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File: 22712229_p0.jpg (444 KB, 1500x914)
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You are Noel Tiberius di Hazaran, warrior-queen of the nation whose name you share, and right now you’re facing down a small group of sailors aboard an enemy warship that you’ve boarded as part of your assault on their homeport.

These are engineers, not combat-trained soldiers, who no doubt left their quarters this morning with no idea that they might be put into a situation today where they might be expected to fight in close quarters against a woman with the blood of monsters flowing thick through her veins. None of them even came here with a sidearm, and so the closest thing any of them have to a weapon is the large wrench one is carrying.

“Hello there,” you greet them, just so slightly awkwardly. “How are you all doing?”

Two of the three stand silently, while one manages to find some courage. “We were doing well, until just now.”

“Sorry to hear that,” you reply. “But I’m in a bit of a hurry, so would you mind leaving peacefully?”

“That’s not…” the man frowns, before his voice falters.

“If you leave now you won’t be harmed,” you assure him. “And I won’t even tell anyone about it. But I need to secure the ammunition aboard this ship so nobody gets the bright idea to blow it up.”

The man with the wrench drops it and rushes to get around you and out into the corridor, while the other two aren’t far behind him. Rather than simply close the hatch and lock it, you take things one step further and bring your awakened fist down on the edges of the closed hatch to crimp them badly in six different places, essentially locking the hatch down onto the opening in a way that can’t be undone by any means short of cutting through the metal bulkhead around the door opening.

Your next objective is a similar magazine aft, serving all the guns aboard this ship located astern of the exhaust funnels. The thing you’re concerned about at the moment is that resistance will be higher – and in the corridor outside, as you progress further aft, that turns out to be well-founded. The sailors who confront you next short of the magazine are armed with pistols, and are taking cover behind open hatches.

>Simple solution – close the hatches. By force if need be.
>With your sword in hand you can cut THROUGH bulkheads.
>Warn the sailors exactly once. Intimidate them into cooperation.
>Other?
>>
>>5928262
>>With your sword in hand you can cut THROUGH bulkheads.
>>Warn the sailors exactly once. Intimidate them into cooperation.
Warn 'em once.
Chop chop.
>>
>>5928262
>>With your sword in hand you can cut THROUGH bulkheads.
>>
>>5928262
>Simple solution – close the hatches. By force if need be.
>>
>3d10 best of three
>>
Rolled 8, 7, 10 = 25 (3d10)

>>5929195
>>
Rolled 9, 7, 10 = 26 (3d10)

>>5929195
>>
Rolled 3, 1, 4 = 8 (3d10)

>>5929195
>>
>>5929195
Well, it isn’t a problem that these sailors have decided to try and hold the corridor against you – because you don’t really need to use the corridor at all. Your precious sword is harder than the bulkheads, and sharp enough that in your capable hands it can rend through such thin metal.

Inside a compartment just off the corridor, three swift slashes free a triangular piece of bulkhead that you kick into the next compartment. This space thankfully proves to be unoccupied, but you suspect the next one will be defended from the hatchway to your left. So after you slash the next bulkhead, but before you breach your way through it, you grab a wooden chair. That way you can toss the chair at the sailor standing in the hatchway, who is left dumbfounded at the sudden assault. The chair hits him and probably knocks out at least one tooth, but that’s not your problem so long as nobody dies.

In the third compartment you’re met by an alert sailor, whose pistol you grab in one hand and crush slightly to keep him from getting any smart ideas. After planting your sword in the deck plate below you grab the sailor in a head lock under your right arm, turning to shut the hatch with your foot before proceeding. You find it a little more comfortable to switch arms, spinning the poor man around to grab hold of his neck and shoulders from behind in your left arm while you recover your sword in your right hand. Three more cuts and you’re marching the sailor into the aft magazine through one of the bulkheads, to find two more sailors pointing weapons at you.

