Starpath: Scoundrels of the Interstellar Highway - Games

"I think I might have broke something..." Silvia muttered as she flapped her wings, try to feel any possible broken bones. "Oh wait no I didnt." ((Or did she??)) [highlight](User was permabanned for this post ("Alt of permabanned user" - OvB))[/highlight]

Amelia is tossed around like a ragdoll in the vehicle, bruising her here and there, but miraculously, nothing broken. She leans her head up after making a grunt of frustration. [quote]As the van faded into the distance in the rearview mirrors, the crew watched as an explosion of white smoke suddenly engulfed the front of the vehicle. The driver and passenger soon came rolling out, their clothes on fire from the phosphorus.[/quote] The enemy vehicle started driving off, before an explosion occured right in front of it. She chuckled as the white smoke took over the vehicle. Her smile instantly wore off, however, as the two passengers run out of the vehicle, slowly burning them to death. Her eyes widen, her heart rate increases, and a single tear falls from her left eye. She obviously doesn't like the sight of prolonged suffering. After watching the two men die in front of her eyes, she regains her senses as she moves her leg off of Taylor's back. "...Heheh, sorry," she says while brushing off debris on her shirt. "So... what know?" she asks.

Jag struggle to get itself up off the floor after the cash, taking an severe amount of force during the roll. It's shell covered in cracks running across it. Nevertheless, the Sanghvi continue push forward and rise up, standing with an sight slow wobble from side to side. Creaking each time to moved. [quote]"Nice throw, Jag."[/quote] Jag turned to it's fellow freelancer, stumbling as it moved to face comrade. The injured Sanghvi gave a quick nod towards Taylor. [QUOTE]"So... what know?"[/QUOTE] "We press on." Jag says it's looked onward.

Vakarus was ready to unleash the final four missiles in the tubes in order to take down the Vokoba. There was only a single fighter left, and it had taken up a defensive position rather than trying to snake into the killing zone behind the Muramasa's flak cannons, like the others before it. That left the two gunships to open up again on each other, and the Muramasa currently had the initiative. CH Estmate: 5/7 [B]Actual: 1[/B] Roll Failed. It almost seemed too easy. As Vakarus pulled the trigger, there wasn't anything between the two ships but air. What could go wrong? In fact, everything could go wrong, and in an ironic twist, it was now the Muramasa that failed to land a hit. One missile failed to even leave the tube, thanks to a bad priming fuse in the solid fuel booster. The other three fired, but the Vokoba activated some sort of electronic countermeasure. They spiraled off course and either impacted the empty fields beyond or self-destructed in the open sky. For a moment, the two ships exchanged flak bursts against each other's shields, chipping away at the armor underneath. Another hole was punched into the engine compartment on the Muramasa, this time causing a loss of thrust vectoring which caused the ship to list uncomfortably to the left. Accordingly, Owen changed his technique in order to maintain proper heading. Meanwhile, the Vokoba took a burst to its underside and lost its landing instrumentation. While the engineers aboard the Muramasa struggled to re-arm the final missile and identify the type of ECMs employed against the previous volley, the Vokoba locked on with a large cruise missile and fired, despite a sudden, tight turn by the Muramasa, causing a high chance of overshooting. CH Estimate: 3/7 [B]Actual: 3[/B] Roll Failed. "Nice job, Owen," Neasha commented as the missile flew by the craft harmlessly. Owen's maneuver was the product of gut instinct. Again, the Vokoba missed its mark, albeit this time due to poor tactics rather than poor luck. At this point, neither ship was prepared to fire, and the Vokoba broke away momentarily to give its engineers a chance to reload the missile bays. Onboard the Muramasa, Bucky confirmed over the comm that the final missile had been fixed and was ready for firing. The Muramasa crested another tree-covered ridge and found a wide river just beyond it. Below, between the two slopes of the opposing hills which framed the riverbank was the bridge they had been searching for. "Have they crossed that bridge yet?" Neasha questioned over the comm. Rask replied: [quote]Not yet. They're close though, have you found the bridge?[/quote] "Yeah, we see it. We're going to destroy it now. Whenever you're ready, Vakarus." --- Abraxas: CH Estimate: 1/1 (Apothecary) Abraxas +25 HP, 42/50 The police van was damaged and losing speed, ever so gradually. Yanim was still twenty minutes away, and now the two patrolmen from before were approaching fast on a shared motorbike. Rask prepared to ram them, but not before one of them presented an assault rifle and began shooting at the van's rear tires. CH Estimate: 2/5 [B]Actual: 2[/B] Roll Failed. Just like with Amelia before, the tires were too reinforced to be blown out by shooting, although the police had a much better chance with their 7.62 rounds. Nonetheless, as the two patrolmen realized that they weren't going to be able to stop the van without getting in front, to where they could fire on the driver, they appeared exhausted. Maybe they realized that they were unlikely to survive the passing attempt, but driven by duty to at least try. CH Estimate: 5/7 [B]Actual: 4[/B] Roll Passed. Rask growled as the bike pulled up next to him, and despite his own exhaustion he mercilessly swerved the van into the patrolmen. They bounced off the side of the vehicle and into the oncoming lane, where they smashed headlong into a passenger vehicle. In an instant, the first patrolman was propelled through the car's windshield and had his neck broken by the impact of colliding with the passenger seat. Meanwhile, the second officer's legs were broken when he hit the nose of the vehicle before flipping upward, crashing off the roof, tumbling end over end into the street, miraculously surviving the impact. And then second car slammed into him with enough force to remove his boots from his feet. [B]2 Enemies Eliminated.[/B] "Told you I'd take care of 'em, keh," Rask mused as they entered a tunnel. "There's a junction ahead," he explained. "If and when that bridge is destroyed, we'll see which route their van takes next, and then proceed on the proper roadway to intercept them." ((I was intentionally ambiguous about injuries. You can decide what being halfway dead means to your character, but keep in mind that in the next couple of rolls, Abraxas will be healing everyone per Doomevil's action.))

