dominate human thought
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in a world
there were fucktons
Combat isn't happening immediately, but prepare your bootehs.
@M127
@ADParis
@McMolly
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@M127
@ADParis
@McMolly
@Gowi
@Natsucooldude
Sophia was standing at the Briefing rooms' table, waiting for all the pilots to arrive. she gave each pilot a small trio of documents pertaining to the coming operation, set to happen 3 days from now, Januray 7th. "Mondays...", she sighed.
"Anyway. As everyones' situated... I'll commence the briefing.", she flipped the projector's switch to on, showing a trio of pictures. The first, titled 'Op 1, Volkov, Weapon Capture' depicted some sort of ultra-heavy artillery, half-buried in a crater and surrounded by archaeological digging and construction equipment. 'Op 2, Paragon, Naval Attack' was some sort of blueprint for a battle cruiser, with many interesting armaments and features, like main guns that looked like they belonged to a proper dreadnought, and some sort of drone deploying system. 'Op 3, Fairbanks, Weapon Test' depicted what looked like a prototype NC.
"Three Operations over the week. Wednesday, Volkov wants us to capture, or at least neutralize something that those people over at Red-Star dug up from before the war. There isn't much info, Volk couldn't give us much and we barely know shit just from looking at it, but it's apparently a very-high-velocity railgun meant to attack things at intercontinental, or maybe even anti-orbit ranges. Red-star doesn't have the know-how or infrastructure to properly feed this beast anyway, at least in Volkov Security's opinion, so they want us to give it to owners who can take care of it. Them, obviously."
Sophia went on to describe its' defenses. "Currently, it's pretty walled up. We seem to have two NC's guarding it, the Red-Oni and Fubuki, a heavily armored unit that specializes in thermal based attacks, and a 'bird-leg' humanoid that focuses on mobility and electronic warfare respectively. Aside from those two stooges, the gun is also defended by a small collective of turrets, most of them fitted with standard medium-ROF, medium damage kinetic cannons, and two of them being light artillery pieces. Nothing Little Dragon and Goldenspur can't handle together, I reckon, so you two'll be heading out for that. Pay is 450,000 credits, divided amongst you two and after taking a cut for SR, that should be 100,000 for each of you."
"The Volkov one is the only one that's absolutely necessary, but the other two have a nice fat stack of cash involved too. Paragon wants us to take out a new Denver-Vegas heavy battlecruiser, they suspect DV stole quite a few Paragon-patented tricks, and they want them to know that just because they're the biggest in the west they just can't do that. At least, without any repercussions. It has a small escort fleet of two light cruisers, a submarine, and three frigates. It honestly doesn't need anything else, and Paragon wants us to sink the whole taskforce. Of course, NC's are strong, but they won't be able to completely annihilate a naval vessel: just focus on destroying anything that looks important on it. If the main ship has a nice wreckage for Paragon to later salvage, that's going to be a 200,000 bonus for us too."
Sophia seemed to do a mental calculation, then continued. "The entire squad is going to be required for this. This needs to be done Thursday, the 8th. Day after the Volkov OP, in other words. For obvious reasons, this has the biggest possible payout at nearly 1,400,000 bucks. Dividing that, that's 200,000 for each of you, and an extra 50,000 if you manage to damage the main ship just enough."
She gave an overview on the fleets' total capabilities, "The primary battle-cruiser has two, double-barreled battleship grade turrets, flinging .350 shells up to 46 kilometers. With their very high muzzle velocity, you'll probably need to dodge their fire while getting into range. Shells that big'll really screw up an NC, which isn't helped by their superb rate of fire for such massive shells... But I'm certain you can dodge them."
She discussed the submarine class, next. "DV's premiere and latest class of submersibles. About 80 meters long, somewhat tiny for something that can pack quite a punch. Has long-range, multipurpose cruise missiles. If the battlecruiser gets spooked and really doesn't want to fight you guys at close range, it'll definitely call on its' little friend to fire off a few swarms. Total destructive power should be comparable to the battleships' main guns, and they home in obviously, but it can only fire off so many."
"The others-", concerning the cruisers and frigates, "Are complete small-fry. Deal with them as you wish, their main guns are a joke compared to the big fish's little number. The cruisers can probably scratch your paint with their Close-in-weapons systems, but nothing to really worry about."
She then described the third available contract. "So, Op 3, Fairbanks has heard about the exploits of Jan Van Gent, some how, and want him specifically to help out in testing an NC they made. It's definitely not standard in any case, and they actually want anyone else 'he can bring along'. This is sort of fishy to me, but the pay is nearly on par with Contract 2's, so we should look into it in my opinion. 125,000 for each of you, if you all join in on the fun."
"The Prototype NC's cockpit is reinforced even more then usual, so don't worry about damaging it too much. As well, we'll uplink safety information with the Prototype, so he'll know when to stop to test if he needs to. They didn't give too much info about the NC, wanting it to be a surprise so we can't prepare for it in particular. But they did say it's 'going to be a new breed of NC', it's only reasonable to be prepared for anything."
Sophia sneaked in a quick sip of coffee, "Any questions for any of the contracts?
"Anyway. As everyones' situated... I'll commence the briefing.", she flipped the projector's switch to on, showing a trio of pictures. The first, titled 'Op 1, Volkov, Weapon Capture' depicted some sort of ultra-heavy artillery, half-buried in a crater and surrounded by archaeological digging and construction equipment. 'Op 2, Paragon, Naval Attack' was some sort of blueprint for a battle cruiser, with many interesting armaments and features, like main guns that looked like they belonged to a proper dreadnought, and some sort of drone deploying system. 'Op 3, Fairbanks, Weapon Test' depicted what looked like a prototype NC.
