>>5898842
“Pa-ra!” He yelled as he stepped over the log. The gunfire slowly died down. While the soldiers cheered the Dardi as he tied a noose around the corpses of the two Kommunalists Alin slowly stabilized the wounded soldier and dragged him backwards towards the second truck. As she was dragging him, she heard a rumbling behind her.
“What’s that?” She asked as she turned around, the half councious jawless soldier leaning on her stopped as she turned around.
A moment later, a shell punched through the foliage and impacted the truck in front of Alin. Gunfire resumed, more intense than before and she felt herself drop to her knees. Quickly glancing at the soldier, she saw his nearly decapitated head, only attached to the rest of his body with a thin strip of flesh and muscle. She tried getting up but noticed her left foot was missing. Then she passed out.
“Bista.” Jivan called you as you watched the animated movements of the units on the map. “The exploitation of the offensive has been a failure.”
“Yeah.” You replied. “I can see that.”
“We ran into an armored column. The northern beachheads are being squeezed. We are barely holding them back with artillery and drones.” Jivan continued. “And Nino ate another bullet, this time to his chest.”
“How?” Rani asks.
“A infiltrator.” Jivan replies.
“It’s not going well?” Lanu asks.
“Doyle has lost a thousand men. We have lost three. The enemy has lost two thousand in the north and five in the south. We have consistently been outkilling our enemy but he just outmatches us that much in numbers we are unable to deal with him.” Jivan says. “Since the start of this last offensive, we have lost six thousand men, Doyle has lost a total of five thousand men. The enemy has lost fourteen thousand men. We cannot endure this. Us and Doyle have collectively lost sixteen percent of our forces. The Kommunalists have lost half a percent.” Jivan says.
You run a hand through your hair.
“Give me your ideas.” You say.
“We try to make an agreement with the Kommunalists. We’ve shown them that we can take ground from them. We should have a leverage for the negotiations.” Rani says. “Either them or Ren Fu. We cannot win this.” Rani says.
Jivan pauses a bit. “We could try attacking across the river. Or we could attempt a paratrooper drop somewhere. Or a deeper flank throug the jungle into their rear.” He says listing off the options. “Of course, we could just attempt concentrating firepower in the hopes of destroying the armored column and any forces to the east of us.”
You feel Lanu whispering into your mind. “It’s really bad, isn’t it?”

>>5898843
“You have something to add.” You think to yourself, hoping she’ll understand you.
“Want me to go and beg the Black lady for help?” She whispers into your mind again.
The idea tempts you for a moment, but you choose to think a bit more.
>Negotiate with Police and Ren Fu (Write in pitch)
>Negotiate with Sandro and the Kommunalists (Write in pitch)
>Dig in, call off ofensive manouvers
>Focus on merely bombarding, droning and shelling your foes
>Advance (write-in idea)

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Map of situation.

>>5898844
>Negotiate with Police and Ren Fu (Write in pitch)
The Kommunalists outnumber us both. We should work together to crush them.

>>5898844
>confer with the black lady, where mortal arms flag and fail can a number bestow a miracle upon the battlefield?
The police sees us all as scum so no dice on that front, advancing would be madness and who knows if we can even hold the ground we got.

Now would be a good time for the black lady who sat on her covalescent ass until now to show some miracle.

Also i don't know how armored our captured dropship is but i'm going to bet it's very tanky and that so far from their cities they won't have the AA power to shoot it down if we were to turn it into a gunship and hunt their mechanized columns from above.

>>5898925
Another strategy but more long term is to start a guerrilla poisoning their fields and ruining crops, what gives me pause is how they can have so many on the field and outstrip our manufacturing capability while still be able to feed themselves.
There has to be a weakpoint.

>>5898925

Supporting, hopefully she is willing to assist us?

