When he'd talked to Kid Quantum about wanting this assignment, Robbie had pictured something less urban. The big town in a rural area - that sort of thing. It had taken a few minutes for the learned and forgotten information from the Legion geography and history classes to come back to him.
Almost all of Colu's populations lived in its large cities, and that wasn't an exaggeration. Less than 1% of the billions and billions of Coluans lived in the machine-covered wasteland that passed for countryside, which meant what 'low priority' actually encompassed was worse than he'd imagined.
The comparatively tiny coastal city of Drr'kt had its fair share of skyscrapers and, if Robbie had to ballpark it, the population of Queens shoved into the space of Manhattan. If the city did get targeted, the small force allocated to Drr'kt was not going to be able to prevent some losses. Robbie kept reminding himself of that as he ran himself ragged, doing whatever he could.
Option A: Pre-Fight
"Yes, I know they're built to withstand a zetatonne of force per meter! You've told me. Three times." Robbie was getting a brutal reminder about why Coluans had a reputation of being arrogant and snotty: some of them were really arrogant and snotty. Also, he and they all knew that he was the idiot in every conversation. "And that's fantastic. I'm trying to tell you that if you keep telling people to shelter in place no matter what they see or here, you're basically turning them into giant barrels full of fish - and this analogy is not helping me, is it? Grife, it shouldn't be this hard."
The military type he's arguing with, who was fairly considerate and recognized that Speedball was trying to help, waved Robbie off in the direction of comm equipment with the suggestion that Robbie see to an implementation of Robbie's good idea of a broadcast telling the local population that the Legion was here and that he could even include the message that they should dress to cover as much organic skin as possible "as if that wasn't readily apparent."
But, no, he was not at leave to suggest that the people seek shelter anywhere other than the huge, sentients-be-here, housing unit towers.
"Don't you have any urban explorers?," he shouted after the officer. "There has to be ancient off-the-map subway tunnels somewhere!"
Option B: Fight
The first attack in Drr'kt sounded more like a recon mission to Robbie's X-box-infused war tactics. A fast-moving robo-zombie was spotted tracing the city's borders, occasionally trying its luck on whatever sentient it spotted. One quickly became three became eight, before a surviving CHDF patrol got the word out.
Robbie was moving to intercept a group of four on one of the highest walkways, intending to blast them off it. They're hard to kill, they're hard to kill. Maybe if he hit them hard enough, he could punt them into the ocean. "Let them get close enough that we don't miss."
Defending a low-priority zone
Almost all of Colu's populations lived in its large cities, and that wasn't an exaggeration. Less than 1% of the billions and billions of Coluans lived in the machine-covered wasteland that passed for countryside, which meant what 'low priority' actually encompassed was worse than he'd imagined.
The comparatively tiny coastal city of Drr'kt had its fair share of skyscrapers and, if Robbie had to ballpark it, the population of Queens shoved into the space of Manhattan. If the city did get targeted, the small force allocated to Drr'kt was not going to be able to prevent some losses. Robbie kept reminding himself of that as he ran himself ragged, doing whatever he could.
Option A: Pre-Fight
"Yes, I know they're built to withstand a zetatonne of force per meter! You've told me. Three times." Robbie was getting a brutal reminder about why Coluans had a reputation of being arrogant and snotty: some of them were really arrogant and snotty. Also, he and they all knew that he was the idiot in every conversation. "And that's fantastic. I'm trying to tell you that if you keep telling people to shelter in place no matter what they see or here, you're basically turning them into giant barrels full of fish - and this analogy is not helping me, is it? Grife, it shouldn't be this hard."
The military type he's arguing with, who was fairly considerate and recognized that Speedball was trying to help, waved Robbie off in the direction of comm equipment with the suggestion that Robbie see to an implementation of Robbie's good idea of a broadcast telling the local population that the Legion was here and that he could even include the message that they should dress to cover as much organic skin as possible "as if that wasn't readily apparent."
But, no, he was not at leave to suggest that the people seek shelter anywhere other than the huge, sentients-be-here, housing unit towers.
"Don't you have any urban explorers?," he shouted after the officer. "There has to be ancient off-the-map subway tunnels somewhere!"
Option B: Fight
The first attack in Drr'kt sounded more like a recon mission to Robbie's X-box-infused war tactics. A fast-moving robo-zombie was spotted tracing the city's borders, occasionally trying its luck on whatever sentient it spotted. One quickly became three became eight, before a surviving CHDF patrol got the word out.
Robbie was moving to intercept a group of four on one of the highest walkways, intending to blast them off it. They're hard to kill, they're hard to kill. Maybe if he hit them hard enough, he could punt them into the ocean. "Let them get close enough that we don't miss."