"Three Operations over the week. Wednesday, Volkov wants us to capture, or at least neutralize something that those people over at Red-Star dug up from before the war. There isn't much info, Volk couldn't give us much and we barely know shit just from looking at it, but it's apparently a very-high-velocity railgun meant to attack things at intercontinental, or maybe even anti-orbit ranges. Red-star doesn't have the know-how or infrastructure to properly feed this beast anyway, at least in Volkov Security's opinion, so they want us to give it to owners who can take care of it. Them, obviously."
Sophia went on to describe its' defenses. "Currently, it's pretty walled up. We seem to have two NC's guarding it, the Red-Oni and Fubuki, a heavily armored unit that specializes in thermal based attacks, and a 'bird-leg' humanoid that focuses on mobility and electronic warfare respectively. Aside from those two stooges, the gun is also defended by a small collective of turrets, most of them fitted with standard medium-ROF, medium damage kinetic cannons, and two of them being light artillery pieces. Nothing Little Dragon and Goldenspur can't handle together, I reckon, so you two'll be heading out for that. Pay is 450,000 credits, divided amongst you two and after taking a cut for SR, that should be 100,000 for each of you."
"The Volkov one is the only one that's absolutely necessary, but the other two have a nice fat stack of cash involved too. Paragon wants us to take out a new Denver-Vegas heavy battlecruiser, they suspect DV stole quite a few Paragon-patented tricks, and they want them to know that just because they're the biggest in the west they just can't do that. At least, without any repercussions. It has a small escort fleet of two light cruisers, a submarine, and three frigates. It honestly doesn't need anything else, and Paragon wants us to sink the whole taskforce. Of course, NC's are strong, but they won't be able to completely annihilate a naval vessel: just focus on destroying anything that looks important on it. If the main ship has a nice wreckage for Paragon to later salvage, that's going to be a 200,000 bonus for us too."
Sophia seemed to do a mental calculation, then continued. "The entire squad is going to be required for this. This needs to be done Thursday, the 8th. Day after the Volkov OP, in other words. For obvious reasons, this has the biggest possible payout at nearly 1,400,000 bucks. Dividing that, that's 200,000 for each of you, and an extra 50,000 if you manage to damage the main ship just enough."
She gave an overview on the fleets' total capabilities, "The primary battle-cruiser has two, double-barreled battleship grade turrets, flinging .350 shells up to 46 kilometers. With their very high muzzle velocity, you'll probably need to dodge their fire while getting into range. Shells that big'll really screw up an NC, which isn't helped by their superb rate of fire for such massive shells... But I'm certain you can dodge them."
She discussed the submarine class, next. "DV's premiere and latest class of submersibles. About 80 meters long, somewhat tiny for something that can pack quite a punch. Has long-range, multipurpose cruise missiles. If the battlecruiser gets spooked and really doesn't want to fight you guys at close range, it'll definitely call on its' little friend to fire off a few swarms. Total destructive power should be comparable to the battleships' main guns, and they home in obviously, but it can only fire off so many."
"The others-", concerning the cruisers and frigates, "Are complete small-fry. Deal with them as you wish, their main guns are a joke compared to the big fish's little number. The cruisers can probably scratch your paint with their Close-in-weapons systems, but nothing to really worry about."
She then described the third available contract. "So, Op 3, Fairbanks has heard about the exploits of Jan Van Gent, some how, and want him specifically to help out in testing an NC they made. It's definitely not standard in any case, and they actually want anyone else 'he can bring along'. This is sort of fishy to me, but the pay is nearly on par with Contract 2's, so we should look into it in my opinion. 125,000 for each of you, if you all join in on the fun."
"The Prototype NC's cockpit is reinforced even more then usual, so don't worry about damaging it too much. As well, we'll uplink safety information with the Prototype, so he'll know when to stop to test if he needs to. They didn't give too much info about the NC, wanting it to be a surprise so we can't prepare for it in particular. But they did say it's 'going to be a new breed of NC', it's only reasonable to be prepared for anything."
Sophia sneaked in a quick sip of coffee, "Any questions for any of the contracts?
Elite: Dangerous.
'Witchspace Tales'
It was your average day for your average "CMDR" in the Eravate system. A simple trader he was, who hated getting into fights and being interdicted by pirates, as any sane trader would. He wasn't one of those 'bounty hunters' who loved getting into scraps for no good reason, or a mercenary. Not at all. He liked it being nice, safe, and boring. As any sane trader would.
Eravate was an agricultural system, all of its planets and stations being used for farming and other such things, selling its food to any nearby systems that simply couldn't grow enough themselves to feed their massive factories, entertainment complexes, or what-have-you. As any sane trader would, this Commander helped moving things where they needed to go, even if he was just another cog in the machine. All he consistently had to his name was a simple 'Type-6' class vessel, a hauling design made by Zorgon Peterson, some interstellar ship-building firm that specialized in that sort of thing.
He was at Russel's Ring, one of Eravate's several star ports. A massive Orbis class station, and he was here for his most lucrative trading run yet: Buying and selling tea in bulk. There was another system nearby, an industrial system that ravenously consumed Tea. He was making a decent amount of credits each time. It was a bit slow, but it was safe though, which was the best thing about it in his mind. As any sane trader would think.
