

>>6259209
>Capture the crews and the ships
They might have different flavors!

>>6259209
>>Just the ships
Free nuggies

>>6259209
>Just the ships

>>6259209
>>Capture the crews and the ships

>>6259209
>Capture the crews and the ships

>>6259209

>Just the ships

The prisoners from the light cruiser are moved into the Essex's brig and a destroyer is tasked with the job of carefully shooting a small hole into each of the remaining destroyers to vent their atmosphere. Once this is done each of the enemy ships is taken under tow by one of your own, the Essex having to take the enemy light cruiser itself due to the size of the ship. Your new found prizes do mean you must complete your patrol which has honestly doubled as a shake down cruise for the Vegas as much as a normal combat operation so you order your XO to set course for Cartha.

Your fleet arrives at Cartha after your patrol which all told only took around a week. As the green light of the jump point fades there's a slight chill up your spine as one of the massive railgun turrets of the fort turns to point at the essex and the light cruiser she's towing but thankfully the gun doesn't fire. You realize with some embarrassment you hadnt actually called ahead that you would be returning with intact enemy warships in tow and that fact had almost gotten you shot at by battleship sized guns. With practiced effort the birds are taken off to your ship and sent to Cartha itself to the POW camp planetside and your captured prizes are dropped off at the shipyard for the spooks to go over. You can either head to the fort for strategy discussion first or first the intelligence headquarters on Cartha for updates on what you know about the birds.

>Cartha first
>The fort first

>>6260533
>Cartha first
This could inform us on the latter option.

>>6260533
>>Cartha first
>>6260555
Yes I agree

>>6260533
>Cartha first

>>6260533
>>Cartha first

The sky

Bit under the weather today so no post but just a slight quest progress update unless something horrible happens and you find yourself losing large parts of your fleet or cartha the quest is around 60-70% done

>>6261247
So I'm guessing the (good) end point is the cavalry rides in to save the day?

You take a shuttle down to carthas capital city and make your way to the headquarters of the Navy/Army intelligence service. The building itself like anything the service owns is kind of creepy, a plain looking office building with zero logos placards or identifying marks situated in the middle of a regular commercial section of the capital. Even the lobby looks like a normal office building lobby just without anything that could identify the owner or even the purpose of the office.


You're met by an agent who introduces himself simply as Barry and are led deeper into the building and into a meeting room where you are given and honest to god paper file, sitting down you open it.The project to translate the spoken language of the enemy has gone well with several purpose built air gaped machines being made and programmed for the purpose as the enemy physiology makes humans speaking their language impossible or for the enemy to speak most human languages.

>>6261915
Hell yeah

>>6261392
We are the Calvary!

The birds of course aren't willing to tell the spooks everything outright but through eavesdropping and some careful questioning they have been able to determine some things.
1. The birds reasons for attacking humanity seem to be a mix of religious reasoning and something like manifest destiny
2. Humanity for sure are not the first alien race the birds have encountered, although most of the birds dont seem very knowledgeable about these other first contacts
3. The few bird officers youve captured are generally extremely terrified of the regular enlisted sailors on their ships
4. Youve suspected it but it's finally confirmed their seems to be some sort of tribal component to the different fleets youve see
5. The final thing is the fact the birds are not the original builders of their ships as they always refer to something that doesnt translate well as the creator of their warships which explains the poor maintenance of most of their ships.

You finish the report and Barry offers you something you didnt expect, an interview with what they think is the highest ranking bird youve captured. You can interview the bird yourself or let the spooks try to torture information out of it.

>Do the interview
>let the spooks handle it

>>6262525
>>Do the interview
Personal Prespective.

>>6262525
>>Do the interview
Sure, why not

>>6262525
>Do the interview

>>6262525
>>Do the interview

>>6262525
>Do the interview

>>6262525
>Do the interview

The fact that there is only a single creator for their warships makes me think they are a cargo cult for some ancient ruin. But why are they all universally scared of the enlisted?

>>6263186
It might be like a mayan/aztec sun cult where the priestly caste has divine sanction to do horrible things to the populace, but if they fail/ lose... oh shit. Oh oh fuck. You just lost your divine mandate. Now they gotta sacrifice *you* so the gods will listen to their prayers again. (I'm probably wrong on all the details but, you get where I'm going i hope)

You inform Agent Barry you wished to interview this bird and he asks you to wait for a few minutes while he arranges everything. The Army/Navy intelligence arm or ANI was one of the many oddities that made up humanity's military in the 27th century. They were the least trusted of the military and for good reason their predecessors in the form of the united intelligence agency had attempted a coup d'etat only 5 years after the end of the AI war and saw itself dismantled to almost a man in the ensuing decades long civil war. This little event had left a deep cultural mistrust of intelligence agencies and that for sure included the spooks at the ANI. Agent Barry returns a few minutes later and asks you to follow him.

