Hey nor is Aubrey. If a fight breaks out she is just running the hell away er using her stealthy techpowers to aid and assist and stuff?
I'd say talk to the GM. If your sheet didn't exactly list your combat abilities/gear, he needs help to interpret what sort of stuff you use.
I'll list some of the examples he sent me in PM, since they're too cool to keep to myself
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Jar of Parasitic Squid: This a large, opaque, fluid filled canister that Sadish carries into situations where a good distraction can be the best offense. Contained within the canister are approximately 15 mature parasitic squid (Euprymna Utor). Each mature squid weighs approximately two pounds, and looks like
this. While kept in the dark environment of the canister, the squid are dormant from lack of stimulus. However, when a squid is drawn out into fresh air it will immediately begin to become active. When subsequently thrown at the desired target, the stimulus is great enough for the squid to begin flashing its bioluminescent organs and emitting a rather unique sound of great excitement: a high pitched "EEEEEEeeeee!" that is typically characterized as distinctively and disconcertingly euphoric.
Euprymna Utor is attracted to carbon-dioxide emissions, and is capable of pinpointing them with great accuracy. Wherever the squid lands, it will immediately begin seeking out the nearest breathing creature, crawling towards whatever orifice it uses to breathe. Given that Euprymna Utor is species that has learned to adapt to considerable expended times out of a fluid medium, they are capable of managing truly remarkable speeds. Once on the face, Euprymna Utor will attempt to force itself down its victim's throat. Its body is highly compressible, so while the experience is markedly unpleasant (Also described as 'fucking horrifying') it will cause little to no damage to the victim. That is not to say it is not distracting. The most hardened veteran may break composure when a two pound glowing squid monster that sounds like it's having the time of its life begins force feeding itself to him.
Once in the stomach, Euprymna Utor is actually considerably less distracting. Aside from the feeling of writhing tentacles as the creature adjusts within the stomach, and the heavy sensation of having just consumed two pounds of squid, Euprymna Utor's only negative effect from this point is that it will consume a portion of the host's nutrient intake. They will also produce offspring while in the stomach, which, upon reaching a size approximately equal to that of a human fist will wait until the host is asleep and crawl stealthily out of their throat. In races other than neo-fins, this stealth is typically ineffective at preventing the host from realizing there is a baby squid attempting to crawl out of their face.
Out of combat, Sadish has several CO2 gassers that can attract the little beggars, allowing them to be carried around harmlessly as renewable multi-color lanterns. She also has a number of Euprymna Utor pheromone sticks, which can be used to treat individuals and mark them as though already infested. The crew of the Reunion are undoubtedly thankful for these.
Sonic screwdriver Scalpels: Disclaimer: not entirely sonic. Sadish has a pair of these installed, one in each of her suit's primary grasping arms. These Scalpels can easily be detached to be used by a tech-suit instead of the mech. Each scalpel can have a blade length of up to one foot, and can be up to one inch in both width and height, with a minimum width of about 0.1 mm. These items are much more for technical use than combat use, being remarkable easy to tune to the resonant frequencies of different materials. In particular, they're useful for removing debris from artifacts, and for doing delicate work to free a discovered relic from whatever time has chosen to embed it in. By tuning the frequency appropriately, even a very hard aggregate (such as concrete and slag) can be obliterated from around something fairly sensitive (bone, plastic) without risking any disturbance to anything but the targeted material.
The Sonic scalpel serves well in medical purposes for a similar reason, creating clean, precise cuts without undue trauma to the surrounding tissue. However, the Sonic Scalpel is not a meta-field implement, the blade has a physical component. Several dozen nano-filament oscillators are what provide the blade, retracting into the grip when not in use. This means that surgery must always slice through the outer layer of skin, unlike more advanced surgical tools which can make cuts inside without disturbing exterior tissue.
As a weapon of last resort, the Sonic scalpels can be quite effective. They can slice through armor when properly tuned, and their length is enough to slice through critical pieces even on mechanized units. However, the disruptive frequencies for body armor are typically complex and very different from that of ordinary tissue. Thus, Sadish must either keep one blade tuned to tissue at all times and one tuned to armor, or swap frequencies mid-fight. Of course, that isn't nearly as much of a problem as the fact that she has to be within a few feet to use what amount to knives, at which distance a body slam in the water or a heavy stomp from her mech might be just as effective.
Excavation Laser: Locked into a detachable spinal mount rigged to her finwalker, the excavation laser is one of the closest things Sadish has to a 'real gun'. It wasn't designed for combat, it wasn't designed to cut through armor, but it does a damn fine job regardless of that limitation. Excessively heavy, and a potent drain on her mech's energy, the E.Laser is capable of drilling through most materials, hardened or otherwise, given sufficient time. For its intended use, it's a wonderful tool that Sadish has made extensive use of to speed up in order to cut through ruined facilities, free relics from the earth's embrace, and heat up food quickly. For its unintended use, well, Sadish probably isn't ashamed to admit that it's more an intimidation tool than a legitimately lethal weapon.
