Chapter 2.1 Operation Guillotine

[jedion357]

Savrax quickly sizes up his surroundings with his peripheral vision, making note of potential soft and hard cover in case it gets ugly. Before taking a step forward he mutters “16 meters straight. Nade launcher”, just loud enough for those hiding in the gondola to hear. He begins walking toward the GOC as he turns the setting of his laser rifle up to 10, praying that the sob isn’t wearing an albedo screen. Savrax tries hard not to look up straight at the goc so as to not be identified as an imposter right away. Yet he tries to keep enough of him in focus so he can register any change in his body language that might communicate that he had been discovered. He takes a couple of steps and snaps his rifle up and takes two shots, not bothering to shout for his companions to roll out.

IC "26 meters straigt. Nade Launcher." As he crosses the lobby and kept a black pseudo krik hide couch between him and the terrorist Savrax was trying to gauge how much cover the desk offered since the GOC was sitting behind it with his feet up and chair reclined. It left only his head, feet and rifle showing. "Damn he thought the desk could queer the deal for a quick shot."
Deciding to push his luck he continued his advance when the GOC said, "Hey. where'd you get a laser rifle.....?"

Savrax knew the gig was up as the guy down in the locker had been carrying an auto rifle so he went to snap off two 10 SEU shots as the GOC was bringing his rifle to bear when an explosive thud muffled by a closed door thundered to his right and the GOC sat more fully upright and looked toward his right.
Savrax snaps the rifle to firing position and squeezes off two shots (Range 14m -10, target stationary +10, Savrax walking +0, hard cover -20= Savrax RW: 50 -20 =30% chance to hit)[shots 24% & 51% one hit for 57 STA]

A shot catches the GOC in the chest and slams him back against the wall before he crumples to the floor.

The rest of the Royal Marines explode out of the gondola at a run and fan out into the lobby at the sound of the muffled explosion. But the GOC is lying on the floor with his chest smoking. Niss peals off to check a civilian body behind the check in desk and Slayerian kneels to check for signs of life on a body at the bar.
[Turn/round 1]
The ding of an arrival tone of an elevator sounds and the door opens to [forgive the fantasy creature just needed a big figure] Gorlian in polyplate armor lugging a machinegun.

OOC: I'll need everyone to sound off with Rate of fire or an SEU setting and be warned that unless he comes out of the elevator he will gain soft cover.
If you'd like to see what I think a gorlian (thug) in polyplate armor would look like here's a link:
http://www.rackham-store.com/en/at-43/karmans

Resort lobby 02.png (533.57 KiB) Viewed 35602 times

[jedion357]

OOC: oh year lets treat each square as 2 meters, I dont believe I specified that before.

[jedion357]

IC: Tannar watched the tactical repeater plot he set up on the sathar destroyer as it winked out of existence in the outer system. His fingers flew over the keyboard keys trying to localize it again. It popped up on the screen in Clarion's local space.

"They're going for a high speed run in on the planet," the Captain announced.

Tannar was still working at his astro controls, "Sir, I don't think so the trajectory is all wrong. [Astro skill check] Their position and vector keeps them out of the range of the fortress's guns. Either they missed jumped or they crafted this jump as a 'barn stormer' unless they change their course their present speed and vector will make it near impossible for anything we have to get a shot at it. I dont think they're serious."

"A bluff?"

[Inigo]

As soon as the GOC hit the ground Savrax ejected his spent clip from his rifle and was in the process of replacing it with a fresh one, retrieving his helmet from the gondola and stripping off the parka and hat of the terrorist. He is in a hurry, because every second is precious to the plight of the princess. As he strode out of the gondola, he was strapping on his helm and about to say, “time to go” when the elevator chimed. He tensed and trained his rifle on the elevator. In the back of his mind he noted with pride the quick and precise reaction of his comrades to the new threat.

[jedion357]

IC: From where he stood, Ventura had a good view into the elevator and his eyes opened wide in surprise. Not because of the gorlian, as Clarion was a cosmopolitan of a planet to see enough different species that most people didn't bat much of an eye at one not referred to as the Core Four or a Rimmer. It was the full polyplate armor on the thug! Some where in the back of his mind Ventura was envious as he had been in on the testing of Wartech's partial polyplate for Royal Marine use and he loved the stuff. Saddly its purchase had been shot down for budgetary considerations. Envy was there and a little concern as he had reviewed the specs on the full polyplate which was what this monster was encased in.

