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i'm hoping we get to see the yf-23 in all its glory. such a pretty plane!
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May 15, 2021 18:01
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biosterous posted:i'm hoping we get to see the yf-23 in all its glory. such a pretty plane! if you're ever compelled to visit Dayton, Ohio you could see it in real life!! whether this is a pro or a con is up to you, but it's in the same hangar as the Valkyrie so you'll probably avoid the crowd 
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May 16, 2021 05:35
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Psion posted:if you're ever compelled to visit Dayton, Ohio you could see it in real life!! Of course, this requires you to subject yourself to the fell energies of Ohio, so probably more of a con than a pro.
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May 16, 2021 10:06
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Materant posted:Of course, this requires you to subject yourself to the fell energies of Ohio, so probably more of a con than a pro. Do they likely have skyline chili in Dayton? I've always wanted to try it.
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May 16, 2021 17:27
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sb hermit posted:Do they likely have skyline chili in Dayton? I've always wanted to try it. Yes, there's one fairly close to Wright-Patterson. And even if that one doesn't work out, flight prices probably mean flying into Columbus or Cincinnati and driving, so I'm pretty sure you can get it.
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May 17, 2021 04:26
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Atmos Ring Mission 12B: Atmos Ring – December 5th, 2020 Overview: The time to drive Leasath out of Aurelia once and for all is at hand. The Aurelian military converges on the capital of Griswall to retake the city, capture Diego Gaspar Navarro and bring him to justice at long last. However, the city is well fortified and protected by the enhanced Meson Cannon. Securing victory for Aurelian freedom will be a hard task indeed.  Guest Commentator: I am joined for this mission by one of the coolest posters in the Let’s Play subforum, SubponticatePoster! SubponticatePoster has done LPs of Dragon Age: Inquisition, as well as a full trilogy run of Mass Effect, Mass Effect 2 and Mass Effect 3 as Commander Butts Shepard. She is currently LPing Guerrilla Games’ robot safari masterwork Horizon Zero Dawn, aka the game for which Killzone: Shadow Fall paved the way with its own blood. CJacobs and I appear in the latest episode (at the time of this posting) together as guests as a means of returning the favour for this LP appearance (and because SuponticatePoster will be joining us and Blind Sally for the rest of Shadow Fall once that LP resumes  ).  NINOX SQUADRON Aurelian Air Force 87th Night Fighters Division* Members:
Squadron Composition: Su-27 Flanker (x5) An Aurelian Air Force squadron specializing in nighttime operations based out of Phuku Lagolla AFB south of Griswall. As our reward for retaking Sachana Air Base before heading to Griswall, we receive allied support for this mission from Ninox Squadron, one a couple of named NPC back up units seen in Ace Combat X. There’s not much to say about them other than poor impatient rear end in a top hat Ninox 2 will die in every version of the intro to Mission 12, rushing on ahead and eating poo poo from the Meson Cannon like a moron. I guess every squadron in Aurelia has its own Gryphus 2. Who knew? As with all Aurelian squadrons seen thus far, such as Gryphus, Falco, and Milvus, Ninox Squadron is named after a species of bird. In this case, ninox is a genus of owl.  OTUS SQUADRON Aurelian Air Force Members:
Squadron Composition: F-117A Nighthawk (x2) A stealth reconnaissance operations squadron based out of Phuku Lagolla Air Base near Griswall. The two-plane element was tasked with pursuing Diego Navarro after he fled from Griswall back into Leasath territory, following him to just outside Sentry Island in the Danern Straits. However, both planes were shot down and destroyed before being able to relay any further details to Aurelian HQ by a mysterious unseen enemy. As with all Aurelian squadrons seen thus far, such as Gryphus, Falco, and Milvus, Otus Squadron is named after a species of bird. In this case, otus is a genus of owl.   GRISWALL The capital city of the Federal Republic of Aurelia and the heart of its nation. Situated near the east coast near the border with its northeastern neighbor Leasath and at the foothills of the mountain range leading to Mt. Nevera, Griswall is the most populous city Aurelia and possibly all of South Osea. Griswall is divided into three sectors: Old Town located inside the Atmos Ring, the sprawling suburbs of New Town reaching outward in all directions, and the Downtown core where many of the city’s modern high-rise buildings can be found. The city has long been a hub for commerce and advanced scientific development, leading the way in green energy research and implementation as well as cutting edge particle physics experimentation. The crowning achievement of this research is the Atmos Ring, one of the per-eminent particle accelerator facilities on the planet. The ring encircles downtown Griswall and was, before the outbreak of the war, a symbol of Aurelia’s longstanding commitment to peaceful scientific advancements. In the 20 years since the fall of the Ulysses 1994XF04 asteroid and the destruction it wrought around the world, Griswall has seen many immigrants to its ever-expanding suburbs from Usea and Anea. Looking to start over and forge a better life in the south, Aurelia has welcomed these new citizens and has seen its booming economy soar to unprecedented heights. To the immediate south of the city lies Phuku Lagolla Air Base, home of the famous Falco Squadron, who managed to stall the Leasath advance into Aurelia in October of 2020 long enough to allow Gryphus Squadron from Cape Aubrey to survive the blitz and mount the counterattack that has put the liberation of the nation within reach at this very moment. Despite Falco Squadron’s efforts though, Leasath still overwhelmed Aurelia and although they lost their airborne fortress prototype Gandr in the process, they captured Griswall early in the war. So confident was Leasath President General Diego Gaspar Navarro in his victory and ability to hold onto Aurelia that he actually moved into Griswall’s most famous landmark, Gaiuss Tower, and took up residence inside the conquered capital. Navarro has since been living in lavish excess off of plundered Aurelian treasure while his soldiers struggle to hold back in the oncoming Aurelian counterattack that has now reached his doorstep. Taking back Griswall and restoring the rightful Aurelian government to power will return normalcy to the nation and allow it to return to the world stage as the responsible actor it has been for the last two decades and more. With the world still reeling form the madness that 2019 and early 2020 wreaked on civilization, it will need Aurelia’s guiding light more than ever to help see it through to better days, and those better days start in a free and liberated Griswall.  