Pulse of the Imperium

The first thing they would notice after landing was a beautiful rainbow arching from the nearby waterfall into the clouds over the ocean. The second thing they would notice was that manta rays would not just let them go and now that they were a sitting duck it made it all the easier for them, so there wouldn't be enough time to just cheer their happy landing and a narrow escape from certain death until they would do something about them, probably involving guns blazing and related ammo depletion.


[You need to establish a foothold. That means pew. Everyone who exits is a subject of a stingy manta ray attack. Up to two people can pew safely from the hatch, blocking entry and avoiding damage. The difficulty is Hard with 2 Challenge, as bad stuff can still happen. If you manage to find power to repair the dorsal turret, cutting them with lasers will end this phase on one successful Gunnery. Otherwise if you don't mete out 40 damage in 12 posts, mantas will kill your power again. This is not on initiative order, so if some people are inactive you don't have to wait for them, but there should be at least one meaningful post of another player doing something before you can post again.]

[Player Pool 3; GM Pool 1]

"I hope one of you knows how to use that big gun."

Cuyler had a better understanding of the electrical system now. But, any repairs would be limited without some external power. She removed the power cells from her field kitchen and managed to juryrig and adapter to feed their power to the thopter's systems.

It was a bit fragile, but it worked

- - -
Day 1 | Evening | A Thopter with a View, Restoring power to thopter using Fiel Kitchen cells, Average Mechanics (Intellect): 2eA+1eP+2eD+1eS 3 successes, 1 threat


3 strain restored to the thopter.

[System Strain: 4]

The gun controls truly flashed back on, as fragile as the feed was. How fragile, one could learn by heating up the turret.

[Player Pool 3 GM Pool 2]
[Setback on the Gunnery]

A small sigh escaped as Lydia unclipped the current ammo on her gun and swapped to the fancy one she got recently. Bringing the gun back up she took a shot, and the sky lit up in a large explosion.

(ooc manoeuvre to swap from pierce ammo to blast ammo. Shooting with ranged-heavy

D1 A Thopter with a View round 1, Ranged at hard with 2 upgrades. Boost from hunter. Using blast ammo: 2eA+2eP+1eB+2eC+1eD 1 success, 4 advantage

2 missed boost - D1 A Thopter with a View round 1, rolling 2 missed boost dice from accurate: 2eB 0 successes, 3 advantage


9 damage from attack, 2 advantages to activate burst (6 damage spread plus knockdown), 3 adv to heal 3 strain (down to 2 strain taken) leaving other 2 for the pool

[21 damage to the rays.]

The blast tore into the manta formation like a wrecking ball into the wall, leaving a gap in it once the fire and smoke cleared. The scraps of soft burnt flesh rained from the sky.

[Player Pool 5, GM Pool 0]

Efren rushed to the door and took a shot at one of the low flying creatures.

He missed… but it seemed to settle his nerves a bit letting a round fly out of his pistol.

————

D1 Ranged Light Try 1, Aim, Accurate 1, Statement “Roots”,: 2eP+1eA+2eB+1eD+2eC 1 failure, 1 advantage


1 advantage to heal strain.

[Places at the hatch filled; 9 posts to go!]
[Player Pool 6, GM Pool 0]

''My turn at them!'' Said Eileen as she pulled Efren back while pumping her shotgun in one hand.

The mantas had other ideas, however, and a wild tail strike had her discharge her weapon without doing much damage to the beasts

Shotgun the Mantas! Statement upgrade ''Your life is earned, not given'' ranged (heavy): 3eP+1eD+2eC 0 successes, 2 threat


2 strains taken for the maneuvre
9/12 strain

Crowd at the hatch was making things difficult.

[Threats to a Setback on the next pew from hatch roll.]

Razar moves into the gunner's position after it gets up and running. He takes his time, looking through the viewport to target the creatures. He holds... and holds... and then fires. He lets loose in their direction, but he's not familiar enough with the controls to be able to hit the creatures. They disperse a little but overall the situation wasn't really improved by his shots.

