Mecha Space Pirate Quest XXXIX

A duel in general will not be that easy and chances are he can easily deny us on the grounds that we are an honorless curr. If there is any chance of a duel it will happen because he desires and likely when he loses all other options. Remember; this is a guy with no honor who plays dirty pool. He is not going to go for a duel right off the bat and if he does, we would have already won.

No, man, that's a Barzam. You can tell from the head and the rather vaginal looking crotch-thruster.

Good to see you Wong. Need a good run after what happened to Persona quest.

>"This here was among our four new ships."
>our four new ships
I knew selling fatima was a good idea

Ya that came out of nowhere, too bad it was a pretty fun quest

It's a Barzam that has been refined even further. And this is to go even further beyond.

What happened?

Jeez, what happened?

I know it had an interesting setting but I understand why Thorn can't keep going. Maybe we'll get lucky and a few months off from running will give him so inspiration.

Quest over due to health, stress, and other issues. A sad tale, but not much can be said considering how big it was.

He basically cancelled the quest, he was feeling really burnt out and couldn't work it into his schedule

well, the money was used for the one battle ship. From the sounds of it, these are smaller, likely weaker ships belonging to people who wanted to join our fleet. We aren't Tales of Galactic heros big yet.

"Apparently some of your fans on Io decided if they jacked a real starship and brought it to you, they would get to join the Iron Kestrels. Street gangers, basically. The thing is, they did it, and it's gonna come in handy, so...I told them we'd probably say yes. C'mon, Dude, it's not a big favor for some fans, we're swarming with recruits but we can still take these guys on." She whines.

You push your way through a bamboo thicket, while the Undefeated explains that it's an invasive species here and complains of what a pain it is to try and remove. You started out as a street ganger, the choice is obvious, "Of course, bring them in if you trust them. If they're skilled, put them on the Rhinehawk. If they're all pretty green, keep them assigned to that transport since they already know how to fly it."

"Got it. Anyway, we just got this ship, these gangers didn't tell anyone they were doing it for you, and according to them the company that owns it won't even know it's gone for a while because it had just left on one of its rounds. That means we can fly it right under an officer's nose and wiggle our butts and he won't smell shit."

You didn't need the analogy, but you grunt in acknowledgment.

"Outside the cities there are a lot of settlements. Some of them are just big walled factories or mines or plants with their own little spaceports. Some are actual towns and such. We can probably touch down in the wasteland somewhere if we're slick enough to avoid being caught by a satellite at the wrong time. That's about as far as I've planned out, you kinda sprung this on me. Slap some mech rigs in the transport where the cargo space used to be, send down a small group of mecha and personnel to take out the towers, then drop the Kaiser on the wedding itself. Now before you praise me and tell me I'm the smartest person you know, Moe came up with most of this."

[Continued]

Damn son, Moe got a good mind for this type of shit.
also nice trips Wong.

Moe you glorious, fluffy haired bastard. So, for the prep team, we will likely need explosives and some stealth/recon members. Might be the best to use the Betta for recon, and maybe Moe and some of the Suleiman to make it quick with low damage. Controlled explosives and enough force will limit notice after all.

"He knew about the towers, the satellites, and that it isn't unusual for a ship to touch down outside the main spaceports. He also thinks that there are going to be an awful lot of Martian warships around, he's convinced that the bearded asshole went home and told his government about that ship you guys ran into. Oh, right, and Oda wanted me to tell you about his fuckin' Harpies. He's been upgrading 'em. Apparently they're not as good as the Betta, more like the machine that killed Minty and Thelma and ripped a hole in Auditorium, but they can stealth now. I asked why and he said something about the ninja way and frankly after the fourth word I didn't understand I stopped paying attention to his speech. We've got a bunch of new Bluegills and Harpies, too, now. I'll have to get you the numbers on that. There might be other stuff mixed in, I'd need to double-check. Uh, we've got another medium-weight Jovian cruiser, that's from an actual pirate crew that joined up with us. They're legit, Captain Beckingham's alright. We've also got a smaller ship, heavy striker class. We also fixed the Green Skulls' missile boat. That puts our fleet total at one Rhinehawk, three medium cruisers, one heavy-striker grade light interceptor, and one medium-striker grade transport vessel. Six ships, sir, all fully crewed and at maximum complement thanks to our generous benefactors in the Abujamal family, may their god not smite them for having uncovered heads or whatever he does." You can hear her chortling.

