Anna Withheld and Tyrin Laveros"Well, I have two. Either we run out that way where I got shot-I'm betting they've shifted aiming on that part thanks to psychology- and duck away from where the Gunship is at."
Tyrin pointed at the point where the gunship was facing--the house was to be used as cover.
"Or we could take our chances with the four you're sensing. Though it would help if we could make a better distraction. I'm pretty optimistic either way."
He looked at his wounds, and then looked at Boris. Trying to convince him (with what he learned, along with any innate skills) to join up. "It may be bleak, but you're still standing. We can all get out of here safe, but only if we work together. You're a sign of hope for the others.
"We should all go one way or the other, and I'm taking my chances with the four in that direction."
Anna, I'm going north.
Try my passive empathetics?
Have everyone wait for me to take a few deep breaths to collect and focus myself before they move. Then, try an Override on the pilot of the gunship to jerk his hands to the left and forward, while I lay covering fire on the ship with my rifle, trying to hit the engines or the pilot.
Tyrin: 76+3-3 = 76
Anna: 1+6-1 = 6
Jenna: 81+6-2 = 85
Armed Colonist: 12+2-0=14
Armed Colonist Leader: 85+4-0=89
Gunship: 56
Tyrin and the Colonist supporting him make a sprinting hobble out of the rapidly disintegrating building. [Mobility 1, Mobility 19] Tyrin's legs collapse under him a few steps in, and the colonist is forced to half drag and half carry him. The two of them make it a short distance outside the structure, partially obscured by smoke but still exposed. [Tyrin P.Empathetics ?] Tyrin tries to impress some amount of empathy and friendliness on the figures Anna sensed, but he can't tell if anything is happening. At least, not until the other party replies.
"I don't know who you are, and I don't give a damn. Come with us if you want to live! That gunship is going to kill you whether you're a civilian or not." [Observation 18+1] Tyrin recognizes the voice. An Unchained marshal he knows by sight if not by name.
The continuing hail of the gunship's barrage pounds the colonist structure, turning survival within into a roulette game. [Anna Luck 11] [Colonist leader luck 2] [Jenna Luck 8] Anna's armor gets further shredded by shards of flying metal, sharp edges slicing through the infiltration suit's reinforced fabric and continuing on to draw blood. (Anna Armor -4, Hp -11, 1 negated) The leader of the colonists gets less lucky, and an osmium slug clips him under the ribs. (Colonist Leader Hp -141) The force of the impact turns his side into slop, the kinetic energy of the glancing hit rupturing organs and fracturing bones inside his flesh. He dies along with his daughter. A cloud of spall hits Jenna from above, (Jenna Armor -3, HP -40, 3 Negated) and she stiffens briefly in Anna's arms before becoming dead weight. Anna lets her body fall to the ground, knowing there's nothing she can do about the four inch spike of metal embedded in the psionic's skull.
Anna pauses in the destruction, stunned. Dead. All dead. [Stamina 4, no effect] She's too tired for this. Too wounded. Adrenaline does little in the face of a growing realization that death is inevitable. She steps outside of the collapsing house, calm in spite of the pain of her injuries. She raises her rifle, points it at the massive target of the gunship, and fires. [Quickshot 16-1-1+3, 12-1-1+3,15-1-1+3] (Gunship shields -16,-10,-12) Brief flashes of golden light appear just in front of the gunship's armor as the ship's shielding cancels the kinetic energy of each bullet. Undaunted, Anna switches to a mental attack. Even if she can just knock the gunship a little off course, she can buy Tyrin some time. [Override 19+2-2] [Control 2, cost +10%] (-11 Stamina) (Damien -10 stamina) The attack strikes hard, but rebounds off the hard shell of a technocrat mental shield. The psionic that' s been keeping the unchained from pulling the gunship out of the air is still operating, and he's shielding the pilot. Staring up at the impregnable gunship, Anna realizes something.
