UED Supremacy Quest #3

>>1402164
And last and somewhat notably is a dedicated raider group going by the name of Raynors raiders. Apparently it is led by a war hero gone rogue who split with the dominion some time ago, taking a rather terrifying contingent of troops with him, including a small battlecruiser fleet.
The Aleksander and her new escort look to be by no small means his superior, but apparently he has rumored protoss contacts, and the means to cash in those favors. If he were to focus his eyes on you instead of the dominion, it could spell an early end to your campaign.

You are torn, the smaller and rogue outfits of rebels and terrorists of the system make up a number nearly 3 times the assembled forces of Orlan and Raynor, and apparently run a great many other worlds in the outer parts of the sector. If any of these forces were to organise, to draw against you, they may rival the dominion in power. Destroying them outright may not be an option... But you wonder again to the idea of a terran Coalition, or rather, if someone with the right ideas might beat you to it if you tarry.

>Begin organising a propagandist council, add a few transmissitter arrays to the foundry queue, and send a request to the admirals for permission to transmit from the spy sattelites when the time comes
>Make contacting Raynors Raiders a priority. They are not under surveilance right now, but trapping and disposing of them, or rallying them to your cause may serve you well.
>See about organising a small detachment to visit deadmans port and see about establishing a base of operations. Hiring the local muscle would swing any battle
>set your sights on Orlan. If he can be swayed or removed, setting yourself as master of Deadmans would net a massive supply of industry and labor, as well as trained mercenaries.
>Write in

Welcome back to UED Supremacy Quest, better late than never edition!
Archive of past threads: http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/qstarchive.html?tags=UED%20Supremacy%20Quest

Damn it feels good to be back. Had lots of things to square away, but now its handled.

>>1402172
Ill give this thread one hopeful and naive bump. I'm probably wasting my time as I missed my normal Monday posting, but Ill hope against hope someone is reading.

>>1402227
>but Ill hope against hope someone is reading.
The greatest despair occurs when hope is at its greatest.

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>>1402172
>set your sights on Orlan. If he can be swayed or removed, setting yourself as master of Deadmans would net a massive supply of industry and labor, as well as trained mercenaries.
The element of surprise is "officially" gone, and while hailing ourselves as yet another savior of humanity is all well and good, it will do nothing if we are too starved for resources to defend ourselves before we can rally the mongrel dogs of the Koprulu to our side. While it is detestable to align ourselves with such common pirates, Orlan and Deadman's Port would seem to be an ideal place to begin our industrial expansion; besides, the risk of quick Dominion retaliation is too risky to approach Deadman's Port slowly. Raynor is too much of a wildcard to contact this early on, and it is doubtful he would trust us given his shaky history with resistance movements.

>>1402227
>I missed my normal Monday posting
Don't worry OP, we've been waiting since yesterday for you to return.

>1402164
>mercenary kingpin called Orlan
>a rising star, one Mira Han,
Oh hey, they're here. I remember them from Starcraft 2.

>>1402172
>>1402315
Good points.

>>1402172
>>Begin organising a propagandist council, add a few transmissitter arrays to the foundry queue, and send a request to the admirals for permission to transmit from the spy sattelites when the time comes
This is nice, but our biggest problem is a bunch of pirates that might not care for propaganda.

>>Make contacting Raynors Raiders a priority. They are not under surveilance right now, but trapping and disposing of them, or rallying them to your cause may serve you well.
>They are not under surveilance right now,
We don't even know where they are, and wasting time trying to find them when we're cut-off from reinforcements isn't going to help matters.

>See about organising a small detachment to visit deadmans port and see about establishing a base of operations. Hiring the local muscle would swing any battle
Actually pretty good. It'll immediately solve our base problem. Only problem is that making this our first measure will make us seem as rival upstarts rather than a neutral who can be recruited to one of the other gangs.

>>set your sights on Orlan. If he can be swayed or removed, setting yourself as master of Deadmans would net a massive supply of industry and labor, as well as trained mercenaries.
Highest risk, highest reward option. Orlan might not really know who we are so we can still assassinate him should we wish. I don't know if we ran a background check on Orlan, but we should take a look at him and the rest of the mercenaries’ trustworthiness to see which ones we'll be backing in this war.
Problem with Orlan is that he isn’t the most trustworthy of people.

>>1402164
>Write in
Investigate the leaders of Deadman's Port. Look for ones worthy of an alliance.
Let's see which ones we should spend our precious resources on and which ones will stick to us through the long haul.

