Log #95

A fair bit has happened since log 94, for one I’m not writing this log on Navius, Nor am I in the planet's orbit. I’m actually on earth, or at least a version of earth some 9000 years in the future. An earth that has no humans and is instead covered in androids and robots fighting an apparently never ending war.

I got here through the anomaly the satellites had detected earlier, It was apparently a portal and a few androids came through to investigate it, found one of my satellite outposts and Balistraia engaged in diplomacy.

This ended up with a convoy heading towards the portal to establish an outpost at it, during which I rode with the androids and took my turn engaging in diplomacy.

The portal outpost was constructed and I went out into a ruined cityscape showing minor signs of biter infestation, thankfully without the requisite bugs. The androids that had accompanied me, 13B, 18B, 44B, 32D, 16S. All female models except for 16S. Took to clearing the surrounding area of any robot presence. I sent a squad of destroyer bots with each so that the bots could learn how to fight robots, both by watching the androids and by helping them fight.

Here I learned a few things, first the pods are absurd and I want them, second the destroyers, with their limited but steadily growing intelligence, decided to request the pod’s to teach them. I don’t know how the destroyers expect that to work considering the different capabilities and intelligence levels, pods being much smarter on an individual basis.

The third thing I learned is that there are a lot more robots than I gave it credit for, as in I have somewhere approaching 5000 drones with the convoy to the outpost, and there are enough robots within this single ruined city to outnumber them 20 to 1. And that’s a low estimate. Sure pound for pound a destroyer is better than a machine, and 20 of the smaller ones won't be able to take a destroyer down, but a few hits from a bigger machine? Yeah the destroyer is going to break.

Distractors are much the same, if in a worse position due to their lacking mobility, interceptors are actually great for hit and run’s to whistle the machine numbers down, defenders are useless as anything but suicide bombers, as usual. Spider bots are great for traversing the buildings even with their lack of flight and are roughly equal to a destroyer, if more expensive.

I don’t have combat data on how well the tanks will do, the streets are not exactly traversable so the only viable vehicles are spidertrons, and I haven’t sent any out or been attacked, the androids are very efficient, so I don’t know how well they will perform.

It is a worry though, the drones can dodge the machines attacks, a tank cannot and a spidertron would have trouble. I had a destroyer drone deliberately take a firm hit from a larger machine to get info on what a good hit from a machine was like, I needed to order that because the destroyer drones are becoming excellent at minimizing damage from a hit, either by making it only clip or by deflecting it off angled armor.

Anyway the destroyer drone had a mark 1 shield generator but lets add number to this, lets say a mark 1 generator gives (50) points of ‘shielding’ then a mark 2 would give (150) and a mark 3 would give (300). The hit from the machine took (45) of those points, now shield points decrease easier the more fragile something is, but a destroyer's armor is only slightly worse than a tanks armor, which is inferior to a spidertrons which is worse than a command tanks, which is worse than mine. So a tank would take (40) a spidertron (38) a command tank (35) and mine (30).

A shield tank has 10 mark 1 generators on average, which means they have 500 points, a tank would go down in 12.5 hits, rounding down to 12 as the tank would likely be hit a fair bit by the smaller machines. 40 points of damage is about half as much damage as the average biter can deal out but in the close quarters of the cities? It's the same issue my tanks faced in the tunnels, even my durable tanks are glass cannons. I just make a lot of glass canons and kill the enemy before they can reach the canons to shatter them.

That doesn’t work in close quarters. Fighting in this city will be a metal grinder for anything that can’t avoid being hit.

A spidertron has an average 6 mark 2 shield generators, meaning 900 points, so they can survive twice as many hits, their laser defense means they will get hit less, as projectiles and smaller drones will be incinerated before they can get close. But still a spidertron is in significant danger of getting overwhelmed.

Not going to get into my armor or the command tanks as it is starting to feel a bit redundant to explain each varying level of strength.

