The Eternity Citadel
Location: Tantalus Spiral, Milky Way Galaxy
Date: Outside time
Timeline: The Last Great Time War

The room was plain, boxy, and dark, lit only by the stark white light that spilled in through the entrance. It fell on the dully reflective metallic surfaces of the floor and wall, upon the neatly stacked boxes marked with angular script, and cast space-black shadows behind them.

In these shadows, dust rose and billowed as the air stirred, was forced aside as something massive slid under the dimensions and inserted itself between every molecule. Sound followed, a wheezing and groaning, but hushed, as if it did not dare be heard. With it, a box, plain and silvery, tall and wide, began to materialise, achieving solidity with a resolute thud.

Time passed, an anxious wait for an alarm that thankfully did not come.

Then the box cracked open along a side, and the travellers emerged, looking around, cautious and alert. They had good reason. Ahead, through the lopsided arch, too narrow at the top for humanoid comfort, they saw something slide past – squat, domed, bedecked with globes, bristling with mechanical limbs – a terrible shape they knew all too well.

A Dalek.

They ducked swiftly and silently behind the crates, peering desperately around the sides. As it glided past, the Dalek's dome rotated, its eyestalk peering inside. For a moment, their hearts, once pounding madly, skipped a beat or two. Then, mercifully, the Dalek passed them by, going about its obscure business.

After a time, they heard a heartbeat not their own, a cold and mechanical rising, double pulsing. The beat of the hate-filled heart of a Dalek ship. A heart to which they had to venture.



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JC3pkx3ZfHQ
This message was last edited by the GM at 11:26, Thu 02 Apr 2015.

Grimly, they recalled just why they had come to this awful place, the message they had received.

It had come to Tarys first, to the distant part of time and space where she searched for clues as to the fate of Gallifrey and the Time War. The wheezing and groaning of the materialising TARDIS was especially hideous, but had had been hope and joy to the ears of a temporally marooned Time Lord. Battered, scorched with blaster fire, its outer plasmic shell was incongruous, appearing as a tall blue wooden cabinet, the legend POLICE PUBLIC CALL BOX above its double doors. The vintage Type-40 TTC of the Doctor was notorious.

The door was open.

She stepped inside.

The control room was small, much-patched, dim with back-lit roundels. Loose cables hung from the ceiling and snaked across the floor, broken old parts and weapons lay scattered about. There was a couch, leaking stuffing, the cushion angled to double as a well-used bed. A strange, misshapen device lay here.

Yet there was no Doctor, no pilot. The room was empty. Worse, it felt empty. Tarys could feel the psychic void, the Doctor-shaped hole in the very space-time of this TTC. How many thousands of years had he puttered around this room, shaping the space-time to his form just like that couch? How could he have been so completely removed?

She could feel the TARDIS's grief.

A yellow Post-It note on the console proclaimed in a hasty scrawl: THIS IS PROBABLY THE BEST BUTTON TO PRESS. A large red button. She pressed it without a moment's thought but with an infinity of intuition. The time rotor juddered and the TARDIS dematerialised.

Also on the console, she found a glowing white cube, a hypercube message box, which would retain a message unchanged, whatever happened to the timeline it came from. It activated on touch. A hologram appeared: an old man, time- and careworn, with scruffy white beard and moustache, with cockatoo hair, wearing a shabby leather jacket, a tea-towel scarf, and a bandoleer bearing only a sonic screwdriver. The Doctor, as she'd seen him during the War.

'I'm dead.' he began without preamble, his voice so weary. 'Dying. Never was... Got hit by a Temporal Weapon Dalek getting out of the Temporal Cannon in the Tantalus Spiral – I think. It erases events, you see, destroys your timeline, starting with the moment you're hit, so you don't realise. It takes longer on a time traveller, chasing your timeline around and around. Gives you a little time to—' Then he vanished, but the hypercube was still playing. Tarys recalled the incident, not long before the end of the War. The Daleks had harnessed the energy of the Tantalus Eye, a space-time anomaly at the centre of the Tantalus Spiral, and used it power terrible new temporal weapons, weapons that could erase a target entirely from history, up and down their time-lines, so that they never existed, never would have existed, and were forgotten by all around them. Modified Special Weapons Daleks – Temporal Weapon Daleks – wielded smaller versions, but the Daleks had constructed a massive Temporal Cannon out of three good-sized moons and aimed it right at Gallifrey. It would utterly erase Gallifrey and the Time Lords from history, undoing all their works, good and bad. Only the Daleks would remain.

Naturally, Rassilon had ordered the use of the Tear of Isha to close the Tantalus Eye, but this would obliterate all twelve inhabited planets in the Tantalus Spiral. The Doctor, aided by Cinder of Moldox, one of those planets, had stolen the Tear and destroyed it in the distant future, earning Rassilon's undying hatred. Then he travelled back to the Temporal Cannon and obliterated all the Daleks and their weapons – exactly how was unknown, and Rassilon had classified all details on pain of death.

The Doctor suddenly reappeared. Had the last minute been lost? '—can't go back. Crossing your time-line accelerates the process, lets it jump from here to then, and mine's knotty enough as it is. Don't have long. It's up to my TARDIS now, she'll find someone—' He disappeared again, then returned. 'Use the temporal trace locator, it's—' The Doctor patted his pockets, looked frantically around. '—on the couch. I forgot I finished it...' he trailed off, a hunted look in his tired eyes. 'It will interface with a TARDIS homing beacon circuit. Use it to locate what remains of my timeline, traces of my passing. With enough data it will, well, "quadrangulate" the location of the Temporal Exterminator, the actual firing mechanism. You need—' Frustratingly, he disappeared again.

'—It'll be dangerous, and I won't ask you to do this. But if the Daleks wipe us out, they'll exterminate everything. So, well, think about it—'

'—and remember, don't ever—'

'So, good luck. Maybe we'll mee—' The Doctor disappeared, reappeared, looking forlornly at the floor. Then he looked up, began speaking again. The hypercube wasn't set to loop. The Doctor was repeating his message to ensure enough of the information got through. 'Hello. I'm the Doctor. Maybe you don't know me, but if you're getting this, it means—' The Doctor flickered in and out, with a few broken snatches of his message. Then he disappeared. And didn't come back.

The TARDIS had landed, taking Tarys to a city in Scotland, Earth, outside a small old mansion. Her first stop. Tarys thought to take the hypercube and temporal trace locator with her, having some idea she would need them. She was glad she did. No sooner had she stepped outside, then the TARDIS had dematerialised without her.

Fortunately, the mansion had proved to be substantially larger on the inside. The long-dormant, even dead, the other TARDIS had woken up, energised by the old Type-40 on her doorstep.

There, Tarys met a young student Time Lord in hiding, Axander. The two Patrexes had felt a kinship, though they hadn't met in the Academy or a Chapter get-together. It wasn't hard for Tarys to convince Axander to help her rescue the Doctor. With the TARDIS guided by the temporal trace locator, they had set off into the universe, seeing the traces of the Doctor's time-line, having many and varied adventures, and discovering a post–Time War universe.

The Time War was over. The Time Lords were gone, Gallifrey was destroyed. The Doctor was dead.

The Daleks had survived.

There was no-one to stop them overwriting the timelines, turning defeats to victories through history, over and over. At every point, they grew stronger, more numerous, more successful. In the distant future, their total victory seemed certain. The universe grew colder.

Yet they'd found allies, friends, who bravely chose to help them in their quest to thwart the Daleks, or perhaps for their own reasons.

On a stopover on the planet Raksha, they met Bluetooth, a young Rakshasa hunter with a knack for technology, friendly and curious as a cat and brave as a tiger.

At one point, the TARDIS had collided with another vessel in the Space–Time Vortex, a human-built starship called the USS Horizon doomed to make random hyperspace jumps throughout the universe and throughout history. The Horizon was fractured across time-zones, which the Time Lords soon repaired. When they left, they found a stowaway, a teenaged mechanic named Trace, plucky kid who'd rather choose his own destiny with the TARDIS than be marked as surplus to requirements and deposited on the next somewhat-habitable world the Horizon passed, as its masters were wont to do.

