As the front line reaches the base of the Promethean Lighthouse the street cracks with electricity running up the surrounding buildings, blowing out their lights. At the song's crescendo ~
'I ... guess ... you'd ... say ...' The manhole covers blow in eighth notes up one street, 'what can make me feel this way ...' Eighth notes down the other
The Learner explodes from the tunnels beneath. Electricity still drawing from the flickering grid the main nodal points marked as it was in the woods in Learner's Tale.
These are used to navigate the air, suspended between any three points available, or drawn in the direction of any one as with the Gecko Gun. Suspended in the air the Learner takes out the attacking air and moves over to decimate lines.
Clearly having a great old time whole behind unseen, Gabrielle slowly hovers down from the sky and surrounded by Midwich Cherubim.
The learner turns in destruction seeing her ~
Learner - Happily excited, "Gabrielle !"
Gabrielle winds a powerful punch, knocking the Learner from the sky, cratered hard in the street. Warming up a powerful blast to finish, she's hit in the back with an HE grenade.
Turning in a rage, the Operator on a rooftop loads another.
She moves to attack, hit in the back by a pair of more from the Killer's cannons. Turning again, locked by the Dragon's guns and pounded. Operator hits again, the Killer, another sweep from the Dragon.
The Explore eats popcorn watching the three way assault on an extremely
pissed Gabrielle, who roars her rage and darts into the skybox. The Dragon lands, the Killer collects the
Learner to board before departure in a last drop of bombs
to finish the grid at the power station.
They
turn out the ship's lights with the city's, flare and
firebomb loses the low flying locks and gone as the people and police
fill the streets, watching as the city's central torch goes out.
A total count of both armies is one million plus any potential recruitment from the populace. The battlefield's
destruction in real time immense, these numbers are dispersed quickly. And
anything you do not control, falls to the AI's assessment.
One could
leave it entirely alone and weaken the forces at strategic points, or
even back its natural plan.
While untouched the AI is just playing itself
as chess and numbers, just to see the numbers pass through without much concern for who wins or loses, it wins either way.
Without
the chaos by roll on the odds, neither side could be victorious, down
to the last two standing and then toss a coin. I've seen it happen.
This also does mean at any time the odds could seem very much stacked against either side.
Just a bad series of rolls.
And when the
player's side has two thirds of the combined total count, the second scripted
level of three is triggered. At three fourths the third. Technically, ideally, this could be done without war.
The city's population has easily enough numbers to bypass all such missions.
At
which point the city simply surrenders and straight to Gabrielle's
endgame. A zero kill game which really isn't so hard, with a serious
bonus for thinking of it.
Either way population counts in the
numbers, and how they respond is relative to the player's actions. If
you're a jerk they may not help, but it doesn't make them love the
government.
If you're an asshole they may fight next to the government, concerning you, but it doesn't make them love the government.
If
the player's straight up asshole beyond and blowing up their shit,
robbing their stores, shooting civilians and doing no mini-missions,
running them over, etcetera, as your army grows, city recruitment will
as well.