Logbook Entry: 2400-03-01 - A blip on the radar

"Sorry Jettison!" barks Ezra while desperately trying to get the thrusters out of rotational mode. Ezra struggles with vertigo due to the violent spinning of the ship. Let's try this again, he thinks to himself. At this point, I'll be lucky just to avoid a collision with the incoming ship.

Ezra glances at the comms, wondering why the approaching ship hasn't replied to his hail. "Jettison, be ready with the weapons, but don't fire just yet. First I've got to get the ship under control!"

Ezra then wonders if the trigger-happy Jettison will even wait for Ezra's signal before shooting. Of course, it's not like the pop-gun weapons we have right now will do much against a determined foe.

Rolls

Piloting roll to right the ship and evade collision - (1d8)

(5) = 5

Apr 3, 2022 2:44 pm

bdciopp Inactive forever!

Onboard the Lucky chance
Ezra finally gets the thruster into the correct operational mode. With a quick boost of the engines he can evade collision. The other craft zooms by, narrowly missing the Lucky Chance.
Unfortunately it turns and is on collision course once again. Interestingly the course plots an erratic zick-zack pattern now.
Jettison meanwhile has brought the weapon system up and running. The ship's turret gun is not strong enough to pierce most ship hulls but Jettison could aim at certain subsystems of the enemy ship and take those out.
For a very short time the approaching ship transmits a scream and is then silent once again.

Onboard the boarding vessel
Acker grabs into the panel. She pulls wires until something comes loose.
Aaaargh she screams. Apparently she grabbed a live wire end and is shocked by electricity. But for a short time the transmission console lit up.
So cable she grabbed should be the one responsible for operating the comms.
Landonis flips switches until 'AUXILIARY CONTROL' lights up on the piloting controls. He can't fully control the ship but he can at least now send additional commands the the piloting system.
Meanwhile the old boarding ship narrowly missed its target. It turns and is once again on collision course. But this time Landonis can at least steer the ship a bit.

OOC:

Acker is injured which means that she can only roll a d4 until she is healed again. Another injury will kill her so better be careful for now. Healing can take place over time or at accelerated pace by a successful medicine check. At least she now knows how to activate the comms (No check required for that)

If any of you don't know what to do you can always ask me.
Things that Filip and Ray could try to do is trying to establish communications or trying to hack into the approaching craft.

There is also the "Help"-action. This allows you to add your skill die to another character's skill check. You roll both and take the higher result.

Landonis Pirx

Apr 3, 2022 4:35 pm

Despite being scared by Ackers accident Landonis continues to modify auto pilot. He checks available options and tries to switch from attack mode to defense ( keep safe distance from target )

Boss are you ok? At least tell them to hold fire. This ship may stink a little but we do not want any new holes in her!

Last edited April 4, 2022 9:13 am

Acker

Dunko Inactive forever!

Apr 3, 2022 5:52 pm

Acker snaps back to consciousness--dark at the edges of her vision. I think I was out for a second...heart stopped maybe...

She registers Landonis' question. "Wha'?" She blinks and shakes her hand trying to dissipate the numbness. "Yeah. Yeah I'm O.K." Though she doesn't sound it. I just got a shock."

She looks at the comm console. "But hey...we got comms." Pressing a button and leaning toward the input she relays Landonis' suggestion toward the [The Lucky Chance.

"This is the boarding ship 'chasin' you about--do you read us? We're in some sort of auto-dock cycle. Our pilot's working on it. We're not hostile, so if you could hold your fire we'd appreciate it."

Acker leans back in the co-pilots seat, shaking and breathing hard from the effort of talking post electrocution.

Ezra Cooke

Dreamweaver

Apr 3, 2022 7:53 pm

"...We're not hostile, so if you could hold your fire we'd appreciate it."

Ezra blinks, wondering if it could still be a trap. If they really are pirates, they are pretty bad at it, Ezra thinks to himself.

"Jettison, do not shoot. Repeat, do not shoot. Let's give them a second." Ezra flips a switch and pipes the message they just received over the ship's speaker system to make sure everyone has heard it. "Maybe they aren't hostiles. But everyone, be ready just in case."