They met Stirix, a Martian scientist, keenly intelligent and just as honourable, and an excellent medic for those who submitted to his tender clamps.

In the 41st century, they met Major Farren Zander of the Space Security Service, an expert and highly capable spy with many secrets and mysteries. He readily volunteered to join the quest, feeling obliged to stop the rise of the Daleks and safeguard the Earth, and feeling compelled to step inside the wondrous TARDIS.

Together, they had closed on their destination and neared the end of their quest – the Dalek's Eternity Citadel.
This message was last edited by the GM at 03:23, Sun 05 Apr 2015.

OOC: Show time! You're infiltrating the Eternity Citadel, a Dalek fortress housing laboratories for the creation of various doomsday weapons and the Temporal Exterminator. You're aim is to destroy/disable the Temporal Exterminator and/or the Eternity Citadel, save the Doctor from being erased from history, save Gallifrey from being erased from history, and save the universe from Dalek conquest.

The Daleks are Time War–era Daleks. There are also captive alien scientists working in the laboratories. Key locations you may seek are the labs, the command centre, the power generators (powering the facility, not the Exterminator), controls for the defence grid, and the control room for the Temporal Exterminator itself.

You know each other reasonably well, having had a few adventures together. Feel free to share what details and hints other PCs would have learned about your character in that time, but you don't have to give out all of it.

Feel free to wing it regarding any background or details, or ask me for guidance.

The PCs (I assume Time Lords) are carrying the following:
* The Doctor's hypercube (can be reused)
* The Temporal Trace Locator (not required at this point)
See the Gadgets thread for details.
This message was last edited by the GM at 15:00, Thu 02 Apr 2015.

Daleks. The one species in the universe he'd hoped never to run into again. Naturally, he'd agreed to this mission when Tarysvanemila -- sorry, Tarys -- had told him what was at stake. Axander knew the stories. He knew lots of stories, but the true ones were what had kept him looking out into the universe during his temporary exile. Even terrified as he was, having seen Daleks up close during their civil war, he'd agreed.

When he'd found that Gallifrey was gone, just gone, what little had been left of his reasons for staying safe had gone as well. He'd been waiting for the War to end so he could go back home. But that wasn't how it happened. It could be, if they could fix things, though.

"Looks like we're here. Now what?" Keeping his voice low, Axander adjusted the leather bookbag on his shoulder and pulled out a little silver and black rectangle. It opened like a book, but it had screens. With the push of a button, his encyclopedia showed the entire contents of Gallifrey's Matrix computer network's information on the Eternity Citadel. It showed a moment of static, and then just black. His hearts sank into his stomach as he put the device away.

"We're going to be alright. We're major characters on an important mission. Long as we're important to the story we'll be fine..." A common reassurance when he was worried, clearly not directed at the others.

Peering through a gap between crates, Trace watched the one-alien killing machine roll by. As soon as they were out of range of its audio sensors, the boy released the breath he hadn't been aware until that moment that he had been holding.

Infiltrate a Dalek fortress, find and destroy and superweapon, get home in time for tea and biscuits. It hadn't exactly sounded like a cakewalk before, but know, seeing a Dalek in the flesh, Trace thought that maybe they had broken off more than they could chew.

"So what's the plan again," he asked the others, whispering. "Anyone know where this weapon is gonna be? Will it need a lotta juice? We could always follow the power lines."

Tarys draws a deep breath.  Being in this place, for her, is like staring a storm in the eye: the tools being forged here will be capable of sending titanic waves of potential thundering off into the future and the past alike.  It feels very strange to stand still and work so hard at focusing on the task, letting all that roar past her while her allies seem all but incapable of noticing the swirl and ebb of it.

She has come far and long to get here.  If the moment she learned of the Eternity Citadel was one of crushing despair -- the knowledge that, save for perhaps a few lost souls, the Daleks had won and were preparing to reap the fruits of their victory -- this moment still has its flicker of hope.  She and the others still have the chance to snatch their triumph away.

She touches the hilt of the Knife, though she knows better than to use it as yet.  This place will be watched, with all of the cunning and the knowledge that the Daleks have developed over millennia of conquest.  The Knife will strike its blow before long, but it must remain hidden from them until the time is right.  Her hand drifts slightly to the pouch on her hip where the Doctor's hypercube is safely stowed: that might be just as good a talisman for her, for now.

"That approach may help, Technician Trace," she murmurs.  "Locating and eliminating the Exterminator itself is of course a key goal.  But I believe that it is may be just as important, just now, to seek out the workshops where the Daleks hold so many in thrall, working to build the engines of tyranny.  We six alone are hardly a needle to prick the Daleks; so many brilliant and skilled persons, set free against them, may yield us seas upon seas of untapped possibilities.  And no slaves deserve to be slaves in any case."

She studies all the rest.  "It may be wise to divide our forces, to approach the Daleks' downfall by many paths at once...."
This message was last edited by the player at 02:50, Fri 03 Apr 2015.

Major Farren Zander blended into the surroundings as best as he could (he had changed into a non-descript "civvie" spacer utility jumpsuit, leaving his black SSS uniform back on the TARDIS), relying on his training to keep out of sight (and hopefully out of mind) of any patrolling Dalek.  Farren had encountered Dalek's before and knew that the usual "Human Approach" (that of going in "guns blazing") would not work, it had been tried before and had failed miserably in the face of superior Dalek technology.  But Farren's "Zander Approach" differed considerably from the (stereo)typical "Human Approach", he preferred to keep outright violence to a bare minimum if possible (his best missions were those where the enemy never even knew he had been there).

But Farren's familiarity with the "Enemy" did nothing to halt the involuntary tightening within his stomach at the sight of the infamous "salt shaker" form of the dreaded Dalek.  If the Dalek's had managed to kill off (well technically even worse, annihilated, in the "Biblical Sense") The Doctor, then that spoke to a level of lethal cunning that was truly formidable even by Dalek standards.  But there was no time to focus on the enormity of the challenge, one could too easily become readily overwhelmed thinking about "The Odds" of success, because the Price of Failure was far too terrible to contemplate.  There had been no question or doubt that Farren would join the others to "Fight the Good Fight", he felt duty bound and morally obligated (perhaps even "spiritually compelled") to succeed or die trying.  The fate & freedom of not just the Earth or even the Galactic Federation as a whole was at stake but rather the entire future of Humanity hung in the balance.

Farren looked at the others and said in a soft whisper, "Do you think it is possible to re-direct the "blast" of the Temporal Exterminator?  Perhaps even to cause it to overload or backfire?

I ask because it seems to me that if the Temporal Exterminator could be used against itself, it would take itself out of the Time Stream by "never existing" and I think that would mean that all the harm it has done would be "reversed" since it was never around to "delete" others, like The Doctor, from their Time Streams."

Farren seemed to be struggling slightly with the "temporal mechanics" and "time theory" of his idea as he added with a sheepish expression, "Of course, I am no Time Lord, so perhaps there's a big gapping flaw in my proposal that I cannot see and/or lack the training to identify.

I am inclined to leave the theories of preserving and/or manipulating time lines to the experts... like Tarys or Axander."

Having wandered inside that big blue box, Bluetooth was even more surprised to learn that it had been there for him, even if no one could explain why or how the TARDIS (that's what the blue box was called) knew who or where he was.

He wanted to tell the others where he was going, only he didn't know where he was going, didn't know when he'd be back, and, more importantly, he hadn't been allowed to do so... simply because the TARDIS had left.

Sure, the others would track his scent to that clearing, and they'd see the indentation left in the grass. Maybe they'd deduce that he'd gone somewhere, somehow... perhaps a military transport of some kind. It would have been unthinkable for them to consider anything else. Certainly the truth would have been too fantastical even if they'd somehow thought of it.

He considered these new people he'd met as friends, though he wasn't sure they reciprocated that sentiment. He just didn't have a broad enough experience yet to know what else there was.

He didn't know much about time traveling, so a lot of what the others said held no meaning for him. But he trouped along gallantly on a series of adventures--he couldn't have asked for anything more back on his home world, stopping some nefarious plot by the Synthrax, for instance.

