"A briefing screen with a 404 error.
Huh.
Well, at least I know nothing is currently wrong with our away team."
Examine Tesla Sabre again. The knobs I've found earlier at the hilt. How do they work.
Or go ask the Armory Master about it.
You look at the tesla sabre again, specifically at the little knobs on the hilt. [Intuition roll:1+1] You can't even guess what they do. You shrug and decide to ask the armory master. You walk off to the armory and place the sabre down on the counter in front of her.
"What do those knobs do?"
"Why don't you try actually turning one?"
Milno grinned. The "buzz" mode was exactly what he was looking for...
Summon a Tesla Sabre and check what the small buttons/switches/things at the hilt do when pressed. Summon a laser rifle as well, check for any other hidden feature on both weapons then change modes to duel, summon a running, unarmed man in a MkII and check what exactly the motion tracking device of the MkIII suit does.
You summon up a tesla sabre and examine it, trying to remember what the video said about the little dials on the bottom. [Intelligence roll:4] You remember that this one controlled the length of the blade, but you've forgotten what the other one does. You banish the tesla sabre with a flick of your wrist and bring up a laser rifle, examining it for any sort of hidden features. [Intelligence roll:5] Well, this dial here sets the intensity of the laser from x1 to x10, of course it drains the battery faster on higher settings. And this dial here, sets the diffraction rate, it's set at the highest setting by default. And this, this keypad here, lets you program in a radio frequency so you can have the rifle fire remotely.
You return to the main menu and choose "duel", typing in "Unarmed man. Mk II suit. Running away." and selecting a Mk III suit for yourself. As the man legs it away from you the HUD highlights his movement with a blinking red and yellow aura.
Sigh and retry.
[Strength:6] You plant your foot on the table and give the leg a yank with both hands. It comes free with unexpected ease and the force of your yank brings it straight into your face. [end:5] The metal rod bounces off your face with absolutely no effect. You're a god damn man of steel.
Watch the video about suits, then return it to the armory.
Looks like high time to get serious.
After that, head for VR units and open 'tinker'. Get a hand laser, a lasrifle, a gauss rifle, and a microwave amp. Try and find out their hidden features.
((I'm not saying I'd the one to do it, I actually meant that if the ship had acting NPC convicts, that would happen, since no PC would try to kill another one without a very good reason. Milno would all be the more satisfied to have the fanatic in the next mission as a voluntary absorber of enemy attacks. For the Magisters, of course.))
((Well, yeah, that kinda makes sense. Thanks for pointing out to the NPC convicts, I really didn't think of those.))
((Also, just got the idea - 'Cutting Laser' could take a nice shortened name of 'cutlas(s)'
However, how would you suggest shortening a 'Gauss Rifle'? I can't think of anything good as of now))
You watch the video about suits and feel exponentially less safe in the one you've been given.
(+1 to handiwork related to suits.)
After returning the video card you head to the rec room and flop down in the VR machine. You open up tinker and summon up a few weapons.
You look at the hand laser. [Intelligence roll:1] You're pretty sure it's used to make toast. Yep.
You look at the laser rifle. [int:2] You can't remember a damn thing about this.
You look at the Gauss Rifle. [int:3] Hmm, well this button here is for overcharging it.
You look at the Microwave amp. [int:5] This one doesn't seem to have any inherent secret functions. The video just said that the "Secret" of the Amps was usually figuring out unique ways to use them.
((Holy bejesus...))
Back in reality, an actual tear ran down bishop's face as he lifted a gloved hand to wipe it away, a large grin on his face.
"It's... Beautiful..."
Drag the top half over to the ball and drop a hand onto it to see if there's any filaments still on the outside. Then go back into tinker and strengthen the filaments and test it out on flesh dummies in mark 2 and 3 suits, as well as a battle suit and the leg of a avatar of war. Put this thing through its paces!
You examine the spent shell, poking at it with the corpse's hand. When none of his fingers fall of you guess that it's safe. You exit out and head back to tinker, opening the plan of the Bolo gun. You select the filaments and switch the current ones out for thicker, more resistant ones. They won't cut quite as well, but they're much more durable and easier to work with by hand, what with being the thickness of a hair, rather then the practically invisible thread of before. With that done you switch back to Duel.
You test it on a Mk II suited man; it cuts through just like the Mk I. The MK III test goes badly because the "dummy" avoids your shot with his rocket pods and manages to get a few rocket assisted punches in before you exit and change the settings to "Passive". The bolos wrap around the Mk III suited man but it takes several seconds for them to cut through the exoskeleton system. After that though, it's just as easy as before. The battle suit is another story. The bolos can't even wrap around the thing, and when you fire at where it can wrap the filaments fail to cut through and the man simply tears them off. You figure it might function as an actual bolo, but not as a flying cheese wire. The Avatar doesn't even notice it.
"And now for the backdrop!" Thomas leapt onto the beast, and performed the chrusher back flip.
[dex 6+1] You leap up onto the creature, prepared to do a stylish backflipping crush move, but are rather surprised when just the act of hopping up buries your feet ankle deep in the creature's flesh, sticking you like you were ankle deep in molasses.