As the ship rocks and rolls with Iseph expertly barrelling through space and wheeling back to get Obo into a firing position, she pulls the trigger on the particle beam once more.
Iseph executes evasive maneuvers, Keskodai boosts gunners and engineering, and the two science officers work on repairing the Glory's battered shields.
Then the tractor beam erupts from the surface!
♫ Hey it's time for some tractor haulage
We love to brag, we'll grind you like sausage
We got a lot of ships and it's time to acknowledge
Your dreams deferred, our hatred heard
With every word, we demolish! ♫
But their hip hop parodies don't help them this time... The tractor misses!
★ ---- ★ ---- ★ ---- ★
The Goblin ships and the Glory fire at one another!
Cackling madly, the green goblin pilot tries to get one last shot in!
The purple goblin attempts to attack!
Then the yellow goblin attacks!
All of them miss!
★ ---- ★ ---- ★ ---- ★
Meanwhile, Obozaya misses, but Altronus hits the green goblin with the computer bonus!
He does another six points of damage, straight through the weak point in its shield, hitting the hull! It also appears that I owe you glitch damage!
The green goblin's turret is now glitching!
★ ---- ★ ---- ★ ---- ★
Okay gang. You all know the drill this time. Captain Keskodai, assign bonuses and decide who to assist. Engineers & Science Officers, tell me what you are doing.
Pilot Iseph, it's time for the roll off! If you can't beat this, you move first!
Okay, okay... The goblin ships moved first as there is no way you won't beat that roll! Are you using the Evade stunt this round again?
Gunners Altronus & Obozaya -- Feel free to give us your roleplay outside of the spoilers, but please keep your gunnery rolls spoilered. We'll resolve your rolls in the gunnery phase after all bonuses are applied.
Quig leaps from the Science Officer terminal to the Engineering one, sliding across the floor... but coming short.
Scout swoops down and pushes the Ysoki the last few feet!
Quig looks at the figures: Shields - 14/11/11/10
He types away, trying to Divert power and empower the shields.
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Flustered by the unfamiliar panel and the heat of combat, Raia presses all the wrong buttons and instead of fixing the shields, sugar-pop blasts from the ship's speakers. She blushes as a song from her personal playlist mingles discordantly with goblin rap "Oh, Sorry!" She continues tapping desperately Where are those shields? Fortunately, Quig sorts out the rebalancing in no time, and Raia turns to him and nods her thanks as the plucky Ysoki leaps off dramatically towards the engineering station. Taking a deep breath to recompose herself, she shouts out "Okay! I'm locating their weapons... Obo, Altronus I'll send coordinates as soon as I have them."
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Iseph feels pleased with himself that his evasive maneuvers have proven fruitful he attempts a different variation of evasive maneuvers.
"Hold on tight boys, girls and undeclared. You might feel a few Gs with this one."
Iseph's new choice of tactics don't pan out as well as last time as he zigs when he should have zagged ending up right behind the green Junkers aft section again.
-Posted with Wayfinder
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"Processing still assigned to engineering and gunnery stations. If we can keep dodging that tractor beam these junk ships won't last long. Good shot Altronus, another like that are that ship will be stop being a ship and just be junk."
Keskodai checks the readouts from the other stations then almost falls off the captains chair as the Glory lurches slightly and the whole ship shudders a little bit.
"Was that part of the plan, Iseph? Well you're the ace pilot so who am i to question your tactics! Quig! Can you install a safety belt in the captains chair when we have a moment? says Keskodai with a mandible clacking laugh.
"Thank you cap'n, couldn't have done without you", chirps Scout.
Quig looks up at the drone: "HUSH!".
With the boost in computering Quig manages to diver power from the core, shutting down the hot water in the showers for a while.
The shields power up.
Obozaya growls in frustration as a last-moment roll of the ship causes her attack to scorch wide of the goblin junker. At least she tells herself it was Iseph's piloting and not her over-eagerness to blow these gremlins to dust.