>>5898844
>Halt eastern movement and dig in to weather the armoured assault. Concentrate drone and artillery strikes on the column. The few proper AFVs we have will be in reserve to physically stop any breakthroughs.
>Paradrop onto the northern kommunalist's artillery, the batteries organic to the divisions in the local area across the river, rather than any higher headquarters element. If possible, commandeer their heavy guns and open up a beachhead on the northern bank of the river with fire. If not, destroy the guns and move south to join the river crossing maneuver by attacking the enemy in the rear. The rest of what qualifies as our armoured units will form teams with the best infantry and storm north across the river once we've confirmed their artillery is locked down.

We can still fight on a little longer, but it'd be wise to stop soon. At 30% casualties our formations will be combat ineffective and will need to reorganize before they can fight effectively again, so best to stop before then. I think it is worth trying one more time though. Crossing the river and cutting the enemy's supply lines at the narrowest point between the jungle and the river will starve them out in possibly as little as 3 days.

Rolled 45 (1d100)

I will need a single d100 roll.

Rolled 93 (1d100)

>>5899801

>>5899803
The Black Lady provides!

“If you’ll excuse me.” You say as you step back and head outside. Lanu follows after you.
“She’s in the hospital.” Lanu says as she keeps pace with you.
You nod and continue your stride. A short walk later, you enter past a pair of gunmen who snap a salute at you. “ Master?” A nurse from behind the reception desk asks you.
“Black lady?” You ask.
“Down the hall, first door to the right.” The nurse says pointing with her hand.
You nod and continue your stride towards the door, grabbing the handle, but in the last moment, you choose not to open the door immediately and raise your hand to knock.
“Enter.” The voice from inside calls before your arm even connects to the wood of the door.
You step inside of the small room and find quite an interesting situation. In the centre of the room, a wounded disciple, with the Black lady standing over him, a strange medical instrument in her arm. Next to her, holding a tray with instruments, stands a … something. More a siluette of something or someone, a featureless, slim, perhaps androgenous naked human shape, absorbing all light that touches it, much like the black lady.
Seeing the concentration of the Black lady on the man below as she runs her hand down the side of the arm, cutting the blood and the tissue, revealing the pitch black flesh, much like that of the featureless and motionless servant next to her.
“How considerate of you.” She says, not bothering to raise her head from her work. “Speak.”
“My dear lady.” You begin. “I must ask for your help.”
“War not going well?” The Black lady asks.
“Correct my lady.” You reply.
“And just when I got into the rhythm of making them.” She says as she starts rolling up the skin and the muscle layer from the body on the table.
You stand in silence as she runs the strange blade along the clavicle and starts rolling the lash down the chest. “May I help?” You ask.
“Mortals have no skill in this.” She says as she slides her hand down under the flesh and peels it off down to the hip.
“May I ask what are these?” You continue.
“Guess.” She replies.
“Children?” You assume, based on the similarity between her appearance and the appearance of these.
Something between a snort and a chuckle escapes the lips of the Black lady. “I would *never* breed with a mortal!” She exclaims potently but not insultedly. “If I was to breed with anyone here, it would be with Lanu, and even then.”
You hear Lanu behind you take a step backwards.
“These, are merely my servants.” The Black lady finally answers to your question. “And there’s plenty more work to do to them. But I guess they can work like this aswell.” She says, giving a tug and pulling the skin and the just broken bones of the skull from the featureless head of the thing.