This is where she's going to die.
Health: 73/95
Stamina: 4/105
Carried weight: /130
Attire: Colonist Worksuit, Lethe Armored Infiltration Suit (36/50, 20lbs)
Inv:
Kapre Light Rifle (11/15, 16lbs)
Renfield SMG (10/30, 10lbs)
Combat Knife x2 (1ls)
.30 cal rifle clip (15/15) x1
.115 spike pack (30/30) x1
Status: New Hensfield, South-east.
Health: 18/79
Stamina: 61/85
Carried weight: 52/150
Attire: Colonist Worksuit, Limbo Medium Body Armor (78/115, 35lbs)
Inv:
Medical Kit (9/10, 5lbs)
Bandages (4/5, 2lbs)
Combat Knife (1lbs)
ALR Broadbeam (9/10 E, 14lbs)
.30 Cal pistol clip (10) x1
Status: New Hensfield, South-east. Moderate Bleeding (Loses 7 stamina per turn until health and stamina equalize, then loses health slowly)
Red Hollow Face: Armed Colonist
Green Hollow Face: Unchained Psionic
Green Hollow Face on Dark Green Background: Unchained Kineticist
Dark Green Hollow Face: Unchained Marshal
Light Blue Hollow Face: Anna
Deep Blue Hollow Face: Tyrin
Teal filled face: Trooper
Teal filled face with gold background: Sharpshooter
Cyan Face with gold background: Sniper
Cyan Filled face with light-grey background: Destroyer
White Filled face: Damien
---
Dominique Wakeman and Ashley Fey"Yeah, I don't blame you, but this is the only way we're gonna work things out peacefully. I mean, I trust the dude, but I guess you gotta meet him to see for yourself. Ready to go?"
If so, Dom calls the elevator and gets in, telling Alonso and Basilio to stay on this floor as a show of good faith.
Go with dom, but keep a hand on a weapon
Dominique sets Alonso and Basilio to chill for a while, lessening her advantage in a fight in exchange for a slightly more trusting atmosphere. Ashely accepts Dom's update to meet with Taric, but, despite Dominique leaving the Immortals behind, she keeps her hand on her weapon.
Emily's voice chimes into the conversation the instant both of you step into the elevator. "This is not what Lord Taric wanted."
The elevator begins to slide smoothly upwards.
"Would you like me to play music to ease your tension?"
Nobody justifies that with an answer.
***
Taric massages his head. Dominique had found him, with the assistance of a couple immortals, hunched over a computer console. He'd been psychically speeding through functions, and he wasn't taking the interruption to his work with a great deal of grace.
"Dominique, if the next words out of your mouth are 'it followed me home, can I keep it?' I'm docking your pay. I asked you to shoot her, dead. Bang! HNGH! thud. Not bring her back here so we can have tea," Taric says, completely ignoring the fact that Ashley herself is almost within arms length. "I'm a little busy right now, but if you want I can get one of my Immortals to give me a gun and we can take a minute to shoot her together. It'll be fun, just like old times. What do you say?"