As the pilot shouts he is about to enter into another stunt, Obozaya braces herself and waits this time to line up the shot as the ship rights itself from the roll.
Keskodai and his crew do his best, rebalancing shields. Iseph manages to find an advantageous position, but fails the Evade manuever by the slightest of margins.
♪ We the Goblins of the Tractor Beam
Grab our enemies so we can Ream
Here them cry, hear them Scream
Now, TOGETHER, team! ♪
They succeed! They lower the AC and TL of your ship by -2 until the start of the next helm phase, when Iseph will have the opportunity to escape!
★ ---- ★ ---- ★ ---- ★
With the Glory's reduced AC, two of the Goblins hit!
Then Altonus hits the Green Goblin.
Green loses another weapon. Because of Raia's targeting, it's the Aft weapon on the quadrant where you've always been firing!
Alas, Obozaya misses!
★ ---- ★ ---- ★ ---- ★
Okay team, you should all know what you are doing now! Keskodai, assign your bonuses!
Iseph, can you escape that tractor beam? Also, can you beat this initiative roll and evade?
If you can't beat this roll, move first.
As always, gunners can roll their attack and damage under spoilers!
Raia grabs hold of her panel to steady herself as the Glory takes several nasty hits and the tractor beam takes hold "Shields are holding, but they're getting dangerously low!" She takes a second to concentrate on the buttons in front of her Okay, what did Quig do last time? With slow deliberate motions, she starts working "I'm attempting to rebalance them now." Half way through, she swivels her chair so that she can face Quig "My experiments! Quig, you can shut down my experiments if that'll help with our power." She slowly returns to her task, quietly cursing the goblins for ruining all her hard work I guess I'll just have to figure out what's in bubble tea some other time.
Quig checks the shield status that was 18/13/13/10 and sees they are down to 6/13/13/10, he yelps: "Oh, my!".
But then they suddenly re-balance to 12/10/10/10!
"Cheers for Science Officer Danviri!" chirps Scout.
Quig looks up at the drone: "Yes, cheers for Raia!".
He then kicks the Engineering console to make it Divert power and empower the shields once more.
The shields get a surge--
--and the computer panel now reads: 16/12/12/10.
Quig jumps up and down... bumping his head on the bottom of Scout.
Excellent point! Let's see if you shot Green out of the sky!
A brief time wave ripples across the star field, and the Green ship in the last battle explodes!*
There are only two ships left!
____
*Okay, not really. Technically, it is completely disabled and still able to be boarded and looted. But it sounds cooler if it explodes!
★ ---- ★ ---- ★ ---- ★
Both Quig and Raia work together to frantically to repair the shields and do an excellent job!
Captain Keskodai, where are you applying your bonuses?
Iseph... Can you beat the goblin's initiative? More importantly, can you extract the Glory from the Tractor Beam?
Altronus, I will apply your shots to another ship! Obozaya, you may still do your gunnery rolls under spoilers!
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Seeing another blast form the particle beam streak wide of it's mark, a low growl begins to rumble at the base of Obozaya's throat like the sound of distant thunder.
Her grip on the gunnery joystick tightens to the point the plastic in her fist begins to tighten.
Altonus speaks up:
"Obasaya..."he remarks." What is your strategy in this battle?
The Vesk roars then, spewing out a stream of obscenities foul enough to shock even the goblins who are still patched in on the comm.
Her intense gaze on the targeting reticle is broken momentarily as her eyes settle on a cute little metal and wire doll that sits within arms reach on one of the scanning consoles beside her. Quig had been fiddling away at it idly as they passed through the Drift, having scavenged some scraps from somewhere, probably within his cheeks for all she knew. There was remarkable detail on the tiny limbs, the little sack on it's back and even the miniscule flying robot beside it. Quig's little self-sculpture was, she had to reluctantly admit, very fine craftsmanship.
She brings her fist down like a hammer and smashes it to smithereens.
Iseph, hold her steady! she shouts over her shoulder. Quig's... thingy... just took a tumble.
