Session 2 2

Zinda Tegram steps into the bridge room.
With things around the jump point nominally stable - though SAR is going to continue for a while - the party has enough bandwidth to deal with other concerns around the system. And there are other concerns.
Zinda Tegram: "We need to close up the situation with that Cannon, Abraham."
Spyboy: "I'm still worried about the shipyard. Does anyone know if there's still active fighting there?"
Zinda Tegram: "Plus, that whole situation with the plague drones stinks…"
Zinda Tegram leans back.
Abraham: "Yes we do. The good news is I think it's safe to say that we will not have time to get bored for several months."
Hrrin briefly flashes fang. "Stinks. That is one word you could use."
Abraham: "I would use a slightly shorter word, but yes."
Zinda Tegram leans back. "Stomping the mutiny won't help us if we get a second nephilim swarm coming in."
Zinda Tegram: "And we have reason to think they have active agents on the hotel."
Abraham: "I think we're past the 'reason to think' stage Zinda."
Spyboy: "Hell if I know. We have no information on the station, flat none. Someone had to fix the reactors I shut down, though that wouldn't be hard."
Spyboy: "I don't think they could have slipped a worm by me - but I never looked so I could EASILY be wrong."
Spyboy: "And the plague drones didn't come from the modified wormhole. We know they were Neph ships but we don't know if it was Crest or actually Nephilim who sent them."
Abraham: "Our top priority is making sure that cannon never fires again. Afterwords, we can deal with the mutiny."
Zinda Tegram closes her eyes and crosses her arms. "The shipyard is a distraction. Their real goal is mass invasion of the system. The shipyard mutiny kept alot of the local forces busy and unable to respond."
Spyboy: "…Yes, sir."
Abraham: "I understand your feelings, Spyboy, but it's a question of a single shipyard versus a sector-wide menace."
Zinda Tegram: "Well. Let's go. Hrrin, how soon do you think you can have those Oldziey frames I dragged in running?"
Spyboy: "We don't even know that, sir. We're flying totally blind. I hate this shit."
Abraham: "For what it's worth, I hate it too."
With the carrier coordinating SAR - and fighters being faster than capital ships for in-system travel in any case - the fastest way to either destination is for the party to head out in their own fighters.
Zinda Tegram: "I'm heading down to prep my ship. See you soon."
Spyboy salutes Abraham, turns, and heads to his own fighter.
Zinda Tegram does just that.
[OOC] Abraham: And so, Abraham does his first Kirk by riding out with the group.
Hrrin: "Fair. I prioritized our personal craft, of course."
Hrrin: "When you're in a pressure cooker like this, you don't stop for hours of more complicated work."
[OOC] WC GM: What, me, deliberately set up situations where heading out in person is the most expedient course of action? Plan to do so repeatedly during this campaign, even? :P
Zinda Tegram: "Fair enough."
Zinda Tegram punches the open-frame code on Sterne Lanze.
Zinda Tegram: "Hey, Karlt. Wake the hell up."
The personal fighters are all prepped and ready to go. Karlt is nowhere to be seen, but that AI shell is still where it was.
[OOC] Abraham: Still, I think it would be best if everone avoided wearing Red Shirts. For purely aesthetic reason of course.
Zinda Tegram mutters something about 'That rabbit…'
Abraham preps his own fighter.
[OOC] WC GM: Oh, I didn't mention that Karlt was wearing a lovely shade of mauve?
Hrrin: "Did you honestly expect him to be passed out in your back seat?"
[OOC] Abraham: Mauve is probably too deep a color to count.
Zinda Tegram sniggers. "Wouldn't be surprised."
Zinda Tegram: "Hey, someone get that shell into the brig."
Hrrin: "Worried it's going to wake up on you?"
Zinda Tegram: "A little."
A technician runs up and fetches the shell, then gives Zinda a look. "A…girl? (I think.) What'd she do?"
Zinda Tegram: "That's classified."
Zinda Tegram: "Radio if it wakes up."
Technician: "Alright. Uff, heavy." He lugs the shell away.
Spyboy: "So we want our posthuman AI's first impression of humanity to be from the inside of a cell?"
Spyboy: "I know it's dangerous, but I'd rather we kept it under a more personal watch. One that's a little more open to interpretation."
Zinda Tegram: "Somehow I suspect it'll already have one when it wakes up."
Zinda Tegram looks back at Spyboy.
Hrrin: "Well, there's such a thing as a very nice, comfortable, cell."
Hrrin shrugs.
Hrrin: "Have seen a few. Imprisonment's…contextual."
Spyboy: "Yeah, but the brig isn't a comfortable cell. I've been in one once or twice."
If there are any techs that offer or hover, Hrrin shooes them away. It's a finicky, custom, rig, and she's well-used to doing this solo.
Zinda Tegram: "How soon she gets out will have to do with how much she likes digging."
Abraham turns from his flight console, annoyed. "That's mistaken nomenclature. The AI was never human, thus it can not be post-human."
And with that, Zinda climbs into Sterne Lanze and seals the frame.
Zinda Tegram spends some time rummaging around for her 'proper' flightsuit, checks the internal radiation levels, and makes sure the food in her minifridge is still good.
Spyboy: "That's ridiculous, Abraham. That's like saying because you didn't have sandwitches for breakfast there's no such thing as afternoon."
Spyboy: "Uh….Captain."