>>1402303
This time hope prevails. I can work with even just one player.
>>1402315
The deck shudders and shifts, and you feel the familiar hum of atmosphere against hull. It appears that the Aleksander is beginning the war with an invasion to this nameless wayward word which you and the shadow fleet had merged over. Strangely you tab over and see no additional requests, and looking over the cryobay monitors remotely you see the vast majority of the ground forces remain frosted. You want to question it, and send DuGalle a message, but you decide against it for a moment. This, here in your own planning room of comfortable office furnishings and nourishing coffee you shall be the maestro of your grand industrial campaign. You know who you need to focus on. Deadman's Port is the only major industry center not under the thumb of an organised and prepared local power, and the wealth of munitions and materials that can be claimed with a devastating assault here can not be understated. Orlan is a threat, but you are certain a flash strike with a dedicated invasion fleet would devastate him to nothing before he can react. You begin running numbers, guided by a stealthed spy satellite in the system. The dying local star carries a few other barren worlds, and a few exo-planets which would make good staging grounds for a thorough invasion if your first strike is deflected. Scrolling through manifest after manifest gleamed from radio transmissions to local monitor satellites and trade posts you see that the planet is moderately defended by many stellar hard points, and there are a massive amount of small vessels capable of punching above their weight class nearby. However, thankfully, miraculously, it seems there is nothing larger than the hardpoints in system. A few medium cruisers lightly armed but adamantly armored drift in space, nearly all vessels in Orlan's grip, offering service as for hire escorts to freighters and various tertiary trading posts. If you can sneak a few wings of fighters into the system under the guise of traders, and spring a trap on just a scarce few of these ships and orbital installations the planet will be nearly defenceless, as it is doubtfull the glorified fighters in space will be able to contend with the devastation your valkyrie wings would wreak. It appears for the moment, the audacious and deranged deployment of ships you were given suits your task. If you requisitioned a mere 5 dozen valkyries and a few armored and infantry battalions you can pluck this world with great ease.
You set to work compiling a battle spread, and noting the newly available vessels among the newly joined fleet you make sure to include a few wings of tactical fighters as well in your plans. In a few hours time you feel the shudder of the Aleksander leaving atmosphere not long after you finish your report. Its rough, but makes no assumptions.
Cont

>>1402362
>>1402377
Oh, sorry about that. I was a bit busy to bring my requests in time.

>>1402362
>Write in
Good idea, including.
>>1402377
The casualties look to have a high potential for disaster, if the local vessels dont scatter, and instead muster defense CentComp estimates a nearly 94% casualty rate for vessels and manpower, however you feel surprise is on your side. If the local fighters opt to save their own self serving hides, and Orlan is left to fend for himself you are likely to suceed with a modest 28% casualty rate. However, what you stand to gain here is enourmous, the man power, the industry, the supply. It would recoup you a hundred fold, and if the local mercenary corps were press-ganged into folding at the presence of the Aleksander you would have a ready made army at your fingertips. There is however, a single doubt that nags you as you relax looking over your work. Who else might stick their fingers in your pie?

Its no secret that Deadman's is a shattered conglomerate of forces. Even though Orlan holds a deathgrip on local defense, he is far from the only major player. There are numerous small industry leaders who might object or resist an open occupation, and even if you were to have them publicly excecuted, the populace if far from easy to stomp into submission. It seems that gun ownership runs nearly to 98% among the registered citizens, of which there are few, and many of the industry centers are a nightmare mishmash of unregulated production, most of them run by waring the factions of pirates. Perhaps, just perhaps, capturing Orlan alive, and pressing him to service with an officer position would be better than turning his base of operations into dust from orbit. Still. This is a start, and the local populace, even the mercenary elements would be vastly out-skilled, and out armed by your own UED Cronus wing, whose skill is beyond unmatched in urban combat and whose technological superiority would render local topography irrelevant. For the most part your plan is ironclad aside the two headed snake that is Orlans cruiser fleet and the orbital batteries, though you note they are only suited best for suppressing capitals more than your own light cruiser wings. You consider a final time your plan.

>The element of surprise is key, and removing these pirates will earn you both fearful respect, and thanks from other terran systems as well as the industry you absolutely need to wage this war. Show your plan to the Admirals
>The plan runs too high a risk of disaster, the losses you stand to take are unnacceptable even as a far flung possibility. Scrap the battle plans.
>Request the Atlas Wing Commanders presence. He is the master of the naval forces after-all, his expertise could shed new light on the plan, for good or ill
>Contact Stukov and ask if his pet zerg could be diverted for a more noble cause. A smokescreen of a Zerg Invasion might prompt local fighters to opt out of a battle instantly, and secure an instant victory.
>Write in
>>1402381
No problemo friendo, its going to be a slow thread, I can feel it.

>>1402411
>Request the Atlas Wing Commanders presence. He is the master of the naval forces after-all, his expertise could shed new light on the plan, for good or ill

Second eyes before anything goes through is best

I personally would support trying to bring Orlan in on this, we can feed him whatever lies we want until we have our reinforcements and then get rid of him if he is proving too difficult

>>1402411
>>The element of surprise is key, and removing these pirates will earn you both fearful respect, and thanks from other terran systems as well as the industry you absolutely need to wage this war. Show your plan to the Admirals
Sure we get a lot of brownie points for being so bold about this, but we're not the TACTICAL GENIUS who can make the impossible, possible. This is something that needs more collabing with our other colleagues.

>>The plan runs too high a risk of disaster, the losses you stand to take are unnacceptable even as a far flung possibility. Scrap the battle plans.
A bit too early to start calling it quits yet.

>>Request the Atlas Wing Commanders presence. He is the master of the naval forces after-all, his expertise could shed new light on the plan, for good or ill
He's a pro naval expert. Talk to one of our colleagues before we do this. This sounds like our best option.
Going with this.

