Time elapsed: 5:45 (min/sec) (2:15 elapsed this turn)
Ysavva   You realize your railgun simply isn't going to work - but you're not sure why.
  Rather than risk a diagnostics scan, you decide to fly out of the denser part of the field where you are, to somewhere less dense. This of course means somewhere behind Karthus.
  And that, of course, means going back through the densest parts of the field.
  You got through it once, right? What could going back through it possibly do to you? You'll need to do it quickly this time, though.
  Turning, you start back towards the more denser areas, leaving the little gap you found where you can see Karthus behind. There's a little keyhole to the north - you haven't been through there yet, but it looks passable.
  You gun your engines. Time to get moving.
  
  Within moments, you're deep in the very thickest parts of the field, spinning, swerving, cutting sharp turns as massive boulders the size of skyscrapers threaten to crush you between them. Your thrusters are quick, your engines sturdy - you were all but built for this, you feel. Even so, you're almost in over your head: on occasion a smaller boulder clips your robotic arms, or bumps lightly across you; you feel yourself tense as you fly through a cloud of smaller pebbles, scattering them all around. "This asteroid field is unrealistic," you mutter under your breath, mentally glaring at the VR engine as you do a tight, swerving curl through a breach in the rock wall, out into open space.
  And everything is quiet.
  After sitting there for a moment, you start to look around. It looks like you're definitely farther north of Karthus now - a lot farther north. His ship is hardly visible at this distance. In fact, you wouldn't even know where it was, if it hadn't been for CHIARA's map - it looks like he moved.
  First things first, though. You need to restart your railgun. Leaning forwards, peering at the tiny lettering in the CASKET OS command menus, you eventually find what you're looking for: "RESTART WEAPON (PRIMARY)" - and you give it a tap. It flashes black and green for a moment, and then returns the message: "OVERHEAT DETECTED: INITIALIZING COOLING SEQUENCE." It pauses for a moment, with a "..." on the screen, and then adds, "COOLING SEQUENCE COMPLETE. WEAPON (PRIMARY) RESTARTED."
  Either that was really lucky, or you have a good computer. Probably the former - you can't remember asking them to put too high a quality computer into your CASKET. Heck, maybe the railgun even cooled on its own. That makes you think, though - maybe the whole reason your top engine went out was because Hema hit you with his microwave field manipulator, causing it to overheat, too. You could check it, of course - turn it on, extend radiator flaps - but you decide that can wait. Right now, you need to get back to that little safe place you found before.
  You turn, your ship moving smoothly, gracefully at your command - you cut a gentle curve back towards the thicker part of the field. You'll be back before you know it.
  But things don't always work out the way we expect.
  The entrance is a lot tighter than you remember - the rocks are slowly moving towards each other. You try to maneuver to get inside, but your right robotic arm clips the nearest asteroid, ripping itself away from your ship with an ear-rending screech, peeling plates off the hull - cables and wiring stretch out and away in an instant and jerk you to the side, sending you in a careening spin towards the next asteroid. You throw on the thrusters, trying to halt yourself, but it's not fast enough - you're thrown about like a ragdoll as the left side, the aft, even your cockpit canopy manages to smash against that asteroid, and then the next - pieces of your ship too innumerable to count float away, glittering in the darkness under your headlights. In a panic, you throw yourself on full reverse thrusters, trying desperately to get out of the field before you're smashed into a powder by the rolling asteroids nearby - and you only barely mange to limp away, back out into the calmer, less dense portion of the field.
  Maybe you only succeeded because of luck before.
  You swallow, and only then realize that you're panting heavily. Your chest is sore - your arms, your shoulders - you're so tense that it's actually starting to hurt. You calm down, taking deep breaths. This is only a VR simulation after all, you remind yourself. I can't actually get hurt here... right?
  You look back out towards the rest of the combat area.
  Karthus is still visible in the distance, the light blue glow of his engines a faint twinkle through your scratched and battered canopy. You aim at him, utilizing the data on your screens to get a good fix with your railgun, and fire. You almost smile as you hear a satisfying crack from your railgun; you can't help but smirk as you see a bright flash of sparks from his ship. Looks like you hit. And that's when you remember...
  Railguns are supposed to be silent.

Dr. Cha0zz   "Jimmy, focus my ES-Cam on Fawkes," you order, looking in Fawkes' direction. Even before you finish the order, Fawkes appears on your screens in infrared and visual; then the view zooms in enough for you to tell what he's doing: he's aiming towards you. You get ready to dodge - but then you realize: he's not firing at you. He's firing at the asteroid in front of you with his particle gun on a wide beam, strafing a curving line across the rock. He must've hit a particularly dusty spot: it throws up a thick, slow-moving cloud of dust. Not much, but enough to completely hide Fawkes from view. Of course, this is space - it's going to disippate before long. Things that move upwards keep moving upwards, even if slowly. For now, though, he's hidden from both your eyes, and your ES-Cam.
  You watch quietly for him, trying to drift away from your original position, scanning the rock for somewhere you can hide - but you don't see anything that would properly hide you from him, even from your current position. You decide to just wait. "Jimmy, alert me when Fawkes comes into visual range."
  "Even if it's blatantly obvious?" your AI asks, his voice satirical. "Will do, boss."

