Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Unholy_Pariah]

follow my teammates, provide covering fire if necessary, hustle team into elevator and get it moving.

[Parisbre56]

Lars nods sagely.  "It is a magnificent greatness."  He looks puzzled.  "Is that not the basis of faith?  Trusting in what you may not have seen with your eyes?"

"Yes, but to trust, you need to know. And how will they know if we do not teach them? Every god has his prophets. Or at least every god that does not wish to personally convert everyone. But to do our job properly, we need to gain their trust first." His voice took a sadder tone. "People are... afraid of new things. And they usually express their fear with anger, lashing out to what they can't understand."
He made a dismissive gesture.
"At least, that's why I think we're doing this. I cannot claim to understand what goes on in Steve's mind..s. Now, let's bypass those infrared beams and then go find some Sods to kill to cheer ourselves up."

[Toaster]

"A wise man you are, Flint," Lars said.  "One cannot fathom the mind of the divine.  We must, instead, do what we are commanded.  Yes, let us find them."

[piecewise]

Follow the commands of glorious omnipresent ghost Steve! Ask him for ideas for bypassing those beams when I find them.

EDIT: And I meant the wires connecting to those sensors. Unless the wires and the sensors are embedded in the wells (which is unlikely since those sensors must be a relatively new addition) I should be able to see those wires, or at least get to them by breaking the plaster or whatever they use in the future. ((And if I can get to them, our fleshtech should be able to cut the insulation of the wire and use his suit to analyze the signals transferred by the wires enough to replicate them, allowing him to cut the wires and thus bypass the sensors. Of course that would mean that he has to stay behind while we pass, but I can stay behind and guard him if necessary.))

You use your finger cam to carefully examine the sensors. They're not imbedded in the wall and they have no wires attached to them. They're surprisingly small, barely bigger then your thumbnail, and seem to encompass a laser emitter, a wireless transmitter and, you would assume, a very tiny but powerful bit of electronics and a battery. They appear to have been stuck straight to the wall.

>That isn't good. That level of tech isn't available to some bureaucratic black-tech. Thats Urban Executor, at the least. Alright, those things are bad news. They're gonna trigger if you pass through, if you try to remove them, if the distance their laser is measuring changes, basically anything. Really, there's only two ways past them that I see. Either you trigger them in some way and just deal with what they bring, or you tunnel your way around them by cutting out through the wall and into the stone. Problematically that might also alert whoever put those there.

Lars bows his head and intones a prayer.  "O Cog-azaon, may you grant us the knowledge to find the hidden emitters of glorious laser light.  Pathmas, may we ever be in your favor.  Amen and bless Steve."

Pray for guidance.  Help Flint.

"And the lord did sayeth to his flock 'Thou art screwed' and there was much lamenting and heavy ingestion of booze and prescription drugs."

Help to look for emitters.  Without tripping them.

You help as best you can.

Namely you don't get in the way, which is honestly a hell of a lot more help then you'd think, all things considered.

Jim basically has nothing to do but stand around and keep watch.

You think about exactly what you could do when all this is over.

Maybe motion capture for Goro in the new mortal combat game?

"So, basically put... We're fucked no matter which way we take. Brilliant. Let's go stop those sods from taking our elevator."

Hustle to the elevator. Shoot those sods from cover!

>For traps? Like what? I can't tell if they rigged it with explosives or something, if that's what you mean. You hook yourself up to a terminal and I can make sure they haven't stuck programs in to stop it halfway up or something like that. I'm not Omnipresent yet, I can't just wandering around all ghost like and make sure the way is clear. My ability to observe the world is limited to what you all see and hear combined with any information I can skim from the base.
So I can tell you they have the Capacity to rig the elevator with explosives. I don't know if they have done so though.

"Hey, don't you be sassin' me up there. What I meant was if there were, for example, any standard systems built into elevators like these to deal with invaders making their way up. Or if we could jack our suits up into the elevator controls and you use whatever sensors the elevator shaft has to see if there are big ol' metal boxes of explosive surprise suspiciously added everywhere. Though I guess you'd warn us if this were the case, so fool on me for being redundant then."


He then turned to his two comrades in arms.

"So, basically put... We're fucked no matter which way we take. Brilliant. Let's go stop those sods from taking our elevator."

"I couldn't agree more.

Gentlemen, if you'll allow me?"


Start going for that elevator. Go first and provide convenient cover for team. Smack sods or assorted baddies with I-beam if needed, but as always, not if civvies are near.

follow my teammates, provide covering fire if necessary, hustle team into elevator and get it moving.

[hidden roll:6]

(What ever happened to the two other people on your team anyways? I forget who they are.)

The team makes it a good few hundred feet down the concourse before auron stops, twitches for a moment and then falls to his knees. His nose is bleeding profusely and he's got a hell of a headache, but he seems otherwise ok. Bishop is helping him up when Miyamoto notices something coming down the hall. Sods, of course, but the appear to be carrying large, full body riot shields. Strapped to the front of each riot shield, Hands and feet bound at the corners, is a civie. They're advancing in a even line, weapons pointing at Miyamoto but clearly trying to get an angle around him to shoot his two, much less armored companions.

