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| | | | Joined: May 2000 Posts: 13,058 Likes: 9 Wobbly Headed Administrator | OP  Wobbly Headed Administrator Joined: May 2000 Posts: 13,058 Likes: 9 | GM
They come.
Twenty-legs. Spiked tails. Scything jaws and bruised-coloured, segmented carapace. Crawlers. Specimens from one to almost three metres long.
About nine emerge from the way back, a dozen or so from the way forward.
What Jix might have thought was tinnitus becomes clearer. His Verpine ears detect two distinct, scratchy waveforms and he realises the crawlers are broadcasting from their tail-spikes, one waveform or the other.
Two waveforms. Two distinct groups. Two hives? Just what do these creatures eat to survive?
Either way, Mirror Team are stuck in the middle. | | | | | Joined: May 2000 Posts: 76,441 Likes: 57 Wizop Administrator | | Wizop Administrator Joined: May 2000 Posts: 76,441 Likes: 57 | Jix
He sums up in his own distinct manner.
"Two hives. If we are lucky, they eat each other. If not twice as many eat us."
Fight or flight? It is a good question. | | | | | Joined: Apr 2007 Posts: 173,450 Likes: 7 Babylon 5 Rules Administrator | | Babylon 5 Rules Administrator Joined: Apr 2007 Posts: 173,450 Likes: 7 | Amos
He quickly sized up the situation, sheathing the machette and swinging the blaster off of his shoulder.
"Backs against the side wall. Fire if they turn on us!" | | | | | Joined: May 2000 Posts: 24,662 Likes: 10 Moderator | | Moderator Joined: May 2000 Posts: 24,662 Likes: 10 | Jelly Bean
JB had to stop focusing on the room with the force. She didn't have near enough control to separate the lifeforms into unique entities and they didn't have the sentience to to convey anything more than primal base instinct. It was overwhelming and dizzying for the twi'lek
"We can't get pinned to the wall for long, Amos," she offered in the relative darkness. "Everything is food down here. We have to cut a path ahead. Security droids are coming soon. Let the creatures do what they do, fight with each other. As soon as they are enjoined, cut through them all... but watch the walls, they are coming out of them... cut a path... but we have to be out of here before the droids show up... I have the blades, I can sweep ahead. Blaster fire might be detected. Only use it if we have to. Yes?" | | | | | Joined: May 2000 Posts: 27,610 Moderator | | Moderator Joined: May 2000 Posts: 27,610 | 2BB-2
Grappling hook towards the ceiling, retracting just enough to avoid the crawlers. In doing so, he perhaps offered another solution for getting out of the pincer movement. | | | | | Joined: Apr 2007 Posts: 173,450 Likes: 7 Babylon 5 Rules Administrator | | Babylon 5 Rules Administrator Joined: Apr 2007 Posts: 173,450 Likes: 7 | Amos
"JB and I with blades if they engage each other. May the force be with us." he said, nodding to the Twi'lik. | | | | | Joined: May 2000 Posts: 24,662 Likes: 10 Moderator | | Moderator Joined: May 2000 Posts: 24,662 Likes: 10 | OOC- Neil, I could use a bit more visual help on this scene.
AJ- i am intrigued by your idea of going over the top- can you give me a little OOC- I'm sure actual characters, were they real, would have a better understanding, so I just want to be able to visualize your action | | | | | Joined: May 2000 Posts: 27,610 Moderator | | Moderator Joined: May 2000 Posts: 27,610 | OOC: Imagine 2BB-2 as a swing or a pendulum, suspended by his grapple above the ground and above the height of the crawlers. | | | | | Joined: May 2000 Posts: 13,058 Likes: 9 Wobbly Headed Administrator | | OP Wobbly Headed Administrator Joined: May 2000 Posts: 13,058 Likes: 9 | [No problem, guys. Visual reference: I guess if you imagined an upper floor of an office tower. What it would look like if it had been stripped, burnt out, and then the windows boarded up so no light could enter. Quite open but with a lot of debris and partially blocked sigh lines.]
GM
The crawlers attack without hesitation, disturbingly quick on their many, undulating legs.