  It's some time before you see anything, but sure enough, Fawkes emerges from the thinning dust cloud a few dozen meters directly in front of you; one of his pincers holds a relatively large rock.
  "Oh, boss, look," Jimmy says, as Fawkes begins to fire his particle gun at you, the little particles clicking against your hull. "It's Fawkes!"
  "Shut up, idiot!" you roar back, leaping into action. With a quick thrust, you pitch your ship aside, rapidly inputting data to your controls. You're going to use your magnetic field manipulator this time, and you're going to use it right. After a few moments, "MAGNETIC FIELD manipulator: ARMED" flashes across the screen on your right - you hit the big red button.
  You lean forwards, almost grinning in delight as with a sudden force like he'd been gripped by the hand of God, Fawkes' ship suddenly jerks downwards, slamming him onto a particularly rocky part of the asteroid. Particles of dust and debris float out all around him from the collision.
  "He's not dead yet, Dr. Cha0zz," Jimmy informs you, zooming one of your ESCam screens on Fawkes himself, who appears to be frightened, yet determined - and is reaching back for his controls.
  You reach for your own, muttering, "We'll soon fix that." Hurriedly, you input some new variables into your microwave field manipulator - you're going to fry him. Instead of the regular message you get, though, you get something that bothers you greatly: "MICROWAVE FIELD MANIPULATOR ARMING FAILED". In case it isn't obvious, it's not entirely obvious what this means.
  Just then, you dodge out of the way of a boulder that comes spinning towards you - the one Fawkes had been holding in his robotic arm. It's a botched throw - far too slow. You've definitely damaged him - you're just not sure by how much.
  You smile at him slyly. Oh, he's no idiot, but he's not as intelligent as you - not by a long shot.
  Except... he smiles back - a little grim, determined, knowing smile. Immediately after, a railgun round carves a deep, deep gash into the very top your cockpit canopy - you hear a sharp crack behind you and the displays around you start flashing warnings about the engines.
  "Hey, boss, we've lost an engine," Jimmy soon informs you.
  "Well, no shit," you're tempted to say, but decide instead to focus on figuring out how you'll get out of this one.

Dinosawer   Hurriedly, you flip the switches on your CASKET, trying to get it to restart. Squidhead is out the window on your left - you can see him moving in your direction - but you manage to get the generator started just in time. Your ship hums; the engines start to whisper softly, and the screens flicker to life. Red warning lights are glowing all around - you ignore them and try to figure out where Squidhead went.
  A loud clanking, clattering noise right outside your cockpit soon answers your question, as Squidhead lands directly next to your cockpit canopy.
  Looks like it's time to brush him off. Your chaff flies out shotgun-style, right? Should work. You aim the blunderbuss at him, quickly switch to chaff ammo, and pull the trigger. A wave of chaff blots out the stars, thinning as it begins to spread. And then, after it clears, you see Squidhead, readying his lasgun.
  Not knowing what else to do, you gun the engines, jetting forwards into the chaff. Squidhead almost gets thrown clear of the vehicle just from that, but somehow manages to hold on - the stars are dark, and all you can see is Squidhead's faint shape. And he fires.
  For a moment, nothing happens, but then he presses the lasgun directly against the glass of your canopy - you see a yellow glow in his direction, and you grin at him through your helmet as you realize that your energy shield is protecting you. Squidhead sees it too, and scrambles away towards the back of your ship. God damn, but that's some good tech there! Time to show Squidhead some moves of your own.
  Throwing a couple levers to keep your CASKET stable, you twist the flight yoke sharply, setting your ship into a rapid yaw-wards spin. Without the feeling of motion, it seems like the field of chaff is whirling about you - you keep it up for a minute, grinning to yourself. Beautiful thing, those upgrades. They're coming in handy and the mission hasn't even started yet.

  After you're done spinning yourself around, and you think you've managed to get Squidhead off, you crane your neck, looking around for any sign of the tentacled guy. He doesn't seem to be visible, actually - he's just... gone. Looks like you did your job. But... best to be sure. You turn your headlights on for a second to try to find him, and have to turn them off almost immediately, as you find yourself blinded by a bright glare - that's right. You're in the chaff field. It'll be hard for you to find him - but then again, it should be hard for him to find you, too. At least you'll be able to deal with him now, if he shows up.
  Feeling somewhat safer in the darkness, you start up your computer and try to run a diagnostics scan. As you expected - this fails. "NULL OBJECT ERROR 2E 7A 34 06 D1 44 FF D4 C7 A7", the screen says. Well, that's a load of garbage. What are you supposed to do with that? You frown, and then decide to simply reroute some extra coolant to the engines to keep them cool, and extend the radiator flaps. That should help. You manage to figure out how to do all that, and some of the flashing lights quiet themselves down. You did a good thing there. You even feel a little proud of yourself.
  Next, you need to blow somebody up. With Squidhead MIA, you'll need to find another target. You're thinking... Karthus sounds like a good choice. You carefully orient your CASKET in the direction you last saw him - somewhere towards the north. Should be easy to find him, right?
  As you begin to near the edge of the chaff cloud, still moving along with it, you manage to see Karthus in the distance - looks like he might be firing at someone behind you. Hema, possibly? You can't see Amenra, wherever she is. Regardless, you take careful aim at Karthus, and fire - first your quantum cannon, and then with your electrolaser. Both seem to hit - a direct hit, in fact, at least for the electrolaser.
  However... as you let yourself slip back into the thinning chaff cloud, you think you hear some sort of metal clacking behind your head... and it sounds just like Squid.