ATMOS RING The Aurelia Superconducting Synchrotron Laboratory (ASSL), known by the local shorthand as the “Atmos Ring”. The ring encircling the downtown core of Griswall is a massive particle accelerator facility used in both scientific research endeavors and energy production. The ring has been at the forefront of global particle research over the last decade, with Aurelian particle physicists pioneering the field of meson and muon particle research and aiding Usean particle physicists at the “Pancake” hadron collider facility in Altoora in the search for the legendary “god particle”, the Higgs boson. Designed with aesthetics in mind as much as scientific practicum, the ring is one of Aurelia’s most famous landmarks and has become a companion to Gaiuss Tower in the Aurelian skyline. The ring was designed to emulate the old style of Aurelian fortresses with the regulator towers access gateways in to and out of the Old Town district invoking the image of an old castle and moat. Indeed, the Atmos Ring was used as a makeshift fortress against the Leasath advance in the early days of the war, but the city was ill-prepared to defend itself against the onslaught and surrendered in just 10 days. The Leasath troops, inspired by the idea, have since fortified the ring into a proper fortress setup and have garrisoned troops inside its boundaries. The ring’s construction was initially a spot of controversy for the Aurelian government, and was the target of anti-science protests, citing wide ranging concerns from valid worries over the radiation output from the facility—especially an above ground facility like the ASSL proposal—to the outlandish fears that its experiments would open a black hole that would swallow Griswall and possibly the whole planet whole. Over time, these controversies subsided as the supercollider went into operation and produced no such black holes or other public safety worries. Eventually it was heralded as one of the nation’s greatest achievements after Aurelia saw tangible advancements in material sciences, particle physics, and even groundbreaking medical treatments developed from the experiments conducted at the ASSL from its use of residual synchrotron radiation. In terms of physical dimensions, the ring measures 4.6 km in diameter and 14.5 km in circumference. The structure houses a synchrotron particle accelerator, where an accelerating particle beam can travel a closed-loop path. The Atmos Ring can accelerate particle beams to an energy of 6.4 teraelectronvolts (TeV). These particle beams create mesons that decay into muons to perform muon-catalyzed fusion, which provides power to Griswall.  END OF PART 2 So this brings us to the end of Part 2 of Ace Combat X, or at least this run of it. Which version of Mission 12 you get is decided by how you handle Mission 10, whether you head for it at the first chance you have and stop the MBSRs from reaching Griswall in Mission 10A (Joint Operation), or if you wait and do other operations first before finally getting around to it in Mission 10B (Break In). Ignoring Mission 10 entirely and just heading to Griswall will see even more MBSRs in place around the Atmos Ring, making the cannons even more powerful. Ignoring both versions of Mission 9 (Blitz and A Diversion) means there will be no allied reinforcements present for the mission, as Sachana Air Base is still in enemy hands when you go to attack Griswall. And if you let Santa Elva get recaptured by Leasath by doing 9A and then 11A and then just heading to Griswall and going “gently caress Santa Elva”, you will have a limited number of special weapons to use thanks to supplies from the city being cut off. Since Mission 12B is dependent on doing at least one version of Mission 11, there is no option that includes radar jamming from a still operational Nevera Jammer for Atmos Ring. Missions 12A and 12C, Gaiuss Tower and Wild Card, however, can see radar interference from an active Nevera Jammer. With this run of Part 2 done, we’re now going to go back and look at the unchosen missions that take us along the path of the “good” timeline and the easier finale of Gaiuss Tower before moving on to Part 3 and the final missions of the game. We’re closing in on the end, but not quite there yet…   MESON CANNON One of the lesser talked about elements of Aurelia’s experimentation with meson energy through the Atmos Ring was its military applications. While Aurelia prided itself on its peaceful scientific experimentation with particle physics, one weapons development avenue was underway at the time of the Leasath invasion: the Meson Cannon. The project was incomplete at the time of the invasion, however, and has since been finished by Leasath military scientists and Aurelian workers forced to aid them in completing project under pain of torture, death, or other punishment. Consisting of eight turrets placed in key locations around the Atmos Ring, the Meson Cannon is a directed energy particle beam weapon of immense but unstable power. The weapon operates by using highly charged meson particles generated by the Atmos Ring firing proton beams at aluminum and beryllium sheets and then capturing the muon particles those meson particles decay into. The muons are then directed to linear particle accelerators in the regulator towers and “fired” out of the beam projects positioned atop the towers. The particle beam then fires at 99.9999991% the speed of light, making it nearly impossible to avoid, and precisely aimed strikes can be deadly. The trade off is that faster moving and highly maneuverable targets (like fighter jets) are harder for the cannon to acquire an accurate firing solution on, but incoming threats with a more stable and predictable trajectory (like ICBMs) can easily be defended against and without the risk of running out of ammunition. The cannon also produces no radiological byproduct or secondary emissions that are harmful to humans like traditional nuclear weaponry does. The drawbacks to the cannon are its prohibitive development and deployment costs, both in capital and energy requirements. The muon particles themselves used in the beam also have a high rate of degradation, remaining viable for mere seconds, if even. This means the cannon has a relatively short firing range, several kilometers at most, and cannot maintain a sustained rate of fire for long. The actual cannons themselves have a limited range of motion and their firing arcs take long periods of time to readjust, meaning a fighter jet can easily maneuver safely through the field of fire of all eight cannons if moving at top speed. Under normal operation circumstances, the Meson Cannon can only fire its muon particle beams in short bursts, but with the newly installed MBSR regulator components constructed in Monte Breeze, the cannon’s ability to sustain muons in a viable state has greatly increased, allowing it to fire in prolonged fully formed beams of energy for several seconds per shot. While the range of the cannon has not been increased by the MBSRs, the immediate danger zone in the airspace above Griswall has expanded significantly.   Medal: Freedom Tower Awarded for: Completing Mission 12A, 12B, or 12C. Description: Awarded for liberating Griswall, the Federal Republic of Aurelia’s capital. 
