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[KhazintheDark]

PACT DECISION
A (Total Submission): (1) Strider03
B (Meek Surrender):
C (Honourable Resistance, The Only Option That Lets Us Truly Defend The Homeland And Our Way Of Life): (3) NUKE9.13,Frostgiant,Khaz


DESIGNS (pick 2)
JagPal Stealth suit: (4) NUKE9.13, Strider03, Frostgiant,Khaz
Hulara Autocannon: ()
Caelophone: (1) Strider03
Gobe APC: (3) Frostgiant, NUKE9.13,Khaz

[Man of Paper]

Design Phase, Cold Season 1941 AC

You feel a gentle breeze blowing at your back at all times. Something unseen guides the creation of these devices.

Proposal: JagPal Stealth suit
Difficulty: 3spooky5me
Result: UNEXPECTED BOON

The JagPal Stealth Suit is not a suit. It is an entirely new living being crafted in Embralish labs. This set of organs is intelligent and can communicate with it's host. The suit breathes through its skin, which is most of it, and it sustains itself otherwise thanks to it's host.

The JagPal Stealth Suit feels it is a prey animal, and desires to latch onto a living human to provide mobility, sustenance, and protection from perceived threats. The skin wraps itself around the host, stretching to cover their skin, and uses tiny hair-like protrusions to bond to the human host. The suit doesn't drain much from the person, but the suit does permanently bond with the wearer. This is largely because the suit and human intertwine on every single level, becoming a single entity. They communicate instinctually, with methods not entirely known at this time, but each acts in tandem to aid the other.   

Small eye-like organs decorate the JagPal Stealth Suit and act to identify nearby objects, surfaces, and terrain to blend into. These organs can detect light beyond both ends of the visible spectrum and the skin can reflect that as well. The skin is also capable of fine manipulation thanks to thin layers of muscles, allowing it to mimic textures. These muscles also work to boost the host's own strength, and the JagPal Stealth Suit can aid in chemical regulation, and a thin membrane can be pulled over the face to provide a protective organic filter.

The fingertips of the JagPal Stealth Suit are clawed, and are extremely capable of ripping and tearing.

the JagPal Stealth Suit is and always will be a (NATIONAL EFFORT), with enough to attach to 20 hosts.


Proposal: Gobe APC
Difficulty: 3spooky5me x2
Result: UNEXPECTED BOON

The Gobe is an APC capable of transporting a dozen fully-kitted soldiers along with a driver and passenger in the cab and a gunner for the Musakila, accessible through a hatch. Periscopes and viewports provide ample ability to check the surroundings from inside the tracked vehicle. The APC can hit 65km/h with ease. It's a standard, but pretty effective APC.

Then you take the armor into account. Embralish scientists worked on developing a regenerative bone from Xilmal and wound up creating something of a Bone Tree from it. This tree continuously grows, and if "bark" is taken from it, the tree is quick to refill the void.

5mm of steel armor coats the outside of the APC with the explicit goal of triggering refocyte rounds, and beyond that is another 25mm of "Dread Tree Bark" acting as armor. And the rest of the vehicle is crafted from the durable material as well. This is the case not only because it's an easily renewable resource, or that it offers high protection relative to weight, but because the bark, if harvested and worked properly, will always attempt to heal and reform to the worked shape. This means the Gobe APC has regenerating armor alongside a regenerating chassis. Every component other than the steel layer that can be made out of the Bark is made out of the Bark. Tests show that APCs can take close to 60% total destruction before their regenerative abilities start creating faults.

The Gobe APC is (CHEAP).


----------------


Embralish engineers were deep in debate about how to approach The Pact and the future of Embral when the air shifted, almost crackling with energy. The Embralish territories felt suddenly cooler, almost comfortably so. The Maelstrom, too, faded from the skies, and up north the temperatures stabilized as well. The skies above seemed to shimmer and wave, colors roiling not unlike an oil spill before, with an earth-shaking crack and blinding white flash, and suddenly the sky was absolutely full of unidentifiable aircraft of all shapes and sizes. And they just sat there, a mass stretching out beyond the horizon in all directions. The largest of the ships was centered directly over the Fortress-City, casting a massive shadow across dozens of kilometers of land. The war, and indeed this part of the world, seemed to freeze for two days as nobody was willing to act without knowing what was happening with the looming sky fleet. Some people got scared and fled, but each was destroyed by swooping aircraft once they got a few dozen kilometers out to sea. The entire region was under siege.

