OOC: Are there any weapons that we can see on the floor, spent shell casings, laser scorches, signs of battle, etc.?  Thinking maybe the robot won't attack if there's no weapons out or isn't attacked?

There are a few scattered weapons under the corpses.  You see a 3 laser pistols and a needler pistol.  There may be more if you move around the corpses to look under them.  But clearly not all of the dead were carrying weapons.

Remembering the response of the science bots to him, Bartja motions for everyone to move back.

"Take cover!  I don't think it will recognize me as a human and I may be able to deactivate it.  If you hear me getting blasted, feel free to intervene, but give me a chance to shut'er down before we start blasting the place apart."

It wasn't bravery - it seemed like the only chance they had against a robot of this size.  If Bartja knew his robots (and he was pretty sure he did), this thing could take a full clip from a laser rifle without flinching, then return ten times as much baster fire in a single round.  It would not be easy to defeat in direct combat....no...it would be practically impossible given the few weapons they had salvaged so far.

Once the group is safely out of sight, Bartja steps back through the portal and faces the robot.  If it restrains firing on him, he walks right up to it with purpose, toolkit in hand.
This message was last edited by the player at 03:03, Wed 20 Apr 2011.

Hammer mumbles under his breath, "Oh great.  OK, let's try this again."

Hammer walks into the room with an exaggerated robotic walk, like the other Matrix robots he's seen.
He speaks to the giant 'bot with an even tone.
"Do Not Fire.  Explosive Gas Detected.  Firing Weapons May Cause Explosion.
Repeat.
Do Not Fire.  Explosive Gas Detected.  Firing Weapons May Cause Explosion."


Hammer walks in a different angle than Bartje, offering himself as a distraction.

If a gun starts tracking him, he will move very fast out of the way.
Hammer is not brave -- but it seems that bypassing this obstacle
is the logical way to the pods & freedom.

Desiraye nods to Bartja and tries to wave the others to follow her and seek cover in the tech areea with the equipment and heavy tables to let Bartja & Hammer do their thing.

Doctor Kri'lik eyes the escape pods trying to determine how many individuals can fit in each one? He also takes note to where the abandoned laser pistols lie.

As Bartja and Hammer move forward and Hammer begins talking, the left arm gun trains on Hammer and the right arm gun trains on Bartja.  The left arm gun appears to be some sort of laser or similar weapon.  The right gun appears to be a projectile chain gun with high caliber bullets.

The right gun barrel begins spinning with a disconcerting whirring sound.

You hear sounds behind you of approaching robots.

Each escape pod holds up to 8 people.  They sit around in a circle octagon style with a control computer in the center.

The robots behind you will arrive in 3 rounds.

"Christ Bartja, that sounds like a high-powered weapon or a gatling gun ready to fire!  You and Hammer better be sure you know what your doing," Desi says to them over their communication devices as she seeks cover in the tech shop and unslings her laser rifle.

S'Krllk ponders for a moment, then moves to the rear as with his magnetic bar. As he does so, he looks for some constriction wherein he could affix the bar to prevent the robots from passing. If nothing else, perhaps he can slow them down to give the others time to deal with whatever technological terror is blocking the escape pods. So he mumbles, "I'll just use the magnetic force."

When Hammer's persuasion has no effect, he moves for cover.
His biggest concern is that there will be no effective cover for this type
of weapon.

"Alrighty then, that didn't work.
This giant robot is too stupid to process a perfectly reasonable order.
OK, I'm in trouble again, people!"
Hammer says all this while moving as fast as he can.

Not one to strike first, Doc Kri'lik aims his laser pistol at the robot and moves to cover like the rest of the group. He holds his fire until fired upon or Desi gives the signal.

While moving for cover he will try and work his way to one of the laser pistols lying on the ground. cover has priority however over the abandoned pistols.

Beam weapons 45% + aim. 5 SEU setting

Taking it all in after only the first two steps, Bartja stops and watches with horror the chain gun warming up in preparation to fire.  Time seems to slow as he takes in all the details he can from this distance - then retreats backwards to find cover from the hail of high-caliber bullets about to erupts in the escape-pod garage.

"That's no UPF robot!  The Matrix must have built itself a security bot and it looks like they've covered all the safety features.  I guess there's no need to deactivate one of the Hive-minded because that thing has no control panel that I could see.

We're surrounded, although I'd rather face the science-bots behind us than that thing in combat.  Maybe we can use the science-bot as shields.  I don't think big-mama down there is going to care what comes into the garage.  It's going to blast anything and everything that moves towards the pods - that's my guess."

Bartja removes an electro-drive from his toolkit and looks around the hallway for a suitable ambush point where he can hide, the idea being to quickly and effectively disable one of the oncoming robots before a melee begins.

Clicking her SEU output to 10, Desiraye takes careful aim at the Giant Robot, hopefully finding a vital system or weapon system to take out giving them a chance to get away.

