Only <i>slightly</i> embellished <!--emo&:)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/smile.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile.gif'><!--endemo--> ------
Gorgie stories? Ok gestating one, this old and ragged Gorge shall reveal a tale or two...
Twas on that horrid piece of rock we fell to many aeons ago. I believe the smelly bipedal ones called it Hera. They shouldn't have been there, and neither should we, but as the old ones wrote 'Spawners can't be choosers'.
*cough wheeze*
So, I awoke to the sounds of those blasted slug hurling weapons the smelly ones use. I could sense my brood brother in the hallway outside, and heard the delicious scream of a marine being bitten in half. A chuckle, unmistakable, of my Skulk brethren. I sensed the hive needed more resources, and I decided to evolve into A Glorious Provider Of All Things. Waddling out into the bright sparkly walls of some alien technology I went in search of tasty resources.
Hera was big to me. Being just minutes old in a world I could not understand, I hid in shadows and hugged the walls. I heard the screams of Skulks and smelly ones dying in unison in the distance, and then! THEN! I stumbled across not one delicious sprouting outlet, but two. I found out later that the smelly ones called it 'Holo'. Probably some reference to their foul god. The odd light emitting from the center of the room looked like it had religious significance. They would need it, for I would make sure my brothers had the energy to evolve into our more ferocious warriors.
* snooooorrt cough cough *
I regurgitated a sensory chamber in the corner with my meagre reserves, and built it quickly. I felt the comfortable prickling of cloak descending as my body transposed to almost nothing. And then I sat at one of the nozzles and started slurping that delicious, wonderful flow.
I sensed a change in the hive mind. There was another Gorge and a new hive had begun construction. Those foolish smelly ones! We would repel them, and turn their weak bodies into snackpacks for our young. Then suddenly I heard a strange clunking sound. A bipdeal walking sound. I froze in fear. I was alone in this part of Hera, and smelly ones were coming. I stopped my slurping for it would draw attention to me, and carefully walked into a corner. I sat and watched.
A marine walked in, I could smell his stench in spite of the strange green layer he wore on top of his pathetic soft and squishy flesh.
"All clear" I heard, knowing not what it meant.
A second marine came in and greeted the first, "Goddam stinking aliens, they've locked us out of Data Core."
"How? I thought we had that secured?" said the first, walking casually towards the corner where I sat. He had some strange burning stick in his mouth, and as his legs almost brushed me he pulled it out and dropped it on me.
My flesh burned, and I resisted the urge to scream. The foul, evil, creature was torturing me! But surely, he did not know I was there? No, he was painfully (literally) oblivious.
"We only had a few turrets there" the second marine continued, "Skulk flesh all over the place according to the Comm, but they just used brute force. It's gone, eaten like it never existed."
"I'll be, little runts" said the first, walking slowly towards the center of the room, leaning on the religious beaming light structure.
I contemplated my chances of spitting these foul creatures to death, but I was a smart Gorge, I knew my limits. One I could take, perhaps getting hurt and not dying. Two... I did not want to risk it.
And then, to my horror, I burped. I couldn't help it! To them, it sounded like a grunt. The first marine raised his slug thrower and spun around, looking directly at me. I slowed my breathing.
"You hear that?" he said.
"Hear what?" said the second.
"That... sound."
"Pfft! It was probably your stomach, nub."
"Don't call me a nub, nub!"
"Sif I'm a nub, foo! You're the one hearing things."
"Oh, really? Well hear this. You are sux0r to teh m4x0r!"
"I'm sorry, are you asking me to punch you in the face? Because I have a special on face punchings today and I'd be happy to obli.."
There was a strange echoed crackling sound, and then I heard a strained voice "WHAT ARE YOU TWO STANDING AROUND FOR, GET TO DATA CORE ON THE DOUBLE!"
"Yessir!" they both chimed in, and ran off under the walkway, but not before the first marine gave the room a quick look, shaking his head as he left.
I let out a sigh of relief, and burped again. Waddling forward I resumed my suckling. I was feeling fatter now, and resolved to cap this node for my brothers. I spewed up a resource tower, and quickly started building it. It was then I heard the hive mind again -- we had a new evolutionary trait, movement enhancements. I chuckled and, finishing the tower, decided I did not want to draw attention to myself again through my accidental burpings.
* cough COUGH WHEEEEZE splutter *
Excuse me. Years of res munching will do this to you. Now, where was I...
Yes, I decided I would silcence myself. I evolved in my egg state and felt new glands growing in my mouth and on my feet. I did this until I felt I had the maximum evolutionary change I could muster. And then I started sucking the free node. I could not hear myself eat! It was strange, at first, but I got used to it. I started planning my build order. Offensive chmabers next, yes, to defend the room from smelly bipedals. And then, perhaps, I would go looking for another hive spot. Yes, this is what I would do.
But then I heard it again. The clank clank clank. I couldn't believe it, can't they leave me alone? Two more marines walked in, down the sloped ramp and into Holo, scanning the walls, slug throwers following their eyes.
I kept on sucking. I wasn't going to waste time.
"All clear here sir" said the first.
"Good" came the crackled response, "We'll cap the room soon as I have the res."
"You want us to hold?" said the second, but no response came.
"YOU WANT US TO HOLD COMM?"
"FFS If I don't reply it's because I'm busy, we're under attack near Vent, just hold your position soldier."
I could hear muffled screams and roars over whatever bizarre technology they were using while the commander spoke. I smiled to myself, and kept on with my silent slurping.
"Roger that" said the first marine as he started pacing the room.
The second mumbled some expletive and closed his communication link "Damned nub commander. I could do a better job."
"Give him a break" said the first, "It's a big job."
"Big job my ****," said the second "I'll show him a big job!" and he waved his hands down around his groin.
I had enough to build a number of offensive chambers now. I contemplated the wonderul chaos it would cause. I waddled around the edge of the res nodes, silent and invisible, and around behind to the back of the room where two passages led off under the walkway, careful to avoid the clumsy footsteps of the smelly ones. I waited until both marines were looking away and, in the alcove of the right most passage, spewed up an offensive chamber. The chamber made a sound as it appeared and was briefly visible, but it faded quickly.
"You hear something?" said the second marine.
"Yeah... " said the first, and they both started looking around the room.
I built my offensive chamber, tottally and utterly silently. I stopped short of completing it.
I waddled around the back of the passages and came up next to the other opening into the Holo room. I thew down another offensive chamber. They heard the sound again and this time started looking frantically. One marine start firing randomly into the walls. This was going to be tricky, I built as fast as I could.
"Comm, can you give us a scan down here, I think we're not alone...." said the second marine, but again no response came.
At about this moment, chaos ensued just as I had planned. I finished the OC, making a glooping noise as it stood to attention.
It fired seemingly out of nowhere, its cloak disappearing as it started its attack. The spike stabbed the second marine in the back. Both of them spun around.
"WUT TEH..."