That cheers her up. Only slightly. And she pulls the trigger again.
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"Obozaya!! it not me its the frakking goblin's stupid tractor beam!!!" Attempting to break the snare of the Tractor beam Iseph pulls hard on the flight stick to the right.
"Hold on to you Butts folks this may get weird!"
"I think that did it. Lets see if I can Out Maneuver those cheeky little Bastards."
"Ha They wont know what's Coming"
"Now lets see if I can shake them off us."
"Quig sorry about your mini monument to your amazing skills."
Click. Whirr.
"I am applying the computer bonus to Altronus's Gunnery and Iseph's Evasive Manouvers!"
The goblins move! Iseph, you can move too now!
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Iseph Kicks up the Throttle Puling a quick Swig and Sway turning the ship about ending up pointing straight at the starboard side of the Junker painted in Yellow.
"Lets use there limited Range of weapons against them!" Iseph exclaims.
"The way I see it on my HUD shows that the Yellow one can only fire its turret at us and the Purple cant even touch us with any of it weapons. HAHAHA" Ending his statement with what appears to be a attempt at sounding like a human laugh but coming out all robotic like.
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With a note of cockiness, Iseph positions the Glory out of the way of the Goblin Ships.
★ ---- ★ ---- ★ ---- ★
Meanwhile, hope springs eternal for the goblin crew on the moon...
♫ We be goblins
We be rude
We have tractor
You be glued! ♫
But they missed so badly... They ensnared one of their OWN ships!
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Quig yelps and tears appear in his eyes, upon hearing that the Goblins destroyed his sculpture of Quig the Benevolent World-Crusher.
Scout starts circling Quig's head, reciting, in a mechanical yet soothing voice:
"There is no emotion, there is peace. There is no passion, there is serenity"...
Quig pulls his semi-auto pistol out: "Iconoclasts, they shall pay! Open the gun-holes!".
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Raia cheers as one of the dots on her screen blinks out "Ha! Who's squashing snot now!?"
Hearing Quig's distress, she swivels her chair around and tries to calm him down "Oh, sweetie, I'm sorry about your sculpture, but I don't think we have any gun-holes..." However, on seeing what she thinks is a twinkle in Quigs's eye, Raia goes wide-eyed herself and jumps up "Oh, gods! I know that look. Please don't make any holes of your own!"
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"It will be OK Quig, there will be plenty of scrap for you to create more "art" from down on the moon. If you want to shoot the enemy you could ask to take a turn with the big guns. Just please do not open the airlock and fire at the enemy... again. We had to replace almost half of our food stores last time, and it was weeks before that airlock stopped greeting everyone in Akitonian"
The Yellow Goblin misses!
Purple can't shoot at all, because it is not facing correctly and out of range!
Meanwhile, Altronus hits Yellow for 10, and Obozaya hits for 8, piercing right through Yellow's aft shield and into its hull.
The Yellow Goblin is glitching!
Alright everyone in the crew... Do your jobs!
If you cannot beat that, Iseph, it's your turn to move!
"Hmm, a go on the big guns does sound like fun... Quig, if you want to try, I'll make sure you're shots count." She winks at Quig before jumping back into her chair and swivelling into position "Targeting engines now! Let's see if we can slow them down a little, make it less likely for art to fly."
So excited he forgets about the sculpture and drops his pistol - that Scout catches before it hits the ground and goes off! - Quig dashes over to the guns: "I can shoot I can shoot I can shoot!".
Scout lets out a sad beep...
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Iseph puts his piloting skills to great use putting the engines on full. Performing a few amazing Evasive Maneuvers while waiting for the enemy ships to make their first move. "No Bumpy Rides this time folks." Ispeh Smiles devilishly.
Keskodai leaves the cumputing power aiding the gunnery stations and maneuvering thrusters.
"Go on Quig! Shoot those goblins out of void!" encourages the Shirren over the comms.
A stream of curses in goblin ring out over the intercom from the yellow ship.
"Stupid tractor beam
Stupid crew
What's a gobby pilot like me to do?
