Rix sighs, then says, "It means 'Let's talk before we try to kill each other.' We are seeking information, nothing more."
Default Diplomacy: IQ - 6: 6
Boomer remains silent, but has his AI Crate use the PESA sensor built into his helmet to scan the area, looking for any structures, potentially hidden weaponry or gun emplacements, as well as the distribution of people.
Crate runs the appropriate skill software:
Derek, you see a couple dozen humanoid signatures huddled together in one of the huts. Scattered around the huts, you see 7 more, which are carrying rifles of some kind. Nothing hidden.
The voice says "Ok, I said that was your last warning - let 'em have it, boys!".
Laser blasts fly out of the village, but they're too far away to aim with any accuracy, and they all miss you (altho some are pretty close, like within a couple of yards).
What do you do?
Rix throws herself to the ground and crawls toward anything that provides some cover from the weapons fire.
"Crate, provide me with targets," Boomer says to the combat AI in his helmet. "Prioritize anybody threatening our allies or the humanoids huddling in the huts."
Boomer will pick the first target that Crate provides, and Aim at the target.
Aster crouches, but otherwise is slow in moving to cover, not wanting to disrupt the camo pattern on his own armor as he starts designating targets himself. I've got the left side!
Once behind cover, he aims at the loudmouth.
For those seeking cover, there's *no* live vegetation anywhere in sight. Just dead trees, dead shrubs, etc.
So there's no large rocks nearby, either.
Please note, in my head, since you weren't/couldn't sneak up on them, you were all pretty far away from the camp when the shouting started. That's why I didn't roll for their shots, the range penalty was so high.
I'd say y'all are about 30 yards away, which is a -7 to ranged attacks (FWIW, I think the ranged penalties are absurd in GURPS). If you want to lower that, you're going to have to move closer.
Each round that you move in, I'll give you a 50% chance (TN=10) that there's a dead tree trunk you can end up behind after your move.
Aster darts to the nearest stump or other cover and drops prone, he then braces his rifle against the cover.
He'll aim at the one that yelled to open fire.
Aster is using his dinosaur laser, seeing they landed a ways away, he went for range (Dam:8d (2) burn Acc:12 Range:1300 / 3900 RoF:1 Shots:35(5) St:10 Bulk:-5 Rcl:1).I need a damage conversion for this Computer and HUD provide a +2 aim, aiming for up to 8 seconds gives up to +8 scope bonus and +2 aim bonus.
Aster is wearing his spacebiosuit with the multispectral chameleon surface activated (gives +8 to stealth for ordinary/infrared vision, +4 vs hyperspectral and ultraviolet, +2 vs high and low band hyperspectral, half if moving), radar stealth ( -6 to detection from radar, imaging radar or terahertz radar), and scent masking (+4 vs tracking to cover my trail).
With no cover nearby, Rix just flattens herself on the ground and covers her head.
Back at the ship, Olivia hears the gunfire over comms and says into the radio, "Is everybody OK?!?"
Taking fire. See if you can disable their ships!
"Um...." she says. Olivia's a decent computer programmer, but she doesn't know any hacking.
She will be begin scanning for the enemy ships to see if there's any hope of targeting them with our ship's weapons.
You saw their ship on your fly-by, it's on the other side of the settlement from where you are.
Camp = settlement = place with huts - it's the "new math". :)
There are about 20 huts, each about 15 feet apart. Their ship is a couple hundred feet on the other side of the huts. The huts are blocking line-of-sight.
Terra finds some low cover and ducks behind it, saying "I'm useless this far away from them! I have to be within 10 yards! Any ideas?"
Ok, let's get this combat on the road...
The moves y'all made after the laser fire were "round 1".
Olivia manages to lock the targeting computer on the pirate's ship.
Round 2 initiative : Boomer, Aster, Pirates, Rix, Terra, Roaora.
Boomer and Aster are Aiming this round, as are the Pirates and Roaora.
Unless Rix wants to do something, or y'all want to talk amongst yourselves (briefly, like a short sentence), we'll move on to Round 3.
Aster grunts into his mic, get something between you and the camp, rock, tree stump, hole in the ground...
Rix too needs to be closer to have a possibility of being useful in combat, but she'll have to be really close, so she will only move if/when others have moved ahead of her and are providing cover fire. She's mostly praying at the moment.
Terra moves 5 yards to the nearest cover that's closer to the pirates and hunkers down.
Round 3!
Initiative order : Boomer, Aster, Pirates, Rix, Terra, Roaora.
Boomer sends a second round aiming.
In round 3, he takes a step forward and fires, full auto (10 shots), at one of the pirates threatening the civilians.
Rcl is 1, so that's an extra shot that hits for each point by which he beats the effective skill level.
Armor subtractor is -5. cDam is 3d6+6. Just in case all 10 shots hit, here's 10 damage rolls:
Hmm... just realizing I should have taken a deceptive shot to reduce the defense! Hopefully this will actually it.
