FandaHang a shining starupon the highest boughRegistered Userregular
CONTACT SOUTH!
For three turns, we've crept warily past this pyramid while YerMum's proxy guarded its north door. We've heard not a peep, and seen not a flicker of motion from the southwest corner of the map. Antinumeric was making one last cursory sweep before we declared the region clear of hostiles.
If this little bastard had waited one more turn before tipping its hand, its long con would've paid off in blood.
Unfortunately, everyone with an autocannon is currently out of position or out of their mind, so...
Proportionate use of force just prolongs conflicts. Grotesque overkill brings them to a swift and decisive end. It's the only humane option, really.
I don't have any high-minded excuse for Iolo setting this one on fire, though. It's just hilarious.
Confirmation Bias lands another low-percentage snap shot rocket. Everything else aside, at least we've been hitting our shots.
Leaving the crash of rockets behind her, Colonel Talus creeps up to the very edge of the smokescreen. It's not safe this far forward, but there's something curious about the pyramid ahead ... a green luminescence, pulsing faintly in the cracks between the stones.
Then she remembers: Oahu. The glow at the end of the tunnels. The grav lift down.
If everyone can pull themselves together and hoof it east, we might still make it off the beach intact.
Everyone pulling themselves together is looking like a tall order right now, though.
In the midst of the screaming chaos, another smoke bomb goes off unexpectedly:
You held out for a good long while, Iolo. There's no shame in it.
Alas, you were our forward incendiary gunner, and the fires of a moment ago have already guttered out in the thin air. To compensate, Phoenix-D coordinates a barrage of electro-flares over the pyramid.
The way is lit. The path is clear. We require only the strength to follow it.
If we fall short, it won't be because Confirmation Bias let us down.
As Morning Butter moves in to finish off the disc, he spies a small grey figure scuttling between the craters, no doubt fleeing from the blast.
Elderlycrawfish drops a proxy on the Sectoid, while Butter, assisted by the low Martian gravity, makes the throw of the campaign.
A colossal spume of red dirt jets into the air, as a new crater is carved into the surface of this little world. Mixed in with the rock and ash are chunks of flesh and metal - all that's left of the Cyberdisc and a hidden footsoldier annihilated along with it.
The Sectoids have played a cagey defense - remaining elusive, harrying us from the shadows, sowing chaos with their psychic gifts. But now, as we catch them in the open, that defense is unraveling.
With it, their confidence wavers.
And their malevolent will begins to crumble.
When the next round of psi-attacks comes, it's sporadic and unfocused. For the first time since the Avenger's landing gear touched Martian soil, everyone is once again in their right mind.
Well, almost everyone.
You know what? I'm not even upset. You stick to what you know, Rend.
Strike team, we've got movement near the front of the ship. Far corner of the pyramid. I can't make it out through the smoke, but it wasn't there a minute ago.
We haven't heard anything but screams for awhile now. D'you reckon any of them are still in possession of their faculties?
FandaHang a shining starupon the highest boughRegistered Userregular
TRY GETTING A RESERVATION AT DORSIA NOW
The humble grenade's day may have come and gone, but it's still enough to kill you little snots.
For this, however, something with a little more punch is needed. Probably a one-two punch, in fact, with Talus setting up Confirmation Bias for -
Oh. That'll do, then. Carry on.
Form up against the pyramid, and let the tank round the corner first! Keep it together, everyone. Just a few more meters, and we're home free!
In the crater field north of our exit pyramid, green lights strobe wildly...
... while near the Avenger, bright yellow flames bloom from one of the proxies we planted so long ago.
You can feel it, can't you, you little devils? It's all slipping away from you.
But not quickly enough for Rend.
I had hoped Rend would get ahold of himself as the momentum swung in our favor, but he's remained paralytic or possessed every turn since we first made contact. With the lion's share of our force now in range of the objective, Rend is in very real danger of being left behind.
There's nothing else for it. We'll have to stun him and drag him out.
