[LP CYOA] Epic

[ScubaV]

Speaking of which, A1 appears to be winning rather handily - and now it has - so you guys can spend the next... 8 hours or so discussing just how you're going to handle Carneus Beta. If something convincing pops up that'd be swell.

Well there's always rewind if it comes to that. Best get hopping to those plans bros, I've got sleep and then work to do. See you in 20 hours.

 

[Esquilax]

Annihilation Cannon - Collides a mirror pair of matter and anti-matter black holes with the target to create a burst of destructive energy that is strong enough to annihilate a star system if left uncontrolled.

Now, I am having an extremely difficult time envisioning any scenario in which we can load up our weapon and fire the cannon without them swarming us with a zillion drones as we feebly attempt to get a shot off. This place is on high-alert and armed to the teeth, they are going to know what we're up to very quickly.

But, maybe we don't need to wait that long to create a blast powerful enough to take out the system. What we need to do is get them to attack us in such a way that it causes a premature, uncontrolled blast of the Annihilation Cannon. We are going to get hit a lot doing this, but the Energy Armor upgrade will allow us to tank shots to an extent. That being said, I don't see how anybody can tank the millions of shots from fortresses and drones that we're going to be taking - we'd barely last more than a few seconds.

Another thing to keep in mind is that we'll be arriving at Carneus Beta instantaneously thanks to the wormhole. This means that for the time being, we won't have to worry about getting taken out by a shot of Vajra Shula hiding within their drone swarms. Their superweapon would still be recharging once we get there.

So yeah, that's pretty much the only way I see us winning: cause a premature and uncontrolled blast of the Annihilator Cannon that will end up wiping out the system. Since there's no fucking way we'll have enough time to load up a shot before they're on us, the next best thing would be to get attacked in such a way that our weapon's full potential is unleashed. I am not sure the best way to go about creating the conditions for such a thing to happen, but I see it as our sole route to victory here.

 

[treave]

Being in the same system as a system-annihilating blast generally isn't preferred, but sure. It'd definitely be bad for the Vajra Shula too.

 

[Baltika9]

Let's not be so dramatic now, I think there is another way.
Right now, we're in a scenario similar to Uranus, in that there are no friendlies around and that's good, that meams everyone's a target and that means we can use the maneuverability of the frame to our advantage. We may not be faster or more agile than before, but our Dynamic Duo (how come that wasn't a chapter name yet?) had enough practice with dodging fire and drones to be comfortable with this, I'm sure. If they slip up, they have that little extra bit of body armor to bail them out.

Also, they can use it to AoE/ram themselves out of difficult situations.

As I see it, the League made Carneus Beta a fortified artillery position. The fortresses that are no doubt here will most likely have some high power/long range cannons and smaller weapons systems coming out the ass. We can duck, weave and teleport to use their fire to our advantage. Hell, we may be able to even send a few stray shots at Vajra or other fortresses. All we need to do is time it properly and Senya is a master at that. In fact, if Anhur-Shu had enough muscle to literally slam SuperDwaggonMarduk through a planet and punt Imperial ships, can we perhaps grab enemy ships to use as "human" shields? (I know, completely fucking insane.)

Once we've cleared the field enough with our shenanigans, we'll just need to squeeze off a black hole large enough to swallow Vajra. Barring any Master dickery, we should be fine.

Option number three: we steal Vajra and repurpose it as our CF's personal sniper rifle for maximum ownage.

 

[treave]

Fortresses happen to be a good place to store lots of drones. Lots. It might be shocking, but the same tactic might not be as effective against different doctrines. Not to say it won't be, but 'clearing the field' just so that there's enough space for you to pause and charge might take a day of full combat.

 

[Baltika9]

Okay, grab a ship by it's stern and swing it to clear an area. Use friendly fire against the drones. Teleport, or kite a large enough amount and fry them with our shields. Fire on the hangar doors.
Ram the fortresses.

Also, can Rei take over mobility while we charge the cannon, or must we stand absolutely still?