>Contact Stukov and ask if his pet zerg could be diverted for a more noble cause. A smokescreen of a Zerg Invasion might prompt local fighters to opt out of a battle instantly, and secure an instant victory.
DEMPSEY, NO! Get your head out that conspiratorial mindset! Zergs are not a toy! The Zergs are our trump card and darkest secret, revealing it this early on and without exploring all other routes could be disastrous. Should our enemies discover this we’ll get our teeth kicked in short order.

>>1402419
Yeah, making him an officer would be the most beneficial route for us. We'd need another trustworthy merc officer who can keep him in line, though.

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>>1402411
>Request the Atlas Wing Commander's Presence. He is the master of the naval forces after-all, his expertise could shed new light on the plan, for good or ill.
We still have quite the window of opportunity here; while Deadman's Port is a juicy target, it would seem that they do not expect us quite yet. We absolutely MUST NOT USE THE ZERG in a way that might be tied to us before the time is right; to do so too early would merely lump us together with the dead Confederacy and degenerate Dominion in the hearts of the renegade nations of the Koprulu. No, in order to truly cement the Directorate's supremacy in this sector we must refrain from using the Zerg until they are sufficiently domesticated - and such a state is NOT something for us to decide, but for the Admiral and Vice Admiral to decide.

>>1402411
>Request the Atlas Wing Commanders presence. He is the master of the naval forces after-all, his expertise could shed new light on the plan, for good or ill

>>1402453
>>1402432
>>1402419
You pale at the consequences of playing the fleets hand too soon. There is much to be done, and care must be taken in all things. To this end rather than risking the ire of the Admirals and playing yourself a fool, you shoot a message to the commander of the Atlas wing. You know he awake and active as you saw him at the briefing you received from the admirals. No sooner have you sent the message than do you feel the tell tale shift of hyper-space. You are more than a little shocked. It has only been a few hours since you arrived in system, and although you expected that the colony here would be lightly defended you hardly anticipated that the battle would be so shortly concluded. For a moment you consider with fear that the admirals may have opted for a nuclear option and bombarded the colony rather than subjugate it. You imagine there will be a delay before the Commander returns your message, and you have a few free moments to consider your next moves.

>Re-examine the details of the forces near and around Deadman's, this battle aught to be finely tuned before you bother the Atlas Wing with it, and you must wait anyway.
>Message the admirals, question the nature of the battle for the backwater and why we retreated.
>Write in

>>1402483
>>Re-examine the details of the forces near and around Deadman's, this battle aught to be finely tuned before you bother the Atlas Wing with it, and you must wait anyway.
Practical, but then there's the other option.

>>Message the admirals, question the nature of the battle for the backwater and why we retreated.
Did they just ditch the backwater? I feel like that's what they did.

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>>1402498
YOU WERE WARNED. YOU COULD HAVE PREVENTED THIS!

>>1402504
>>1402508
Noo! It's happening!

Psst. You can Ctrl+S your text to automatically spoiler it instead having to do it manually.

>>1402483
>Message the admirals, question the nature of the battle for the backwater and why we retreated.

We should really be keyed in on this anyways

>>1402483
>>1402564
2nd, yeah.
Something that affects our supply situation is something we should know about, and whatever made us retreat the backwater sound serious enough to.

>>1402564
>>1402613
You wrack your brain for answers as you stare at your terminal, taking as long as a few moments to finally act. Why had the fleet jumped from the backwater? Had the pirate fleet followed the shadow fleet? Was the Dominion somehow already responding to our presence? Why was there no general alert if either of those two things were the case? Why was it that checking the cryobay manifests you see that the vast majority of ground forces and air crews were only just now beginning defrost cycles? Conspiracy was afoot, and now that you were already present in the Koprulu sector there was no time for it. You have so much to do, and so much of your success on behalf of the greater UED is at stake, you cannot allow yourself to be left in the dark. You immediately send a request for status update to the bridge, and a lengthy request for additonal information to the Admirals. No sooner have you typed and sent said message than you receive a knock at your door, and notice that the Atlas wing commander had already sent you a response. You sigh and back into your seat. Your war wings needed stretching indeed.
"Enter" you call from your seat, nursing your coffee and a growing migraine, Silvestr Kamil opening the door, and standing aside it looking somewhat in the same state as you.

"Ay commander." He says offering a short salute which you nod off, continuing "You said you'ze wanted you oversee the space and its duties, but here you lock yourself in office for hours, what gives? Ah, and also, commander Zhile from Atlas," He says looking over his shoulder and moving out of the way, the commander in parade uniform no less enters. "Says you called him." The man eyes you suspiciously as he takes his seat, apparently waiting for you to address your subordinate, and not willing to wait for the offer to enter.
"Yes Kamil, I said I would be overseeing things, but unfortunately other matters of a severe importance have come up, I will need time to discuss with the commander," You say standing and offering him an handshake from across your desk, which he eyes and accepts. "I am glad you were able to respond so quickly, Kamil," you say turning, "Get me a status update compiled for when I'm done here, Ill see to it then, for now you are dismissed." To which he merely grunts and walks off, closing the door behind him.

