Scene 3: They mostly come at night

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Mar 25, 2024 1:55 am
Janice turns from the creature and pulls herself along the floor. She drags her broken body as quickly as she can towards the airlock. No ... please. God help me. Please! She can see the door just a few feet away.

Halroyd rushes past and opens the door, dragging his damaged leg behind him. WAIT! Stop! Please, Halroyd! Halroyd, YOU SON OF A BITCH! The door swishes closed as Janice screams at the fleeing android.

She turns and looks back. Go ahead! Do it! DO IT!
Mar 25, 2024 5:05 am
The beast moves over towards Janice where she lies, broken, on the floor, by the door to the airlock.

It swipes a claw out towards her, knocking straight up against the airlock door, and comes to stand over her, almost like it is taunting her to run, like a cat to a mouse. Janice didn't think her fear could get even worse... but it turns out, no, it can... and Janice flips, she just completely looses it, drags herself up and is about to lunge at the thing, to try and rip it to pieces with her bare hands...

As she does this, something sharp and fast whips around at her side. It's the tail, and it jabs into Janice, and from the point of contact she can feel a numbness spreading through her back where it landed the blow. Her level of panic slips through - she is no longer furious and trying to rip this beast limb from limb - rather, she has slipped into a catatonic state. She collapses to the floor, can't talk or move, and stares blankly into oblivion.

She feels the beast grasp her in its claws, pull her to it in a fierce sharp embrace. She feels some of her bones cracking as this happens. She smells the things foetid breath against her face as it takes off like a bat out of hell. She doesn't really feel the pain any more. She sees and feels herself being carried through the corridors, being squeezed up into some vent somewhere, and then she fades out of consciousness...
OOC:
For the xeno's first attack, 2 on the Special Attack table gives us PLAYING WITH ITS PREY.

She takes another STRESS and makes a Panic Roll. As no agency for player in this, I'll do the roll here to move things forward...

14 on the Panic table gives us "BERSERK. You must immediately attack the nearest person or creature, friendly or not. You won't stop until you or the target is Broken."

We'll let that play out after the xeno has made its second attack.

I'm going to hand wave a bit here, as the mechanics of what happens from here are a bit slow, but the eventual outcome is inevitable, given that no one is here to help Janice. Rather than going through a bunch of opposed rolls, panic rolls, more attacks, I'm going to move over that and narrate the outcome implied by this last attack (which I also improvised on slightly for dramatic effect, given the outcome was inevitable once that 4 had been rolled)
OOC:
@McButterpants/Janice I'm afraid that's the end of Janice. I leave it to you if you want to narrate her waking up, stuck to the wall in the egg chamber and what all us players know happens after that...

Rolls

Xeno attack 1 - (1d6)

(2) = 2

Panic Roll for Macwhirr - (1d6+9)

(5) + 9 = 14

Xeno attack 2 - (1d6)

(4) = 4

Xeno attack Capture for the Hive - (10d6)

(5546626644) = 48

Mar 25, 2024 8:30 am
Holroyd is out of the lock, not a look behind him at the beast or Macwhirr. He can see fresh footprints in the mud, and takes off after them. Visibility is bad, though, something like 10, 20 metres, and he can't see either Hirsch or Singleton ahead of him.

Hirsch and Singleton are running for their lives. They get past the Comms Array on their left, and the shape of a single shuttle reveals itself through the rain on the pad just in front of them.... a few more seconds and they're there. They did it! They have their hands on the shuttle...

...

All three of them hear a screeching sound through the air at this point - a chorus of hellish angels. For Holroyd the sound is ahead of him, in the direction of the shuttle. For Hirsch and Singleton it's back the way they came.

As Holroyd comes up to the Chemical Storage Service Structure, two razor-sharp black shiny shadows move off the roof of the structure, completely ignoring him, running towards the shuttle. They call out with the same screech he heard a few seconds earlier...
Mar 25, 2024 8:38 am
"I'm here!" Holroyd yells at the creatures ahead of him, "Come on! Take me!"
Mar 25, 2024 9:54 am
OOC:
Asking an oracle here whether or not one of the beasts chooses to split off and go for Holroyd. They are typically uninterested in synthetics unless they're attacking them, so I'm going for 6 or lower means one comes off to attack Holroyd.
OOC:
Oops, mistyped there for first attempt. It's an 8, so no, the bugs keep on going towards the shuttle...
Holroyd calls out towards the bugs, but they appear to completely ignore his presence, and disappear off into the rainswept darkness towards the shuttle.

