”Can these drones hurt us? Do they have guns? If they don’t, then what are they trying to do?”
"They are trying to maneuver but you keep foiling them, I think," Robert grunted. "Chase weapons only, if that's the case, pointed ahead and perhaps behind as well. If you can keep us at their flanks, they are in trouble."
Read the OOC.
Questions, comments, and/or suggestions?
Game on!
, hit
, miss
"Captain. I've lost sight of the enemy." Thyx called out in his usual monotone like he had dropped a spanner. He spun the turret evenly scanning for the foe to fire on the first thing he caught sight of. He sat stock still for a second, "Did I hit it?"
"Great job! Keep it up everyone. We've got them on the ropes now..."
Growling "Kip. Back to the scanners. If they're on our stern, it'll be up to Thyx. Thyx, it's up to you..."
"Spheres damn it..." Sigirijus clamped his muzzle shut, all too aware the words his anger had put on his tongue would do nothing to inspire the crew, and simply damage their confidence.
"Not the place we want to be!" Robert growled as both enemies got exactly where they wanted to - behind them. "Come on, head-tails, get us outta here already." Even as he complained, though, he worked to reinforce the ship's straining shields, finding enough power to coax the generators to restore the shields' integrity.
Kamiya swore under her breath as her distraction had now put everyone, including Honu in danger.
The only way to get behind them now is to try to Flip and Burn. It’s risky. I’m not sure I’m up to it... The lashunta started to argue pros and cons inside her head but quickly came to the realization that she had no time to do that. She needed to act and she needed to do it fast.
Her hands flew over the controls - punching buttons and moving levers. The only warning she gave anyone was to yell both audibly and psychically, ”Hold on!”
But nothing happened and she realized she had pushed one of the levers when she should have pulled it, ”Son of a rabbit!” she swore along with a string of other colourful words in her own language. ”Sorry guys. Sorry Captain. I’ll do better.”
OOC: The correct maneuver would have been the 'back off' stunt. The 'flip and burn' is nice and flashy but no better than 'turn in place' (no skill check) unless you wanted a little more distance between you and ships behind you.
I'll assume that Kamiya knows this and will allow for the 'back off' stunt (her roll actually made that).
I'll also take Kip's previous rolls for this gunnery phase.
You're welcome. :)
Recapping now...
Kamiya was relieved to hear one drone go down and eager to get after the other one now that she was once again behind it. She slid Honu in the starboard direction so that they’d be right on the drone’s tail.
"Nailed that bugger!" Robert snarled, his voice dripping satisfaction. "And with a great big hammer, I see - little left of the thing. Too little, in fact. Programmed self-destruction to prevent anyone from examining their remains? Perhaps scavenging enough of their computer systems might allow one to try and crack their ice to figure out what its instructions were, and from them, what was their purpose? Not like anyone would go ahead and flat-out tell a drone why it was doing something."
"Great shot Kip." Coming from him the comment seemed more statement than compliment as Thyx kept his eye peeled and the turret moving. The hull of Blackmoon Rising created a kind of horizon line that the second drone kept ducking under. "If stealth were their goal they are certainly turning it into a soup sandwich, Robert." Mid-thought, the drone appeared again and Thyx shot out. Not a direct hit, the laser left a long scorch mark across the attacker's top hull. "It seems they only want to avoid leaving evidence and aren't worried about our hearsay. From what Kamiya has said of the 'mists of Nikondis' there may be a lot of cover for more subtle attacks ahead. Oh, and thank you for the extra draw from the engines."
"Woohoo...woah!"The ship's explosion interrupted the Ysoki's cheer. "I didn't hit it that hard!"
Beardo's theory of self destruct made sense. "Oh well, at least it won't be sending distress calls home." Flushed with adrenaline, Kip swung the gyrolaser around to the front, and let go another shot of light. "Ha!" she cheered, scoring another hit, "I'm the furry bringer of doom!"