Hema   You try to reboot your ship, shutting it down and starting it back. A few meters away from you, Taepilus seems to be doing the same - so you try to do it faster. Unfortunately, while your ship does restart, the emergency power is still all that's running. Foreigner may have damaged your power supply a little more seriously than you'd originally anticipated.
  As far as you're concerned, that means it's time to fry Taepilus. He's turning to face you even right now, so there's no time to waste. Hurriedly, you type in the variables, gauging the distance and everything else as accurately as possible. Unlike most weapons, microwave field manipulators don't have an advantage at point blank... you keep this in mind.
  Just then, something kicks up a puff of dust on the asteroid behind Taepilus - it looks like someone is shooting at you - or are they shooting at Taepilus? It's rather hard to tell. That shot could've been meant for either of you.
  But you're ready to fire. You slam your hand down on the trigger for your field manipulator, ready to melt Taepilus's face off - but nothing happens. At all. And it looks like Taepilus is getting ready to fire at you himself.
  Wasting no time, you fly forwards, as more railgun shots hit the asteroid - and one of them hits Taepilus - and try to hit him with your right pincers. Unfortunately, these seem to be completely busted. You can't use your right robotic arm at all. It's just hanging there limply, and not responding to anything you do. It looks like Foreigner fried it. Your left robotic arm is working, though - you manage to leave a deep scratch across the top of Taepilus's cockpit, but that's it, in such a short amount of time. You'll need to come up with a different strategy.
  On the plus side, Taepilus has gotten hit with another railgun round... and it looks like his microwave manipulator failed him, too.

---

Fawkes   Dr. Cha0zz sits there, watching you. He doesn't make a motion, doesn't flick his headlights or anything of the sort. His CASKET, with all its four robotic arms, sit silent.
  It's your move.
  Without hesitating as Dr. Cha0zz seems to be doing, you pitch your nose down slightly, firing in a curve across the asteroid's surface in front of you to kick up a cloud of dust. Once it's in motion, you move on to the next portion of your plan: finding a rock. It'll have to be a decently-sized one, if you're going to manage anything useful with it.
  After a quick search, you find the perfect rock, lying lightly on the asteroid's surface. It's everything you could've hoped for - just the right size for slipping into your pincers, and it's even lying in a position that will let you get your pincers around it easily. It's as though some supernatural force drew it out of your mind directly as you wanted it - it couldn't be more beautiful. You'll do amazing things with this rock. You just know it.
  Gliding forwards, you slow to a stop in front of The Rock, carefully extending your robotic arm towards it. It fits like a glove. The rock's sublime shape even pushes it gently to the back of your pincers - and even locks it into place so it won't shift or slide as you move. Such a beautiful thing, you think, looking back at your thinning cloud of dust. You know enough to be sure that Dr. Cha0zz can't see you through your veil, even with his Enhanced Spectrum Cam, but the veil itself won't last long. It's time to go toss some boulders.
  With that, you turn and start towards the veil, your rock at the ready. Your plan is simple: fire a few shots at his magnetic field manipulator, then his microwave manipulator, and then blow a hole in him with your rock, just to add injury to insult. Should be fun - and this rock is going to see you all the way through it.
  You're really glad you had that tutorial.

  As you break through the veil, you find Dr. Cha0zz almost exactly where you expected him to be. He's facing you, but that's no real worry. He's a stone's throw away.
  As you start to fire at his magnetic field manipulator, something suddenly seems to grab your ship - the whole thing, and thrust you down towards the asteroid's surface, hard. There's a loud, menacing crash - the sound of sharp, jagged metal against stone - sparks fly in the cockpit, and your legs get forced upwards a little into a cramped space as the cockpit floor rises with a large bulge in the middle. You don't even have to wonder: It's Dr. Cha0zz's magnetic field manipulator.
  As you try to recover, you suddenly realize that you're weightless in your cockpit - the collision took out the gravity control and inertial dampeners. Then alarms start sounding all through the cockpit, red lights flashing urgently. "LIFE SUPPORT LOST" your screens scream.
  But the fight isn't lost yet. Narrowing your eyes and gritting your teeth, you use your top rear thrusters to push your back end farther against the asteroid, crumpling your own lower engine so you can get a strong shot off, and aiming for his microwave field manipulator.
  As you pull the trigger, you see his microwave manipulator melting beneath a spray of particles, falling to pieces, bit by bit, like sand beneath a spray of water. Sparks fly, the insides burn - you've utterly destroyed it. He seems to understand what you've done - but you're not even close to being finished.
  Using your left robotic arm to push you up further from the asteroid, you bring your right robotic arm back, readying it, and your Perfect Rock, for a throw. As you let fly, swinging your robotic arm forwards as fast as you dare, to keep from falling back against the asteroid, you feel a surge of excitement in your chest. The beautiful boulder tumbles gracefully, beautifully towards Dr. Cha0zz - it's exactly what you could've hoped, but for one thing: Dr. Cha0zz dodges it completely. And after all that work, too...
  Dr. Cha0zz smiles slyly at you through his cockpit window, only faintly visible.
  With a quick burst of your thrusters, you aim forwards, right at Dr. Cha0zz's ship, your brow furrowed in a grim determination you've never felt before. You will not die this day - and if you do, you're going to take Dr. Cha0zz with you.
  Dr. Cha0zz's smile fades slightly... but you smile back as you pull the trigger of your railgun.
  The shot is off-center - it grazes the top of Dr. Cha0zz's canopy, leaving a deep scar, and blows a hole straight through the top engine. Knowing he only has two, this will considerably lower his chances of survival... assuming you don't manage to nail him with your next shot. It'll be hard to miss now.