The man before you wastes no time now that you are alone to let his voice be heard. "You had better have a damn good reason for interrupting me, first the madness at the bridge, and now you tear me away from addressing my pilots. What matters do you have that involve me?" He snaps, nearly leaving you agape for his open hostility. But even as you stifle your reaction you see him catch himself, and soften if only slightly. Tobias Zhile is a man of some standing and all manner of military accolades in the navy, but you never took him for this much of a hard ass. "I appologize. I am working to the bone to make ready for the invasion."
CONT

>>1402716
>"I appologize. I am working to the bone to make ready for the invasion."
Everyone's working around the clock, lads.
How bad was it before we came along? Both here and the original timeline.

>>1402716
"These matters must be handled swiftly that I can return to my crew." he says matter of factly. It appears you are not the only one under a considerable strain.

"Yes Commander. I was not aware of your status, and perhaps should have been more keen in my message. I have located a prime target for our naval forces, and its importance to our mission I feel is paramount, however I cannot bring it to the admirals until you have seen to it, for I fear I am lacking where you are skilled." You say modestly, tapping at your terminal, and activating a small series of projectors in your desk, launching your battle report into the air at either side of the desk, but not obstructing your view of the commander. Before he even begins to read he eyes you up again and begins to berate you, though he swiftly starts to read as he does so.

"Quite ambitious of a man of your standing, seeking to command my men to death from behind a desk such as yours. You must realise my fleet comes first, and only the admiral and vice-admirals demands above that. Honestly I expected you to have more tact for how much the two of them praised you in our meeting." He says before his eyes narrow and he is drawn into your reports. He opens his mouth and nearly begins to speak before he stops and continues to read, his attention now completely absorbed by your report and his eyes widening. "You clearly have much to learn." He says before reading a bit further, and batting the holographic fleet projection of Deadmans defences aside you, clearly searching for something which he swiftly finds. "You are cunning, and I enjoy the thought of a adequate dockyard, though your choice in labor is absolutely deplorable," He says as he expands the projection zooming in on what you had thought was a small debris field around one of the orbital platforms. "You were right to see me, if the admirals had taken your judgement at face value you would have destroyed my men for nothing, here look at this!" He says pointing to a few small shapes flittering in the field. You fail at first to notice what he is refering to, but you slowly catch on.

"These pirates are disloyal to each other, my first thought was that they would not rely on any of their local forces for the brunt of their defence and I was correct. They have protected their key facilities in a cloak of debris and mines. An attack even in the best circumstances would have been suicide here." He says, before returning to the display on the opposite side of your desk and reading further in your break down of defences and stratagem. "And here as well, you mistake the nature of your enemy, these frigates, though unconventional I can recognize the unmistakable profile of a carrier anywhere, these ships must carry hundreds of manned and unmanned fighter drones." He says as he turns to stare you down. "Your plan is sloppy, needs many modifications, how could you be so stupid in your position as a naval veteran to underestimate your enemies."

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>>1402763
You nearly shrink at his berating, the hostility he had returning but subdued by something else.
He swiftly finished reading your report and spinning the opposite display a few times seems satisfied to lean back in his seat and address you entirely.

"Your planning is atrocious, oversight of present forces bordering on negligent, and choice of enemies foolhardy. The human upstarts here have endured much and been hardened by it here on the fringe. You aught not be so careless." He says bluntly, and you are rather wrought by the revelation you yourself had said much the same to the admirals not so long ago. But before you can muse he continues, "But your eyes I see are well tuned to your station, and I must admit would serve me quite well. I cannot sign off on this suicidal mission, but with permission to take these documents I believe I can retool them into something less idiotic and more managable." Now you reel again, this is an old tactic you didn't expect among your own so far from home. This bastard likes your plan, and he wants to take it, improve it, and show it to the admirals first. Son of a bitch.

>Let him, if this plan can be put into motion it will save you the heartache and scorn if it fails, and you still get your supplies if it succeeds.
>Call him out, this plan will cement your position as indespensible to the admirals if you can pull it off, and having the sway necessary to pursue your own supply goals will keep this army strong.
>Press him for more details and your luck. Damn him and his address, you have put off just as much for this project, he can improve it here and now, with you.
>Write in

When everyone chose a logistics role I was kind of dreading writing character shennanigans and making rules and spreadsheets for industry Ala inspirational quests like Frost Giantess and Hive Queen, but now... I think I like this role. Well played /qst/. ESPIONAGE AND INDUSTRY AHOY

>>1402811
>Let him, if this plan can be put into motion it will save you the heartache and scorn if it fails, and you still get your supplies if it succeeds.

We get our main goal taken care of here and if it fails it wont come down on us

>>1402730
It was never really illucidated, as the main focus was always on the war room and the missions themselves, but I got the feeling from some missions early on that everyone was high stress and expecting a hard time of things until the captain started pulling impossible victories out of a hat.

>>1402811
>Let him, if this plan can be put into motion it will save you the heartache and scorn if it fails, and you still get your supplies if it succeeds.

