Evil RoyWell, hush his noise production structures. Evil Roy expresses momentary enthusiasm at the rather splendid armaments he appears to have obtained.
Evil Roy decides that he will, in fact, spend a token on a Personal Vehicle, and also one more for an Other Consumable.
With death-tubes in hand, Evil Roy decides to have a few last Fabrications. An Other Consumable might be just the thing for him.
[2 - Two Effects] The Fabricator lets out a hiss and a burst of impossible-colored light.
[Lucky] [Fish] There's a wet splash and a tiny goldfish plops down onto Evil Roy's appendages. It blinks stupidly and wobbles around a little.
The Lucky Fish! popular product is said to be a magical fish which grants incredible luck when consumed. Critics say luck doesn't work that way and that the corporation responsible is just scamming millions out of their money, despite countless success stories reported by users (who might, of course, just be under the placebo effect, confirmation bias, or any other psychological effect). The Fish! is swallowed whole, upon which it will continue to wriggle arond in the user's stomach until dissolving into pleasant-feeling 'luck particles'. Their existence either way has been impossible to prove.
Putting the wriggling little thing... somewhere... on his body, Evil Roy proceeds to the Transport Hall to get a Personal Vehicle of his own. He enters a Token and waits for the machine to make up its mind.
[Punishment] [Slow] [Unreliable] [Music] A vortex of light swoops across the hall and deposits something onto the floor - it takes Evil Roy a moment to identify it as a rather bulky exoskeleton with tiny stunted metal wings sticking out of the back. Discordant music warbles out of its insides. Kids these days will listen to anything.
This unfortunate exoskeleton was built for 'rulebreakas an' gits' in the juvenile delinquent SpeedFreakz communities of the planet Holimax. These youngsters spend their days in their supercharged, scratch-built exoskeletons to speed along the streets of their cities, using the powerful, if crude, thrusters in the legs to gain ever higher speeds and avoid law enforcement. Nothing matters to the Freakz as speed and their own private code of honor. Those who break the latter are deprived of the former, as here - this suit has been modified to move with all the swiftness and agility of an aging tortoise. Such shaming in front of their peers and the increased risk of capture by the police means rulebreakers are unlikely to do so twice. Unfortunately, or fortunately, the speed limiters in the suit's thrusters are rather makeshift creations, notoriously unreliable. This means they have a tendency to malfunction and allow the suit to achieve higher speeds every now and then, though moving in fits and bursts will never satisfy a true SpeedFreak. The music blaring out of the internal speakers was the personal choice of the last user, Tiong Parax Rougemon, and cannot be turned off.
Hmh. It's something, he supposes. The machine-enhanced physical strength he would enjoy in the suit might just allow him to use one of his death-tubes without having to stop and brace it all the time, though the chances of the light-weight thing being able to life both seems unlikely. The true issue is, of course, that this thing will give him an obviously humanoid, more definable shape.
---
Status: Evil. Purplish?
HP: 30/30
Possessions: -
'Reaver' Powered Crossbow [Damage 4/
Close-Ranged I,
Stunning +1, Special Ammo/Sadistic, Mind-Altering]
-
Ursus Amplifier Sword [Damage 5/
Amplifier/Bear, Intensify]
-
Blackheart [Damage 7/
Heavy Weapon II,
Grapeshot Blast,
Tearing V,
Fearsome I/Darkness, Strength, Dual-Wielded, Large]
-
Deathmaw [Damage 7/
Heavy Weapon II,
Grapeshot Blast,
Stunning +3,
Fearsome I/Darkness, Strength, Dual-Wielded, Large]
-
Omniphobic Familiar [
Teleprotectation]
-Maelocht's Gloves [
Soulgnawer]
-Faer Tragedie's Secret [
Despair Stone]
-Lucky Fish! (1)
-3 Fabricator Tokens
Traits: None
In Transport Hall
+SpeedFreakz Rulebreaker Suit [A slowed-down mobile exosuit that sometimes malfunctions and reaches higher speeds. Minor physical strength boost, fragile frame. Constant music. /Punishment, Slow, Unreliable, Music]
Crit accepts Evil Roys explanation and immediately stops being sad.