Taepilus   You want to boot up your main power, but you'll have to do it fast. Hema is only a few meters away - it won't be good if he decides to start hitting you again - or worse - hitting you with his microwave FM. Hurriedly, you flick at the controls, shutting everything down, and then trying to start it all up again. Fortunately, it seems to work - your lights all turn back on, and the screens stop flashing red. Some of them are complaining about overheated components, but overall - you're just fine.
  Without further ado, you spin quickly towards Hema, readying your own microwave field manipulator as you do. It's then that you begin to feel a little warm - you realize Hema is probably trying to fry you with his microwave FM, but has failed. That's fine. You have one of your own, and it's time to use it.
  Just then, something punches a hole in the front of your ship, and a jet of a whitish liquid or gas starts spraying out into space. What was that? What could it have been? That was kind of bizarre. You're sure it'll be okay though... hopefully.
  "MICROWAVE FIELD MANIPULATOR: ARMED" your screens say. You hit the button as fast as you can - but nothing happens. Maybe you input the variables incorrectly - or maybe Hema's hull absorbed the extra heat. It's difficult to tell. What's not difficult to tell, though, is that Hema is diving towards you with his left pincer out, trying to rip your cockpit to bits. There's a loud crash and a scraping sound as he tries ineffectively to dig his claw through your cockpit canopy. It leaves a large scrape mark, but otherwise, you're fine.
  At least, until another railgun round hits somewhere behind you - it sounds like it might've hit an engine.


