TURN 13 - PART 1
Main:
Caves:
Time: To be announced
SQUAD 1: Dr. Cha0zz, BFett, Ysavva, Taepilus, Kalah Grimm
Dr. Cha0zz
Cha0zz wrote:Dammit, why did those idiotic things have to break my arm.
When andrew arrives:
- Ask him for the painkillers.
Taepilus, I'll need you to assist me with cauterising this wound.
Jimmy, use the working drone to take pictures of the drone that's stuck and send them to me (I'd like a description of how the drone is stuck if possible )
If taepilus will assist me:
- cauterise the wound with his help.
Else:
- use future vision to determine the what will happen when I cauterise the wound
- Carefully cauterise the wound taking in mind what I learned from future vision.
Jimmy, use the MUSE to analyse an air sample
Scan the atmospheric composition at my location.
Send all atmospheric data to jimmy
Jimmy use this data to look if you can get a general direction of where the oxygen in the atmosphere is produced. (through the different concentrations in the analysed samples you can make a concentration gradient telling you where the oxygen source is.)
You open comms to Jimmy. "Jimmy, use the working drone to take pictures of the drone that's stuck and send them to me. I'd like a description of how the drone is stuck, if possible."
"On it, boss!" Jimmy chirps, chipper as ever.
To Taepilus, you say, "Taepilus, I'll need you to assist me with cauterising this wound."
He seems willing enough, and comes over promptly. "All right, but we can't waste too much time doing this," he says warningly as he gets down beside you. "We're vulnerable with only one person on guard."
You glance at Kalah. She's wide awake, and going to feel every second of it. You offer a terse apology for the lack of anesthesia.
The operation begins. Taepilus holds your blowtorch as you'd instructed him and helps hold Kalah's leg still as you heat one of your solid bolts red-hot, searing the wound closed one strip at a time. It's a slow process, and you find yourself sweating uncomfortably in your suit. There's a lot of blood and mutilated flesh everywhere, and you never really were one to enjoy looking at gruesome wounds. To Kalah's credit, she doesn't offer much resistance - though you're not sure she'd really be able to anyway, after having lost as much blood as she has. In the end, the operation is a success, apart from listening to "Ride of the Valkyries" playing over the comms, which absolutely does not match the task at hand.
"Boss, you ready for the info?" you hear. It's Jimmy.
"Yes, send it to my PDA," you order.
You pull out your little datapad and light it up, switching to the incoming video feed. With a slightly unsteady camera, Jimmy shows you your broken drone, which appears to have gotten caught on one of your cargo pod's latches. It's a fairly simple fix - just push it in and pull it back away from the latch - but Jimmy may have felt it wasn't worth the risk of losing another drone. He was right in that, of course. You wouldn't have much liked to lose a second drone. "Thanks, Jimmy," you tell him. "That's exactly what I needed to know. Good work. Can I get you to analyze the atmospheric composition, now?"
"Sure thing," he replies.
Your PDA feed blanks out as he switches his attention to other tasks. You switch as well, getting a decent scan of the atmospheric composition where you are. You see the familiar warning about how your PDA's analyzer may not have 100% accuracy, and start it up. After you're done, you send all the data back to your ship. "Jimmy, use this data to see if you can get a general direction of where the oxygen in the atmosphere is produced." You explain it to him a little more, and he gets to work.
In the meantime, Dinosawer's squad arrives with a display of bravado, charging in through the cave entrance as one (or two, rather, as it seems Francis is missing and the others chose to stay outside). Andrew tosses you a painkiller syringe, and then together he and Squidhead get to work on finishing healing Kalah. You pop the syringe and inject its contents into the port in the front of your suit.
It isn't long before you hear from Jimmy again. "Okay, boss, ran the tests. The concentration of oxygen is slightly higher out here, but that may be due to your PDA taking inaccurate measurements. It's hard to know for sure without a reliable control test, but results suggest the levels are about the same. I'd need more info, further spaced, to be able to triangulate the approximate direction. However, given the data I've collected from your comm logs thus far, it seems reasonable to conclude that whatever is introducing oxygen into the atmosphere may be situated to the northwest, seeing as that's the only quadrant you have yet to thoroughly explore." There's a pause. "Anything else, boss?"