[Going with half-dead meaning injuries, but nothing broken yet. Three quarters dead being some stuff is broken, and ded is ded. (For a human, anyway.)]

[Well I'm like 3/5ths dead so I guess I'm all woozy from hitting my head a bunch of times and I broke my left pinky. A few bad, purple bruises here and there too]

Yuga steadied herself after the wild ride and put her sword back in her hilt. She lifted her hat and swept back her hair. "Commendable piloting Owen, looks like my estimates on you were misplaced." She noted that they were running out of readied armaments and that the Vokoba was certain to come back sooner or later. She reached over to the console and activated pulsar to assist the radar system locate it so that she could anticipate its next move. ((Roll for action)).

Yuga: CH Estimate: 3/5 [B]Actual: 5[/B] Roll Passed. With deft interpretation of the radar instrumentation's readouts, Yuga ascertained that the Vokoba was engaged in a circular, climbing turn which would cover about 36 kilometers in circumference. In other words, the Vokoba was retreating to a distance of slightly more than 11km, reloading its missiles, and was planning to dive on the Muramasa in roughly two minutes, given a speed of roughly 300 m/s.

Vakarus opened fire on the bridge, firing bursts from the forward cannons at its supports and steel cables keeping it stable.

Vakarus: CH Estimate: 7/10 [B]Actual: 8[/B] Roll Passed. Vakarus wasn't going to be fooled by the Vokoba's momentary withdrawal; there was only one missile left in the pod and he wasn't going to waste it on a stationary target. As the Muramasa dipped in close, he unloaded with the flak guns and blew a chunk out of one of the stabilizing struts near the pillars which bore the weight of the span. There was a groan from the structure as the cantilever's sinews were severed, placing more and more stress on a few vital beams. Just as the ship began turning around for another pass, the framework suddenly broke loose at the welds, dropping the arm of the cantilever onto the unsupported span. The reaction carried across to the opposite side, tearing the opposing arm loose of its rigging savagely as the entire center section of the bridge twisted and sank. The bridge imploded into the river with a splash thanks to Vakarus' accurate shooting. The Vokoba returned to the scene moments later, diving from above with the intent to send the Muramasa into the river as well. However, thanks to Yuga's careful watch, the maneuver was not only predicted, but the last missile in the tube was trained on the enemy corvette. While the sword of the kanad fleet descended upon the Muramasa, the latter was in position to strike first and take the enemy's arm at the shoulder. --- [quote]The bridge is down, watch your tracker and cut off the van. We've got an enemy closing on us...[/quote] Rask didn't need to know about the Vokoba or any of Neasha's other problems. The most important task had just been accomplished, and holding his breath, he watched the dot on his screen slow to a stop less than a kilometer away from the demolished bridge. As smoke rose eerily out of the electrical engine components inside the police van, he silently wished he had brought along an engineer to help. It was too late to do anything about it at this point, however. The point on the map began to move in the opposite direction, apparently taking the same route it had previously traveled. "Holy shit, they're coming right to us!" He exclaimed jubilantly. The spirits within the vehicle were lifted, especially as they watched Abraxas make his rounds, healing everyone one by one. Abraxas: CH Estimate: 1/1 (Apothecary) Jag +25 HP, 40/50 Rask put his foot down on the accelerator and the damaged van grumpily complied. What had been a 20-minute gap between the crew and their target was rapidly closing; at their current rate, they would be in position to intercept the van carrying their employer within five minutes. "Alright, listen up, keh? When that van gets here, we can't just wreck it. We don't know what kind of situation they've got the Boss