OOC: Actually I was doing this wrong and you do provoke an attack of opportunity if you move past a a hex containing an enemy starship. Oops. :)
I'll try to remember to incorporate this from now on.
Recapping now.
Questions?
Game on!
Read the OOC.
Questions, comments, and/or suggestions?
Game on!
, hit
"Computers! Right, that's me!" Kip scampered to her station, and tried to glean what she could about the drone, see if she could learn more about it before it destructed. However, she tripped as she approached her screens, catching herself with her arm right across her terminal, and wasted precious seconds trying to clear the error message.
"With the other drone down, I think we can keep this up all day," Robert grunted as he worked to restore the shields the drone's beam attack had depleted. "Unless that thing manages to find a weak spot on the shields, our generators can compensate for the damage that single laser can cause. So might as well get all the info we can out of the thing before it'll blow itself up."
"Unless that thing manages to find a weak spot on the shields, our generators can compensate for the damage that single laser can cause. So might as well get all the info we can out of the thing before it'll blow itself up."
Thyx could feel a warmth like a shot of hard whiskey in his chest as he kept the turret floating. It contrasted the relative coolness of the inside of the dorsal turret. He was getting excited, a feeling he didn't understand or notice, as he watched his targeting system. "Captain, do you want me to ease off?"
-----Thyx, eager to continue, swung about and fired on the drone. The bolt of light came dangerously close to scorching Blackmoon's hull, if it weren't for the safety bracketing on the turret it would have.
"No." Sigirijus shook his head "Keep going for now. There might be more of the piggers. Not too keen on giving it more time to scan us, either. Kip, you are indeed a doombringer, but right now we need scans of this thing and scans of the surrounding area. We're counting on you - but you can do it!"
Kamiya maneuvered Honu to turn in place and the proceeded to play chicken with the drone. ”I’ll attempt a flyby attack so that it won’t be on our tail.” She accessed the ship’s powercore to surge forward and banked starboard at the last moment to give the others plenty of time to shoot at the drone while they passed by.
[ooc[Flyby saves us from a provoking a free attack[/ooc]
"And that's how it's done! Good job, Thyx. How about we do it again?" Kamiya was already turning Honu around to go after the remaining drone. "I really doubt that it will give up and leave us alone so I guess we'll have to finish what they started...unless the Captain sees it differently?"
Even though the lashunta was maneuvering Honu in order to go after the drone, if Captain Sig gave alternative orders then she was ready to make the appropriate corrections in their heading.
"Any chance we could take out the self-destruct system and leave something for us to salvage?" Robert said, feeling much more at east now that there seemed little chance the remaining enemy would be able to do any real harm to them. "Someone takes a shot at me, I like to try and find out why. Also, there's bound to be stuff in and on that thing that'd be worth good credits."
Thyx zoomed in on the scanner and tried to log into the telemetry from the science station. "Give me a target to shoot at and I'll do my best." A thought entered his head, perhaps a memory and he whispered it. "aim small, miss small" The bolt shot out and missed the drone by a good eight feet. Thyx sat still for a moment and tried to remember where he had heard that phrase before not focusing on his miss.
"Well Kip?" Sigirijus asked "Can we?"
Sorry, not sure what's being asked. Kip gets a +2 to her computer roll...is she trying to scan to see if we can target something? Or actually trying to target the self destruct system?
Sorry, not sure what's being asked. Kip gets a +2 to her computer roll...is she trying to scan to see if we can target something? Or actually trying to target the self destruct system?
----------
Target System (Helm Phase, Push)You can use your starship’s sensors to target a specific system on an enemy starship. This action requires your starship to have sensors.
You must attempt a Computers check, applying any modifiers from the starship’s sensors. The DC equals 5 + 1-1/2 × the tier of the enemy starship + its bonus from defensive countermeasures (see page 298). If you succeed, choose one system (core, engines, life support, sensors, or weapons). The next attack made by your starship that hits the enemy ship scores a critical hit on a natural roll of 19 or 20. If that attack deals critical damage, it affects the chosen system. For any further critical damage resulting from the attack, determine which system is affected randomly as normal.