>>1402811
>Son of a bitch.
GG WP commander, now we're in politics. I can't believe you've done this.

>>1402811
>but now... I think I like this role. Well played /qst/.
>>but now... I think I like this role.
But is it a good pain?

>>1402837
Good point, but we should make some modifications to our politics proposal.

>>1402811
>Let him, if this plan can be put into motion it will save you the heartache and scorn if it fails, and you still get your supplies if it succeeds.
>>Write in
>However, ask that he put in a good word for us and clarify that we're collaborating on us together. We're the one who brought up the idea, he's the one that made that idea reality. We're working on supplies to make sure all the soldiers get what they need, he's the one who puts them into action.
He's going to want to do what he ask because while he may hog all the glory, we're the ones who can make his life a living hell if he acts like a dick to us.

>>1402869
>>1402837
>>1402859
3/3 in agreement for letting him take credit. Would anyone like a little more time to discuss taking equal credit or shall I begin writing?

>>1402901
>Would anyone like a little more time to discuss taking equal credit
For this scenario, I think we should split the credit 60/40 for what happened. I'd think he deserves more credit for making it work, but he shouldn't just leave us in the dust for trusting him with this.
However, I don't think we should kick too much of a fuss about it because we kind of have a massive backlog to complete before winter comes.

>>1402901
I think its fine, it either gets Dempsey in Zhile's good book or we make it clear that he owes us a favor if all goes well

>>1402811
>Press him for more details and your luck. Damn him and his address, you have put off just as much for this project, he can improve it here and now, with you.
We either share the glory or we find someone else.

>>1402934
>he owes us a favor if all goes well
>a favor
What should the favor be, we send his men on a suicide mission after this one? Or we send him on a spec ops one to save some certain individuals of interest?
Favors are good though, pretty much the lifeline in any backdoor politics-driven organization.

>>1402955
Like the Captain?

>>1402960
Yeah I was thinking the favor would be more of a "support me in front of the admirals" or "call this asshole out on his bullshit for me" sort of thing. Political favor, not something getting soldiers killed over

>>1402901
>>1402915
Something along these lines. He still gets the net prestige gain, we get our improved plan and supplies, and if he still has the audacity to fuck with us, perhaps supplies will be a bit harder to come by. Or perhaps we can nudge him towards "discovering" the secret zerg being stored on the ship, leading to punishments.

Fuck this man, I updated my copy of starcraft yesterday and without realising it broke all of my mods and my windowed program, which now the sound is busted as hell on it and nothing plays right, G fucking G blizzard. Why do you do this?
>>1402980
Unless there is some disagreement Ill go with this and start writing

>>1402972
Going with the more practical of the two options, eh? A shame, I was hoping for flashiness.

>>1402980
>perhaps supplies will be a bit harder to come by.
Particularly his personal cache of supplies.

>Or perhaps we can nudge him towards "discovering" the secret zerg being stored on the ship, leading to punishments.
>leading to punishments.
All I can think of for DuGalle's reaction to this happening is replacing the word "Promotions!" in that Promotions.gif with "Punishments!" or "Demotions!" instead. Like the one UBG posted way back on the 1st thread.

>>1402998
>G fucking G blizzard.
Did you get killed by Bnet updates, QM? I was worried it might've happened yesterday.

>>1402998
>Unless there is some disagreement Ill go with this and start writing
I think the plan we discussed earlier is what we're going by since we're too busy to really bother with the prestige unless he acts like a dick to us.

>>1402998
Its what I said. It happened a week ago, they are going to release a remastered SC1 to rake in more cash.

Interesting how the non-remastered one won't work anymore right?

>>1403048
Curious indeed...
>>1403032
WRITTAN

>>1402811
>>1402955
>>1402955
Oh hey, this gives me an idea. To account for possible dickishness:
>>Write in
>Warn Zhile if he continues acting like a dick that we know the game he's playing and that we're letting him do so in our best interests. Think of it as a mutual partnership.
We're not afraid to stand our own ground if he's going to jeopardize the mission and we already have alternative means to do so.

>>1403086
>>1403032
>>1403068
Messed up linking, sorry.

>>1402811
>Let him, if this plan can be put into motion it will save you the heartache and scorn if it fails, and you still get your supplies if it succeeds.
You have played this game. Zhile may for his authority play rather well, but clearly he doesn't expect that you have dealt with far more conniving men than him. Clawing your way through the officers corp, securing your Commanders training, countless missions of intrigue that only a man who handles manifests and rosters would ever truly know. He thinks he is a big fish, why not let him continue. Its not your neck on the line now.
You feign relief and hiding your inner-calm you address the man, "Ah, of course! I understand you have so much on your shoulders, I wouldn't keep you, but thank you so much for looking over these plans, Ill see to it a copy makes it to your desk! I'm sure with your further advisement we can really make something great out of this!" You say, watching him closely, a bare hint of a smile threatening to give way to his scowling glare. Yes yes, you are in control, all yours big guy.

He stands, and taking a step for the door, speaking as he goes. "Very good. When I have a free moment I'm sure I can make something better of this mess and give you something better to work with. As for now, I have a meeting to attend." He finishes as he swings the door shut behind him.