Health: 128/128
Stamina: 120/120
Carried Weight: 166/210
Attire: Harlequin Uniform, Styx Assault Armor (137/150, 60lbs. Integrated Power cell charged 3/3, Internal Ammunition Supply [Cerico, 16])
Inv:
Dominique's Abassy Heavy pistol -laser sight- [6, 8lbs]
.50 pistol clip (7 0.2lbs) x5
Artemis Railgun (3/3 A, 3/3 E 18lbs)
Size S-3 rail spike pack (3, 0.6lbs) x2
Cerico Shotgun (24/8 A, 16lbs)
12 gauge shells (8, 0.3lbs) x5
Stun club (50/50 11lbs)
Advanced Medical Kit (10/10) (5lbs)
Energy Cell (Full, 0.5lbs) x5
ORS (3) x2
Status: Floor 15
Health: 91/91
Charge: 135/135
Carried weight: 115/150
Attire: Plain gray under armor padding. Midguard Hardened Armor (112/140, 60lbs)
Inv:
Garou Repeating Cannon (9/12) (19lbs)
15 MM bonding charges x1
Ashley's Leanashe Assault Rifle [10/30 18lbs]
4.73 mm Caseless box mags x1
Cirri Light pistol [20/20 4lbs]
Energy cell x2
basic medical supplies [1/5] (5lbs)
Manticore Pistol [9/10 6lbs]
Mechanical Bypass kit 1/5 [3lbs]
---
James EvanJames' thoughts slowly and exruciatingly wrenched into something more coherent, more understandable. He could work with this. ...But Nathaniel's ejection made things five times more difficult, not to mention the maintenance panel jammed inside Tarran's leg. James muttered a curse. He couldn't get Tarran into the drop suit with this thing in his leg, but if he didn't Tarran would die anyway. He groaned. He had one thing to try. And if not, he'd merely have to try and hope for the best. His clumsy hands couldn't do much, he knew, but... maybe his mind could. He'd have to hope for luck...
James attempts to use psionic blade to cut the maintenance panel where it juts out of Tarran's flesh. Then he attempts to put the drop suit on Tarran, having to take out the panel if he couldn't cut it. And above all, he gets the two of them the hell out of the ship.
There was something James was missing, something he didn't know how to do. Somehow, this plan seemed flawed... But his head hurt, and he didn't have time for standing around.
You have to get the suit on Tarran, and you have to get him moving. Both of which necessitate some immediate action on the metal plate sticking out of his leg. You concentrate, thinking about what you want to make happen. You're pretty sure this isn't the way the others do this, but the others don't have split personalities piloting their psionics. [Blade 20-3+1-1][Control 2, +10% stamina cost] (-28 Stamina) You hold the piece of metal steady with one hand, and something twists in the air around you. The metal jerks as the psionic blade cuts through it near the base. The jerk causes some bleeding, but it looks, compared to the rest of the wound, superficial.
With the metal poking out of Tarran's leg shortened considerably, you slap the dropsuit onto him, buckling it up to the best of your abilities. Which isn't much. Thankfully the suit was made for VIPs who were also not expected to know how to put on a dropsuit in the heat of the moment. It's probably not on "right", but it should do its job.
[Luck 3] Which is very fortunate. You're thrown into one of the walls of engineering as the ship hits something in mid-air. You feel the ship twist sideways for a second, then everything lurches as the Virtue plows into the ground.
Dropsuits are usually meant to protect people when they fall from great height, and most civilian suits actually require the user to manually activate the bulk of the suits protective measures. Suits for Technocrat high-personnel, however, are quite a bit more advanced. Uncaring whether it was the ground or not, both Tarran's and James' suits detect immediate fatal impact events with the walls of the engineering section, and they deploy countermeasures. The compartment fills with expanding impact gel as sideline canisters on both vests explode. Bubble shields flare into a brief, bright existence, existing only for long enough to provide a cushion against the damage of hitting the compartment wall with the speed and force of a falling luxury transport.
[Soak 12] [Tarran Soak 4]
***
'Wake up' isn't exactly the right phrase for the way your brain starts processing things again immediately after the crash. Seconds have passed, and the ship has, thankfully, stopped moving. The impact gel is hot, but, considering that you just landed in the most literal sense possible, you'd say that's a minor concern. You sit up and immediately bang your head on the much lowered ceiling. The engineering compartment is a hell of a lot smaller than it used to be. It is also completely lightless. You can feel the motion retarding muck of impact gel covering the floor to a depth of a couple inches. [Observation 1] You reach around in the darkness, but you can't find anything remotely resembling Tarran. The only thing you can hear clearly is the faint sound of liquid flowing.