 

[treave]

You could move. But you'd also lose control of the black holes. The calculations have to be rather precise. Since you don't have a quantum computer to handle it.

 

[Esquilax]

You could move. But you'd also lose control of the black holes. The calculations have to be rather precise. Since you don't have a quantum computer to handle it.

By "lose control" of the black holes, do you mean lose control of their power or lose control of where we fire them? If it's the latter, then with the sheer power and blast radius on our cannon, this isn't really a problem. The blast will be so large and powerful that there's no way it won't hit something.

 

[Baltika9]

It might be shocking, but the same tactic might not be as effective against different doctrines. Not to say it won't be, but 'clearing the field' just so that there's enough space for you to pause and charge might take a day of full combat.

Okay, four questions:
How smart are these drones, can we trick them to strike an enemy like Senya did with the heat-seeking missiles, or are they advanced enough to avoid that?
How long do Rei and Senya think they can go non-stop?
Can we not use the local planets, space debris and wrecks as cover?
In fact, can we MacGyver a jamming field strong enough to mask our EM signature with radiation? Since radiowaves are a form of radiation and all?
Edit:

D. I test out my new Annihilation Cannon on the retreating fleet. At this distance I'm not confident of hitting all of them, and the trail of high energy cosmic radiation left behind will prevent us from following them quickly, if at all, but I should be able to do serious damage to the enemy fleet if I don't miss them entirely.

I take it our big gun can leave radiation in it's wake?

 

[Esquilax]

The Brazilian Slaughter, we've mentioned several times why this won't be as simple as taking a shot and bolting. That strategy won't work at all. Oh, and guys, stop comparing this situation to our fight at Uranus - the doctrines, strategies and abilities between the League and the Empire are very different. Again, here is the comparison between their differing philosophies:

The Empire focuses on armour and mass volleys, drowning the enemy in fire. They have a lot more missiles on their warships than other factions, and their warships are also sturdier.

The League's ships are built around particle beams. Their ships are more maneuverable than those of the other two factions as far as warships go, allowing them to constantly shift position to fire an accurate beam salvo. The drones act to screen enemy fire and also to pin the enemy fleet in position with relentless attacks.

Now, we must consider our frame's abilities and how we can utilize them, first and foremost.

VII. Reactive Energy Armour. Uses the immense generator output to constantly create a layer of ablative energy. It can be supercharged and ejected outwards to burn the enemy, or contained and used for a ramming attack.

Okay, the issue is that we need to be in the same area long enough to get a shot off. However, our ramming abilities with VII create some interesting opportunities not just for offense, but for clever defense in helping us advance past the fortresses while taking a few out along the way. Look at this:

The armour of the super-heavy battleship appears to be layered with a super-dense material; even my graviton cannons fail to penetrate the hull fully.

Okay, I am assuming that our ramming abilities are strong enough to push a super-heavy battleship, which I could be wrong about. But we can do this, potentially: ram into a super-heavy battleship, using it as a makeshift shield as we prepare our Annihilator Cannon. The super-dense armor on the shield will give us precious seconds to prepare as millions of particles and drones descend upon us. But to get to us, they'd have to get through the battleship, first. Once that happens and the battleship has been taken out to get to us, our shot is loaded up and we can fire it towards the enemy fortresses as we head towards the Vajra Shula.

There are plenty of things that could go wrong with this though. The main issue is that it assumes that we aren't getting flanked, so we can't do it deep inside the enemy's lines, we have to be advancing towards them and relatively sure that there's nobody behind us. We probably would need to fire a second shot to actually get to the superweapon, but I think this would be a great initial shock-and-awe attack that would wipe out many of their fortresses (which are carrying their drones).

The other issue is that once they fire at the battleship we're using as a shield, the resulting explosion will hurt us because we don't have the VII upgrade that allows us to absorb explosions. I don't know whether that could fuck up our ability to fire black holes.

