We're re-doing everything here, so please roll if you're going to use it.
Olivia and Rix - you made Combat Paralysis rolls before, please re-roll them now.
An ape-man tries to notice Aster :
And his eyes scan right over where Aster is.
An ape-man shoots at Boomer :
doing
which bounces off his DR of 27.
An ape-man shoots at Terra's head :
And misses.
I'll wait on Olivia's and Rix's results to see if they are caught out in the open, or do indeed end up behind the wall.
Oliva tries to avoid freezing up as combat starts around her... ... and manages to overcome the panic setting in, at least long enough to dive for cover.
HT roll: Target 10
As the guns go off, Rix freezes in place, staring at the combat, horrified and unable to move.
So an ape-man shoots at Rix :
and misses.
Round 2
The Ape-Men have a Move of 7, so they go first.
An ape-man tries to notice Aster :
And his eyes scan right over where Aster is.
An ape-man shoots at Boomer :
and misses.
An ape-man shoots at Terra's head :
And misses.
An ape-man shoots at Rix :
and does
Which vs. her PD of 13, does 2 points damage.
Boomer and Aster are up, then Rix, Olivia, and Terra (in any order)
Aster smiled as he noticed that the ape-men were kindly standing abreast of each other.
Ape-man #1 takes at least 3 hits (4 if the ape-men are one hex apart). Total 88 (111)
Ape-man #2 takes 3 hits Total 73
Ape-man #4 takes 2 hits Total 39
#1
#1
#1
#2
#2
#2
#3
#3
#1?
Aster - sorry to make you re-roll almost everything, but as I said in Discussion, your Gauss rifle now does 3d6+7(-8) damage, and Boomer's Laser Rifle now does 3d6+6(-5). Please update your character sheet accordingly.
And, I didn't *say* they moved, I just said they *had* a Move of 7. So the penalty's still -4.
Also, I don't understand your notation on your shooting rolls. Does "vs. 18, recoil 2" mean the TN is 16? So the next shot's TN is 15, and the third one's 14? Those don't need re-rolling, just further explanation.
But, there's enough of the ape-men around that there's plenty of them with only 1 yard between them.
#1
#1
#1
#2
#2
#3
#3
#1?
Ape-Man #1 takes 60 (or 80) with a -8
Ape-Man #2 takes 33 with a -8
Ape-Man #3 takes 38 with a -8
The first ape-man :
So all 3 shots hit him (there's a yard between each ape-man), his DR absorbs 2 points from each, for a total of 54 HP. He's dead.
The second ape-man :
So both shots hit him, his DR absorbs 2 points from each, for a total of 29 HP. He's dead.
The third ape-man :
MOS=1
Manages to dodge both bullets.
Boomer, you're up!
Boomer will take a five-foot step forward towards the ape-men and fire into them, not aiming. He will sweep across five targets (assuming there are five abreast), putting (effectively) two hits into each target. I have <i>not</i> included a range penalty below, so please assess that as necessary. I haven't included Acc, as I didn't aim, but I <i>have</i> included a +2 for the Targeting program. The Laser Rifle has Rcl 1, so success by 1 or more means two shots go into the same target.
He misses the second ape man as he sweeps his laser across the, but hits at least some of them.
Your 5-foot step doesn't change the -4 targeting penalty, so you miss Targets #1 and #2. Targets 3, 4, and 5 take both shots.
Target #3 attempts to dodge :
and both bullets hit him, doing 38 HP damage. He's dead.
Target #4 attempts to dodge :
and both bullets hit him, doing 28 HP damage. He's dead.
Target #5 attempts to dodge :
and both bullets hit him, doing 33 HP damage. He's dead.
Rix, Terra, and Olivia are up! Rix, do you need to make another Combat Paralysis roll?
Olivia fumbles at her belt and pulls out her Heavy Plasma Torch. She stays flat behind cover.
Target = 13 (will +1)
The deadly exchange of energy jolts Rix out of her frozen state. She sees how deadly the battle is. She wants to be a hero and rush to the side of a wounded Leeunid, but dives for cover behind the low wall instead.
'Just our luck to stumble into an interstellar conflict. One first contact would have been enough for me,' Rix thinks.
Terra pokes her head just enough above the wall so she can see her previous target :
which does
HP
And her ape-man crumples to the ground.
Round 3
The Ape-Men go first.
An ape-man tries to notice Aster :
And his eyes scan right over where Aster is.
An ape-man shoots at Boomer :
and hits!
Boomer tries to Dodge :
And doesn't! The ape-man's laser does
Which vs. his effective DR of 19, doesn't get thru.
An ape-man shoots at Terra's head :
And misses.
Boomer, you're up! Then Aster, Terra, Olivia, and Rix (in any order).
Boomer will take another agressive-looking step towards the ape-men opening fire with his suit-mounted laser rifle as he does so.
Rix will crawl along the wall, staying out of sight (she hopes) toward ...
Aster starts at the opposite end of the line from Boomer.