>… please don’t. Just… don’t.
>You can probably knock all three of these guys out pretty easily.
>Ignore them. Go about your business then leave the way you came.
>Other?
>>
>>5932321
>>… please don’t. Just… don’t.
>>
>>5932321
>>Ignore them. Go about your business then leave the way you came.
>>
>>5932321
>… please don’t. Just… don’t.
>>
>>5932321
>… please don’t. Just… don’t.
>>
>>5932321
>3d10 best of three
>>
Rolled 7, 7, 4 = 18 (3d10)

>>5933480
>>
Rolled 2, 3, 3 = 8 (3d10)

>>5933480
>>
Rolled 9, 2, 7 = 18 (3d10)

>>5933480
>>
>>5932321
You can’t help but sigh wearily.

“Please don’t,” you plead simply. “Just… just don’t.”

“… don’t what?” one of the sailors asks nervously.

“Whatever it was you were thinking of,” you press. “Don’t do it. Don’t make me hurt you.”

“How many of our comrades have you killed so far today?” another of the men bravely speaks up second. “How can you expect anyone to trust you?”

“Me personally?” you ask. “I have never once taken a human life. As queen I have ordered my subordinates into battle, but only after my people were threatened.”

“You were just threatening us,” the first man points out.

“Oh I’ve absolutely hurt people,” you admit. “Some probably never recovered. But make no mistake – I could afford the luxury of sparing their lives because I’m strong.”

The implication there of course is that you’re strong enough that you’ll get your way regardless of what they decide to do, so it really makes no sense for them to force your hand. All that was needed was for them to come to that realization on their own, which only takes a few moments.

You proverbially (but not quite literally) toss them out into the corridor and close the hatch behind them, barring it from the inside and deforming the frame around it. Then on the way back you do the same to each compartment you were forced to breach, effectively preventing the crew from accessing any of their ammunition stores without bringing in heavy equipment designed to cut through the bulkheads.

… now what?

>Now we wait for the soldiers to run out of ammunition before sinking this ship.
>We should withdraw soon, before there’s a cohesive response to our attack.
>If we could get this ship’s engines started, that could give us more options.
>Other?
>>
>>5935430
>If we could get this ship’s engines started, that could give us more options.
>>
>>5935430
>If we could get this ship’s engines started, that could give us more options.
>>
>>5935430
>>If we could get this ship’s engines started, that could give us more options.
I'M ON A BOAT MOTHERFUCKER!
>>
>>5935430
>3d10 best of three
Get your towels ready
>>
Rolled 3, 6, 8 = 17 (3d10)

>>5937335
Is Noel a hoopy frood?
>>
Rolled 2, 6, 6 = 14 (3d10)

>>5937335
>>
Rolled 3, 7, 10 = 20 (3d10)

>>5937335
>>
>>5937335
Back out on deck you find that sailors are abandoning ship – some leaping overboard, others clinging to inflatable life preservers, with a few small boats full to the gunwales. That gives you some indication that your next plan may well work. The first step is cutting the anchor chains on your way forward, where you inform your comrades of your plan. Once everyone has started to evacuate back into the same boat you arrived on, you head back the way you came and press your way down several sets of stairs into the bowels of the ship.

There, in the tight spaces of the engine sections which squeeze between large pipes and heavy, reciprocating machinery, you find a control station abandoned by the crew – who must have figured that since the ship was at anchor leaving was safe. All of the controls are labeled the same way as they are on the bridge, and so you push a wooden-handled lever so that a brass arrow points to ‘Ahead Slow’.

This gives you plenty of time to abandon ship yourself.

Any shore battery capable of firing, of which there are still a few, immediately focuses on your surprise gift for them. Some rounds miss or short their target, but most strike their target somewhere along the length of the hull. A few even tear through the bridge for all the good that does.

But nothing stops the warship from building up a little momentum before driving herself straight onto the rocks that line the edge of the harbor. The sound is honestly somewhat horrific to hear, a rending and groaning symphony of metal doing things it wasn’t designed for. The lower portion of the hull crushes and folds in on itself, while pulling away from the upper half at the prow. The propellers strain for a few moments to keep pushing the ship forward, until they’re eventually spinning fruitlessly once the cruiser comes to a halt.



“That was… somewhat less impressive than I hoped,” you admit with a frown.