You're just a bunch of stupid heads
I'm gonna bite you super dead
I'm stuck
I'm stuck
Oh, ____!!!"
There is a bunch of bleeps as your ship's AI censors part of the goblin's invective out. It tries to free itself, but to no avail.
The purple goblin moves closer to you, while yellow cannot move!
Ace Pilot Iseph, time to post your course!
Yellow -- Ensnared in the Beam, -13 HP and a big hole in its AFT shield, Glitching Weapons, Glitching Engines
Purple -- Perfect
Iseph once again plots a clever course!
The frustrated tractor beam crew tries to shake the Yellow Goblin loose! The Yellow goblin pilot screams, "Aiiiiiiiiieeee!" as he is rattled everywhere but loose!
The Yellow Goblin is obliterated! Purple takes damage too!
Once the Yellow Goblin is down, it does not take Purple long to fall!
In the next rounds, it misses miserably, then has its gun explode! The crew of the Glory finishes it off handily!
Ha! Caught in it's own tractor beam! Obozaya laughs. Stupid goblins.... it's a wonder they can survive out in space at all.
She lines up a shot on the remaining ship and tries to take it out.
Obozaya shoots the Purple ship out of the sky!
★ ---- ★ ---- ★ ---- ★
Now that the Glory has defeated the space goblins, Iseph easily flies circles around the tractor beam. Meanwhile, both Raia and Keskodai detect a strong signal coming from the false moon's surface. There are several suitable locations near the source of the signal to land on Salvation's End.
An amalgam of crudely tethered starships rises from the pocked outer crust of Salvation's End, like a broken finger pathetically reaching towards the stars. The entrance into this carapace of hulls—the exposed hanger bay of a doomed space transport—rests atop a quarter-mile of crushed starship hulls.
How do you proceed, team?
Satisfied with her work, and with the destruction of the annoying Quig monument, Obozaya stands and stretches her back.
Good to shake the rust off. Think the Glory did very well for her maiden battle, great job crew! she says with enthusiasm.
Now let's see what we came here to see....
She looks over Raia's shoulder as the Technomancer expertly scans the surface and pretty quickly brings up a 3D holographic projection of the tethered starships.
There.[/b Obozaya points. [b]That looks like our way in. Shall we suit up? she asks eagerly.
"Go Iseph, fly us in, you can do it, man!.... err, robot, err.. Cyborg-thing!".
"Good work everyone. Can we get the sensors scanning that... starship tower? Maybe we can find out something about the place before Iseph takes us in."
Keskodai stands from the captains chair and heads over to the gunnery station that Obo is at. "I'll make sure to check over my equipment before we land. Have you been in a situation like this before Obo? Any combat advice you have would be greatly received."
The scanners confirm some of what you already know: the presence of small life forms moving below the surface, and many different technological signatures. The atmosphere within the complex is breathable, and there is clearly some sort of artificial gravity system, because gravity detects as standard over most, but not all, of the complex. However, with there being so many different ships and structures piled here, it's difficult to get more information.
As you proceed to the hangar bay, it is shrouded in darkness. Those of you that can see in the dark note a shattered spacecraft that covers the entry area and back end of this immense hangar. A set of stairs in the southeastern corner of the hangar ascends to the catwalk. This area has low gravity and a thin atmosphere -- the latter due to the smashed opening in the hangar door.
The remains of the ship spread across the exposed northern bulkhead. Several sparks flash amid exposed wiring. The telltale shrieks of goblin songs ring out from the hangar's rear, accompanied by the recognizable bangs and whirrs of a salvaging crew. A ship hull plate sits discarded near the entrance. Just below a number designation, in bold red letters, reads the ship's call sign: Archer.
★ ---- ★ ---- ★ ---- ★
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Grumbling about why Iseph did not even try to fly into this entrance: "Doesn't fit, doesn't fit, what kind of excuse is that?", Quig sends scout off to the right of the main area, to scan and see if it picks anything up, while he himself, moves to the door of the room to his left, to peer inside and see what's in there.