The E.Laser is powerful, but it was never designed for combat. It has no targeting adaptation, its mounting system is cumbersome to aim, and the beams energy distribution is calibrated to cut over time rather than obliterate quickly. This means that a glancing blow will inflict third degree burns on exposed tissue, and it may melt the surface of armor, it will not tear apart the impact site the way combat lasers will. This does, however, have the ironic advantage of making it less susceptible to anti-laser defenses designed with combat-grade lasers in mind. In addition, while it might be designed for combat, the sight of a fierce beam of green light setting everything it touches on fire is typically enough to make most people duck.
Tranq Rifle: One of the more mundane, but better used tools in Sadish's catalog of tricks is this tranquilizer rifle. Part of a utilitarian line, this rifle has a ten dart clip and a loading system that fills each dart, as it's chambered, from any combination of three payload canisters attached to the gun. The entire design is mechanical, with dosages of differing chemicals controlled by twisting knobs on the side of the rifle, and the fire action itself is pneumatic. Multiple different dart heads are available for different purposes, including shooting on land, shooting in water, and shooting through light infantry armor.
Sadish's chemical supply and the dart's penetrative abilities are the major limiting factors for the rifle, though there is steep range fall off and difficulty in dealing with both wind and strong currents. Still, its status a sporting good means that it can be transported with relatively little suspicion, and its usefulness to Sadish's work in the field of biology has been incalculable.
It's worth nothing that while many of the designations around the control knobs have been worn off with time, the highest setting for the tranquilizer canister is labeled 'Angry Boris'.
Senolight Puzzlebox: An infuriatingly bizarrely designed cube (most of the time) designed by a long fallen empire. It's purpose is a mystery, perhaps it was a children's toy, perhaps it was an academic aid in order to train abstract thinking, perhaps it was merely a bizarre gag gift for a race who'd entered a era of stagnation and luxury. Wherever it is from, the Senolight puzzle box is both obtuse and powerful. Under non-confrontational situations, solving the currently displayed puzzle on the box produces a seemingly random effect- with a range of power from a flash of illusory confetti, to inducing synesthesia in the host for days, to creating a host of persistent illusory dopples. It's status as post-apex is unquestioned, and its effects seem very much like magic to the untrained eye.
Of course, bursts of confetti and sudden onset synesthesia is rather useless in combat. However, during one particular encounter where Sadish's pressure equalizers had malfunctioned deep underwater, she discovered something rather remarkable about the puzzle box. When under duress, the puzzles on the box changed, becoming somewhat simpler and much more time sensitive. Sadish had been waiting to die, for her tech-suit to collapse squish her like a tinfoil fist around a sausage, and the puzzle box had seemed to be as good a way to kill time as any. One last victory prior to being swallowed by the crushing void forever.
Except, upon finishing the puzzle, the box had project a tight violet field around Sadish, gradually equalizing the pressure and buoying her to the surface. A few, rather stressful, tests later, and the answer became conclusive. The puzzle box was capable of recognizing, and reacting to, a dangerous situation, but it would only work if the user could solve whatever puzzle it chose to show.
((Note, you still have the puzzlebox regardless, this just lets Sadish carry it around and use it in combat with a greater chance of doing something useful))
Disruptor Tentacles Not actually tentacles per-se, this weapons package consists of a control box that either mounts to the back of the fin-walker or the back of Sadish's tech suit, and from that box are six quarter-inch thick wire and polymer ropes capped off in hook-like points. Each rope is capable of being retracted fully into box, or being extended to a total length of fourty feet. The backpack unit holds a separate capacitor for each tentacle, and any point along the length, as well as the barbed head, is capable of emitting a crippling electric shock. Built in 'musculature' to the tentacle interior allows them to be moved freely in a snakelike fashion.
While certainly intimidated when on full display, the Disruptor tentacles are more commonly used by Sadish to maneuver precisely or to anchor and restrain- rather than put the barbs in direct use. They're quite useful to restrain offending specimens, of the sentient and non-sentient varieties, and four tentacles working together is enough to lift her Finwalker off the ground if Sadish can get them all anchored above her in something solid.
Sadish mostly carries utility equipment, not things primarily intended to be weapons, but being improvised on the fly-she doesn't actually plan on fighting, but if it happens she's not entirely helpless.
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Topic: Small Mercies (OOC) | Mercenary Menageries in Space (6/[6]) [WARNING: TEXT] (Read 108271 times)