Karthus   You put in the coordinates, arm your blink teleporter, and press the keys to activate it. Just like before, the warp bubble forms, and sucks you in without a sound.
  Unlike before, you aren't anywhere close to where you wanted to be. Actually, you're pretty far off target, from the looks of it. Hema is still pretty far away, though you're closer to Dinosawer and Squidhead now. They seem to be fighting or something - it's kind of hard to tell. Regardless, your target right now is Hema. You line up a good shot on him and fire - but you're being a little lazy, and feeling a little rushed. All you really have to do is keep shooting 'til he's dead.
  Total miss. Best two out of three, perhaps? You line up the sights again and pull the trigger a second time.
  Another miss. Damn, why is it so hard to aim? You usually have lightning-quick reflexes. You jerk the controls a little to the left, trying to compensate quickly, and fire.
  This one hits - but to your horror, it looks like you hit Taepilus dead on the nose. That can't be good. You let out a little thrust to change your aim, and then fire a fourth time. Hema's not dead yet, so you're not going to stop firing.
  It's a miss. You make one final, rapid adjustment and pull the trigger, only thinking a little too late that you might have overshot -
   - which you did. It's another round on Taepilus, on his engine. Not good at all. Even worse, there's a loud, clacking noise behind you, and your screens alert you that one of your engines is out. It's the lower one in the middle.
  To make matters worse, you're so fixated on Hema that you don't see the purple fireball coming at you until it's too late. It hits you just in front of your cockpit. Even for a light graze, it deals a lot of damage - it completely rips the front of your casket open, leaving a huge, gaping hole with jagged red-hot edges. It might be merely structural, though - you might yet survive. You'd consider yourself lucky - it didn't even breach the cockpit.
  Then again, it didn't need to. The only person that has a quantum cannon is Dinosawer, and he has an electrolaser too. Before you can even move, you feel a searing pain in your left arm just as the sole of your foot burns agonizingly. You look at your arm in surprise and horror and realize that Dinosawer's gotten you with his laser - and a pretty good shot. Your arm isn't severed, but it's seared halfway through - even through the suit. The pain is unbelievable, unlike anything you've experienced before in your life, and it's very, very real. You break into a lightning sweat as you try to keep from panicking, but the oxygen in your suit is leaving - and that's when you remember your cockpit is punctured. You're not going to make it out of this one.
  As everything goes dark from lack of oxygen, you close your eyes and embrace death eagerly - as a means to an end of this agonizing pain Dinosawer has put you through.
  "Deaths: 2," CHIARA says, and that's all you hear.
  
~~~

  You slowly awaken in the VR chamber. After unhooking yourself from your PSI Chair, you look about the room. It's almost pitch black except for a screen at the end of the room opposite the door, and the console in the center. The screen flashes with different views of the battle going on within the minds of your platoonmates all around you, and you sit watching it for a moment.
  You learned some things in there, at least.

((Tip: Never say "fire at someone until they're dead". As I'm unable to know from the start exactly how many shots it'll take to kill someone, I calculate it as five shots, which almost guarantees a miss unless you're at +4.))


Squidhead   While Dinosawer is busy trying to restart your ship, you fly over towards him with your thruster pack and land next to him, your lasgun at the ready. This is another one of those situations where it would be really nice if you could grin at him.
  Then again, he's grinning at you. You anticipate what he's going to do (fire his blunderbuss at you from point-blank) and crouch down in its blind spot. It misses you completely, spraying a ton of clinking bits of metal out into space, clattering against his hull harmlessly. You jump back up into the slowly-spreading cloud of chaff and fire your lasgun at him - but it hits the chaff, which reflects the beam away harmlessly, as Dinosawer watches in amusement. Muttering under your breath, you press your lasgun directly against his window and fire - only to have his energy shield flicker with a golden-yellow glow.
  Dinosawer's amusement deepens, just as he hits the accelerator, almost flinging you backwards off his ship as he accelerates into the cloud of chaff.
  Scowling, you swing your way up to the back of his ship and get yourself in a tight spot, wedged between and around the weapons, so as to keep from coming loose. Dinosawer doesn't seem to anticipate this - his immediate tactic is to throw himself into a tight spin, around and around and around, in the chaff cloud. Meanwhile, you're quite peaceful in the relative safety of his weapon rack, snug between his quantum cannon and electrolaser.
  After a little while, he seems to decide that you're gone, and sets about... doing... something. It's hard to tell, but you remain snug where you are, just in case, picking idly at his quantum cannon to see if you might get it free and shoot him in the face. It'd be really cool, right? Unfortunately... it doesn't look like that's going to happen. It's bolted down pretty securely - it might take a toolkit to get it off.
  Dinosawer seems to be distracted with shooting Karthus... but... that might provide you an opportunity to go up there and shoot him in the face again.



Score:
Team 1: 2 kills
Team 2: 1 kill

Time elapsed: 8:00 (min/sec) (2:15 elapsed this turn)

Amenra   You quickly reload the diagnostics programs and get another one running on your ship, trying to reboot your railgun. Unfortunately - it doesn't work. Actually, your diagnostics program says that your railgun is "DISCONNECTED; PLEASE REINSTALL". So helpful, that.
  Ignoring the utterly worthless advice, you power your engines up to full, trying to be careful to make sure you stay in a straight path. Your engines are pulling you hard left - you try to compensate as best you can, flying past Dinosawer and his little chaff cloud, past Dr. Cha0zz and Fawkes battling it out on the main asteroid, all the way to Taepilus. Spinning around in a gentle 180, you slow yourself to a stop and position yourself where you have a clear line of sight, yet are out of the line of fire of everyone else. And then, aiming, you pull the trigger for your railgun.
  Absolutely nothing happens. Taepilus is completely ignoring you, at least - he seems to be fixated on Hema.
  Just then, CHIARA speaks up, her voice echoing in your mind. "This is a simulation-wide announcement," she says. "SCAMPS requests Platoon 56's presence in the Briefing Room for a new mission."

Dr. Cha0zz   As quickly as you can, you release another scout drone, as you give out orders to your AI. "Jimmy, shut down the coolant and power to my broken engine and microwave field manipulator."
  "On it, boss," Jimmy answers promptly.
  Meanwhile, you're busy trying to maneuver your scout drone in the way of Fawkes' fire - he's trying to shoot his particle gun at you again. You use your starboard thrusters to get back out of the way, and then punch in the data for another Magnetic FM strike. He shoots at you again - this time, you manage to get your scout drone in the way in time. It shatters, flinging tiny bits of scrap metal in all directions, a hole punched clean through it - but fortunately, you manage to dodge this round too.
  But that means all you have left to do is fire your field manipulator... and it says it's armed. And so... you fire.
  The effects are instant and beautiful. His entire ship flips, turned nose-up, its light armor crumbling as it goes. The lights in your cockpit flicker for a moment under the intense strain of energy, but then hold steady as his entire craft is plunged, hard, against the asteroid's rocky metallic surface. A satisfied smile crosses your lips. "Got those engines done yet, Jimmy?"
  "They're stable, Cha0zz," your AI replies. "Could use some manual adjustment from a more trained hand, maybe, but they're good enough to go with."
  "Excellent." You throttle up briefly, giving yourself a nice burst of momentum as you head towards Fawkes' ship. As you near it, you take in the damage - it's extensive. Actually, it's almost mind-boggling how much damage you've done. Your magnetic FM is far better than a simple railgun - and a lot better than your microwave field manipulator ever was. Actually you feel rather pleased with how it's turned out. His entire ship is wrinkled and scarred, lines of force etched into the metal frame. The cockpit canopy seems to have shattered, as little bits of it are floating underneath. You absolutely decimated him.
  But you want to be sure.
  Putting your hands to the robotics controls, you get to work, grabbing his ship roughly by the nose and flipping it upright to look around. The cockpit has crumpled in on itself, but you'll be dealing with that later. To start with, you steady the ship with two of your robotic arms, reaching towards the back and ripping off the particle gun and railgun - you fling these into space. With them gotten rid of. you plunge the tips of your pincers towards the cockpit, wreaking havoc with both of them at the same time. Metal fragments fly every which way as the damaged controls spark and smoke. You dig deeper, crushing it, crumpling the outer walls like a tin can, and making absolutely sure that it will never fly again.
  Well, now it's confirmed. Everything runs smoother with a little GREASE.
  There's not really that much more you can do here. Releasing the totaled CASKET, you turn away and head back out east, looking for cover - which you soon find. You take cover behind one of the nearest asteroids and, once properly situated, run a diagnostics scan.
  The results are quick and helpful. "Diagnostics indicate my engines are a little beaten up, but still in working order, Doctor," Jimmy informs you. "It'll just pull heavily upwards, so keep that in mind if you want to turn them back on. Microwave Field Emitter is completely offline, and will likely stay that way. Queries aren't returning data."
  That's about when you remember that if you'd actually killed Fawkes, CHIARA should've announced it. Instead, she announces something different. "This is a simulation-wide announcement," CHIARA says. "SCAMPS requests Platoon 56's presence in the Briefing Rooms for a new mission."


Dinosawer   "Well, I've got to give it to him," you say, flying towards the edge of the little chaff cloud, which has almost dissipated. Your map from CHIARA says Squidhead is still alive - and probably still clinging to your CASKET. You're going to have to take care of him manually.
  After reaching the edge of the cloud, you abruptly throttle the engines up as far as they'll go, jetting off to the north as fast as you can. From your seat in the cockpit, you can't feel a thing, with the gravity carefully controlled to cancel out any feeling of acceleration. Outside, though, Squidhead is probably hanging on for dear life - if you haven't flung him off already. You let the acceleration continue for a little bit, and then suddenly swing the ship around for a full about-face. If you're right, Squidhead's probably still on top of your CASKET. He's also probably expecting you would fling him around again, so he's probably holding on. What you need to do, then, is make him think you think you lost him somewhere, so he'll let go. So... you wait.
  Sure enough, you soon hear a click-clack of tentacles behind you. Looking up, you see Squidhead's metallic head show up, looking into the back of your canopy as he brings a lasgun to bear.
  And you hit the accelerator again, at full blast, slowing yourself to a grinding halt and blasting forwards. The second you begin, there's a loud CLUNK as Squidhead disappears from view behind you, seemingly having smashed himself against your ship. Hilarious, really. He should've known better than to try to hitch a ride on your CASKET. It would've made more sense to lose himself in the chaff cloud so you couldn't see him. It worked well enough for you.
  As you're pretty sure you lost him already, you slow to a halt and spin the ship around, looking for Squidhead. He turns out to be rather easy to find - a little flailing blob a ways away, trying uselessly to hit you with his lasgun.
  You smile. You have lasers too, or did he forget?
  After quickly aiming, you set your electrolasers to full blast and let them sear across him. There's a shower of electrical arcs, and you manage to cut off several of his tentacles - or it looks like it, at least. He's hardly moving now, but he is, a little. You think he's still alive... so you decide to finish the job with your quantum cannon. You let loose a single shot. The bright purple glow roars away from your ship, dimly lighting up the asteroid to your right as it goes along, until it explodes upon contact with Squidhead.
  "Kills: 3," CHIARA says. Looks like you got him that time. Feeling rather triumphant, you hit the thrusters and curve away from what's left of your friend's VR avatar, back towards your chaff cloud, which is just about gone at this point, scattered in little bits over a wide area. Even so, you decide to fly through it once more, aiming towards Taepilus. He seems to be facing towards Hema, while Amenra is circling him uselessly, watching. Perfect time for you to fire a molten shell.
  You adjust your aim, wanting to be absolutely sure you don't miss with this shot, and target Taepilus's cockpit with your blunderbuss. After switching your ammo type to a molten shell... you pull the trigger.
  For an instant, you hear something loud - feel something warm - and then everything goes instantly dark.
  "Deaths: 2." CHIARA's voice echoes in your mind as your disembodied presence floats away from the ship, revealing that Squidhead rigged your blunderbuss in place to fire directly at the cockpit.
  And you slip from consciousness.