The techs are leaving these fighters alone. They're already prepped, the techs have other things to do, and…yeah, non-standard-looking pilots. Off to other duties!
Hrrin: "Post-Sapient?"
That said, Zinda discovers to her dismay that her fridge was raided - but at least, or possibly worse, Confed standard rations were stocked in place.
[OOC] Spyboy: OH NOES
Zinda Tegram: "Motherfuckers!"
Zinda Tegram: "They took my Mynock roast!"
Abraham: "No, not at all… what?"
Zinda Tegram slams the fridge. "Fuck!"
Spyboy: "Miss Tegram, you okay?"
Hrrin: "Why do you even pretend that is edible?"
Abraham winces. If she breaks the door on the fridge, he has to find the budget to replace it. And he can't even dock her salary.
Zinda Tegram: "And my Agar! I love my agar!"
Zinda Tegram irritably settles back into her seat. "Whoever did that…"
Hrrin: "It's always the things that start with A with you, isn't it?"
Zinda Tegram eye twitches, and then switches her comms off.
[OOC] WC GM: So, taking off?
Abraham decides that the crisis, or at least that crisis, is averted for now, and turns reprovingly to Spyboy. "Whether or not you had a breakfast, time will still progress to afternoon and eventually back to breakfast time. However, you have to be an adolecent first to become a post-adolecent."
[OOC] Abraham: Now we're taking off since Abraham got the last jab in.
[OOC] WC GM: BTW, did Abraham get a fighter of his own, or is he still riding with someone?
Spyboy: "I think you're thinking of ex-adolescent."
Spyboy hoists B-4 into the pilot seat and hops up into the EWO spot.
[OOC] Abraham: Abraham got his own fighter. Privelages of command.
Spyboy: "People are dying, sir, if we have to go to the hotel first then by all means let's hurry it up."
Hrrin: "What, I'm ready to go."
Abraham: "Then Launch."
Zinda Tegram clicks in her launch code, and while waiting for confirmation grabs a postit note.
Zinda Tegram writes "ABSOLUTELY NO ACCESS" and sticks it to her fridge.
Traffic control gives the all-clear, and the party launches.
[OOC] Abraham: I blame Karlt.
[OOC] Zinda Tegram: I do too. The prick!
[OOC] Abraham: Stress eating.
[OOC] Spyboy: Man, I'd do it to if I were in a cockpit with her.
[OOC] Hrrin: Of unflavored agar?
[OOC] Zinda Tegram: Gonna have to track down my stims too. I might need them! : O
[OOC] Abraham: Abraham nods nods.
[OOC] Spyboy: …I mean, who knows what Heggy'd think?
The stims were left alone.
[OOC] Abraham: So… the stims give Zinda the munchies?
Spyboy launches as soon as he has clearance, though he keeps at well below cruising speed until everyone else catches up.
Zinda Tegram sighs. "Surprised my doctor didn't confiscate these…"
Hrrin punches and launches, maneuvering smoothly into place.
[OOC] Abraham: The doctor secretly replaced Zinda's stims with new improved Folger's Crystals. Let's see if she notices.
[OOC] Zinda Tegram: T_T
Once away from the carrier, space is rather peaceful - fortunately. Looks like the Nephilim who bugged out are hiding.
Zinda Tegram brings up her thermal scanner. If anyone ran, they'd have to dump their waste heat some how…
Abraham: "Looks suspiciously like smooth sailing. That's never a good sign."
[OOC] Zinda Tegram: Just to keep an eye on the route.
The space hotel is transmitting nothing, and the laser is completely shut down. There are no station-wide power signs on approach, though Spyboy can spot weapons fire and blaster packs from kilometers out as if he was just that good at EW.
Spyboy: "It was hit hard by something."
Abraham: "Looks more like someone to me."
The fighting is fiercest about midway through; judging by the signatures, it's a classic boarding action, with less-familiar and so probably Nephilim energy signatures in what looks like the defending position.
Spyboy: "I think….Nephs are losing?"
Spyboy: "Man, I need a bigger dish."
Zinda Tegram: "Not surprising. Well, we should have a good map of the place…"
Abraham: "Either that or they're guarding something."
Hrrin: "On the defensive…but, in the position to be doing so in the first place."
Zinda Tegram brings up the map to find the shortest distance from the external shell to the control room.
Suddenly there is a flare, as one of the station's reactors comes online. Power routes - spikes on the blaster packs (soon identified as probably heavy repeating blasters on tripods) - and the attackers scatter - those that still move, anyway.
There are routes from the hangar, or shorter routes from airlocks mid-station if one parks next to the station.
Zinda Tegram: "Spyboy, get us on comms with allied forces."
Abraham: "Spyboy, are you pikcing up any chatter?"
[OOC] Zinda Tegram: No, Zinda wants to know which part of the external shell is closest to the control room. She's gonna cut her way in.
[OOC] Zinda Tegram: No sense following the pre-built routes in the station.
The control room is near the core, though it might be faster to use the hallways than to cut through.
[OOC] Abraham: Well, I want to know if there's any chatter we can listen in on.
There is no radio traffic on either side. Both sides seem close enough to be using voice.
[OOC] Zinda Tegram: How deep does the cannon-opening go into the structure?
[OOC] Abraham: ah. k.
Spyboy: "This is Confederation Fighter Alpha Three to any Confederate Forces on the Hotel Cannon. Please respond."
