S'Krllk waits his turn at a shot. In the meantime, he thinks and says, "maybe we should stay inside the train and shoot at them through the roof of the car."

Desi and Orvo each fire twice at the nearest commando.  Desi hits both times and Orvo hits once.  The commando staggers back on the quickly moving monorail and then topples over the side, taking his glijet with him as he screams and crash down into the mountainous terrain below.

The other two quickly take cover behind the large pylon that connects the monorail train to the monorail rail above.  The last commando is leaning down, and you see that whatever it is he is working on is at the point of the pylon.  Unfortunately, the pylon also gives him complete cover, whereas his two companions only get partial cover from the pylon.

The passengers below are panicking and crowding into the passenger car, which will soon making going above much more difficult.

Porter gets the equipment.

S'krllk is at the bottom of the ladder waiting to go up, but Desi is blocking his exit.  He has to grab onto the ladder to avoid being swept away by some panicking passengers.

Orvo continues forward toward the next car, hugging close to the bottom of the roof to avoid shots from the commandos.  He fires at the nearest one again as he goes.

Seeing how S'Krllk can't climb up the ladder because Desi is in the way, Porter starts moving up to the next car, attempting to strap the power belt on as he makes his way forward.  "I'll see if there's another way up further front," he calls back.

(The next place to climb up would be the space between train cars.  He will need to push through the panicking passengers and climb up.)

Desiraye begins to move down the ladder and yells into the car, "RELOADING!  S'KRLLK, YOU'RE UP!"  Desi moves herself to reload the laser rifle and get back into the fight.  "Sarge!  If you can get through the crowd and get on the other side of them it might make a difference.  They're doing something and we don't have a clear shot from here."

Desiraye will pull all of the spare power clips (power sources) from the Fallen RIK guards' laser rifle, reloads, and then goes back up the ladder to continue firing when S'Krllk comes back down.
This message was last edited by the player at 20:46, Mon 08 Dec 2014.

Technically, they're on the first car, so climbing up between the front two cars would put you about 15 feet away from them, but they would still be behind cover.  There is no way to sneak up behind them.

EDIT: I marked up the map below so you can see you are the third car behind the pylon.  There are ladders going up between each car (the two in front of you being cargo cars, which you have never entered and do not know about yet).  With each square being 2 meters, the closest ladder would place you at about 15 feet away if you can get that close.  Otherwise, the ladder between the sleeping car and cargo car is the easiest to climb.

There is also the ladder put down the hole in the ceiling by the commandos.


This message was last edited by the GM at 22:49, Fri 05 Dec 2014.

Correction: I read the map wrong, so ignore my positioning of the ladders.  The ladders are in the bottom left corners where the dark stars are at.  Those represent hatches that go up.  The ladders are NOT between the cars themselves.  Sorry!

OOC: thanks for the map, that clarifies things a lot.

Porter summons up memories of his boot camp days, and Drill Sargent Yazrab, a big, ugly, bald Yazirian with the personality of a Prenglar swamp-prowler.  "I AM A STAR LAW AGENT.  MOVE TO THE BACK OF THE TRAIN FOR YOUR OWN SAFETY.  CLEAR THE WAY.  MOVE NOW!" he bellows.

The marine moves through the hopefully thinning crowd toward the cargo car door, praying that it isn't locked.

S'Krllk stops messing with his computer, surrenders his desire to sire a brood, and climbs the ladder. At the top, he pops up and shoots at whatever biped-shaped mass first presents itself and drops back down.

ROUNDS 3 and 4 (reloading, moving into position, and firing)

Shots are fired again.  The two commandos duck behind the pylon to avoid the shots, and no one hits them.  They fire back but also miss.

S'krllk, Desi, Orvo, and Porter are all now in a position to fire at the commandos, but the commandos have heavy cover.

Below you down the first ladder from Desi and Orvo, two RIK officers appear.  They begin yelling, "Down, you terrorists!  Drop your weapons!"

Porter and S'krllk have climbed up the ladder in the next car forward and are not seen by the Vrusk RIK guards.

It takes a moment for Desi and Orvo to realize that the RIK guards are yelling at them, not at the real commando terrorists.

Porter surveys the situation.  The commandos are about 50 meters away behind cover, and he's armed with a pistol.  "S'Krllk, try to keep them occupied with some suppressing fire.  I need to get further forward."

Porter slides down the ladder and starts running forward.  He'll try to get to the very front hatch as fast as possible.

OOC: sorry I haven't been fighting yet this combat.  I'll be more effective at closer range though.

