Part 214: The 145th

The 145th (57:46)


FYI, viewer beware audio issues of a different sort here, as my voice fluctuates far too wildly. That's due to me not having the mic positioned quite where it needed to be .










Everything is Abraxian. EVERYTHING.
















I don't want to even think about the energy and precision required to do that.







Why??!?? We're attacking a fortress. There's no rush here that I can discern. Nobody's said anything about 'we have to do this now because particulate's building up or ... '. Why is Ticon in such a hot hurry at this particular moment? What if theories on the last info cache affect our strategy here or going forward?




The Info Cache is in the upper-left. The metallic-grey 'unmireable terrain' can be seen, a little harder to see here is that it is lined with gun placements. This will become sadly more important later. Then there are strange tendrils reaching out to emitters from there. Meanwhile we've been gifted probably the most-fortified starting position to date in the lower-right. There are hostile emitters but they are encased in terrain so we can keep them bottled up.




The start isn't as difficult as last time. A key thing is getting omnis on the two side islands like the one on the left here before they are overwhelmed by the emitters inside them. Fortunately I saw that soon enough to get it done. We're under a moderate early attack here, but the metallic land provides a good if incomplete barrier to hold them off while we build up. In general this seems to be a mission that is throwing us a bone in terms of getting going.




Moving out past the metallic barrier and into this friendly plasma band is actually a little more challenging - Doppels like to path through here. I want to try out the Rock Burner to free the benign particulate from our recently-converted emitters ... and notice anything familiar about that ship schematic?










'We have found the unfindable'. I don't think those words mean what you think they mean, Ana.

And yes, literally the stuff of fairy tales, in this case the completely obvious representation of the USS Enterprise-C of Star Trek TNG fame.




That's not *exactly* the backstory that the Trekkie in me recalls, but of course it's a small matter to change history to fit the moment once you've realized you no longer need project a finite existence.

Or, as others have said . ..





Yes 'polarize the hull plating'. And while you're at it, make sure to reconfigure a coherent scrambled ionic pulse wave through the deflector dish array using modulating frequencies to cut through the subatomic radioactive interference while creating a simultaneous precisely timed shockwave with vented warp core plasma to escape the effects of the localized space-time singularity. Might as well activate the Photonic Cannon and run a few thousand pointless holodeck simulations while we're just being ridiculous here.













Rock-burning in operation. The lathes are cutting through the rock (green part is what I've marked for removal), and the particulate escapes its prison. This would have worked at least somewhat better if I hadn't forgotten the third emitter back in the corner, which I never made an escape valve for.




Attacks continue, but we've now got a sufficient force to push forward. A nearby energy mine is claimed as well as emitters - though some of them appear to be inactive, perhaps they were never finished or are just super-weak? - removed. And there's the C-Class having been finished. It has lots of toys including a shield that has multiple settings.




It appears to have those same green 'guppies'?? that the tankers do to supply other ships with energy. I'm not entirely sure what Cargo, Tanks, etc. do. A little disappointed that it doesn't say 'phasers' and 'photon torpedoes' but I think we get the point.




Mistakes were made in getting too close to the fortress, leaving weaker ships in the path of doppels, and so on. In general though I made a push along the right side towards the top of the map, taking more land and knocking out more emitters to increase our control of the territory.




That's when I made what I think was my key mistake in prolonging this mission. Attacking the top here is one of the worst things I could do - I'm pushing towards that energy mine but the ring of enemy cannons can't be completely avoided here. Also, there is more room to expand at the bottom of the map. Going after flipping the cannons on the fortress perimeter really should have been my next move, so they could annoy the enemy and support any further offensives. Instead, I spent a good long while flailing away here ...

Nearly but not quite succeeding, I end up retreating towards the bottom option, a better-but-not-best decision. The loss of time was now compounded with the loss of three amp gems on destroyed ships that now floated in space in enemy-controlled territory.




More fail occasioned this push for a bit, but eventually I learned to keep my ships out of the Doppel's travel paths, attack between them so they didn't interrupt an offensive, and the hostile plasma, emitter, and mine resistance in this area was pacified.




Having done so, I did finally start flipping the cannons. Two of them here at this bottom area, and I entered the 'main chamber' to eliminate one one of the Doppel Spawners. Then it was time to reverse my field again, heading back round to the top so I could reclaim my Gems and be at full strength.




The fighting was fierce once again, and there were more casualties. The Hammer would be destroyed shortly after this, but not before doing enough for us to knock out the emitter. Soon a cannon just below this was flipped next, and the area secured. The perimeter was ours.




While benign particulate - though not nearly as much as there should have been - flowed in through the wormhole connection to attack the enemy's supply lines as it were, the fleet continued to work on destroying or capturing the wall defenses. Adapting quickly, the Particulate sent a C-Class Doppel our way. It took a veritable pounding, but by now we had enough energy for a decisive firepower advantage.




Having spent nearly an hour in the fight already, we massed towards the back where the info cache was held. Significant particulate resistance here, and we started wearing away at it with everything I could get in range.




The particulate continued to pour out of the remaining emitters, maintaining a slowly reducing concentration of over 500 despite the firepower. But it was strictly patterned because reasons, and I was able to have a Lathe penetrate the defenses and eliminate one of the source emitters ... though it took significant damage in the process.

After mopping up, it was time to see what this highly protected Info Cache had for us ..




Aside from being irrelevant, this is also not provable - since Ticon forbid you to take the time to spill your theory.







And yet we've never come upon any duplicates. Care to explain that?







Updated by who, and how? (yes I know the answer)




Survived the great disaster, or caused it?




And so drops the other shoe.




The endless cycle cannot be stopped. It will always be repeated. Everything is nothing. All is Everything. Platius is Skarsguard is Loki is Life. The Reapers/Particulate/Creeper/Loki/what-the-heck ever is here to purge from the galaxy the taint of organic life for no apparent reason.




Or it was never there in the first place? And why just them? What is so doggone special about the Precursors?













'Done' functions exactly like 'Next' in this case, because Ticon keeps talking. I think that's because we didn't capture the info cache until the end ... but the way the mission is designed, it's hard NOT to do that.







This is bizarre. Ticon doesn't actually command the corporation to jump to the origin world. He leaves that (obvious) call to Amicus and appears to be shaken up about something.




Our theoretically-but-not-really final destination is up next. There are more things in the Story beyond this, is how we know that. Still, since we are finally headed to the Origin World, will all our questions be answered there ... or will we simply wind up with more?