They are predators sensing warm-blooded prey intruding in their domain but they are also two rival factions.
With swarms of crawlers emerging from the surroundings in pitch black, the team's grainy, 16-colour scanner-vision provides a chaotic picture.
This sublevel of the bunker has a lower ceiling than the one above. The team are following the primary power conduit that appears to run from the conveyex track, zig-zagging through the bunker, probably down to Ghidrah's databanks.
Scattered around are low piles of debris, punctuated by support columns and broken partitions. Decent cover against blaster fire but no use in preventing being overrun by poisonous, flesh-rending crawlers.
2BB-2 can reach the ceiling with his cables though there are no perches up there for the rest of the team.
Jix might wonder if these creatures communicate at Verpine frequencies can he disrupt them in anyway with his own voice? | | | | | Joined: Apr 2007 Posts: 173,450 Likes: 7 Babylon 5 Rules Administrator | | Babylon 5 Rules Administrator Joined: Apr 2007 Posts: 173,450 Likes: 7 | They attack, but who? Heading toward us or toward each other? | | | | | Joined: May 2000 Posts: 13,058 Likes: 9 Wobbly Headed Administrator | | OP Wobbly Headed Administrator Joined: May 2000 Posts: 13,058 Likes: 9 | [They're all attacking your team, at least until they have to fight a rival to get a taste of you.] | | | | | Joined: May 2000 Posts: 24,662 Likes: 10 Moderator | | Moderator Joined: May 2000 Posts: 24,662 Likes: 10 | Jelly Bean
"We can't stay here," hissed Jelly bean as she activated her lightsabers again. There was no perfect strategy. They had to work fast get across the large room. The way forward was to follow the cable... not literally, because it snaked back and force as it appeared to have been laid down haphazardly. The point was, they had to wade through the creatures and cut a path. That seemed like the only option she could see. If they got far enough into them, then perhaps the two groups might fight each other. But, right now, the creatures were all focused on them.
Jelly Bean wheeled about to put her group behind her and slashed out (snicker-snack) as the vanguard to clear a path as fast as she could. She didn't wait to see kills, but rather cut and slashed and let her compatriots hold the sides and clean up any creatures who refused to die after her blades cut through them. The number seemed daunting, but maybe using force push at various moments could help as well. | | | | | Joined: May 2000 Posts: 76,441 Likes: 57 Wizop Administrator | | Wizop Administrator Joined: May 2000 Posts: 76,441 Likes: 57 | Jix
He is thinking. They are insectoid. They are hive. Much as he hates to think this, maybe he has something in common with them? Would communication be possible?
He tries.
**We are Hive. We are poison to you. Leave us or die.** | | | | | Joined: May 2000 Posts: 27,610 Moderator | | Moderator Joined: May 2000 Posts: 27,610 | 2BB-2
The entirely inorganic team member watched carefully to see where Jelly Bean was attempting the breakthrough, and descended towards the path ahead of her, swinging out over the crawlers to deliver a blast of cryoban from above before retracting to calculate another run, or to work out a reposition. | | | | | Joined: Apr 2007 Posts: 173,450 Likes: 7 Babylon 5 Rules Administrator | | Babylon 5 Rules Administrator Joined: Apr 2007 Posts: 173,450 Likes: 7 | Amos
