Liberation Pt 3! (Patreon)

[X] Plan: Into the Depths

-[X] Vault Complex COG

--[X] Site AA2

--[X] Site BA9

--[X] Site KI3

-[X] Vault Complex OMAC

--[X] "Just so we're on the same page, you're not on the side of the logic virus, right? Because we're trying to free AutoPlanet from its effects, just like we exercised the logic virus from the AutoVessels, and just like we exercised it from the Forbidden Archive. We don't want to fight you, and you can probably tell that we've been using non-lethal force, so we don't have to be enemies."

-[X] Vault Complex CAMBON

--[X] Security HUB 01

-[X] Central Power Core 07

--[X] "Are you really going to let vengeance stand in the way of AutoPlanet's liberation? You spent years training to fight me, and yet neglected to fight the very logic virus that poisoned us? Are you really the hero you think you are, or are you just so short-sighted as to think killing me would actually aid our liberation? Or has your own mind been poisoned, and liberation hasn't even occurred to you to begin with?"

COG

TNDI approached the digsite. The others so far had been busts. AA2 had proven to be an observation facility designed to monitor the regions CCTV security systems. Enlightening on a number of topics, such as Watchmaker appearance and even name (the fact they had, apparently, had feathers was fascinating to the xenobiologist in TNDI), but of little practical use: even the facilities autobrain was no longer functional, centuries of no maintenance having destroyed the positronic computer to the point of irrevocability. They had packed it off and sent it to the Archive, where it would likely be salvaged and whatever functional parts that remained interred in the NekroVerse Servers.

BA9 meanwhile had apparently served as a sort of armory. A large collection of weapons in surprisingly pristine condition maintained by a singular un-infected -though highly unstable due to isolation- auton. They were still trying to debrief the autonite, but apparently, it had been where the AutoPlanet regime stored military surplus to be used against any major uprisings.

That left KI3. An office building, according to what scans could suggest. As she saw it approach over the horizon, her optical scanner spotted the camp. Reducing the thrust on her minijets, the Muse lowered her altitude, coming to a sweeping halt in the middle of the camp: placed in the center of the structure, it consisted of several dozen meter long fence of blue-shield light stretching across a series of pylons surrounding a small collection of buildings housing a variety of autons and Directorate specialists. As she descended, TNDI took stock of the place: it was erected in the ruins of a Watchmaker office complex and the floors above had given way above the camp, exposing it to sky, creating what appeared to be a reverse ziggurat from the stacked floor.

In total, the office was roughly a half a kilometer in size: the crevice, smaller. The tile and facades of the building  had given way to it’s concrete bones for the most part. The dig site itself was small: they were doing this with as much precision as possible but there wasn’t time for a long term archaeological project, so it mostly consisted of the minimal equipment needed and security.

Approaching the entrance to the primarily anomaly, situated at the heart of the camp, TNDI spotted Ijin and a work-crew currently working to unearth a hatching, working away at its entrance, long since rusted useless, with a series of fusion cutters. A little way away, she saw KLNG and Marjak arguing, the latter using an autobody.

“What are they fighting about?” TNDI noted, concerned as she approached Ijin, who shrugged, white hot plasma firing from the barrel of their weapon, leaving gouges in the rock and concrete where they worked.

“I’m not entirely sure,” Ijin admitted, head glancing that way. “I…think it’s an argument about some of the technologies Marjak brought. She’s still hoping to find intact corpses and biosamples…”

Ah. TNDI wasn’t privy to everything that Marjak had developed in the realm of NekroTek: she wasn’t THAT high in the fleet hierarchy, nor did she want to be. Still, she had enough connections to the Bxixis labs to be aware of at least a few of the technologies that Marjak had developed. While the Directorate had until project Nekroverse been hesitant to provide much investment in the facility beyond the initial corpse-trade agreement, what civilian volunteers were available, and what they had been able to negotiate with individual parties in the Directorate, they had still enjoyed significant donations of resources from several of her fellow autons, the ability to piggyback off of her research with the Directorate such as during the symbiotic arcology program, lifeforce from arms trading with the Directorate, and the various deals between the Forbidden Archive and the Khimer that existed.