in. We need to do this with some finesse, okay? So here's what I'm thinking: just before the van gets here, we'll try to block both lanes. Then, when they slow down and try to drive around us, we'll ambush them and take out the driver." The crew nodded. The van made an ugly noise. There was a putrid smell in the air. "One more thing," Rask continued. "Amelia, just in case we need to get the Boss out of that truck, we're going to need that fingerprint you recovered. They use biometrics on these vans when they're moving prisoners around." "Can't we just use the driver?" she asked. "Uh, not really, no," Rask replied, sounding a bit uncertain. "I meant, just in case we can't stop that van, we might need to get the Boss out of it [I]while it's moving[/I]. You're a scientist; can you figure out a way to transfer that print?" ((Also, I am aware that M. C. has been permabanned. Sylvia is now an NPC under my control for the time being.))

Vakarus slammed a button and launched the final missile. Seconds later a pair of beams and a swarm of flak projectiles sped past the flying ordnance, hoping to tear up at least the exterior hull before the missile hit.

Vakarus: CH Estimate: 3/5 [B]Actual: 1[/B] Roll Failed. The Vokoba flew directly into a cloud of flak, its shields penetrated and its hull dented and damaged. However, the main event was still to come- Vakarus pressed the button and watched in anticipation of another wrecked kanad vessel. Instead, the defective weapon succeeded in igniting and flying a short distance out of the pod before suddenly veering to the right and exploding in the near distance. Flecks of shrapnel could be heard bouncing off the Muramasa's shields. "Oh, gods dammit," Neasha cursed. "Owen, evasive maneuvers-" She was cut off by the sound of the Vokoba's approach and firing. CH Estimate: 4/5 [B]Actual: 3[/B] Roll Passed. Although exhausted of small-diameter rockets thanks to the ill-fated attack the Vokoba had performed before, the ship still had two more scramjet missiles at its disposal, the last ordinance onboard. They roared to life menacingly and closed the remaining distance on the Muramasa with true military efficiency. The crew braced for impact in the fleeting moment before their arrival, but the explosion which resulted was far more mild than anyone had expected. However, Neasha and the rest of the crew felt an unpleasant tingling sensation as the lights and computer systems flickered out. "Those were EMPs!" Neasha cried out. The ship was suddenly silent as it glided through the air like a javelin. "I've got a dead stick," Owen reported. They were losing altitude, and due to their strategy of low flight, the crew didn't have much to lose to begin with. "Hold on-" "-I can't control it-" "Give me that!" The bridge was in chaos as the ship lost speed and the incline increased. Yuga suddenly found herself weightless in the absence of artificial gravity, and clutched the navigation console precariously. With only seconds to go, Neasha attempted a partial reboot of the flight computer. CH Estimate: 3/7 [B]Actual: 5[/B] Roll Passed. The bridge lit up with bright red warning lights, consoles displayed incorrect and fluctuating information, and alarms competed for attention which couldn't be spared. But most importantly, Owen and Neasha, each with a hand on the flight stick, felt force feedback as they pulled back on the controls, proving that there was once again hydraulic pressure in the flight surfaces. The Muramasa raised its nose, its body tilted and wobbling like a drunk walking home, less than twenty meters above the surface of the river. The engines activated in a sputter and blew the placid water into twin rooster tails as the ship began to rise again. The Vokoba, far above, continued to circle the wreck of the bridge. There was no way of knowing how the captain of that ship reacted upon realizing that his fight had just ended in a stalemate. He must have called for help from another ship, however humiliating it must have been, because he eventually broke from his holding pattern and flew away, toward his own base.