Out came the vibro machette again and he struck out atany incoming vermin, protecting Jelly Beans side. | | | | | Joined: May 2000 Posts: 13,058 Likes: 9 Wobbly Headed Administrator | | OP Wobbly Headed Administrator Joined: May 2000 Posts: 13,058 Likes: 9 | GMThe scanner-vision projects scan-rays that are visible to others with scanner-vision, so Mirror Team can easily see where every member of the team is. A good thing because the crawlers are soon crashing into them like a biting, arthropoid wave. They have every reason to panic but hold their nerve. J.B.'s shoto lightsabers light up the darkness and the swarm of dripping mandibles. There's a puff of liquid propellant and 2BB-2's harpoon shoots into the ceiling. The BB-unit reels himself into the air above the predators. J.B. starts to cut a path, her blades sizzling. Behind her Jix chitters in Verpine, sharing the same frequency as the crawlers. They definitely don't understand Jix but they do hear him and that confuses them. A 2-metre long crawler throws itself at Jix without any clear purpose, not knowing whether the Verpine is a rival, prey, what. Jix's ultramesh armour absorbs most of the impact and as the crawler lunges again, he spears it with the bayonet on the end of his heavy blaster rifle. The vibro-blade opens up the arthropod messily, spilling green guts. 2BB-2 swings passed with a bold, ulutating bleep, crawlers climbing over themselves to get at the droid but barely scratching the paint. J.B. scythes through the swarm, blood and gore splattering her goggles. Amos chops heads with his vibro-machete until a 3-metre long specimen rears up from amidst the others and strikes with wild ferocity. Speed and weight. One of its mandibles find a chink in Amos's battle armour and sinks into flesh. Venom is pumped into him. With Amos's machete hand fending of the crawler, he has to rack the scatter blaster against the creature's carapace before jamming the muzzle under its jaw. A bang and flash! The scatter blaster truncates the crawler in a fountain of bitty gloop that splashes against the ceiling. J.B. kills, maims... the lightsabers so elegant, so unstoppable, so expressive. They are like an extension of her, aren't they? Or is this just the seductive power of the Dark Side? Either way, she's cut a swathe through the crawlers, opening a path to another down ramp. The two crawler hives have also collided now and what was a hunt has turned into a primeval melee. [
2BB-2: Ph Stress 1<9 +1 Resist, Me Stress 2<9 +1 Resist, So Stress 0<9 +0 Resist;
Amos: Ph Stress 4<9 +2 Resist, Me Stress 2<9 +0 Resist, So Stress 0<9 +0 Resist; -Poisoned
J.B.: Ph Stress 1<9 +1 Resist, Me Stress 1<9 +1 Resist, So Stress 0<9 +0 Resist;
Jix: Ph Stress 2<9 +1 Resist, Me Stress 2<9 +1 Resist, So Stress 0<9 +0 Resist;
SwA1 Ph Stress 2<3 +1 Resist, Me Stress 0<3 +0 Resist, So Stress 0<3 +0 Resist;
CrA1 Ph Stress 6<6 +2 Resist, Me Stress 0<6 +0 Resist, So Stress 0<6 +0 Resist; OUT
CrA2 Ph Stress 0<6 +0 Resist, Me Stress 0<6 +0 Resist, So Stress 0<6 +0 Resist;
SwB1 Ph Stress 1<3 +1 Resist, Me Stress 0<3 +0 Resist, So Stress 0<3 +0 Resist;
SwB2 Ph Stress 0<3 +0 Resist, Me Stress 0<3 +0 Resist, So Stress 0<3 +0 Resist;
WCB1 Ph Stress 6<6 +2 Resist, Me Stress 0<6 +0 Resist, So Stress 0<6 +0 Resist; OUT
=UNSTRUCTURED TIME=
2BB-2. "Fear". Mental--Def2. G+GG¬PP (*Enduring, Inorganic vs Easy Difficulty, Situ)...
...=G(6,2,2), P(5,3). YES! Success but suffer 2 Mental Stress, -1 Resistance =1
Amos. "Fear". Mental--Def3. G+G¬PP (*Frontiersman vs Easy Difficulty, Situ)...
...=G(3,2), P(5,1). YES! Success but suffer 2 Mental Stress
J.B. "Fear". Mental--Def2. G¬PP (vs Easy Difficulty, Situ)...
...=G(6), P(6,3). NO! Fail and suffer 1 Mental Stress, -1 Resistance =0
Jix. "Fear". Mental--Def2. G+G¬PP(*Chittering vs Easy Difficulty, Situ)...
...=G(6,1), P(6,4). YES! Success but suffer 1 Mental Stress, -1 Resistance =0
2BB-2. "Tarzan". Physical--Def2. G+GGGGG¬PPP (*Enduring², *Technical Aptitude, Equipment² vs Daunting Difficulty)...