>>5900023
“So you will help us?” You ask.
She nods as she finishes pulling out the now slightly moving black form out of the skin and flesh, leaving a hollow shell that collapses in on itself. “Get me a ride to near the font, I’ll deal with this, but your men need to be ready to exploit the opportunity I create.”
On the sunrise of the next day, a, the Black lady plunged her dagger into the chest of a Kommunalist captive and then, with a downwards jerk, a vertical cut from the sternum to the groin opened up with black blood spewing forth and forming into a puddle at the kommunalist’s feet. The black blood kept pouring as the three dozen black silouettes in the pre morning light stood around the ritual sacrifice. The Black lady walked over to the next Kommunalist, a young girl desperately screaming for mercy, then plunged the knife into her chest aswell. The kommunalist after her spat at the Black lady but her knife found his chest aswell. Some fourty captives later, the pool of black blood already up to her ankles, the black lady bent down and placed her hand against it. In an instant, the blood turned to vapor and a moment later, a fierce wind blew eastwards, blowing the cloud of impossibly thick and opaque black vapors in a cacophony of sound and motion. One of the black silouettes walked up to the Black lady while the remainder pulled out knives and lost themselves in the fog.
“Sir.” A voice of a radio operator called to you. “A massive storm erupted just east of our position.” She said. “Apparently a really nasty one.”
You nodded, suspecting esoteric play. “ Visual?”
“Requesting it.” The girl replied. “Here.” She said a moment later, extending a small screen displaying an image from a drone kilometers up in the sky, showing a black bulb of fog lazily crawling east with occasional lighting strikes within.
“Keep our men out of it.” You say. “And when it disappears, send them in.” You add.
“Yessir.” She replies.
“I will be staying in the docks. If anything happens, send someone to inform me.” You say as you push yourself up.
To your surprise, you spent close to forty hours doing little in the converted dock warehouse, until a runner arrived. “The fog dissipated, we have commenced our advance!” The young man shouted excitedly.
Within four days, you returned back to Telan to a celebratory mood and, as is usual, requested a briefing, this time from a recovered Nino.
“Your Black lady, whatever she did, when that fog cleared up, we found everyone who was stuck in it either catatonic, if they were ours, or with a slit throat if they weren’t.” He says flatly.
“And then what?” You ask.
“We drove up, they only shelled and droned us, noone dared advance. We simply drove up to their lines and attacked them. Kicked them back a bit further.” Nino replies.

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>>5900026
“A success?” You ask.
“Yeah, not a rout.” He replies. “Too many of them, too disciplined.”
“Casualties?” You ask.
“I reckon a thousand of ours for some ten of theirs. Of which three were by our own doing.”
“Rest is by the Black lady?” You ask.
“Yeah. I don’t know if you’ve seen her after, but she passed out. She put in some work.”
You nod. “What about Doyle in the north?”
“Expanded his beach-head. Still hasn’t gained any real success.”
You look into the firm, scarred face of the tan skinned man. “Tell me Nino, what would you do?”
Nino pauses for a moment. “I do not make choices.” He says with a stern expression. “I tell you what I can do and leave it up to you to pick from that.”
You nod at the odd antics of the stern faced man. “Give me some of your better options.”
“Dig in, attack across the river and link up with Doyle or keep pushing.” He says as if uninterested.
>Negotiate with Police and Ren Fu (Write in pitch)
>Negotiate with Sandro and the Kommunalists (Write in pitch)
>Dig in, call off offensive maneuvers
>Attack across the river
>Continue upstream
>Advance towards the enemy (write-in idea)

>>5900029
>Negotiate with Police and Ren Fu (Write in pitch)
We are driving back the Kommunalists and would like to give you the honor of dealing the final blow.

>Attack across the river

>>5900029
>Attack across the river

More or less in some fashion close to prior plans. Once we've crushed the forces across the river and linked up with Doyle I think we can settle down and begin negotiations.

>>5900221
>>5900321

Supporting

>>5900321
>>5900029
I'll support this, they're terrified and we can show up Doyle's mercenaries

Rolled 93 (1d100)

I'm gonna ask for a roll.

Rolled 88 (1d100)

