Star Frontiers Network

Malcom lets out a quick sigh of relief once his brain registers that he's still alive. He gives Leo a bravado fueled grin while executing a pull up assisted by his feet scrabbling for a hold on the door handle or window 'sill' or anywhere else for that matter. Once he's back on top (provided that he indeed makes it), he will brace as before and again yell to B'Looone to punch it.

In the event that he should fail to get back on top, he'll drop the the ground at a run, then signal to Leo that they should go on without him.

"Alright, 'Box...let's get that beadon again."

Sebastian continues firing, attempting to relocate that bead he had earlier on the yaz and threee robots. Gotta provide some cover fire for the explorer...

An exasperated "Gaaahhhh!" erupts from B'Looone once the explorer has stopped spinning and comes back under his control. He pauses almost long enough to catch his breath before he slams his "foot" back on the accelerator and resumes his course toward the northernmost OES (just outside the compound fence). It wasn't until then that he noticed Malcolm hanging off the side of the vehicle. What the hell is he doing? he thought as the explorer gained momentum.

Maria settles into her seat and continues to warm up the engines. You will be able to lift off next round.

B'Loone guns the explorer and continues to drive toward the compound. Malcom desperately tries to scramble back up onto the Explorer's roof but can't seem to get any traction with his feet. He does however manage to not fall off. Gren reloads his recoilless rifle.

The smoke is starting the clear from around Sebastian (it will be gone next round) and, although indistinct, he can sort of see the security bots, the explorer and the compound. It doesn't really help though since he is still at the extreme range of his machine gun. His shots this round fall just short but do cause the pirates at the fence line to duck (rolled a 13 with a 10% chance to hit).

The 'bot in the S tower fires at the explorer but misses. The Dart returns fire but the shot glaces off the shielding on the tower near the bot.

Here are the positions at the end of the round. The explorer is 561m from the fence line and the security bots are 711 meters out.

OOC: Daaaam'....

Six seconds is such a long time, ain't it?

BIC:"C'mon, ya stupid voggin' things," Maria growls in frustration.

Oh fudge, swears Malcolm mentally while making faces at Leo as if he's doing what he planned to do all along. Time for Plan B. Hanging on for dear life with his hands, he tries to simply brace his feet against the side of the explorer to absorb the motion of the vehicle, sort of like wind surfing at a 90 degree angle. Twelve more seconds... eleven more seconds... ten more seconds...

B'Loone continues to gun the Explorer taking it up to the "safe" cruising speed of 120 m/turn. Malcom manages to desperately hold on and manages to keep his grip by his fingernails but at least he's on the side away from the 'bot with the heavy laser

Gren fires his recoilles rifle at the bot in the tower but the shot goes wide.

The smoke cloud clears around Sebastian giving him his first clear view of the battle in over a minute. Unfortunately it doesn't help as his shot goes wide as well (maybe the sunlight dazzled him).

Maria finally gets the green light on the engines just as the turn ends and punches the Dart's main engines up to maximum burn. She's thrust back into her seat at 5.4g (1.4 from the planet and 4 from the ship) and the Dart starts to lift into the sky gaining 104 m of altitude and a speed of 52 m/turn.

The' bot with the heavy laser fires at the Explorer and once again scores a hit, but the effect isn't immediately obvious. However, as B'Loone tries to maneuver slightly around a rock in the path ahead he realizes that the steering is jammed and he can now only travel in a straight line. Luckily, the rock he was trying to avoid wasn't too big and while everyone get's jostled (and Malcom almost falls off the side) no harm is done to the vehicle.

The explorer is now 441m from the compound fence and your security bots are 651m away. You will move into laser rifle range from the ground troops next round. Here are the positions at the end of the round.

OOC: Now, we're talking. Let's fly NOE, turn the Dart into the largest hovercraft on New Pale, and target that reactor!