Rolls

Does bug attack Holroyd? - (2s6)

() + 8 = 8

Does bug attack Holroyd? - (2d6)

(53) = 8

Mar 25, 2024 1:14 pm
OOC:
That was a great death. I think I'll leave it at that. I'll just read along from here. Thanks for the game!
Mar 25, 2024 1:14 pm
OOC:
That was a great death. I think I'll leave it at that. I'll just read along from here. Thanks for the game!
Mar 25, 2024 4:24 pm
OOC:
Things are getting intense! Are we still in intiative order? Or is it changing now that have 2 new buddies coming to play? This is a placeholder move in case intiative changed.
"What the @#@#!", screams Singleton as she presses towards the doors. Her stitch getting more painful as she runs.
Last edited March 25, 2024 4:27 pm
Mar 25, 2024 4:44 pm
OOC:
Thanks for checking re: initiative here @microtheMacroBear - hadn't thought about that...!

These two new beasties will each have at least two turns per round, so if you end up engaged with them, I'll draw initiative again.

For now, in the interest of keeping things moving nice and fast, I'll leave you to make your posts as you get to them, rather than following initiative - if combat begins again I'll draw new initiatives for everyone.
Mar 25, 2024 6:01 pm
"Just keep going," Morgan yells ahead, his breathing heavy. "We're almost there!"

He has no idea what that sound was, but he doesn't want to find out, either. Still, he can't help but look back over his shoulder to see if there's any visual that goes with that sound.
Mar 25, 2024 6:20 pm
Hirsch comes to the door to the shuttle, Komiskey's key-card in hand, ready to use it to gain access to the vehicle.

Singleton stands just behind him, her service pistol drawn, obsessively peering through the weather back the way they had just sprinted.

Another nightmarish screech fills the air, louder this time...

...

Holroyd sprints as fast as he can behind the disappearing shapes in the rain, desperately trying to catch up with them. He reckons it's still another hundred metres or so before he gets to the shuttle pad.
Mar 25, 2024 9:16 pm
Morgan pulls the card out of the pocket of his coveralls and swipes it, gun down to the side on the shoulder strap.

"Come on, come on... open you piece of..."
Mar 26, 2024 1:47 am
The door to the shuttle airlock slides open, neon lights flickering, the light is jarring, blinding, after running through the night as they have been.

There is room in the lock for just two people.
Mar 26, 2024 4:04 am
Morgan practically jumps into the airlock, grabbing Hannah by the arm.

"Come on!"

His eyes scan the stormy darkness beyond her, and he tucks the keycard back into his pocket with the hand not tugging her into the airlock, then lifts his gun to cover the space behind her.
Mar 26, 2024 4:57 am
Holroyd continues his run, pushing his body to its limits to reach the shuttle.
Mar 26, 2024 11:10 am
Hannah stumbles forward into the airlock as she is pulled by Hirsch. She turns and slams her hand on the button to close the door.
Mar 26, 2024 11:38 am
The inner door of the airlock opens into the shuttle for Hirsch and Singleton.

The lighting flickers on inside as they enter - not such a shock for their eyes, after being in the brightly-lit airlock.

The interior of the shuttle is untidy, contents of lockers and shelves spilled out onto the floor. The front window of the shuttle is directed towards the base, the pilot and co-pilot seats looking out through it. For now, Hirsch and Singleton can only see the beating swirling rain - highlighted in the light now spilling out of the shuttle's front window.
Mar 26, 2024 2:04 pm
"Do your thing," Morgan says to Hannah, gesturing toward the pilot seat. "Flight prep, whatever. But we wait. Sonny's still out there. So are Mac and Holroyd. We give them a chance, but..."

He leaves the ending off, but the implication is clear. If they don't show up, we leave without them. He just doesn't want to say it out loud.
Mar 26, 2024 11:34 pm
"Got it", Hannah says and closes and makes her way up to the pilot's seat. She begins the start up sequence.
OOC:
Roll for Piloting plus stress? I'll add it just in case.
Edit: Did Hannah just panic!?!
Last edited March 26, 2024 11:42 pm

Rolls

Piloting (Agility) - (6d6)

(142552) = 19

Stress dice - (4d6)

(6416) = 17

Mar 27, 2024 5:19 am
Singleton settles into the pilot's chair, trying to filter out all the stress and horror that's been part of her life the last hours, trying to focus down on the tasks she knows, prepping this shuttle for departure.
OOC:
Not ready to take off yet, Singleton needs to do preflight checks and so on - so that's what I'm taking this roll for. Yes, that's a potential success (because of the two 6s) plus now a Panic Roll, which will be 1d6+4. If your panic doesn't negate the action, you have a success plus a stunt to choose from i.e. either +1 to later related roll, or you show off.
Hirsch worriedly paces the confined space of the shuttle while Singleton tries to get the shuttle ready to depart - peering out into the darkness through the window. Are those two shapes moving towards them through the night? Could that be Holroyd and Macwhirr?

But he's then distracted by the corner of his eye, he thinks he notices something moving in the mess lying on the floor...
OOC:
Hirsch/@ThatTaoGuy please roll for OBSERVATION - that's 3d6 base dice, 2d6 STRESS dice.

Rolls

GM Roll - (8d6)

(56412153) = 27

GM Roll - (6d6)

(624634) = 25

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