((Oh, if only you people could hear my laughter. Mark Hamill as the Joker is a close approximation.))
Is that clear enough for you, Auron? I should hope so, because the next step if you continue is forcible detainment. I gave you your chance to explain yourself, but I will not tolerate willful insubordination. Now remove it. And keep in mind that all potential weapons packages must be approved by me.
[Unholy uncon:5+1]
[Intuition:4]
[Dex:1+1 SPINE REROLL 5+1]
Auron, clearly not happy with the current turn of events, jerks his mounted gun up and fires a heavy laser pulse directly at Simus' chest. Simus catches the movement out of the corner of her eye, and a combination of fiberoptic nerves and unconscious reflex causes her to throw herself to the side, diving out of the way like an action hero away from an explosion.
The wayward laser pulse clips a fuel tank thats sitting around in the salvage yard.
[Ohshit Roll:1 (AHAHAHA)]
The tank, a huge metal pipebomb filled with massively reactive fuel and surrounded by all forms of metal shrapnel, detonates instantaneously. The blast shatters every single unbroken window on the front of the soon to be demolished control building and hurls chunks of metal and salvage in all directions.
Simus end:2+1
Auron end:3
(is there anyone else out there right now? I lost track)
Well, simus catches a piece of shrapnel the size of a small car and gets punted away by it, landing unconscious a good quarter mile from where she was standing at the time, synth muscle and metal bone all bent and crushed and oozing. She'll live, but there's a skeleton replacement and long soak in a chemical bath for her.
Auron, well his exosuit, bone armor and half melted shield serve him pretty well. They catch several bolts and nuts the size of his fist and take the damage for him, the shield bending, bone shattering and exosuit caving in a bit. But, as the shockwave rolls over him and sends him flying back, a particularly angry piece of metal- a support girder, judging by the hole it leaves- catches him just below the belly button and follows a course through his guts, and out just below his neck, between the shoulder blades. This leaves him extremely dead.
Also, now the entire area around the base of the ship and the salvage yard is on fire.
And the spider tank is just sort of lazily wandering around through it, a few chunks of debris embedded in it.
Some of the ships are damaged too. Not terrible though, since none were re-outfitted yet so there wasn't a lot to break.
KRI! Update your counter.
Pre drop or post drop?
Pre-drop.
Attempt to locate people I know.
Probably only succeed in locating Feyri because pretty much the only other person I know on that first mission would be Jim, who isn't four-armed or anything yet.
"Hi, Miss Feyri!"
((Hey, Tiruin, want to roleplay Virtual!Feyri?))
You run up to oldtime feyri, who seems not to know who you are, unsurprisingly, but voices a great deal of concern and disgust about a child being on this mission.
>Everyone get in your shuttle and make ready to drop. We're leaving in 5. Huh...it felt like the ship moved just then...
Be VR!Jim in Grate's Mission 1 sim. (Right now I believe that means we're in the briefing room.)
Jim merely looked at Grate with a raised eyebrow, although this was impossible to see through the mirrored lenses of his gasmask. Huh. What use is a kid on this kind of mission, let alone the HMRC? His gaze went to the woman the kid addressed, then flicked back the speakers the green voice was coming from. "I've got my equipment. I'm ready to go as soon as these people are," he said, crossing his arms.
You enjoying your flesh and gasmask? Because there's a chance you might not actually lose them this time. Assuming the hotdrop goes well.
I'm rolling to see if it does.
Ha.
HAHAHA
((Okay, so. Action actually incoming.))
Anton saves all the separate designs, and removes all but the Black Death and the Party Wagon from the scene. Then he separates the scenes for each ship, preparing to run scenarios to test their performance. "Testing, testing, one, two, three, testing..."
Create a series of VR tests to determine operational value of the refitted Courier and Blackship craft.
[For the Courier/"The Party Wagon"]
- Create a replica landscape of Hephaestus, specifically one of the important locations the UWM might strike at.
- Populate the vicinity of the site with UWM troops, as they would be if they were taking over the site, dropships, support armor and all.
Determine the minimum safe distance for launching the kinamp-fusion missiles, both for the ship itself and the target. Compare the short-term and long-term damage inflicted on the troops and the area between using the kinamp-fusion warheads, regular 5Kt nuclear warheads, and a Fission Instigator. Compare RU costs for outfitting the craft with either.
[For the Blackship/"The Black Death"]
- Replicate any location of Hephaestus, atmosphere and the space above it.
Compile a list of threats that the UWM fleet may pose. Orbitally launched nuclear missiles, kinetic impactors, small/large asteroids, subcapital ships used for close-range battlefield air interdiction, etc. Spare no expense to audacity. Throw in a hypothetical deployment of an Avatar of War against us, and a scenario where a ship was attempting to flee with something into the jumppoint, and needed interception.
Test how well would the Black Death be capable of responding to the threats, using either the Plasma Cannon, or the Laser Cannon loadout. How much forewarning would be needed to reach the target from the launch site at the base, be the target in atmosphere or in space (i.e. a kinetic impactor can't really be intercepted - but a ship can be stopped from firing if the intent is detected in time).
You feel a great disturbance in the force....as though all your hard work just exploded and your team mates are possibly burning to death...
Oh dear.