"What are they doing?"
"Get ready with that jammer," Cross said as he looked over the lock. He smacked the butt of his knife down on the housing a few times, then jammed the blade into the housing and pried it away. Stripping some wires with practiced speed, he twisted them together in an ugly little knot and hoped this old bypass trick still worked.
Cross' quick work is enough to get through the fairly rudimentary lock on the door. With a hiss, it slides open, revealing a (relatively) large, empty room. A bed, desk, private bathroom, and closet mark this as the probable captain's quarters. One door on the left side of the room provides an exit.
Outside of the ship, those watching can see the truck's engines cut off. As it goes through the forced maintenance protocol, it's stuck at a static speed.
The pirate's commlink buzzes. 'Hello? Steve? What's going on down there?"
Maldor does a thorough search of the quarters, looking for anything useful, like access codes, weapons, a diary or log entries...
Cross moves ahead without hesitation, trying to exploit every minute he could. He was tempted to start cutting throats but the last thing he wanted to cultivate in his associates was a healthy sense of distrust in him. That way when it was really important he could act freely.
Emily followed the others up to the room, trying to move as quiet as she could while keeping herself tensed and ready for a battle. Staying alongside Mal she looked around the room quickly, checking for cameras that might be placed there.
It takes about a minute for MLE and Maldor to thoroughly search the captain's quarters. They find a small (locked) footlocker underneath the bed, the dresser full of a bunch of different outfits (which make it clear that the captain of this ship is a lashunta, based on the cut, company, and hat-holes), a locked tablet, a locked computer, pee still in the unflushed toilet, and a pulsecaster pistol underneath the pillow.
During this time, the ship's engines start to audibly warm up again.
Cross moves forward, opening the door. It leads into a hallway filled entirely with locked doors. The ship's cockpit is to the left (behind a door) and stairs down to the loading area is to the right. To the sides of the door to the cockpit are a cramped galley and a small dining room.
Cross sees the panel leading to the cockpit flash green, indicating that it is about to open. He has a split-second to react...
Cross slips down into the stairwell and holds still.
Amaryst glances back down at the controls. Her friends might be hurt or dying on the pirate ship. She considers lifting off in pursuit of the pirates, and drops her hand to the throttle.
If we don't here from them soon...
Maldor is about to pull the footlocker out from under the bed when he sees Cross drop back and freeze. Knowing he would only do that if danger was near, Maldor freezes and looks out of the door into the hallway...slowly pulling his own pulsecaster pistol free from its holster.
Emily moved wordlessly as they searched the room. Finding the gun under the pillow, she took it and tucked it in her pocket. During their brief infiltration training, they'd all been told to seize arms when possible, lest their enemies use it against them. The tablet was curious... She knew Jin could do a lot of things from his device, so she grabbed it gently and passed it back to Jin or Korvan -- whomever was closest.
When she caught Mal's reaction, Emily took position against the wall near the doorway. She readied her pulsecaster, as well.
Argintum
"There it is!" Amaryst exclaims when the burst of jamming static floods the external comms. She punches the button to bring the thrusters up to power and immediately slaps another button to start a computer controlled exit of the crater. As the ship's nose clears the crater's rim, she takes manual control of the ship and adds more thruster power as she slews to nose into a lead pursuit course.
The direction set to her satisfaction, she pushes the throttle levers to full forward.
1. Red Mining Shuttle (Zenvisk) <--- You are up!
2. Blue Mining Shuttle 3 (Jin) <--- You are up!
3. Pirate Frigate (Brown)
4. Argintum (Yellow)
5. Green Mining Shuttle 2
6. Pirate Truck (Gray)
With the signal activated, the core mining vessels suddenly do an about-face, powering up their mining lasers and asteroid-breaking torpedo launchers with the intention of joining battle. The Argintum rockets towards the battle to give backup.
1. Space Pirate Captain
2. Jin <--- You are up!
3. Cross <--- You are up!
4. Korvan
5. Space Pirates
6. Maldor
7. MLE
Inside the pirate truck, one of the pirates exits the cockpit area, weapon drawn, looking for his MIA compatriot. Calling on his handset for his pirate ally, he realizes when the comms have been cut, and calls back - "Comms are down!" Growling, you can hear someone else shout, "Let me check," before a muscular korasha lashunta male, evidently the captain, comes out of the cockpit, shutting the door behind him. While he only carries a sidearm, he has a strange gleam in his eye... almost as if they were radiating light on their own.
Cross waits for the pirates to step passed him and slips into the hallway behind them.
