MJ,
After a brief hiatus I would like to resume my game here. Last we left off, my team was in a control room of some sort. We had dispactched the two guards and I had instructed everyone else to lay on the floor if they didn't want to die (events from a live game at your house). That's where it left off.
John, your old game thread is archived here, and the last post is here; it does not seem as if much has happened since then in live play, as you tended to wander away and leave Adam and Kyler at the table, as I recall. However, we did play, so something happened. You were in the emergency control station, and the plan was to access life pods from here so that you could be picked up by transmat when the fighting settled. The other team, including Miralla and Bob, are on one of the upper decks, but you have only minutes before the explosions rip through this level, disable power and operating systems, and probably shut down life support, not to mention elevators between the levels.
You were talking about finding that team and helping them. Tom Titus, the thief, was talking about getting out as quickly as possible, but George White was willing to go with you even though he thought the idea insane.
"You know we'll never reach them in time, right? Probably die if we don't get off. It would be better if we could get a message to them to abandon--hey, maybe if we get these people to sound abandon ship, and let them take life pods, everyone on the upper levels will stop fighting and run for life pods, too, and that will get our people out. Worth a try? Or do you want to go after them anyway?"
--M. J. Young
I will attempt to contact Bob and Miralla telepathically. And tell them to get back to our ship immediately. Regardless, I will try and persuade one these nice people laying on the floor to sound abandon ship.
"Someone will sound abandon ship, or I start making more corpses. Am I clear?"
I will kick one of the dead guards for emphasis.
Pharaoh
Since you list Bob first, I do Bob first--you are now in contact with Bob. Is it your intention to contact Miralla at the same time, or after you break contact with Bob? What are you communicating?
Someone, one of the technicians, immediately gets up and sounds abandon ship. You hear the horn and the voice echoing through the halls. He is looking nervously at you, as if he is uncertain whether he is supposed to abandon ship at this point.
--M. J. Young
I will try Miralla at the same time. If I fail I will attempt her after Bob. Same message.
I will look at Tom and George. "Your call, gents. Do we let them bail, or........."
I'll let it traill off there and wait for their decision.
Pharaoh
You manage to reach Miralla while maintaining the contact with Bob. It's a bit like talking on two telephones at once, but you get your message across.
George says to let them go to the life pods--there are plenty, and the more that are adrift out there, the less likely it is that enemy fighters will use them for target practice. Besides, it's better for Destiny's image that the technicians and civilians are spared. Destiny can identify her own crew by sweeping with the transporter to find the harnesses you're wearing.
Tom is, of course, already gone.
Bob says that at the moment they're pinned down by heavy fire; but then as the Abandon Ship alert starts, he says things are clearing. Miralla says that the team has placed markers on quite a bit of cargo already, and they were trying to find their way to life pods, as they got the message that Destiny was under attack and that transport would be delayed. With the fighters starting to retreat, they should be able to resume that plan. She asks if you're going to get off all right, or should she start figuring out where she left all her good jewelry.
--M. J. Young
I will tell them to make for the nearest life pod and to not worry about me. I should be fine. I will tell them to keep their heads low and I'll back aboard Destiny soon.
"George, like one preacher said to the other, let's get the flock out of here!"
Pharaoh
"I think the flock is already gone, Pharoah, so it's just the two of us."
You feel a tremor pass through the floor.
"And I'd say we'd better hurry, because that was the reactor control systems; the electrical systems are next, and then the cooling systems, and we don't want to be here when they go.
He is already moving to the far door through which everyone has gone to reach life pods.
--M. J. Young
I'm right on his heels.
Pharaoh
The next room is lined with about two dozen doorways, most of them now blank, blocked by what appears to be sheet metal or plastic. A few have open doors into tiny rooms. Next to each door, on the outside (that is, in the larger room), there is a small control panel with what appears to be a lever that has to be pulled; instructions are written by it.
George is standing by one, looking at you. "Do you need help?" he asks. "Ever use one of these before?"
--M. J. Young
"I could use some help as I've never used one of these before."
Pharaoh
"Tell you what," George says. "Rather than stand here talking about it, step in and I'll use the external controls to launch you, and then launch my own. Good?"