Your starship’s sensors can target only one system on a specific enemy starship at a time, though this action can be used to concurrently target systems on multiple starships.
-------
You can try and do this if desired to disable the 'self-destruct system'.
Questions?
Game on!
"Right," Kip muttered, her paws moving quickly over the buttons and screens of her station, "target the self-destruct. Which would be .... here? No, that's life support. Life support? In a drone? Nope, that's communications. Wait...here! Near the engine core, of course!" She tapped a few more times, then looked up with a smile of satisfaction. "Locked on, captain! One perfect hit will take out the system. No pressure, Thyx."
"Great work, Kip! I wish I had two of you." the captain paused for a moment, then shook his head.
OOC: I'm out of town and won't be able to post until Sunday.
The drone is alsmot destroyed and its' been programmed to attack so it won't run away.
Go ahead and give me one more round of actions assuming it's within sight of both your guns. As some of you have seen, a single drone does not pack enough of a punch to be a serious threat to Blackmoon.
We'll see where the numbers end up but it's likely that Robert's Option A occurs.
If so, then go ahead and RP the immediate scene where the drone is destroyed leaving nothing to be salvaged.
Questions?
Game on!
Thyx dragged Kip's scanner info over to the targeting screen and floated the reticule across the drone. He tried to focus on the system and saw how the power core lit-up on the data and all he had to do was just miss the core to the forward part of the drone. There was this sound that the turret made when the shot was just right, a 'sweet sound', and he tried to listen for it. When he thought the sound would BE there he fired ...
... The drone exploded in a glow of icy blue plasma.
"Sorry Captain, hesitated."
Kip sighed in unconscious relief when the drone exploded. "It's for the best, really," she said, as they gathered together. "Those guys are really dangerous."
Kamiya relaxed as the second drone exploded.
It's for the best, really,"
The lashunta nodded emphatically, "Definitely, Kip. Definitely for the best. Great job everyone, threat averted."
Now that she didn't have to focus on the two drones, Kamiya looked down at Nakondis and began planning their landing. "Do we need to make contact with them for permission to land? We at least need directions on where we should dock that is safe from those electrical bursts on the surface."
”Dangerous in a group, not so much when there was only one left,” Robert grunted, tapping into the Blackmoon’s sensors in a last-ditch attempt to find something salvageable from the drones’ remains, without much luck.
”Anyway, forget landing permissions for a moment. We were just attacked in what should have been a safe system. Let’s first worry about who’s actually in charge in here before we call any further attention to ourselves, hmm? Assuming there is anyone still alive in what passes for traffic control in this backwater and all the infrastructure hasn’t been blown to next week by whoever brought in these drones, someone has to have noticed out little battle. And they didn’t bother to try and warn us about the drones. Now, granted, they did jump us almost the moment we came out of the Drift, but were it me running the show here, I’d at least have set up a repeating transmission warning any incoming traffic of the hostiles. So, their they didn’t want to do it, they weren’t around to do it, or they are backwards idiots more interested in finding new and interesting interpretation of the term "animal husbandry" than worrying about the survival of any visitors. Anyone wanna make a bet? I trust you know which option has my vote.”
"Save your apology." Sigirijus shrugged "I have to admit, I wasn't exactly sure how you could disable an explosive with an energy weapon anyway." he held up a hand to Robert "And don't need to - I accept that if Magnusson says he's found a way to turn a moon to cheese we need to invest in mousetraps."
Kip turned her attention to scanning the area, looking for other threats, or signs of past battle, or signs that anybody was even paying attention.