He hadn't understood why they were doing this, though it had something to do with saving the Doctor. It was his TARDIS, but he wasn't there--he was being erased from time unless this exotic group could stop that from being completed.

The TARDIS finally arrived at its roundabout location, some place called the Eternity Citadel! It certainly sounded exciting!

"Is that a Dalek?" he whispered as they lurked behind some crates and giant salt shaker floated by. He'd heard the others talk about it, but this was the first one he'd seen.

"It's just a machine. Why can't we disable it?"

He understood the plan to split up and target different areas. He tried to think of which target he'd be most useful for.

"I should go free the scientists. The Temporal Exterminator is probably beyond my meager technical know-how to disable. I might accidentally exterminate something important!" he said after the Dalek had gone.

"There is no need for false modesty, Major," Tarys responds as she regards him with an unblinking gaze.  "That's perfectly sound paracausal reasoning."

OOC: This, of course, should terrify everyone. :)

The Ice Warrior didn't speak much. Not much could be seen beyond his helmet, but what could been seen were his eyes, and they narrowed.

"It appearssssss that you have reached your decissssion. We will follow if that issss your will."

He fiddled slightly with his armor, but nodded his readiness.

"I am no great expert on machinery but know a bit. I would advise you to be careful though; even when we are experts for what we do, we are known to make mistakes, especially in arrogance."

A shrug.

"I do perhaps know a bit more about the living material, so I should probably help the prisssonerssss to make sure they are okay."

"So we cause the Temporal Exterminator," Trace said to Ferran, "to backfire, erasing itself from history, and everything its done. Poetic." The boy thought about it for a second, the screwed his eyes as if in pain. "But then, if it didn't exist we wouldn't have come here to destroy it which would mean it existed which would ... gah, I always flunked Temporal Mechanics 101. Give me a machine or a computer and I'm golden." He turns to Axander and Tarys. "I think I'll leave the timey whimey stuff to the professionals. But I reckon if we found the main reactors or power source, I might be able to set 'em to overload and blow this joint. 'course we'll probably want to get any prisoners out first."

Trace pulled back his sleeve to reveal the gauntlet attached to his forearm. Fiddling with the controls and the display, he tried to lock on to the largest power reading in the vicinity. Divide and conquer, that seemed to be the plan they were going for. Given the options, he felt that he'd be more useful going after the engineering side of the plan; taking out the weapon either by sabotaging it or by destroying it completely. A daring rescue on the workshops sounded fun, and they were bound to be full of interesting if terrifyingly deadly gizmos. But right now, it was job first, fun later.

OOC: Trace, please make an Awareness + Technology roll, + 2 from the Scan trait of the Scanner Gauntlet. Difficulty is Normal, 12.

So, we're splitting the party already? ;) It looks like we have:
Team Power Generators:
* Trace
Team Prisoner Rescue:
* Bluetooth
* Stirix
Axander, Farren, Tarys, which team do you want on? A Time Lord each would seem reasonable, btw.

OOC: Axander, if you have a preference, run with it.  I feel like I could spin either choice just as well, myself.

Axander listened to the others, nodding at Farren's assessment of things. He did look mildly uncomfortable when Tarys replied, though it was hard to say just what was that bothered him. The plan so far sounded almost reasonable. The part where they had to head into the most dangerous Dalek weapons factory in the universe was a bit dodgy, but after that it sounded plausible.

"The Daleks have eliminated the Doctor from time. If we just dismantle the device, the Doctor will still never have existed and we won't have been sent on this mission in the first place. Removing Time Lords from existence does really bad things. If we use it on itself, though, it never will have existed, and the Doctor can prevent its having come into being in the first place. We'll be mostly shielded from the temporal effects by Elona. Er, by my Time Travel...um...T-Tardis." The word seemed to make him shift and turn his eyes to the ground, though the small smile it brought was odd. Like he was a kid saying a bad word when grown ups weren't listening or something.

"It's not just sound thinking, it's our only hope. I, however, didn't exactly specialize in mechanical engineering. I'm more a people person. I'll go help with the prisoners. Tarys, can you sabotage the device?" He didn't seem to like saying the name of the Temporal Exterminator, either.

OOC: 11:38, Sat 04 Apr 2015: Trace rolled 16 using 2d6+9 ((1,6)).

Trace's gauntlet detected a high electromagnetic field under the floor in the corridor outside (under the floor so Daleks could use static electricity as a backup power supply). He measured a high current too – undoubtedly a power conduit. Finding the direction of current flow, he could follow it back toward its source, the power generators. So, left.


OOC: And that's a solid Good/Yes result for Trace.

Sorry, I think I missed something important. At this relative point in time (contemporaneous with the Doctor's assault on the Temporal Cannon on a separate base), the Doctor's not been hit yet or not entirely wiped out yet. So simply disrupting, shutting down, or destroying the Temporal Exterminator is still on the table.

It's also outside time, behind its own transduction barrier. (And getting in was one hell of a ride!) So events are kind of paradox-resistant. Or paradox-friendly? Anyway, you won't destroy the universe whatever you do. ;)

Team Power Generators:
* Tarys
* Trace
Team Prisoner Rescue:
* Axander
* Bluetooth
* Stirix

What? The Daleks named their Temporal Exterminator 'Voldemort'? Nope, nope, nope, I didn't say it!

Tarys glances at Axander.  They'd been over this before: Tarys' training had only gone so far toward the more esoteric stretches of temporal technology, even though her grounding in theory was fair.  She had been honed for war.  But it was true enough that the generators and the Dalek weapon would be closely guarded, and her skills would be needed to protect Trace in his task.  And if they needed to deal with the vast energies and complex web of probability wielded by the Exterminator itself....

Then it came: the peculiar vertigo of the universe splitting and half-glimpsed chains of the future reeling out in her head, then reeling back.  Nothing to pin to an image, just certainty that this was where she would be going.

"I am positive that I can give Trace whatever guidance he needs," Tarys says.  She sees the young human's expression shift as he completes his scan and finds the result he's been looking for.  She gives Trace a brilliant smile.  Looking at Farren, she adds, "And, Major, you will be...?"

It was always better to let people think their will was free and undetermined, even if they were wrong.

Farren glanced from one Time Lord to the other as he considered his "options" and then he relied to Tarys, "Call me a sucker for symmetry, but I am thinking that there are already three people signed up for prisoner rescue... so I am inclined to join you and Trace in seeking out the power generators.

While I am certainly no "tech boffin", I do have a rudimentary grounding in basic engineering & technology.

And... I can usually get into places others think are secure and can typically avoid detection.  I have a feeling both of those qualities are going to be needed in spades while searching for the power generators."

Of course an unspoken part of Farren's choice was the intense curiosity he was feeling at getting a chance to examine advanced Dalek technology up close & personal.  A consummate intelligence officer, Farren rarely passed up an opportunity to learn more about those who were or might become "threats" to the security of Earth.

Trace looked up from his gauntlet. "Dalek tech, Human tech, don't matter who makes it or how advanced, it still relies on electrons flowing from negative to positive." The points left down the corridor. "Power's coming from that direction. Reckon we can follow the power conduits back to where they start."

Of course, it was highly likely that the main generators would be secured. He didn't relish the idea of going up against the second greatest threat in the galaxy on his own so he was glad that Tarys and Ferran said they were going with him. Not that he'd admit that out loud of course. A guy has a reputation to uphold. Especially if he didn't want to be seen as someone that needed protecting all the time when beams, bolts and bullets started flying.

He started heading off in the direction of the objective before stopping and waiting for the others.

"Lead on.  Carefully, and quietly.  The Major and I can watch for monitoring devices or enemy action, to allow you to concentrate on our route."

Tarys takes up her position on Trace's left flank, slinking beside him like a stalking cat.  She draws the Knife from its sheath and holds it before her as they go, slipping into the half-meditative state with which she reads the vibrations of the causal flow around her.

Emerging from the storeroom into the narrow corridor (and remembering where they had parked the TARDIS!), the travellers split up and went their separate ways. Farren, Trace, and Tarys headed left, so, without any better idea, Axander, Bluetooth, and Stirix went right.

They passed other storerooms, practically identical, containing more mysterious crates and unidentified bits of equipment. They might wonder what Daleks collected and used, but didn't have time to poke around.