You kick your feet up on your table and sip your coffee. Idly you open the projections to show the commodities listing for the generous Commanders private quarters and various stations. Drinking slowly you wonder what you can cut to get his attention, let him know without saying that he owes you that he really does owe you. Ah, a private store of cigarettes, well that wont do, and his crew don't need them either to be honest. Everyone working so hard who has time for such things? Composing a short memo, you shoot off an order to Kamil to shift the various active supply requisitions for tobacco and other precious cargo to preferred shipping only.
After finishing with that little matter you overlook your RO's compiled report, swift bastard that he is it sits waiting in your inbox. It appears that a good bulk of the winterized gear is nearly finished and the munitions orders are all in full production now that we have a full manufacturing crew. Good. Perhaps with the crew where they are you wont be needed on the floor after all, but maybe you do not have anywhere better to be. As you are thinking this you receive a response from the bridge and the admirals. Both are massively similar and seem to unnerve you slightly. It seems the colony was used as a weapons testing zone. No mention of what weapons were used. Odd.

>Pursue the Admirals, head to the bridge and clear up this confusion.
>Manage the manufacturing space first hand. You made a promise, and a few hours late is better than not at all in the eyes of morale
>Write in

>>1403146
>It seems the colony was used as a weapons testing zone. No mention of what weapons were used. Odd.
>No mention of what weapons were used.
>Our secret weapons are the Zerg.
Did they just use the Zerg on that planet?
Should we save them or get back to work?

>Composing a short memo, you shoot off an order to Kamil to shift the various active supply requisitions for tobacco and other precious cargo to preferred shipping only.
>to preferred shipping only.
I can hear the distant REEEs already.

>>1403146
>Manage the manufacturing space first hand. You made a promise, and a few hours late is better than not at all in the eyes of morale

Definitely this, we cannot skip out o the first promise that we made them, that will sour any interactions afterwards

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6KB, 300x168px

>>1403146
>Pursue the Admirals, head to the bridge and clear up this confusion.

Reminds me of a certain scene.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-00uQzXyujI

>>1403190
"Why should we save them? We have all these orders to fulfill."

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49KB, 680x431px

>>1403190
YOU WERE WARNED GODDAMNIT,
THERE WERE SIGNS. YOU MADE THIS BED NOW LIE IN IT

>>1403209
>YOU MADE THIS BED NOW LIE IN IT
>YOU MADE THIS BED
Can we requisition another one?
I feel like this isn't the one we ordered.

>>1403146
>>1403190
>>1403209
I don't know what to feel now.

>>1403256
Which vote was that? Most of them had at least two votes.

>>1403184
So unless someone else posts Ill just go with this. seems like the only choice.

>>1403146
>>1403170
>>1403291
I'm torn with what Dempsey should do. He doesn't have the same meta-knowledge we do to know what actually happened, but he can reasonably deduce it.
We either go for the moral action, or the practical one in this case.

>>1403146
>>1403301
>>Manage the manufacturing space first hand. You made a promise, and a few hours late is better than not at all in the eyes of morale
I'll go with the practical one in this case if only because Dempsey's now too embroiled in politics to focus on morals.

>>1403269
I want to have a small scene where we are get surprised on the bridge. Alternatively we can let Zhile look silly by presenting a elaborate plan that has no use now.

>>1403209
Hey now, I wasn't there for that.

>>1403269
Had a brain fart while following the post chain about something else

>>1403335
>>1403146
Oh wait, are we still in the same system as the one we were planning for now?

>>1403342
Read back. We are already in-transit to Braxis

>>1403342

>>1402483
We jumped here.

It seemed Backwater was lose/lose for us either way.

>>1403335
>Alternatively we can let Zhile look silly by presenting a elaborate plan that has no use now.
>>1387009
>We will be running another sortie on a local colony, which myself and the Admiral will be overseeing.
Oh, so the plan still works. The colony that just got wrecked was some other planet that isn't integral to our plans.

>>1403364
Well Dempsey had admired it as a possible staging point for supply shipments from UED space. But clearly the admirals had something else in mind.

WRITING

>>1403364
I kinda wanted to press gang and conscript that planets population.

>>1403374
>But clearly the admirals had something else in mind.
This is what happens when you try pulling a fast one on your commanders.

>>1403378
We still can, the survivors that is.

Not worth cleaning the planet of zerg for it now.... We lost its industies and resources.

Unless.....

>>1403392
>Unless.....
What, nuke it from orbit?

>>1403399
Rendering the zerg into sludge that we use centrifugal force pushed through a giant mesh to separate the minerals from the bio soup. A pair of zerglings nets us 50 units of minerals after all.

>>1403146
>Manage the manufacturing space first hand. You made a promise, and a few hours late is better than not at all in the eyes of morale
Nagging thoughts aside you have a duty to your crew and to your commanding officers. With the journey to Braxis already underway the winterized gear must be made top priority, and the production schedule advanced as far as possible without sacrificing integrity. You down the last of your coffee and see off the drowsiness, the tire in your bones can wait. The battle for Braxis may take some time and you can rest while the Cronus wing does its work.