He decided to take a break for a bit though, to just take a gander through the stations' residential and commercial areas. He came across a bar that seemed nice enough, and sat himself down to have a few drinks, admiring the size of stations these days and how quickly he rose through the ranks. He asked for a surprise as a drink, and he got some ale or stout he didn't recognize at first, and the writing was so weird to him he couldn't understand it, but it was strong, which was always good. He felt unease as someone sat across from him, a younger pilot who looked buzzed and scared. That was never a good combination.
It seemed they were the only pilots there, and after a bit (and confirming that this other one wouldn't do anything aggressive), they decided to talk about pilot things. The younger one took the wheel almost immediately, wanting someone who might actually understand his plight. He tensed up a bit before speaking, obviously still scarred from whatever happened to him.
"Thanks for hearing me out, m-man... I just need to let this off my c-chest. Well... I'm a Viper pilot, and I do some light merc and escort work. I don't really like doing that sorta thing but... y'know. I just do what gives me the biggest paycheck. I need to pay the bills just like anybody else. The other day, I was jumping out of Kremainn to follow and guard a type-seven trader, he was transporting computers or something, at least, that's what he told me."
"When I followed his jump signature, everything went as normal for the first few minutes. My Friendship-... Sorry, in joke... with one of my buddies out there. A-anyway... my Frame-Shift Drive charged up, did some calcs, then went to supercruise, then to hyperspace, and all was fine at first, a bit behind the mark, but whatever. Not unexpected.. or anything."
"This doesn't sound so strange at all so far.", the middle-aged CMDR remarked
"Just your average hyperspace jump. Did you suffer an FSD failure on the way?"
"God, I hope so..., A shiver, then a continuation. "After the first few minutes, things started happening. It was all standard for a bit, I was seeing nebula... stars... little particles sometimes... but then stuff just, didn't really start appearing anymore. There weren't any micrometeorites, and stars didn't blink into view afterwards. And.. y'know how sometimes you can sort of.. hear stuff in the audio systems... in hyperspace?"
A few moments of somewhat deep contemplation occurred for the Senior of the two, but he soon replied. "Well... sometimes. Yes. Aside from the hyper-radio static. ...Well, what do you hear then?". A quick glance to the sides, and then an answer came out of the spooked pilot. "I... hear whispers sometimes. Cries for help... 'Mommy'... voices telling me to go away. Not all the time... but it happens. "That's all probably pareidolia. Sure.. your radio'll pick up Hyper Radio messages it shouldn't, but it's not gonna do that. Not intentionally.", the graying Senior gave a pat of reassurance while ordering another pair of drinks, "Go on."
The ginger-haired rookie sighed then continued. "Well... all that was silent. I didn't hear anything. I didn't even hear the... 'usual' hyperspace stuff like whooshes or ... whatever.", he slammed down a good portion of his next shot before going on. "That's when I saw something out there, that wasn't supposed to be. It sorta looked like a ship in super-cruise, but really far away, and... bigger? Like... a Sidewinder's signature in super-cruise is tiny, a 'Conda or something is pretty big. This didn't shoot them out of the water or anything, but it was large. I never saw a Feddie's or an Empire battleship, but I guess it was just about as big, from what I heard. It couldn'tve been one of those, though. It was too surreal."
An interesting look came from the older of the two, an intrigued one. "Hey, another round.". The Rookie continued his confession. "So I started looking at it.. and for some reason, my sensors started acting up. Well.. more so then usual in hyperspace.". Hyperspace travel was a good thing, as any sane trader would say, but it had its issues. Hyperspace was its own surreal little world... a ship going there, to come out somewhere else, basically went 'nowhere' first. It was something only a scientist or mathematician could understand, but a ships' sensors gave a good idea; when in Hyperspace, they told you, for example, that you were pointing...
Everywhere. And Nowhere. Your total speed was 0, and several billion times the speed of light. You were everywere and nowhere all at once, pointing at everything and nothing at the same time. It was strange, to say the least; your eyes and senses were telling you the logical thing; you were moving to the next star, just really really fast. The discrepancy was surreal for the first few jumps for anyone, for obvious reasons. Everybody says officially that hyperspace is totally explained on all levels, but something was amiss.
It still worked though, so 'Who cares?' was what any sane trader would think. The benefits were too grand too care. Things happened occasionally, though. Ships never arriving. Things being seen... And in centuries old records, the strange creatures known as 'Thargoids'... But those were old spacers' superstitions. Nothing anyone would have to worry about now.
'Maybe for that guy.', the Trader thought to himself before allowing the rookie to continue on. "They seemed to stutter a bit, and it... well, it had two blips on it. You aren't supposed to see anything on the map during a hyperspace jump, right? So... I flicked through the targets, and.. my comp had no idea what to identify the two by. The blip that was closer at around... fifteen hundred light seconds I think? Really far, but 'close', and the computer was switching its identity from a Farragut, to an Interdictor, to an Anaconda, and just random strings of letters." "That other thing was just barely in sensor range at about seven thousand light seconds out, and this thing is gonna haunt me forever."
"... It's burned into my retinas ... whenever I close my eyes, I can see it. It was so ... magnificent? Awe inspiring? It wasn't built by human hands, It just couldn'tve been. It was too.. perfect? It looked like if a circular nebula was solid, maybe two hundred or so kilometers across. It was as black as space, blotting out the very few stars I had left with me. It just switched them off as far as I could tell."
