Red 5, standing by...
Yellow 3, checking in.
what
Readings clear. Beginning download...
“Rex, this one’s coming around – eyes are open. Synaptic response time is normalizing. Temps are looking better. What’s next?”
“Beep do do beep bop.”
“How would I know, you said you downloaded the manual when we took them aboard!”
“Bop doo beep!”
“Alright, we don’t have time to argue. How much longer are they supposed to keep these ventilator masks on?”
“Bee dee doo bow.”
“Six hours! We’ll be scrapped in orbit in six minutes! Blast, we gotta pull the masks and hope for the best or we’re in trouble.”
“Bow beep bow…”
“Yeah, well, you got a better idea? You wake those other two and I’ll get the rest. Watch the bios and if any of them start to crash hit ‘em with some current.”
“Boo beep?”
“Hey, I’m a freighter captain, not some meat-stitcher. Now hurry up, and once you pop them get back to the cockpit and try to keep us out of range from those bandits. But don’t short the motivator.”
“Beep bop bo bo beep!”
“I’ll get it fixed right if we live through this. I promise!”
A deafening boom jolts you to your senses, and suddenly you are aware of your surroundings. You lay in a bunk, on a small starship – a light freighter, by the looks of the “captain.” He’s wrestling with a breathing mask over your face as a shower of sparks rain down behind him. As the mask slips free you almost wish it hadn’t – a near toxic smell of burning circuit panels and body odor assault your olfactory glands. Mercifully, one of those smells dissipates as the burly, bearded captain turns away.
Still groggy, you turn your head and see him busily tending to a human in the opposite bunk. Then you start to cough uncontrollably. Your extremities tingle and then burn, and just when you think something has gone horribly wrong the sensation passes. You regain your breath as the guy across from you starts to lose his.
Another boom sends a shudder through the hull of the ship, and you feel a sickening loss of pressure. A headache follows almost instantly.
“Rex! Seal that leak! Shields are breached.” He turns back toward you and mumbles, “This job doesn’t pay well enough to die today.”
The captain is in your face again. He grabs you roughly by the cheeks and pulls your eyes wide. “Hey pal, you need to try to get on your feet, ok? I gotta get you to the escape pod. Red Barren is your stop.”
You have no idea what he’s talking about. Everything seems foggy; you can’t remember why you’re here. As he bounces back to the next guy over you rise in the bunk, your head throbbing. A wave of nausea hits as you sit upright, and you dry heave but nothing more. The pain in your brain spreads to your gut, but another blast to the outer hull puts your minor ills into proper perspective. The guy in the other bunk is going through the same misery, but you don’t know who he is, only that he’s sharing your fate.
“Come on, pal. You too, guy. On your feet, quick! If I don’t get you off my ship then we’ll all be dead and I don’t get paid.”
You find your footing on the pitching slope of the deck. It’s not easy to walk, but adrenaline kicks in, and your body responds. You follow the captain through the common area and find there are more of you than you first realized - seven in all, each of you worse for wear. Through the next narrow corridor you see the open hatch to the cylindrical escape pod. It clearly does not have room for more than two people. Not comfortably, at least.
“I said I’d get you there. I didn’t promise what shape you’d all be in.”
Just then another blast rocks the ship, and the lights go out. You hadn’t noticed it until now, but there was an excessive amount of background noise below the din of the fight, and that sound just abruptly shut off.
“Rex!” the captain shouts through the suddenly quiet corridors. Red lights flicker to life, bathing the freighter in eerie dark shadows. The droid reappears seconds later.
“Beep beep beep!”
“Emergency power won’t save us. Damn, and I was saving that last hyperspace jump to get out of here. Guess we play dead.”
You’re just about to ask what he meant by “play dead” when a dull thud resonates throughout the ship.
“Their boarding us! Rex, plan B!”
“Boo beep?”
“Get back to the cockpit and wait for my signal, and throw most of what we’ve got left into the cannons. Then gimme one thruster boost to put our orbit into decay. We’re only gonna get one shot at this.”
“Beep beep!” The sturdy little astromech droid wheels off.
The captain stares you down. “I hope you’re all more capable than you look. They won’t be expecting cargo that can shoot back – that’s our advantage.” The piercing noise of sheering metal from directly above causes you to flinch.