>>5900971

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>>5900221
>>5900321
>>5900330
>>5900851
In a departure from your usual method of attack, Nino organized a infiltration team by divers with no initial artilery or drone support. This risky method, combined with yet another northern strike by Doyle and his mercenaries resulted in a surprisingly smooth establishment of footholds to the north of the river as various groups of veteran soldiers and mercenaries swam and dove the river, emerged from the muddy banks and, using surpressed weapons and in some cases, blades, cleared the watch. In the north, as usual, Doyle’s forces found themselves attacking a solid wall and suffered appropriate casualties. Eventually your forces were spotted and the northwards thrust turned into a more traditional engagement with quickly re-deploying artillery and massed drone swarms covering boats filled with infantrymen as they crossed into secured positions and attempted to thrust northwards.
Unlike the expected fear you thought the Kommunalists would display towards your men, they held their ground and fought well, with the deciding factor being the motivation and the certainty of your own troops, rather than the lack of it by your enemy. After a few days of grinding combat and the reluctance by the Kommunalists to commit reserves to the fight, probably from the fear of whatever the Black lady did to them being repeated, you managed to push them back significantly. The after action reports however, revealed this conflict for the bloody slug it was with you losing five thousand, Doyle six and the Kommunalists ten thousand.
You change into your formal clothes and decide to change the scenery of your meetings from the council to the temple garden. As usual, Jivan, Rani, Hagos, Nino and Lanu show up.
“Good evening.” Hagos opens the meeting.
A chorus of replies follows, before eventually, Rani starts the discussion. “We’ve pushed the Kommunalists back. Are we to attempt negotiating with the major parties?” She asks.
“Maybe.” You reply. “I am interested in hearing more opinions.”
Rani nods “We have demonstrated our martial ability to every one of our neighbors. We have confined the police to Yunqi, we have pushed the Kommunalists back and we have a pact with Doyle. I think we should try negotiating with both of these groups to separately provide them transport to wherever offworld. Ren should know that she will never recover Lanu, while the Kommunalists should know they will never control it.”
“And you think they’ll just give it up?” Jivan asks.
“Ren, I’m not sure. Maybe with payment and tribute and lip service, she may accept it. As for Sandro, perhaps, if he is allowed offworld transit with a large number of his Kommunalists.” Rani says. “Besides, it’s not like we would be able to defeat either in a short timespan.”
>Continue offensive (write-in)
>Negotiate with Ren (write-in)
>Negotiate with Sandro (write-in)
>Negotiate with Doyle (write-in)
>Write-in

>>5901202

>Negotiate with Sandro (write-in)

It’s time to parley with the kommies and see if they’re willing to retreat offworld

>>5901202
>Negotiate with Sandro (Offer him transport offworld via our smuggler contacts. He can take as many followers as he can fit on the transports, any of the AFVs they have created that weren't converted from trucks or agricultural vehicles we need to keep the farms and transport network running, the same for his guns and other war material. We'll even pay the smugglers ourselves with gems. In exchange he is to not sabotage the infrastructure before leaving, and he can only take a tenth of the industrial capital goods with him. [we'll check their cargo as they load it, and not give the okay for lift off before we've been given the chance to at least let a small team through their lines to check the industry and infrastructure is intact] We know his plan regarding the numbers, and he knows what happened with the black fog, he knows we have the manpower reserves given our territory, he knows our infantry are better and our armoured forces will get better with time now that our industry is online. We've won, and he should know it, if not then we can always assassinate him and see what the next leader says, hivemind or not. He should take our deal, he won't get better.)

>Negotiate with Ren (We'll let her save face by telling the wider empire she was just assisting with a crackdown against rebellious kommunalists. She's not winning this, that should be self evident. So she should take her ships and leave along with Guo and the police. [We also want her blockade to stop because that way our smugglers don't price gouge us on the deal with Sandro, they'll just be regular transports that we happen to have a business relationship with, no smuggling involved, hopefully. If she doesn't like this deal then we have a series of backup negotiations/reveals. Say that we'll let Lei's daughter inherit once Lei passes. She can raise said daughter as she is in Guo's possession. Though really, we'll still be running things for real and be holding all the levers of power, and we won't let her bring offworld assets when the daughter has her homecoming. We're willing to give Ren her reasonable share of taxes even, if she does her part in doing the bureaucratic heavy lifting of making sure that arrangement and Lanu's status is above board with the Ghosphodstvo. [our taxes will go to "Lei Fu" or his daughter when that time comes, which will then go to Ren instead of the empire, Ren will then pay her fair share of taxes to the Ghosphodstvo instead of the empire double dipping by taxing both us and her] Finally, if all that isn't enough, reveal that we have a full number on our side, she'll never take this planet without destroying it and herself.)