Zinda Tegram clicks down her widebind broadcast key. "$Cape Squadron, you out there?$"
Geoffrey: "$We're here, but without fighters - well, we're behind you. Way behind you.$"
[OOC] Spyboy: I thought Geoffrey was in Skull-nee-Crown squadron.
[OOC] Zinda Tegram: He is.
Zinda Tegram: "$That's fine Crown Squadron, this is gonna be a boarding op. Just bring your torches and tow-cables. Just trying to find cape.$"
Geoffrey: "$We've been trying to raise Cape Squadron. No answer.$"
Wenser: "Spyboy, good to hear you! Please tell me you've got a platoon of marines in tow!"
Zinda Tegram: "$Thanks. Just contact me when you get here. Lady Tegram, out.$"
Spyboy: "They're pinned down. There's a mutiny going on back home."
Spyboy: "We've got some reinforcements on the way, though."
Zinda Tegram scans down the barrel of the cannon. How close to the core does it seem to go in?
The cannon is the core. With it offline, one could simply walk down the barrel all the way.
Zinda Tegram: "Hey Spyboy, let's skip a few decks."
Zinda Tegram angles her ship down, and starts going on a dive down into the cannon.
Spyboy: "You know what they say - when the going gets tough, the tough call for close air support."
B-4 follows.
Wenser: "We had the kind of luck that's never luck. 'Randomly' shooting the jump point tuned it to somewhere the Nephilim came out of. Some of their troops came here to secure the station."
Hrrin: "And there she goes…" Hrrin chases after.
Abraham: "Plans are nice. Gosh I wish we had one."
On the way through the hangar, unfamiliar craft - but obviously transports, given their bulk and thin armor - lay abandoned to the side.
Abraham follows
Flying through the laser tunnel is tricky, with machinery here and there. Fortunately, gravity is offline, allowing slow flight.
And then up ahead, is the fight in action. Humanoids in armor tend guns on tripods, while Confed-uniformed forces take cover over yonder. The fighting…*halts* the moment the party comes into view.
Zinda Tegram angles down at the tripod group, and….
Zinda Tegram rolled up 4dF: - - - + (Base: 5 Total: 3) (Blasts them to hell!)
[OOC] Abraham: Hell says no, I'm guessing.
[OOC] Zinda Tegram: Eh….let's tag heavy dust cannons my ship for a re-roll.
Zinda Tegram rolled up 4dF: + + - + (Base: 5 Total: 7) (With her heavy dust cannons!)
[OOC] WC GM: Anyone else giving supporting fire?
[OOC] Zinda Tegram: Is it really neccesary? xD
Abraham launches some supressing fire to prevent return fire.
Abraham rolled up 4dF: 0 0 - + (Base: 3 Total: 3) (Supressing Fire (Gunnery))
[OOC] Abraham: Ah, that should probably be maneuver add, 'pinned down'.
[OOC] WC GM: C'mon, you know there is no kill like overkill.
The presumed-Nephilim scatter, more than half their number simply vaporized or so many fine pieces.
Zinda Tegram: "Advance!"
The Confed troops do. There is not much further the fighters can go, though - not all the way to the reactor, in any case.
Zinda Tegram anchors her ship to one of the transports and climbs out, grabbing her boarding kit. As soon as she gets out, she scans for a power-coupling and slashes it to prevent the cannon from firing.
[OOC] Spyboy: If you're leaving scorchmarks, you need a bigger gun!
Zinda Tegram: "Spyboy, what direction is the control room from here?"
Spyboy: "Ah…I'm not sure. I can't orient myself against these artigrav stations."
Spyboy: "Looks like it's….up from where you are."
Zinda Tegram looks up. "Fine by me!"
Zinda Tegram pushes off against the ground, and sets a breaching charge against her new floor.
The control room is up and back a ways; Zinda's charge opens a hole to the hall behind the control room. But no one is there; it seems the Nephilim are retreating to the reactor itself.
Zinda Tegram carves her way into the control room's back wall and looks for the reactor control console.
There are many multi-purpose consoles - all offline, for want of power. At the moment, the station is merely floating metal.
Hrrin: "So. Reactor's disconnected."
Zinda Tegram: "Spyboy, is there an emergency power system?"
[OOC] Hrrin: Actually, yes, -is- there a way to differentiate 'offline' and 'on, but not providing power to anything?'
[OOC] WC GM: According to Spyboy's scanners, it's "offline".
Spyboy: "Gotta be something to supply the startup power for the reactors, but I'd rather not leave the Nephs a way to take us with them."
Spyboy heads for the hangar. Spacewalks so not his thing.
Abraham accompanies Spyboy, for much the same reason.
[OOC] WC GM: Heading back to the hangar?
[OOC] Spyboy: Pretty much?
[OOC] WC GM: It'll take a few minutes to dock there and run back, but alright. What's Hrrin doing?
Zinda Tegram: "Alright. Well, OK."
Zinda Tegram leaves a sensor orb free-floating in the control room and pushes back to go follow the Marines.
Zinda finds them clustered outside the reactor room.
Wenser: "Hey, you there! Zinda, was it? …is that a boarding torch?"
Zinda Tegram: "Sitrep."
Wenser: "They're holed up inside. The doorway is a killzone."
Zinda Tegram looks at Wenser. "You smoke it?"
