[LP CYOA] Epic

[treave]

The choices should play out this way:

Deciding whether to use the quantum computer as a bargaining chip comes first.

Next, whether or not you decide to mass produce the black hole tech, you'll need help from the scientists and technicians that are on your side. You might build the foundation, but without them you won't have enough time to get anything done with the deadline you have. Some of them worked on the project before it was mothballed so they already have experience.

Then, you have the option of unlocking your psyche before or after dealing with the Federation, should we choose to do so. It is riskier to unlock it earlier, if you mess up your allies might not even defeat the Feds, but if you succeed you could win the fight much quicker, giving you more time to prepare Earth for the Empire's arrival.

 

[Baltika9]

Weirdly we all seem to be just voting rather than making arguments, for such a critical choice?

That is because we have this rare majority consensus of "fuck those guys, we're not surrendering our planet." Not much else needs to be said. The reason I think we should fight the Federation is to get our forcess experience in fighting against superior numbers and get Senya some last-minute command practice.

BBAB for now, but this I think is far too safe to really succeed; keep our sanity intact, keep the computer, etc.

Yeah, I don't think we have too good a chance of success without him. As much as it pains me to say, we need him. I think Senya's willpower and ego are strong enough to get over the shit he will pull.

Yeah, we miss Esquilax, too.

That we do, that we do.

 

[Baltika9]

The biggest decision we should debate on is this: CF or Fleet.

On the one hand, both Rei and Senya are kickass pilots with amazing skills. But, it's just one CF against the entire might of the Empire's Crusade.

On the other, a fleet powered with the BHE will have a greater survivability and we'll be better able to withstand losses (whereas if we lose our CF, game over), plus it will be better able to take on divided enemy formations. The problem is this: the way treave described it, the Fleet's officer corps has been pretty much wiped out (in fact, how many experienced officers do we have, treave?), which will make combating the Empire much more difficult and losses during the war with the Federation, unacceptable. Which is why we absolutely must unlock our twin now and tough out whatever he throws at us. Or buy more time with the supercomputer, which is not acceptable.

Amyway, these are my five cents, what do you think, bros ?

 

[treave]

Enough to crew five cruisers. They're all veterans of the Indus war, there's no worry about competency. That's just the Fleet, you have more personnel you can draw upon once you link up with the Earth cities. Lack of equipment is your main problem, though you'll always be outnumbered in a straight fight.

 

[ScubaV]

I agree with TOME. CABB

Yes it means leaving behind Earth. The Federation and/or the Empire may try to it as a bargaining chip against us, but all we need is time to perfect our black hole technology, likely even more than three months' worth. But eventually even the Masters will learn fear. Let us become Keyser Soze, a man with iron will: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BgkBpWc8ngI#t=2m12s

 

[Baltika9]

Here're the votes so far:
A-1
B-7
C-2
-
A-6
B-4
-
A-5
B-5
-
B-10

Looking for a tie-breaker between fleet and mech.

 

[a cut of domestic sheep prime]

Fine, I'll break the tie. Flopping to 3b. We can always mass produce the generators after we wipe out the entire enemy force.

 

[Azira]

 

[Baltika9]

Assuming we'll have a fleet left. Or don't go batfuck insane and slaughter all our forces too.
The biggest thing that's making me uneasy about the CF option is that we're putting all our eggs in one basket and hoping for the best. At least with an upgraded fleet, we can stand a loss or two, and they can cover multiple sectors of approach, should Belly-A apply his "Tactical Genius, Hurr."

But whatever, we'll make this work.

 

[Storyfag]

You guys do realise that building a single CF makes our entire fight with the Federation unnecessary? The whole point of overcoming the Federation is acquiring their resources to build the BHC fleet.

 

[treave]

There is always the path of cooperation. Pick A, pretend to play nice and you might find yourself gathering sympathizers in government which would grant you access to the factories.

Besides that, the Federation (or rather, President Julia) was totally asking for it when they made their demands, panicked as they were by the Emperor's declaration and paranoid about your quiet return to Earth space along with the cult. We'll have more scenes about that later.

Now, I figured the main point of attempting the coup d'etat was so that you could replace the cowardly and venal political Terran elite with a bunch of people that have more balls, to prepare you better for the coming confrontation with the Empire. Are you going to continue playing politics to get what you want, or are you going to make a stand on your principles? Both elevate your power, but one path is costlier than the other, and can you afford those losses at this point in time? That's something to consider.