Even as he went to one knee with his rifle set to 20 and taking careful aim he spoke into the team channel, "Heavy armor, don't hold back on ammo!"

OOC: Polyplate armor is on PDF page 148 of the digitally remastered AD rules
Good new (such as it is) a suit this big undoubtably cost the gorlian lots extra over its 3000 cr price tag and hes -10 for DEX/RS, the bad news is it provides 3/4 protection all by itself without a shield and absorbs 250 pts of laser/ballistic damage

[umungus]

ooc: No forgiveness neccessary, Gorlians mke a great bad guy. Ilike the idea of thm looking like Karmas.

Mantin crouches low. He whips out his last tangler and chucks it in the elevator. Then procedes to fire his autorifle into te elevator on full auto.

[Terl Obar]

Seeing that the Sathar destroyer is currently neither a target nor a threat but just a distractions, Tanar turns his attention back to gathering intel for the team on the ground. "Maybe I can tap into the resort's computer systems and get access to their security and and monitoring feeds" he thinks to himself as his fingers fly over his console keyboard. "And who knows, maybe I can even get control of some of the systems, like elevators and lighting." Tanar draws on every resource he can as well as his experience both in the CRM and with Dr. Zinastra to try to find a route into the resort systems.

OOC: If Tanar can tap into those systems, he'll try to use the various monitors (visual and IR cameras, thermal monitors, status of lights, etc.) to track people in the resort, looking for GOC bad guys, keeping tabs on the CRM team and looking for the princess. If he can get control of any of the systems, he'll use them appropriately to help his side and hinder the bad guys (turning off lights for the bad guys, locking them out of the elevators or sending them to the wrong locations, etc. let me know what I can do, if anything, and I'll make suitable posts.)

[jedion357]

OOC: I was contemplating how your position on the ship took you out of the action

first off the resort computer would connect to networks elsewhere for travel agents to book room, for resort staff to watch the weather, ordering stock and such. the interface computers subskill applies here but theres a penalty of -10%/ level of the highest computer which would lead to "Wait let me go get my level one computer to maximize my chance to do this which seems silly so without even double checking the computer's level on the pelican I'm going to discount that one and assess -20% for the resorts lvl 2 computer. your roll is 17 to interface -pass.

next comes defeat (no bypassing remotely), takes d10 hours (computer radomized a 6 so 6 hours to find out if you did it), but since you know how to write a security program you get +20% for working with it and the roll to defeat was a 04 which I'll count as a critical success (normally 03 or less is but much like a martial artist level increases his chance of success with nerve combat I'll bump your critical success range 1 point/skill level which I think is fair ) so for a critical success your in.
Follow that with a display information roll [37] and:

IC: Surprised by his success in getting into the resorts computers Tanar goes straight to the security and is confronted with a choice: video feeds, security access of enviromental controls, card lock logs, user manual (for the security program- an idiots guide to keep security types from totally screwing up the system but likely to detail how to do certain things he'd have to figure out by trial and error).

Knowing time is of the essence he goes straight to video feed to discover a split screen of all the camera feeds at once. He's able to enlarge one feed at at time to look at so goes for one of the lobby feeds that he can detect movement on. He's just in time to witness Savrax's shooting of the GOC with a grenade rifle, the rush of marines off the gondola, and the arrival of the gorlian. As he's watching he notices a new flame shaped icon start flashing in the upper corner of the video feed next to one thats been there all along. there is also an icon like a broken skeleton key.

OOC: you can view 1 camera feed/ turn or try another part of the security menu each turn to see if

The lobby has 2 feeds covering it from opposite sides, floor 2 has 1 feed covering some of the dining room but not the elevator nor the kitchen, floor three had 2 feeds, levels 4 thru 8 are rooms floors and have feeds looking down a hall toward the elevators and stairwell doors. and level 9 has 3 feeds one is for its deck, there is one window that appears to be a split screen of the 4 gondola cars and 3 feeds labeled as employee areas these are all straight video no optional optics.

