I can still call this a weekly update right? I’m sorry for not having updated for the last couple weeks. Both Chris and I are currently beholden to the wonderful semi-publicly funded institution that is Canadian post-secondary education, and we both had finals and term papers at roughly the same time, and the act of writing several large papers on academically hair-tearing subjects and preparing for four exams on the same have left us rather bust over the past half-month. So yes, I was too busy to get too much work done over the last while, sue me.*

Right, and now for why you’re all here: the sixth and last enemy on Aetherpunk’s roster. Man, it is good to finally finish up this series and go on to something else for a change. I mean, it was fun while it lasted, but it started to wear thin after about five or six weeks. The only thing which kept me doing this was that little voice in my head that told me to finish what I had started before moving on to something else. Anyhow, I’m both happy and sad that all the enemies are finished, happy because I was running out of original ideas for unique enemy behaviours and appearances as well as increasingly weary of hand-spriting 20-frames a week on top of school, sad because well, it’s over. I might be done, but not only will I not have a chance to exercise those particular creative muscles again for a while, I’ll actually have to get to work on the actual hard part… (more on that next week)

The creature you see above is a sight which you will learn to dread. You will fear its’ approach, its’ lumbering, plodding gait and the slow progress it makes towards the front lines where its’ lighter comrades face the aetheric death of your massed arsenal. You will learn to fear this creature because when it gets close to that Juggernaut you’ve been bombarding with acid, or flame, or bullets, or that annoying bastard skirmishers which you’ve ALMOST knocked out, it will saunter up, and restore it to full health. Yeah, that thing’s a medic.

Lemme explain.

This creature originated from the Alien homeworld. Domesticated early in the Overlords’ development, they quickly became beasts of burden during the pre-industrial phase of the aliens’ civilization. In short, these things were space oxen. Much like beasts of burden on our world, they became useless as hauling devices as soon as practical motor-powered haulers appeared, and these faithful servants were relegated to hunting reserves and remote agri-colonies for centuries, until a new use was found for them. The main main attractiveness to these space-oxen were the fact that they were strong, which meant they could carry loads and loads of crap. This was used to great advantage by medical units during the overlords’ early invasions, where they were used as ambulances, carrying medical supplies and surgeons into battle. As cybernetically altered creatures began to take the place of sentient overlords in battle, the alien surgeons realized how easily their own mounts too to augmentation. This interesting fact led to the full automation of the battlefield medical system. The guts of the space-oxen were hollowed out and replaced with more durable metal and ceramic parts. Instead of a team of valuable medics, they carried a pair of “swarmers”, autonomous drones loaded with matter transfer beams capable of delivering drugs and healing agents over short distances. With this modification, this ancient beast of burden was a working animal no more, but a weapon of war; the “Swarm Lord”.

Come back next week for something COMPLETELY different!

*Please do not actually sue me. I don’t have enough money to hire a lawyer, so I’ll end up defending myself in court, and that would be bad for everyone involved.

Sorry about the lack of updates recently. I’ve had two term papers about very complex and very opaque subjects due, so I might not be able to clear up my schedule to return to my normal rate of work until the end of November when I get a lull between handing in my term paper and starting exams. Then again, I’ll try to make up for it during Christmas Break. Hell, we might even be able to get the game into Beta-testing by then. In the mean time, I’ll try to finish up the enemies and get to work on some of the other stuff that needs working on.

Now, I’d like you to meet the second-last of our enemies, the Skirmisher. This sleek and dangerous creature was originally a hunting animal on the Alien homeworld, bred for speed, stamina and its lean, dangerous silhouette, much like greyhounds are on Earth. Millennia of selective breeding and use by the elite of the Aliens’ society had already shaped these creatures into specialized fighting animals long before the development of cybernetics and the discovery of life on other planets gave the Aliens a method and a reason to re-purpose their beloved hunting companions for use on the battlefield.