Vakarus who had remained relatively unaffected by the short burst of chaos onboard the Muramasa looked towards Neasha. "Weapon systems are bekng readied, do we pursue our opponents, Scaled-one?" He asked as the weapon systems began rebooting and reloading.

Neasha remained silent for a moment before bursting out laughing. "Are you joking?" she asked. She then turned to Yuga, who didn't quite seem to see the humor in the situation. "Yuga, please restart the navigation system and get us a lock on Rask's position. Once we get the away team and Yanim back onboard, we're out of here." Neasha patted the Muramasa's pilot console like a dog and smiled, shaking her head. "I wish I could say that's the closest call I've ever had."

Yuga squinted her eyes at Neasha as she burst out laughing. Rask couldn't possibly know what the situation was on the their end. Granted, this whole break-out operation had been so haphazardly constructed that it was a miracle that it had gotten this far. [quote]"Yuga, please restart the navigation system and get us a lock on Rask's position. Once we get the away team and Yanim back onboard, we're out of here."[/quote] Yuga nodded and restarted the navigation system to track the vans on the ground. "It will be interesting to meet our contractor when this operation is concluded. I have a few details I'd like to discuss with her."

Ahaz drinks a whiskey and sits down to read a book

Taylor waited silently in the passenger seat, holding her neck with one hand and the grab handle above her head with the other, the shotgun situated between her legs as she waited for medical treatment from Abraxas. Luckily, nothing was broken. Anything else, Abraxas could fix with that magic juice of his...whatever that shit is...

"Understood Scaled-one." Replied Vakarus. He continued to calibrate the weapon systems. "I will keep our weaponry ready incase they should return with a more impressive warhost."

Jag was quite surprise by Abraxas's first aid work on it's body, the collection of the various chemicals and toxins that we're in his possession were complete mystery to it. Nonetheless, the multiple cracks covering it's shell was sealed almost instantly. The Sanghvi was fairly confusion but nevertheless grateful for his work. Attempting to give the soft-carbon a quick nod in appreciation, through Abraxas had already rose up and walked quickly towards the next injured squadmate. Jag quick turned it's attention towards the interior of the vehicle in search anything of use to halt or atleast slow down the Van carrying this Terika.