Stepping out of your office you are assaulted by the cacophony of industry. Loading arms manually and automatically run frantically maneuver materials across the space, loading carts and small vehicles forming an industrious ballet of work, and across a hundred corridors and work stations your technicians are working to test and ensure the integrity of your supplies. Deeming fit to examine the work rather than intercede you make your way around the main manufacturing deck from the vehicle assembly bays busy at work retrofitting walkers and armor from the anterior storage bays, the munitions yard which booms constantly as men tinker with heat sealed armor and weapons, the foundry itself where a thousand stations scream with hissing with molding and bending metal as so many pieces are sculpted and molded into their desired shape, all overseen by you and your RO, who has unseen to you found himself at your side as you make the rounds, you spare the man a look and Kamil huffs. "The Head of Engineering took his men and left, said the extra hands were 'nuff." You feign surprise, Johannes prefers his space to hard labor, though you find it hard to call working the reactors anything less than exhausting.

"That is fine Slvester. We have the hands, the work will be done. How goes the projects since your report?" You respond, keeping pace.

Kamil huffs again. "Good, not 'nuff time though. Winter gear gon' beat pace and be ready, fits will be tight. Munitions looking bad though. Too much too fast, good thing only standing fill orders." He responds simply.

You have to agree, the majority of the munitions order was for the valkyries and to resupply the new frigates. The winter gear will win the bigger part of the battle.

"I suppose I can be satisfied with that. We have already stripped everyone from cryo ahead of schedule. No more hands, no faster, and I'm not sure Johannes will lend us any of his crew without a fight this time." You remark, nearly shouting to be heard over a hydraulic press operated near you, a single technician overseeing it as it blasts hot steel into the shape of a hatch, and several mechanical arms piston drill bolt holes and deposit it on a conveyor.

"Gon' need to talk about materials soon though." He says simply.
Cont

>>1403418
High concept resource reclamation. Interesting thought.
>>1403422

This is the talk you were really dreading. So much so quickly, we must already be drawing close to completely expending our resource store. You sigh and speak again, "Just how bad is it?"

"Bad 'nuff. Might not be filling munitions order. Might not even fill fuel order if they expect it all before we take Braxis." He says again, signing a paper from some subordinate with a horrible scrawl before catching up with you. "Seems we not got enough fissionables. HALOs eat it like candy, the tanks all take expensive local fuel. Bad retrofit, should have kept bio-diesel. Do not trust vespene." He chimes.

Damn it all. The battle had not even begun and this damnable supply strain had run you aground. It seems we were not even fortunate enough to recieve materials from the fleet, how much of their fucking holds were sacrificed for Zerg instead of what we really needed? You grit your teeth, unintentionally glowering at an unawares worker as he assembles a small gyroscope and tests it on a balance. Kamil watches your gaze but says nothing until you regain your composure.

"Looked at survey from Braxis. Lots of fuel depots. Not lots natural, untapped. Cronus does job, we get to do ours." He says thoughtfully.

At least that much was true. This was out of your hands. And it seems that for the moment the deck is running itself smoothly, the motion Kamil to follow and the two of you march across the deck to the secondary manufacturing space, eager to see how much progress has been made on supplying the general gear, and the pre-formed materials for fleet repair. Listening to the clink of your boots and the patter of distant crew you are haunted with how empty they are. It appears that there is an on-going meeting for the rest of the crew, or perhaps they are already in the mess deck getting their brief respite before we re-emerge and they dive into war. Its hard to tell, and you don't care. Stepping into the space you perform your rounds with Slvester and confirm everything is on pace. It seems for the moment you are un-needed in the general floor space. At least the men were able to see you about, and listening to Kamil has kept you informed, relieving Kamil you are hit by how tired you are, and consider what to do next.
>I've earned my rest, get some sleep, and be ready to oversee the battle.
>Coffee and stims, the diet of kings, or maybe just some regular food. You haven't eaten in nearly 20 hours, much more and you might faint.
>These empty halls perturb you, lets see where everyone has gotten off too
>Write in

>>1403451
>These empty halls perturb you, lets see where everyone has gotten off too
Stop by the canteen for a quickie.

>>1403451
Well, I'm off now. Good luck folks.
>>1403466
2nd. Find out why everything's so spooky, get a meal, then sleep.
>>1403418
I'm not sure what to think of it, but it's impressive the way you're thinking of resource reclamation like this. I'm guessing this is how we salvage Zerg corpses, then.

>>1403466
>>1403468
It actually seems to be a bit late for me too. I might have to pick this up tommorow.

Anyway, I think you all did well this session, good job. Ill stick around, answer any and all questions, give feedback. Ive always got the tab open anyway.

>>1403479
Passage of time be difficult for us to perceive.

I felt we had more time before the happenings by finishing up all our simple and smaller tasks before heading off to do bigger things, then that was not the case. I don't some of the other players get the implications that we could have prevented, and I didn't realize what we missed until after all the posted warnings.
>>1402508
>>1403209

>>1403512
Someone got it last thread, but my GM instincts prevented me from tipping my hand until the moment had passed.
I really really would have enjoyed stealing the moment from Alexi but I suppose fate had other plans huh?