RIOT  
★CH-47   Tracks featured in Mission 12B: DISC X nine-gear crow fucked around with this message at 08:53 on Jul 20, 2023 |
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May 17, 2021 22:08
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Psion posted:Yes, there's one fairly close to Wright-Patterson. And even if that one doesn't work out, flight prices probably mean flying into Columbus or Cincinnati and driving, so I'm pretty sure you can get it. Oh, it's the name of the restaurant, not just the dish. Thanks for pointing it out. There's one near the hotels, too.
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May 18, 2021 00:56
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I still have two PSPs that might be in good working condition and I've got a strong inclination to pick up this game.
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May 18, 2021 01:53
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sb hermit posted:I still have two PSPs that might be in good working condition and I've got a strong inclination to pick up this game. It won't look as good on original hardware, but yeah if you can find a copy go for it. It's still pretty fun to play and the variables they built into everything make it endlessly replayable.
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May 18, 2021 02:32
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So, I'm curious, on a scale of 1-10 (1=brain dead, 10=genius) What's everyone's opinion on the building of several massive particle beam cannons fueled by what amounts to a probably heavily overclocked large Hadron collider, in the middle of a heavily populated city?
stryth fucked around with this message at 04:07 on May 18, 2021 |
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May 18, 2021 04:05
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can i post ten 1s?
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May 18, 2021 04:12
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sb hermit posted:Oh, it's the name of the restaurant, not just the dish. Thanks for pointing it out. There's one near the hotels, too. I think Skyline (the restaurant) is just one place to get skyline (the dish) which should probably be called cincinnati-style chili or something, but brand recognition is a powerful thing. May as well get Skyline Skyline though, right? i really want some four-ways right now... stryth posted:So, I'm curious, on a scale of 1-10 (1=brain dead, 10=genius) What's everyone's opinion on the building of several massive particle beam cannons fueled by what amounts to a probably heavily overclocked large Hadron collider, in the middle of a heavily populated city? for us: 1 for Strangereal, where anti-asteroid weaponry is literally a global pastime, probably a 10. Zero deflection shots are so much easier to calculate, after all. Psion fucked around with this message at 07:20 on May 18, 2021 |
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May 18, 2021 07:17
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hey man, if life gives you a hadron collider, might as well build a meson cannon Lesath scientists were probably developing the precursor to this for a long time and were probably pretty stoked about being able to put it into practice, knowing that they'll be taking Griswall soon. On the other hand, I guess it makes an "Operation Paperclip" style abduction much easier if the scientists are just sitting in a bunker on an island in your borders or if the technicians are holed up in the Marriott, trying to hatch a plan to get home before they're discovered.
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May 18, 2021 07:20
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Psion posted:I think Skyline (the restaurant) is just one place to get skyline (the dish) which should probably be called cincinnati-style chili or something, but brand recognition is a powerful thing. May as well get Skyline Skyline though, right? Sounds like I know what to order! There's a non-zero chance I'll be able to visit Dayton, so at least there's something to look forward to.
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May 18, 2021 07:21
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I've never been to a proper Skyline so keep that in mind, but I've had the dish at another place. In my opinion, the more ways the better, because that means more stuff stacked on it. Place I went to topped out at five-ways. I thought Skyline topped at four but wikipedia misled me compared to their menu! I do know some people who swear by coney dogs too, so ... I don't think you can go wrong. anyway uh about that ace combat game
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May 18, 2021 07:23
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sb hermit posted:hey man, if life gives you a hadron collider, might as well build a meson cannon I'm just glad that the game has so far managed to keep the word "Belka" out of it's mouth for its entire runtime, a task virtually unheard of in post-Ace Combat 5 games. This horror of science is 100% home-grown Aurelian, baby! 
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May 18, 2021 07:36
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Psion posted:I've never been to a proper Skyline so keep that in mind, but I've had the dish at another place. In my opinion, the more ways the better, because that means more stuff stacked on it. Place I went to topped out at five-ways. I thought Skyline topped at four but wikipedia misled me compared to their menu! If I ever get to go, and if I remember, I'll try to post a trip report here.
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May 18, 2021 07:51
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nine-gear crow posted:I'm just glad that the game has so far managed to keep the word "Belka" out of it's mouth for its entire runtime, a task virtually unheard of in post-Ace Combat 5 games. This horror of science is 100% home-grown Aurelian, baby! I'm really looking forward to the next act. This is gonna be glorious. 
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May 18, 2021 07:55
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It's an interesting choice to put the accelerator ring above ground where it's vulnerable. I guess they didn't have time to dig a tunnel. Putting it in the city makes getting power relatively easy as long as you're cool with turning everything else off. You get gently caress all time to work with your mesons, so you probably need them generated at point of use. 6/10. Nice idea for your third grade superweapon, but it seems rushed.
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May 18, 2021 10:03
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nine-gear crow posted:I'm just glad that the game has so far managed to keep the word "Belka" out of it's mouth for its entire runtime, a task virtually unheard of in post-Ace Combat 5 games. This horror of science is 100% home-grown Aurelian, baby!
