Iron Stars - Veovis Assault (EP LLF)

Once again the first to jump into unexplored and dangerous territory, the Elysium Protectorate fleet and the Lamplighter Foundation's own naval assets assigned to the task enter the system. This region was not scouted by the recon flights of stealth ships that circled the Ascendency, keeping tabs on the comings and goings of fleets, and as the spike drives power down, and the expanding line of friendly ships forms at the edge of the system, it is unknown what is waiting beyond. Scanners begin waking from their slumber to try to gain some intelligence about the local area.

Daira knew for a while that she was to captain the Typhon. Somewhat the Protectorates Flagship, but also one that stays in the back with a swarm of death delivering ships in front of it. That, and it's strong hull were the reasons that Khan Artema made sure her sister would captain the Typhon. Daira herself was a bit embarrassed as she wasn't a seasoned Captain, or an ace like some of the others. But she knew that a 16 hour holovid crash course and her belief will let her do just fine. As the Spike Drive comes to an end and they reenter realspace, she knew it was on. A small candle was burning near to her captains seat as she starts to give commands. "We need to run a scan of the system, fast. Establish secured com channels with other friendly ships that arrive." "Crews of the docked ships, this is Captain Artema. Get ready to swarm out at a moments notice. Scans ongoing." (do we need a program roll of my NPC that sits at the scanner?) (edited)

(If we're hunting for enemy ships, we would need a program/int)

9:05 PM

https://www.worldanvil.com/w/iron-stars-nekosmash/a/veovis-location

Veovis

9:05 PM

(I've got to color still, just didn't get to it today)

(rolled a 12 for prog int, don't know if any ship crew gets +2 or only if they were my NPCs, I have no authority focus)

Grim begins establishing secure channels with the Elysium fleet allowing the stations targeting array to transmit data to the allied ships. He then hails the fleet. “Teucer and Ivan, it’s been a while since we fought pirates on Heras together. Hell, most those former pirates now serve on board this very station and have turned into amazing crew members. How have you guys been? To those in the Elysium Protectorate I have not yet met greetings. I look forward to working with you to free these people.”

Deleted User

(rolled a 12 for prog int, don't know if any ship crew gets +2 or only if they were my NPCs, I have no authority focus)

(+2 is the correct modifier. the Comms officer would have a +1 prog and +1 Int.) (edited)

The Wycerim smoothly enters real space again and Katalin leaves the pilot seat to get over to the captain's chair. "Nothing is as satisfying as finishing a spike jump smoothly. Everyone get ready. And, well, I am the captain but I guess our beloved General Sandwich has the last words here, and I think the other big cats in the ring want to talk to you. Let the flame be with us, or something like that."

Enemy ships are detected, a dozen of them and crowning the fleet looks to be their damaged super carrier , pulled from other fighting to refit here. Though it is damaged , nothing prevents it from lofting wing after wing of fighters to harass the incoming ships

8:04 AM

8:06 AM

The others are a mix of lighter displacement vessels, two free merchants acting as fleet oilers Three patrol boats acting as fleet pickets and anti fighter support Three frigates with a mix of medium powered weapons , A heavy frigate and a cruiser form the heart of the punch of this fleet , and they look to be screening a heavily damaged logistics cruiser

Admiral Valentina Spiros stands in the Combat Information Center on the Typhon. Set deep in the heart of the ship, she has terabytes of information at her fingertips. Calmly she presses a button and speaks to Daira. "Captain, deploy the carrier fleet" Pressing a second button, she opens a channel to the wider fleet. "Admiral Spiros to all hands. Battle Stations. Battle Stations. Prepare to close with the enemy fleet. Standby for target priority list." Turning to one of the analysts in the CIC she continues. "Get me combat profiles and damage estimates for each of those ships"

(lets get initiatives for the ships here)

(For our NPC controlled ships - do you want one initiative roll each or do you want them grouped in some way? We have 12 carrier-bound fighters, 2 carrier-bound HFs, and 6 standalone HFs)

(the fighters are squadroned, so we will have one roll controlling them, everyone else needs their own initiative roll so we don't have one side alpha striking the other)

(The way we have done fighters in the last couple of combats is to squadron them as neko said. They will all act on one initiative, each individual fighter gets its own CP value to use and attack with. Please note that unless you have the ability to put multiple people in the fighter it can only act in one department during a turn. The fighters combine their health pool and enemy ships only need to target the squadron of fighters instead of each one individually) (edited)

1

(EP NPC Ship initiatives, in descending order:) (edit for formatting) (second edit: broke the fighter squad in half, 2x6, after seeing Iracus' question in #help; rolled initiative for that new chunk)

Ship                    Hull         Initiative (1d8+1)
----------------------------------------------------------
Elysium of Orthrus      Heavy Frigate        8
Elysium of Thjodhild    Heavy Frigate        8
Elysia Typhonis 1       Heavy Frigate        8
Asteria fighter sqd 1      Fighter           8
Elysium of Astyoche     Heavy Frigate        7
Elysium of Achilles     Heavy Frigate        7
Elysium of Salamis      Heavy Frigate        7
Asteria fighter sqd 2      Fighter           6
Elysia Typhonis 2       Heavy Frigate        6
Elysium of Centaur      Heavy Frigate        2

(edited)

(3 for the Wycerim, sorry)

(3 for the Typhon)

!roll d8+2 Ultimatum

Nekosmash Roll: [1] Result: 3

!roll 2d8 FM

Nekosmash Roll: [5, 1] Result: 6

!roll 3d8 PB

Nekosmash Roll: [6, 3, 1] Result: 10

!roll 3d8 big bois

Nekosmash Roll: [8, 6, 1] Result: 15

Teucer Rayce ~~CA Cruiser ( critical damaged)~~ ~~CA FM 1~~ Orthus Thojhild ~~CA Corvette 1~~ Typhonis 1 ~~CA Bombers (critical damaged )~~ Asteria Squadron 1 ~~CA Fighters (Damaged)~~ Astyoche Achilles ~~CA Corvette 2 (Damaged)~~ Salamis ~~CA Heavy Frigate (moderate damage)~~ ~~CA Patrol Boat (critical damage)~~ Asteria 2 ~~CA Corvette 3~~ Typhonis 2 LLF Platforn Typhon ~~CA FM 2~~ CA Carrier Wycerin ~~CA Patrol Boat 2~~ ~~CA Patrol Boat 3~~ CA LogCruiser (edited)

Nekosmash pinned a message to this channel. 6/6/2022 10:33 AM

(We're just waiting on Teucer and Rayce initiatives. Do you have a list of speeds for the Chimeran ships for the attack rolls?)

(Teucer, Rayce, and the LLF ships)

(9 for Teucer's HF)

4

(he free merchants and log cruiser are 1 The carrier, cruiser and heavy frigate are 2 , the corvette and patrol boats are 3, the bombers are 4, the fighters are 4 )

Nekosmash pinned a message to this channel. 6/6/2022 11:12 AM

(I think you are missing the supercarrier in the initiative list)

11:24 AM

(Speed list for EP/LLF ships: Typhon and Paivatar are 0, the Elysium of X heavy frigates and Wycerim are 1, Elysia Typhonis ships are 3, and the Asteria squadrons are 5 Paivatar, Wycerim, the Elysia Typhonis, and the Asteria all have emergency thrusters for +2 speed for 3 rounds)

(I just need initiative for the LLF stuff and the list is done)

!roll 1d8

Grim Roll: [4] Result: 4

(4)

(only Rayce left to roll)

(what ship is this for Grim, is only the platform here or do you have others)

!roll 1d8

Rayce Stardust Roll: [8] Result: 8

(Just the platform. I wanted to take Euclids bulwark as well but I believe it’s tied up at preceptor archive mission)

)it is. I’ll finish the list and we can get going

4:18 PM

(Teucer is first

I just think we go for a full battery firing on one of the enemy main ships while our flak guns focus on the fighters.

(Yep, we will see what Teucer does)

(Was it just the 3 CA Patrol boats? there are 4 in the initiative list) Admiral Spiros receives a message on her terminal listing the threat profiles of the opposing ships and a suggested target order. "Transmitting target priority list now. Elysia Typhonis are to use Flak against fighters and main armaments as per the target list"

1. Log Cruiser 
2. Carrier
3. Cruiser
4. HF
5. Corvette
6. Patrol boats
7. Free Merchant

Wounded targets are to be prioritised 
Heavy Frigates are to clear the field for the Cruiser to engage opposing heavy displacement

(edited)

(Fixed )

Elysia Typhonis (Teucer's) CP 5/5 Support department: Gunnery (0CP) Volley Capacitors: (+4CP) CP 9/5 Fire All weapons (-1CP) Fire All Weapons (-3CP) Fire All Weapons (-3CP) Crash Systems (-2CP) - CA Cruiser - vs 9 Wpn 1 Torpedo Launcher - Corvette 1 18/22 13/11 26/12 (AP20) Total: 34 Ammo 5/8 Wpn 2 Torpedo Launcher -Corvette 1 22/13 10/18 25/20 (AP20) Total: 33 Ammo 5/8 Wpn 3 Flak Battery - CA Bombers 18/11 23/7 27/10 (AP10, Flak) - Total 28 damage CP 0/5 (edited)

!roll 2d6+3

Nekosmash Roll: [6, 4] Result: 13

1

(Beating the crash systems )

7:20 PM

Corvette 1 is entirely destroyed and two binders are knocked out of the air by the incoming hail of weapons fire. Crews cheer as the EP scores a quick victory.

1

7:21 PM

(Rayce is up)

Starting CP: 7 Captain: Support Department - Gunnery (0 CP) Volley Capacitors - Gunnery +4 CP Gunnery: Fire All Guns (1 CP) Gunnery: Fire All Guns (3 CP) Gunnery: Fire All Guns (3 CP) Gunnery: Fire All Guns (3 CP) Gunnery: Target Systems (1 CP) Torpedo attacks (AP 20) vs. CA Cruiser (10/16) (22/18) (8/16) (12/8) (16/9) (15/18) (12/15) (7/11) Torpedo attack vs. CA Carrier Weapons (Crit!/38, half-damage makes it 19) Flak Emitter attacks (AP 10, Flak) vs. CA Bombers (13/10) (16/9) (12/8) (23/8)

The carrier's ECM field blooms at the torpedo impact, and the hit is shrugged off. Veils of light, and bleeding energy halo the ship as it continues riding out the blow. The cruiser fares worse, a torpedo taking it amidship and exploding, opening two decks to the void and starting fires on the ones above and below it. The captain of that vessel is going to be making several hard choices over the next few minutes. The Flak cannons knock two Chimeran bombers out of the air as the nimble assault ships come into weapons range. The remainder of the formation remains on target, leaving their stricken wingmen behind to the cold mercies of space.

7:18 PM

The Chimeran cruiser begins turning its mighty guns onto the ship that wounded it. Rayce's vessel is bracketed, and several shots from the trio of grav cannons on its barnacled back fire in response.

7:18 PM

(fire all guns, 3cp)

7:19 PM

!roll 3d20+2

Nekosmash Roll: [19, 12, 7] Result: 40

!roll 4d6

Nekosmash Roll: [5, 5, 3, 2] Result: 15

!roll 4d6

Nekosmash Roll: [6, 5, 2, 1] Result: 14

(22/15 and 14/14 on the Astrea, the third shot is a clear miss. This puts you at 1HP if you do not take a crisis on one of those hits.) The mighty ship begins its own electronic warfare against the Orthus, hoping to blind one of the enemy ships in formation.

7:21 PM

!roll 2d6+2

Nekosmash Roll: [2, 1] Result: 5

(Crash systems 5 v ? on Orthus, We'll see who wins that, and what Rayce does vis-a-vis the crisis, and then I'll take the CA Free Merchant's turn)

(Orthus 9 vs. CA Cruiser Crash Systems 5, beats it)

(Great, just need to see if Rayce takes a crisis, and then the FM will be up. Don't want to overload the thread with info)

( @Rayce Stardust if you're taking a crisis, you may ignore one of those hits, and roll a D10 instead, and the result will be a problem your ship is experiencing instead, ranging from crew loss, to damage to a system, to an important crew member in peril )

(We need to make a correction here. Rayce, as Teucer, sit in an Elysia Typhonis, the Carrier's own Heavy Frigates, of which we have two player controlled(Rayce and Teucer) and two NPC controlled. Sorry for the confusion. With its AC of 17, Rayce is left with 35 HP if he takes the only hit. Or takes a crisis to negate all damage done, but has a crisis to deal with.)

(Additionally Gunnery:Target Systems, does not work like it was used, at least in my understanding. It must be paired with a "Fire One Weapon" Action. It is like an extra CP to aim more precisely. That means we can cross that crit out, and the Carrier gets their ECM Burst back, for later use.)

(A crisis negates one hit, not all hits)

(you just hit once. THe AC is 17)

(got it)

7:27 AM

(okay, so am I moving on, or do we need to wait. I am a bit lost as to w hat you're telling me here)

(Rayce needs to decide if he wants to take the hit, or take a crisis. So he either has 50HP and a Crisis, or 35HP and no cirsis. And the 'Gunnery:Target System' needs to be crossed out, it doesn't work that way. So the CA Carrier was not hit and still has his ECM Burst.)

(Alright, so rayce can figure that out and we will move on)

7:30 AM

The Chimeran free merchant begins firing up its drives, prepareing to try to exit the system as fast as possible. (escape combat, 4cp)

7:30 AM

!roll 2d6+3

Nekosmash Roll: [6, 4] Result: 13

(anyone who wants to chase takes a pilot/int or dex + ship speed, and has to beat a 13, otherwise the FM has one point of escape on you)

7:31 AM

(Orthus is up)

Questions are raised on the bridge of the Orthus, for a target deviation to stop the escaping Free Merchant, but the Captain of the Orthus refuses to give orders to shoot the fleeing Oiler. Instead, he says something along the lines of them fleeing is just showing that they are wise to not cross paths with the superior Elysian fleet. Instead, another target is chosen. The Heavy Frigate of the CA Fleet. And immediately Torpedoes get launched and Plasma beams shot.

Starting CP 5

Captain: Support Department  - Gunnery (0 CP)
Gunnery: Fire All Guns (1 CP)
Gunnery: Fire All Guns (3 CP)

Wpn 1 Torpedo Launcher - CA Heavy Frigate
(6/-) (6/-)  6 Ammo left

Wpn 2 Plasma Beam - CA Heavy Frigate
(22/17)AP10    (12/13) AP10

Wpn 3 Plasma Beam - CA Heavy Frigate
(19/10)AP10          (16/4)AP10

Wpn 4 Multifocal Laser - CA Bombers
(11/-) (11/-)

(7damage from beam 2 gets in beam 3 hits but armor is soaking it) (edited)

Seeing their sister ship fail to do much Damage to the enemy fleet. The crew of the Thjodhild tries to do better, with a different angle to the enemy fleet.

Starting CP 5

Captain: Support Department  - Gunnery (0 CP)
Gunnery: Fire All Guns (1 CP)
Gunnery: Fire All Guns (3 CP)

Wpn 1 Torpedo Launcher - CA Heavy Frigate
(9/14) (18/13)AP20  6 Ammo left

Wpn 2 Plasma Beam - CA Bombers
(21/11)AP10    (21/10) AP10

Wpn 3 Plasma Beam - CA Bombers
(crit/17)AP10          (9/12)AP10

Wpn 4 Multifocal Laser - CA Heavy Frigate
(23/5)AP20 (21/3)AP20

(most hits, doing some math)

Only one of the bombers remains, and light damage spreads across the Heavy Frigate. The battle looks to be roughly even thus far, as this initial trading of fury is a bit subdued.

10:48 AM

The critically damaged bomber makes its bombing run on the Orchus, fractal impact charges deploying to try to explode against hull plates.

10:48 AM

!roll d20+2

Nekosmash Roll: [9] Result: 11

(missing with an 11)

10:49 AM

The high speed bombing run misses, as the bomber streaks away, to try to turn and make another solo run soon.

10:49 AM

(asteria is up)

(The Typhonis 1 should have come before the bomber!)

(take its turn , i missed everything anyway so no sense rolling it back)

"By Ognyena, Chimerans dying at a moment's notice. So much death here." Daira is ripped out of her thoughts by Admiral Spiros behind her. "Captain Artema, our ships await instructions, there is no time to be wasted. Ognyena will be with you." Daira nods and quickly starts to call the targets to strike. "Typhonis, activate capacitors. Get rid of some of those fighters, before they get into position to hurt us. And make a quick strike against the Chimeran Corvette closest to you. Strike true, Strike well. Asteria Squadron One. Pick off all the remaining Fighters, then bring fire to the rest of their fleet. Don't get hit, stay in motion, like a flame in the wind. May the flame in all our hearts guide your attacks. And may our guns be like the thunder of the gods. Ognyena will protect you all." The captain of the Elysia Typhonis 1 quickly acts on this and starts the volley capacators.

Starting CP 5

Volley Capacitors (+4 to Gunnery)
Captain: Support Department  - Gunnery (0 CP)
Gunnery: Fire All Guns (1 CP)
Gunnery: Fire All Guns (3 CP)
Gunnery: Fire All Guns (3 CP)
Com: Crash System      (2 CP)

Wpn 1 Torpedo Launcher - CA Corvette 2
(16/20)  (18/11)  (7/14) AP20  5 Ammo left

Wpn 2 Torpedo Launcher - CA Corvette 2
(17/9)  (11/9)  (7/13) AP20  5 Ammo left

Wpn 3 Flak - CA Fighters
(20/7) (crit/21) (crit/15)

Crash System: Carrier 9

!roll 2d6+2

Nekosmash Roll: [5, 3] Result: 10

(9 v 10, carrier is okay)

3:01 PM

Several of the enemy fighters are destroyed by the much larger EP ship, and do not have much of a chance to defend themselves or participate in the battle before being taken out. Corvette 2 is moderately damaged, but still looks to have some fight left in it.

3:02 PM

(I believe my fighters are up now? )

(ours are)

(Didn't they just go?)

3:07 PM

(oh that was Typhonis, okay, Asteria)

(Time to let it rain Torpedoes) The successful hits and the destruction, the danger and the fear of death, almost get Daira into an energetic ecstasy. "Asteria Squadron One, let it rain Torpedoes! Light up the sky! The Chimerans need to be driven back! What they do is endangering the order and balance that our Prophetess always envisioned for us. We will be her spear tip now!" As she says this and with those same words wishes the crews of the enemy ships, death. For just a quick second, a glimpse of a moment, the blink of an eye, a shadowy aura forms around her, and embraces her, before dissipating as fast as it appeared. Happening mostly unnoticed to the rest of the crew on the bridge of the Typhon, as they are bound to their screens and controls to stay ahead of this space fight. Meanwhile the Pilots and Gunners of the Asteria Typhonis Fighter Squadron One, get their targeting vectors. As they most likely are not firm with the Prophetess and her sayings or Ognyena, they don't think twice about Daira's words, and instead just act on the order. To let it rain death and destruction. Nimble like a Stygian Forest Rat they evade enemy fire and use other ships as cover before they joust forward like the sting of Hergudr's Giant Amethyst Scorpions. And then strike with the force of Tecmessa's Sand Snakes. All six fan out, and at a moment's notice, Torpedoes light up the sky.

2:06 AM

Starting CP for each Fighter 5

All act the same:

Activate Volley Capacitors (+4 to Gunnery) (9CP for Gunnery)
Captain: Support Department  - Gunnery (0 CP)
Gunnery: Fire One Weapon (0 CP)
Gunnery: Fire One Weapon (2 CP)
Gunnery: Fire One Weapon (2 CP)
Gunnery: Fire One Weapon (2 CP)
Gunnery: Fire One Weapon (2 CP)
Activate Emergency Thruster boost +2 Speed for Three rounds, new Speed 7

All Torpedoes are AP20

Fighter 1 Torpedo Launcher - CA Fighters
(miss)(miss)(miss)(miss)(miss) 3 Ammo left


Fighter 2 Torpedo Launcher - CA Fighters
(22/12) (18/6) (19/14) (6/12) (8/15) 3 Ammo left 
if 18 hits it is 32 Damage AP20


Fighter 3 Torpedo Launcher - CA Corvette 2
(10/16) (8/12) (14/12) (10/11) (12/20) 3 Ammo left
if 14+ hits it is 12 AP20 dmg


Fighter 4 Torpedo Launcher - CA Corvette 2
(5/14) (18/15) (7/17) (16/15) (16/12) 3 Ammo left
if 16+ hits it is 42 AP20 dmg | if 18 hits it is 15 AP20 dmg


Fighter 5 Torpedo Launcher - CA Patrol Boat 1
(21/14) (11/15) (17/11) (4/22) (13/23) 3 Ammo Left
if 17+ hits, it is 25 AP20 dmg


Fighter 6 Torpedo Launcher - CA Corvette 3
(4/13) (14/19) (19/4) (4/23) (17/16) 3 Ammo Left
if 14+ hits it is 39 dmg, if 17+ hits it is 20 dmg

(edited)

Corvette 6 and 3, along with the fighters are destroyed by the well aimed volley of torpedoes.

8:08 AM

(I think the bombers are finally up)

(CA Fighters - well if they were alive, misread your post lol) (edited)

(bombers missed their shot, it was the 11 before the Typhonis. The fighters never get to shoot as they got roasted now. Elysium of Astyoche is up now. Sorry Neko, taking away all your ships before they get to shoot something.)

1

(Go for it)

With every ship going up in flames, the defense of the Carrier, Cruiser and Logistics ship begins two dwindle. And a last precise strike against their heavy ships was underway. But the remaining ships of the Elysium class were tasked to free the shooting field, and turn more Chimeran ships to debris.

Elysium of Achilles

Starting CP 5

Captain: Support Department  - Gunnery (0 CP)
Gunnery: Fire All Guns (1 CP)
Gunnery: Fire All Guns (3 CP)

Wpn 1 Torpedo Launcher - CA Heavy Frigate
(17/14) (10/9)AP20  6 Ammo left
14 damage if 17 hits


Wpn 2 Plasma Beam - CA Heavy Frigate
(18/13)AP10    (23/8) AP10
3 damage against 20 armor


Wpn 3 Plasma Beam - CA HEavy Frigate
(18/10)AP10          (5/8)AP10
0 damage against 20 armor


Wpn 4 Multifocal Laser - CA Bombers
(21/3)AP20 (20/2)AP20
5dmg

(Elysium of Astyoche next) (edited)

(3 damage on the heavy frigate)

Elysium of Astyoche

Starting CP 5

Captain: Support Department  - Gunnery (0 CP)
Gunnery: Fire All Guns (1 CP)
Gunnery: Fire All Guns (3 CP)

Wpn 1 Torpedo Launcher - CA Heavy Frigate
(20/19) (13/19)AP20  6 Ammo left
19 damage AP20


Wpn 2 Plasma Beam - CA Heavy Frigate
(23/11)AP10    (5/14) AP10
1 damage against 20 armor


Wpn 3 Plasma Beam - CA Patrol Boat 1
(13/11)AP10          (22/9)AP10
9 damage AP10


Wpn 4 Multifocal Laser - CA Patrol Boat 1
(miss)(miss)

(Elysium of Salamis next)

The heavy frigate takes a bit more damage, and the patrol boat is lightly damaged as the storm of fire continues against the enemy.

12:22 PM

(I don't think i got to take the corvettes turn, its damaged, but not destroyed, so I should be going before the Salamis) (edited)

12:23 PM

(I see what I did

12:23 PM

(proceed)

(Before we forget about it, can we get CA Patrol Boat 3's crossout removed?)

(and our ships shouldn't be crossed out either. There were no losses. Corvette 2 should be destroyed.)

(i don't see any of your ships crossed out)

12:38 PM

(I'm not sure why this one is so much harder to keep straigh tthan the others. Let me know what to do next then)

(Okay, we totaled this up and I don't think there's any change in terms of ships destroyed, a bit more or less damage on mine, but nothing extra has been broken)

9:26 AM

(so, I guess Salamis is up? )

(Yes! Also, CA Corvette 3 is destroyed, but CA Patrol Boat 3 is still alive and unhurt! Just to keep the pinned list up to date)

Elysium of Salamis

Starting CP 5

Captain: Support Department  - Gunnery (0 CP)
Gunnery: Fire All Guns (1 CP)
Gunnery: Fire All Guns (3 CP)

---
Wpn 1 Torpedo Launcher - CA Heavy Frigate
(6/miss), (10/miss) - 6 Ammo left

---
Wpn 2 Plasma Beam - CA Patrol Boat 1
(14/14), (21/12)
If 14+ hits, 26 damage AP10
Otherwise, 12 damage AP10

Wpn 3 Plasma Beam - CA Patrol Boat 1
(16/15), (8/miss)
If 16 hits, 15 damage AP10

Wpn 4 Multifocal Laser - CA Patrol Boat 1
(16/5), (5/miss)
If 16 hits, 5 damage AP20

The first patrol boat is further damaged , almost pushed to the point of destruction in a haul of intense weapons fire.

6:41 AM

(I show my heavy frigate next in the turn order )

(Yes, bring on the pain!)

Focusing on the only wounded protectorate ship in the formation the heavy frigate fires two torpedoes at the vessel piloted by Rayce and his crew. .

6:27 AM

!roll 2d20+1

Nekosmash Roll: [9, 6] Result: 16

Both shots sail wide as the vessel preps one more to send out, knowing a reload will not be something it will likely live to see.

6:27 AM

!roll d20+1

Nekosmash Roll: [14] Result: 15

(If a 15 doesn’t hurt that kind of vessel I am done. You said he isn’t on the ship he said he was but I don’t know where that puts him)

(An Elysia Typhonis, of which we have 4. One Captained by Rayce, one by Teucer, 2 by NPC. AC is 17, so no hit. CA Patrol Boat 1 should be up next)

The patrol boat looks to be attempring the same, opening fire.

7:44 AM

!roll 3d20+1

Nekosmash Roll: [13, 9, 3] Result: 26

Those beams also miss, sailing off harmlessly into space and do not connect with the Protectorate vessel.

7:44 AM

(Asteria 2)

With most of the opposition out of the way, or disturbed, the Second Asteria Fighter Squadron flies forward, closer to the Carrier and Logistics Cruiser, to try and disable them.

