"How does that work, though? What's willpower supposed to be, anyway? And how can it possibly help matters any when your body chemistry is being recklessly altered by outside forces? How about if someone just goes and liquefies your brain stem with one of those organochemistry overriders or whatever they're called? Does willpower figure into that somehow?"
"I mean, how can you resist something through an effort of will when the thing being altered is the very thing you're resisting with? Wouldn't it be like trying to remember a dream you've forgotten or trying to beat rapidly advancing dementia by outwitting it or ignoring it? After all, you can't think or will your way out of schizophrenia or OCD, or heck, even depression - in those cases, it's your thinking that's the problem, caused by chemical imbalances in your brain and whatnot."
"That is, unless you're a great believer in souls and so forth... although, considering that we can apparently come back from the dead within five hours of dying when brain damage begins within five minutes of being deprived of oxygen seems to support that particular idea. But yeah, what's your take on that stuff?"
Keep asking! And, since nobody was eager to buy it, turn in MKII suit as I speak for 3 tokens.
You turn in your suit and get three tokens, bringing your total to five.
"Because the box listens to whoever is talking the loudest." She mutters, starts to say something and then reconsiders and shakes her head. "Listen, a pilot can fly a ship without having to understand the physics of a jump point or how the electronics in his console function. There are good reasons we don't tell people whats in the black boxes, not the least of which being that we don't fully understand it ourselves. Someday, if you live long enough, you might find out, but for now, drop it."
You grab some fresh thawed newbie and throw him behind cover before peeking out and waiting. You're breathing fast. You can feel your heart racing. You're a member of joker team. Black ops. Elite fighters hand picked by one of the oldest veterans around. This what you've been waiting for. This is what you where born to do!
((Breathing, racing hearts? I thought I was a robot now?))
"your teammates have confirmed bogies from the walkway and the upper floors. Swift execution of enemy combatants is advised."
"Don't forget to laugh like a maniac now, can't spell slaughter without laughter."
Stay in cover. Priority one is defence, deflect and/or send back incoming attacks with my amps. If I find a moment where they're not attacking, start heating one foot spheres around the sods heads by 150 degrees. Do not neglect periodically looking towards the upper floors.
(oh great, now I have stasis dementia)
[exo:3+2]
A few moments after the announcement of a second wave of Sods advancing from upstairs the windows all around the gangway explode, shattering outward as Gauss rounds begin ripping down toward the gangway and its defenders. You sit with your back against a metal cube, listening to the rounds clang against the shipping containers and punch deep divots in the walkway. It's time. Time to show them what you're capable of.
You spin out of cover and raise both hands up toward the hail of metal. You let the power of the amp flow through you and project your will out upon the world. The metal shells slow and stop, as though embedding themselves in a wall of invisible gel. More pour down and are halted as well, the barrage stopped dead by a bubble of manipulated physics that clings over the entire gangway like a soap film.
Theodore wasn't surprised that there were people coming in from the upper floors, surrounding your enemies was a good tactic, and a height advantage was often a big help.
Fire a three second burst at any bogeys that get in range, keep scanning for other enemies.
[Con:3]
You fire your laser rifle up at the windows, but you're not sure if you hit anything.
Charles sheepishly stays inside the ship whilst aiming his turret. He does not open fire, yet.
I'm gonna assume you would actually want to open fire now though.
[con:3+1]
You fire several high powered gauss rounds out of your turret, and you're sure that at least two of them hit, judging from the burst of red where you were aiming. Hard to say if your shots were fatal, but at least you hit em.
Lean against wall.
"AM, have you ever been to Sol? And any extra info you can tell me and Skylar about the UE and shadow walkers?"
"I've never been to the Sol system, no. Not a lot of reason to go there."
"Not in particular."
Meditate upon the flesh.
((Don't worry, I'm quite willing to wait.))
Xan's thesis on "Flesh":
It is squishy, not very useful, and bleeds too much.
"Well, crap. Should we cook some sods, or make a new door? Neither will be easy. Ideally we'd do both, but they may be expecting the door."
Okay you guys, if we cook the sods, we'll literally have to play it by ear. Think you can help me with targeting them?
Ask the ghosts.
Str 3; Dex 3; End 3; Cha 5; Int 4; Wil 12//Spe 0; Int 1; Han 0 (-1); Con 1; Unc 0; Exo 8; Aux 1 (+1); Med 0
Mk II Suit; Microwave PK Amp; laser rifle: normal cigarettes; blue smokes; datapad (with platformer shooter); nanoghosts; shock trigger (with Jack for this mission)
Appearance: 5'11'', 170 pounds in a rather unmuscular frame, shoulder-long brown hair, short goatee, brown eyes, a rather long chin that earned him his nickname. Age 32
Half a robot foot. Robot right arm.