BFett
BFett wrote:
BFett replies to the FSM
"Hmm, let me see, oh yes I remember! Back in 6th grade I had to memorize and present a mono-log to my classmates in drama class. The speech was from the perspective of a student who was asking a janitor for assistance in removing a container of worms from his locker. And as you probably already know, I had to use a prop for this speech. Well I did. I took spaghetti noodles, boiled them and added food coloring to give them the fleshy color of real earth worms. I then put them in a glass jar and took them to school the following morning.
When it was my turn to present I put my jar of spaghetti on the table and after removing the lid I draped a small handful of the 'worms' over the jar. As I presented my several minute speech the class exclaimed multiple times as the 'worms' slowly fell out of the jar.
As soon as I was done with the mono-log and had returned to my seat several students wondered what I had used for my 'worms'. When I informed them that it was just spaghetti with food coloring they asked if they could eat it and I said “sure”. Before I knew it I had the entire class around me, eating the spaghetti that I had made.
It was at this time that I knew I could convince anyone to become a spaghetti consumer. And that's the story from my past that I believe you were referring to."
((A true story too crazy for me to have ever made up.))
You stand before the FSM's mighty throne, retelling the story of how you, in your 6th grade class, convinced an entire classroom to eat a jar of worms... or, rather, a jar of spaghetti you had called worms. For a moment, your confidence wavers as you wonder if the FSM will be pleased that you would call your spaghetti "worms"... but in the end, he seems pleased.
He bobs slightly in the air, as though nodding. Beams of light shine out from around the floating tendrils of His Noodles, and He booms in a great voice, "Indeed, my child. You know well of what I have spoken. My Son, Francis, requires your assistance. You can be a popular, driving person, when you attempt to be so." He pauses, and looks sternly at you; his giant meatballs of eyes reflect a feeling of disappointment as he continues, "Unfortunately, you have fallen short of the confidence you once held. You have lost The Way. You must be bold, my child. You must reach out and do what you know in your heart to be true, righteous, and just. Serve me, BFett. Serve the Holy Noodles to all of mankind at my Son's side. Help them overcome their differences and become one in The Great Bowl. This... is your true purpose."
"I know it well now, Father," you say. You suddenly realize that you're on one knee. You don't remember bowing low before His Noodliness, but it must have happened at some point. You begin to get to your feet, but the Flying Spaghetti Monster stops you.
"Nay, hold a moment," He commands. "I am not yet finished."
You pause, and get back to one knee.
"A memory holds you back, my child... something that happened before the Incident last year, where you stole 250,000 Galactic Credits." He pauses. "You must look within yourself. When was it that you lost your boldness, BFett? When did you cease to be as popular as you once were? That memory holds you back. It must be cleansed in the Holy Flow my Eternal Sauce, so that you may begin again, anew. You know the incident of which I speak."
A doubt - a glimmer of fear tugs at your heart as you begin to delve into your memories. The ground begins to grow dark; you suddenly realize His Noodliness no longer floats before you; you are alone at a table in a vast, cracked desert beneath a clouded sky. You grow short of breath. "It is not a memory I wish to think about, Your Noodliness," you whisper, swallowing anxiously.
The ground trembles as He speaks, calling out to you from the heavens. Shaking, bits of cracked earth collapse into the Great Void all about you. "I will give you the choice, young BFett," he shouts. "If you would serve Me, you must free yourself from these shackles that bind you. Only then can you truly help My Son."
All about you, the ground has collapsed; you remain on a single pillar of earth, stretching down into infinity... and then it, as well, falls.
~~~
You wake with a start, drawing in a sharp gasp of air. Your lungs fill as your eyes blink open; you hear your comrades' radio chatter in your ears, and realize that it was all... just a dream.
Or was it?
Kalah is nearby, with Dr. Cha0zz, Squidhead, and Andrew hovering over her. She's in pretty bad shape, but it looks like she's going to be fine.
((lucky roll. You woke up a bit earlier than I'd intended, but I still leave you with that final Question. What holds BFett back and keeps him from being the best he can be? What is there in his past that deters him?))
Ysavva
DeusVorpal wrote:Hapchazzard wrote:
"... Amenra, guard BFett and watch our backs while we do this."
"I've been doing that this whole time, you fukc-head. Thanks for noticing."