[Continued]

By the way I'm going to have some substantial updates to make after this session. I have several different mecha to stat too.

>Ninja Harpies
They better look like a mix between stealth bombers and ninjas.
>Captain Beckingham
That name sounds familiar.

Does it? I made it up just now, unless I dredged it from some part of my memory.

Probably thinking of the palace and a certain game character that still disappoints me. Either way, no worries on needing to update and stat stuff. It's understandable.

We should kill him though if we let him live he's going to be a massive pain for us especially now that he has a real vendetta against us if we win

"So now the question is, can we stay hidden for a full twenty-four hours so we can gate out once I've grabbed her, and do we bring in the rest of the fleet?" Your head is spinning a little from all of this firepower, but you keep it cool, focusing on your footing.

"We're here, Roarke. Center yourself." The Undefeated stands in front of you, in a clearing occupied by the two of you and a huge, white boulder, like a giant pearl of masonry halfway embedded in the ground.

You promise to call Miles back later, and hang up.

"Alright. Now for the next phase of your training. Break this boulder with an open palm strike." He points at it, then steps back, arms folded, waiting expectantly.

You look from the very, very solid boulder, to your hand, to your teacher. True, you've been working hard this week, putting your body through a lot to grow stronger...but that's still just a week of exercise, and while the work itself is grueling and you're sure your skills and physicality are improving you have no idea how to break a boulder with your palm.

>[What say/do?]

OR you know. Actually use our brains for fucking once. Co operate with the Sheikh's sympathizers, I guarantee there will be more than one, to investigate his death.

>What the hell
>Hit the shit out of it

might as well.

Not exactly. Consider this; Fairchild is probably trying to build up power with Mr Angry likely being a member of her circle, right? It's one thing to not have Fatima and her fortune, but if he was exposed admitting that he did something corrupt? At a wedding with tons of upper ranking people and civvies? His name would be mud in every part of the solar system and Fairchild may do the job for us if he becomes a liability to her revenge game.

Well, best way that I can think of is to remember what it was like when we broke that first pot of sand. Calm thyself, think of all that needs to be done, all that we have to do, and feel that weight in your hand. Then try hitting the boulder with your palm.

Thing is how many would actually believe us, or even care? In there minds we could have easily made up the story and whatever "evidence" we find. Plus I would rather just ruin her plan by getting rid of the guy instead of hoping that Fairchild does it

Boulder meet palm

Hit it with the tactical knowhow of a lumberjack. Don't even think we are strong enough to break it in one go yet.

3 hits. 2 Palms to form a wedge shape on one side to weaken its structure. And a final hit on the other side.

What part of 'getting him to blurt it out' did you miss? The point isn't to ACCUSE him, the point is to make him do something VERY stupid in front of thousands of witnesses. That doesn't seem very hard right now and if we can get Fatima's worries dealt with so she has no need for him, then he'll probably do it himself.

I understand, its just what kind of idiot blurts something like that out?

Stake our lives on the line. The true way of martial arts. We throw the boulder up in the air somehow. Stand where it will land. Then we palm strike the fuck out of it or die trying.

Close our eyes, focus our rage, then like the Nike commercials say, Just DO it.

>Focus our rage
Is this how were going to learn the shinning finger?

Let's see. A constantly angry individual, who is highly religious, with not only a vendetta on us, but likely enraged to high hell that we not only cost him his money, but also wrecking his plans by basically doing something crazy in his culture's eyes? Being made the fool in the eyes of thousands people and then further egged on? That kind of idiot? Because he has the makings for that kind of idiot.

Hell with it.

You slam your palm into the boulder with enough force to snap a man's neck...and try not to wince. That really, really hurts. Not as much as it would have hurt if you tried doing this before your training.

The Undefeated nods. "You tried." He doesn't sound condescending at all. Instead, he sounds congratulatory. "Eventually, you will break this stone. When you do, you will have mastered all that I have to teach you. Tell me, Roarke, why couldn't you break the boulder? Even if you think it's obvious. Don't try to impress me with some deep metaphysical answer unless you really think it's the right one. Today, I'm here to teach you, not measure your ability."