Starting CP for each Fighter 5

All act the same:


Captain: Support Department  - Comms (0 CP)
Comms: Crash Systems (0 CP)
Comms: Crash Systems (2 CP)
Comms: Crash Systems (2 CP)

Activate Emergency Thruster boost +2 Speed for Three rounds, new Speed 7



Fighter 1 Crash Systems - CA Carrier
vs12; vs9; vs8


Fighter 2 Crash Systems - CA Carrier
vs12; vs6; vs13


Fighter 3 Crash Systems - CA Carrier
vs8; vs5; vs9

Fighter 4 Crash Systems - CA Logistics Cruiser
vs10; vs14; vs6

Fighter 5 Crash Systems - CA Logistics Cruiser
vs8; vs12; vs12

Fighter 6 Crash Systems - CA Logistics Cruiser
vs9; vs9; vs9

!roll 6d6+2

Nekosmash Roll: [6, 6, 5, 5, 2, 1] Result: 27

(14 v 12 , 12 v 6 5 v 13 for the first set)

8:31 AM

!roll 6d6+2

Nekosmash Roll: [6, 5, 4, 4, 1, 1] Result: 23

(two pass, one fail on the second)

8:31 AM

!roll 6d6+2

Nekosmash Roll: [4, 4, 3, 2, 2, 1] Result: 18

(two pass one fail on the third, so -3 command on the carrier)

8:32 AM

!roll 9 2d6+2 !CA LogCruiser opposed Crash Systems

Nekosmash Rolls: [5, 2] Result: 9 [6, 1] Result: 9 [6, 2] Result: 10 [6, 4] Result: 12 [4, 2] Result: 8 [6, 2] Result: 10 [6, 5] Result: 13 [3, 1] Result: 6 [4, 1] Result: 7 Reason: CA LogCruiser opposed Crash Systems

( looks like the opposite to me, so log cruiser is entirely jammed)

8:33 AM

(Typhonis 2)

The last of the Elysia Typhonis comes into position to remove even more opposition.

Elysia Typhonis 2

Volley Capacitors (+4 to Gunnery)
Captain: Support Department  - Gunnery (0 CP)
Gunnery: Fire All Guns (1 CP)
Gunnery: Fire All Guns (3 CP)
Gunnery: Fire All Guns (3 CP)
Com: Crash System      (2 CP)

Wpn 1 Torpedo Launcher - CA Heavy Frigate
(10/13)  (14/16)  (crit/23) AP20  5 Ammo left

Wpn 2 Torpedo Launcher - CA Fleet Cruiser
(22/12)  (15/17)  (23/23) AP20  5 Ammo left

Wpn 3 Flak - CA Bombers
(21/13) (18/9) (20/6)

Crash System: Carrier vs11

!roll 2d6+2

Nekosmash Roll: [4, 4] Result: 10

*Carrier is more jammed)

9:11 AM

Damage continues to spread across the heavy frigate and cruiser, further pushing them close to the brink of destruction as another wave of explosives crashes against their armor.

9:11 AM

(LLF platform is up)

Starting CP for Paivatar +5


Activate Volley Capacitors (+4 to Gunnery) (9CP for Gunnery)
Captain: Support Department  - Gunnery (0 CP)
Gunnery: Fire One Weapon (0 CP)
Gunnery: Fire One Weapon (2 CP)
Gunnery: Fire One Weapon (2 CP)
Gunnery: Fire One Weapon (2 CP)
Gunnery: Fire One Weapon (2 CP)
Activate Emergency Thruster boost +2 Speed for Three rounds, new Speed   3

Shot 1: 20/11
Shot 2: 18/32
Shot 3: 19/35
Shot 4: 12/38
Shot 5: 14/48

All are AP20

(edited)

5:36 PM

!roll 5 1d20+3-0-0+2 !Paivatar (E-Thrust Active) Vortex Tunnel Inducer (AP20, Clumsy) vs CA Supercarrier

Grim Rolls: [15] Result: 20 [13] Result: 18 [14] Result: 19 [7] Result: 12 [9] Result: 14 Reason: Paivatar (E-Thrust Active) Vortex Tunnel Inducer (AP20, Clumsy) vs CA Supercarrier

!roll 5 3d20+1 !Paivatar Vortex Tunnel Inducer damage vs CA Supercarrier

Grim Rolls: [4, 4, 2] Result: 11 [19, 10, 2] Result: 32 [20, 9, 5] Result: 35 [15, 12, 10] Result: 38 [19, 17, 11] Result: 48 Reason: Paivatar Vortex Tunnel Inducer damage vs CA Supercarrier

(Shot 1 hits )

5:29 AM

One of the grav shots hits the side of the carrier, doing light damage but nothing close to imperiling it.

5:30 AM

(Typhon)

As the Typhon Carrier finally comes in position to strike, Daira shouts as she has heard so often from the other ships: "Activate our Volley Capacitors, fire all our weapon on this Carrier, show them that we have the superior ship!" Her look gets answered by disbelief from the ship's crew. And shortly after, she hears Admiral Spiros from behind her. "This ship is not equipped with such Capacitors, and we only have one large weapon, and Flak installed. This is a Carrier, not a Battleship, Captain Artema." Daira turns red and almost whispers her actual orders now.

Typhon Carrier  5CP

Captain: Support Department  - Gunnery (0 CP)
Gunnery: Fire One Gun   (0 CP)
Gunnery: Fire All Guns  (3 CP)
Com: Crash System       (2 CP)

Wpn 1 Spike Inversion Projector - CA Carrier
(21/13)  (18/15) AP15  

Wpn 2 Flak - CA Bombers
(miss)

Crash System: Carrier vs11

(edited)

The carrier is lightly damaged by the shot as its crew likewise tries to do something about the incoming jamming.

8:21 AM

!roll 2d6+2

Nekosmash Roll: [6, 4] Result: 12

(passes)

8:22 AM

The second of the Free Merchants in the Chimeran fleet looks to be running, coming about and making for the core worlds

8:22 AM

!roll 2d6+2

Nekosmash Roll: [3, 1] Result: 6

(escape combat, should be an 8, forgot to add speed)

8:23 AM

The Chimeran Carrier continues to pound on the wounded Protectorate vessel, (the same typhonis, I think?? ) , firing all five of its mass cannons at the wounded ship in the attempt to send the protectorate home with at least one loss.

8:23 AM

!roll 5d20+2

Nekosmash Roll: [18, 14, 12, 11, 8] Result: 65

!roll 2d20

Nekosmash Roll: [19, 2] Result: 21

(non nat 20/21 AP 20)

!roll 1d10

Rayce Stardust Roll: [5] Result: 5

Fuel Bleed: The ship’s fuel tanks have been holed or emergency vents have been force-triggered by battle damage. If not resolved by the end of the next round, the ship will jettison all fuel except the minimal amount needed for in-system operation

4:03 PM

(Wycerin is up, and when we hit our next round, Rayce can make a decision on dealing with that or not)

Using my Captain ability to resolve that crisis. I command the damage control team to quickly seal the vents and feel tanks with the appropriate materials in order to prevent further loss of fuel.

(Captain as in star captain, or the captain station 'deal with a crisis' )

(The star captain deal with a crisis thing sorry)

(That works, thank you. Wycerin up) (edited)

The looming threat for the Chimeran fleet, that has been waiting in dark corner of space, finally lights up their weapons as Captain Katalin Lipnitskaya commands the attack. Or rather leans back, pretty chilled in her captains seat. "Alright. We are here for one reason. Not for barrel rolls, not for electronic warfare. We are here to show them just how fancy our ship weaponry looks when it is fully charged. Pilot, keep us on a stable course around their carrier, I'll help you if you are having trouble. Comms, how about some Taros' Techno? That should numb them way more than any attack on their systems. And Tech, all energy to our guns, if we make fools of ourself by sending shots into the void, we can all say that General Sandwich did a poor job." With some commands by her, Ivan can see that he has all personnel and energy available that he could have dreamed about during a food coma. "Fire away, Ivan"

Wycerim 5CP

Space Captain Katalin +2CP

Activate Volley Capacitors (+4CP for Gunnery)

Support Department: Gunnery (-2CP on an action)

(Gunnery has an effective 13 CP to use)

(good luck Ivan)

1

It is quiet on the gunner deck as the volley capacitors fire on, increasing the ambient temperature greatly. Only red-colored, low-powered lights shine throughout, and simple status updates are called out. "All power to the spinal beam cannon, engine output at 15% and decreasing." "Targeting data received from the Paivatar, along with suggested corrections from the fleet." "Torpedoes armed! Q-cladding dropped! Your show, General Wyke!" Ivan sits in the main targeting station, a gyroscopic contraption that orients to face the target. The seat turns as the whole of the Wycerim faces the supercarrier, its hidden payload itching to be released. He has a blank look, one of terrible calmness before a horrific storm. Behind him, taped to the station rear wall, are pictures and mementos of the gunnery department in full view of the holoprojector that feeds to the bridge and ship's blackbox. Family portraits, snapshots of pets, religious necklaces, bracelets, and other iconography, and even some two-for-one fast food coupons all hang behind Ivan, reminders of what they were fighting for and what they all were to go home to. Ivan takes hold of the firing trigger and says a few words. "Let the Chimerans know - they made a grave mistake in assuming we were just a normal freighter." A click and a press - the entire ship's power systems begin to flicker and falter as death rains through the void.

6:09 PM

Wycerim - Gunnery

Summary at bottom

Fire All Guns - 1 CP
Fire All Guns - 3 CP
Fire All Guns - 3 CP
Fire All Guns - 3 CP

Spinal Beam Cannon (AP15) vs CA Supercarrier
(22/27)
(32/31)
(33/20) (original damage 12, used reroll token)
(22/27)

Both Torpedo Launchers (AP20) vs CA Supercarrier
(33/10)        (23/20)
(34/10)        (34/9)
(24/18)        (21/16)
(28/12)        (24/23)
(4 torpedoes remain in each magazine)

Mag Spike Array (AP10) vs CA Supercarrier
(19/9) (miss?)
(23/11)

Mag Spike Array (AP10) vs remaining CA Bomber
(27/15)
(29/9)
(6 rounds remain in Mag Spike Array)


SUMMARY, assuming Supercarrier AC 20:
105 damage @ AP 15 (dmg rolls: 27, 31, 20, 27)
118 damage @ AP 20 (dmg rolls: 10, 10, 18, 12, 20, 9, 16, 23)
11 damage @ AP 10 (only one hit)

Against CA Bomber:
24 damage @ AP 10 (dmg rolls: 15, 9)

(Edit - formatting, added individual damage rolls to summary, changed "miss" for Target Systems to what I rolled) (Next day edit - removed Target Systems action and attack, I was using it wrong!) (edited)

2

2

2

6:12 PM

(Side note: dice rolls show that emergency thrusters were on; this isn't the case, it was a checkbox I forgot to remove on my google sheet. On or off, it made no difference in the speed differential)

(I’m going to have to do quite a bit of math here. I’ll have a resolution here by tomorrow )

The carrier's ECM field flashes at the incoming fire, soaking the barrage of torpedoes and leaving the carried veiled in electronic static, chaff exhaust, and billowing strands of aluminum sheeting meant to confuse missiles, scatter lasers, and otherwise throw solid debris in the way of incoming attacks.

7:11 AM

(even with heavy armor i dont want to take all that damage unless I have to)

(is that last bomber still alive?)

(So that entire barrage just went up in smoke?)

(ECM negates one hit, so I'm taking the 23 there, and since it is the flagship, it can take a crisis, which I'm doing for the 20. The heavy armor soaks some of the damage for the ones that do go through)

1

7:44 AM

!roll d10

Nekosmash Roll: [8] Result: 8

Deleted User

(is that last bomber still alive?)

(no)

1

(Next up is CA Patrol Boat 2)

The patrol boat and its companions have been given little attention so far this battle, and loaded with extra weapons due to some impressive modifications by its mosk engineers, the ship fires its flak battery and plasma beams into the void. The flak chases fighters, while the beams continue pounding on the damaged Protectorate vessel, hoping to send the fleet home with a casualty.

9:11 AM

(fire all guns, fire one gun , so flak will fire twice)

9:11 AM

!roll 2d20-2 !Flak on Asteria 1

Nekosmash Roll: [8, 3] Result: 9 Reason: Flak on Asteria 1

!roll 2d20+2 !Rayce Ship Pbeams

Nekosmash Roll: [13, 13] Result: 28 Reason: Rayce Ship Pbeams

(I think those ships are AC 17, so everything misses)

(~~CA Patrol Boat 3 next~~ did you fire flak twice? then you should get 4 hit rolls. Flak rolls double against Fighters and takes the better result) (edited)

!roll 2d20-2

Nekosmash Roll: [16, 8] Result: 22

(def gonna take the 16)

9:31 AM

!roll 2d6

Nekosmash Roll: [6, 3] Result: 9

(16/9 on Asteria 1)

(Miss, AC 18)

(CA Patrol Boat 3 next)

(same move for 3, ill do flak first)

9:44 AM

!roll 4d20-2

Nekosmash Roll: [18, 17, 16, 10] Result: 59

!roll 2d6

Nekosmash Roll: [3, 2] Result: 5

(18/5 on Asteria 1 from flak)

9:45 AM

The twin plasma beams lock in on the same target, continuing to volley fire with their companions

(roll damage twice as well)

!roll 2d6

Nekosmash Roll: [5, 2] Result: 7

1

(and take the higher, for flak)

(7)

9:45 AM

!roll 2d20+2

Nekosmash Roll: [16, 4] Result: 22

(missing entirely)

9:46 AM

(okay, and the log cruiser is I think entirely jammed, so top of the order)

(one Asteria Typhonis from Squad 1 is heavily damaged from the Flak Barrage, Teucer next)

Captain: Above and Beyond - Leadership Teucer stands on the bridge of the ship. "Gunnery prepare for a barrage. We need to end this fight before we lose an Elysia Typhonis. Lets push the weapons to the limit here." (Can I use leadership/Wis?) (edited)

!roll 2d6+4 !Leadership/Char (+1 if using wis)

Teucer Roll: [6, 3] Result: 13 Reason: Leadership/Char (+1 if using wis)

Above and beyond success - +5 CP 
10 CP 
Gunnery: 
Fire All guns - 3 CP 
Fire All guns - 3 CP 
Fire All guns - 3 CP 

Wpn 1 Torpedo Launcher - Cruiser 
13/miss  23/13 9/miss (AP20) Total: 13
Ammo 2/8
Wpn 2 Torpedo Launcher - Cruiser
14/miss  20/15  21/15  (AP20) Total: 15
Ammo 2/8
Wpn 3 Flak Battery - Patrol boat 1
16/4 13/11 26/11   (AP10)

(edited)

(Yes you can use wis)

10:38 AM

(ECM on the cruiser is going to eat one of those 15's but two hits are scored)

10:39 AM

The heavily damaged cruiser fires its last defensive fitting to send one of the torpedoes spiraling off course , though two of the ship killing warheads manage to penetrate and spread damage down the superstructure of the vessel.

(Rayce up next)

(added the flak battery shots onto PB1 and so ends my turn)

(Some damage on PB1, nothing dead)

2:06 PM

)Rayce is still up)

Support Department - Gunnery (0CP) Fire All Guns (1 CP) Fire All Guns (3 CP) Fire All Guns (3 CP) All attacks on the Cruiser Torpedo Attack Rolls: [2] Result: 10 [16] Result: 24 [18] Result: 26 [8] Result: 16 [8] Result: 16 [5] Result: 13 Torpedo Damage Rolls: [8, 6, 5] Result: 20 [4, 4, 1] Result: 10 [6, 3, 1] Result: 11 [7, 4, 2] Result: 14 [7, 3, 1] Result: 12 [4, 2, 1] Result: 8 Flak Emitter Attack Rolls: [17] Result: 25 [1] Result: 9 [12] Result: 20 Flak Emitter Damage Rolls: [5, 5] Result: 11 [4, 2] Result: 7 [5, 2] Result: 8 Then active emergency thrusters.

(the flak has a couple hits but nothing is getting through the armor of the cruiser) The cruiser takes critical damage as blistering torpedo impacts bury themselves in its sides like thrown spears meant to bring down a mammoth in the days where man's ancestors hunted with sticks and rocks. None the less, in these days just like those ones, the leviathan bleeds.

8:49 PM

(cruiser is up for what will probably be its final turn) The triplicate grav cannons fire, hoping to bring down the same vessel (edited)

8:50 PM

!roll 3 d20+1

Nekosmash Rolls: [9] Result: 10 [8] Result: 9 [15] Result: 16

(fire all guns was a miss, fire one gun)

8:50 PM

!roll d20+1

Nekosmash Roll: [15] Result: 16

Despite their best efforts, nothing is able to hit the evasive Protectorate ship, and the crew of the cruiser begins making its way to the escape pods aside from those honor bound to remain with the ship until its last moments.

8:51 PM

The Chimeran free merchant continues to run, hoping to put some distance between itself and the assaulting fleet.

8:51 PM

(escape combat)

8:51 PM

!roll 2d6+3

Nekosmash Roll: [5, 1] Result: 9

(And Orthus is up)

The Orthus remains fixated on the threat it had engaged before, the captain ordering as powerful of a barrage as the Chimeran's weakened Heavy Frigate. Their gunnery report, a moment too late, that perhaps the targeting calibrations on the torpedoes were misaligned.

Starting CP 5

Captain: Support Department  - Gunnery (0 CP)
Gunnery: Fire All Guns (1 CP)
Gunnery: Fire All Guns (3 CP)

Torpedo Launcher - CA Heavy Frigate
(4/-) (14/-)  4 Ammo left

Multifocal Laser - CA Heavy Frigate
(23/5) (22/4)

Both Plasma Beams - CA Heavy Frigate
(5/-) AP10    (21/8) AP10    (10/-) AP10    (21/12) AP10

The heavy frigate rolls violently in the void, and flames spread across its back as the wreck begins falling out of formation with the rest of the fleet. The wreck begins drifting towards the planet. .

1

7:56 AM

(Thojhild)

"This is the Elysium of Thojhild, beginning cleanup and screening out those flak sources for our fighters, over."

Starting CP 5

Captain: Support Department  - Gunnery (0 CP)
Gunnery: Fire All Guns (1 CP)
Gunnery: Fire All Guns (3 CP)

Torpedo Launcher (AP 20) - CA Cruiser
(17/14)   (17/18)  4 Ammo left

Multifocal Laser (AP 20) - CA Cruiser
(14/2)    (10/3)

Both Plasma Beams (AP 10) - CA Patrol Boat 2
(12/9)    (9/9)    (7/7)    (14/7)

The patrol boat is damaged by one of the plasma beam hits, the other weapons running long or exploding prematurely in the chaos of battle

10:38 AM

(Typhonis 1 is up)

The Elysia Typhonis is on its way to to send a volley of Torpedoes towards the struggling cruiser. Whilst it gets in position, the Captains and Admiral discuss about how to continue this engage. When the idea circulates that the Logistics Ship and Super Carrier could be potential targets for a boarding operation, Daira decides on a whim that she doesn't want a ship fleeing and warning someone, as that might bring the boarding teams in danger. So she orders the Elysia Typhonis 1 to shoot down the fleeing ship.

Elysia Typhonis 1 5CP

Support Department Gunnery

Fire All Weapons (1CP)
Fire All Weapons (3CP)

Wpn 1 Torpedo Launcher - CA Free Merchant 1
(15/14)  (13/18) AP20  3 Ammo left

Wpn 2 Torpedo Launcher - Free Merchant 1
(16/12)  (15/11) AP20  3 Ammo left

Wpn 3 Flak - CA Free Merchant 2
(21/8) (9/13) AP10

The Free Merchant is destroyed under concentrated heavy fire, and the vessel explodes under the force of several torpedoes.

2:39 PM

(Asteria)

The lightning-fast Asteria fighters withdraw their weapons into their bays - they were of almost no use at these speeds - but antennas, tightbeam projectors, radar pings, and pan-spectral transmitters are kicked into overdrive against the Chimeran carrier. Terabytes of information is beamed into critical systems, all currently burdened with the damage and chaos of the previous fight and that which the Wycerim inflicted moments earlier. The Asteria crews remark on how some of the explosions could be because of the system crashes before battle comms are reinforced by the squadron commander.

Starting CP for each Fighter 5

(All same actions)
Captain: Support Department  - Comms (0 CP)
Comms: Crash Systems (0 CP)
Comms: Crash Systems (2 CP)
Comms: Crash Systems (2 CP)

All Fighters crash systems against CA Carrier
6 fighters * 3 crash systems each = 18 total crash systems

As rolled:    Same rolls, summarized:
vs 6          vs 5  x1
vs 8          vs 6  x1
vs 12         vs 7  x2
vs 10         vs 8  x4
vs 7          vs 9  x3
vs 10         vs 10 x4
vs 9          vs 12 x1
vs 13         vs 13 x1
vs 5          vs 14 x1
vs 8
vs 9
vs 8
vs 7
vs 10
vs 9
vs 10
vs 14
vs 8

(I don’t think it’s worth opposing this because I’m going to lose at least five of these which locks it down )

(Elysium of Astyoche, next)

The Astyoche positions itself to send another barrage of Plasma Beams, Lasers, and Torpedoes at targets their league to make sure nobody leaves the battlefield to send reinforcement.

Starting CP 5

Captain: Support Department  - Gunnery (0 CP)
Gunnery: Fire All Guns (1 CP)
Gunnery: Fire All Guns (3 CP)

Torpedo Launcher - CA Patrol Boat 1
(10/10) (17/11)  4 Ammo left

Multifocal Laser - CA Free Merchant 2
(15/3) (15/5)

Both Plasma Beams - CA Free Merchant 2
(24/12) AP10    (7/14) AP10    (19/11) AP10    (9/14) AP10

THe second free merchant and the first of the patrol boat formation is decimated as concentrated fire tips the scales against the Chimerans, sending both ships spiraling out of the formation , trailing burning wreckage

2:30 PM

(Achillies)

Starting CP 5

Captain: Support Department  - Gunnery (0 CP)
Gunnery: Fire All Guns (1 CP)
Gunnery: Fire All Guns (3 CP)

Torpedo Launcher (AP 20) - CA Cruiser
(22/15)   (12/15)  4 Ammo left

Multifocal Laser (AP 20) - CA Patrol Boat 2
(13/2)    (10/5)

Both Plasma Beams (AP 10) - CA Patrol Boat 2
(18/13)   (19/12)   (non-nat 20/12)   (10/6)

The patrol boat is heavily smashed by the repeated plasma beam hits , burning violently and twisting out of control.

6:59 AM

The captain works hard to try to maintain a course while damage control crews struggle to keep the ship together.

7:00 AM

(Salamis I think then?)

(that is correct) The Salamis joins their sister ships and sends her own barrage of weapon fire against the remaining Patrol Boats, to further turn the battlefield into debris field.

Starting CP 5

Captain: Support Department  - Gunnery (0 CP)
Gunnery: Fire All Guns (1 CP)
Gunnery: Fire All Guns (3 CP)

Torpedo Launcher (AP 20) - CA Patrol Boat 2
(crit/39)   (17/13)  4 Ammo left

Multifocal Laser (AP 20) - CA Patrol Boat 3
(7/3)    (22/2)

Both Plasma Beams (AP 10) - CA Patrol Boat 3
(4/16)   (20/14)   (20/12)   (17/13)

The third patrol boat is heavily damaged and the captain likewise follows suit with his companions, trying to hold his damages ship together just long enough for one more volley

The second squad of Asteria fighters gets ready to lock down another ship through electronic warfare. Their target is the Logistics ship. Now without most of its protection, signals instead of torpedoes hammer in on it. (It will be 18 rolls of Crash system against the LogShip. Do you want me to roll or do we just say the LogShip has been jammed completely?)

(I don't tihnk I'm going to only lose 5 of those checks, so we dont need to bother)

Seeing the perseverance of the CA Patrol Boats, the Elysia Typhonis 2 wants to be the last nail in their coffin as its destructive weapons are being fired.

Elysia Typhonis 2 5CP

Support Department Gunnery

Fire All Weapons (1CP)
Fire All Weapons (3CP)

Wpn 1 Torpedo Launcher - CA Patrol Boat 2
(7/16)  (18/10) AP20  3 Ammo left

Wpn 2 Torpedo Launcher - CA Patrol Boat 3
(24/18)  (11/8) AP20  3 Ammo left

Wpn 3 Flak - CA Patrol Boat 2
(11/9) (20/6) AP10

This pushes each vessel over the edge, leaving just two jammed Chimeran ships and a heavily damaged cruiser left as the once pride of the Chimeran fleet. (edited)

( @Soren (Grim) you are up next. Get that Cruiser!)

Starting CP for Paivatar +5


Captain: Support Department  - Gunnery (0 CP)
Gunnery: Fire One Weapon (0 CP)
Gunnery: Fire One Weapon (2 CP)
Gunnery: Fire One Weapon (2 CP)
 Emergency Thruster boost +2 Speed:  2 round remaining

Shot 1: 21/22
Shot 2: Miss
Shot 3: Miss


All are AP20

(edited)

11:39 PM

!roll 3 1d20+3-0-0+2 !Paivatar (E-Thrust Active) Vortex Tunnel Inducer (AP20, Clumsy) vs CA Supercarrier

Grim Rolls: [16] Result: 21 [4] Result: 9 [6] Result: 11 Reason: Paivatar (E-Thrust Active) Vortex Tunnel Inducer (AP20, Clumsy) vs CA Supercarrier

!roll 3d20+1 !Paivatar Vortex Tunnel Inducer damage vs CA Supercarrier

Grim Roll: [19, 1, 1] Result: 22 Reason: Paivatar Vortex Tunnel Inducer damage vs CA Supercarrier

The carrier takes a hit on its armored back, and damage inside begins to spread, but not enough to put it out of action.

7:22 AM

(Typhon, and then just maybe I'll get to participate in the battle )

With all but one target jammed, or destroyed, Captain Artema orders the gunners to attack the struggling cruiser.

Typhon Carrier  5CP

Captain: Support Department  - Gunnery (0 CP)
Gunnery: Fire One Gun   (0 CP)
Gunnery: Fire One Gun   (2 CP)
Gunnery: Fire One Gun   (2 CP)

Wpn 1 Spike Inversion Projector - CA Fleet Cruiser
(5/17)  (22/7) (14/15) AP15

A ghost of its former self, the cruiser hangs on, just a drifting wreck with functional weapons.

8:36 AM

(I think the carrier is up )

(it is, and should be jammed)

The carrier's captain lunges the ship toward the vessel captained by Rayce, and begins working through the massive amounts of hamming. Only one of the grav cannons is going to be able to fire, and it may be the last time Chimeran guns speak during this fight.

8:45 AM

(support department, fire one gun)

8:45 AM

!roll d20+3

Nekosmash Roll: [9] Result: 12

The grav field misses, rangefinders hopelessly scrambled.

"Oh well. Not much left of their fleet. Alrighty crew, we are the chosen to board some ship, at least if I understood the other captains correctly. For that, our gunnery department needs to hit some more shots. I don't expect any incoming shots, so all energy towards our weapons department. And Chief Boarding Person, make sure our boarding tube has no holes in it."

Wycerim Starting CP 5
Katalin Spacy Captain +2

Support Department Gunnery

=Ivan has 9 CP to play with

As the battle winds down, the gunnery department is less on edge and able to crack a joke in the moment. Even Ivan's Terminus shell is shedding sweat from the built-up stress being relieved. "Captain Lipnitskaya, it's a boarding tube. Even whole, it's mostly hole!"

