Mecha Space Pirate Quest XXVII

Welcome back, Kestrels, to the twenty-seventh installment of Mecha Space Pirate Quest! Now that the dust has settled, you are Admiral Roarke S. Starwind, leader of the Iron Kestrels space pirate fleet, master of the starship Rhinehawk, and pilot of the still-undefeated Knuckle Kaiser.

Previous Threads: suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive.html?tags=Mecha Space Pirate Quest, Collective Game, mecha
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Last time, you scored a glorious victory and wiped the legendary pirate fleet of the Green Skulls from the stars with the assistance of the damaged UJCIDF Wels-class battleship Jaburo. Today is a day of celebration, but also a day of important decisions.

First and most important. The official story is that you are holding Corporal Samantha Blanchett and her mech, the S-Betta, hostage. You know this isn't true, but it's keeping her out of trouble.

Now, however, there are no more distractions and sham negotiations, you and the Colonel are both on Auditorium and you have to get this worked out. What do you want to do? She wants to stay, of course, but how do you frame that to the military?

Ask about Moe and what he's planning, then segue into Sam and what she's planning I guess

Purposefully highball then and end up not accepting any terms

Well if the our ship had taken damage during the fight with the Green Skulls maybe we could have gone with she was killed when the ship was struck but I'm pretty sure the shields held during the battle. Maybe Sam's brother could also offer some help?

that's a guy, right?

Next, you have a damaged Warmouth and a damaged Morgan II in your mechbay. Both are Heavy Striker frames, the Morgan is a bit faster without further modification and the Warmouth is a bit more heavily armored. However, they're both models that tend to be modded and specialized towards certain tasks, Oda's Osano-Wo itself was originally a plain Morgan II before he strapped all that armor on it. You have a few pilots who are worthy of them. What weapons do you want your two Heavy Strikers to specialize in?

Give the Morgan to Richard since its a missile variant and give the Warmouth to Moe since its melee but also give it a gun

Don't be silly.

No, no, you get to redesign them, Thunderbird. It's only a missile variant if you want it to be one.

You can, however, sacrifice the Warmouth to Moe, who will absorb its tasty CP and Colonel Hatsheput's upgrades and return with a completely new mech.

Still give it to Richard and have it speced for him and lets sacrifice the Warmouth then

They have to understand that it's simply strategically disadvantageous for us to let her go. If we have her as a hostage, the military can't simply attack our ship with impunity without risking killing her and destroying the prototype. The moment we let her go, we risk being utterly destroyed.

Not that we're trying to say that don't trust Colonel Hatsheput, of course - she can rest assured of that - but some of her colleagues may decide to take advantage of the situation and capitalize on our present losses to boost their own standings.

Even if she offers Mohammed as a trade (which she'll probably do, reluctantly), that simply isn't enough so compensate for the insurance Sam provides us.

Also, Moe's probably conflicted on returning at this point. Wonder if we can ask him what he wants to do?

How many CP do we have to work with? At the very least, I'd like to install an ASP on one, so we have more in our arsenal to counter Cloaking, which was one of the problems we encountered last fight. Can we make them into combining mecha?

Use the CP to upgrade Moe's mech. Custom mechs tailored for our protege is waaay better than a stock Warmouth

Well, that depends. How does Samantha feel about committing fraud and theft of military property?
Seriously though, her going back is a bad idea due to Fairchild. And we probably shouldn't come clean about the real circumstances of her 'capture'.

Also, which pilots of note do we have that aren't already allocated custom mechs?

Alternatively, can we slave these mechs to the eventual RCS?

Each can be repaired to 150 CP. No combining.

She's willing to do what she must.

Basil Montgomery, who will get stats after seeing what the mech he might pilot looks like.

If we give Richard the Morgan can we give Basil his Master Harpy?

Wong, master harpy's are bluegill & tulwar parts combined right?

I guess he gets a mech so.

I have some vague idea that the master harpy squad were pretty attached to their harpies but I am not sure if that was actually said anywhere.

Guys damn it give Richard the Warmouth, missle-carrying mechs need more armor!
Morgan II is Wong's universe equivalent of a basic gundam mk ii frame given that Oda is piloting a sengoku samurai gundam...so give the Morgan II to Moe, more speed = faster to close in =faster to HACKSLICESLASHCHOPPYCHOP

So scrap the morgan and keep the Warmouth then?

>Each can be repaired to 150 CP
So we've got about 30-40 CP to work with, without sacrificing armor?