Their slug throwers opened fire, my chamber flinched time and again, trying to track their movement as they dodged. I ran back into the room, slipping between their legs, a silent and invisible fatty ninja, and made it to the far wall.
Then first chamber finished building itself, and opened fire.
"BACKUP BACKUP!! Need help in Holo, we are under attack! NOW!!!111!!11!!!1!!!"
And then I myself opened fire, spitting a marine in the back of the head a couple of times. He must have been hit by too many spikes, as his crumpled body fell to the floor.
The other marine screamed in defiance and finished off the first offensive chamber, turning his attention to second one. I ran up behind him and started to health spray my disapproval.
He spun and his nasty slugs seared through my body. I flinched and ran off, he tried chasing me, firing to stop the sensory enveloping my wounded body with its cloak. And then, all of a sudden, the firing stopped.
I heard the slug thrower drop to the floor, and I turned to see a myriad of spikes sticking out of the fallen marine's body.
Vets? Pfft most who have posted stories so far are normal PTs not vets <!--emo&:p--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/tounge.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tounge.gif'><!--endemo-->
Thanks Storm and the rest <!--emo&:)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/smile.gif' border='0' valign='absmiddle' alt='smile.gif'><!--endemo-->
It's worth noting that in 1.1i Gorges can now plop down structures silently. If a sensory is also nearby, just think of the all ninja phatty possibilities of silent, invisible, building <!--emo&:)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/smile.gif' border='0' valign='absmiddle' alt='smile.gif'><!--endemo-->
Marik_SteeleTo rule in hell...Join Date: 2002-11-20Member: 9466Members
edited May 2003
This is a story for all those people who are still not convinced that I love playing the Lerk. I would've posted last night if my ISP hadn't gone wonky. Also keep in mind that for all of this, I had the Adrenaline upgrade; if adrenaline use for flapping or spiking gets changed again, this type of thing may be out of date.
We're on Fenris, the last map I played in last night's playtest, I was a lerk with Adren, Scent of Fear, and Regen. We had gotten 2 hives at a time and built all of those chambers, but it was such a long game and went back and forth, so at the time I'm talking about we had only 1 hive. (Seriously, great long game. They started with a res node rush of sorts, so they surprized us with several phase gate rushes; until after I did all of this stuff, it almost seemed like every time we got a hive, they took out one of our older ones. I loved it.)
I was in a vent overlooking a marine mini-outpost they had used to stage an attack on Ventilation hive. It had a phase gate, at least 3 turrets, the requisite turret factory, and perhaps some other things. I'm pretty sure I royally annoyed those marines. I'd spore the phase gate and start spiking the turret that had the best line of sight to me. A marine would phase in, he or the turret would shoot me a couple times, and I'd duck away in a corner. With Scent of Fear I'd see his position through the wall, I'd know whether he had phased back to base or not, so I knew when I could show my face again. I didn't kill too many people; my guess is they kept getting health packs back at base. But they kept sending more and more marines with bigger weapons or armor. By the time one got me (I forget if it was a grenadier or lucky LMGer), I had made them spend a respectable amount of time, resources, and manpower. Over the course of those few minutes, a few teammates with a bilebombing gorge across the map had cut off their resource flow by destroying their double res node.
It went downhill for them from there. When I went with 3 onos and Primal Screamed them into wrecking the original Marine base, they relocated to an empty res node in reasonable distance of one of our hives (if anyone remembers the previous stories in this thread, it was the hive with a taaaaallll ladder to get to one entrance). I'd spore their IPs and Armory, they'd come towards me, and I'd glide above them, around them, backwards, etc. spiking all the way. Gliding helps tremendously for keeping aloft -- you don't lose adrenaline nearly as easily.
KenichiThis is not a pie.Join Date: 2002-11-01Member: 2941Members, NS1 Playtester
more lerk fun!
Note to all, i lub da lerk.
It was a nice round on ns_eclipse. I had quickly gone lerk soon after the match started. We had gone defense chamber first so i grabed ahold of some regen. Which was quite nice it seems. I then made my way over to the new vent in the marine spawn. It just so happens that this vent has an amazing view right into the marine command chair area and in this case perfect view of the ip. I began spamming the spores onto the unsuspecting ip. I proceded to kill hida a good 6-10 times before their team started to get their act together. This vent also has a nice drop down area, as well as it being hard for marines to get in. So when i would get attacked i would drop some spores into the entrace of the vent and escape backwards droping some more spores in the drop down the vent has. Using this attack and escape method i annoyed the hell out of the marine team for a good 10 minutes or more. As well as racking up a good 8 kills or so on hida <!--emo&:p--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/tounge.gif' border='0' valign='absmiddle' alt='tounge.gif'><!--endemo--> Eventually they got 3 of their guys together and boosted k33l3m into the back side of the vent and he came up and got me from behind when i least expected it.
once i respawned i had enough res to go lerk again and i did so. This time our hive was under severe attack almost the moment i finished regen. The hive was maint and using spores i would spam 3 or more spores clouds in the hallway where the marines would camp. Since spore damage stacks i quickly killed probably 6 marines over the course of the attack raid with spores alone. Although we lost the hive it still showed that the 1 hvie lerk can do quite effective damage against a whole team of marines that are camping. When you are a lerk, camping marines in a group are great targets. Fun stuff. I would have had more lerk fun but i had a connection error that droped me out. so i speced the rest of the game.
Marik_SteeleTo rule in hell...Join Date: 2002-11-20Member: 9466Members
Quickie. Just a memorable moment on Eclipse. I'm playing as alien. Someone has just evolved to Gorge and asks what type of chamber we want. You may already know that movement has gotten very popular recently. A vet (or a PT whose voice I equally didn't recognize) answers casually over voice comm "Let's try defense for once." About five seconds later, you hear the same one say over voice comm "Damn, never thought I'd hear myself saying that. 'Let's try defense for once.' Wow."
We proceeded to barely fend off a phase-gate and shotgun-based attack on Maintenance hive, starting to build the hive in Computer Core just in time. Then the marines did nearly the same but with even more force to Computer Core -- Maintenance had been a distraction, and they expected us to run for a hive location. We fought off that attack as well, finally ending with me going gorge in Maintenance (I hadn't spent any res at all to that point in the game), and building the hive. I saw a lone marine enter and start knifing away at the res tower while I was evolving back to skulk. Poor fool had a shotgun and never realized that the hive he and his buddies had just destroyed was already starting up again. I promptly made lunchmeat out of him, and it just went downhill for the marines from there.