[OOC] Hrrin: If there are bugs on the ship, and they're almost-certainly-at-the-reactor, that is indeed where she wants to be. However…
Zinda Tegram nods at a marine. "Go get those tripod weapons they had. You'll need them in a second."
Wenser: "Tried to smoke. They're in battle armor."
Zinda Tegram: "You EMP it?"
Wenser: "We tried. You kind of scrapped the tripods."
Wenser: "No EMP grenades."
Hrrin facepalms.
Zinda Tegram sighs.
Zinda Tegram clicks an EMP off her belt. "Throw this in when the wall comes down."
Wenser hands it to a marine. "You heard her. On her count!"
Zinda Tegram sets a breach charge on the wall, sets the timer and…starts to cut another doorway father out, making sure the spark is visible on the other side.
Zinda Tegram: "We're gonna come in from all 3 openings, they'll know about 2."
Hrrin: "I was distinctly uncomfortable with the idea of walking right into a Nephilim bottleneck. Good."
Wenser nods. "Right. Everyone cover near the breacher."
Zinda Tegram keeps cutting…
[OOC] WC GM: Alertness, Hrrin and Zinda
Zinda Tegram rolled up 4dF: + 0 + - (Base: 3 Total: 4)
Hrrin rolled up 4dF: - + 0 + (Base: 2 Total: 3)
Why, that sounds remarkably like the breaching charge Zinda just placed, only on the wall right where she's cutting. …waitaminute.
Zinda Tegram: "They're about to push. Fall back!"
Zinda Tegram picks up her torch, leaves her charge, and runs out.
Zinda Tegram: "Clever little shits."
The marines know the Bomb Squad rule, and do not even wait for Wenser's order. Then again, Wenser does not bother to give confirmation, just falling back too.
Hrrin readies her carbine, and hunkers down. "Can't all be stupid."
Zinda Tegram waits for the first boom to fire her own charge.
Zinda is not waiting long. Their boom goes off - and they begin to swarm out the door instead.
Zinda Tegram: "When you hear the first boom, throw, the second, push!"
Zinda Tegram rolled up 4dF: 0 0 0 - (Base: 2 Total: 1) (Demolitions (Area attack))
The EMP grenade is thrown - along with a pile of normal grenades.
[OOC] Zinda Tegram: So, personal combat starts nao?
The surfeit of explosions is enough to abort the charge. The Nephilim retreat back into the now thrice-holed reactor room.
Zinda Tegram: "OK, go go go!"
[OOC] WC GM: Not with two of our players being repeatedly AFK.
[OOC] Zinda Tegram: OK.
[OOC] Hrrin: Holding pattern, then?
It is about then that Spyboy and Abraham catch back up.
Spyboy: "We miss anything good?"
[OOC] WC GM: Dramatic action instead. Consider it a puzzle mini-boss.
B-4: "Tell me you won."
[OOC] WC GM: Besides, there are double-digit combatants involved.
[OOC] WC GM: Most of them NPCs.
[OOC] Zinda Tegram: True.
Zinda Tegram: "Spyboy, when you get down here come in with some EMP!"
Spyboy: "Out of curiosity, why didn't you say that before we got here?"
Zinda Tegram glances over. "Didn't see you."
Zinda Tegram clicks a sensor orb and rolls it into the room.
Spyboy: "Or hear us, evidently. Are you sure you're okay?"
Zinda Tegram: "Yeah, I'm fine. Just thinking…"
The sensor orb rolls through smoke, not seeing anything, then rolls into the reactor - Zinda counts at least ten hostiles before one of them sees and shoots the orb.
Zinda Tegram uses the contact to put an overlay of the target's expected position in her HUD, and blindfires her laser cannon into the room to try and keep them busy.
Zinda Tegram rolled up 4dF: - - - - (Base: 5 Total: 1) (Gunnery)
[OOC] WC GM: Rerolling that, or…?
[OOC] Zinda Tegram: Well, it should have been a 4, and yes if I can find an applicable aspect.
[OOC] Zinda Tegram: Eh, no applicable aspects.
Hrrin: "Hrr. Is there another reason besides defensibility to hole up in the Reactor room?" Hrrin re-examines station blueprints.
[OOC] Abraham: Blackmail? Shut down the reactor and therefor lifesupport if they don't surrender?
Zinda's cannon makes a nice char mark on the doorframe.
Spyboy: "I can think of two. One, it's the far end from the hangar - if they retreated from the counterassault, this is where they'd end up."
Zinda Tegram: "Tch!"
Zinda Tegram: "Let's go around."
Spyboy: "Two - they've still never figured out that glitch that makes reactors explode, which makes them wonderful self-destruct devices."
[OOC] Spyboy: Hanging a lampshade on that trope….
Zinda Tegram cuts a hole in the ceiling to try and get 'above' the reactor room'.
The reactor room is multiple floors - but all the ones she saw were on the ground floor, expecting a ground floor assault.
Hrrin: "Tegram: any indication they're doing anything in there beyond holing up and waiting for us?"
Hrrin: "Three: I'm paranoid, and after what happened with the Jump Point, if there's anything funny gong on here, I won't have any of it."
Zinda Tegram looks back over the sensor orb footage…
Zinda Tegram keeps cutting up. Motioning for a group of marines to follow, she places a series of breaching charges across the ceiling of the reactor room.
If they are planning anything, Zinda did not get enough footage to say for sure.
