Well, it's cramped, that's for sure.

Blue dots are the port thugs. Red are the Turai. Purple are the drones, and they are floating about 20 feet up. Cyan smaller dots are children. Malenko, 4 kids, and 2 Turai are on the main boarding platform of the catwalk. Everyone else is ground level.

The dark green dots are the structural supports for the catwalk, as before. They're just in a different layout this time.

If anyone really disagrees with your positioning, let me know. I was working quickly and figured you guys burst in in true clusterfuck fashion. Narrowly avoiding the port guys, trying to scan the room for better cover, and all that.

Semo's position looks fine. I figure his first shot will be a little under the "northern" drone, hoping to catch the Turai on either side in the blast.

Of course, if they go first, they're positions are likely to change and he'll have to labor through coming up with another plan...

I have two questions: How much C4 do we have left, and did we bring all of it with us?

I don't recall you guys actually using any of it yet, although there's a small amount tied up in your "Malenko's explosive" mockup. Luis has the C4, and he's working on the Morningstar's CIC with Max and One-Ton.

Goddamnit. Well, we'd better find something that blows up really well to justify this whole "OMG explosives" angle. Anything in there that would react especially poorly to being shot?

Punkey wrote:

Goddamnit. Well, we'd better find something that blows up really well to justify this whole "OMG explosives" angle. Anything in there that would react especially poorly to being shot?

The Turai?

Well, Semo and Hugh have 2 frag grenades apiece, and Angel has 3 frags. As far as shooting stuff in the hangar, it's mostly industrial monotasks and catwalks. If there is something to refuel these ships, you can't recognize it and you don't even know if it's explosive. The ship itself is like the one Semo and Angel crippled outside the Botane system's space gate. Pinpoint AT-4s messed it up pretty bad.

Semo and Hugh also have the last 2 AT-4s. They are also not exactly quick-draw weapons.

I'm talking about inside the ship. We start the gunfight, carry it on inside, and in the confusion, we manage to make a good part of it explode, thus giving us a convenient explosion to not only say was the explosives we've said were in there, but also consumed the rest of them, thus explaining the utter lack of any other evidence. I mean, we'd probably have to run away or take cover for that part, but it'd give us the final bit of cover we'd need.

Well, Davis and Hugh have both been inside Morningstar's engineering. They're not qualified like Max or Luis, but you'd at least be able to recognize the fragile stuff. It'd be risky - I mean, you're basically rolling to see 1) if you find something that WILL explode, 2) will be big enough to cover up the fact that it wasn't what you said it was and 3) can you get away?

Well, we need something to explain why the explosives aren't here. Short of blowing the entire ship up, something that we could probably do quite easily and explain away but would be massively risky for everyone involved...

Hm.

Well, we could set it on a timer. Give us about a minute and a half or so to get clear, we can work out specifics of time once the firefight starts. Again, fight our way inside, a small three or four man strike team that includes Ngawai, set the ship to explode with enough time to clear the area out, and then get the fuck out of there. Unless the station has some kind of spiffy provision for dumping a ship that's about to blow up, which would be more ideal, but I can't think of another way of covering this up.

I'd love to have an idea that doesn't involve putting hundreds of lives at risk, but I'm coming up empty, unless they actually have explosives in their ship somewhere, a not unreasonable expectation, considering it's a construction mission. Then we can just set those to explode.

Here's another idea. We create some kind of reactor leak or some other kind of jet of red hot plasma or other such burny substance that vaporizes a big section of the ship without blowing it up, saying that we did it to defuse the devices. We strap a few grenades together to blow a hole in some plating to get ourselves a big explosion to complete the effect. If we can edit the local network to remove evidence of our presence, an addition to the ship's manifest of a box of explosive charges shouldn't be that hard to add. By the time anyone is in any shape to check such things out, all the Turai and Malenko will be dead. That might work as well.

Any other ideas?

I would point out that just in case it becomes important, Leno's vox is a big key to taking your ship off lockdown. Else you can't open the bay doors. So you either need to keep him alive and willing to let you go (his stipulation is that he loses no men), pay the man, or kill him and take his stuff.

Quote:

We create some kind of reactor leak or some other kind of jet of red hot plasma or other such burny substance that vaporizes a big section of the ship without blowing it up, saying that we did it to defuse the devices.

This is how you wasted the last assault ship. You just did it from the outside in, rather than the inside out.

Also, you say they might have explosives because they're a construction ship. They might have explosives because they're carrying twelve Turai, and they probably have stuff in there that's not meant to be used inside a floating tin can. Those spear-bombs they used on Earth aren't something that could fool Leno, but they definitely explode.

Even better is that they ARE an assault ship. They just happen to be lavishly outfitted for a degenerate noble's foray into backwater systems. The ship likely fires things that will explode.

Blow a missile or two up? Sure, we can do that. It'd even be in the right place.

Here's where we are currently. My posts are shortening, because the potential for dicketry from all sides is high and I don't want to run over someone's "perfect betrayal moment". That said, if there is a specific criteria you are waiting for, let me know and if the thread moves in that direction I'll know to pause.

That emphasis was as much for Leno's men as it was for Malenko.

And that's finally initiative. Ngawai used her turn to shoot, shoot, and move.

Semo
Davis, Turai
Hugh
Angel
Drones
Arketta, Mellish, Port Thugs

The crew aren't armed and weren't all holding their actions, so they are basically recoiling in surprise this round.

If you're firing at a target who might be blocked by a kid, your target will have light cover - but if you miss, you won't hit the kid. If you don't care, you can fire as normal - but if you miss you WILL hit children. Next round they might get down or run to the corners, but for this round they're a chaotic whirlwind of bystanders.

I've been waiting for her to try to screw us.

Being near the exit with a belt full of money and a loaded weapon was just too much for her to resist.

I thought she would have just tried to plug Davis when he handed her the beam rifle in the first place, or wait until after all the heavy shit went down in the hangar. Still, she's getting chin-checked with the butt end of a beam rifle when Davis sets foot in the airlock.

I thought about it. But if she just up and shoots you in your own hangar, that's a sucker's game. She ends up dead before she gets away. Waiting until after the fight was an option, but she wasn't trusting you NOT to instigate a Dick Cheney friendly fire incident. "Oops, I was shooting at that Turai but somehow emptied my magazine into Ngawai!"

Once again, plans of escape are foiled by airlocks. Warm up your Jason Bourne "fighting in an uncomfortable position" moves. Seriously, however, the first airlock door cycles shut at the end of the round. You'll get an attack on her on your action of course. Next round, it comes down to initiative, but there'll be combat actions from you and her (assuming one of you doesn't win outright). Beginning of the round after that, the outer airlock'll be open and if Ngawai can beat you in a Fight roll, she can opt to break out of melee in lieu of dealing damage. Then it's a foot chase, assuming she doesn't get shot in the back. So she might stay and fight while it's just you and her. Or try a called shot to drop your weapon or something.

The fun part is that neither of you have Wild Dice left (not that she had any to begin with). If she gets away, she'll become, you know, a real villain. If you beat her in a one-on-one fight, though, I'll refresh your stock completely +1. I'm planning on getting everyone back to normal after Jang-xur, by the way. Finally, she's equal to Luis in melee, for what that's worth. Place your bets.

*looks at character sheets*

Hm...my Fight is at d6, she's at d8...

Maybe having someone else to help kick her ass would be a good idea. Davis can work his magic on her later on, but if she gets away now, we lose her. The doors take a round to cycle, so if someone else, hopefully someone with a higher fight skill than me joins in (*cough*Semo*cough*), we can kick her ass, zip-tie her again, stash her somewhere safe and then get back in the fight.