"Oh come on! Thats cheating! I Call hax!"


 

[Radio Controlled]

((I find it funny how they're just like 'eh, can't harm that guy anyway, let's shoot those other dudes'.

Oh wait, did I say funny? I meant distressing. They are clearly smarter than we were led to believe, or they have a competent but ruthless commander guiding them.
I find it weird they're trying to use civvies as a shield. One wouldn't expect a bunch of hardened convicts to give a rats ass about civilians or collateral damage. The fact that we very much do care shouldn't be something they can know. Unless those people from before on the gangway, when we first engaged the sods, told them, which i find unlikely.

This situation requires tact. Miyamoto is in a giant robotic killing machine bred for war, aided by a veteran battle mechanic and an electricity shooting looter. This can not go wrong in any way.))

(What ever happened to the two other people on your team anyways? I forget who they are.)

((There are no other people. Assault team was 8 men, Miya's squad is him, Bishop and Auron, other team is Jim, Flint, Mesk, Lukas and Lars. That's eight people.
We split them unevenly because it seemed like the most even distribution of 'power'.))


"Oh crap, this is just so wrong. A squad of sods I can handle, but this?
Auron, you ok back there?

Bishop, quickly check him over. And keep an eye on him in case he starts acting weird, that nosebleed might indicate his brain's been tampered with, don't get caught off-guard. They might have a specialist or something with them, this reeks of amp tampering."

He looked at his downed teammate, then at the helpless civilians on the shields. This wasn't going good. Not at all.

Ok then, Miyamoto, think. Options.

Shooting won't work, no way we can hit them without hitting those people. Unless they're testing us with this, in which case we're giving them invaluable info they'll use against us later. No, can't risk it, we're no monsters just yet. Let's hope those civs aren't already dead yet, or worse, some kind of trap...

He started to imagine the civs were filled with explosives somehow and would blast his teammates to bits once close. Or that they would break free with immense power and start attacking too. No, that would be ridiculous. Certainly it would be possible, he knew the doc could easily do it, but it didn't seem plausible. He hoped.

We could engage in close quarters. Hmm, small chance we won't just smash the civvies in the ensuing melee. And they'll shoot right past me once they have the chance.
We don't have smoke nades or other special equipment either. So all that's left is amps or manips then.
Hmm. Could force the shields out of their hands, then shoot. Or just shove them all over. Could increase gravity to push them all to the floor and incapacitate them. No, damn it, I'm not experienced enough with it for such complex maneuvers. And without a decomp I'll probably just overdo it and kill them all anyways.

Hey, wait a minute. They're all going in a neat line. I might be able to heatblade them all at once like that. Auron is ok with manips, he could help. Yeah, this might work.

After relaying his plan to his teammates, he gets into position, ready to use his weapon of potential mass destruction.

((@ pariah: does auron have a microwave manip? If not he can borrow Miya's for a moment.))

Use manip to make a single heatblade, in the shape of a box, make it about 20 cm wide, a centimeter high and as long as needed to be to take out the line of sods. Position it at about the base of the neck, increase temperature as high as needed for substantial tissue damage (something like 100-150 °C increase). Use universal manip and give microwave manip to Auron if he asks to. If he doesn't use microwave manip myself (since that one is more specialized and stuff).

If the sods aren't taken out by this, charge forward and go into hand-to-hand with them.

[Parisbre56]

((Hax I say! If only we had a universal manipulator. Well, at least Miyamoto can easily kill those sods with his. Or just run away. No such luck for us.))

Ask Steve: "Are you sure? No way you can hack them or replicate their wireless signals via our suit radios?
No handy kill switch or design flaw?
Any way for an amp user or tech to modify their internal mechanisms?
How would an enemy pass through them without triggering them?
How come those clouds of cold air and humidity aren't affecting them? Could we gradually increase the humidity until they're blinded?
Where would those sensors be monitored from?
Do those guys have working radios?
Would destroying a single sensor make them think it's a malfunction and maybe cause them to send someone to check?
What about the building schematics? Any nearby hallways we could tunnel to with an amp-laser combo? Or any alternate access points from higher floors? Or any way we could tunell down to the end of this hallway from above?
Where are those stairs you talked about?"

Check for any points the lasers are few enough for a non-giant robot to crawl through them. If I can create such a point with a bit of lasering, do so after asking Jim's permission.

Consider if I could dismantle Jim (remove arms/legs/etc) and push him through a gap in the lasers. ((I'm thinking Jim could scout and begin amp sniping them or even disable their security station.))

Search for any points explosives or other dangers trigered by the beams could be hidden.

Consider if I could pass a drone through the gaps in the lasers.

[Sean Mirrsen]

((Well, the HMRC isn't exactly a peacekeeping force... given the circumstances, it's preferable to kill the civvies as collateral than lose the fight. I mean... it's not like the HMRC never did this before or anything.

