Ok let's get the hell out of here before we get blamed for this

One upside: from their perspective, this will all be "reset" to yesterday.

>>528327
...Daaaaaamn. That's a lot of damage. If we weren't running low on time I'd suggest helping out. Can we ask the Dead Batteries to help find survivors? It'd be a bit of good PR for them if nothing else.

>>528330
>Why are the Nobles suddenly going suicidal on us?
It's not like they have anything to lose by doing it. Sure, it riles up the people in here, but the one that just blew himself up is still alive outside of the harvester sim.

Now get down into the sewers and find Polatt. Even if his body was crushed his AI chip must have survived that blast, so all we have to do is find it quickly.

Alison 2013/07/27(Sat)15:37 No. 528350 ID: d38f67
File 137496462432.png - (101.64KB , 700x700 , 387.png )

The blast radius is considered to be everything lost inside of 1.5 km, and varying damages up to 5 km away. Losses are expected to be in the millions due to the capital's density. Alison doesn't think she could have done anything about that other than survive it.

Polatt's last known location, and where he was supposed to meet, is approximately 70 meters above the new ground level. The sewers are visible. For the time being, Alison gets out of the open and shifts away. Nonetheless, people are expecting that Unity was the one behind the explosion. There is absolutely no mention on the internet that there was ever a noble involved.

Lobby chatter believes that all this be reset, however, so if Alison waits long enough, Polatt can be recovered. It may require waiting for the next day, however, as the reset does not appear to be immediate. Alison can also assume that the noble was not actually killed. He will simply wake up in the real world again.

Alison does get in contact anyways for the dead batteries to let them know what happened. A lot will be coming their way to help search for Polatt. In the current state, trying to find a needle in a haystack would be an understatement to trying to find his AI chip, if it survived the blast.

...we don't have till the next day, though. If we miss the window to get through the o-route, that gives Sevener a 100 B-hour head start on us to complete the objective. Consider how far we've come in one day. She'll win for sure if we leave her.

Our choices are either to cut and run now, or search as much as we can before heading to the o-route. I say we search.

If we search, we should be clever. Use divisions, and drones. Get someone online and see if there's a way we can rig up a scanner for his cell phone signal or battery, or for his AI chip.

>>528350
>Needle in a million haystacks
Okay, time for unorthodox methods, then. Max morph, low density, use that one battery Engineer said not to use if you have to (we can switch between batteries we've absorbed pretty much whenever, right?). We can just seep our jetalium between the rubble and feel around for Polatt.

>>528350
>70 meters above the new ground level.
That's almost 230 feet. He's toast, unless that was all unreinforced concrete. If we wait a day, we will lose this CAI Fight, unless we can convince Sevener to also wait, or convince an Operator to reset things IMMEDIATELY. Oh, and waiting a day would result in nobles trying to kill us some more, and we can't survive any more attacks like this.

Make for the O-route. If the Dead Batteries miraculously find Polatt or his AI chip before we leave, we can wait for them to deliver him to us. Or head back at maximum velocity to grab him as fast as possible, by leaving behind most of our mass and traveling with a low-mass form.

>>528361
Yeah, even with an armored torso Polatt's AI chip couldn't have survived that blast. Don't even bother trying to dig for it. Only way to get him back now is to wait for the reset, and even then we may not get back a Polatt who knows us 'cause we don't even know how far back the reset goes.

If Felix is still answering his phone, call him up and grill him about simulation layer resets: Where are they're controlled from, who can activate them, how soon after a disaster are they triggered, and how far back the reset is. Also grill him on what happens when the O-route access point is destroyed while it's active: Does it shift to the backup site and remain active, or will it close and remain closed until the next day.

Actually, there is one way for sure we can keep Sevener from using the O-route for a b-day; Blow it up. It'll shift to a new location then, and might even close so it'll be another b-day before it opens again. We'd have to go back to where we found out where O-route is again after the reset to make sure of where the O-route will be though.

Unfortunately the first problem with such a plan is it'd mean another b-day in here for Sapphire's nobles hunt us down, but that's not the biggest problem. The biggest problem is it gives Sapphire another b-day to try and kill us in the layer above, where we can't do a damn thing to protect ourselves.

All in all, unless by some miracle you can maybe trigger the reset early, there's no way to get Polatt back without taking an unacceptable risk that you'll be killed before he's restored. Most you can do now it maybe leave a message with Felix for Polatt after the reset explaining why you couldn't wait for him and you're sorry.

Right now the best course of action is to get to O-route as fast as possible, get through it as soon as it opens, and leave an explosive package behind as we go through to blow it up. That the best chance to keep Sevener in here for another b-day.

OK, Polatt is prob unrecoverable.
Time to pick a new guy to ride in the AI chip!

Who should come with us through O-Route?

Don't forget, guys, Polatt is missing, not dead. If we decide that his chip must be intact down there, then it will be. Or, at least, I think that's how it works. Maybe. Then again, people in the sim knew Loviro to be dead and he was still classified as missing, so maybe the sim knows that Polatt's dead and us saying he's just missing won't be good enough.