You're surprisingly not brought to the POW camp instead your brought into the basement of the office building you originally arrived at. The agents quickly checked your person for any type of electronics or weapons, something that makes you a little angry as you are the highest ranking officer for several thousand light years. They sit you down in a small room with a table and two chairs one with a series of straps and buckles, on the table is an odd box maybe the size of a tissue box inside a faraday cage. It takes you several second and thinking back to the report you read that is the machine they have for translating and several seconds after that you realize its a fucking AI. You've never seen one in person before but it sure looks like the pictures you've seen in history books. The size means its probably a pretty dumb one but AI tend to scale with energy supply so it shouldn't all that dangerous but your still nervous as you take your seat.

You sit there awkwardly next to the AI box for several minutes until several armoured men with no unit or rank insignia arrive frog marching a bird wearing what's left of a uniform between them. They forcefully sit the bird down in the seat and strap it in; the bird itself doesn't really fight back but it doesn't meekly obey the men. The way the AI will work from what you understand is you will say something and it will translate your words into the birds language and it will do the same the other way around. There's a pretty long list of things to ask the bird but you need to remember according to the report names don't really translate well so whatever you ask must be a concept and not an exact name for something.

>Write in ask the bird some questions

>>6263983
"Are you aware that I am the commander of the military ships that defeated your own ships?"

"Why are you here in my sectors, in your words? And does your military know just how pissed I am about this?"

"What sent you here, why are you willing to die at my guns in this place far from your home?"

tl:dr posturing and not hiding the fact that we will fry some birds

>>6263997
Seconding.
Also

"Why do your crews start eating each other and murdering each other after they lose a battle?"

>>6263997
Are the birds attacking other places from the same tribe or other tribes? Do they have the same ships? Do they fight the same way?

>>6263983
"did you know how great your kind taste? the meat is absolutely delectable once you boil off the feathers."

>>6263983
We should obviously introduce ourselves but aside from that,
"How did you activate the gates, they were idle on our end."

"Brokering peace is most likely out of the question, since you lot have already razed several colonies to the ground, but I must ask: do you regret picking this fight?"

>>6264162
As much as we joke about it OOC, I feel that the character we play is a bit too straight-laced to say this.

"Are you aware that I am the commander of the military ships that defeated your own ships?"

The words leave your mouth and the AI box takes several seconds to translate your words into the guttural speech of the birds. The bird looks more closely at you after that and then responds the AI taking several moments again to translate. “You look weak and easily slain, your small ships cheat and destroy our great warships like cowards”

"Why are you here in my sector, in your words? And does your military know just how angry I am about this?"

The bird takes longer to respond it's clearly confused by the term sector but it understands the gist of the question. “I am here at the behest of my [ERROR NO DIRECT TRANSLATION] they have placed upon me the [ERROR NO TRANSLATION] to seek out new worlds for us to grow.

" why are you willing to die at my guns in this place far from your home?"

This question gets a much faster answer “I have no home I am here to take yours” It gives you what you imagine is a bird version of a smirk and clacks its beak at you.

"Why do your crews start eating each other and murdering each other after they lose a battle?"

This final question elicits some emotion you cant place but you think it might either be shame or revulsion. The AI tries its best but the bird uses several words that dont translate. “They fight because their [ERROR NO Translation] had died and any claim they have for lands of their own died with them their own hope is to die killing enough of their fellow [ERROR] to make it to [ERROR]


>Ask more questions (Write in)
>leave and head to the fort

>>6264518
Interesting, it seems that they have a kill-based merit/honor/deed system. Only that it's indiscriminate if the enemy overwhelmed them.

Now I'm curious. What would they do if they can get what they want without bloodshed? I mean, when we win against these birds, these POWs are going to be still here, being the last birds in human space for the foreseeable future. If the bird civilization aren't utterly wiped from the universe, returning them after the war would be the same as a death sentence. What if we give any surviving POWs their own small asteroid habitat to live in, after the war?

As for my vote, I got too many questions to ask - I'd leave it to the others.

>+1 to the majority vote

>>6264518
>>Ask more questions (Write in)
"It seems you were not the original builders of your ships, who made them?"

"You say we cheat, and fight without honor. How does one fight with honor?"
(Learning more birb strategies good.)

Anyway, good interview. So they kill each other because killing is how they go to heaven and if they lose they don't go to heaven. Also explains why they rout.