~~~

  You gradually come to your senses in the darkness. Cold plugs line the back of your neck and head - you reach behind yourself and disconnect them, sitting up and looking around the room. It's still mostly dark - the only spot of light is the screen on the wall opposite the door, detailing the rest of what's still going on in the VR in your absence.
  Noticing movement on the other side of the room, you look in that direction, and soon see that Squidhead is there, waving at you triumphantly. A little amused smile brings itself unbidden to your lips. Resourceful, Squidhead is. At least he's on your team.

  Just then, SCAMPS speaks up - a voice you hadn't really expected to hear in the VR room. "Squidhead, Dinosawer, get your asses down to the Briefing Room. ...Or, in Squidhead's case, whatever the hell you have instead. I have a new mission ready for you two. CHIARA says she's going to relay the rest of your squadmates still in the VR sim, and she'd better, too. I don't really trust her."
  "Thank you, SCAMPS," CHIARA replies cordially, with an icy note to her voice. "I appreciate your vote of confidence."
  "Yeah, my pleasure," he mutters, and the speakers go silent.

Hema   You spin quickly away and head at full throttle towards the nearby asteroid, intending to fly below it, so that you're not in line of fire of Fawkes or Squidhead, in case either of them gain the upper hand. It's a short flight, and when you arrive, you turn around, looking for Taepilus. As you do so, you set up a full diagnostics scan and start it running.
  No sooner do you, though, than your screens suddenly crackle and fizzle out. As you watch in horror, your view through the canopy begins to blur, growing almost liquid, and the outside of your ship begins to glow a dull red. It looks like Taepilus finally landed a successful hit.
  You try various things around the cockpit, trying to start your computer back up, but it's no use. You're dead in the water... and it doesn't look like your computer is going to start up again this time.
  Fortunately, CHIARA takes the opportunity to speak up. "This is a simulation-wide announcement," she announces, her voice echoing in your mind. "SCAMPS requests Platoon 56's presence in the Briefing Rooms for a new mission."

---

Fawkes   You grit your teeth, staring ahead of you at Dr. Cha0zz, and try to maneuver yourself to fire your particle gun at his magnetic field manipulator. Unfortunately, the stream goes wide - it doesn't hit a thing. Feeling discomfited, you correct your aim and try to hit his cockpit with a railgun round. This shot misses, too, but you do at least manage to nail his scout drone with it, blasting a hole clean through. As the casing ruptures, it twists in upon itself and flies to pieces. That's one drone that he'll never be able to use again.
  Hurriedly, you check your suit, just in case you'll need to eject, and grab your Gauss rifle and ammo after unbuckling your seat belt. No sooner do you, though, than the ship begins to crumple around you, flipping upwards. Your instrument panel crackles as the metal begins to twist and wrinkle, sparks flying at your helmet; the walls around you buckle and cave.
  There's no more time.
  Quickly, you hit the button to open the canopy, only to find it seems to be jammed. Deciding it might need a little more force, you bring your fist down on it hard, and it seems to work - the canopy flies open. Unfortunately, the evacuation of the air isn't nearly enough to send you flying into space, so you make a mad leap out of the cockpit, just as the entire CASKET comes around to smash itself top-first into the asteroid's surface. You yourself get flung far backwards, spinning slightly. You know how to handle this, though. You take your Gauss rifle and, slowly, shoot a few rounds to stabilize yourself, as you watch Dr. Cha0zz begin to batter and beat your ship with all four of his pincers, turning your ship upright in his claws and digging at the cockpit. You're definitely never going to be able to fly that ship again. Leaping from a crumpling tin can turned out to be quite the intelligent thing to do after all.
  Before you can put any distance between yourself and Dr. Cha0zz, though, he simply turns away and leaves. He didn't once look in your direction - he didn't seem to expect you might have leapt from the cockpit. That's all the better for you, though - you at least survived.
  CHIARA takes the opportunity to speak up, but she's not congratulating you for your heroics. "This is a simulation-wide announcement," she announces, her voice echoing in your mind. "SCAMPS requests Platoon 56's presence in the Briefing Rooms for a new mission."