Desiraye lifts one of her arms off of the laser rifle and puts it out towards the approaching RIK guards and tries to reason with them and hopefully explain what is going on.  "No, no no!  We're trying to help you!  There are three more terrorists on the roof of the farthest car behind some pylons trying to do something there!

We're also working for Zzik'Ti and we helped the Vrusk TV tech before who died earlier." 

ROUND 5

"Just the thing a human terrorist would say," one of the Vrusk RIK guards says as he opens a door to a room and squats down for cover so he can aim the gun better at Desi.  The other is also getting in a firing position.

The other riders are clearing the area and going into their rooms or back deeper into the train.

Desi only has her lower body exposed to the RIK guards.  The upper part was over the train room to fire at the commandos.  She can easily climb up out of the way of the RIK guards, or deal with them from where she's at with soft cover.

Porter begins moving closer.

Orvo's pistol jams, and he has to reload.

S'krllk fires again but misses.

The commandos are firing back.  One shot comes close to Desi's head, but they otherwise miss.

Porter keeps moving forward as fast as possible.

Not wanting to leave her team members down in the car with the responding RIK security and trying to explain they're trying to help (which didn't work right away), Desi decides that the main threat is still on top of the train car.  She pulls her body up and out, like Orvo, and decides to crawl forward with him pushing the assault towards the commando team behind the pylons.  Desiraye, seeing that Orvo had to reload, yells out to him, "HANDLE THAT AND KEEP PUSHING ON ORVO!  I GOT YOUR BACK!"  Desi is going to wait for the first commando to pop out and take an aimed shot (if possible) at that person.

Orvo keeps pushing forward, lying low to the roof of the train car, feeling the wind of the rushing air ripple through his gelatinous skin.  He will fire at a commando if he gets the chance, but his main goal is to safely get to them to stop them.

ROUND 6
Desi fires, taking out a commando.  The commando flops against the roof and then down into the mountainous region below.  The return fire misses.  No other shots hit.  Porter pops up his head.

But it is too late.  The commando in the back signals, and they all jump from the train and the pylon area, extending glijets as they quickly fall out of sight and range.

From below, the RIK soldier is climbing up after you, firing at Desi but missing.

You start to realize what is wrong.  The train is accelerating downward, now going over 300 kph, and going faster.  They have sabotaged the brakes!

In fact, in just 5 rounds, it will be traveling so fast that you will not be able to continue standing on the roof without being swept off.  But you will need to reach the pylon where the breaks are at to see if you can repair them, which means braving the fast accelerating roof and the rushing wind that threatens to rip you off.

(Repairing the brakes takes a technician skill and successful check, minus any modifiers.)

It will take you 50 divided by your reaction speed (rounded up or down) to go each car length per round.  So, for example, an RS of 50 means it takes 1 round to go each car length safely.  An RS of 60 is also 1 round.  An RS of 75 means you can go two car lengths.

A technician can try to fix the brakes once per round.  Only one technician at a time can try to fix them.  They can ONLY BE FIXED FROM THE ROOF, NOT FROM WITHIN.

You can double your speed crossing the trains but must make a Reaction Speed check each round.

At the pylon where the commando has sabotaged the brakes, there is a piece of equipment in which up to 3 people can attach themselves safely (used by mechanics to safely work on the roof).  They are latches that go around the waist.  ATTACHING THEM TAKES ONE ROUND.

There is an exit down to the engine room next to the pylon.  (See dark star in bottom left. Again, ignore my mistaken arrows point to "ladders." The ladders are where the stars are at.)

The technician check will be at a -20 modifier for fixing the brakes.

The lives of many may depend on this being a success.

S'Krllk watches the terrorists fly away, tracking them with his pistol, for just a moment. Something seems to click, and he snaps his gaze to the pylon and the downward slope along which they rush. "CrSSkSShhhhttttt!!!!"¹
Scrambling to the roof of the train, S'Krllk starts toward the pylon. "They took out the brakes! I'm fixing them!" he shouts into the mounting wind. He uses all his locomotive power to move to the pylon and strap himself into the work harness.

¹A disgusting parasite that grows inside Vrusk eggs.
This message was last edited by the player at 04:23, Wed 14 Jan 2015.

Porter moves up the ladder too late, arriving at the top of the train just in time to watch the commandos make their getaway.

He moves up to the front of the train to see what they were doing, expecting a bomb.  Unfortunately, he's got no training as a mechanic, and whatever they were doing looks like simple mechanical sabotage to him.  Latching himself securely to the pylon, he prepares another tether for S'Krllk as the Vrusk makes his way forward.