“Here,” he runs around the corner and comes back quickly, his arms full of blaster pistols. He hands them out. “Hurry – you and you, get behind that bulkhead. You two protect the cockpit from the central corridor. And the rest of you get to the hold so we can pin them in.”
As if on cue, the hatch directly above is sheared open. The seven of you scatter, following the captain’s tactical advice as best as possible. You don’t have to wait long. In the murky red glow an intruder drops into the corridor where you just stood, then another, and two more. There is an interminable moment when all is quiet.
The adventure begins!
Round 1 - You are up!
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"Wha? Where am..? Warren tried hard to clear his mind. A cloudy haze obscured his vision, Was it from the environment or was it his eyes? What is happening? Try as he might, his memories just would not come.
He had the briefest of moments to consider his predicament before a blaster was shoved into his hand. He glanced at it, eyes just starting to clear. He opened his mouth to question the captain "Captain I need.." When the hatch sheered open.
Without thinking Warren moved. His arm raised automatically as if by muscle memory. While he might not remember himself his body sure did.
Action 1: Fire blaster at first person through door. So 5D-1D for dodge.
Blaster= 20 total.
Reaction: Dodge= 5D-1D(second action)+1D(energy Spec) so 5D
Dodge total= 23 vs Non Energy attack, 29 vs Energy Attacks
Ok let's see if I under stood how this works.
Action 1: Fire blaster at first person through door. So 5D-1D for dodge.
[Dice=Blaster Pistol]3d6;1d6
[dice=reroll 6 on wild]1d6Blaster= 20 total.
[dice=Damage]4d6
Reaction: Dodge= 5D-1D(second action)+1D(energy Spec) so 5D
[dice=Dodge]4d6;1d6
[dice=reroll 6 on wild dice]1d6Dodge total= 23 vs Non Energy attack, 29 vs Energy Attacks
You're specialized in Blaster carbine, so you only get your straight Dex for the blaster pistol roll. You still hit, though, so your damage stands. Unlike Savage Worlds, the Wild Die is not a bonus die, it's just one from your total that if you roll a 6 or a 1 has a unique effect. In this case, the 4th dice you rolled for Dodge was a 6, so if that was your wild die, the next roll was also a 6 and then a 5, so the outcome for your Dodge roll is the same. Nice rolling.
As the ship is shaken with the first of many blasts, the hulking man in one of the bunks stumbles to his feet and falls to the floor retching silently. He slowly gets to his feet he lets out a quiet expletive and follows the burly redhead. As the the thud of the enemy ship resonates through the freighter's hull, he instinctively takes the blaster offered him, and takes the a position to fire at the boarders, taking three shots in quick succession.
Dak Kandru blinked his eyes open, shook his head at the rough treatment and said intelligently, "Mrrpphhhllgruf." followed quickly by a cough.
As the Captain moved away, Dak groaned as he sat up, and then swung his legs over and off the edge of the cot. When the blaster pistol was shoved into his hands he tried to stand, wobbled, and ended up down on one knee, wincing."Ow."
Still, this left him as ready as he could be for the utter shock of men...someone...arriving to do them harm.
Frowning, he fired off a shot at the lead intruder!
Warning. Warning. Warning. Warn...
Static flickered before her optical lenses, chasing away an encroaching darkness. Everything was taking absolute ages to re-sync with the central control unit imbedded in the back of her skull, though that didn't seem to stop whatever was going on outside her body. Something was fumbling with her face, constsntly pulling while covering the outer surface with thick grease. Apparently they seemed to be inter the impression her mask wasn't actually bolted to her face at the present momment.
A twitch from the gyros of her left arm was enough to slap their hand away, long enough for her to push down on the clamps linking her with the respiration system. Her own life-support operations were taking a hot-minute to actually boot online. Very disconcerting.
When they did finally establish a direct link she dearly wish it hadn't. When exactly was the last time this scoundrel actually took a proper shower?
Her eyes darted to the retreating droid, vocally emiting binary as she wished it thanks and good luck. Chaances were she'd never get a chance to say it person again.
Something was clumsily shoved into her graspers- A blaster, apparently.