Wycerim - Gunnery

Fire One Weapon + Target Systems - Carrier Gravcannon (0+1 CP)
Fire One Weapon + Target Systems - Carrier Engines (2+1 CP)
Fire One Weapon + Target Systems - Carrier Engines (2+1 CP)

All attacks include -4 to hit, all damaged already halved, rounded down

Torpedo Launcher 1 (AP 20); consuming three out of four remaining rounds; other torpedo tube still has 4/8 shots remaining
Vs. Gravcannon   (28/9)
Vs. Engines      (25/6)
Vs. Engines      (24/4)

If shots make it through armor, Gravcannon is disabled and/or engines take up to -2 to rating

(Edit - corrected torpedo remaining ammo) (edited)

1

(carrier engine damaged, not entirely out of commission)

(Wycerin would be up)

(Wycerim just went - Teucer is up with the logship being completed suppressed)

(sounds good!)

Gunnery, punch that cruiser out of the sky and lets see if we can disable that carrier for boarding. Time to finish the fight.

Elysia Typhonis Starting CP:5 

Support department Gunnery 
Fire All Weapons (1CP)
Fire One Weapon + Target Systems - Carrier Engines (2+1CP) 

Remaining CP:1 

Wpn 1 Torpedo Launcher - CA Fleet Cruiser
(17/13) AP 20 1/8 Ammo Remaining (reload required, 1/1)

Wpn 2 Torpedo Launcher - 
(17/12) AP 20 1/8 Ammo Remaining (reload required, 1/1)

Wpn 3 - Flak (Not going to roll, I don't think it has anything to target) 

Fire One Gun : 
Wpn 1 Torpedo Launcher AP 20 0/8 Ammo Remaining (reload required 1/1)
(8/miss)

(edited)

The torpedoes strike the side of the vessel, burrowing deep into the space between decks and exploding.

11:37 AM

(I believe @Eyes is going to be joining us for any boarding ops, with the hope of trying to help any enslaved psychics that might be among the enemy force)

(We'll split into two teams, one for the carrier, and one for the log ship, and we'll board them)

Carrier react to this

4

12:55 PM

Log ship react to this

3

(Am I able to bring my henchmen?)

(There’s already going to be a bunch of us here so it’s easier on me if we don’t )

1

(I'll kepp the carrier group here and I'll make a new thread for the log ship)

1

The carrier disabled , the team begins moving into the boarding tube deck with the enemy ship looking close. The power begins to cycle on this deck as the industrial cutter begins moving into place

It wasn't terribly long ago that Ivan stood on this side of the Wycerim, not as part of the crew, but as a hostile boarder of an adversarial ship trying to sneak through Protectorate space. Now the old Blue Rain Freeguild cruiser was set to deliver its new masters into the heart of another vessel, to purge it of its command and conquer yet another tin can that is barely holding together after the fight. "Remember to grab what you need from the armory," Ivan calls out to anyone assembling behind him. "Spare ammo especially. Tools for getting in doors. First aid. We're fresh out of prayers, though. This isn't a Paragon ship."

Richard assembles with the rest of the group, stuffing his vacc suit in his TL4 backpack as he looks around nervously readjusting his glasses and making sure his thermal pistol and laser pistol are in good condition. "Never been much of a prayer type of person anyway. Any word on what we might find in there?" (edited)

"Have I ever told you that I am a Paragon as well? Not a fancy Priestess or stuff like that. But I know Ognyena as well. She is a good goddess." The Taros woman next to Ivan says. "So if you want some, May the flame be with you, I can supply that as well, General Sandwich." Katalin then looks over to Richard. "Take a Void Carbine, the carrier doesn't need any more holes. We all should take one." Katalin says as she shows the one she has taken out of the armory.

Richards eyes widen as he looks at the fancy weapon and gives Katalin a grateful smile, jogging off to retrieve one from the armory. He comes back with one, reading the instructions manual that he begged the quartermaster to provide him before folding it up and stuffing it in his backpack as well and slinging the rifle over his shoulder. "Thanks for the tip. If we encounter any psychics in there I'll try my best to counteract their powers before they can affect any of us. In return, I'd appreciate the chance to offer any of them the chance to join our academy. We're in desperate need for more psychic manpower." (I assume it's allright to add this to my sheet? Awesome) (edited)

(yep, armory on board, you can grab a carbine)

"I'm sure they'll be understanding. I'll yell above the gunfire and send them your way," Ivan says as his smirk disappears under his assault suit helmet. HUD elements light up as the suit pressurizes, sealing the occupant within. His voice now transmits through the powered armor's speakers with a slight crackle. "But you're not wrong. There will be non-combatants here. Try to watch your fire. And if you keep calling me General Sandwich, I'm going to start expecting a sandwich at every Paragon temple."

As Katalin gets ready as well she replies with ah overall friendly tone. "They would give them to you anyway, because the Paragons seem to be nice people. Got me onto the right path. But some sandwiches might taste more smokey than what you are used to. Yet it would be better if you let those sandwiches to be consumed by the poor, aren't you sharing a bed with this Khan girl?" She checks her weapon and doesn't look at Ivan during the last part. "Once that thing is done, and we call another carrier ours, we can have a chat in some bar. Til then I call you Ivan. You can call me Katalin then."

Richard has readied the void carbine and stands prepared to follow the rest of the party. "I'll follow your guys' lead. Stay safe and good luck to us all." (edited)

"Sounds like a plan. But we don't need luck. Just some steady aim. A belief in something, or not, whatever makes you feel good. And some basic plan. So is there any? I have to admit, I never tried to take over a super carrier before, so I am not entirely sure what to expect."

"A Paragon asking me to a bar? Katalin, I think you're my new favorite Paragon. Don't tell Dai, she might celebrate." "But you're both not alone in the uncertainty. Xeno-ship boarding protocols are vague for a reason, too. But this won't be filled with just Chimerans. Expect Mosk, Noctua that hadn't left, and humans."

"I am not going to be a Priestess or something like that, at least I think I won't. And Ognyena has no 'No-Alcohol' policy. So I am good. And I never met a Dai, I guess, so, don't know. Anyway, whomever we find, they either surrender or pay the price for what they did. That is how this goes, I guess. But what do we target first?"

"We could make our way to a martially defensible position first, and then see what kind of opposition we face on our way there. With the intelligence we gather from our interactions on the ship and our then hopefully pretty safe position would probably let us make a more well informed plan than anything we could cobble together out here. Until then my vote would be to only shoot if shot at, but since you all will probably be doing most of the actual hitting of shots you're probably better off deciding this sort of thing." (edited)

Ivan laughs. "I already know what kind of opposition we'll face - the biggest, meanest marines they have, all armed to the teeth. Once they find out where we are, that is. Anyone with a gun is a combatant and we should absolutely shoot at them first until either their guns drop or they drop. But you'll do good to remember that just because someone isn't armed, doesn't mean they won't shoot you in the back when they find something. Even if people were forced into service on this carrier, there's a good chance they'll stick with the devil they know versus the strange people with guns that just got done shooting torpedoes at them." "Taking control of the bridge should be our primary objective for it'll give us the most control. Sealing off or destroying armories is a good idea if we come across them. If the bridge is too heavily defended, we can switch out for flight deck control or communications. If we take the flight deck, we can open up the fighter hangars for reinforcements to space-walk in. If we take comms, we can beam teleporter data to the Paivatar station and get reinforcements in that way. There's a good million ways to crack this egg, but we're outnumbered, even if not all of them carry weapons. Speed is going to be our friend."

Seeing the last of the torpedoes land on the carrier and it's engines die, Teucer announces to the Bridge "Captain, You have command of the ship. I am needed elsewhere. Prep a shuttle and a boarding party, we are rejoining the Typhonis" Stepping back from the console, he moves with purpose through the halls of the ship. His path intersects with the armory where Protectorate marines are exchanging their defensive load-outs of those more suited to boarding, including shaped breaching charges. "Move with me! Lets take this prize!" They find their way to an airlock where a Cargo lighter waits to ferry them across to the Typhonis. Arriving on the assault deck, Teucer finds himself midway through an ongoing conversation. "Engineering is equally important as the bridge. Without it, they can easily scupper the vessel and render our efforts useless. Speed is going to be our friend. we must out manoeuvre the enemy. strike where they are weak and pull them out of position."

(We'd be punching into the cargo bay, as asked for)

Nekosmash pinned a message to this channel. 6/24/2022 12:18 PM

Void carbine at the ready, Ivan moves to the front of the assault teams on standby. "Bridge first, then engineering? Clear engineering first, then bridge? I think our first stop will be dependent on the welcoming committee. Richard, feel free to keep your head down and use me as your personal meat shield. Everyone else, when the tin can is cracked, punch in hard!"

"Don't mind if I do." Richard crouches down and tries to be as stealthy as possible behind Ivan and nearby cover obstacles as he follows the rest of the crew.

The boarding tube squeals as it punches outward into the cargo bay. The harsh sounds of metal on metal put everyones teeth on edge, and the thermal power being routed to the drill head softens the surrounding hull just enough to get through. The lights in the pod shut down and there is an explosive rush of air before the seal is stabilized.

2:53 PM

The light turns amber, coming back on and taking on that yellowish brown hue, before the doors open into the scattered crates and general ruin of the cargo bay.

(I'll let the others take the lead, if it's alright. Richard is keeping a super close eye out for any psionic powers that are used as we enter inside using the level 1 metapsionics ability, so let us know if I see any :) other than that just following.)

Katalin kisses her flame tattoo and touches Freya's lucky coin that she is carrying with her. Then she readies her Void Carbine and gets ready to run out among the first. To feel the thrill of danger that awaits her in the carrier.

(The doors have opened and no one is in the cargo bay. Just lots of smashed cargo and wreckage )

(Is the cargo intentionally smashed or in a chaotic mess from our bombardments? Anything noticeable hazardous at quick glance?) "Someone make that airlock useless before we get sucked out!" Ivan barks to the first wave of breaching marines. "Firing line on the stairs, nothing comes down! Teucer, your wishes on securing the engines might come true."

(Not hazardous as far as you can tell and yeah the disorder is all battle damage )

Richard rushes forward and aims his void carbine where Ivan directs him, ready to let off a shot

Teucer sprints from the gaping maw of the boarding tube slowing down as he receives no incoming fire. Tucking himself against a mostly intact crate, he takes in the surrounding cargo bay. "Split the force. I want a team with me, we will secure the Engineering room. Ivan take the rest up to the next deck. Lets take ground while we are uncontested. Stay alert."

Katalin shakes her head. "Wow, Mister, you sure splitting up is a good idea? You ever saw a horror movie?"

(The same reason why I didn't want to split into two teams before still applies. It is going to be a nightmare task to keep two groups using the same map, within the same encounter, with different post rates on the same general track)

"Katalin's right, Teucer. You're too precious to me and I'm not letting you out of my sight for a Chimeran axe-murderer to take you away. Let's check out the engine room, the other marines can keep eyes on the stairs. It's a counter-attacker's only egress point we can see so far, anyways."

(right, sorry)

"Should we check the engine room?" Edit: with that Richard will walk over to whatever sort of button opening mechanism there is and look towards the rest of the party for approval. (edited)

(For simplicity and because I don't really have a way to flower up the in-character action that won't get repetitive and uninspiring, shall we assume for each door we want to go through, we stack up for a breach assault and Richard interacts with whatever thing opens it? That way when one room is devoid of interest we can quickly move on)

(fine with me)

(Sounds good)

7:20 AM

The engine room is closed, but there is a keypad next to the door. Its status light is red, signaling the door is locked.

"So, anyone good with these kind of keypads? Or even better, anyone here has some other ways of opening these doors?"

"Richard, see what's on that keypad and what caused it to lock. I just had a thought - remember that we did a number to their engines - this door could be keeping something dangerous in as opposed to keeping us out. Forcing our way in might not be the best idea, especially with a plasma torch."

"Wouldn't they have left it open then? For us to walk in and get melted?"

Richard heads over to the keypad and taps on some of the buttons with the butt of his carbine before working on it with his hands to see if there's anything he can do in terms of evaluating what locked it or what's going on. "Maybe, Katalin. Its possible that whatever is in there is so harmful that leaving it open would be more damaging than whatever boarding party they expected."

(it might also just be a closed door)

(what do you mean! It's a closed door in an rpg adventure so that means there's something important behind it!!!

/s)

(Let's go ahead and see if we can pop it open.) Ivan looks for manual releases as well along the edges and where the physical doors meet - in the event of a power outage, there could be a way to pop it open even if locked.

There doesn't seem to be a visible manual release from this side, and the keypad, some way or another, is standing between you and getting through.

if it's unopenable or seems that way to him, Richard will turn around and head over to the stairs and aim up towards the catwalk. "Who wants to be the first up there?"

"You never broke into places, huh?" Realizing what she just said, Katalin shakes her head. "Nevermind, I could try to fiddle with the keypad, the manual way, or connect my Compad to it, to override the lock."

"You can't tell I'm an expert?" Richard says sarcastically as he folds open the weapons manual to check how to turn on the sights on his weapon.

(Go ahead Kat, program/int if you're trying)

!roll 2d6+1 !show them what the street has taught you

Katalin Lipnitskaya Roll: [4, 3] Result: 8 Reason: show them what the street has taught you

There is a yellow flashing light as program is installed into the keypad, followed by a thump and the sound of mechanics moving heavy locking bolts into their unarmed position.

"Kaching. Ladies first." Katalin says with a wide smile as she looks at her three male companions, and signals them to enter the engines section, if they want to.

Teucer nods once, acknowledging katalin's action and indicating that he is ready to move in first, rifle raised. He waits for someone to tap on his shoulder to indicate that they too are ready to move with him.

"Age before beauty!" Ivan says in response to Katalin, bringing his carbine to ready position and tapping Teucer's shoulder and doing a quick left - me - right - you hand signal for covering corners. "Richard my dear shadow, if you're not behind me, be sure you're behind something safe."

The door opens, revealing the interior of the engine room. Small fires are everywhere across the engineering space and you can see a slave crew of four noctua, two mosks, and two Chimeran overseers are all working to try to get the flames extinguished and the reactor back under control. The chaos within the room has distracted them, and they do not notice the door open, or all of you standing outside of it.

Richard is definitely going to get behind Ivan because he's much more bulletproof than him, and aim the void carbine at these guys - looking towards the others for approval. "You guys should probably shoot at the same time." He whispers, clearly frustrated at his own incompetence. "I'll probably just serve to alert them."

(Just to set the scene before I'm away from the computer for a bit, we're not going to have the full unobserved minute to set up execution attacks, but if we decide to handle this with violence you'd get a surprise round before we roll initiative)

Ivan shoulders his carbine and puts his hand on the barrel of Richard's weapon. "Keep a lookout elsewhere," he whispers to the metapsion. Then Ivan looks at Katalin and Teucer, making it obvious he is reaching for his sword.

Richard will definitely heed that order and hide either in between the pallets or inside one of the barrels if he can.

5:36 PM

(this is such a hilarious image he's completely in over his head i love it)

Katalin makes a sad face and has two fingers mimic super slow walking. She then has her Void Carbine ready and looks through the sight, ready to kill the overseers with the pull of a trigger. And then click, as she prematurely shoots at one overseer. (17/12)

The shot hits heavy plate armor, sending up sparks but causing no visible injury to the Chimeran being protected by the heavy engineering suit.

"Shit!" Ivan says under his breath. With a quieter approach out the window now, he bolts it for the nearest overseer. His sword is drawn and nanotech blade whines to life, reconstructing itself even from the tiniest molecular reactions from the air. (if Ivan can get within slashing range: 19/15, shock 6/AC13; attack roll was a nat 1)

Teucer mutters to himself " damn, now we are going to have to fight that fire" before raising his voice "put down your weapons and surrender!" He slowly advances in the other supervisor watching to see if he wants to surrender. (Hold action)

(you can get to within stab range, are you going for the one that Kat wounded? )

(No, best not to run into her firing lane!)

The second of the marines is wounded by the down-sweep of their sword. With their overseers engaged, but alive, the slaves don't show any indication of wanting to do anything but continue damage control and firefighting efforts- either out of a desire to save their own lives, or fear of punishment

(could I take a shot as well, or am I too far away?)

(You can fire)

(8)

(Misses) The shot strikes the decking, burning a neat hold in the ground short of the target.

If Richard can whenever it seems least risky he'll try to examine these guys or the slaves for psychic talent. (Not sure what the range is on that) (edited)

(You took a shot. That’s all you can do before we roll initiative )

6:53 PM

(Teucer held and they’re not surrendering so we have him to go still)

"I guess you have made your choice" Teucer fires on the overseer landing dead center of mass (Crit/23)

The overseer topples onto the deck, its upper half hanging on to the lower with just a few strings of ropy meat. It is clearly now very dead.

(If we're doing initiative now, Ivan = 5)

(If you're going to kill the slaves we can get initiative, right now they're just trying to get the fires out. The actual Chimerans in the room are all dead)

(Oh I thought the one I slashed was still kicking. I have no intent on killing the slaves, they might be keeping the engines together)

(You killed yours outright, I see where that was a weirdly worded way to put it)

11:23 AM

(only thing left here are the engine crew)

Ivan pretends the slaves aren't there as he sheathes his sword, but speaks loud enough for the slaves to hear. "Don't interrupt the workers," he says to Teucer, Katalin, and Richard. "Their enslavers will only treat them with greater impunity if they interact with us and they become recaptured here after we leave. Everyone has a vested interest in these engines not exploding, but we have more reason now to ensure we take the ship from the Chimerans."

"What has he been smoking?" Katalin wonders aloud, but speaking in Taros. Then adds frowning and whispering. "Shouldn't we help them? Like, what if this thing blows up?"

"Shooter, paragon, hacker, firefighter, and capital-class drive mechanic? Impressive!" Ivan whispers back, his smile is hidden but comes through the speaker port on his helmet. His voice takes on a more serious tone. "Put those warm, fuzzy feelings aside, Paragon-from-the-Streets, this is war and not a bar brawl. If we stop to help them, we risk encirclement and becoming statistics. With their overseers gone, trust that they'll run in the correct direction if they deem it hopeless. If they have any empathy, they're doing this for their fellow kin still in bondage." (Edit- typo) (edited)

She shrugs. "Whatever you say General. I would just have checked if that engine section has a way to vent, like to open it to the void. Fires go out quickly where there is no air. But if that is a bad plan, go ahead I'll follow your war mind. Because, yes, I have never been in a war like situation. Oh, and I might not be a mechanic, but a Captain and Pilot, from shuttle to whatever I get. So I do know something. Well, at least I have seen some holo shows." Katalin is ready to follow the rest wherever they decide to go.

"I'll say that's a fair point, Captain Lipnitskaya. Some say I've seen too many holoshows myself. But as your gunnery mate, I'd have to advise you that the Chimerans hadn't followed a vent plan for the fire, so maybe there's a good reason to not do that. If you have something else in mind that's quick, well, I'll shut up for a bit." (Reversing course a little because I'm worried I'm shutting down an idea of yours!)

(We could do a skill contest to try to get the engine room not in flames anymore, if we want)

Richard will walk over to the slaves as the more competent people are planning the rest of their mission, he's trying to surreptitiously check the slaves for any sort of psychic talent. If none of them have any, he'd like to help in whatever way he can to put out the fire until the rest of the team has decided what to do. (I'd be down for the skill challenge!!! Also just down to help if you guys decide something different.) (edited)

(skill challenge sounds awesome, there are so many ways to tackle this)

(skill challenge works for me. One of the reasons that we came here is so that they can't blow the ship. Neko, am I reading the map correctly and there are gantrys above us? Teucer would be worried about that as a security threat)

(Yep, map is right, no one has come in though so far)

(I probably should have said something, I'm absolutely down for skill challenges)

(sounds good, we know the scene, trying to get the fires out and whatnot, and we have some workers here so our social skills will be applicable through them rather than just them giving a bonus)

"ok, let's get this fire out then" Teucer begins tasking off team members to help with different tasks according to their strengths (Leadership/wis)

(Could Richard roll connect to be familiar with Chimeran culture to smooth the process of everyone working together to save the engine room?)

(Yours will work teucer and we don’t know much about the house that’s actually in charge of this Richard, we don’t really have a base to pull from. Also the way you’re describing it sounds more like know, to me)

(11)

Nekosmash

(Yours will work teucer and we don’t know much about the house that’s actually in charge of this Richard, we don’t really have a base to pull from. Also the way you’re describing it sounds more like know, to me)

(just because connect says this: 'be familiar with foreign cultures and languages.' in SWN rulebook.)

(One success , lead has been used )

Katalin, standing in the chaos of this engine room, tries to remember what she has learned or read about larger ships. Non of what she saw was of Chimeran production. Some ships from different producers and species, who haven't met before building a ship, still share similarities. So she tries to find some vents or other controls that allow for quick cooling of the engine which could prevent more parts to go up in flames. (Pliot/Int or Notice/Int, if that would work)

(I think pilot works well here)

(11 Pilot/Int)

Richard will just work himself to the bone trying to help the slaves, he'd like to use exert if possible?

(Sure, Exert works. Katalin also succeeds so pilot and lead have been used ) (edited)

(4 Exert/Str)

(2 pass, one fail with exert, pilot, and lead used so far )

Doing his best to stay out of the way of the others, Ivan finds certain firefighting systems hadn't gone off yet. Whether due to damage or poor engineering, some of the foam poppers stayed intact despite the clear presence of heat and fire. Ivan takes out his service pistol - the void carbine might not penetrate - and fires at the unopened systems to release their contents. (Shoot/dex 15)

(that works! 3 successes, 1 fail with Exert, shoot, pilot and lead used)

While coordinating the efforts to save the failing engine, Teucer then spots a potentially critical system that no one was yet fixing. deciding to plug the gap himself, he first makes sure that everyone is working on their allocated tasks before lending his nimble fingers and sharp mind to fixing the component. (Fix/Dex 11)

(success, 4 successes, 1 failure, with fix, exert, shoot, pilot, and lead used)

An enslaved engineer rushes by Ivan, to which Ivan grabs his arm. The poor thing had no idea what intentions the man behind the powered armor had, especially when he drew his sword, the nanotech blade snapping as it cleaved even the finest airborne soot. "Hold still." Ivan commands, carefully bringing the blade to the slave's body. The cumbersome effects of enslavement - shackles, collars, etc. - are carefully and quickly removed, allowing the engineer to move with better dexterity. Others are encouraged to come over when they can. (Stab/dex 8; if fail I wish to use reroll token!)

(Re roll will be needed)

(11)

1

(success)

9:40 AM

The engine room fires are now under control, the slaves continue working to handle some of the small matters you have not got to yet, but the ship is no longer in danger of a reactor breach or exploding with all of you on it.

2

Katalin would try to disable Bridge access to the engines. So nobody needs to worry that the the ship tries to make a run for it, or they intentionally overheat the engines.

This cannot be done from down here, and the bridge controls would be needed to lock out the engine for this exact eventuality.

11:06 AM

(ship isn't going to be able to fly anytime soon, we were just concerned about not exploding. Engineering wise, the ship is still quite offline)

"Up the ladders, Lets clear along that corridor. We'll leave some troops here to make sure nothing bad happens to the reactor and if we need them, they can flank around using the stairs."

"Let me take a peak up there first. There's a better chance I'll survive a fall if it goes to hell up there." Ivan begins a careful climb up the port-side ladder to the catwalks above. Near the top, he slows down to peak just over the catwalk floor and see if anyone is up there.

As Ivan is climbing up, Richard will examine the slaves for any psychic talent before covering Ivan's climb as best he can with his void carbine.

None of the slaves here seem to be psionic. The catwalk is empty, and the doors leading to the second level of the ship are closed. Once those doors are open, pushing north down the length of the ship should have you running into the bridge.

Ivan calls for the others to come up before fully ascending himself. To those that climb up after, he remarks: "This might be a kill corridor. We might need creative ways through, but we won't k ow until we open that door. I'm ready whenever. "

Richard will grab some piece of rubble nearby and throw it down the hallway to see if sets off any sort of reaction before anyone goes down the hallway.

"What if they are all waiting in the bridge room for us?"

"Smoke the corridor and clear the rooms before it? we can keep edging it up as we clear the side rooms. They'll be blind firing down the corridor and so unlikely to hit anything. If they are hiding in the bridge it is probably easier for us"

"There might be enough lingering smoke in the ductwork from the engine fire. All we'd have to do is break the seal they no doubt placed on the upper deck."

Opening the doors to throw a piece of rubber down the corridor, it looks as though a fire-team of Chimeran marines are setting up, preparing to stop any push in this direction though they look to only be about half strength from a normal squad. Four riflemen crouch behind hastily set up instapanels, 20m from the doors.

Richard instantly goes to take cover. "Bit more than I bargained for in there!"

"Prepare to shoot, I am going to try and displace them" Teucer pulls a Magma grenade off his webbing and prepares to launch it down the corridor (Initiative?)

(Initiative )

(5)

(3)

(8)

1

(7)

!roll d8

Nekosmash Roll: [3] Result: 3

1

(Richard, Ivan, Kat, Teucer, enemies)

Nekosmash pinned a message to this channel. 7/7/2022 7:28 AM

(I would like to hold Richard's action to fire a shot whenever Teucer tells me to.) (edited)

Ivan goes to make himself the main threat to cover Teucer's throw. A hastily-erected barricade left plenty of holes to pass a round through for a crack shot, so Ivan aimed for Chimeran bits that wiggled just enough in view between panels. (33/13, nine rounds in mag remain)

One of the foe is wounded, you can see them getting dragged back into better cover upon the reflexes of their squad mates.

8:59 AM

(Katalin)

Katalin can't be outgunned by a lowly General. So she places herself next to Ivan, kneels down, and shoots at another foe. "Boom, tagged that one!" (27/11 eight rounds remaining)

1

Two of the enemy seem to be wounded, but do not have any of their own dead at the moment.

10:07 AM

(Teucer, or Richard, depending on when he wants to use his held action)

Richard will just take a shot when he sees the others doing so as well. (0)

The shot deflects off the corridor ceiling, sending a shower of sparks down on the enemy but they are not further harmed.

3:18 PM

(Teucer)

Teucer rests his back against the wall, watching Ivan for his opportunity to act. Ivan ducks into cover for a second, giving Teucer his opportunity. Stepping around the door frame, he launches the grenade in an overhanded throw, watching it arc through the air to land amidst the Chimerans hiding behind their barricade. (Crit/34 damage)

1

The grenade throw is deadly and the enemy security force is engulfed by the blaze. Hissing and popping accompanies the sound of chemical propellants and napalm gel mix

Katalin turns around and frowns at Teucer. "Really? Is that thing even fair? I guess that is four points for Teucer. Those bug things remind me of the plague that almost got us Taros extinct." She looks forward. "Shall we move on?"

