//------------------------------// // Uplink Ten: Tactics // Story: Ave Deus Mechanicus: On Equestria // by PleaseDoNotDeleteMe //------------------------------// New Uplink Found Loading... Loading... Loading.. Loading.... Auto Shunt Found Designation: Theta Pi-66 Rank: Skitarii Trooper Location: Unknown World assigning designation: VP- 23336789432 Mechanicus Surface Base Camp 1-A Uplink successful +Blood of Machines+ The original landing sight of the expedition was full of activity. The sky’s above darkened with the trails of arvis lighters and bulk landers disgorging crates of: Skitarii warriors, dune crawlers, skorpii, and prefab plates, along with both battle and industrial servitors. In the beginning the camp set up had been modest. A few tents for Skitarii and servitors and a flattened area of ground for the landers. Now they no longer had to hide in the shadows of the Forest of Horrors, they could begin to show their devotion to the Omnissiah the only way they knew how. Through industry. The canvas tents were replaced with honest steel and rockcreat barracks and bunkers. Lumbering servitors cut down the surrounding trees or burned away brush, these workers were in turn protected by their much smarter cousins in the legions. Progressively bigger and bigger machines were deposited for the specific purpose of bulldozing away any imperfections in the land. Holes were dug and foundation lay in what would soon become a vast slab of concrete to bring in air support. Eventually a single landing pad would become a massive landing strip, and the big guns could be deployed. Pi-55 watched all this from his post at what used to be the front gate, now it was just part of a layer of defense. Dutifully keeping his hands clutched on the very weapon that was slowly but surely sapping away his life. He knew he didn’t have much longer left, however he still felt an incredible sense of pride. This was what he was chosen to fight for. Uplink Interrupted New Uplink? [Y/N] Y Loading.. Loading..... Loading.. Auto shunt found Designation: Deccius Thrane Rank: Sub Dominus Location: Byzantium Meeting Center 077786 “The War Room” Uplink successful +Let None Survive+ Many levels below the Round Table was the War Room. In contrast to the tightly packed space and circular table of their superiors. The war room boasted an impressive scale and was dominated primarily by a rectangular mass produced hololithic table which currently projected a wire frame outline of the surface of VP- 23336789432, mainly centered around the capital, with red markers for forces of the Omnissiah currently on the planet and white markers for the estimated location of the xenos and their forces. Much of the map was incomplete, with some buildings only existing as box objects outside of the main settlement the tech priests had visited. Around the table sat five dominii or sub dominii. Each one commanding roughly 1,000- 5,000 Skitarii or similar units. Cog wise around was: Sub Dominus Attalade. Renowned for her skills of infiltration and assassination, it was no wonder she had the largest amount of sicarian infiltrators out of all of them put together. Her augments focused on efficiency and subtlety, broadly speaking she looked like an arachnid stretched out into a marionette, Thrane had once seen her put on a human skin suit for an assassination, her spinally body perfectly folded inside. Sub Dominus Kars preferred a more head on and brutal approach, fielding mostly Skorpii and Dune Crawlers, along with slow battle servitors. Unsurprisingly him and Attalade got along the least. Contrasting her subtly, Kars had replaced his legs with treads, and much of his body was covered in plated, with large mechadendrites coming off his back, Thrane even heard a rumor once that his head was nothing more than a puppet for communication, and his true mind lay in his chest under several layers of steel. At one short end of table was none other than Sub Primus Dominus Deccius Thrane, he preferred a balanced approach to war on most occasions, taking what he thought would mirror the enemies tactics rather than counter them, his strategies had a fifty fifty success rate, however he did recognize when a battle was lost and to pull back. Unlike Dominus Xeth on his left, Thrane had suspicions that in another life he was some form of Eversor assassin, always charging blindly into combat damn the consequences, his strategies favored striking hard and fast before the enemy had time to react, then occasionally pulling back so the enemy could have a momentary breadth before attacking again, was it any surprise his preferences lay in the Ruststalkers and Pteraxii? He even modeled himself on the areal