S'krllk makes it to the pylon, and Porter begins strapping him in.  S'krllk begins looking at the brake machinery to see what he will need to do.


This repair is a Repair Machinery check (which is 40% plus skill level), and carries a -20% modifier.  Given his technician skill level is 2, S'krllk must roll a 60% or lower (40% repair machinery base + (2 x 20% skill level) - 20% modifier = 60%.)

Go ahead and roll if you want, or I can roll for you if you prefer.

EDIT: For those of you who don't reference the rules much, I like to post the rule as a refresher once in awhile to get those game thinking juices flowing:

REPAIRING MACHINERY
Success Rate:
40% + skill level

Technicians can repair vehicles, large and small
machines, and electrical equipment (including video
and communication devices). They can not repair
computers or robots. Technicians use the standard
repair rule.
Besides repairing vehicles that have been damaged
in combat, the referee can include mechanical
breakdowns on random encounter tables. This is
recommended if the characters are on a long cross
country journey, where a breakdown is likely and
the nearest repair shop is several hundred
kilometers (or light-years) away. When a vehicle
breaks down, roll 2d10 on the following table to
determine what has happened:

VEHICLE BREAKDOWN TABLE
Roll  Vehicle Breakdown
2     broken axle or hoverfan*
3-5   broken driveshaft or transmission*
6-10  minor engine failure
11-15 minor drive train failure
16-17 broken suspension
18-19 major engine failure, repairable*
20    blown engine, unrepairable**

* This breakdown takes twice as long to repair as a
normal breakdown.
** A blown engine can not be repaired in the field.
In a shop, it takes four times longer to repair than a
normal breakdown.

This message was last edited by the GM at 17:19, Tue 13 Jan 2015.

Desiraye finds herself in a tough position where she is.  On one end, is the pylons she needs to get too and the dangerous route she needs to take to get there and to try and stop the train with her limited technician skills.  Second, there was a security officer who wasn't trying to here their side of the story about the commandos being the bad guys here.  They were called a team for a reason although, they hadn't been working together for long, she needed to trust her team members.  She knew she wasn't the person for the job to fix the brakes so, best thing for her to do would be to slow up the security response by buying them the time to get there and repair the brakes to stop the train and save everyone.

Trying to maintain control, Desi looks back at the security guard that had just fired at her and raising her hands and yelling, "I surrender!  The brakes are failing on the train and we're going to crash if they're not fixed!"

Orvo will go to the next train down and climb down the ladder to safety, away from the danger of the roof and the crazy RIK guard.

OOC: I will take the silence as an indication that you want me to roll."

S'krllk gets in there and quickly tries repairing the brakes.

ROLL: 09:36, Today: GM Heath rolled 21 using 1d100.  SUCCESS!


S'krllk successfully activates the brakes, and the train begins to slow down.  It finally comes to a stop.

The RIK officer is peaking his head up, finally understands what is going on as he sees S'krllk fix the brakes, and he lowers his pistol. (You mentally note that this could be because he sees other Vrusk -- i.e., S'krllk -- up her on the roof with you.)

After the train comes to a stop, the crew begins inspecting and trying to figure out what is going on.  The RIK guards interrogate you, and the technicians determine that the monorail can go no further.  The passengers are ordered to gather their belongings for a rescue operation.

About four hours later, the rescue train arrives to carry you to Quazzt's Depression.

OOC: For your amusement, here are the results for a failure on the brakes:

Once at the top of the pylon, a technician needs to make a repair machinery check (at -20 due to the adverse conditions) to stop the train. A successful check activates the brakes and the train begins to slow down and shortly stops. Full repairs can now be made. With a failed check the brakes only work partially, the train is slowed down but leaps from the rail at the bottom of the mountain where the rail bends sharply. The speed of the train equals the number the check was failed by, multiplied by 6. For example, if the check was failed by 20 the train is doing 120 (20x6) kph when it crashes.

Each carriage of the train is protected by a huge inertia screen. This is automatically activated by impact sensors in the front of the train and absorbs half of the damage each character suffers in the crash. Inertia screens worn by characters are not added to this, but inertia suits are. See AD p31 to determine the damage caused.


Also, your characters managed to avoid being pickpocketed during the trip, and managed to avoid the RIK guards making you suspects in the sabotage.

EACH OF YOU GAINS 3 EXPERIENCE POINTS. PLEASE UPDATE YOUR CHARACTER SHEETS.
This message was last edited by the GM at 17:47, Tue 20 Jan 2015.