Mecha Space Pirate Quest XVIII

Next is Mohammed's machine.

PIRATE MASTER HARPY DERVISH VARIANT
Medium Striker Torso: C/S/K 8, 4 tons
Medium Striker Head: C/S/K 4, 2 tons
Medium Striker L. Wing: C/S/K 4, 2 tons
Medium Striker R. Wing: C/S/K 4, 2 tons
Medium Striker L. Arm: C/S/K 5, 2 tons
Left Hand: 2 CP, 1 Space, 1 Kill, 0.5 tons
Medium Striker R. Arm: C/S/K 5, 2 tons
Right Hand: 2 CP, 1 Space, 1 Kill, 0.5 tons
Medium Striker L. Leg: C/S/K 5, 2 tons
Medium Striker R. Leg: C/S/K 5, 2 tons

Armor: Heavy Striker (5 SP, 5 CP, 2.5 tons) on all locations

Main Sensors (Head): 4 CP, 1 Space, 2 Kills, 1 ton
Backup Sensors (Torso): 2 CP, 2 Spaces, 2 Kills, 1 ton

Options: Torso Cockpit with Environment Pod (2 CP, 2 Spaces), Head Storage Module (1 CP, 1 Space), Liftwire (0.3 CP), Spotlights (0.2 CP), Interservo Melee Weapon Link (Beam Katars, 7 CP), Deluxe Anti-Theft Lock (0.4 CP), Stereo (0.1 CP), Torso Weapon Mount (2 CP, 2 Spaces)

Armament: Always equipped with the Beam Katars and shield, generally equipped with the Heavy Autocannon. It can switch its gun for the Epoxy Gun prior to missions without penalty. The Weapon Mount allows it to use its handheld gun in fighter mode.
Arm-Mounted Beam Katars x2 (stats show an individual beam sword): WA +1, 6K (only 2K of structure), EMW (treats SP as 4 less than usual), 6.5 CP, 3 Spaces, 1 ton
Handheld Custom Heavy Autocannon: Range 350m, WA -1, 6K, BV 4, Ammo 10 bursts, Reloads 3, 17 CP, 8 Spaces, 3 tons
Arm-Mounted Small Shield: DA -1, SP 6, 7.5 CP, 3 tons
Handheld Epoxy Gun: Range 250m, WA +2, No damage but a successful hit counts as a Grapple with a DC of 18 to beat, 6 Kills of structure, Ammo 3, 12 CP, 7 Spaces, 3 tons

[1/2]

Mech bay is a bad choice. We'd be equipping grunts with bad machines in order to fill it up. Lots of casualties.

Better to upgrade our peoples equipment and skills first.

Only thing not to job so far really.

Thrusters & Speed: 3 per leg, 3 per wing, 1 in the torso. The wings themselves add +100m in flight. Moves 450 meters per turn in flight, 900 in jet form, or can run 200m. 13 CP.
Jet Mode: Allows the mech to take the form of a mechafighter (costs 0.3 multiplied by the base CP of the mech). This doubles the flight MA, prevents the use of handheld weapons, and inflicts -2 MV. It takes one action to transform.
Total Weight: 49 tons
Total Cost: 182.5 CP

Looking at it, you may notice that it has a similar weapon setup to Yoritomo's. This is partially because you ordered him to train with Yoritomo, and partially because dual beam sabers (inset on the upper sides of the forearms like a pair of sword-length punch daggers) fit him well. He can swap his Heavy Autocannon out for an Epoxy Gun without penalty when you deploy him, although he defaults to the autocannon if not ordered otherwise. Because he frequently deploys with the long-ranged Miles' and Richard's Master Harpies, however, I put the Epoxy Gun in as an equally viable option, letting him stick enemies in place and tank for them.

Originally, it was equipped with physical blades, but during the Master Harpy raid on Suleiman 1, Mohammed took a prototype scarlet beam saber and Cornelius was able to reproduce the technology to create a pair of them.

Perhaps it would be more accurate to call it a pata than a katar?

Every option that ISN'T getting one of the extra bays/holds/spaces costs 2 Spaces.

Mohammed has based a lot of the aesthetic of his machine on yours, notably the sensor mask head and accentuating the stark Iron Kestrels' black-and-silver coloration with a hint of red (in his case, his beam sabers), while keeping it his own. Somehow, after getting the beam swords it became the cheapest and lightest of the three, not needing any Weight Efficiency.

Shield, then. Our main offensive punch comes from our mechs and that's just going to get more pronounced as we go on. We need to have a more durable base.