>>5901202
>Negotiate with Ren (write-in)
Have sex. She'll become our number 2 (after the Black Lady).

>>5901211
>>5901245
>>5901391
“Get a line to Sandro.” You say.
Within a few hours, a line is led through the no mans land and handed to Kommunalist engineers to deal with. A few hours after that, your servant informs you that Sandro is ready for a meeting with you. Taking your time, you dress into one of your more formal suits and stretch before walking into the conference room.
„Ah, Sandro.“ You greet him. „Long time no see.“ You say to him.
„Likewise.“ He replies shortly. He looks worse than you remember him, his eyes are sunken, big dark circles are present around them, his cheeks are sunken in and he seems tired.
„How are you doing?“ You ask him, completely uninterested in his answer.
„Could be better. How about you?“ He replies, tilting his head slightly to the side.
„Thank you for your worry.“ You answer. „So, how goes the revolution?“
Sandro raises one of his eyebrows. „Not well it seems.“
„A shame. It would be well if you could try again somewhere else. Maybe you’ll get it then. Third time’s the charm.“ You say.
„Shame indeed.“ He replies with extreme resignation an bitterness. Uncomfortable silence follows as he blankly looks somewhere.
„How about I ship you offworld.“ You say breaking the sad moment.
„Not just me. I cannot abandon the people.“ He replies after a break. „I already left the south without the people. I won’t repeat that.“
„You can take as many people as want to leave with you over the smugglers.“ You reply. „And you can take your home made guns with you if the smugglers are comfortable with that. I just want you off this planet and I just need Hunhe, Hei and all the other industrial towns in the east functional.“
„And If I was to sabotage them? What then?“ He says, a spiteful tone in his voice.
„I know the Kommunalist plan regarding a number. You’ve seen the black fog that annihalated your column. You want to summon a number. I already have one. I’ve already won. You know that.“ You say.
„And what if I order all the machinery destroyed!?“ He asks, his eyes wide and unfocused.
„Why are you a Kommunalist Sandro?“ You ask him in a fatherly tone. „You care for the people, do you not? Do not get your people killed for nothing.“
„And what would you have us do offworld?“ Sandro asks. „We have nowhere to go to! No other world will accept a army of armed Kommunalists! We have nowhere to go to! It is die here, starve in space or into a slave colony with a explosive collar around the neck!“
A few ideas pop into your mind:
>“We’ll let you stay here disarmed until you find a different world that will accept you.“
>“We’ll finance a colonization attempt by you, Ghospodarstvo be damned.“
>“You can settle elsewhere on this world and pay us taxes.“
>“I can let you stay here as long as you cooperate with me and Doyle. I can get you internal self governance.“
>“I will lie about who’s being smuggled. I will take a hit upon my reputation.“
>“I will talk with Doyle about this.“
>Write-in

I keep forgetting to re-type my name.

>>5902404
>“We’ll let you stay here disarmed until you find a different world that will accept you.“
This is a trick. Once they are disarmed, we will put slave collars on them and work them to death.

>>5902404
>“We’ll let you stay here disarmed until you find a different world that will accept you.“
>If that isn't alright, we'll lie for them or finance them, though keep those as backup options.

If this isn't acceptable, I'm fine with financing them or lying for them. Just get them off this planet, we cannot abide them when we know they won't be content with their lot. The Ghospodarstvo will fuck us if we just move them elsewhere on the planet, as Lanu becomes a safe harbour for their ilk. Likewise, if we gives them self-autonomy we'll lose people to them via illegal immigration given the nature of our future reign. Plus, we just can't trust them to not resume hostilities, especially knowing their ambitions regarding numbers.