...=(6,6,5,1,1,1), P(6,4,2). YES! Success but suffer 2 Physical Stress, -3(1,2) Resistance =0
=STRUCTURED TIME=
=ROUND1=
SwA1. Physical--Off2 attack vs J.B. G+G¬P (*Swarm vs Simple Difficulty, *Squishable)...
...=G(6,1), P(1). NO! Suffer 1 Physical Stress
CrA1. Physical--Off3 attack vs Jix. G+GGG¬P (*Wild, Weapon² vs Simple Difficulty, Situ)...
...=G(6,4,2,1), P(2). YES! Inflict 1+3=4 Physical Stress to Jix, -3(1,2) Resistance =1
SwB1. Physical--Off2 attack vs 2BB-2. G+GG¬PP (*Swarm, *Climber vs Easy Difficulty, *Squishable)...
...=G(3,2,1), P(6,3). YES! Inflict 2 Physical Stress to 2BB-2, -3(1,2) Resistance =0. Suffer 1 Physical Stress
WCB1. Physical--Off5 attack vs Amos. G+GGGG¬0 (*Wild, *Aggresive, Weapon² vs Simple Difficulty)...
...=G(6,6,4,3,2). YES! Inflict 3+4=7 Physical Stress to Amos, -4(1,3) Resistance =3. Venomous triggered, Amos gains -Poisoned Feature
Amos. "Scatter Blaster". Physical--Off3 attack vs CrB1. G+GGG¬0 (*Quick Draw², Situ vs Simple Difficulty)...
...=G(6,4,2,1). YES! Inflict 2+6=8 Physical Stress to CrB1, -2 Resistance =6. CrB1 taken out
J.B. "Lightsabers". Physical--Off4 attack vs SwA1. G+GGG¬PP (*Ataru Technique, Weapon, Situ vs Simple Difficulty, *Short, Situ)
...=G(4,3,2,2), P(4,2). YES! Inflict 2+6=8 Physical Stress to SwA1, -1 Resistance =7. Swarm triggered, reduce damage to 1 Physical Stress
Jix. "Vibro-Bayonet". Physical--Off4 attack CrA1. G+GG¬0 (*Athletic, Weapon, Situ vs Simple Difficulty)...
...=G(4,4,3,3). YES! Inflict 4+2=6 Physical Stress to CrA1
=KEY=
G Green dice (aka positive dice)
P Purple dice (aka negative dice)
* Green or purple feature
† Trauma
² Worth two green or purple dice
³ Worth three green or purple dice
]
Last edited by nemarsde; Mon 28/12/20 16:52 UTC.
| | | | | Joined: May 2000 Posts: 76,441 Likes: 57 Wizop Administrator | | Wizop Administrator Joined: May 2000 Posts: 76,441 Likes: 57 | Jix
The sooner they clear this area the better. Numbers swamp however innocuous the enemy but these are far from innocuous. At least they seem intent on each other now.
"Well done JB. Everyone OK?"
He has to remind himself that he also has a role of medic. | | | | | Joined: Apr 2007 Posts: 173,450 Likes: 7 Babylon 5 Rules Administrator | | Babylon 5 Rules Administrator Joined: Apr 2007 Posts: 173,450 Likes: 7 | Amos
The lean coated man leaned against the bulkhead for a moment, gritting his teeth.
"I got tagged but lets get out of here first." | | | | | Joined: May 2000 Posts: 76,441 Likes: 57 Wizop Administrator | | Wizop Administrator Joined: May 2000 Posts: 76,441 Likes: 57 | Jix
"OK but let me know if you need help."
Jix thinks he will still need to be a soldier first but he will keep an eye on Amos too. | | | | | Joined: May 2000 Posts: 24,662 Likes: 10 Moderator | | Moderator Joined: May 2000 Posts: 24,662 Likes: 10 | Jelly Bean
The Twi'lek wheeled about, the two short blades still humming at the ready. She didn't seem to notice the spackling of ichor across the front of her body, face, and lekku. There was a near feral look in her eyes, and her breathing was deep and even, as she inhaled and exhaled through her nose. After a moment, staring at Jixx, she nodded and her thumbs touched the control button to deactivated the two lightsabers. A shudder passed through her and she nodded again. Finally she smiled, albeit a thin one.