The following story is entirely true <!--emo&:0--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/wow.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='wow.gif'><!--endemo-->
The map was Nothing. The marines were having trouble keeping up with the aliens. Two hives were already up and the aliens had spread everywhere. Me and another marine, armed only with lmg's went to foreboding via quad lift to kill the alien RT there. So we jump down the lift, he starts to knife and I sit in front of the lift watching his back. From above me I hear an unwelcome stomping sound.... I look up and theres an Onos about to jump down and swallow my tender body. <!--emo&::onos::--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/tiny.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tiny.gif'><!--endemo-->
Knowing I stand no chance with my LMG, I quickly spring into action and run for the lift control button, hoping I can scurry under the rising lift and trap the Onos from getting through. But the Onos did not delay and had already jumped down. He lands with a huge thud and a grunt right as I activate the lift into its slow ascent. Having done a wild leap to reach the button faster, I now land on the edge of the lift as the Onos closes the distance between us. I frantically jump off the rising lift right as the Onos gets right behind me and stomps. Now stunned and on the foreboding walkway just below the lift, unable to move, the Onos closes in to swallow me whole. But in his furious plight for food he lost perspective of how high the lift was in relative to the celing of foreboding...
Half way off the lift, the lift rises too high and he becomes pinned between the celing and the lift...
I run under the lift to hide and realize that with just my trusty LMG and my quick wits, Ive killed me an Onos. I taunt him repeatedly as he crushes to death <!--emo&:D--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif'><!--endemo--> <!--emo&:D--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif'><!--endemo--> <!--emo&:D--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif'><!--endemo-->
<!--QuoteBegin--moguai+May 28 2003, 06:20 AM--></span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> (moguai @ May 28 2003, 06:20 AM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin--> The following story is entirely true <!--emo&:0--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/wow.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='wow.gif'><!--endemo-->
The map was Nothing. The marines were having trouble keeping up with the aliens. Two hives were already up and the aliens had spread everywhere. Me and another marine, armed only with lmg's went to foreboding via quad lift to kill the alien RT there. So we jump down the lift, he starts to knife and I sit in front of the lift watching his back. From above me I hear an unwelcome stomping sound.... I look up and theres an Onos about to jump down and swallow my tender body. <!--emo&::onos::--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/tiny.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tiny.gif'><!--endemo-->
Knowing I stand no chance with my LMG, I quickly spring into action and run for the lift control button, hoping I can scurry under the rising lift and trap the Onos from getting through. But the Onos did not delay and had already jumped down. He lands with a huge thud and a grunt right as I activate the lift into its slow ascent. Having done a wild leap to reach the button faster, I now land on the edge of the lift as the Onos closes the distance between us. I frantically jump off the rising lift right as the Onos gets right behind me and stomps. Now stunned and on the foreboding walkway just below the lift, unable to move, the Onos closes in to swallow me whole. But in his furious plight for food he lost perspective of how high the lift was in relative to the celing of foreboding...
Half way off the lift, the lift rises too high and he becomes pinned between the celing and the lift...
I run under the lift to hide and realize that with just my trusty LMG and my quick wits, Ive killed me an Onos. I taunt him repeatedly as he crushes to death <!--emo&:D--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif'><!--endemo--> <!--emo&:D--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif'><!--endemo--> <!--emo&:D--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif'><!--endemo--> <!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'> <!--QuoteEEnd--> You are lucky we dont have /stuck yet.
P.S...I killed myself before I let the elevator kill me <!--emo&:p--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/tounge.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tounge.gif'><!--endemo-->
Well I was going to let the onos remain anonymous to avoid embarrasment... but oh well, <b>#cri.oshua</b> <!--emo&:p--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/tounge.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tounge.gif'><!--endemo-->
Marik_SteeleTo rule in hell...Join Date: 2002-11-20Member: 9466Members
Just got out of a possibly once-in-a-lifetime situation as a marine on Tanith (made all the better in the end by first-person spectating!)
We find out through a quick scouting that they have waste hive, and proceed to rush for every other res on the map. Our base is a small one: just an IP, armory, electrified t-fac, and arms lab all in one clump (make use of the electricity). I'm defending base while a bunch of the team are out doing their normal business, and I see one skulk pop out of the left entrance. No biggie, I heard him coming and shot a couple LMG bullets that way, but I got parasited when it popped out. I hear another one on the other side, same thing. After a little whack-a-mole, three skulks simultaneously rush through using both entrances to the base, and make short work of me. I tell the team this, and they get back into base just in time to see the CC is gone and one of the 3 has already had time to evolve to gorge (it didn't get much time to heal stuff.)
Our entire team is in one spot, we have no CC and near every res node on the map, and we're pretty sure they have 1 hive. We decide to rush waste. Our entire team goes and doesn't quite kill it before skulks take us out, but we take out every chamber in sight. We decide to go for it again. But by the time the second rush is done and their hive is down, our IP is gone, less than half our team is alive, and we can tell they have a hive building.
Less than 30 seconds later, neither team is respawning and it's 1v1. All or nothing. Marines lost (primarily because the gorge managed to place a lone offense chamber before dying), but it was a nerve-racking game to spectate in the end.
<i>ATTN: All Enlisted Trans-System Authority Frontiersmen RE: New Field Technology EFFECTIVE: Immediately
Since the TSA first encountered the Kharaa threat, our research team has been hard at work to give enlisted soldiers the most up-to-date and situation-effective technology possible. TSA scientists have analyzed mission logs and helmet monitor records to better understand the instincts of the Kharaa in the wild, and the biology laboratories have done dissections of dead specimens as well as very limited (and very careful!) observation of the few live creatures that have been captured, though they generally do not live long enough for extensive study.
Armed with a greater knowledge of Kharaa physiology and tactics, the team has produced several alterations and upgrades to existing technology to better confront the alien threat. Most notable among these improvements is that it is now possible to electrically charge the outer surface of key field structures, including the turret factory and resource collector.
Other technologies have been modified in attempts to produce more reliable field performance while remaining cost effective. As such, marines in the field should no longer experience the extremely variable effectiveness of technologies including but not limited to Jetpacks and nano-construction. Those soldiers who find themselves in the command console will note a different but vastly improved interface, aimed at giving smoother, more precise control in accomplishing your objectives and getting your team home safe.
You may notice in the field that fallen comrades' weapons self-disassemble rapidly upon user death. It was found that weapons dropped were immediately attacked by the Kharaa bacterial infection, and were eventually broken down and lost. Due to the fact that dropped equipment is so infrequently reclaimed by another marine before this process is complete, TSA scientists have tied all weaponry to its user; in the event of user death, the weapon is tagged for deconstruction by the facility's nanites, and its component parts are returned to the resource stream. This has allowed increased efficiency in the production of weapons, and commanders will note that nearly all weapons now require fewer resources for construction.