Lieutenant Valkria managed to locate the gathered Engineers on his own, using the chaos of this unexpected arrival to sneak well into secure Embralish territory to speak to the Engineers himself.

"I know what you're thinking, and just hear me out. I come with good news and bad news," he said, out of breath, "The good news is you are not alone as the only Embral across timelines. Others have started coming into contact with our expeditionary forces and unfortunately the process of negotiation and integration has fallen apart immediately, so yes, I wasn't lying about knowing what you're thinking. The Initharians meanwhile have all come forward and presented themselves as allies. We know to expect little, but The Pact has determined we should approach you anyway. The bad news, well..."

Valkria looked around nervously at each engineer, "Damn, this isn't good. The main Tsaelinid fleet is looming overhead and their leaders have been attempting to negotiate with us to surrender. There's reasonable fears that these negotiations are going to break down without coming to anything near agreeable terms very, very soon. We need whatever help we can to hold the Fortress-City, at least long enough to pull off a fighting retreat. All unnecessary personnel have already been evacuated through the Transdimensional Relay under Harren City, but we need to inflict as much damage as we can while we leave. If any of you wish to help, please come to the Fortre-shit!"

Valkria darted out through a side exit as the main door to the room rattled and flew open. Lady Amanvir strode through.

"The Sau-Cihare has decided that this expeditionary force will attempt to break through the blockade and return home to bolster war efforts there while reassessing the situation developing here. We're going to need whatever help we can get to save as many Embralish here as we can. You're my most trusted, and I know you all to be quite slick. I expect whatever projects you've got hidden up your sleeves will be dedicated to this purpose."

Before anyone could respond, Lady Amanvir left as quickly as she arrived.

Sleep was difficult to get ahold of that night as each of you weighed your options. It became even more difficult when a voice echoed in your heads. Or, a set of voices.

"Eight. Eight. Eight. Connection acquired. Routing."

"Don't fear what the unknown brings, Human. Embrace it, instead. Our arrival is inevitable, your utilization as cogs in a greater machine an unavoidable fate. But you can choose what kind of cog you become. Those who join us willingly have ample opportunity to bask in glory, and attain honor as a warrior of unrivaled skill and strength."

"Our species has remained unmarred by legitimate defeat across millennia, but we are not just conquerors. We come as gods, as kings, but we are not without our sense of fairness or mercy. Those below us are allowed to rule themselves as they see fit, so long as they serve the greater good. We need farmers, mechanics, colonists, and more, if our subjects are to sustain themselves off the battlefield. Look to the Fortress-City. It will not remain untouched for long. Make your presence known there, and we will know if you intend to join us."

"Or bloody our enemies and prove your worth. Your fate is in your hands, we've merely laid out the options."

"Disconnecting...Eight. Eight. Eight."

There was a small pop, then silence.

What will you do?

----------------

We have entered the endgame of Mechanized Warfare. Each person has one personal project they've been working on since the fleet originally set sail years ago. It is time to bring that project to light! Every person has one design to propose, as well as a basic plan for who they side with and what actions they're taking personally. Note that if you want to pull a sneaky you can PM me the plans you actually have so as to keep any sort of sneaky moves secret.

These designs are the culmination of everything you've aspired to as an engineer. Discuss what's needed with your teammates and work together to make a decision, or don't, it's your call. Get creative. Get wild. Go nuts.

It is now the Endgame Design Phase.

[NUKE9.13]