"That's about when I noticed it was coming for me. It closed distance, really damn fast. I could see it moving, it turned from barely perceptible at that distance, to like... It got nearly as close as that other thing, about two-kay light seconds. It was keeping up with me, in... in hyperspace! They were trailing me! I could see its surface; the thing was smooth. Disgustingly so, it wasn't imperfect at all. It didn't have a single blemish or error, and.. it was reflective?"
"It kept on getting closer, and closer, and closer... It went slower as it did, but it was gaining on me! I tried to bash all of my controls to get away from it, but I couldn't do anything! My FSD didn't want to respond! I even got messages sent my way; a dozen or so of just massive walls of random text, error messages from the ship! I... I could hear things start to scream from the Hyper-Radio, like a chorus of people gurgling at me..."
"It went to rendezvous with me, I expected an interdiction or something, but it never came. I almost... collided with it, I... I looked at its surface, and I saw my own reflection for a split-second."
"And something was in the cockpit with me."
... a few moments of strange, tense silence ensued. Until the Rookie laughed.
"Jesus christ, you old-ass traders believe anything. You should've seen the look on your face! I had to keep myself from laughing, that story was so stupid!"
The rookie gave his new-found friend a pat on the back and they shared a drunken chuckle.
"Heh...heheheh.. Yeah, I couldn't believe what I was hearing. ... You... really gotta wonder though.", and he asked a question, that any sane trader would.
"Is there stuff out there?"
"Eh, who cares? We have our own problems."
Content with that answer in his drunken state, the Trader soon forgot about it, and continued his rounds. The Rookie went on to do occasional escort jobs for his new friend in the less civil systems, and they shared a few stories from time to time, some real, some fake.
As any sane pair of pilots would.
Kind of based on a true story.
All of the earlier commotion had made Jan quite tired of his fellow pilots for now. Sure, he made an impression on his colleagues, but he felt quite peeved about the whole thing. He needed something to move his thoughts. He had reviewed the facility in passing earlier, and had noticed there was a training room with simulation capability. It always felt good to blow things up, even when it was just a pretend exercise. Yes, he would be killing some time with that.
Jan used the guides around the facility to get there, winding down through several hallways (and a single flight of stairs), to come across a door with a red ‘TRAINING ROOM’ on it. Going inside, it was a somewhat small, but not cramped room with three interesting pods on the left (west) side, and three more on the right. There was a single person already in the room, he was wearing a coat fit for a scientist, and writing down something on a clipboard right next to the furthest pod down the left line. He quickly noticed Jan’s presence.
“Hello there. Jan Van Gent, right? You noted the training simulators? That’s just great, the one to your right is operating. Plug in if you want. Or are you just wasting time standing there?”
“Why yes, I have some time to kill. Might as well sharpen my skills, I trust you have compiled a copy of the Goldenspur’s system?”
A quick, annoyed reply, “Yes, I took a copy of your NC’s system data from the black box, in-sim should be as close as possible.”
Jan nodded as he climbed into the simulation pod. “That’s good, didn’t find any errors?”
“If I did, you likely fucked up somewhere. And it seems like you did, your weapon’s software seems to be corrupted. Still works, which is amazing for a monkey such as yourself.”
Jan simply nodded again. He seemed rather nonchalant about this revelation. “Oh, it’s been like that for god knows how long, never really bothered to have it looked into seeing as that would likely have cost me an arm and a leg for what would amount to just resetting the system.” He started fiddling with the pod’s controls. “Anyways, I’ll be starting a simulation now, so good day. Don’t let a power surge fry my brain while I’m in there.”
The pod’s soundproofed cover closed before the technician could respond to Jan’s joke. He loaded up the system and took a look at the available training scenarios. He wasn’t in the mood for anything particularly challenging, though his standards still made him turn his nose up at the basic training scenario. Then, he had a rather mischievous idea. He loaded up the scenario for 1 on 1 NC combat and started fiddling with its parameters. A quick search through the system’s directory of available NCs turned up what he was looking for. He finalized his modified scenario and plugged in, signaling the system to start the simulation.
The rush of his body becoming but a small part of a great warmachine raced through Jan’s mind. He had always marveled at how efficiently these simulations emulated reality. More out of routine than anything, he ran a quick system check. As always, everything was in order except for an annoying error message nagging him about the main weapon. As always he dismissed it without reading it over even once. He started surveying the area around him. If he wasn’t mistaken, his opponent would arrive any second now.
And then he saw it in the distance. The telltale silhouette of an NC coming right for him. Jan smirked as the machine got closer. It was indeed the cobalt frame of Little Dragon coming right for him. He ignited Goldenspur’s thrusters to get up to charging speed. Jan had only faintly heard about Little Dragon’s capabilities, but he didn’t mind. He liked being surprised. He was getting closer and closer to his opponent. It seemed now was a good time to ignite the heatray. Warnings pinged on Jan’s interface notifying him he was now in weapon range of his opponent. He kept going, just as always.
The simulator-ran Little Dragon’s exterior began to ‘whir’ as the machine gun system mounted to its systems flared, firing rapidly at its enemy. Jan responded with just basic evasive maneuvers. There wasn’t much else to do that wouldn’t interrupt his forward momentum. He felt the faint, almost tickly feeling of shots pinging off of the forward armor plating of Goldenspur. Of course sustained fire would be a problem after a while, but Jan liked to make a point of eliminating the opposition before that point. He looked at the estimated distance to his target. He was getting quite close now, close enough to commit to this attack. There was a feeling of inevitable momentum as all auxiliary power diverted to the heatray. Sure, systems didn’t show he was in range yet, but experience had taught him this timing was optimal for actually being able to fire in the window of opportunity he would get.