And Sevener getting a huge headstart on us isn't a problem. Not because we'll be able to catch up, but because we're about to lose our Operative status and won't be able to leave the harvester sim at all if we don't leave tonight, not to mention all of the operatives who will suddenly be both allowed and required to hunt us down and kill us.

I say we should throw a comment onto the internet that we weren't the cause of the explosion, and that that's what the noble intervention they were clamoring for several hours ago looks like.

>>528414
...I don't think making a public statement on the net is a good idea. Either no one would believe we were us and it would have no effect, and/or it would give our enemies a way to track our location via our phone once we'd identified ourselves.

>If we decide that his chip must be intact down there, then it will be.
That's an interesting point. We have between 3 and 4 thousand minds in here. If we decide we're going to find his chip, intact, against the odds, that may well be enough to force the simulation to make it so.

>>528414
Well, we could also state quite plainly that we don't have that kind of power. The strongest weapons we have are on par with the ones the jetal ship from before was using. Also we've never killed anyone, even when they were trying to kill us! Why would we start now by killing so many people for no reason?

>1.5km wide crater from what is essentially an air burst

OK, so the Nobles are happy to pop something on the order of 150kilotons in a densely populated area. And Allison can survive the immediate local effectcs right in the face.

>>528417
Well, in that case we're not going to give up on him until we absolutely have to leave for O-route. We're gonna give it our all to find him!

Put Math and Engi on figuring out a cone of probability of where Polatt's body would most likely be, both in direction and depth of the rubble, based on his last known position, the epicenter of the noble's blast, and how many buildings were between him and there.

We should also shift forms to that commonly used by a disaster response jetal, just so we aren't moving around in a known Unity form.

>>528414
Yeah, lets use all but one of our phones to start spreading everywhere that it was a Sapphire noble robot self-destructing when it was about to lose a fight with Unity that did this instead of just letting it happen; The ultimate sore loser dick move. Vent that your friend Polatt was caught in the blast zone and you definitely didn't want that and you're going to dig him out. Perhaps spreading that around will shift the simulation so he actually survived.

>>528421
Not right in the face; She was fleeing as fast as possible while Dualist's division dragged the noble away. She also lost about three metric tons of mass from the blast.

Is there an error there? You said 1.2k tons of Jetallium. Is that 1.2k pounds? 1.2k kg? Or 1.2 metric tonnes? I doubt we have 1200 tons...

>>528499
1213 kg. We have a page tracking these details in the wiki for a reason.

(And please don't use the subject field for suggestions).

how long would it take us to get to the O-route form here? cause I feel we should arrive at the O-route no later then 1:00 because that way we have a slight buffer incase something tries and slow us down on the way over. In the worst case scenario where we can't find Polatt... We do have to leave the harvest simulation TONIGHT otherwise we might not get another chance and if we throw everything away now for ONE guy that we barely even know, we'll be proving to Sevener that she is right about us and we'll always sacrifice everyone just to try and save someone. So if we do have to leave Polatt behind... leave him all of our money... we could also try and be ballsy and when we leave the harvester simulation we could try and steal his AI up in World A since he'll still be plugged in from there.

>>528581
Unfortunately Polatt doesn't have an AI chip plugged into the simulation. He's a simulation construct, created by the simulation on this layer and only existing in the simulation. The only way to get him out is to load him into that AI module, making him part of Unity's core, before she leaves.

I do agree about setting aside a margin of time to get to O-route. We'll hope and hold out for a miracle with Polatt, but not so far as to risk losing everything.

Though even if we can't get Polatt out now, once the reset goes through he'll be back alive in world B. And that means if we can find some way to get back into world B before Sapphire dies, we could get Polatt out. It's a very long shot, but it's possible.

>>528597
...we don't have any information that tells us Polatt is a simulation construct and not a prisoner of the simulation. Considering the purpose of the simulation is to lock up a troublesome populace, and to provide processing power borrowed from real minds, the safe assumption is to assume people are prisoners until proven constructs. After all, a prisoner provides the system with resources- a construct costs resources. One's going to be more common that the other, and we've already seen the nobles cracking down on the people we knew to be constructs and removing them.

The problem with planning to grab Polatt's AI chip off the rack when we exit the simulation isn't that it may not be there. It's that there will be be millions of chips and brains and cores all plugged in. It'll be a bigger needle in the haystack than searching this entire debris field.

Which, incidentally, what has protected Unity from a Sapphire noble up a level from just located our helpless core plugged into the simulation and crushing it. They don't have a way to locate us.

1/2 Alison 2013/08/01(Thu)12:25 No. 530354 ID: d38f67
File 137538510565.png - (13.07KB , 700x700 , 388.png )

>If we decide that his chip must be intact down there, then it will be.
Unfortunately Alison and the rest of everyone does not have the mental capacity to simply, and with full confidence, decide that that is the case.

>Post an internet note arguing innocence.
Alison doesn't think that the internet is taking this very seriously. She has spare phones that she will not be able to use soon, so she will drop this one to prevent being tracked.

>And Alison can survive the immediate local effects [of the explosion] right in the face.
There are a few reasons why that could be the case, such as having far more mass than any other single jetals in sense range, and that her operator status may have given her a boost for that.

