"Behold! The skitter that's gunna crack your skull!
yells Guess?, referring to his current alias as he gets swept up in the moment.
Guess? again fires at the vesk captain!
Despite being Shaken, Jaraduk pushes through the intense feeling to follow the blue pirate, and try to crack him as hard as he did the last one...
Akh eats another icy chain attack but barely flinches. The captain is fearsome, but Akh gets the sense this is going to go poorly for the varculaks. He tears into the captain once more, floating above him.
|
Guess? fires on the captain, popping the shield bubble, which Akh follows up with another claw strike. The captain's body tremors for a second, before collapsing to the floor in a thump.
Jaraduk steps over and strikes at the pirate carrying the shield projector. The pirate drops his shield weapon and takes a step back while pulling out a small metal ball. He tosses the grenade, which coats Akh's lower extremities and Jaraduk's back in flames!
The pirate beside Melissa draws a knife and turns on her as she sends lightning at his compatriots. His knife scrapes on her new armor, totally deflected.
"Guess I'm the captain now!" Plan falling apart with the Captain's death, the two other pirates begin firing wildly with their pistols. "No, I am!"
Melissa SP 40/55 HP 57/57 RP 10/10
Akh SP 53/99 HP 67/67 RP 8/8
Guess? SP 40/54 HP 47/47 RP 10/10
Jaraduk SP 48/72, HP 17/69, RP 10/10
Red Captain Kyanhex, 174 Damage
Green Pirate Varculak, 118 Damage
Blue Pirate Varculak, 47 Damage
Orange Pirate Varculak, 0 Damage
Yellow Pirate Varculak, 23 Damage
Pink Pirate Varculak, 0 Damage
Jaraduk attempts to finish of his current target.
Though Akh fails to dodge the grenade, his resistance to fire quickly snuffs the flames. He follows by tearing into yellow, who's presented themselves as conveniently accessible "Don't worry, none of you get to be captain. We've already got one, you see."
"Die! You undead scum! Or is it live? So... that you can die..?? BAH!"
Guess? opens fire on yellow and if yellow is down he'll fire on blue.
|
|
Melissa, Jaraduk, and Akh lay into the pirate trapped in the middle of the fray. The undead creature collapses from the weight of his wound, then dissolves into dust. Guess? returns to the pirate on his own level, utilizing his superior firepower.
On the Lost Cause, the pirate catches back up to Melissa though he can't seem to get a good strike on her. "Resumes? Noble pirates have no need of such things!" Above the fray, the pirate fires back at Guess?. "Aye aye!"The final pirate spits lasers at Jaraduk.
Melissa SP 40/55 HP 57/57 RP 10/10
Akh SP 53/99 HP 67/67 RP 8/8
Guess? SP 29/54 HP 47/47 RP 10/10
Jaraduk SP 26/72, HP 17/69, RP 10/10, Burn 2d6, DC 17
Red Captain Kyanhex, 174 Damage
Green Pirate Varculak, 118 Damage
Yellow Pirate Varculak, 120 Damage
Blue Pirate Varculak, 88 Damage, Flatfooted
Orange Pirate Varculak, 0 Damage
Pink Pirate Varculak, 20 Damage
Okay okay! I got 'em.
He continues lumbering along, following the trail of pirate.
Guess? fires at blue!
+2 to all the damages
Confident that Guess' massive blast has turned blue into a crater, Akh swirls through the open airlock to harass the remaining two foes. He swings down with a claw at pink to focus fire with Jaraduk and Melissa.
|
|
You look away for about six seconds. By the time you look back, Guess? has erased the pirate up on his level from existence. Down below, you focus fire with Melissa's encouragement on the next closest pirate. He is wounded, but still standing and locks eyes with his partner. "To the end?" The other undead vesk nods and they drop their pistols in unison. "Finally." They step to surround Akh, slashing with knives!
Melissa SP 40/55 HP 57/57 RP 10/10
Akh SP 40/99 HP 67/67 RP 8/8
Guess? SP 29/54 HP 47/47 RP 10/10
Jaraduk SP 23/72, HP 17/69, RP 10/10, Burn 2d6, DC 17
Red Captain Kyanhex, 174 Damage
Green Pirate Varculak, 118 Damage
Yellow Pirate Varculak, 120 Damage
Blue Pirate Varculak, 150 Damage
Orange Pirate Varculak, 20 Damage
Pink Pirate Varculak, 66 Damage
"Oh hey! We're actually your saviors, aren't we? I'll add that to the long list of achievements in my CV - Savior of undead! Right below 'freedom fighter' and right above 'high school career counselor'."
And on that note, Guess? fires at pink!