Rend ...?
Cheeseliker and Farangu join Commander TeeMan in a frantic search, but it's useless. Rend is gone. Despondent, they turn back south.
The pyramid doors and the lanes between them are riddled with proximity grenades. Any one of them could spell Rend's doom as he moves heedlessly through the night. Worse still, we have to add to his peril by replacing the proxy that just exploded. If that gap in the perimeter remains open, we risk everything.
With a heavy heart, Farangu throws a proxy out into the darkness that swallowed Rend.
In the east, Antinumeric is first to reach the door of the exit pyramid. He sights the berserk Sectoid Commander, furiously trying to jam a fresh magazine into its heavy plasma gun, and another Sectoid in the shadows beyond.
It's the perfect target.
With Morning Butter feeding him a primed demolition charge, theSquid makes a throw that leaves even Butter impressed.
Let's see them psychic their way out of this.
Oh what the dickens.
HOW ARE YOU ALIVE
It doesn't matter. With that thunderous blast, the Sectoids' hold over us has finally, irrevocably been broken.
While they held domain over Rend's mind, they spoke to him in insistent whispers. The words were incomprehensible, but by a horrid sort of dream-logic, their meaning was nonetheless clear.
Come to us, they urged. And so he came - shuffling at first, resistant, then breaking into a shambling run. He had to reach them. The yearning filled him. There was nothing else.
Now, at last, the veil of whispers recedes; his gait gradually slows, and he stumbles to a confused halt.
Two steps away from a proximity grenade.
+38
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FandaHang a shining starupon the highest boughRegistered Userregular
Talus soloing the Cyberdisc came as quite a surprise; rockets don't ordinarily do that much damage. I found something interesting, though, while I was making the .gif of Morning Butter's HI-X:
For a single frame following the explosion, another disc was visible in the blast zone. It must've been the same one Talus engaged on the following turn.
I don't know exactly how much ordinance we packed on the Avenger, but I would be willing to suggest that smoking is not recommended in a 5 mile radius. She also has about twice the cargo space of a skyranger, so I don't think we'll be running out of ammo before we run out of soldiers to fire it.
You can interpret that as an optimistic comment if you like.
fedaykin666 on
+1
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FandaHang a shining starupon the highest boughRegistered Userregular
Hey did anyone drop an explosive here? Check your bags guys
+1
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FandaHang a shining starupon the highest boughRegistered Userregular
Moving under his own volition at last, Rend makes a break for the south and for safety.
He reaches the boulder formation just west of the exit pyramid, where YerMum and fedaykin666 meet him. Each places a comforting hand on his shoulder and lays a firm grip on his arm.
Pinned by the rocks on one side and a converging wall of bodyguards on the other, Rend's not going anywhere we don't want him to. For the rest of his journey, he'll have a phalanx of soldiers escorting him.
Meanwhile, theSquid takes another crack at fragging that Sectoid Commander.
His grenade only knocks it down. Good lord. This isn't a Sectoid Commander at all, is it? This is the Sectoid Primarch. It's the Ur-Sectoid from which all lesser Sectoids were formed.
This one, however, is not made of such stern stuff. Weaponless and alone, it scurries frantically along the base of the pyramid, wide black eyes peering nervously into the night.
The last thing it sees is a vapor trail rushing out of Confirmation Bias's turret.
Beyond the stunned Commander, another Sectoid has cast aside its weapon in terror.
There'll be no surrender, little man. That's not how this works.
A grenade from see317 turns it into bloody gray confetti.
The dominoes are falling rapidly now, and there can't be many of them left. Only a couple of doors hiss open and closed in the distance as Elvenshae, bringing up the rear, drags the last of our spare ordnance across the crater field. Soon half the team is inside the grav lift.
And then the Sectoid Commander clambers back to its feet.
It survived a HI-X blast at two tiles away from ground zero.
It survived a grenade detonating directly under its feet.
It doesn't survive Confirmation Bias.