”Well, I know one reason why no-one’s talking to us,” Robert grunted. ”Some joker is filling the EM bands with white noise. All of the ones commonly used for communications, as far as I can tell, which seems fairly stupid, as they are blocking their own comms as well. Unless they are using landlines, or direct LOS lasers, or just don’t feel like chatting with anyone they can’t reach by opening a window and shouting. Seems to be coming from the main settlement – you know, the one sporting all those surface-to-orbit laser cannons. Mighty fancy defenses for someone who didn’t have enough credits worth plundering, the last time I checked.”
”Might be wise not to risk them turning those beauties on us, hmm? There’s some breaks in the foliage a few miles from the city, large enough to bring the ship down without needing to turn our own weapons on the trees – and create a forest fire that might just engulf half the continent with our luck,” he went on, eyes on his console display. ”I wouldn’t mind doing a couple orbits to scan the planet for any other settlements before we land, but don’t know if that’d really do more than satisfy my own personal curiosity.”
"Hmmmm. Good points, Magnusson. Alright - briefing. We've got an unknown, armed structure. Comms are blocked. Drones at the drift point - two of them."
The captain scratches one nail at peeling scales, still healing from where the leech got him. "Check my reasoning, would you all?"
"Lack of communications means that someone doesn't want word getting out. Makes me wonder if the drones were there to stop anyone escaping offworld and trying to hit drift - or send an automated drone to do it. The fact there were two of them suggests that they're not trying to do this as cheap as possible, but it is very hard to destroy both drones at once."
"Mission requires us to deliver the goods. If there's a hostile force down there, that isn't feasible."
"On the other hand, we've got a friend down there. If there's hostile forces it would be good to ride to her rescue."
"The fact they're still down there suggests this was not a hit and run. That means there's a ship somewhere, or a ship coming back."
"Alright, here's the plan. Do an orbit. Don't be too quiet about leaving. Do a 45 degree turn at the halfway-point. Make sure coming back is quieter. Aim for that clearing as we come back. Land, cover the ship as best we can, and we go in as a scouting group." The captain nods "With any luck they'll lose sight of us, we'll regain concealment, and we'll have a shot at infiltration."
"The fact they're still down there suggests this was not a hit and run. That means there's a ship somewhere, or a ship coming back."
”Yeah, it’d be shame to bail on Cedona,” Robert mused, feeling a rare moment of… something for a sentient that wasn’t himself. He owed the android big time, he reasoned it to himself. And he did. But even to himself, it felt like an excuse. Still, he had a reputation to maintain.
”The part I can’t figure out is, why? I mean, the Azlanti are expansionists, but is this little bit of nothing really worth all the trouble? And why attack everyone at first sight? If the Empire really wanted to annex this system, all they’d really need is park a cruiser in the orbit and dare anyone else disagree. I doubt the Pact Worlds council would ever agree to do more than complain about it. Certainly they wouldn’t bother going to war over something like this. But just wasting anyone who happens across the system shouts “Black Ops” really damn loudly to me,” Robert said, frowning.
”If the Empire is up to something here they’d rather not anyone find out, I could see them shooting first and asking questions never. Not like there’s a ton of traffic in a system like this – they have little to sell and less to buy with. Might also mean they don’t want the colonists telling any tales either. If they don’t need them as a labor force… might be they have dealt with the issue already.”
”But if this is a black ops, seems weird they use tech that we could flag as theirs the moment we laid eyes on it. Unless this was a rushed ops, and they had to use whatever they had at hand when the order to go arrived.”
"Alright, here's the plan. Do an orbit. Don't be too quiet about leaving. Do a 45 degree turn at the halfway-point. Make sure coming back is quieter. Aim for that clearing as we come back. Land, cover the ship as best we can, and we go in as a scouting group." The captain nods "With any luck they'll lose sight of us, we'll regain concealment, and we'll have a shot at infiltration."