>[What say?]

You think it's that easy to fool a man that has his eyes set on a whole solar system? This fucker is in leagues with Fairchild. She won't take a fool for a colleague. Just because he has rage issues doesn't mean he is incompetent. It just makes him a true blooded Arab.

The flesh is weak!

>Something about having not let go and emptying myself, seems like the lesson from a style about the void

It's precisely why he's a fool that she would take him. Same with Jesus. You don't take ambitious people with intelligence under your wing. That gets you competent starscreams. You take people in high positions and talent that you can control, guide, use, and discard safely.

I didn't hit it hard enough and I didn't hit it correctly. There must be some some trick to hitting it with sufficient force without breaking my hand. As with all fighting, its a combination of physical ability and technique

So you think he'd rather blurt out he killed the sheikh and kicks puppies than try to shoot us or stab us with the swords everyone seems to have?

It's easier to control a man with ambition. More predictable too. It's just you fuck up when you don't keep your eyes on them enough and let them amass enough power to overthrow you. Come on fampai. Basic.

Hence why I said someone with int and ambition. Ambition is a great thing. It motivates and drives people to new limits, but it means jack if you are an idiot and can't form a coup or plan on your own. It also means less watching and it being easier to see him screw up. I mean, look at Jesus. Imagine if he had enough common sense to see he was being used?

Not exactly, but I can see him trying to use Fatima as a hostage, or trying to do something underhanded out of rage.

"I didn't hit it hard enough? I didn't hit it correctly? Is there some trick to hitting it hard enough to shatter it without breaking my hand? Was my body too weak, or maybe I didn't empty my emotions or channel them or something?" You rub your hand as the Undefeated pulls a rabbit from a snare he'd placed in the shadow of a tree and ties it to his belt.

"Yes." He replies. "Yes to all of them."

"All of them?" You echo.

"All of them. That's why I said it." He shoots you an annoyed look, "You weren't acting in accord with yourself. Your body and spirit aren't yet capable of acting in complete concert with each other to channel that special something humans use to overcome obstacles, that nameless glory so many masters have tried to understand or name. When you have finished your training, you will be able to break this stone as easily with a fingertip as with your fist."

You have no idea what he's talking about, but it sounds like something you want to be able to do.

[Continued]

Damn it /m/.

Half an hour break for dinner, you'll know I'm back when I post the Rhinehawk's new stats.

Well we got half an hour to kill, why don't we finish deciding what we want to do for Basil's mech? I think we were leaning towards a crowd control mech

Pretty much. We got the combat bases covered well, but we really do need a crew for handeling the more gentle aspects of our job. I'll throw up the incomplete Pawn II, called the Dutchman up in a bit to chew the fat on it's design.

So we going with shock weapons? What constitutes crowd control in Mekton Zeta?

Stun Baton, Ltmg, and a shield was what I was thinking

anti infantry, smoke/anti beam missiles, anti collateral weaponry. Basically, he's the guy we throw in a situation where a firm, yet gentle hand is needed as oppose to the Oda option.

What if we make him have multiple grapple chans. Then have two main grapple arms that have extended range. Just gotta make the frame extremely armoured so he can take punishment. Like an anchor. Or a tentacle monster. A very vulgar mech indeed.

That doesn't seem like a mech that a police officer would use, if we run into Slan that would be a different story

What do you mean? Miles can program it to have its voice announce to everyone, "Full cavity strip search! Spread em, bitches!", every time it attacks. Oh, maybe I was thinking of TSA.

The issue with grapple chan is that while she is good for 1 on options, she is an expensive lady and in any situation with small or large groups, she loses that effectiveness. However, the majority of our foes DO use beam weaponry. A maxed out Smoke Scatter missile or mine can serve as a great choke point for us and may even make it hard for the likes of Jesus, who is BEAM SPAM ALL DAY EVERY DAY.

In short, make him the one thing that many people fear; the One who buffs and debuffs.

and while I get a shower, here is a incomplete blueprint of the Dutchman to look and laugh at. Still need to do final totals and add some things.
pastebin.com/KACNCJvN

Jesus Thunderbird, did you see what we would have had to deal with at the end of Persona Quest?