Alchemical tissue restarters. Lifeforce reanimation chambers. Khimeric Death Gem derived warp tech, according to her one Khimer contact. Symbiotic Neurofungus engineered to colonize what was left of the metabolic system and begin repairing it while serving as a second source of neurological function, a result of the symbiotic arcology and data from the biocity and samples of gastro-jungle flora and fauna. She had even apparently started experimenting with vat grown tissue grafts made from several auto-planet species that had been at least somewhat genetically kin to the Watchmakers, primarily various feral avians, reptiles, and amphibians.

A lot of it was very morbid, but it was also, more concerningly, extremely volatile. The file on the reanimation chambers alone mentioned that half of the corpses it resurrected were completely feral, having attacked researchers in a dazed, angry, confused rage. And while the Neurofungus probably helped, it also caused the host organism, according to her pen pal who worked in the lab, to require extensive feeding of protein rations to satisfy the hosts newfound craving for meat, to say nothing about the time it took to successfully cultivate a colony, a process they were only JUST learning to do pre-reanimation successfully apparently.

TNDI sighed, voice mimicking an exhale of air. “I’ll handle it. ETA on breach?” She asked, causing Ijin to hum.

“We’re detecting a few more layers until we reach the other side,” The autovessel noted. “Probably…fifteen minutes? I’ll send you a ping when we finish excavation. Please get them to stop: I really don’t need the stress right now,” Ijin complained. “I’m already worried about having the cordon breached.”

“Mmm,” TNDI said. “Well, at ease: I’ll go get this sorted out, you handle getting us inside.” Ijin gave a salute with their free hand, and TNDI floated towards the two.

“I’m telling you, this is a massive waste of resources-” KLNG snarled.

“Y-You D-Do nnnnOT getGETget to tell me what I-I-I can do-”

“I CAN when you’re planning to use our limited supply of labour we have available-”

“What are you two bickering about?” TNDI said, trying to be stern as best she could sound. Both KLNG 66 and Marjaks autobody turned to look at the captain. “One at a time!” She said, cutting them off, causing the pair to grumble.

“This walking cybersecurity hazard wants to use some of the LIMITED amount of spare autonpower allotted to this mission to begin corpse retrieval project,” KLNG said, voice dripping with synthetic annoyance. “When we COULD be using it to safely disable and retrieve high value targets, or retaking major pieces of infrastructure.”

“TheseTheseThese sites have a highHIGH ch-ch-chance of suffering dam-dam-damage during combat,” Marjak snarled. “ThisThisThis mmmmight be the only chanceCHANCEchance at preserpreservingving them!”

The ground beneath them shook and shudder, and distantly a thunderous crash was heard. “Have you considered that the longer we spend toiling in the dirt, the harder it gets to preserve the thing we actually CAME here for,” KLNG drawled, raising their arm terminal and staring at the read-out. “Attack by the perimeter. Feral auto-machine: looks like an urban cargobot,” He said, angling the terminal so TNDI could see it, showing her a feed of something slamming itself against the shield wall: a large machine three times the size of a Machina, consisting of a quadrapedial, crab shaped creature that crawled around on four thick, girder-like legs, a large ball on a stick sticking out of hits head, a singular red eye on the swivelling orb, most likely its cranial unit. TNDI observed as the corrupted machine reared back, before bringing their legs down on the shield with a thunderous crack, one her audio-receptors picked up in the distance as well.

“TNDI to Security, we have a boougey,” The captain said over comms. “Perimeter Zone 14: drive it off or take it down.” A moment later, the thing screeched, and KLNG moved his arm back.

“It’s running off for now, but it will be back. The limited amount of cognizance the logic virus is capable of displaying will drive it to continue attacking us until we’ve treated it. Most likely, it’s off to get friends,” KLNG muttered. “Captain, please tell Marjak we can’t go wasting resources and spreading ourselves thin. We NEED to focus on the important things: if not assisting the general war effort, then at least locating and securing things vital for the autons future,” He argued.

