Cleaning out insistent bunnies

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Re: Cleaning out insistent bunnies

Unread postby Tempest Kitsune » November 12th, 2012, 5:27 am

Write this! Write this NOW!
"Doesn't matter what the press says. Doesn't matter what the politicians or the mobs say. Doesn't matter if the whole country decides that something wrong is something right. This nation was founded on one principle above all else: the requirement that we stand up for what we believe, no matter the odds or the consequences. When the mob and the press and the whole world tell you to move, your job is to plant yourself like a tree beside the river of truth, and tell the whole world — "No, you move."
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Re: Cleaning out insistent bunnies

Unread postby jgkitarel » November 12th, 2012, 6:19 pm

Where in the galaxy is Carmen Sandiego?

Oh God, I can see this going way off the rails real quick.
Also, I have to punch you, jgkitarel, because I spent a lot of time on the nanoha wiki trying to locate information on mages being trained due to being above a certain rank, only to remember and confirm that you were the one that came up with that. - Phht
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Re: Cleaning out insistent bunnies

Unread postby Tempest Kitsune » November 12th, 2012, 6:24 pm

In ALL the best ways! :yuush:
"Doesn't matter what the press says. Doesn't matter what the politicians or the mobs say. Doesn't matter if the whole country decides that something wrong is something right. This nation was founded on one principle above all else: the requirement that we stand up for what we believe, no matter the odds or the consequences. When the mob and the press and the whole world tell you to move, your job is to plant yourself like a tree beside the river of truth, and tell the whole world — "No, you move."
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Re: Cleaning out insistent bunnies

Unread postby jgkitarel » November 12th, 2012, 6:30 pm

Definitely.
Also, I have to punch you, jgkitarel, because I spent a lot of time on the nanoha wiki trying to locate information on mages being trained due to being above a certain rank, only to remember and confirm that you were the one that came up with that. - Phht
Don't forget: Mass Effect is powered by magic space rocks. Evangelion is powered by Your Mom.
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Re: Cleaning out insistent bunnies

Unread postby Phht » November 13th, 2012, 4:37 am

One thing the idea does is treat "Carmen Sandiego" as a Dread Pirate Roberts. So the original Sandiego lived back in the 20th Century, and decided to keep the name alive by finding a successor, training them, and when the time was right, passed on the name to them before finding a nice place to retire. And the line continued down through the years to Carmen Shepard.

How the successor to such a famous name is in the military like she is, well, it came to me in a reveal to Anderson while she was 'tipsy' (also, a retelling from her point of view of the night she won multiple drinking contests with krogans which involves at points her calling at least one krogan a pussy and repeatedly using the phrase "man up and grow a quad!"). Basically, she enlisted for a 4 year term. See the galaxy, learn some security stuff that the Alliance uses, etc. Then she'd leave the military and take up being Carmen Sandiego full time. Except less than four months before her term ended, the Skyllian Blitz occurs and she becomes a war hero. And you can't have a war hero leave the military a month or two after their hero moment, so she got reclassified from B-series to N-series.

The way I'm rolling with this is that some vocational codes require more years of service from people that go up that line so people don't get great training and then zip out soon after. Normally people are aiming for that code from enlistment and are aware of such things. The Special Forces (N-series) is one such code. At this point, I looked up the ME3 codex info for N-series training, which didn't entirely mesh with my original thought. So I have two versions of events!

One point of the different versions is when the bar outing occurs with Anderson. One version it would be 2178, while in the other it would be 2176.

not-really fitting Codex version (each rating would've added more time on, but then I got thinking about the amusement of if her term would have ended while she was dead, and shortened up the extensions to fit the time frame)
Spoiler: show
Re-coded to N1, Shepard was in short order moved up to N3 due to testing the skills and abilities she exhibited on Elysium. Despite efforts to not stand out, she managed to rise in the ratings to N4 in short order. She hoped to avoid getting N5, as that would make her a candidate for the N-series Academy (or as the Codex says, N-school) and almost certainly end up graduating, which would earn her N6 rating. Her hopes failed and she got N5 due to Torfan, and she was immediately given a candidate slot for the school.

It is unfortunate that she's extremely capable of holding her booze (she claims there's a simple 'trick' to doing so that she learned from a mentor years previously), as that's bonus points -- awarded from a bar outing of the candidates by a N7 graduate -- when the board selects from the candidates to see who would actually attend the N-school. She attempted to slide during the courses, but always ended up somehow near the top due to how exercises worked out. She picked up the N6, and decided to try to find a combat zone where she'd probably not see much action, to avoid the N7 rating. Sadly, her instincts picked a "quiet" combat zone that inadvertently because a major hot spot and by the end of the year she was N7 with 12 total years of service before she could leave.
Fitting Codex version
Spoiler: show
So she was shipped off in short order to attend the first courses, and rather rapidly ended up N3 with 2 years of service tacked on. When she got close to being able to exit again, she served on Torfan and was impressive enough (especially compared to that guy that ended up being known as the Butcher of Torfan) in the media's eyes that she was shuffled off for more courses, and ended up at N6 within a few years and now having 11 years of service total (resulting in her leaving service in 2183).

Shepard was unfortunate in her selection of combat zone deployments, and instead of fairly quiet, etc time, she ended up getting the N7 rating after a year.
A number of officers and recruiters started subtly trying to convince her to just go career after she hit N7. She resisted the efforts and intended to exit service to the private sector in 2184.

----

In case anyone is wondering, the prank Anderson refers to would've occurred some time 2172-2176 or 2172-2178 depending on event version. I would probably say that she was on Arcturus Station for AIT of some sort that involved being at or near the Naval Academy some time in 2172 or 2173.
Spoiler: show
That would've been the point that she would have "earned" the right to be Carmen Sandiego, though her mentor largely continued to use it during Shepard's military service, with intent to hand it off officially in 2176 when Shepard left service. By 2178, Shepard's mentor officially handed over the name and went into retirement, so "Carmen Sandiego" ended up taking a 6 year break until 2184.

Except then she got made a Spectre in 2183. At that point, she decided that she wouldn't get an opportunity to actually use her trade, and began looking for someone to train to be the next Sandiego. Her decision ended up coming down to either Tali or Liara, and well, galactic racism would make people look at Tali as a suspect more quickly than Liara.

There would, naturally, be a scene where Carmen is training Liara in lockpicking/escape work in her captain's quarters when Ashley walks in to discuss something. Imagine hearing Shepard make 'suggestive' comments and encouragements like "That's it, keep doing that." and the like, Ashley looking up from her datapad, and seeing a partially undressed Liara hanging from the ceiling in chains over the bed while Shepard sits nearby watching and commenting. Place an awkward silence as they all look at each other, add in a panicked "This isn't what it looks like!" from Liara...
Following the theft of the Mu Relay, Sovereign eventually says fuck it and attacks the Citadel head on. It and its Geth fleet end up dogpiled by every nearby fleet that can respond. Shepard takes a couple months leave and begins putting Liara through serious levels of training. After the leave ends, she goes out with the Normandy to check on some missing freighters and gets killed by Collectors.

Unfortunately for Liara, she wasn't considered ready to take up the name at the time, so "Carmen Sandiego" was left without an owner (sparking much debate among the retired previous holders of the name). She was, however, trained enough to steal Shepard's body without being caught from under the noses of mercs, Collectors, and all the various other groups eying the hand-off for a point to intervene. (and the Lair of the Shadow Broker plot line just went out the window).

(Skip forward two years and Liara is on Illium working in the field of Artifact Acquisition rather than information brokering.)
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Re: Cleaning out insistent bunnies

Unread postby jgkitarel » November 28th, 2012, 1:19 am

Phht, this has potential to be awesome, amusing, awesome, horrifying, awesome, funny... did I mention awesome?
Also, I have to punch you, jgkitarel, because I spent a lot of time on the nanoha wiki trying to locate information on mages being trained due to being above a certain rank, only to remember and confirm that you were the one that came up with that. - Phht
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Re: Cleaning out insistent bunnies

Unread postby Phht » January 24th, 2013, 11:59 pm

I have two ideas on my mind currently, both XCOM related. One is an XCOM/ME idea that I really need to write down at some point. The other is a bit of an experiment that could be a short Quest to see if one could write an entire Quest or story in 2nd person POV without ever making reference to the person's name or description. I would say the super vague, non-spoiler description would be "So there I was, on my way to begin my career at XCOM...".

Well, plus that XCOM/Nanoha idea. Actually want to write the scene out that first popped up in my mind of that.

--

This leads to a fun fact: whoever the hell says its easy to create an organization is a fucking liar. Or they cover broad strokes and don't concern themselves with much detail on things like ranks or organizational structures.

As people may have noticed over the years, I'm somewhat detail oriented and like building a setting. So I've worked now and then on my head canon for post-XCOM:EU, and up to now had a section on XCOM Atmo/Space weapons and craft, XCOM Atmo armor, and XCOM Sea craft. And I had started on a time line. Today I decided to put in ranks. But I ran into an issue when defining the responsibilities of one rank. So I started work on unit organization in an attempt to solve my dilemma.
Spoiler: show
I have three branches of XCOM. Atmo -- that handles land/air work for XCOM --, Sea -- that handles the oceans --, and Space, which handles space and includes a moon base. Simple, right? But what happens when you make a rank between Colonel and the overall XCOM commander whose job is to run the various major bases of XCOM and you put the command area of the land bases as the land and the air up to the edge of space?

XCOM Sea has shore port facilities. There's not really an officially defined edge of space (though I think the generally accepted point is ~75miles up? The point where you start noticing reentry effects). So if you designate a point in space (say, 25,000 miles up) as the edge of their area of responsibility, they'd need Space capable units to handle it that upper area. At this point I have Space, Sea (the shore facilities), and Atmo stuff all under one banner and start wondering if doing this invalidates my branches scheme. So I switched to unit organization figuring that it would help me work through the issue.

Luckily, putting 4-5+ hours in on ranks/units managed to help me figure it out (also, remembering that I never restricted all space capable units to XCOM Space). Flipside, 18 man platoons and 36 man companies just feels weird to me. And holy shit XCOM Sea turns out to have a ton of field personnel (1 company per major command sub and 1 squad per smaller ones results in two battalions of field personnel split between 8 major command subs, plus 24 squads split between smaller command subs and shore based staging points for another full battalion).