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May 18, 2021 10:59
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I personally find the story beat of “all superweapons are Belka’s fault” to be overplayed and utterly pointless. It’s dumb. Which is why I like how 7 handled it. It has two characters who are noted to be Belkan, but one of them is a convicted leftist anarchist whose only crime is throwing a rock at a recruiting station, while the other is a disillusioned scientist who’s working on the UAV project and has a ‘come to Jesus’ moment before he makes a HUGE mistake. HereticMIND fucked around with this message at 07:45 on May 19, 2021 |
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May 19, 2021 02:30
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HereticMIND posted:I personally find the story beat of “all superweapons are Belka’s fault” to be overplayed and utterly pointless. It’s dumb. You can also see attributing weapons of destruction and linking all incidents to Belka as in-universe OSEAn propaganda. ACX participants had nothing to do with Belka, so they didn't need to link anything to it. In short, "Everything is Belka fault" is a recurring community joke, which is slightly stale at this point. Because everyone know it is OSEA fault. HereticMIND posted:Which is why I like how 7 handled it.
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May 19, 2021 08:23
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No ethical Belkan research under Strangereal
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May 19, 2021 08:54
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reporting on the true story of griswallgate: it's actually ethics in Belkan research
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May 19, 2021 09:03
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Blitz Mission 9A: Blitz – November 15th, 2020 Overview: Aurelian forces launch an assault on Sachana Air Base to retake it from Leasath control. With the Skylla Special Forces Unit still on standby at the base, Gryphus Squadron must infiltrate the airspace around Sachana under the cover of night, navigating through the base’s radar array and avoiding contact with all spotter boats on the water along the Raven River.  Guest Commentator: I am joined once again for this mission by Lazyfire.  SACHANA AIR BASE Located in the Raven Woods south of Griswall, Sachana Air Base is one of Aurelia’s key military installations and originally home to a large number of fighter squadrons prior to the Leasath invasion. Leasath placed a high priority on its capture and occupation, and stationed their Scylla Special Forces Unit there to ensure the base remained under its control. With Sachana AFB back under allied control, the Aurelian Air Force POWs being held there have been released and the squadrons driven away from it by the Leasath blitz are now filtering back home. Sachana Air Base will be Gryphus Squadron’s home away from from now until the mission to recapture Griswall, and allied forces from Sachana will now bolster the squadron’s ranks with allied support. Sachana Air Base also serves as one of the multiplayer maps in Ace Combat X in addition to the setting for Missions 9A and 9B. The word “sachana” is a derivative pronunciation of “sancana” means “honouring” or “assisting” in Sanskrit.  RAVEN WOODS A large forest located northeast of the Kalana Steppes and south of Mt. Nevera, Monte Breeze and Griswall. A large forking river runs through the woods southwards towards Santa Elva and the Aurelian military installation Sachana Air Base lies at the center of the woods.  CALIBURN A variant name of the sword Excalibur, coming from the Latin Caliburnus. So HEYGUYSDOYOUKNOWABOUTKINGARTHUR?!  Because it’s been years since we’ve finished Ace Combat Zero, but he’s loving back! In this case, the plane featured in this mission, the XR-45 Cariburn is named after one of the many names borne by Excalibur, albeit a slightly mistranslated version thanks to the dreaded L/R ambiguity of Romaji. UNDER THE RADAR Blitz sees the return of everyone’s favorite radar evasion gimmick from Ace Combat 5. The green circles on the radar display are the area of effect radii of the enemy radar zones. Crossing into any of them will trigger a game over. Also flying above the height ceiling (1,300 feet/400 meters) at any point in the mission will also trigger an instant game over. There are two possible paths through the radar net to your goal at the north end of the map. The path you start on at the beginning of the mission is the more winding of the two, but doesn’t require any deviation once you begin it. The second path, going right up the center of the map, is a straighter shot to the base and faster to run, but takes up a fair bit of time to actually reach, especially if you have a slower plane. A third path that leads to a dead end circle of radar sites is where the Star Unit for the mission can be found. Since the Named Ace for the mission is tied to how fast you clear the radar net, trying to get both special spawns in the same run is a somewhat fraught prospect if you don’t have a fast enough plane to pull it off with. It is easily doable with later game unlocks or with various upgrade parts you can acquire for the game’s roster of special planes like the Cariburn, but pulling it off in a brand new game with what you’ve got available at the time is incredibly difficult.  BLITZ And thus we begin the “good” timeline run of Part 2 with Mission 9A. As stated earlier, doing Mission 9A is actually the “correct” choice of first missions for Part 2 as it removes the Skylla Unit from the map right away while still giving you a window to take out the Leasath forces in the Kalana Steppes to prevent the retaking of Santa Elva. That said, you now only have one shot to do Mission 8B (The Wasteland) before those troops move in and retake Santa Elva and the game unlocks the dreaded Mission 7C.   XR-45 Cariburn Manufacturer: General Resource Ltd. Role: Experimental Fighter Manufactured: ????-Present Status: In Service Primary Operators: Aurelia Quick Facts:
 quote:"An air-to-air fighter with a unique forward-swept wing design."
GACRUX  
★CH-47 Tracks featured in Mission 9A: DISC X nine-gear crow fucked around with this message at 22:18 on Dec 20, 2021 |
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May 19, 2021 22:36
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Funny enough, HAWK 1 had both the A-12 and SR-71 playable. It had a lot of weird plane choices. Most of which weren't really weren't all that good. Hell, it even had the naval A-12 bomber project that never happened as a flyable plane.