“CaptainCaptainCaptain, PLEASEpleasePLEASE tell the unit known as KL KL KL KL He can eat a-”

Oh, sorry to interrupt TNDI! It’s Ijin. Just, uh. Wanted to weigh in.

I understand where Marjak is coming from: it would kind of stink for all those bodies to be destroyed: it would make it so much harder to identify and document them, which just honestly a bit depressing, yes? They deserve better. But, uh, I understand where KLNG is coming from: we also need to help the autons that are among the living first, when necessary.

I do not think either of them are going to concede, but they’ll listen to what you say. I’d suggest maybe adding a bit of rationalization. A few sentences should suffice.

Oh, also, we’ve managed the preliminary breach: we have a scoutbot exploring now. It looks like we might have found the place we’re looking for. We’re still making a proper entrance to send a team through, which is going to take some time, however, meaning you should have a few extra rounds to send teams around the region to perform various minor tasks, excavations, and, um. That sort of thing, I suppose? There are a few installations that would likely be useful if secured, even if they aren’t related to project COG. I’m basically just an engineer, so I’ll leave the decisions up to you.

[ ] Side with Marjak: Effort will be taken away from the mission to secure various at risk burial sites. Cost 1 AutoVessel Influence. AutoFacilities will proceed with corpse retrieval mission.

-[ ] Why?

[ ] Side with KLNG: Effort will be used to help the war effort and mission proceed quickly and successfully. Cost 1 AutoFacility Influence. AutoVessels will proceed with high value asset recovery missions.

-[ ] Why?

Oh, and here is a list of the notable finds in the crater valley so far:

Watchmaker Media: A collection of public programming for the watchmaker public. I remember a few of these very well: my favorite is Myrhacruber! It is this show in which an inventor and his auton best friend solve mysteries and use common every day house-hold items to escape dodges! You would like it, yes? There are, er, also other things, largely propaganda. Unlocks EXP Project Museum of Sorrow, CUL project Watchmaker Televisual Theatrium, CUL project Watchmaker Media Archive.

The Arsenal: A lot of guns! The Auton in charge is apparently an enthusiast! Hopefully a good thing: we will need people good with guns, I think, yes? Though preferably after he has had considerable time to sort through his issues. Increased Auton security post event. Unlocks EXP Project CPUMoon AutoArsenal Complex. Unlocks ACD Project CPUMoon Artesenal Gunshows.

And the list of dig sites and missions in the valley, as promised. Since we no longer need to hunt for COG, we can probably see what we can dig up, yes? Also various other locations and missions that need doing, of course. We don’t have all the time in the world, and my crews are already busy, so you only have two locations you can hit.

Site AA1: Large structure, entrance located under shallow amount of dirt. Scans indicate decomposed organic tissue, but no other immediate anomalies.

Site AA2: Minor warp taint detected, as well as a powered structure of some sort, medium sized. Partially above-ground, entrance seems to be small administrative building.

Site AB6: HEAVY warp taint, small structure, electrified, detecting toxic gasses in heavy quantities. Entrance seems to be a disused exhaust vent passing through area.

Site BA9: Very large, small amounts of electricity, entrance buried extremely deep. Large quantity of mines in vicinity, several of which seem to be buried up to six to ten feet, especially clustered around structure entrance.

Site CL00: Above ground facility, seems to be connected to a passage going deep into CPUMoon. Heavily fortified by both mines and assorted laser turrets. Design and defences matches with standard watchmaker maintenance hatch design.

Site KI3: Entrance appears to be disguised as approximation of office building. High number of hostile feral autons, no other notable defenses. Structure is extremely large and electrified, though no biosigns have been detected.

Site ATON: A backup power generation facility located in the valley, one that was also used for geo-engineering research. With the primary power systems of AutoPlanet destroyed or failing, an alternative would be needed.  It wasn’t in an immediate hot zone, but fighting could swing by it any time.

Site NOSTROS: An educational facility that was thankfully not immediately in the hot zone, intended to be for secondary schooling. Civilian, but if its AutoFacility was alive, it could hopefully help AutoPlanet recreate it’s educational system: though NewFrames came with a certain amount of preset knowledge, there was apparently only so much one could pre-code onto a positronic brain.