>>5902417

I’d also support ritualized mass sacrifice to juice up the Black Lady, or some combination between death camps/sacrifice

>>5902404
>>“I will talk with Doyle about this.“

>>5902417
>>5902425
>>5902444
>>5903003

“We’ll let you stay here disarmed ...“ You begin.
Sandro shakes his head and speaks, cutting you off. "Even if I trust you, these are Sandro's people. You broke your word to Sandro back in Telan. If I went to them with the idea of disarming ourselves I'd be shot."
"Well, that put's us at an impasse." You reply.
"Speak your idea." He says. "Maybe it is good enough that it moves the hearts of the Kommunalists."
"After you disarm yourselves I will find a way to get you either offworld to a planet that will accept you or I'll finance a colonization of a world with your lot as settlers or I'll simply lie and manufacture your identities so you can get offworld." You say, full well knowing that the moment they are disarmed, you will have the ability to do with them as you please.
Sandro shakes his head. "Your promises are tempting, but I simply can't accept them." He says. "Noone trusts you. Not amongst the Kommunalists at least. You have broken half of your promises you made towards us."
You shrug your shoulders. "Circumstances forced me to."
"And what if they force you again?" Sandro asks.
A uncomfortable silence ensues until Sandro breaks it again.
"Look, how about this, my Kommunalists fall back to just in front of Tein and we cease all hostility against you. When you capture Yunqi, you'll be able to let us leave with ease as Ren will have left by that point, seeing that this is pointless."
You think about his offer for a few moments.

>You disarming yourselves is an absolute imperative. I cannot risk a attack from the rear.
>Fine, you can stay armed at your fallback position.
>How about you fall back and provide us with some of your armored vehicles and artillery, they should come in handy with assaulting Yunqi.
>You could help us with offensives on Yunqi directly.
>Write-in

>>5903375

>How about you fall back and provide us with some of your armored vehicles and artillery, they should come in handy with assaulting Yunqi.

Show us you’re serious, you kommies

>>5903375
>How about you fall back and provide us with some of your armored vehicles and artillery, they should come in handy with assaulting Yunqi.
Ren is going to fight with everything she has. Any little bit helps.

>>5903375
>How about you fall back and provide us with some of your armored vehicles and artillery, they should come in handy with assaulting Yunqi.

We'll let you stay armed, but we need to know this isn't a ploy to weaken us before a final attempt at total victory.

Shouldn't have gotten greedy, just let them leave.

>>5903375
>then partecipate to a peace conference where you'll state your position of partial surrender. That will force Ren to accept that the planet is completely lost and that yunqi's fall is only a matter of time.

We can just end this peacefully by making people agree that they lost, though the police boss would probably try to keep the city to the last breath lady Ren might just see the lost cause for what it is and leave.

>>5903381
>>5903407
>>5903413
>>5904030
"Fall back and provide us with vehicles and artillery we can use to capture Yunqi." You say.
Sandro leans on something, rubs his eyes and thinks for a few moments. "I demand a demilitarized zone between us." He says.
"You'll get it, after you fall back." You reply, seeing you have him off balance. "And when I start getting vehicles and guns from you."
You wait for a few moments while Sandro absent mindedly looks at the floor in front of you.
"So?" You ask him after a few minutes of silence.
"Yeah. You'll get your vehicles." He says.
You nod. After a few more moments of odd silence, the call is ended.
"Connection cut." The technician says.
The Kommunalists follow through with their side of the deal as they both fall back to more defensible terrain in front of Tein and dig in there and as they deliver you their AFV's, the heavy IFV's with the massive caliber autocannons, with a large up-front shipment of 30 of the damned vehicles jumpstarting your armored core. Of course, it will take your men time to scrape off the Kommunalist iconography and to get used to the armored vehicles, but they will manage it. What strikes you as more difficult is the upcoming task of dealing with Ren and Yunqi.

"Report." You say to the assembling council.
Nino begins "A series of trenches, obstacles, barbed wire, minefields, bunkers, autonomous turrets, guns, launchers, mortars and drones, followed by thick walls of Yunqi itself, with the city only being accessible through a small number of gates leading into the city. In addition to that, we should avoid shelling Yunqi as it, being an arcology, is infinitely more valuable intact."
"What plans do you propose for taking it?" You ask.
"Shell it." Nino says.
"Yunqi has a population of three million and a population density of about 60,000 people per km^2." Jivan says. If we start shelling the city, we're killing a lot of people."
"We're going to be losing a lot of men trying to wrestle it out of police hands." Nino says.
You glance at the Black lady, to which she replies in your mind "I am too weak to do the same spell again."
"Expected." You say. "Any idea about what Ren might pull in negotiation?"
Shrugs follow.
>Establish communication with Ren (write-in pitch)
>Attempt a attack on Yunqi
>Write-in

>>5904213
>Establish communication with Ren (write-in pitch)
Ren, become our number 2. Your talents are wasted. Become ours, mother our child, and stop fighting us.