Abraxas: CH Estimate: 1/1 (Apothecary) Silvia +25 HP, 45/50 Jag: CH Estimate: 4/5 [B]Actual: 4[/B] Roll Passed. Jag performed an extra search of the van's interior for anything which might be useful in the coming rescue. Under one of the bench seats, he found a small pack tucked away in a corner with a handheld grenade launcher inside. It was packaged with two flairs and three canisters of tear gas. The sun was beginning to set over the roadway as Rask pulled over once again in the van, this time blocking both oncoming lanes. There wasn't enough traffic around to cause a complete stoppage, and so he warned the away team to be ready to cause trouble. "They'll be here any moment," he said. Moments later, they saw it for the first time: a police van much like their own, headed in the opposite direction. Its lights were flashing, its siren was blaring, and, worryingly, it was accompanied by a small close-support aircraft operated by a kanad pilot, the "escort" the drivers had mentioned over the communicator. The van containing Yanim stopped well in advance while the enemy aircraft closed in, targeting the away team's van. "Everyone out!" The away team came tumbling out of the van just in time, before a barrage of machine gun fire made swiss cheese out of their vehicle. What was left of their van erupted into chemically-powered flames from the ruptured battery packs. Five tetrian officers disembarked from the enemy van and raised their rifles; the only option available was to fight back and hold out for the Muramasa! [B](Five Turns Until Extraction)[/B]

Taylor shuffled to her feet, and straightened up. Pop! Ow. That was her neck. She moved her head from side to side, before noticing that there were officers filing out of the enemy van. Shit. She ducked, and prepared for combat. "Alright, Jag. Now would be a good time to put some gas on those guards. Maybe we can blind them with it. Some of us can circle around, and try to bust the boss out."

Vakarus turned to Neasha. "Scaled-one, do I engage the opposing support vessel?"

"No, our contractor is with the vehicle and our ordnance is too heavy to safely extract her." Yuga leaned with her arms on the holotable and studied the situation. She looked up toward Vakarus and Neasha. "I would suggest providing cover-fire on the ground between our team and the enemy. When we have discerned the ground teams plan we can act accordingly."

((The Muramasa is currently too far away to intervene, anyway. The 5 turn countdown is the amount of combat time it will take for the ship to close the gap.)) Neasha observed the holographic projection of the scene, taken from a device built into Rask's facial armor and relayed back to the ship. She heard her subordinates debating intervention, and forged her own opinion on the matter. "If we use the machine guns on the nose of the ship, we might be able to take that support vessel out without harming the van. It's designed for antipersonnel use, but it should work here." She then considered Yuga's suggestion. "By the time we get there, there won't be enough ground 'between' the two sides to keep them separated. We'll just have to work with what we're given." --- As the support vehicle continued to fire, the away team scattered to avoid being easy targets. By this point, civilian vehicles heading toward the enemy had come to a screeching halt, some crashing into each other and forming a wall of wrecked cars. The drivers and passengers inside, belted in and pressed against their airbags, sat paralyzed as the battle took shape outside. Rask called out to the team, telling them to use the cars for cover because the kanad ship would not engage a target hiding behind civilians. As soon as they were able to organize themselves, Rask voiced his support for Taylor's plan. "Jag," he said, "we have to cause some chaos if we're going to advance. Most of us are going to have to stay put and keep the CAS distracted, but you can get in close if you gas the fuckers on the ground. Sylvia, once Jag takes off for the enemy van, I want you to take to the air. Abraxas, I'll need your help personally." Abraxas: CH Estimate: 1/1 (Apothecary) Rask +25 HP, 45/50

"Oh, hey! Rask! Here!" said Taylor, before she reaches down behind her riot vest. A moment later, she pulls out something. Some kind of red canister with a pin in it. "I managed to keep one of these from my gear. Was saving it for a special occasion! You use it if you need it!" she said, as she tossed it to him. "Thermobaric grenade. Guaranteed to blow them the fuck up." she said, giving him a thumbs-up gesture.

"Understood Scaled-one, preparing machineguns." Said Vakarus as a pair of futuristic machineguns deployed at the front.

Soon-to-be Frosty is busy drifting through the endless void between worlds. ((Say, does the Muramasa have a hangar or some big ass storage room? I checked the diagram Sega made, and it looks like it doesn't. I really hope his starfighter isn't disposed of and left behind because it's the only thing that he has.:cry:))

"Roger Employer Rask." Jag replied as it lined up an shot with the grenade launcher, holding in the general direction of the guards. Griping it tightly with the mandibles under it's right arm. The Sanghvi hovering the weapon's sights over the Van. One of guards holding firm stood in it's crosshair, it's mandible laying the launcher's trigger. "Ready for your order." Jag said, prepared for action.