There is not much to do at the time other than give what search she can, but Alison decides that she will not wait past O. Route, or even try and closely cut its closing time.

A text is given to Felix, but it is not returned. Alison sends another text, saying that if he is alive and Alison leaves without him, then to please tell Polatt that she's sorry she couldn't find him.

2/2 Alison 2013/08/01(Thu)12:25 No. 530355 ID: d38f67
File 137538511425.png - (14.72KB , 700x700 , 399.png )

Which turns out to be the case. At 99:50 Alison heads out. She lays low, quickly traversing the sewage again, getting in position. But at 00:00, scanner reports that the internet froze. Not offline, just everything stopped updating.

After poking her head out of the sewer, Alison takes a look around. The sky is gone, and everything is frozen. A voice comes up in Unity's head.

Attention Operators. O. Route will be online for 2 and a half hours. Due to a noble's unauthorized self destruct, we will be in reverse for the first two hours of operation, during which no one may enter or leave the simulation. The noble in question has moved back to the upper level, and we will remove his copy here from this world.
Once 2 hours have passed, the simulation will go forward. The remaining, and additional, 50 minutes of O. Route time will allow swaps between the upper and lower world levels. Please stay out of all non-operator sight.

The world starts moving again, but Alison notices that everything is moving in reverse after all.

"If the world moves back 2 hours, then we may have a chance to save Polatt." Engineer says. "But we'll have little time. The simulation will start going forward again just before the noble exploded. We'll have to grab Polatt and immediately use everything we've got to fly to O. Route. It should be possible."

>>530355
can we use the two hours to grab mass?

sounds like our best bet.

>the internet
...I approve of that mod's sense of humor.

>use everything
How much 'everything'? If we arrive with no battery and no mass, we're dead anyways. We can probably expect to start out at full battery when we get out, but we'll only be given the mass we bring with us. There are ways to acquire more in the real world, but we need something to start with.

...will the reversal allow us to recover mass? Or what happens if we cross paths with the old us? Could we steal our own mass on route to recover Polatt?

Definitely thinking we should do it, unless things get real crazy. (Don't forget other operators- Sevener included- might guess we're trying this and attempt to intercept us).

Sounds like a plan. It looks like they are going to rewind just the world and the non operators. With the noble being removed at least we do not have to worry about him.

We might want to heed that warning about staying out of sight. We are still technically a operative and we want to stay that way long enough to be able to leave.

Unless of course we can use the time to grab more mass or do something else important. Have a feeling the time rewind will not give us back what we lost.

We'll have 10 normal minutes to fly across the city, possibly fight our way past Operator resistance, and get through the O-Route. Even if we can fly that fast we'll be cutting it very close.

Engineer thinks it's possible, though, so I totally support doing it.

Alison 2013/08/01(Thu)12:57 No. 530372 ID: d38f67
File 137538703919.png - (24.24KB , 700x700 , 400.png )

>Can we use the two hours to grab mass?
Alison has no idea. However, engineer calculates that moving to the end of O Route with the current time constraints would take a lot of jetalium and energy, leaving little room to fight operator guards at the end of it. She would like to try to save Polatt, though.

So Alison decides to breaks the law and goes up to a jetal.

>"tahw"
>"gnineppah si tahw"

It appears to work. Engineer claims a headache when attempting to wonder how this even works in the jetal's perspective. He walks along, instantly loses a great deal of his mass, while Unity feeds back mass to him while getting mass her self or something.

Alison says not to worry too much about it. She can get mass. A lot. That operator voice comes on.

Someone is doing something. Please stop. Unity, I thinking of you. Please stop.

"They can't tell it's us?" Engineer asks.

Why is it asking politely?

Suggestion 2013/08/01(Thu)13:03 No. 530375 ID: 01531c
File 137538740124.jpg - (131.80KB , 930x601 , railgun.jpg )

>>530367
>Even if we can fly that fast we'll be cutting it very close.
Fly?
I think you mean
EXPLODE

I'm dead serious, think of how far away that Noble's Self-Destruct moved Unity, and how quickly!

Just while time is reversed, discreetly build a cannon in an abandoned building nearby where Polatt will be, power it up with a spare battery, and FWOOMPH-BANG goes the Unity and Polatt-Chip!!!

G-forces, what're those?

Ah, polite requests. Our one weakness.

>>530372
Uh, I suspect we will get in a huge amount of trouble if we continue, but we probably really need the mass. I'd like to note that we can leave a bunch of Jetalium near O.Route and retrieve it later at increased efficiency. Ask Engineer to calculate the optimal mass for us to be at when we grab Polatt. What we want to do is use thrusters and antigravity to accelerate to ludicrous speeds in a light jetal form on the trip back, then grab the jetalium we dropped and absorb it on the way to the end of O.Route by absorbing it via the Light method, or spend some free time to absorb some via Gel. This plan will likely allow us to absorb less mass overall and get in less trouble.

Also since when was there a Quartz emperor? I thought it was just Ruby, Sapphire, Emerald left now.