Taepilus   You hurriedly look over the overheat warnings, trying to discern whether your Microwave FM is in danger of an overheat. Fortunately, it doesn't seem to be so - but it didn't really matter. You were going to fire it regardless of what happened anyway.
  Hema seems to have retreated from you, flying underneath the central asteroid. You can still see him from where you are, though, and turn your ship in his direction, inputting some very precise measurements into the MFM control system. Hopefully your computer will be a little more capable of handling it this time. You sit and wait a few moments for it to complete the necessary physics calculations. "MICROWAVE FIELD MANIPULATOR: ARMED" the screens soon say, and you hit the button to fire.
  To your immense relief and pleasure, you see Hema's ship begin to glow a dull red. It looks like you landed a decent hit.
  Just then, Ysavva flies up close to you, circling about. She's smiling. You have a feeling that's a bad sign.
  Fortunately, it turns out to not be a bad sign after all. The smile soon disappears from her face, replaced with a scowl. You look up at the back of her ship and notice that her railgun is dangling awkwardly to the side - she must've damaged it at some point. That's fortunate too.
  Less fortunately, you soon spot Dinosawer's ship moving towards you from a distance. You heard CHIARA say that Squidhead died already - so this means he's coming after you. It hardly seems fair, having three people on you at once. Your screens are flashing with alarms, too - "PRIMARY RCS TANK EMPTY, PLEASE REFILL", "PSI UNIT DESTROYED", "ENGINE MALFUNCTION, PLEASE DIAGNOSE" and other little gems. You've taken quite the beating... but it's probably going to get worse. Gritting your teeth, you brace for the impact of whatever he's going to fire.
  To your surprise, though, his cockpit suddenly erupts with a burst of bright orange liquid. "Kills: 2" CHIARA says. You're not entirely sure how it happened - maybe he managed to shoot himself with his blunderbuss? You're not going to look a gift horse in the mouth, though. You're just thankful you survived.

  Just then, CHIARA makes an announcement, her voice echoing in your mind. "This is a simulation-wide announcement," she says. "SCAMPS requests Platoon 56's presence in the Briefing Rooms for a new mission."


Squidhead   You hold on tight to Dinosawer's ship, clinging to the guns the same as before. You rather expect him to do some ridiculous maneuvers to try to throw you off. And, as you soon find, he does. He starts with a quick acceleration out of his little chaff cloud, ramping up to his CASKET's max speed - it's all you can do to hold on, to anything you can. As you do, you brace your lasgun against the electolaser weapon mount, trying to disable the gimbal for Dinosawer's blunderbuss. It's a tricky shot, especially with the acceleration, but you're practically at point-blank, so it's rather hard to miss. You still do an amazing job of it, though. As you sever the last motor rod, Dinosawer spins in a half-circle, and the momentum tilts the blunderbuss forwards towards his cockpit. That's exactly what you wanted.
  As he's stopped accelerating at this point, you let go of the gun and hastily weld it in place, doing the best job you can - which turns out to be really, really good. With that done, you start climbing towards Dinosawer's cockpit, intending to shoot him through the roof with your electrolaser.
  Unfortunately, as soon as you reach the cockpit, he throttles forwards again, basically putting on the brakes as he zeroes his momentum. You're flung backwards as the inertia carries you on, adrift in space as Dinosawer (from your perspective) flies away from you, his engines burning brightly as his CASKET recedes.
  Well, that wasn't something you expected at all. Actually, his ship is so much faster than you are that it pretty much makes it so that you couldn't catch up to him even if you wanted... at least, not without giving him a great opportunity to hit you.
  He seems to realize this. He spins around, his headlights glaring in your eyes, searching for you - and very soon seems to find you.
  You feel a sharp pain in your tentacles as Dinosawer's electrolaser severs the four on the right side; a huge surge of electricity pours through your frame and you writhe in intense pain. Your vision goes fuzzy, dimmed almost completely, and it becomes difficult to think.
  Through it all, you think you see a purple fireball coming towards you. It grows larger, larger, brighter, until it's the only thing that pervades the brokenness of your agonized mind.
  "Deaths: 3" CHIARA says, and all goes dark.

~~~

  You gradually come to your senses, and disconnect yourself from the PSI Chair, which is hardly suited for your squidlike body anyway. The lack of pain here is a wonderful change from the agony you went through only moments before, and you look around the room to get your bearings. It's still mostly dark - the only spot of light is the screen on the wall opposite the door, detailing the rest of what's still going on in the VR in your absence. You soon make out a window showing Dinosawer specifically - he's flying towards Taepilus now.
  You chuckle as Dinosawer involuntarily fills his cockpit with hot, molten metal, a victim of your blunderbuss sabotage.
  It isn't much longer before Dinosawer sits up slowly on the other side of the room, after detaching himself from his chair. You take a step forwards and wave a tentacle at him as a "hello", interested to see his reaction.

  Just then, SCAMPS speaks up - a voice you hadn't really expected to hear in the VR room. "Squidhead, Dinosawer, get your asses down to the Briefing Room. ...Or, in Squidhead's case, whatever the hell you have instead. I have a new mission ready for you two. CHIARA says she's going to relay the rest of your squadmates still in the VR sim, and she'd better, too. I don't really trust her."
  "Thank you, SCAMPS," CHIARA replies cordially, with an icy note in her voice. "I appreciate your vote of confidence."
  "Yeah, my pleasure," he mutters, and the speakers go silent.

(( how do I not notice my gimbal being kaput while aiming? ))

((MWAHAHAHAHAH ))

Chiara, Could you please suspend the simulation until after the mission?
That would be great.

Exit the simulation & head over to the briefing room

If I see squidhead: "I'm impressed with how you took care of Dino, squidhead. Looks like you're not an idiot after all."

((friendly reminder for tal: I switched out my advanced repair kit for a normal repair kit and a large scythe))

"Chiara, log me out of the current simulation. Seems a shame to end it like this."

Once back in the simulation room, get up and head for the briefing room. If given the chance, offer to shake hands with the members of the previously opposing team.

"Welp, seems like everyone else is leaving."

"CHIARA, what percentage of this simulation was my railgun dysfunctional? Log me out and please compile and send simulation details to my PDA. I want weapons use and damage analysis for my ship."

Dr. Cha0zz "CHIARA, could you please suspend the simulation until after the mission?" you ask. "That would be great."
"I have it saved to my files. You may resume it when ready," CHIARA says. "Logging you out."
Everything fades to darkness.