When does grapple-chan get epoxy/magnetism upgrade?

Also you didn't upgdate the upgrade bin for Karens new ugrade. Our mech is one hell of a front liner though, 5K ablation and 7SP armour.

It seems like we're down to two choices. Just to be sure I'm reading this right, since I might be wrong about which way you're leaning, respond to this post with "Cannons" if you want to upgrade the beam batteries from Medium to Heavy, and "Shields" if you want the defensive screen.

Shields

>Kaiser Heart: Less of an individual upgrade, and more the result of endless work, mildly unsafe experimentation, minute adjustments, and constant fine-tuning to maximize armor protection and efficiency based on Roarke's combat data, all done by the extremely dedicated Karen Cohen. It adds +1 to the SP of every armor piece, including shields, and +1 to the ablation value of the Officer Armor system. The new values are already factored in wherever they are listed elsewhere. In the process, she has drafted plans for many new upgrades that costs points as normal.

And the true Best Girl, Grapple-chan, uses Roarke's obscenely high Mecha Fighting rolls instead of a set DC, making her superior when piloted by a true space brawler to any puny epoxy gun with its "ammunition" and lesser range.

Shields

Also as always our mixtapes

drive.google.com/file/d/0B6iimHE85EZZdTkwcHVxT2ZxWXc/view?usp=docslist_api

Grapple-chan is too clingy to be true best girl.

Does the Tarrasque count as jobbing when you ambushed it eight-to-one? It may not have harmed the Knuckle Kaiser, but it did scratch up at least one Bluegill and dinged the shields on two others.

DON'T YOU INSULT MY WAIFU! SHE'S PURE, PURE I TELL YOU! LOYAL! AFFECTIONATE! HARD-WORKING! STRONG! BEAUTIFUL! STRETCHY! JOINED TO HER BELOVED KAISER-KUN BY THE NANOFIBER CABLE OF FATE!

To be fair it got wrecked super hard.

I'm giving you guys another fifteen minutes to vote, then we'll get to actual plot stuff.

By the way, what would you think of an interlude where, temporarily, you play as a rookie UJCIDF pilot to get a sense of what's going on with Roarke's request to Clementine and the shenanigans taking place in SOUL?

Look, I don't want to be the bearer of bad news, but you do realize she has embraced at least 3 other mechs, right?

Maybe not as pure as you keep telling yourself?

Keep your filthy NTR fetish on /d/! Grapple-chan was helping her darling fight as best she could!

Correct me if i am wrong But Colonel stern is either The Bluegill Joe. OR the pilot of the kingfisher because Barring shadowruns he cannot be the Pilot of the Thoroughbred X

Everyone knows Floyd Beck was killed in battle, the armor and wings of the destroyed Thoroughbred-X are on display in a museum on the Ionian Colonies he came from. Rudolph Merrow, Floyd's best friend and pilot of the King Swordfish, retired and vanished from the public eye, and nobody has heard from Joseph Muragi (Bluegill Joe) in a long time.

Possessive yanderes a shit. Obsessive yanderes a best.

Considering his penchant for blades and his advice on revenge, he's Joseph Murage, isn't he?

The Shields have it! It looks like the Rhinehawk will be equipped with a defensive screen when it's done being upgraded!

A fine choice for a flagship, as the Rhinehawk is now fast, heavily armored (it stays 1 armor category above its hull size even when its hull gets larger), and equipped with a powerful shield that can stop most attacks cold.

Yes
Cannons

Also glad I caught the glorious catastrophe (in the best way) that is Mecha Space Pirates Quest.

Hey, if Karen made a master harpy for herself would it include a torso gun armament named the sweater puppy(s)? Ahahaha.

I'd personally prefer keeping to one plot thread that you occasionally shift perspectives around. Going for an entirely different scene that only later ties into the main plot always feels disjointed to me.

Yes, probably. She hasn't actually flown a mech ever since her mom's Harpy Custom got splattered while she was watching, though.

>All waifus hug the Knuckle Kaiser in their mecha to activate the combination into Grand Harem Autocrat.

Glorious.

I would rather play as Jesus or Clemmy than some rookie

People would probably make them do something retarded and out of character.

>playing as jesus

But user we need to witness the crazy from a second perspective. We already do first person shenanigans all day erry day.

You wake up in the dimly lit room, your mouth dry and the holoprojected stars wheeling slowly overhead. There's a soft arm thrown across your chest, and a softer waterfall of dark hair tickling your ribs as its owner sleepily murmurs to herself. Your discarded PC shows that it's a little past noon, although your head is still a little fuzzy on the exact date. Sitting up, you knock over a few empty capsules of Red Comet-brand energy drinks.