Turning a corner, they found the corridors branching and maze-like, all of featureless metal, with few signs or markings to show the purposes of the rooms they passed. The arches that, without apparent function, periodically intersected the corridors were low and off-centre, easy for a humanoid to knock their head against. This was a Dalek base – even the architecture hated them.

The double-pulsing heartbeat, the hum of the titanic power generators, was constant, setting the travellers' teeth on edge. There was a smell of ozone too, everywhere they went, wrinkling their noses and stinging their eyes. It seemed the power supply hated them too.

It was soon apparent that the Eternity Citadel was huge and expansive, but mostly deserted. Only occasionally a Dalek glided past as they hid. No alarm had been raised about the TARDIS's arrival, there were no patrols looking for the time travellers. The Daleks seemed overconfident, not monitoring their internal sensors, sure that no TARDIS could penetrate their defences as Elona had. Perhaps there were only a few Daleks here in this base. Most likely, they were all busy about the cruel task of operating the Temporal Exterminator, which would soon blast the Doctor into oblivion and, soon after, Gallifrey.

Farren, Trace, & Tarys:

Farren, Trace, and Tarys had headed left, in the general direction of the power generators. True to his name, Trace was able to track the power conduits under the floor, but as other conduits split off or re-merged, he couldn't find a main trunk that would lead directly to the generators or choose to follow secondary conduits. Certainly he could get to the general vicinity, and hope the generators would be obvious from there.

OOC: To get to where you're going without being discovered, please roll Awareness + Subterfuge, Difficulty 12. The one taking point can make the roll, the others can assist.

Axander, Bluetooth, & Stirix

Axander, Bluetooth, and Stirix meanwhile headed right, navigating the maze-like corridors. They'd had an easy time of it, not seeing any Daleks, though they might wonder what had become of the one who'd passed by when they'd first arrived. Maybe they were going the same way. Unlike Trace, they had no clue as to a direction, and were only hoping they would come across the weapons laboratories and the captive scientist-slaves they'd heard of.

OOC: To get about without being discovered, please roll Awareness + Subterfuge, Difficulty 12. The one taking point can make the roll, the others can assist.

Bluetooth thinks he should be taking point, and will do so unless the others object.

He stalks the hallways of Eternity Citadel.

05:08, Sun 05 Apr 2015: Bluetooth rolled 9 using 2d6+4 ((1,4)).

He doesn't have any subterfuge--he's more the 'in your face' type.

Axander moved carefully, staying close to his partners and keeping a wary (and terrified) eye out for signs of their destination. Things likely wouldn't get any easier once they reached it, but at least then they'd have a clear goal. "Wander about and not die" just didn't have the solid substance to it a proper plan should. He did his best to steer the team properly, though didn't have much to go on, himself.

"If you have a gut feeling about a direction to go, ignore it and do the opposite. A place like this, your every instinct is going to scream ways to get away. We want to go deeper in. Well, 'want' is an inappropriate term, I suppose..."

[Assisting Bluetooth for +2, bringing his total to 11. My Awareness+Subterfuge total would only be +4 anyway. Though don't forget you have Story Points, and to use them when you have to.]
This message was last edited by the player at 06:57, Sun 05 Apr 2015.

As the trio headed towards the power generators moved further into "Dalek territory", Farren silently tapped on Trace's shoulder and indicated through hand gestures that he (Farren) should probably take the lead for the time being.  While Farren readily acknowledged that Trace was the "technical expert" on this assignment and Farren was more than willing to be guided by Trace's understanding of where the machinery they were seeking was likely to be, Farren also knew that the only way the trio were going to get close enough to make a difference was if they did not get detected along the way.  Farren respected Tarys's ability to keep out of sight, but he knew his own training was slightly superior and right now the trio needed all the "edge" they could get.

As Farren took the lead, he would periodically shift his gaze down to his "smart watch" on his right wrist and sometimes, just after "checking his watch", Farren would halt the trio or indicate that the trio should change direction to follow an alternate path.  Farren seemed to know what he was doing and his own movements were fairly stealthy given the circumstances.

OOC: Farren rolled 15 Stealth

Farren's hand signals were initially met by a confused look, followed a few seconds later by a nod from the boy. Letting the man take the lead, Trace followed close behind, occasionally tugging on his shirt and pointing in a direction indicating where he thought they should go.

As they passed the storerooms, he hoped they had a chance to check out their contents at some point, who knew what lay inside those crates. For all they knew, that crate over there could contain just the right piece of equipment they would need. That one over there could hold a one of a kind gizmo, not found anywhere else in the chronoverse. That one might have a stack of candy ... the Dalek's had to feed their prisoners something after all.

Realising that he was becoming distracted, he quickened his pace and caught up with  Farren.

Bluetooth is better at stalking in the jungle... or at least in natural surroundings. He's familiar with urban locales, but has yet to learn the intricacies and subtleties of such.

He figures that the prisoners are probably down, so he looks for something that will take them downward... steps, elevators, shafts, slides, whatever.

Listening to Axander, if he feels some sort of urge or instinct to go a certain way, he'll go the opposite way.

"Once we find the prisoners and free them, then what do we do with them?" he whispers to the others. "Is there some sort of escape shuttle we can put them in?"

"For that matter, how many are we talking about? Two or three isn't a problem, but fifty or sixty..."
This message was last edited by the player at 17:57, Fri 10 Apr 2015.

Tarys notes Farren's occasional check of his "watch", perhaps some sort of scanning device, just as Trace is following the power signature.  She follows his lead: Farren is expert in his craft.

Even so, his skills stretch only so far as human understanding of the physical universe will take them -- and the builders of this fortress fought the Time War: they learned to watch not only in the gross dimensions of space and energy, but even in the realm of the mind.  Daleks might have burned out of themselves the spirit and empathy to harness any inner psychic sensitivity, but they certainly had devised means to monitor and measure that spark in the psychic ether, through the brute application of material technology.

But, as ever, the places where one believes they see everything are the places to best exploit their blindness.  As Tarys moves carefully and silently in Farren's wake, she reaches out with the lightest touch on his mind and on Trace's -- and her own, of course: nothing intruding into their thoughts or their consciousness, merely a smoothing away of the vibrant spikes of vitality and life that are escaping from them without their knowing it -- and which the Daleks are equipped to detect.  The three move ahead, more truly like ghosts than the others know.

I didn't realize a supporting action was being asked from everyone, as Farren seemed to have matters in hand.

This is probably nothing I would actually hang my own roll on, but as flavor for how Tarys can assist without doing "just like Farren, but not as good", I hope it works OK.

Stirix hissed slightly; but he crept along, as quietly as he could... though following the instructions of others.

OOC: With Tarys's assist, that's a Good, "Yes", result for Farren, no issues.

Farren, Trace, & Tarys:

As they crept down one corridor, Farren read a spike of movement ahead, and quickly gestured his group to conceal themselves behind the ever-present arches that jutted out of the walls so conveniently. Just peering around, they glimpsed a Dalek passing by the T-junction ahead. Then it paused, and slowly rotated its dome to pan its eyestalk across the corridor. The travellers ducked back, pressed themselves into the corners, and waited while their hearts pounded in their chests and the deep animal parts of their minds screamed fight-or-flight instincts. Then Tarys reached out with her mind, and shrouded their emotions.

The Dalek, no longer suspicious, turned and rolled on.

Relieved, they emerged from hiding and moved on, stepping out behind the Dalek and taking its path back.

Soon, Farren halted his team again, his scanner showing two traces around the corner. He peered around, and saw two Daleks standing guard on either side of a large door that would slide up into the ceiling. Trace checked his engineer's mate, finding the main trunk of the power conduit ran right under that door. Here were the Power Generators, and of course they were guarded.

The Daleks' eyestalks were tilted toward the floor, suggesting they were dormant. But then: 'Alert! Be alert for pris-oners lea-ving lab-ora-tory area. Pris-oners will ret-urn to their duties or be punished.' At the message blaring through the corridors of the base, the Daleks' eyestalks rose until they stared straight ahead.

OOC: With Axander's assist, that's a Failure, "No, But" result for Bluetooth...