The little robot buys two more other equipments and a personal vehicle for 3 tokens.
Next to rid itself of more Tokens is Crit. The robot is more than happy to achieve even more Other Equipments to lug around,
[4 - Four Effects] [Panic] [Harvest] [Lightning] [Glow] and is rewarded with a metal-ringed glass sphere that nearly shatters on the floor before the robot catches it. There's a small whirling device connected to it by a cable. Crit, curious, reads the description.
This splendid device is capable of drawing fear and terror from living beings and transforming it into potent energy that is trapped inside its sphere as luminous purple lightning. Nobody quite knows when, why or where this machine was constructed, and it has enjoyed many different uses across the galaxy. Some have used it for therapy, calming people with panic attacks or anxiety, while others have attempted to utilize the fear energy captured as a source of power, to occasional success. Some even think it can be harnessed for military purposes, either launching bolts of fear lightning back at targets or numbing soldiers into fearless killing machines (or ridding enemies of the survival instinct by taking their fear). Whatever aim one might have, this is a very prized device to possess.
Ooh. Crit wonders if it works on robots.
Another Token disappears into the machine's insides, eliciting a rumble and a sound like an enormous mechanical belch.
[1 - One Effect] [Heart] Metal groans and abruptly Crit finds himself holding a beating, gleaming mechanical heart. Blood drips off it. Uh. He hopes its last user won't miss it too much.
This is a high-end artificial replacement heart by the SEVEN biomech corporation. It is efficient, reliable, flexible enough for multiple species, and runs off the body's own energy, making it an expensive but praised aid for beings with heart issues.
Well, less useful. Perhaps he could repurpose its tech somehow, or maybe a teammate will need an extra heart in the future. You never know.
Crit's last stop is at the Transport Hall in search of a Personal Vehicle. He inserts his Token and watches.
[1 - Two Effects] [Sand] [Ill] After a moment, a heavy, dust-colored board falls to the floor. It wobbles erratically in place.
This sandboard or duneboard is meant for skimming across deserts across the galaxy. Mechanized, it utilizes the movement of sand to propel itself and can launch itself a little into the air for jumps through the use of a pressurized surface. The rapid wobbling motion of the device has been known to make many users violently ill, but experienced users laugh at such issues. They speed through deserts with impressive, highly unnecessary acrobatics that they seek to wow offworlders with, having the time of their lives. Outside sandy terrain, the board becomes loud, slow and difficult to control, but works up to a point.
---
Status: Obsolete.
HP: 25/30
Possessions:-Endgame Ring [
Black Hole Generator]
+Mega Seeds
+SGP Glue
+Last Resort Explosive Digger
+Terror Harvester
+SEVEN Artificial Heart
+Quantum Lab Tube [An experimental product of Nazi superscience. Appears to contain every chemical at once.]
+Quantum Key [An experimental product of Nazi superscience. Appears to
be every key at once.]
-2 Fabricator Tokens
Traits: Nazified In Transport Hall:
+Mechanized Sandboard [Relatively fast, if likely to make you throw up, on sandy terrain; of limited use off it./Sand, Ill]
If Erin has anywhere to drop stuff, say a vault or a room, she goes and drops off the Armor of the Pariah and the Mnemonic Autocannon, before buying another weapon and a "Other Equipment" item.
Erin follows Lux to a vault that doesn't inspire much confidence with its security measures and which has a door that doesn't close the whole way, but with no other choices, she drops her Mnemonic Autocannon and the unholy, wretched Armor of the Pariah th ere. She's just glad to be rid of them.
Back at the Fabricator, she enters two Tokens, the first for one more Weapon.
[3 - Thrown] The Fabricator hums for a long time before
[2 - Two Effects] [Male] [Ocean] a pack full of what appear to be bright blue crabs falls before her. That's, um, certainly something. They snap at her fingers when she reaches inside.