Beam Weapons: 6
DEX: 30
Careful Aim
Laser Rifle 50/50 (Beltpack)

Laser Pistol: 12/20

...unless something else happens?

From behind his hidey spot, Hammer shouts out,

"Can't you jam it's reception?  Or maybe cover it's optical sensors with goop
so it doesn't blow me up?  Or something ... BEFORE ... it fires?"

Hammer looks around desperately for anything within reach.
He has a wimpy laser pistol, but that would probably do nothing to the combat 'bot.

"Maybe this rescue was not such a good idea?  Out of the frying pan..."

ROUND 1
You begin preparations.

Hammer dives to the side, and Bartja gets back toward the area where the robots will soon arrive.

The guns on the robot release.  Near Hammer, blasts of powerful lasers hit the wall.  He is in the nook of an escape pod bay.

Bartja doesn't have any really great place to wait for the robots but can go up top if he wants.  In any case, he steps out of the range of fire just as a barrage of bullets fly, ricochet, and send thunderous roars throughout the bay.

Desiraye gets her weapon out.

Kri'lik moves behind another of the nooks and draws his weapon.

S'Krllk steps back toward the hall with the robots and has his magnetic bar ready to help keep them at bay.

The giant robot takes a step toward you.

There does not appear to be any particularly susceptible area of the giant robot, though the neck and face might be options, or either of the guns.

The next few moments will likely determine the fate of this escape attempt, and Bartja sees few good opportunities to improve their odds.

"Aim for the head and neck.  If you can take out the sensor arrays, you can at least weaken the thing.  Someone should snipe those targets if possible" he says to those who are skilled with the weapons.

Looking up, Bartja notices the catwalk level above and decides that perhaps he can use it to drop in behind the approaching robot-party.  Anything he can do to disable this flanking attack has to help!  Besides, if he and S'Krllk can shut down this group quickly, they may also be able to reprogram them to enter the fray as allies instead of enemies.  Putting them in the line of fire of the mega-bot is preferable to any of the friends being up front.

He was now glad that he'd given Hammer the gyrojet rifle with the full clip.  He felt unhindered by the need to fire randomly at the giant bot and his hands were free to disable robots.  Besides, he thought as he climbed frantically to the catwalk, now I'm free to glide down on these suckers!

Climbing Roll: 80 (if needed)
This message was last edited by the player at 22:42, Thu 28 Apr 2011.

Going on Bartja's advice, Desiray aims her laser rifle at the head area of the robot.

Beam Weapons: 6
DEX: 30
Careful Aim
Laser Rifle 50/50 (Beltpack)

From cover, Hammer shoots at the floor below the robot.
Is Hammer panicking?  Or is the ingenuity?

When you are thinking of your strategy, here is the basic situation:

The giant robot is essentially blocking most of the hall leading to the two escape pods.

You could theoretically jump from one escape pod nook to the other to use as cover, taking a risk there.

You could destroy the giant robot.

If you cross the floor, you must maneuver around bodies and objects, which could trip you or cause delays.

As Desiraye discovered, there are other items of cover too, such as the table.  I made it heavy metal (pardon the pun) to be an effective shield, if not 100%.

If you are on the catwalk, you have attack advantage to the oncoming robots (height) and light cover from the giant robot, allowing you to possibly run along it to the escape pod on the left.

The giant window behind the robot, if penetrated, would result in decompression and emergency procedures (which may be more or less severe depending on its damage).

The robots coming in from the hall are indeterminate in number but are likely not a few.  Their place in our story is more for the effect of giving you need to hurry rather than a new swarm of enemies.  Even if you overcome one or two, you are likely to be overwhelmed by the others.

I do not create the situation to railroad you into any one solution, so whatever road you take may or may not work.  I try to at least include several possible solutions.  So these are the things I had in mind, but you may think of something more or better.

The giant robot has 750 STA.  (High damage means you hit between armored plates and lower damage means you hit its armor.  Otherwise, you can do careful aim with the bonuses and penalties to maximize damage, as Desiraye is trying to do.)

In reply to GM Heath (msg #22):

In mesg #6, Desi stated she was going for the heavy metal tables for cover.  I knew that the big robot would have that many STA.

That's what I understood, so we're on the same page.

Realizing that the situation is, at least, as desperate as usual gives S'Krllk the push he needs to have a hare-brained stupid idea. He just had to figure out how to get to the catwalk and move on the thing. Perhaps he should count on quick movements, it seemed to work for earther cockroaches.
S'Krllk scurried to the catwalk ladder most obscured from the big bot, and ran up the thing.

After climbing up to the catwalk himself, Bartja listens to the many many feet, wheels, and tracks of approaching robots.  He shakes his head in defeat.

"Too many!  Who has the grenades?  I'm going to make a run for it which should distract it.  Take advantage, Des, and blast it's head off!"

Ready or not, Bartja chooses to run and dodge on the catwalk, trying to reach the escape pod just beyond the giant-heavy-duty-machine of destruction...