Dalek Jek was bored. Dalek Jek wanted to exterminate the unalike and briefly satisfy the unending hatred in his sickly pumping heart. But the Eternity Citadel was a secure base that the enemy (that is, everyone) could not access, could not even know of. And though its mission was to ultimately exterminate the currently most-hated enemy, Jek wasn't involved, and that didn't warm his gunstick. So, on patrol, Jek prowled the corridors, always hoping to find an enemy, always disappointed. Although it was treason to think of it, he secretly wished for a Time Lord to sneak in, so he could exterminate it, and experience something approaching happiness, for a day.

Jek paused, lowered his eyestalk at something that did not belong on the clean floor. Some kind of organic fibres. He focused the eyestalk, zoomed in, conducted an analysis.

Cat hair.

Axander, Bluetooth, & Stirix

Stealing through the Dalek base, ducking into cover behind the arches wherever they saw a familiar pepper-pot silhouette ahead, Axander, Bluetooth, and Stirix had no great issues navigating the base, though they had little idea where to go. They followed the signs of increasing technology mounted on the walls, reasoning this might get them closer to the laboratories.

Well, it got them somewhere.

Turning a corner, they almost walked right into the main command centre of the Eternal Citadel. And it was full of Daleks. Six Dalek technicians were plugged into various computers and monitoring devices, while a black-armoured seventh watched on. On a large view-screen, scenes played out. One showed the Tantalus Spiral, bands of colour rippling, spiralling around the central space–time anomaly. Then, further out, a vicious space battle waged, with Dalek saucers spinning and firing weapons at ever-shifting combat TARDISes, appearing and disappearing through space and time. One War TARDIS extruded itself into a mighty spear that crashed through the heart of a Dalek saucer, weapons emerging from its flanks to pick off individual Daleks as they floated through space on hoverbouts. Elsewhere, a Battle TARDIS was struck by a Dalek shot, its dimensional transcendence failing as internal dimensions suddenly mapped onto the external surface, and it unfolded and exploded into a small planetoid of TARDIS technology as equipment, and people spilled into space. Finally, a structure so massive they could only believe it on the small screen – three whole moons bound together in a row with immense girders, a massive cannon projected from the last. The Temporal Cannon. Somewhere on the third moon, the Doctor was fleeing the Dalek Eternity Circle that commanded this monstrous and monumental scheme. And, somewhere on the first, stood the Eternity Citadel, hidden in time and housing the Temporal Exterminator itself. The screen showed the severe Dalek fortress emerging from a lunar landscape, all sharp-edged mountains, blasted craters, and plains of still dust, dark-grey against the black of space.

'The Time Lord weapon can-not pene-trate our de-fences. The Etern-ity Cita-del is sec-ure.' the commander announced, his dome lights flashing, his synthesised voice deep and cruel. 'Display the target of the Temp-oral Exter-min-ator.'

The technicians adjusted the visualiser until it showed a complex image. In the middle was a diagram of the Doctor's whole timeline, all his many lives and adventures. Around that timeline spiralled pictures of the Doctor in all his incarnations, and in each he was thwarting the schemes of tyrants and conquerors, particularly Daleks. His timeline, though, was rotting from within, as branches and segments faded and died. The Temporal Exterminator was rolling up all the days of the Doctor's life, erasing his past and future. Soon, he would be nothing but an infinity of present moments, an impossible non-entity that could not exist in a rational universe.

'How long the Doc-tor is exter-min-ated?' demanded the commander, its polycarbide casing shaking with barely contained hatred for the Doctor.

'One thou-sand rels and counting.' Axander managed a quick calculation; a rel was approximately 1.2 seconds. So about 20 minutes, before the Doctor was irreversibly erased from existence.

Another Dalek turned its head. 'Dalek Jek reports intru-ders!'

'Imposs-ible. The Etern-ity Cita-del is im-pene-trable. Dalek Jek is para-noid. It must be pris-oners leav-ing the lab-ora-tory area. Raise alert level, commend Dalek Jek for para-noia, and investigate the lab-ora-tory area.'

'I obey.' The Dalek turned and rolled for the door, and the time travellers quickly dashed into hiding.

'Alert! Be alert for pris-oners lea-ving lab-ora-tory area. Pris-oners will ret-urn to their duties or be punished.' The message blared through the corridors above the time travellers' heads.

The Dalek rolled out past them, turned and went down the other corridor. They realised they could follow it straight to the laboratory area.

In reply to GM BadCatMan (msg # 31):

Things had been going so well, almost surprisingly well considering the level of the opposition... perhaps "too" well.  Farren had been considering how best to approach (or better yet circumvent) the two Dalek guards when the Base Alert message regarding "lab prisoners" began to blare.

Farren managed to conceal the cringe and matching pained frown from being visibly displayed but he certainly felt them internally.  Of course, this "disaster" could become a "blessing" in disguise if one could conceive of a clever way to use the Alert against the guards.

Farren glanced at Trace & Tarys as he said very softly, "I don't think it is about us... I think it may be due to the others.  Maybe there's some way to get the alarm to lure away the guards?"

"I suspect if you or I showed ourselves, we could draw them away easily enough, as they've been prepared for it.  Daleks have an instinct to kill; they have to concentrate just to suppress that when they're ordered to do something else, and they hate it."  She glances at Trace.  "Then the other of us can go in to cover Trace."

When the alarm sounded, Trace's heart stopped. Crap. They were dead. But by some miracle, the genocidal aliens didn't immediately turn and attack. Now they were alert, getting past them had suddenly got a little more interesting.

"You want to bait the daleks?" Trace asked incredulously at Tarys' suggestion. He didn't know if that was brave, or suicidal. On reflection, it was probably a little bit of both.
This message was last edited by the player at 16:46, Sun 12 Apr 2015.

"Well, that's convenient,"<seagreen> Bluetooth whispered. <seagreen>"We've got a guide now. Be careful, though, it could be a trap."

He had to fight the urge to pounce on top of it and rip its top off. He wasn't really sure it had a head, since it looked more like a pepper-pot than a... than a... well, whatever it was.

The fact that it had suddenly become useful helped him suppress his urge, but he was sure a day of reckoning would soon come.

He cautiously began following behind it, ready to dodge into hiding if it looked like it was going to turn in his direction.

The Ice Warrior was more concerned about being heard; than it being a trap.

"This feels.. wrong."

"I think I bait the Daleks just by breathing.  I may well be the better choice."

Tarys tries to match her mental model of the layout of this place up with other Dalek installations she's had to infiltrate.  She's wondering if it's possible to make a loop by moving away from the door, leading the Daleks away, and circling back around.

When the group came upon the command center, Axander immediately hid and tried to keep himself quiet, despite the shaking. His face paled further upon hearing the discussion. Nothing being said gave him any degree of confidence. Things got worse when the alarms went off. Still, the enemy didn't seem to know where his group was. When the lone Dalek was sent off to check on the prisoners, Axander took the opportunity to whisper to his team.

"One thousand rels. That isn't long. If the Doctor's timeline runs out before we can destroy that machine, we'll never have been sent on this mission in the first place."

OOC: Tarys, I've described the base as maze-like, so sure. The plan feels like a chase situation, so maybe we'll have a contest to outrun or outnavigate the Daleks. Also, make a roll for baiting them; the degree of success will decide how many Daleks are lured away.

Tarys sees her path.

Before Farren or Trace can say anything further to dissuade her, she uncoils from where she has been crouching while she discussed the problem with the others, and she unsheathes the Possible Knife: if the Daleks detect an advanced artifact of Gallifrey, they will certainly pursue.  She darts into view of the sentries, judging the flow from moment to moment to choose the proper moment when they will react and attack, and when she must leap ahead to cover again, beginning the chase.

She waits in space.  She drifts forward in time with its prevailing current.  When she reaches that chosen moment, she dives forward into a roll, and comes up sprinting.

OOC: I'll spend a SP on this.  The Knife isn't actually doing anything here, that's just flavor.  I imagine this is Presence + Subterfuge.