 

[Esquilax]

I'd like to post our loadout:

I. Tactical Warp System. Allows me to use wormholes to warp around the battlefield at will.

III. Ring Slaves. Remote drones that draw upon the black hole generator to power their weaponry. Also allows you to warp your own fire through the rings for tactical considerations.

IV. Annihilation Cannon - Collides a mirror pair of matter and anti-matter black holes with the target to create a burst of destructive energy that is strong enough to annihilate a star system if left uncontrolled.

VII. Reactive Energy Armour. Uses the immense generator output to constantly create a layer of ablative energy. It can be supercharged and ejected outwards to burn the enemy, or contained and used for a ramming attack.

VIII. Gravity Wings. Wing-like projections that can be manipulated to immobilize an enemy or serve as an extra layer of defense. Also increases agility and maneuverability.

Fusing III with the use of rammed ships as makeshift defensive shields is how we'll deal with the drones as we advance. While we're ramming, we can't actually see in front of us, right? But with the Ring Slaves, this isn't a problem; we can warp our own fire in front of us as we're using an unlucky battleship as a shield, allowing us to take out drones as they approach us (or rather, the ship that we're using to protect ourselves with) without actually being able to see them. As the drones descend, we can warp our own fire ahead of the battleship to destroy the drones as they're coming in. Whatever drones we don't get will hit our "shield".

If the ship is about to explode, that's where the Tactical Warp System comes in. The ability of the Gravity Wings to immobilize the enemy will also be really useful, as we need to keep our "shield" right where we want it as we're moving forward or loading up the Annihilator Cannon.

 

[Baltika9]

I really like that idea (that's why we work together, after all), but I have to wonder, will that superheavy battleship withstand a shot from a fortress' biggest cannon? Sure, we can power through a drone rush, but we may have to switch the ships we're using as shields via the teleport system. I wonder if our drones can warn us of incoming fire.

 

[Baltika9]

I think you summarized it best:


Gears of Epic: Senya Effect.

 

[treave]

I think you might be slightly underestimating the effect of having literally millions of drones acting in concert to suppress your movements. They're more agile and smarter than missiles, six of them would give an average CF pilot a lot of trouble. Think less guided missile, more unmanned dogfighter. Obviously not easy to jack or jam either.

As for using ships as shields, probably workable except not all super-heavies are as heavily armoured. Only the flagships, probably. But regular ships would do... as long as you keep moving. The sheer amount of drones means that you'll be attacked from all angles long before you can reach a battleship. Which means you aren't charging. But there are ways around that.

 

[Baltika9]

In that case, I guess we need a full guerrilla-fighter/anti-drone loadout for this: EMP mines and missiles, dirty tricks, flares, scrambling devices, etc...

That won't be enough, however. If the aftermath of our cannon can indeed produce a trace of radiation, then we may want to try masking our own EM signature behind that. Or use nukes.
I'm assuming the drones will be rather confused by that.

Other than that, yeah, teleportation is our friend in this plan. I'm voting for it.

Edit: this will either be EPIC or Epic Fail.

 

[Storyfag]

I think you summarized it best:


Gears of Epic: Senya Effect.

I want to be a Marduk

 

[treave]

Spend too much time destroying the drones or otherwise focusing on them and... hey, that's exactly what they want. While you were busy fighting the very disposable drones, they've gotten into place to particle beam you to death. Such a pity you don't have a fleet around to attract their attention. And there's still the matter of getting enough space to nail the Vajragun with the Annihilation Cannon...

If I were Senya, the only time I'd draw everyone's attention to myself would be as a distraction, or when I've set up the battlefield to make it a viable tactic. For example, jumping in alone and being an unkillable pest is a good way of, say, harassing them to the extent that they try to turn the Vajragun on me instead of supporting their armadas, who now suddenly don't get to play their trump card when they least expect it, setting them up for a devastating defeat at the hands of Ean's fleet.

It's also rather a pity no one thought to follow Delta, ram their flagship, and steal any targeting drones onboard so that we could figure out how to spoof the signal and do other wacky things to their targeting.