Health: 74/88
Stamina: 33/100
Carried weight: 171/300
Attire: Exarch Dress uniform [8lbs] James' Light Body armor 40/50 (50/50) [25lbs]
Inv:
Renfield SMG (10/30, 10lbs)
Riot shield (10lbs 1/30, in hand)
Piru Gauss Rifle (E5/5 A5/5 16lbs)
.45 Gauss slug clip (5)
Simone's Song (6lbs 3/7 -Frangible Rounds-)
.50 caliber Frangible pistol clips (7) x1
Irin Combat Shotgun 3/6 (15lbs)
Dybbuk Flechette Canister Rifle (1/2 35 lbs)
20 mm flechette canisters (x2, 1 lb)
Emergency VIP Drop Suit (30lbs, Armor 35/35)
Status: The Virtue, engineering. Mild Concussion, next save [4].
---
Damien SmithAlrighty then. Drop complete. Now, there were supposedly some Unchained here. Hopefully, the gunship wouldn't blow them into oblivion just yet. Even if there was just one, that one would know where the main base was. In his mind, Damien made a list. Step one: Find rebels. Step two: Earn trust. Three: Find the base. Four: Bring down the thunder. Perhaps those troops over there knew what was going on.
"Soldier! Report!"
Damien walks up to the troops at the destroyer and demands a status report.
Damien got near enough to the soldiers to tag their collar signals. Talking was hell on the field, and taking reports the direct way, well, that often had unpleasant side effects. "Report," Damien ordered the instant he had the destroyer's frequency locked down.
Damien's signal brought up his rank and clearances up instantaneously on the soldier's HUD, which in turn brought absolute compliance to the soldier. Credit where credit was due, the Technocrats knew how to select and brainwash absolute loyalty into their shock troops. "Holding down enemy forces, sir! Reinforcement call was issued by a voluntary trooper, we're first response. We'll be ready to move in after the gunship finishes it's pass if you have no alternate orders, sir!"
Damien opens his mouth to send another query through the radio, but a chill runs through his body. Someone is launching a psionic attack against the pilot of the gunship. Nothing major, but whoever is doing it has skill. [P. Empathetics 1] And, strangely, they leave no psychic trace to follow. For all intents, the attack on the pilot came out of nowhere.
The growing roar that Damien noted earlier breaks him out of his attempt to trace the source of the psychic attack. It had a clear direction now, definitely coming from the south, but... Damien's eyes narrowed, catching movement in the farther trees. What he saw was, surprising. Billowing smoke and limping along on two engines, a large silver ship was pummeling its way through the branches separating it from Hensfield. It was clearly broken, and the cockpit module was missing, but that didn't stop it from driving toward the colony on sheer momentum.
That, he thought, looking at the approaching ship,
is not something you see every day. Health: 79/79
Stamina: 74/85
Carried weight: 105/150
Attire: Technocrat Uniform, Asgard Shield Armor 75/75 (150/150, 35lbs)
Inv:
Hellhound Beam SMG (30/30, 15lbs)
Abassy (7/7, 8lbs)
Laelaps Laser Rifle (12/12, 17lbs)
.50 cal pistol clip (7) x4
Energy Cell (Full) x8
Ichneumon (2/2, 25lbs)
Field Surgery Kit (10/10, 5lbs)
1" sabot rounds (2) x8
Status: Hensfield field, mindbar
---
The Gunship"Sir! We have an unidentified object approaching at high speed, position is roughly nine'o."
"Classification?"
"Unknown, it appears damaged but it's not slowing. Tracking trajectory... Merciful Church, it's coming right at us!"
"Pull off from the assault, now! Evasive thrust, twenty degrees fro-"
The Virtue hits the gunship like a shovel clotheslining a hummingbird. Damien, Anna, and Tyrin watch in awe as the transport careens through the burning remnants of the gunship, making a half pinwheel before crashing to a burning stop in one of the fields to the north.
Author
Topic: Deviation-22. The End of All Things. (Read 536914 times)