"Nnnnm?" Karen sits up, rubbing her eyes and fumbling around for her glasses. You grab them for her and put them onto her nose, and she smiles, "I guess I really was holding out for a hero..."

You laugh softly, and hug her, "I've got something to say before we both have to get back to work. Karen. You realize you're with me on the field everytime I go out right? The Knuckle Kaiser was made by you. It's what let's me fight for the Iron Kestrels. To protect our family from the Green Skulls. You make that possible. I think that's really cool." You grin, and put on your shades, as she blushes furiously and nods.

"R-Roarke...you're really cool too. Fight hard, okay?" The two of you share a kiss, before you get dressed and get ready to resume work. Even after you freshen up, you'd kill someone for a mug of coffee and some fresh pastries.

As you exit the room, you walk straight into the trio of the Rhinehawk's officers, interrupting an argument.

"I'm telling you, I won't do it. Naming it the 'Mohammed variant' is disrespectful to the Prophet. It's the Dervish." Mohammed insists, "I may not be religious, but Lady Fatima would throw a fit if she heard I called a humanoid mecha by anything even similar to the Prophet's name."

Miles makes a whipcrack sound with her mouth, "Come on, I called mine the Longshadow! How can we be a team if our names don't match, huh?! You might as well call it the Zero if you're going to act like a zero."

Mohammed's impassive face creeps towards a frown, "I shall not."

[Continued]

Lets try and score abother mixtape while were on Auditorium, maybe some 70s/80s mecha music

Richard, as usual, is remaining quiet and avoiding either opinion, just grunting noncommittally whenever either of them looks at him.

"DOUBLE Zero!" Miles cackles like a particularly short and particularly evil witch.

Mohammed's expression becomes gradually more and more Fatima-like, "It is the Dervish. There shall be no discussion. Not all of us are blessed with silly names like yours."

Miles opens her mouth to say something awful and nearly walks directly into you as you emerge from Karen's room, "Hey, watch it Kar-Dude?" Her face twists into an expression better suited for some kind of Lovecraftian underwater predator than a normal woman's grin, "Oh ho ho hoooo, Richard, so this is where he's been!"

"We thought you were ashore, boss. Maybe training or something. Uh, Yoritomo said it's normal for a warrior to go sit under a waterfall during a time of stress until he achieves clarity and focus." Richard scratches his beard doubtfully.

Miles punches him in the arm, "Don't softball me! If you make it too easy there's no point in turning it into innuendo." She sighs and shakes her head, before going up on tiptoe to pat you on the back, "It's just like having Captain Ozark back, kinda nostalgic really. So, does she call you Admiral, or Rooooaaaarke~?" Her smirk is smug enough for six normal people, which is impressive given her diminutive stature.

>[Respond verbally, if so with what?]
>[Put her in one of the air vents, she'll get down eventually]
>[Ignore her]

>>[Put her in one of the air vents, she'll get down eventually]
That's Admiral Rooooarke~ to you.

Tell her everything untill she geta embarrassed then ask Richard what kind of names she calls him

>[Put her in one of the air vents, she'll get down eventually]
Womenlets, when will they learn?

>[Put her in one of the air vents, she'll get down eventually]

Or she will become Ceiling Miles, the Miles of the Vents, Harbinger of Peeping.

This

"Well, you see..." You lean down.

Miles isn't bad at hand-to-hand, but she isn't nearly as good at it as you are. You're taller, stronger, and faster, so it's easy to grab her by the back of her belt and the collar of her leather jacket and hoist her up over your head. Glancing around, you spot one of the air vents, its cover left off for maintenance. Karen wouldn't fit in there, neither would Sam past the hips, but Miles? Miles fits in like a missile into its tube despite her kicking, thrashing, and attempts to bite you. You shove her in until her feet are barely sticking out, before dusting off your hands, "That's Admiral Roooooarke~ to you." You turn to Richard and Mohammed, the latter looking faintly awestruck, "Bosun, make a pot of coffee and bring it to me at the bridge." This way, he won't be able to just pull her out of there.

"MOTHERFUCKER! BASTARD! I'LL EVISCERATE YOU WITH MY TOENAIL CLIPPERS YOU GINGER FUCK!" Rants the Miles of the Vents. You graciously ignore her.

"I like Dervish better myself." You inform Mohammed, wheeling around and heading for the bridge as the Martian kid scurries after you.