D1, Fighting Rays, Gunnery, 2 boost (2 Aim maneuvers), 3 Boosts (Player advantage), Statement: "I must survive, no matter the cost.": 2eA+1eP+5eB+2eC+1eD+1eS 2 failures, 4 advantage


Miss
all advantage to pool
Strain: 2/13
[Player Pool: 4]

At the very least he confirmed that the kitchen-powered gun actually worked!

[No Setback to future Gunnery checks.]
[Razar's Strain is actually 2 from double Manoeuvre, after last Piloting roll.]

A sigh escaped as people seemed to fight over who got to miss the birds next. Bringing her gun up again and taking careful aim, she fired another shot and the sky lit up again.

The look she gave whoever was standing next to her at that point clearly showed annoyance.

(ooc - 2 maneuvers to aim so 2 more strain (4 strain total). Pew pew
D1 A Thopter with a View round 2, Ranged at hard with 2 upgrades and a setback. Boosts from hunter, accuracy, 2x aim. Strength through self-reliance statement. Using blast ammo: 1eA+3eP+5eB+2eC+1eD+1eS 4 successes, 1 advantage

12 damage, using 1 adv from pool with the 1 adv in shot to activate burst (9 damage around) which I believe makes exactly 30 damage (12+9+9) (corrected because math sucks).

With explosive munitions used to great effect by Lydia, the manta birds got decimated. The murder was scattered to the wind, both literally and proverbially. Unless they had some hideouts or breeding grounds around here, there should stop being a problem for the time being.

The rainbow, evening skies... quite bucolic, if not for the rattling of explosion in the ears and gory manta morsels scattered along the cliff's edge.

[RP time!]

Seeing the mantas all down or fled after Lydia's shot, Razar climbs out of the gunner's position and looks to Cuyler, "Thanks for getting it working. Looks like I need to work on my aim."

He moves closer to the hatch to check on the others, "Everyone's doing okay? Is anybody injured? Check yourself for any small injuries. Disease and infection aren't a joke in the jungle."

He looks to Efren, "Do you want to see if we can raise Ambrose's team on short range comms?"

''Well daaamn!'' Eileen exclaimed to Lydia ''I ain't sure what you are huntin' with those rounds but they made short work of out our dinner''

She then moved back to grab her bow and quiver tucked under the seats

''I'll check the surroundings, yeah?''

"I think everyone did well. All things considered." Cuyler said. "What do we do now?"

"Now we leave and find shelter before they come back" Lydia stepped outside of the thopter, taking a look around the landing area. Gun still drawn and ready to be used.

They were on a long but not so wide stretch of the cliff's edge, with the sharp descent into the rocky foot and the ocean some hundred metres down to their north, and the impenetrable wall of the jungle to their south. The views were magnificent. It was hard to tell whether they were far or near from the spot where they had seen the bodies. While manoeuvring along the cliff they had seen caves of various shapes and sizes perforating the face of the wall of geometric basalt columns, so determining where was the right one would probably take some scouting along the edge.

There was a stream nearby, cascading into the abyss below in a majestic waterfall.

Razar Lanville wrote: ↑

Sat Jul 27, 2024 12:33 pm

Seeing the mantas all down or fled after Lydia's shot, Razar climbs out of the gunner's position and looks to Cuyler, "Thanks for getting it working. Looks like I need to work on my aim."

He moves closer to the hatch to check on the others, "Everyone's doing okay? Is anybody injured? Check yourself for any small injuries. Disease and infection aren't a joke in the jungle."

He looks to Efren, "Do you want to see if we can raise Ambrose's team on short range comms?"

“Yes, sir!” He replied and went to the comm station.

Putting the transceiver close to his mouth he said, “Thopter 2, this is Thopter 1. Come in, over.”

Static was the only immediate reply.

[Average Perception or Education for anyone who's currently focusing on electric or magnetic instruments. Efren has a Boost.]