Guard the party while they finish fixing each other up
If any aliens come through the doorway:
- Shoot them with my Lasgun
If I'm certain that no more aliens are coming through:
- Take a brief walk around the crucible, scanning the room for anything that stands out as being relevant to our mission objectives
- Return to my spot guarding the party
You stand there for a little while longer, looking out the entrance of the ancient doorway for any intruders... but you see nothing of interest. You don't hear anything, either. It seems that the "bugs" have decided to leave you alone... for now, at least.
When you're finally certain that there won't be more trouble from any enemies, you leave your post at the door and go back toward the "crucible" in the center of the room.
The crucible is a little metallic protrusion from the center of the floor, just under a meter in diameter. Cautiously, you walk around the rim of the circular set of steps that ring this little anomaly, looking for anything that stands out as being relevant to your current mission objectives: anything related to the Quantum Orb, or perhaps some information databanks of some kind. You see nothing of the sort, even after a very thorough search. While this room may have some technological knowledge that you can glean from it, it has nothing to do with your ultimate objective. You're quite certain of that now.
Quietly, you leave the set of steps and head back between the pillars toward the doorway, just as Dinosawer's squad arrives.
Taepilus
Hapchazzard wrote:Cha0zz wrote:
Taepilus, I'll need you to assist me with cauterising this wound.
"Alright, I just hope we don't waste too much time doing this, since we're vulnerable when there's only one person on guard. Amenra, guard BFett and watch our backs while we do this."
Assist Chaozz with fixing up the wound, occasionally looking around to see if there's any enemies that are a threat to me
when Chaozz no longer needs assistance
-Cautiously walk over to the pool in the middle of the room, picking up a pebble/small rock along the way
-Toss the rock into the pool and note what happens
-if the pool doesn't appear to be too dangerous to approach and take a sample of
--VERY cautiously get close to the pool, take out a jar and fill it with some pink goo, being careful not to touch it with any part of my body while doing so
-Examine one of the columns around the pool, looking for anything interesting/anomalous(e.g. glyphs)
-Photograph one of the columns with my PDA, as well as taking close-up photos of anything interesting on the column itself
-when at any point I start feeling severe effects from the pool, or something starts emerging from it
--Back off
when I notice an enemy charging at me or a nearby ally
-Slash it with the electron sword(max 3 times)
Dr. Cha0zz calls you over, requesting assistance with cauterizing Kalah's wound. With his broken arm, he'll need all the help he can get, but you still feel uneasy, given that Ysavva is the only one on guard. "Watch our backs and guard BFett while we do this, Amenra," you tell her.
She glares at you with contempt and turns away. "I've been doing that this whole time, you fukc-head," she growls. "Thanks for noticing."
You decide there are more pressing matters at hand than dealing with that, and instead kneel next to Dr. Cha0zz by Kalah's unconscious form, getting ready to help cauterize the wound. She seems to be awake now. When she woke up, you have no idea, but without any painkillers, she's just going to have to hold on the best she can.
It's a slow and agonizing process, using a blowtorch to heat a piece of metal to sear a wound shoot by literally charring it shut - and with a wound as large as the bottom of Kalah's leg, it takes a good deal of time. To her immense credit, she grits her teeth and soldiers through her agony without a single cry. You and Dr. Cha0zz, together, manage to patch her wound completely closed. She won't be able to walk without some kind of modification - or a replacement of her leg - but for now, it'll do. You get to your feet and step away from the doctor and his patient, heading toward the rear of the little chamber, toward the stone steps leading down to the strange contrivance the team has nicknamed "the crucible".
It's a little metallic protrusion in the middle of the floor, ringed with stone steps, ringed themselves with six steel pillars of strange design. Their surface glitters and shimmers in a strange fashion you can't quite describe, mostly because it feels difficult to focus on it. Your interest, however, lies primarily with the crucible. Just under a meter across, it dominates the scene with a pale, shimmering light, almost like a pool of molten lava coated with a shimmering blue veil. Together, the colors blend and merge to become some kind of pale purple-pink.