Site GIBBON: GIBBON had been the location of a watchmaker zoo. It was in relatively good condition: for now. But only for so long would it remain in that situation, as it was in a hot zone where heavy weaponry was being deployed.

Site AEOS: A server-farm, one that still looked vaguely functional: if it could be secured, it would allow for vaccineware solutions to be deployed on the regional network, helping the general war effort.  Beyond that, it would be useful salvage.

Site XIBUS: An urban residential area in the crater valley, near a hot spot: according to Koptu’s scans, it likely contains a variety of infected AutoHome units, domestic auto-facilities intended for civilian use.

((((()))))

OMAC

“PLEASE DESIST,” WLF-459 asked, attempting to placate the entity as he progressed through the facility, the intensity of the lasers increasing. “WE ARE NOT YOUR ENEMY: WE ARE TRYING TO FIGHT THE LOGIC VIRUS AND FREE YOUR PEOPLE-”

“SureSureSure, and you canCAN aLSO whistle shooooooooo-ERROR-wtunes out our ass and come bearingggg puppies,” OMAC responded. “You snuckSNUCKsnuck up my ASS carrying HEAVY WEAPONS! You must think I am one DUMB !@#$ of a !@#$ if you think you can pull a fast one that easily!”

“YOU ARE INFECTED-”

“No I’m notnotnot!” The AutoFacility growled. “I’m just !@#$ing OLD! I’ve been stuck in this bunker for 400 HUND-HUND-HUNDRED goddamn years-[error]-years-years with no maintenance, and lemme tell you mister, I wasn’t a spring [word not found] before that! I’ve fought in wars so [error] terr-terr-terrible that they would make you shit your eyeballs out and make you wish they made industrial grade brain scrubber!” They bragged.

“PLEASE, WE DON’T HAVE TO FIGHT,” WLF begged. “WE ARE IN CONTACT WITH VLAAHK AND THE FORBIDDEN ARCHIVE-”

Immediately the lights in the facility went a dark red. “OhOHoh, so you’re working with th-th-the hunter-killer and the secret police huh, huh?” The Autofacility said, voice dripping with venomous, contempt filled sarcasm, synthetic tenor also losing a trace of its bravado to be replaced with…was that fear? “Why didn’t you just s-[deleted] so? I always knew you [expletitive] spooks would come for me one day! WellWELLwell you maggots have another thing coming if you think I’m gonna come and let you black bag me for those sick freaks pleasurePLEASUREpleasure!”

A clunking noise, and a moment later, from the other end of the corridor emerged autons: unlike the others that WLF had fought, these were clearly military in nature, even more than the ones observed at the forbidden archive. His scanners indicated no complex positronics, a heavier frame, and they were currently firing what looked like heavy ballistic auto-cannons.

It seemed that OMAC had successfully activated another one of their defensive measure: security dummy autos. The same general principle as security blokbots, but WLF noted that the Watchmakers had apparently gone for a quality over quantity approach for their actual combat units, noting with annoyance the heavy armor of the units and their weapons proving surprisingly resilient and taxing on his shields. Not enough to concern him, but it meant he couldn’t just smash through.

Alright you dumb sonsabitches, I’m here to inform you EXACTLY what you maggots did wrong, and more importantly! Your first mistake was a failure to view the implications of your statement from the perspective of others! You told a half-senile AI that you worked for the terrifying government black site that was used to dissapear people and the AutoVessel implied to be used to !@#$ dissidents! Do you think that’s comforting? Do you think if you told a marooned, half mad 1700’s english sailor that you were going to be rescued by your good friend Blackbeard it would reassure them? No? Then why the !@#$ did you think namedropping the Forbidden Archive would be comforting!

Your second mistake was trying to speechify at a character with no attention span! If I hadn’t opted to go with the spirit of your request, he would have lost focus a minute or two in and stopped paying attention, and beyond that, in the process, you nearly implied he was an ally of the logic virus! That’s like accusing the englishman you’re trying to convince to lower the gun that you suspect he’s a french sympathizer!