Goddamnit, I just realised I switched from using Micheal to Jack for Dempsey. What the hell.

>>1403615
I was wondering if that was intentional or not, so I didn't mention it earlier. Should I have?
>>1403536
Oh, who was the one that got it?

>>1403363
>>1403374
>>1403451
>>1403479
>>1403512
From the looks of things and reading through the past threads, it seems that this is one of the quests where there's no "best" route per say or one can get everything perfectly. Which reminds me of another QM's statements.
Everyone's on a timetable and there are multiple ways to go about things. There are risks and rewards for each one, and our subjective successes can be measured by how well we do in that sense.

In this case, Dempsey seems to have been playing it safe or practical for the most part, and has been steadily been willing to take more risks as he became more acquainted with matters. The first major checkpoint or point of no return seems to have been once we realized they released the Zerg on that Backwater colony.

I'll post some reflections upon our earlier actions in a bit.

>>1403984
>I'll post some reflections upon our earlier actions in a bit.
So looks like I ended up making the reflections into more of an after action report.

>>1403984
>>1403536
>>1403512
>>1403451
While we did have the option to investigate the Science Bay and Zergs more, we didn’t pick it because we neither had the clout nor security to risk involving ourselves in conspiracies like this. Personally, I still don’t think we could risk it until we personally meet the Head of Science, or have one other person to back us up. I’d think that even we could’ve changed our decisions, it would’ve largely been the same since the Zerg route is the riskiest out of all of them, and with the most unreliable set of rewards. To be honest I didn’t realize this was going to be the colony that was going to be Zerged until it was too late, but still.

If we had really wanted to go the Zerg route, we’d likely have had to spend more time with the other significant individuals, but then that’d mean neglecting our duties and avoiding the propaganda route. I don’t think this would’ve been a practical decision given how low on supplies we already were to afford more losses than what we made. Plus, it would’ve set a bad example for our workers. We didn’t know the Admirals would go as far as to unleash the Zerg on the beginning on the campaign either to really consider it a pressing concern.
The Zerg route was effectively a “mystery box” option, but with more chances of skullduggery.

The options we did go with were investigate the pirates and try setting up some propaganda campaigns, which were effectively a “take a third option” equivalent by Dempsey’s standards. I think these were write-in options that were included outside of the QM’s original plans too.
These were what I’d consider to be the best options as they were the ones without a niche being filled and the ones with clearly the most reliable results. Doing this would’ve netted the most gain for both Dempsey and the UED, and the reputation earned from this can be used as a launching pad to more safely get into the Zerg route. This also fits with the general player actions of fulfilling a niche nobody previously put much consideration into.

So in terms of our decisions, I think we’re going with what’s best for Dempsey and the UED at the moment.

Oy Im back

>>1403993
Wow, introspection posts. neat.
Might as well take this moment to address some things.

You are spot on about time tables. I always felt that the messiness of life is what makes a story interesting, and Dempsey is not an all knowing sleepless entity, there will be things that by necessity shall be missed. Without timetables I also wouldn't be able to make problems outside of a characters direct view into the world develop and worsen or lessen, and this would all just be various levels of wankery of us stomping around a setting. Hell the entire protoss campaign was still going on during the hyperjump to Korprulu. Maybe you could have taken control of the spy satellites before the admirals woke up and made contact with various faction leaders. Who knows, it never happened.

Yes, I did not actually expect or prepare for a diplomatic route, and I was pleasantly surprised to include it.

Maybe there was a good way to handle the Zerg route, maybe there wasn't. Its still very early, and the real deciding factor would have been how careful Dempsey was.

And to the last line, who can say? Perhaps? Maybe the best road for everyone is killing DuGalle and framing his murder on Alexi? Maybe its running the Science Corp as a spec ops commander and leading the charge to perfect zerg control. Your route is carried by the strength of my secret rolls and your intelligent decision making.

>>1403479
>I might have to pick this up tommorow.
>tommorow.
So when's the next session, QM? Do you post session times on a news outlet like Twitter or Discord?

Since we have UED scientists with us I think we should consider aiming for zerg and protoss researches from WoL campaign. Things like Regenerative Bio-Steel or Micro-Filtering with Automated Refinery would be incredibly useful not to mention possible mix with special UED tech which wasnt shown in SC1.
And if plan with Deadmans port works I am pretty sure we can get our hands on better local tech like things from armory upgrades in WoL, mercenaries units and maybe even up to Nova`s things from DLC campaign and co-op missions. Latter will probably require massvie investment to get but jumping tanks and super stimpacks will likely worth it.
And if I recall correctly shouldnt Tosh and his gang of psionics been on the run about now?
Also, there was one thing that bothered me with SC story: lack of proper AIs up untill Legacy of the Void showed Purifiers.
Adjutant, widow mines and ither killer robots from campaign always seemed one step away from proper possibilty of AI army. AI research is probably prohibited in terrans and UED like protoss did but dont think it is out of possibility to run into rogue AI with pirates and Umojan Protectorate around.