The TSA Remote Manual has been updated with full specifications of all alterations to equipment; all personnel should familiarize themselves with these changes as soon as possible, as the new technology will be implemented immediately for all future engagements.</i>
<b>End Message.</b><!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd--> Two weeks later... <!--QuoteBegin--></span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> </td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin--><b>Accessing Mission Log Archive... Opening Mission Log ID# <span style='color:white'>382-J31104A</span> Displaying Full Log, start time 1907:23.44 ... ...</b> --All right, marines, scanner sweep shows a hive in Feedwater Control. I want Alpha and Bravo to move to Atmospheric Processing; Alpha, continue on to Feedwater Control. Bravo, you'll be setting up an outpost. Charlie, remain in Docking Bay 1. -(Alpha1) Roger that, Alpha moving out. -(Bravo1) Bravo team, moving out. -(Charlie1) Charlie taking defensive positions. -(Alpha1) Sir, I'm hearing movement in Atmospheric Processing. Advise high route for Bravo team and Alpha into the ventilation system. --Copy that, Alpha 1; proceed to the hive. Bravo team, scanner sweep shows a pocket of offensive chambers and a sensory chamber, one resource node, a Gorge and a Lerk in Atmospheric Processing. Stick it where it hurts. -(B1) Yessir. -(B2) I heard that. No defensive chambers? --Negative, Bravo 2. Offense and sensory only. -(B3) Sitting ducks. -(B2) All this new tech, and we get the "Stupid" kharaa subspecies. Ah well, guess we'll be back early. -(B1) Chat back in the locker room, ladies. Jim, up the ladder and tell me what you see. -(B3) Roger that... Uh, sir? Sir, there's nothing here. One dead node, that's -- AUGH!! I CAN'T SEE!!! OH GOD!!!! -(B2) Jim's down! Jesus, his face -- those aren't lerk spines! Sir, we need a medpack! -(B1) Incoming, rifles up! -(B2) Spores! What the hell? *coughing* -(B1) *cough* Fall back! Fall back to Aft Starboard! Sir, we've lost Jim, we're taking advanced alien fire here! --That's not possible; they've only got the one hive! Hell, we shouldn't even be seeing Lerks in an infestation this new... -(Charlie 1) Sir, the starboard airlock just activated, we've got incoming. --Copy that. Bravo, get back to command immediately. Alpha, report in. --Alpha, report in! --<i>...sh!t.</i> -(C3) ONOS!!!! *machinegun fire* -(C2) What the flying <i>f***</i> is going on here?!?! *machinegun fire* <b><Command Console Message: Infantry Portal under attack></b> -(B1) Christ, we need shotguns! Commander, we're getting slaughtered out here! <b><Command Console Message: Structure taking damage> <Command Console Message: We need an Infantry Portal></b> --We've lost the Infantry Portal! Fall back to the Command Console! Fall back! *machinegun fire* *screams* <b><Command Console Message: Command Console is under attack> <Command Console Status: Commander logged out> <Command Console Message: Command Console is under attack> <Command Console Message: Command Console is under attack> <Command Console Message: Command Console is under attack></b>
coilAmateur pirate. Professional monkey. All pance.Join Date: 2002-04-12Member: 424Members, NS1 Playtester, Contributor
On it!
I joined Marines for my first game on the latest version of Veil; shortly after spawning, someone called over voicecomm that a substantial Gorge Gang was approaching the center area of the map, heading for the Marine Start. 2 minutes into the game, the commander dropped 4 or 5 shotguns - an unheard-of expense, but we snapped them up and moved out en masse towards where the alien menace had last been spotted. Sure enough, we found several gorges, some skulk backup, and a lerk in the process of setting up an expansion - a Resource Tower and two or three Offensive Chambers.
The battle was quick, and messy... the aliens were unprepared for high-power weapons, and dropped like flies (all except the Lerk, who beat a hasty retreat covered by spore clouds). The resource tower and offensive chambers, likewise, quickly fell under our combined firepower. It was a rout.
We set up our own resource tower on the now-vacant nozzle, then proceeded down the hall to a second nozzle that also had an alien RT on it. Two of us took it down while the skulks began returning, dropping before the shotguns of our defenders. A second marine node went up, and we stayed there while we waited for the electricity upgrade to complete. All in all, the early game had put us in an excellent mood.
The game continued, and we controlled much of the map but were having a lot of trouble pushing into any of the hives. Soon enough, I saw a skulk leap towards me as I pasted it with my shotgun - they had two hives. One of my teammates commented that they were moving into the central hive, and if we didn't take it we would be facing 3-hive aliens. We pushed towards it, but were all of a sudden recalled by our commander - base was under attack!
Two or three of us turned back, moving as quickly as we could. We reached the base to find the turret factory, arms lab, and a pair of skulks chewing on the CC. The IP, Armory, and Observatory had all been destroyed. Meanwhile, our assault team had failed, lacking comm support (our comm had logged out to save the base, and been killed). One of our "cavalry" fell to the skulks, leaving two of us alive - I jumped into the CC and dropped an IP and Armory, hopped back out and got them both up. We re-set up base with a few turrets, then again moved towards the center hive. We figured it was probably the least well-defended area of the aliens' territory.
All of a sudden, we saw a Xenocide kill sprite. 3 hives.
Then the comm was on the radio, yelling at us to get back to base - two gorges had snuck in and were bile-bombing everything in sight. We started back, when the Comm made the decision to relocate. A waypoint appeared on my HUD... it was abysmally far away, but I turned towards it. I was the only one left of my group; checking the team menu showed I was one of two left alive. I reached the waypoint to discover a Comm Chair just finished by my remaining teammate; he jumped in and dropped an IP, and we both set to building it as quickly as possible. Then we heard the clicking of skulk claws behind us. I reached for my LMG and jumped backwards, but it was a startlingly fast 4 bites and suddenly the game was over... the IP had been one bar away from completion.
coilAmateur pirate. Professional monkey. All pance.Join Date: 2002-04-12Member: 424Members, NS1 Playtester, Contributor
edited July 2003
We're moving this to General so normal members can respond to various stories... <b><span style='color:white'>NOTE that this is NOT a thread for 1.04 stories! This is for 1.1 stories only.</span></b> We just want to give everyone a chance to respond to any good stories that come along.
coilAmateur pirate. Professional monkey. All pance.Join Date: 2002-04-12Member: 424Members, NS1 Playtester, Contributor
One thing you have to understand is the way the new Sensory Chambers behave: they cloak any alien in range until that alien attacks. Additionally, the cloaking itself fades in and out - very, very sexy, but it means that it takes a half-second or so for an alien to become visible after he first attacks.
I was a marine on ns_mineshaft, and I and one ally were in a dimly-lit room, rough-hewn from the rock of the planet with a large man-made door at either end. I was feeling pretty good about the situation; I had heavy armor and a shotgun, and we had just gotten motion tracking researched. However, it was a large game... seeing twelve blue circles blipping erratically around the map is quite disconcerting. What was worse was that I knew the aliens had sensory chambers at their disposal.
The doorway closest to the nearby hive opened immediately to a T-junction, which meant that there was no long hallway to scan for approaching hostiles. Our assault on the area had just failed; sensory-cloaked skulks had taken down the attack force, leaving the two of us behind. We didn't have the firepower to take the hallway beyond, so we were holding position while our commander outfitted reinforcements. He dropped a phase gate, and my ally started to build.