Working on an idea. Here's what I've got so far:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Nauvam Pramanu, Embrallish Engineer, slammed a fist on the desk. It was somewhat muffled by the thick layer of paper covering the entire surface; hundreds of documents, all very similar in appearance- depicting blueprints of the Glas Bolg Transporter.
"Bloody Pact. Bloody Glas Bolg. Bloody mole of possible frequencies. Doesn't even make sense."
A device in the corner of the room continued to tick away, trying a new frequency every second. If he were to build another dozen, he could get the frequency figured out in... well, before the heat death of the universe, at least. Probably not in time to do anything about the alien skyships threatening to destroy Embral's last hope.
Suddenly, a shadow in the other corner of the room spoke up.
"Speaking of moles", the shadow said.
In one smooth, well-practiced motion, Nauvam drew his pistol (secured under the desk), aimed at the corner, and pulled the trigger. Not much happened.
The shadow tossed a clipazine onto the desk.
"Wouldn't want you to shoot me again", the shadow said.
"Again? I've never shot anyone before- you must have me mistaken for someone-"
The shadow leaned forward, allowing the light to touch his face.
"No! Not you! You're dead! We finally got rid of you!"
"You killed a man who believed, in his heart of hearts, that he was me. But belief is not fact. Another ironclad belief, for instance, is that the Pact's fortress city is impregnable, that no spy could ever hope to infiltrate it. And yet-", the man tossed a folder onto the desk. Papers spilled forth, written in the strange script the Harreners used. Nauvam wasn't fluent enough to read it without a dictionary, but he recognised the words on the front of the folder, as he had studied them many times.
"Glas Bolg Transporter. Originals? Impossible! This is just a fabrication- more sabotage!"
"Nothing is impossible. Everything is an illusion, nothing is real- nothing is fact. There is only the darkness."
"But- how?"
"Well, since we're coming to the end of this adventure, I can spoil it- did any of you ask yourselves why no one worked with Mutant Rose earlier? Or, for that matter, how you were able to make progress with it so quickly when you started?"
"Then- why?"
"Sabotage? In such obvious ways? You might as well ask why we let civil wars happen."
"So- who?"
"Am I really? Doesn't matter. I told you, nothing is real. Try the frequencies. Build your device. It's all part of the plan. Oh, and you won't remember any of this, sorry."
A second figure stepped up behind Nauvam, skillfully jabbing a needle into his neck. He was out cold before he even felt the jab.

---

Nauvam Pramanu, Embrallish Engineer, punched a fist into the air. He must've gotten really drunk last night, but these notes- in his own handwriting- proved that he had figured it out. He couldn't quite remember how he had figured it out... but that didn't matter. The numbers added up, the diagrams fit together, and the key to Harren was laid bare.

FINAL DESIGN: Dimensional Aperture Vector Editor
The Pact's second mistake was letting Embrallish Engineers get their hands on an intact Glas Bolg Transporter. Their first mistake was thinking that someone can be trusted just because he looks ethnically New-Worldish, speaks fluent Harrenese, and knows all the passwords and such needed to get in. The two mistakes compounded- an intact Glas Bolg, combined with codes and frequencies stolen from the Fortress City (or even beyond- who knows?), gives one administrator access to the entire interdimensional travel network. Now add in an obsessive personality, mix with a generous helping of desperation, and bake in the heat of unquenchable patriotism.

The Dimensional Aperture Vector Editor is a modified Glas Bolg Transporter. The key feature is that it can- with the right codes- redirect another Transporter to link to a completely different location. The new location doesn't even need to have an active Glas Bolg- just the right levels of interdimensional energy.

Mechanically, the principle is simple. Two Glas Bolg Transporters linked together create between themselves a straight line through subspace. As distance does not exist within this interdimensional space, the line has a length of zero, effectively joining the two transporters together. If one were to attempt to link a third Glas Bolg Transporter into the system, this would create a triangle, which is unfortunately impossible due to the instability of two-dimensional objects within subspace. However! The Vector Editor can be adjusted to act as if it is situated on the line between the two Transporters, using a Well-Silver tuning device (created many years ago in Embrallia to disguise the origin of a radio signal- technology that might've been useful in Harren, had radars ever come into play). This avoids creating a two-dimensional object, maintaining a stable connection, with the Vector Editor essentially acting as a midway station between the two original Transporters.
At this point, the Well-Silver tuning device can be adjusted to pretend the Vector Editor is somewhere else again (anywhere the dimensional walls are weak enough). This instantly breaks the connection between the original two Transporters (due to the aforementioned issue with two-dimensional objects), but by sending a shutoff signal to one of the devices at the same time, the energy of the collapse can be used to tear open a gateway at the new location, while the Vector Editor and one of the Transporters are deactivated. The new connection will not remain stable indefinitely- but can last up to an hour, or until the operators of the connected Glas Bolg Transporter perform a manual system reset.

What's that you say? That explanation was not simple at all? It makes no sense whatsoever? Listen, we're on Harren Island. Don't question these things too hard.

FINAL PLAN: I Blame DAVE
Nauvam Pramanu is no general. He can't tell how the tides of war are turning just by looking. Fortunately, there are plenty of folks who do, who have learned to listen to crazy engineers. The Vector Editor is (intended to be) an incredibly powerful tool, both for the movement of friendly troops around the theatre, and the redirection of enemy troops. Nauvam has set up his prototype in a secure bunker beneath the Mesas, and is overseeing its operation. A number of officers have been roped in to receive intelligence reports and determine where and when the device can be used to maximum effect. Operating in a supporting role, Nauvam nevertheless intends to stay for as long as necessary to ensure that Embrallish forces can safely retreat from this hell-island.