(As for the original issue regarding areas of responsibility?) Sea regional bases handle their part of the ocean plus related shore facilities. Atmo regional bases handle their continent plus airspace up to 25,000 miles above sea level (which includes orbits up to geosynchronous/geostationary orbit). Space bases handle beyond that.

And since you're probably wondering on field unit organization:
Squad - 6 operatives/RICVs
Platoon - 3 squads (one platoon can fit on an MV-32 Avenger or a Leviathan transport submarine)
Company - 2 platoons (1 company fits on board a Laurentian Abyss class command submarine)
Battalion - 4 companies (Pacific Ocean XCOM Sea operations has one battalion on the Laurentian Abyss command submarines alone)
Regiment - 3 battalions (on paper, XCOM Sea accounts for 1 regiment and XCOM Atmo/Space accounts for one combined; manpower hasn't reached those actual levels yet)

(RICVs, or Remote Infantry Combat Vehicles, would be the generic term for the concept, with SHIVs being the Atmo version. Current names for the other types are Submersible Infantry Rovers and Space Tactical Remote Infantry Probes. Though I might change the former to Submersible Heavy Assault Rover - Kinetic. But then I'd need to change the Space one.... BAH. :futile:
Amusing note: I'm also trying to see if I can manage a single rank structure for the entirety of XCOM. I think I'll end up with three -- Field / Air / Support. And some are probably saying "but, where the hell is the naval crews in that?" :leaving:

EDIT: If you were making transport units based on personnel carrying capacity, would you go for one platoon (resulting in 3 Skyrangers or equiv in a flight), or one company (resulting in 6 Skyrangers or equiv in a flight)? Combat craft would be 4 in a flight based on the max you can station on each continent in XCOM:EU, and then two flights to make a squadron (or would I bump it up to four flights with a larger transport flight size...?).
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Re: Cleaning out insistent bunnies

Unread postby jgkitarel » January 26th, 2013, 3:32 pm

Actually, you can make the rank titles different, while keeping the structure uniform, much like NATO standard militaries do. They have the same number of ranks, regardless of service.
Also, I have to punch you, jgkitarel, because I spent a lot of time on the nanoha wiki trying to locate information on mages being trained due to being above a certain rank, only to remember and confirm that you were the one that came up with that. - Phht
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Re: Cleaning out insistent bunnies

Unread postby Phht » January 27th, 2013, 2:34 am

That's actually what I meant (in my head). If I use TFTD as some inspiration for ranks, the Rookie/Squaddie becomes Seaman/Able Seaman for XCOM Sea. Then I'd probably hit the naval rank listings for options to replace Corporal (likely Petty Officer), and likely make Sgt into Chief Petty Officer. XCOM Space... Airman/Senior Airman, with.. well, I could technically leave the rest alone. At the same time, I could probably just leave XCOM Space alone so it matches XCOM Atmo, at which point I'd have to question why have different rank names for XCOM Sea.

I ended up going with 3 transports in a flight after running unit numbers. Basically, since the number of units in a larger unit are based on a transport's ability to carry personnel, I eventually run into the issue that I don't have a unit size after a certain point. A Group would be 96 combat or 72 transport (using transports and not naval command subs), but with 6/flight, the size would be undefined since it would need a size for a Field Brigade... a unit size that does not exist yet. And if the possible size of 2 Regiments to a Brigade was used, then a Group in that system would be... 96 combat craft or 144 transports.

My time line is largely hammered out. 2015 Mar - 2016 Apr is First Invasion (XCOM:EU [2012]), 2017 Jul - 2020 Jun is Incursion (TFTD equiv), and 2021 Apr - 2024 Jan is Second Invasion (X-COM:UFO Def "second half" equiv including Cydonia assault). If 13 months isn't very viable/believable to do full research/interrogation/foundry/plot, feel free to suggest alternate time spans.

Plus, barring lack of rank blurbs for Cpl-Col, XCOM Space capable armor, any XCOM Sea armor/weapons at all, and a bit of blurb on base set-up.... Well, it's complete enough for current purposes (I did, in fact, come up with what I'm pretty sure are proper designations for the vehicle weapons for use on aircraft as a) gunpod, b) installed, and c) turret; also, designation for mounting them on ground vehicles. XM311 is a Fusion Lance). I'd need to add more (on base set-up and area of responsibility stuff) for XOCM/Nanoha idea, but yeah, good enough for the other two bunnies.

--

In fact, right after writing that, I started on the XCOM/ME bunny. Tada~
Spoiler: show
The Lieutenant sighed as the MV-32 Avenger he was aboard made its way down to the surface from XCOM Phobos. A week ago, a team of scientists went exploring a cave system on Mars. They were told to check in every two days. Their second communication never occurred and authorities took action the second day of silence after scheduled time. So the nearest military unit – a platoon of USMC on station preparing for a deployment at an American colony on Mars – was informed that they were being diverted to check on what the hell happened to the scientists that cause them to be two days overdue on reporting in status. That unit was told to report in every twelve hours. As of the Avenger's launch, they were 29 hours overdue.

He couldn't help but feel bad for the members of that platoon. Standard XCOM procedure when a military unit is heading to an unknown section of Mars is to make available the armory to the unit to beef up their armor and firepower. Sure, it had been something like a hundred years since a UFO or “Greys” ground force had been encountered, but XCOM policy was better safe than sorry when dealing with areas not thoroughly explored on foot. The Platoon Leader refused any gear and loaded his team up straight away. A few soldiers took a quick chance to grab a piece of weaponry here and there, but their gear overall was severely lacking if they encountered anything on the size of Mutons or worse.

The flashing of a white light got him up and getting his squads ready for deployment. Soon after, the Avenger glided to a halt and the first squad dropped out the bottom of the craft to be gently set down on the ground by the transport beam system. They rapidly fanned out as the next squad followed down, and the process repeated one last time for the final squad. The eighteen men formed a perimeter as the Avenger gained altitude and pulled back to be in position to provide air support as needed. With the transport clear, the squads made a quick sweep through the scientists' base camp and found no one.

The Lieutenant pulled up a map of the area and plotted waypoints to take the team to the USMC transport, then on to the cave system. The troopers double timed it upon hearing a report from their Avenger that the transport was a shambles. Two squads circled the site and set up watch while first squad moved in to examine the craft.

“Boss, I'd almost say some of this scoring and damage looks like plasma weapons. But there's no way an ammo cook-off or engine-slash-fuel explosion would had this result.” The Blaster Launcher and Heavy Plasma the man was toting along with other explosives marked him as a demolitions expert.

A lighter armored operative lifted himself from a hole on top of the craft. “Found the crew. Both dead. Can't say whether it was incoming fire or the boom that got them though.”

The “Boss” sighed. “Blaster Launcher?”

The demolitions expert nodded. “That'd be my most likely guess at this point. Maybe a vehicle mounted plasma or fusion weapon otherwise, but this definitely wasn't an accident. Don't recall the Marines checking out anything on that level before they left either.”

“Dammit. Alright, platoon! Staggered column. Second Squad gets point. Third, you're tail end charlie. We have likely hostiles in the area.” Boss switched channels to the Avenger. “Charon One, inform base that Marine transport was destroyed, two confirmed KIA. Platoon and scientists unaccounted for. We're pushing on to the caves. Out. Platoon, move out!”

Despite the raised tension and readiness, the platoon made it to the “caves” without incident. The so called caves were not natural, the operatives were quick to note. Go in not even fifty meters and it switched to definitely crafted walls, floor, and ceiling. Of course, that was also when communications went “wonky,” as one operative put it. Boss opened his channel. “Charon One. Cave system is not natural design, and communication jamming occurs less than fifty meters in. Transmissions inside work fine, transmissions outside work fine. Trying to radio between those areas is no go. We'll try to map out what we can and hopefully find the missing people. If we're not out or in contact in four hours, get Cydonia to deploy in force.”

He closed the channel after getting an acknowledgment. The platoon shared a look and cautious entered the tunnels.

--

She didn't know how long they had been down there. Checking a watch meant not keeping an eye on the end of the tunnel, and that was not acceptable. King was behind some solid cover trying to get some shuteye, Rogers was eating part of the few MREs they had available, and Hunt... well, Hunt was heavily bandaged and unconscious. At least, she hoped he was just unconscious and not dead.

Straining to hear or see any hostile at the end of the hall, she blinked on hearing possible footsteps approaching. Sparing a moment to kick King alert and hiss a “hey” to Rogers, she shifted her heavy weapon onto the cover she was behind. The thing was fairly large compared to her usual weapon, but it had proved its worth when the shit hit the fan. A rifle with a red glow settled into position where King was located, followed by another on her other side as Rogers got into position.

The sounds became louder and more distinct as the seconds crawled by. Just as she was starting to wonder if she was hearing distant echoes, a shape started to come into view on the left. Her weapon sent numerous green bolts downrange as the two rifles sent a similar total combined as well. The three paused to locate the target, and noted nothing in view. What was noted was muffled swearing from around that corner. It stopped and an armored head started leaning around the corner. They opened fire once more, spacing their fire out so they needed to vent heat sinks at staggered times. The trio halted fire after several seconds of sustained fire.

“CEASE FIRE, GODAMMIT!”

They blinked in surprise, trading uneasy glances with each other.

“This is XCOM! We're here to get you guys out! Hold your fire!”

There was a bit of muffled conversation – it didn't sound too friendly – before a human shape slipped into view at the end of the passage. The Marines relaxed their aim and slumped in relief on recognizing the distinctive Titan armor.

--

The XCOM platoon made it out of the tunnels with under an hour to spare. The Avenger set down near the entrance and the four survivors that had been located walked on board via the backup rear ramp. With one squad staying at the hallway the survivors had been located in, there was room to spare for the quartet. “Boss” made his way into the crew cabin to report the situation as fast as possible, and it was halfway back to XCOM Phobos before he reappeared in the transport area. He made his way over to the apparent leader of the living Marines.