troops, sporting a large set of wings and jet pack along with talons and a bird like face with goggles like ancient doctors wore. Then their was Fash Mu-8887, what to say about Fash? For one his body had been altered so much he barely retained human shape, if he even really was a he. The voice used by Fash was always monotone. Thrane wasn’t sure what tactics he preferred on the battlefield, just that Fash had been a Dominus under Catherine for longer than any of them. And that large amounts of xeno tech tended to go missing whenever Fash was involved. He rarely spoke preferring instead to observe and record other people, unless it was to make fun of Xeth. One seat was still empty, at the end opposite Thrane was the spot Catherine would sit, she was the unquestioned leader of their little order, able to determine which was the best strategy of the five they presented, or formulate her own. At the moment they were arguing over who should take her place just as much as what strategy to use. They each didn’t stand a chance against Thrane’s strategy. “We should form a spear head and cut off the head’s of all their leaders.” Argued Attalade her mechedendrites practically shaking with the thought of execution. “Then who would defend them from a side attack.” Kars retorted. “Your ‘plan’ leaves too much of your flanks exposed. We should fortify every base we capture.” “Take too long.” Xeth injected like a poisonous stinger. “I agree with Xeth.” Said Attalade, “By the time we finish one base, they will have amassed a larger force and be ready for another attack.“ “Xeth thinks we keep moving.” Said the Dominus know by that name “Xeth thinks we never stop until all is dead. Xeth plan best.” Fash chuckled to himself, the effect was ominous as with each breath a chilling fog left his lips. “Of course you simpletons can only think of attacking and not the vast array of resources at our disposal.” Xeth slammed one of his upper talons on the table making it flicker. “Xeth not simple.” He squawked “Xeth complex.” “Suuuuuuuure you are.” Dominus Fash pressed. Xeth began scraping his lower talons on the floor. A tick he knew annoyed the other dominii, he didn’t care. In fact he was trying to get them to attack him first just so we could have the excuse. “We make our way straight to their capital and capture it and the gems underneath.” Dominus Attalade continued to lay out her plan moving her forces along the map. Kars face palmed. “You are clearly delusional, there is no way to deploy on the mountain with nearly enough effective troops.” He used his own data spike to delete several companies of Attalade’s icons to illustrate the point. “Along with that, they have several confirmed aerial assets.” Kars added some white icons hovering above Attalade’s army and subtly deleted a few more icons. “How will you deal with that?” His voice oozed smugness. “Xeth will help pretty lady!” Xeth interrupted Kars dumping icons of his own forces above in an attack pattern that made no sense, it was basically amounted to a bunch of scribbles crossing out the hovering pony icons. Fash once again chucked to himself turning to Xeth. “Don’t tell me that mess is meant to be yo—“ Xeth scratched his claw across the table. “Fash, I swear to the Omnissiah if —” “Alright if everyone is done acting painfully stupid, we can start this operation.” Thrane had enough of their pointless bickering and inserted his own spike uploading his plan and pushing aside everyone else’s. “Here is my plan.” Thrane made a ring of troops around the first xeno settlement they visited. “We attack in a omega formation with cavalry at the edges; two lines of Vanguard, three of Rangers, slowly moving in.” He added some boxy icons at the opening of the omega. “Kars can attack from here any that try and retreat across the river. Attalade, you command this side,” he added Attalade’s symbol to one side of the omega, “Fash, this side.” He mirrored the action. “Me right here.” Thrane inserted his own icon at the bottom of the omega. “Once the village is ours we hold it hostage till they surrender, if they don’t...” Thrane shrugged, “use your imagination.” The organic half of Thrane’s face smiled. “Use your imagination, any questions?” Xeth raised his hand, Thrane sighed. “Yes, you can fly around up top and take shots at the ‘groundies’ and kill any aerials trying to escape.” Begrudgingly Thrane added a few icons for Xeth and his men. Xeth brought down his fist hissing a: ‘yes’. They would work out the finer details over the next few hours but for now they at least had a plan that satisfied most of them and gave them tasks to work on. The next local day, their attack would begin. Uplink Interrupted