”Do the atmospheric entry on the far side of the planet and cruise to the landing zone inside the atmosphere,” Robert suggested. ”If they don’t have eyes on orbit, they won’t know where we land – maybe they can’t even tell if we jump right back into Drift or not after we get the planet between us and the colony. And if there is anything in orbit that’s not well stealthed or 100% passive, we have a chance to spot it.”
Kip stared at the strange fortress, with its graceful sweeping curves, and felt a cold know form in her belly. "Definitly Azlanti," she said, remembering the old holos she'd seen on the pilfered tablet as a child. "I was kinda hoping those drones were just lost or something. But the Azlanti are here."
Looking at the numbers flashing on her display, she said, "Surely there were more than 100 colonists here. Do you think any of those life forms are colonists? Or are they conquerers?"
OOC: I'll give Thyx and Kamiya a chance to post but I would like to move this along today and have you guys land...
Questions?
Game on!
Kamiya took in all the new information with some confusion, "How long has this planet been taken over by the Azlanti in order for that structure to be built? Wouldn't there have been some sort of resistance or new getting out? Nothing seemed out of the ordinary when we were hired to make this cargo run, did it?"
She nodded reluctantly as it was decided to land away from Madelon's Landing. "I guess it's the lesser of two evils but I don't like the danger that we're exposing Honu to. If we can't prevent the electrical pulses caused by the planet's atmosphere then we may not be able to take off again if his circuits get fried. But we need to find out if Cedona needs our help. We owe her that much, if not more."
"How long has this planet been taken over by the Azlanti in order for that structure to be built? Wouldn't there have been some sort of resistance or new getting out? Nothing seemed out of the ordinary when we were hired to make this cargo run, did it?"
"It looks pre-fab to me, so likely the Azlanti just dropped it there on the transport that brought everything else with it. And then left to get another load of gear and troops? Has to be some reason it's still not here somewhere."
Thyx slid down the turret ladder and entered the bridge. He moved directly to the gunnery station and made sure all was up.
There he stood quietly. He listened and fought with his mind. 'The tower, it's one of the ... it would be proper procedure for them to ... the second rule of radio silence is ...' It was all on the tip of his mind. It was like a bridge in his brain had collapsed and all of the information he needed was on the other side.
Kip stared at the strange fortress, with its graceful sweeping curves, and felt a cold know form in her belly. "Definitly Azlanti," she said, remembering the old holos she'd seen on the pilfered tablet as a child. "I was kinda hoping those drones were just lost or something. But the Azlanti are here."
Thyx blurted out and an alarmed look came across his face like someone else was working his mouth. Gaining his composure. "Sir, either the drones were bots or they were remotely piloted. Remote piloting seems less likely with the comms static so we have a little time before they are expected to report. We should act quick. I suggest we load out for 'quick-and-light' once we hit the ground. Can we take advantage of any natural electronic countermeasures the planet might be putting out?"
Thyx rushed through Blackmoon shutting down any redundant systems that couldn't be turned off remotely from the bridge. He knew that Kip would take care of the big stuff and, when it was all tallied up, the little stuff mattered.
When he returned to the others he went about collecting firearms. He checked them and made sure anyone who needed ammo was topped up. "Kamiya, you really should get yourself a small sidearm. We need you safe and in one piece." The matter-of-fact way the android spoke made the in-one-piece comment seem somehow probable, which in turn made it grimly comical.
Sigirijus cracked his neck "So. Quick and Light, just like Thyx said." he sighed "Not that I have a lot of choice without my armour. On the positive side, it does mean I'm available to act as pack mule if we need it."
He shook his head to Thyx "No sidearm for me. My subspecies translates as 'hunters in darkness'. Great hearing, terrible vision." he shrugged "By the time it's close enough I can see it, it's close enough to charge."
The captain's eyes flicked through various colours as membranes relaxed. "I could get used to this. Moist. Dim. Seems nice." His tongue flicked out "I take that back. Ozone and Sulphur. Smells like someone tried to cook a rotten egg with a taser."