Of course more factories is always nice. Too bad we didn't discover the Star Forge ancient Von Neumann factory satellite, to which the star maps were located in an strange pyramidal alien temple close to where Twintails and co. were trapped.

edit: That was a joke.

 

[Baltika9]

Uh, if the CF option wins, why don't we make a Frame like ours for Rei? With the practice round against the Federation and two of the most skilled aces in those things, there's no way we'd lose to Marduk.

 

[treave]

The time going into the design of it means that you can probably produce one, maybe two, by the time the Empire rolls around.

There'll be a few choices such as:

Single-seater? Twin-seater? Five-seater combining robot?

How many generators do we want on this thing?

A small selection of regular arsenal load-outs. Melee-focused, ranged, or a mix?

Trump card. Improved black hole cannon with greater control, range and AoE? Use transient wormholes to 'vanish' enemy projectiles and/or the enemies themselves? Swift use of short-range wormholes for tactical, in-battle teleportation, jumping your mech around like a monkey on crack? Use of localized time-dilation improve your reaction time? Further raping the laws of physics by creating a singularity 'beam' propagating at FTL speeds that tracks your eye movements so that you can trace the lines of destruction instantly by just rolling your eyeballs? Roll into full wank territory and get all of the above?

 

[Baltika9]

That's hardly sporting, will the fleet option have anything to compare with the CF's customization?

 

[treave]

First off, even if you fail to build a fleet, the black hole generators can be used for something else. They can be easily converted to bombs, for example. Mining the region around Sol with black hole bombs will be deadly since they look just like space debris when inactive, and the Empire hasn't yet caught on to your tricks.

Next, ship design can benefit from much of the same technology put on a frame. Teleportation, pinpoint wormhole defenses, black hole cannons and the like are possible upgrades. However, building and equipping a fleet, and shoving all of your best tech on one prototype are very different things (not that you'll get all of the exotic tech for the mech in one go either). What you will get are possibly a thousand ships that are each capable of trading blows with Imperial flagships and getting the better of the exchange. The odds will still be against you. The rest is down to tactics. If indeed you end up in a firefight with the Empire.

Now, this is not set in stone, I'm giving you guys the best case scenario here in terms of tech.

 

[Baltika9]

Yeah, ships sound better. If we win this, I'm pretty sure we'll be able to secede from the League and they won't be able to say shit about it, since they abandoned us and all.

The Empire of Terra may yet be!

 

[Azira]

But... But... This thread is flagged as Anime, I want the mega-mech!

 

[Baltika9]

Fuck the mega-mech, go for the mega fleet instead. Much more versatile and survivable. As qn added bonus, we'll already have one ready to start our counter-attack immediately.
Or war for independence, as 5he case may be.

 

[TOME]

What's your reasoning for defending Earth at all cost? Humanity has reach the stars and won't be wiped out with one planet. Let's run, perfect the tech and then take over the Federation and build our fleet and super mech.

 

[Storyfag]

But... But... This thread is flagged as Anime, I want the mega-mech!

Go die in a fire.

 

[Baltika9]

What's your reasoning for defending Earth at all cost? Humanity has reach the stars and won't be wiped out with one planet. Let's run, perfect the tech and then take over the Federation and build our fleet and super mech.

Because the fact that he is throwing everything he has at Terra means there's something there he wants, probably an "I win" item. I'm not too keen on letting him have it.
If we hand over the planet to Julia, we won't take the resources back in time to make adequate use of them, hence the "Remove worst traitor from premises!" approach. That , and she'll likely bend knee to Marduk, which is unacceptable.

 

[Storyfag]

That , and she'll likely bend knee to Marduk, which is unacceptable.

But is it, really? I'm still considering discussing terms with him. But we need the firepower to back up our negotiations.

 

[Baltika9]

If she gives him Terra first, then we lose, is what I meant. Can't let her do that.

 

[Azira]

But... But... This thread is flagged as Anime, I want the mega-mech!

Go die in a fire.

 

[Storyfag]

If she gives him Terra first, then we lose, is what I meant. Can't let her do that.

Ah, but I want US to negotiate with Marduk, not Julia

But... But... This thread is flagged as Anime, I want the mega-mech!

Go die in a fire.