Let's Play Iji

[prof]

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Sector 7: Interception

DAN
There are heavy Komato forces just ahead. Try to find ways around them.

IJI
Thanks, I'll see what I can do.

DAN
By the way, I keep hearing strange noises around this control room, but - it's probably nothing. Never mind.

IJI
Hm. Okay. Just stay save in there.

DAN
One more thing. Things are going to get very dangerous from here on. I really think you should upgrade your Health as much as possible, okay? Don't forget that it's your most important stat.



The violence begins!

I don't know what I'd do without temporary invinciblity from taking damage.



Also kickin' dudes.



Eat Hyper Pulse, Berserker scum!



Man, at this point I almost feel bad for the Tasen for having to take me on.



The Komato, on the other hand, are dangerous enough that I still find discretion to sometimes be the better part of valor.



There's a new enemy type down there!


Komato Beast
Armor: 100
HP: 1
Weight: 7
Security: 6
Height: 1.9m

More on them later.



This is what I think of Tasen Elites!



DAN
...so you're on your own. Good luck.

IJI
Don't worry, Dan... I think I can do this.



Another Armor upgrade!

Now all damage to my armor is reduced to one third.



Not to sound indifferent, but we're out of Scouts here. They were the first to go when the Komato stormed us, and they didn't exactly have much of a chance. I guess the only people left standing in a while will be the Elites... and that murderous Human anomaly.



Upgrades! +1 Health, +1 Crack.



FORM MACHINEGUN AND SHOCKSPLINTER




Splintergun
Damage: 30 Armor
Reload Time: 1/10 seconds
Muzzle Velocity: 23 m/s
Requirements; Machinegun, Shocksplinter, Crack 7
Ammunition: 1.67 machinegun clips / second



KIWI's commercials are hilarious. 18.5 million units for a Plasma Cannon? They even poke fun at it themselves. Who're they trying to fool? NanoBitSplit figured that one out ages ago, it's a Pulse cannon combined with a Shocksplinter. Not saying it's easy to do, but so much cheapter - a Pulse cannon is 60,000, a Shocksplinter is 580,000, that makes an illegally cracked Plasma cannon nearly 32 times cheaper. And for most of us in the assault teams those weapons are standard equipment! Not gonna reveal the opcodes for the crack here (remember kids, illegal Plasma cannons are on criminal par with treason) - but Imperial Weapon Industries seems intent on pushing us around with their authority just because they got picked up by High Command as the official military manufacturer. I for one ain't paying their prices. Power to the troopers! /Craxmasta



Enough dallying!

Time to go up.



And up.



And up!

We are now on a Komato ship.



Komato Imperial Research had no choice this cycle but to confirm the suspicions regarding the mysterious death of an entire Komato platoon, which attempted to take control of the Tasen carrier ship named Ciretako. The Komato Annihilator leading its platoon in boarding the ship had, in an attempt to raise its internal kill counter, mown down every living being on Ciretako, and later died from its numerous wounds.
Imperial Research states that the Annihilators have since been modified to let special stimulants pump into their bodies, which help significantly in making them more interested in killing the Tasen than in murdering their own troops. Many organizations have requested the removal of the counters to prevent the incident from repeating, but Imperial Research combats these arguments with statistics showing how much more efficient the Annihilators are with the counter present.
On a different note, the experimental Nanoweapon the Annihilator was carrying could also have been the "new addition" that Imperial Research was actually testing in this operation, meaning the rampant Annihilator itself was less of a scandal than acknowledging the existence of this weapon.



Teleported! Lord knows where I am now.



Berserkers are much less dangerous when you have a gap to attack across, like this.



About that strange symbol!

The Komato have two counting systems - Decimal, and Ternary. The latter looks like this:



So, that was Security Level 1.



Lots of turrets in this area!



Level 2!

Also there is a Beast to the left. How deal?



That's how!

When damaged, Beasts explode violently. You just gotta hit them before they touch you.



SPLINTERGUUUN



If my Crack level was higher, I could take this opportunity to crack the Assassin and disable his Plasma Cannon.

It's not, so I fought him normally!