“You guys did an amazing job, you know that, right? That platoon was geared out more like we had been fairly early in the First Invasion, and it went up against enemies that XCOM had to face late in the Second Invasion. The fact that any of you survived and in good order to find that strong point to hold is praise-worthy. Also, incredibly lucky. Whatever is behind the door at the end of hall you were set-up at was apparently valuable enough to them not to use their usual brute force methods.”

The female Marine looked up at him, then over at the heavily injured Hunt. “How many...?”

“Boss” considered the question. “From our mission, we have twenty-three confirmed dead. There's still three scientists and nineteen Marines we didn't locate before pulling out. But given confirmed hostile contact occurred, XCOM will be locking down the area and sweeping teams through the tunnels in their entirety to ensure all hostiles are eliminated. I'm figuring a company or two minimum being deployed.”

The flight continued in silence between the two for a while longer, but as the landing area came into view, the XCOM lieutenant asked the question that had slipped his mind up to this point. “By the way, what's your name? I've been meaning to ask and forgot until now.”

She blinked at him before a small smile graced her face. “Shepard. Hannah Shepard. Corporal, USMC.”

“Pleasure to meet you, Shepard.” He smiled back and, as the Avenger set down and lowered the ramp, slipped in one last question. “Have you considered joining XCOM?”
In case you're wondering, the comment on it being ~100+ years since a hostile alien (of Cydonia type) was seen would place the story at 2124+, but if you want to know the specific year... 2148. :leaving:
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Re: Cleaning out insistent bunnies

Unread postby Phht » February 8th, 2013, 4:47 am

So, as I was thinking through mentally writing the XCOM/Nanoha plot bunny scene, I had one of the members of the squad kinda thinking to themselves or something regarding what they had been doing before their current assignment. It got away from me.

The piece is almost recruiter material on joining XCOM Sea. ;)
Spoiler: show
“Why did I join XCOM Sea? Well, like any branch of XCOM, the field teams tend to have lots of boredom of various types punctuated by moments of sheer, gut-wrenching terror as you try to find and kill the enemy before they manage to kill you.

“But, honestly? With Atmo... well, you're not really seeing anything new or incredible on our planet's surface. With Space, well, I think we can all agree that space is very empty. But Sea? Well, last I saw, something like 95% of the world's oceans are unexplored. That means every time I deploy out in the ocean undersea, I have a better than average chance of seeing something no one else has seen before then.

“A month or so back, my squad was on assignment helping some... oceanographers? whatever, from National Geographic to comb the Pacific looking for specific deep water naval shipwrecks. At that time, we were down in the Philippines in the Sibuyan Sea. Back in 1944, carrier aircraft hit a Japanese force trying to get through the area to landing forces in Leyte Gulf. One of the warships lost was the Musashi. This ship was important because it was one of only three ships of its class, and the class was the largest battleships ever built. Of course, the third ship of its class was converted into a carrier mid-construction, so technically only two ships of its class. The Yamato was sunk about six months later north of Okinawa and eventually got its own cartoon series – Space Battleship Yamato. But the Musashi was still unlocated on the sea floor. Estimates placed it 1200 to 1500 meters underwater and there were a couple possible locations.

“Our imaging systems do fantastic work underwater. They take the sensor returns and construct visual images of what's out there. It took a couple days to locate the most likely wreck. The procedure is for a Sea field team – my squad – to get deployed near the wreck and sweep the area to make sure no hostiles have decided to make it their home. After that, the civvies get to do all their imaging and camera work and so forth of the site in peace.

“Let me tell you. Seeing the hull of that massive ship start looming out of the darkness into actual view instead of imaging systems... walking less than a hundred meters from it and able to see the torpedo holes, and shattered structure from bomb hits, and tears from explosions as it made its trip to the sea floor.... My squad got to be the first people to actually physically see dozens of ships for the first time in the eighty-something years since they sank. It's awe inspiring and humbling.

“That's why I joined XCOM Sea.”
Edit: made a slight change to a more likely organization to be doing deep sea archaeology expeditions than NOAA. :???:
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Re: Cleaning out insistent bunnies

Unread postby Phht » March 6th, 2013, 5:32 pm

I've been poking at the Nanoha/XCOM idea some more and made a realization (confirmed by rewatching the episodes in question). Yuuno had an area force field up to keep non-mages away... so how did the team get in position to attack? I ended up with three options: 1) Yuuno took the field down once the Jewel Seed was forced back into its normal state, 2) Chrono/Arthra took the field down when they intervened, or 3) psionics.

Psionics comes into the equation because XCOM has access to actual psionic members plus the various psi-shielding stuff. Nanoha canon does not really show anything similar to psionics to date - there's some telepathy, some device/logia involved mind control type stuff, but not what XCOM psionics bring to the table. Haven't nailed now how psionics allows them to get into fields shifting non-mages clear, but my leading thought is that psionics/psionic defenses causes the person to "blend in" with nature things like trees or artificial things like buildings and thus isn't shifted clear by magic because it "reads" the person as a tree or the like, rather than something it filters clear.

Fun fact! On the XCOM timeline I'm using, Nanoha was born the same month XCOM begins operations (March 2015). Hayate was born a couple months later. ... I wonder if there's a correlation between an upswing in magic capable people on Earth and the alien attacks. I mean, supposedly magical talent is rare on Earth, but then we have two people in the same area the same age that both have great magic potential... Could link it to the events at the end of XCOM:EU... Hm.

Flipside... oooh, could I somehow tie in the Ethereals and all the psionic stuff back to the Warring Ages or possibly the Saint King Unification War? Like, psionics and/or Ethereals were created by some lost civilization to be mage/knight killers?

--

Also, I have to punch you, jgkitarel, because I spent a lot of time on the nanoha wiki trying to locate information on mages being trained due to being above a certain rank, only to remember and confirm that you were the one that came up with that. :futile:
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Re: Cleaning out insistent bunnies

Unread postby jgkitarel » March 6th, 2013, 6:50 pm

Despite my unfamiliarity with X-COM, the idea of psionics has some merit, if only because it's something the TSAB either doesn't have/know about, or it's so rarely encountered by them that they haven't categorized it and developed a means to deal with it.
Also, I have to punch you, jgkitarel, because I spent a lot of time on the nanoha wiki trying to locate information on mages being trained due to being above a certain rank, only to remember and confirm that you were the one that came up with that. :futile:
:biggrin: I'm putting that into my sig for a bit.

I did that for the story I am writing because people just simply being that powerful without having to work for it should be a clear exception to the rule. Hayate is a clear case in point, since all of her power is the result of her being bound with a powerful artifact, not her own natural power. It also allows me to avoid the fanon tendency of making the characters far more powerful than they actually are, due to the mage ranking system being so poorly explained.
Also, I have to punch you, jgkitarel, because I spent a lot of time on the nanoha wiki trying to locate information on mages being trained due to being above a certain rank, only to remember and confirm that you were the one that came up with that. - Phht
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Re: Cleaning out insistent bunnies

Unread postby Phht » March 7th, 2013, 2:00 am

I think the most annoying part was that it took me a couple days before the thought came that maybe it wasn't actually canon.

--

Some amusing irony. 2024 on my timeline is 0065 on mid-childa calendar (so 0001 is 1960?). Inference from a line in ViVid puts the end of the Saint King Unification War ~20 years prior to 0001... which is ~1940. What unintentional timing.
Spoiler: show
1095 - Unknown Civilization begins working to "uplift" and enhance other species to create soldiers to fight against Belkan Knights under the Saint King lineage. A part of the civilization calls for genetic modifications of animals instead of slavery to create army. Civil war breaks out.
1145 - Anti-Uplift faction loses civil war and flees. One group settles underwater on a world and is eventually destroyed when a "temple ship" is self-destructed close to the planet's surface. Another group eventually makes it to Earth and goes into stasis in an undersea base.
1789 - Ethereals sent off in a "temple ship" shortly prior to the arrival of the Saint's Cradle that wipes out the uplift civilization's last world.
1939 - Saint King Unification War ends.
1947 - Early TSAB forces encounter Ethereal "Uplift" scouts while searching for possible Lost Logia near the Moon. One scout crashes to Earth due to damage. (Roswell incident, appearances of the "Men in Black" [Thin Men] start)
2013 - TSAB encounters an Ethereal "Uplift" force while recovering a Lost Logia. Incident causes concern but is forgotten in the wake of the penultimate Book of Darkness incident. (The encounter with TSAB causes the Ethereals to take a closer look at humanity, leading to their escalation of activity regarding Earth within the next two years.)
2015 - XCOM:EU starts. Nanoha/Hayate are born.
2016 - XCOM:EU ends. The events at the end of the game cause the civilization in hibernation to awaken.
2017-2020 - Incursion from sea-based aliens occurs, ending with the destruction of their primary city/base in the Gulf of Mexico.
2021-2023 - Second invasion occurs from space, ends with destruction of major command facility on Mars in Dec 2023.
2024 - Second Invasion officially declared over. MGLNanoha starts (late March?). Fate captured in April in same encounter that TSAB appears during.

I randomly picked 1095, and then discovered it was an important year regarding the First Crusade, so 1145 got picked to keep the theme. 1789 is the year the French Revolution started (storming of the Bastille, etc).
Psionics in XCOM:EU are almost entirely mental effects.
Spoiler: show
Mindfray - will/aim/movement penalty for 2 turns; 5 base damage.
Psi Inspiration - clears panic/mindfray from allies; willpower boost for 2 turns.
Psi Panic - causes target to panic.
Telekinetic Field - immobile telekinetic field in front of user that distorts/deflects incoming fire (+40 def); lasts only through enemy turn.
Mind Control - like it says on the tin; lasts 3 turns if successful.
A special psionic in the game gets Rift that causes an AoE psi-storm area that causes damage based on willpower of those inside the storm (high will -> low dmg, low will -> high dmg). Rift is also the only psi ability that affects robotic units.
I think that if I expand psionics (and I don't see why they wouldn't expand the power list over the 8ish years since xcom:eu took place in my time line), I'd focus more on the mental affecting side of things rather than the Telekinetic Field/Rift side. Particularly if I go with psionics being made as a counter to magic. Can't flatten with magic what you can't manage to aim properly at, or move to target, or keep a cool head, or the like. Maybe take some inspiration from genjutsu and other illusion-type things?