So it was me, the doorway, and my motion tracking. I watched a blue blip approach from the right branch of the T; I gauged when the alien would round the corner, and nearly jumped out of my skin as a skulk <i>materialized</i> in the air in front of me, mid-leap at my face. My shotgun went off practically on its own, and the skulk dropped. Another blip approached and the same nerve-wracking scene replayed itself; I couldn't see the skulks, cloaked by a nearby sensory chamber. They rounded the corner and leapt, uncloaking almost in slow-motion as they flew through the air towards me. Three, four, I lost track of how many skulks I dropped with my shotgun, but I was running out of ammo and armor. My commander dropped ammo and a few health packs; I fed shells into the gun as another blip approached.
Finally, I heard the sound of the phase gate coming online, and reinforcements began pouring through. It took my heart a while to slow down, though.
i want to see a video of a skulk leaping out of cloaking <!--emo&:D--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif'><!--endemo--> omg so cool coil... man i keep hearing about these.. i cant believe we got that close stories.. to me it sounds like 2.0=winnar
o man come on guys... we are dying waiting for the pr blitz to start <!--emo&:p--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/tounge.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tounge.gif'><!--endemo--> keep em coming
Comments
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Gorgie stories? Ok gestating one, this old and ragged Gorge shall reveal a tale or two...
Twas on that horrid piece of rock we fell to many aeons ago. I believe the smelly bipedal ones called it Hera. They shouldn't have been there, and neither should we, but as the old ones wrote 'Spawners can't be choosers'.
*cough wheeze*
So, I awoke to the sounds of those blasted slug hurling weapons the smelly ones use. I could sense my brood brother in the hallway outside, and heard the delicious scream of a marine being bitten in half. A chuckle, unmistakable, of my Skulk brethren. I sensed the hive needed more resources, and I decided to evolve into A Glorious Provider Of All Things. Waddling out into the bright sparkly walls of some alien technology I went in search of tasty resources.
Hera was big to me. Being just minutes old in a world I could not understand, I hid in shadows and hugged the walls. I heard the screams of Skulks and smelly ones dying in unison in the distance, and then! THEN! I stumbled across not one delicious sprouting outlet, but two. I found out later that the smelly ones called it 'Holo'. Probably some reference to their foul god. The odd light emitting from the center of the room looked like it had religious significance. They would need it, for I would make sure my brothers had the energy to evolve into our more ferocious warriors.
* snooooorrt cough cough *
I regurgitated a sensory chamber in the corner with my meagre reserves, and built it quickly. I felt the comfortable prickling of cloak descending as my body transposed to almost nothing. And then I sat at one of the nozzles and started slurping that delicious, wonderful flow.
I sensed a change in the hive mind. There was another Gorge and a new hive had begun construction. Those foolish smelly ones! We would repel them, and turn their weak bodies into snackpacks for our young. Then suddenly I heard a strange clunking sound. A bipdeal walking sound. I froze in fear. I was alone in this part of Hera, and smelly ones were coming. I stopped my slurping for it would draw attention to me, and carefully walked into a corner. I sat and watched.
A marine walked in, I could smell his stench in spite of the strange green layer he wore on top of his pathetic soft and squishy flesh.
"All clear" I heard, knowing not what it meant.
A second marine came in and greeted the first, "Goddam stinking aliens, they've locked us out of Data Core."
"How? I thought we had that secured?" said the first, walking casually towards the corner where I sat. He had some strange burning stick in his mouth, and as his legs almost brushed me he pulled it out and dropped it on me.
My flesh burned, and I resisted the urge to scream. The foul, evil, creature was torturing me! But surely, he did not know I was there? No, he was painfully (literally) oblivious.
"We only had a few turrets there" the second marine continued, "Skulk flesh all over the place according to the Comm, but they just used brute force. It's gone, eaten like it never existed."
"I'll be, little runts" said the first, walking slowly towards the center of the room, leaning on the religious beaming light structure.
I contemplated my chances of spitting these foul creatures to death, but I was a smart Gorge, I knew my limits. One I could take, perhaps getting hurt and not dying. Two... I did not want to risk it.
And then, to my horror, I burped. I couldn't help it! To them, it sounded like a grunt. The first marine raised his slug thrower and spun around, looking directly at me. I slowed my breathing.
"You hear that?" he said.
"Hear what?" said the second.
"That... sound."
"Pfft! It was probably your stomach, nub."
"Don't call me a nub, nub!"
"Sif I'm a nub, foo! You're the one hearing things."
"Oh, really? Well hear this. You are sux0r to teh m4x0r!"
"I'm sorry, are you asking me to punch you in the face? Because I have a special on face punchings today and I'd be happy to obli.."
There was a strange echoed crackling sound, and then I heard a strained voice "WHAT ARE YOU TWO STANDING AROUND FOR, GET TO DATA CORE ON THE DOUBLE!"
"Yessir!" they both chimed in, and ran off under the walkway, but not before the first marine gave the room a quick look, shaking his head as he left.
I let out a sigh of relief, and burped again. Waddling forward I resumed my suckling. I was feeling fatter now, and resolved to cap this node for my brothers. I spewed up a resource tower, and quickly started building it. It was then I heard the hive mind again -- we had a new evolutionary trait, movement enhancements. I chuckled and, finishing the tower, decided I did not want to draw attention to myself again through my accidental burpings.
* cough COUGH WHEEEEZE splutter *
Excuse me. Years of res munching will do this to you. Now, where was I...
Yes, I decided I would silcence myself. I evolved in my egg state and felt new glands growing in my mouth and on my feet. I did this until I felt I had the maximum evolutionary change I could muster. And then I started sucking the free node. I could not hear myself eat! It was strange, at first, but I got used to it. I started planning my build order. Offensive chmabers next, yes, to defend the room from smelly bipedals. And then, perhaps, I would go looking for another hive spot. Yes, this is what I would do.
But then I heard it again. The clank clank clank. I couldn't believe it, can't they leave me alone? Two more marines walked in, down the sloped ramp and into Holo, scanning the walls, slug throwers following their eyes.
I kept on sucking. I wasn't going to waste time.
"All clear here sir" said the first.
"Good" came the crackled response, "We'll cap the room soon as I have the res."
"You want us to hold?" said the second, but no response came.
"YOU WANT US TO HOLD COMM?"
"FFS If I don't reply it's because I'm busy, we're under attack near Vent, just hold your position soldier."
I could hear muffled screams and roars over whatever bizarre technology they were using while the commander spoke. I smiled to myself, and kept on with my silent slurping.
"Roger that" said the first marine as he started pacing the room.
The second mumbled some expletive and closed his communication link "Damned nub commander. I could do a better job."
"Give him a break" said the first, "It's a big job."
"Big job my ****," said the second "I'll show him a big job!" and he waved his hands down around his groin.
I had enough to build a number of offensive chambers now. I contemplated the wonderul chaos it would cause. I waddled around the edge of the res nodes, silent and invisible, and around behind to the back of the room where two passages led off under the walkway, careful to avoid the clumsy footsteps of the smelly ones. I waited until both marines were looking away and, in the alcove of the right most passage, spewed up an offensive chamber. The chamber made a sound as it appeared and was briefly visible, but it faded quickly.
