Star Frontiers Network

Maria fires the atomic drive in a short burst the instant she's over the pirate.

"Since when do I need prisoners, Numbnuts?" she replies coldly, positioning herself to take out the shuttles next.

"You, on the other hand, do need me and this ship," she reminds him. "So, shut your slimy voghole, and stop ordering me around!"

BTW, in the terrain outside the camp, the combat bots are capable of 90 m/turn and the security bots are capable of 60 if you want to send them ahead. Inside the fence line the ground is flat and clear and their movement rates go up by 30 m/turn for each robot type.

Terl Obar wrote:B'Loone lets out another whoop as he sees with his own eyespots the fruits of his plan. The closest bot seems okay but the the other 4 look a little beat up from the hits they took from Sebastian's Chatterbox, the northern most two more so than the others. They are still in decent shape but it will take a bit of work to get them fully repaired. It will be another turn or two before you get close enough to check them out.

Even someone who had never encountered a Dralasite before, couldn't miss the (Dralasite equivalent of a) beaming smile on B'Looone's face. Nor could they mistake the (Dralasite equivalent of a) happy dance that he was doing as he bobbed around the disabled 'bots.

B'Looone will do as little as he can to get the 'bots into "good enough" shape that they can get back into the action (on our side), and instructed to report to Malcolm. Any 'bot that has damage sufficient to prevent any of their weapons or screens from functioning properly, will still be reactivated, but instructed to simply follow B'Looone.

B'Looone also changes their deactivation code to "Pirates are sissies!"

BD Cerridwen wrote:OOC: As I recall, B'Looone requested and equipped our 'bots with electrostunners. They each should have their full complement of grenades. Mal still has 2 smoke grenades too. I don't remember if our robots had smoke grenades or not.

OOC: If I recall correctly, B'Looone had loaded each 'bot with 5 of each of the three different grenades that we had.

Being a long way out of the fight with no targets, Sebastian packs up and starts heading in to join the action, just hoping he can get there before it's all over.

Packing Chatterbox into his duffle, Seb takes off with the automatic rifle in hand. "Gonna be a long kilometer," he mutters to himself. He toggles the chronocom, trying to raise Maria on the Dart: "Hey Cap'n...any chance on picking up a hitch-hiker on the next pass?"

Will wrote:"Since when do I need prisoners, Numbnuts?" she replies coldly, positioning herself to take out the shuttles next.

"Ever since you took this job!" Mal yells into his chronocom, probably too late to save the pirates. "We have more important things to do then fry everything in sight! We got things under control down here now, so either land, or take up perimeter security!"

Damn biker chicks, he thinks. All bravado, no brains. He also watches the terrain, mentally marking every rock and gully that might provide some semblance of cover from the heat of the atomic engines.

Terl Obar wrote:BTW, in the terrain outside the camp, the combat bots are capable of 90 m/turn and the security bots are capable of 60 if you want to send them ahead. Inside the fence line the ground is flat and clear and their movement rates go up by 30 m/turn for each robot type.

OOC: Thanks. I assumed as much, but still prefer to keep them with Malcom so he can better direct them.

bonehead wrote:OOC: If I recall correctly, B'Looone had loaded each 'bot with 5 of each of the three different grenades that we had.

OOC: I was looking back, and we got 12 smokes, Mal took 4, B'Looone took 2, that leaves six for the 'bots. I think we can assume 1 each.

BIC: An idea flashes across Malcom's brain as he's running towards the base. He makes sure his chronocom isn't transmitting, then calls to one of the combat 'droids. "Hercules Alpha, can you use your computer link to instruct the Dart's computer to lock out the atomic thrusters for an hour?"

If it can, Malcom will order that to occur. If necessary, he will call B'Looone directly to get any specific commands/codes to make it happen.

Numbnuts wrote:"Ev—

Maria shuts down all external comms, both transmitting and receiving, and locks down the sky bridge.

Thinking that some robot reprogramming is in order.

Just as soon as the pirate barbecue was done.

OOC: Edited in light of Tom's post.

The bots don't have that kind of link with the Dart. And Maria can't do any of those reprogramming tasks in flight (other than shutting down the comms), she's too busy flying a ship she's not fully qualified for. Also, she's not going to go dancing around using the atomic engine as a blowtorch. The Dart doesn't have the control systems to allow it. She can either land or boost at this point. If she wants to boost and come around for another pass, it will be several turns before she can get into position.