>Why's it asking politely?
Because the operators don't want to get involved. They've been playing the part of a third party- tacitly following the rules when really cutting us a break.

If we blatantly break operator rules, instead of just civil laws, they'll be forced to come after us.

So I think we should knock it off.

What are our other options? Could we steal mass from our own past selves? Could we sneak in and steal from the stores that were dispensing jetalium and mods on Ruby's orders? (not like they could defend against us now). Could we arrange an alternate means of fast transport to conserve mass and battery? (Swipe a race car or jet or something).

>>530393
There is no Quartz Emperor. It was just a screenname.

think we could just divide, have our second half grab Polatt, do the chip thing, and then WE can rush off and leave via O-route or is this one of those things that wont work like a standard mod? (where if one of our clones gets it we get it to) I'm just seeing if we can get a bit of a head start on our mad dash out of here or not.

The only other Idea I can think of is to grab a car and hope the superhighway goes by the O-route and use that as a shortcut... if traffic is low...Polatt can drive.

We could be destabilizing the whole rewind process doing this. So might be better off to stop while we are ahead and pick up the mass we need from undertools guards once time resumes.

So unless we absolutely have to lets stop for now and stay out of sight. Also they asked nicely.

I like the cannon idea. Lets see if we can build a glider or something on a high roof so we can just use thrusters instead of having to keep up anti grav.

Can we talk back to the voice?

>Also since when was there a Quartz emperor? I thought it was just Ruby, Sapphire, Emerald left now.
There used to be a Quartz emperor, but he died in a nuclear meltdown he was somehow responsible for. The guy with the screen name was just making a historical joke.

Suggestion 2013/08/01(Thu)14:04 No. 530423 ID: 01531c
File 137539105166.png - (23.54KB , 597x301 , Capture.png )

>>530393
>use thrusters and antigravity to accelerate to ludicrous speeds
>>530398
>grab a car and hope the superhighway goes by the O-route
>>530403
>build a glider or something on a high roof so we can just use thrusters instead of having to keep up anti grav

You are all morons!

The only true way to succeed would be to blast ourselves from "Point Polatt" to "Point O", and hold our super special A-rank sword in a cone in front of us act like an Air-Spike for countless metal/concrete walls we'll be flying through!!!
>>530375
>>530375

If what you're doing can be detected by the Operators who're monitoring the simulation rollback, then it's very likely so serious that it's reverberating through, and has extremely serious repercussions for, the whole simulation. Immediately disengage and get out of sight.

Best guess for what happened there is that, because they couldn't possibly have the storage to make continual backups of the entire simulation, in order to get it back to the state it was in before they have to run it backwards. This means that even a relatively tiny change in the simulation during a rollback could leave it completely unlike what it was at the time it's shooting for. Mess with it and who knows what will come out.

Unfortunately, this leaves next to no options for getting jetalium. The only sources in the world right now that wouldn't potentially break the rollback are Operative jetals and possibly the jetalium storage in the Harvester building. We can't take the risk of losing our Operative status by attacking them; At least, not until right before we're about to go through O-route. So unless Sevener shows up and drops a load of jetalium for us we're not getting any during the rollback. We'll just have to nab what mass we can en route to O-route.

When it comes time to get to O-route it shouldn't take as much energy and mass as we would think. If it's only about 30 km away we'd just have to average 360 km per real hour to get there inside of 25 b-minutes, which sounds totally doable. We can use anti-G and max thrusters rocket up one of those straight streets, gaining speed and enough altitude to get us over the majority of the buildings. Then we'll morph out to as big a glider form as possible, cut anti-G, and bank towards O-route while continuing to thrust up to a speed where we'll get there in good time, then cut thrusters and glide the rest of the way. And if there's a reasonably straight approach to the O-route gate, we might even consider using Loviro's Sword as an air-spike, like >>530423 said, turn on full thrusters, morph into a narrow aerodynamic form and just plow right through like a plasma tipped arrow.

Alison 2013/08/02(Fri)13:56 No. 530766 ID: d38f67
File 137547696886.png - (12.02KB , 700x700 , 401.png )

Alison is still confused as to how other operators see Unity, but they do seem to leave her alone. Alison cannot appear to speak to the voice after an attempt to do so.

>Steal from your past self
It seems that Unity was duplicated after all, most likely as a simulation construct.

>Make a giganctic rail cannon
This idea is probably one of Alison's favorites ever, and she is hating the circumstances she is in due to it being extremely risky to break the rules by getting as much jetalium as she can carry to make such a thing.

As long as she makes it through O-route, it won't matter, so mathemmatician does his thing.

