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B, we really don't have the resources or capacity to overwhelm anything right now. Our bridge with the renegades is burned and we totally screwed up the subversion opportunity, so, yeah. Sit and wait it is.
Cheesecake , I'm curious - what is your process like, in writing these CYOAs? Do you plan far ahead, or no further than all choices for next update, or do you just wing it and offer some options and write whatever? How much do you railroad? Are there failstates?
And C. Our troops are very specialised. Remember what happened the last time we picked a strategy that wasn't our forte? Total rape. We don't have the numbers or weapons or saboteurs on the inside for a siege, and as far as a protracted guerilla campaign goes - our melee superiority will work best the first time. After the first engagement steps will be taken to keep us at range. We need to be the short, sharp, shock. We need the ship. Being able to deny the IG the way home also gives us leverage in inciting dissent among them, giving us a much stronger position if we choose to fight the war further.
C. Definitely our long-term goal but I'm not sure we're 100% ready. Still a sudden night operation could be the trick to maximise our mutant's shock capabilities.
I only kind of plan the outcomes of the current choices. I don't really like failstates unless its dramatic and is at a vital point to the story. It's like "Hey, this is getting pretty interesting nope wait we're dead start again," for me :p I don't railroad, at least, I try my hardest not to.
Not planning out anything and relying on you guys to choose how the story goes makes it a mystery for me as well, if that makes sense.
That's not to say every choice I give is a good one, like the choice of Lena making brilliant plans. I may make stuff up on the go, but I do try to keep in-universe consistency.
E. Spend a few minutes to reasure Detox. He's our bro and he deserves that much. THEN we continue working from the shadows, using our superhuman charisma to gather more allies.
But you can bet the ship will NOT be lightly defended. Still, it is an upgrade compared to our shitty shuttle, so I'll swap my vote to C, if only to see it backfire.
Guys, all we have are a some mutant warriors, I don't think a melee rush is likely to overtake an entire battleship. At the least let's wait and impart some blessings on them before going.
Yeah, we just don't have the resources to takeover the cruiser right now. If we spent time and effort on suborning the denizens of this world, if we're able to bring a few Imperial Commanders over to us, then maybe. We're not ready right now.
Also being all huggy with Detox in E is just going to undermine our position and accomplish nothing. He'll still see it as a betrayal, simply because Nurgle does. It will also signal weakness to everyone around us. Demon kid will just love that.
The cruiser is a Dauntless-class light cruiser. It's 4.5 km long, 0.5 km abeam at the fins and weighs around 20 megatons. It has a crew numbering around 65,000. It's a scout cruiser, and is loaded with enough fuel and supplies to last years.
Known Characters:
Detox, apothecary - Betrayed
Hooker, sergeant - Devoted
Entek, tech-priest - Indifferent
Sorcerer - Devoted
The Boy - Unknown *Nowhere
Tempestus, chaplain - Dead?
The Captain - Dead
Forces:
Mutant Horde - 3,000 - Devoted
Items:
Artificer Bodyglove
Laspistol
Location:
Dauntless-class Light Cruiser
"What order you give us?" croaks a wretched mutant.
You smirk and point to the heavens. "A light cruiser. An iron kingdom that bathes in the light of stars. My kingdom."
"Your kingdom!" they croak in unison. The entire tribe hollers and howls, and deafening cries answer from all directions as more mutants reveal themselves. Behind bramble and bush, beneath boulder and bark, they come, screeching and screaming.
The teeming horde is driven to violence, urging and pleading you to loose them upon the men of the Gold Eagle. The very air is permeated with the stench of murderous pheromones. Your army numbers more than a few thousand; your past experience with Imperial vessels tells you that the cruiser will harbor at least sixty-thousand crewmen, but the majority of those are press-ganged slaves or servitors. The trouble, instead, is getting the mutants aboard.
You relay your concerns to your crew. The Sorcerer smirks slyly. "I might have a solution, my lady." He procures a nondescript tome from his robes. Numerous chains strangle the book, with locks of every sort protecting the book. Or the reader, you muse to yourself.