After a while, it occurs to Ahaz that he hasn't seen anyone else for quite some time. He smiles and savors the moment, then returns to reading the book.

((When I created the layout of the ship, I didn't originally plan for hangar space. To accommodate your starfighter, I suggest including in your design an access tunnel from the rear of the cockpit to the underside of the fighter. That way, we can say that there's a fold-out airlock built into the tunnel between the Muramasa's mess hall and the armory with a ladder. The starfighter could then dock and piggyback, sort of like how big aircraft used to transport the space shuttle. Later, we might end up acquiring a larger ship with hangar space.)) As the away team prepared to assault the guards which held their unmet leader captive, Abraxas tended to Taylor's wounds. As she was briefly preoccupied, she handed over a grenade for Rask to use whenever the moment seemed right. Rask in turn gave Jag the signal to fire a tear gas canister. Jag pulled the trigger, sending the projectile skyward. Simultaneously, Sylvia took flight in an effort to close on the enemy support aircraft. Abraxas: CH Estimate: 1/1 (Apothecary) Taylor +50 HP: 100/100 Jag: CH Estimate: 5/7 [B]Actual: 1[/B] Roll Failed. The canister came down out of the air and hit the ground with a loud clang, bouncing off the pavement and across the barrier to the sloping ground to the side. The can began emitting the gas as it rolled downhill, away from the enemy officers. "Shnka! Fire another one!" Rask urged. Sylvia: CH Estimate: 3/4 [B]Actual: 4[/B] Roll Passed. Silvia rose from the ground gracefully and with such speed that the support aircraft was not prepared to shoot at her. Having climbed above the cone of fire, she rushed towards the cockpit, confident that she could easily disrupt the aircraft's effectiveness or even take it down, depending on the strength of the canopy. However, because Jag's tear gas missed its mark, she was exposed to enemy fire. Guard 1: [B]3[/B] x Sporting(x 1.5) = 4.5... 5 Sylvia: DEF = 5 No Damage. Guard 2: [B]8[/B] x Sporting(x 1.5) = 12 Sylvia: DEF = 5 [B]7 DMG[/B] Sylvia HP: 38 A bullet stuck her in the upper torso under her arm, deflecting off her ribcage and breaking a rib in the process. However, she was committed to her flight path and refused to allow the pain to distract her even though she spat obscenities to vent her frustration. Moments later, she hit the canopy of the craft and readied her plasma bow. She was not able to get a shot off during this turn. Rask wasn't about to wait and let his comrade get torn to shreds by the tetrians, and so he readied the grenade and hurled it at the enemy. Without the interference of tear gas, the odds would be longer, but... CH Estimate: 2/5 x 2 = 4/5 (Malevolence) [B]Actual: 2[/B] Roll Passed. Seizing the moment as his race is known to do, Rask threw the grenade at a low angle as if skipping a rock off a pond. The tetrians, in a panic, accidentally ran in the same direction rather than scattering. On a lucky bounce, the grenade fell in their direction, and there was nothing they could do about it. [B]15 DMG[/B] While all of the officers sustained damage from the blast, none were killed or incapacitated. They then returned fire on Rask. Guard 3: [B]8[/B] x (No Feat Applicable) = 8 Rask: DEF = 5 [B]3 DMG[/B] Rask HP: 42/50 Guard 4: [B]9[/B] x (No Feat Applicable) = 9 Rask: DEF = 5 [B]4 DMG[/B] Rask HP: 38/50 Guard 5: [B]5[/B] x (No Feat Applicable) = 5 Rask DEF = 5 No Damage. A flurry of bullets tore through the air in response to Rask's attack, with one clipping Rask in the hip, another in the upper arm, and one harmlessly deflected off of his shoulder armor. "Keh, you've gotta do better than that, you punks!" he screamed in defiance. "Everyone, show 'em what you've got!" [B](Four Turns Until Extraction)[/B]