"Math, please speculate what we can get to using our battery." After absorbing that jetal, Unity has 1.4k jetalium and a full battery.
>"200 per b-second for both gravity and thrusters is expensive, but if we use a whole battery and just shed mass, then, uh, it will take about 48- real seconds to burn the whole battery, at which point... let me convert to real time, here... uh... uh, hold on... uh... 480 meters per...?"
"Per real hour?"
>Second. We'll be going at about half a kilometer per real second. I think. The thrusters will give us about 10 meter per second acceleration. And... yeah. If we the sword to break through stuff, then... it won't actually take much longer. With that acceleration, we'll probably get around full speed at around the same time we get to the starting road of O. route.
>"Air resistance will slow us somewhat, but we can mitigate some of it. We never tested it with antigravity. If people can just 'get rid of gravity' then I can believe that they also just 'got rid of air'. Why not." Engineer sounds oddly mad.
"But what if we DID have the cannon?"
>"I don't... a lot... 25 minutes is plenty of time." Math says.
>"If we have that much extra time, we could play it safer and just take out a few more jetals in a few minutes before charging." says Scanner, to which the Guardsman echoes a 'yeah!'

... Uh, well it's now or never so sure why the hell not.

>>530766
or you could shoot yourself right through the exit

Honestly how many times in life do you get the opportunity to make a giant rail cannon to shoot yourself out of?

Yeah its crazy but so is this whole backwards time stuff. Lets abuse the fake physics while we still can. Am half expecting shopkeep to show up halfway through building the cannon at this point.

So split up and hide somewhere we know a bunch of mass will be when the time stop ends. Then we gobble up as much as we can and build a cannon.

>>530766
We have 50 b-minutes after the clock starts rolling back forwards. That's about 16.5 real minutes. It will take like 2 real minutes to get back to O.Route if we use thrusters and the L-sword, which our natural surge regeneration can handle. Using thrusters and antigravity is only useful for a short burst, because we can't regenerate it naturally.

Oh, during the first half of the journey, we should be continuously burning mass to recharge the battery(so that we can accelerate faster by having less mass), but time it so that we reach O.Route with about 20k battery left- that is effectively how much we battery could use by blowing all our surge at once with Cooling active. Of note is that after we run out of surge, burning mass directly to recharge the battery will cover ANY surge regeneration, so we can't run out of battery at that point so long as we have mass. Don't use surge conversion on the trip, mind you, as natural regen covers this plan.

I want to reach O.Route with as much mass as possible without suffering any operational difficulties.

1/2 Alison 2013/08/02(Fri)15:12 No. 530788 ID: d38f67
File 137548152216.png - (16.83KB , 700x700 , 402.png )

"I'll think about that." Alison tells Scanner.
>"Wait a minute." Math says. "No. I'm wrong. Thrusters and gravity use surge. We recover that at 148 per b-second, and we don't really need anti gravity for this, so if we just... we're fine. We're fine.
>>530782
"We're fine! We'll do it." Alison says.

She stops messing with the reverse simulation and waits for the two hours via Lobby Party activities. Alison thinks on it, but unless she breaks rules she doesn't want to break, she sees no way to make a gigantic rail cannon. It's rather depressing, but she'll live.

2/2 Alison 2013/08/02(Fri)15:12 No. 530789 ID: d38f67
File 137548152952.png - (18.98KB , 700x700 , 403.png )

Alison proceeds to sewer-stalk a particularly fat group of jetals nearby where Polatt will be, and nabs them as soon as the simulation goes forward again. It goes by without a hitch, she leaves the cores some mass, and runs to Polatt.

"Hello Polatt!" Alison grabs him out of the driver's seat.
>"Er- hi. Aren't you supposed to be up in that building?"
"It's fine. I've got the module broken. Also we have about 50 b-minutes right now for my escape so please get in my chip."
>"How - you... nevermind. Wait, 50 b-minutes? Do you kn-"
"It's fine! Where's your AI chip?"
>"In my chest, right where the heart would be."

Alison does not have much time left, but if there is anything else to do before she leaves the simulation, this has to be the time.

Absorb Polatt. Let's see if he shows up in the lobby.

Proceed with hugs and introduction if he does.

In the meantime, finish absorbing those jetals so we can fly for the exit.

I think we have got all the big things we were after. So off to the exit.

I can't think of much else to do. Maybe one last text message to Felix, thanking him for his help and saying we hope to see him again one day?

...text stock prices from 2 hours in the future to the dead batteries as a going away present? They could make some fast money in short trading.

1/3 Alison 2013/08/02(Fri)16:52 No. 530817 ID: d38f67
File 137548757057.png - (16.46KB , 700x700 , 404.png )

Alison absorbs Polatt by punching his chest in, grabbing the core, and using the module to transfer his conscience over to her.

>"Well I'm gonna say it and just say even though you said this is how it was, it looks like a million jetals in here."
Alison gives him complimentary hugs for being part of the team now.
"Welcome."
>"Hello."

Duelist takes control of Unity for a moment to get things started, and to send one last thank you to Felix.
He responds with "If you've got to do what you've got to do, then do it well. "

>Text stock prices from 2 hours in the future to the Dead Batteries as a going away present
Alison wishes someone thought of that. But now even if she looked up stock prices, she could only have data for 50 b-minutes from now.

2/3 Alison 2013/08/02(Fri)16:53 No. 530818 ID: d38f67
File 137548759694.png - (127.35KB , 962x608 , 405.png )

She is relatively certain that she made a sonic boom at some point in time, just in case she wasn't getting enough attention plowing straight through buildings.