19:29, Today: Tarys rolled 23 using 4d6+5. Baiting the Daleks: Presence(3) + Subterfuge(2)

Farren recognized the logic of Tarys plan, though Farren was wondering if he might make a better (or at least more readily "expendable") "decoy" compared to the Time Lord.  While Farren understood Trace's trepidation (after all, what sane person doesn't fear for his or her life when face to face, or rather face to gunstick, with Daleks), he knew that the only way to overcome a superior enemy position was with a mix of boldness and ingenuity with a good deal of luck thrown in for good measure.

However, before Farren could volunteer to play the "bait" for the Daleks, Tarys took the initiative and made her move.  Whatever Farren had been about to say died on his lips unspoken as he moved Trace and himself back behind whatever cover was available (to insure that the Daleks would not locate the pair).  At this point, the best thing Farren could do to aid Tarys was to insure that she was not taking risks for nothing.

Farren, Trace, & Tarys:

Tarys felt her way through the array of possible timelines extending from this point, and found them desperately few. The Daleks immediately reacted, gliding forward, gun-sticks snapping up. 'Halt! Prisoners will stop or be exter-minated!' screeched one, but Tarys was already up and running. The first Dalek left its post, motoring off after the fleeing woman. 'Halt!'

The second jolted forward, wanting to follow and exterminate, but unable to leave the power generators undefended. It stopped, its eyestalk peering down the corridor after its fellow.



OOC: Tarys, sounds good. The Daleks collectively will resist with Resolve + Ingenuity: 20, double-sixes, ouch. A Yes, But Success.
12:54, Today: GM BadCatMan, for the NPC Dalek guards, rolled 20 using 2d6+8. ingenuity(4) + resolve(4).

One Dalek pursues Tarys. The other near the door but is looking away and distracted.

Chase: Tarys and the Dalek start 2 Areas apart.
This message was last edited by the GM at 05:42, Wed 15 Apr 2015.

Axander, Bluetooth, & Stirix:

Moving quietly a corridor behind, Axander, Bluetooth, and Stirix followed their unwitting Dalek tour guide, which thus afr appeared oblivious to their presence. But with alerts blaring behind them, how long would that last?

The Dalek opened a hatch leading to a separate complex, and it was the work of moments to dash forward and get inside before it closed again. Then they found themselves inside the laboratory complex, amongst laboratories, workshops, dingy cells, and haggard and horrified slave-scientists staggering about their tasks. They seemed from species, human, terileptils, and others unidentified, all with burns, illnesses, injuries, or disturbing mutations. Occupational safety and health evidently wasn't a strong point. 'Prisoners will assemble for inspec-tion!' The Dalek checked in on each of these labs, taking stock of the slaves before moving on.

It was a harrowing experience. One room contained bubbling jars in which tentacled things bobbed, which the mutated remains of faces distorted in silent screams or moans. No one stayed here long. Another held vats of glistening, glowing slime; a scientist exposed a furry six-legged creature to a sample, and quietly noted the results as its flesh melted off its bones. In some workshops they glimpsed mechanisms, isotopes, circuitry, focusing devices, all apparently pieces of weapons and bombs. Through a safety screen, they saw a robotic arm controlling a modified Dalek gun. It fired a pea-sized pellet at a target – a life-like dummy of the Doctor – which then disintegrated, taking half the test chamber with it.

All three could recognise the power of these devices, their horrific potential. Doomsday weapons and atrocities all.


OOC: You're in! Boffins will note the variety of tech laying around, so using Jiggery-Pokery to make a one-shot gadget is a possibility. Feel free to ditch your Dalek and find a slave to talk to.
This message was last edited by the GM at 11:16, Thu 30 Apr 2015.

Tarys pelts off, away from the chasing Dalek.  She keeps a sharp look out for any others crossing her route, any equipment or obstacles that may afford her an opportunity, and most importantly, any chance to trick the Dalek onto a false trail.  Since her attempt to lure them both into the chase failed, she will have to trust to Farren and Trace to deal with the remaining Dalek somehow -- but she'll have to draw the chase out a little, too, to give them plenty of time before her own pursuer might return.

There was the presence beyond the door to consider, too, but that would have to wait until she had a chance to rejoin the others.

As noted, my objective here is to try to get the Dalek headed in the wrong direction by the time I can shake it.  I'm not sure if just escaping the chase would accomplish that or you'd want something additional.  For the moment, though, I am planning to go on the Move phase and to dodge Dalek fire on the Fight phase.

21:54, Today: Tarys rolled 12 using 2d6+6 with rolls of 3,3. Fleeing the Dalek: Coordination(4) + Athletics(2).
21:55, Today: Tarys rolled 15 using 2d6+6 with rolls of 3,6. Dodging: Awareness(4) + Coordination(4) -2 (second action).

In reply to GM BadCatMan (msg # 44):

Even his own people weren't that destructive. Even what he'd done, so long ago now, paled into insigificance - that was an accident, this was deliberate. His eyes narrowed, as he regarded the chamber. His look though was drawn to the slaves; hoping they were all okay, and healthy.

Bluetooth lets the Dalek go about its business... for the moment. He's utterly fascinated by all the gadgets and gimmicks and parts and paraphrenalia scattered around this great hall.

"If you two are people persons, maybe you can start rounding up the slaves to get them to safety,"<aqua> he says to Axander and Stirix. <aqua>"And while you are at it, maybe you can find a way to actually get them OFF this place!"

By the time he finishes saying that, he's already poking around with the equipment. He's thinking that something to deal with the Daleks might be a good idea. Destroying one outright seems a bit much for him to accomplish in a short time, but maybe a device that will pop a Dalek's top would be feasible. At the very least, maybe it can disorient them... make their heads spin around and around uncontrollably! Wouldn't that be great!

He sets to work cobbling such a device together.

00:57, Sat 18 Apr 2015: Bluetooth rolled 15 using 2d6+5 ((4,6)) Ingenuity 2 + Technology 3.

Axander, Bluetooth, & Stirix:

With Bluetooth starting to rummage through the loose technology and equipment, it didn't take long for them to draw attention. One of the haggard scientists rushed over, a bearded human in a stained lab coat. 'What are you doing? You're not assigned—' he hissed, not raising his voice, fearful of reprisals. Then recognition, or lack thereof, dawned. 'You're not one of the slaves... You're the intruders!'

Tarys:

Shouting orders to halt or be exterminated, the Dalek powered after the fleeing Tarys. Though it could do well on the straights, it fell further and further back as it negotiated every corner. Perhaps, when designing the superior lifeform of the universe, Davros should have included legs.

Sighting its quarry again, the Dalek fired its deadly exterminator down the length of the corridor, the beam impacting on the corner wall after Tarys had already disappearing behind it.

Tarys didn't come across too many obstacles, unfortunately; having wide bases, Daleks needed to keep the corridors clear. She had only the maze-like layout, unoccupied side-rooms, the protruding arches, and her own luck to rely on. So far, she hadn't seen another Dalek.


OOC: If you successfully outrun the Dalek, then let's say you successfully lose it elsewhere in the base too, so it's away from the power generators long enough for Trace to do this work. However, you'll need to keep this going a few rounds so the Dalek can't just go straight back.

First action: Dalek tries to match/gain speed, rolls 10. Success for Tarys.
10:48, Today: GM BadCatMan, for the NPC Dalek, rolled 10 using 2d6+2 with rolls of 5,3. coordination(2) + athletics(0).

Second action, shooting at Tarys, 8, missed
10:57, Today: GM BadCatMan, for the NPC Dalek, rolled 8 using 2d6+3 with rolls of 1,4. coordination(2) + marksman(3) - 2.

Chase: Tarys and the Dalek are 5 Areas apart.

"One down..." Trace whispered to Farren. They needed a way to distract the second. "What if we make a noise, attract it over here, and when it comes 'round the corner you do your soldier thing?"

As he watches events unfold with one Dalek chasing Tarys while the other held back, an idea began to form in Farren's mind, though executing it was going to be tricky to say the least.

Farren glanced at Trace and said softly, "Hmm... "soldier thing"... not really sure what you've got in mind Trace.  I'm not packing any heavy duty ordinance, not the kind of stuff that'll scratch that bloody tough armored hide of a Dalek.

Besides... I'm more of a "spy" than a "soldier".

That said, I think I may have an idea.  Give me a moment..."