A form of last resort, seeing as she was nowhere even close to the skills of a trained imperial trooper herself. She probably wouldn't even be capable of landing a hit on the broad side of a pleasure barge let alone somewhere close to a pirate's torso.
No, for her she should always be trying for the more technical approach. Perhaps there was something she could do to close off the other ship's breach.
I put skill dice into raising blaster, and extra skill dice into specialty (blaster carbine) so don't I get 4D when using a weapon that is not a blaster, 5D when using a blaster and 6D when using a carbine?
My sheet is base without the bonus.
So on my sheet my blaster is 5D since I am using a pistol I don't add the one from my specialty in carbine (which would make it 6d) giving me 5d then i removed 1d for the dodge action giving me 4d then I split it into 3d + 1d wild.
same with my dodge. I spent points into dodge to give me 5D then I spent more points to take a specialty in energy weapons. SO my roll is
5D-1 for second action +1 if shot at by energy.
on page 19 of reup it said 6s explode on wild.
I just want to make sure we are on the same page.
In that case, on your character sheet, put Blaster 5D, Blaster Carbine 6D. Do the same for all Skills with Specializations.
Warning. Warning. Warning. Warn...
The Elysium Pale is shutting down, systems crashing, emergency power failing. You'll need to re-route power to the comm, and then disable any countermeasures you encounter on either ship. R3X3 may try to stop you, but if you get past the plucky astromech droid (aren't they all?), you still need to trigger the hatch. You're under fire and the ship is hurtling toward the planet.
So yes! It's possible. Make a Very Difficult (22) Space Transports Repair roll, followed by a Security roll which will be opposed. Lastly make a Moderate (13) Repulsorlift Operation roll. Since you're attempting a power bypass and not a full-on repair, I'll rule that these actions each take one round to perform.
These may not be the only options available to you.
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"It's not my fault!" Mal blurts out as consciousness returns like your 4th grade teacher walking into your bachelor pad and asking what you've done with your life.
'Actually that life boat might work if we can just--,' BLAM 'Ooookay maybe not.'
As guns are shoved in his face and he takes one he tried to search for a memory that can explain why this fits in his hand like an extension of his arm. 'I feel like I've never -not- had one of these. Why is that?'
Alas answers must needs be forthcoming in the time that is not now as armed men begin falling like the strangest rain this side of that one time a donut transport exploded in mid-air. 'Or did I see that on a holo-vid?'
Mal slides into the corner, wedging himself behind some kind of droid-ish thing and lays a bead on whichever is closest.
"Hey, uh, everyone? I'm gonna try shooting them with guns and see how that works!"
It seemed like the right thing to say.
She glances to the side, watching the confused yet apparently very skilled gunsligner. "Seems you're in your element at least." Her voice comes out smooth with a light synthetic undertone.
Instinctually the cyborg moves for what seemed to 'speak' to her most, kneeling down to try and avoid blaster fire. Something about was clogging up her memories, even the ones that she kept backed up. Her movements felt far too sluggish and clumsy, and already she realized that what she was doing just wasn't going to be very easy- or even viable at all.
"Unlike me, it seems." The woman grumbled. Something sparked dangerously, and she responded with rather hostile sounding audible binary. If she kept trying this, she'd end up breaking the ship further. Secondary options were needed.
Round 1 - Bold to Act
Warren Thelkap
Greff Kondo
Dak Kandru
H0N33P0T
Mal Steelcutter
Mysterious Guy With Blaster
Tavin Volker
Raiders
Tavin tries to clear his head and figure out what is going on as he gets ushered down the hall. Figuring he needs to stay alive to worry about it, he grabs the blaster and moves into position as directed. Hoping to catch the attackers off-guard, he also fires at the intruders.
In your case, with the difficulty number known to be higher than you are likely to roll with Dodge, you do not want to Dodge as a reaction, since it will replace the difficulty number. I probably don't need to tell you that a 1 on the Wild Die is not good, but it's not going to make a difference this time.
Looks down at the blaster shoved in his hand briefly, then at the intruders.
"This is inconvenient... " he mutters under his breath after noting its a mere blaster.
Nonetheless he finds whatever cover is available, "This probably would have been better over a game of sabbac... but its your life my friend you wish to gamble with" he says as he fires at the first of the intruders.