~~~

You soon awaken in the VR chamber, along with the rest of your platoon mates, who seem to have logged out at the same time. Everyone else is unhooking themselves from their PSI chairs and heading for the door, and so you do the same.


Hema "CHIARA, log me out of the current simulation," you say. "Seems a shame to end it like this."
"I have it saved to my files. You may resume it when ready," CHIARA says. "Logging you out."
Everything fades to darkness.

~~~

You soon awaken in the VR chamber, along with the rest of your platoon mates, who seem to have logged out at the same time. Everyone else is unhooking themselves from their PSI chairs and heading for the door, and so you do the same.


Taepilus You log out of the VR simulation, and soon awaken in the VR chamber, along with the rest of your platoon mates, who seem to have logged out at the same time. Everyone else is unhooking themselves from their PSI chairs and heading for the door, and so you do the same.


Ysavva "Well, seems like everyone else is leaving," you mutter. "CHIARA, what percentage of this simulation was my railgun dysfunctional?"
"Your railgun was dysfunctional for approximately 56.25% of the simulation," she answers, sounding the decimals out clearly. "I will tell SCAMPS to send the data to your PDA, though I cannot guarantee he'll actually follow through. Logging you out."
Everything fades to darkness.

~~~

You soon awaken in the VR chamber, along with the rest of your platoon mates, who seem to have logged out at the same time. Everyone else is unhooking themselves from their PSI chairs and heading for the door, and so you do the same.

((Will be making an official briefing post for Mission #2 in the VR room soon enough. Hang tight!))

(( Since the VR is over, perhaps now is the time to share the comms google doc? ))

Dinosawer wrote:(( Since the VR is over, perhaps now is the time to share the comms google doc? ))

((it's suspended, not over yet))

(( Yes, but the previous chatter doesn't really give any plans away ))

As far as I remember, there isn't anything of importance left in our Comm-chatter.
Every planning from before is already over and we're not really in any position for elaborate plan-making...

I also brought a Chatter-goat with me for the summoning ritual

For Gchapyzh

Talvieno wrote:Everything goes black as you drift into unconsciousness.

~~~

You slowly feel the world form about you; you catch a whiff of smoke in the air, but the darkness remains. Then, slowly, things begin to take visible shape - your hands, shaped exactly like your hands in the real world - the interior of a CASKET, the flickering lights of the controls. You study them for a moment, fascinated - it all looks perfectly real. It sounds perfectly real - you can hear the hum of your engines, the crackling of flames -

- and then you look out through your CASKET's canopy window, onto a bleak, war-torn landscape dotted by crumbling buildings, burning trees and large plumes of smoke. The architecture isn't familiar to you, nor is the sky - a dull, dusky, smoky gray. It could be anywhere.

"- Closing in on the bandits," you hear over the radio. "If they're in the subterranean levels, we're going to have to go it on foot." It's the voice of Aveena, one of your squadmates. You gradually begin to recall the situation - SCAMPS set you on a mission to Rii'shak V to recover an artifact from a city there. You weren't supposed to be noticed, but someone ended up nearly wiping out your entire platoon by doing something stupid. Now it's just you, Aveena, and Larus.

"We've got hostiles!" you hear Larus say, and you look over towards his ship. Far ahead of him, several enormous, thick-legged, spider-like creatures are approaching the three of you. Rii'shians. You've dealt with them before, but there appears to be something following them...

Dealt with them before eh? Try to remember what the spiders are and what they can do: their weapons, their speed and their armor. Also try to remember the affect my teammate's weapons had on them.

Squad Radio - "Larus, Aveena, were gonna designate the spider things as Alphas, and whatever is behind them is a Beta. Number them from left to right. Now, please remind me what equipment your CASKETs have, and what Infantry equipment you have." Carefully listen and remember. "Whoever is better at scanning, do a sensor sweep of the Beta."

If the Alphas can't effectively fire at a distance or at the sky, pull up into cloud cover.

If the Alphas can, indeed, fire at the sky, spread out and take cover behind some of the thicker ruins out of the Alpha's running range.

"Anyone know what that Beta is? What did you get from your scan?"