Probably not.
We're using your eyes and ears.
We're not bats.
I might be a red panda.((If we're Waiting for Sodot, does that mean they're not ever coming?
Also, how long have you been waiting to use that title?))
I just thought that one up the moment I posted it. I'm cultured mother fucker.
Bathos is fun.
(Look, I'm sorry, time zones alright, just woke up)
"dammit, no I wasn't listening to the radio,but I guess this is a lesson to do so from now on.
reload the laser rifle and be prepared to immediately fire upon the bogies coming in, also give my emergency meld pack to someone else
(don't worry about it, I'm just using characters to stop you from accidentally wandering into a bullet because something wasn't clear.)
[Con:6-1]
You suddenly channel the spirit of Rambo; You step out of cover, firing your laser rifle in quick bursts, drilling holes straight through the chests and heads of several sods, all while screaming a manly battle cry. When your battery starts to run low you duck back into cover, shaking off the bloodlust and testosterone.
"Alright, this one checks out. Now we--Fuck."
((I'm sure she's glad to hear this...))
You grab the woman and heft her, screaming and struggling, over your shoulder.
"Geez, listen lady were' just-ow, stop kicking me-trying to help here."
((Fits...))
((If we're Waiting for Sodot, does that mean they're not ever coming?
Also, how long have you been waiting to use that title?))
((What's with the title, anyways?))
Head to the doc. Ask if he can identify the animals and if he would like one to study. If he does want to study them, ask that he sequence its genetic code so we can clone more if we need to. If he does not want tostudy them, ask if he would be willing to sequence the genetic code of one so we could code more later.
Grab a spoon and get out the pill machine. Put the spoon in the pill machine. Give the spoon-pill to one of the little critters. Observe results.
Here's the thing, cheese grater, by the time you ride that elevator back up and go meandering toward the hanger door with your box of alien fluff balls there's gonna be a storm of metal and lasers raining down all over that place. So, I'm gonna assume your character is gonna exercise a modicum of self preservation and Not walk straight into that. Instead he's gonna stay down on the surface and wait for all the bodies to hit the floor, like a bad 90's flash animation.
Alright, thanks. Guess I'll have to do the reprogramming myself once I get it reloaded. Let me know when Steve gets back, I'll head back to grab the software.
IF Steve returns this turn, get the program and head back to the blackship if it's safe to do so.
Otherwise, listen to the AM's response about our foes, wait for calls of injured over the radio
Waiting waiting waiting. Steve needs to work faster.
"We've got a camera on the hallway. Use it, and if they come on the floor, cook em. There's not that many, and I think we can take them, especially since they'll have to start splitting up. We're set up at the window.. anyone with a heavy cannon could punch a nice hole in the end of the hallway, giving the gangway crew and the rest of the drones line of sight. I think we can hold out in here for a bit, at least." If they set up on other floors, we can kill the bunch here, and start picking off them in small groups."
"Lets try for the door too, if you think you've got the juice. These suits are pretty heat resistant, so just try to soften it up some.
"On second thought, lets not set the room with no exit on fire."
Help Gorat make a door/hole in floor, etc, with my mace.
examine the walls and floors trying to figure out the best way through them.
Well, the wall is probably the best. The floor is gonna have concrete and rebar and shit while the wall is probably fairly flimsy in comparison.
Be in Maurice's splendid care.
You attempt to dream. It goes strangely. You get about halfway through before everything suddenly changes into something entirely different. Guess that might be the effect of being stabbed repeatedly in the brain while sleeping.
Calm down and compose myself, preparing to use my microwave amp. continue to watch, listen, and smell for people trying to slip by in the confusion of the fighting.
You sit and wait for someone to try and sneak in. Yawn.
after quick reevaluation, STEPHEN HAWKING dodges his way over toward the elevator/staircase/whatever that connects the gangway to the sword, in ambushing position. Which is also in cover.
THIS ACTION WAS CHANGED BUT NOT ERASED OR STRUCK THROUGH. ERASE OR STRIKE THROUGH IT NEXT TIME OR I WILL HAVE YOU DO IT, JUST FOR GIGGLES.
((just gonna assume Michael Alexander just sat in the sword after the journey on Skyler flight 001))
*hears yelling and warnings* "Well this will be interesting"
move toward the concourse both horizontally and vertically, if possible gain a vantage point on top of the sword or one of the supporting pylons while maintaining a view of the ensuing battle.
You can't really get to any where on top of the sword or the support structure without exiting through the hanger and onto the gangway. And that means charging directly into the battle.
((What's with the title, anyways?))