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May 20, 2021 00:01
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The Wasteland Mission 8B: The Wasteland – November 18th, 2020 Overview: Leasath forces fleeing from Santa Elva have regrouped at the Kalana Steppes, a desert region north of the city on the way to Sachana Air Base. While the possibility of reinforcements from Sachana has been cut off, Santa Elva remains under threat from retaking so long as the enemy remains in the region.  Guest Commentator: I am joined for this mission once again by Shinjobi.  KALANA STEPPES Situated north of Santa Elva and south west of Sachana Air Base in Lenal County lies the Kalana Steppes, a rugged desertous region of the Aurelian heartland that was once the home of a pre-industrial native Aurelian population. The stone ruins of an ancient citadel and settlements still dot the arid landscape from the flatlands to the mountains in the north. The increasing desertification of the Kalana Steppes and the development and encroachment of modern Aurelian settlements eventually led to the abandonment of the Kalana fortifications, and the desert has since reclaimed most of the settlement. Now only broken walls and the skeletons of buildings remain, and the Assembly of Nations has proclaimed the region and ANESCO World Heritage Site. Prior to the outbreak of the war between Leasath and Aurelia, the Kalana Steppes were a popular tourist destination, as well as a site of constant archaeological research and excavation. All travel to the region has since been suspended following the outbreak of war. A highway linking Santa Elva to Griswall and Monte Breeze runs through the desert and into the mountains in the north. “Kalana” is a Hawaiian word derived from “Kala-kala” meaning “forgiveness,” but not in the traditional sense of forgiving someone or something from blame or culpability, but as an acknowledgment that all people are flawed and the world is not a perfect place.  THE WASTELAND In the room, the women come and go, talking about how much “Time Limit” blows… Luckily for us, because we’ve had the due diligence to do Mission 8B before moving on to any of the more northward missions on the map, we don’t have to worry about doing Mission 7C, at least until the end of this chunk of updates. From here, our choices of missions are either 10A (Joint Operation) or 11A (In Pursuit I). Doing 11A first will turn 10A in Mission 10B (Break In), routing you toward Mission 12B (Atmos Ring), and since we’ve already seen Atmos Ring, doing it twice would be belaboring the point. So from from here out we’re headed for Joint Operation next and then In Pursuit I, which take us to Gaiuss Tower as our finale. The good news is that following this path means there’s no more trap missions or “pick the worst of two options” missions waiting for us for the rest of Part 2. It’s just smooth sailing from here to Griswall in terms of plot complications. That said, The Wasteland does has some interesting connective tissue with Time Limit, but we won’t see the the full effect of that until we look at Mission 7C directly. A lot of the enemy dialog for The Wasteland references stuff that would have happened in Time Limit, had we not prevented it from happening right here, so coming back and going through this mission again after seeing the full scope of every version of each mission play out has a definite air of “wow, I dodged a bullet and I didn’t even know it” to it... 
RAGE As a matter of minor trivia, Rage is the second of the Named Aces in Ace Combat X to share their name with another character in another Ace Combat game. The first was Garuda, who shares a name with the protagonist of Ace Combat 6. Rage, meanwhile shares a name with one of the bosses of the Ace Combat 7 DLC missions, which we we be getting to in due time.  
★VEHICLE Tracks featured in Mission 8A: DISC X nine-gear crow fucked around with this message at 12:06 on Jul 14, 2021 |
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May 21, 2021 21:08
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Toast!
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May 21, 2021 22:06
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Imagine a guy who got the stomach flu and needed to sleep in his tent, only to get a missile up his bum talk about shooting fish in a barrel here
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May 22, 2021 00:32
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sb hermit posted:Imagine a guy who got the stomach flu and needed to sleep in his tent, only to get a missile up his bum Strangereal Johnny Sasaki sure got a bad hand
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May 23, 2021 22:05
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Joint Operation Mission 10A: Joint Operation – November 21st, 2020 Overview: The Leasath Air Force is preparing to ship a quantity of newly manufactured MBSR components to Griswall from Monte Breeze via and air convoy. If the MBSRs make it to Griswall, the power of the Meson Cannon protecting the city will be greatly amplified. Gryphus Squadron must intercept and destroy the convoy before it can leave Monte Breeze, but radar interference from the Nevera Jammer will making finding the right planes difficult. A spotter unit from the Aurelian Army is on station in Monte Breeze to track the targets visually to compensate for the inoperable radar.  Guest Commentator: I am joined once again for this mission by JaimieTheD.  MONTE BREEZE The industrial city of Monte Breeze lies on the northwest coast of Aurelia, at the foot of the mountain range that spans the Aurelian heartland to Challwa and Griswall and includes Mt. Nevera. The city is Aurelia’s industrial and manufacturing core, and prior to the war its factories pumped out all manner of technological exports both mundane and marvelous for in Aurelia’s infrastructure and around the world. Monte Breeze is also surrounded by vast stretches of lush farmland starting at the mountain foothills and is a major hub for the Aurelian railway network that connects the country over land along with its highway system. Monte Breeze’s location on the coast and in the shadow of the mountains gives the city a frequently rainy climate making it ideal for farming of all sorts. In the months since the Leasath invasion, the city’s manufacturing sector has been re-purposed by Diego Navarro’s military-industrial fraud enterprise and cranks out weaponry to enhance the both the Leasath war machine and Navarro’s bottom line. Among these weapons and weapon components being produced are parts for a weapon known as the Meson Cannon that has been deployed in Griswall to fortify the city against any attempt to retake it. Recently, development in Monte Breeze has been focused on creating as many MBSRs (Meson Beam Stabilizing Regulators) as possible to enhance the Meson Cannon’s capabilities.  MBSR The Meson Beam Stabilizing Regulator (MBSR) is a key component of Leasath’s new particle superweapon, the Meson Cannon. The MBSRs are amplification and stabilization units designed to augment the Atmos Ring, the particle accelerator ring that encircles downtown Griswall. When inserted into key positions around the Atmos Ring, the MBSRs solves the problem of the rapid decay of meson particles into muons by trapping the accelerated proton beams generated by the Atmos Ring into a non-neutral plasma state away from the accelerator and then running these “enriched” particle beams through a high energy charged particle condenser. The enriched protons produced from this process then create a steadier stream of mesons which in turn decay into a steady beam of muons, which are then fired by the Meson Canon. The MBSR allows the Meson Canon to then fire a more concentrated singular directed energy beam for longer and at a higher power threshold than it otherwise would be capable of, producing a result of similar scope to the Gründer Industries Tactical Laser System but much more powerful in application.  JOINT OPERATION There’s basically nothing new or noteworthy to say about this mission or part of this run of the game. We are in the “everything is going swimmingly” stretch of things, which doesn’t exactly engender enthralling discussion as much as the drama of everything going to poo poo tends to do. From here, our only two mission choices are 11A (In Pursuit I) and 12A (Gaiuss Tower), which means actually our only real choice is Mission 11A. 