She fell in behind Amos as they moved on. | | | | | Joined: May 2000 Posts: 27,610 Moderator | | Moderator Joined: May 2000 Posts: 27,610 | 2BB-2
Dropping almost noiselessly to the ground, the slicer droid extended active sensors along the way ahead. | | | | | Joined: May 2000 Posts: 13,058 Likes: 9 Wobbly Headed Administrator | | OP Wobbly Headed Administrator Joined: May 2000 Posts: 13,058 Likes: 9 | GM
Some smaller, rogue crawlers come scurrying out of the cracks in the walls but are easily kicked away and Mirror Team have soon put the chaos behind them.
Amos feels numbness from the bite in his shoulder, tingling up his neck and cheek and down the arm. He feels like he might throw up.
Being an experienced frontiersman, Amos might suspect some kind of neurotoxin. Fortunately not evolved to immobilise humans though and nothing that a stimpack can't counteract.
It would sure be nice to get a breath of clean air too but there's none of that on this planet.
Taking the final ramp down, they emerge into an ampitheatre-like space, constructed around a wide oblong viewport.
This is where the power conduit has led them.
The ampitheatre is filled with waist-high slave circuit modules, activity lights blinking like high tech tombstones.
Glaring, bright light spills through the viewport. Beyond is a large, open space about 30 metres across; a well-lit vertical shaft. The whole bunker must be built around it.
Suspended in the middle by aerodynamic struts is another massive cylinder, bristling with square-vaned heat sinks. These are wrapped around a towering stack of hard-processing computers.
Mirror Team have found Ghidrah's central databanks.
There is an airlock from the ampitheatre into the shaft, and anyone close to the viewport can see that at the bottom of the shaft are huge, spinning turbine blades, forcing cool air up over the heat sinks.
They can also see a foot-bridge protected by a curved fairing, spanning the gap from the airlock to the databanks and an engineer's direct access station.
The team can switch back to normal vision.
There are signs of extensive rennovation work here, so First Order droids can be expected sooner or later.
It should take some time to open the airlock though. That might give Jix time to check over Amos, J.B. time to skim the datapads from the lab, assuming 2BB-2 can handle an old Imperial code lock.
The team will then have to decide who goes through, who stays. There doesn't appear to be any way out of the bunker except back they way they came but that's not to say there isn't. | | | | | Joined: May 2000 Posts: 76,441 Likes: 57 Wizop Administrator | | Wizop Administrator Joined: May 2000 Posts: 76,441 Likes: 57 | Jix
He pauses, his soldier mode immediately scanning for any danger signs but none are immediately apparent. Then he takes in the details, nodding slowly. Looks like they have found what they are looking for.
"We have a door to open, so a good time to look at that injury Amos."
She bends down placing his weapon to hand and start to get out the medkit. | | | | | Joined: May 2000 Posts: 24,662 Likes: 10 Moderator | | Moderator Joined: May 2000 Posts: 24,662 Likes: 10 | Jelly Bean
The Twi'lek had settled herself and even had a moment to reflect that her emotions were an issue in her training before and they still were now. Maz had warned her of the consequences if she lost control completely, but it was more the incremental creep of darkness she she was realizing would be her hardest test to come. Emotions from childhood traumas that she was only recently remembering in fuller detail, and then years of slavery to the Hutts, and then the loss of Maljean after opening her heart to someone, anyone, for the first time in her life. Her sadness at the plight of the Purgill only renewed her anger at the First Order and their predecessors.
"Babay... I need your help," she said as she saw Jix taking a moment to address Amos' injury. They couldn't afford to lose too much time now that they had reached their objective, but she had made a promise and she hoped there would be some answers in the pads she gathered to help her keep it.
"I need these unlocked," she added as she showed the spherical droid a couple of pads. "Maybe even copied if you have space... They might help us free the Purgill." | | | | | Joined: May 2000 Posts: 27,610 Moderator | | Moderator Joined: May 2000 Posts: 27,610 | 2BB-2
The droid was busy working at the old Imperial code lock to enable them all to progress, but he ran his scanner over the datapads. | | |
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