He demonstrates his plan on a smaller scale: an unfortunate mutant is knocked out, gagged, and prepared for slaughter (fitting, you think, since it resembles a pig). The Sorcerer mutters dark words as the victim squeals and struggles, performing ritualistic cuts on the wretch's skin until it bleeds out. The blood oozes out, forming a unnervingly-circular pool. The Sorcerer calls up another of the mutants outside the hut, but instead of opening the door, it crawls out of the bloody pool, eyes frantic as its concepts of reality were violated.
"Of course, we'll need much more than a petty sacrifice. Our crew will sneak aboard and gut the Navy crewmen from the shadows 'til there's enough to bring the majority of the mutants in."
"And how will our shuttle make it aboard without getting blasted to shreds?" Hooker asks.
"STATEMENT: I am well-versed in enshrouding myself from augur-arrays. I can extend this concealment to the entire shuttle."
You give your most winning smile. "Let's get started, then."
----
Entek was true to his word; even the scout cruiser's augur-arrays could not detect you, no matter how close you got. His binary hymns were even sufficient to forge authorization codes to allow passage without much hassle. The tiny transport vessel was wholly swallowed in the gaping maw of the cruiser's docking bay.
The trouble, instead, is staying hidden. Constant servitor-sweeps make finding a good place to set the ritual difficult. More than once, you thought yourself found as Detox stepped a little too loud, or Entek blaring his prayers whenever he passed by an icon of the Machine God. Many unfortunate passersby had to be killed with your laspistol, your superhuman senses granting you pinpoint accuracy. Those too important to go missing were instead charmed with a flick of your hair or the batting of your eyes.
A good place is finally found; a forgotten crevice where some stowaways had made an illegal still, selling revolting drinks to weary crewmen. The still is repurposed to become a tub for which the blood to spill into. The stowaways are killed in the same manner as the test mutant from earlier, their screams unheard as their souls are rent apart by invisible daemons. A hand crawls out of the tub, the mutant mewling as it suffers from afterimages of a disturbing vista. The horde follows after, and a moment is taken to allow them to readjust to reality.
Your army of hideous wretches awaits your command.
You send them to: A. Ransack the habitat chambers, killing those in their sleep, lying in wait for the crewmen to return to their slaughter. B. Defile the engine-temples, disabling much of the cruiser's autosystems and outer-defenses. C. Pillage the life-sustainers. They will eat and defile the ship's food-stores, and wreak havoc upon the ship's oxygen supplies and gravity-stabilizers. D. Attack the barracks - disable their comms, raid their armories, and cripple the defender's coherency. E. Siege the command deck! The Lord-Captain will reside here with his most elite guards and most advanced technology. F. Do something else: ___
You and your crew: A. Follow wherever the mutants are going, leading them personally. B. Free the press-ganged slaves from their gulags. C. Enslave the command-cogitator's Machine Spirit, to allow you control over the ship's servitors. D. Entice the ship's provosts to betray their Lord-Captain. E. Summon Slaanesh's servants!
D
C>D
I want the servitors on our side, not only as meatshields, but something left for Entek to run the ship later with as well.
Good luck teaching the mutants how to operate a ship.
There could be some good synchronisation between freeing the press-ganged and looting the armoury. Would make use of Lena's inspiration while we could arm them to support the mutants.
If we quickly disable the comms we can also catch them flat-footed with our sudden uprising.
Sabotaging the defenders has good synergy with taking control of servitors, too. Mindraping their high command would probably be best if we sieged their command deck.
To me C's advantage is more about having something to fly the ship with, I can't see the servitors being incredibly helpful in the actual seizing of the ship (our Entek's firepower is rather unusual). Though if we're quick and decisive we can hopefully seize it without too much damage or needless casualties. We can always seduce the petty officers when we have them as prisoners (or promote some from the crew we just led to mutiny).
I don't think our powers extend to outright mind control of figures of authority and high morale yet and I'm also somewhat dubious of Entek being able to seize control of an entire cruiser's machine spirit (or even if so, in any reasonable time).