I'll also rule that psionics and magic are mutually exclusive. Psionics can't become mages (no/F-rank linker core?) and mages can't do psionic stuff (too powerful a linker core?). And perhaps the xcom-style psi-defenses reduce a mage's control/concentration (alternately, acts as a power limiter?), thus making it more difficult to do spells and the like in exchange for more protection from the psi-skills. Spell-based psi-defense doesn't work for the same reason force fields that filter out non-mages/civilians don't work -- either using it keeps them from being able to use other magic (too much concentration/focus needed?), or the spell can't be held because the 'target' "vanishes" the moment the magic starts applying the effect. And naturally, telepathy gets blocked as well.

Belkan styles would likely be at a disadvantage vs psionics due to their melee preference, while the mid-childa system would actually be better off versus psionics given it's preference for long ranged combat. And combat cyborgs or gadget drones would actually have an advantage since most psionic abilities would be ineffective against them.

EDIT: Changed the time line slightly due to forgetting Thin Men were designed to kinda tie in to the Men in Black sightings. Given that, Ethereals would have to know of Earth back to when the MiB sightings "start". The encounter in 2013 makes the Ethereals escalate their plans, resulting in the events of XCOM:EU starting in 2015.
Last edited by Phht on March 19th, 2013, 2:37 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Pursuing My True Self

Unread postby Phht » March 12th, 2013, 1:36 am

I went back to the Naruto/Persona idea. I think "Pursuing My True Self" would work as a title for the idea.

This part takes place within a few days of the info dump meeting in the Hokage's office.
Spoiler: show
He opened his eyes to see the ceiling of his apartment and took a moment to try to figure out if it looked more green or red in coloration. Naruto gave up and rolled out of his bed to his feet, already dressed. It only took a minute or two for him to exit the Shadow World version of his apartment and make his way to the entrance to Ino's mindscape.

“Yo Ino-chan. Inoichi-san.” He gave the two a wave after he entered, receiving a nod from the elder Yamanaka.

The younger Yamanka was more vocal. “Don't Ino-chan me, baka! We're not that close! You might give someone the wrong idea.”

“Fine, fine. Come on, summon your persona. If you manage it well enough, we might have a bonus stop tonight.”

She fixed him with a glare before her face scrunched up in concentration. Seconds later, the blue circle faded into existence below her, projecting a blue glow upward. It took several more seconds for the card to appear, lazily spinning in front of her. She struck it with a frustrated backhand. “ARTEMIS!”

With a flare of light, the circle faded away as her persona came into being behind her. The persona towered above Ino, wearing a flowing white robe or yukata of sorts that covered everything without hindering movement. Sandals graced her feet while a quiver of arrows rested upon her back. Finishing the look was a bow in one hand.

Naruto made a show of checking his wrist like it was a watch before looking at Ino with a raised eyebrow. She blushed slightly and muttered something about never having to do it in front of her dad before.

“Don't over think it. It is you and you are it. Just will it into form. And being angry works against you with this. You might want to have a specific motion or action you do to help with the focus. Um, I guess kinda like a jutsu has hand seals to help teach you how to perform it? In this case, it's not a set thing, but whatever feels right to you.”

She nodded and relax somewhat as she considered what could work. Naruto grinned and turned to Inoichi as the persona faded from existence.

“Inoichi-san, if you're ready I can take you and Ino-kohai out into Shadow-Konoha. As a treat, Two passed me some info on a small shadow nest we can hit to give Ino some combat experience with Persona use.”

His few steps back to the portal were accompanied by a chuckle and an outraged shriek.



The world moved in a near blur as the trio raced across Fire Country. Or at least the Shadow version of it. They came to a stop near a shadowy version of Otafuku Gai, only for Naruto to turn to the north and begin walking around the city.

“Naruto, where are we going?” Inoichi pondered the reason for avoiding the city, but decided to ask before considering it too far.

“It's a spot just north east of the city. We aren't passing through because then Ino-kohai could fast travel here any time she made her way into the Shadow World, and I don't think she'd be able to handle some of the Shadows she might encounter within.”

“So the shadow versions of cities and villages act like... space-time ninjutsu seals like the Hiraishin uses? But you have to travel to the place to have the 'seal' active so to speak?” Given that Naruto had semi-regular meetings with Kumo's jinchuuriki in this world, the ramifications were staggering.

Naruto gave a shrug and a nod in response. “I'm not really sure how it works. Just that there's a point in the major cities and all hidden villages that a persona user or shadow can use to travel to that type point in any of those locations they've been to in the Shadow World. I think I could bring both of you along with me if I used one of them, but the whole Ino running off on her own thing. What sort of senpai would I be if I didn't look out for her safety when we're not available to watch out for her?”

They had finished circling the city and Naruto pointed to what looked like the rubble of a home that had some trees taking root in it. “Okay Ino-kohai, get to work. We'll help a bit, but this'll largely be your fight.”

She growled at him, then blinked as she turned her head toward the location. Three blobs flowed out from various points and approached before forming into floating balls with black and pink vertical stripes. A mouth formed on each that a long tongue hung out from. “How..? I felt their approach.”

“You're a Yamanaka. Entire clan is pretty much sensors waiting to be trained. We'll be working on training you on using that ability in this world, where you should be able to eventually learn shadow types and their strengths and weaknesses beyond sensing their numbers and location. I think For now, you know, kill them without dying.”

She practically hissed at him before the blue circle sprang into being below her and the card snapped into existence in front of her. “I can't kill that baka over this, but all of you shadows are fair game! ARTEMIS!”

Ino made decent progress through clearing out the nest before she staggered and fell. Naruto was beside her to catch her. He checked her briefly and passed her to her father. “I was expecting that. Using a persona draws upon your energy to perform abilities. Not sure if it's chakra, but maybe the mind part of it? Kurama keeps talking about ess-pees and aitch-pees, then laughs at my confusion as if there was a joke that he isn't letting me in on.”

Inoichi frowned at him. “So you decided to let her push herself to her limits now while we're watching out for her? And you didn't think to mention this to me earlier?”

Naruto coughed and rubbed the back of his head sheepishly. “Sorry. Wait here, I'll finish clearing the remnants of the nest out and then I'll zoom us back to shadow-Konoha.”
As a note, with this chunk, the idea is up to 4672 words according to LibreOffice.

Time line
Spoiler: show
- Sakura and Ino have fight near stairs, Sakura hospitalized. (characters ~10 years old)
- (~1.5 weeks from start) Naruto enters Ino's mindscape with Inoichi's help and rescues Ino from her Shadow.
- (~2 weeks from start) Inoichi gathers Ino and Naruto for a meeting with the Hokage over the event.
- (~2.5 weeks from start) Naruto takes Inoichi and Ino into the Shadow World, gives Ino her first combat experiences.
- (~5 weeks from start) Naruto and the two Yamanakas enter <spoiler>'s mindscape as part of their investigation.
And since I don't think I posted this teaser snippet here yet...
Spoiler: show
The three TOKA members plus a guest gazed at the mindscape they were about to enter further. One of the blondes gave a glance to the guest before returning to looking over the structure representing the guest's mind.

“I know Kurama's mentioned to me that, Before, the structure largely represented the Shadow and the suppressed parts, but... wow. I feel like I'm about to enter a horror movie and be the idiot that willingly enters the creepy abandoned house where the serial killer waits.”

“Naruto, shut up. You're making me paranoid.” Shadowy shapes flickered through a doorway near the edge of her vision, causing her to nervously jerk her head to look in that direction. “At least we both have a Persona to protect us, right?”
"BTW, Phht your ability to think of a plot bunny about any situation impresses me, amuses me and horrifies me. All at the same time. Good for you!" - doc.exe
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Re: Cleaning out insistent bunnies

Unread postby Phht » March 19th, 2013, 4:57 am

I want to poke and prod at Pursuing My True Self more, and was planning on consolidating it into one spot. Currently, it's in ~3 forms.

First version are the snippets in the thread. Version two is the snippets from the thread pasted into a file in chronological order (minus the teaser snippet and time skip snippet), made because I couldn't find my local file at the time I was writing the latest snippet.

Version 3 is my original local file, that was an attempt to break up the infodump scene by spreading between all the other scenes. It's basically, start scene, beginning of the Hokage convo through the appearance of the "playing card," Shadow-Ino scene, back to the Hokage convo through the reveal regarding the Sage of the Six Paths and 'Before', Naruto getting picked up by Inoichi, finish Hokage convo, latest snippet(, teaser snippet, timeskip snippet).

If I continued expanding on this, what would the preferred consolidated state be? Version 2 or version 3? I honestly dislike version 3 for the amount of flashback/scene switching/whatever and figure that it'd likely confuse the reader more than any problems that having an infodump scene would give.

--

I have in mind the rest of this "arc." We have 2 more people (should be able to guess the two based on fic to date and that teaser snippet) to go dungeoneering in their mindscape, plus some aggressive information gathering, plot regarding plots (the Hokage convo involves a plot point for this~), possible show-down with a Big Bad, arc end, aftermath stuff. I'm figuring ~6 months from the starting scene to end of arc.

Alternately, I was thinking: one last snippet setting up some stuff, then skip forward a year or two for the rest of the arc. But that would likely leave Sakura as coma-girl that entire time -- though I might have an idea as how to swing it without her being in a coma all that time -- and I'm pretty sure she'd never graduate on schedule with that. ... Though that could be a workable change in events. Will have to ponder it. Suggestions as to which option to take?

I have no idea what arc would come next to cover from graduation up to a time skip (wherein Naruto goes off with Jiraiya for training -- mostly further in seals rather than Kyuubi chakra drawing and what not), though the idea of defeating a curse seal via Persona mindscape dungeoneering is intriguing.

My mental image of Anko's mindscape is a bright, cheerful, sugary sweet tea house with lovely feminine touches everywhere including uncountable numbers of dismembered Shadow bits which are arrayed in an aesthetically and feng shui pleasing manner and only adds to the bright and cheerful and lovely atmosphere and appearance. Just in case anyone was wondering.