“I think it’s starting to catch fire,” Valentina offers. “There, see? Around the forward guns.”

It’s something of a stalemate for a short time, with your own soldiers lacking the numbers and your enemies lacking coordination. While nothing that has happened so far qualifies as decisive, the situation is far from what one might expect given the difference in force sizes and technology. Much of that has come down to the boldness and speed of the Hazari side, enabled by the presence of several sets of silver eyes. Speaking very broadly you now have two choices before you.
>1/2
>>
>>5939826
The first choice is that you can treat this situation as though it were the beginnings of an armed insurgency – avoid taking any action that would commit so many of your forces that failure would prove catastrophic. This may mean that your troops will suffer gradual losses, any amount of which is unsustainable in the long term, but it also means that you might manage to build momentum. By keeping your enemy on their back foot and showing that you can win repeatedly even if in small confrontations, you might even draw Sakian civilians into open revolt against their invaders. Were that to happen, you doubt that your shared enemy could hold onto the territory.

The other choice is that you can treat this as a rapidly-moving invasion, one which must seek to culminate in a decisive victory. If you think about it, either way that goes you can safely say there won’t be any sort of slow loss among your troops. But the disadvantage is that if your side loses, your troops won’t suffer any more losses afterwards because you doubt there will be enough survivors to do anything else. Your assault will end right then and there.

>Hold off until dark, then soften up your enemy’s positions overnight for an assault in the morning.
>Launch an infantry assault on the enemy’s headquarters building. Go for the proverbial jugular.
>If you want to launch a prolonged campaign you’ll need to find a more defensible location.
>Other?
>>
>>5939925
>>Launch an infantry assault on the enemy’s headquarters building. Go for the proverbial jugular.
>>
>>5939925
>Launch an infantry assault on the enemy’s headquarters building. Go for the proverbial jugular.
>>
>>5939925
>>Launch an infantry assault on the enemy’s headquarters building. Go for the proverbial jugular.
>>
>3d10 best of three
>>
Rolled 3, 7, 10 = 20 (3d10)

>>5940962
Here we goooooooooooooo
>>
Rolled 1, 3, 3 = 7 (3d10)

>>5940962
>>
Rolled 3, 3, 1 = 7 (3d10)

>>5940962
>>
>>5940962
“The future isn’t certain,” you admit quietly. “Whether we take action, or choose to wait, both options have a chance of failure. But if we do fail, I’d rather fail having chosen to act.”

“I want to say no Hazari soldier would disagree.”



No Hazari soldiers disagreed.

That’s how you found yourselves rallying into an all-out assault on the enemy command center facing the waterfront, where the cruiser you crashed is still burning merrily. The few artillery pieces your side has confiscated provide support for you and your sword-sisters. Some of the men who dare to follow right behind you fall, but many of the Hazari troops make it several blocks through sporadic, disorganized enemy fire until you’re knocking on their literal doors. Swinging your massive swords as if they were nothing, you and Aurora rend massive openings into the facade, giving your soldiers places to pour into the building from unexpected angles.

The battle rages on room to room, with you and your sisters bull-rushing through hallways to scatter and disorient any of the invaders who had the presence of mind to arm themselves. The sound of gunfire fills the building, one floor at a time.

It quickly becomes clear once you’ve seized control, and you take a few minutes to take stock of what you’ve achieved here. You find several rooms on the bottom floor that are filled with transmitting equipment, maps and charts of your homeland and its navigable waterways, and reams of paper records. Among the captured are clear non-combatants, now kneeling on the floors at gunpoint with their hands behind their heads. Higher up in the building you see the bodies of officers whose uniforms and rank insignia you’ve never seen before. In what would have been the mayor’s office you find a man whose rank insignia is three brass stars on the collar – a pistol lies on his desk, and the fatal wound he suffered is obviously self-inflicted.