ACRUX  
★C-5 Tracks featured in Mission 10A: DISC X nine-gear crow fucked around with this message at 12:06 on Jul 14, 2021 |
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May 24, 2021 22:26
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In Pursuit I Mission 11A: In Pursuit I – November 23rd, 2020 Overview: In order to ensure the operation to retake Griswall proceeds unimpeded by radar jamming, Gryphus Squadron launches an attack on the Nevera Jammer, the communications jamming installation built by Leasath atop Mt. Nevera. In order to get past the jammer’s air defense network, Gryphus 1 must destroy the four power plants keeping it online, however a number of fake plants are also scattered around the mountaintop…  Guest Commentator: I am joined once again for this mission by my replacement as SALP moderator, Danaru!  MT. NEVERA Situated at the top of a mountain range that forms the spine of the Aurelian heartland, the summit of Mt. Nevera is the highest point in Aurelia and one of the highest mountains in the southern hemisphere. Years ago, the summit was frequent destination for daring mountaineers, amateur and professional alike. However, it was purchased in recent years by the Aurelian government and a large scale weather research and observation station and communications array was constructed atop it. The Nevera Relay allowed Aurelia to maintain its local communications network even as the rest of the world fell victim to the satellite network failure of September 2019. The Aurelian port city of Challwa lies at the foot of Mt. Nevera on the east coast of the country due south of Griswall and Phuku Lagolla Air Base. Since the outbreak of the war with Leasath, the area around Mt. Nevera has been classified as a no fly zone due to heavy Leasath anti-air munitions stationed in the mountains and the radar interference from the Nevera Jammer. All civilian air routes through Northern Aurelia are currently being diverted or restricted so long as the jammer remains operational. Appropriately for a high snowy mountain, “nevera” is Spanish for “refrigerator”. In Ace Combat Xi: Skies of Incursion (which was LP’d by Ashsaber and you can read by following the links right here), Mt. Nevera was misspelled as “Mt. Nevara”--which itself is the imperfect subjunctive form of “nevar” which means “to snow”.  NEVERA JAMMER The Nevera Jammer is a massive radar and communications jamming installation constructed by the Leasath Army Corps. of Engineers shortly after the fall of Aurelia to Leasath control. Originally a weather and communications array atop Mt. Nevera, Leasath has since modified it into a high-powered radar and radio frequency jammer. With a total output of 4 megawatts, the jammer can block all forms of communication except for short range radio and infrared signals at an effective radius of 1,200 km—an area spanning all of Aurelian ground territory from Monte Breeze on the west coast, to Griswall in the east. Consisting of six cylindrical jamming amplifiers, the Leasath military heavily modified the existing Aurelian technology and has fortified the area around the array with multiple anti-air installations, including an Aegis defense system capable of quickly triangulating a target’s location and annihilating it with a withering barrage of AA fire and surface-to-air missile attacks. The jammer array is powered by ten dedicated electrical power plants, four of which are needed to power the Aegis system surrounding the mountain alone.   WHACK-A-MOLE The gimmick of this mission (and Mission 11B for that matter) is “destroy the right power plants”. Doing so will power down the defense system protecting the jammer at the center of the map and reduce the jamming frequency precipitously with each correct plant destroyed. There are a total of 10 power plants scattered around the map, four of which are the correct ones to be destroyed, but which ones are the real plants is completely randomized every time. Meaning each plant has a 28.6% chance of being the right one. Luckily, there is an easy metric to discerning which plant is real and which ones are false. The towers on the correct plants will be illuminated by a white signal light, while the false plants will have no such lighting. Each plant destroyed will lower the MPG by 25% and affect the on/off timing ratio of the jamming. With all no power plants destroyed, the jamming will be on for 86 seconds, off for 8 seconds on Normal difficulty. With one plant destroyed the jamming duration drops to 46 seconds. Two plants destroyed drops it to 36 seconds. Three plants destroyed is 36 seconds. And with all four plants destroyed the jamming will only affect the radar for 16 seconds with 8 seconds of visibility. These numbers scale with difficulty. On Easy, the radar is visible for 10 seconds with 75/35/25/15/5 seconds of jamming depending on the number of plants destroyed. On Hard and Ace difficulty, you only have 6 seconds of radar visibility interrupted by 107/67/62/57/52 and 123/87/82/77/72 seconds of jamming on each respective difficulty. The Jammer/Power Plant gimmick can be completely obliterated, hilariously, by the ADF-01 FALKEN and its TLS special weapon. The laser on the FALKEN can destroy the Nevera Jammer TGT units from well outside the insta-kill danger zone, completing the mission instantly.  IN PURSUIT I Frustrating as it is to try and rack up both the Named Ace and Star Unit in a single run of Mission 11A while dealing with the radar jamming bullshit, In Pursuit I is actually perhaps one of the chiller missions in Part 2 of Ace Combat X in terms of what it expects you to do and your margin of error to do so. Without the Skylla Unit on the map, you can take things at your own pace and follow the power lines to the power plants without fear of them getting blown up and losing your landmarks. Either way, there’s now only one mission left on our second run through Part 2, the finale of Mission 12A, Gaiuss Tower. Taking out the jammer here in Mission 11A will ensure that the radar is free of interference for our second attempt at retaking Griswall, and because we did Mission 10A first before doing 11A, the Meson Cannon is going to be a piddly little peashooter this time around, but that doesn’t mean we can let our guard down... 