(And for those wondering what TOKA was in that snippet... it's an 'acronym' (in the same way ANBU is an acronym) based on the Japanese name of a group from Persona 3 - tokubetsu kagai katsudou-bu. Interestingly, among the definitions for 'toka' appears to be 'river crossing' and 'in the capital' according to dicts.info, and doing toka as a long 'o' gets definitions like 'lamplight'.)
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Re: Cleaning out insistent bunnies

Unread postby Phht » August 3rd, 2013, 4:02 am

At one point I had a snippet wherein John Shepard, Council badass, encounters Harley Quinn while breaking out of a prison. Then I had a thought....
Spoiler: show
Feeds across the galaxy flickered and snapped to showing a fairly empty room. Near the back of the room sat a table with a projector on it, showing some indistinct location.

“You know, I wasn't sure how to open this. I pondered what would catch and keep the attention of the galaxy on the screen. I considered making jokes about recent events to break the ice, when I noticed the news about the asari counselor having gone missing while in transit. Everyone's wondering what happened. Did she get attacked by pirates? Was the pressure too much and she rabbited off to some dark corner of the galaxy to get away from it all? Could she have snuck off to have a secret tryst with the pirate queen Aria T'Loak?” A thud was heard off screen, followed by a rolling noise getting closer, and then an asari rolled backward into view. She was strapped down to an old 21st Century wheelchair, which came to a sudden stop by impacting the table. “Well, Heeeeeeeeeeeerrrrrrrreeeeee's Tevos~!”

“She-” Whatever the asari started to say was cut off by a cry of pain as a knife flew from off screen to embed itself in a leg.

“Ah ah ah~! We talked about this Tevos. Do you really want to break the rules and change my mind~?” The figure that came into view was fully armored, including a helmet. The armor itself was painted red and black in a diagonal checkered pattern. The helmet had two yellow bars running up the back, almost like ponytails.

Tevos shook her head as the figure came to a stop in front of her. Another cry of pain came from her as the knife was ripped free before medigel was applied to the wound. The weapon was carelessly tossed aside as the figure straddled her legs.

“You know, I'm a dark secret of the Alliance. Or parts of it at least. Got put on ice for over a century because someone felt I could be saved, could be fixed with medication, and be something far better and good than I had been to that point. My mentor and I, I'm pretty sure we got hundreds of deaths between us, plus the usual countless maimed, injured, and psychologically traumatized victims. It was determined that nothing could fix him, so he was executed. Decades passed, and finally someone came up with medication that could solve the mental problems I supposedly had.”

The figure paused to change something on the screen and pull out a cylinder in the left hand. Tevos eyes stayed locked on the cylinder as the figure flipped the cap up, revealing a red button, then flipping the cap down. Click. Click. Click. Click.

“Oh, don't worry honey, this isn't yours. Where was I? Right. They came up with a perfect identity, filling it in over the years so it was absolutely natural and genuine rather than being sliced in and back dated later. Once it got to the right point, they thawed me out and started me on the medication. Kept a minder with me at all times and had several ways to ensure I stayed on the medication. Worked for years. And then I died. Cerberus then decided to stick to their track record. They recovered my body, spent two years and over four billion credits bringing me back to life... and never once knew that there was required medication that was listed in my true profile, not the fake identity everyone thought of me as.”

The figure hopped up and bounced to the right side of the image, opposite the captive Tevos. The front of the helmet was poorly painted white, with a similarly poorly painted rendition of lips where the mouth would be behind the faceplate. Additionally, two lines extended the “lips” into a more grotesque smile. The asari's gaze slowly slid from the detonator still being played with to the screen. “But I'm sure everyone's wondering what the video feed is! This is the human colony of Horizon. And if I zoom in on the feed... or get a helper to zoom in due to my mention since my omnitool hand is busy – thanks~ – we can see that the colonists are being abducted! Which happened to be another news point of note I saw earlier. These are Collectors, boogeymen of the galaxy that live beyond the Omega-4 relay. I hope someone takes note of this and kicks forces into action to deal with them. Not here though.”

The figure sat on the table with a small hop, drawing Tevos attention.

“As for me? I take after my mentor a lot. I read a biography – or was it autobiography? – of his nemesis from back in the day. What got me was a story it gives regarding the past of the man's butler that had been brought up in relation to my mentor. About hunting a man that kept raiding caravans with gems. After six months, they discovered the man had been throwing the gems away. When asked why the gems had been stolen, the butler said, 'Because he thought it was good sport. Because some men aren't looking for anything logical, like money. They can't be bought, bullied, reasoned or negotiated with. Some men just want to watch the world burn.'”

Tevos gasped, staring at the left hand. Thumb down, safety cap up. Her eyes snapped back to the screen to see a blinding flash of light, followed by a brief moment of static before the screen went blank with a “Feed lost” message resting in the center.



In several stores across the Citadel, a console on the store counter blinked to life and a voice came from it.

“Hiiiiiii~ I'm Harley Quinn!” Everyone in the store stopped and turned to look at the console in surprise. “And this is my favorite store on the Citadel!”

The console screen blinked from blue to red. Everyone blinked in bewilderment. The stores exploded.



Tevos could only stare at the figure in horror.

“Don't look at me like that, Tevos~. So I blew up an entire colony and maybe the Collectors present there. Big whoop. This galaxy deserves a better class of criminal, and I'm gonna give it to 'em.” Head tilt. “Well, I'll wait a bit to give the galaxy time to deal with the Collectors. See what The Illusive Man is willing to do to get Miranda Lawson back in one piece mentally and physically. Then... well, everything burns.”

Across the galaxy the feed flickers and snaps back to whatever had been one the screen before the video.
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Re: Cleaning out insistent bunnies

Unread postby Phht » September 1st, 2013, 7:40 am

Been having inspiration issues with the Naruto/Persona idea, and the XCOM/Nanoha one has been poking at me. Like Nanoha and Fate with a talk show appearance.

Or a rather amusing scene where Nanoha (in early/mid-20s at the time) is cleaning out some remnant Thin Men forces in Tokyo, and gets mistaken for a villain by R/post-R era Senshi. Nanoha dodges some attacks from the Senshi, gets ready to leave, and has to avoid the magical artillery that is Sailor Moon's attack. Cue a telepathic call to Shamal to get there and put a barrier up because no one fires that powerful of an attack at the White Devil and gets away with it. Would include blocking the next attack by Moon with a Multi-Defenser and retaliating with a Starlight Breaker that pulls on the magic from Moon's two attacks and the other various attacks by Senshi prior to that point. And Sailor Venus doing some desperate sword combat with Nanoha.

--
Spoiler: show
Japan, April 2024

She looked out the open rear of the Skyranger transport the team was using. To her left was open water – where they had launched from – currently tinted shades of orange and red from the setting sun. To her right was Uminari City, one of the metropolitan cities of Japan located southwest of Tokyo. Her squad was coming in to replace the team that was watching the city as part of the investigation the government requested regarding strange events in the area. They were primarily trying to track down a dark cloaked figure that seemed to be the hostile in the incidents to date. Her position in the transport allowed her to see a column of blue light briefly burst from a wooded area near the sea. A tree seemed to start growing before there was a flicker in the air and the park looked normal once more, though the flicker in the air seemed to persist.

“Control, this is Uminari Beta. I just saw something odd from a park looking area by the ocean. Do we have anything that could cause blue columns of light and momentary flickers in the air, but is otherwise invisible?” She designated the location on her display and passed the recorded feed along.

“This is Control. Not that we're aware of at this time. Divert and take a closer look. It could be related to what we've been investigating.”

The Skyranger tilted to the left as the craft banked around for an approach from the sea. The pilots picked a relatively open area just outside the park and set the transport down. Five armored Operatives and a hover SHIV moved down the ramp and into the park, past a sign reading “Uminari Seaside Park.” They carefully moved through the park towards where the column of light originated. Momentary flickers could be seen here and there in the distance as they progressed, before the space opened up more and a giant tree with arms came into view. The creature was attacking something using giant roots, but was rapidly double-teamed and defeated.

“Control, Uminari Beta. Pretty sure we found an incident in progress. Spotted two humans, likely the ones involved. We're moving in closer.” The team began moving closer, but no response came. “Control, this is Uminari Beta. Respond.”

As no response came, the squad leader frowned. Being out of communication with command elements wasn't unprecedented, and policies for such an event had been in place as early as the Incursion. But she'd only been made squad leader two months prior and had been doing escort duty for a deep sea archeology group nearly all of that time. She swore.

“Okay, Henderson. You've got a Hermes suit. Haul ass back the way we came until you get a connection back to command. Report that we've apparently entered a barrier or field that seems to be blocking communications. Dark target is present and I'm moving in to attempt capture. Find out abort or proceed if you can in time.” The helmeted assault trooper nodded as several parts of his armor shifted to reveal thruster/anti-grav points and he soon vanished from sight as he put the unmatched speed and maneuverability of the Hermes armor to use. “Toji, move to get a clear shot on them, priority on the cloaked girl. Ibanez, flank left with your MG. Rowlings, same to the right. I have decent line of sight here, so I'll bunker down and remote our SHIV to hide near the water past the edge or the walkway.”

The remaining four members of the team fanned out through the wooded areas into position. She brought up the SHIV command overlay and piloted the unmanned vehicle into position. One of the members commented, “You know, I'm glad that they're taking the time to have pre-fight banter or whatever we want to call that. Also, got eyes on a big wolf looking thing that seems way too intelligent.”

The wolf was tagged for everyone's display. Each team member called back readiness as the two combatants appeared to finally make the decision to fight. When the fight was interrupted before it could start by the appearance of a third person, no one grumbled... where it could be heard at least. Rowlings spoke up. “What's the call boss? We got a new guy that appears to possibly be off-world law enforcement. Abort or go?”

Henderson spoke up over the line. “Got through to command. They recommend attempting capture if deemed low risk, but local command has final authority per policy. Sorry boss. Plus I lost connection with them as I headed back and regained connection with the team.”