Terl Obar wrote:B'Loone continues to gun the Explorer taking it up to the "safe" cruising speed of 120 m/turn. Malcom manages to desperately hold on and manages to keep his grip by his fingernails but at least he's on the side away from the 'bot with the heavy laser

...

The' bot with the heavy laser fires at the Explorer and once again scores a hit, but the effect isn't immediately obvious. However, as B'Loone tries to maneuver slightly around a rock in the path ahead he realizes that the steering is jammed and he can now only travel in a straight line. Luckily, the rock he was trying to avoid wasn't too big and while everyone get's jostled (and Malcom almost falls off the side) no harm is done to the vehicle.

OOC: Is there any option for repairing the steering while on the move? Can B'Looone "hand the wheel" to someone else while he effects repairs, or something?

No you'll have to stop to fix the steering. The good news is you're headed straight at the gap in the fence provided you don't hit any big rocks between now and then (10% chance per round).

"B'Looone! Prepare to deploy the combat 'bots!" shouts Malcom. "Slow just enough for us to jump!"

Terl Obar wrote:The' bot with the heavy laser fires at the Explorer and once again scores a hit, but the effect isn't immediately obvious. However, as B'Loone tries to maneuver slightly around a rock in the path ahead he realizes that the steering is jammed and he can now only travel in a straight line. Luckily, the rock he was trying to avoid wasn't too big and while everyone get's jostled (and Malcom almost falls off the side) no harm is done to the vehicle.

Crap! Crap Crap!! B'Looone wrestles with the explorer's steering wheel to no avail. Without lifting his "foot" from the accelerator (whether out of defiance, stubbornness or stupidity, B'Looone is not certain), he yells back to his passengers, "I can't steer anymore! That last shot jammed my steering." He does the Dralasite equivalent of a squint to see if there are any large obstructions (other than the mining compound) in their immediate path. Not much that I can do about it if there is.

BD Cerridwen wrote:"B'Looone! Prepare to deploy the combat 'bots!" shouts Malcom. "Slow just enough for us to jump!"

"Slow down", that's a good idea. B'Looone eases up on the accelerator enough to slow the explorer down to a speed that he thinks doesn't look like they'd get badly hurt if they jumped. "I'm ready to get out of this box when you are!"

Sebastian continues to try and draw a bead. If he can keep their heads down, the explorer will fare better getting there.

Acting on Malcom's advice, B'Loone starts to slow the explorer, dropping its speed down to 60 m/turn (22.5 miles per hour) as Malcom prepares to jump off next round. Gren reloads his recoilless rifle.

Sebastian seems to find his groove once again filling the human and Yazarian just north of the collapsed middle tower with lead. The gun fire cause all the pirates to duck and the Yazarian doesn't come back up.

Maria keeps the main engines on as she pulls the Dart over hard dropping to 50 m above the ground and accelerating to 600 m/turn before she cuts the Atomic engine off and switches over to the atmospheric engines (otherwise you'll fry your team as you fly by). The Dart's computer takes another shot at the 'bot sporting the Heavy Laser but once again Maria's violent maneuvering throws the aim off and it misses.

The 'bot with the laser fires once again at the explorer, and hits again, this time with devastating results. The blast jams the front axle causing the Explorer to do a somersault and begin to roll. It comes to a stop 380m from the compound fence lying on its left side. Looking out the front window B'Loon can still see the compound but looking out the window of his door all he sees is dirt.

Malcom is thrown off the side of the explorer and lands another 9m beyond the explorer (371m from the compound) and off to it's right side. He suffers 14 points of damage. His martial arts skills allow him to land a little safer reducing the damage by 3 points his screen absorbs 6 of the points, draining 2 SEU (plus it has drained 1 SEU for being on for the last little while) and he takes 5 points dropping his STA down to 55). Gren is also thrown off the Explorer. He sails off to the left landing 374m from the compound. He suffers 15 points of damage, his skein suit absorbing 8 (42 points left) and he takes 7 (43 STA left).

Inside the Explorer, the occupants are shaken up as well.

