Mecha Space Pirate Quest XVI

Miles in a hijab?

The fact he didn't follow 'procedure' and set up such a long time screams prep time for a trap. Shouldn't be hard to get some ears out to see if there is a build up of forces.

As for her... well she is a proud bugger and if the guy breaks a binding arangement and shows no interest in her, it would likely have her cut off all ties. They are betrothed, not married. Of course we shouldn't put her in the Zam yet.

Shes already been stealing her clothes so

I meant more to potentially shoot double crossing fuckers. Giving them a hostage as well as a superweapon seems a bit much.

Miles probably would be the best of our current pilots for the zam though wouldn't she?

How about we just strip out some of the Tarrasque's critical components, leave it unable to use its guns and defense systems?

Miles in the Big Zam. The particle cannon FAR outmatches her usual sniper cannon and she's specced for gunnery. Richard needs to get into that Morgan 2 with his Missile skills. Maybe Mohammed into the Warmouth?

Hey Wong why is their skill like this
Miles Longshadow [P] (Mecha Pilot 16, Mecha Gunnery 17, Mecha Fighting 14)
If we stat ourselves would it be something like
Rorake S. Starwind [P] (Mecha Pilot 19, Mecha Hand to hand 16, Mecha Fighting 19)?

First of all. There are police and civilian pilots on Suleiman who are available for recruitment. I'm giving you a fairly substantial bonus for having saved their lives, and a successful Oratory roll coupled with a decent short speech (or summary thereof) could rake in quite a few of them. The speech is important, because I'll be levying bonuses (or penalties) based on how good it is.

So, why don't you test that new Oratory rating out, give me 1d10+13. I'll use the first result. Also, make your case for joining the Iron Kestrels!

How about we just use the fucking thing ourselves and send her to him in a shuttle?

Yes, although she'd be unhappy with it. After all, that cannon isn't specced for long-range yet, and it's much harder to aim than her current Master Harpy. She'll still do it if you tell her to, though.

Rolled 8 + 13 (1d10 + 13)

Look at what the Green Skulls have done to your homes and your friends, will you let then get away with this? Join us and bring justic and vengence to the cowards

Rolled 7 + 13 (1d10 + 13)

Maybe we should just let one of the no names fly it if we cant find someone else. That one dude had some slick moves last thread.

It would be Mecha Fighting 19, Mecha Pilot 19.

Also, don't discount the power of the Master Harpies. They don't have the oomph of a larger unit, but they're ridiculously fast.

Men and women of Suleiman 1. Look at yourselves, you've suffered with blood and pain. Look around you. There's friends and family of yours that are missing. Tell me, do you wish to remain defenseless? To roll over when the next group of scum decides that they want to toy with your lives? I am Roarke Starwind. Pirate Admiral of the Iron Kestrels. We killed those men who wished to do harm to you and your family. I offer you a chance. An opportunity to gain strength and fight back against tyrants. I'll hand you the steel to strike back against the Green Skulls. To punish them for hurting your family. Join me in my crusade against the Green Skulls. With the Iron Kestrel you'll find comrades, family, and power.

are they red in color

By the way, is anyone still wondering why Bluegills are cheaper than Harpies, and why the pirate version is better than the UJCIDF version (and why the UJCIDF isn't just switching to pirate specs), or do I need to explain it again?

I like it user, good work

Harpies transform and are fast as balls. Not fully sure about the second one.

Nah its cool. Harpies just have common parts from civilian mechs. Cheaper to build on top of whats missing instead of building from scratch.

Let's turn that wrecked Battle Cruiser into upgrades for our Rhinehawk. Can we maybe add an Iron Kestrel custom upgrade to our mechs with our mechbays?

To add onto that, consider what the Green Skulls have done. Burned down farms, razed villages, attacked unarmed civilians, and being general assholes. Thats not how we role. Sure we are pirates, but we only care for the monetary gain and putting assholes like the green skulls in their place.

We also care for our own. Now, the Federation? They had no desire to come here. None whatsoever. They backed off and kept far away. Nuts to that too. They won't punish the green skulls for their shit, so we'll do it ourselves. Weither it be for fame, glory, money, justice, or revenge we'll take on any willing to join so long as they follow our codes.