Assuming you agree, he waves a hand toward the door for you to step through. From where you are inside, you can't see what he does on the panel, but the wall between you and him closes, and you feel a sudden jolt. You slam into the just-closed wall, but it absorbs the impact.
There is a tall thin window in that door; the other walls have some gauges and controls on them, but everything seems to be operating as far as you can tell. You are in a moment weightless, and the coffin-like container is rotating slowly.
At first, all you see is a very near view of what must be the the station; you see a coffin-like object break off it which must be another life pod, possibly George's. Then as you rotate you see nothing but stars and other life pods adrift.
After a moment of turning, you get a view of a rather large space ship battling a bunch of small ones, which must be Destiny and the Federation fighters. The big ship seems to be holding her own, but before anything is clear, you rotate such that it is no longer in view.
The space station comes back into view a moment later, and you are considerably farther from it. You notice that the lights are now dark, and the entire structure has a misshapen look to it, as if something bent in the middle somewhere.
Have you any other plans while you are adrift?
--M. J. Young
I will use scriff sense to make sure Miralla and Bob got off the station ok. If I can sense them, I will attamp to telepathically contact them and ask if they are all right. Other then that, I guess I just have to sit back and enjoy the ride for now.
Pharaoh
You get one vector--which could mean they are together. It is toward the station, but there are pods adrift between here and there.
You can't focus on Miralla at all at the moment; you feel you almost touched Bob's mind, but lost it.
Destiny comes back into view, still fighting against the smaller ships, but there are fewer of those, so she's probably winning.
--M. J. Young
I'm going to try a TK pulse on one of the fighters and push it into another fighter.
Pharaoh
The fighters are buzzing around in no particular formation; it is likely that they would pass near each other and cross each other's paths, but in the few seconds that you are looking you fail to see an opportunity in time to do it. Probably you would have to be watching the flights of the several craft to predict when they would cross near each other, and then nudge one at the right moment to set it off its course enough to create the collision. However, by the time you've figured out that you have to do this, the pod has rotated such that you are no longer looking that direction. In a moment the space station should come back into view, and it will be most of a minute before you get another ten seconds looking at the battle around Destiny.
--M. J. Young
Just have to wait it out then.
Pharaoh
A few more life pods move away from the massive station, and you float peacefully.
The number of ships harrassing Destiny keeps decreasing, and then there were none.
It is a long dull half hour in the pod, but suddenly you feel that tingle, and the capsule fades around you, to be replaced by the teleporter deck of the ship.
Bob is already there, bandaged up a bit; they are still scanning for Miralla. "She's all right," he says; "I saw her into a pod, and then had to fight off some security people before I could get into my own."
--M. J. Young
Reminder: if you are planning to play at Ubercon, do not post to this thread until you return.
--M. J. Young
I will proceed to the nearest viewscreen. I will psionically scan for her and try and locate which pod is hers. If I can find it, I will point it out the person controlling the transporter. if I can't scan her, I will use scriff sense to see if she is still in this world. Since she and I are intimate, I should be able to easily detect her scriff signiture.
Pharaoh
You have no problem at all detecting her direction (or Bob's, for that matter). You can point straight to her.
What you can't do is identify which blip is her on the viewscreen. That would be like knowing where the Tonight Show studio is because you can see it on television. There's no direct correlation between images on the screen and objects in space.
Have you some idea for how to make that correlation? (After all, new ways of using the scriff sense have been developed, and proven surprisingly useful, so you might come up with something I've missed.)
--M. J. Young
By viewscreen I meant something more like a video monitor of television screen. Something with an actual picture and less of a radar screen.
Using scriff sense, I'm going to try and psionically create a visible aura around her pod. I will be usuing her signature as a focal point. I will do this by reaching out with my mind to link with hers and generate an aura around her surroundings.
If I can't do it, I guess I'll just have to trust my crewmates to extract her in a timely fashion.
Pharaoh
I did understand viewscreen, and you are looking at a visual image from the exterior of the ship. The problem is, the scriff sense you have of Miralla's position doesn't point toward the screen; it points toward somewhere in space outside the ship in the general direction of the space station, which you can't see through the wall. It thus tells you the direction (but not the distance) to her pod, but not which pod it is on the screen.
