Seeing how the Morningstar crushed those skimmers, what would happen if we hit the brakes and let the Interceptors kiss our tail? In either event, closing the distance would be nice, since it prevents them from using big boom weapons without killing themselves, while it may get them into the backwash of the cruise engines - and as the Kzinti Lesson goes: "A reaction drive's efficiency as a weapon is in direct proportion to its efficiency as a drive."

Gatac

Honestly the 'Star forcing a collision would depend a lot on everyone's rolls to see just how bad the speed and angle is (the difference in any combat roll is the minimum damage), but I would prepare for total obliteration of the interceptor and some sort of Oceanic 815-level catastrophic damage to the Morningstar.

Interceptors pretty much run on cruise engines all the time, so there won't be any atmosphere burning off or anything, but the 'Star's engines are meant to move a LOT more mass. The Kzinti lesson could be applied here for sure, assuming you can get them close enough.

Gatac wrote:

Seeing how the Morningstar crushed those skimmers, what would happen if we hit the brakes and let the Interceptors kiss our tail?

They're not that stupid. They'd just alter course enough to miss.

Quote:

In either event, closing the distance would be nice, since it prevents them from using big boom weapons without killing themselves,...

I don't think they have 'big boom' weapons, per se. Maybe "big ZAP" weapons, but no booms. And ZAPs? As range decreases, the only thing that happens is that they get more intense. There's not much problem with friendly fire or damging the unit using them.

My money's on the "pedal to the metal" method.

I think that we should try some fancy flying while Davis or someone else gets Max, Arketta and Angel on the radio and figure out their situation. If they need to hunker down for the night, that's doable as well, it's just that I don't doubt that they have equipment sensitive enough to pick the three of them up if they had enough time to get it into place, so quicker pickup is better.

I believe the only proper response to Davis' question is the ubiquitous affirmative twice-keying of the vox.

Okay, change of plans, I guess. We pick them up later on after we lose the interceptors. We still have the gravsled, that should be enough to get us there without being detected. As for losing the interceptors, how well do their scanners work in canyons? Drawing on my many virtual years of dodging police pursuits in Need for Speed games, the number one trick is putting something between you and your pursuers that they can't see through, then doing something unexpected, like stopping or a radical change in direction. If we can get them to break sensor contact with the Morningstar and then hide in a cave, make a radical turn, or go straight up out of the canyon on cruise engines, we might be able to lose them long enough to hide and power down.

The chase is just about half over. Luis has accrued 5 advantage over the interceptors; they've got 6, and we're going to whoever gets 10 first.

I decided if the interceptors ever got past 4 advantage they could get within weapons range, so from now on they'll be shooting. Luis also has other options besides "try to get away" now:

1. Try to get away - yes, if Luis hits that 10 advantage total he will indeed have lost them in a canyon or slammed on the brakes, ducking into a cave or something.

2. You can trade in your built-up advantage as the minimum damage and try to force them to crash. I think Spycraft called it a Lure maneuver?

3. You can do something profoundly dangerous and dare them to follow you. E of Pi would pick a difficulty die (singles or multiples of anything from d4 to, I dunno, 4d12 take highest) and both he and the interceptors would attempt to beat that number. This would be something akin to flying THROUGH a cave at full speed or cutting your impellers, tilting nose-up and firing your cruise engines.

And poor Angel - always tired but never sleeps.

Umm...not to talk down on Luis or tell you how to run your shit E, but does Swims have a higher flight skill? If so, is it possible to switch out for him? Either that, or maybe use some of those Wild Dice, because I think getting 'sploded would be bad.

Punkey wrote:

Umm...not to talk down on Luis or tell you how to run your shit E, but does Swims have a higher flight skill? If so, is it possible to switch out for him? Either that, or maybe use some of those Wild Dice, because I think getting 'sploded would be bad.

Both sound good. If Swims is so muchbetter that it makes up for my WD, I'll ditch. And since you mentioned them...

Given that I have about four more than I think I've ever actually used, I think I might be up to blowing through some. What effect would dumping a few WD into the mix have? Say, anywhere up to a total of five-ish?

1. Luis is (after buying that specialization) a better pilot than Swims. He is actually better than the interceptors, and is holding his own despite them getting a bonus because of their better maneuverability and speed.

2. Luis has 9 wild dice. If you're amenable to blowing through them as need be, I'd recommend doing the "I dare your ass to follow me" maneuver, pick something like 2d10 or 3d10 for the difficulty, and spend wild dice until you open-end a roll and beat it.

admiralducksauce wrote:

And poor Angel - always tired but never sleeps.

Being awesome is tiring.

3d10 sounds good.

Head onto rock whenever possible, especially if you can get onto the rock mountainside without being spotted. Rock doesn't create a trail.

I'll sic One-Ton on the A-Team montage for the gravsled. Would anyone wish to assist?

As for Angel and Max, you're in a chase scene too - it's just slower-paced and sneaky. What I need to know is if you're trying anything other than simply outpacing/trailcrafting the bad guys. I figure you can outdistance them to the point where their perimeter is broad enough that you can let them slip past, or set a trap to take out a few and then slip through the holes in the pattern while they're swarming to see what happened or something like that. Max always has the option to hook his Toughbook up to the vox network and try to garner the drones' actual pattern or something (or whatever you can think of, Dave). If he does that and doesn't beat the Imperial data bandits on the other end, however, they'll figure out where you are.

Is there somewhere you'd prefer to end up assuming you win the chase? "At the Morningstar" sadly isn't an option unless you break vox/radio silence (bad), and I don't think you know about the rebels waiting for pickup on the ridge. However, you could coincidentally meet up with them if you beat the Imps, or you could sneak your way back to the spaceport or Gran's Hope (although why you'd want to go there anymore eludes me).

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Angel's plan is to try to get a least-time path away from the drone's sweep pattern. If they are fanning out on a radius, there's no point in zig-zagging, it'll just multiply the number of drone vectors we'll cross.

So, sneaky and subtle, with just enough erratic moves to mess up a human operator if they take interest. If at all possible, heading to a rocky ridge or the like would be helpful - the more foliage there is, the better those things can hide and the more traces we leave. Air searches are hard and require crews - those drones can look for us non-stop.