>The transmitting equipment is a boon – broadcast a message calling for surrender.
>Destroy the transmitting equipment, then continue degrading their combat abilities.
>Withdraw with the captured technicians to a more defensible location for the night.
>Other?
>>
>>5942383
>>The transmitting equipment is a boon – broadcast a message calling for surrender.
>Withdraw with the captured technicians to a more defensible location for the night.
Shitpost at them then cheese it with their technicians.
>>
>>5942383
>>The transmitting equipment is a boon – broadcast a message calling for surrender.
>>
>>5942383
>>The transmitting equipment is a boon – broadcast a message calling for surrender.

I definitely want to t-pose on them with their own equipment

And I wouldn't say not to taking their techies.
>>
>>5942383
>The transmitting equipment is a boon – broadcast a message calling for surrender.
>>
>>5942383
>3d10 best of three
>>
Rolled 5, 1, 10 = 16 (3d10)

>>5942707
>>
Rolled 3, 1, 7 = 11 (3d10)

>>5942708
>>
Rolled 9, 10, 3 = 22 (3d10)

>>5942707
>
>>
>>5942707
You decide that there are two things worth doing in this situation – the first of which you have to do here, in this very building. And the people you’ve captured are going to help you do it. After leaning on one of them for the information, you set the transmitting equipment to broadcast across all frequencies typically used by the invaders. You begin by clearing your throat.

“Pardon the interruption,” you begin. “This is Queen Noel Tiberius di Hazaran. I’m a silver-eyed warrior, and I rule the large kingdom to the south via my regent. Under my leadership, a force of elite Hazari infantry have broken through your local defenses, sunk two of your cruisers, and generally caused chaos – culminating in seizing your superiors’ command center.”

“The facility is under our control. All resistance has been quelled, and the seniormost officer has taken his own life in defeat. Your faction, at least in terms of its presence on my homeland, is now leaderless.”

“My people have a well-established record of treating surrendered enemies with dignity. Those who surrender peacefully to Hazari forces and willingly disarm will not be mistreated. Should the opportunity arise you will even be returned home as quickly and safely as possible.”

“But as you should also realize by now, when my people are called to battle we fight with unrivaled fury and determination. If you choose to fight to the last man then Hazaran will oblige you in that endeavor, even if we would prefer otherwise.”

“That is my message to you. I will give you until tomorrow morning to decide.”

You don’t bother having one of the technicians show you how to turn off the transmitter – you let your sword do that for you. Then you, your companions, and your subordinates all cooperate in taking your captives out of the building.

>Withdraw back out of the port town for the time being, make camp and set a watch.
>Find a fortifiable building in town and set up defenses there.
>Other?
>>
>>5943759
>>Withdraw back out of the port town for the time being, make camp and set a watch.
>>
>>5943759
>>Find a fortifiable building in town and set up defenses there.
>>
>>5943759
>Find a fortifiable building in town and set up defenses there.
And how will we know of the enemy's surrender without a radio, huh, Noel?
>>
>>5943759
>>Find a fortifiable building in town and set up defenses there.
>>
>>5943759
>3d10 best of three
>>
Rolled 9, 2, 2 = 13 (3d10)

>>5944466
>>
Rolled 5, 5, 7 = 17 (3d10)

>>5944466
>>
Rolled 2, 8, 6 = 16 (3d10)

>>5944466
>>
>>5944466
You quickly decide that you’ll have to settle in for the night, and that in order to do that you’ll need to find a location you can fortify and defend. That’s doubly true given that you now have high-value prisoners to watch over. After considering several buildings you choose a neighborhood located not far from the middle of town, where the lines of sight are blocked by other buildings which are all made out of stone masonry or brick. That should serve to shelter your force from your enemies.

“Search these four buildings,” you order some of your squad leaders, pointing to the four apartment buildings you intend to take over. “See if there are civilians already sheltering there.”

A door-to-door search of these buildings gives you a somewhat frustrating answer – there are still civilian families here who have not evacuated the city. You might have expected this. With the way that your enemy created a defensive perimeter you wouldn’t be at all surprised if they were also controlling people’s movements within the area they’ve been trying to administer all this time, and with how quickly you breached those defenses earlier in the day these people may not have had time to escape. So instead they’ve chosen to do what you’re in the middle of trying to do and taken cover to try and wait this whole thing out.