"We've got two in the hall here. The captain of this tin can and a single goon. There's at least one more in the cockpit. Give them something to focus on and I'll hit them from behind," Cross thinks to the others.
Tier 3
Shuttles are Small, with perfect maneuverability, 35 hp, one weapon mount, and 3 expansion bays. They can be piloted by only one person, but have four crew spots.
Power Core: Pulse Red (capacity 200) - we have a surplus of 27 units of power, so we can power other machines as well, and charge technological items for free!
Thrusters: S10 (10 hexes per movement - the fastest with no maneuverability penalty for their size)
Weapons: One forward-facing flak thrower. (3d4, range 5)
Quarters: Four luxurious quarters, with private bathrooms and kitchenettes, comfort amenities and good aesthetic
Shields: Basic 20 shields (20 points of shielding, distributed between four quadrants of the ship)
Armor: Zero, zip, don't get hit!
Drift Engine: Signal Booster (a tier 2 engine; twice as fast as the tier 1 engine!)
Sensors: Advanced Medium-Range Scanners (they have a range of 10 miles and provide a +4 bonus on checks made to scan things)
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Expansion Bays
- - -
Recreation Suite (trivid den) (a place to hang out, relax, and watch some vids!)
Life Boats (two life boats fit for two people each. Basic thrusters capable of maneuvering to a nearby planet, landing, and enough food to support both people for 15 days)
Smuggler Compartment (cargo bay hidden within the ship capable of transporting 10 tons of cargo. Perception or Computers necessary to notice it)
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Extras
- - -
Biometric Locks (only a set number of people are allowed to enter the ship - currently the whole team)
Anti-Hacking Module (Add +4 to the DC to hack the ship's computers)
Mk 2 duonode computer upgrade (Add a +2 bonus to any two checks during starship combat per round)
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Pirate Vessel
Worried he might catch a stray bullet in his current location, Jin makes a quick turn around the desk and drops to a crouch behind it for cover, training his rifle on the doorway.
Space Combat
The Core-piloted mining vessel takes initiative and slides smoothly into a mostly-blind spot aftward of the two immobile ships before unleashing it's shield-piercing mining lasers upon the smaller of the two, aiming to disable it quickly.
Piloting Actions: Attempt to use the evade stunt
Space Combat
Two Core vessels rush into combat, firing a torpedo and a laser. The two weapons wreck havoc on the enemy ship, searing surface burns onto the ship's armor and nearly depleting the frigate's shields. Wheeling around, it retaliates against the Core vessels.
Zenvisk scans the enemy ship, prompting a series of readouts to pop up on-screen. Zenvisk learns the basic and defensive information about the ship. A light frigate with complement 5, this ship is small with S6 engines and perfect maneuverability. Built for combat, it has mk 6 armor and mk 2 countermeasures which gives it AC 17 and TL 13. It has 120 PCU and 15 remaining SP - 5 in the forward, starboard and port quadrants.
The pirate vessel fires on one of the Core vessels - the one that fired the missile. Two cannon open up on full auto against one of the Core vessels while a missile fires from one of the ship's flanks against a second vessel.
Normal Combat:
Not thinking about entering the captain's quarters, the pirates simply rush by on their way to the scaffolding leading down to the loading bay, since that's where they're looking for their team member that isn't responding.
Korvan waits silently along with the others as the group passes by, and whispers to Cross before the Core gets into the hallway - "If you distract them I can hack through the door into the cockpit."
Cross is able to slip by and behind them with no issue... what next?
Argintum
Amaryst guides the shuttle into a sweeping left turn, lining up on the frigate's stern, hoping to capitalize on the shield damaged by the core vessels fusillade. With dismay she witnesses her target's tight turn and realizes that now Argintum just doesn't have the speed to round on the frigate's stern. Hoping to keep the flak thrower in position to defend the core ships, the lashunta pilot decelerates slightly.
"OK, Rollo! Everyone get ready to take fire."
Rollo focuses on his targeting display and launches a flurry of small projectiles at the oncoming enemy.
....
Cross nodded and stepped out of the doorway. He raised the pulsecaster and fired the unassuming little pistol at the back of the captain. He could be a distraction.
Green Mining Drone
>>glitched life support, malfunctioning sensors<<
Hold It Together: Sensors
+ whatever bonus the core vessel has (assuming this is a tier 1 vessel...)
The core quickly patches and redirects power to the sensors to try and keep it functioning...
Science Actions: None
Piloting Actions: Maneuver closer to the frigate (What's the move distance?)