>>6264538
>I mean, when we win against these birds, these POWs are going to be still here, being the last birds in human space for the foreseeable future.
You don't need to worry about them. They're going to go to a big farm in the country with lots of grassy fields to run around in, and squirrels to chase, and other birbs to frolic and play with. They'll be in a better place.

>>6264518
>Ask more questions (Write in)
Our small ships are brave to fight and defeat such large massive ships out numbered and out gunned. It was cowardly on your part to fight with larger and bigger ships against smaller ships. This is why you lost the battle.

>>6264518
I would like to reiterate the question about the gates. Also, "What if your specie's preferred habitat? I would like to know what kind of rock we should eventually drop you guys off at once this is all over."

>>6264518

>>6264594
completely different honor system, no point in arguing over which side is more honarary, they are alien to us (ex: sanghelli using stealth in halo is honorable somehow)

>>6264670
real, how the fuck did they get gates.

>>Ask more questions (Write in)
the one who sent you here at their behest, they are from whence you spawned/created/made you. Were you born/natural/birthed or were you made/manufactured/designed as a tool/weapon for expansion/colonization?

You are not the only ones, there are others/different/enemies that are attacking as well. Are they at the behest of the same ones as you? Are they here at the behest of others who do not share the same flesh you do or those who sent you? Why have they come as well?

We should consider that the translation errors go both ways, and that we may need

>>6264518
>Ask more questions (Write in)
Why do you have no home? Did you previously have a home? What happened to your home?

Your tempted to end the interview there but your making good progress on gathering intel on the birds so you try some more questions.

"It seems you were not the original builders of your ships, who made them?"

The bird answers quickly like the question was stupid“The [Error] the making of ships and weapons are their kinds only purpose, your kind must have their ilk to make your weapons”

“How did you find and travel through the jump points into our space?”

Another quick answer the bird acting like your a child who should know something obvious “The lessers of my kind are forced to search for new worlds to take, they found yours”
"What is your specie's preferred habitat?”

It mulls over this question for a full a minute trying to find words that would translate “This world is too cold and it does not rain, more heat, more rain”

“the one who sent you here at their behest, they are from whence you spawned/created/made you. Were you born/natural/birthed or were you made/manufactured/designed as a tool/weapon for expansion/colonization?”


This question actually gives the purposefully retarded AI a bit of trouble to translate but it does manage it and the bird answers. “I was born the third of six as such myself and four of my siblings were to gain no lands on the death of my sire, once every generation we must seek out new lands to take as our own or starve with no lands as is the orders of [Error]”

“You are not the only ones, there are others/different/enemies that are attacking as well. Are they at the behest of the same ones as you? Are they here at the behest of others who do not share the same flesh you do or those who sent you? Why have they come as well?”


The bird sneers at the question or the closest thing something with a beak can probably make “Those are the offspring of the [Error] they come for the same reason to take lands for themselves we race to claim more than each other for the honor of our clutches”

The bird seems to become groggy somewhat and the armored men escort it from the room and Agent Barry enters the room and congratulates you on getting so much information from the bird. He theorizes it recognized your rank somehow and was much more willing to deal with someone it saw at least somewhat similar to its own rank. The spook leads you out the basment while another pair of armored men arrive and take the AI in its Faraday cage out of the room. Barry brings up something you were surprised took this long for him to ask. What do you want the intel arm to focus on?

>technology
>Fully translate the bird language including their written word
>write in

>>6265573
>technology
Peace is not an option.

>>6265573
>Fully translate the bird language including their written word

Good information, but so much is being lost in translation...

As well, understanding their tongue will better allow us to understand their tech.

>>6265573
>Fully translate the bird language including their written word
Winning a war relies on breaking the enemy's will to fight. We need to know exactly what drives them.

>>6265573
>Fully translate the bird language including their written word
this would be more helpful, I'm sure we can find someone else to work on their tech (also if we can speak read language we can read their manuals)

>>6265573
>>technology
they were forced here, it is their vendetta, their reason for being. Learning how they speak with each other won't dull their blades when they try to tear our throats. The more we understand their technology, the better we can preserve our lives. Let the influx of prisoners be the reason we eventually learn their language, our priorities are in the technologies they use to kill us in the dark.

>>6265872
learning how they speak with each other means we can eavesdrop on them and figure out what their plans are. Also, demoralization propaganda.

>>6265573
>technology
Propaganda to influence the birds' lower cast would be good, but need their laser and reactor tech first.

No post tonight


Lore fun fact one of the few legal uses of AI in the modern era is the identification and survey of jump points