Ezra chews on his lip for a moment as he thinks about his reply. They may not be pirates, but spending fuel and other resources to help out another ship could deplete their resources all the same. Finances were just too tight to be charitable.

He frowned as his conscious got the better of him.

"Unidentified ship, we will hold fire. We show you to be back on a collision course and coming in way too fast. Get your systems fixed ASAP, and we can render aid."

Switching over to internal comms, Ezra says, "Ray, how about you do a tactical scan and see if your readings backs up what they're saying. I'm still worried it's a trap."

OOC:

I'm wondering if I could roll Piloting to see if there are some maneuvers I could do like an Immelmann turn to come alongside the approaching ship to dock instead of crash? Just on roll or maybe one roll to plot a trajectory and other to execute it? I'm worried they won't get their systems repaired in time.

Rolls

Piloting - (1d8)

(1) = 1

Dreamweaver

Apr 3, 2022 7:54 pm

OOC:

If these were physical dice I was using, I'd be tossing them in the trash about now! :-P

Last edited April 3, 2022 7:54 pm

Dunko Inactive forever!

Apr 3, 2022 8:21 pm

Dreamweaver says:

OOC:

If these were physical dice I was using, I'd be tossing them in the trash about now! :-P

OOC:

LOL 😄

Last edited April 3, 2022 8:22 pm

Apr 3, 2022 8:39 pm

Dreamweaver says:

OOC:

If these were physical dice I was using, I'd be tossing them in the trash about now! :-P

OOC:

Ouch. The dice gods are really testing you all XD

Acker

Dunko Inactive forever!

Apr 3, 2022 10:13 pm

bdciopp Inactive forever!

"...coming in way too fast. Get your systems fixed ASAP, and we can render aid."

Acker hits the comm again. "Roger that. Hang tight while we work this out." She cuts the mic and leans back again.

Gritting her teeth, she grunts to Landonis', "It's all you now pal..."

OOC:

She's sitting back and waiting to see if Land needs any assistance!

Apr 4, 2022 9:14 am

OOC:

@Scrol do I need another piloting roll?

Apr 4, 2022 11:20 am

Dreamweaver says:

Switching over to internal comms, Ezra says, "Ray, how about you do a tactical scan and see if your readings backs up what they're saying. I'm still worried it's a trap."

nikos says:

As soon as Ethan enters the ship, he rushes to his seat and starts operating the supporting systems panels in front of him. He takes a quick look at the ship's status, making sure the shield is up and all systems running, and then he proceeds to use the sensors to do a tactical scan of the approaching ship.

occ: I thought I did a tactical scan as soon as we entered, did I need to roll to use the scan module?

Scrol says:

Things that Filip and Ray could try to do is trying to establish communications or trying to hack into the approaching craft.

occ: Ok, since Ray can attempt to hack, I suppose he already did the scan? Did he get any data that would be useful for Ezra? I'll proceed with an attempt to hack into the spaceship.

Ray

Apr 4, 2022 11:24 am

Ok, I think I can manage to get past their spaceship's security and see if it's flying on the autopilot, and if so, I can try to disable it and give them manual control. Then we can see their intentions.

Rolls

Hacking - (1d8)

(2) = 2

Apr 4, 2022 11:25 am

sunnyVoid Inactive forever!

occ: I think I just hacked into the wrong spaceship or something.

Filip Engel

Apr 4, 2022 12:27 pm

Filip holds on for dear life. Hostile or not that ship is gonna get us all killed!

OOC:

I'm not sure what to do with Filip, right now he's just hoping the ship doesn't crash!

Jettison

tibbius

Apr 4, 2022 5:56 pm

Jettison leans over toward Ray. "Hey - just thinking out loud ... what if you try an rsync exploit to get root on their system?"

Rolls

"helping" Ray's hack - (1d6)

(5) = 5

Cosmic Highway GM

Apr 4, 2022 9:26 pm

Ezra tries to steer the ship away but you can see that the stress of a possible trap is taking its toll. The Lucky Chance just swerves left and right, shaking its inhabitants but managing not much else.