This also isn’t going to be relevant until Labyrinthine finishes clearing out the roads in the near vicinity, something the mind has taken to with the closest thing to fervor over seen it display. Apparently the current ruined state of the city is unforgivable, and they have taken to at the very least clearing up all the rubble and safely bringing down buildings that look close to falling.

Speaking of trying to make an outpost the usual way in the center of a massive city is largely an exercise in futility, one my turrets don’t have the killing field and unrestricted sightlines they need to be effective, and another is that there isn’t actually any area open enough to build one. As a temporary solution I have just walled in the block around the portal and have begun reinforcing it. A few turrets on the streets and rooftops as well as anti air and artillery batteries are all the turrets I will have, the rest of the defense will be an active one with Balistraia and the drones.

I think I prefer fighting the machines to the bugs though, even with the urban environment I am decidedly not intended for. Because they leave behind scrap when you kill them rather than puddles of acid and blood. Already Byzantine has organized a veritable swarm of logistics and construction robots to begin scavenging efforts. And at Labyrinthine’s insistence they are starting with metal debris from the environment.

Don’t actually have a plan for if the machines make a concerted push on me though, as terrifying as the bugs are, they don’t make use of their full numbers when attacking me, only the bugs that I could directly threaten or the ones that perceive me as an active threat attack. I don’t really understand why considering the bugs are intelligent enough to realize working together they could wipe me out but I’ll be happy as long as that state of affairs continues.

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The androids do pose a solution to this problem, powerful allies I can use to increase my defensive and offensive power. If I can give them increased armor, the one thing they are notably lacking is an easy supply of power armor, or even standard armor. Sure an android is significantly more durable than I am even factoring in my personal shields, personal note I want that metal for my own armor, given their robotic bodies, but covering them in an extra layer of armor and firepower? Sure I can’t routinely produce armors as good as my own combat one I can still make mark 1 power armors at a rate of roughly 15 a day at my current production capacity, and I can make modular armor at a rate of 100 a day, equipping them with shield units and in the case of power armor laser defenses will drastically increase android survival rates and combat effectiveness.

The only thing slowing me down is the need for reactors to power the armors. I was worried about that precisely until I remembered that my armor runs fine on solar power with just a few modifications and that the sun literally does not set here. The only issues the armor will have are in buildings or stormy days, and even then it will take a few hours for the armors to die outside of combat and as long as the shields don't need a recharge and the lasers aren’t fired, combat won't make it drain any faster anyway.

Soldiers fight wars sure, but they need good weapons and armor and I am more than happy to supply. Already a factory has sprung up within the perimeter solely making android portable weapons, mainly grenade launchers, explosives, missile launchers, laser guns, shotguns with armor piercing explosive shells, and plenty of larger and heavier shield swords. Not as good as YoRHa swords but roughly on an equal playing field, and most of these weapons will go towards the resistance anyway.

If the androids had an economy I would be worried about crashing it, instead I’ll just have them gather valuable scrap metal as payment or just flat out give the weapons out. Money is a thing lessers care about, I don’t need to buy things because I make the things.

Actually shipping all these weapons is a bit of a worry though, the trainline to the portal is walled in yeah but it goes through at least a thousand miles of biter land, it's already been broken 12 times, so any shipment will need to be escorted by battle trains, both to keep the cargo safe and to repair the damaged lines. It makes the shipment decidedly unreliable though, if enough of the track is destroyed a shipment could be delayed by an entire day, or lost entirely to the bugs.

Annoying but not a problem that can be solved just yet.

Another issue will be shipping on this side of the portal, I have no trains, cargo trucks can’t be run on these awful roads, cargo helicopters or planes would die or lead the machines to android hideouts as we decidedly do not own the sky. I have seen the laser’s machines use as anti air and they might be able to shoot a command plane from the sky with just a few shots. Found this out when I sent up a smaller plane to scout, I am now missing a small plane.