However, The Little Dragon didn’t remain completely stationary, though, keeping itself in a position of agile mobility as it fired the anti-armor caliber in bursts rather than a full unload.
Jan smirked as his target started evasive maneuvers of its own. “They always try and get away.” he thought to himself. Sure, his thrusters weren’t at full power right now, but he could still very well adjust the path of his forward momentum. The rather accurate fire was starting to become worrying though. Damage was starting to show on the forward armor and it was quite possible a lucky hit would punch all the way through to something vital. Still, it was too late to go back now. He would just have to take the chance. And then, he was finally in range, He leveled the plasma lance, now humming with barely-contained power and let loose, a brilliant flash tore through the sky.
The Little Dragon rose it’s right arm as what looked like a hard light wall came from a gauntlet-shaped generator on the top of it’s forearm; wider than a sword with no cutting edge. A shield?
Jan raised an eyebrow. A shield? That was… actually a pretty novel idea for an NC. The concept didn’t seem that far-out to him, after all, he himself had modeled the Goldenspur’s loadout to resemble an ancient cavalier.
Nevertheless, he wouldn’t let some fancy new toy dissuade him from victory. Jan manually overrode all systems he deemed unnecessary to the current situation and diverted all power to the plasma lance. It burned ever so much more brightly. Already, he could see the shield starting to flicker and fail.
The machine gun fire dropped to a complete halt as the simulator detected his change of tactics; perhaps adapting to the power loadout on its own end?
There was a brief his as Goldenspur’s lance bore into the shield, it wouldn’t be long until… yes, it went down. At the same time however, the lance also powered down. Jan was briefly confused as to what was going in until he noticed the error message he had been ignoring up until now. ‘power overload imminent’ it read in big flashing letters.
“Tch.” The clicking of Stein’s lips echoed in Jan’s mind as both the NC’s went out; smoke clearing from their significant power overload. The fact she was weighing so heavily on his mind and the sim was going this… disappointingly was bothersome.
Jan got started resetting the mainframe when the simulation suddenly hiccuped and grounded to a halt. The podules’ door opened quickly, an obviously miffed Neurologist staring at Jan’s fuckup.
“I swear to god, how the hell do you people break these so easily?” Jan stared at the pod, slightly disoriented by the jarring transition back to the ‘real’ world.
“I don’t know man, perhaps look into it simulating power overloads or something?”
He leaned back in the seat as he got to work safely unplugging. He had never encountered a defense his lance couldn’t pierce before. Yes, this lady seemed like she would be quite an interesting colleague.
He off-handedly looked at the clock, and darted upright, the pod’s neural plug clattering on the sides behind him. Apparently the simulation had eaten into his time. The briefing would begin in but a few moments. He jumped out of the pod and past the neurologist. He could hear the man inhale for another round of cursing as he dashed through the door and back to the hallways of the facility. He wasn’t going to make a bad first impression by running late for the first briefing, not as long as he had standards to keep up.
Jan used the guides around the facility to get there, winding down through several hallways (and a single flight of stairs), to come across a door with a red ‘TRAINING ROOM’ on it. Going inside, it was a somewhat small, but not cramped room with three interesting pods on the left (west) side, and three more on the right. There was a single person already in the room, he was wearing a coat fit for a scientist, and writing down something on a clipboard right next to the furthest pod down the left line. He quickly noticed Jan’s presence.
“Hello there. Jan Van Gent, right? You noted the training simulators? That’s just great, the one to your right is operating. Plug in if you want. Or are you just wasting time standing there?”
“Why yes, I have some time to kill. Might as well sharpen my skills, I trust you have compiled a copy of the Goldenspur’s system?”
A quick, annoyed reply, “Yes, I took a copy of your NC’s system data from the black box, in-sim should be as close as possible.”
Jan nodded as he climbed into the simulation pod. “That’s good, didn’t find any errors?”
“If I did, you likely fucked up somewhere. And it seems like you did, your weapon’s software seems to be corrupted. Still works, which is amazing for a monkey such as yourself.”
Jan simply nodded again. He seemed rather nonchalant about this revelation. “Oh, it’s been like that for god knows how long, never really bothered to have it looked into seeing as that would likely have cost me an arm and a leg for what would amount to just resetting the system.” He started fiddling with the pod’s controls. “Anyways, I’ll be starting a simulation now, so good day. Don’t let a power surge fry my brain while I’m in there.”
The pod’s soundproofed cover closed before the technician could respond to Jan’s joke. He loaded up the system and took a look at the available training scenarios. He wasn’t in the mood for anything particularly challenging, though his standards still made him turn his nose up at the basic training scenario. Then, he had a rather mischievous idea. He loaded up the scenario for 1 on 1 NC combat and started fiddling with its parameters. A quick search through the system’s directory of available NCs turned up what he was looking for. He finalized his modified scenario and plugged in, signaling the system to start the simulation.
The rush of his body becoming but a small part of a great warmachine raced through Jan’s mind. He had always marveled at how efficiently these simulations emulated reality. More out of routine than anything, he ran a quick system check. As always, everything was in order except for an annoying error message nagging him about the main weapon. As always he dismissed it without reading it over even once. He started surveying the area around him. If he wasn’t mistaken, his opponent would arrive any second now.