Ray meanwhile identified the craft to be a military boarding ship. Quite hardy so your weapons will do exactly nothing to it. It's also equipped with a large turret but it's currently not operational.
Maybe Ray can hack into it.... He tries to gain remote access.
After a few minutes of mashing the keyboard he reaches a "Enter password"-screen. Ray tries the standard passwords he knows but is unsuccessful.
One last try he thinks. But before he can do so Jettison interrupts him with his advice. This is it! With the exploit Ray can circumvent the password screen altogether.
Ray performs the rsync exploit and has limited access to the boarding ship.
He could try to gain full access which would risk locking him out again or he could jam the Friend-Foe-Identification-System so that the ship at least stops chasing you... Ray's choice

Acker and Landonis meanwhile do their best to avoid the boarding ship from hitting the Lucky Chance

Dreamweaver says:

OOC:

I'm wondering if I could roll Piloting to see if there are some maneuvers I could do like an Immelmann turn to come alongside the approaching ship to dock instead of crash? Just on roll or maybe one roll to plot a trajectory and other to execute it? I'm worried they won't get their systems repaired in time.

OOC:

You can of course do so. Didn't work out this time though ^^
If you are not sure wether to post a roll or not you can always do so and then announce a condition like "Ezra will only try this if he's sure to not destroy the ship in the process"

bdciopp says:

OOC:

@Scrol do I need another piloting roll?

OOC:

Currently you can avoid hitting the Lucky Chance by disrupting the autodock routine with your inputs. You can continue to do so, with no roll. If you want full control you'd need another roll.
In general if you have a (partial) success with your roll you can always continue to do what you managed to achieve as long as the conditions don't change too drastically.

nikos says:

occ: I thought I did a tactical scan as soon as we entered, did I need to roll to use the scan module?

occ: Ok, since Ray can attempt to hack, I suppose he already did the scan? Did he get any data that would be useful for Ezra? I'll proceed with an attempt to hack into the spaceship.

OOC:

Blimey! Totally missed that one. Sorry for that, I'll be more attentive next time o.O
Gave Ray the basic information from the scan. And with Jettison's help he successfully hacked a bit into the ship. If he want's to gain full access he'll has to make another hacking roll, the other choice is a guaranteed success

sunnyVoid says:

OOC:

I'm not sure what to do with Filip, right now he's just hoping the ship doesn't crash!

OOC:

Yeah your character is not the most space-combat ready but will really shine as soon as you meet other people ;)

Ray

Apr 5, 2022 6:29 pm

"That's it Jettison! You're a genius, it worked. It seems we don't have full access to their spaceship, I cannot do much for now. But at least I can see their identification process running and probably this is what's making their ship chase us, so let's try to shut it down." Ray proceeds to jamming the Friend-Foe-Identification-System.

Cosmic Highway GM

Apr 5, 2022 10:14 pm

Ray jams the Friend-Foe-Identification-System. Suddenly the ship stops thrusting towards the Lucky Chance and enters an orbit around the white dwarf.

The screens on the boarding ship flicker and suddenly display the message "TARGET LOST"
The ship is now in idle mode. Landonis still hasn't full control over it but could eventually try to dock it to the Lucky Chance (OOC: Requires at least apartial successful piloting roll. Ezra could also help with his piloting roll)
Or Acker and Landonis, possible with the help of the crew of the Lucky Chance, could try to gain full control prior to docking.

Ezra Cooke

Dreamweaver

Apr 6, 2022 12:12 am

From the bridge, Ezra pipes over the ship's comms: "Looks like they aren't pirates after all! Well, that was quite a scare. Let's see if they want to dock and need some assistance."

OOC:

Ezra will help on my side if/when Landonis does a Piloting roll to dock. From my reading of the Cosmic Highway 2400 rules which says ".... if helped by an ally, they roll their skill die and share the risk. Take the highest die." I think I roll my Piloting d8, and it goes into Landonis's die pool.

Rolls

Piloting d8 (assist roll for Landonis) - (1d8)

(6) = 6

Jettison

tibbius

Apr 6, 2022 1:45 am