Looking down at the corner of his HUD where his remaining ammo is displayed, Xander grimaces.

I can't sustain this rate of fire without having to reload. Flux, Battalion, see what you can... Xander breaks off his sentance as he watches Flux hop onto the viewport of the disabled Wasp. ...do. Yeah, just keep doing that.

That gives me an idea, actually...

Pulling Abraxas up into a steep climb, Xander quickly ascends to a point well above the Mastodon, as well as the Eyebots harrying it. At the apex of his climb he kicks the battlemech into a steep dive, throwing his thrusters to the max and dropping like a stone, if a stone was 30 tons and propelled by rockets capable of achieving low orbit.

[Charge Attack > highest altitude Eyebot: 9]

With a yell, Xander pilots Abraxas directly down into the Eyebot icing the dorsal portion of the Mastodon

[Damage: 75]

The probe erupts into a rapidly blossoming explosion of twisted metal, and Abraxas continues through the wreckage, seemingly unscathed.

Love your idea, Flux, but I think I broke mine...

Two down, two to go...

In reply to Xander (msg # 300):

I've got engines and a thin hull, not sure what you guys want me to do without guns.

Battalion shakes his head and does his best not to meet the little girl's stare.

Honestly, he mutters to the himself sitting in the copilot seat, it's like they expect me to do everything.

In reply to Batallion (msg # 301):

Flux heroically rips the pilot out of the cockpit of the disabled wasp, hurling him toward the Mastodon was a gentle nudge.

It really doesn't matter how gentle the nudge is, however -- the man is not wearing a spacesuit, and almost immediately expires due to uncontrolled decompression. It's exactly as pretty as it sounds.

The disabled wasp now sits vacant and ready for pickup... or for a new pilot.

The active wasps throttle their drives even further, chasing Abraxas relentlessly with their rear-mounted laser batteries.

[Attack: 10]
[Attack: 71]

Warning lights dim the glow of success that Xander had been basking in as the mech takes a second shot to the same shoulder, dealing 30 damage. The schematic overlay on Xander's console readout indicates that shielding surrounding the left shoulder's power feed is at risk of becoming completely disabled if it were to take another hit.

The shuttle is now close enough to the Mastodon that it could try to dock, if the docking bays weren't 1) closed or 2) covered in ice.

~~ Combat Continues ~~
The Shuttle (Rebecca, Batallion)
Walkabout Suit (Flux)
Abraxas (Xander)
2x Wasps
2x Eyebots

In reply to The Watcher (msg # 302):

Of all the... ideas?  Hack the doors, blow a hole through the ice?

(OOC:   how small are the ice-beam things?  Reasonable to ram them?)

In reply to Batallion (msg # 303):

You COULD ram them, but they'd probably damage your ship. It's like driving a car... you COULD plow through, say, a cow, but not without damaging your vehicle.

In reply to The Watcher (msg # 304):

Battalion pilots the shuttle toward one of the eye-bots with the intention of spinning around near it and hitting it with his thrusters.

In reply to Batallion (msg # 305):

Flux reaches out with his hand to grab the mechs assaulting Xander

[Gravity Manipulation 13]

But fails to make a connection.

I suppose things had been a little too easy..

In reply to Flux (msg # 306):

Rebecca breaks through the on the comm unit

Flux, if you are able to grab one of those wasps are you able to throw it through the ice covering the door clearing the way for us to get in?

In reply to Rebecca Taylor (msg # 307):

Affirmative, though no telling what sort of "boom" we should expect and the damage it might do to the Mastodon. No telling what the core of those is made of.

Flux pushes off from the disabled mech and launches himself in the direction of the Mastodon.

In reply to Flux (msg # 308):

On his way toward the ice-bot, Battalion swerves to miss the disabled mech and the Mastadon.

Stop throwing crap at me!  I'm not a fuckin' stunt pilot!

By all appearances, however, Battalion does not actually know how to fly a shuttle (7 White failure).

In reply to Batallion (msg # 309):

You are not very good at this.  Perhaps you should slow down in your own interests as I feel that the ship crashing and imminent death is far more inconvenient for you than it is for me.

Xander pulls up sharply and re-engages his thrusters, continuing his charge towards one of the remaining eyebots. (Not the one Battalion is heading towards).

[Charge: 57]

[Damage: 50]

Yet another eyebot explodes, leaving only one to harry the Mastodon. A glance down at his instruments keeps him from celebrating, however, as the damage sustained has become concerning, and two of the Wasps were still on the loose.
This message was last edited by the player at 16:05, Mon 10 Nov 2014.

In reply to Xander (msg # 311):

Nice work Xander. See Batallion. You crash into the eyebots, not the Mastodon. It's a subtle but critical distinction.

In reply to Flux (msg # 312):

You mind waiting a moment? Battalion spits through gritted teeth while fighting furiously to avoid crashing.  Some of us have problems your dull wit can't solve.

He glances at Rebecca.