"You hear something?" said the second marine.
"Yeah... " said the first, and they both started looking around the room.
I built my offensive chamber, tottally and utterly silently. I stopped short of completing it.
I waddled around the back of the passages and came up next to the other opening into the Holo room. I thew down another offensive chamber. They heard the sound again and this time started looking frantically. One marine start firing randomly into the walls. This was going to be tricky, I built as fast as I could.
"Comm, can you give us a scan down here, I think we're not alone...." said the second marine, but again no response came.
At about this moment, chaos ensued just as I had planned. I finished the OC, making a glooping noise as it stood to attention.
It fired seemingly out of nowhere, its cloak disappearing as it started its attack. The spike stabbed the second marine in the back. Both of them spun around.
"WUT TEH..."
Their slug throwers opened fire, my chamber flinched time and again, trying to track their movement as they dodged. I ran back into the room, slipping between their legs, a silent and invisible fatty ninja, and made it to the far wall.
Then first chamber finished building itself, and opened fire.
"BACKUP BACKUP!! Need help in Holo, we are under attack! NOW!!!111!!11!!!1!!!"
And then I myself opened fire, spitting a marine in the back of the head a couple of times. He must have been hit by too many spikes, as his crumpled body fell to the floor.
The other marine screamed in defiance and finished off the first offensive chamber, turning his attention to second one. I ran up behind him and started to health spray my disapproval.
He spun and his nasty slugs seared through my body. I flinched and ran off, he tried chasing me, firing to stop the sensory enveloping my wounded body with its cloak. And then, all of a sudden, the firing stopped.
I heard the slug thrower drop to the floor, and I turned to see a myriad of spikes sticking out of the fallen marine's body.
And then I did all that was left to do.
I chuckled.
Mart
DAMN YOU VETS. GIVE US 1.1. GRRR
Can't wait to get my hands on 1.1!!!@O$J!KJ~
What? What do you want? Mind not calling out my name randomly? Really really annoying... geez...
<!--QuoteBegin--></span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> </td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin-->Awesome story Mart.<!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Well, yeah, I do put a lot of effort into my ATMTs... what, you're talking about something else? Really? Figures.
¬The REAL Mart
It's worth noting that in 1.1i Gorges can now plop down structures silently. If a sensory is also nearby, just think of the all ninja phatty possibilities of silent, invisible, building <!--emo&:)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/smile.gif' border='0' valign='absmiddle' alt='smile.gif'><!--endemo-->
Martigen
Also keep in mind that for all of this, I had the Adrenaline upgrade; if adrenaline use for flapping or spiking gets changed again, this type of thing may be out of date.
We're on Fenris, the last map I played in last night's playtest, I was a lerk with Adren, Scent of Fear, and Regen. We had gotten 2 hives at a time and built all of those chambers, but it was such a long game and went back and forth, so at the time I'm talking about we had only 1 hive. (Seriously, great long game. They started with a res node rush of sorts, so they surprized us with several phase gate rushes; until after I did all of this stuff, it almost seemed like every time we got a hive, they took out one of our older ones. I loved it.)
I was in a vent overlooking a marine mini-outpost they had used to stage an attack on Ventilation hive. It had a phase gate, at least 3 turrets, the requisite turret factory, and perhaps some other things.
I'm pretty sure I royally annoyed those marines. I'd spore the phase gate and start spiking the turret that had the best line of sight to me. A marine would phase in, he or the turret would shoot me a couple times, and I'd duck away in a corner. With Scent of Fear I'd see his position through the wall, I'd know whether he had phased back to base or not, so I knew when I could show my face again. I didn't kill too many people; my guess is they kept getting health packs back at base. But they kept sending more and more marines with bigger weapons or armor. By the time one got me (I forget if it was a grenadier or lucky LMGer), I had made them spend a respectable amount of time, resources, and manpower. Over the course of those few minutes, a few teammates with a bilebombing gorge across the map had cut off their resource flow by destroying their double res node.
It went downhill for them from there. When I went with 3 onos and Primal Screamed them into wrecking the original Marine base, they relocated to an empty res node in reasonable distance of one of our hives (if anyone remembers the previous stories in this thread, it was the hive with a taaaaallll ladder to get to one entrance). I'd spore their IPs and Armory, they'd come towards me, and I'd glide above them, around them, backwards, etc. spiking all the way. Gliding helps tremendously for keeping aloft -- you don't lose adrenaline nearly as easily.
Note to all, i lub da lerk.
It was a nice round on ns_eclipse. I had quickly gone lerk soon after the match started. We had gone defense chamber first so i grabed ahold of some regen. Which was quite nice it seems. I then made my way over to the new vent in the marine spawn. It just so happens that this vent has an amazing view right into the marine command chair area and in this case perfect view of the ip. I began spamming the spores onto the unsuspecting ip. I proceded to kill hida a good 6-10 times before their team started to get their act together. This vent also has a nice drop down area, as well as it being hard for marines to get in. So when i would get attacked i would drop some spores into the entrace of the vent and escape backwards droping some more spores in the drop down the vent has. Using this attack and escape method i annoyed the hell out of the marine team for a good 10 minutes or more. As well as racking up a good 8 kills or so on hida <!--emo&:p--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/tounge.gif' border='0' valign='absmiddle' alt='tounge.gif'><!--endemo--> Eventually they got 3 of their guys together and boosted k33l3m into the back side of the vent and he came up and got me from behind when i least expected it.
once i respawned i had enough res to go lerk again and i did so. This time our hive was under severe attack almost the moment i finished regen. The hive was maint and using spores i would spam 3 or more spores clouds in the hallway where the marines would camp. Since spore damage stacks i quickly killed probably 6 marines over the course of the attack raid with spores alone. Although we lost the hive it still showed that the 1 hvie lerk can do quite effective damage against a whole team of marines that are camping. When you are a lerk, camping marines in a group are great targets. Fun stuff. I would have had more lerk fun but i had a connection error that droped me out. so i speced the rest of the game.
I'm playing as alien. Someone has just evolved to Gorge and asks what type of chamber we want. You may already know that movement has gotten very popular recently.
A vet (or a PT whose voice I equally didn't recognize) answers casually over voice comm "Let's try defense for once." About five seconds later, you hear the same one say over voice comm "Damn, never thought I'd hear myself saying that. 'Let's try defense for once.' Wow."
We proceeded to barely fend off a phase-gate and shotgun-based attack on Maintenance hive, starting to build the hive in Computer Core just in time. Then the marines did nearly the same but with even more force to Computer Core -- Maintenance had been a distraction, and they expected us to run for a hive location. We fought off that attack as well, finally ending with me going gorge in Maintenance (I hadn't spent any res at all to that point in the game), and building the hive. I saw a lone marine enter and start knifing away at the res tower while I was evolving back to skulk. Poor fool had a shotgun and never realized that the hive he and his buddies had just destroyed was already starting up again. I promptly made lunchmeat out of him, and it just went downhill for the marines from there.