"Don't listen to her Teucer, she's just jealous she didn't get to play with the fire," Ivan bumps Katalin's shoulder in jest. "Some of these rooms are packed together, they might be bunks or broom closets. Might be worth checking out the bigger ones quickly while we move to the bridge. There's bound to be more defenders in there, but I'm not opposed to rushing it."

Katalin shrugs "Well. We don't want them in our backs, I guess. So some quick sweep of the rooms left and right, as we move forward, maybe? I guess those Chimerans on the bridge are frantically searching for some white cloth, to wave it. So giving them a few seconds more, while we check those rooms, might be a good move, yes."

Richard is staring in awe at his companions, his gaze going from his missed shot to the absolute gory mess further down the hallway. "Wow."

Teucer shrugs in response to Katalin. "Lucky throw" Turning back to look dow the corridor he continues " let's clear these rooms out. I don't want to be shot in the back trying to breach the bridge. They have had enough time to prepare for us. Longer won't change much"

"I'll cover the hallway, let you know if you're being flanked."

"Gen T, so we do as I said, huh? Maybe I should call myself General as well." Katalin says with a laugh. And as she moves to the first room on either side, she adds a question. "Do we have ways to forcefully open a door, to breach it?"

Ivan moves to the door before the conference room. "We have boots, but we can also try knocking politely. We can say we're lost." He checks the handle and any panels nearby if the door doesn't budge.

Katalin has her Void Carbine ready to quickly act if any opposition appears. "I like that approach. I feel like that will open up the big doors."

(conference room first?) Teucer's head snaps to look at Katalin. Despite the full face mask she can feel the disapproving raised eyebrow.

"How about you stick to your boats. A logical suggestion does not a general make. Stack up, let's do this"

(Conference room then? We all said a lot but I’m not seeing direction or consensus) (edited)

(I'm fine with conference room)

(Yes, conference room)

(sounds good)

Pushing into the conference room, you get out of the hallway as the flames still lick at the corpses of the enemy. The conference room is empty though it looks like some kind of briefing was taking place here just before the ship was attacked and boarded. The information looks to be command level in nature.

Katalin enters the conference room and looks around. "Um, does anyone of you speak Buggish? That information here could be valuable."

"Can't say that I do. Might be something to leave for later, though. Theres a couple more Doors for us to go through." Richard has moved into the doorway and is nervously glancing towards the as of yet closed doors in the hallway (edited)

(Is the info completely in Chimerans and it's just diagrams and visual attack plans we can make out or are there any common words we can see?)

(It’s all in Chimeran but there are some diagrams. We just don’t know what they mean)

"Let's take it all for analysis later. I have some techs who would give up a finger to get their hands on this sort of intel. Let's just make sure it doesn't cost a life" Teucer covers the doorway to the conference room occasionally peaking into the corridor, conscious about their vulnerable position (Bunk room across the hall next?)

(good to run with that is the group is)

1

(I'm good to go, just leaving the floor open in case we need to interact with the information in order to obtain it, or if there's something we can pick up/unplug/etc. and just keep on our persons. I'm also okay with leaving it for now.)

(Sorry, for some reason in my head it was all paper or material that we could easily manpack. if it's not then Teucer will have to suck it up while we try and acquire the data)

(Its stuff we can easily throw into a bag, its up to you guys if we do something with it now or later but we are on an enemy flagship and momentum is against you the longer you wait)

(Sounds good! We grab what we can then dash to bunk room!)

The bunk room door is reinforced and the bridge doors look to be opening very slowly. Something heavy is wheeled into place behind them and you can only see two fat rubber tires and a wide gun shield through the slit in the door

(how long is the corridor? Do we have time to sprint down before the weapon is exposed and able to fire??

(Does Richard sense any emotions with his telepathy? Any chance these guys could be terrified or talked down?)

(corridor is 50m from where you are to the doors, if you spend the effort to make telepathic contact and tell me what level of it youre doing we might be able to fill that in Richard)

(I'll spend the effort, telepathy 1)

They are prepared to defend the bridge of their flagship and honored members of the House Lux command crew with their lives.

"Doesn't seem like they're willing to surrender." Richard says, taking cover besides the door. " I'll fire when you do."

"You expected them to... consider surrend..." The thought trails off. "...I think they just... they... Teucer, is your artillery-aiming-down-a-ship-hallway-brain-chip starting to beep in your head? Mine is starting to go nuts. I think it's going to burn a hole in my skull with how quickly it's beeping." Ivan gently pushes Richard slightly more into the cover of the doorway, shouldering his own rifle, and starting to move forward. "We need to make sure that thing doesn't punch a hole through us. And the ship. Oh man, this is bad. Get to cover, I'm making the run. Teucer, Katalin, the pre-emptive answer is no, you're not stopping me! Even if we pop off the operators, it'll just get manned again! Just cover me!" (Ivan will begin to move down the hallway)

"Considering how you guys have been tearing through their comrades, surrender wouldn't be the most unreasonable course of action." Richard accepts the push and rests in cover. "Good luck."

(I’ll let each of you have a move and action before they fire because it feels cheap to spring a well defended heavy weapon on you all like that )

Richard is in cover near the door, he'll try to shoot at whoever is manning the weapon, hoping that he'll delay any fire Ivan might take. If his cover isn't good he'll also move a little bit to prevent himself getting torn up. (1) (edited)

"Fuck." That battle could end up real ugly. But Katalin isn't ready to lose another comrade here. But she also has no fancy ways of dealing with this weapon. She kisses the lucky coin once more and sends a silent prayer to Ognyena. But she fully knows that nothing of that will win this battle, nothing but some well placed bullets. That heavy weapon called for some dangerous measures. Instead of firing her Void Carbine, she goes the dangerous way, and sends one burst of her Tempest towards the Gun Shield, trying to break it, and a shot of her Laser Pistol towards one of the Tires, to melt it and thus make it harder to maneuver and giving them a harder time aiming with it. (16/3 tire shot, 27/11 gun shield burst) (edited)

(There's no real aimed shot mechanics in SWN, its all just the one target. The 27 hits)

7:20 AM

The gun shield sparks as shots strike it several times, and the gunners behind it move a little closer behind the machine.

Teucer grits his teeth behind his facemask. "Godammit Ivan!" He whispers under his breath as he breaks from cover and moves back down the hallway, the way they came firing as he goes (19 to hit [dicebot isn't working for damage])

(looks like there were a bunch of requested rolls all at once and it got choked up)

(Are we doing initiative or could I do something else?)

)Ivan still gets a move and action and then we will do initiative )

1

(Both move+main to move 20m down the hallway) (5 for initiative)

(12 damage. 9 initiative)

(8 initiative)

(6 initiative)

!roll d8

Nekosmash Roll: [3] Result: 3

(Teucer, Richard, Katalin, Ivan, Emplacement)

Nekosmash pinned a message to this channel. 7/14/2022 7:11 AM

Teucer sends another shot the way of the gun crew, hoping to kill or at the very least impede their operation. (28/15)

Richard blindly takes a shot, having lost hope of actually hitting anything and now just providing covering fire (10 to hit)

Teucer scores a shot and it looks like the carriage sags a bit to the left side, though the barrel is still capable of striking at you

7:32 AM

(katalin)

Katalin risks the ships structural integrity by firing once more with her regular laser guns. Trying to turn the battle favorably for her side, before the heavy weapon in front of her starts to unleash its deadly fire. (28/9, 26/5)

There is a siren that begins to flash sending a warning that there is an air leak somewhere. The gun platform looks damaged and there is a hiss of gas as the soldiers manning it try to get that under control. The orange tipped beam begins to heat and fires in a long destructive line.

7:25 AM

(Evasion save for all)

(Fail, 9)

(Ah you missed Ivan's turn!) (13 vs 4, pass)

(Was going by our 24 hour rule but if you’re here , Take it first. It’s got enough health where a max damage hit won’t kill it but you can bring it closer h (edited)

(Apologies, I was waiting to see if Katalin's shot did anything.) (25/12 void carbine shot, move 10 m closer, Terminus instant action to take another another action at the end of the round - just moving another 10 m closer that we don't have to stop for - 2/18 strain)

The shot dents the gun shield and one of the gunners falls onto their back with the force of the impact.

8:17 AM

!roll 2d8

Nekosmash Roll: [6, 3] Result: 9

(9 damage if failed. None if passed )

(fail 4vs5. 56/65 hp remaining)

(Initiative now)

(6)

(7v11 fail, 18/27hp, new Initiative roll 9)

(6, 4/13hp) (edited)

(8)

(!roll d8

2:31 PM

!roll d8

Nekosmash Roll: [3] Result: 3

(Katalin, Ivan, teucer , Richard , gun platform)

Katalin doesn't want to feel the cold void just now, switches to her readied void Carbine again and sends one more shot towards the gun platform (20/8)

There is a spark against the strut holding the gun to the carriage, and the gunners instinctively duck. The gun looks to be quite battered.

6:44 PM

(Ivan )

Ivan closes the remaining ten meters, drawing his nanotech sword to swipe at the emplacement, aiming for the important-looking bits on this alien cannon. (21/9)

The sword gets in close and there’s a spray of metal and cabling as the blow cuts through something solid. The machine is still charging

8:12 AM

(Teucer )

Teucer swears in frustration as the first of the guns energy bolts impacts on his body armour, just along his ribs. It leaves a dark smear where the energy of the shot is dispersed through the composite armours many layers but it still hurt. His aim is still not quite settled as he fires his next shot. (17/ 11)

Richard is bleeding heavily in cover and really regretting his recent decisions as he blindly fires around the corner. (11)

There is a hiss of steam as Teucer impacts the charging cables with his shot, and the steam vents from several energy coils along the muzzle. It looks to be disabled now.

"Anyone got any healing? If not I'm going to fall back." Richard says, panting as he looks at his own blood on his hand. (4/13 HP)

Teucer thumbs his mic "Arete, can you take care of ... Damn" I knew I shouldn't have left the team on the Elysia Typhonis "Sorry Richard, I have nothing. Maybe tuck into the conference room and wait for the clearance patrol, they'll probably have something" He then proceeds to advance up the corridor to meet Ivan ahead of his entry into the bridge. "You are crazy, that was dumb and it definitely shouldn't have worked. Glad you are still alive though" (edited)

Ivan pulls out three medpaks from a rear armor compartment and hands them to Teucer. "Few second break for celebration time! To my crazy ideas!" (One for each of you, or distributed as you see fit!)

Katalin shakes her head and tosses the medpack towards Richard. Then holds her bloody side and says. "I am fine, but he looks battered."

"Your call, each of you, but you're scrubbing your own blood out of the floors if you keep bleeding when we take this ship! Lick your wounds now and let's get this piece of junk out of our way!" Ivan tries to look over the gun shield. "Whoever shot this thing, your parental unit is disappointed. Now surrender or I'll charge at your next gun emplacement!" (2d4+1 if you choose to use it, or you can hold it; in combat it'll take a full round and you may need to focus on applying)

In sight of a Paragon of House Lux, it doesn't seem the bridge crew are going to surrender.

Richard catches the medkit and heads deeper into cover to begin applying it (if I need to do that on initiative all good)

(is it obvious who the paragon is?)

(Can’t see into the bridge really but from Intel we know they wouldn’t be this stiff spined if there wasn’t one present. This is also their flagship of their whole armada so we can reason some high level folks would be here without necessary seeing them)

(9 healing from medkit 2d4+1=9) (edited)

Teucer takes the kit and pops a couple of painkillers, hoping to dull the ache in his side for the next half an hour. (61/65 hp remaining) Over the comm channel in his suit, Teucer talks to the team. " Reckon we can move this gun out of the way? Or should we push it inside and use it as cover, this could get messy and I don't want to use magma grenades and risk damaging everything." As he says this, he pulls out his pistol, slinging his rifle over his shoulder.

(We'll keep the same initiative if we charge in there, so we don't need to re-roll everything)

( I have no further ideas, happy to push through)

(happy to follow)

(Good to push* here!) (edited)

The doors remain cracked open though the smoked and ruined gun carriage block most of the line of sight in, even for Ivan who closed with his sword to finish the job. There is frantic shouting in an alien language on the other side.

Pistol in his left hand, Teucer tries to pull the door wider with his right, attempting to move further into the room. His pistol is raised, waiting for one of the room's occupants to come into view (move action to clear a path and then hold my main if possible)

(holding your main action costs you your move, )

After bandaging his wounds and packing the other medkit in his backpack, Richard doesn't dare move in case he takes another more fatal shot. If he can get out of reach of fire or potential fire he'll do that- even if it means he can't shoot back.

Katalin would follow Teucer, but as there is some space to cover and she doesn''t want to become a big target, she would place herself behind Teucer, with her Void Carbine ready. (So moving, or double moving to end behind Teucer and away from the door, so if nothing happens she could storm in next round.)

Ivan puts away his sword and places his shoulder against the emplacement. With everyone appearing ready, he begins pushing the emplacement back into the room, flat tires be damned.

entering the room you can see two house exemplars in their resplendent battle gear. It seems as though the bridge is already under attack from the opposite side of its long, cavernous bridge. Silvano Mazzio and Seung Whittaker look to be heavily engaged with close to thirty chimeran marines on the other side of the bridge, but somehow, seem to be holding their own. Free to take the exemplars yourself, once they are gone, resistance should crumble.

(We;d be at the top of the order with Teucer)

Pushing into the room, Teucer moves towards the second nearest console, leaving room for those behind him to find their own. Crouching down, he doesn't wait for the Exemplars to act before firing himself (19/13. What weapons are the Exemplars carrying?)

(They've got swords, and their power armor has an array of inbuilt weapons we haven't seen before) (edited)

(damn, I was hoping melee might disadvantage them more than me)

(These would be their equivalent of nobles, probably nobles of nobles, so they've got the sauce)

12:56 PM

The blow strikes heavy armor and looks to pick its way through a gap, wounding one of the enemy, but this fight looks a long way from done

12:56 PM

(Richard)

Richard is some ways back covering the hallway, he'll hold his action to take a shot if snyone runs through (edited)

(Katalin ) (edited)

Katalin moves sideways to find an angle that seemed save to hit every shot. She aligns the Void Carbine with the one that Teucer is attacking. She focusses and everyone else just disappears as she pulls the trigger. (19/9) "This time you won't win, Ivan and Teucer." She says. Sounding as funny as ever. But to the avid listener, there is a trace of tension in her voice.

The shot connects, wounding one of the enemy champions, though not enough to kill them

7:22 AM

(Ivan)

The spartan faceplate of Ivan's powered armor stares down the untouched Exemplar, equally hidden in their own armor. Ivan's hand grabs the hilt of his nanotech sword, unknown iconography lighting up again as the blade makes its uncanny sound reassembling from constant atomic collisions with the air, and charges forth to open with a precision fleche. (29/14, 6 shock AC 13)

The blow is a clean one, striking the exemplar solidly in its wrist armor as they put up the limb to ward off the descending blade.

7:53 AM

it returns the strike, aiming low in a leg sweep with the edge of their buzzing sword

7:53 AM

!roll d20+8

Nekosmash Roll: [14] Result: 22

!roll d10

Nekosmash Roll: [6] Result: 6

(22/6 on ivan) The other fires what looks to be some kind of wrist mounted energy weapon, a focusing crystal splitting the beam into two smaller ones, aimed at Teucer and Katalin

7:54 AM

!roll 2 d20+6

Nekosmash Rolls: [9] Result: 15 [15] Result: 21

!roll d6

Nekosmash Roll: [6] Result: 6

(missing Teucer, 21/6 on Katalin, and back to the top of the order with Teucer)

Teucer maintains his position behind the console, taking a considered shot at his target. (20/13)

Richard continues aiming at the hallway, watching for the présence of any psychic powers. Holding main action to shoot

One of the champions is looking worse for wear, ropy black blood dripping from an increasingly severe set of cuts and shot craters. No one runs out into the hallway, as they'd have to risk the assault of three others, before getting to Richard.

7:13 AM

(Katalin)

(12/27hp) Katalin still focusses on the same one target. She doesn't feel the pain. Yet. And instead sends another aimed shot. (20/9)

Perhaps the Exemplar noticed the sword penetrating Ivan's armor; perhaps it noticed the wound healing immediately before the armor pieces realign to complete the seal again. (+2 strain instead of damage, 4/18 strain) The same struck leg comes up for a kneeing feint, causing the Exemplar to rise upward as the pommel of Ivan's sword comes down onto the back of its helmet. (20/12)

Both of the exemplars are being steadily harmed, now focusing on the swordsman amid their ranks before moving on to slaughter the rest.

9:37 AM

!roll d20+6 !sword on ivan

Nekosmash Roll: [2] Result: 8 Reason: sword on ivan

!roll d20+8 !laser weapon on ivan

Nekosmash Roll: [4] Result: 12 Reason: laser weapon on ivan

(Entirely shit the bed! back to Teucer

Seeing Ivan take the brunt of the Exemplar attention, Teucer tries to take his target down before more damage can be done to his comrade. (21/12)

Gravely wounded, the tough creature does not die, yet.

1:35 PM

(richard)

Richard having seen no movements in the hallway will move within shooting range and try to take a shot. (8! One day! I believe in Richards ability to land a lucky shot hehe) (edited)

(Consider it striking fear into the architecture!) The pommel blow to the back of the Exemplar's helmet put Ivan in the perfect position for a short guard stance, deflecting the seemingly desperate counterattack with ease, even as the wild shot from the other Exemplar leaves its vaporization trail between the two. Ivan's trusty knife, hidden beneath the chest armor pieces, slides out in a carefully choreographed move, landing perfectly in his free hand. Twisting back, his left arm slings out his precious knife at the interfering and near-dead Exemplar that dared shoot at him. (Armsman foci to draw from stowed as instant action; 23/6)

One of the exemplars falls, finally overcome by the severity of their wounds and being heavily outnumbered.

6:29 AM

The remaining one looks to be undergoing some kind of runaway bodily change as the fungal brain rapidly reshapes insectile body. Wings emerge from the back panels of the armor and the remaining exemplar takes to the sky (risking AoO from Ivan, if the enemy lives he’s gonna do something )

The knife throw sets up for a backhand sword slash at the flying Chimeran. "You're not going anywhere!" (33/14)

"That, that is unfair. That was my target, why did you kill it?" Katalin plays hurt, while she is actually kinda seriously hurt. She makes a few steps back to get more distance between her, and the new target. Then aims and shoots once more (20/7)

The both of you together cut the exmplar apart with beam and blade, and its scattered pieces fall to the deck. At the other side of the chamber, Silvano teleports behind one of the marines, shouting that this is nothing personal before ramming a combat blade into what passes for the creature's spine Seung is more grim faced and silent, gunning down his last two opponents with focused pulses from his own arm-built energy weapon. (edited)

2

7:57 AM

The bridge looks to be yours.

Seeing the Bridge clear of targets, Teucer slowly lowers his pistol but keeps it drawn in a low ready position. "Good evening gentlemen, I didn't expect to find you here. Is there any further resistance on the ship? We encountered remarkably little on out journey to the bridge." His tone is measured but tense, this is his first meeting with these powerful men and though they are ostensibly allies, there are never any guarantees, especially with a prize as large as the carrier in the balance.

Richard gladly stops aiming his gun. While any conversation is happening, he'll go take a look back towards the engine room and make sure there's not something weird going on there before rejoining the team.

"That's thanks to Seung here" Silvano says courteously. His goggles have been cracked and both of them have taken some wounds in the fighting, but are overall in seemingly good spirits. "Our titan entered the system just as the battle commenced. Too far to be able to contribute to the fleet battle, but we thought we'd cause trouble on the flagship for you to throw them off balance. I hope we were able to save some Protectorate lives. "

(Edit - hit enter too early) Seeing Richard's wounds more-or-less healed up but Katalin looking worse for wear, Ivan points at the medpak he gave Katalin. "Use it or lose it, Miss Street-Paragon. We'll likely be dropping on Veovis sooner than you think. And I'll tell the Head Priestess on you." He faces Silvano and Seung. "Very likely. Without your help it might have been safer to have vaporized the bridge from one of the ships." Ivan sends out the signal that the bridge was captured to the Protectorate fleet and other marine groups on board. "We've recovered some intel as well during the fighting. It'll get sent out to the other ISF fleets but you might as well get a first look with us, if we can understand it. Overall, 'decisive victory' doesn't quite fit the bill for what happened today." (edited)

"SCAF can't support another ship of this size, its your prize General, I'm enjoying the victory none the less" Silvano says, gesturing for you to lead the way to the intelligence trove you've captured.

Ivan finds a flat top to place down the various documents and gadgets he himself scraped into his backpack and invites the others to dump out what they have. In case it mattered, things were grouped together very roughly as best as he remembered them laying about on the conference room table before it all jumbled together.

Silvano looks as though he can read this and begins pondering. "They're a glass house. Especially now. It looks like there were some talks of trying to blood our noses in a ground assault before making a claim for peace "

Teucer tenses slightly at the mention of the Titan in system. While Ivan speaks, he seals his suit and shuts off his external speakers to send a quick message to Arete, still on the bridge of one of the Elysium Typhonis. "Arete, Teucer. SCAF titan in system. Are you guys tracking?" Arete responds promptly, calm and efficient. "Arete, Roger, tracking the Titan. It's sat at the edge of the system after drilling in mid fight. Threat analysis shows it's relatively lightly armed. Fleet is aware and ready to receive the Titan into formation." Teucer breathes a little easier following the response "Teucer, Roger. Out." Restoring power to his external speakers he responds. "Where are those ground forces? I don't remember seeing a troop transport in the fleet. Silvano, Could I trouble you for a translation matrix? I know that some of my intelligence officers would find that incredibly beneficial."

“It’s not a piece of technology” he says tapping the side of his head. “Psionics. You see. You’ll just have to trust me on this one”

(18/27HP [+6 from Medkit]) Katalin retreats a little to apply the medkit. She is already shivering slightly as she swallows a relieving pill. After a short pause, she returns to the generals' conversation, and simply nods while the big game talks.

"If you can pick out details like potential targets and timetables, it would be good information to forward elsewhere to harden defenses. There's no telling who else in the Ascendancy that knows of these plans and is willing to carry them out, among other secondary issues like spies feeding information on area defenses. Ounce of prevention and all of that."

"I'll need more than just a few minutes around a conference table with it while all of you stare at me to really understand what we're reading here, but we've promised to work together on this. You'll just have to take me on faith that the info will be passed along" Sil says, moving to grab the documents so he can organize them.

7:24 AM

"And it doesn't change the fact we've got Veovis below us that still needs to have some pressure applied to it. My titan has 20,000 soldiers on board, ready to support operations however you generals see fit. "

1

The elation can be heard through Ivan's helmet. "Someone offering to do the desk work? You won't hear me complaining!" Ivan keys in a request to get a shuttle over to the SCAF Titan and a fresh B cell for his assault suit. "My armor's IFF data will be uploaded to your systems and I'll make the drop with your troops. The Chimeran slave drivers of Veovis might not have any idea their flagship was taken and her escort fleet wiped out, so they might be in for one hell of a surprise!" Ivan gives his regards and begins his departure from the bridge. (This is just a character send-off opportunity that sounded appropriate! I have nothing else to add/ask of Silvano and Seung.)

(Anyone else have anything to ask?)

1

@Moff Cvk-Tarilli (Lemming) @Soren (Grim) @Deleted User (if we're all wanting to engage in the planetary assault, we can re-convene in this thread. We'd have a night as far as recovering your c haracter level of HP and losing one point of strain, but any further healing is going to have to be done with medpaks which will hit your strain)

(Here!)

(Also here)

(Here!)

(this is the usual, each hex is 200km. We don't have names for these places but you can see the Poi)

(The POI on the lower-center continent that isn't right on the image border - is that a torn-down-city-turned-agriculture? It has that same ground color as the ruins)

(YeP )

Ivan appears at a holographic planning table being shared throughout the Protectorate fleet and the SCAF titan. The most relevant officers appear in-person as well, real or holographic, with the rest signing in as view-only through their privileged credentials. "General reminder to all parties making the drop, the atmosphere requires atmofilters or sealed environment armors. Don't leave home without spares." Ivan says as his introduction. "Grim, your Paivatar station has advanced planetary scanners. Can your crew run a scan to find strong energy signatures indicative of a hub?"

“I will instruct them to do so. It also should provide us the benefit of air defenses, meaning any ground forces should be safe from missiles.” (Will run the scan if needed or something I can do.)

(it won't reveal anything we don't already have, and we can reason the settlements have breaker guns or at the very least stinger batteries so we cant drop on them) (edited)

With the scan providing nothing particularly enlightening, Ivan pulls up a fairly basic invasion plan. "This torn-down city," he points to the bottom-center agricultural fields just south of the mountains. "Might have one of the larger contingents of enslaved workers, and accordingly, one of the larger amounts of planetary guards and slave drivers. I propose this as our first target. Since we can't drop directly, we'll need to set up a forward base. These mountains-" He points to the ranges north of the target. "-can provide adequate defensive terrain for a forward landing position with the topography making counterattacks from land and air particularly dangerous. We should be able to maintain air superiority through our atmospheric-capable ships, especially the Typhonis-borne fighters." "Our first objective, in this plan, would be to seize this city then branch out to continental control. As it is one of the more central continents, it should allow us to control the various land bridges." Some other details are provided, but the floor is opened for suggestions on changing targets or landing zones. (Picture in a moment)

1:09 PM

(Site A preferred, Site B if impossible!)

(Site A would be at the extreme range, we could land there )

"So we tackle the largest possible target. Okay. The Goddess will be with us. Hopefully. But do I understand it correctly that we have to walk, like 200 kilometers? While we all surely can do this, it is quite some hike, or do we have transports of some sort? Would it be instead possible to get a smaller group of people down to the ground, close to the city, to disable air defenses and then allow for the rest to land and bring the City under our control?"

“I have a stealth shuttle with me on the station capable of carrying a crew of 10 that could be used to get a team to the surface. The station also has transport pads, but there may be to much surface interference. I also have a troop transport en route with 1 division of battle robots but it is a month out.”

"But we don't have a month. We don't even have days. We hit them by surprise. And we hit them hard. Right now we can go down and get them without them being prepared. The longer we wait, the longer they get to prepare. And with their backs to the walls, they might be horribly mistreating the local population, and we can't let that happen."

"This also isn't the time to rush in, Priestess," Ivan says with sternness. "There's no way the Chimeran fleet hasn't warned the planet defenders as soon as we arrived, and without updates from the Ultimatum, they will assume the worst and prepare accordingly. But your stealth approach is a good idea, and easily scalable if anything preventing the Paivatar's teleporter from locking onto good sites can be disabled in conjunction with the defenses. If we can gather better intel on what's defending there, that would be perfect on its own before the main force hits it. It goes without saying that disabling the defenses would be best-case." "Seung," Ivan turns to the hologram coming from the SCAF titan. "What's the status on your infantry's mechanization? Can they be dropped with something that can cover 200 kilometers or more on something faster than legs? In case a city drop isn't feasible or if we want to split up your forces to better fit a plan."