And then he saw it in the distance. The telltale silhouette of an NC coming right for him. Jan smirked as the machine got closer. It was indeed the cobalt frame of Little Dragon coming right for him. He ignited Goldenspur’s thrusters to get up to charging speed. Jan had only faintly heard about Little Dragon’s capabilities, but he didn’t mind. He liked being surprised. He was getting closer and closer to his opponent. It seemed now was a good time to ignite the heatray. Warnings pinged on Jan’s interface notifying him he was now in weapon range of his opponent. He kept going, just as always.
The simulator-ran Little Dragon’s exterior began to ‘whir’ as the machine gun system mounted to its systems flared, firing rapidly at its enemy. Jan responded with just basic evasive maneuvers. There wasn’t much else to do that wouldn’t interrupt his forward momentum. He felt the faint, almost tickly feeling of shots pinging off of the forward armor plating of Goldenspur. Of course sustained fire would be a problem after a while, but Jan liked to make a point of eliminating the opposition before that point. He looked at the estimated distance to his target. He was getting quite close now, close enough to commit to this attack. There was a feeling of inevitable momentum as all auxiliary power diverted to the heatray. Sure, systems didn’t show he was in range yet, but experience had taught him this timing was optimal for actually being able to fire in the window of opportunity he would get.
However, The Little Dragon didn’t remain completely stationary, though, keeping itself in a position of agile mobility as it fired the anti-armor caliber in bursts rather than a full unload.
Jan smirked as his target started evasive maneuvers of its own. “They always try and get away.” he thought to himself. Sure, his thrusters weren’t at full power right now, but he could still very well adjust the path of his forward momentum. The rather accurate fire was starting to become worrying though. Damage was starting to show on the forward armor and it was quite possible a lucky hit would punch all the way through to something vital. Still, it was too late to go back now. He would just have to take the chance. And then, he was finally in range, He leveled the plasma lance, now humming with barely-contained power and let loose, a brilliant flash tore through the sky.
The Little Dragon rose it’s right arm as what looked like a hard light wall came from a gauntlet-shaped generator on the top of it’s forearm; wider than a sword with no cutting edge. A shield?
Jan raised an eyebrow. A shield? That was… actually a pretty novel idea for an NC. The concept didn’t seem that far-out to him, after all, he himself had modeled the Goldenspur’s loadout to resemble an ancient cavalier.
Nevertheless, he wouldn’t let some fancy new toy dissuade him from victory. Jan manually overrode all systems he deemed unnecessary to the current situation and diverted all power to the plasma lance. It burned ever so much more brightly. Already, he could see the shield starting to flicker and fail.
The machine gun fire dropped to a complete halt as the simulator detected his change of tactics; perhaps adapting to the power loadout on its own end?
There was a brief his as Goldenspur’s lance bore into the shield, it wouldn’t be long until… yes, it went down. At the same time however, the lance also powered down. Jan was briefly confused as to what was going in until he noticed the error message he had been ignoring up until now. ‘power overload imminent’ it read in big flashing letters.
“Tch.” The clicking of Stein’s lips echoed in Jan’s mind as both the NC’s went out; smoke clearing from their significant power overload. The fact she was weighing so heavily on his mind and the sim was going this… disappointingly was bothersome.
Jan got started resetting the mainframe when the simulation suddenly hiccuped and grounded to a halt. The podules’ door opened quickly, an obviously miffed Neurologist staring at Jan’s fuckup.
“I swear to god, how the hell do you people break these so easily?” Jan stared at the pod, slightly disoriented by the jarring transition back to the ‘real’ world.
“I don’t know man, perhaps look into it simulating power overloads or something?”
He leaned back in the seat as he got to work safely unplugging. He had never encountered a defense his lance couldn’t pierce before. Yes, this lady seemed like she would be quite an interesting colleague.
He off-handedly looked at the clock, and darted upright, the pod’s neural plug clattering on the sides behind him. Apparently the simulation had eaten into his time. The briefing would begin in but a few moments. He jumped out of the pod and past the neurologist. He could hear the man inhale for another round of cursing as he dashed through the door and back to the hallways of the facility. He wasn’t going to make a bad first impression by running late for the first briefing, not as long as he had standards to keep up.
Hey there, this is just my little thread of stand-alone stories set in various universes, mine or others', 'canon' or not.
This post will have a 'catalog' and summary of every other post, which will be their own little thing, as I said.
So, y'know, nothing right now but check back in if you want.
Catalog:
As would be expected, critique is always welcome!
This post will have a 'catalog' and summary of every other post, which will be their own little thing, as I said.
So, y'know, nothing right now but check back in if you want.
Catalog:
As would be expected, critique is always welcome!
Lovely post, @McMolly. We're actually working on a collab in the NCQ titanpad. If you'd like to join us, you should! The beggining was mildly invalidated by your post, but eh, whatever. heheeheheh...
The NC pilots' transport began to slow down as it reached a relatively unassuming, circular structure a quite far ways away from New Anchorage proper. The truck stopped at a checkpoint, and Bill gave an authorization code in a whisper. It then continued its' journey, stopping at a large door, which soon opened. The driver parked inside the structure, obviously an entrance into the actual facility which must've been underground.
"Well.. if it ain't obvious, we're here. Disembark, pilots. Get to it, a functionary will meet'cha.". After a few moments, all of the NC pilots were out. When they got inside the facility proper (going down a short flight of stairs, as the elevator seemed to be busy being serviced), they met a well-groomed, yet somewhat bland fellow who must've been the aforementioned functionary.