Turn their reliance on the superweapon into their weakness. Which can be done without going straight for the superweapon the moment we find out about it. It is rather interesting that the first reaction we have here once we find out about the enemy superweapon isn't 'let's test our knowledge of the superweapon via a series of careful skirmishes and begin devising a plan to negate its advantage in battles with the enemy armada', but 'let's go blow up the superweapon! Now!'.

Oh well. It's a good thing Senya is a 'tactical genius'.

edit: Ah, right - losing control of the Annihilation Cannon means that you're near the epicentre of a system-annihilating blast. Simple as that.

 

[Baltika9]

Oh, he is. I'm not.

Still, why put our guys at risk when we have a chance to avoid a troublesome situation entirely, in the first day of the invasion, no less? Our guys will get a humongous morale boost, their guys will get the opposite, their fortified artillery position will be left wide open and Swicks will probably be relieved of command.
Then again, I'm pretty shortsighted and honestly didn't really think of those other options. Honestly, so long as Anhur-Shu isn't destroyed or totaled for more than a month, both the pilots live and are fit to fight, and Vajra gets black hole'd, I'm chalking it up as a win. Brute force isn't elegant, but it works (I hope). We'll get Ean bro-points as a bonus.

And, hey, we've been getting him in these situations from the very beginning. I'd like to think he's become adjusted to this crap, as much as one can.

 

[treave]

Speaking of tactical genius, there's that League shuttle Mere was on. I wonder if we can cannibalize its IFF...

 

[Kayerts]

We can also use objects larger than battleships as shields, no? E.g., fortresses? Moons? Planets? (I hear those absorb hits pretty well, not that Senya's seen much evidence of that.) Cloaking immediately and lining up a shot from a crater in a nearby moon seems plausible. When we appear on the other side, we'll be a weird invisible signal that doesn't seem to be hurt by light fire. That's odd, but not so odd that I'd expect them to respond with a bombardment from the full fleet.

When was ramming Delta an option?

 

[treave]

You'd need to first follow Delta for that option to turn up.

Yes, diving into the atmosphere of a planet is actually a great way to destroy drones, which were made for space combat and don't fare that well upon reentry, or in atmosphere. It also tends to help disguise your presence if the cloud cover is thick. As I said, there are ways around the problem of getting assailed on all sides; you found one.

 

[Esquilax]

treave, what is the structure of the space-fortresses like? You mentioned that one of their functions is that they are massive drone depositories, is it possible for our CF to enter one, or is it too big? I'm wondering whether it would be viable to infiltrate one of them, take out the drones before they've managed to depart, and load up a shot of our cannon from inside.

 

[treave]

It's possible to enter one. They're the size of a moon and serve as a base for drones and warships of all sizes. Destroying them from the inside is much easier than from the outside. Firing the cannon requires a clear path, however, and given that you'll hit wall probably kilometres from where you are if you fire from inside the base...

Is it possible to throw one, though? Or going one step further, could we put out enough power to play bowling with a rocky planet and Vajra Shula as the lone pin standing?

That is something I need to consider.

edit: If we somehow channel all of the power from our reactor into the thrusters assuming 100% efficiency, that should give us the ability to output 8 x 10^27 Joules of energy per second. Pushing a planet the size of Earth, which masses at about 5.97 x 10^24 kg, one million kilometres would require perhaps 5.97 x 10^31 Joules of energy. Obviously we don't need to do that in a second, so we should have enough energy to move planets after a slow start.

Assuming the crust doesn't give way, dropping us into the mantle, or more likely, shooting us out the other end thanks to the massive force applied over a very small area.

I fucking hate maths.

 

[Baltika9]

...and here I was, thinking that was too crazy to consider. I need to speak my mind more.

By the way, can we repurpose the forts' energy sources into explosives and then play pinball with them?

 

[treave]

Whatever reactors they have, even if exploded, won't compare to the force of hitting someone with a massive moon fortress at sublight speeds.

Then again the League and the Empire can destroy even planets with use of their battleships, so it's an option but not the option. There's no single trick that'll allow you to win this fight, no magic solution.