"We prioritized an infantry force, we don't have many vehicles aside from a few recon bikes and a few ambulances for the most critically injured. "

8:05 AM

(the titan has drop pods, and the teleporters can only do a handful of folks at a time. We're using cargo lighters or drop pods otherwise and we'd need to bring down the air defenses for those if we're dropping right on the settlement)

"Then that scratches out a forward base near those mountains for now - marching 200km isn't going to work out well without air dominance. Then the priority is disabling of the air defenses through small strike teams to allow the titan's drop pods to enter. After that, we can utilize the Protectorate's atmospheric-capable frigates for light transport, including my own ship, wherever breaker guns and reaper batteries have been neutralized. Have your troops on maximum readiness - they need to drop the second the last gun falls." (Despite the finality in Ivan's words, the floor is still very much open for more suggestions! We're not likely to start the mission proper until Neko gets back so we have a lot of time to go over things IC here or OOC in our server)

Daira looks somewhat victorious. "That sounds like a good plan. What will we most likely meet down there? And what should our strike teams look like?"

(I will be around again on Saturday night most likely, the op will be done by then)

8:42 AM

(We have today and tomorow to start shaking out a plan)

Nekosmash

(I will be around again on Saturday night most likely, the op will be done by then)

(Have fun and F New Canada up if they are there.)

"Likely we'll see a lot of 'civil suppression' units - slave drivers - and fairly light equipment ensuring that the population remain under control. Think watch towers, rapid response teams, patrolling drones, electric fencing, checkpoints, et cetera - things that fair very well against large groups of exploited, unarmed people whose weapons might be the farm tools they happen to be holding. These areas will likely be under the control of a nearby fortification or military base containing the equipment for a heavier response. A lot of this might vary depending on the local landscape, but our strategic targets are going to be located within some of these main bases and not out in the open for any enslaved farmer to stick a pitchfork into when the guards aren't looking." "I don't think our objectives are necessarily going to be storming the gates of every base containing a breaker gun with lots of cool explosions. There's lots of room for civil involvement that can ease our invasion as well. I'm not advocating for having them storm the gates of a base, but rebel groups - especially within whatever remains of the cities in ruins or subterranean areas - might have some muscle to provide. But just getting the locals to perform civil disobedience might stretch Chimeran assets too thin and present opportunities for us." "But we'll definitely storm at least one base with lots of cool explosions." (Edit - realized I had two trains of thought that were never completed) (edited)

“If we want to go the subterfuge route I can also make several of us appear to be Chimeran. I also am not suggesting we wait a month or delay, merely wanted to share what LLF has available to help the planning occur.”

(Would the freed slaves have any intel on the general cultural practices or mannerisms? To improve the charade.)

(the ones we took on the ships were not from here, by design )

(So I guess we favor some stealthy small squad(s) approach?)

(I'd be ready for anything)

(So we have Katalin, Ivan, Grim, Moff, Richard, and Dai then I guess?)

(Stealthy, with sub-flavors of shooty and social in some combination?)

(sounds like a perfect Lasagna, I'd be into that)

(Does Moff cosplay as a slave?)

(Only if Grim transforms some into Chimerans, or else that would just put Moff in danger.)

(Yeah I think it all depends. Do we want 1 team or several? 2 teams of 3 again?) (edited)

(I think that depends on if we want to do two goals or just one. For instance, do we want to have a diversion force and an infiltration force? Or target 2 points?)

(I feel like we will go to the ground together and might need to split into two squads depending on what we encounter. We have clear goals, but actual information on what is going on there is sparse.)

(Yeah, we jsut did a fly by, we didn't land to get more than we have)

(I guess, we are ready to drop into the unknown now?)

1

( @Elysium Protectorate @Soren (Grim) just post a 'I want to take part' so we know you are into the ground campaign. Nobody is forced to do it, if you rather want to do other character stuff)

('I want to take part')

(I want to take part!)

(Moff's here for the noctua! I'm planning on taking part)

(I want to take part)

(I'd prefer to tap out)

(sounds good, we'll return to your personal thread)

1:56 PM

(Did I hand out XP for this? My eyes are glassing over trying to find it)

(Space fight no, this one yes)

(I don't think it was stated for the carrier assault)

(3xp and 5000 for the carrier assault, and its low because most of the party had personal goals accomplished by this as well)

(So should we take my stealth ship down? It also has transport pads and amphibious ops so if we want we can land in the water initially for more cover)

3:55 AM

(If that’s what you’d like to use we can certainly do that )

(Is everyone good with taking the shuttle down and landing underwater 2 hexes up and left from A?)

4

(I'm good for that if you are)

!roll 2d6+5

Nekosmash Roll: [3, 2] Result: 10

!roll 2d6+8

Nekosmash Roll: [6, 6] Result: 20

The shuttle is loaded, and is not spotted on its approach to the planet. Passing through the atmosphere and staying out of range of surface defenses and the radars that control them you splash down into the blue-green sea, quickly submerging and moving away from the place where you impacted the ocean to distance yourself from any chance encounters.

Moff waits for the security harness belt indicator to disengage before they clamber up from their slouch. Are all sea landings so unstable? Their hands move in a somatic routine to suit up into their re-assembled gear, but if noctua were capable of throwing up from stress Moff might just have. Instead, they fiddle with a pen and watch the foreign scenery from the display.

Ivan turns around to face out the window Moff was facing. He leans on the butt of his rifle, watching the slow-dancing sea plants with indifference. "I hope you're all enjoying your planetary invasion," Ivan says quietly to break the silence. "It'll be a story for the grandkids for some of you, for certain."

“It’s the Eclipse’s first stealth run and amphibious landing, glad the Aiya techs who built this really know their stuff. It works even better than expected. Shall we beam to point A and recon our surroundings?”

Daira was so far completely zoomed out. Saying prayer after prayer, to Ognyena, and the Prophetess. Asking for assistance, and blessings for her companions. When Grim asks his question, she finally looks up. "Point A? That is too far away, didn't we say that?"

Ivan nods. "It's a perfect spot for the Protectorate militia, but alas, we have to make things work with the SCAF companies ready to drop. We can beam to the outskirts of the city, what remains of it, to the south instead."

(Everyone agreed with that? )

"When the General says that, then I think we are fine." Daira then gets closer to Ivan and whispers. "And if it was a stupid idea, I guess Cas will get you back to the living to kill you over and over." The words are followed by a soft smile. Fighting alongside her future Brother in Law is a comforting feeling.

(yeah, let us beam close to the city)

(d10, from anyone)

!roll 1d10

Ivan Wyke | Yulia Wyke Roll: [8] Result: 8

!roll 1d10

Daira of Artema| P| Andra| Aruke Roll: [1] Result: 1

!roll 1d10

Katalin Lipnitskaya Roll: [10] Result: 10

15km from the ruins of the city you can see a large and robust military outpost has taken the place of where the locals had once lived. There is a small drone flock stays close to the base, watching the countryside.

Moff eyes this first hurdle nervously. They look between the drones and what is undoubtedly a well manned base in their mind. "Do you think we could tap into the feed from one of those drones?"

“I think it’s technically feasible but I don’t have the skill or equipment to do so.” Grim says. (Roughly how many in the flock? Basically trying to see if shooting them down would be feasible?)

(We can't remotely hack in SWN. We;d need to get a line shunt on their control station or something first)

12:42 PM

The flock has fourteen drones in it from what you can see near the city, though there may be more in the countryside.

“It looks like too many to try and shoot them all down quickly. It would also draw a lot of attention. Should I metamorph us to make us look chimeran?”

"If it can hide our equipment, sure!" Ivan says through his assault suit helmet. "Otherwise you're going to have to hide me in a bush somewhere."

(It just mentions the actual body, nothing about worn equipment or otherwise. Psychic powers in SWN are pretty literal, so since it doesn't mention gear, I'd say gear doesn't apply)

(Sounds like I'll have to doff, so we can find a hole somewhere to stash stuff away.) (Edit - I'll see if any other ideas come forward before committing to ditching the walking tank!) (edited)

(Yeah open to other ideas, it’s just all I can think of. But if someone has something better)

"We could ask Ognyena for help." Daira says, and after a short pause adds. "By creating a large fire, that would draw in the drones and maybe create a blind spot for us to get closer to this place? I mean we could also circle around it and see if we can use anything that is left in the Ruins of the town that could help us."

Moff seems to be practically vibrating, but they chirp quietly, "If... we can find a cart, I can pretend to be a pack mule slave." They shudder. "Hide the gear in materials. Straw or something."

“I like the pack mule idea, but i don’t know if any of us have a cart. The fire has potential too, I would be willing to start the fire and become the distraction while you guys sneak in. I can then try and avoid getting killed while you guys take the base.”

Daira shakes her head. "No. I don't like the idea of anyone making themselves the target. We don't know anything about them, and when they get to you, you are dead. All we have, are us, the Goddess and her Prophetess. So we better don't separate. But if we all like the cart idea, we might really should sneak around to the ruins of the city, looking if any such thing might be waiting there for us."

"I agree, Grim. No sense in letting you have all of the fun when we can divide it equally." There's a wink to Ivan's sarcasm, hidden behind the faceplate. "The drones appear defensive or for monitoring the enslaved workers. The city might be relatively unmonitored and might have something useful. It can't all be torn down - Rome wasn't destroyed in a day, after all."

“Ok let’s see if we can quietly make our way into the ruins then.”

(sneak/dex, from everyone)

(13)

!roll 2d6-1+1 ! sneak/dex check

Moff Cvk-Tarilli (Lemming) Roll: [6, 4] Result: 10 Reason: sneak/dex check

(8)

(5. I am sorry)

(no re-rolls Dai? )

(3 i am sorry too)

1:34 PM

(Sheet says I still have a plot point but could that help me and Dai or would it be pointless to burn?)

(I have four of each, need plot points for later will reroll now)

1:35 PM

!roll 2d6 -1

Daira of Artema| P| Andra| Aruke Roll: [5, 2] Result: 6

(I can spare two reroll tokens if you both want to reroll! And if I can give them away)

(it could help the whole party grim depending on what you tihnk is plausable)

1:41 PM

(you decide how to slightly change the situation in some narrative way)

(I am willing to burn it to help the whole party. Could we say we get lucky and disturbance breaks out among the slaves creating a window where the drones are occupied and we are able to capitalize on it to get to a damaged structure in the ruins? Or something similar?)

(sure we can do that)

7:33 AM

The drones seem to scatter, looking at a disturbance at one of the farming enclaves nearby and slowly the flock begins to thin out, each of them heading to different pre assigned places to do their role in helping to contain the problem.

"Look. They scatter. That is our chance! This must be a gift from the Prophetess. We should hurry."

"Boss looking out for us or not, our fortune is likely someone else's curse out there. Let's not allow it to pass in vain. I'll cover the rear, get your butts and abdomens moving," Ivan calls out as he makes the first step out, standing lookout for the others to begin their move past him.

Grim begins moving as quickly as he can without drawing attention while heading towards the ruins

You see the ruins of a farmstead ahead about half the distance between here and the city. There are the ruins of a barn, two small homes, and a large coop that all look to be in serious disrepair. This was once a homestead where the locals lived and the Chimeran occupation has displaced or killed the original inhabitants. The farm has gone to ruin without them but it might be a good enough place to take cover.

Without prompting, Moff flits toward the barn, keeping an eye out for any out of place additions that might indicate a trap or hazard. It would bode poorly for one of the ground bound to get their foot caught in a pest trap or rattle a make shift alarm.

Katalin would place herself next to Ivan, to look out for any suspicious movements.

You look to be here alone. The locals have abandoned the place or been carried off into slavery already more likely.

Between moments of peering side-eyed out one of the busted windows in the general direction of the fortification, Ivan starts looking under any dusty rugs and checking under some of the bigger pieces of old furniture left behind to rot. "These old farm houses might have a root cellar or something. Might be useful as a gear dump or teleport point later on if we decide to come back. Or maybe we'll get lucky and find a hideaway that'll tell us some neat tips and tricks about their overlords."

“Good idea. Maybe we can mark the exact coordinates and positioning to be able to more accurately beam in later if needed. The big question is what do we do now that we are here? Do we assault the fortification? Do we try and sneak in? Do we just monitor for a few days and get pattern of life information?“ (edited)

"At the least, we can get an idea of the drone flight routines. And perhaps if there are any slave curfews?" Moff tugs at an old book shelf, spilling rotted pages like a clumsy flower girl

"How much time do we have? Like how long can we last here? I can live from my love to the Goddess and her Prophetess alone. But that might not be true for all of you. Although I guess a day or two would be enough to get a grasp of their rhythm. And then? I don't know. The question is, if sneaking, over such a long distance is even a feasible task." She points in the direction of the fortification. "They might have more eyes than just the drones alone. Um, did anyone find the cart we were looking for? For the Slave Moff option?"

The noctua twitches at Daira's last comment and lets go of the book shelf. "Maybe there's one left in the barn?"

(I’m assuming we have made it into the farmhouse to set up but yeah we haven’t explored the property )

(That's what I was going off of: into the house but not having explored any of the other buildings or the contents of the house properly)

(Yeah that’s where I’m basing it off)

(Question for the group - if we find a cart here, do we still want to go more into the city?)

(if a Character provides a reason for why we should do that, yeah, sure why not)

(I;m game for it, just have to get to exploring and determine if we're going to start poking around in day or night)

"I think we're good for a few hours at the least. So long as the teleporters on the Eclipse remain active, we can resupply as needed. It wouldn't kill us to have a stash prepared here anyways, just in case signals get scrambled or we get caught in the moment. If we decide to stay, I'm going to step out of my armor to conserve the power cell. Re-donning isn't a quick task, so it only comes off if we're committing to staying. I'm not opposed to staying and planning something with what we have. I've made worse plans on less time with only crayons that worked beautifully." (Ivan will continue searching for a cellar, basement, or crawlspace entrance within the house)

“Agreed. Let’s search the place then and see if we can find anything useful.”

(notice/wis ivan)

(11)

There is a root cellar you've found underneath the rug in the main living area. It doesn't look as though it had been previously found by anyone but the main house itself has largely been looted by the world's new Chimeran overlords. Visible foodstuffs, valuables, and tools have all been carried off.

"What err, exactly is the plan again?" Moff inquires as they lean over to peer at the root cellar's hatch. "And before you ask, no, I don't eat crayons." It only happened once, and that was a long weekend that doesn't count.

"Are you implying that I do?!" A bit of defensiveness in Ivan's voice comes through his helmet speakers. He shakes his head, ignoring the train of thought. "We're checking out the place before we find out it's a big ol' trap. Maybe we find a cart for you to pull, or we find an ion cannon built into the planet's crust that that base over there is built directly over with a big stupid red button to push, or something of lesser but good value like Grim said. Whatever the case, it's also a good place to keep an eye on the fort for a little bit. The planet's effectively under total siege, so we can afford information gathering like a stakeout." The latch on the cellar door is undone and pulled open slowly and carefully. Although it hadn't been found, there was never a guarantee a nasty surprise was left for snooping Chimeran looters, Ivan keeps a lookout for anything that might be a trap.

Moff waves away dust bunnies as the door is disturbed. "Pardon, but a built in ion cannon seems ludicrous given the current state of affairs; there is hardly any way it wouldn't have been put to use." They peer into the open maw of the cellar from the other side, eyes finding ease in the darkness. "And I've made no statement of your dietary habit." They correct.

"Make me see, make me push away the darkness." Daira mumbles as she would try to look out for any traps before being the first to crawl down. Her eyes are the brightest amber now and it almost feels like microscopic flames tingle along her iris as she looks into the darkness. (Activate Inward Eye, making her able to see even in perfect darkness, 2/5 Effort committed)

The root cellar looks to be a large underground space but looks to be entirely mundane. Preserved food rests in this cool space in sealed jars, along with what looks to have been the start of a survival shelter where atmofilters and home made rad suits were stored. None of them would actually hold up to fallout.

After seeing this, Daira looks back up towards the others. "I guess this was their save space, their makeshift bunker. There might be something to eat down here. Moff. What is this stuff in the sealed jars?"

Moff picks up a jar and gently blows the dust off the label. They inspect it under the dim light. "I.. think this one is some kind of soup? General principles state that if we need to eat any, the more acidity products like fruits would be marginally safer but not to do so unless it's urgent. Or I guess, if you have resistance to general food toxins." They shrug and put one jar back, inspecting another. "We don't actually know what their err, processing practices, were like so it's a gamble. Rations from the ship are much safer. Oh, high proof ethanol products should be fine though." They pause to inspect the patchwork suits. "Do you think they still have nuclear devices?" (edit: for spelling.) (edited)

Ivan removes his helmet for a moment. He inhales the strange, thick atmosphere to feel his lungs adapt to the pressure and the contents. He figured he could probably go for a few hours with usual activity, but that would be a test for later when the planet was liberated. He had other things on his mind. "Let me see that jar," he says to Moff as he takes it from their hands. He pops off the lid, takes a gulp, and swallows. He waits a few minutes. "Yeah I'm not getting a reaction like some of the food I find in my fridge. I don't think it's human cuisine, though. It tastes weird. At least it's not Geon food." He takes another gulp then wordlessly offers the rest of the contents while he chews on whatever squishy thing was in there.

Daira just stares at Ivan, mouth opening more and more as he slurps and munches at whatever content was in the jar. She just shakes her head in disbelief as she gets offered to try it as well. "What the heck does my sister see in you? I guess everything my family was not." After two short breaths, she returns to the more immediate situation. "Okay. So we can utilize this as a hideout, as a place to stash things, and more. What now? Do we go out and scout the surroundings for anything of use and keep an eye out on the fort?"

"Would it be possible that there are still some Noctua hidden in outer run down buildings? Hiding, waiting to be rescued. Those might be of help in an assault on the fort. More local Bugpower with the will to defeat their oppressors could be a boon."

“If there are more out there I think they may have to wait trying to search every run down building will take time and likely get us caught. I think we should either metamorph and try to get in that way, scout to learn more, or we can try and set a distraction. Maybe a timed explosion in another building and then rush their compound in the confusion.”

"We are not 'bugs', Miss Katalin." Moff interjects half-heartedly, as equally mortified as Daira about Ivan's casual snack. Not getting a reaction... like the food in your fridge?! "A distraction would be helpful Grim, but only if the target is noteworthy I think. At the same time, I am not fond of the idea of attacking food or supplies. It will be the enslaved races that suffer first, before any of the Chimerics, and if we fail then they will suffer all the harder."

One hand touches Moff's shoulder and one touches the chest. Invading personal boundaries as usual, Daira smiles at Moff. An almost stoic smile followed by a mantra the Paragons in war zones often say. "The Goddess smiles down on us, we carry the light, the flame, within us. We will not fail, and even if we fall, the light within us will be released, the flame will become a wildfire. Good will prevail as long as Ognyena and her prophetess are with us."

"Goodness, would you have been so disgusted if Daitrij did that?" Ivan responds to Dai's comment with his signature grin. He closes up the jar and sets it aside before turning to Katalin and Grim. "Survivors are only likely depending on their food stocks. Based on the size of the operation going on here by the Chimerans and the amount of effort put into tearing down the cities and building up the farms and fortresses, there are likely very few holdouts. Recently escaped slaves, though, could be living off of stuff found in places like this.: Ivan puts his helmet back on to restore his personal, sealed atmosphere. "This seems like a cellar that was going to double as a fallout shelter. Since this doesn't look like the cellar of a crazy person, then there was probably a real risk of nuclear weapons, like Moff mentioned. That bothers me a lot. If the frigates could land, their drives could snuff the nukes, but we have no idea if an attack is going to trigger some kind of fail-safe; I wouldn't put it behind a prideful Exemplar and their faithful followers to resort to scorched earth tactics. I think Katalin's idea is sound, and if anyone were to get caught out, we're at least prepared for it."

(Would the stations planetary defenses array be able to take out any nuclear weapons? Maybe not tactical nukes but at least icbm types that would enter atmosphere?)

(yes)

6:01 AM

(We also don't have any nuclear weapons)

("We" as in none on the planet?)

(I have no context for Grim's request. The fleet does not have those types of weapons aboard)

7:31 AM

(We wouldn't have information about anything further right now)

(Okay I think I can clarify - we suspect nukes on the planet, but we don't know what form they're in. If they happen to be ICBM-like, then Grim was asking if the Paivatar station's planetary defense array can handle them if the nukes* were launched within the atmosphere.) (For the rest of the group in case it wasn't clear, I'm for looking for hideaways as per Katalin's idea to get more first-hand knowledge and ease any fears. Our original destination the city remnants might be a good spot. This cellar is a good place to return to via teleportation - if still possible - for our actual assault!) (edited)

(The station would be able to defend against that, yes)

With the cellar exploration relatively unfruitful, Moff bobs back up the steps and into the house. "Shall we check the barn then?" They say from the floor above.

“I am ok with any plan. I do think we are likely to be spotted though if we leave the building for any length of time due to the large number of drones”

"That might be true. But we will also most likely be spotted when we launch an attack on the fortress. You said you could make us into these." She looks at Moff. "Um, Chimerans. If we hold Moff at gunpoint, they might be thinking we got one and are on our way to sniff more out. And if we were to find more and would lead them to the fort, it would just look like we bring in more slaves. Once we are in they grab some guns from a cart and we bring mayhem to the fortress."

Daira frowns on her way up from the cellar. "You do know that this is highly dangerous and could end up with us all being killed from afar if that fails?"

Katalin nods and shrugs. "Sure. But what were you expecting when we landed here, outnumbered in the middle of an occupied world with the aggressors being with their backs towards the wall? That we talk our way into world peace? That we just spray some bug repellent? No. By Ognyena. This is dangerous. And Noctua and others are suffering if we don't help them. And they will fight alongside us to get their world back. To get their freedom back. We need some risky plan to work, if it does, our flames will burn even brighter with every Chimeran who can't commit any further warcrimes. Be here, sister, trust on Ognyena and our strengths. There is no way that we could fail. So Grim, you can turn us into Chimerans?"

Taken off guard by Katalin's statements, Daira remains silent and just nods at her sister in faith. She then just looks at Grim to hear his answer.

(sneak/dex for anyone going to the barn)

(Staying behind in cellar to doff armor)

!roll 2d6-1+1 ! Sneak/dex for going to barn

Moff Cvk-Tarilli (Lemming) Roll: [1, 1] Result: 2 Reason: Sneak/dex for going to barn

2

(I'm... going to use expert to reroll that)

7:52 AM

!roll 2d6-1+1 ! Sneak/dex for going to barn take 2

Moff Cvk-Tarilli (Lemming) Roll: [6, 4] Result: 10 Reason: Sneak/dex for going to barn take 2

!roll 2d6 +2

Katalin Lipnitskaya Roll: [3, 1] Result: 6

(Dai would stay with Ivan, so less people go to the barn, which may makes them harder to be detected)

!roll 2d6

Nekosmash Roll: [5, 2] Result: 7

The drones are preoccupied elsewhere and both Moff and Katalin make their way to the barn in the first group to move from the house, taking advantage of a gap in the patrol pattern. You see no evidence anyone else has been hiding here. The barn consists of ten empty animal pens, a second floor hay loft that has also been recently emptied except for a few rotting bales that are worthless as food for anything, and you also notice most of the hand tools have also been taken especially anything like pitchforks or reaping scythes that could be used as weapons in the hands of angry enslaved farmers.

Moff flips over a hay bale and sneezes at the puff of dust. "Do you see anything Miss Katalin?"

"I see a barn. One that is almost empty. What do you see Mh Moff?" Katalin replies, guns ready in case someone jumps at them.

"There's not much but livestock bedding here, I'm afraid." Moff pauses and stares hard at the empty tool rack. "I hope the locals still hold rebellion in their hearts. It appears they took all the animals. Do you think that the occupiers are struggling to maintain supplies?"

Katalin looks around for a cart as she replies. "Depends on if they like deep fried Noctua and boiled Mosks. Which I hope they don't. They bleed the world out, and if we win, there is decades of work ahead to get this world going again. There will be a new wave of refugee ships. More unrest on worlds of the Iron Stars with questions on how to handle the next millions of Noctua who come to their worlds. But it is still the right thing to do, and nobody deserves that life. So we have to win. And if we unleash a fire of wrath, the fire of rebellion in them, will ignite again."

To end, knowing that you will become fuel for the destruction of your own cherished and kind? Should I ge- no. No. Don't think like that. "Death by deep frying," Moff looks at their hands and wiggles each separate finger. "I hope not. We have done it before, you know; shedding blood for peace. Not me, but the Noctua of Uloth." They curl their hands into fists and tentatively squeeze. "And I've come to a rather disgusting realization that spilling their blood does not hurt my conscience. Ah! Do not take that as I enjoy it. I just thought, well, I don't know. I don't know what I thought."

There is a cart within the building. One of the wheels needs to be replaced or repaired as several of the spokes are broken but it looks like it will serve if a few people can pull it. The beasts that normally would have pulled this are gone now.

Katalin points at the cart. "Well that cart could be our ticket to spill their blood. But I doubt that you could pull it alone, even after repairing it."

"Hmmm. We can work around that if we can even get it fixed." Moff focuses in on the broken spokes, flitting about it like a hummingbird. "I don't usually do woodwork, but it can't be that hard." Landing into the hay, the noctua strides to the tools left behind. A broom? Perfect. They grab it and hand it to Katalin. "Could you break this for me? Into thirds. And any other handles you find. I'm going to try making replacement spokes, to start."

"You want me to break stuff? Easy!" Katalin quickly starts to break the broom the way Moff wants it to, and then quickly start to look around for other fitting parts. "So what do you do for a living?"

They take the broken pieces from Katalin, and start whittling them down with their knife. "I think the best title might just be 'Agent of the Tecmessa Noctuan Colony'. I used to be a minor flight technician on the Tecmessa bound Xam-err, colony ship. Once we landed I've been fiddling with the mechanics skills, but I'm trying to work my way into the botanical department." They hold the shaved down handle to the wheel and start cutting again. "And of yourself, Miss Katalin? Surely this isn't just for flame and light."

She shrugs. "Well it somewhat is. Have to make up for for my past. But that is not something I'd like to talk about now. Let's just assume I want the bad guys down, so I feel less like a monster myself. How is the cart going?" She hands over more parts.

"We all have our ghosts. But until someone makes easily affordable quantum tunneling or some parallel, we're stuck with them. I am sorry that yours are heavy." With a stack of crudely carved replacement spokes at their side, Moff starts to pry out the old, broken pieces. "I haven't cut myself yet." (Not sure if I should be waiting for Neko for a check or if we're good?)

(There was some roleplay going before I circled back to things this morning I didnt want to interrupt. Moff has a good fix, so does Kat, I think getting it repaired is not really a challenge here)

7:45 AM

(We'll be ready to go with it when you're both happy with the scene)

There's a bit of grunting and clicking from Moff as they coerce the new spokes into their spots. A few spare chips are wiggled into gaps and hammered with the butt of the knife, and the whole thing is given a good whack to make sure everything is settled. "I think that'll do it." They step back and survey the functional handiwork. "As for if I can pull it or not myself, we have seen that the Chimerians take no qualms with human slave either. Or Torgrim may be able to alter your appearances to noctuan or piggen. We will need to ask him."