When he was looking at the split screen it seemed that the lobby, floors 7 & 8, one of the employee area feeds all had movement that he could detect just before he opted for the lobby feed.

so what you you like to do in this area of the computer?

[Terl Obar]

Tanar's first thought is "Information overload, there's a lot I've got to get through here and no time to do it."

His second thought is "I need more windows so I can keep more of these feeds visible at once."

Tanar toggles the comm to the team on the ground. "Nice shot Savrax. Watch out, big nasty guy on the elevator. In case you're wondering, I just tapped into the resort's computer systems. I have access to all their video feeds and I don't know what else yet. If anything comes up I'll keep you posted but it may take a minute or two for me to get oriented. I noticed some activity up on levels 7 and 8 and am checking that now."

Tanar starts to make a quick survey of the camera feeds he has just to try to get a feel for the lay of the land. He starts by switching back to the composite view and checking the other feeds he saw movement in (floor 7, floor 8, and then the employee area). After than he'll quickly cycle through all the others. (OOC: If possible he'll pull up the feeds with activity into their own windows where he can monitor them while checking the others).

[jedion357]

IC: The gorlian yelled, "BENNY!....YOU BASTA...." but the sound of his yell was cut off by the massed fire of the Royal Marines even as he brought his machine gun to bear on Savrax and Mantin."

Over Glacier Bay on the Pelican:
Tanar quickly adjusted and patched the security feed to the nine screens surrounding the astrogation holotank. [I just checked the computer displays at the astro station on the Pelican map and the GM depicted 9 of them surrounding the holo tank so you get to pull up that many feeds] Keeping the main split screen on one he brought up the two lobby views and witnessed the firer fight there by peripheral vision even as he brought up the seventh and eighth floor feeds.

astro station on pelican.png (14.58 KiB) Viewed 35565 times

On the eighth floor he could see a parka clad yazirian putting together a lump of TD19 with a detonator, beside him was hand held radio trigger with a video screen. The yazirian held up his explosive device and panned it while watching the hand held trigger's screen. After nodding to himself he went into the stair well.

On the seventh floor Tanar witnessed a civilian and a Royal Marine in dress uniform take out a disrupter armed terrorist in a very brief but nasty looking fire fight where the disrupter looked to have taken a bite out of the civilian.

Scrapping his plan to maximize the number of video feeds he could switched to running down the marine's name in the hotel registry. He found five guest still registered at the hotel he discounted the Princess and Lady Penelope Ainsworth who he vaguely remembered as being part of the Princess's retinue from a news feed. Cross referencing the last three names with data bases on Clarion station two jumped out at him. Midshipwoman Alyson Drake who was listed as an academy student though there had been a graduation two day ago so she must be the one in dress blues. The other raised an eyebrow, Liam Mowbray, son of Lord Mowbray, recently court martialled and released from Space Fleet with court records sealed. Curious indeed and Tanar felt sure enough to bet credits that Liam was the civilian working with the marine on the 7th floor.

IN the hotel lobby:

Ventura had direct shot into the elevator (no cover) at 16m [needs 53%- rolls 75 &4 for 51pts laser]
Slayerian stepped closer to Ventura and fired 3 shots from his autorifle [35 to hit- rolls 17, 5, 54 for 11pts balistic]
Alyssa brought up her Omega Bolt [45% to hit-roll: 63]
Savrax fired his laser rifle [50% to hit- Rolls 57 & 35 for 49 pts laser]
Mantin burst fired his autorifle [68% to hit roll- 20 for 13 points balistic]
Grelude being behind teamates opted to lob a tangler grenade over Savrax's head [15% to hit roll 48 grenade bounces...]

The Gorlian burst fires his MG on Savrax and Mantin who get soft cover from the beautiful leather couch [Roll 86- floor and couch chrewed up ]
[The gorlian's albedo screen flashed and absorbed 21 SEUs total form the teams laser blasts, his polyplate armor absorbs 18 pts and he takes -6 STA]

The grenade bounces detonates and spreads tangler threads across the doorway of the elevator.
The gorlian flattened himself against the side of the elevator even as the door closed. An instant latter the all call tone on the GOC chroncom carried by Savrax as well as the one the GOC over against the wall starts to beep.