"Lovely to meet you, pilots. I'm Matthew, Sophia's assistant, and NA NC operation functionary. Please follow me and I shall show you around. We'll be going to the NC hangar first. Try to keep up." He spoke abnormally fast, and walked with high efficiency as well.
"Aren't there any signs showing a few ways around here?", Verona inquired.
"Oh, there are small maps and guide signs around the facility, sir."
"In that case, I'll be off to the briefing room. Have a good day, sir."
"Very well. Ms. Jackspar, Mr. Van Gent, and Mr. Moore, please continue walking with me." With no objections, the functionary and the other pilots continued their short tour and 'show-around'.
Joe made his own way to the facility's briefing room, using the guides and maps in every other hall. When he got there, he would've found Sophia standing near the table and shuffling through documents.
She seemed to notice his nearby presence without even looking in his direction. Dryly, "What is it, Verona?"
"Nothing, just waiting for the briefing, unless you have something specifically for me."
"Hmm...", Sophia looked up and towards Verona. Sophia seemed a bit icier then usual, which could be seen even by Joe.
"Don't get yourself killed out there? Pffha.. Aside from the obvious, I don't have anything to say."
Joe lifted an eyebrow at the sudden unusually cold coldness in Sophia's voice. "It would be detrimental to me, if I would get myself killed."
"Of course it would. In any case, the engineers have been making some minor improvements to the Swarm. You should run diagnostics with it. Get used to the changes."
"Thank you for the heads up. On another note, did the synch-rate test on startup get fixed in Swarm's software?"
"I apologize, what are you referring to-... Ah, yes, yes it was. Should be, anyway. Now get going, see for yourself?"
"I'll be back...for the briefing."
Joe headed for the hangar. As he did so, Sophia went back to what she was doing and scoffed a bit. "Never change..."
As Joe got inside the surprisingly large hangar, he could see the team's four NC's, his own standing proud... and there was a fifth one for some reason. It seems like Volkov sent another pilot? That wasn't in the memo. Technicians were crawling all over it, and some blonde woman was sitting on the NC's head upside down, running her own diagnostics it seemed.
Joe thoroughly examined the 5th NC, since it was quite unusual for memos to be outdated this quickly. His looks were quite noticable.
The apparent head of engineering, wearing a full-body, shock-proofed engineering suit for some strange reason, looked over at Joe, while standing under the fifth NC. He beckoned him to come over for a talk.
Joe did as asked, there was no reason not to. "Yes, what is it?"
An older male's voice answered, the lead engineer's face covered by the suit's welding-mask/helmet hybrid. "Verona, yes? Someone probably mentioned your NC had some minor upgrades, if not, now you know. Here to check on them, yes? If you're going to do that now, I suggest you should absolutely make sure all the missiles' safeties are on on your end. One of my wrench monkeys apparently damaged your fire control system, should be fixed, but check it yourself and all that. I'd do it, but... I don't exactly have a plug!", a slight chuckle ensued.
Joe audibly sighed: "Thanks. However, regarding you being unable to test, what about direct control via software?"
"... I seemed to have forgotten that exists... I've been doing physical crap too often, Heheheheh! Well, in any case, you need to make sure everything is working as it should from a pilots' perspective anyway. Before you trudge along, perhaps you should greet Ms. Stein up there?"
"Happens to all of us, and thanks again." Joe then decided to shout a little in Stein's general direction: "I was told to greet you, Ms...Stein!"
The blonde-haired girl looked away from the suit, shifting her view toward the direction of the shout and the newcomer. Was this one of the other engineers or one of the pilots she had been told about? She motioned a wave before she lifted herself back on top of the head of the bipedal tank before climbing down quickly. As she landed she lifted up her welding goggles over her bangs, her blue eyes looking closely at the person who required ‘greeting’.
“Consider yourself greeted.” She replied.
The lead engineer got back to work, a subtle shake of his head could be seen if you paid close attention. "Oh god, two people-machines? One would be enough..." he thought aloud.
Joe couldn't supress a grin at the lead engineer's reaction.
Stein looked at the engineer quizzically. “That’s absurd, I assure you I was birthed naturally.”
"...I said that aloud? Well... uhhhrm... Check on the Swarm already, Joe. And, continue running those checks of yours, Stein."
"Really now, head engineer? You were the one suggesting me to greet her in the first place."
"Well gee, I didn't know the both of you talking would just turn into a strange half-silence such as this. I thought you'd say hi and discuss NC piloting things."
“I could’ve done plenty of repairs in this time if I did not need to come down from my NC. Why did you waste my time, engineer?” Stein’s brows narrowed in irritation before making back for the top of her NC to continue her diagnostics and repairs.
Joe couldn't help but giggle a littlebit now. "I guess this joke was beyond you." Joe faced Swarm and started to climb it to enter the cockpit. If anyone, who knew Joe, would have been there, they might've found his reactions a littlebit...more intense than they used to be.
Joe ran diagnostics after plugging in. He couldn't find anything out of the ordinary, aside of some of the names in the NC's list of components being changed, and it generally having improved statistics, such as available extra power and fuel storage. Seems like it really got a well-deserved renovation across the board. Out of pure interest Joe ran the now hopefully fixed synch test. Unlike before, the program didn't crash before it launched, however now it crashed after the test. "Error: NaN" 'I guess another fix is needed.' He thought.
"Well.. if it ain't obvious, we're here. Disembark, pilots. Get to it, a functionary will meet'cha.". After a few moments, all of the NC pilots were out. When they got inside the facility proper (going down a short flight of stairs, as the elevator seemed to be busy being serviced), they met a well-groomed, yet somewhat bland fellow who must've been the aforementioned functionary.