You pick up a rock from the floor beside you, curious, and toss it in. The rock merely skitters across the surface and comes to a stop. It seems rather safe. Unfortunately, you don't think you'll be able to get a sample. This is fine; you don't think you really feel like getting closer anyway. There's a strong urging in the back of your mind to run, as fast as you can. It tugs at you in a familiar fashion, almost like the way you might think, "I feel like I'm forgetting something" when you're not able to recall what it is you've forgotten. It bothers you, and pains you to put it to the side, but with great difficulty, you manage... only by climbing back up the steps. When you've done this, the feeling fades... mostly.
Your attention shifts to the columns nearby, looking for anything interesting or anomalous, like glyphs. There do indeed seem to be glyphs on the column near the southward side - towards the direction of the entrance. Unfortunately, their patterns shift and turn beneath your gaze. It's impossible to read, let alone tell what you're looking at. You pull out your PDA and take a photograph of the strange, shifting symbols, but all the PDA's camera returns is a blur. It's definitely quantum. You remember hearing about this from the first mission.
You get the feeling that this is some kind of display; a physical display that has the ability to shift itself. The glyphs are arranged into neat rows and columns, with gaps in between them... almost like a readout of information. You're unable to guess what it could mean, and begin to feel confused when your PDA detects something else: enormous surges of energy pouring through the six columns. It detects electric currents up through the ceiling, through the floor, channeled down beneath the steps to the crucible itself - as though there was an enormous amount of power flowing from its mouth - or to. And beneath the entire surface of the floor, equal with the height of the liquid in the crucible, an enormous wall stretches to the very ends of the PDA's range to detect it. Your PDA's computers dutifully match the energy patterns with known entities and calmly chirps that it belongs to a Quantum shield... and then calculates the dimensions from the visible curve.
The results stagger you.
You stand above a spherical shield that, apparently, reaches around the entire moon.
It certainly solves the riddle of how the moon hasn't yet fallen apart, but all that power must come from somewhere.
Kalah Grimm
Grimm wrote:Take stock of her surroundings
Try to figure out where she is and what the situation is
Examine the room for anything useful
If Doc tries to cauterize Kalah's wound
-Don't scream
-Grit teeth and bear it
Help Doc as much as possible with his one armed operation
Pray to the goddess that she doesn't die this mission
If Kalah has time for anything else
-Try to make something of her comatose dream, like who the spirit may be or why she helped, however angry she might have been
If enemies attack
-Grab Gauss Rife
-Fire a maximum of three times at nearest enemy
((Edited thanks to BFett, Hapchazzard and Cha0zz.
))
Feeling somewhat faint, you look around the little room where you are now. Part of it seems like some kind of natural cavern, especially towards the front, but farther into the back of the room the walls, floor and ceiling become more uniform and smooth, culminating in a strange circular depression in the floor - a ring of stone steps leading down into a pit surrounding some strange alien artifact. It's hard to see some of it - not only because your vision is blurred, but also because your helmet has tape over the front of it for some reason.
Dr. Cha0zz is calling to Taepilus and offering you some kind of terse apology as the two kneel down beside you. You realize they're going to cauterize your amputated foot... and whatever else is left of your leg. This is going to hurt like hell.
The next few minutes are by far some of the most excruciating ones you've ever experienced, as Dr. Cha0zz presses a red-hot bar of metal against the stump of your lower leg to seal the wound shut. You hear sizzling flesh for a moment and then your flesh burns almost worse than you could even imagine possible. With what mental faculties you have left, you make the stalwart decision to close your eyes, grit your teeth, and bear the pain without screaming. "Please, goddess," you hiss through clenched teeth, "Don't let me die on this mission."
After some indeterminate length of time, they finally stop. "She's done," Dr. Cha0zz says. Done? Your leg is positively
on fire - your flesh screams for relief - it's all you can do not to spasm with the agony, though it certainly helps that you have hardly any strength. You've lost a lot of blood... You're not even sure you'd be able to stand. Even lifting your head makes you feel uncontrollably woozy.
A few moments more, and the rescue party - what's left of Squad 4 - rushes into the chamber, guns at the ready. Andrew Rice and Squidhead kneel by you - Andrew injecting some painkillers into the suit port on your right breast, and Squidhead hooks you up to some portable machine, pumping blood from a self-refrigerated pack into your veins. You feel your strength coming back, and the pain melting away. "Praise the goddess," you whisper in relief. It isn't lost on you that you only barely escaped death. You owe your platoonmates your life. They rushed to your rescue - squad 4 even at the risk of their own lives - and saved you even as Death waited at your door. You close your eyes, letting Squidhead and Andrew do their work.