Zooming thanks to Melissa's encouragement, Akh swirls to the south and then claws twice at the most injured looking undead pirate. "Saviors might be pushing it a little Guess?..."
"Saviors might be pushing it a little Guess?..."
"Seems they're happy to finally die... We're saviors!"
|
|
Jaraduk and Guess? take out one pirate with Melissa's encouragement and Akh takes out the second! Both appear in a puff of smoke. Each of the five smaller piles of undead ashes, when sifted through, contain a estex suit III (jetpack), corona laser pistol with 1 battery (20 charges), tactical knife, incendiary grenade II (2), and credstick (200 credits). In your ship is the dropped defender shield projector. The captain's remains coat a vesk brigandine III (corona shoulder laser with 1 battery [20 charges], deflective reinforcement), acolyte shadow chains, and credstick (200 credits).
You move into the enemy ship and confirm that the Lost Cause can’t support living creatures, so it makes a poor substitute for the Rust Bug; however, Melissa can cannibalize enough parts to salvage the ship’s heavy plasma torpedo launcher and 1 day’s work. As you clean up the ship and prepare to continue on to Reisora's estate, you feel stronger and more prepared for the challenges ahead.
Akh makes sure to broom the undead dust off onto the Lost Cause in case these strange undead are capable of forming back up. He considers the situation as he's working and says "It might not have life support, but I could still take it with us. I can take a little bit of vacuum as well as any other big serpentine draconic automaton could. And even if I'm no good at piloting if we get in trouble, I could still press to "go" button. Then we can use the extra ship in some kind of elaborate ploy that Guess will make up on the spot."
Akh grabs the shadow chains, rather enamored by the way the captain used the weapon in the recent fight.
As always, Jaraduk also adds the grenade to his collection.
Hey... when we get a moment I ought to show off my Junkbot grenade...
"I suppose we can try to take the ship with us. But I think a depressurized pirate ship might track attention that we don't want when we arrive at the resort retreat where Eline is currently located. Worst case, we stow the ship somewhere, save the coordinates and come back at some point some day to retrieve her."
"You're the boss Guess?! Lets at least hide it somewhere for when we need to lose some very persistent pursuers, like in that recent episode of Speedy and Serious."
"You're the boss Guess?! Lets at least hide it somewhere for when we need to lose some very persistent pursuers, like in that recent episode of Speedy and Serious."
"Oh! Oh! Yah! Yah!
"And remember how they Reisora'd the space station in 2 Speedy 2 Serious?? Then they used starships to push the station through the mine-laden asteroid field with starfighters in hot pursuit?!?
"It was fun to watch... But c'mon! It was soooo unrealistic! I like suspending disbelief as much as the next guy but that was toooo much, amirite?!?!"
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
"2 Speedy 2 Serious was a classic. Maybe one day they'll invite us to join them in the sequel..." Akh ponders, then turns to head onto the pirate ship to fly it to a nice asteroid and hide it.
|
|
Melissa is able to confirm that towing a second ship would slow your ship quite a bit and be quite conspicuous and/or cumbersome when you got there. You decide to drop it off somewhere, hoping to be able to upgrade to it or find some way to exchange it into credits in the future. You've heard of elusive black markets where they shift BP Vouchers into Credits... but perhaps that is just the thing of fairytales...
You stretch, clean the ship, and take time to have one last meal together as you come into the final day of your journey. Tomorrow... you arrive at Eline's private estate...
|
|
You join up on the bridge of the Rust Bucket, ready to confront Eline or at least Reisora your ship back. Always difficult to estimate, it takes another few hours before you pop out of the Drift. The viewscreen is full of asteroids, typical for this area of the Diaspora. Among the asteroids, one of the larger rocks boasts a palatial estate, its facade graced with alabaster columns and gold leaf. When an asteroid drifts close enough to threaten the structure, automated turrets turn toward it and obliterate it with concentrated laser fire. A starship hangar at one end of the estate is protected by a shimmering blue force field, which parts long enough for two starships to emerge —the same vessels that accompanied the hijacked Last Chance as it rocketed away from you on Absalom Station.
Judging by the two ships' trajectories, the Rust Bug hasn’t yet been detected, and the asteroid field makes it easy to hide. Melissa runs the numbers, and determines that you can either intercept the two vessels you can lie low, wait for the ships to escape into the Drift, and then approach Eline’s estate.
|
Over third meal Melissa shoves some goop into her mouth, left cheek pouch middle right cheek pouch left cheek pouch middle right cheek pouch, chugs a water bottle. refills the bottle, tosses it in the left cheekpouch Alright breaks over I have to condense the ion fiagahad... and slumps over on the curly fries. Which she refuses to let go of even in her sleep.