"Lovely to meet you, pilots. I'm Matthew, Sophia's assistant, and NA NC operation functionary. Please follow me and I shall show you around. We'll be going to the NC hangar first. Try to keep up." He spoke abnormally fast, and walked with high efficiency as well.
"Aren't there any signs showing a few ways around here?", Verona inquired.
"Oh, there are small maps and guide signs around the facility, sir."
"In that case, I'll be off to the briefing room. Have a good day, sir."
"Very well. Ms. Jackspar, Mr. Van Gent, and Mr. Moore, please continue walking with me." With no objections, the functionary and the other pilots continued their short tour and 'show-around'.
Joe made his own way to the facility's briefing room, using the guides and maps in every other hall. When he got there, he would've found Sophia standing near the table and shuffling through documents.
She seemed to notice his nearby presence without even looking in his direction. Dryly, "What is it, Verona?"
"Nothing, just waiting for the briefing, unless you have something specifically for me."
"Hmm...", Sophia looked up and towards Verona. Sophia seemed a bit icier then usual, which could be seen even by Joe.
"Don't get yourself killed out there? Pffha.. Aside from the obvious, I don't have anything to say."
Joe lifted an eyebrow at the sudden unusually cold coldness in Sophia's voice. "It would be detrimental to me, if I would get myself killed."
"Of course it would. In any case, the engineers have been making some minor improvements to the Swarm. You should run diagnostics with it. Get used to the changes."
"Thank you for the heads up. On another note, did the synch-rate test on startup get fixed in Swarm's software?"
"I apologize, what are you referring to-... Ah, yes, yes it was. Should be, anyway. Now get going, see for yourself?"
"I'll be back...for the briefing."
Joe headed for the hangar. As he did so, Sophia went back to what she was doing and scoffed a bit. "Never change..."
As Joe got inside the surprisingly large hangar, he could see the team's four NC's, his own standing proud... and there was a fifth one for some reason. It seems like Volkov sent another pilot? That wasn't in the memo. Technicians were crawling all over it, and some blonde woman was sitting on the NC's head upside down, running her own diagnostics it seemed.
Joe thoroughly examined the 5th NC, since it was quite unusual for memos to be outdated this quickly. His looks were quite noticable.
The apparent head of engineering, wearing a full-body, shock-proofed engineering suit for some strange reason, looked over at Joe, while standing under the fifth NC. He beckoned him to come over for a talk.
Joe did as asked, there was no reason not to. "Yes, what is it?"
An older male's voice answered, the lead engineer's face covered by the suit's welding-mask/helmet hybrid. "Verona, yes? Someone probably mentioned your NC had some minor upgrades, if not, now you know. Here to check on them, yes? If you're going to do that now, I suggest you should absolutely make sure all the missiles' safeties are on on your end. One of my wrench monkeys apparently damaged your fire control system, should be fixed, but check it yourself and all that. I'd do it, but... I don't exactly have a plug!", a slight chuckle ensued.
Joe audibly sighed: "Thanks. However, regarding you being unable to test, what about direct control via software?"
"... I seemed to have forgotten that exists... I've been doing physical crap too often, Heheheheh! Well, in any case, you need to make sure everything is working as it should from a pilots' perspective anyway. Before you trudge along, perhaps you should greet Ms. Stein up there?"
"Happens to all of us, and thanks again." Joe then decided to shout a little in Stein's general direction: "I was told to greet you, Ms...Stein!"
The blonde-haired girl looked away from the suit, shifting her view toward the direction of the shout and the newcomer. Was this one of the other engineers or one of the pilots she had been told about? She motioned a wave before she lifted herself back on top of the head of the bipedal tank before climbing down quickly. As she landed she lifted up her welding goggles over her bangs, her blue eyes looking closely at the person who required ‘greeting’.
“Consider yourself greeted.” She replied.
The lead engineer got back to work, a subtle shake of his head could be seen if you paid close attention. "Oh god, two people-machines? One would be enough..." he thought aloud.
Joe couldn't supress a grin at the lead engineer's reaction.
Stein looked at the engineer quizzically. “That’s absurd, I assure you I was birthed naturally.”
"...I said that aloud? Well... uhhhrm... Check on the Swarm already, Joe. And, continue running those checks of yours, Stein."
"Really now, head engineer? You were the one suggesting me to greet her in the first place."
"Well gee, I didn't know the both of you talking would just turn into a strange half-silence such as this. I thought you'd say hi and discuss NC piloting things."
“I could’ve done plenty of repairs in this time if I did not need to come down from my NC. Why did you waste my time, engineer?” Stein’s brows narrowed in irritation before making back for the top of her NC to continue her diagnostics and repairs.
Joe couldn't help but giggle a littlebit now. "I guess this joke was beyond you." Joe faced Swarm and started to climb it to enter the cockpit. If anyone, who knew Joe, would have been there, they might've found his reactions a littlebit...more intense than they used to be.
Joe ran diagnostics after plugging in. He couldn't find anything out of the ordinary, aside of some of the names in the NC's list of components being changed, and it generally having improved statistics, such as available extra power and fuel storage. Seems like it really got a well-deserved renovation across the board. Out of pure interest Joe ran the now hopefully fixed synch test. Unlike before, the program didn't crash before it launched, however now it crashed after the test. "Error: NaN" 'I guess another fix is needed.' He thought.
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