Meanwhile, you let your thoughts drift back to your dream. There are parts here and there you can draw back to experiences in your life: the beaches of your homeworld, or the farms outside the cities. You distinctly remember the birds from your home as well, that your sleeping self painted into the skies... but the voice... well, that was different. It felt distinctly "real", and you don't recognize it at all.
She wasn't angry. That much you're soon sure of. She felt... sad. Disappointed. Resentful in a sense, but not at you. But more than anything else, there was an overwhelming feeling of hope, as though this woman had made hope her last bastion of defense... and an unmerited one at that. Was she the Goddess? You don't feel it likely, somehow... if it was really the goddess, she wouldn't have felt so desperate... or like she wanted help. She wouldn't have felt afraid, or sad, or alone... but this entity - this being - this... spirit - this is how she felt to you.
An image of a bluebird flutters through your mind, and you open your eyes.
SQUAD 2: Hema, Unit 4965, Dak Perkins, Triggerhappy, Servius
Hema
Hema wrote:Turn towards the spiders on the ground,
inform the others that I'm firing,
and fire my MicFM at the selected spider with the intent of killing it.
Immediately afterwards, begin flying around to loose the swarms that are currently on me.
If at any time I manage to get away from the swarms,
-use my CASKET to see if the swarms might be communicating on another frequency somehow.
If Unit manages to gets the shields down and the swarms are still moving,
-attempt to draw the swarms away to point 'A' on the map.
You turn toward the spiders on the ground. "I'm firing at the spiders with my MicFM," you radio out. "I just need some time for it to spool up! Cover me!"
"On it!" Dak says. The red point of a laser flashes past some of the bugs ahead of you as he spirals and corkscrews through the tiny tunnel, trying to lose his pursuers. For your part, you focus on the calculations as the spiderlike creature steps forward with jerky, spasmatic motions that seem completely otherworldly. It walks past Triggerhappy's ship, headed for you; a few sparks fly as one of its legs easily skewer Trigger's hull, not by intent, but simply by virtue of the fact that it happened to be there. Clearly, this more weaponized swarm form has a very specific purpose: tearing apart tough targets in a short timeframe.
The bugs clambering onto your ship begin to drill little holes, all across the surface of your craft, looking almost like they're eating or burning away at the metal, which begins to glow a dull red in places. You can almost feel the heat it produces from inside your cockpit.
Your calculations aren't done yet. "Just a few more seconds! Keep them off me!" you shout. The spider stomps closer... closer... one second at a time. Only at this range, less than half a dozen meters, can you appreciate how alien it truly is. It's no creature. It's a machine - a machine with a very, very singular mentality: rip and tear. There is no main body. There are no eyes. It's simply an array of legs connecting at a single point, composed of thousands of little insect-like machine-creatures.
Warning sirens sound in your cockpit. Only seconds have passed since you started the calculations, but it's felt like minutes - and lights flash on the screens about you, warning that your life support is failing. It is indeed starting to feel a little warm.
You get the green light. "CALCULATIONS COMPLETE" flashes onto the primary screen, and you hit the trigger.
The spider practically melts before you, clumps buzzing, crackling with static and bursting as they overheat. The mechanical beast staggers for a moment, and then collapses into chunks and separate parts, the little bugs its composed of moving faintly and erratically. You've killed it. But there's another, headed toward Triggerhappy's cockpit, and the swarms are eating through your hull.
Quickly, you begin a series of fast maneuvers to lose the little hitchhikers on the outside of your CASKET, but it does little good; they're going to get to something important soon, and it'll all be over unless you can escape or shut them off somehow.
Just then, Unit 4965 speaks up with some important news: "We might be able to shut off these rocks if you get someone in here to hack them," he proclaims.
Wat.
Seriously. Wat.
Unit 4965
Idunno wrote:Hook up the CASKET's power source to the control panel.
Try to find the switch that will disable the defenses. Fiddle around with the control panel. Check in with the team after every button push.
Flip the off-switch.