The map was Nothing. The marines were having trouble keeping up with the aliens. Two hives were already up and the aliens had spread everywhere. Me and another marine, armed only with lmg's went to foreboding via quad lift to kill the alien RT there. So we jump down the lift, he starts to knife and I sit in front of the lift watching his back. From above me I hear an unwelcome stomping sound.... I look up and theres an Onos about to jump down and swallow my tender body. <!--emo&::onos::--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/tiny.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tiny.gif'><!--endemo-->
Knowing I stand no chance with my LMG, I quickly spring into action and run for the lift control button, hoping I can scurry under the rising lift and trap the Onos from getting through. But the Onos did not delay and had already jumped down. He lands with a huge thud and a grunt right as I activate the lift into its slow ascent. Having done a wild leap to reach the button faster, I now land on the edge of the lift as the Onos closes the distance between us. I frantically jump off the rising lift right as the Onos gets right behind me and stomps. Now stunned and on the foreboding walkway just below the lift, unable to move, the Onos closes in to swallow me whole. But in his furious plight for food he lost perspective of how high the lift was in relative to the celing of foreboding...
Half way off the lift, the lift rises too high and he becomes pinned between the celing and the lift...
I run under the lift to hide and realize that with just my trusty LMG and my quick wits, Ive killed me an Onos. I taunt him repeatedly as he crushes to death <!--emo&:D--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif'><!--endemo--> <!--emo&:D--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif'><!--endemo--> <!--emo&:D--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif'><!--endemo-->
The map was Nothing. The marines were having trouble keeping up with the aliens. Two hives were already up and the aliens had spread everywhere. Me and another marine, armed only with lmg's went to foreboding via quad lift to kill the alien RT there. So we jump down the lift, he starts to knife and I sit in front of the lift watching his back. From above me I hear an unwelcome stomping sound.... I look up and theres an Onos about to jump down and swallow my tender body. <!--emo&::onos::--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/tiny.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tiny.gif'><!--endemo-->
Knowing I stand no chance with my LMG, I quickly spring into action and run for the lift control button, hoping I can scurry under the rising lift and trap the Onos from getting through. But the Onos did not delay and had already jumped down. He lands with a huge thud and a grunt right as I activate the lift into its slow ascent. Having done a wild leap to reach the button faster, I now land on the edge of the lift as the Onos closes the distance between us. I frantically jump off the rising lift right as the Onos gets right behind me and stomps. Now stunned and on the foreboding walkway just below the lift, unable to move, the Onos closes in to swallow me whole. But in his furious plight for food he lost perspective of how high the lift was in relative to the celing of foreboding...
Half way off the lift, the lift rises too high and he becomes pinned between the celing and the lift...
I run under the lift to hide and realize that with just my trusty LMG and my quick wits, Ive killed me an Onos. I taunt him repeatedly as he crushes to death <!--emo&:D--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif'><!--endemo--> <!--emo&:D--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif'><!--endemo--> <!--emo&:D--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif'><!--endemo--> <!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'> <!--QuoteEEnd-->
You are lucky we dont have /stuck yet.
P.S...I killed myself before I let the elevator kill me <!--emo&:p--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/tounge.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tounge.gif'><!--endemo-->
We find out through a quick scouting that they have waste hive, and proceed to rush for every other res on the map. Our base is a small one: just an IP, armory, electrified t-fac, and arms lab all in one clump (make use of the electricity).
I'm defending base while a bunch of the team are out doing their normal business, and I see one skulk pop out of the left entrance. No biggie, I heard him coming and shot a couple LMG bullets that way, but I got parasited when it popped out. I hear another one on the other side, same thing. After a little whack-a-mole, three skulks simultaneously rush through using both entrances to the base, and make short work of me. I tell the team this, and they get back into base just in time to see the CC is gone and one of the 3 has already had time to evolve to gorge (it didn't get much time to heal stuff.)
Our entire team is in one spot, we have no CC and near every res node on the map, and we're pretty sure they have 1 hive. We decide to rush waste. Our entire team goes and doesn't quite kill it before skulks take us out, but we take out every chamber in sight. We decide to go for it again. But by the time the second rush is done and their hive is down, our IP is gone, less than half our team is alive, and we can tell they have a hive building.
Less than 30 seconds later, neither team is respawning and it's 1v1. All or nothing. Marines lost (primarily because the gorge managed to place a lone offense chamber before dying), but it was a nerve-racking game to spectate in the end.
______
<!--QuoteBegin--></span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> </td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin--><b>Incoming message recieved. Identifying security level...
...
SECURITY LEVEL: ORANGE (Enlisted personnel)
Decoding...
...
...
Message decoded. Display? (Y/N)_ </b>Y<b>
Displaying message:</b>
<i>ATTN: All Enlisted Trans-System Authority Frontiersmen
RE: New Field Technology
EFFECTIVE: Immediately
Since the TSA first encountered the Kharaa threat, our research team has been hard at work to give enlisted soldiers the most up-to-date and situation-effective technology possible. TSA scientists have analyzed mission logs and helmet monitor records to better understand the instincts of the Kharaa in the wild, and the biology laboratories have done dissections of dead specimens as well as very limited (and very careful!) observation of the few live creatures that have been captured, though they generally do not live long enough for extensive study.
Armed with a greater knowledge of Kharaa physiology and tactics, the team has produced several alterations and upgrades to existing technology to better confront the alien threat. Most notable among these improvements is that it is now possible to electrically charge the outer surface of key field structures, including the turret factory and resource collector.
Other technologies have been modified in attempts to produce more reliable field performance while remaining cost effective. As such, marines in the field should no longer experience the extremely variable effectiveness of technologies including but not limited to Jetpacks and nano-construction. Those soldiers who find themselves in the command console will note a different but vastly improved interface, aimed at giving smoother, more precise control in accomplishing your objectives and getting your team home safe.
You may notice in the field that fallen comrades' weapons self-disassemble rapidly upon user death. It was found that weapons dropped were immediately attacked by the Kharaa bacterial infection, and were eventually broken down and lost. Due to the fact that dropped equipment is so infrequently reclaimed by another marine before this process is complete, TSA scientists have tied all weaponry to its user; in the event of user death, the weapon is tagged for deconstruction by the facility's nanites, and its component parts are returned to the resource stream. This has allowed increased efficiency in the production of weapons, and commanders will note that nearly all weapons now require fewer resources for construction.
The TSA Remote Manual has been updated with full specifications of all alterations to equipment; all personnel should familiarize themselves with these changes as soon as possible, as the new technology will be implemented immediately for all future engagements.</i>
<b>End Message.</b><!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Two weeks later...
<!--QuoteBegin--></span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> </td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin--><b>Accessing Mission Log Archive...
Opening Mission Log ID# <span style='color:white'>382-J31104A</span>
Displaying Full Log, start time 1907:23.44
...