There’s more than one accusation along the lines of “kicking the hornets’ nest”, but you make it clear that your men are risking their lives for these people’s freedom as well as that of your own nation. If Sakia hadn’t rolled over and allowed the invaders to entrench themselves so deeply, then the situation would be completely different now.

It’s also clear that nowhere in this city will be completely unoccupied, so in that sense it’s hard to say that one building would be any better than another.

>Force the current residents out of three buildings and into the fourth for their own safety.
>Change plans. Hold the ground floors of these four buildings and the surrounding streets.
>The residents can stay. If things go badly at this point they’ll be in danger anywhere they are.
>Other?
>>
>>5946269
>Force the current residents out of three buildings and into the fourth for their own safety.
>>
>>5946269
>>Force the current residents out of three buildings and into the fourth for their own safety.
>>
>>5946269
>The residents can stay. If things go badly at this point they’ll be in danger anywhere they are.
>>
>>5946269
>3d10 best of three
>>
Rolled 7, 5, 6 = 18 (3d10)

>>5946954
>>
Rolled 7, 1, 2 = 10 (3d10)

>>5946954
>>
Rolled 6, 5, 2 = 13 (3d10)

>>5946954
>>
>>5946954
You send your soldiers door-to-door to start dealing with the residents of the three buildings, all sharing one courtyard, that you want to use overnight. Several families are in the first of these, and you deal with them personally.

“If you’re in the same building as us your lives will be at risk,” you insist. “That’s unacceptable.”

“Then don’t come in here!” an older man retorts. “Just stay out on the streets!”

“As queen I am personally responsible for the lives under my command,” you counter with a sharp glare. “If this leads to a slight inconvenience for you and your family, I’m afraid you’ll have to simply be inconvenienced.”

“What the hell makes you any different than the other invaders!?” he demands.

You reach out and give him an incredibly restrained shove to the back of his shoulder, forcing him out the door. “The difference is tomorrow morning we’re going to leave… and if all goes well, we’ll be taking those ‘other invaders’ with us.”



The prisoners from earlier are all assembled in one room, with their eyes covered and their mouths gagged, and their wrists bound in front of them. Each has been seated on the wooden floor.

>Separate them and interrogate them individually. You can’t trust them yet.
>At least un-blindfold and un-gag them. No need for such measures at this stage.
>Don’t even bother. There’s not much they can actually tell you that would be useful.
>Other?
>>
>>5947951
>>At least un-blindfold and un-gag them. No need for such measures at this stage.
>>
>>5947951
>>Separate them and interrogate them individually. You can’t trust them yet.
>>
>>5947951
>Separate them and interrogate them individually. You can’t trust them yet.
>>
>>5947951
>>Separate them and interrogate them individually. You can’t trust them yet.
>>
>>5947951
>3d10 best of three
>>
Rolled 1, 1, 2 = 4 (3d10)

>>5948755
>>
Rolled 5, 8, 3 = 16 (3d10)

>>5948755
>>
Rolled 7, 10, 5 = 22 (3d10)

>>5948755
>>
>>5948755
These prisoners are particularly valuable – they have the sort of technical knowledge that your enemy relies on, in addition to relying on you not understanding it. There’s a whole realm of technological wizardry that lies beyond even your own experience, and as the queen of Hazaran it’s not just your duty to defeat your enemy in spite of that technology. It’s also your responsibility to understand that technology as best you can, and use it to enrich your nation and enhance your people’s lives.

So you have one of the technicians – a young woman with bobbed, wavy red hair – dragged away from the others and forced to kneel in a nearby room. You remove her gag.

“If you’re going to kill me,” the young woman insists, putting up a brave front, “Then just do it.”

Without answering you remove her blindfold as well, causing her to squint at you at first. You lay your sword calmly on a nearby table – where the family that lives here probably eats dinner – and pull up a chair for yourself.

“Now, why would I ever want to do that?”

Whatever she was expecting, it’s pretty clear that it wasn’t to be interrogated by a woman who just a few hours ago proclaimed herself to be a queen.

