"I've got two frags on my belt Bartja.  Take one or both and use them however you need too!"

Tactics being a weak point for the doctor, he eyes Desi trying to shoot the robots head and does likewise.

Beam Weapons 45% + Aim (5 SEU)

ROUND 2
As Bartja and S'Krllk head up the catwalk, Desi tosses two grenades their way.  They each catch one.

Then Desi fires, hitting the robot in the head.  (Double damage. Robot is at -15% to hit.)

Kri'lik also fires.  His shot goes wide, hitting the glass behind the robot.  (Critical miss.)  The laser fire blast opens a hole to the vacuum of space, and you hear the hiss of air escaping.

Hammer shoots the floor in front of the robot.  That seems primarily to make it mad and it fires back.  At least Hammer is distracting the robot's firing.

The robot fires, its lasers scoping out Bartja as he moves along the upper catwalk.  Bartja is hit by an array of powerful lasers.  (51 STA damage.)  Bartja falls unconscious to the floor.  (Bartja is at -14 STA.)

Bartja flops to the floor of the catwalk, but S'Krllk makes it just past him.  S'Krllk is standing over the giant robot looking down, staring into the barrel of the large laser rifle.  (If he tries (and abandons Bartja), S'Krllk might be able to swing down and get into the escape pod next round.)

The recoilless projectile rifle in the other robot hand fires at Hammer, but Hammer ducks behind cover just in time to feel the blast hit the wall of the escape pod bay door.

The robots outside are getting closer.  Two more rounds until they reach the room.

OOC: Just to make it clear, there is careful aim (getting a bonus to hit by delaying the shot) and there is a called shot (taking a penalty to try to hit a certain area of the opponent).

Kri'lik can reach the catwalk and stimdose Bartja at the end of next round if he gets cover fire and doesn't get shot.

STRATEGY OBSERVATION:  It appears from your encounter so far that the robot's primary targeting is centered on movement.

Cursing his bad luck and the escaping oxygen the Vrusk abandons the firefight and moves for the ladder to take him up to the catwalk and the injured Bartja.

Stimdose is the plan if I can get there in time...

S'Krllk drops the magnetic bar onto the huge robot before attempting to grab Bartja and get clear.

The lasers had cut him down, but not before he'd seen another potential weakness in the robot.  Now if he could only come out of dreamland to tell S'Krllk in time.....

*groan*

Desi was going to take another aimed shot at the head but, seeing that Doc's shot has begun a puncture in the glass.  "Crap!  This is going to get ugly real fast.  Start moving for the pods," she says as she tries to target either the head again or a weapon system with [1] x [10] SEU shot at the big robot.

Does the robot look like it's still tracking us with his sensors or sight?

Beam Weapons: 6
DEX: 30
Laser Rifle 40/50 (Beltpack)

Laser Pistol: 12/20
This message was last edited by the player at 01:14, Mon 02 May 2011.

"That blast was too close!  I have no advantage exchanging shots with an armored combat bot!
It's mass-produced to destroy, but I'm delicately crafted for refined endeavors.

I give up!"

Hammer makes a 'running while shooting' maneuver,
desparately hustling to get to the escape pod.

Despite his robotic nature, he isn't particularly good at it.
This message was last edited by the player at 08:18, Tue 03 May 2011.

ROUND 3

Kri'lik begins running up and toward Bartja.  This movement attracts the giant robot's attention.  It fires at Kri'lik...but the cover of the railing and height protect Kri'lik.  He bends down and gives Bartja a stimdose injection.  Bartja is revived.

Hammer begins firing and running toward the escape pod.  His shots go wide, but he gets the attention of the giant robot.  Amazingly, the recoilless rifle only hits him in the leg, doing mild damage.  (16 STA dmg.)  Hammer stumbles the rest of the way into the escape pod (on the left side where Bartja, S'krllk and Kri'lik are above).

The robots are getting really close to the large room...

Desi opens fire again, hitting the robot in the back of the head.  (58 dmg.)

S'Krllk throws the magnetic bar at the giant robot from above.  (The roll is a miss, which means he hits the robot with the magnetic bar, but it does not hit any critical functions.)  The magnetic bar hits the right leg of the giant robot, rending it inoperable.  (Speed slowed, rotation to turn slowed, etc.)

1 Round until the other robots reach you.

You hear Shinsa's voice over your microphones.  "It's the General!  He's compromised.  Get to those shuttles.  The master computer is attempting to disable all escape pods.  We can't hold it back for long."  Her voice then appears directed elsewhere.  "General, wait.  General!  No!"

Then there is silence.

Bartja wonders for a moment how the general who is flesh and blood (he thought) could be compromised - but there hardly seems time to worry about it.  They must escape now!

