Backstory and lore

#21
This will be just an intro. A greeting of sorts for the new players. The new arrivals to the planet EM-8ER.


Name: Chaser Sward

Occupation: Reaper

Omniframe model: Sly Dancer

Current Location: EM-8ER

Log #1 – Day 1​

Not used to keeping logs, but ever since I got to this planet every second person keeps telling me I should start. For posterity, they said. Might as well call the idea for what it is, post-mortem survival tips for others. A death diary. Only mine could end up indirectly in it, too. Pretty sure I won't be writing a memo in my death throes. But, since I'm not there, yet, might as well make it a part of my R&R. So, here I am, on the planet designated EM-8ER or "Ember" as everyone quickly takes to calling it, unless they're snobs. It's the 8th out of 14 planets in a G-class system. From orbit it looked like a place where the chances of falling into molten lava and getting frostbite are equal. You wouldn't even have to lift a foot for the latter, if it weren't for the pockets that were already created by the first teams. And we're following in their footsteps. Creating more of them to make this planet viable. Everyone’s on edge, in a good way. It's almost time for the debriefing. After that, we'll see it all for ourselves.
Name: Chaser Sward

Occupation: Reaper

Omniframe model: Sly Dancer

Current Location: EM-8ER

Log #2 – Day 1

Day’s over. And what a day it was. Aside from some quick snacking, there weren’t any breaks. ANY breaks. Some of us got to call down our Thumpers just demonstrate the process. Apparently, the locals didn’t care it was nothing more than that. Never seen so many fangs and claws, all at once. Even the insects are on the large side. And if you don’t get the small ones, fast, they can ruin your day as badly as their bigger cousins. Also, since this is meant to be educational, you might wanna avoid stepping on the ones that are bloated. And if you don’t shoot then from afar they’ll go kamikaze on you. Every one of them is potentially a walking, crawling pool of acid you really don’t want, even on the legs of your frame, never mind your own. Another Reaper had one jump on their face. Or it would have if it weren’t for the barrier around our cockpits. Nearly burned through that, as well. To say it keeps you on your toes, is an understatement. As if the wildlife weren’t enough, it didn’t take long until we got the attention of the real threat, the Tsi-Hu.

The place doesn’t disappoint. If all the critters don’t keep you on your toes, these things will. They have a pretty interesting take on domestication. They don’t tame beasts. They turn into them. One second, you’re in a shootout with a few of them. Good old-fashioned pop goes to the weasel’s head, if it sticks it out for too long. Except, half the weasels turn into beasts. And they aren’t as mindless as they look, either. They circle the field to flank you and shred you, while the rest keep you pinned. Nearly lost a pilot. Their frame got opened like a can. Barely salvageable. Had to take a ride with one of the others. Pretty sure they didn’t need a bathroom break, after that. Then we got told these were just the small-fry. Apparently, the Tsi-Hu have different stages to this shape-shifting of theirs. And that wasn’t even the first. They call it Category 0. And they’ve classified 5.

So, welcome to EM-8ER!
Will write another log.
 
Likes: Pandagnome
#22
Name: Chaser Sward

Occupation: Reaper

Omniframe model: Sly Dancer

Current Location: EM-8ER


Log #3 – Day 2

Elected myself to be one of the scouts, the next day. Ventured further out than the day before. When one of the guys with us told the rest to turn around if they see us running back, it was a joke, dear fate. Saw our first Category 1. Singled out another Reaper’s Thumper. Looked single-minded, too, but I guess it was its purpose. That and to stall us. We soon found out, for what, when a Category 2 showed up. It was Bigger than the Thumper. One would’ve thought it was the meanest thing the Tsi-Hu could throw at us, but as we’ve been briefed, there are even bigger and nastier ones. They were making a move on the outpost we fell back to. Tip of the day, mobility can keep you alive, but fire-power won’t matter if you try to take on one of these all by yourself. You need a couple of people to attack it from all angles, so one of you can hit the weak-spots. That’ll get its attention. Not good for you, but it keeps it away and what we’ve already built intact, so we can expand. Which is why we’re here, in the first place. With that said, all of those heavy frames are welcome to antagonize them up-close. Me? I’ll keep my distance and make my shots count. Finished a Category 1 off with a blade to the back of the neck, but that shouldn’t give anyone the idea they can just hack away at them. Not by themselves.

So far, it looks like every one of these Kaiju, as they call them, at Category 1 or above are best handled by a small squad, if people wanna put them down fast. And they ought to. We don’t know how long a Thumper could hold its own, yet. And none of us are too keen on tempting fate to find out. All the resources we get will be no good for anyone if we keep wrecking the mining MEK-As.

The folks at R&D already started tinkering with all the Tsi-Hu tech the teams could bring back. We’ll see what they can make from it.
 
#23
Worked in the results of the Alien Naming Contest.