What a trooper CB has been for us. Five rockets fired, five direct hits - and five man-portable rockets saved for the underground. That could be what the fate of the mission turns on, in the end.
But now the time has come to part ways. I wish it was possible for us to give this plucky tank a better send-off. All we can do is stand and salute as the grav lift door slides closed.
We're on an express elevator to hell, going down!
+36
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DuriniaEvolved from Space PotatoesRegistered Userregular
I forsee a possible ending where we all die, Earth is destroyed...
...and Confirmation Bias continues to terrorize the Martian surface conducting an endless guerrilla campaign against sectoids as a last remnant of human civilization.
For business reasons, I must preserve the outward sign of sanity.
--Mark Twain
A grenade from see317 turns it into bloody gray confetti.
Goodbye retirement jacuzzi. I'll miss you.
Hopefully, some of the other high explosives I've lootedhelpfully carried from the ship will survive the coming engagement.
I forsee a possible ending where we all die, Earth is destroyed...
...and Confirmation Bias continues to terrorize the Martian surface conducting an endless guerrilla campaign against sectoids as a last remnant of human civilization.
I forsee a possible ending where we all die, Earth is destroyed...
...and Confirmation Bias continues to terrorize the Martian surface conducting an endless guerrilla campaign against sectoids as a last remnant of human civilization.
Posts
Btw... Blaster bomb survivor here... Still not panicked.
Steam - NotoriusBEN | Uplay - notoriusben | Xbox,Windows Live - ThatBEN
Steam profile.
Getting started with BATTLETECH: Part 1 / Part 2
For three turns, we've crept warily past this pyramid while YerMum's proxy guarded its north door. We've heard not a peep, and seen not a flicker of motion from the southwest corner of the map. Antinumeric was making one last cursory sweep before we declared the region clear of hostiles.
If this little bastard had waited one more turn before tipping its hand, its long con would've paid off in blood.
Unfortunately, everyone with an autocannon is currently out of position or out of their mind, so...
Proportionate use of force just prolongs conflicts. Grotesque overkill brings them to a swift and decisive end. It's the only humane option, really.
I don't have any high-minded excuse for Iolo setting this one on fire, though. It's just hilarious.
Confirmation Bias lands another low-percentage snap shot rocket. Everything else aside, at least we've been hitting our shots.
Leaving the crash of rockets behind her, Colonel Talus creeps up to the very edge of the smokescreen. It's not safe this far forward, but there's something curious about the pyramid ahead ... a green luminescence, pulsing faintly in the cracks between the stones.
Then she remembers: Oahu. The glow at the end of the tunnels. The grav lift down.
If everyone can pull themselves together and hoof it east, we might still make it off the beach intact.
Everyone pulling themselves together is looking like a tall order right now, though.
In the midst of the screaming chaos, another smoke bomb goes off unexpectedly:
You held out for a good long while, Iolo. There's no shame in it.
Alas, you were our forward incendiary gunner, and the fires of a moment ago have already guttered out in the thin air. To compensate, Phoenix-D coordinates a barrage of electro-flares over the pyramid.
The way is lit. The path is clear. We require only the strength to follow it.
If we fall short, it won't be because Confirmation Bias let us down.
As Morning Butter moves in to finish off the disc, he spies a small grey figure scuttling between the craters, no doubt fleeing from the blast.
Elderlycrawfish drops a proxy on the Sectoid, while Butter, assisted by the low Martian gravity, makes the throw of the campaign.
A colossal spume of red dirt jets into the air, as a new crater is carved into the surface of this little world. Mixed in with the rock and ash are chunks of flesh and metal - all that's left of the Cyberdisc and a hidden footsoldier annihilated along with it.
The Sectoids have played a cagey defense - remaining elusive, harrying us from the shadows, sowing chaos with their psychic gifts. But now, as we catch them in the open, that defense is unraveling.
With it, their confidence wavers.
And their malevolent will begins to crumble.