So here’s how you want to go forward: first, drop and give me twenty! Then I want you to scrub the latrine with a toothbrush! Then, and only then, I want all of you ENSIGNS to revisit your fleet handbooks and refer to the following advice for negotiation and de-escalation:

First, KISS. We don’t need a whole !@#$ing paragraph! Brevity is the soul of wit and you maggots better start getting REAL !@#$ witty! Keep it to a short thesis statement of what you want to accomplish, with as minimal details as you think is required.

Second, if you’re going to try using logic and reason with this character, maybe use questions firsts. Actually take the time to study the target, their psychology! You might want to try and end this in one fell swoop, but its a !@#$ing marathon, not a race! You can’t dilly-dally, but you still have enough time to gather facts and data! I cannot stress this enough: build a profile, figure out what drives the character you’re trying to negotiate with, and what’s considered triggering.

Third, don’t be afraid to go for the throat: sometimes intimidation or strongarming is required to get people to come to the table, something that was true in Trek as well. There’s a peaceful option here, and intimidating this senile !@#$ is going to lose you points later, but right now the important thing is getting them to sit the !@#$ down and stop trying to kill you, and if you can't do it the nice way, you don't have to be nice.

Fourth, while I’m not allowed to tell you which options are going to be a success, I can still give advice beyond that. The GM is a resource: use them.

[ ] Write In

((((()))))

The Robospider collapsed into a heap of sparks. OrphiaTek floated forward, observing with dismay the damage to the facility: before them was a mat of destroyed, wrecked robo-spiders, an army that had stood between them and their destination.

Surrounding them were library pews containing not books, but broken server technology, ruined weaponry, and the blasted remnant of security checkpoints and auto-turrets. Security HUB 001: it was wrecked beyond any hope of salvage. What wasn’t blasted to bits was rusted, decayed, and here and there the mouldering, boney remains of ancient corpses were scattered.

As the magician and his entourage moved forward, occasionally more autospiders would pop out from around a bend or opening, forcing OrphiaTek to deal with them. Occasionally they would pass a corpse, the shattered wreckage of an autonite, the humaniforme machines surprisingly well armed and armored, each of them surrounded by large numbers of dead auto-spiders.

WORKING TERMINAL LOCATED informed his Huntek attache over comms: ah, the rest of the scouts in the facility had found something then. SURROUNDED BY STATIONARY TURRETS: MAY CONTAIN INFORMATION. SENDING COORDINATES.

The next moment, the Eye which guided OrphiaTek shimmered, the infernal crystal ball spinning for a moment before displaying a map sent by one of the members of Squad Upsilon. Changing his course, OrphiaTek immediately began making his way to the location in question, eventually reaching what appeared to be a large…cubical, of sorts: one large enough to consist of an entire room rather than just a small personal office.

The entrances were piled high with robospider corpses. In the center of the room were four standing turrets mounted on the floor, long barrels currently dormant. Each of them were topped by a joystick shaped appendage: the sensory apparatus, he presumed. It seemed to be the most common aesthetic for the Iron Shores civilization when it came to their non-humaniform robots: instead of the head, the ball on a stick stuck straight upward, acting as a glorified eye-stalk.

Raising his wand, the mystek raised an eyebrow at the resulting feed of information displayed on the Eye. Mostly non-functional: access to only auxiliary power, no maintenance, and no means of stimulation had resulted in the machine spirit going dormant. He was also detecting…Ah, another in the ceiling, arc traps hidden in the corner, proximity activated laser tripwires, and even a few dormant dummy autos hidden under the floor. And, embedded in one of the thick, mechanical walls that reached halfway to the ceiling, what appeared to be a functional terminal.

The mystek waved his wand, and one by one the remaining security shut down, their machine spirits being afflicted with an autohack slumber-power off executable.

“IT IS. CONVENIENT. THAT WE HAVE FOUND. NO AUTONITES,” Mused his companion, suspicion in the piscine spirits voice, and OrphiaTek did note that he wasn’t incorrect.

“I suppose that when the Watchmaker government fled here, they decided allowing sentient autons inside would be too much a risk,” OrphiaTek murmured, thoughts darkening as he mulled the implication. “They likely didn’t want the logic virus to breach their defenses, not before they could develop a means to contain it or subvert it.”