3/3 Alison 2013/08/02(Fri)16:53 No. 530819 ID: d38f67
File 137548761295.png - (162.83KB , 925x582 , 406.png )

Ahead, and coming fast, she sees O-route, with various Do Not Enter signs. Just ahead of that, there are two people Alison assumes are operators standing at the side. One is a robot, one is a jetal.

Wow Alison, your going at sonic speeds and still have the time to make note of the two operators in full detail your about the crash into?
Well, crash into 'em already. Or use another beam weapon to slow down.

Well neither of them look to have a huge amount of mass at a first glance.

We could try talking our way through nicely first.

Or just crash into them and start punching

Also we could try to fly past them if the exit is just a bit gate or something.

I know we have some operator privileges but who knows what reception we will get here.

...do we even need to slow down or stop? You're supposed to drive through the O-route. Why can't we fly?

The operators can either get out of our way, or be punched through. Kind of hard to stop us, at this velocity, and behind a plasma spear.

If really necessary we could shed a division to stall them, I guess.

You know, we never really asked how to use O-Route. We were told to just drive a car in, so I guess we just fly down the tunnel?

I wouldn't worry too much about the Operators. I doubt we can slow down to a reasonable speed at this point, so the real question is whether or not we want to still be generating a sonic boom when we pass them. Not generating one would be the nice thing to do, of course.

Oh, also, do our normal abilities still work in the unity-lobby? If so, Scanner should scan Polatt.

Aim to go up the side of O-Route opposite from the Operators and don't slow down for anything. Not even to engage them if they put themselves in your way. Loviro's Sword will take care anything from the front, so use all shields available to deflect any shots they take from behind.

>>530819
Just fly past them. We will get alerted by that mysterious voice if we're breaking any rules.

...you're traveling at supersonic speeds, by the time they notice you you'll have already past them. plus I don't think you could stop now since like I just said, your traveling at supersonic speeds.

1/3 Alison 2013/08/02(Fri)22:44 No. 530930 ID: d38f67
File 137550869208.png - (291.37KB , 925x582 , 407a.png )

>Is there any reason to slow down for them?
No, Alison thinks, no there is not.

They appear to not care at all.

2/3 Alison 2013/08/02(Fri)22:45 No. 530931 ID: d38f67
File 137550870159.png - (64.99KB , 700x700 , 408.png )

Alison starts using her thrusters sideways, to keep along the curve of O-route. However, at the very end, there is a long stretch of straight road. There were a number of more Operators, but they just looked exasperated at most.

She can see the end of it. Or rather, sense it. It's where the road just cuts out over the ocean, but Alison can sense that that acts as an invisible gate, and crossing it will lead to the upper world.

3/3 Alison 2013/08/02(Fri)22:45 No. 530932 ID: d38f67
File 137550874016.png - (54.90KB , 700x700 , 409.png )

Sevener does not appear indifferent, however. Alison senses approximately 2.5 tons of jetalium, and an ongoing, powerful energy surge from her.

wait, you mean she's charging up an attack? Oh the hell with it just shoot pass and dodge if you have to or use shields if you can't dodge. right now the only thing I'm a bit afraid of is her smashing the bridge leaving us trapped in here which if that doesn't kill us will give her a hell of a head start. Or she just needs to beat us for reasons because she is legal jetal or something.

Core ejector.

>>530932
Just speed up. Only our core needs to pass by. Actually, what you could do is split off two Divisions that then take the lead and kamikaze her with Sticky Jetalium and explode themselves upon her.

Standing still is a bad move for her in that situation, so we should be able to either force her to enter the wall, or get out of our way.

>>530930
Sorry about the cig, dude.

>>530932
Batter up. End of the road, literally.

Looks like Sevener doesn't want to make this easy for us. And if she can keep us from getting through, she's practically guaranteed her victory, even without killing us.

I doubt trying to just rocket past her is going to work. She's prepared, and I half expect her to try and redirect our velocity- hit a home run, send us flying. We won't have the battery and mass to make a second run.

Speaking of which, we're down to 1/4 battery, and only 1.3 tons of mass. She's got the edge, here.

>>530938
...quite the hail mary, and leaves us even more vulnerable to being treated as the ball, but that might be way to get us across the finish line. I'd be more comfortable if we left the body as a division to engage her, though.

DIG AND UPPERCUT!

This is it! A mighty clash of wills! Batter versus the pitcher, will we get a strike out or a grand slam?

Get your GIGA DRILL sword in front of you and start spinning as fast as you can!

>>530943
Oh and don't forget to have the divisions use Jetalium Magnetism, once they're close to Sevener.

She really wants us to fly in fast so she can home run us with that bat she likes so much.

How much mass are we at after the trip and all the eating earlier? If we have about as much as her then we can afford a fight. Also how many minutes left until the gate closes?

We will have to fight her eventually and if she tries to stop us from leaving then it might be now.

Honestly all she has to do is delay us for a bit and then jump in the portal right before it closes. Then she will be a day or more ahead of us and by then we might have our status revoked.

Am guessing that she is surging as much power as she can into that bat. I would say we could match it with our sword but we are using energy to fly.