Quig uses his own Darkvision to check out what he sees, as well as what he sees through Scout's cameras...
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Listening to Quig's descriptions of himself, Iseph shakes his head as he sets a course for the Spire. "I am an Android." Stating mater of fact like with no air of offense.
----on the surface----
"How about i go sneak ahead and perform a little recon for us? Better to know what we're up against then to walk in blind. What do you say Captain Kesk?"
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In the darkness, all that Raia knows is that the goblins are still singing However despicable goblins are, the one thing you can say about them is that they always seem happy... I bet if they focused on their singing rather than kidnap and murder, they would take the pact worlds by storm! She thinks to her crewmates as she draws her sonic pistol. Unwilling to give their position away just yet, and being one of the only people incapable of seeing in even dim light, she holds off casting dancing lights for now. Instead, she places a hand on Altronus' shoulder If the cosmos doesn't mind sharing, I'm with you too.
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Keskodai draws his sonic pistol as the crew leave Glory and move in to the ship-amalgam-tower-thing.
"That does sound like a good plan, Iseph. Just don't go too far ahead. We don't want you getting cornered with us too far away to help."
Keskodai moves nearer to quig to see what the Ysoki has found.
"Spotted any useful salvage around here yet, Quig?"
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Obozaya smiles to herself as she sits on the deck of the Glory, slipping hollow point rounds into a magazine for her autorifle. It is more than routine, it's almost reverential.
She does the same with her ember flame doshko, ensuring she has fresh batteries in place and spares as well.
Next comes the thick canister of liquid jet fuel that screws into the base of her personal flamethrower and then several shock grenades find their home in loops at her belt.
Into a series of pouches she also tucks away a medkit and some light healing serum.
Cocked, locked and ready, she steps down the ramp into the complex with a fangy grin on her scaled face and dripping in weapons of war. Her expression of excited delight soon melts away though as the others insist on scouting ahead rather than an all out assault.
Grumbling to herself, she idly kicks bits of scrap around the hangar as the others skulk about.
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Iseph will move ahead as there are no objections to his scouting ahead. Activating his armor's darkvision capabilities as he sinks into the shadows.
-Posted with Wayfinder
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"Hey Raia, you able to keep your 'telepathic' link open with me? That way I can relay back what I see while I scout it out."
-Posted with Wayfinder
I wish I could, but it only works if you're close by. Just stay out of trouble, you hear? If I have to pull you out of trouble, I'll have to tell everyone how you were bested by tiny singing goblins... Raia teases Iseph, but her tone of thought shows that she is clearly worried that her friend plans to go off alone Just think what that would do for your tough-guy image!
Obozaya suddenly looks concerned and hisses to the others;
Hey guys, was that Iseph calling for help!?..... No? <grumblegrumble>
She loudly pulls the operating rod on the side of her autorifle as if in protest, producing a satisfying mechanical clu-chank!
Iseph is one with the shadows, and very quiet as he moves up behind a piece of ripped up shielding. The gobs song is audible now, and Iseph can finally see some of them, down salvaging the ship and also wandering on the catwalks.
Although the gobs have not noticed Iseph, some of the party just might have been a bit noisier as they came in. Iseph notices one gob with big ears point to the hangar entrance where you came in! "We gots company!"
The gobs suddenly start singing more loudly.
♫ We're Gobs of the Shantyspire
We sets all our foes on fire
We blasts their heads, makes them deads
Dancing round the fun'ral pyre
Our tractors lead them to their doom
We makes their ships go BOOM
Prying ships apart, blasting is our art
But first a fight! Now! Soon! ♫
Then they grin toothily. "Fight, bite, shoot 'em up tonight!"
★ ---- ★ ---- ★ ---- ★
Round 1
Active conditions: Darkness
Obozaya
Raia
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Goblin Bullies [square tokens]
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Quig & Scout
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Goblins
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Keskodai
Iseph (stealth mode)
Altronus