That also means that the best you can do for marking her "position" would be to attempt to create a visible line or beam extending from you to and beyond her. Assuming it intersects a single pod, that would be hers; but if it intersects more than one pod in the collection out there, you would not know if she were in the nearer or farther or where.
While you're thinking of that, Ann says, "We've got her," and she materializes on the platform.
"Is it just me," she says, "or is that more like dying than anything else we've ever done?"
--M. J. Young
I'll laugh warmly and give her a hug and kiss. "I don't know, blossom. Since we don't really die, we just cease to exist one place and end up another, I prefer to think of it as micro-versing."
I'll now make sure the rest of my crewmates made it back ok. I'll check on Bob's injuries as well.
Once satisfied, I will look around and say, "Well, now what? Back to our routines?"
Pharaoh
The routine is not entirely routine for the next few weeks. After all, part of the point of destroying the listening post was to raid it, and that means you have stolen equipment to install in your engineering department and elsewhere, plus supplies including food and medicine to store. A lot of the installation falls to Burly and Toni, of course, although Phil, the computer expert, helps with things within his background. Marilyn, George, and Tom do most of the work with supplies. Miralla suggests that she will lend a hand with medical, since she has some background in medical from the Mary Piper and knows what she's doing there.
--M. J. Young
I guess I'll fill in where I can and in the meantime get to know people better. I will continue my training whenever possible.
Pharaoh
It is back to business as usual after about a week or so. You've installed QNL probes, medical supply packs, food packs, and more.
Which of the crew do you think are most likely to be your friends? Which Miralla's, and which Bob's? Recapping, you know this much about each of them:
- Captain John Alexander, caucasion male, late forties, former Federation starship captain and combat flight instructor, honorable decent sort with keen instincts in combat situations, highly charismatic.
- Philip Banson, caucasion male, forties, computer expert who felt underappreciated by the Federation, so crashed a planetary power grid and stole a spaceship to escape; logical, a bit cold, a bit arrogant.
- Ann Parker, caucasion female, mid twenties, blonde, quiet, has a jack in her head that connects to the communications systems, eats but rarely sleeps except that she dozes while working.
- Gary Kozakowski, black male, tall and slender and approaching thirty, one of the best pilots out there.
- Tom Titus, caucasion male, aged face on young body but maybe late thirties, a thief who in a fight has the best chance of finding the escape route, paranoid, nervous, timid voice, slight of build.
- Burt "Burly" Bently, caucasion male, thirty-three years old, large menacing appearance but soft teddybear personality, is the ship's engineer.
- Toni Bently, black female, thirty-one, married to Burt, tall, thin, aggressively friendly and outgoing, is the assistant engineer.
- Ishara Takamura, mixed Asian male, probably mostly Japanese, mid thirties, assassin and weapons expert, low cold voice, does not accept people readily.
- George White, caucasion male, mid fifties, jack-of-all-trades with surprising skills, affable, willing to teach, self-effacing concerning his own abilities.
- Marilyn Wells, caucasion female, good-looking bronze-haired twenty-something with an air of sophistication and intelligence, trained in social skills, a good negotiator who reads people well.
--M. J. Young
For myself, the top three would probably be the captain (as I'd love to further my pilot skills into the area of combat flight), Tom (to learn thieving skills), and Ishara (an exchange of weapon skills and sparing would be awesome). Followed closely by George, who could teach me whatever hee can I hope.
For Miralla, it would probably be Marilyn, Toni,and Ann as she rarely get to know women in the worlds we've visited. But I could be wrong.
For Bob, probably George, Tom, and Burt.
Pharaoh
Funny, I didn't really see you as the sort of person who would connect well with a retired military commander. I'd definitely have said George, because he gets along well with most people and in that regard is very like you; I would have thought Tom, as well, as you both have that anti-authoritarian stripe, and if anyone could persuade Tom to open up about his secrets you probably could. Piloting skills are more likely to be learned from Gary, who has that charming roguishness that would probably put him in your circle. The Captain is probably too serious to take you seriously as a friend.