• B'Loone takes 5 points of damage (3 to skeinsuit, 2 to self suit:47 points left, his STA:58)
• Ting takes only one point which is absorbed by his skeinsuit (49 pts left)
• Leo takes 10 points of damage all to his STA since he didn't have his Inertia screen on inside the Explorer (STA: 40)
• The two combat bots take 6 and 9 points of damage leaving them with 94 and 91 STA respectively.

Just as the Explorer launched itself into its roll, the 'bot in the other intact tower on the south side of the compound opened fire with its machine gun. However, it missed causing no additional damage. Also, the SPDR robot that was in the north middle tower arrives at the NE corner of the compound after extracting itself from the rubble of it's fallen tower.

At the end of the turn, here are the current positions. I've shifted the map a bit to show the entire compound and put the Dart on there in flight and to scale. Towers that have been take out have either red X's on them or are black rubble piles.

OOC: Thrown off the explorer = fall? Mal's Level 3 martial arts tumbling subskill reduced damage by 3? Already factored in? Inquiring minds yada, yada, yada.

Malcom tucks and rolls, taking the impact as much as possible on the broad or flexible parts of his body. He shifts into a sitting position and swings laser rifle into firing position, his left elbow braced against the inside of his left leg and his right against his chest. He sights down on the human to the far right, nearest the corner of the compound. He takes his time, aiming carefully, his thumb instinctively insuring that the power setting is at 20. He focuses on controlling his breathing, deep in, let if half out, hold, and squeeze the trigger.

Thrown off the explorer = flies through the air and hits the ground. But no, I forgot about your Martial Arts skill so I've updated the post accordingly, it would definitely apply.

It takes B'Looone only a moment to regain his senses after the crash. Gotta get out. Gotta get out. Gotta get out.

He quickly extricates himself from his seat and climbs out through the opposite side (now the "top" of the sideways explorer). As soon as he has the door open, he throws a smoke grenade towards the compound in order to obscure the explorer from their enemy's view.

"Frag!" Sebastian curses out loud. "That didn't work out so well."

The entire strategy here was to provide cover fire for the explorer, and now he's too far out to help them. Best to continue laying down a suppressing fire and keep the baddies at bay while Maria swoops in to pick them up...

Sebastian will continue firing at the ground troops/bots. He seems to have a good bead drawn on them. The albedo screen should still have enough juice to absorb one more heavy laser hit if push comes to shove.

Maria will try again for the base of the functioning laser tower.

Sorry about the huge delay guy, vacation and work have been sucking up all my time. Anyway, the game's back on.

Streaking in toward the base, the Dart fires again at the tower but to no effect. Sebastian's shots go wide as well as he is distracted by the sight of the explorer do a flip.

Malcom and Gren both recover quickly from being hurled from the explorer and both manage to fire this round. Gren's recoilless rifle shot goes wide. At the very extreme range of his rifle, Malcom squeezes off a single shot and scores a solid hit on the Yazarian at the north end of the line only to see an albedo screen flash into life.

Inside the Explorer, everyone scrambles to get out. Ting, riding shotgun, flips his door open and vaults out onto the ground just behind Malcom and draws both of his auto pistols. "Time to get in closer," he thinks to himself as he realizes he is way out of range. B'Loone scrambles up to 'Ting's position and hurls a smoke grenade towards the compound. It flies a little short and left of his desired target but still ends up in a respectable location. Leo throws open the side hatch, activates his Inertia screen and jumps out of the explorer on the side closest to Gren, as hit lands he draws his laser pistol. The combat bots also begin to exit. One goes out the back hatch of the explorer and the other begins to follow Leo out the side hatch.

The 'bot in the tower with the MG fires at Gren but the shots go wide. The tower bot with the heavy laser opens fire at Malcom but B'Loone's grenade provides just enough cover that the shot goes over Malcom's head.

Seeing your crew spilling out of the Explorer, the pirates shout some orders and the robots in line with them begin to advance toward your position.

Positions at the end of the round: