(NERV Game Site – Official DAtS Offline Forums)
Number5Alive, Golddigger, BurtBacharach, CrazyCelt, Blaze, DoYouEvenLyft?, MarcoPolo, MightMakesRight, l33tpally, Bennie, SEA-TAC_Sweetie, Requiesce-in-Pace, MacD, HaveGunsWillTravel, Guardian, GunKitty, Chummer, Inquisitor, Lizard, RedFox, SemiSolidSnake, ElfMama, Not_the_Face!, Anonymous3, Anonymous4, Anonymous7, Anonymous9, AggregatorOfSorrows, M.Mollen, WhiskeyTangoFoxtrot, Dolcett, Backlog, DarkAvariel, Knocker, Hullu_Kapteeni, GrimDark, BloodForTheBloodGod, Queen’s_Bitch, BackDat@55Up, DoYouEvenDPS?, MajorTom, Parca, and DarkAngel are in the chat.
Knocker: So, the Dungeon at Hadarada Prime is looking like it has become some kind of buglike aliens involved. Everything’s covered with this weird goo, too.
l33tpally: But where did the AI get Zerg from?
MarcoPolo: Zerg? What are these ‘Zerg’?
DoYouEvenLyft?: From RTS genre. Old game called Starcraft had them as one of the factions. Nasty things, good at sending waves of weak enemies to wear you down before their big troops came and annihilated you.
MajorTom: Damn, they must have had off-site backups.
DoYouEvenDPS?: Off-site backups? You mean you’ve seen shit like this before in game?
MajorTom: Boss, you want to take this one?
M.Mollen: The facility is gone, and anyone involved already knows what we got from it, get your brag on, Marine.
MajorTom: All right, then. This was our first major op as the Black Star Marines. All of us were Nomads at the time, and all former USMC, some for injuries or age, and some for other reasons. Black Star had just hooked up with Merida’s faction in the Civil War, and her people gave us targets to hit that would hurt Travis’s people the most while we got ready for the big push back.
BackDat@55Up: So this was just after Edena?
MajorTom: Correct. Our target was a Blacker than Black research site working on bioweapons and with links to other sites in the sector. We come in on our ‘liberated’ Marine Assault ship, and we time it so that Thunderfury announced herself by destroying the comm array the same instance our drop ships broke stealth and hit the doors to their landing bay.
MajorTom: Brought the whole company, even though we were only expecting light resistance. You don’t give someone a fair fight in their own house, after all. Good thing we brought them, because we quickly ran into trouble when one of the VIPs decided it would be a great idea to unleash the test subjects. I think the idiot thought she could control them.
Knocker: So these were the Zerg?
MajorTom: Ooh, yeah. Nasty fuckers, and if they hadn’t been trying to get through choke points that were designed to prevent escapes, they might have been able to overrun us. But that facility got blown to hell. The Self-Destruct was to let the antimatter containment drop in the reactor. Big boom, and a new crater on that moon.
If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.
Parca: You know, they might have had the originals of whatever they used for those test subjects at a different site.
M.Mollen: Either way, the AI had access to it, and other horrible things. Frigging lovely.
CrazyCelt: Hey, anyone know what’s going on in the border sector around Tietera? First, my favorite steakhouse on Zanchul Station closes down, and my ‘completely legitimate trade agent’ goes missing…
MightMakesRight: You mean your fence.
CrazyCelt: Potato, Potahto. Anyways. My trade agent goes missing, and now all the completely legitimate suppliers of sundry surplus items I go to have been disappearing left and right, even the big names!
M.Mollen: Sounds like you’re a smuggler who deals with pirates, CC. Unfortunately for you, the pirates in that sector have met with some unfortunate reverses in fortune, and are either enslaved, dead, or on the run.
CrazyCelt: What the hell? No way they were all taken out so quickly. You’d need a whole damn fleet to take out their base! There’s a reason the Navy never went after them!
M.Mollen: You own your ship, CC?
CrazyCelt: Yeah, the Cyfreithiwr Diog. Why?
M.Mollen: I bet you your ship against a brand new one from the Black Star shipyards that their base has fallen.
Backlog: Do yourself a favor, CC, and stop while you’re not too far behind.
CrazyCelt: *sighs* No bet.
M.Mollen: Backlog, would you kindly not ruin my fun?
MightMakesRight: So, what proof were you going to show him to win the bet?
M.Mollen: Screenshot of me, right now, sitting in the Administrator’s Suite, drinking his liquor as my people sort through all the slaves we took.
CrazyCelt: What? How did you take it?
M.Mollen: Trade secret. But Homer would approve.
RedFox: So, you did manage to slip someone in and take it from the inside. We’d been wondering.
M.Mollen: Oh, and who is we, Red?
RedFox: A newly formed ‘mercenary’ group that just got a contract on the other side of the Alliance border to keep the piracy issue under control. Formerly of Lark’s Clan.
M.Mollen: Ah, figured that message pulse was warning more than just the people on the station. Made us start before we were ready, so more people ended up dying instead of being captured.
RedFox: Hah. Glad to see my idea paid off, then.
M.Mollen: Oh, so you’re the one who got them to put repeaters around? Nicely done. Your ships, and some from the Duskspine clan, and a couple independents like CC here, are the only ones who survived with your ships and freedom intact.
l33tpally: Why didn’t you just blast it, like the other installations you’ve hit?
M.Mollen: Well, having a well-protected shipyard and fleet base has some benefits. Plus, there are a lot of slaves with skills I can use who are now under my control, ready to help fill out positions in the fleet. Of course, I might sell off the station, since it is pretty isolated.
Dolcett: So, back to the Zerg, any tips on fighting them?
M.Mollen: Shoot them. A lot. And then nuke the place from orbit. It’s the only way to be sure.
Dolcett: That… isn’t as helpful as you might think.
MajorTom: No real help for you. The Zerg are like fighting the tide. You have to withstand their initial rush, but then they got one coming after that, and another after that. You have to kill as many as you can and then prepare to strike back, HARD. Otherwise, they’ll destroy you.
Knocker: So, in context of the dungeon?
MajorTom: Pack plenty of grenades and explosives, pray you don’t run out of ammunition, fire is your friend, and shoot anything that moves. Platoon full of Marines in power armor using a choke point and automated defenses could only just hold them back, not push through and wipe them out, because of their numbers. Would not recommend unless you have uber high level skills and gear.
Knocker: Well, fuck.