Call Hema, tell him that I've found what looks to be a control panel, and to get into contact with someone capable of hacking into things.
((Any situation that you need to rely on Unit 4965, that doesn't involve construction and medical emergencies, is a situation that you've already lost.))
Getting out of your CASKET, you grab your repair kit and start doing your best to hook the CASKET's power source to the little control panel you've found. It's a tricky job, without a doubt - your power source isn't even designed to connect to anything of Quantum make, and you have to make sure the voltage and current is just right. There's more to it than just that, of course, but... it's not going to be easy.
You make it easy anyway. You're just that good.
There's a lot of little buttons on the panel. It's not the regular Quantum shifty-bitey garbage - it's something cheaper and less Quantum-ey. This is probably just a maintenance panel, potentially designed such to help turn off the shields in case they decide to get too bitey themselves. Not sure what else to do, you press a few buttons and then check up on your team. "So, how are you guys doing?"
"WE'RE DYING!" come various screams. "WE. ARE GOING. TO DIE."
You shrug. Must not have been the right buttons. You press a few more. "Any better now?"
"NO!" they shout back.
Thinking, you pause for a moment. Then you venture, "...any
worse, though?"
"WHAT?!"
Well, that certainly doesn't help things. You press the rest of the buttons sequentially... and then at random. Nobody mentions anything happening... at least, at first. You're shocked and surprised when the debris pile over to your left disappears for a moment... and then wavers back into existence. What? A physical hologram? Really? You'd thought better of these guys. "Hema, I found what looks like some kind of control panel," you say. "We might be able to ..." You pause, trying to figure out how to word it believably. Nothing comes to mind, so you decide to just say it and get it over with. "We might be able to shut off these rocks if you get someone in here to hack them." It sounds just as bizarre as you thought it would.
Hopefully the Quantums don't have your habit of installing redundancies.
Just then, you notice movement over to your left - some kind of shimmering reflection beneath the glare of your headlights. It flickers and spasms erratically, almost as if a mass of tiny metallic objects were headed in your direction...
The bugs must've got past Servius. You're almost out of time.
Dak Perkins
Charley_Deallus wrote:Hema wrote:"Dak, see if you can lose the swarms on you. I know you don't have much room to maneuver, just do what you can. If you get a good shot with your electrolaser, I want you to take it."
"I'm gonna try. These things are persistent."
Attempt to lose the swarms on me by flying(carefully if I can) and maneuvering around any.
Keep away from the walls of death
If I can get a swarm in clear sight:
-FIre one shot with the electrolaser
If swarms try to hit me or more try to land on my ship:
-Attempt to dodge
If Trigger tries blowing up his ship:
-Attempt to get as far away as possible without going towards the walls of death
-Call him a useless P.O.S. and an idiot
-Call his mother a safety switch and his father a defective firing pin(kidding)
You begin trying to lose the swarms by carefully maneuvering in the tight space you have, making tight turns and abrupt stops. The bugs follow, clicking and clattering against your hull every time you slow down, scraping against it when you spin or come to an abrupt halt. This kind of flying is risky - it's the sort of thing you might see in a stunt show, and you don't exactly have much experience with it. You seem to be doing all right, though - especially when you land a lucky shot with your electrolaser and manage to electrocute a swarm that was just about to attack Hema. Sparks jump between the entire mass in an instant, illuminating it with an eerie glow that's gone again in an eye blink. The swarm falls to the ground. Meanwhile, Hema is doing well with his end of the fight, melt-toasting one of the spider-walker-things that was coming towards him... but overall, your defense is starting to fail. Servius has left his post at the rubble pile to try to lose some of the swarms on him, Hema's already overrun, and Triggerhappy is absolutely inundated with the things.
"These things are persistent," you mutter.
You're not going to manage to keep them off for much longer, no matter what you do. Your only hope is 4965, who just then speaks up with an announcement. "I think," he says calmly, "that we might be able to shut off these rocks, if you get someone in here to hack them." He pauses, and it sinks in: If 4965 is your only hope, you're boned, dude. Totally boned.
Triggerhappy
Triggerhappy wrote:"God damnit."
"Unit, how are you over zere? Any progress vith turning off ze svarm? Vi are being eaten alive over here... it's becoming a light bozer. Zat, and my overestimation of ze integrity of zis trash bin is troubling."