I'd have said Ishara would take to Bob more than to you. Sure, you're a fighter, but Ishara is a killer, and there's something about an orc that always seems to say killer even if he's generally a nice guy--it's like meeting a friendly Klingon. He's nice, but that doesn't mean he doesn't kill people. I think Tom would be afraid of Bob, but Marilyn would find him interesting, and Burly would see him as a strong pair of hands to help out sometimes, and so someone worth chatting with sometimes. You've got Miralla right, though--the women would be very interested in her, and she would fit in with them well.
That means you're going to get some piloting instruction from Gary, some thief stuff from Tom, and a bit of this and that from George. Bob will probably get some help with modern weapons from Ishara, but unless lifting and carrying are important skills, I don't see him learning much else. Miralla already has a solid handle on some medical skills, but she'll learn a bit of that from Marilyn.
Is there anything in particular you want to learn from these people? Those connections are not limitations, just observations on who would likely spend their free time with you. Rather easy for Bob to get Ishara to show him some weapon stuff since Ishara probably would have a beer with Bob when he's relaxing anyway.
--M. J. Young
Ok. Sounds about right. We'll pal around with our perspective friends and go about establishing an information and skills exchange.
Pharaoh
What skills do you see yourselves teaching them? I'm not sure they want to learn what you know, but an exchange usually goes both ways, and you might interest them in something.
--M. J. Young
For myself, I can try and teach them, cooking, telepathy, clairaudience, simple TK, levitation, chow en lai, gazuntite, bo stick martial arts weapon, lajatang, solid punch, leaping kick, attack analysis/prediction, arm lock, alert rest, missle escape and attack catch. I have alot of other skills if those don't interest anyone.
Bob: Telepathy to humanoids, han karon, tetsubo, spear, stalking and alert rest.
Miralla: Any of her medical skills, mitzu frenzy, and alert rest.
Pharaoh
Miralla and Marilyn trade knowledge in the medical department, working together to fill in the gaps in each other's background.
George is interested in your cooking skills; he's a bit of a cook himself. He's intrigued by your fighting skills, and wants to see what you can do with them; most of the others think that they don't measure up to having a good blaster at your side.
Bob's stalking abilities catch Ishara's attention; he says Bob would make a good assassin.
The members of the crew do not believe they can learn your mind powers.
--M. J. Young
I'll be glad to show George what I know as a cook and I'll do what I can to teach him fighting techniques. The question is: what is George going to teach me in return?
I'm glad Miralla and Marilyn can echange medical training.
If Ishara wants to train Bob as an assassin, I'm sure Bob will teach him his stalking skills.
Pharaoh
Ishara has some good stalking skills of his own, but he'll be glad to work with Bob a bit.
The question is, what do you want to learn from George? He knows all sorts of stuff, but you'll have to suggest something you'd like to learn and see if he knows anything about it (good chance, but not guaranteed, except if you name something I know he knows).
--M. J. Young
I'd like to learn more about computers, laser weapons, and security systems. Other than that, I'll just try and figure out some of skills through conversation.
Pharaoh
Lasers are used for medical equipment, but not for weapons; the blasters are kinetic. George will show you how to use these, but they're not functionally much different from the ones you've already learned on the Mary Piper. He also starts teaching you to use the computers, which again is a skill you already have but are improving through his help.
You also learned how to bypass electronic security systems back in the Industrial Complex, but you're not very good at it--still, it's a start, and George is helping you with some new approaches and techniques.
Consider yourself in training on these skills for the present.
--M. J. Young
I will also begin attempting to implant suggestions in the minds og others using psionics. Simple things at first, such as scratch you butt or smile. I will practice on Bob and Ishara. Scratch your butt for Bob, and smile for Ishara.
Pharaoh
I don't see the psionic suggestion on your sheet; is that an oversight, or are you teaching yourself this skill? If you're teaching yourself, do you have an example on which to rely in how to do this? (You can practice it after you learn it, but I have to roll for you to learn it.)
--M. J. Young
I do not have it. This is something I am trying to teach myself. It will be non spoken.
Pharaoh