She groaned. Two months as squad leader and this! It was too soon to be responsible for a critical decision of this nature, and she couldn't exactly get an update on the new situation out in time. What to do?

“I've got sight on dark cloak, but the trio's almost to the ground. Abort?”

“Toji, target the new guy. One shot, then target cloak or wolf as needed. Ibanez, hammer cloak with your gun after Toji's shot. Rowling, your pick on how to act based on the situation; overkill on the wolf allowed. If cloak ends up near the water, I'll pop the SHIV up to engage. Henderson, have your taser ready so we can hopefully capture cloak.” She took a deep breath and mentally sent off a quick prayer. “Fire.”
"BTW, Phht your ability to think of a plot bunny about any situation impresses me, amuses me and horrifies me. All at the same time. Good for you!" - doc.exe
Play Billy vs Snakeman.
--
Naruto RP: Higure Yuuhi (Sp Jonin, age 20, Konoha)
RP Atlas - Naruto RP wiki
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Re: Cleaning out insistent bunnies

Unread postby Phht » February 5th, 2014, 3:05 pm

Saw a picture of a Liara Drone on dA (would link but it has a mature content filter on it, though I'd consider the filter more iffy). One of my thoughts on seeing it was "Man, that Beacon on Thessia did more to the asari than anyone knows." And spawned this idea. (My other thought was, "What the hell did Cerberus try researching this time that killed all the scientists and took over the base?") Mentally, I came up with a 2185 scene (from Samara's loyalty mission), added two more 2185 scenes after it, then skipped to a 2186 scene, then a 2187 scene. But then I started typing the scenes up in reverse order because the explanation of what the hell is going on occurs in the first two scenes, and everything after that is basically fallout of those two scenes. At this point I have the 2187 scene and half of the 2186 scene.
Spoiler: show
Ashley Williams led her team down a service tunnel. According to the schematics, the tunnel should exit near the Afterlife club... or more likely, what used to be the Afterlife club. The end coming in sight, she stopped and their explosives expert carefully advanced to clear it of possible traps. Once the all clear was given, the group cautiously opened the door and silently gave thanks that it was an old, manual open style door. One year and six months. That's how long it had been since the galaxy stopped making sense. Eighteen months since she had been granted Spectre status and given orders to hunt down a threat to the galaxy, a still active Spectre due to unknown sabotage to the system preventing status rescinding of any Spectre. Ashley idly hoped that she wouldn't add to an emerging pattern of humans being granted Spectre status to go chasing after a rogue Spectre.

She glanced down the nearly empty roadway – if she was being generous – toward the club. Counting up who was out on the street, she ducked back into the tunnel with a groan. “This mission is fucked.”

One of the troopers blinked, and slid a remote viewing camera out pointing in the direction she had been looking. “I'm not seeing how it's fucked, boss. There's maybe a half dozen Sentinels in view and two or three asari Justicars.”

“They're quarian Sentinels. Which, if you remember briefings, are rare as hell.”

“How can you tell they're quarian? Sentinels have those hoods and more bare skin than any quarian would ever chance.”

Ashley reached over and smacked the trooper on the head. “First off, that liquid metal shit of the Awakened could cover their body and we'd never notice. Next, count the fingers. Three fingers. That means turian, salarian, or quarian. And the face certainly isn't turian or salarian in appearance. Which means quarian. I've yet to encounter a Sentinel scarier than that type, unless you count one paired with an asari Sentinel, and this type is only seen with high value leadership. And lastly, who the hell among the Awakened rates a half dozen visible quarian Sentinels?”

The camera panned a bit. “Well, there's quite a few that could get a half dozen visible... but the count just jumped to an even dozen in front of and around Afterlife. Which means the mission is fucked. Who the hell flubbed the intel that placed her anywhere but on Omega?”

Ashley glanced at the feed, then flipped the camera off. “Shit, they're starting to trace the feed. I know quarians are miracle workers with technology normally, but that's just geth level creepiness. All teams, this is Team Able. High concentration of quarian Sentinels at Afterlife. Priority abort. Repeat, priority abort.”

Other teams started to reply when static squelched them out, and a new voice spoke up, quite familiar to Williams. “Oh my, it looks like someone broke the surprise early. For shame, Ash. There was a wonderful party waiting for Team Charlie up in the office too! I guess we'll just have to have a party down here at Afterlife instead, you and me. Well, and send the surprise after that team. Wouldn't be fair not to.”

Ashley glanced out toward Afterlife and froze. Coming into view was a human woman in a black armored bodysuit with red accents on the arms and boots, a cape complete with hood covering the wearer's head, and an easily recognizable N7 Valkyrie in one hand. She pulled herself together and back into the tunnel on seeing the smile and look directed at her. “Okay. Jones, take the team and begin falling back for extraction. I'm going to try to buy us some time by chatting with her.”

“Boss, I know you've managed to thrive on surviving crazy and insane ideas, but this is fucking impossible.” The rest of the team nodded. “That is the person that made the entirety of asari space go dark, is working to conquer the rest of known space, and has that freaky metal virus-parasite thing that turns people into drones. How the hell do you intend to a) ensure we get back safely, and b) get yourself back safely?”

Williams stuck her hand out toward the explosives expert. “Simple. Lots and lots of high explosives. She wants me, which is why she placed herself here due to the information she got on the mission somehow. So, use the promise of blowing myself up to make sure as many get out safely as possible.”

The team pooled most of their high explosives with their leader, then Jones began leading them away toward the extraction point. Ashley watched them go, closed her eyes and took a deep breath, then stepped out of the tunnel with her rifle aimed at the caped woman.

“Ashley. I've been waiting for you.”

“Shepard.”
Spoiler: show
2186, twelve months earlier.

“So this is the Temple of Athame, where that damn Beacon is located. The architecture and sculpture work is surprisingly very nice, considering everything.” Shepard glanced around the room, before continuing forward to the large statue that seems the focus of the chamber. “We've sacrificed too much to get to this point to play games trying to find it. Activate visual interface.

A section of the statue shifts out of the way to reveal a prothean beacon, which gives a green glow and displays a green hologram of a prothean. “I am–”

“Don't care what you call yourself. You're just the damn thing that's twisted all the asari into your play toys in the centuries after they discovered you. Display drone control overview.

“Displaying. … How does a human know prothean, much less speak it for command override?”

Shepard glanced over the display. “Check the reports from Liara. 2183. Related to Feros.”

“The Cipher given by the Thorian. You are Shepard. This course of action is unwise.”

She shifted her gaze to the hologram. “Because I'll free them from you and proceed to destroy every beacon in the galaxy to prevent something like this from happening again?”

The hologram tilted its gaze skyward. “No. Because a fleet of turian and salarian warships just exited FTL near Thessia. Doing what you desire would require at least four hours of work, and you have less than ten minutes until the Council attacks.”
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Re: Cleaning out insistent bunnies

Unread postby Phht » April 13th, 2015, 3:51 am

So, Ghostbusters LA...
Spoiler: show
Bryan Welsh looked over the property that was soon to be the newest Ghostbusters franchise, having finished a walk-through of the property with the contractor that had been renovating it for them. Dr Peter Venkman had stopped at the location earlier just long enough to drop him off, and was now gone with Maddie Collins and Chad Fuller in Ecto-1b to ensure any licensing and permits were taken care of before the business actually opened in a week or two. He turned at a honk to see the remaining three Ghostbusters arrive in Ecto-2, a mobile containment unit made out of a 1989 Cruiser 2890 Class A RV.

Ecto-2 had picked up some unusual readings, and they had diverted more westward before driving down the coastline past the likely location of the readings, which explained why they were just arriving. He pushed the fence gate open and waved them through, then closed it behind them and walked along the drive. He caught up to Ecto-2 where it stopped next to a garage building attached to the main structure. Doctors Ray Stanz and Egon Spengler were the first off the RV.

“This is impressive for the price. Definitely room for growth here too. I can't wait to see the inside.”

Bryan smiled in amusement. “Hello to you too, Dr Stanz. Welcome to Ghostbusters Los Angeles. Or what will be that once the finishing touches are complete. Did you find anything out about those readings you picked up?”

Ray and Egon looked at each other for a moment, then Spengler spoke up. “Well, let's just say that we'll be adding a number of sensors and other pieces of equipment to keep an eye on it. We'll go over it more in depth once everyone's here.”

Dr Winston Zeddemore stepped off the RV, having finished making sure it would stay parked, and exchanged a nod with Welsh. “So, what's the pile of scrap that I passed by going to be for?”

Bryan chuckled. “Well, after my intro to proton pack use at Thanksgiving, I decided to try to avoid the potential problem if I could here. I'll be digging through the scrap for usable pieces, and create an ad hoc firing range for new employees so they can at least learn how to hit a stationary target.”

“I'm guessing the changes to the containment unit so it failing won't damage the building is also one of those lessons learned,” Winston half asked as he looked over the scrap pile again. “Oh, and Venkman reported that they were on their way back with some pizza for lunch. They'll be here in a few minutes.”
Spoiler: show
Bryan Welsh - Rookie from Ghostbusters the Video Game (realistic version). Name taken from IDW Ghostbusters comics (where he had started up GB Chicago instead). Heads up GB LA.
Maddie Collins - Female Rookie from GBtVG (stylized version). Name taken from IDW comics. Will be working at GB LA.
Chad Fuller - Male Rookie from GBtVG (stylized version). Again, name taken from IDW comics. Will be working at GB LA.

Both Maddie and Chad were on "medical leave" at the time Bryan was hired. Maddie accidentally sprained both her ankle and wrist while chasing a ghost. She was fully recovered just in time to miss the Thanksgiving 1991 fun. Chad was testing some experimental equipment and suffered mild second degree burns just a few days prior to Bryan being hired.

Ecto-2 - based on the Ecto-2 MCU used in the IDW comics for the Ghostbusters roadtrip. I tried to find one that looked fairly close to the design in the comic images on the wiki.

