I did NOT want to go to the surface. I wanted to do this:
so I could stand on the worm and cut it.
Anyway, cut the section of the worm with the brain in it free from the rest of the worm so I can get the brain. Do not cut the brain itself yet.
Continue being careful and being ready to attack proactively or failing that react to protect myself.
Are you SURE you want to give PW an excuse to put you on a conveyor belt moving faster than you can melt stone out of your way, and which then collapsed on you? I mean, I guess a battlesuit probably isn't going to get too badly scuffed up, but this still feels like a really, really powerful dedication to taking a ride in a dryer.
See my full action:
Start melting a strip of the ceiling. The strip should be going the same way the worm is going and preferably be at a place where I can comfortably stand on the worm. The molten slag will fall down and be carried away or to the sides of the tunnel by the worm, so it's not a concern.
Try to make a small hole in the rock I could stand on at the end of the strip, if possible. That should give me a place to jump to if I fail to punch through the worm.
If we assume I began doing that the moment this misunderstanding started, then I could be finishing by now.
Then all I need to do is jump on the worm and use rapid fire blasts of green mode and mining laser to dissolve its armour. And then mining laser and red mode to cut apart and vaporise whatever flesh is inside it and jump inside it. Or really, if green mode's space magic isn't enough to dissolve its armour, use anything I have. Red mode, kinamp punches, overdrive kinamp-punches, overdrive tearing apart armour plates, whatever.
If I somehow end up cutting the worm in two or if it cuts itself in two due to stress or the weakening of its structure, then I want to grab/stand on the piece that continues moving.
So that thing on the right was another platform I could stand on if the worm thing didn't work, which means that if I stood on it I would be right back at the situation I was when I started. Plus, I still had part of my rocket system I could use to try and get out of there if I failed a dex roll and slipped. Even if I did slip, I'd be most likely to lose a leg, and the part of my legs in the battlesuit's are mechanical, therefore I wouldn't be in as much danger of dying. It would still be quite a bad spot for me, but not yet completely deadly.
And look at it this way: What would have happened when the nuke hit? Either the rock collapses in a way that either kills me or incapacitates me to the point where I'm as good as dead or it doesn't and I'm alive and can continue trying. The worm on the other hand has proven that it can tunnel through the ground with no problem, thus its armour should be capable of handling large amounts of pressure, since there was no mention of it secreting any sort of support as it tunnelled or there being anything different about the walls. Therefore, being inside it was the best, quickest and most logical way to avoid a cave in. (I was assuming piecewise would be nice enough to run my action before Lars' nuke exploded.) If I was inside the worm, the only thing I'd have to deal with is any rock it had ingested while digging (which wouldn't be too much, since it still had to fit a brain in there through its "digestive system"), which would be relatively easy to melt along with the flesh that was pushing it. At worst I would be pushed back by the ingested rock a bit. Thus, that would allow me to ride it outside or if Lars' shot caused it to stop moving, keep moving while inside it until I reached the section with the brain, which would be much easier and quicker than digging through rock. Or if Lars' shot destroyed the brain, it would still be quicker to tunnel through the worm than go around it, plus it would lead me to a safe area where a nuke has just went off and cleared a perfectly good landing zone.
Not to mention that the fact that this part of the ground is full of nerves actually makes it much safer to be under, since the nerves should act as supports, like the roots of a tree holding the dirt together.
I'm more concerned about him being ready to attack provocatively.
(of a person, policy, or action) creating or controlling a situation by causing something to happen rather than responding to it after it has happened.
So it means that if I see an alien thing that could do something dangerous, instead of waiting for the alien to attack and then reacting, I hurt them before they have a chance to hurt me. Acting quickly AND dodging should be a more difficult dex action than simply acting quickly, especially for a battlesuit. And I can replace the dodging part with the shooting part, which I have less chances of failing at, being a master at it. Therefore, I have higher chances of surviving by shooting at enemies while they attack instead of trying to dodge their attacks, provided I can hurt them. If it looks like I can't hurt them, because they have armour or something similar, then I fall back to the standard action of dodging.
He seems to think that section of the worm even still exists.
You never described the flesh as freaking out or me (or anyone else) seeing the worm's corpse. Plus, we have seen Haebi that were capable of absorbing energy and the worm should had had strong armour to survive the pressure of digging through the ground (probably not good enough to protect it from a nuke but it could lead to part of it surviving, similar to how a battlesuit can survive being near a nuke if it's lucky). And the worm is probably ~7 tiles long, so that means there is a high chance part of it was still underground when the nuke went off. So there is a (maybe small) chance it survived.
So as long as I do not see a corpse, I will continue to be paranoid and be ready to attack. If the worm is dead, then I'm right in the centre of where a nuke just exploded and should be perfectly safe. If it's not dead, I have higher chances of survival by being paranoid and keeping an eye out for it and being ready to attack it.
It's one of those things that happen in those horror B-movies. The film makes you think the monster is dead and you see the heroes celebrating, but then the giant worm jumps out of the nuclear mushroom/the ground and eats everyone. So rule one of monster hunting is "Never assume it's dead unless you see a corpse. Falling off a cliff off-screen rarely means someone died. Even if you see a corpse, it's probably just playing dead to make you let your guard down, so you should probably incinerate it. Even then, it has probably left an egg somewhere (or worse, impregnated you) so that the movie will have a sequel, so you're screwed either way."
Yeah, I'm not sure why he's so insistent on not surfacing, when it's likely that the part he's interested in has already surfaced. And also if he had done that thing, he may have taken a nice ride straight into a nuke.
See above. Digging through the worm is quicker and safer than digging through rock. And it's actually much safer for me to face the worm down there, since it's harder for the worm to attack me. If I tried to take it head on at its full length, I could had ended up like Comrade. It's much better facing it somewhere where it can only bring a small part of it to bear against me.
Flint has a death wish, if that wasn't clear by now.
I don't have a death wish. I am afraid of death. If you read above, I do try to take steps to minimize risks. I'm just more willing to take risks to achieve victory. I just don't want us to fail the mission.
And I am stubborn and will keep trying until I have managed to make things better for everyone. I don't like merely surviving. And I have everything I need so I don't really care about getting tokens. All I want is to try everything to make it so that we have the best chances of winning the mission and the war (in an non-meta way).
Because I don't want us to fail the mission by going back empty handed. And because if we do fail the mission, I don't want anyone being able to accuse me of not doing everything in my power to make it succeed.
And I like the challenge it gives me, the feeling that you faced a difficult situation and through strength, intelligence or luck, you managed to not only survive but also succeed. I guess the same feeling a poker player gets when he wins big.
And I like my plans slightly crazy. Like riding a worm. It makes for good stories.