If we can put enough energy into the sword to match hers then we can try going straight through. If not we should slow down and land.

Ah, Sevener. We really should have expected this.

FULL SPEED AHEAD.

Here's an idea to get Sevener out of the way without even attacking her, and avoiding whatever she's charging up: Deliberately miss the gate and use core magnetism or jetalium magnetism to yank her through it from behind. We have so much speed that even if she fires thrusters she wouldn't be able to stop it.

So here's the plan: Use quick morph just long enough to split lengthwise into three divisions, all with equal mass and form, and choose one at random to place our core in. Then split them away from each other, engage evasive maneuvers, and move apart so they'll pass Sevener at a fair distance but not so far that core magnetism will not be effective.

Activate core magnetism as soon as the first division passes Sevener. The effect of 1,300 kilos of mass moving at well past the speed of sound suddenly being attached to the small mass of her core and vice versa should be enough to send her hurtling backwards. It's likely too much to hope for that it'd rip her core right out of her body, but it just might do so.

Backup plan, in case core or jetalium magnetism isn't strong enough: Split off two very small, very low mass, highly maneuverable divisions that'll attempt to get near Sevener from separate angles, while the core body fires retro-thrusters and drags on the roadway to slow down a bit. The goal here is to get at least one division close enough to Sevener to form a plasma well right on her. Even if she avoids it, having a plasma well rolling around in front of the O-Route gate will keep Sevener away from a portion of it we could use to slip through.

Start firing one of your larger cannons/gigabeams directly at sevener, then while she's busy easily deflecting that shot and focusing on it, detach a big junk of jetalium containing the weapon('s) and start flying off center. When she tries to hit you, she instead it's the extra chunk of jetalium, which for shits N giggles, should be rigged to explode. While she's focusing on that, just fly past her. (also feel free to detach multiple weapons and burn extra mass, it's not like we will need it when we go through the gate, Hell make tons of copies, and the one with the core be the only one not firing so its not obvious.

>Core ejector
>Jetalium magnetism
>Division
Depending on how much we can abuse Division: time for the Macross Missile Massacre. Split into a swarm of independent Jetalium mini-missiles (or just ballistic blobs, if we can't hand thrusters to everyone). Sevener might be able to hit some of it, but not all of it. And as long as she doesn't hit the core, you can just reform behind her and carry on.

You know what, I have an idea that reminds me of a scene ficus drew. Only it was with that bunny admin faction person instead of sevener.

Eject your core with a division of yourself so you slow down and halt while an Iso division in his gentlemanly suit goes flying at Sevener at the same velocity your going now? Can you do that?

Then when Sevener hits Iso morph a giant catcher's mit and jump for an instant out. I know you can['t do it that fast but it would be cool if you could pull it off.

>>531092
>Division: time for the Macross Missile Massacre.
I like the idea, but the Division is limited to 2 divisions, IIRC.

>>531232
That is correct. If we want to launch a ton of missiles, we'd have to use the actual Missile weapon we have.

>>530931
Hey Alison, why did you turn off your sword/air-spike?
I can't think of anything that could stop that.

>>530932
SUPERRRRR TACKLLLLLEEEEE HUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUG!

>>531232
Well what we could do is launch maximum missiles, divide our mass equally so we match the missiles as well. She won't be able to determine which are the divisions and which are the missiles with that.

>>531273
Not good. For all we know, she'll use an area of attack ability and nuke all the flying small things she wants.

Honestly, I think either a single duplicate whose sole purpose is kamikaze dive bomb, or just book it and hope we make it before dying, to be our best options here.

Too bad we don't have a tractor beam, we could just throw Sevens out of the way.

>>531025
Correction: This. Do this.

1/12 Alison 2013/08/11(Sun)13:16 No. 533588 ID: d38f67
File 137625217358.png - (66.69KB , 700x700 , 410.png )

>Hey Alison, why did you turn off your sword/air-spike?
Alison was finding it difficult to see and steer through O.Route with plasma in her face, so she merely kept it warmed up but not in front of her.

A giga beam is launched towards origin is handed off to Iso, who takes on a division as Alison detaches him. She then thrusts off center towards her right, and then launches another division, controlled by Duelist.

Sevener sets off another energy surge in the form of a beam. While it would have been easy to avoid, it explodes prematurely, sending the resulting shockwave slowing everyone down, but not to a stop.

Duelist prepares to engage and distract Sevener, while Alison tries to get back on course and speed up.

Sevener's original surge continues building up, as she starts moving to intercept the trio.

2/12 Alison 2013/08/11(Sun)13:16 No. 533589 ID: d38f67
File 137625218653.png - (46.58KB , 700x700 , 411.png )

There is no attempt to dodge on sevener's part, and she gets struck by the giga beam. She also lets herself be knocked backwards, and uses plasma to help her get under the bridge. Her intent becomes clear when Sevener then launches her original surge in the form of a beam that does not appear to be damaging or plasma based, but rather, it creates a colossal field of high intensity jetalium-magnetism right in front of the gate.

Alison, who sped up, knows that she will be unable to dodge it, so she launches her core backwards to Iso, as Duelist goes in after Sevener.