It would have been intense as shit, probably would have gone for Aria but Kaede would have been a runner up

All those fucking Personas. We would have had to grind like a mother to stand a chance.

PIRATE FLAGSHIP: The Rhinehawk

Stats:
Medium Heavy Hull (1600 Kills, 16 Spaces all occupied)
Armored Heavy Armor (90 SP),

Crew:
B-Grade: 1d10+14 for all skill rolls, representing an experienced but not ultra-elite crew. Your non-Ace pilots use this value too, modified by the penalties from their machine's weight.

Weaponry:
Port Heavy Beam Battery: (WA 0, 5550m range, 200K, 3 Spaces, Port 180-degree Arc only)
Starboard Heavy Beam Battery: (WA 0, 5550m range, 200K, 3 Spaces, Starboard 180-degree Arc only)
Deluxe CIWS: (WA +0, 650m range, 10K, Space 1, All-Around Arc, automatically attacks any hostile mech that enters range with no penalty and the equivalent of an infinite burst weapon effect)
Medium Defensive Screen: (2000 SP lowered on a one-to-one basis by damage, takes 1 Action to put up but can be dropped instantly, while active no mecha can enter or exit the vessel, 4 Spaces)

Subassemblies:
2 Mecha Bays (can support 130 mecha, 2 Spaces)
1 Cargo Hold (3200 tons)
1 Passenger Space (640 people)

Maneuverability:
Takes 400 meters forward travel to change heading 60 degrees.
Takes a -8 to hit mecha (except with CIWS)
Mecha get +8 to hit it.
Can fly 800m per turn, not counting the Microgate Projector.

We would have been fine, we still had all the s-links to finish plus we could have used the souls for better personas

Avi's gonna have a field day with his new toys.

What's the new Rhinehawk looks like and what's the new fleet status?

Holy crap.. and this is only a Medium Heavy. There are 3 more ranks to go for this thing.

From what I remember there really aren't any particularly interesting upgrades to ships that are available past this point

Dual 500 kill cannons, 3k shields, being a giant movable space fortress? I can think of ways.

I mean besides bigger guns, bigger shields and more mechs. Only thing that is different is the core canon, and that's shit

What does the mech compliment look like?

"That ends the first part of your training. You have a few days before you're planning to go to Mars, right? You should rest up. Clear your mind. You've just spent a week in the woods, you should be with your crew for a while. Besides, that wife of yours is running out of things to clean and is talking about reorganizing. Reorganizing, Roarke!" He claps you on the shoulder, "There are limits, you know."

"I'll come back with Fatima, Master. You'll like her, I promise." You grin and give him a thumbs-up as the pair of you make your way back to the cabin.

After dinner, you bid him farewell, promise to bring him more booze next time, and return to your ship with Karen. Or at least, the bays that housed your ship's mecha while the ship was being upgraded in space itself. Except, they're empty. A dockyard employee points you to where the Knuckle Kaiser is being kept, and with Karen sitting sideway across your lap you make the flight out into the void in your mech.

...Which is when you see your starship reborn for the first time.

It still has a long, pointed nose and neck, but they've been heavily armored with much of the contour smoothed out. At its far end, six wings and an elevated sensor platform provide much of its bulk, and it is absolutely studded with guns. They may not be as large as a Wels' fore battery, but they're easily packing twice as much firepower as you had before.

[Continued]

Can we sleep on top of the ship tonight? Gotta take in that glorious new ship smell.

Do we get an upgrade for sleeping with the Rhinehawk?

You know, I just realized somethig. Seraphim were six winged angels and the highest order of angels in the heavenly host. Fallen angels are depicted with black wings at times and distorted bodies. We are going to highly religious Mars when a group of them called us Satan. Lucifer is a fallen seraph/arch angel.

I can't WAIT to see them shit their pants.

Silly user, the upgrade was from a single waifu route to harem route.

So have Karen rig up some wings for dramatic effect for our entrance? Make them glow white at first and then turn black as we open our helmets grin?

Anyone who would fall for that wouldn't be so cognizant of the differences between the various tiers of angels.

Not really, but if you know your rings of hell and dante inferno, you know what the lowest ring of hell consists of in terms of punishment and sinners. Figured we could get that mouth working.