Most probable scenarios I can see working otherwise... Auron could try for a tangent with the prototype - an area attack, if the surfaces around the sods are metal - it likely won't kill them, but should at least stun. Or Miyamoto could locally make gravity go towards the back wall, knocking the sods on their asses and allowing Bishop to get a few shots in past the shields.))

[GreatWyrmGold]

((Anyone else noticing that the UWM seems to have a LOT more intel on the HMRC than vice versa?))

[Lenglon]

((Anyone else noticing that the UWM seems to have a LOT more intel on the HMRC than vice versa?))

((Nay, they're responding to data they got during the progress of this mission. Battlesuits are standardized tech that sods are trained to fight, and our behavior towards civvies was made abundantly clear in the hanger and even just last turn. if anyone watched a recording of how we took the hanger, or was simply watching how Miya's team acted last turn, then they know we don't want to kill civvies.

we still have surprise, you're just underestimating how much info we're giving the enemy. always remember that what you -don't- do gives at least as much information as what you do.))

[Sean Mirrsen]

((Anyone else noticing that the UWM seems to have a LOT more intel on the HMRC than vice versa?))

((Nay, they're responding to data they got during the progress of this mission. Battlesuits are standardized tech that sods are trained to fight, and our behavior towards civvies was made abundantly clear in the hanger and even just last turn. if anyone watched a recording of how we took the hanger, or was simply watching how Miya's team acted last turn, then they know we don't want to kill civvies.

((I'd say that over-reliance on a self-inforced flaw of your enemy is just asking for an "I am not left-handed" moment. Not that it wouldn't impact our image as an organization, but fact of the matter is that killing random people is what HMRC is pretty good at.))

[Lenglon]

((Anyone else noticing that the UWM seems to have a LOT more intel on the HMRC than vice versa?))

((Nay, they're responding to data they got during the progress of this mission. Battlesuits are standardized tech that sods are trained to fight, and our behavior towards civvies was made abundantly clear in the hanger and even just last turn. if anyone watched a recording of how we took the hanger, or was simply watching how Miya's team acted last turn, then they know we don't want to kill civvies.

((I'd say that over-reliance on a self-inforced flaw of your enemy is just asking for an "I am not left-handed" moment. Not that it wouldn't impact our image as an organization, but fact of the matter is that killing random people is what HMRC is pretty good at.))

((of course, but here's a general rule of thumb for conflict: if your opponant makes it clear that they don't want to do something, MAKE THEM. it doesn't matter if you understand why they don't want to do that or not. last turn Miya and crew could have killed the sods, but they'd have to kill the civvies too if they wanted to do it. so this turn they made it where Miya and crew can kill the sods, but they'll have to kill the civvies too if they want to do it.

it's really quite straightforward logic, especially once you consider the fact that sods are expendable.))

[Parisbre56]

((Anyone else noticing that the UWM seems to have a LOT more intel on the HMRC than vice versa?))

((Nay, they're responding to data they got during the progress of this mission. Battlesuits are standardized tech that sods are trained to fight, and our behavior towards civvies was made abundantly clear in the hanger and even just last turn. if anyone watched a recording of how we took the hanger, or was simply watching how Miya's team acted last turn, then they know we don't want to kill civvies.

((I'd say that over-reliance on a self-inforced flaw of your enemy is just asking for an "I am not left-handed" moment. Not that it wouldn't impact our image as an organization, but fact of the matter is that killing random people is what HMRC is pretty good at.))

((On the other hand, in the long run it's a PR victory for us. That footage could convince the civvies of the planet or even other planets of the righteousness of our cause.

And RC you're forgetting you could use your giant laser.))

[GreatWyrmGold]

((Anyone else noticing that the UWM seems to have a LOT more intel on the HMRC than vice versa?))

((Nay, they're responding to data they got during the progress of this mission. Battlesuits are standardized tech that sods are trained to fight, and our behavior towards civvies was made abundantly clear in the hanger and even just last turn. if anyone watched a recording of how we took the hanger, or was simply watching how Miya's team acted last turn, then they know we don't want to kill civvies.
we still have surprise, you're just underestimating how much info we're giving the enemy. always remember that what you -don't- do gives at least as much information as what you do.))

((Didn't most of the sods in the first few rooms get killed? And didn't this start only a few minutes ago? And isn't the HMRC known for its psychopaths and such?
And besides, there is a list as long as my arm of things Steve forgot to mention. The hangar conveniently discovered five minutes into the mission, forcing the forces defending the ship to split up; the Urban Executor(s), the amps among their forces...))

((My point is...what if this is all faked? What if Steve is still serving the UWM, and this is all just trying to keep the people in line now that there isn't any external threat? After all, what better to convince people to continue working together than the threat of high-tech psychopaths lead by a rogue AI that will show up and destroy everything you love?))

[Lenglon]

((the sods have camera feeds that go back to their commanders, and those feeds probably record their data. also, have you ever played a fast-paced FPS game? a "few minutes" feels like an eon while you're in combat.))

[GreatWyrmGold]

((And yet, a few minutes is still only a few minutes for data analysis, risk analysis, and planning.))