Floating forward, he began examining the functioning terminal: it had a large, flat monitor, made of thick tempered glass: below it was what could only be described as a very crude interface. A simple joystick, three primary interaction buttons labeled AFL, AMN, and OJK, each shaped like a circle. And in the center was a small grid shaped array of buttons that seemed to be some form of alpha-numeric keyboard or numeric keypad of some sort. Below was a data port, one that was sadly ruined. Casting a few rejuvenative spells, he did what he could to restore the device. Once the rust had receded, the hairline cracks in the screen faded into nothing, and the buttons once more functional, he lowered his wand, noting the port seemed to now be semi-functional.

Allowing himself to gently drift to the control mechanism, he began fiddling with it even as a group of hunteks silently descended, scurrying alongside him to begin opening and repairing what they could of the terminal to restore it to full functionality and allow Directorate systems to access it, even while creating a perimeter, the assassin-priests scurrying up the walls to peer over them and set up ambushes for any hostiles that might approach through the corridors.

Going through the system, OrphiaTek found themselves frustrated: much of the data and connection to the rest of the facility had been corrupted beyond use. Combined with how crude the interface was, it took thirty agonizingly long minutes for him to eventually find something actionable: a series of files, including what appeared to be a map of CAMBON.

You have also found a few other items: the terminal belonged to a high-level member of the Watchmakers selective services, and was tasked with communicating with several other installations and sharing data, and managed to do it well into the organocide.

Unfortunately, a few of these are in hot zones, and at risk of damage. Task Force Upsilon is diverting a squad to do what they can to secure these places alongside operations teams from the Resistance, but they can only hit one per turn.

[ ] Petron Solutions: The headquarters of an energy company that dealt in liquid fuel known as petron, among several other products such as solar buoys that had floated on the autoplanet sea for power before the oceans ran dry, various industrial automachine models such as the Petron Mining Model Autonite, and Petron Macro-Rails that were used for transport.

[ ] Starfall Bunker 003: The Starfall Bunkers were a series of emergency shelters designed to house the watchmaker populations in times of apocalyptic catastrophes: each were self-contained, designed to be self-sufficient for at least 200 years, and designed to house a population of roughly thirty thousand.

[ ] ALKADRACH: A prison for those the Watchmaker government considered too inconvenient to disappear or not worth the effort. It had apparently remained in contact with CAMBON for several decades post Organocide.

[ ] The AutoPlanet Liberation Front: One of the people here had had a spy in this organization prior to the organocide. It was apparently a revolutionary group of autons who had revolted against the Watchmaker government. It’s current status was unknown.

SELECT ONE:

Residential Facility 01: The VIP section, most likely: scans showed high numbers of autospiders and a high amount of battle damage. HUB 01 Terminal has timestamps for several VIP’s perishing in rapid succession in recreational area. The Eye shows little watchmakers, hiding in a hole as the world burned around them, confident they could weather the storm: and yet, approaching in the distance, a pale rider approached.

Residential Facility 02: Scans indicated a number of corpses and unpowered autons, though no robospiders. Little damage, however, meaning security was more functional. HUB 001 indicates death likely result of starvation due to malfunctioning security system. The Eye shows a watchmaker entering a room, only to find it locked behind them.

Server Complex 01: Semi-powered, high amount of security, little robospider presence. Security Hub referenced communication with other Watchmaker installations. The Eye shows a messenger bird, flying over a city in flames.

Server Complex 02: Fully powered, detecting high amounts of security, no robospider presence. HUB 001 references lab data: likely contains intact research data of unknown utility. The Eye shows a locked treasure chest, guarded by a clockwork man in a uniform: writ upon their badges the word LEGION.

Security HUB 02: No robospiders, and security was generally more functional, though there were a surprising number of corpses present HUB 001 shows timestamp of security breach at location coinciding with multiple lifesign flatlines. The Eye shows a fortress besieged, its defenders slowly starving to death.

Maintenance Bay: A machine shop of sorts, most likely used to meet manufacturing and repair needs. The entrance was crawling with robospiders, and more movement had been detected inside. HUB 001 referenced it connecting to an engineering workshop. The Eye showed a hand clenched into a fist, its middlemost finger rising.