Following the events of Busting Hell, the Ghostbusters decide to take a roadtrip out to LA to install the last bits of Ghostbusters proprietary tech. At the moment, it generally follows the path the IDW comics took: New York City -> Detroit -> Arkansas -> New Orleans -> Roswell -> (added location: LA) -> Seattle -> Chicago -> New York City.

The changes to the containment unit are as follows:
  • Blow out path - Much like the blown out panels on the M1 Abrams, this path leads from the containment unit straight up to a set of break-away panels. In the event of a containment unit failure, the spirits are sent along the path and through the panels. To minimize the damage to the building, the containment unit was placed underground such that the upward stream would come out of the ground next to the building, hopefully minimizing the amount of damage done to the location.
  • Planned failure point - In order to make best use of the blow out path, the laser grid was modified so in the event the grid fails (either due to power loss or damage), the grid will deliberately fail on top first. Having the failure point be there means the spirits and energy bursting free are sent into the blow out path rather than into the building.
  • Back up power - It has hook ups for adding battery back ups and/or power generators in order to keep the grid online in the event of a power outage. Said batteries or power generator are not installed yet due to budget.
  • Drop down protective door - Located above the unit, the door is designed to drop down in the event of a fire or containment unit failure, or manually by hitting a deploy button. Not yet installed due to budget.
I've done a bit of expanding on the GBJP Quest World Building document. Mainly expanding on the timeline, adding in incidents for LA and Chicago. Some changes to the equipment list (proton pistol a la XGB no longer in use, but replaced by a Compact Pack that can use pistol thrower attachments, things of that nature), personnel list for GB franchises, etc. Also, expanded P-COC's section with details regarding how P-COC's anti-Ghostbusters stance came to be and events in the 1992-1995 range based on events in the IDW comics. Added FBI Paranormal Response Team section, and an Items of Note section that currently talks about Ectoplasm, mood slime types, and black slime.
Spoiler: show
Timeline (w/ canon source + some details):
  • Gozer Incident (GB)
  • Vigo Incident (GB2)
  • Twin Towers incident (cause of 1990 key to the city, and why the Twins Towers are not present in 1991 NYC during GBtVG)
  • Shandor Incident (GBtVG - realistic version)
  • Hell Girl Incident (Busting Hell)
  • US Roadtrip (IDW comics)
  • Tiamat Incident (loosely based on IDW comics story arc, first incident for GB LA)
  • Dumazu Incident (Sanctum of Slime)
  • Megaspook Incident (loosely based on IDW comics story arc, more detail present in P-COC section; reason for the extreme drop in PKE levels for NYC)
  • Book of the Dead Incident (think The Mummy (remake) in Chicago; first major incident for GB Chicago)
  • Achira Incident (XGB)
  • Erebus Incident / Millennium Invasion of London (Hellsing + Persona 3 being that caused the invasion to occur and sets in motion the events of later that year in Japan prior to its defeat)
  • Marduk Incident (based on the myth of Marduk, has Marduk coming to LA to find out what Tiamat had been up to; "sequel" to Tiamat incident arc)
  • Alcatha Incident (Buffy S2)
  • Olvikan Incident (Buffy S3)
  • The Initiative (Buffy S4)
  • Hell Goddess Incident (Buffy S5)
  • Nocturne War (GBJP Quest)
  • First Evil Incident (Buffy S7)
While I'm aiming for one major incident global for Ghostbuster franchises, some of the Buffy incidents are mostly unrelated. As a result, incidents are "open" for 2001-2004 (2001, 2003 - not LA), 2006-2010, 2013+.
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Re: Cleaning out insistent bunnies

Unread postby jgkitarel » April 22nd, 2015, 10:16 pm

Don't forget the mandatory school festival and beach episodes.
Also, I have to punch you, jgkitarel, because I spent a lot of time on the nanoha wiki trying to locate information on mages being trained due to being above a certain rank, only to remember and confirm that you were the one that came up with that. - Phht
Don't forget: Mass Effect is powered by magic space rocks. Evangelion is powered by Your Mom.
From his new fic Long Night of the Harvest

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Re: Cleaning out insistent bunnies

Unread postby Phht » April 23rd, 2015, 7:54 am

Don't forget the mandatory school festival and beach episodes.
Beach episode:
Spoiler: show
"Hey, what's that?"

Maddie walks close to the edge of the dock space. "What? I don't see anything."

Bryan shoves her over the edge.

"I'm not see- waaaaaaaaah!" She lands with a splash as he laughs. "This is not funny! I'll have my revenge! Now get me out!"
School Festival:
"Want to see a toaster dance?" (using green mood slime, not pink, for safety purposes)
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Re: Cleaning out insistent bunnies

Unread postby Phht » March 12th, 2016, 5:08 am

While I'm probably not going to try to write the RWBY/Nanoha idea, there were bits I forgot to put into the original idea, some stuff that came to me later, and so I've been fleshing out the outline more (it's gone from just over 2 pages to ~4.25-4.3 pages while stopping at about the same point as the original idea). I'm not going to drop the idea into here yet, but I was thinking about the various Kingdoms of Remnant.

Atlas
Spoiler: show
A quasi-stratocracy, Atlas in its present state formed in the early decades after the Great War ended. The Council that formed in the wake of the War was overthrown in a coup d'etat led by the military over the actions the Council took against Faunus (including exportation to Menagerie) and other vocal opposition. The new Council is made up of former members of the military, because to take a seat on the Council requires a person to retire from service if they are currently serving.

Atlas Academy serves as the honorary headquarters for the military – being the location that the coup d'etat was planned and launched from – and is commanded by a General. Another General acts as military governor over the city of Atlas, while two more split oversight of cities and facilities outside the academy and main city (much like US military Commands).
  • Council (3 members)
  • Marshal
    • Governor General (Atlas)
      • Military Police
      • Administration/Government
      • Strategic Reserve (defense forces)
      • Regular Forces
    • Governor General (West)
      • Military Police
      • Administration/Government
      • Strategic Reserve (defense forces)
      • Regular Forces
    • Governor General (East)
      • Military Police
      • Administration/Government
      • Strategic Reserve (defense forces)
      • Regular Forces
    • General (Atlas Academy)
      • Atlas Academy
      • Special Operatives Unit
All schools in Atlas essentially combine a normal school with a combat school. Students that do well in these schools have a chance to join Atlas Academy to become a Hunter or join the military, though neither option is required. All adults between 17 and 30 have yearly refresher training so they can form a militia component to the military in the event it's necessary. Furthermore, as the decades passed, bunkers were added beneath all new construction to serve as shelters for civilians in the event of a Grimm attack, and these bunkers are frequently networked within an area.

While it is a military government, several laws were passed early on to protect the civilians and private industry from potential overreach and abuse of power by the military. This has led to a paradox of the military and government being non-discriminatory regarding Faunus, while at the same time not taking any action to curtail the Schnee Dust Company and their use of Faunus, including their labor camps for Dust mining.
Mistral I haven't really delved into, but I'm thinking more of a Roman gladiator/tournament culture. Glorify the tournament fighters, have lots of tournaments all over, adult aged tournament fighters used as cannon fodder against Grimm when necessary while trained Huntsmen and Huntresses uses opportunities created by the fodder to take down Grimm, etc. Glorify the deaths of tournament fighters that die on the battlefield, so instead of being appalled by the loss of life, it's more "woo! glory!" Combat schools are more like tournament training schools, and the best tournament fighters in the teens league get offered slots at Haven when they turn 17, where they would then spend proper amounts of time on learning how to fight Grimm. Memorable/famous tournament fighters get nicknames (like Pyrrha being "The Invincible Girl"). The first Vytal Festival Nanoha participates in takes place in Mistral, and after her victory, she ends up known as "The Endless Assault" (also, she was offered a sponsorship deal to be on the Pumpkin Pete's box, but she turned it down).

Vacuo I haven't given much thought to, other than it's more relaxed than the other kingdoms (as evidenced by the lack of a school uniform for Shade Academy). Maybe something of an e-democracy?

As for Nanoha, don't have a name for the weapon, but a mecha-shift design. Compact form is like a baton. It has a strip that can fold up away from the baton to form a grip, making it into a tonfa. The baton can also extend out to form a staff, or extend out a spearhead to make a spear. The butt of the baton/staff/spear is a gun, able to use shotgun or rifle rounds. The tonfa part was added because it seemed to provide another defensive option compared to simply a baton... plus I immediately imagined what would happen if it had a stun function on it ("Traitor!" *baton shifts into tonfa with stun activating as crackling electricity* ... actually, given who I decided was on her team, that could actually happen at some point). There is no stun functionality on it. The staff/spear was needed because Raising Heart is a staff, so commonality between the two means there's no major issues if she switches to her Device. And I felt she needed a Remnant-built weapon for the simple reason of... she can't repair her Device. There's no one on/near Remnant with the skills and tech to do that sort of work. So using her Device is a lot riskier option because it can't be fixed if something happens to it.
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Re: Cleaning out insistent bunnies

Unread postby jgkitarel » March 12th, 2016, 3:40 pm

Hmm, world building. *hammers at it a bit* It's getting more solid, Phht. Good bit on Mistral, which helps give it character.
Also, I have to punch you, jgkitarel, because I spent a lot of time on the nanoha wiki trying to locate information on mages being trained due to being above a certain rank, only to remember and confirm that you were the one that came up with that. - Phht
Don't forget: Mass Effect is powered by magic space rocks. Evangelion is powered by Your Mom.
From his new fic Long Night of the Harvest

My current project on FFN, Mystic Knight Online
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Re: Cleaning out insistent bunnies

Unread postby Phht » March 13th, 2016, 4:44 am

Had an amusing thought earlier in the day that, given the mandatory combat classes in Atlas schools, Weiss should be competent with the standard issue Atlas sword, pistol, and rifle.

First thoughts on Mistral. While Atlas was more oriented toward a military gov't with shades of Starship Troopers Terran Federation and Valkyria Chronicles Gallia, Mistral leans pretty heavily on the Roman Republic for government. With a dash of Greek military. Also, some elements of "Witness me!" And say what you will about Atlas and the SDC, but they've got nothing on Mistral (but no one notices because it's not a visibly horrible as Faunus labor camps and horrible working conditions).