Any ideas sweetheart?  What did they teach you in that fancy school anyhow?

In reply to Flux (msg # 312):

The shuttle spirals out of control as Batallion tries to replicate "this thing I saw in a holoflick once," leaving a small army of duplicates running around the bridge flipping levers, toggling toggles, and generally attempting to reassert control over the flailing vessel before it plows into the Mastodon.

OOC: You'll need to make another control roll on your action. I recommend you spend karma, but hey, it's up to you.

The Mastodon's systems seem to be lighting up here and there, though the remaining eyebot continues to keep a thick layer of ice crusted over its docking bay.

A static-laced garble squeaks over your comlinks from the capital ship -- nothing useful, but a promising sign nonetheless.

The twin wasps continue their assault on the mech, performing acrobatic somersaults as they duck and weave around Abraxas in a lethal corkscrew, lasers firing repeatedly along the way.

[Attack: 20]
[Attack: 44]

Fortunately for Xander, the shots go wide by a mile.

~~ Battle ~~
The Shuttle (Batallion, Rebecca), Out of Control
Walkabout Suit (Flux)
Abraxas (Xander)
2x Wasp
1x Eyebot
This message was last edited by the GM at 16:16, Mon 10 Nov 2014.

In reply to The Watcher (msg # 314):

Somewhere between the frantic button-mashing, duplicate flailing and off-color commentary, Battalion manages to pull the shuttle under control (Agility: 51 Green success).

Stick THAT in your pipe and smoke it...

Now, if you can finish with those defenses, we'll land.

In reply to Batallion (msg # 315):

Percy has a grasp of the phasing handle and will control our density levels as necessary.  If we were in imminent danger of crashing into the mastodon I could have phased us through the ship.

She chews her lip for a thought second.

My course load included

Astral biology, molecular biology, biochemistry, chemistry, cellular transport and movement.....

She continues to list off her course load.

In reply to Rebecca Taylor (msg # 316):

Flux continues drifting toward the Mastodon, shifting his focus from the wasps hunting Xander to the eyebot harrying the docking bay.

Flux reaches out his hand and sends the eyebot crashing into the iced over docking bay.

[Gravity Manipulation 86]
[Damage 40 + impact]

"Kaboom"

In reply to Flux (msg # 317):

As Rebecca drones on, a handful of Battalions are created to hum loudly out of tune.

With all the eyebots neutralized, and the Mastodon hopefully coming back online momentarily, Xander turns his sights back to the Wasps. In the heat of the battle, he struggles to remember where the power conduit he targeted last time was.

[Reason: 39]

Without Flux dampening their movements, the Wasps were significantly harder to track. Xander takes a calming breath and sinks deeper into his neural link, knowing that he couldn't afford to miss.

[Shooting: 79 (10 Karma Spent, Bullseye)]

Like before, the plasma glow from the enemy battlesuit's engine fades as the high-velocity rounds sever the power.

Flux, got another one for you! he calls out before the second captured battlesuit can begin plummeting towards the ground.

In reply to Xander (msg # 319):

The remaining Wasp whips around to get another shot at Abraxas.

Brave, but stupid, with an escape route lined up for it.

[Attack: 62]

The strafing fire is less precise, probably because the pilot is panicking. Still, the consecutive blasts seem to be increasing in strength with each and every hit. Xander's eyes start ringing as the control panel erupts in yellow, orange, and red pinpricks, registering 40 damage scattered around the torso and shoulder.

A crackling surge of energy surrounds the Mastodon, and the ice shatters off of it like a spent cocoon.

The capital ship's batteries flare to life, vaporizing the remaining wasp instantly and immobilizing the two inert wasps with its tractor array.

~~ End Combat ~~

"Mastodon here," Captain Blaise's crisp voice surges onto all comlink frequencies. "Prepare for docking and debriefing."

+1,000 Karma to all
This message was last edited by the GM at 19:34, Mon 10 Nov 2014.

In reply to The Watcher (msg # 320):

Flux redocks onto the transport ship, now cluttered with more than 30 Batalli.

"I guess we know how many it takes to screw in a lightbulb..you know, if a lightbulb were precision flying of a several thousand ton spacecraft"

In reply to Flux (msg # 321):

Ah, you made it back.

Battalion pilots the shuttle carefully toward the docking bay.

And our armored friend, is he allright?

In reply to Batallion (msg # 322):

I'm not a tech specialist, but I didn't hear or see an explosion on his end of things.

What do you say roboboy- you ok out there Xander?

With a throbbing roar, Abraxas comes to a halt on the metal deck of the docking bay. The chassis has clearly sustained heavy damage, but it appears that all critical systems are functioning.

I'm fine, but Abraxas is a mess. It's going to take me a lot of time to get him back in order. I hope all this intel is worth it.

His eyes drift over to the captured Wasps, eager to begin the work of examining the technology, but not as eager as he was for a hot shower, a cold drink, and some time to get the worst of the wear on Abraxas fixed.