Gunnery Check: Shoot the pirate frigate (brown)
4 shots remaining
The green highlighted core vessel merely pivots in place and fires off a torpedo at the pirate frigate!
If it is within range, the core then attempts a snap shot with the mining laser in an attempt to finish it off!
Jin moves into the hallway inside the ship and fires at the pirate captain as well. The shot takes him by surprise and he turns around. "Intruders!" he shouts, and the strange light in his eyes flares as a sword seemingly made from the light of the sun blazes in his hand. "I'll cut you apart!"
The pirate he is with steps in front of him, firing a pistol at Cross, who stands in front. Meanwhile, Korvan rushes out behind the two and starts to hack through the door into the cockpit.
The pirate's bullet is right on-target and cracks Cross' armor, leaving him dangerously close to real injury.
The Argintum flies into battle, firing flak into the pirate ship's front-facing shields. The shields are quickly stripped away and the front of the frigate is riddled with tiny holes.
One of the Core vessels flies forward, firing a missile and a mining laser, but both fly into the void.
The truck accelerates away from the combat, and its little turreted laser rotates towards the damaged core vessel that just fired at its escort. It fires a little barrage of tiny lasers.
It hits the tiny ship, pushing through the mediocre shields, burning the hull even further than it is already seared... further systems malfunction.
Piloting Actions: Attempt to use the evade stunt
"Get everyone inside the cockpit and vent atmo from the rest of the ship!" Cross ordered, taking cover in one of the doorways. He snapped off another shot from his pulsecaster at the pirate goon.
As the gunfire erupted, Emily snapped to act as quickly as she could manage. She leaned out of the doorway and took stock of the goon and the captain -- the latter wielding a strange blade, but too far away for her to reach out to. The goon was closer, though... Emily mumbled a short mantra to help center herself and stared down the pirate goon. She reached out with her mind, trying to enter his with a sharp, precise stab.
Maldor grabs a handful of stones from his pocket as he moves into the hallway and towards the bridge. Before he gets there, he will focus his mind on the rocks and fling them towards the nearest pirate goon. They stones accelerate rapidly as they fly, striking the pirate with more force than one would think possible!
However, the rocks act differently in micro-gravity than the earth-bound human accounts for, the rocks impact the walls and ceiling!
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The Core ship flies gracefully cocky circles around the Frigate as it effortlessly slips into another sweet spot between the pirate vessels's weapons systems. Yet this time the Core's laser barrage goes wide in the theatrics, striking the ship's port shields at an angle and reflecting harmlessly into the void.
Cross fires on the pirate goon, clipping him in the chest. His armor protects him from the worst of the hurt, clearly, but he's none too happy about having been shot.
The goon manages to resist the worst of MLE's mental blast, but the psychic energy clearly took a toll on him...
The captain shouts a challenge and then is wreathed in what seems to be plasma. It is reminiscent of the corona of an eclipsed star. While wreathed in flame he rushes forward, blazing stellar blade in hand, at Cross.
He slashes at Cross with the blade, who manages to jerk out of the way of being cut in half. However, the front of Cross' chassis now bears a scar from the near-miss. It sizzles with heat.
The pirate frigate attempts a daring maneuver called a "flip and burn" against the Argintum, trying to get the opposing shuttle in between it and its other enemies. It boosts forward and flies just past the Argintum, but as it tries to 'flip', its glitched engines betray it and it just keeps on flipping until it's still pointed forward.
The turreted EMP launcher still turns and fires on one of the mining vessels, knowing that the Argintum's shields must still be up.
The shuttle's EMP blast goes wide, flying into the void instead of striking its intended target.
Catches himself and looks down, seeing the sizzling cut through his clothes. "You ming doing another one, turned about ninety degrees and a little shorter? I've got a thing." Then his knife licked out across the outside arm of the captain.
Knowing that their ship has a relatively weak weapon, Zenvisk will be trying to increase the output of that weapon as much as they can. Working extremely quickly, they temporarily diverts some of the power cores excess energy into the flak thrower, hoping that the extra power will make the small particles be flung out with higher force.
With the heavy damage to the core's craft, all it can do is pivot with the enemy frigate and fire torpedoes again!
Amaryst slows the shuttle and pulls into a tightly spiraling left turn, coming out behind the spinning frigate. She jinks right as she pushes the throttles forward to recover lost speed.
Rollo keeps his head down, staring at the targeting display, and waits for his moment. The target circle lights on the frigate and he initiates fire.
....