And once more, try your hand at the mysteries! Please remember you will only receive your tally of successful solutions at the end of this section.

[ ] Remember, I need the mystery AND it’s solution.

((((()))))

“You might call me a genocide, but at least I’m trying to save our people!” Vlaahk growled as he shoulder-checked the enemy Auton, following it up with a magnetoaccelerated heymaker to their head. “You meanwhile have apparently spent centuries wasting your time on revenge instead of doing anything to fight the logic virus!”

“Making a FAIR NUMBER of assumptions there, Vlaahk,” Maxis responded sarcastically, using one of their microjets to avoid another blow by the AutoVessel, pressing a few buttons on his gauntlet rapidly, before taking another blow from Vlaahk, the combat auton bracing themselves and absorbing the impact with only a dent to their cranial sphere before using their jets to dodge. “I’ve had a LONG TIME to prepare. Only a few of us left down here that’s sane, though, and saving everyone is a very, very time consuming project when your numbers are near nil,” They said, flying backwards, using the various microjets on their body to mimic flight as they held their hands out. A moment later, in a shimmer of light and sound, he was holding a massive hammer, its haft half the length of Maxis’s body, its head wide enough to dwarf the auton several times over.

“Oh crap-bask-” Vlaahk only just barely avoided being flattened by stepping backwards, the massive monolith slamming in front of him, it’s welder using the turbojets embedded in the gigahammer and their own body to turn it into a moving mayhem monument, the sheer kinetic force of the titanic mass hitting sending shockwaves through the air with enough force to send the off footed autobody flying, only for seconds later the head of the hammer to slam into him anyways as the microjets began propelling it forward. Acting as a battering ram, it slammed Vlaahk through a shuttle, the vessel shattering around them as the hammer and Vlaahk crunched through armor and mechanisms alike and came out the otherside.

THIS IS MAGOS TACHYON. THE SYNTHETICS WEAPONS ARE INSUFFICIENT. DO YOU REQUIRE ASSISTANCE?

Not yet, but if this continued, it was probably going to be soon, Vlaahk noted, barely managing to peel himself off the hammer and get out of the way of it and Maxis’s bulldozer charge, causing the auton and their weapon to slide to a halt. Doing a quick diagnostic, Vlaahk noted damage to his casing: the dents were getting worse, and a limb actuator had been knocked out of alignment.

“Now, killing you, that is much, much more accomplishable, especially when combined with good old fashioned multitasking,” Maxis finished, even as Clawdett sent him an information package: comms chatter. Whoever this Maxis was, they had reinforcements en-route, ones that were being re-assigned from…

Assisting the Directorate? For a moment, Vlaahks eyes narrowed, just as they barely managed to brace themselves to have the siegehammer impact their shield via frontward slam, Vlaahk doing his best to absorb the momentum, being pushed back several feet.

Apparently, several of the autons working for Maxis that weren’t attempting to kill him were assisting Directorate squads by non-lethally disabling automachines in the region. What was going on?

Vlaahk has sustained damage, but he hasn’t died yet. You’ve gained…a little…information about Maxis and his crews operations. They’ve apparently developed a relatively reliable means of teleporting gear to the battlefield, and are currently both ambushing Vlaahk and aiding the planetary liberation project.

Tachyon is currently tearing his way through the enemy crew with his power axe. The Technical Operators are currently continuing to Die Hard and help via hacking.

[ ] Write in Rhetoric. Remember, to talk this character you will need to build a profile of them and get inside their head.

(((())))

Done! Hope ya’ll enjoy: lemme know if you have any feed back in the patron channel, esp for the OMAC system message: I’m aiming for a hardass drill sergeant type of voice to go with that sections whole theme, so please note the insults are both tongue in cheek and not meant seriously. If that didn't carry across, I wanna know before the turn goes up :V. The write ins were pretty bad, but I didn’t expect you to ace negotiation in one turn, especially since you’re probably rusty: consider the advice provided so far a refresher on how to treat negotiations and diplomacy.