So underground tunnels for transport or cargo trucks with legs. Both have problems but both could work, so both have started work. The bulk of the outpost here was already going to be underground anyway so I didn’t have to deal with the skyscrapers, adding underground tunnels to a few nearby android outposts for transportation won’t be much effort with tunnel tanks and the centi-cargos can handle transportation for anything too far to realistically dig a tunnel.

Still until the area is cleared of machines or I have control and safety in the skies my transportation network will be limited to this city and the surrounding area.

And I will need the resistance androids to actually use/ trust my supplies. My meeting with YoRHa’s commander will hopefully provide the solution to that issue. Is it odd that I’m going into orbit for the first time not to my own space station but one on another world? Don't know but I am bringing a parachute capable of saving me if I fall back to earth. The parachute is just my shield generators making a solid umbrella of air.

As a temporary solution I asked the YoRHa androids to escort my drones around to ensure the resistance doesn’t just assume they are a new variant of machine forces.

Current plans of action are

Establish a base of power and build a citadel- Labyrinthine and bulwark are already drawing up plans, and making an outpost meant for habitation will be a new challenge so Labyrinthine is excited. Ideally the citadel will house the resistance androids on the ground, because as I currently understand it they just live in ramshackle forts and try to hide from the machines.

Establish lanes of communication with YoRHa and the resistance- already done in part with YoRHa as the androids with me reported that they had encountered a human. They were then ordered to escort me to a resistance camp so I’d be safe but I have some doubts it’d actually be safer, the YoRHa command seemed unwilling to force the issue and instead ordered the team to clear out the machines nearby and they are also sending in reinforcements. But I have yet to actually talk to the androids myself and I didn’t let any of the team with me send up any information I didn’t want the machines to find. As I don’t trust that their communications are secure without checking for myself, and I don’t know how to begin checking something like that without more of an idea of what these machines are actually capable of.

A mission was apparently already scheduled to destroy a machine factory producing quite a lot of machines and specifically a few larger ones, in the area. This Mission apparently being critical to the war effort, and considering I have artillery that should be able to reach the factory I want to establish communications to at least offer heavy fire support. Or spidertron support which is also technically heavy fire support on account of the missiles.

Gather information- be that sending up surveillance satellites, scout planes, or just talking to androids and dissecting machines. Anything that I can do to gain information on the current state of affairs is critically important. Mainly because something is wrong with this situation, the machines are a self replicating force outnumbering the androids and they have equal or greater combat power. So why haven’t the androids been wiped out? After five thousand years this planet should be a ball of metal and guns. Either the machines are less capable than I think, the androids are in a much better position than it seems, or something fishy is going on. I use fishy because fish are unknown and more than likely dangerous to me.

Right now I just lack information I need to make the best decisions, like do the machines have defenses against heavy artillery? I’d imagine but I also haven’t seen the androids mention any combat vehicles that aren’t flight capable mechs so if they don’t use artillery the machines might not be prepared for it.

Byzantine is currently working on getting a minor bit of drone and ammo production set up on this side of the portal while also trying to design a good trade system and ratios for use with resistance androids. Things like exactly how much scrap a modular armor is worth or working out a barter system with examples of this world's tech that I could work on integrating into my factory, or just producing for the androids.

Like that laser the pod’s use, I want that for the command tanks, my armor, the spidertrons, probably normal tanks, and Panther. I don’t have a laser that can be called a “heavy laser” , sure my lasers do damage but that's like comparing a machine gun with a cannon.

And apparently Byzantine’s will be willing to make trades for unique plants or animals they don’t currently have in their farms, which is all the plants and animals on this world. Already the pieces of rubble with small critters or plants are being sent back through the portal to a new outpost entirely dedicated to them. I’m allowing this as the plants and animals are giving off an odd energy reading that the androids were also giving off. Something called Maso, don’t know what it does yet besides allowing the androids a thing similar to my inventory and letting them do floaty swords, but I sincerely doubt that is the only use it has.

But once again, lack of information killing any plans I could make before they could even start.