Katalin laughs. "Is that your revenge for Bugpower? See those ears? I am a Taros. We might look somewhat close to humans, but we are not. But anyway, they might not see the difference either. So if you want help with the cart, I help you pull it."

One of Moff's antennae wiggle. They hadn't really been paying attention to Katalin's race and it wouldn't have been quite right to say that they had bothered to notice. "I am still not a bug, but no. I was referring to the future khan consort; I believe that his physique would make for a convincing physical labor slave and I am not sure about Torgrim's capability to make anyone look smaller. But if you would like to volunteer, I would be glad to have it. My kind is not really meant to be at the forefront of anything." They wiggle the wing with the bullet nick for emphasis. "We are, delicate, I suppose."

1

(caught up, didnt want to interrupt)

Katalin just nods. "Not a bug. I will remember it. Alright, time to look really sad as we walk the cart back over. Or no performance act, but a more sneaky approach. But if you ask me, I don't think we can hide, but we can look like good slaves."

"I do not think we will be playing the part soon, as the others mentioned observing drone patterns. Perhaps we should sneak back and reconvene with the others first? If we walk to the barn with 'overseers' we will not need to be sneaky."

"That is true. I would be ready to sneak back then. Because I think our work is done here."

Moff nods, discards the remaining broken handle, and scatters hay over the wood shavings. "Perhaps the others have thought of an alternative while we were occupied." (Ready to return to the house)

(are we taking the cart? or we just know its here and are checking in?)

(We fixed it, but are planning on leaving it in the barn and checking in with the others first so that it's ready to go when all the others are.)

(sounds good to me, we can all get back into this thread)

(Coming back in from Dai's thread) "Speak of the devils and they shall appear," Ivan says to Dai as the old floorboards squeak above them. Ivan pops his head up from the cellar entrance. "What's the word on what's in the barn? Do we have a luxury model farm wagon ready for pulling?"

"Greetings, oh ground-bound General. There was a cart and it is now fit for usage thanks to Miss Katalin's help, but it is only luxury in that it is functional. It appears meant to be pulled by beasts of burden and I will be insufficient on my own." Moff kneels down so as to come to a more appropriate conversation level. "We will need at least another. Miss Katalin has offered to aid me but we should carefully consider who will be err, appropriate. Have you had any luck thinking of alternatives?" They chirp past Ivan, to Daira and Grim.

"Alternatives, um, I, uh..." She looks at Ivan expecting him to say something, but he doesn't. "Well, no. We just decided that we should trust our instincts and follow the lead of this one." She points at Ivan. "Oh and positions are forbidden now. No Generals present. No admirals present. We are all just priests and Priestesses of the flame, bringing fire to these lands."

“I am willing to help pull it. We will all be telepathically linked so even if we get separated we will be able to maintain contact.”

Ivan nods at Grim's offer to pull. "I'm willing, too. We have no idea how 'infamous' we are among the Chimerans, so even as cart-pullers we should try to remain incognito. There aren't really many alternatives, unfortunately, unless we want to hop between shadows. Shall we head to the city to find some more muscle?"

"But Grim could turn us into different species. He could make Katalin, him, and me into Noctua, or Mosks. And he could turn you into a Chimeran. The military of them shouldn't be too fundamentally different to ours. So Ivan might naturally act like one of their soldiers with prisoners of war held as cart pulling slaves. That can still be our entry to the fortress and our cover for searching the area."

"I am not that either," They respond to Daira's statement, "But I have concerns about one being made to look Chimeran. We do not have cultural cues such as particular greetings, phrases, or gestures that may give us away. I believe whoever is to be the overseer should be one who is best at identifying and incorporating these qualities or a master of vagueness." Moff cocks their head to one side and looks at Grim. "The Chimeran ship had human prisoners, so some of you may not need to be disguised as another species. I do not know how tiring it could be for you Torgrim but we should not exhaust ourselves before we go into the hornet's nest. That is a bug."

“It would take about half my psychic strength to accomplish for all of us. I am open to other suggestions as well. We could just start trying to shoot down drones and draw them out, but I don’t know how outnumbered we are.”

"Some of us pulling the cart as humans will help conserve your strength, Grim. Someone can hide beneath whatever crap we have inside, too. I think information gathering is going to save lives - and not just our own sorry rears. The fort can wait for now."

(I'm set, just need to know who's pulling, and who is hiding)

"Do we want one to hide in the cart? Or would that be more risk than use if they have scanners for example that show them that someone is hiding inside the cart?"

"I think so. Oh, hey, they can wear my armor! Full environmental sealing, padded like crazy, and I've replaced half of the holdout magazine holsters inside with snacks. If we get caught, they'll be in full protection. Also, the 'Chimerans' can sit on the hay pile or whatever crap we pile on top of our stuff and the person underneath won't suffocate. A scan might detect the weapons anyways, but they might not bother if our ruse makes it look like everything is very much under control." Ivan looks at Moff. "You look perfect for a powered tin can."

"Me??" Moff looks frantically between the others, waiting for someone else to volunteer. "But it doesn't even have wing vents!" They stammer. "Someone who can capitalize on the equipment would be better off. If they find a noctua in that they're going multiply their effort on us." Moff taps their fingers together, and the smell of burned fur and pine wafts around them. "Do you even have the user manual?"

"Manual shmanual, my dear air freshener. Unless you like bits of straw poking between your carapace joints!"

“I am good either way just let me know” (edited)

"Getting poked with hay or straw is no different from field work." The noctua sighs, another puff of burn releases into the house. "No one else wants to live out their power armor fantasy? Anyone? ...Fine. But I want a manual before I drown myself in whatever you've decided to spike the fluids system with. It's probably some weird paste." Moff thrums their fingers together rhythmically and hums in a low tone.

"I hope you don't mind the water container tasting faintly of cheese and pasta..." Ivan says as he ushers the Noctuan into the cellar for their impromptu armor fitting. (Taking the silence as nobody else* wants to wear the power armor! My impression is it'll be Ivan + Katalin pulling, Moff hiding, Grim + Dai(?) as Chimerans) (edited)

(I was thinking of just one Chimeran (Grim) to conserve Grim's power)

"What do you mean cheese and pasta?" Moff's muffled confusion disappears down the stairs as they're ushed away by Ivan. "How did you even manage to fit that in the magazine?" The scuffling is occasionally punctuated by squeaks of surprise and grunting from having to contort. (I guess Moff is playing hide and go seek. I agree Grim needs to have resources available.)

(works for me! I think that makes the most sense)

(So grim is just turning himself into a chimeran?)

(Yes, to minimize the burden on himself. We'll have Dai/Katalin/Ivan go roll in some dirt or something and Moff will be hiding in a pile of hay sampling each of Ivan's munitions snacks)

(Ok works for me)

(for me as well)

(for me too, time to roll in the sand)

Everyone begins getting into their disguises and a few hours go by before it appears the time to move has come. The cart is once again in smooth working order, and everyone has either suitably made themselves look slave-like, disguised, or have otherwise changed their appearance to not immediately make themselves to be outsiders if observed.

(Grim is at 8/10 remaining effort between keeping everyone telepathically linked and making himself look chimeran.) “We’ve got this team. These slavers will soon be defeated.” Grim says as the team begins their move towards the Chimeran outpost.

Sealed up in Ivan's armored suit, Moff nods. "What do you want me to do if they find out about-" they gesture to their entire self. "Play empty? Fire then and ask questions later? I'm sure you've seen it Torgrim but I am not a very good shot, or rather, I'm no shot at all unless probability deems it near impossible to miss."

"Well I suggest screaming 'for the Protectorate' because that's what I'd do. I guess you can do that jaw-clicky thing. My sword will be next to you, so feel free to swing that like a mad Noctuan, too. Hard to miss if they're already that close." Ivan takes his position as the lead beast of burden. "To the city now, everyone? Feel free to put on a show of discipline for any passing drones, Grim, to sell the charade. You can't possibly hit me any harder than Cass can."

The cart is assembled outside, and everyone begins getitng into place for the distant outpost. As of now, it does not seem most of the drone flock has returned from their duties elsewhere in the countryside. (edited)

"Ogynena, be with us." Is all that Daira says before getting into position as well, ready to march into a fort. With just five people.

(Just to clarify - are we going to the fort or the destroyed city? I was under the impression of destroyed city to gather information before heading to the fort. Unless the fort is in the city and we're just heading in the same direction regardless)

(the fort is outside it, they pulled most of the cities down here , we're going in the direction of both)

(Sounds good! I think we'll probably react to the first neat thing within the old city limits/around the fort we see and go from there)

(notice/wis grim)

Soren (Grim)

used /roll

Grim Roll: [5, 3] Result: 9 Request: [2d6+1]

(9)

As the cart is pulled, Grim notices a small footpath leading through this area of winding rock and ruin. It looks like someone has been here recently judging by the somewhat faded set of boot tracks in the ever present dirt.

Telepathically Grim communicates There are tracks and a small path. Should we follow them? Although if it’s an escaped Noctua they may be scared off by my current appearance

"But even if, we could still try to explain to them what really is going on. But will it ruin our cover?"

"Depends on who we find - friend or foe. We'd be better off ensuring foes don't make it out alive if our cover is blown. I'm for going. If we happen on a patrol, I trust Grim's talking ability. Otherwise, it's one less group of reinforcements to deal with later, especially with no eyes above us to let their command know what happened to them."

“Ok let’s go then. Like Ivan said the drones aren’t currently watching so it’s worth the risk.”

"Torgrim, why don't you pretend to stake the cart and leave for a bit. Perhaps they will come out and try to "liberate" the others. Some noctua can speak with their minds like this, but only to other noctua. If so then I will act as your proof." (If you were waiting on me, I'm sorry. I'm D1ing still)

”That sounds like a plan to me” Grim says as he follows Moff’s suggestion’s and stakes the cart, then wanders away for a bit

There is a rustling in the dust and a trapdoor opens, revealing the battered faces of two Noctua resistance fighters

"Oh, see, more firepower. Maybe Moff should talk to them.

Moff eases of the helm of the armor, before slowly emerging from the hay pile so as not to get shot. They make sure to emerge antennae first, putting extra effort into exuding tickling pheromones of friendliness and a non-threatening aura. "Please, put down your arms if you bear any. I am Moff Cvk-Terilli, of the Tecmessa refugee colony." They say in common, before repeating it in trilling Gisherayin. Moff sets the helmet down slowly and hold both arms up and open to them. "My compatriots-" They gesture slowly to the fake slaves and then to the direction that Grim went "-and I, are from the Elysium Protectorate. We are here with intention to aid in removing Chimerian Occupancy. The chimeric you saw is a* disguise, and they are with us. May we talk?" (edit for missing word) (edited)

“Say it quickly before we change our minds about your story!” One of them whisper -shouts

"Oh aren't you two nice! Just look at us. Just for one second. And now for real. Do we look like we would have been taken as prisoners, or slaves? Heck, we would have fought until their parasitic mushroom brains would have decided to kill us. So, the only ones who need to be quick, are you too. Either get into the cart or join us as fake slaves. But we are on to some big show. I tell you, we don't have enough fingers to count all the Chimerans who will fall today. So, wanna join us in storming some fort. Or do you want to go back into holes, waiting for others to fight your fight and avenge your lost comrades?"

"Storming the fort? No, thanks. I'd like to continue living" the Noctua says with mirth. "Going to need a lot more than your lot, and a hay cart"

Daira steps a bit forward. "But will you? My sister here, might be a bit, up front, but she is right. You two, and those you might know, can be what tilts this fight into our favor. And if this fort falls, and what comes with it, anti-air and similar things, the war on Veovis will start to be how we dictate it. And besides us, there is also Ognyena with us, guiding us, protecting us." She reaches out with a hand. "This now is your chance, the end of your waiting. Ognyena lead us to you, so she sees you at our sides. We will not fall, and we will not fail. Their fleet got shot to shreds already, they know that there is someone powerful, waiting to hand this world back to those who belong here. And what starts with fake slaves and a hay cart, will grow to a firestorm that cleanses this world of the oppressors. Trust us. Join us. Fight for your own sake. We will fight for you, no matter if you join us or not. And I understand that you cling to your life, but this is war, and death awaits at every corner."

"Leave the cart, or better yet hide it somewhere, and come with us. Make sure you're not seen"

1

Ivan points to some of the rubble within sight but not in the immediate area of the trapdoor. "That's about as good of a spot as any. If we pop a wheel off and take it with us, the rest will fit right in with the scenery. If a couple of us haul in our stowed weapons right now, it'll make hiding the rest of our movements easier."

"Torgrim, you may return. If it does not tax you to reapply it, I suggest removing the disguise for now." Moff shakes their head at Katalin's assertiveness but starts shifting the cart, keeping an eye out for dark specks in the sky. Here we go.

Grim drops the metamorph and begins to head back. ”Acknowledged, on my way.”

"Our last ally, the fake chimerian, is returning. Please do not be alarmed at his approach. He will look as his true self."

They nod, guns covering you though if it came down to it, you'd mop the floor with these two resistance fighters easily, and their gunshots wouldn't do much more to Grim other than annoy him. Weapons low, they gesture for all of you to approach their tunnel.

Daira follows the Noctua into the tunnels. Her blessed eyesight makes her see as clear as the day down there, even without any light sources present. Once she is a few meters into the tunnels, she turns and waits for the rest to come down as well. And as she waits she asks. "How many of you are there?"

"Ten here, another fifty in the tunnels ahead living here. We've got refugees from all over the planet slowly making their way to cells of ours around the countryside"

Ivan slides in, barely fitting in the narrow tunnel. He catches the end of the response. "And how many you figure are in the fort?"

"Few hundred in the garrison , about 100 chimeran, the rest are collaborators "

After applying a few strategic whacks to knock one of the whole wheels off at the joint to the frame and leaving the wheel under a bush, Moff follows down into the tunnel. "Collaborators?"

"Humans and Noctua. Swore and oath of alliance to House Lux and they're given some freedoms, and trusted with weapons as a result. Trying to make sure they're sitting pretty as the regime change goes into effect.

"Nothing new to us," Ivan says, thinking back on the ghoul collaborators. "We came across a destroyed farm house on the way here with a fairly intact basement. It's got some food in it - something you might be interested in - as well as what looks like a homemade radiation suit. It's useless, but what's happened here to cause someone to attempt making one?"

"Nothing like that, someone expecting the worst I think, when the Chimeran invaded no one was quite sure what was going to happen. I think a lot of us are still trying to grapple with it"

"That is a level of relief then. Can you elaborate on what they do have though? What means are they using to suppress the local population, and do not skip non-violent methods. Are they running propaganda as well? Ah, my apologies for the barrage of questions."

"Drones, heavy weapons, and they knew how to hurt us. Our defenses didn't even register the attacking ships and by the time we got things under manual control they were rampaging through the cities"

"Do you assume they had collaborators set in important positions to make their invasion easier? And it sounds like you do think the collaborators in the Fort are opportunists. So a hard and decisive strike could make them falter and turn once more. They have their hopes high with House Lux, but when they realize that House Lux has no hold on this world anymore, they know it is time to follow us or die, and they decided against dying already, when they turned to House Lux."

'Not before the invasion, no, but now to make their occupation easier I think that is something they're doing"

"That will soon end. Do you have any weapons down here in the tunnels? Anything big that could be useful? Or even just weaponry for yourself?"

"Or any aces up your sleeves? I can't imagine you holding out like this forever."

"Noctua rarely have sleeves, Ge-errrmister Ivan. Priorities should go to rescuing those who cannot or will not fight first." Moff puffs. They slow their pace to come into stride with Grim. Leaning over, Moff whispers "Torgrim, before I dash my hopes and theirs, would it be possible to do a teleportation mediated exodus of from here to the station for the refugees who cannot resist? For the noctua, the breeders and eggs... They will be hostage if not used as fodder. I do not want to let it happen again if I can help it."

(Before I answer I think we need Neko to weigh in. I have no character issues doing it, but I don’t know if we can get a strong signal)

(They’d have to come outside and we could only do a handful every six minutes. Depending on how many we take the energy spikes might get noticed after a bit)

Grim having entered looking human again says “it is doable but with risks.” He then explains the limitations. “Personally I think we wait for troops to arrive. We would be hard pressed to protect them all now, but with troops we could safely do it.”

One of Moff's antennae flicks back, but they give Grim a small nod and look at the backs of the forward party. "Then we will have to wait or jeopardize them all." They sigh.

"They might have their part to play, too, anyways. Running just isn't much of an option." Ivan says in response to Moff's sigh. "Whatever that part is, though, we'll just have to find out. What's the current standing of your resistance? What are your main goals right now? Have you had any hair-brained schemes in your back pocket or has it just been dodging the authorities for the time being?"

The resistance is flagging. They are short of almost every major resource but know a successful offensive, or a taking of ground somewhere would give them the momentum they need. Any major center of Chimeran resistance they can eliminate, would help.

"One final push, then. We don't need to take the fort with the resistance, we just need to take the breaker gun offline for the main force to orbital drop in. I've noticed the drones will respond first to issues happening elsewhere. Has anything in the past caused the garrison to deploy? We could try to recreate that."

A riot within the garrison itself once threatened to undermine the security situation there. Many of the collaborators were originally slaves, and their compliance was not an easy thing to secure. Failing that, a significant disturbance in the countryside with a loss of tying up of the drone forces would necessitate a boots on the ground deployment.

Daira looks at Ivan. "What if, through the tunnels, we start an attack on a smaller, less important objective. With enough force, we could threaten to actually take it over. We also place someone in a position to shoot down the drones, blinded like that, and only with the info that an objective might be overrun soon, we can force them to deploy a significant force. Allowing for a much smaller, stealthier group to enter the fort, and destroy the breaker guns. Once they are out, the demolition team can be teleported out, so they don't need to plan a return route, and at the same time, the force attacking the objective, flees into the tunnels, and then regroups with the landing troops from space."

(The rebels could be a distraction while you sneak in. Might be the best thing to do to not split the party)

"That's probably our best bet. The ship's teleportation won't be reliable, though. If things get hairy towards the end, we'd need either a holdout to wait for a location lock or a plain old escape route. But those are details we can iron out later." Ivan looks at the rebel leader. "Can we leave it to you to find something worthwhile to attack as a distraction? We'd have to ask that it be one hell of a risky play. The more you can peel off, the better."

"The spaceport? It's going to be enough to get them to deploy, but you're going to be asking hundreds of us to lay down our lives to free the planet. Can we count on you? I'll have to pass this up the chain, and you'll need to meet with rebel leadership"

"Destroying the Breaker Guns is no easy task either. We too put our lives on the line to free this world, side by side with you. Alone, none of us can achieve this, only together we can. We are here, deep down you already know that you can count on us."

Moff shifts nervously. "We are asking, yes... But only if your leadership and comrades will answer the call. This is your home on the line but I, at least, will not fault those who choose life in darkness over this push. Let us meet with them first. Perhaps there is more information they can provide us with."

They will not divulge where the current locations of rebel leadership actually are, but they do have a comms terminal set up here in their command tunnels where you can speak with them. One by one, you're let inside the shelter and get the attention of passing rebels, most of them going about their daily tasks.

Katalin turns to Moff. "You know, it is all nice that you give your fellow Noctua choices and all, but I really think you should tell them that it is now or never. We are here. Once there is a crack in the air defenses we can take these fuckers down. But if we wait, the Chimerans here can start to act more and more unreasonable. Because, well they know that they will never leave this world as free people again. So get them to act quickly and with all they have, because we risk our lives for them as well."

"You think like a soldier. Excellent for you." Moff says curtly. "I had been thinking that those who choose to answer will have conviction to follow through. I have heard, that having untrained civilians on the field can be worse than not and is a path that leads to greater slaughter than needed. We know what they can and are willing to do, and that is what makes me worry. I am sure they are well aware that it will be now or never." They sigh and talk more to the air around them than Katalin. "We cannot expect all to take up arms. I am sure the rebellion are made of those with purpose and drive, but 'refugees from all over the countryside' does not sound like pure might." One hand reaches for their right antenna and pauses, before brushing their mane instead. "Not all are soldiers." (Edit to remove a double word >.>) (edited)

A hand touches Moff's shoulders. "You feel them. They are of your kind. Go forth. Talk to their leaders, the Terminal is right ahead. Let the flame in your heart guide you. It will be the best for us all."

Moff blinks at Daira's touch. I was them. They give a barely noticeable nod before quickening their steps forward. (Is everyone alright with that or do we want to go have a lovely chat as a whole group?)

(I'm good with you being the liaison. We can chime in if needed or if addressed directly. We can also workshop responses in EP OOC chat if you need ideas!)

With a nod, one of them hands the voice horn over to you, and on the projector screen you can see five Noctua that seem to make up the resistance council here on the screen. Each of them is only visible from the shoulders up, but all look to have seen combat and the other violence of a resistance movement recently and are unafraid to lead from the front. .

They take a breath and shake as if it would help to dispel their nerves, then reaches for the horn. "Greetings. I am Moff Cvk-Tarilli, representing the Elysium Protectorate and allied forces. We are here in with the purpose of aiding in freeing your planet from Chimerian occupation. I said 'aiding in' because we cannot do this without your, the rebellions, assistance. Will you hear us out?" Moff shifts uncomfortably.

"Make your proposal, and we will listen. We cannot promise anything before hearing it"

"In the stars above, the Protectorate has 25,000 troops and several hospital and humanitarian aid ships waiting to be deployed. At current they cannot due to the breaker gun in the fortress. I am not asking you to put your people into the fortress. We, my compatriots and I, will infiltrate it. But we will need a distraction and the bigger and more occupying it is, the better. We've been told that there is a spaceport they are sure to defend. Would you be able to find volunteers to make this diversion happen? I know we are asking much, but just as much you have to lose and more."

"Once on the ground, what are your intentions with these soldiers? Are we paving the way for yet another occupier?"

Grim speaks up “Although we have good intentions, you don’t know that and I don’t expect you to just trust us so let me try and provide some data for you to base a decision on.” Grim then pulls up the star charts of the Iron stars. “So as you can see your planet is a bit far from Protectorate space and there is another polity right here that is the SCAF. Although we are all tentatively working together we have no desire to let them occupy the planet and logistically it would not make sense or be worth the effort for the protectorate to occupy your planet against your wishes. The ascendancy however is a threat that needs to be dealt with. My organization is humanitarian in nature but instead of taking my word for it you can also communicate with other worlds verify once you are liberated. If you want to look at it cynically you can say we are just here to end a threat if you want to trust us and accept we have good intentions all the better, but from the evidence I hope you can see undergoing an occupation of world this far from our established Borders against a determined resistance would not be profitable, beneficial, or logistically sound.” (edited)

Moff pulls themself out of their shocked stuttering. "It is exactly as Torgrim says. If your previous leaders have not become... traitors or dead, and they are not disagreeable to your people, they will take their role back. We would like to provide aid, and if I may, I hold interest in getting your planet in contact with other Noctuan refugee colonies. Ah, but there will be no obligation. That last one is as noctua to noctua, not as EP representative to you." Moff gives Grim a grateful nod.

This argument seems to have convinced them. "A diversionary attack on the spaceport should draw out the garrison. We can buy you a few hours, but beyond that, we'll have to withdraw to preserve something of our movement"

7:27 AM

"It will take a day or two to get the required forces in position and get unit leaders briefed, you're welcome to stay until then"

Daira looks at Moff. "Good Job! Now we just need to make a good plan for our own assault."

The voice horn is passed back to rebel hands, and Moff turns survey the entirety of their little EP group. They give Daira an acknowledging head tilt, before looking at Ivan and Katalin. "Well, now it is time for you to put those soldier thoughts to work. What is the best way to take the breakers offline with only a few hours?"

"This group is already large for a stealthy approach, but also hits heavy. We won't have enough explosives to just flatten it. But these guns surely rely on lots and lots of electronics. So I guess the safest way is to make sure the controls are destroyed, beyond repair. At least not to be repaired in a short timeframe, because once the troops drop, it is game over anyway."

"Or re-targeting if the opportunity presents itself. But I'm quite partial to the smashing part since it's quick and easy. Systems like controls and power are usually redundant so some greenhorn doesn't disable the whole defense network by tripping on the power cable or spilling their drink on the console. Something worth considering is destroying a critical part of the gun itself, usually a big part that takes a few people to lug up a spare and install it. Redundant power and control doesn't mean squat if the barrel was bent at a funny angle or the whole platform can't rotate anymore."

“We could also try going after the target acquisition radar. That could allow us to avoid damaging the guns to much if we want to keep infrastructure intact “

I wonder if I should have expected that the options given would be 'break it a lot' or 'break it a little' if I asked theses two. Moff gives an amused huff. "Somehow I am not convinced that breaking a large part would be swift, nor easy. Do we have the strength or firepower to do so? We only have a few hours, after all." They shift their weight, turning more toward Grim. 'Torgrim, would that completely render the weaponry moot or would it still leave it operable although at a much reduced capacity?"

(Seen. Just waiting for him to reply )

(Sorry been super busy, last 20 days of my capstone masters class)

“So they would be essentially firing blind. Like no way they would be able to actually hit anything at the distances involved. We also don’t even need to physically destroy it but could blind it if we can generate a powerful enough energy to jam it” (although not sure jamming is a thing in SWN. But figuring out how to shut down enemy air defenses is like real life for me)

(ECM is indiscriminate in SWN, something is either fully jammed or it isnt- so either everyone's stuff breaks, or no ones does. If we're bringing down breaker guns we'd have to hit the command center its based out of) (edited)

~~(So my vote is we hit the command center after the garrison is mostly drawn away)~~ “Thinking about this more, I don’t think I am comfortable sending untrained poorly armed people out even if it helps us get this done quickly. What I am thinking is we have either through the stations transporters or stealth ship deliveries of weapons sent. We can also provide training Daira has been showing much promise with the blade and can help assist me training these rebels in melee combat while also honing her own skill. Many of you are also fine marksman, or at least Ivan is and can help train the rebels there. We can also work with the rebel leaders to train them on tactics and how to lead a fight. I actually grew up in a rebel cell myself on Erdoza so this is something dear to me. There life’s aren’t disposable but if properly trained they can be a force to be reckoned with. It will also be good for them to liberate themselves, with our assistance. It will also show their citizens and other potential future invaders that these people can and will defend themselves. Sorry for the long rant but I thought it important.” (edited)

"While I do like the idea, what timeframe are we talking about? Our troops in space need to be resupplied if they have to wait for a longer amount of time. And while we can find ways to bring weapons here, we also need to make sure that the rebels stay well-fed, as we aren't talking about the common populace who tries to side with us, but a force that lives in tunnels like these. I guess a week or two might be possible, but is that enough?"