(Not sure if this is what you mean or if you're just being sarcastic, but it's a play on culture and words. The play, Waiting For Godot, is about two characters who are doing just that. Spoiler: Godot never arrives. There's a lot more to it than that, of course, such as subtext about good and evil and morality and so forth, but that's the basic situation. Now, our enemies this mission are Sods. The defending team has been standing around waiting for something to do for forever. So PW changed a letter in the play's title to make a reference to it, as with the exception of the Sods actually showing up at the ship there are some similarities between the two.
Well, some, anyway. This IS the HMRC we're talking about. 
)
((I caught the waiting for Godot reference, but I didn't catch the 'Sodot' bit. Thanks.))
"Okay, I'm going to head on up, so someone might want to come down and guard the blackship."
Head on up back towards the sword, using vision modes to look for enemies and alerting my teammates to their location as I go. Try for a covered, hidden flanking position. Also, is there a drone guarding the blackship?
You run past Feyri and Grate and jump into the elevator. You start riding it up toward the gangway, but this structure is far too large for you to make it there in one turn like this.
Thomas stands up eventually, sighing a little. He hates being interrupted while watching his possibly comatose girlfriend, but work is work. Except here. Here, it's more of a death warrant.
"May, I'm going to go to where there's been contact. Stay safe, please."
Go defend the ship. Find a nearby piece of terrain that can be used as a snipers post, then scan the targets, looking for anything or anyone unusual.
[Con:2+2]
You're a little off your game today, but even so, you manage to put a hard point of laser light straight through the sternum of two sods.
actually action change:
STEPHEN HAWKING dodges back to the ship, runs up to the AM and says "I NEED TOMAHAWKINGS PLEASE! TO THROW AT MY ENEMIES FACE!"
She stares at you for several seconds.
"Please go away."
((I need to tinker up a blackhole-tipped relativistic cruise missile and call it a "Tomahawking"...))
Anton quickly assesses his situation. It... wasn't particularly good.
"Alright... gotta stay low for a while."
He contacts the defense team again.
"Anton Chernozorov to defense team. Am cut off from the concourse by advancing enemy force. You can fire at will."
Make sure my spot of cover is not in line of fire from the walkway entrance, and keep low. Wait for the shootout to start.
You duck down in the hallway and keep your weapon ready, just in case more sods come from the other way.
((You made me smile. Fuzzy whatsits xD))
...Little creatures, living out in this area next to man's complex structures. Don't they hear the sounds of war right above them? A hundred or so feet above, perhaps? Rangefinders in this suit aren't that accurate if I fall at a greater speed than 9.8 meters per second.
Feyri looked at Grate over the sound of the rustling creatures in the box, which she held tightly, feeling their little bumps against the side as they scrambled with every half-minute passing.
...Grate seems happier without knowing the reason. It's like the slew of other posts happenings in between everything do not bother him at all with how they're going by.
Everyone seems to be doing well anyway, all without us. At least Grate is happy. I hope Lyra and Jim are safe.
...
Follow Grate.
"Nice view, isn't it, Grate?"
You prevent grate from going up to the ship and wandering straight into gunfire. Yay! Protective parental roles!
((Changed my action as setting a room with no exits on fire would be really really dumb.))
Examine the walls and floor trying to figure out the best way through them.
The best way through the walls is probably the standard "Large degree of focused kinetic force".
Ie, Hit the damn things really hard.
((* Sean Mirrsen is sad at the lack of Monday update.
Did forum-Cthulhu eat your post, or did RL-Cthulhu eat your free time, PW?))
Actually I was just really busy and this post, because of it's large number of players, takes a while to do. I couldn't get it done in the morning and thing that night I was just too tired. I fell asleep doing it. Sorry about that. Mondays and Wednesdays are quite busy days for me.
Pancaek holds the wall above the gangway as long as he can, his teammates returning fire through the quickly accumulating barrier of kinetically drained gauss shells. Finally, as he feels his mental strength begin to wane, he focuses the last of it for one, final action. Stopping bullets like this, over such a wide area, is hard. But giving them a bit of a kinetic kick backwards? Thats simple.
Pankcaek thrusts his hands forward and the invisible barrier flexes inward for an instant before exploding outward. Hundreds of fist sized metal projectiles rocket back into the building like the innumerable shrapnel blades of some great frag grenade. The remaining glass of the windows, the metal dividers between each level, the concrete of the floors themselves, it all wilts and shatters beneath the barrage, cloaking the area around the gangway and windows in a thick haze of pulverized concrete. The shooting doesn't completely stop, but it gets damn close.
Pancaek staggers back behind cover and falls down.
"Bullet postage invalid. Return to sender."
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Topic: Einsteinian Roulette On ship Thread: Maurice's One Night Stand (Read 6011787 times)