"Move slowly or throw something to distract it!  It seems to be keying in on motion more than heat."

Testing his own theory, Bartja sets the grenade Desi tossed him to explode in 0 rounds.  Turning his head to see the giant shred-bot, he judges its position as well as he can, then tosses the grenade to hopefully land at its feet.  He watches to see if the Robot will turn to fire at the arching projectile or if it will choose a larger moving target in preference.  Either way, he hopes the move will have some effect.

Grenade Roll: 58%
1/2 Dex: 40
Grenade Bounce Direction: 9
This message was last edited by the player at 20:51, Tue 03 May 2011.

Hearing the warning and then silence over the radio, Desiraye decides that it's time to finally move and get the hell out of here.  She uses her best speed and using available cover to get to an escape pod.  If she can help anyone get there with her, she certainly will.

S'Krllk decides to do something stupid, and gets as close to the escape pod as the catwalk permits before attempting to leap down to the pod.

Kri'lik is having similar thoughts as S'Krllk but decides to what the other Vrusk go first. If his leap goes well the professor will follow.

"Ah, my leg!"  Hammer goes down, but crawls to the shuttle.

Inside the 5 seconds of safety in the shuttle, Hammer is unhappy and also deep in thought.
He says outloud,
"What is the chance this Matrix virus wants a ride along with us?
I'd say almost 99.9%.  Hopefully we can get someone to wipe it -- if we leave."

And then the thought, 'I wonder if I'm infected...?'

Hammer initiates a self-scan to see if he detects any infection in himself.

ROUND 4
Hammer is inside the pod.  The screen in the center of the pod lights up as he enters, displaying a screen that says, "Please enter security code for launch.  Do you wish to view your security question?"  Your understanding of escape pods is that they are locked in place but are unlocked in cases of emergencies.  Therefore, it shouldn't require a security code, not unless the computer virus that is taking over the ship has locked it up.

Bartja tosses the grenade down, and it bounces to the side, exploding near but not on the giant robot.  The robot is damaged and swings its guns around.

S'Krllk takes this opportunity to swing down.  He jumps over and scampers into the pod safely.

Kri'lik is right behind him, but now the guns are facing in his direction.

Bartja ducks to avoid fire.

Heavy Lasers and a recoiless rifle fire up at the catwalk area.  Bartja is not hit, but Kri'lik is hit in the arm (12 STA dmg) as he swings over the railing.  (Right arm unusable...luckily, Vrusk are ambidextrous.)

Yag and Desi are running toward the pod as fast as they can go.  The exploding grenade makes them stumble, but they are able to get into the pod.

The giant robot is now turning around to face the pod and the giant window.  Everyone is in the pod except Bartja, who is still on the catwalk.

The robots coming up the hall will enter the area at the beginning of the next round.

Holding his breath to see if the incoming robots distract the giant-bot, Bartja waits or the opportunity.  The moment the huge-bot turns to see the new entries into the fray (whether or not it fires on them), he rolls off the catwalk, dropping down to the floor below, and sprints to the escape pod.  The adrenaline and stimdose seem to be working together to help him feel "no pain"....at least at the moment.

"BARTJA!  WE ARE LEAVING," Desi yells out as she begins to cover his way down to the pod.

OOC: OK, I wasn't thinking of doing this but, is the window that is cracked within a reasonable shot of Desi in case she needs to shoot it out to use it agains the robot(s)?

Yes, she can fire out the door and hit the window to the left or to the right to hit the giant robot coming your way.

Oh, and don't forget about the message on the escape pod...

"If we don't know the security code, go to the security question."

Hammer looks at the screen, doesn't touch anything.
"I don't know the security code, I don't know the security question!!
I may be a Mechanon, but I'm not a computer person!  Tech support!!!"

Sometimes, fiddling with computers when you don't know what you're doing
messes things up worse than if you think you know.

Hammer is smart enough to know that much, so he doesn't do anything...
except nervous self-talk.
"Ooooh oh, this isn't good.  This isn't good..."

Once inside the pod Kri'lik does his best to start first aid on himself. The doctor can not be using only one arm...

Will apply one dose of biocort for +10 STA...hope that makes my arm work...

S'Krllk examines the escape pod, looking for anything that would allow them to override computer control and wondering which of the escape pods systems can be used by the matrix as environmental hazards.

Inside the escape pod, you have a few options:

You can make a Computer Check, Level 5, to try to get past the computer lock out, or

You can check the security question to see if there is another way to override.

If you fail, you will need to all get to the other escape pod to try again.

Remember that you can only do a computer check once per person, and each check will take 1 round.

Yag jumps to the computer, asking it to give the security question even as he begins trying to override the computer.