Farren surreptitiously studied the remaining Dalek for a moment as he tried to finish forming the plan developing in his mind.

Farren & Trace:

Almost as if it knew it was being watched, the Dalek's dome rotated sharply to focus its eyestalk on where Farren was spying.
This message was last edited by the GM at 06:23, Sat 25 Apr 2015.

When they were spotted and approached, Axander's hearts skipped a beat each. He was actually surprised they didn't just stop entirely, considering the situation. Upon realizing it was one of the very scientists they'd come to talk to, the young Time Lord remembered to breathe and put his hands up to calm the man down.

"Sh! Yes yes, we're the intruders! Keep your voice down, we're here to rescue you. We don't have much time. If we can make a diversion, everyone should be able to get out of here. What can you tell us about how everyone's being held? Oh, sorry. What's your name? I'm Axander, these are Bluetooth and Stirix. The Time Lords sent us." It wasn't really a lie. The Doctor was indeed a Time Lord. Still, saying it was more of an official mission may have given the man more confidence.

Trace hunched down over his gauntlet, tapping and swiping at the screen projected virtually in the air by his contacts. An idea had popped into his head.

Farren sighed softly and pulled back to whisper to Trace in a hushed tone, "Ok... I have a plan that is probably as crazy sounding as Tarys's idea but it might work and could gain us, or at least you, access to the area beyond that door.

I have in my little "bag of tricks" something that will allow me to project the appearance of a Dalek, thus allowing me to "impersonate" a Dalek.  I have been monitoring the Dalek communications, what little I have access to that can be uncoded, so I may have just enough information to pull off the impersonation.

If things go well, I will be able to convince the remaining Dalek guard that I have come to relieve it so that it can join the pursuit of the "intruder".

If things don't go well... then "Plan B" is to adopt Tarys's tactic and run like hell, hoping the remaining Dalek will give chase, thus giving you a chance to proceed onwards."

Looking up from his gauntlet, Trace blinked away the display. "Thats ... that's a crazy plan. But its probably better than mine."

Farren & Trace:

The Dalek watched ominously...

Axander, Bluetooth, & Stirix:

The scientist tensed, desperately afraid, looking frantically about for Daleks, and on the verge of panic. If he was caught talking to intruders, especially Time Lords, there would be the most terrible reprisals. 'I, I, I don't know. M-maybe I should go—' he stammered, backing away. The risk of living another day in this nightmare was still nothing compared to what the Daleks would do to him...


OOC: Let's make this a social encounter. Roll Presence + Convince plus any applicable traits to calm the scientist and get him to help you. Difficult 12.
19:11, Today: GM BadCatMan, for the NPC Eric Ramst, rolled 12 using 2d6+4 with rolls of 3,5. ingentuity(5) + resolve(1) - 2.

Stirix frowned. Patching people up was his specialty - not actually talking to them! He just shook his head; letting one of the others who could actually talk do the talking.

OOC: No skill in convince; only presence 2 so I'm gonna let someone else do this one...

Tarys looks back as the Dalek glides after her.  She fears she's in danger of leaving it behind too soon -- even her half-success in luring the guards away would be for nothing if she couldn't ultimately take it out of the picture by the time she doubled back.

On the other hand, the Dalek's disruptor weapon was nothing to take lightly.  As she weaves her way deeper into the maze of corridors in the complex, she slows slightly to keep the Dalek in the chase.  But she tries to judge her pace so that she's in reach of cover as much as possible, to be able to just vanish around corners when the Dalek manages to draw a bead on her.

I will swap the way I'm applying my second action penalty if that's OK.

07:28, Today: Tarys rolled 15 using 2d6+8 with rolls of 5,2. Dodging Dalek fire: Awareness(4) + Coordination(4).
07:27, Today: Tarys rolled 9 using 2d6+4 with rolls of 3,2. Running away slightly less ambitiously: Coordination(4) + Athletics(2) -2 (second action).

Tarys:

Finding a nice long stretch of corridor, the Dalek revved its motors and accelerated, gaining on Tarys, unaware she was leading it on. 'Stop!' it yelled. It fired its weapon, but Tarys was already out of sight around the next corner.


OOC: I figure the terrain is Open Ground, base Difficulty 9.

First action: Dalek tries to accelerate, rolls 9, gains on Tarys by 1 Area
20:34, Today: GM BadCatMan, for the NPC Dalek, rolled 9 using 2d6 with rolls of 6,3. coordination(2) + athletics(0).

Second action, shooting at Tarys, 8, missed
20:34, Today: GM BadCatMan, for the NPC Dalek, rolled 8 using 2d6 with rolls of 6,2. coordination(2) + marksman(3) - 2.

Chase: Tarys and the Dalek are 4 Areas apart. Tarys can add up to 2 Areas to her lead (your difference in Coordination scores).

Muttering to himself as he puttered around, Bluetooth picked up an interesting part here, a useful thingamajig there, and a impressive-looking doohickey from somewhere else, all the while attempting to make them all fit together.

"Transverse oscillator connected to the reciprical matrix maladjustor, routed through the multilinear time capacitor... and powered by this little black box-thingy... that should just about do it. Oh, wait. Aiming device... ah, yes, a parallax inversion module should do the trick. And a horseshoe for good luck!"

Although the roughly suitcase-sized device was mostly held together by duct tape and rubber bands, there were an assortment of wires, tubes, and electronic appartus sticking out of it in a hodgepodge manner.

"Now, just give me a Dalek to test it out on..." He begins looking around for a suitable target.

Not sure how long it takes to cobble together a device with jiggery-pokery, but Bluetooth keeps working on it unless and until everything goes skew-whiff!

OOC: I mentioned this and more in the OOC thread. It will take a couple of minutes. So, by the end of the talk with the scientist.

[21:04, Today: Axander rolled 17 using 2d6+8 with rolls of 4,5. Presence+Convince+Charming.

A solid success! Woohoo!]

The bearded man was obviously terrified, and with good reason. Axander knew what was happening here, how important it was to the Dalek cause, and just how much tolerance they had for setbacks. Zero. He kept his voice quiet and low, trying to keep his tone sedate and relaxed. Hopefully it would help keep the man calm as well.

"We're friends. We're going to get you and the others to safety. The daleks are dangerous, but look. We got inside alright, didn't we? But to get everyone out, I'm going to need your help. Can you tell us your name?"

Axander, Bluetooth, & Stirix:

Wide-eyed, trembling, the man stared anxiously at Axander, and at Bluetooth's fiddling about with the technology as if it might explode, before finally relenting. He looked out down the corridor, then hurried back in, shutting the door behind him. He spoked in a hushed voice. 'P-P-Professor Eric Ramst. I designed weapons for Earth's war against the Daleks. Um, 2566. But they captured our base, took me to this place, forced me to work for them. On this Temporal Exterminator.' He choked up. The travellers realised Ramst had come from a historical war against the Daleks, brought forward to be used in the Time War. The Daleks really had harvested the best minds for this cruel think-tank.

'But, but no one can get in or out. Not even the Daleks. They have some sort of shielding. No transmats, no teleportation. Not even time travel, they say.' Axander's TARDIS had somehow acquired a modified form of temporal shielding, perhaps a last gift of the Doctor's TARDIS. With it, they had been able to slip under the Eternity Citadel's transduction barrier, as if they always been there. 'Not even the Daleks can leave. They're under siege. There's some thing outside... Only Doctor Kaam was able to escape, some form of astral projection—'

'Look, no, this stuff's very dangerous— be careful with that!' he hissed at Bluetooth in alarm, wincing. But nothing exploded in their faces, yet. 'What are you trying to do?'

Axander smiled and made sure to shake the terrified scientist's hand with both of his. It was partially politeness, and partially distraction from the horrors around them. A little peace in a mad world, so to speak. Then he listened, attentively and gravely.

"The goal is simple. We turn the Temporal Exterminator on itself, removing it from time. It is never created, you are never brought here, and none of this ever happened in the first place. The complicated part is the plan. We need you, the experts on this device, to sabotage it. We can find a way to put people in position, but we can't cause the trouble ourselves without much more time to study the device."