Wenser nods, letting Zinda lead the assault while he keeps a detachment to fire occasional potshots and keep the Nephilim's attention on the ground.
[OOC] WC GM: Because drawing aggro as part of a trap is in fact an ancient military tactic.
[OOC] Zinda Tegram: It is!
Zinda Tegram puts a marine on each charge, and links them all to 1 detonator.
Wenser does, though, give Abraham a look as Zinda is the one leading the charge.
Zinda Tegram leans back off of hers, and clicks presses the Red Button.
The marines trigger theirs in perfect sync.
[OOC] Abraham: Well, didn't the ancient greeks use rocks to draw mobs?
Zinda Tegram rolled up 4dF: 0 - 0 + (Base: 4 Total: 4) (Gunnery)
[OOC] WC GM: Assuming you're free-tagging With Some Help, for 6?
[OOC] Zinda Tegram: Yep.
And that would be complete surprise. The marines already have their guns out and fire away.
[OOC] WC GM: What are Spyboy, Abraham, and Hrrin doing when the charges go off? And, of course, what's Zinda's next action?
[OOC] Zinda Tegram: Just gonna follow through with the Marines.
[OOC] Spyboy: Suppressing fire on the lower holes.
Abraham: "Zinda, do you need backup?"
[OOC] Hrrin: Well, we've got…three two known entrances, and one suprise one?
[OOC] WC GM: Three known, one surprise.
[OOC] Hrrin: Heh. One for each of us?
[OOC] WC GM: Technically one cluster of surprises, but they can all be lumped into "Death From Above".
[OOC] WC GM: If you wish. Pick a hole and go!
[OOC] Hrrin: I call Front Door.
[OOC] Hrrin: These are the bastards semi-responsible for encouraging the Kilrathi to develop into an engine or especially warlike imperial jerks. Hrrin has an axe to grind.
[OOC] WC GM: Which one is Spyboy using?
[OOC] WC GM: And what's Abraham doing?
[OOC] WC GM: Anyway, roll the attacks.
[OOC] Zinda Tegram: Maybe we should wait for people to get back.
[OOC] Abraham: am back. Sorry.
[OOC] Spyboy: Uh, left.
Hrrin rolled up 4dF: 0 + - 0 (Base: 3 Total: 3) (Energy Weapons (An axe to grind, a rifle to fire.))
Abraham rolled up 4dF: + - 0 0 (Base: 4 Total: 4) (Resolve to add Maneuver "Pinned Down" to right hole.)
Spyboy rolled up 4dF: - 0 - + (Base: 1 Total: 0) (Energy Weapons)
The Nephilim take it on their armor, but fall back further…apparently not realizing that they are now actually inside the reactor core.
Indeed, they seal it up behind them as cover.
Spyboy: "….Uh."
Spyboy: "So….who votes turn it on?"
Spyboy raises hand
Zinda Tegram: "I think we can take one alive."
Zinda Tegram looks at Hrrin.
Zinda Tegram: "That's what you want, right?"
Spyboy: "So that's one 'no' vote."
Abraham: "At least one prisoner, yes."
All of Wenser's marines in line of sight of Spyboy raise their hands.
Abraham: "So no."
Hrrin smiles unpleasantly. "If we can."
Zinda Tegram leans back. "Mm…How acceptable is major damage to the reactor core?"
Spyboy: "To be honest I vote in favor of gutting the station at best when we leave, so major damage to the reactor core works."
Zinda Tegram smiles.
Abraham: "After I get my prisoner, you can turn this entire place into particles smaller than dust for all I care."
Spyboy: "How do you plan to keep him from suiciding on capture?"
Zinda Tegram: "EMP."
Zinda Tegram: "Bust the shell open, cover them in EMP."
Spyboy: "They're robots? I thought they were insects."
Zinda Tegram: "Shut down the suits, they can't move."
Zinda Tegram: "Or if they can, can't active self destruction systems."
Spyboy: "Shit, lady, *I* can swallow my tongue and choke to death. They're disposable drone insects."
Zinda Tegram shrugs. "Well, not my call. Just a plan that's available."
Zinda Tegram: "How much do you want 'em, Hrrin?"
Hrrin: "Rreh. Never actually resolved to satisfaction if they're hive-minded or not. But, disposable…indeed. I doubt we're anywhere near chain-of-command, given the quality of decision-making here."
Zinda Tegram: "Alright. Turn it on. I've got something else I need to take of."
Zinda Tegram: "Wenser, let's get you out of here."
Spyboy: "Captain?"
[OOC] Hrrin: Uh. Turning on reactor with people in side seems like BAD PLAN?
[OOC] Hrrin: I mean, for, uh, station stability and safety?
Zinda Tegram nods to the Marines. "I'm sure you can handle the situation from here. I want the station intact."
Wenser: "Spyboy, you're the most qualified. Could you do the honors?"
Zinda Tegram heads back out to the hangar and starts to hook the transport craft up to her fighter.
The craft are but shells, their computers taken by the boarders. They're still spaceworthy, though.
[OOC] Spyboy: Well that explains why he didn't respond to my asking for confirmation.
Hrrin kicks the reactor cylinder and growls. This isn't nearly personal enough.
But it's pretty awful.
That'll have to do.
Spyboy: "Say what you will, it's thorough."
Spyboy scans for power signatures to find the power supply that controls the jumpstart sequence, heads to them, and pulls up the sequence remotely on his console.
