[Jimmy C]

I wanted to reply earlier, but I just never found the time to properly compose it until now.

Originally Posted by arkhangelsk

I slept at 3AM last night, can you remind me how that is supposed to mean they'll choose systems that choke Arf?

I'm saying they may not be able to avoid it. And if Arf isn't in the Bureau, they might not be willing to take the effort to avoid it either. You're saying they actually have choice, I disagree, that's all.

Well, I guess we have to be impressed about one thing - that they all stayed awake.

Agreed. Although as much as I admire their endurance, there was no need to torture them like that.

Maybe they took naps in turns and we didn't see them.

I hope they did. But if you rewatch ep16, you'll see that both Erio and Caro were wide awake at 2.35 am on Sept 12.

A person who fights for 2 hours but has to use shields constantly because there is nothing else to protect her from fire is still fighting from an unprepared position.

You know what? This describes the RF6 personnel getting caught in the open, on the way to the field perfectly. An unprepared position. Compared to this, the base is a much better alternative.

Actually, the scene with the drones inside the building feeding on the helicopter was before Otto actually started attacking.

Technically speaking, it's after Otto was shown. But given the state the heli was in, they'd have started earlier than that, yes.

Can you honestly say that glass-heavy roof of RF6 is "the strongest material possible?"

If they were directly under that roof, you might have a point. But everyone was at least a floor or two below the glass celling. So it isn't a factor.

You lead an infantry squad. Your choices are reduced now to lying on the grass dispersed or trying to hide out in a (the only) small but very visible hut. The enemy has RPOs and RPGs that will turn the hut into cinders with a few hits, and they probably won't have compunctions doing so to be safe. Sure you won't consider trying to lie in the grass and hoping the enemy doesn't spot you until you can get the jump on them?

You just love to twist the analogies to your advantage. You're thinking of the shelter as a straw hut. I'm saying it's at least a cement house. Oh, and the grass isn't tall enough to hide a prone person either.

Otto and Deed, as commanders, have a lot of area to cover.

I'm sure a large group of people headed for the field would be a very obvious target.

they can have Shamal and Zafira hold those two enemies off while they run and disperse into the field so even if Shamal and Zafira lose eventually they'll be well hidden

Without Shamal and Zafira to provide cover fire, the drones will be able to pick off people as they make a run for the field. If even a squad of drones sit on the causeway, no one get to the field at all.

but what happened to "non-physically destructive" magirounds at times like this - the building itself can be shielded off by surrounding it with walls during training?

They may be "non-physically desctructive" but they still cause an annoying BOOM when they explode. And shielding off the field limits the options during trainning. Not all that desirable when you can drop that requirement (and cut down the noise) by just moving the field a distance away. Plus, you can make the troops jog on the way there.
It'd be easier to wrap the base in pseudomatter armor once they come under attack. That they didn't is either because such a system doesn't exist, they couldn't afford it, or it got disabled already.

which is why I figure they reconnoitered GF's defenses rather than just getting some snuck-out plans

Do remember that Due, Quattro and Sein are very useful for sneaking into places and stealing things.

Besides, if before he got away with not reconnoitering, and this time he had to, well then there is a measurable improvement in the base's defensibility, no?

Can you prove he didn't originally? If he did scout them out originally, then it makes no difference that he scouted them out in this alternative.

Besides, since you argue that they don't have pseudomatter but they can generate holograms and forcefields that match it, arguably the same argument goes for your idea. Furniture made of your system would have most of the same advantages.

Like I said before, do you really want to use a shelter that can vanish at the push of a button or if the power fails? The same goes for furniture. Imagine that chair you're sitting on going "poof" then there's a blackout. You say pseudomatter can last without power for a while, but holofields defintely cannot.

Well, that still leaves it a 3:3, which makes it very difficult for one to disengage to go inside.

Unless that one (Sette) was already dispatched before the engagement. That makes it 2:1 and 1:1 (Zest and Tre are out of mutual support range, and frankly Zest won't be interested in helping her). At best, one of them will be forced to withdraw earlier than original. Doesn't make much of a difference.

Also, remember if they rush inside to support their weaker groundlocked brethen, and then the Ace comes in, there's a chance the groundlocked brethen, out of their league, would be rolled over.

By collapsing tunnels, they can delay the Aces long enough to complete their objective. They can't use their strongest attacks or they'll bring the roof down on their own heads.