Would an ASP and a Long Range, Accuracy +2 (i.e. net WA +0), 10-shot Clip-fed, 9 damage Beam Weapon work? Cost comes out to 31.8 CP plus clips, if I'm not doing my math wrong.

The other can be specced to melee, in case we end up losing Moe.

>No combining.
Why must you crush my dreams so? ;_; :^)

Whatever happened to Catherine Zeta Jones?

well, we dont have a laser crate of our own yet. that might be cool.
>we keep Sam for insurance
>She keeps Moe as a 'sign of good faith'
.Miles can't think of innuendo fast enough

You theoretically could, but Richard's current mech is faster and costs more CP than the Morgan. His Gungnir missile launcher is actually superior to the Morgan's triple Heavy Missile launcher because of their burst effect.

or upgrade it with Moe's master harpy?

The Master Harpy that we don't actually have right now because it's on board the Jaburo, and wouldn't ever want to scrap in-character because it belonged to our late former captain? That Master Harpy?

yeah, but Moe's already getting Military upgrades for free thanks to Operation Cake-eater.
but he and Oda will have matching mechs if we give it to him, so...maybe?
Moe seems to
I doubt Richard and Miles care that much.
If anything they'll find a way to make the Morgan II/Warmouth turn into a jet

Lets sacrifice the warmouth to power up Moe's new mech and make the Morgan a brawler/laser combo since we don't have one of those yet

Ah, right. Point taken.

Moe's legal status is a former member of a PMC, right? His official cover story is he is an 'independent contractor' hired to facilitate communications between the Jaburo crew and the Iron Kestrels.
Sam's cover story, well...won't hold water and the best I can think of is during her captivity she has come to an understanding with Roarke, and ideally is the best person to be a liason officer, although there are a host of problems with that line of reasoning.

I doubt that Roarke would be that upset about turning old man Ozark's bird into something new.
Besides, Ozark's spirit isn't in his mech. Its in our hearts, our livers, and maybe in the Colonels womb but we won't know that for a few months.

>brawler/laser combo
Ideally, we'd have the pilot specialize in one specific type of weapon for maximum efficiency. Unless you'd like to make him a specialized close-range mook-killer with a Wide Angle Beam Weapon, in which case I'd totally be down for that.

I was thinking more close combat with laser pistols built into the mechs fist and rifles built into the palms

Maximum punches works for us but having some back up method of attack is a nice way to prevent some shitbox gimmick mech wrecking you because you are too specialized.

How about the loss of the S-Betta when we blew up the Agaememnon? It was feeding targeting data to Jaburo but failed to get away when Capt Oda blew it up with his Hanabi Missile Strike. Miss Sam was returned to UJCIDF and is now recuperating at the Blanchett estate.

But she won't go back. She's got it bad for Roarke.

Hence "going away" to the Blanchett estate. Nobody has to know she's still with Roarke

I

why

I was not actually suggesting maximum punches. Rather, I thinking of an ASP-equipped artillery piece to support us from afar should we encounter more Cloaked units.

Being specialized doesn't mean you'll get wrecked unless you don't have countermeasures against most common forms of attack. I'd imagine a shield and good MA should be decent insurance for a ranged unit.

This is a solid plan.

Why not

them quads

I dont know man, even moe is able to shoot people.

Also palm lasers arent that far fetched.

That'll basically hold until we next get use the S-Betta again, since Roarke's basically taken to broadcasting all his battles over the internet.

Granted, the S-Betta is a stealth mech, but it can't remain Cloaked on attacking.

Well now we know what mech the ants pilot.

What would be the point of using Brawling in this case, if you already have lasers everywhere?

To punch people who attack you in close range. Or alternatively to punch people who are trying to shoot you.

In case you run out of ammo plus brawling does good damage

Lasers do not run out of ammo unless you buy that specific drawback. Hopefully you're not short enough on CP that you have to - but in that case, why are you spending even more CP making your fists decent?

Lasers do damage just as well as Brawling, without the drawback of not having the added armor penetration from being a laser.

What prevents you from just shooting them?

Finally made it. Well, an idea I have been working on as a sort of proto type used a modified 0 range Flare missile as a means to blind the enemy, and a stun rod to then beat the bugger down and keep them down. Would make for easier capture of man and machine.

Was also thinking of a smoke screen/beam scatter flak deal of a similar nature to provide cover against the omnipresent beam spam of everything.

They broke your lasers.

If your enemy is competent enough to make successful called shots to your weapons without destroying the rest of your mech, you probably have bigger problems.

I like the idea of a stun rod mech but is that possible? And how would that effect electrical systems?