Zinda Tegram kicks on the radio. "Don't fry them."
Zinda Tegram: "They've got the ship computers."
Hrrin: "Suppose we'd better go."
Spyboy soon has the sequence ready to go - but Zinda's request gets there first.
Spyboy: "….grazle…snazzle…"
Hrrin: "Are you making fun of me?"
Spyboy: "Dunno, I've never seen you when you're frustrated."
Zinda Tegram pulls -all- the EMP out of her ship and stuffs it into a sack, which she then floats back to the reactor.
Spyboy: "So now the plan is no fusion reactor or breaching charges. What's left?"
Zinda Tegram: "Well, we just need the hardware. Firearms will work."
Hrrin: "Fish in a barrel is not catharsis."
Spyboy: "Eh, catharsis is not victory."
Zinda Tegram bounces another sensor orb into the reactor core to get a feeling for where to put the breaching charges.
There is no opening to put an orb through.
Hrrin: "There is that."
Zinda Tegram cuts a tiny hole for one?
The Nephilim point their guns at the hole, apparently intending to blast the orb the moment it's through.
They fire occasional, half-hearted shots through, even.
Zinda Tegram: "Anyone have an eye-cable? Need to get a look in there."
Zinda Tegram picks up some debris from the fighting and uses is to wave the orb around in front of the hole, trying to peak through.
The Nephilim seem to be just standing around in there, waiting.
Now that Zinda gets a close look, one of them has some kind of magnetic container on its hip.
Zinda Tegram nods. "OK, we're gonna just blow the ceiling and floor in there, fish in a barrel."
Zinda Tegram lines charges around the welds on the top and bottom of the container for the marines to use.
Zinda Tegram stands back as the marines take position.
The marines are soon in position, waiting for the go.
Zinda Tegram clicks the detonator.
Hrrin: "They're not doing anything. Why didn't they do anything?"
That gets the Nephilim moving, scrambling first up then down, trying to get away.
Zinda Tegram calmly waits for the massacre to end.
[OOC] WC GM: Zinda's footage was shared, right?
[OOC] Zinda Tegram: Yeah.
[OOC] WC GM: If so, Science checks.
Zinda Tegram rolled up 4dF: 0 0 0 - (Base: 1 Total: 0)
Spyboy rolled up 4dF: + - 0 0 (Base: 1 Total: 1) (Science!)
[OOC] WC GM: Hrrin gets +2 from free-tag for plot reasons.
[OOC] Hrrin: …it occurs to me that I /ought/ to have some, but I don't. +2 it is!
Hrrin rolled up 4dF: + + - + (Base: 2 Total: 4) (Science)
[OOC] Zinda Tegram: Ren! We need your science roll. : D
[OOC] Spyboy: Ren's out. Net's not stable enough.
[OOC] WC GM: Hrrin's got it anyway.
Hrrin: "…what kind of reactor is this?"
Hrrin: "Wait, #shit#, wrong question."
Spyboy: "Specs stay pretty standard He-3, why?"
The Nephilim seem to be retreating toward the reactor's fuel tank.
Hrrin: "That one-" Hrrin taps the screen "Is carrying an anti-Helium Fuck You, and is hopeing we'd so obligingly turn this sucker on and give them what they need."
Spyboy: "So that magnetically sealed container is…."
Hrrin: "Yes."
Spyboy: "…..now that is just obnoxious."
…is on the Nephilim who's trying to open the fuel tanks and jam it in.
Zinda Tegram: "Marines! Don't let them near that tank!"
[OOC] Hrrin: I do believe this is the part where we run-in-there personally?
Zinda Tegram rolled up 4dF: + - 0 + (Base: 4 Total: 5) (Gunnery)
Spyboy: "Why doesn't he just breach it? Antiprotons are antiprotons."
The other Nephilim guard with their bodies.
[OOC] Zinda Tegram: Tagging "That one has a tank!" on the target and "Anti-vehicle weapon" on my laser cannon.
They seem to be out of breaching charges - even their weapons seem to be running out of ammunition.
[OOC] Zinda Tegram: So, 9 to blast the one with the anti-helium.
Zinda shoots clean through the bomb-wielder's arm. Yeeep, that's organic in there.
Spyboy: "I never understood what they meant by 'drones' before."
The disarmed bombardier keeps trying to open the tank.
Spyboy: "Hey, Zinda, can I borrow your torch?"
Zinda Tegram tosses it over.
Zinda Tegram resumes firing!
Zinda Tegram: "Go hand to hand if you have to! If that tank opens we all die!"
Hrrin: "Why aren't we in there?" Hrrin's tail is lashing. "Could someone please remind me why we aren't taking care of this personally?"
Spyboy cuts a hole in the ceiling of the reactor core big enough to drop a grenade down and lets the Nephs start firing at it. Then he cuts about four more.
Spyboy: "Cuz our blood belongs in our bodies, not spattered all over the walls."
Abraham rolled up 4dF: - 0 0 0 (Base: 3 Total: 2) (Science!)
Spyboy rolled up 4dF: 0 + 0 + (Base: 4 Total: 6) (Tactics to add "Too many targets to hit them all!" to the Reactor Core.)
[OOC] WC GM: …and Hrrin out-Science!d Abraham in the end anyway.
[OOC] WC GM: Done.
[OOC] WC GM: Next actions?
Spyboy: "I don't want to drop a real grenade down there, but let's get them out of charges, anyway."