"I can't imagine two of any ship we could actually attack in this thing, no matter how many electrovores I've trained to overpower the Ships engines... If she's on one of the ships well there goes that plan. "
If we try to scan them that lets them know we're there? can we peek out with a telescope and tell if we have a chance with them?
Akh has managed to tie himself into a pretzel at the exact moment the ship pops out of the Drift. He coughs hollowly and struggles to straighten himself when the elder Reisora's estate comes into view. "Fancy place. We should Reisora the estate as well. Though those lasers probably won't make it easy. In fact they'll probably vaporize us the moment we so much as wiggle in their direction." He watches the two starships for a moment and then asks "Think we could separate them? Maybe if we can't take on both, we could take one? It'll probably be easier to get in if we can board one of those."
Yup that was extracting the torpedo launcher.
"Hmmm... We rope a dope! When the ship departs, we wait somewhere and send out a distress signal. I mean, look at this ship. Us being in distress is not a stretch. When they dock to render assistance, we board and take their ship."
"How do we get them to stop? You have heard how convincing I can be right??? Do you have any idea how many background pyramid schemes I've got goin on?? How many subscribers to my infomercial self-help courses?
"And if Eline is on the ship, then perfect!! We've agreed to take her hostage anyways, remember? This makes it even easier on us, amirite!?!?"
|
|
You guess that Akh is correct, that one of those departing ships could pass through the asteroid compound's automated security without a problem. However, you guess that a crew utilizing teamwork and starship expertise could slip through the security protocols with only minor dents and burns.
There's no way Eline would be caught dead on those ships. Those are clearly upper middle class vessels, far beneath her station.
Your ship is a Tier 2, with some upgrades. Each of these ships are Tier 4. If you weren't missing Del before, you certainly are right now. Each of those ships have a crew of four.
Medium transport
Speed 8; Maneuverability average (turn 2)
AC 12; TL 13
HP 70; DT —; CT 14
Shields medium 120 (forward 30, port 30, starboard 30, aft 30)
Attack (Turret) flak thrower (3d4; 5 hexes)
Power Core Pulse Blue (200 PCU);
It would be very difficult to persuade one of these ships to stop to help you. You've arrived at a top secret kalistocrat compound in the middle of nowhere. Anyone would be right to be skeptical of a distress call. And these are selfish money grubbing kalistocrats you're trying to convince... from a literal rust bucket.
Jaraduk snickers at the bickering over the plan.
Hey, I'm willing to eat popcorn to anything being tried...
On reflection, Jaraduk sighs.
It would be very difficult to persuade one of these ships to stop to help us. Top secret kalistocrat compound in the middle of nowhere. We just happened to be in the neighborhood and got a flat tire our drift engine went out. Or electrovore infestation. Whatever. I suspect they'll rally forces to call BS on us with extreme hostility and skepticism. And these are selfish money grubbing kalistocrats we're trying to convince... from a literal rust bucket.
"I agree with Jaraduk. Better we just look for the exact timing when one is by itself to jump it. Either that or we just wait and try to sneak into the retreat."
"Alrighty, no spec ops boarding action for us today! Instead, suicide laser turrets of death it is!! Good thing I did nothing but play '2 Speedy 2 Serious - The Video Game' our entire time in the drift on the way here!"
Guess? gets ready to pilot through those bad, scary laser beams!
|
|
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
You wait in the asteroid field as the departing ships' drift drives begin to glow. Within a minute, the pair pop out of your plane. Ready to see how accurate the simulator is, Guess? moves the ship forward. He is able to dodge and weave through the asteroid with precise movements. The only thing you've seen Guess? do faster is palm bills during a transaction.
Zipping out of the asteroid field that surrounds the estate, you the multiple turrets surrounding the estate snap to attention. Lasers cross the blackness between you as they open fire! Jaraduk and Akh slide into the Gunner positions, with Guess? and Melissa in their slots. Your gunners begin to fire down on the turret emplacements - on the offense - with Guess? working to dodge the incoming shots and Melissa jamming the turrets' radar - on the defense.
"Oh, always knew rust was good for something." Akh nods while firing away shot after shot at the turrets. "Not a lot of sneaking in we're doing here, huh?"
"Rusty locks is also good for burglaries, of course!"
Guns-a-blazin' it is!
|
|
Jaraduk and Akh rain fire down on the turret emplacements, stunning them with the energy barrage. Melissa and Guess? dodge the remainder of the lasers. You continue to fly past the defensive turrets, through the gauntlet. The ship makes a run at the hanger bay, protected by the force field. You see two generators on either side of the field, which Akh and Jaraduk begin locking onto. Melissa sees an open receiver on her scanner. Perhaps she can hack it remotely! Guess? continues to fly straight, unable to access the magical abilities required to disrupt the field directly.