You arrive just as Maya looks up from her computer terminal, "Good timing, sir. We've got a communication from Red Siren, shall I put it onscreen?"

>[Yes]
>[Get presentable first]

>[Yes]
Too much preening during working hours isn't a good idea.

>Yes

No reason to hide it

>[Yes]
How is the old zam doing by the way wong man?

>making me use Jesus' perspective

"Onscreen." You order, still adjusting your rumpled shirt and combing your hair when Red Siren's smiling face appears on the main monitor.

"Roarke darling~" Her smile fades a little, "...Did you just wake up? You're dreadfully shy of your usual poise, lovely." She tuts sadly.

You adjust your shades, "I had a late night. And day. It's hard to keep regular hours, you should know that."

She grins knowingly, and laughs, "Oh well, that's perfectly normal. So, I told you to let me handle it, didn't I?" She puffs up with pride, "Well, I have. Apparently the reporter who did that broadcast is on her way to California Station with a small transport and modest escort to do a scoop, and I had just the most splendid idea! I'll kidnap her, and then I can use my clout as a microphone to tell everyone that you aren't the sort of person to do what you're accused of." She taps her chin with one long, pink fingernail, "Although I'm not sure if you want me to accuse the military directly, or pin this on the Skulls. Hm, I'll let you decide!"

>[What say?]

Repairs are underway. I won't say that I may have misread a certain section about what happens if you destroy a pod's armor and then start hitting the torso (and it wouldn't have mattered because Roarke got a cockpit critical hit anyway and can pierce Megaheavy armor), but I will say that a weakness in the original design has been patched up and that now if you destroy the pod and start attacking the torso you don't use the pod's armor SP.

Lets say the Green Skulls since its more believeable to the public rather then if we come out and say there governemnt is evil soubding like a conspiracy theorist, plus have her play the video that proves us innocent

I don't like it. Imagine how the media would spin it if a reporter was kidnapped by pirates, only to come out denying an earlier report of theirs and being in support of said pirates after being released. Not to mention how the average person would interpret such a chain of events without even needing the media to put their own spin on it.

Green Skulls. Noone would ever believe the government did this, and it's not like this is the entire government being evil. It's one branch. We know there's good people in the government, and we don't need shit coming down on their head. We'll handle them quietly.

This is also how Red Siren announces her new albums, incidentally.

Still don't really like it. Even if it's Red Siren herself doing the talking, it's still too easy to spin the other way for us. If the goal is to build better PR, which is what I'm assuming it is, there's better and more subtle ways to go about doing so I'd imagine.

Not trying to be a negative nancy, but just offering my jaded opinion.

Out of curiousity Wong, how does Roarke feel about 70s-90s mecha anime?

So let's see. We (theoretically) have Clemmy on the military side looking into the situation and trying to find/save athena. From her responses, it seems unlikely the colony was destroyed by the military directly, which means the green skulls are probably the ones who actually pulled the trigger. We don't know who exactly is the bad egg on the military side, but the psycho admiral is currently our prime suspect.

What we need to do is find proof of complicity between the two. That and punch them into tiny little gibblets.

I don't think siren should be broadcasting our defense to the world. Take the journalist prisoner, but instead keep her on the station and let her make a very public report of a split between siren and the kestrels. Full of screaming, threats, everything. Give the green skulls the idea that she stands alone, and they might come and try to take over.

Spring a trap on them when they do, and we can get more information as well as a great mouthpiece to broadcast that to the solar system in the form of the reporter.

Roarke has never watched an anime in his life. He's familiar with the concept, but during his childhood he never had the kind of money Yoritomo did to go diving into pre-nuclear-conflict cultural phases.

To be honest since we are already wanted criminals it doesn't really make much difference if people believe what we are saying. Might as well just get it said anyway though, might get someone asking questions.

I personally view our public image as completely irrelevant in this instance. The only things that matter are 1.Killing green skulls 2.Finding the bad guys in the military working with them.

We probably shouldn't try to break out the people under military custody, even if they have useful information. It'd be too high profile and bring down even more heat on us. So drawing the green skulls into a trap seems to be the best way to find out the information we need via interrogations. They could also possibly know if there were any survivors, and where those survivors are.

I get the feeling the only survivors are those capable of making giant death robots.

Are you saying you don't want to save Athena and Sam's brother just because they're not useful?

Dude, that's a dick move. I'm voting against whatever you want because you're being a dick and the Green Skulls obviously wouldn't know where a military prison would be.

What are you on about?