If it does hit, Boomer will call out in a loud voice (amplified by his suit if you think it reasonable that equipment would be there), "Put down your weapons and surrender now!" Hopefully CRATE will be able to translate it into the local language....
The Pirate dodges :
So *one* of the ten bullets doesn't hit. It's safe to say that he's been splattered.
Boomer, no one's taken the time to add the translation program to CRATE, but Terra and/or Roaora will shout out the translation.
There's no immediate response.
Aster, you're up!
The Pirate is dead dead.
The Pirates shoot back, but again the distance is so large that none of their shots hit.
Rix, you doing anything this round?
Rix will crawl forward if there is cover. Otherwise, she just waits for the shooting to stop.
Terra runs forward another 5 yards and hunkers down in front of a large rock.
Lady Roaroa fires her laser rifle :
And hit! Doing
And another Pirate bites the dust.
You hear shouting coming from the compound : "We surrender! We're throwing out our weapons!" And 4 laser rifles are tossed out.
What do you do?
Cover me. I'll go take a look.
Since Aster has a stealth field up, he starts moving to the side, to stay out of the line of fire of his companions and walks up to the nearest building. He moves slow enough to not kick up dust or otherwise reveal himself.
Rix stands up and shouts, "Like I said: Parlay!" She does not move forward, however, until someone with a BFG goes first.
Aster, you get close enough to see the 4 remaining pirates standing in various places outside the huts, all standing very still, with their arms in the air.
Aster continues to move slowly for his stealth systems. He'll try getting a look into one of the buildings with the heat signatures.
Aster com's back to his companions I see four pirates. Someone tell them to come out and lay down. I'm checking one of the buildings.
Boomer also moves forward, but he does so in the open without stealth. (Position updated on map.)
He calls to the pirates. "Come out of the buildings you are in and lay down, your hands on your heads. We will not hurt you, but we have to be sure that your surrender is genuine!"
Aster - you see about 2 dozen very thin humanoids, all with very long hair. They are just standing in the hut, huddled together.
The pirates come out of the village slowly, until they can see you, at which point they lay down and put their hands on their heads.
Rix walks forward once it seems they aren't trying anything tricky. She helps move the weapons out of reach before saying, "We really do just want to talk. It is our understanding that this planet was contaminated with something that should prevent all life, and yet here you are. I'm a doctor, by the way, so if you are ailing, I can try to help."
"We're *pirates*, lady - we don't live here, we were going to sell these Tropicos to Anathraxa, just *because* they survived when they shouldn't have. So, what're ya going to do with *us*?"
"We'll take them off your hands and study them. Lady Roara will decide what happens to you." Rix looks at the woman with the leonine features, and then starts toward the people in the huts.
Boomer stands by quietly, looking intimidating in powered battle armor and with a rifle, letting Dr. Rix take the lead... but ready to play enforcer should the need arise.
Rix, as you enter the hut, one of the humanoids comes up to you and says "Are you the one who saved us? Have the pirates really surrendered?" You notice her hair moves with a life of its own.
ASter comms the others, Since you have this handled, I'm heading for their ship. Just to make sure we don't get any other surprises.
After a quick look in the other buildings to make sure there aren't other pirates hiding around, Aster heads for the pirate's ship.
Olivia sends a message back to Aster. "Hold up. I'll come out and join you."
"Yes," Rix says to the first humanoid who spoke. "You're safe for now. I'm a doctor. Does anyone need emergency medical aid?"
Olivia joins Aster, and they walk over to the pirate's ship. Apparently in their arrogance they left it open and undefended - you find no one else inside.
The humanoid (...ok, Roaroa informed you they're called Tropicos) says "Thankfully, no, none of us are injured. The pirates were just about to 'interrogate' one of us when you arrived."
"What are you doing here? How long have you been here? We too have a lot of questions for you, although we would not call it interrogation, just curiosity as to how anything is surviving on this planet after the Death Dust was introduced. We hope that what we learn here might allow us to save other planets before the dust can devastate the ecology."
Hoping we get a few circumstance bonuses to this for saving them:
Default Diplomacy: IQ - 6: 6
"We are one of the last groups of our race, most of which died off after Anathraxa poisoned out planet with Death Dust, merely because we can mentally communicate with animals - what sort of evil creature does that! We survive by the generosity of other planets, which occasionally send us the food we need to live. These pirates must have spotted such a space ship either coming to or leaving our planet, and when they investigated, they found our settlement."
Aster heads for the bridge of the ship and starts checking their controls. It's their first time getting a close look at the alien technology. Woot, they left the ship unlocked and unattended!
Aster looks for a universal standard port that he can plug into and let his AI have a look at the ship's computer system.
Sorry, but space opera only goes so far - their ports are completely different than yours. You can spend some time (10 minutes?) and make an Electronics roll to interface your computer to theirs...