...</b>
--All right, marines, scanner sweep shows a hive in Feedwater Control. I want Alpha and Bravo to move to Atmospheric Processing; Alpha, continue on to Feedwater Control. Bravo, you'll be setting up an outpost. Charlie, remain in Docking Bay 1.
-(Alpha1) Roger that, Alpha moving out.
-(Bravo1) Bravo team, moving out.
-(Charlie1) Charlie taking defensive positions.
-(Alpha1) Sir, I'm hearing movement in Atmospheric Processing. Advise high route for Bravo team and Alpha into the ventilation system.
--Copy that, Alpha 1; proceed to the hive. Bravo team, scanner sweep shows a pocket of offensive chambers and a sensory chamber, one resource node, a Gorge and a Lerk in Atmospheric Processing. Stick it where it hurts.
-(B1) Yessir.
-(B2) I heard that. No defensive chambers?
--Negative, Bravo 2. Offense and sensory only.
-(B3) Sitting ducks.
-(B2) All this new tech, and we get the "Stupid" kharaa subspecies. Ah well, guess we'll be back early.
-(B1) Chat back in the locker room, ladies. Jim, up the ladder and tell me what you see.
-(B3) Roger that... Uh, sir? Sir, there's nothing here. One dead node, that's -- AUGH!! I CAN'T SEE!!! OH GOD!!!!
-(B2) Jim's down! Jesus, his face -- those aren't lerk spines! Sir, we need a medpack!
-(B1) Incoming, rifles up!
-(B2) Spores! What the hell? *coughing*
-(B1) *cough* Fall back! Fall back to Aft Starboard! Sir, we've lost Jim, we're taking advanced alien fire here!
--That's not possible; they've only got the one hive! Hell, we shouldn't even be seeing Lerks in an infestation this new...
-(Charlie 1) Sir, the starboard airlock just activated, we've got incoming.
--Copy that. Bravo, get back to command immediately. Alpha, report in.
--Alpha, report in!
--<i>...sh!t.</i>
-(C3) ONOS!!!!
*machinegun fire*
-(C2) What the flying <i>f***</i> is going on here?!?!
*machinegun fire*
<b><Command Console Message: Infantry Portal under attack></b>
-(B1) Christ, we need shotguns! Commander, we're getting slaughtered out here!
<b><Command Console Message: Structure taking damage>
<Command Console Message: We need an Infantry Portal></b>
--We've lost the Infantry Portal! Fall back to the Command Console! Fall back!
*machinegun fire*
*screams*
<b><Command Console Message: Command Console is under attack>
<Command Console Status: Commander logged out>
<Command Console Message: Command Console is under attack>
<Command Console Message: Command Console is under attack>
<Command Console Message: Command Console is under attack></b>
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I joined Marines for my first game on the latest version of Veil; shortly after spawning, someone called over voicecomm that a substantial Gorge Gang was approaching the center area of the map, heading for the Marine Start. 2 minutes into the game, the commander dropped 4 or 5 shotguns - an unheard-of expense, but we snapped them up and moved out en masse towards where the alien menace had last been spotted. Sure enough, we found several gorges, some skulk backup, and a lerk in the process of setting up an expansion - a Resource Tower and two or three Offensive Chambers.
The battle was quick, and messy... the aliens were unprepared for high-power weapons, and dropped like flies (all except the Lerk, who beat a hasty retreat covered by spore clouds). The resource tower and offensive chambers, likewise, quickly fell under our combined firepower. It was a rout.
We set up our own resource tower on the now-vacant nozzle, then proceeded down the hall to a second nozzle that also had an alien RT on it. Two of us took it down while the skulks began returning, dropping before the shotguns of our defenders. A second marine node went up, and we stayed there while we waited for the electricity upgrade to complete. All in all, the early game had put us in an excellent mood.
The game continued, and we controlled much of the map but were having a lot of trouble pushing into any of the hives. Soon enough, I saw a skulk leap towards me as I pasted it with my shotgun - they had two hives. One of my teammates commented that they were moving into the central hive, and if we didn't take it we would be facing 3-hive aliens. We pushed towards it, but were all of a sudden recalled by our commander - base was under attack!
Two or three of us turned back, moving as quickly as we could. We reached the base to find the turret factory, arms lab, and a pair of skulks chewing on the CC. The IP, Armory, and Observatory had all been destroyed. Meanwhile, our assault team had failed, lacking comm support (our comm had logged out to save the base, and been killed). One of our "cavalry" fell to the skulks, leaving two of us alive - I jumped into the CC and dropped an IP and Armory, hopped back out and got them both up. We re-set up base with a few turrets, then again moved towards the center hive. We figured it was probably the least well-defended area of the aliens' territory.
All of a sudden, we saw a Xenocide kill sprite. 3 hives.
Then the comm was on the radio, yelling at us to get back to base - two gorges had snuck in and were bile-bombing everything in sight. We started back, when the Comm made the decision to relocate. A waypoint appeared on my HUD... it was abysmally far away, but I turned towards it. I was the only one left of my group; checking the team menu showed I was one of two left alive. I reached the waypoint to discover a Comm Chair just finished by my remaining teammate; he jumped in and dropped an IP, and we both set to building it as quickly as possible. Then we heard the clicking of skulk claws behind us. I reached for my LMG and jumped backwards, but it was a startlingly fast 4 bites and suddenly the game was over... the IP had been one bar away from completion.
I was a marine on ns_mineshaft, and I and one ally were in a dimly-lit room, rough-hewn from the rock of the planet with a large man-made door at either end. I was feeling pretty good about the situation; I had heavy armor and a shotgun, and we had just gotten motion tracking researched. However, it was a large game... seeing twelve blue circles blipping erratically around the map is quite disconcerting. What was worse was that I knew the aliens had sensory chambers at their disposal.
The doorway closest to the nearby hive opened immediately to a T-junction, which meant that there was no long hallway to scan for approaching hostiles. Our assault on the area had just failed; sensory-cloaked skulks had taken down the attack force, leaving the two of us behind. We didn't have the firepower to take the hallway beyond, so we were holding position while our commander outfitted reinforcements. He dropped a phase gate, and my ally started to build.
So it was me, the doorway, and my motion tracking. I watched a blue blip approach from the right branch of the T; I gauged when the alien would round the corner, and nearly jumped out of my skin as a skulk <i>materialized</i> in the air in front of me, mid-leap at my face. My shotgun went off practically on its own, and the skulk dropped. Another blip approached and the same nerve-wracking scene replayed itself; I couldn't see the skulks, cloaked by a nearby sensory chamber. They rounded the corner and leapt, uncloaking almost in slow-motion as they flew through the air towards me. Three, four, I lost track of how many skulks I dropped with my shotgun, but I was running out of ammo and armor. My commander dropped ammo and a few health packs; I fed shells into the gun as another blip approached.
Finally, I heard the sound of the phase gate coming online, and reinforcements began pouring through. It took my heart a while to slow down, though.