I"m saying that if we try to blow them out of whatever military prison they are currently in, they would be in more danger with us, regardless of what useful information they had, because then instead of one psycho admiral out to get us, the entire military is out to get us.

Pussy. The entire military is already out to get us, we're being framed for war crimes. I'm saying that whether or not they have useful information it doesn't fucking matter. There's a little girl in danger, we're going to save her.

You know what? HEY WONG, I'm voting we tell the truth about the military being behind this. Fuck giving those guys what they want and fueling anti-pirate sentiment.

Ah, a moron. Good to see your opinion can be discarded.

It's not just one General. It's her and every ship under her command, including SOUL and the SOUL mecha, and whoever else she can call in as reinforcements.

As pirates the entire military is already out to get us you know.

His opinion is actually worth every bit as much as yours and everyone else's in this thread. I, personally, can't see Roarke Starwind just leaving Athena wherever they're keeping her given Anons' reaction to finding out she's being used to blackmail her father.

It's like everyone suddenly forgot about the 'Space Pirate' part of 'Mecha Space Pirate Quest'.

There is some hope, as the skulls have been shown to use slaves. They might've rounded up the people in the colony before blowing it up to get a twofer.

We got to be careful though. If Siren comes out pro-kestrel, she may paint a target on her. I can see blaming the green skulls for now, giving out copies of our flight data and maybe getting the police chief and some of the others to give eyewitness accounts

Shrug, then i suppose none of this discussion matters, does it?

Seeing as the only survivors we know about are being held by the military I dont think it was the skulls.

Are you referring to what those two aces in the Morgan II and Warmouth said? I'd like to remind you, they had everyone working the mines instead of the farms specifically because they planned to kill them when they were ready to leave.

IC, you would know that if the Green Skulls DID blow the Colony up, they wouldn't keep anyone but the girls they take for Galbadie.

Howso?

You'll write what you want to.

Exactly, Roarke is pretty much Chaotic Neutral leaning somewhat towards good

Pin it on theskulls, spread the lrecordings of our footage, survivor testimonials?

I feel like it needs to be repeated every so often.
She is also a pirate and as such also already has a big target on her.

Yes, pirates run away from the miltary.

Not always.

The last ones that didn't got wiped out to a man. So there's that.

I'm sorry, are you accusing me of railroading when literally every single user but you is seemingly worried about that kid and the sergeant and the doctor? If not catering to your vote in particular when you're in the minority is railroading, then you're using a definition different from any I've seen anywhere else. I really hope I'm misunderstanding you somehow, and if I am please tell me.

Man what.

Go ahead and do a vote. One side wants to break into a military facility (we don't even know which). The other side wants to blow up green skulls in hope of getting intel that makes such a breakout unnecessary because the military lets them go on their own.

The one guy you're talking about isn't on the side you think he is.

Tell that to Barbarossa.

The literally dead guy?

Why would the military just let them go? What are you smoking dude.

"The Green Skulls, for now. We can't prove the military did it, but we can prove I didn't." It's a hard decision, you want to call them out on their bullshit, but even Clementine didn't know about this.

"Well, darling, they might just say the pixels don't look right on your footage..."

"So long as my side of the story is known, it's better than only letting them get theirs out. Aren't you worried about how it will look if you kidnap a reporter, though?"

She blinks, and smiles, "So gallant! No. Not at all. I'm sure I'll be perfectly fine, like always. One little ship is just a morsel for my Archen." She waves a hand dismissively, then makes a face, "Of course, if even you say the Green Skulls did it, that obnoxious woman is going to say it proves her point and that even pirates admit there's a problem...and she'll crack down on us for sure." She grumbles, looking annoyed.

"We can't realistically expect anyone to believe the UJCIDF blew up a colony without proof. We'll tell the truth about what we know." You respond firmly.

She sighs, dropping her chin onto her hands with her elbows propped up on her ornate wooden desk, "Fine, fine, I can't win against you..." She smiles dreamily, twirling the tip of her hat's long plume around her fingertip, "So Roarkey, do you want to come with me, or would that be bad for our image?" She bats her eyelashes.

Look lets just wait until Clemmy gets some info for us about Athena and her dad while we have Sam try and get in contact with Naiomi to find kut about hee brother

Present evidence of some part of the military working in collusion with the green skulls to blow up a colony
...
profit

Died a very successful pirate indeed.

Why would they let people go to shit on them even more? They could just say we are lying. They would still be trying to kill us anyway because that is their job.

So what are the odds that an enemy faction will take what's left of the damaged, uninhabited colony and retrofit it into some kind of superweapon?

Wong, please ignore shitposters like this.