An improvised weapon sometimes used by the islanders of the ocean-planet Geje, male snappercrabs are known to have a ferocious grip and sharp claws. Throwing these crabs is as much proof of skill and manliness for the young warriors of the tribes as an useful weapon, as they need to be thrown quickly and grasped perfectly to avoid losing a finger or two. Their effectiveness against modern galactic armors is limited, but against good, old-fashioned blood-and-flesh foes, the snappercrabs can bite quite deep and hold on for ages. There's nothing more distracting than a carnivorous crab hanging from your flesh (except several carnivorous crabs hanging from your flesh).
Damage: 1
Special Traits:
+Tearing III [+4 Damage against unprotected targets]
+Grip of Pain [After hitting, crabs will stick on target and deal Stunning +0 attacks on unprotected targets until shaken loose.]
+Crabby Ammo [A Combat Roll of 1-2 will cause the crab to snap at the user instead.]
Huh. She probably can't lug around any more weaponry after this.
Next is an Other Equipment, following her comrades' lead.
[3 - Three Effects] Something begins to take shape as swirling mist gushes out of the Fabricator.
[Capitalist] [Organic] [Small] Said something solidifies into a heavy sack, tied closed at the top. Something, or many somethings, move inside the sack, and Erin can hear fast-paced babbling from within. Not daring to open the sack, she reads the text.
This is a sack of gene-engineered little creatures known as 'business gnomes'. These beady-eyed, suit-wearing hyperactive maniacs were once all the rage among the ultra-rich and only an overpopulation crisis and subsequent banning put an end to it. Business gnomes have been bred for energy, business acumen and ruthlessness. When unleashed, they have a tendency to set up small businesses and drive competitors out of business with ridiculously low prices and standards; the more ambitious ones have been known to take over large corporations and even star-spanning conglomerates to the confusion of their executive boards. Few in the galaxy want anything to do with these creatures now and owners will face severe punishments for unleashing them on unsuspecting economies.
That's... what. What are they even doing in this sack?
---
Status: Stranded.
HP: 30/30 [-2 to Damage, plus Shield]
Possessions: -
Snappercrabs [Damage 1/
Tearing III,
Grip of Pain,
Crabby Ammo]
-
Donquix's Pistol [Damage 2/
Shadowbane/Outdated, Fantasy, Shadow, Suicide]
-
The Rose Blade [Damage 5/
Piercing II/Friendship, Love, Blood]
-
Cadgewell's Green Rifle [Damage 3/
Inaccurate,
Internal Bloom/Earth, Overgrown, Organ]
-
Air Shield [DR:-3 to conventional/Shield Use: 2/
Repulsive Barrier/Air]
-
Sacred Fang Mail [DR:-2/Worship, Teeth, Special]
+Sack of Business Gnomes
-2 Fabricator Tokens
Traits: None
---
IMPORTANT
There's a reason I didn't move you to your next mission yet - whether I like it or not (and I don't), this game is going on a two-week hiatus (at the least), and will have a much slower update rate from there on. Why? Conscription. Surprise!
All Finnish dudes have to either serve in the army or in civil service (unpaid work for whoever's willing to take you) at this point of their lives, and I've chosen the former (mainly because it's likely shorter overall). Thus, for the next six months or more, I'll be stuck in the military except for weekend vacations. These eventually become weekly, but as I've understood, we are stuck at base for the first few weeks.
And no, I don't intend to go AWOL just to update this game, sorry. It's possible I might be able to do updates on some evenings, when we have free time, but otherwise it'll be weekends. I'll keep you updated, but I'm afraid that's it. If you don't have the patience for long waits between updates, well, uh... I'm not sure what I can do about that.
See you in two weeks! I hope.
Author
Topic: Guns, Cash, and Glory: A Random-Generated Scifi Rampage [Mission II!] (Read 56693 times)