I really hope she isn't a female eunuch and that we can have children. She'll become our number 2 (after the Black Lady).

>>5904239

Supporting, worth the pitch?

There must be some way to crack the Yunqi nut without massive loss of life.

>>5904213
>Establish communication with Ren (The same negotiation strat I outlined above when I wrote up Sandro's and Ren's terms.)

Though a marriage alliance could be okay, not sure I'm on board with her whole totalitarian oppression thing though, if Doyle is to be believed.

If we attempt an attack, I think we ought to breach the outer defences and then as soon as we take some of the city perform a mass sacrifice to the Black Lady. She can handle the rest.

Alternatively we can try and force riots via propaganda tactics. Use our ship to spread pamphlets, the people must be starving under siege, say we have food and water and are willing to hand it out for free. Either that or use the same tactic to acquire a large pool of sacrifices from escapees. We can worsen the siege situation for them by performing a limited shelling on key infrastructure like power and sewer plants, leave most of the city intact. Arcology or no, I doubt they keep the big industrial and infrastructure nodes right next to the residential towers.

>>5904213
>Establish communication with Ren

The kommunalist have accepted their loss, the fall of yunqi is a only matter of time we will let you recover your forces if you leave peacefully.

We should also get Doyle since we're in an alliance.

>>5904239
I fear suggesting a marriage would be a good way to get bombed from orbit.
Sure the cities are too precious to flatten but they only need to hit just outside to kill a lot of the exposed sieging forces.

>>5904239
>>5904246
2 for proposing a marriage alliance
>>5904609
>>5904281
and 2 for proposing a withdrawal
I'm going to put this in qtg and see if i can get a tiebreaker. If I don't have it in some 10-12h, I'll roll for what we do first.

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>>5904281
Supporting.

>>5904213

>>5904213
>>5904609
+1

Rolled 2 (1d2)

1 is for proposing marriage, 2 is for not doing that.

“Let’s get Doyle into the call and let’s just get it over with.” You tell the council.
A few hours of work later, a servant informs you that the connection has been established. You change your clothes into official robes and walk into the council chambers, placing yourself inbetween the cameras. A few moments later, the projection of a young woman appears in front of you. She is of oriental heritage and is surprisingly tall from what her projection displays, standing at little over two metres, with strong facial features, raven black hair descending down almost to the floor, a slim build and narrow, piercing eyes that seem to almost sink into her skull. She is wearing long red robes decorated with gold braidery and with a intricate design of a black dragon weaving through itself and ending with the dragon’s open head from Ren’s back.
Ren looks at you with a contemptuous, yet forced expression. “What is it that you want, chief priest Bista?”
Civil, you think. “I want to offer you a way out for your police forces.”
A silence follows until you break it yet again. “The Kommunalists have surrendered and we are driving up their vehicles up to your lines. You should be aware that you will not achieve a military victory against the rest of Lanu.”
She waits a bit, the says “You just expect me to retreat with my tail between my legs.” Ren says.
“You, the police and the fleet blockading Lanu.” You reply.
Her gaze lowers to the floor, she thinks for a bit, steps back and says “You will have my answer by the end of the day.”Judging by the way she squeezes the words out, she is struggling with accepting reality.
You step back out of the cameras aswell. A few moments later, the technician shouts “Dead!”.
In eighteen hours time, you receive a notification that the negotiations are to continue. You dress up, and enter the projection, this time to find Guo. “Ren accepted your proposal.” Guo says, then spits at the floor. “Lucky sack of shit.”
Within two days, an armada of spaceships descends down to Yunqi and slowly loads up all the police equipment and personnel from Yuqni, as well as all the Fu house iconography and property. Your men enthusiastically watch as the transport ships and shutless ascend and descend. In some positions, people get drunk, drugs are consumed, music is played and in some locations, even orgies are reported. Oftentimes, officers do not prevent this behaviour or even engage in it themselves.
Eventually, you and Doyle carefully sort out your men and pick out the most disciplined formations to sift through Yunqi and it’s population, doing your best to avoid sending in less disciplined formations, especially the Dardi ones.
By the end of the week, as the last of the police leave and the city is properly handed to you, a quintuplet of body doubles meets, replicas of you, Doyle, Lei, Guo and Ren meet in front of the last shuttle to leave and the bodydouble of Ren hands your bodydouble the keys to the fake Lei.