Mistral
Spoiler: show
The Mistral government varies greatly from that of the other kingdoms. It has a Council consisting of three members like the others, but the three selected are elected every five years by the people. Also, while the Council is the supreme authority, much of the daily and weekly governance is left in the hands of a Senate. Though no restrictions are given other than a lack of major crimes on one's record, in practice the Senate mostly consists of appointed members of the Great Families or rich/powerful merchants, and a small number of elected people.

Each city is led by a Magistrate, who is responsible for enforcing the laws of the kingdom as well as ensure required services are maintained. They are in many respects police chief, chief justice, and mayor combined into one position. There is a Chief Magistrate that oversees the Magistrates of a region of the kingdom and answers to the Senate.

Mistral doesn't really have a military, so much as a massive militia created by fueling the country's love of tournaments. Children are encouraged from a long age to take combat classes and participate in kid league tournaments. Many continue that training into their teens, taking part in teen league tournaments across the kingdom. The best fighters in that league are offered slots at Haven Academy to become Huntsmen and Huntresses. The rest generally continue onward into adult leagues. It's these adult leagues that are called upon by the Council when needed. These tournament fighters, having spent little time learning how to combat Grimm rather than people, are formed into units of Peltasts where they are used as expendable light infantry to bleed and weaken a Grimm attack, with the Huntsmen and Huntresses serving as heavy infantry units called Hoplites that take down the Grimm distracted or weakened by the Peltast. Elite fighters are used as command figures in Peltasts or formed into units of Thureophoroi, which served as a regular infantry middle ground between the Peltasts and the Hoplites. The glorification of tournament fighters extends even to those battlefields, with the fighters “finding honor and glory on the battlefield” rather than the truth of them being cannon fodder.

Their views on Faunus have fluctuated over time. Early on, they were used as forced gladiators in tournament fights, but a Faunus uprising ended their forced use in that, but began the expulsion of Faunus to Menagerie. The reveal of conditions in Menagerie caused unrest within the kingdom, leading to an end to the expulsions as well as improvement to their rights. In modern times, Faunus are technically equal to humans, though the only place they really have a good chance at advancement and wealth are in the tournaments.
If I had to name the Faunus that kicked off that uprising... it'd probably have to be Spartacus.

Vacuo
Spoiler: show
Given its location adjacent to and within a desert/plains region, it shouldn't be a surprise that Vacuo is the most laid back and relaxed kingdom on Remnant. The country makes extensive use of Scrolls and other communication technology to allow for a large degree of direct democracy or e-democracy. It has a Council, whose three members are elected for life (or until enough unhappiness occurs that the member loses a recall vote and gets replaced), but outside of matters of national security or states of emergency, they leave decisions on laws in the hands of the people. Every two months, a selection of laws are placed up for debate and a month later are voted on by all Vacuo citizens. If more than 60% of voters vote for a law, it goes into effect, while more than 50% of the vote leaves it on the docket for further discussion and another round of voting during the next vote period.

Mayors are in charge of a city and a region of land outside the city. They are responsible for ensuring needed services stay operating and the peace is kept within that region. A number of cities and land surrounding them are grouped into a province, led by a Governor. Like the mayor, the governor is responsible for ensuring services are maintained and peace is kept within their province. Governors answer to the Council. Mayors and Governors are elected every two years and can be removed from office by vote if deemed necessary.

Discrimination is rare in Vacuo, with the common explanation being that it's too hot and arid to waste energy and resources on something like that. They were the only kingdom not to participate in the forced migration of Faunus to Menagerie, and Faunus have equal rights and responsibilities to humans. As a result of these attitudes, the government serves as a paragon of meritocracy on Remnant.

Vacuo is a much more rural kingdom than the others, and as a result its military emphasizes air mobility and support. Generally a province has a major military base and a number of smaller outposts. These facilities serve as rapid response in the event of a Grimm incursion. Using Bullheads and other ground attack airships, Vacuo forces make passes over concentrations of Grimm to bleed them and break them up, then they either deploy forces straight into the fight, or they use the airstrikes to guide the Grimm into a prepared defensive position. The bulk of Hunters and regular military are considered “regular” infantry. These units are anchored by “heavy weapons” teams on both offensive and defensive operations. Light infantry skirmisher teams either range ahead of the forces to locate and harass the enemy, or take up positions along the line to do much the same.

Airborne Grimm are a larger threat in their region, so they have heavily invested in anti-air equipment. There are infantry or Hunter teams that specialize in this work and are commonly referred to as “flak teams.” Light anti-air emplacements, whether mounted on a ground vehicle or on fortifications, typically to consist of 4-6 machine guns or 2 heavy vulcan cannons (what the Bullheads can mount). Heavy anti-air emplacements make use of 2 or 4 flak auto-cannons. Recently, Vacuo has experimented with modifying old Atlas mechs to serve as mobile dual-purpose armor for the infantry.
I'd like to think that the Paladin-290 was designed in the hopes of gaining sales from Vacuo of new equipment rather than buying heap the stuff Atlas is phasing out of its own military and then modifying to need.

On the Faunus Equality Scale, Vacuo would be the pretty end of things, while Mistral would be the unexpected ass end of the scale. Vale would land on the Vacuo side of center, while Atlas would be close to center on the Mistral side due to things like SDC operations. I think next post would be on Vale, and Huntsmen force levels (recommended, required, and actual levels).

Oh, and since I went into more detail on military deployment for Mistral and Vacuo...

Atlas Military
Spoiler: show
The military emphasizes massing firepower, whether on the offensive or defensive. Human infantry units are generally used as guards out of the field and heavy infantry in the field. The lead elements of a combat force consist of Knights, which serve to bleed and weaken Grimm opposition. Behind them are human troops. In a defensive position, the human forces typically hold the top of a wall while Knights hold the base. On the offensive, one or more waves of Knights precede the advancing heavy infantry. To further boost firepower, mechanized armor is deployed to anchor the lines, while airships and fighter transports provide air support.
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Re: Cleaning out insistent bunnies

Unread postby Phht » March 16th, 2016, 5:06 am

Don't feel like digging into things to determine Vale's section right now. It will kinda be the most blatant dictatorship, with an adversarial relationship with its Huntsmen (part of which is noted below). You could kinda say that the Council are dicks, but not 100% dicks. That'd be Mistral. ;-)

Hunter Force levels
Spoiler: show
The treaty on Vytal included, among other things, mandated force levels of Huntsmen to deal with the Grimm. These numbers are checked and updated as necessary every two years during the Vytal Festival. The meeting involved consists of the military heads of each kingdom (Atlas and Vacuo only, since Mistral militia's up as needed and Vale relies solely on Huntsmen) and the heads of each Academy, or their representative.

Required force levels refer to the minimum number of Huntsmen needed to safely defend the main city and Academy. Below that level, security of the two locations is not guaranteed in the event of widespread simultaneous Grimm attacks all along the defense lines. At that level, those two locations are safe, but no aid can be given to a village, city, or other location. A sufficiently large city outside of the main city should trigger the creation of an "expanded minimum" level, that details the level needed to safely defend that city in addition to the main+academy. The Vale Council failed to do so in the case of Mountain Glenn, possibly due to having insufficient Huntsmen on duty to meet the levels that would've been needed as a result, and is considered by some to be a cause for the loss of the above-ground part of the city.

Recommended force levels is the project number of Huntsmen needed to successfully prosecute a campaign to push the Grimm back. If each Kingdom met their recommended levels, they'd be able to secure at least the surface and skies of their parent landmasses. No kingdom has ever met the recommended force levels for a variety of reasons.

Actual force levels is the total number of Huntsmen actually on duty. Many times, this level is given as a percentage of the recommended level. Non-Huntsmen forces can be counted in this total, though it's not a 1:1 conversion, since generally the forces involved are not as well trained or not Aura users. Atlas has the highest force levels when including their military, but percentage-wise is still about equal to smaller kingdoms' forces due to certain large Grimm concentrations in remote areas of the Mantle landmass. Vacuo has the second highest force levels, keeping their percentage close to Atlas as a result of not having the large Grimm concentrations that Atlas suffers from. Mistral comes up third as a result of their Peltast program. Vale manages to fall dead last, as their only anti-Grimm forces are the Huntsmen themselves, and budget "issues" have kept the yearly net growth of forces near zero.
Grimm Threat Levels
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The Grimm are a constant threat to the people of Remnant, but there are certain points where that threat is a bit more immediate in the eyes of the leadership. Above average/normal levels of Grimm in an area, such as due to a pack or herd migrating in, or getting too close to populated areas is referred to as a Migration. It's generally modified with a size descriptor based on the number of new Grimm in the area. Most migrations are one to two dozen new Grimm of the same type appearing that can't be accounted for by "natural" repopulation of Grimm in an area.

When the population of Grimm in an area increases rapidly and beyond the amount of any single pack/herd/whatever, and subsequently begins actively encroaching on populated areas, it is known as a Surge. Surges are a moderate level threat at the national level, due to the numbers and their actions. While migrations generally only have a couple dozen Grimm involved, surges usually involve over a hundred Grimm appearing in an area over the span of a few days and promptly moving towards a nearby populated area. Surges will result in Mistral calling up Peltast forces. Large Surges can at times be mistaken for an Incursion, but Surges do not involve more than two or three different types of Grimm "working together," and even then they'll be of the same "type" (aerial, ground, subterranean, etc).

The most severe threat to a kingdom is an Incursion. Consisting of hundreds to thousands of Grimm of all types, incursions simply crush a path to where ever the mass of Grimm is heading. Most cities are simply evacuated and abandoned in the face of an approaching incursion, and nothing but ruins are typically left in the wake. These rare events are dangerous enough to get the undivided attention of a kingdom upon confirmation of its severity. Unlike the lesser levels, incursions need no descriptor because there's no point wasting time putting some sort of just how screwed you may be instead of trying to deal with it. No one knows what causes a surge or incursion, though theories abound from an instinctive reaction to too much population growth, to expansion taking people too close to important Grimm sites, to some sort of guiding intelligence.
I will admit that the idea of incursions came about due to "One Good Turn Deserves Another" by Coeur Al'Aran.
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