INFERNO  
★CH-47  Tracks featured in Mission 11B: DISC X nine-gear crow fucked around with this message at 12:06 on Jul 14, 2021 |
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May 26, 2021 20:01
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Just realized the star CH-47 has an RAF colour scheme.
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May 26, 2021 20:03
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Cooked Auto posted:Just realized the star CH-47 has an RAF colour scheme. The texture also has the Osean roundel on it rather than a Leasath one because it's a straight asset reuse from Ace Combat 5.
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May 26, 2021 20:07
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Now that I missed completely.
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May 26, 2021 20:26
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always a jammersmaid, nevera jammer  (USER WAS PUT ON PROBATION FOR THIS POST)
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May 27, 2021 01:02
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Glad you're at least done with the jammers for this game, Crow. Having this as my first AC game made me fear jammers in all other games I played, but this is probably the worst they get in the entire series. Also, IIRC my first run somehow got both 3C and 7C, possibly 12C as well. At least it got me the 'do the longest possible run' trophy off the bat.
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May 27, 2021 06:09
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nine-gear crow posted:
uh this is extremely unrealistic, this C-5 is flying and not grounded with a "mechanical issue" during a stopover in Hawaii
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May 27, 2021 15:49
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Psion posted:uh this is extremely unrealistic, this C-5 is flying and not grounded with a "mechanical issue" during a stopover in Hawaii That's Strangereal for you
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May 27, 2021 22:34
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Gaiuss Tower Mission 12A: Gaiuss Tower – December 5th, 2020 Overview: The time to drive Leasath out of Aurelia once and for all is at hand. The Aurelian military converges on the capital of Griswall to retake the city, capture Diego Gaspar Navarro and bring him to justice at long last. The Meson Cannon stands in the way, but Gryphus Squadron will stop at nothing to victory for Aurelian freedom. Guest Commentator: I am joined for this mission once again by SubponticatePoster. NINOX SQUADRON Aurelian Air Force 87th Night Fighters Division* Members:
Squadron Composition: Su-27 Flanker (x5) An Aurelian Air Force squadron specializing in nighttime operations based out of Phuku Lagolla AFB south of Griswall. As our reward for retaking Sachana Air Base before heading to Griswall, we receive allied support for this mission from Ninox Squadron, one a couple of named NPC back up units seen in Ace Combat X. There’s not much to say about them other than poor impatient rear end in a top hat Ninox 2 will die in every version of the intro to Mission 12, rushing on ahead and eating poo poo from the Meson Cannon like a moron. I guess every squadron in Aurelia has its own Gryphus 2. Who knew? As with all Aurelian squadrons seen thus far, such as Gryphus, Falco, and Milvus, Ninox Squadron is named after a species of bird. In this case, ninox is a genus of owl. OTUS SQUADRON Aurelian Air Force Members:
Squadron Composition: F-117A Nighthawk (x2) A stealth reconnaissance operations squadron based out of Phuku Lagolla Air Base near Griswall. The two-plane element was tasked with pursuing Diego Navarro after he fled from Griswall back into Leasath territory, following him to just outside Sentry Island in the Danern Straits. However, both planes were shot down and destroyed before being able to relay any further details to Aurelian HQ by a mysterious unseen enemy. As with all Aurelian squadrons seen thus far, such as Gryphus, Falco, and Milvus, Otus Squadron is named after a species of bird. In this case, otus is a genus of owl.  GRISWALL The capital city of the Federal Republic of Aurelia and the heart of its nation. Situated near the east coast near the border with its northeastern neighbor Leasath and at the foothills of the mountain range leading to Mt. Nevera, Griswall is the most populous city Aurelia and possibly all of South Osea. Griswall is divided into three sectors: Old Town located inside the Atmos Ring, the sprawling suburbs of New Town reaching outward in all directions, and the Downtown core where many of the city’s modern high-rise buildings can be found. The city has long been a hub for commerce and advanced scientific development, leading the way in green energy research and implementation as well as cutting edge particle physics experimentation. The crowning achievement of this research is the Atmos Ring, one of the per-eminent particle accelerator facilities on the planet. The ring encircles downtown Griswall and was, before the outbreak of the war, a symbol of Aurelia’s longstanding commitment to peaceful scientific advancements. In the 20 years since the fall of the Ulysses 1994XF04 asteroid and the destruction it wrought around the world, Griswall has seen many immigrants to its ever-expanding suburbs from Usea and Anea. Looking to start over and forge a better life in the south, Aurelia has welcomed these new citizens and has seen its booming economy soar to unprecedented heights. To the immediate south of the city lies Phuku Lagolla Air Base, home of the famous Falco Squadron, who managed to stall the Leasath advance into Aurelia in October of 2020 long enough to allow Gryphus Squadron from Cape Aubrey to survive the blitz and mount the counterattack that has put the liberation of the nation within reach at this very moment. Despite Falco Squadron’s efforts though, Leasath still overwhelmed Aurelia and although they lost their airborne fortress prototype Gandr in the process, they captured Griswall early in the war. So confident was Leasath President General Diego Gaspar Navarro in his victory and ability to hold onto Aurelia that he actually moved into Griswall’s most famous landmark, Gaiuss Tower, and took up residence inside the conquered capital. Navarro has since been living in lavish excess off of plundered Aurelian treasure while his soldiers struggle to hold back in the oncoming Aurelian counterattack that has now reached his doorstep. Taking back Griswall and restoring the rightful Aurelian government to power will return normalcy to the nation and allow it to return to the world stage as the responsible actor it has been for the last two decades and more. With the world still reeling form the madness that 2019 and early 2020 wreaked on civilization, it will need Aurelia’s guiding light more than ever to help see it through to better days, and those better days start in a free and liberated Griswall.  