Savrax hits the accept key and the team hears the gorlian's voice, "Its Royal Marines, they got Benny! everyone fall back to the top floor we'll make a stand there."

Another voice comes on the all call channel, "Shut up George! They might have a captured chronocom, every one still with us contact me and I'll set up a new team channel." then the channel goes dead.

OOC: Tanar can contact Liam and Allyson via their com numbers as he ran that down- just post in their thread. I'll also need to know what you're trying to do thru the computer
plus you can fill in the team here on what you turned up via video feed.

for the team: One elevator is climbing the other is halted on the 7th floor and there is a stair well on the extreme right. The GOCs are aware of your presence and consolidating their position.

[jedion357]

OOC: FYI some of you had not taken items from the armory before boarding the shuttle and updated your character sheet (unless I missed it) and since no Marine would be likely to go without a rifle of some sort I assumed you took a rifle sized version of your personal side arm plus 4 clips.

I have updated everyones character sheet for ammo expenditure

[Terl Obar]

Tanar toggles to comm to the strike team:

"Alpha team, be advised that we have at least two friendlies on level 7, a Marine and a civilian, probably ex spacefleet. They just took up a GOC thug as well. I'm patching them in now for the upcoming sit rep. Hold on.

Tanar activates a call to both Allyson's and Liam's chronocoms. As soon as one or both of them answers he launches into a monologe:

"Midshipman Drake, Mr. Mowbray, this is Midshipman Tanar Daagron onboard the CMS Pelican enroute to your location. Be advised there is a CRM strike team entering the resort on the main level as we speak. They are getting this sit rep as well. They've neutralized one GOC thug and engaged a second, heavily armored Gorlian thug.

"Nice shooting with the thug on your level. I've just tapped into the hotels computers systems and am monitoring your current position. Be advised that there is a Yazarian on the level above you setting T-19 charges with radio detonators and headed into the stairwell, I can't tell if he's headed up, down or just setting the charge.

"The armored Gorlian has now been driven back into the elevator and is enroute to the upper levels of the hotel. I'm going to try to override the elevator controls and stick him between levels for a moment.

"Midshipman Drake, the strike team is on channel 87 alpha if you want to communicate with them directly. I'll pass on any additional intel as I collect it. I've only just tapped the hotels computers about 20 seconds ago. Tanar out."

While he's giving the update, Tanar pulls up the final video feed where he thought he saw movement earlier (in the employee area) on to one of his monitors and then checks to see if he can override the manual controls on the elevators. If so, he'll start by stopping the elevator with the Gorlian half way between levels 3 and 4. After that he'll clear all calls on the other elevators and disable all manual controls so that he can control where the elevators go.

[Inigo]

“Tanar, would you be able to lock down the resort? Perhaps you can frustrate their movement by locking every possible door along their way.” Savrax ejects his spent clip and replaces it with a fresh one as he speaks. He then notices the remains of the sofa that was between the elevator and himself. With a sobering breath, he moves towards the stairs.

[jedion357]

IC: Tanar pulled up the employee area feed showing movement to see a hallway with doors of the type the are used for walkin food refrigerators and a few other doors. There is a make shift barricade thrown up in the hall manned my people in hotel and kitchen staff uniforms armed with make shift weapons, molotov cocktails and two semi automatic pistols from the look of them.

On the floor down the hallway is a badly burned body and Tanar suspects it a GOC.

As he watches he notices that at the very top of the feed there are feet at the far end of the hall and suddenly the employees duck at bullets impact the barricade. Then the feet leave suddenly and the employees cheer and clap each other on the back.

Tapping into the environmental controls in the security menu he spies the fire emergency elevator lock down and trips it. As per its programming the elevator starts to descend to the ground floor but suddenly it stops. An security override key is registered as overriding the fire emergency lock down and the elevator reverses itself and resumes its ascent.