“… was what you said earlier true?”

“About being a queen?” you ask.

She nods.

“It’s true, yes,” you reply calmly. “Born and raised – I rule through a regent these days though, so most of my responsibilities are in the provinces and on the battlefield.”
>1/2
>>
>>5949815
“Anyway, as I said,” you continue, “I have no reason to do you any harm. In fact, I have a fairly convincing reason not to.”

“… you’re going to interrogate me now, aren’t you?” she glares sharply at you. “Well, you shouldn’t expect me to…”

“Yes, I’m going to interrogate you now,” you interrupt brusquely. “Let’s start with your name and rank, assuming you have one.”

The woman stares at you with an evaluating gaze. “Marie-Noelle Lagadec. Signalman, Second Class.”

“Marie-Noelle,” you muse. “Am I hearing that correctly? It’s compound?”

“Correct.”

“That’s uncommon,” you observe. “Aside from having been tied up, are you well? Anything you need?”

“… no?”

“Good,” you nod. “Now then.”

>I’m going to be focusing on technical issues related to your communications equipment and protocols.
>I mostly just want dirt about the various goings-on within your forces. That should help our side.
>You help handle communications, so I want to know what you’ve communicated and to whom.
>Other?
>>
>>5950445
>Other?
Offer a cigarette first, if any are on hand. Failing that, start with an icebreaker, like how she got her name, and how she ended up in the army. Are female personnel common? Follow up with some more mundane stuff, like shift schedules, and how often they check in with other communication stations. Finally, move on to

>You help handle communications, so I want to know what you’ve communicated and to whom.
>>
>>5950529
This guy's got it
>>
>>5950529
Seconding
>>
>>5950445
>3d10 best of three
>>
Rolled 6, 8, 8 = 22 (3d10)

>>5951220
>>
Rolled 10, 8, 1 = 19 (3d10)

>>5951220
>>
Rolled 6, 10, 9 = 25 (3d10)

>>5951220
>>
>>5951220
“Do you smoke?” you ask.

There’s a brief pause before the incredulous response. “… no?”

“Good,” you nod. “Filthy habit.”

You lean in slightly, coming to rest with your chin on your fist. “Marie-Noelle… Lagadec… I would assume ‘Noelle’ has similar roots to my own name. But what about ‘Lagadec’?”

“That…” she answers, hesitating at first. “That would be a regional thing.”

“Is it common where you’re from?”

“Not exceedingly, no.”

“But it’s unique to there?”

“Yes.”

“What sort of region is it?” you ask, giving over to curiosity – not just to put her into a sense of ease either. “We don’t really know much about the mainland… by design mostly, but also because we don’t get much chance to ask.”

“It’s…” she begins, apparently realizing you won’t recognize any of the names. “It’s warm most of the year… a lot of fragrant cedars and tall grasses and worn boulders overlooking a shallow sea. The colors you can see on a summer evening looking out over the water always take my breath away no matter how many times I see them.”

You listen with your eyes closed, trying to envision it. “It sounds beautiful. Why would you want to leave?”

She frowns slightly. “What are you getting at?”

You shake your head. “Apologies, I’m not trying to be sneaky here. But that’s one thing I really don’t understand – the individual motives and personal stories.”

“Well, if you must know,” Marie-Noelle tells you with a sigh, “my homeland may be beautiful, but it’s also quite poor.”

“… I see,” you muse. “There are some places here that are like that.”

>Ask her a little about her duties as a “signalman” – what does that actually entail?
>Ask her whether poverty and opportunity are common motives in their faction.
>Ask her more about her home – what else is good about it? What do they need to fix?
>Other?
>>
>>5953160
>>Ask her more about her home – what else is good about it? What do they need to fix?
>>
>>5953160
>Ask her whether poverty and opportunity are common motives in their faction.
>>
>>5953160
>>Ask her whether poverty and opportunity are common motives in their faction.
>>
>>5953160
>Ask her more about her home – what else is good about it? What do they need to fix?
>>
>>5953160
>3d10 best of three
>>
Rolled 5, 5, 3 = 13 (3d10)

>>5953552
>>
Rolled 3, 3, 6 = 12 (3d10)

>>5953552
>>
Rolled 5, 4, 2 = 11 (3d10)

>>5953552
>>
>>5953552
“So… what else is good about your homeland?” you ask curiously. “What else needs to be fixed?”