>>5906271
The last real choices you are presented with are:
>Let the Kommunalists leave
>Attempt to destroy them

And
>Backstab Doyle after you’re done with the Kommunalists
>Stay true to your agreements

>>5906272
>Let the Kommunalists leave
>Stay true to your agreements

>>5906272

>Let the Kommunalists leave

>Backstab Doyle after you’re done with the Kommunalists

We don’t need Doyle any more

>>5906272
>Attempt to destroy them
>Stay true to your agreements

>>5906272
>Attempt to destroy them
>Stay true to your agreements

>>5906272

>Let the Kommunalists leave

If we get in a fight it could give the chance for Doyle to backstab us when occupied.

>Stay true to your agreements at first while undermining their influence until you can oust them without a fight and install the Black Lady as ruler of Lanu.
Doyle wants the money and his puppet ruler the debauchery, their side will weaken, fold and crumble with a gentle push in a few years while a cult allowed to prosper will only grow.

>>5906294
+1

>>5906294
>>5906493
>>5906507
>>5906535
>>5907097
>>5907450

>Let the Kommunalists leave
4
>Attempt to destroy them
2

>Backstab Doyle after you’re done with the Kommunalists
1(+1)
>Stay true to your agreements
4(+1)

A month after the handover of the city, with a shared mercenary and disciple garrison a convoy of agricultural and mining vehicles left Hei, loaded with guns, ammo and experienced and trained fighters. Sandro Saks and most of the Kommunalists, now completely changed in appearance (a effect of your cults facial surgeons) and uniform, rode the barges downstream into the Yunqi river port and in small groups, arranged themselves to flights for a different world, in the hopes their Kommunalist revolutions would find more luck further abroad.
Meanwhile, you, with invisible Lanu standing behind you, met with Doyle, the two of you sharing some exceptional, centuries old alcoholic drink left behind by the Fu in their withdrawal.
"Lei's fine?" You asked him as you touched your bottle with his.
"Yeah. I'll let him get back to holding his orgies." Doyle replies. "You want in?"
You shake your head. "If only you ever saw her, you'd forget all other women."
Doyle eyes you for a moment before refilling his glass. You down yours and extend your glass to him.
"The bastard?" You ask.
"Alive, healthy." Doyle replies.
You nod. "Any plans for after Lei dies?"
"The bastard will outlive both of us." Doyle says.
You smile, not sure why. "Cheers."
Doyle raises his glass. "For Lei and Lanu." He says, tired. "And for money."
"For the Black lady and for Lanu." You say.

And with that, I conclude the quest. Thank you for participating.
(Also I just now noticed I hadn't linked to the previous thread. So here it is >>5855463 )

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>>5907560
Thank you for running! Not how I wanted the quest to end, but still really good.

>>5907560
Thanks for running QM. Didn't want to drag out the quest for too long, since last I read you wanted to make some sort of multiplayer game.

>>5907560

This was a based first run, well done QM! I particularly enjoyed the totally novel world building, I don’t think I’ve seen anything like it before here on /qst/

>>5907560
Very good run! We pulled off a villainous mc and obtained a (mostly) diplomatic win.
A resounding success! Both in quest and in /qst/!