Quick and deadly, the Aliens augmented their former hunting animals’ legs, making them incredibly fast. The Aliens did not treat the newly augmented animals as mere attack dogs. They were allowed to keep some semblance of mental autonomy. An alien particle weapon was grafted below their long snouts to use at range. Although it was originally assumed that speed would be enough, their first use on the field against a recently industrialised world resulted in massive losses. Though the defenders were eventually worn down by superior numbers and firepower, the Aliens were outraged by the mass-slaughter of their beloved pets. Many nobles removed their former hunting companions from the front line, others added heavy frontal armour to the front of their sponsored animals to increase survivability. Skirmishers usually attack by charging into range, using their cybernetically enhanced legs. Their low profile while on the move and frontal armour plate makes them almost impossible to hit until they plant themselves to fire their grafted weaponry. Only then are they vulnerable.

I see that Chris has finally decided to show himself and post (the lazy bum). Still, just because he’s also contributing doesn’t mean that I will not also continue my (somewhat) regular weekly artist’s updates! Huzzah!

First of all, some housekeeping: We’ve been absolutely flooded with spam comments for the last few days, most of them either from the same couple IPs. I assume that the site is under some sort of concentrated spambot campaign, and since I have neither the time, nor the medication to stay up deleting 60 spambots a day, I’ve made a change to commenting policy. Commenting is still allowed of course, but to help weed out the spambots from the people who actually want to offer commentary, we’re making you guys create an account and log in before you can comment. I know this is an added inconvenience and will probably put even more of you off commenting, but it means that I can spend less time deleting spam from Polish shoe companies and more time working on Aetherpunk. You guys understand right?

Now, for the reason why all of your are REALLY here; meet the Mad Bomber, the only (as of yet) fully robotic adversary which our intrepid hero will face, and more importantly, the most frustrating, rage-inducing, teeth-grindingly trolltastic enemy you will ever face playing Aetherpunk. If any of you remember the Engineers in Master of Fortresses, the ones which ludicrous amounts of heath which could cut apart your defences in about half the time you needed to actually kill the bastards, well yeah, these guys are worse.

Basically, where the engineer would simply slowly saunter up to your walls and tear them down, the Mad Bomber won’t be considerate enough to merely walk up in a straight line and let you fill him full of bullets, no not him, he’ll hop in an erratic pattern from one spot to another with the aid of his jump-jets, evading any attempt to shoot him down. Not only will he be able to dart through the hail of desperate gunfire you’ll throw at him, he’ll also run up to you and explode, right in your face. Needless to say, the nearby detonation of several kilograms of alien explosive will be somewhat deritimental to our protagonist’s health. Think upgrading your barricades will keep you safe? Wrong; the Mad Bomber can and will vault over your defences, bypassing them entirely. Oh yes, and they attack from multiple directions in packs.

Fun, fun, fun.

You know, interesting thing about flesh, animal or human, it’s rather frail.

Sure it didn’t seem like it was when you were in grade seven and Big Sasha had you in a chokehold whilst punching you in the gut on the football field because you told him he had a girl’s name, but against bullets, blades, explosives and white-hot super-accellerated metal, it gives way pretty damn fast. Of course, the thing is, most of the enemies we’ve shown you have been primarily biological. If we were to continue along that path, then all of our enemies would go down after a few rounds from a handgun, and that would make the game easy, almost too easy.

And we wouldn’t want THAT.

Keeping this in mind, meet the Juggernaut.

The Juggernaut is not, as one would think on first glance, a crab or a crustacean of some sort. In fact, it’s a jellyfish-like flier from yet another planet subjugated by your alien enemies, this one possessing a rather dense atmosphere. The unarmoured “proto-juggernaut” in its natural state is extremely fragile. Its skin will literally crumble at the touch. However, the thing which probably drew alien bio-engineers to it as a viable candidate for enhancement was the fact that once destroyed, the Juggernaut could rebuild tissue at a frighteningly fast rate. The ability to recover from such punishment gave some bright alien mind the idea of encasing the proto-juggernaut in a suit of powered armour. Equipped a direct neural link to a heavily armoured battlesuit, the Juggernaut propels itself forward through flagella linked to spiderlegs on the bottom of the suit. Its primary attack is a powerful pneumatic puncturing arm, reminiscent of a scorpion tail. Though slow and bulky, the Juggernaut boasts both and powerful attack and a very metal shell. Though not quite as dangerous as some others, care should be taken to avoid allowing the Juggernaut from closing with your barricades, and ripping them to shreds.

Alright, that’s all the lightweights out of the way. The next three updates are going to be FUN.