(The rebels need a week to get their soldiers into position for the diversionary attack you’ve already agreed to)

"They're not a standard army for certain and they'd probably get slaughtered in a straight-up fight. But you knew that, didn't you?" Ivan asks rhetorically with a slight smirk at one of the attending partisans. "Don't underestimate pissed-off people in tunnel networks. That's not exactly a military secret, but many professional armies have fallen for it as if it was forbidden knowledge - the Chimerans are likely falling for it right now. We don't have time to train, and even then, I imagine the rebels would avoid direct contact as much as possible, so moot point." Ivan finds a corner of the tunnel and sits down on the floor. "So let's at least give them the common courtesy of letting them do things their way, leveraging the advantages they have. It helps with the optics that we're not trying to be another would-be tyrant on their planet. Technically, we're the ones in a worse position and we only have a week or so to fix that using our advantages. Like if we need to get explosives teleported in or medical supplies for some poor sods in a makeshift infirmary." (I have other ideas too, just stirring the idea pot with these for now)

“At a minimum let’s try and get some more weapons in for them. I was also thinking some fairly quick training maybe a week long. I understand if there isn’t time but also want to give them their best shot. Ultimately I think it is up to them how fast they want to go and how much risk they are willing to take. So I am saying maybe we let them decide if they are ready and want to achieve freedom quicker at the risk of greater casualties or take longer to prepare delaying victory but potentially saving lives.”

"And living supplies!" Moff pipes up. "Even a little change of pace can lead to great motivation. A bit more food, cleaner bandages, something to look forward to." Moff turns to one of the rebels. "Say, how extensive is this tunnel network anyways? How close could we get to the base completely under ground?"

Within a kilometer of the base is as close as they've dared to get. Any closer would risk discovery by the many patrols and other detection technology.

"A kilometer is good. A blessing, even, but that last kilometer is the most dangerous even with partially-manned emplacements. Do the tunnels continue closer to the base, maybe through some old city infrastructure that escaped the teardown, that you've avoided using to stay undetected? The final assault in a week might be the time to use them."

They do not have anything going closer to the base than a kilometer, and the base location was carefully chosen due to the absence of things like pipes or underground ifastructure.

Daira turns to Ivan. "It is just one kilometer. Their drones have reaction times too. And knowing their location, couldn't we take the whole Drone nest out with a shot of a rocket launcher or something like this? Some will get hurt still, sure, but is one kilometer so bad?"

"I'm more worried about people shooting from the walls. A full sprint over that kilometer is at least two full machine gun belts of bullets we'd have to dodge, too, which means that isn't feasible. So the closer we can get, the safer the whole thing becomes. I'd rather be outnumbered and inside the fort than outside." "We still have Grim's changing-whatsit-thing-ability, but that seems like a tax I wouldn't want him to pay on raid day if we can help it. If only we had some kind of Trojan horse."

"There was mention of human and noctua traitors that are siding with the Chimeric forces, no?" Moff pulls out a birthday candle from inside the suit and nibbles the end. "Perhaps Torgrim only needs to change one, which would reduce the strain. If most forces are focused on the diversion and there's a group approaching that seems friendly with a Chimeran?"

“Changing or not isn’t a big deal. Most my healing doesn’t take any energy. That said I am going to have the supplies delivered at a minimum.” Turning to the rebels “Is there a point in these tunnels further away you would recommend for the deliveries that is less likely to be detected!” (If allowed I will have the stealth ship ferry what weapons from the stations armory and some foodstuffs from its kitchens for the rebels. Obviously the armory will only have so much but anything that will help the rebels is a plus)

(the armory would equip maybe 100 or so if its coming from the platform, if its a wraith shuttle coming down we dont need a program check)

(It would be this shuttle)

(program/int then, Ill do the modifiers for both sides once I get the raw score)

Soren (Grim)

used /roll

Grim Request: [2d6+1] Roll: [5, 1] Result: 7

(7)

Nekosmash

used /roll

Nekosmash Request: [2d6+5] Roll: [4, 3] Result: 12

(15 v 12, shuttle is undetected)

After obtaining the limited amount of weapons Grim begins rudimentary instructions to the rebels selected to receive them “unfortunately due to time constraints we aren’t going to be able to get a lot of training, so this is just going to be the basics. Pay attention though because it could be life and death.” Grim spend a few hours explaining how the weapons function, how to adjust their sites, how to clear basic malfunctions like jams, and how to change ammo. (I know the consensus was we don’t have time for a whole basic training, so just sticking to the minimum training needed to actually utilize the weapons. Other than that is there anything else we need to do for prep?)

While Grim would teach the Rebels how to fight with the new weaponry, Daira would use the time to walk around and bless Rebels and Companions alike. Boosting their morale and confidence with warm words and the reassurance that a Goddess is watching them all.

(I guess I'm still not sure what we're doing in terms of that last kilometer between their tunnels and the fort, or how we're planning on getting in. Ideas were pitched and then we took a hard pivot into rebel training)

(I'll get that swinging back!) Sitting down with any of the rebels that would give him the time of day, Ivan pries for any and all information about the fort. "Without support from above, the fort's garrison has to rely almost entirely on local food production and resource gathering. So something other than drones and trucks full of soldiers and slavers has to be going in and out of there with some kind of regularity, something you've probably noticed. Got anything in mind?"

"Supply trucks from the countryside. Three times a week, usually in a convoy of five trucks and a few escort vehicles. Normally a helicopter watching over them too"

"I take it they'll search anything that a slave may have touched, so hiding in a big pile of food might not cut it. Do they have supplies from 'trusted' sources that they might be a little lax with the searching? And where does that helicopter land if it needs to do so outside of the fort?"

"The helicopter hovers, making circles of the fort without landing, and the convoy normally gets waved straight inside "

"What if we shoot down the helicopter? Like with a rocket. Boom. It crashes into the fort, bringing us enough distraction to cover a kilometer? Maybe?"

"It'd be a hell of a lot of fun, but I don't know if it's enough time. With all of our gear on perfectly flat ground, you're still looking at a five minute run at best. Five minutes we wouldn't have if they see an ion rocket trail, indicating it was an attack and going into full readiness mode." Ivan leans back in his seat, looking up at the ceiling and playing out a scenario in his head. "We know the convoy's schedule, so maybe we could commandeer a vehicle and hide in plain sight. The helicopter would be best - friendly IFF, literally flies over obstacles, nobody from the ground will be able to see through the windows - hell, we could even pop a small smoke grenade in the storage compartments and fake an emergency landing right inside the base. Alternatively one of the trucks as getting inside would be way less convoluted, but we'd be in the thick of it." (Edit - more!) "But a lot of the escort, especially the helicopter, might get redeployed over to the spaceport attack. We might be able to utilize the lack of escort to our advantage, maybe hijack a supply truck." (edited)

"But the helicopter does not land, and I suspect is it not there for intervention so much as observation. Shooting it down would only serve to draw attention in our direction." Moff points toward Katalin and Ivan with their bitten candle before swiveling back to the other noctua. "They don't take livestock in alive, do they?"

“Maybe under cover of darkness we can sneak some people out to set up mortars on the other side of their compound. Then later when we fire them off it will draw attention that direction and maybe by some time before they realize the diversion?”

"If they have Noctua on their side, darkness will do little to hide an entry. We are, after all, a noctural species that are well equipped to operate under moonlight. Though perhaps it will reduce the number of active individuals?"

“I was just thinking for the small team placing the mortars. If night is not expected to provide any benefit they can try during the day. I am primarily thinking just do something to make them look one way then we punch them the other way.”

Turning to their nearest unoccupied rebel, Moff waves them over and asks, "Do you have any intelligence on nighttime security, or on when the guard shift changes occur?"

They don’t have intelligence about the shift changes or security arrangements. Early in the conflict their observers had been picked off by sharpshooters from the forts walls and the tactic was not tried again.

"Sharpshooters, too? It's amazing how for a fixed distance, that kilometer keeps getting longer. Distractions will always be welcome like mortars or shooting down a helicopter, but we can't expect a garrison to shift all eyes in the direction of a perceived threat. If anything, more will mount the walls while a dedicated team takes care of the inside. I think our only option is infiltration of some kind. The vehicles seem like a weak link unless we want to see if there are any subterranean routes - but like everything else, it'll be monitored and we're bound to trip an alarm."

"What would be if we really went for an attack on the convoy? Shoot the first with a rocket, then create a large enough smoke field, and in this smoke a small group enters the then fleeing rest of the convoy and hides in the storage area of them. The rebels continue to fire but purposefully miss their shots. That would lead to the trucks entering the fort even faster, to get out of the bullet rain. But then we would still be alone against a full fort."

(worst case scenario, and probably the most dangerous, since part of the fort is open to the sky you could be teleported onto a battlement or something and just hope to do enough damage where the breakers come down, even for a minute)

(Yeah I think hell is going to break loose one way or another, it's buying those precious minutes of calmness to get as close as possible. I think disabling the breaker gun, even temporarily, is probably the easy part! We're just trying to break out the chicken/egg cycle of needing an army to crack the fort, but needing to crack the fort to bring down the army) (Could my shock suit be teleported in?)

(Its kind of normally outside how much it can transport but I think we need it for this and I'll allow it)

(This is taking an interesting turn. I don't have anything to add at the moment)

(I think the shock suit has enough space for either 50kilos of cargo or one person too, if there's anyone more squishy we want to benefit from being immune to non heavy weapons)

(Might be good to have someone in the shock suit when teleporting in. I think they can be used immediately after hopping in, so we could teleport it in empty with just gear, but maybe that's splitting too many hairs. The plan here is not final, I just want to string together our ideas into a big plan) "Here's the scenario I have in mind:" Ivan pulls out a blue crayon and begins drawing. "The attack on the spaceport by the rebel forces will begin at their desired time that best lines up with a supply convoy approaching the fort. If we can obstruct line-of-sight with whatever - smoke maybe - and create a big diversion that will scramble the escort - say, shooting down a helicopter with a shoulder-fired rocket - we can hop onto a stopped truck before it takes off for safety. How can we stop the trucks? Well not too difficult. Trees fall all of the time and stuff. Or we can pack some roadkill with explosives. Worked once." "Anyways, truck gets into the fort. We don't give them time to breathe and raise hell. Mortars or whatever from the outside would be nice, but I do worry they might hit us, so we need to take that into account. Maybe they can hit the walls? Signal gets sent out, my shock suit gets teleported in. It has a fitting name. Suppress any heavy gunnery that is trying to reorient, and fight our way to the control center. Or blast the hell out of it. Or blast the hell out of the gun, or the stupid door it pops out of and disable that. We just need minutes. Then the drop signal goes out and the sky cracks with men." "I'll take volunteers for the mech. It's a ton of fun having bullets bounce off of you and putting a giant laser beam through a wall and the poor bastard behind it, and the poor bastard behind them, too." (Edit - I forgot it has drop sheathing, but a check is still involved. Safe option = teleport in, risky alternative = teleport in something/someone else, drop the mech in and maybe goomba stomp something) (edited)

(yeah, drop works, teleporting does too since its instant, and someone could even be taken up into space to crew it so it comes down blasting)

"My choice would be for whoever can make the biggest mess in the smallest amount of time. We're looking to cause havoc, no? There is an art to destruction and we require the most capable artist among us." Moff eyes the blue crayon curiously.

Katalin grins at Moff's comment, then eyes Ivan. "I don't want to take your baby away from you. But I do know how to wreck havoc."

"Um, so we send one person in, with the suit, and the rest hides in the truck and uses the chaos to destroy the anti air? Is that the plan?" Daira for a few glimpse moments shows that she isn't as steadfast as she acts out to be. There is fear flickering up in her eyes before she gets to reestablish her mask of the self-confident devout preacher who repeats the mantra that her goddess and prophet will protect them all. "If that is the plan, then it will succeed! We will bring them freedom." (edited)

Ivan smirks back at Katalin, meeting her gaze. "She's yours to pilot then, street-paragon. We can probably teleport you back up to get acquainted and ready to pop down however we choose." Ivan hands provides an access code to the Silenus. "The resident barrel-scrapings that live on my ship might give you a hard time about not being taken along. Remind them they have their orders, but they'll help you get docked to the Lamplighter station and prepped for either a drop or teleport in. Also, don't eat anything in my fridge." He turns to Dai, still smirking. "The greatest weapon a forlorn hope could ever have is optimism. Second-best is being scared shitless."

2

Grim does some final checks on his storm armor as he gets ready. He then gives a quick talk to the rebels “What we are doing here is important and will lead to freedom for your world, but also try not to get killed. Anything short of a being dead I can heal you from, and sometimes even that if it hasn’t been too long. I will be on the battlefield as well doing my best to keep everyone alive, but if you get hurt fall back or try and signal for me. This is the start of regaining freedom, time to show these slavers your metal.” Grim then joins in the the rebels preparing for the assault. (I like the plan and support either the drop or teleport. When it starts I plan to have Grim with the rebels using both my combat skills and healing to try and give them an edge and reduce casualties)

(You'll be entirely off screen if everyone else is doing storming the fort of some kind )

2:54 PM

(two simultaneous encounters with the same map and area, at different post rates is not something I'm keen on doing)

(I am ok with however you want to run it. Definitely not trying to make you run two encounters. We can either change it so Grim is with everyone else or you can simulate the rebel piece with the consideration that Grim is assisting. Really fine with whatever you want, and not trying to make it more complex)

(what you said are really the two best options, so out of those choose the one you'd have more fun with)

(If you are good with it the simulating Grim with the rebels. As a character I think he wouldn’t want to leave them as it hits so close to home for him. As me as a player I am swamped irl now so it give me breathing room as well)

(That’s fine by me. )

(I guess we have our plan together now, right?)

(as good of a plan as one can get given the circumstances)

(sounds like it, I guess the most important thing right now is going to be getting our hands on a truck, and shooting down the copter. Grim will be off screen, and Kat can be teleported up whenever, but we do need to keep in mind the six minutes before anything can teleport back down)

(The quickest thing I have in mind is hopping on a truck just as the helicopter gets shot down. Maybe we can kill visibility with something like a smoke bomb? But I worry that's getting convoluted.) (Perhaps there's an abandoned truck somewhere? Wouldn't be hard to make it look like it ran from an ambush and is scrambling for safety. Shooting down the helicopter would still be good to sell the idea that an ambush happened.)

(We haven't found any, and the rebels would have taken any immediate wrecks for scrap or their own use)

(Sounds like convoy jumping is going to be the main plan. Any chance we can get some smoke bombs or similar? Prefer not to start a forest fire but it's not the worst idea...) (That is, unless we want to teleport in as well - the LFF station and Grim's Eclipse both have pads. It's going to raise alarms immediately, I imagine, so we'd be giving up any few precious minutes of calmness for ease of entry. I'm more for doing the convoy raid so we can have the two-teleporter in our back pocket if it gets botched)

(the rebels can make a few smoke bombs for you)

After some more exchanges with Grim in how to move better with the sword, and helping him in teaching the Rebels, Daira feels the moment of truth approaching. And once it was time to set things in motion, she walks to one of the larger gatherings in the tunnels, in earshot of her comrades. Daira gets some of her cold flame powder, and sets her hands on fire. A a colder burning fire, but still a painful procedure, but one she knows from years of training within the Paragons. Suffer by the flame to be seen by the Goddess, and the Prophetess alike. Instead of the usual flaming hand bowl, she raises both hands, increasing the likelihood of being seen. She then raises her voice and looks around. "Noctua of Veovis, friends. Each of us has fought many battles, large or small, martial or otherwise. But today, there is just one battle, one that will change everything, it will change the course of history!" Her hands stay unmoved, up above her head. "When the Chimerans attacked. They took this world. They beat you. All of you carry that weight on their shoulder, in their hearts. But you have chosen to fight. Today. Today you will make that loss forgotten. Today we will take back what belongs to you, and just you. Today we will be victorious. Once that Fort falls, once the guns get destroyed, once we light up the sky, that is when they will know that it is the dawn of change, the dusk of their unjust occupation. We will be a purging flame that blazes them away. Together we will be victorious!" She then draws a circle with her right hand and places her left in the imagined center of it, all fingers spread out. "Be the flame and you will be seen by Ognyena and the Prophetess. They will aid us. They will protect us. They will make us the blazing storm that we need to be." She looks up. "Bless these brave souls, be their guiding light in the chaos of war. Ignite their flames and let them burn bright and everafter. Guide them on every plane of existence, through every darkness they have to traverse." Her hands form fists and the flames cease to burn. Her synthskin shows slight damages of prolonged heat, but even if she will never be able to burn actual skin on her hands, she cherishes the damages nonetheless. As they are a sign for her devotion, and the pain she felt, was as real as it can be. She looks around for any reaction as her heart races, knowing that the moment of truth was finally there. (edited)

4

(I know we asked about smoke bombs, we have a few and are It sounds like are going to hit a convoy next. We can move into that)

The convoy route passes through some woods flanked on each side by tall trees. The road is broader than most transport routes to accommodate the wide load cargo trucks, averaging about 30m at its narrowest point.

(Is the whole road paved or is there a section that is dirt?)

(Its loose gravel, so dirt underneath, stone on top)

Moff holds up a paper list of the 'important intel' that the rebels gave on the convoy. As if it might somehow bring more to light, they tilt the pad to the side and scrutinize it. Without looking up they ask, "What is the intended method for stopping this convoy? I am not keen on the explosive carcass that was suggested earlier. Perhaps a log or a pit?"

"Logs? Here? In this economy?" Ivan quietly responds in jest, ducking under a perfectly good still-living log and almost hitting another tree behind it. "No shovels for a pit. If we block the road enough with a big log that they can't drive over with only enough space they'd have to slowly pass by, it gives us enough time to board a truck. If we're lucky, we can hop in the back unseen. If we're really unlucky, we might have to commandeer one. Pull out the drivers and stuff."

Moff ignores the joke. If I let him get started I fear he may never stop, and this seem hardly like an appropriate time. They shift the notepad into the light and crane their neck up to it. "Would the others in the convoy not notice the change? It is not common for drivers to be completely concealed. We would have to target the first or last, or both depending on how large the gap is. Perhaps something that still has foliage, to better obscure the trucks from each other..." They start to hum to themself. A softer wood will be felled easier... Hefty on the top...

"That's what the smoke bombs are for. It'll spook them into thinking they're being attacked, so the window is short, but it'll allow us to choose a truck and do it without being spotted. Especially by the escort vehicles, too, if they don't peel off." Ivan begins looking for an old tree, 25 m tall or so, that could fall with heavy pushing/pulling, or a log of similar size that could be hauled into the road.

(i think that would be easy to find here and enough manpower exists to chop it down

While the crew is still confering on how to act, Katalin says good bye. Preparing to be teleported up to then get back down in Ivan's suit when the time is right. "Good luck to you. And as Daira said, may the flame in your hearts burn bright. I'll bring down some fire when we meet again in that Fort."

Daira wishes Katalin luck before asking some Chimerans to help with the felling. "I guess we need to be quick and well-timed, so they don't divert from their route. Like making the tree fall when they are already approaching, right? But we should get the smoke in place quickly as well."

Moff waves Katalin as she departs back to the ships. Leaving Daira and Ivan to figure out smoke details, Moff inspects the tree. They pat the trunk of the selected victim sympathetically. "I'm sorry we have to cut you down, old one."

(I think the group of you could move it easily to block the way, if there's anything else we need to do to prepare the ambush site, we can do that now.

(I have nothing and am good to go! Possibly the only improvement I could see is rigging the smoke bombs to detonate automatically with a trigger, but I think being able to throw them where we need them would give us better utility)

(I am ready as well and have nothing to add)

(throwing isn't hard either, we just have to beat a 10 which should be handily beatable for most of you with almost any die result)

(Ready to go. I'll leave the throwing to the adept)

The tree is felled and the convoy begins approaching heralded first by the thump of helicopter rotor blades in the air. Dust clouds come next and based on what you’ve been told of the convoy strengths it looks like this an average re supply shipment coming down the road

Smoke bombs are distributed among those capable, and all lay in wait. Dai looks at Ivan. "Please give the signal for the GO, you most likely have a better feeling for that."

"Don't overthrow, we need to keep this side of the road obscured from the escort for our move in. Signal will be this-" Ivan shows a simple hand signal. "That's when you throw. We take Moff's suggestion and go for the rear vehicle. Choose your run path now before you duck behind the foliage - you might not be able to see it well enough once we get close. And remember - we just need to board, commandeering is a last resort."

Daira nods. Tense. Fear washed away by the confidence that her Goddess is with her. She waits for the moment of truth.

Grateful that they haven't been given a smoke bomb to throw, Moff remains crouched in some foliage. They are acutely aware of the vibrations rattling through their exoskeleton. Not long now.

The convoy comes into sight, 30m from you as it comes around the bend. The small escort jeep is first, its thin sides and top mounted machine gun coming into view. The next three vehicles are the long supply trucks, followed by another escort jeep. Overhead though you cannot yet see it, you can hear the thump of rotor blades.

Ivan waits a moment. He imagines what's going through the comms - a stop order, followed by questioning from the convoy leader. They'd probably half-expect an ambush, so the machine gunners would be told to stay alert. The convoy lead would soon have to make a decision between attempting to drive around the obstacle or getting people out to lift. Enough room was left to drive around carefully, so that decision would be forced. Ivan points through the bush at the intended targets to obscure - heavy on the rear, but one closer in the front to obscure the lead escort. He puts his finger to his mouth - "be quiet". When he suspects the convoy leader is at the point of decision-making, the hand signal to begin throwing is given. (edited)

The convoy begins to slow and you can hear the clicks of radios being used though cannot hear the actual words being spoken. It looks that instead of stopping the convoy is about to drive around.

(As a last-second adjustment, Ivan will throw his smoke bomb more towards the center. Telling someone else to do it risks being too loud in the moment. This might slow their drive-around just enough as visibility gets blocked around the approaching obstacle. However if the radio chatter happened post-throw but pre-smoke pop, ignore this change!)

(you were waiting to see if they'd go around so I didn't think you'd acted yet)

(Ah okay, I was expecting a small convoy halt, that's why. I'll still stick with the adjustment since the convoy stopping what Ivan was hoping for, so it'll be a last-second decision to keep the convoy slow enough to board.)

(lets throw! just have to beat a 10)

(I guess Dai has to throw as well, right?)

(Everyone who has one should be throwing now)

(22!!)

(29)

(10) (I don't think Moff actually has any smokes on them though)

(We can say you do, we never established exactly how many were being handed out, and you tied the DC so it passes, none of the smokes scatter)

9:55 AM

The trails of yellow smoke are hurled from the woods and their obscurant payload is dumped as a chemical reaction makes a thick yellow cloud spreading across the convoy. The gunners have the discipline not to blindly fire for fear of hitting their own, but you will need to work quickly before any of the soldiers dismount to secure the area.

Ivan reaches out and grabs both Dai and the less combat-inclined Moff - the Noctuan still locked away in Ivan's assault suit (making that distinction now, squishy Moff will certainly benefit from it) - and starts hauling ass towards the center smoke along the path he pre-planned. The original plan of going for one of the end trucks has to be adjusted on the fly due to the smoke adjustment - they might not have enough room to dodge dismounting soldiers nearby. He mentally prepares himself for the scolding he'll get later on for effectively man-handling everyone without explanation... war is hell.

Moff scrabbles against the ground at the sudden pull, trying not to let out a yelp as they practically flounder into a sprint. Part of them wants to dig their heels in and try to bolt, but a louder voice knows that would be asking to die at this point.

Daira gets dragged along by Ivan, until she relies on the guidance of the Prophetess, and with focus sees clearly in the smoke, as if it was a clear day. With her vision no longer impaired, she takes over control and leads them towards the desired vehicle. (activating the Inward Eye as an on turn action, which let's me see clearly, even with my eyes closed.)

(Which truck were we going for?)

(Ivan started pulling everyone towards the middle truck. This is deviating from the rear truck as originally planned for in-the-weeds tactical reasons)

the middle truck is beginning to dismount. The driver is still in place, but the cab occupant and the two soldiers in the back have deployed. Two of them are right in front of you, almost touching in the obscuring yellow smoke.

Using her ability to see where others can't, she tries to maneuver the three of them around the Chimerans and into the desired truck, where they could lay in wait to execute the Chimerans when they return.

(theres no way to get in it without dispatching them)

(So they are staying put in the smoke, effectively guarding the back?)

(deploying to guard the truck yeah)

6:50 PM

(dismounting in an ambush when there's no clear path to get through)

(We are in the smoke, the only one with vision is Dai. Could I try to silently execute one with my sword? I mean they are not really unsuspecting, in fact they do expect an ambush, but Dai can move around them, get close to them, unseen. Else Dai could bring Ivan in position and both just stab forward in a regular combat, which then would need Grim and the Rebels to make some noise by starting their part of the operation, or else Ivan, Moff, and Dai loose all advantage instantly. And without Grim we also have no telepathic communication I think)

(We did not have the full minute of set up time for an execution)

While they were still, two to three arm lengths away, Dai reaches for Ivan's hand and leads it to his sword, he makes him pull it gently out of its sheath and then directs him gently towards his opposition. She likewise draws her sword and points it at the other soldier. With a "Now", said with her microphone active, she wants to signal Ivan and Grim that it was time to bring some action. Ivan against a foe in front of him that he can't seem, and Grim with his rebels. (Suprise Attack?)

(We'd have a surprise round but not the conditions for an execution)

Daira's own courage gets the best of her as she jumps forward. Running at an unsuspecting target that couldn't defend itself, still felt wrong, even if it was an enemy. Her hit ends up being half-heartedly, and the advantage fizzled in the yellow smoke (12 to hit, Shock 6 dmg against AC 15 and lower)

(shock goes through, Chimeran is not downed

Ivan plunges his sword forward through the smoke - he had to trust Dai, he had to follow through as if he could see the target clearly. He felt the resistance of his sword entering, a familiar feeling, before coming nearly chest-to-chest with his Chimeran counterpart to drive the blade in as far as possible. (27 to hit, not including negative mods for the smoke; 12 damage, 8 shock AC 13 -- if this one goes down, can Ivan see any of Dai's target to finish them off via Terminus extra attack?)

(even with an obscured penalty we're above 20, so safe to say you're hit, and yes we can see one at the back of the truck)

10:55 AM

The Chimeran is dispatched between Dai's barging blow and Ivan's quick follow up strike, the passenger seat now empty with a Chimeran who will never be returning to the nest.

Ivan lets the lifeless Chimeran quietly slump into Dai as he turns for the next. A near-thoughtless snap-movement of Terminus shell musculature sends Ivan's sword head-level against the next briefly-unaware Chimeran. (33/14, 5 shock AC13, 2/18 strain)

There is a tumble as though a stone has been thrown against the shallow surface of a lake and the head rolls away, clearing the way into the vehicle aside from the driver

8:49 AM

(Which Moff can have a surprise round against)

(How far away is the driver from the rest of the party?)