So to the homeless, vengeful, and prideful people of Suleiman I ask you, join the Iron Kestrels and show both those who forsook you and belittled you what you're made of!

Wong are we picking up where we left us since it was a perfect moment for us to end up fucking Karne and getting her upgrade

>tfw all you see is a SPAZ style bolting the husks of destroyed warships onto your flagship to upgrade it

Make their heads sort of falcon shaped. That or a falcon shaped pauldron.

She drank too much beer and fell asleep again. If you want her upgrade, you have to romance her. No matter how nerdy and bespectacled they are, mechanic girls are not to be taken for granted, and deserve the same time and effort as any other despite their accessibility and high chance of pre-existing crushes on orange-haired ace pilots.

We're actually skipping ahead to leaving Suleiman to avoid hours of faffing about, hence your speech is going to be part of the background detail in my next post.

A whopping 22 pilots, the max possible for recruitment this time! This actually causes a problem, as you cannot maintain and service all of their mecha at once. For now, the Yamato can pick up the slack, but it's a good thing you're planning to upgrade the Rhinehawk.

Any of them better than usual?

None that have made themselves apparent yet, at least. You could always have that one rookie who turns out to be a potential ace. On average, they come out as B-class crew, the more experienced pilots being balanced out by having to train the less experienced and amateur ones.

So we'll need to likely train them up some time to bolster their experience and see if there are any good seeds. Needed to get some teaching experience anyways. Can likely do that at Red Siren's place.

Lets have our veteran crew members train the new guys and have the best and brightest join squads under our Lieutenants (Miles, Moe, and Richard)

Maybe every one of mechs have wings on them that are falcon wings aesthetics? Have them be an unique Iron Kestrel version that focuses on extra speed?

Karen as a mechanic who focuses on armour could add a falcon head on their torso that adds a mini projector system?

Falcon talons on each mech's foot that adds massive damage on drop kicks?

The Iron Kestrels should have some sort of defining trait that sets us apart from others apart from having an insane admiral.

Over the next few days, you talk to a lot of people. You talk to the surviving police and rescue pilots of Suleiman. You talk to the citizens. You talk to the local authorities. You make it loud and clear that you are a different breed of pirate from the Green Skulls and that anyone who wants revenge is welcome to join you. Surprisingly, twenty-two of them do. Despite its short length, the Green Skulls' occupation was terrifyingly brutal, and a lot of people are still angry. Not just at the enemy pirate crew, but at the UJCIDF for leaving them to die. The story gets around that Samantha broke ranks to bring you here, but she hates the attention and repeatedly redirects any credit she gets onto you. Even the chief of police, who claims to have flown Bluegills before, signs on with you after having the mayor mark him down as deceased on paper. Your ship's personal mecha complement is now larger than it was under Ozark...which is a problem, because you're out of space for all the machines you've collected. The Yamato can shoulder the burden temporarily, but it's a good thing that you've been planning to upgrade the Rhinehawk for some time. Even starships are designed to be relatively modular, and it should be possible to modernize updated systems, use space more efficiently, and expand certain sections of the ship to get it up to par with Medium-Weight cruisers. You're replete with hull metal from the two ships you destroyed, and between the parts you salvaged and the parts you could sell for scrap you finally have enough to complete the project.

However, the facilities on Suleiman are insufficient for your purposes, and there's always the risk of the UJCIDF deciding to finally show up and play cavalry now that the actual work is done. You have two main options.

[continued]

We all got leather jackets and sunglasses.

All of that would be tremendously expensive, and they would handle far more clumsily as a result of all that added weight.

As it stands, Iron Kestrels mecha are noted for a black-trimmed-in-silver color scheme and a white hawk symbol on one pauldron.

I just spent last night and today getting caught up and i have to say I love this quest. Keep up the fantastic work Mr. Wong!

Could always teach the crew how to punch and then get them falcon claw shaped knuckle dusters for their mechs. Lot cheaper than all those fancy ornaments.

Caught it live!

>[Go to Auditorium. This would take longer, as it isn't nearly as well-equipped as California Station, and you would be subject to the whims and price-monopolies of an autocratic pirate idol. However, that idol is Red Siren, and who doesn't like Red Siren? For that matter, Red Siren likes you, maybe she won't demand anything TOO ridiculous.]