Tanar backs out of the security menu and tried to get into engineering menu to shut down power but the security key override orders maximum speed for the elevator and sends it rocketing up.
its a race to halt it and and he's not sure if he can and a thought crosses his mind-

If he shut off the power to stop the elevator will it kill the video feed? He only has seconds to decide....

[MOrab46019]

Tanar activates a call to both Allyson's and Liam's chronocoms. As soon as one or both of them answers he launches into a monologe:

IC:Ally says,"We read you."

"Midshipman Drake, Mr. Mowbray, this is Midshipman Tanar Daagron onboard the CMS Pelican enroute to your location. Be advised there is a CRM strike team entering the resort on the main level as we speak. They are getting this sit rep as well. They've neutralized one GOC thug and engaged a second, heavily armored Gorlian thug.

"Nice shooting with the thug on your level. I've just tapped into the hotels computers systems and am monitoring your current position. Be advised that there is a Yazarian on the level above you setting T-19 charges with radio detonators and headed into the stairwell, I can't tell if he's headed up, down or just setting the charge.

IC:Ally says,"Thanks, Do you want us to take that Yaz down for you? " She looks at Liam and says,"I also need a medic up here my partanter is hurt." She thinks for minute then adds,"Do you want us to wait for you here or try for the 8th floor. Over."

"The armored Gorlian has now been driven back into the elevator and is enroute to the upper levels of the hotel. I'm going to try to override the elevator controls and stick him between levels for a moment.

"Midshipman Drake, the strike team is on channel 87 alpha if you want to communicate with them directly. I'll pass on any additional intel as I collect it. I've only just tapped the hotels computers about 20 seconds ago. Tanar out."

IC:Ally says,"Roger that 87 Alpha." She switches channels and says,"Glad to hear from you guys. This is Midshipman Drake. I have one POW back on level 6 a Dral. He is KO by Staydoze. Do you want us to take care of the Yaz and wait or take out Yaz and keep going? Over."

While he's giving the update, Tanar pulls up the final video feed where he thought he saw movement earlier (in the employee area) on to one of his monitors and then checks to see if he can override the manual controls on the elevators. If so, he'll start by stopping the elevator with the Gorlian half way between levels 3 and 4. After that he'll clear all calls on the other elevators and disable all manual controls so that he can control where the elevators go

[Will]

"Savrax, take point," Lyssa says. "We'll link up with the friendlies on the seventh floor. Be ready. just in case they aren't friendlies."

OOC: BTW, Lyssa was wearing cold-weather gear and an air supply. No one sane walks into the side of a mountain without either.

[donpaulie]

IC: Liam turns is com to 87 Alpha. Liam looks at Ally and rolls his eyes everytime he is referred to as "Mister". Liam says to Ally "Mister was fine when I held my Spacefleet commission. I am a civillian again. My father, much like Lady Penny's father are titled nobility...Our father's hold titles. I am Lord Mowbray, as much as Penny is Lady Penelope...I become Baron Mowbray when Father dies, most likely after his head explodes when he finds out that I am home, court martialled, and caught up in fighting COG buggers". Liam activates his chronocom. "Mister Tanar, This is Mowbray. Does your team of boots on the ground at this time? We can move one floor up and set up crossfire. Be advised, we have one opfor stashed away and sleeping, and I have Lady Penelope stashed away for her safety. Don't want to bring her up now if we have a fire fight."

[jedion357]

IC: Tanar cocks his head at the name Lady Pennelope. Remembering that Ajax is the team's liaison for them with the palace and coms him, "Ajax what can you tell me about Lady Penelope?"

Ajax coms back, "She the Princess's close friend and attendant. Why?"

"I have an unconfirmed report that she has been secured."

[Shadow Shack]

OOC - my wife got her stone zapped Monday morning (the sonic bath treatment), and has been passing the bits & pieces since. Still a follow-up appt. or two and stint removal on the horizon.

Suffice it to say, Grelude will probably have to continue as an NPC, I'll start posting when the next missions starts.

[jedion357]

OOC - my wife got her stone zapped Monday morning (the sonic bath treatment), and has been passing the bits & pieces since. Still a follow-up appt. or two and stint removal on the horizon.

Suffice it to say, Grelude will probably have to continue as an NPC, I'll start posting when the next missions starts.

no problem at all