SFSTL Attack of the Swarm

Game Master Alledisil

While Kita sews patches onto the team's uniforms, the rest tighten their belt straps and double check their gear.

As the golden sun just begins to kiss the horizon, the team finally sets out.

Please give me a Survival check (everyone can make) to find your way. The light level is currently normal.

Survival: 1d20 + 1 ⇒ (15) + 1 = 16

The trek is rocky and snow drifts cover much of the landscape. Outside the bustle and noise of camp, the wilderness is eerily silent. This silent winter would be peaceful any other time, but now there's a weight of oppressive unease.

Following Little Foot's path, Midnight Squad makes its way to the Delta Escarpment in about two hours, by which time the sun has fully set and darkness covers the landscape.

Dawn is 11 hours away.

What are you doing?

Enoot looks at the party to see what they plan to do.

Kita moves quietly through the snow, trying to keep a look out for anything unusual.
Stealth: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (6) + 3 = 9
Perception: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (16) + 4 = 20
Trying to look like she’s been living in the wild her entire life, her quick movements belie her lack of outdoor and overland tracking experience.
Survival: 1d20 + 0 ⇒ (5) + 0 = 5

Kelkikt moves along through the wild life, trying to get a sense of his bearings.

Survival: 1d20 ⇒ 18

"Ya'll think we should all go out together or split up? I c'n do whatever, er..." he looks at Zarrex [/i]"Whatever he wants to do..."[/i]

Later, whenever Kelkikt goes out on patrol, he'll be keeping a sharp eye (and antenna) out for trouble.

Perception: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (18) + 4 = 22

Is that sufficient for our actions overnight, or do you need watch schedules or patrol paths? Kelkikt is fine to go first, and will probably have to rely on the patch before the night is over if we're all staying up for the entire night.

A patrol schedule would be good, as well as timing on when you use your wake-up patches.

The night is cold, and the wind relentless. Without shelter, the team is reliant upon their environmental protections to keep frostbite at bay. Even with them at full blast, the chill still gets through.

The Delta Escarpment is a snow-drift laden mound of red dirt, rising slightly higher than the surrounding fields. It offers a decent vantage point, though its difficult to see through the gloom.

The first few hours of patrol pass without incident. Kita tries to sneak about, but makes far too much noise to go unnoticed. Luckily, there doesn't seem to be anything out here to care.

Enoot looks around for any signs of bugs.

I can take second watch

Perception: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (6) + 4 = 10
Little Foot Perception blindsense vibration: 1d20 ⇒ 3

Enoot will take the wake-up patch before his shift

Kelkikt, you've got first watch, Enoot, you've got second watch, Kita you go third, and I'll take the last watch. As I'm sure you're all aware, I'm a pretty heavy sleeper, so if you see something, throw a rock at me or something. In the meantime, I'm gonna get my camo attuned for the area before I git the sack. Keep your patches handy. We've been up all day and have the whole night ahead of us as well. If something happens, we may need to slap em on quickly. I don't know about the rest of you, but I don't plan on getting much sleep until after our shift. Plus, I don't mean to be literally caught with my pants down, so I'm sleeping in my armor tonight.

Zarrex then preps their camo for the biome before heading to sleep until 4th shift.

This decision is based on the assumption that you are not adding a penalty for sleeping in armor as a house rule. If that is not the case, please let me know.

perception: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (6) + 7 = 13

Kita settles in to catch a little sleep before her watch. As her time nears, her comm unit buzzes, jolting her awake. She nods to Enoot, letting him know she has taken over the watch. Settling in, she browses email and sips her hot tea while keeping attention on the surrounding area.
Perception: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (12) + 4 = 16

Most of the night passes without action. The night sky is crystal clear, with stars in the thousands. Strangely, there's hardly any light pollution at all from the city of Brinnoa to the northeast. The war has changed people's habits.

No armor-sleeping penalty tonight. The WU patch will remove that.
You're amped up to finally be out in the field, its not too terribly uncomfortable just yet.

Kelkikt speaks up.

"Everyone, I found some... tracks? Least, I 'spect they're tracks. They're in this red dirt o'er her'. Anybody 'knows anything about IDin' critters wanna take a look?"

Kita looks up from a mess of wires and parts from a long defunct hovercycle which she appears to have dragged back to the camp.
Tracks? Well… Enoot is pretty good with animals. He may have an idea of what made them. Anyone know what this is for?
Kita holds up a box with several wires sticking out of it. The box was probably some control module for a hover pad, though it has no hope of ever being in working order again.

Life Science to identify the tracks

Life Science: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (15) + 8 = 23

The tracks are from a Brush Stalker, a local endangered predator. The tracks are hours old, so the thing is long gone.

Medium in size, brush stalkers usually hunt during the twilight hours. They have razor sharp claws and a very keen sense of smell.

Kelkikt brings an insectoid limb up to his chin.

"Endangered predator? Good thing it didn't find us, or we didn't find it."

"Wonder... if somethin' local's still hangin' 'round here, maybe the Swarm ain't? Figure all the things that could get away from those things're already gone."

Kelkikt knows nothing about nature and is purely speculating.

Kita tosses the broken component over her shoulder and back into the pile of hoverbike parts.
Anyone know how to fix a hoverbike?
Kita has no engineering skill and has no idea how badly damaged the bike is
Wandering over to look at the tracks, she stretches her arms up and swings her hands around to her knees as she bends down for a closer look.
Yep, those are tracks alright. Any idea what it was doing here? Will it come back?

As the team examines the tracks, the faint tinges of sunlight can be seen on the horizon.

Suddenly, a loud atonal alarm piereces the morning air. It is followed by an all-points emergency broadcast over all comm units. A hurried female voice says, "Attention all Suskillon ground forces, this is Spacedock Prime-1. We are under heavy attack! A Swarm armada has entered in low orbit and has begu--" the transmission ends as abruptly as it began in a burst of ear-splitting static. Up in the sky, high above Brinnoa, hundreds of small lights flash - the telltale signs of starship combat.

What do you do?

Kita looks at her com unit and then up to the sky.
Um, that’s not good. Looks like we may not have a safe way off this rock. If that’s what I think it is, this is the start of a final assault.
Kita rummages through her pack and pulls out a bag of trail mix. She begins to snack on the dried fruit and nuts.
Hmmff.. *munching* So any ideas on how we get out of this one?

Well our shift is about over so maybe we head back and get new orders or at least rest until we know more?

Kelkikt's mandibles click together thoughtfully as the sky above flashes above.

"There's no way we c'n get to a starship, is there? Doesn't seem like there's any Swarm around here, so maybe we should go help? Course I'm new to this so I dunno... that's prob'ly abandonin' our post, ain't it."

I'm not sure.. I think Zarrex is in one of those dead states? Maybe we should drag him back to camp and see what is going on.