Name: Chaser Sward

Occupation: Reaper

Omniframe model: Sly Dancer

Current Location: EM-8ER


Log #4 – Day 4

Start of the day. We’re setting up a new pocket for a forward-base, not far from the outpost we defended, yesterday. From there we’ll be scanning for resources and work on establishing a relatively safe supply-line back to other outposts. Need those early warnings if more Category 2s show up. Shifter activity’s been low, since. That’s what everyone is calling them, now. Started after the first Reaper teams showed up, actually. Kinda stuck. It’s appropriate, I suppose. When they’re not shape-shifting and phasing in and out of who-knows-where, they sound like they’re grieving all the time. Muttering about like they’ve lost something. Like a constant funeral-procession. It’d get on your nerves if you had to listen to it all day. Linguists are all over that one. Getting their thrill.

Gonna see how interesting this day gets for us, then.
 
#24
Name: Chaser Sward

Occupation: Reaper

Omniframe model: Sly Dancer

Current Location: EM-8ER


Log #5 – Day 7

FOB up and just starting to walk. Been a week, already. Main task for the last two days was escorting convoys shipping material to the new place. Outposts are sprouting and still haven’t even figured out a currency, yet. Some techs and greesemonkeys set up a few shops for parts and provisions. We’re basically trading everything we can. And anything we can scrounge up someone can put to use somewhere. Nothing gets wasted and everyone’s pitching in. If something doesn't go to construction, it goes to maintenance, for frames and equipment. Haven’t exactly got a proper market, but maybe that’s a good thing. No one can just show up, buy something high-tier and get an instant leg – or ten legs – up on whoever they consider to be the competition. Everyone starts from the ground-up, even if they already got whatever rep.

The Machine’s getting oiled.
 
#25
Name: Chaser Sward

Occupation: Reaper

Omniframe model: Sly Dancer

Current Location: EM-8ER


Log #6 - Day 11

Been quiet for the past few days. No Shifters. Just the occasional wildlife drifting too close to an outpost. Nothing out of the ordinary. For this place, anyway.

Then, this morning, we woke up to an earthquake. Turned out the tremors we felt were footsteps. Footsteps! All of the defenses firing were louder than the damn sirens. And if we had looked outside, before suiting up, pretty sure some wouldn't have even bothered. Wouldn't have blamed anyone if they'd put a bullet in their own heads, rather than face what was coming for us.

Hordes of Tsi-Hu, half of them already on all fours. A few Category 2s were already making short work of some basic thumpers that weren't combat ready. Must've been lying around and sent ahead, before any Reapers could call down theirs. Behind the bulk of their invasion force - command later classified the event as such - were literally towering siege machines, with heavy weaponry. Category 3s. They seemed to be linked to the nearby troops. We saw the more intelligent ones directing them. I'm guessing some sort of hive-mind that made them more effective, both from afar and up-close, as well, from the way they seemed to move in concert. But all that seemed to disappear when we eliminated the humanoid ones. Which, as we found out, didn't make things any less difficult. The Category 3s went berserk, after no one was left to rein them in. At least they had a pattern before that. Try dodging a random-ass blast from a particle-cannon that makes a crater the size of a home-module. Even if it misses you by thirty feet, you're still gonna have a very bad day. Upside? The same goes to every Shifter that's left.

For posterity:

Their siege engines needed some softening on their armor plates, first. Blunt force from battle-hammers worked wonders. Then someone with more of an...edge could cut it off in pieces, exposing their flesh and joints. Concentrated fire could crippled them, after that. Of course, they still had their weapons, if no one could get to those, which was a lot easier when they were still being horded. It made them more tame. We made the mistake of getting rid of the brains behind them, before disarming them. Made it more difficult to get close to them, once they went wild. Energy-blades and short-range weapons worked best against their armaments. Since they're both organic and mechanical, some heavy artillery could disorient them, even if only for a moment. It was enough for some to get in close for a few hits. Almost got caught in the blast-zone from a stray shot.

We barely made sense of the Category 3s and just managed to take the first one that went off the reservation down, when an even bigger quake shook the place up. We thought taking down Category 2s and these 3s took effort. We all stood corrected. And above us, above the entire damn battlefield, stood what some might only see in their nightmares. Where either they've shrunk or the thing they face is right out of mythology. A titan. Otherwise classified as a Category 4 kaiju. Base-destroyers, they called them. Was obvious why, but we weren't going to let it demonstrate it. It didn't care. Leveled half of the new forward-base, before we could put any meaningful dent in it. Now, this thing was definitely single-minded. Didn't even seemed to mind us. Even as some of us climbed it. Maybe because nothing we did was having any effect, at first, until we got past its armor and flesh. It was like it didn't even feel any of the holes and gaping wounds we cut and blasted in it. It was only after what we've built. Couldn't decide if it would've been better or worse, if it had turned its attention to us. But, I guess, if we live, we can always rebuild and fight another day. And it felt like it took us all day to make it fall. Flattened what was left of the FOB, when it did. By the end, we lost some of the crew and nearly even a few Reapers. They're in the med-bay, with broken bones and lost limbs. Their frames will be spare parts, if they're lucky.

The kicker? Observations on anything even remotely resembling a chain of command within the Tsi-Hu, unit-distribution and pattern-analyses got R&D theorizing there could be one more Category we haven't seen, yet.

We were all lucky.

That's the last of the logs. While it's also a bit of a tutorial and introduction to what players will face in the game, it is also meant to build expectation. Like the lore on Kaiju, where it says that Category 5 will eventually be epoch level, planet-wide events, but none were seen, yet.
 
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