When the next round of psi-attacks comes, it's sporadic and unfocused. For the first time since the Avenger's landing gear touched Martian soil, everyone is once again in their right mind.
Well, almost everyone.
You know what? I'm not even upset. You stick to what you know, Rend.
Strike team, we've got movement near the front of the ship. Far corner of the pyramid. I can't make it out through the smoke, but it wasn't there a minute ago.
We haven't heard anything but screams for awhile now. D'you reckon any of them are still in possession of their faculties?
REVENGE.
Steam profile - Twitch - YouTube
Switch: SM-6352-8553-6516
Christmas came early this year!
...I would know...
Fun!
TRY GETTING A RESERVATION AT DORSIA NOW
The humble grenade's day may have come and gone, but it's still enough to kill you little snots.
For this, however, something with a little more punch is needed. Probably a one-two punch, in fact, with Talus setting up Confirmation Bias for -
Oh. That'll do, then. Carry on.
Form up against the pyramid, and let the tank round the corner first! Keep it together, everyone. Just a few more meters, and we're home free!
In the crater field north of our exit pyramid, green lights strobe wildly...
... while near the Avenger, bright yellow flames bloom from one of the proxies we planted so long ago.
You can feel it, can't you, you little devils? It's all slipping away from you.
But not quickly enough for Rend.
I had hoped Rend would get ahold of himself as the momentum swung in our favor, but he's remained paralytic or possessed every turn since we first made contact. With the lion's share of our force now in range of the objective, Rend is in very real danger of being left behind.
There's nothing else for it. We'll have to stun him and drag him out.
Rend ...?
Cheeseliker and Farangu join Commander TeeMan in a frantic search, but it's useless. Rend is gone. Despondent, they turn back south.
The pyramid doors and the lanes between them are riddled with proximity grenades. Any one of them could spell Rend's doom as he moves heedlessly through the night. Worse still, we have to add to his peril by replacing the proxy that just exploded. If that gap in the perimeter remains open, we risk everything.
With a heavy heart, Farangu throws a proxy out into the darkness that swallowed Rend.
In the east, Antinumeric is first to reach the door of the exit pyramid. He sights the berserk Sectoid Commander, furiously trying to jam a fresh magazine into its heavy plasma gun, and another Sectoid in the shadows beyond.
It's the perfect target.
With Morning Butter feeding him a primed demolition charge, theSquid makes a throw that leaves even Butter impressed.
Let's see them psychic their way out of this.
Oh what the dickens.
HOW ARE YOU ALIVE
It doesn't matter. With that thunderous blast, the Sectoids' hold over us has finally, irrevocably been broken.
While they held domain over Rend's mind, they spoke to him in insistent whispers. The words were incomprehensible, but by a horrid sort of dream-logic, their meaning was nonetheless clear.
Come to us, they urged. And so he came - shuffling at first, resistant, then breaking into a shambling run. He had to reach them. The yearning filled him. There was nothing else.
Now, at last, the veil of whispers recedes; his gait gradually slows, and he stumbles to a confused halt.
Two steps away from a proximity grenade.
For a single frame following the explosion, another disc was visible in the blast zone. It must've been the same one Talus engaged on the following turn.
Law and Order ≠ Justice
ACNH Island Isla Cero: DA-3082-2045-4142
Captain of the SES Comptroller of the State
You can interpret that as an optimistic comment if you like.
Stun rods: 8
Smoke grenades: 10
Grenades: 3
Proximity grenades: 19
HI-X: 12
Armor-piercing autocannon ammo: 7
Incendiary autocannon ammo: 2
Large rockets: 20
Incendiary rockets: 9
Plus the ammunition in everyone's weapons.
They wasted a lot of our smokes for us, and I had to blow up or abandon most of the flares, but those were meant more for the surface anyway.
Law and Order ≠ Justice
ACNH Island Isla Cero: DA-3082-2045-4142
Captain of the SES Comptroller of the State
I got so pumped when I saw this.