>[Go to California Station. Your ship will be ready faster, and likely cheaper. However, there is no Red Siren on California Station, and there is always the possibility that the Cincinnatus is still lurking around waiting for you to come back. This would have one upside, at least, Samantha would be able to talk to her brother sooner.]

Auditorium we can offer Siren that dinner we owe her plus give our crew a bit of a vacation due to their hard work

>Go to Auditorium
Dont want to fuck with the space police and their vonder vepons just yet.
How hard would getting the Big Zam going again by the way?

>>[Go to Auditorium. This would take longer, as it isn't nearly as well-equipped as California Station, and you would be subject to the whims and price-monopolies of an autocratic pirate idol. However, that idol is Red Siren, and who doesn't like Red Siren? For that matter, Red Siren likes you, maybe she won't demand anything TOO ridiculous.]
The green skulls were planning on going after her anyways so this may be the better option. We also promised her and I'm sure Sam can hold out a bit before we head to California.

Would be a better place to train the new crew as well.

Red Siren. We need to make sure she's okay. It's confirmed that Green Skull is aiming for her. Maybe getting they are getting help from the UJCIDF too.

Let's head to California. The faster the ship's ready to fly, the better.

Is it possible to stick Sam onto a cruiser heading to California station that we can possible find in the Auditorium?

Yes, but you would lose access to her stealth mech for an undefined amount of time and ~shenanigans~ might happen.

Do i hear "Beach Episode"

>>[Go to Auditorium. This would take longer, as it isn't nearly as well-equipped as California Station, and you would be subject to the whims and price-monopolies of an autocratic pirate idol. However, that idol is Red Siren, and who doesn't like Red Siren? For that matter, Red Siren likes you, maybe she won't demand anything TOO ridiculous.]

She's not going to gouge us on prices, she's a waifu.

She's a professional.

She'll bleed us if she can.

She's on her period?

Gonna be real fun when the entire harem ends up synching up

Do you?

Fun fact, there are colonies that are designed to be gigantic space-lakes with space-beaches.

More like she gets ambushed by green skulls on her way home.
Not many beaches in space.

She won't gouge us on prices but she won't give us a discount either. She has mouths to feed. I'm with paying normal price since we just got a big goddamn payday. A Battle Cruiser and a Tarrasque.

I can see Red Siren having a beach for her tourism colony

She is also a pirate.

And this is why we have to diversify our portfolio.. and find a time of the month to run for the hills.

This is probably the most reasonable of the lot. She's got her own colony, it's unlikely that she'd need funds badly enough that she'd risk spoiling relations with the guy who can punch out starships.

You have my attention dear sir, and I eagerly await future mentions of said beach episode.

Finally, you're ready to go. Working out a way to get your salvage debris through the microgate ahead of your ships is the hardest part, but between Avi and Richard, a way is found. Cornelius is looking into repairing the Tarrasque with Karen, although it's slowed extensively by the fact that the two of them can't seem to crack open a single plate on it without examining the contents and arguing about ways to replicate, miniaturize, or improve its systems. Fortunately, you'll be able to repair it as Fatima asked...even if she had the sense not to ask for it back for free...without losing the chance to learn from it. You can't help feeling a little bad for Karen, working so hard that she frequently falls asleep at her desk or floating down a hallway. You end up having to tuck her into bed several times, frustratingly without getting the chance to be more intimate with her.

Samantha, though, is proving that Captain Ozark may have been right all along when he said that a harem composed of girls who rely on each other emotionally and professionally is best. She picks up the slack for her bespectacled ally in taking care of you, more or less moving into your quarters. She thinks it's a little odd that you're still in the cramped, rather spartan room you had when you were First Mate, but you never really had time to scout for anywhere else to sleep and you plan on renovating the ship anyway.

To make it up to Karen, you swear to her that you will take her to Auditorium's beach, the one aspect of going to that colony that she seems happy about. She says she bought a swimsuit back on California Station.

When you arrive through the microgate, Auditorium is much as you left it. From the outside, its rather gaudy appearance and the flashing neon images of Red Siren's face provide a very different impression than inside.