“The food is great,” she replies. “We grow world-class lemons, and the fresh seafood is amazing. It’s just hard to commercialize those things without ruining the quality.”

“Mostly what we get are small freshwater fish,” you offer. “Trout in particular.”

“What we need is some kind of industry that can be scaled up,” she decides.

“Would you say poverty is a pretty common motive among your comrades?”

There’s a pause, concerning at first but rather telling after you hear what she has to say. “The word ‘comrade’ is a bit strong at this point.”

“Why is that?” you ask. “What word would you use?”

She frowns, chewing the inside of her lip for a moment. “I would say that after ideological reasons, poverty is the most common reason anyone in my homeland joins any militant organization.”

… not exactly subtle.

>Please answer the question. You were after all the one who raised the matter.
>I have ways to find out what I want to know. Are you going to insist on making me use one?
>Let’s change topics – I’ll let you decide what you want to talk about next.
>Other?
>>
>>5954965
>>Let’s change topics – I’ll let you decide what you want to talk about next.

Keep things amicable, let the trickle of intel continue to flow.
>>
>>5954965
>Let’s change topics – I’ll let you decide what you want to talk about next.
>>
>>5954965
>>Let’s change topics – I’ll let you decide what you want to talk about next.
>>
>>5954965
Rollem
>>
>>5956877
“Let’s change topics,” you decide with a weary sigh, realizing that you’ve stumbled into a topic she doesn’t feel comfortable discussing – probably because there are problems emerging between the technicians and soldiers. “I got to steer the conversation for a little while, so now I’ll let you decide what we talk about.”

“Why?” she stares at you, narrowing her eyes. “I don’t get it… aren’t you supposed to be interrogating me?”

“I am,” you shrug. “I could certainly ask you more direct questions about troop movements and your command hierarchy, but what would your answer be?”

“I wouldn’t tell you.”

“Exactly,” you nod. “And then I’m supposed to… what, exactly? Hit you until you tell me what I want to know?”

“… that’s one option.”

“Now let’s say I hit you a few times,” you continue. “Would you answer me then?”

“No,” she replies.

“Then I hit you a few more times,” you continue. “Maybe pull out a few of your teeth and fingernails. Break some bones in your hands while I’m at it, and pull out your hair in great big chunks. Change the source of the pain every so often so you can’t get used to it. Burn you with a hot poker a few times. Make your life a living hell full of nothing but pain, and really drag it out.”

“At what point do you break?”

She doesn’t answer.

“And when you did break, what wouldn’t you tell me to make the pain stop?” you press. “At a certain point, isn’t it possible – if not likely – that you’d say anything you thought I wanted to hear?”

“… it’s possible,” she admits.

“Not only is it not in my nature,” you conclude, “but it could actually prove counter-productive. Instead I’d prefer to have a conversation, steer it carefully, and learn what I can. Maybe you or someone else slips up. Maybe I can learn things from context clues. Maybe I eventually earn your trust and you give me a useful answer deliberately.”

“I think that’s a far better option. And, considering it from your perspective – you have to figure at some point my side will learn what we want to know. You have an opportunity to decide what I learn, how I learn it, and from whom I learn it.”
>3d10 best of three
>something fucky happened with that, sorry
>>
Rolled 3, 8, 6 = 17 (3d10)

>>5956879
>>
Rolled 9, 5, 8 = 22 (3d10)

>>5956879
>>
Rolled 10, 3, 10 = 23 (3d10)

>>5956879
>>
>>5956879
After considering your words for a few moments, and evidently finding no deception in them, Signalman Second Class Lagadec offers her reply.

“… the soldiers who were meant to guard the headquarters section ran like cowards,” she tells you with a bitter sigh. “They left us to be captured – or so far as they knew at the time, worse – because we ‘couldn’t fight’, they said. Because we weren’t worth protecting.”