I'd say things are finally looking in X-Com's favor, but I don't want to jinx us.
You haven't seen the deployment matrix for the aliens in the next part of the mission.
Ethereal Soldiers 4
Ethereal Leaders 3
Ethereal Commanders 5
Chryssalids 5
Silacoids 5
Celatids 5
Sectopods 4
Totals 31
Please remember that I'm guarding the explosives back on the space-bus.
So, those counts may be just a tad bit on the optimistic side.
Just saying, I got a buyer and a retirement plan to consider if we make it off this rock.
For Sale: planet "Mars", quantity: 1. Some wear and tear. May have some smoke damage. Serious offers only.
Oh, I do.
But, my planned retirement castle is going to need a spacious breakfast nook, and selling Mars isn't going to cover everything.
The rules of engagement are very clear. If we beat the mission, Mars has to go into the giant cash fire along with all the other loot.
Sorry about that!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ec-8A5k16Ak
Steam - NotoriusBEN | Uplay - notoriusben | Xbox,Windows Live - ThatBEN
I'm on MARS?! I was hoping for a few quiet missions killing greys, someone else sorting out all this "invasion" mess, and a sweet retirement package.
Mars was not in the plan.
Hey
Hey did anyone drop an explosive here? Check your bags guys
He reaches the boulder formation just west of the exit pyramid, where YerMum and fedaykin666 meet him. Each places a comforting hand on his shoulder and lays a firm grip on his arm.
Pinned by the rocks on one side and a converging wall of bodyguards on the other, Rend's not going anywhere we don't want him to. For the rest of his journey, he'll have a phalanx of soldiers escorting him.
Meanwhile, theSquid takes another crack at fragging that Sectoid Commander.
His grenade only knocks it down. Good lord. This isn't a Sectoid Commander at all, is it? This is the Sectoid Primarch. It's the Ur-Sectoid from which all lesser Sectoids were formed.
This one, however, is not made of such stern stuff. Weaponless and alone, it scurries frantically along the base of the pyramid, wide black eyes peering nervously into the night.
The last thing it sees is a vapor trail rushing out of Confirmation Bias's turret.
Beyond the stunned Commander, another Sectoid has cast aside its weapon in terror.
There'll be no surrender, little man. That's not how this works.
A grenade from see317 turns it into bloody gray confetti.
The dominoes are falling rapidly now, and there can't be many of them left. Only a couple of doors hiss open and closed in the distance as Elvenshae, bringing up the rear, drags the last of our spare ordnance across the crater field. Soon half the team is inside the grav lift.
And then the Sectoid Commander clambers back to its feet.
It survived a HI-X blast at two tiles away from ground zero.
It survived a grenade detonating directly under its feet.
It doesn't survive Confirmation Bias.
What a trooper CB has been for us. Five rockets fired, five direct hits - and five man-portable rockets saved for the underground. That could be what the fate of the mission turns on, in the end.
But now the time has come to part ways. I wish it was possible for us to give this plucky tank a better send-off. All we can do is stand and salute as the grav lift door slides closed.
We're on an express elevator to hell, going down!
...and Confirmation Bias continues to terrorize the Martian surface conducting an endless guerrilla campaign against sectoids as a last remnant of human civilization.
--Mark Twain
Pyramid walls are impervious:
--Mark Twain
Steam: Elvenshae // PSN: Elvenshae // WotC: Elvenshae
Wilds of Aladrion: [https://forums.penny-arcade.com/discussion/comment/43159014/#Comment_43159014]Ellandryn[/url]
Goodbye retirement jacuzzi. I'll miss you.
Hopefully, some of the other high explosives I've looted helpfully carried from the ship will survive the coming engagement.
Steam - NotoriusBEN | Uplay - notoriusben | Xbox,Windows Live - ThatBEN
http://www.gutenberg.org/files/29132/29132-h/29132-h.htm
3DS: 0447-9966-6178