(within a meter or two, he's in the cab and we're more or less right on the truck, )

The sudden disappearance of Ivan's hand on their wrist leaves Moff confused, but they understand from the change that something must be happening and that logically, whatever direction the other two had suddenly lurched in was probably facing resistance. A step forward finds Moff's hand upon the side of the vehicle. They follow it up to the cabin and seeing the vague shadow of the driver, clamber in and click the door shut before shaking their mane violently. (Activating Stunning Spores)

The Chimeran is stunned, frozen at the wheel before being dragged out onto the ground.

(That's everyone, correct? And roughly how much longer are the smoke bombs active for?)

(another 2 rounds. The Chimerans are either dead or stunned around this truck so we will say out of combat for the moment)

Ivan finds Dai's shoulder in the smoke, pulling her close to whisper. "We need to load the bodies and the stunned one... Hide them in the back."

"Would have been easier if you wouldn't have decapitated them. Help Moff with the stunned one. I try to get the others in quickly." That said she hurries to get the corpses, completely, into the truck. (edited)

You manage this just as the smoke begins to clear, and for the moment no one seems to notice that your vehicles is different from the others in the convoy.

"Whew!" Ivan says after the doors to the cab are closed. "Moff, my goodness! In my good armor, too! No more metabean wraps for you!" Ivan's comedic timing wasn't wholly improper - given how his shell was having a very difficult time processing the remaining spores on surfaces and the few still suspended in the air, he wondered if he would risk putting his armor back on once returned from Moff or turning it over to a biohazard team. "Jokes aside," Ivan expected all of the protests so soon after doing soldier things to enemy soldiers. "We can follow the convoy now. So much for last-resort, I guess, but no plan survives contact with the enemy. Are there any Chimeran weapons around? We can pretend real damn hard that we're some of the trustworthy non-Chimerans worthy of weapons. Fake it until we make it to cover inside the fort."

"Does the driver have a weapon? And for how long will the driver be paralyzed. Or did someone else end his life while I didn't look?"

(He got thrown out of the truck I thought )

11:15 AM

There is a Chimeran pattern mag pistol in a holster right next to the steering wheel. There’s also a mag rifle in the passenger compartment.

(I wasn't sure. I thought we somewhat put all three into the truck, including the driver. So with the smoke lifting, nothing suspicious was lying around that could get us into immediate trouble.)

(gotcha, he's stunned for ten minutes then iirc, so we have time to figure out what to do with him)

Moff gives Ivan a quizzical look. "My apologies? I haven't had any bean wraps though, and this is the effect of spores, not noxious fumes." They turn back to their captive, then look at Dai and Ivan and whisper as loud as they dare. "I recommend you do not talk about anything sensitive while this one is here. The spores stun, but they do not render one unconscious." (Is there a way into the back of the truck from the cabin or is it a separate compartment? There were definitely weapons on the guards and assuming they didn't just get left on the ground, we have that at least.)

(Separate areas. The cab is independent of the bed)

(How much longer of a drive remains?)

(About five minutes )

(Little sleepy-weepy Chimeery is going to wake up to chaos!) Ivan takes the wheel and follows the convoy. Even if the noise on the radio was in indecipherable Chimeran, convoy tactics were likely, more-or-less the same across many modern militaries, and a pattern could be followed. "We know the plan anyway, so nothing to reveal. They'll hopefully be knocked out way too long to do anything about our short-term shenanigans. Now, my idea - if we get in the front gate without issue, we sport those Chimeran mag weapons and walk out of the trucks like we belong there. Will the ruse last? Probably not with Moff in my tin can suit. But every second counts. Get near a door heading inside, get Katalin to show up and join us, then we do the deed. Any questions, concerns, gripes, insults, or adjustments?"

"This feels... haphazard." Moff squeaks, now inspecting Ivan's suit for insignia. They are now acutely aware that being in it might be the best way to plant a big fat target on them and hope, knowing hope was particularly useless at this moment, that the suit is a particularly well made one. "I cannot do that again today, by the way. The spores take several hours to build up, but they have a very limited life in in the air." They quiet, and focus on the fortress ahead. We just need to get the drop setup. That's it.

The gate opens and you’re allowed inside the fort. The quartermaster and a dozen slaves are standing by to begin unloading the supplies. It looks like the convoy guards are staying with their vehicles. The fort consists of a central keep with a curtain wall around it in all directions. Breaker guns are located in the keep itself though look like they can be smashed from the roof by a quick assault. The walls have many heavy weapons and guards on them. All are facing outward right now, keeping watch over the countryside. The helicopter is also in the area, making a wide circle of the fort

(Approximately how much distance between us and the keep at quick glance?)

(50m from where we have come topark)

Ivan takes the Chimeran-style mag rifle, slinging it over his shoulder after the truck engine is stopped. "Keep your mouths shut and do your best to look like stone-cold killers. Especially you, Moff-Furball-Neck. Follow my lead." He activates his microphone, a super-brief message to lessen detection. "In," is all he says. He steps out of the vehicle before the team of slaves can get to the back of the cargo truck with the dead or stunned Chimerans, signaling for the other two to follow. When the quartermaster sees Ivan and the group and does whatever involuntary mess when they see something isn't quite right, Ivan speaks first. "I'm Fakus Namius of the Hunter-Killer group stationed on the Ultimatum. The capital ship is still in one piece thanks to the heroics of the escort fleet, but disabled and boarded. When we were dispatched, a fifth of the vessel had been commandeered including the communications array. However, it appears the attackers lost their ship containing what was believed to be their main assault general whose escape pod ended up landing planetside." Ivan moves his hand back to tap on the assault suit Moff is wearing. "We picked up a memento. He cried like a baby - a human one, that is. We linked up with the passing convoy to make it here so we can announce the general's death."

(Oh shit. Talk/cha)

(12! As smooth as Fakus is dashing! 70's action theme plays)

1

“Haha a prisoner Eh? “ it gurgles back. “Bring them in. Make a show of it. Try to make the best news you can out of all this”

"Gladly." Ivan pushes Moff forward toward the keep's doors. "Get moving, crybaby! If I hear so much as a sniffle out of you, you'll be crying your last words home disemboweled. Not something I think the missus would like, now would she?!" He looks only briefly at Dai, putting his hand to his sword in the same way she had motioned in the smoke earlier. (Are there any guards at the keep's door? An execution might be necessary so we can hold them open long enough for Katalin to teleport in with the shock suit and join us in causing general mayhem. It won't be long before those bodies are found!)

Just inside the doors you see a chimeran guard on each side, looking out at the supplies being offloaded.

10:57 AM

(two in total, one on each side)

Moff grinds their mandibles in response. They're practically bristling and feel rather thrown under the bus by Ivan's improvisation, but they make sure to make a show of their chipped wing, using that side to balance a faked limp, like a pebble had found its way between carapace segments. At least the acrid cloud of pheromones around them would be accurate to their feelings.

Daira pushes Moff from behind. Her body control makes it look like she exerted much force, when in fact only little force hit Moff's shoulder. One hand is at her sword while she follows the two. "Move." She says in her most commanding tone.

Even though Dai controlled her force expertly, Moff still stumbles slightly as they make their way toward the two guards in the open door. I wish we still had Torgrim's mental connection ability right now, they grumble to themself. What am I supposed to do? They're going to pin me between two guns and that's going to be it.

(If we're executing these guards, we would be approaching range to do so)

"I'll take fork. You take spoon. Keep plate open for dessert." Ivan mutters to Dai, hoping she hadn't lived too much of a Paragon life to forget her royal upbringings and the proper placement of silverware to get the message. When the two glance toward Ivan/Fakus, he gives them a slight nod while still directing the "prisoner". Just as everyone is inside of the door, Ivan draws his blade in his off-hand and makes a back-stepping stab at the guard that he had passed on his left. (Melee execution, stab/dex 15 in case conditions require a roll)

(We'd need a roll since we didn;t get the full minute setup time, but I think can still be attempted)

Daira does know where which silverware belongs, but didn't really get what Ivan was going for. She relied on improvising when the situation creates itself. And so, as Ivan does his quick move, so does she. Trying to kill the guard in one quick unexpected blow. (rolled a 9)

(both guards would be down, if we want to bring in Kat, now is the time)

With the cats coming out of the bag very quickly, Ivan opens up a more robust comm message also detailing his location relative to the Protectorate fleet. "Katalin! Now! We're in the door to the keep, get in quick!" He goes back to the door, holding it open to prevent any security locks from fully engaging, something lazy soldiers had done on low-security bases to take a quick smoke break.

@Katalin Lipnitskaya ( just to bookmark your spot for ya)

"On my way!" Is the short answer Katalin gives before the teleporter Crew starts to beam her, in the suit, to the marked position. "I hope you are ready for some fun..."

Moff Cvk-Tarilli (Lemming)

Even though Dai controlled her force expertly, Moff still stumbles slightly as they make their way toward the two guards in the open door. I wish we still had Torgrim's mental connection ability right now, they grumble to themself. What am I supposed to do? They're going to pin me between two guns and that's going to be it.

(Might be too late to bring this up. But I never dropped the link and I can maintain it across the entire planet. So it’s technically possible to say we are still linked, but up to Neko as always)

(Doesn’t really change the scene )

6:55 AM

The mech appears on the battlements next to the breaker gun control hub and the closest of the Chimeran are already beginning to run either for shelter within that doomed control room , or away from the mech to withdraw inside the keeps many roof hatches

(Would anyone want to be telepathically linked to Ivan for a week straight?

) (Those that are heading inside of the keep from the battlements - would they pose a threat to Katalin via something similar to a murderhole?)

(The light mech is immune to all non-heavy weapons. At the moment they don't have anything up there that's going to do more than scratch the paint)

(It's a suit mech, not light! One step below)

(in that case they get to soak their armor value, so they can hurt it, but its going to be at a slow rate)

"Katalin must have landed!" Ivan says somewhat excitedly in response to the general chaos starting to unfold in the fort. "We need to join her on the battlements and be ready to cover her. Usually it'd be the other way around, but those machine gun nests won't stay still for long."

Katalin fiddles with the controls of the suit, but soon gets moving. "I see this control room, you said parts are replaceable. What if we make the whole room collapse, alternatively I can do some Bug hunting. Sorry Moff. It is just, forget it, let's roll!"

In the middle of this tense situation, Daira crumbles a bit, she wants to tell Katalin what to do, but she can't. So she clings to Ivan and his tactical sense. While always keeping an eye out for Moff and any danger that approaches them. "Ivan, what do you think would be the best plan?"

There is a little click of coms on in the mech. "Miss Katalin, the Chimerians are vermin. You may consider them worthy of greeting your boot heel." Moff grinds out. The noctua takes to hovering, and surveys the rest of the room for alternative entry points.

"Katalin whatever gets the guns offline for at least the length of time it takes for the drop pods to descend is perfect. Anything more, even permanent, is icing on the cake." (Any stairs in the keep leading up to the battlements within view? Alternatively, how's our current position on the bottom floor of the keep looking for defensibility? We could cover Katalin by shooting out into the courtyard and up at any wall positions)

(Katalin would move towards the room and start shooting at the Chimerans and controls in the room, does it look like the room would be collapsable, with the right amount of shots fired at a certain spot?)

(From inside the castle we would be climbing a while and would also be running into the Chimeran that retreated within , and yes kat, if you flatten the room with some shots the guns are offline)

(okay so would we be in combat with initiative, or would you want me to roll a general shoot/dex skill check for a narrative resolve of this?)

(A shoot/dex is fine)

(shoot/dex = 11)

Gunfire and explosions fill the bunker, slaughtering technicians, destroying vital instruments, and cutting power to the planetary defense guns . The Titan in space has seen the power readings fall, and as Kat looks up, the sky is burning in an artificial meteor shower as SCAF thunderstrike pods with troop reinforcements begin making their way toward the surface. The Chimeran defenders are beginning to waver, and across the fort it appears they are retreating to the holdfast in the core of the citadel, in the middle floor of the building.

(Now that’s it is the new month is the transport ship filled with the division of war robots available as well?)

Kat yells at them that she delivered the fire of the Goddess, for free, and will continue to do so. "They are running, trying to hide. Do we get them or is that forbidden or something? I am not familiar with war politics. If you say go, I go and squeeze them. And by the way Ivan, you fucking lost this time. Not even a Slyth has enough fingers to count my kills."

"By Ognyena, you are blessed my Sister in Faith!" Daira yells over her coms. "But maybe we should not round them up and slaughter them. Maybe we should give them a chance to lay down their weapons and surrender. If we slaughter them, it might shines a bad light on us."

Soren (Grim)

(Now that’s it is the new month is the transport ship filled with the division of war robots available as well?)

(not for this mission since its technically still last month)

1

"Haha! Katalin, you can have my kills too. I'm so generous that you can also have my paperwork that comes with that, too, while I go out for drinks!" Ivan bellows into comms. "Let them hide. They'll barricade themselves thinking they can negotiate themselves out. I say it's a convenient self-imposed jail cell. Either way, they're not our prisoners to take. The resistance will have some words to say to them." "Let's make sure the outer defenses are down and open. Free the slaves, remove any resistance, and get our friends out of hiding."

"Paperwork? You never said anything about paperwork! I hate paperwork! Shall we meet somewhere to tear down the outer defenses?"

"Front gate, or sooner in the courtyard. The holdout might still be able to fire outside, so stay in cover. Katalin, the laser cannon on my mech probably won't punch through the fortified walls on the holdout, but it won't feel good to be on the other side of an impact. Use it to cover us, and maybe it'll melt some of their portholes shut or get debris in their eyes."

"Sounds like a plan!" Katalin tries to rush to the meeting point, both trying to not be shot at too much and allowing the rest of the team a rather safe passage by shooting towards anything the dares to shoot at them.

The Chimrean are retreating, drawing back from the walls and defenses to barricade themselves in their fall back position inside the keep. None risk your ire in the way of parting shots, and the arrival of SCAF drop pods on the horizon have the local leaders no doubt reconsidering their position.

Seeing Katalin approach lets Daira bow. "Welcome sister. So, do we go for some Negotiation now? Trying to make them surrender? Even they must see that they have lost, right?"

"As much as I want to trample them to death, I understand your reasoning, sister. This time at least." Katalin would activate the most likely inbuilt speakers and start shouting. "Hey you Chimerans, and collaborators! You have seen what I did, right? Your holdout won't hold me out. And even if you have whatever irrational hopes to bring me down, just look skywards, this is a lost fight. Surrender and bring some negotiator out. If nobody comes out, we assume you chose to fight and die."

(talk/cha Kat)

Katalin Lipnitskaya

used /r

Katalin Lipnitskaya Request: [2d6+0+0] Roll: [6, 4] Result: 10

1

A single exemplar is sent out with a tattered white flag. Their helmet is gone, and you can see they are grimacing as though expecting to be shot through just for showing themselves.

Katalin turns to her three companions. "So, I got them out to talk, but the talking might be something for you guys."

Ivan is first to approach the surrendered exemplar, sporting his hopefully-disarming smirk. "Wise choice. The exemplars aboard the Ultimatum fought to the bitter end. Not just themselves, but almost every one of their subordinates in some vainglorious attempt to appease an idea and hierarchy that not only is very far away but is also willing to throw your collective lives away for their benefit - or to soften their eventual downfall. Accuse me of trying to butter you up or whatever, and I should preface this by saying that I don't exactly have much respect for you, House Lux, and Chimeran culture for a laundry-list of reasons - but do know that I know that walking out here with a white flag wasn't the easy choice, and there's something to be said about that." "Now, our terms: full surrender of all those armed, military or otherwise. The remaining forts on the planet are to be surrendered peacefully to resistance groups, SCAF troops, or to Protectorate ships and their marines that should be entering the atmosphere soon after. All slaves are to be released unconditionally. All those that surrender will be kept under the ISF rules for prisoners of war until this place gets sorted out. Any concerns?"

Moff leans in toward Daira confused and relieved all at once. They start, hesitantly "Priestess, does this sort of surrender deal generally work smoothly? I am sure Torgrim can see from the sky that we have succeeded, but it would be prudent to ask him to confirm our status with the rebellion leadership."

Daira frowns at Moff. "I would really love to give you a valid answer to this. But I have to say that this is the first surrender deal during an interstellar war that I am witnessing in person. But I can assure you that the Prophet is with us, and she was wonderful in ending conflicts. So we have to believe in the fact that they will agree." She then points at Katalin. "And let us be real, if they don't, well, at least the Chimerans here will have a really, really bad day. And I do think that all Chimeran officials on Veovis do know that their fleet got destroyed. They will have seen that air defense went down, and they literally see drop pods flying down towards the planet. And even those who aren't with the Rebellion do see what is coming. That they are being saved. I don't know much about how Chimerans value their individual life, but they should know that it is either agreeing to the terms, or being terminated. We have them in a position where only one answer is the right one." (edited)

(The diversionary on attack on the spaceport currnetly with Grim helping and being able to patch folks back up very quickly at this point would be going better than anticipated, and they might even overrrun the spaceport)

1:27 PM

"What are...ISF rules...for prisoners? " the examplar says , his translator torc doing its best to try to translate into Mandate Common as it takes in your words, and processes his own in reply. He does not know what he is agreeing to.

(I'm assuming an "official" one exists that was hammered out but is a bit in-the-weeds, and they would more-or-less mirror some war rules today) "It means as surrendered combatants, you can't be lined up against a wall and shot with impunity or thrown into a locked room and left to starve. You'll have access to food, water, shelter, and medical care. It'd be a lot of sitting around doing nothing under armed guard until the war ends or we release you, whichever comes first. Believe it or not, simply speaking, it's not actually illegal to be an enemy combatant in a war." Ivan smiles a little wider. "We just don't want you leaving then coming back to kill us." "But let me make something clear," he adds as he wipes the smirk off of his face. "Even if we release you, that doesn't mean you're absolved of what has happened to Veovis. The people here, once re-established, might have their own charges to press. You'll have to answer to them afterwards unless they say otherwise, and we have little-to-no say in that process. But if history is anything to go off of, almost all of you will come out alive and well. Given how poorly the enslaved have been treated here... you'd better consider this a massive and humbling mercy."

“Can only agree to surrender of….my soldiers ….cannot change…what Ascendency is doing here. Or elsewhere …” the Exemplar says, the torc having trouble translating some of what it’s saying.

Moff steps forward and opens up in their native Gisherayin. "Would it be easier for you to discuss like this?" They inquire to the Exemplar. While Moff wasn't sure if they spoke the Noctuan language, there was a remote chance.

This does not seem to be doing any better, though the torc also does translate your words enough for the Exemplar to shake their head that no, this is not easier.

Moff sighs and shakes their head. "We will continue in common, then." It had been worth the shot. "I do not think we have much concern about the rest of Veovis, in terms of resistance," They project to the others, "Do you think they would willingly sell information about other plans?"

"Maybe, but I think the information would get lost in translation. Besides, I think they meant that they have no power to change what's already been done here or elsewhere. As far as Exemplars go, this one might not be that high up the totem pole." "I want the fighting to stop now," Ivan responds simply, hoping the translated idea could come through clearer. "If you and your soldiers stop fighting, others on the planet might do the same. Especially if they see you are treated fairly after giving up. Your back is not against the wall."

(yeah to borrow a bit from real life, this is a lot like local commanders in russia negotiating for the surrender of their units and their men even though the belligerent countries have not reached a surrender agreement. The Examplar cannot change policy, and can't stop what other parts of the planet are doing that are still under Chimeran control, he can just surrender this fort and his soldiers)

(The framing will pretty much be the same; those this Exemplar controls will be treated fairly and will still serve as a positive example for the other forts and their commanders when they come under siege.) "Even if you cannot command the other forts on the planet to stand down, your survival and treatment as a prisoner of war will be noted by others, especially those in your lower castes. We will ask for your help in trying to avoid fighting where possible. Is this something you are willing to do?"

"I...can...try...." it says after a moment. The torc is struggling to convert the thoughts of both brain and body into one stream of wording. "The others...they may...not listen..." It offers a shrug. You get the sense that it is doing the best it can.

Daira makes a few steps forward. "Please try. We can't ask for more, and Ognyena will smile down on you and be at your side. Your words, chosen wisely, can ensure that there is no further bloodshed, and enough Chimerans have died for this already."

"They would be foolish not to listen to you, and at least think of the consequences." Moff sighs. Part of them thinks they would vomit if they had the physiology for it. Such a messy process. "Even the blind would not miss the impact of so many drop pods. Your people did unspeakable to my people, but we...I are not that zealous to return the favor unto you yourself."

“You…are foolish….to not return the …favor “ the torc says. You can feel the first waves of machine heat bleeding from it as it processes more information. “But …we will…surrender fort. Agree. To terms”

"I am being civilized. Polite, even." The noctua corrects. "If you are offering permission, I shall hold on to it for future use." They put a hand into their mane, ruffling it as they try to quell waves of queasiness. Not all revenge necessitates blood or violence to be unforgivingly cruel. But no stars needed more cruelty, Moff enforced to themself. "Regardless, your have chosen the better path and I should respect that," They state firmly. "Let the rest of the fort know what is happening so that there will not be any other losses and ask the field agents you are in control of to return to the fortress. Disarm yourselves and set the slaves free, and Miss Katalin will not 'do some Bug hunting' as she puts it. Per the rules." They nod at Ivan and Daira, before setting an urgent pace to 'inspect' the base. "Pardon me, General, Priestess. I think I'm going to be sick."

"Pardon granted on the assumption you remove my helmet before wretching!" Ivan responds. Ivan brushes past Moff's response to the Exemplar. "Fantastic, then. Stay out here for a little while with us - two humans and an angry Taros in a mech aren't exactly enough people to frisk everyone. We'll wait for our main force to arrive and we'll be able to keep things orderly."

(anytihng else we think we need to do before SCAf troops arrive? )

(I'm good!)

(I am good as well)

(I'm all set. Moff is* probably drooling prolifically in a corner anyways.) (edited)

(all set as well, nothing left to be destroyed)

SCAF vanguard troops arrive on Butterfly Harnesses, and you can see each of them is armed with a shear rifle. There is a squad of ten setting down a short distance from you before walking over , holding up a friendly hand in greeting. Distantly, a fat bellied armor transport sets down and through the dust cloud you can see the form of SCAF grav tanks and their vortex cannons being offloaded, though from what intelligence has told you, they only have very limited numbers of these and these troopers are no doubt here to make a statement.

Ivan gets right into business after a friendly wave back, hoping they ignore his disheveled appearance after living with the rebels for a week. "This fort is ours, the garrison surrendered but still need to be processed. The other forts still stand. There are likely other Chimeran military units or slavers that might make a break for those other forts or try to be royal pains if they haven't received - or ignored - this Exemplar's surrender order, so keep security tight. Anything that borders on a civilian issue should be passed along to the resistance, which we'll still work closely with."

Their leader, a Captain Kamadrie seems to be taking point on this, wanting to know how best to reach the resistance. He informs you that @Soren (Grim) and the rebels under his charge have overrun the spaceport, and a sizeable SCAF detachment is landing there now to set up a logistical hub for both their own sustainment , and the needs of any civilians in the local area .

"Most of their leaders are probably in some forward-command-bolthole near the spaceport and will be returning soon. Stomp around and make yourselves known and the resistance should start popping out on their own accord. We'll keep their hideouts an operational secret for now since they're a prime target for retaliation. Just don't get jumpy at trap doors in the middle of rubble opening up and armed Noctua start coming out. If you tell them that 'four people stormed the fort without their cart and won', they'll know whose side you're on."

"I'll pass the word" he laughs "I'm sure there's an interesting story behind that. For another time maybe. We'll start processing the surrenders here. What are the terms you've given them?"

"Standard ISF POW protocols - I'll forward them to you. Keep them contained, sheltered, fed, watered, healthy. Out-of-sight might be a good idea, too - the freed populace might try to lynch them in retribution. Can't blame them in the least, but we can kiss any more surrenders goodbye if we can't even keep our word." "The fort here is already their home. We can close off their barracks after we scrub the place. The courtyard can be divided to be a partial prison yard."

(6xp, 50,000 credits. I think we've more or less done what we can here)

3

5:21 AM

(The surrender talks would be coming up more or less within the couple days it takes to get things processed here)

(I think the only thing I'd want before then is to see if Silvano finished deciphering the Chimeran intelligence in detail we found on the carrier, that'd be good to have for the negotiations)

Daira pulls Ivan to the side. "Ivan. I am sorry. I know I promised my sister to look out for you, but this war. I don't think I am fit for that. I will return to the Protectorate and do good there. Please don't get hurt now. The war is won, sort of. Actually not really, but still. Please don't die. Alright?" She hugs him. "No jokes now. Maybe you are family one day, so it would be bad if you died before that becomes a reality."

Grim come up on comms from the spaceport. “As I understand you have already been informed the spaceport has been secured. From the ability of SCAF to land it looks like you have accomplished your goals as well. I am glad to see the protectorate is even stronger than before, and working so well with SCAF. I never thought I would see that day. I have some LLF forces en route as well and plan to stay until the rest of Veovis is secure. If anyone else is staying for now, did we want to meet up or operate separately?” (Basically not sure if there’s more to do with securing rest of planet or if SCAF secured it all off screen. If there is more seeing if we are continuing group thread or going separate ways. Basically just looking for a vector check)

(News of the Chimeran calling for a cease fire so we can negotiate would come next, so we can part ways to separate threads now)

Ivan returns Dai's gesture with a bear hug, a partial retaliation for the Paragons' constant personal space intrusions. He opens his mouth ready to sling out a joke but thinks better of it. "No dying. Same for you, as graduation is soon. Better meet my family soon, they're coming to the ceremony too, so... surprise! Bring alcohol if you want Yulia to tolerate you- and no, that's not a joke." He places Dai back down and responds to Grim. "With Moff getting familiar with a bush or a Chimeran toilet and my concern that Katalin is going to go on a hunting spree and ruin the paint on my mech, I think we're good to split up. I'll still be in the area if your units need a temporary, loud-mouthed commander, Grim!" (Good work, everyone!)

Daira bows to everyone, and then touches Ivan's chest once more. She closes her eyes and says a silent prayer to Ognyena. "Farewell Ivan, may we meet again the same as we parted." She then turns to Grim. She draws her sword. With the hilt on one palm and the flat edge on the other, she bows to him. "Thank you for your training, I will keep the lessons with me as long as I live. May Ognyena and the Prophetess smile down upon you and guide you whenever you need guidance." (Well done everyone!)

(Good job all. See you 'round the universe)

“You are welcome. I look forward to seeing your progress and having someone I can talk to about the philosophy of the blade. Ivan, if you wish to command the war bots you may, but it looks like peace negotiations are underway.”

(at this point contuining the hostilities would violate the agreed on cease fire, are we breaking the cease fire Grim?(

(No I am saying the opposite. That he could command them but there is nothing to do because we are negotiating. So saying not fighting. Sorry wasn’t clearer)