Aster swings the gauss rifle and fires six shots at the end ape-man before swinging his fire to the second for five more shots.
First ape-man has one shot incoming.
Second ape-man has three shots incoming.
hex
hex
Rix, you're in-between Terra and Olivia.
Aster, so what are you *actually* doing about aiming? If you're firing this round, you're taking no aiming at all. Does your listed TN of 15 include *any* aiming? If you are taking aim (or even if you're not), please let me know for how long and what your final Rifle TN is.
And regarding Dodging an unseen opponent : "if attacked by an invisible opponent - if the defender is aware he is being attacked, he may Dodge at -4."
Rix moves toward Olivia.
Boomer - I'm assuming you didn't include any Acc bonus to your TN, since you didn't spend a round aiming?
Target #1 tries to Dodge :
And both shots miss him.
Target #2 tries to Dodge :
And both shots hit him. I'm treating each shot separately, so I'm splitting up your 6d6 roll into two 3d6 rolls of 14 and 20, which at -2 for his armor leaves him dead.
Likewise for Target #3 : 13 and 23, which at -2 for his armor leaves him dead.
Target #4 tries to Dodge :
So both shots miss him.
Target #5 tries to Dodge :
So both shots miss him.
Aster's shots :
The second ape-man gets to Dodge :
So one shot misses. I'll take your first roll of 18, which is lowered by 2 for the ape-man's armor, leaving him dead.
The ape-men, seeing how quickly they're falling at the hands (or guns) of the strangers, beat a hasty retreat back into their ships and take off.
As you look thru the carnage of the Leeunids left by the ape-men, you see Lady Roaora kneeling beside a prone figure, crying.
As you approach, you see Lord Raoor on the ground, with a fatal wound to his chest. Upon seeing you, he beckons you all over.
"Friends," he gasps, "thank you for aiding my...people again. I beseech you, in the name of...the Pride Council of Simba, save...my race. Find a cure for the Death Dust and liberate...us from this yoke...of oppression by Queen Anathraxa. You will be...richly rewarded. Try...try...Sandpit." With that, Raoor’s eyes glaze over and his head slumps back.
Lady Roaora explains that Sandpit was subjected to a Death Dust attack several years ago, but there are rumors that the natives have secretly begun rebuilding their planet, even importing seeds and animals. This is odd, because Death Dust should doom a planet to barrenness for several centuries.
Rix gets to the king too late attempt to heal him. With tears in her eyes, she looks around and tries to heal any who need it before talking to the others about the King's request.
I think we need to grab a couple of specialists and get off this planet before we're contaminated with that dust ourselves!
Aster will head for the ape-men and search a couple of the bodies looking for electronics, tech, weapons and armor.
Rix manages to heal several of the wounded, which their friends are very grateful for.
Lady Roaora explains that the Death Dust doesn't affect humanoids, but the vegetation of a planet. With plant supplies gone, the animals and humanoids soon follow. She says that the plant life will all be gone within a few months.
Aster finds large communicators built-in to their helmets, assault laser rifles, and the equivalent of Monocrys bodysuits (all TL 9 stuff).
Aster collects a couple samples of the gear and asks they be transported to the ship. Hopefully they might be able to learn something about how they built the stuff, and a review of the software will likely be useful in the future.
Aster walks over to Lady Roaora, I assume it's a biological agent then? And if we aren't quarentined, then animals and humanoids aren't carriers?
What about hydroponics, greenhouses? You do have space capabilities, what about orbital farms?
Aster thinks about Sandpit, so this Death Dust isn't a new weapon. Who used it on Sandpit? What repercussions occurred?
Lady Roaora says "No, creatures can't carry the dust to affect others. Unfortunately, the dust is microscopic and gets *everywhere*, so hydroponics and greenhouses aren't immune. We don't have orbital stations, just a few spacecraft.
Queen Anathraxa used it on Sandpit. She uses it to keep us all under her thumb of tyranny. She is the self-proclaimed ruler of the nebula, and rules with an iron fist. When we heard that Sandpit was Death-Dusted, we all assumed that was the end of the planet. But we have just recently heard rumors that they are already starting to rebuild, which is remarkable.
Please, your ship is so much faster and more powerful than ours, that you are our only hope of finding a cure for the Dust in time. And, your ship has a much better chance of standing up to Queen Anathraxa's ships in battle. Will you help?"
Aster had left his mic open and was relaying the conversation to the rest of the group and back to the ship.
We're not exactly equipped for that kind of research. You'll need to round up a couple of volunteers. And quickly. Probably a good idea to have a linguist or xeno-anthropologist as well. We're short on information about this Queen, her forces, or the other beings of the nebula.
Aster switches to his radio, How many can we hold on the ship, and how long to refuel and be ready to go?
Rix collects some samples of the dust for analysis. "If you have any medical research data on the dust, please transmit it to our ship so we have as much data as possible. We'll do what we can."
Once back on the ship, Rix pauses only long enough to hug Trixy before settling in to analyze the samples of dust and look over any data sent from the planet.