In the early times of the Tasen-Komato war, many raids on Tasen sharships and battlecruisers were made, and they often faced heavy resistance. Sometimes, however, the invading force so greatly overpowered the crew of the Tasen spaceship that it became more of a game. When one particular Komato Berserker came face-to-muzzle with a Tasen Turret, he accidentally fires his Resonance detonator - it sent the turret flying off its support pole, bouncing around the room, until it came to a halt in front of a platoon of other Komato. One of them kicked the turret back across the room, and the Hyper Turret Game was born.
The platoon split up into two teams, and tried their best to kick the turret into a door behind the opposing team. Any Tasen that happened to interfere with the game were swiftly taken care of, and the turret kicking game continued. Before long, it was decided that the use of Resonance detonators and Hyper pulse Nanoweapons were also allowed while playing the game, to increase the mayhem.
Whenever the turret became mangled beyond use or exploded into debris, the platoon simple headed off to find a new one. The Komato platoon was later given honorary medals for their field studies in "creative combat".



In modern Hyper Turret Game, the two teams line up on each side of a large field, armed with Resonance detonator and Hyper pulse Nanoweapons. On each side, there are two posts stuck into the ground to represent the doors used in the original form of Hyper Turret game. When the match begins, a Tasen turret is tossed onto the middle of the field, and from them on it's a free-form battle to kick/shoot the turret into the opposing team's scoring area.
A gigantic supply of Tasen turret heads has been collected in recent history, so that a new turret can be tossed onto the field whenever the current one is destroyed. The Hyper Turret Game is filled with nostalgia and fond memories of boarding Tasen spaceships, although it is considered the most dangerous game ever invented, bar only "Ultra Minefield Run and Seek", which violates every known universal Komato law and has been banned on 36 planets.



Some troops question the use of the self-destruct mode installed in Berserkers, Beasts and Annihilators. As you know, it's integral to the effectiveness of the Beasts to trigger the Shocksplinter erxplosives embedded in their armor upon death, and it's imperative not to let the Tasen get their hands on the weapons left behind by dead Berserkers. One of the keys to the Tasen's inability to catch up with out technology has always relied heavily on the fact that they can't salvage any Nanoarmor or Nanoguns from the more advanced of our fallen troops, as they simply blow into bits when killed. And when it comes to the Annihilators, who cares? They usually take everything on the battlefield with them anyway.
As for the Generals, yes, it's true that they used to carry Random Particle Displacement warheads inside their armor until the tragic loss of General Taeho, whose warhead suffered critical failure and leveled two cities. But that's all behind us - now no self-destruct device is so poewrful as to be a worse threat to our own army than to the Tasen.



Level 3!



I don't get it, we write the door security levels in good old-fashioned ternary and everyone complains. Our civilization on Origin advanced a lot before we almost completely switched to decimal, and I don't see how it's supposed to be easier to use - you've got three joints per finger, a second hand to point at one joint on every finger, and even a kid can start memorizing the joints and numbers. 1, 2, 10, 11, 12, 20, 21, 22, 100... it's so easy.
Someone got the idea of using your ten fingers to count to 10 instead, but come on, with ternary you can count from 0 to 242 on one hand, but only to 5 if you stick your fingers up to represent nmbers in decimal. What a primitive idea.



Iosa was born on a small planet on the borders of Komato territory, and following her exceptional results in combat training and her strong mind, she was chosen as one of the test subjects for a new type of shielding system. Based on the Tasen's planetary shielding technology, this system was immune to all forms of Nanoweapons in existence, and unliked the weaker versions used on Shield doors, this system could even withstand full-force Alpha Strikes. It had yet to be used to protect single individuals, as previous tests had shown that anyone coming too close to the actualy shield generated by this technology suffered heavy neural damage.
Unfortunately, this held true even now; every one of the test subjects died within a few shortcycles, except Iosa. Due to the extremely high cost and many casualties, the shield system project was stopped until further notice. Soon afterwards, a Tasen fleet entered Komato space unnoticed and proceeded to Alpha strike the unshielded planet.
All research data was lost, but Iosa's shield indeed worked perfectly - she alone survived the Strike. After drifting around the planet for two longturns, she was found and picked up by the Komato Imperial Army. Miraculously, her psyche was intact, even after such an experience.
As the starturns passed, Iosa was promoted to Annihilator class and her reputation grew quickly. Even when her Annihilator exoskeleton was destroyed, she continued fighting the Tasen with her clawed hands and belief-defying strength, as the shield continued to protect her actual body from any and all attacks. She was eventually dubbed "Iosa the Invincible", and many Tasen now fear her more than the Komato Generals, as her hatred for them is beyond fanatic.



TERMINALS

TERMINALS EVERYWHERE



Nanospark again!

Great timing, since there's an Assassin and several Beasts in here.



I think I found my target!



MISSION COMPLETE

Next time: Escape!


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