[Continued]

>pic

>mfw

...someday we need to get a hold of a place to turn into our own space hideout. With boxing rings and gyms.

And space blackjack, and space hooke- err, waifus.

We can call it Van-halla and host a fist fighting tournament with us as the champ

How does space boxing work? Do you wear a jetpack like space fencing?

Like Thunderdome.

There will be Little Nippon for Oda and his crew. We could also sell vintage music and merchandise. No hipsters allowed though.

It's like normal boxing, but your fists aren't weighed down by earth's gravity.. or gravity in general. Would make wrestling fun in zero G as well.

Wrestling in 0g is pretty much the only way to safely fistfight. You gotta hold on to your opponent because otherwise both of you get pushed away. Space dropkicks are always viable though.

Inside, it resembles what you imagine the Parthenon or some classical Roman city along the shores of the Mediterranean sea must have looked like, before the nuclear conflict that devastated Earth. Briefly, you wonder, as always, whether that sea has been restored on its original world, or whether the Terrans have built new seas to suit their liking.

White stone, finely cut and polished, is everywhere. Stairways are wide and shallow and grandiose. Buildings are fronted with fluted pillars and topped with crimson tile roofs. Shapely olive trees wave their branches in the expertly modulated artificial wind off the bay of the artificial lake with its artificial waves, surrounded by sparkling sands. Sure, it was all made with human mechanical ingenuity and creativity...but isn't that in its own way beautiful? Of course, ancient Rome or Greece never had so many statues of even its most beloved goddesses visible nearly whever you look, including holding up the public holoscreens displayed at most prominent locations. After all, Red Siren likes to give her captives a sense of normalcy, and both she and her crew enjoy knowing what's going on on Jupiter. While Avi and Miles (for once, you ambush your First Mate with orders before she can sneak off with Richard at the first sign of shore leave) left in charge of securing parts and upgrading the ship, you decide that you have more than earned a well-deserved break from stress, work, and fighting.

>[Who do you want to take with you?]

Karen got at least a partial art shift when Roarke stopped viewing her as "that glasses girl kid". Now you behold the true form of the cheongsam mechanic.

Avi

It's brotime

Karen needs a break for once and it is something she wants to see. Maybe Moe too so he doesn't become a stick in the mud.

Karen, Sam and that's it. Fatima is still a payday so she doesn't get to come this time.

Leave Richard and half the mecha to guard our shit and bring whatever named person we have with us

wait never mind, that was stupid. Sorry, got too excited for brotime. It will come. Second thought, Richard. Different brotime.

Don't worry about the mecha, they're staying on your ship, you'd get some very nasty looks stomping about a colony in your twenty-meter Knuckle Kaiser.

I meant the pilots my bad

You have selected Karen as your companion on this jaunt. Is there anyone else you would like to bring along? I heard Sam, Mohammed, and Richard.

Sam and maybe Moe

Sam. But spend a bit more of our attention on Karen for the beggining then switch to Sam.

Mohammed and Richard. Maybe take them to the arcade before the beach? Still need to bluegill it up.

Wong, if we get to knock boots with some husbando material, do we get a KK upgrade too? Or is that just for waifus?

Mohammed and Richard. Mohammed seems like a sheltered kind of guy. Good for him to learn about pirates and how they aren't so different from other people. Richard bro time is a good idea. Plus we can count on Richard to take Mohammed away if we can get the mood going with Karen.

Mohammed and Richard for the laugh.

Almost forgot to ask, did Clemmy text us back?

Just for waifus. Besides, would you really NTR Miles? Sure, she's greedy, and rather vicious, and she thinks 'warning shots' mean 'if they survive they'll run away', but she's your First Mate.

Moe-hammed though.
Don't mess with my hot yaoi shipping, c'mon

Well bros and the like are off the market. Same with their girls. It's only fair. But what he meant is if a fabulous gay guy pops up can we plunder his booty for upgrades?

This too, all day.

He just wants to blow shit up with his mech user, stop being so gay.
We are already fucking one dude anyway

So if we dress up Macho McManliness in some gothic lolita or Fatima's schoolgirl outfit, then we can label him waifu and get the sweet sweet booty upgrade?

No. They have to look enough like a girl to confuse anons dicks.