Preliminary Analysis rolls:
Chemistry (TL 10) 14
Biology(TL 10)(Earthlike) 13
She will also insist on very frequent physical exams for each crew member to monitor for any illness or other medical problems causes either by the dust or any other pathogens from the planet.
Lady Roaora says "I will go with you. Altho you already know the nebula's common language, communication by box is...awkward. I have no idea what a...xeno-whatever is, but I do know all the races in the nebula, and can tell you what I know about Queen Anathraxa and her forces."
April says over comms "We can take one more passenger. There's no need to refuel, and I can make an emergency take-off in as little as a minute, if needed. Doing a full pre-flight systems check will take 15 minutes."
Rix, despite your successes, you've never seen anything like this dust - its DNA doesn't even have the same bases as humans!
Olivia will do what she can to help Dr. Rix figure out the Dust, to see if the two of them together might be able to determine how it works, and a possible countermeasure.
"This is fascinating!" she says. "It's recognizably DNA, but look! The bases aren't the usual ACGT bases! Wow... this is going to take us some time to understand."
During the trip, she'll also take a look around the ship to see if there is evidence of Dust inside the ship. Almost certainly they tracked some in with them; she'll also be looking to see if there is evidence that it arrived in any other way.
She'll use her Personal Chemsniffer and Pocket Analyzer to search the stuff out and see if it's the same as the other Dust they brought back. Anything she finds of interest she'll bring back to the lab for Dr. Rix to check out.
Olivia, you do find minute traces of dust in the ship, which appears to be the same as your samples, and appears to not be harming anybody.
Roaora gives you co-ordinates for a short warp flight that will bring you next to Sandpit.
Aster sits down in the co=pilot chair, then realizes he hasn't seen the pilot for a while and shifts to the pilot's chair.
He's still shaken at the cavalier usage of such a weapon, as he goes through the startup checklist.
We're up in five minute! Lock everything down!
If needed, Rix can help plot the course.
Navigation 14:
So the ship gets off the ground, past the atmosphere, where it can go into warp.
With stars so close to each other in the nebula, it only takes a couple of days to get to Sandpit, but it requires someone to pilot round-the-clock in order to dodge stars that might get in the way.
Once you come out of warp, into orbit around Sandpit, Lady Roaora says "Take the ship down and cruise over the valleys. The Tropicos' settlements are well-hidden there."
As you cruise over the planet, you finally see something metallic shining in the sunlight.
Lady Roaora says "There! That looks like a pirate ship! And there! You can just see a group of huts under the trees. Let's check it out!"
What do you do?
Rix suits up with all her medical gear and weapons as the ship scans for settlements.
When Roaora points out the ship, she says, "Let's see if we can scan them for indications of life and to see what kind of weapons they have. Then maybe we should hail them."
April says "Scanners indicate multiple life-signs, about 20 of the same kind, and 7 of various races. The 20 life-forms are un-armed, and the 7 have laser rifles."
Lady Roaora says "It would be pointless to hail pirates, but they have probably already seen the ship since we are flying so low. I would suggest that we land some distance from the camp, and approach fully armed for combat."
"Sounds like a plan I can get behind, that is, as long as I can stay behind you folks with the big guns. Assuming we can make peaceful contact, or perhaps if we capture some, remember that I can do limited telepathy. I'll try to see what information I can pick up. If I can study someone for about ten minutes, I can sometimes read their aura and determine how healthy they are."
Boomer says, "I concur. Those of us most heavily armed should go forward first. We will call for them to speak peacefully with us, but we will return fire upon any who show aggression. We should avoid shooting anybody who doesn't actively aggress us, as they may themselves be prisoners of the pirates."
Boomer will suit up, spending the time necessary to get into his battlesuit and do the full checkout. He'll also make sure all of his batteries are fully charged. (He would normally do that anyway during the ship trip.)
Olivia grimaces. "Oh, no, not another firefight! How about I stay back here and try to use the ship's sensors to keep a lookout for you. I'll also keep the ship ready in case you all need to beat a hasty retreat."
Aster pulls on his biosuit, we should get the ship fabricators working on more combat armor. Seems like more of our meetings are requiring hard armor than not.
He also cross-checks Boomer.
Once ready, he activated his stealth system and stood in the corner of the airlock, I'll cover from the front landing strut, try not to get in my line of fire.
Rix will check the ship's readings on the temperature and other environmental factors (wind, likelihood of rain, atmospheric composition).
So, the ship lands several hundred feet away from the camp. You walk out into a completely barren forest valley, slightly cloudy and mild temperature.
With Boomer and Aster in the lead, Lady Roaora and Terra immediately behind, and Rix bringing up the rear, you approach the camp.
As soon as you get within sight of the camp, you hear "Oy! You lot there! Leave now or we'll shred you!"
What do you do?
"Parlay?" Rix calls out tentatively.
"'Parlay'??? What the frag is that? This is your last warning!"