Might as well be prepared for it. So far everyone we have met has some form of long and short range combat abilities. I can only assume there i a reason for that.

Lasers do not have a minimum range, and can function as both long and short range weapons.

You'd just need an additional shield for incoming attacks.

While it's a cool concept, it requires rather more CP than we have to become mechanically effective.

It's something I have been developing in case we need custom mook mechs. Get a solid weapon, give it the shock option, and then make it so it can damage and shock. For a 8k rod, it's 12 CP.

What the stun does is that the person must roll his body mod and a d10 minus the damage the ks from the stun rod. if they roll below 10, they lose a action. Every 3 below they lose another. It's possible to knock them out or outright kill them if they are unlucky.

Which is grand until your shield gets broken and you got nothing.

Even caesar has his drone thing for long range.

Post it when you're done. It sounds cool.

Any reason you don't want to parry with a beam shield, since you've already invested in Melee? Requiring Missiles, Melee AND Gunnery might spread your pilot rather thin.

It'd make your melee weapon twice as expensive, or thrice if you want the weapon to still deal standard damage rather than shock only.

It's basically what the S-Betta is equipped with.

I'm confused how having a broken shield would be a specific counterargument against specializing in ranged combat as opposed to an argument against having a shitty shield in general.

You're just as screwed without a shield in melee as you are at range. Perhaps more so, since your enemy can make called shots to servos without penalty and focus all the damage on one location.

And yes, a laser-equipped mech will also have armaments for long range. It's called laser.

>You're just as screwed without a shield in melee as you are at range. Perhaps more so, since your enemy can make called shots to servos without penalty and focus all the damage on one location.
Thats the point. What does your range only mech do when someone closes the distance and busts your shield?

The thing is, when the missile is 0 range, there is no real missile score for it. It's more a bomb or mine at that point. For Flares and smokescreens, since you aren't aiming to hit but blind/conceal, they can serve as set ups for combination attacks.

An ASP makes it so you aren't blinded by your own defenses, and at that point you can go with either option. The downside is it lacks a shield due to cost and weight, but for a mid striker with heavy striker legs, I do plan on having it be quite fast.

This one I'm calling the cardinal. Make it red, give it a cross shaped visor, and maybe have it designed and piloted by a trio of Irish Catholics.

Now that my computer has remembered it isn't a toaster.

By the way, what are you doing with your other hostages?

Between you and Red Siren you have Gretchen, four of her friends, plus nine rookie UJCIDF pilots, six Bluegills, three Pumpkinseeds, four Pumpkinseed IIs, and a Pumpkinseed II Custom. You can buy the mechs Red Siren personally brought down and either scrap them for CP or keep them, as you like. As for the pilots, they would all be willing to join the Iron Kestrels, or you could trade them back to the UJCIDF for money

Sacrifice that Warmouth. Moe a best. Probably too late for my input to matter.

Stay out of charging distance in the first place Failing that, attack him and move away?

Again, I fail to see how this is a situation that a melee mech would be at more of an advantage in than a ranged mech. Either way, your shield is broken and you have no defenses save killing your enemy before he kills you.

Keep them we can always find money, decent pilots not so much

Lets buy the rest that Siren has and scrap them to upgrade the Kaiser some more

Let Gretchen and her friends go for goodwill, maybe do a Life Interest Special, "My dinner with Roarke" at the most romantic spot on auditorium. Heavy on the implied romance.

The rookie pilots - see if they might train up, if not sell them back the the UJCIDF for one credit each. "I'm a pirate, I have to make a living someway, but I personally was MORE than paid by their lovely presence."

Better yet, sell them back PAYING the UJCIDF if we want public opinion points. "I don't want to rob you excessively. Their company was wonderous."

Keep all the mecha, buy the ones from Red Siren, and trick the shit out of the new ones. We're going hardcore - harpies are for corpses.

Could keep Gretchen and her friends as a media crew to keep things honest. I'd say scrap some pumpkin seeds I and IIs for CP and make those bluegills pirate bluegills. The rookie pilots could be ransomed back for money, maybe with a discount to get Moe back if necessary.

You can only move so far and attack at the same time right? Having to constantly move out of range limits the amount of attacks you get to make. Plus you are just straight fucked if they are faster than you. Also you have to account for fighting multiple enemies at the same time.

ALRIGHT YOU GUYS ARGUING ABOUT THE LASERS AND SHIELDS AND FISTS AND WHATNOT.

I HAVE THE SOLUTION.

RANGED PUNCHING.