GAIUSS TOWER Despite being the namesake of the mission, Gaiuss Tower itself has basically nothing to do with the mission parameters. It’s more of a figurehead benchmarker for achieving victory. If the Aurelian forces can make it to and secure Gaiuss Tower at the center of Griswall, then the capital is effectively retaken and Aurelia is free of Leasath occupation. The tower is the end goal for the whole operation, yes, but the focus of the mission remains on the Messon Cannon array and keeping the ground units safe as they retake the city. More importantly, Gaiuss Tower is the self-appointed base of operations for Diego Gaspar Navarro, the leader of the Leasath and as we now know, a very prolific not just war criminal but actual criminal criminal to boot. Encircling the city and trapping Navarro inside the tower is the first step to bringing him to justice. However...  THE HUNT BEGINS As it turns out at the end of the mission, as Albert Genette relays to us via his customary act-ending narration, Navarro somehow managed to actually skip town. Whether before or during the action to retake Griswall is unknown and irrelevant at the moment. Either way, he managed to board a transport and flee back to Leasath territory, specifically the Archelon Fortress complex on Sentry Island in the Danern Straits. In his wake, Navarro and his military cabinet left behind a treasure trove of documents and financial statements in the hasty retreat from Griswall. The papers strewn about his makeshift office hold the key to busting his wide-ranging empire of fraud and deception wide open and are now firmly in the hands of Aurelian military and civilian intelligence agents, some of which are slowly filtering out to journalists like Genette. As Genette himself points out, there’s still one massive final hole in Navarro’s paper trail to account for the missing few million dollars not spent on the airborne fortress Gleipnir. As the Aruelian public set about to the task of rebuilding their nation, the walls are finally beginning to close in around Navarro. Even as he retreats to safety in Leasath territory, the Aruelians are hot on his trail. Though it seems as if Genette’s fears of one last missing weapon are about to prove themselves well-founded. The wolves might be at Navarro’s door, but he’s still got a wolf of his own waiting for them. And the fight to bring him to justice could very well be apocalyptic…  END OF PART 2… PART 2 And thus ends the “good” timeline run of Part 2. As you can see by watching the video, it ends effectively the same way no matter what version of Mission 12 you wind up unlocking with your path through the game. So this puts us at the same starting point for the remains runs through the finale act of the game, Part 3. However, before we move on to the endgame, we have two more missions to go back and cover. I’m not specifically calling any route or version of a particular mission “canon”, given the sprawling and self-contradictory nature of Ace Combat X, and the fact that it takes place at the rear end end of the timeline AND is completely disconnected from everything else we’ve looked at and have yet to look at by geographical distance and scope… BUT, Missions 7C and 12C are definitely in the “these never happened” camp, as much as I can shove them off out of the way of the main run through the game. So our next update will look at the absolute worst-case disaster situation of Mission 7C (Time Limit), followed by the slightly less disaster-centric and more fun Mission 12C (Wild Card). Since we’ve seen all the permutations of missions leading to each of them, doing another run of Part 2 is belaboring the point, so 7C and 12C should be considered nothing more than a pair of bonus updates for now.  MESON CANNON One of the lesser talked about elements of Aurelia’s experimentation with meson energy through the Atmos Ring was its military applications. While Aurelia prided itself on its peaceful scientific experimentation with particle physics, one weapons development avenue was underway at the time of the Leasath invasion: the Meson Cannon. The project was incomplete at the time of the invasion, however, and has since been finished by Leasath military scientists and Aurelian workers forced to aid them in completing project under pain of torture, death, or other punishment. Consisting of eight turrets placed in key locations around the Atmos Ring, the Meson Cannon is a directed energy particle beam weapon of immense but unstable power. The weapon operates by using highly charged meson particles generated by the Atmos Ring firing proton beams at aluminum and beryllium sheets and then capturing the muon particles those meson particles decay into. The muons are then directed to linear particle accelerators in the regulator towers and “fired” out of the beam projects positioned atop the towers. The particle beam then fires at 99.9999991% the speed of light, making it nearly impossible to avoid, and precisely aimed strikes can be deadly. The trade off is that faster moving and highly maneuverable targets (like fighter jets) are harder for the cannon to acquire an accurate firing solution on, but incoming threats with a more stable and predictable trajectory (like ICBMs) can easily be defended against and without the risk of running out of ammunition. The cannon also produces no radiological byproduct or secondary emissions that are harmful to humans like traditional nuclear weaponry does. The drawbacks to the cannon are its prohibitive development and deployment costs, both in capital and energy requirements. The muon particles themselves used in the beam also have a high rate of degradation, remaining viable for mere seconds, if even. This means the cannon has a relatively short firing range, several kilometers at most, and cannot maintain a sustained rate of fire for long. The actual cannons themselves have a limited range of motion and their firing arcs take long periods of time to readjust, meaning a fighter jet can easily maneuver safely through the field of fire of all eight cannons if moving at top speed. Moreover, the cannons can only fire in short bursts due to the high rate of decay of the muonparticles. Medal: Freedom Tower Awarded for: Completing Mission 12A, 12B, or 12C. Description: Awarded for liberating Griswall, the Federal Republic of Aurelia’s capital. 
ZEPHYR  
★VEHICLE Tracks featured in Mission 12A: DISC X
nine-gear crow fucked around with this message at 08:53 on Jul 20, 2023 |
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May 28, 2021 21:57
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