Shift my casket slightly for aim and fire a Railgun slug into the shield closing in on us.
Completely shut down my Casket.
Grab my pistol.
Shoot or swat any of the swarm that get inside my cockpit ( no more than 4 shots ) without breaking my canopy further.
Try to figure out a way out of this situation. (( GK roll? Not sure. ))
Wait till the swarm dies or kills us all.
While I wait,
- Read the CASKET manual.
- Look at what is in all the compartments.
- Set the Rubber Duck on my dashboard.
- When I finish the manual,
-- Listen to the other squads comms for any valuable information.
If the swarm dies.
- Get out of my CASKET.
- Assess damage.
- Call Unit over if possible for repairs.
If the swarm is, once again, certain to kill me,
- If all my squad members are out of my blast range and/or dead,
-- Self destruct CASKET.
You try to shift your CASKET slightly to aim at the shield closing in on you, and fire a railgun slug at it. It doesn't do a thing.
"Vell, I tink dis is it," you say. You shut down your CASKET completely, as the swarm continues to munch away at the outside of your ship. Meanwhile, you grab the CASKET manual and start to flip through it. There's not much you can find that's actually interesting. Most of it's just technical explanations and specifications... but there is something in there about a rubber duck. You follow the instructions in the manual to find it. There's a lengthy chain of directions you have to take note of and complete, and while it's confusing at times, every step brings you closer to your goal. Eventually, you reach the last step: opening a little compartment that's been revealed from a drawer under your chair... and the little rubber duck is right there. You pull it out and wedge it into a corner of the control panel to keep it from falling.
The swarms are getting closer. They've given up on eating the cockpit canopy; it seems to be composed of some material they don't particularly like eating. You can hear them behind you, though, in the hollows of the ship. They're coming up from behind your chair... and they'll probably be on you any second.
Your ship is dead. The amount of work it would take to repair it at this point is almost astronomical. You're certainly not going to be able to use it to escape. Your only option, therefore, is to throw open the canopy and hope the swarms don't follow you... or that you can fight them off.
((I did a gen knowledge roll for the duck, you got lucky. rolled a 4; with a +1, that's 5 and certainly enough to find the duck. On the plus side, you found the legendary rubber duck. On the downside, your squad is dying and you're hunting for rubber ducks. I personally think that's a nice tradeoff though.))
Servius
A New Challenger wrote:"Alea iacta eat!"
Continue blocking the swarms from following Unit
IF they start to break through the hull
-Swat them away and take evasive action
-Lure some toward the closing shields, being careful not to get caught
IF Trigger starts to go supernova
-Try and make the same maneuver Unit did and escape
"Alea iacta eat!" you yell, swatting away part of a swarm trying to pass you with a quick burst of your RCS thrusters. The little bugs are landing on your hull more thickly now - you're practically crawling with the things, and they're piling up in places... but you notice a few of them actually managing to make holes - especially off to your left. A few of them crawl into a small puncture they've created; you watch them disappear. This seems to attract the attention of the others nearby, which lift off and land near the same area, starting to follow them in.
You're not going to be able to keep this up much longer.
With a burst of speed and an abrupt spin, you manage to shake most of the bugs off the surface, and then, with a burst of speed, start toward the closing shields. They're closing more rapidly now - you've seen at least two close so far - so you have high hopes of being able to trap some of the swarms on the other side. With a quick burst of speed, you barrel past Dak, trying to lose bugs of his own, and draw some of his with you. Then, with a tight sideways twist, you put on full underside thrusters to slow yourself, just barely grazing where you think the next shield will show. You throw it in reverse, flipping levers, hitting knobs and yank the throttle to max as you rocket back and away, counting on the swarms to swing around behind to try to keep up - and with a loud hum, the next force field flashes into existence, trapping a huge number of bugs behind it. It's not all of them, but it's enough to keep you and your squadmates alive for just a little longer.
Hopefully Unit can figure out the shield controls... assuming that's what they are.
They don't seem to be. "I think," he proclaims, "that we should be able to shut off these rocks, if we could just get someone in here to hack them."
You're not even sure what to make of that statement.
((rolled maneuverability for this move. you got a 5 + 1, which is an epic success))