"Negative function," intones Hercules Alpha. "Command request not within allowable parameters."

Dammit!

OOC: Excellent RP Will! Very 'in character', IMHO.

BD Cerridwen wrote:"Negative function," intones Hercules Alpha. "Command request not within allowable parameters."

Dammit!

OOC: Excellent RP Will! Very 'in character', IMHO.

OOC: Thanks, BD

@Tom: Darnit!

Switching out of combat turns for a bit.

Maria boosts, frying the pirate under the Dart and starts to circle around. However, by the time she gets around for another pass, the three remaining bad guys have disappeared into the buildings. The Yazarian on the north end of the line entered building D and the other two entered building B.

In the mean time the rest of the team has advanced to the deactivated robots and Sebastian is about 2 minutes behind them. Upon reaching the closer OES bot, B'Loone sees that the bot is still active but inert. He remembers from the briefing that it just takes a power cycle to reset the programming (The cut off phrase is in hardware and can't be reset without changing specially designed circuits). This particular bot is a bit beat up having been buried under the rubble of one of the towers and is a little under half strength (41 STA) but has a full ammo and energy compliment. B'Loone orders it to follow him and sets off toward the other bots. He goes about five steps and realizes the bot hasn't moved. He doubles back just as Ting and Leo get there and seeing them approach realizes (Logic Check: 31) that he's not wearing his OE patch having put it in his pocket after removing it from the other robot. Reaffixing it to his shoulder, he issues the command again and the 'bot acknowledges the order and begins the follow him. (I was going to leave this at the "the bot hasn't moved" spot but since Bonehead is having computer problems moved it on in case he can't get on for a bit.)

While Malcom and the six bots (still undamaged) that the team brought with them advance on the compound and are joined by Ting and Leo, B'Loone moves and reactivates the other robots as well. The northern two each have have 58 STA left and the southern two have 82 STA left. The OES bot (82 STA) has a full compliment of ammo and power. The three OEM bots are each carrying a laser rifle and have a power backpack connected to the rifle and an albedo screen. However, they do not naturally have an Attack/Defense program (they are maintenance robots) and the code phrase reset seems to have removed any modifications the pirates may have made to their programming, thus they can't actually use the weapons any more.

Gren, hampered a bit by his injuries, sticks with the slower moving B'Loone to provide cover for him while he's checking out the robots. Sebastian has slung his duffel over his shoulder hand is huffing it in toward the rest of the team.

So a minute after the Maria fried the last pirate, Malcom, Ting, Leo and the six security and combat robots are at the edge of the compound. The fence is down and you can easily climb over and enter. B'Loone, Gren and the 5 liberated robots are at the location of the southern most robot marked on the last map. Sebastian is a little more than half way from his marked position and the downed explorer. Maria is overhead in the Dart (although if you want to land, you would be in the process of touching down in just a few more turns anywhere on the landing pad you want to be.)

The shuttles are sitting still on the landing pad and you don't see any movement from the buildings during the last minute.

I'm going to move the action into a new thread: Mission 1b: Entering the Compound. Go ahead and make any final posts here for the time period covered by this post and you can start posting your plans for entering the compound in the new thread.

I'm also awarding XP for the mission up to now.
XP Awards:

1 XP	2 XP	3 XP	Bonus XP
Ting Leo Gren		B'Loone Malcom Maria Sebastian	Malcom +1 - Gilijet insertion B'Loone +1 - robot deactivation

Leo, Ting and Gren get XP for surviving, the others for active participation and great role-playing. Plus B'Loone and Malcom each get a bonus XP for their excellent ideas.

Since you are in the middle of the action, you can't actually spend these XP right now but go ahead and add them to your character sheets. Also, Inigo Montoya from the starfrontiers.us site will be joining us in the new section taking on the slightly adapted character of Leo.

As Malcom and 'his' bots approach the compound, he has them report SEU status one at a time. He figures that their backpacks must be nearly drained with the repeated high energy shots they've been taking.

"Yessssssss!" Maria screams to herself. "Burn, baby, burn!"

Activating her chronocom, she asks,"got marshmallows, Numbnuts?!"

"Ship," she then says,"target the buildings those other two voggers went into, and fire!"

OOC: Thanks, Tom.