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"Well thank ya, ma'am," Mal says at the computer-lady reaching up to tip a hat that isn't there.
"You...you is a ma'am, yeah?" Mal adds a bit sheepishly. It was getting harder all the time to tell...with organics and inorganics alike.
'And why am I looking for a hat? Am I the kind of person who wears hats?' he muses, taking his mind momentarily off the fight.
"That's what my datalog says at least," The cyborg flatly states. "I'm not currently in a position to verify."
Raider 1 vs Greff vs 16, Wounded twice!
Raider 2 vs Dak vs 15, Stunned
Raider 4 vs Mal vs 17, Wound!
Raider 4 vs Rel vs 8, no effect
A billow of red-tinged smoke dissipates into the large chambers where you stand poised, weapons at the ready. The effects of medically-induced hibernation fall away as your bodies acclimate to the danger of the moment with a rush of adrenaline. First you hear boots landing on the deck, and then you see them - four tough looking men, all young, the kind of desperate ruffians who take the first chance to get away from something, or someone.
But these men do not deserve your pity. They are going to kill you, if you don't kill them first.
The modest holds of the Elysium Pale light up with blaster fire. Warren and Greff have clear shots at the lead man, and they fire with deadly accuracy. The Raider crumples, severely wounded.
While the first raider lies writhing on the floor, Dak targets the next in line. It's a solid hit, but the Raider only staggers momentarily, stunned but still in the fight.
Tavin misses his mark, but Mal and Rel each blast the Raider at the entrance to the Cargo Bay, causing the man recoil and grab for the burning hole in his gut.
H0N33P0T attempts to re-route emergency power to try to override the systems on the Raider's ship, but the circuitry does not respond to her this time.
With the first Raider down, the next one raises his blaster pistol to return fire against Dak.
Dak easily sidesteps the errant blast.
The next Raider aims for Dak as well, and squeezes off a shot.
But again the brash pilot is too hard to hit.
The final Raider attempts to return the favor to Mal.
Even though the Raider is hurt, his aim is true. Mal tries to Dodge.
But the shot hits him squarely!
Mal Roll Strength to soak against 13 damage.
Instead of going straught into trying to brute force a sollution, she tries to take a momment and think the situation over first hand. The boys here seem to be competent enough as fighters, but she peeks her head out just long enough to take a gander of the invading party.
You can see the Raiders are overmatched and not expecting this much resistance. Fate has dealt them a cruel blow. They are pinned in.
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Seeing an opportunity to end this without too much more unnecessary bloodshed Warren keeps his blaster trained on the attackers but holds his fire. Instead He calls out "STAND DOWN! YOUR OUT GUNNED! DROP YOUR WEAPONS AND WE CAN TALK"
Maybe seeing one of their fellows dropped will help convince them that discretion is the better part of valor.
We may be getting out of step here but this is exactly what this first sequence is for. Here's where we are for remaining actions in Round 1:
Warren declares 2 actions and attacks, reserves a second action for Dodge. He was not attacked by the Raiders during the first action, so he still has his second action. He uses it for a Perception roll (did you mean Persuasion?) and that roll would be at -1D, so Dicebot is going to take away that 6, unfortunately. Points for Roleplaying, though, so we'll see what happens... 0 actions remaining
Greff declares 3 actions and attacks, 2 actions remaining
Dak declares 2 actions and attacks, reserves a second action for Dodge and is attacked. 0 actions remaining.
H0N33P0T declared 1 action. 0 actions remaining.
Mal declares 2 actions and attacks, reserves a second action for Dodge and is attacked. 0 actions remaining.
Tavin declares 2 actions and attacks, reserves a second action for Dodge but is not attacked. 1 action remaining.
Rel declares 2 actions and attacks, 1 action remaining
Make sense?
Bold to go in Round 1: Greff, Tavin, Rel, Raiders
Shoots at the next raider...
The blaster feels like a natural extension of Greff's arm, and he expertly bullseyes the Raider in the middle, a blaster bolt square in the chest. The man crumbles unconscious.
Warren's words are delivered without conviction, but there is too much truth in it to be ignored.
"Get us out of here!" one of the Raiders calls up the hatch. A swirl of smoke obscures their escape, and in the next moment they are gone, all four of them.
The hatch closes from above as you rush toward it, then you realize what is about to happen and dive away as the Raider ship tears away from the Elysium Pale. Instantly the smoke and atmosphere are sucked through the hole in the ship, but before any of you are pulled into the great vacuum of cold space, R3X3 engages a localized force field.
"Quit laying around!" shouts Captain Perry over the intercom. "If you wanna live through this, get on the guns - they're coming around to finish us off! And if any of you know how to fly, I need a copilot!"
At the same time, R3X3 wheels into the main compartment and uses an extending arm to flip the floor hatch, revealing a maintenance closet. Acrid black smoke belches upward and sparks burst across the floor. The ship suddenly pitches and all of you are left weightless and spinning; it's all you can do to keep from crashing against the bulkhead.
R3X3 catches a ladder rung and yanks itself into the compartment.
It's apparent to hwr that her skills are much more skewed in another area, but that doesn't mean she was useless. Fumbling, she tried to get herself moving to a spot where the AG-system could get jurry-rigged back into working order.
H0N33P0T Manages to right herself. She is already next to an access port which can communicate with most of the ship's systems. Actually affecting repairs is going to require moving to the thing you wish to fix (best guess is close enough). Go ahead an move yourself on the slide (my original map) then make your next roll.
Rhe woman quickly navigated herself to where she felt her skills to he of best use. It would be of great benefit to get normal gravity back in order here. If onky she's opted for those magnetic sole clamps...
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Warren's feet left the deck as the sudden purge of atmosphere left the crew surging toward the hole. The explosive decompression of the room stole the breath from his lungs. Thankfully he instinctively breathed out lest his lungs rupture from the sudden pressure differential. Luckily the droid was quick and materialized a forcefield and prevented the crew from being vacuumed out into the cold dark.
His momentum carried him weightlessly through the room, all semblance of "direction" now irrelevant his gentle sway moved him close to an out jutting of the hull. He propped himself as best he could and tried to launch himself toward H0N33P0T.
"Gonna Head to Engineering and see what the damage is"
Head towards one of the guns, "hey if you get those shields fixed, I can get get them up and running"
The team begins to move, with Rel propelling himself toward the gun turret, Honey passing him en route to the Engineering station, and Warren gracefully flying around the interior corridor, eventually entering the Main Drive chamber to inspect the damage to the power core.
Greff slings the pistol in a pocket, and pushes off towards the other gun nest, after Rel. "I've got the other gun."
While Honey works her magic on the artificial gravity system, a task that will take a little more time if all goes well, Rel and Greff expertly navigate the vagaries of zero-G and slide into the dorsal and belly guns. The rips in the seats and the worn steel grips behind the old laser cannons tell you this ship has seen plenty of action, but you doubt any of it was recent. As good as his word, Captain Perry has given you a trickle of emergency power, and the heads up displays flicker to life, and the gyros release and respond, albeit jarringly, to your commands. Sensors are down, meaning fire control is offline. That's gonna make this really tough. The first order of business is finding that Raider ship by visuals alone.
Warren exposes the guts of the Elysium Pale and it's a mess. He's not immediately sure if it's all the jury-rigging and bypassing that has accumulated over time, or his lack of skill with this model starship, but he knows he's going to need help to try to squeeze any more power out of the ship.
"There you are... Let's see if we can get you humming for us again." She mutters, as she starts getting to work.
It's good enough. Just a little more time... There will be certain actions where if you exceed the Difficulty Number significantly, you can improve the result. This is one of those kinds of actions, but you only just beat the number. We can't let 1st level characters be great at everything - what's the fun in that?
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Mal gracefully zero-dances his way to a spot just aft of where the jeffries tubes branch off to the guns, looking for a particular top access patch.
"There you are," he purrs, lifting off the beaten piece of thin metal revealing the guts of the sensor array.
'No wonder the thing's down,' he thinks as he takes in the mishmash of non-functional wires sprawling this way and that.
Wishing he had paid more attention in...wherever he went to school instead of...whatever it was that he was doing instead of paying attention (he thinks that a certain well filled-out and flower-speckled blouse was involved, but can't quite be sure) he reaches in and does the best he can.