Kaiser grin should be something that flickers in and out of existence. Can't really be intimidating when your visor goes up and down. That's like some thug with his pants on the ground. Nah, have the Kaiser grin light up when it procs and then fade out of existence just as fast. Like seeing a devil or nightmare in your dreams. It's there but when you search for it, it disappears. It's like when you stare at a light source briefly and close your eyes. Image is still there.

Wait, you're trying this on Rashad!? He's a Commodore in the Holy Militia, he knows plenty about starships. Yours being scary isn't going to make him confess all because he mistakes Roarke Starwind for Shaitan, I'll tell you that right now.

The original idea for it was that it only people who were able to get Roarke hot blooded to see since they would have to break the face mask

Nah, it was more an intimidation thing after the fact when he dun fucked up. My plan for getting Fatima back was simple. Know more about her than him and offer her solutions that make sense and agree with her.

Miles and Richard welcome you back on board with grins, and Rosita with a pout, seeing Karen looking smug and latched onto your arm. The two of them eye each other like cats that are just dying to scratch at each other but know the first one to pounce will get punished.

"Darling, what do you think? Isn't it magnificent? Long ago, you regretted not having a proper ballroom for us, I think this counts, doesn't it? Aren't my mechanics wonderful?" Rosita compromises, clinging on to your other arm and occasionally glaring daggers at Karen, who glares back, "You know, you could even leave some of the work on the Rhinehawk to them."

"No, he couldn't." Karen, of course, loses her temper first, bristling, "They'd mess it up! They don't know the first thing about the Kaiser's systems."

"It seems they handled the ship just fine, though~ And shouldn't Roarke decide? It's his mech, after all. Fufufu~" Rosita grins.

"This is great!" You chip in, looking around you with awe, "Karen's the only one authorized to work on the Kaiser, but if you want to loan her some people to work under her direction, that would be fine." You cut them both off.

Karen frowns suddenly and looks at Richard, "Hey, my room, did she do anything weird to it?"

"Nope." The big, bearded man responds, "We didn't let her touch it at all. You have to take a different intersection at one of these corridors to get to it, but it's just like it used to be."

The mechanic sighs with relief.

[Continued]

Wonder what Sam and Clemmy have been up too?

Nice full house Wong

There isn't some freaky shrine of Roarke in Karen's room is there?

>The mechanic sighs with relief.

Clemmy walks in laughing. "Haha, Hubby. Guess what. I was having a tour of our ship and I found a peculiar room. It smelled like you so I went inside. Haha, whoever made it had some stupid lock so I blew it up with some c4. Look what I found. She tosses Roarke's used underwear on the ground. It was full of vibrating wrenches."

As you look around the bay, one mech in particular catches your eye.

The mechbays are huge now, rack after rack of small Bluegills and Harpies interspersed with taller mecha like the Pumpkinseed IIs you took from Gretchen, the occasional Warmouth or Morgan II, sturdy hunchbacked artillery Garrons like upgraded versions of the one your mother used to pilot, but this one stands out. It's in the same weight and size category as the Knuckle Kaiser, even though it looks a bit lighter.

"What's that one, and why is it all white?" You point at it.

[Continued]

Dinner on top of the Rhinehawk with Red. To thank her for everything she's done for us. Clemmy is acceptable too, for being adorable

Yes, Wong, I like this very much.

Here Wong, an extra pic for Exia.

Oh, Kycilla. You really did pull out all the stops.

"That one's Moe's. His lady friend built it for him. Apparently they didn't have time to paint it, so she just left it white so we could handle it." Richard shrugs.

You rub your chin, then look speculatively over at Miles, who seems blissfully unaware.

"You know, Miles, I think you still owe Moe for gambling with him as the prize." You smile at her so very innocently.

Her eyes narrow in immediate suspicion, "I bought him a beer." She says in a surly tone, "He got laid and stuff and he's fine, what's the problem?"

You raise a finger in objection, "He got lucky. That could have been a whole lot worse and you know it." You rub your chin, considering, "...That thing really would look better in Kestrel colors."

"Don't you fucking dare, Dude." Miles glares at you.

"You owe him." You point out, "You're the head of his squad, it was your responsibility. So you're painting his mech. Karen, don't let her talk you into helping." You pat the mechanic on the butt.

[Continued]