3/12 Alison 2013/08/11(Sun)13:16 No. 533590 ID: d38f67
File 137625219961.png - (92.19KB , 700x700 , 412.png )

While the danger of getting literally ripped in half was marginal, Alison is still thrown up into the air. The beam does not last much longer, although Alison will need a moment to get back down.

Iso attempts to charge the gate as soon as the magnetic field goes down, him having the core.

4/12 Alison 2013/08/11(Sun)13:16 No. 533591 ID: d38f67
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Thrusters activate on Sevener to try to fly upwards. Duelist grabs her leg, but she does not hesitate to detach her leg while simultaneously bursting a thruster to kick him remotely. The thruster apparently does not shut down when detached.

Duelist, however, uses some amount of surge to quick morph a hook to grab onto sevener, thrusting back down, and using jetalium magnetism to make it harder for Sevener to get rid of him. He grabs on to Sevener's leg as well, to use her own thruster against her as it helps Duelist fly down.

5/12 Alison 2013/08/11(Sun)13:17 No. 533592 ID: d38f67
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Sevener fires a tera beam upwards, completely enveloping O. route's exit. Iso waits for it to decline, but Sevener is able to wiggle and morph out of Duelist's grasp and thrust upwards.

6/12 Alison 2013/08/11(Sun)13:17 No. 533593 ID: d38f67
File 137625224694.png - (339.51KB , 700x700 , 415.png )

Iso's way is successfully blocked by Sevener, who zones him away with small beams and autoguns, leading to a surprisingly powerful blast that makes Alison feel like she's losing her battery. It hits Iso, who is frustratingly close to the exit. So frustratingly close, that the moment before he gets hit, he uses core ejection to launch the core to the exit. Alison is honestly taken aback that Iso would do such a reckless thing, although she reminds herself that she did a similar thing seconds ago.

7/12 Alison 2013/08/11(Sun)13:17 No. 533594 ID: d38f67
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But, Sevener does not appear to be able to throw any more beams out while her current is out. Instead, she opts to bend her beam around. While she thrusts herself forward after it.

Duelist also has been moving up, and manages to dive in front of the bending beam, just in time to get hit with it himself. In response to that, he launches the core once again, in a new trajectory to the exit.

8/12 Alison 2013/08/11(Sun)13:18 No. 533595 ID: d38f67
File 137625228035.png - (117.17KB , 700x700 , 417.png )

Sevener blows up a chunk of her own jetalium to launch herself forward faster after it, using another charge to hit her backwards to stop her momentum.

Alison drops down and catches the core with her body, although Sevener had gotten herself positioned between the core and the exit.

9/12 Alison 2013/08/11(Sun)13:18 No. 533596 ID: d38f67
File 137625229539.png - (186.19KB , 700x700 , 418.png )

Alison also catches Sevener's bat with her body while turning forward to get to the gate.

Sevener also uses the back end of her tail to form a beam right in front of Alison, preventing her from just wantonly shooting the core out to the exit that's almost within arm's reach.

10/12 Alison 2013/08/11(Sun)13:18 No. 533597 ID: d38f67
File 137625231228.png - (125.94KB , 700x700 , 419.png )

So Alison brings her tail forward. Some days she might have preferred her shorter tail, as often it seemed odd having so much of her body lag behind.

11/12 Alison 2013/08/11(Sun)13:18 No. 533598 ID: d38f67
File 137625232730.png - (118.26KB , 700x700 , 420.png )

Not today. With some quick morph assistance, she lengthens her tail further and coils it around Sevener's tail-beam, and once the core gets down to her bottom, launches it out.

Unnatural Selection - Belenosian Interlude 2 (Thread 8) End Alison 2013/08/11(Sun)13:20 No. 533600 ID: d38f67
File 137625242459.png - (57.30KB , 700x700 , 421.png )

Sevener, and everyone for that matter, saw it coming. She hits the core with an autogun a couple of times, and while Alison gets that feeling of nausea from the damage, the autogun did too little damage and helped move it faster into O route.

Alison's body and divisions drop dead as her core goes to what is probably not a better place, leaving Sevener behind, at least for the second. Alison thinks that could have gone better, but it was a success all the same.

weather that could have gone better or not it was still freaking awesome.

...well. She certainly didn't want us getting through. That or she decided killing us was easier than completing the mission.

Hell of an introduction for Polatt to jetal-fighting, though.

...of course, now we're on the the 'real' world, with no operator bonus, a deadlier EIN who can take control of anyone, Emperors who want us dead, and no Felix, Loviro, or Dead Batteries helping us. Gonna be crazy.

>The thruster apparently does not shut down when detached.

Dangit, Operation Missile Swarm would have worked (well, would have functioned at least)!

>>533605

Time to roll! Roll like you've never rolled befo- we're screwed, aren't we.

We didn't take too much damage, did we? Or does that not matter when we come out on the other side?

>>533615
>>533616
We suffered superficial damage to our virtual core. Our 'real' core should be fine when it disengages from the harvester-sim and gets dropped into a vat of jetalium.

...well ignoring the people on the other side who will want to kill us, and Sevener following from behind.