Mr Zoat
Dedicated ragequitter
- Joined
- Dec 1, 2016
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I know you're playing me...
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I know you're playing me...
I raise my eyebrows as I return my attention to her. Curious. Not entirely unexpected. And it… Reminds me of that Teen Titans comic where after spending a good deal of time disempowered, Cassandra Sandsmark discovered that the various mystical influences on her life weren't providing her with power so much as restricting the power she had innately as Zeus's daughter. Do Diana's powers come from the goddesses..? Or do they come from her titanic nature?
No.
its
Colon or comma, man; don't waffle halfway in between with a semicolon! (Or an em dash, which is how my writing style would do it, but I don't expect your style to use one.)Three Scarabs represents a significant expenditure of resources; Reach resources that they actually care about.
This one, on the other hand, is correct.But I suppose that we've proved that we can beat Scarabs; the jury's still out on this fleet.
"appearing" (or restructure to "a car crusher construct appears around them and rams closed")
That statement was completely true.
Mr ZoatHey Zoat, when I click on this link it doesn't seem to work.
It actually opens a new tab that says that it can't find the site, but for the other ones it doesn't open new tabs and they're there.
It may be that the link is faulty, or something is wrong with my computer.
Thank you, corrected.its
Colon or comma, man; don't waffle halfway in between with a semicolon! (Or an em dash, which is how my writing style would do it, but I don't expect your style to use one.)
"appearing" (or restructure to "a car crusher construct appears around them and rams closed")
Thank you, corrected.
You know... You would think Paragon would be a bit more concerned about the Reach being able to hijack his ring's communications at will like that...
to have to accept the inefficiency and grant me a second ring again
"Oh, both. If you were a Scarab Warrior your creativity and speed would put you in the top hexile, at the very least."
Though having said that, as far as we know the Reachains aren't capable of using magic. It wouldn't give them a new capacity; it would just let them plan around ours a little better.
…
Yeah, no.
A massive, multi-ship crossfire? If it were anyone else, I'd say it was overkill. But when OL is in the field, Overkill becomes the minimum required level... The problem is the longer this goes on, the more they can learn how he fights, which leaves him vulnerable to targetted counter-tactics.25th August 2012
05:41 GMT
The space around me turns purple and I abandon everything other than personal defence.
Shieldshieldshield!
Oooh, they can basically telefrag? That's a whole new level of nasty. But the sudden no-sell of his new trick is a worry. Did they have a backup system, or has someone more distant taken over?Something just happened that caused them to snap out of the confusion my desire manipulation caused. I-.
Ah, duck and get back inside the hull because the flak shots are heading towards me and if they hit I'm dead. The fracture cannons are going through the hull easily enough but the beams from the two weapons can't coexist and I can just about hold out against this. It's not just a matter of maintaining the construct barriers, I've also got to prevent them opening a fracture inside me, which…
At least he's getting killshots through while their guns are occupied elsewhere.Fewer incoming shots. The ships are warping away. I need to
break
out and recreate my gravity stabiliser construct and-. Beam singularity, while they're trying to use their shields for running. That ship-. Yes! Now again, smaller, target their fracture generators! Crippled, good. And then
Not a perfect mission complete, but the fleet is much reduced from it's former strength. I suspect it'll be pulled back to rearm and... re-crew.break
away to hit another ship. Hull broken! Target the weapons and fire-. Another ship crippled and another three warp out because I can't stop them, shield myself and attack at the same time. The next one's-.
Always a pain when you're trying to do something involved and someone just keeps poking you, huh?
And for some reason, I'm picturing manoeuvring thrusters like a Gundam dotted all over their back and calves...Where did that-?
A Scarab Warrior, the first one I encountered. I don't recognise the propulsion system they've morphed, but they're faster than they were-.
Oh, that's even more annoying. The fleet can throw scarabs around the battlefield now?No, that was a warp. One of the ships bent space to move them into place, but since a spatial warp is pretty much a spatial warp I've got no way to tell which. Guess the closest? Fly behind that ship to restore my constructs fly out target and-.
Wow, goes to show how energy-intensive this whole fight was. When was the last time we heard that alert in-story?And the construct's gone again because someone's-. The ships are feeding him data in real time. He's listening to aliens? Fine then, duck back and pulse orange energy because I spotted that lensing affect-. Hah, weren't expecting that were you? X-ionised sword and lunge, because I can't spare the-
Warning: low power. Fourteen percent remaining.
At least you've got some mission kills to loot. Including a Scarab Warrior, though I expect it's already self-destructing as you turn away.-charge right now. Been a while since I've heard that warning, but if Dox intends for me to do this sort of mission then he's going to have to accept the inefficiency and grant me a second ring again. Or give me the time to make a decent one myself.
My sword cuts through the left side of his chest as another ship leaves the combat area. Three effectives left, and one less Scarab was my follow-up cut slices his head and Scarab in twain. Now fly and fire!
Well, fights over. That was an entertaining five minutes. No, literally. Look at the timestamps: He approaches the fleet at 5:36, begins his attack a minute or so later. Last ship leaves the AO at about 5:42. Goes to show how quickly a really effective Lantern can fight.And the last two go. I can't see either of the two remaining Scarabs, so either they're in hiding or they left with the ships.
"Lantern Threllian, you watching?"
Ah, Tad making himself actually helpful... Something OL said to him must have gotten through that misanthropic outer shell.Yes, Illustres. Doctor Sivana was just informing me that he believes he can build an interdiction field to prevent those warps that will be significantly more effective than… Currently-.
"Than the constructs I used. Good; I'll use his device in future. I'm low on power and Dox wants me elsewhere. Do you think you can handle the recovery without me?"