>Then that was their mistake. I can assure you that you’re more significant than they seemed to think.
>Thank you for clarifying that point for me. Is there anything else you would like to talk about?
>You’re not alone in being upset at their behavior. If you want to help, I would welcome that.
>Other?
>>
>>5958436
>Then that was their mistake. I can assure you that you’re more significant than they seemed to think.
>>
>>5958436
>>Then that was their mistake. I can assure you that you’re more significant than they seemed to think.
>Other?
Thank her for her candor, ask her if there's anything else she'd like to talk about
>>
>>5958436
>>Then that was their mistake. I can assure you that you’re more significant than they seemed to think.
>>
>>5958436
“Then that was their mistake,” you observe calmly. “I can assure you that you’re far more significant than they thought – not only are you indescribably more valuable as captives, I get the sneaking suspicion you’re probably better people on balance.”

“Why?” she asks with a frown.

“Pretty simple, really,” you tell her. “You’re not the ones who abandoned their responsibilities. You had a post and you stayed at it. Even if our ‘sides’ are at war I can respect that.”

“Trying to butter me up?”

“Just wanted to let you know where you stand,” you shrug. “What you want to do with that knowledge is up to you.”

“You have a very strange idea of interrogation.”

“It’s worked so far,” you pointed out.

“It might not going forward.”

You frown, leaning back in your chair slightly. “You’re still talking to me.”

“… so I am,” she admits, as though slowly realizing it herself.

>Listen. All we really want is for you people to go home, and leave us alone.
>Do you know where the soldiers who abandoned you retreated to?
>When you worked the… radio, I think you call it… who was talking to who?
>Other?
>>
>>5960059
>>Other?
>Listen. We're not interested in fighting a war against you or your people.
>>
>>5960059
>Other?
"My fight is not against you, but against those that sent you here. Now. . ."
>When you worked the… radio, I think you call it… who was talking to who?
>>
>>5960078
Seconding
>>
>>5960059
>3d10 best of three
>>
Rolled 9, 3, 5 = 17 (3d10)

>>5960803
>>
Rolled 3, 4, 10 = 17 (3d10)

>>5960803
>>
Rolled 9, 9, 4 = 22 (3d10)

>>5960803
>>
Hey QoD, anons, do you use the QTG?
>>
>>5962338
Not since it was on /tg/.
>>
>>5962338
I do
>>
>>5960803
“Listen,” you tell her with a sigh. “I’m going to keep being honest with you – if I could win this war without fighting at all I’d do it that way. The only problem is I’ve yet to see a clear opportunity to do that, and without that opportunity I’d be putting my soldiers’ lives at unacceptable risk to try. As queen, that’s something I can’t do.”

“If you don’t want to fight, then why are you?”

“To defend our home,” you insist curtly. “We will continue to do so fiercely so long as we are under attack.”

For a while, Marie-Noelle is silent. She’s pondering what you’ve said so far. “I…”

“… you want to go home, don’t you?” you ask.

She nods quietly. “You know the feeling?”

“While I was still serving the Organization I spent years away,” you recall. “Of course I missed it.”

“It’s funny,” she admits. “I didn’t think I could miss that place. I was so desperate to leave it, and now all I want is to go back.”

>You’re not the only one – most of your comrades probably feel the same way.
>The best way to do that, if we’re being honest, is to tell me everything you can.
>Help me help you, then – use your skills as a ‘signalman’ to get yourselves home.
>Other?
>>
>>5962712
>You’re not the only one – most of your comrades probably feel the same way.
>>
>>5962712
>>You’re not the only one – most of your comrades probably feel the same way.
>>
>>5962712
>3d10 best of four
>>
Rolled 10, 4, 2 = 16 (3d10)

>>5964498
>>
Rolled 9, 5, 9 = 23 (3d10)

>>5964498
>>
Rolled 8, 7, 5 = 20 (3d10)

>>5964498
>>
Rolled 5, 1, 5 = 11 (3d10)

>>5964498



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