Spyboy drops a grenade-shaped rock through one of the holes to attract fire.
Spyboy rolled up 4dF: 0 + - + (Base: 4 Total: 5) (Tactics to add 'Out of Ammo' to the Nephs)
Hrrin hunkers over one of the holes Spyboy has cut, and begun firing with her Carbine, aiming for the face of the Neph scrabbling at the fusion tank.
Hrrin rolled up 4dF: + + 0 0 (Base: 3 Total: 5) (Gunnery)
Hrrin hits! And that Neph drops.
The other Nephilim pause, look around, then slump. The holed Nephilm armor begins to smoke furiously.
[OOC] Spyboy: Strictly speaking I'm pretty sure Zinda uses a Stunt to use gunnery in this type combat. Normally it's vehicle (spaceship) weapons.
Spyboy: "…..suicide charge."
Spyboy: "Cease fire! I'm gonna try to check the computers."
[OOC] Hrrin: she does have such a stunt.
Spyboy cuts a much larger hole.
[OOC] Spyboy: Cuz she totes a laser cannon?
[OOC] Zinda Tegram: I already have the stunt.
B-4: "You might want to disarm the bomb, too."
[OOC] Spyboy: My point was that Hrrin should be rolling Slug Throwers or Energy Weapons, depending.
[OOC] Hrrin: Oh. My bad. It was a mis-type, but I have them both at 3.
[OOC] WC GM: Actually, your sheet shows Energy Weapons at 2. But even a 4 got that result.
Spyboy: "Disarm nothing. Only safe thing to do is…ah…anyone know of an antimatter reactor that wants this for fuel?"
Spyboy: "Anywhere in…say, the system?"
As soon as the words leave Spyboy's mouth - you want exotic but working tech, there is one place in the cluster to go.
And yes, Zinda knows some places back home that use it. Not in this system, though.
Zinda Tegram frowns.
Zinda Tegram: "Does it have a timer?"
It is not generally favored, since it requires a LOT of energy to make, but some say the performance is worth the cost. Notably, they never seem to have enough fuel for trips around the system, let alone to the jump point.
No timer is evident, just a button. Shiny and red, naturally.
Spyboy: "I don't see one, and I don't see why they'd be trying to insert it into the plasma core if it was just gonna pop. Doesn't make much difference to antimatter if it's hot or not."
Spyboy: "Though to be fair they could have just been stupid."
Zinda Tegram: "Whatever. Just don't touch the button."
Spyboy: "You better believe I'm touching that button. I'm breaking it."
Hrrin: "Acceptable."
Spyboy does a quick assessment of the button and decides the safest quick-fix would be a touch of cyanoacrylate. Superglue the button in its current position and it won't be moveable.
Zinda Tegram frowns and starts hunting through the bodies and suits for the ship computers.
Zinda Tegram closes her eyes.
[OOC] Hrrin: We're in the reactor, rifling the buggy bodies for keys, gold coins, and gems?
Wenser: "Thank you. Now, given what this cannon can do, I'd like to oversee a demolition squad. I understand you may need most of my boys to help with the shipyards?"
A text appears in Abrahams HUD. "We could fire it off on Aldrin."
Zinda Tegram: "With all due respect Wenser, my men already on the way."
Zinda Tegram: "We'll take this one."
The insides of the suits steam when opened. It looks like they flooded with acid to destroy the bodies - and the computers, judging by that lump of non-organic matter in one of them.
Spyboy: "I'm starting to think that the Nephilim are just dumb in general. Their reactors have no safeties whatsoever - which means that a passing neutrino storm would make their ships explode. And here's their nuclear briefcase, with a big shiny red button on it. Not even a glass safety shield. The only reason they didn't blow themselves up before they landed was luck."
Hrrin: "And yet, their track record of conquest is quite impressive."
Wenser: "Very good, then. We'll head to the shipyards now. Please catch up when you can. Company!" He waves, and the marines follow him out.
Spyboy: "They've got numbers."
Zinda Tegram nods.
Spyboy: "Numbers and time are the gamebreakers in interstellar war. You ever realize how lucky Earth is that the Kilrathi didn't stumble across us earlier? If we hadn't been almost caught up…."
Hrrin: "Rrright. Yes."
Spyboy: "Anyway. I'd rather not try to haul an unstable magnetic bottle created by a race that figures safety is for wimps through a multidimensional vortex."
Spyboy eyeballs the station.
Spyboy: "….you know…."
Spyboy: "The station is too risky to keep around, right?"
Zinda Tegram works her way back through the bodies to find the ship computers.
Spyboy: "….I mean, we have this demolition charge…RIGHT HERE…."
Zinda Tegram: "We're keeping it."
Hrrin: "These are true statements."
Spyboy: "WHAT?"
Spyboy: "ARE YOU CRAZY?"
Spyboy: "Wait. I'm sorry."
Zinda Tegram: "Geoffrey and his men are on their way to make sure it stays ours."
Spyboy: "Of course you're crazy."
Zinda Tegram: "It's insurance."
Spyboy: "How do you plan on keeping it from exploding-"
Spyboy: "Oh, you mean the station."
Spyboy: "WHAT?"
Zinda Tegram: "…Yeah."
Spyboy: "ARE YOU CRAZY?"
Zinda has the slagged remnants of the computers, enough to know that not much can be gained from them.
Zinda Tegram eye twitches.