Because you really need a drink after that little tussle, huh? I bet Guy would pull a subspaced bottle of soda (still ice-cold!) out as soon as his relief was on station...
If you ever learn to channel energy direct from the Honden, that would push you clear into diety-class threat territory... And the Reach would likely panic in its attempts to find ways to kill you permanently.Because I need to stay here in case they come back. I don't think they will; those reports Guy shared with me suggest that the Reach never found a reliable way to determine how much charge a Lantern has left. If the rest of the fleet did come back I'd fight on until I was on vapours and then head to the Honden to recharge. That would only buy them… A few seconds entirely free of my interference, but they could use that to destroy the crippled ships and warps back out again.
Another Lantern would be stuffed, of course.
And pulling your personal lantern out right now would be an open invitation for a cloaked Scarab to hit you in the back... Good plan.I could start the recovery process myself, but I can't spare the power. Because if they come back I'm going to need that fourteen percent. But… This… Went relatively well. I didn't need that clone, which I'm glad about. Didn't get all the ships, but I did get enough to demonstrate a viable counter-strategy to construct-draining attacks and took down some of them. We've got enough of Threllian's species to increase their genetic variety, and study what the Reach did to them.
Transmitting on all frequencies, no doubt. Because he (or possibly she, who knows?) knows OL wants the wrecked ships, and will be nearby to hear them. Smart enemies, always annoying."That was a rather impressive display."
Of course, I didn't target the ships' communications systems. Which means that my Reach admirer can still speak to me.
Of course, to the Admiral, I'm sure that's high praise. Pity OL doesn't share that opinion."Me or them?"
"Oh, both. If you were a Scarab Warrior your creativity and speed would put you in the top hexile, at the very least."
And fleets like these are hardly priority sites to be guarded, I suppose. Except for those with the anti-Spectrum weapons..."Gosh. Are all the Scarabs who can keep up with me on holiday?"
"You know enough about Reach strategy to know that we don't respond at full force to initial attacks. Our best Scarab Warriors are in reserve, for when we need them."
It probably wouldn't be the weirdest Scarab Warrior out there, I guess? Given some of the more unusual morphologies in the galaxy."I didn't know that Scarabs could bond with severed heads."
"As long as the brain is alive. Though the Scarab will struggle to maintain vital functions without organs. I hope that one makes it back; I suspect that it will prove extremely instructive."
Something like that, yes. You might want to read it, clever boy."Did you get a report on my peace negotiation attempt?"
"No, but I doubt that it matters. We can't let you get away with this. A purely local arrangement might be possible, but… You asked for something that would cripples us, didn't you?"
Not OL personally, no. But I'm sure the Orange Lantern Corps would be happy to oversee their disarmament,"You would have become the trading state you pretend to be."
"With you guaranteeing the peace?"
Not as well as some versions of him, no. Looking at you, 'my mind is a fortress' Renegade. Still, OL does have quite the booby-trap available."Telepaths exist, you know. You wouldn't have to just take my word for it."
"I'm trained to evade telepaths, and I wouldn't be surprised to learn that you were too."
"Don't try to frighten us with your sorceror's ways, Lord Vader...""Magic, then?"
"Even if you were honest, I don't know enough about the subject to confirm anything you told me about it."
Bwahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahhahahaack-glurk... Oh, god, I'm dying here. The Admiral should go into stand-up with lines that funny..."And even if I could, your people wouldn't go for it."
"You could try teaching us?"
...Ol, No."That sounds like a rather critical security breach."
Though having said that, as far as we know the Reachains aren't capable of using magic. It wouldn't give them a new capacity; it would just let them plan around ours a little better.
Man, is it sad that practically deserved a 'Common Sense' interrupt?
Man, I want OL to meet this guy face to face at some point, just to see how he stacks up to our mental images of him, huh?"But you were happy with the performance of the ships?"
"They clearly out-performed the ships we use in our Outer Region Fleets. I invested, and I reap the benefits."
Time to go find a quiet room, recharge and then relax. Because that might have been one of the longest, toughest fights in recent episodes he's had... Anyone else would probably need time to wind down after that..."I should thank you, then. We were worried that those species might have been lost permanently."
Threllian appears next to me, and I nod.
"But I'm afraid I'll have to cut this short. Excuse me."
The first fleet was a different race, the juluuni (pangolin-like humanoids) with a much less extreme doctrine of ships and armaments. And presumably hadn't been equipped with the anti-Spectrum weaponry yet.Something I don't understand: If both of those fleets were Threllian, why was the first one so much weaker than the second? Or was the first one a different species?
Ah, Tad making himself actually helpful... Something OL said to him must have gotten through that misanthropic outer shell.
Don't try to frighten us with your sorceror's ways, Lord Vader..."
Man, is it sad that practically deserved a 'Common Sense' interrupt
was -> asThree effectives left, and one less Scarab was my follow-up cut slices
That's better grammar, but he's thinking in a rush.
He can get a ring from a variety of people, but Dox is supposed to be in charge of Corp policy.
They're not.You can alter your assimilated constructs into new rings, though those may not be decent.
And you may still need a lot of time to actually make a ring.
Thank you, corrected.
What's the name of Paragon's new arch-enemy? He needs something to dramatically yell while shaking his fist at the sky.
But the ring has been the standard for billions of years, if it was good enough for the Controllers it's good enough for some upstart human.Mr Zoat ?
If he just needs a power bank wouldn't something larger like a belt or a slim backpack be better than a ring?
I don't know what's happening with that, but it should work now.Zoat I know you said you corrected this, but it's still not working properly.
It works for me. I'm clicking on it and going to the correct page. Looking at it in plain text mode reveals no extraneous equal signs.
It works for me. I'm clicking on it and going to the correct page. Looking at it in plain text mode reveals no extraneous equal signs.