AKA

PLASMA PROJECTION PUNCHES.
Kinda like how the Flash throws lighting, and how those street fighter guys hadouken.

The Knuckle Kaiser just generates a plasma field around its fists and with the speed of its punches launches the plasma with the speed of an enraged gorilla who has overdosed on PCP and steroid mountain dew gurana red bull cocktail.
That being said, he could also use the plasma fields as an impromptu shield by whipping it out in an arc to catch missles/ablate armor over a small arc.

Am I a genius or what?

Ransom the rookies, they weren't that great anyway. We should probably keep the fancier pumpkinseeds anyway.

let Gretchen go back. we need positive media coverage from the UJCIDF side

Beam weapons by default have infinite ammo. You can give them ammo as a cost-saving measure, but I normally don't bother with it, it just doesn't seem particularly efficient unless it's a hugely expensive weapon.

She did a positive piece on Roarke and Siren if she goes back shes probably going to face some shit from the military, plus Hamon due to her blowing her off

..that is possible actually. Normal melee weapons have this thing called 'entangling', which can sacrifice some Ks for it to have more range. Add it with Handy and you have rocket punches. Well, wired rocket punches.

I'd suggest offering her a position as an embedded reporter. We need the good press.

She is a reporter, they cant exactly court martial her.

Also fuck street sighs, fuck them to death.

He's got a point.

I can get behind that

better than the store front captcha

While you do have to account for fighting multiple enemies, you'll likely also have multiple allies to cover for your weaknesses. Hence, as I said, you'd ideally not be within charging range in the first place.

You can't accelerate to faster than 12 MA in a turn, so, at least for the first turn, he should at most only be as fast as you. Besides, if you expect that to be a concern, why not just put more CP in your thrusters?

It'd be a sign of good faith and would allow her to see a different side of things most reporters wouldn't get a chance to. Its a good idea.

trade the pilots for money, use money to buy Siren's kills. keep the Pumpkinseeds, scrap the bluegills, see if we can make something fancy out of some old harpys.
And trade Gretchen for as well

Get some good press, show off that we're not just pirates, we're people, make sure our side gets out there... I like it.

We have TWO MAD SCIENTISTS on board, seriously, a plasma generator and the tech to protect the fists from the effects until it launches can't be that hard. We could also go with electricity, but any mech/starship worth its salt is highly insulated anyway.

or BEAM KATARS. THAT CAN EXTEND.

And something that can fire like a shotgun at close range like the Altiesen Rise's Claymore launcher from SRW.

Storefront captcha works fine fucking street signs never ever works.

Moe already has beam katars.

What happens when we actually engage in piracy though?

Sounds like you're talking about this.


I haven't got any complaints about making a versatile multirole mech if it's actually possible - I'm just concerned that it may not be possible to do it effectively with the constraints of pilot skill and CP.

I would rather spend the CP so that I dont have a glaring weakness.

We're nicer than the Green Skulls, and have more flexibility than the military. "Its just cargo, and you're insured. Ah, you're self insured? Ok, we'll leave you a little."

We're already open as pirates, and we've made a policy of capturing people and ransoming them, fighting other soldiers and pirates, etc. It'd be an honest look at things. "Report the truth, what you see." The good and the bad. We're pirates, yes. We kidnap people, capture ships and mechs, etc. But we're also good people. We treat prisoners well, we don't kill without having a reason, we don't go out of our way to be monsters like the Green Skulls, in fact we go out of our way to be decent to our opponents.

We do it in the most photogenic and dashingly roguish way possible, somewhat like Red Siren does, and get good press anyway.

An addition on this. Showing how we treat our prisoners would help with actually taking them. People might fight to the death to avoid being taken prisoners by pirates who could rape, torture, and enslave them. They wouldn't fight for their life and to take ours if they knew they would be getting a cell until they can be ransomed off.

I can understand that, but I am concerned that attempting to build a jack-of-all-trades will make us good at nothing and bad at everything.

That's why we have multiple mechs, so we can specialize to cover for the others' weaknesses.

Your assuming that we'll always have backup

There is a difference between being a jack of all trades and being a mech that has a preference for one form of combat but still has options in another.

then we get high quality footage to post on space youtube?
and a professional sound team for our ransom videos.

>Still nursing slight suspicions, Gretchen decides to engage in Tactical Reporting Action to make sure that we're not actually hiding any mistreatment of prisoners from the cameras
>She stumbles upon us fucking Sam
What happens now?

"Rule one: Get a rep and get it fast. Targets will roll over quicker if you're known as hard but fair."

I'm pretty sure that's about to come out anyway.