Zinda Tegram hands them off to spyboy.
Spyboy: "Two things."
Spyboy: "First, we have NO idea why the station knocked the node out of commission. NONE."
Spyboy: "Second, we have NO idea how the Nephilim got here to start spreading their plague. NONE."
Zinda Tegram: "We know it won't bring more Nephilim if that cannon's not firing. We know it's not going to fire soon."
Zinda Tegram: "The second is not entirely true."
Zinda Tegram: "And we still don't know the role Crest has to play."
Spyboy: "Oh, really? How did they get here, then?"
Zinda Tegram: "Besides, if we keep the station, the control room is still basically in tact."
Spyboy: "Cuz they didn't come here from the node."
Spyboy: "Cuz that 'test run' of the station, the one that 'misfired' and hit the node? That one was aimed at a ship carrying the plague cuz it'd already been infected."
Zinda Tegram: "I'm aware."
Zinda Tegram: "They could have already had agents prior to the station's construction."
Spyboy: "Exactly. Too dangerous to leave here."
Zinda Tegram: "Besides, there's the intelligence to gained from the station records."
Zinda Tegram: "And…there is another reason."
Spyboy: "Oh? Is this thing powerful enough to crack a planet?"
Zinda Tegram locks eyes with Spyboy.
Zinda Tegram: "Is Elles willing to find out?"
Spyboy: "Cuz aside from that it's pretty much only capable of hitting the spaceport. All it will do is piss Elles off more, assuming that we use it as a response to her invasion."
Zinda Tegram closes her eyes.
Spyboy: "…you're leaving your friends here as bait?"
Zinda Tegram: "There is another reason."
Spyboy: "To see if a bunch of crazy bunnies try to take it over?"
Spyboy: "Please, clue me in, because I'm having a lot of trouble following your reasoning."
Zinda Tegram: "The Nephilim wanted it destroyed. And…Wenser wanted it destroyed."
Spyboy: "The Nephilim wouldn't have bothered defending it if they just wanted it destroyed."
Spyboy: "And since when is Wenser the enemy? Cuz you're treating him as one."
Zinda Tegram sits down. "He will be, soon."
Zinda Tegram: "At least, assuming if you stick with Abraham and I."
Spyboy: "What, you're plotting treason?"
Zinda Tegram: "Treason? It's not treason if I'm a foreigner."
Zinda Tegram: "Abraham…you'd have to ask."
Spyboy: "Abraham's not."
Zinda Tegram smiles.
Zinda Tegram: "I wonder about that sometimes…
Hrrin: "Are you sincerely advocating keeping this weapon around just because other people want it gone?"
Zinda Tegram: "It's too valuable to give up, and we're going to have too many enemies soon."
Zinda Tegram: "Besides, we can always remove it if it becomes an issue."
Hrrin: "You'd rather bring this palace-weapon to heel."
Zinda Tegram: "I would."
Spyboy: "How is it valuable?"
Spyboy: "What can it destroy that we want it to destroy?"
Zinda Tegram looks at Spyboy, silently.
Zinda Tegram: "Do you think we can't control it?"
Zinda Tegram: "In case you haven't figured it out, control of this weapon means control of Mu Cephei. Control of Mu Cephei means control of the local shipyards."
Zinda Tegram: "Control of the local shipyards gives us a logistical base to fall back on."
Zinda Tegram: "And gives us standing for when the confederation dissolves at the Admirals meeting."
Zinda Tegram: "And helps give us insurance against Elle's invasion."
Spyboy: "This thing was designed to destroy space stations and spaceports. If you seriously intend to use it…maybe I should be glad I didn't put that superglue on yet."
Spyboy: "Because if you're seriously willing to kill hundreds of thousands of civilians to get your way…"
Zinda Tegram: "A threat need not be used, Spyboy, but the substance is good to have."
Zinda Tegram: "I don't have any targets. But when Crest capital ships advance on the shipyards, I will expect to."
Zinda Tegram: "Things are going to be changing in a big way, and soon. I want every card I can get."
Zinda Tegram: "I don't plan to help this war come, but when it does, I plan to be ready."
Spyboy: "I think that leaving this station here will help the war come."
Spyboy: "Do you seriously think that 99% of the population of the system will look at something created to kill their family and not hate the person holding it?"
Zinda Tegram: "I think that most of the population of the system won't have any clue it's here."
Spyboy: "What kind of justice do you serve, anyway?"
Spyboy: "Actually, let me rephrase that."
Spyboy blinks at her last statement.
Spyboy: "How long have you been awake?"
Zinda Tegram chuckles.
Spyboy: "Cuz, I mean, it was the local population of the system that asked us to come here in the first place, so…"
Zinda Tegram: "Most of the population is on the planet."
Zinda Tegram: "They're in no position to guess."
Spyboy: "The plan- I wasn't counting them, actually, since they're in no real position to object unless you count more riots and more killing each other as guessing."
Spyboy: "But let me put it this way."
Spyboy: "I am blowing up this station."
Zinda Tegram turns to face Spyboy. "I can't let you do that."
Spyboy: "If you agree, then we can peacefully strip the computers and evacuate."
[OOC] WC GM: Spyboy's real name is now Dave? :P
Spyboy: "But if you insist on holding a shotgun to the head of my home system, then I will push this button and there is nothing you can do to stop me."
Spyboy puts his thumb on the red button.