With a silent nod of his head to Trace, Farren took a deep breath and then turned his back to Trace as he "fiddled" with some controls on his "smartwatch" on his wrist.  As he did that, Farren's appearance changed and soon the human SSS Agent was gone and in his place stood a reasonable facsimile of a dreaded Dalek.

Farren-Dalek rolled out and approached the remaining guard Dalek.  In the stereotypical tone of a Dalek, Farren addressed his "fellow" Dalek, "A-tten-tion... A-tten-tion... D31/HDΦ/56... you are to go and assist D31/HDΦ/55... you are to track down and Ex-ter-minate the In-truder... Ex-ter-minate the In-truder.

I will remain here... I will guard this area.  You have seen the In-truder... I have not... you are in a better position to Ex-ter-minate the In-truder... Ex-ter-minate the In-truder.

These are my Or-ders from A06/DCӨ/β3... and I O-bey.

Au-then-ti-ca-tion Ver-ifi-ca-tion Pass Code is... "Kill All The Hu-mans!"

D31/HDΦ/56 you will Com-ply."

Axander, Bluetooth, & Stirix:

After staring at Bluetooth for a moment, Ramst shook his head. 'We're hardly experts. It's the Daleks' design. They only made us work on small, separated subcomponents, so none of us has a complete understanding of its function. Less risk to them. I myself worked on the power flow systems, and I don't even know where the energy was coming from. It's independent of the base power supply. I haven't even seen the final Temporal Exterminator itself, no one has.'

'And now they're operating the device, they won't suddenly let us out to work on it, not with them so alerted to intruders or escapees. Unless maybe some emergency repairs are needed...' Ramst mused.

'But I can tell you how to reach the Temporal Exterminator control chamber...' Ramst gave a series of directions across the base to reach a large hangar-like building adjoining the facility, reached by a corridor lying between these labs and the monitoring chamber they'd already passed.
This message was last edited by the GM at 11:16, Thu 30 Apr 2015.

Farren & Trace:

The Dalek's gunstick snapped up at the approach, its first instinct to be suspicious and to kill. The gunstick only slowly fell back down as the new arrival registered as a Dalek and Farren spoke in familiar, grating tones. The Dalek looked at the facsimile Dalek for a long, long moment, then uttered 'Your sig-nal bea-con is mal-func-tioning.' The eyestalk dipped meaningfully towards Farren's "sense globes". It raised, looking Farren eyestalk to eyestalk. The moment was painfully intense, and Farren realised he was standing right in front of the Dalek's gunstick. Then, at last, 'I obey.' The Dalek turned and glided off in the direction Tarys and the first Dalek had gone.

The way was now clear to the power generator room, and whatever lay beyond, but time was now getting desperately short.

It took all of Farren's self control, training, and mental discipline not to flinch or run when the Dalek approached to examine him up close.  Similarly, it was all Farren could do to prevent himself from allowing a sigh of relief from escaping his lips as the Dalek "obeyed" and moved on (after all, Dalek's don't "sigh" and Farren did not want to risk raising the Dalek's suspicion as it rolled away).

Bloody hell that was a close one!  Damn near gave me a heart attack... serve me right for being so bloody reckless as to impersonate a Dalek!

Then again... "Desperate times call for desperate measures"... and besides, it Worked!

Farren-Dalek watched D31/HDΦ/56 move away and he hoped that he had not just made Tarys life that much more difficult, but if they did not get to those power generators and shut down the machinery to save the Doctor, none of them would survive the aftermath.

Once D31/HDΦ/56 was well away (and out of "ear shot"), Farren-Dalek motioned with his "eyestalk" for Trace to approach as he said softly, "Come on, coast is clear, daylight's burning."

For the moment, Farren was going maintain his Dalek disguise as there was no telling if it might be needed once the pair of them were through those doors leading to the power generator.

With a racing heart, Trace breathed a sigh of relief; although probably not as much as Farren's. Brazenly walking up to a Dalek with a holographic disguise, that took some serious guts. When the coast appeared clear, the boy padded over the Farren. He suppressed a shiver of unease at he looked into the "Dalek's" eye stalk. "You're insane," Trace said with a nervous grin, "but I guess a little insane every now and then works."

He moved over to the door. "You wanna do the honours in case there's any more in there?" Trace said, motioning to the door to the power plant.

Staying "in character", Farren-Dalek moved over to the door and attempted to unlock & open it using his Espionage Facilitator (better known by the SSS in the field as an "Agent's Abettor").  As he did so, Farren hoped that things would get easier on the other side of the door (but somehow he suspected that the worse was not yet over).

Axander listened to the directions with great intent. Things seemed to be coming together nicely.

"We'll cause some trouble. Let the others know they're going to get a chance to sabotage the device soon. Even if you each only know a single component, together you can figure something out. We're going to unmake this monstrosity, Professor Ramst. Don't worry. You've got help now." With one more reassuring smile (both for the human and himself), Axander turned to his friends.

"Come on, we're heading to the control chamber. ...Bluetooth, what is that you've got there?" Not being a proper gadgeteer, the young Time Lord really couldn't make heads or tails of the...device? It was probably a device.
This message was last edited by the player at 09:20, Sat 02 May 2015.

Farren & Trace:

Accessing the locking mechanism (a plunger-sized interface with rotating internal cylinders, such that the Dalek plunger was itself a key) with his facilitator, Farren had no trouble unlocking and opening the doors. Because they weren't locked. The upshot was that, by using the facilitator, he could now control the doors, making them open, close, or lock as he liked, and even control the speed. The twin doors clunked, ready to part and slide into the walls.



OOC: Since it wasn't locked, that's quite a fantastic result. :) I'm picturing two sliding doors that meet in the middle.

Axander, Bluetooth, & Stirix:

Ramst swallowed nervously; even on the verge of freedom, he couldn't help but be terrified at the risks. 'I'll pass the word around, to those I can trust... We've made escape attempts before – they haven't ended well...' he trailed off, haunted by the horrific memories of Dalek reprisals.

As Axander asked Bluetooth about the product of his labours, Ramst approached to peer curiously at the device, slightly less alarmed than he had been before as he followed the circuitry and components. 'Many of the weapons components were delivered by the Yag Haz – a nasty species, they actually allied with the Daleks. They came here in a ship. Then the Daleks rounded up some of us and followed them back to their homeworld. Only the Daleks returned...' Ramst told before he spotted something familiar.

'But that's my prototype power feedback device... You've built an inverse electron pulse-spin generator!' he declared, amazed at the achievement. 'This will neutralise electronic currents, incapacitating machinery, electronics... and drain Dalek energy cells!' he exclaimed, a first glimmer of real hope in the scientist.

But he frowned, inspecting the gadget again, seeking further improvements. 'But the range of this parallax inversion module is dependent on the power input... If you were to connect it to the base's power generators instead, the spin inversion will feedback through the power conduits, and they run across the whole base... Every Dalek would be incapacitated!'

A sense of scientific restraint returned to Ramst, as he found the flaws in the design. 'Of course, it will only last a few minutes, before the natural electron spin reasserts itself. And the full generator output will burn out all these components... I'm sorry I got your hopes up.'


OOC: Bluetooth builds the Inverse Electron Pulse-Spin Generator, a minor gadget, for the cost of 1 Story Point. If you don't have a particular choice of traits, I'll make something up. If you do as Ramst describes, it becomes a Special Gadget, with a special base-wide effect.

OOC:

I'd like to just maintain the lead of 5 Areas that I had for this action, since at this point I'm just trying to avoid losing it.

At this point, is it now OK to make my escape and circle back as planned?

"What he said," Bluetooth replies to Axander. "I was just going to call it a dillymabobber, but an inverse electron pulse-spin generator works, too... though if it doesn't make a very good acronym, it'll never catch on."

"So, do we want to use it to target individual Daleks as needed, or do we zap 'em all at once... even if only for two or three minutes? In the latter case, it might be a case of timing. Do you think the others can get to the time-wiper in that amount of time?"

OOC: Tarys, let's try to get to a lead of 8 areas, an escape, to call the Daleks lost, as I mentioned back in post #49. But yes, it seems to have been long enough that you can attempt an escape. Dalek 2 is already about 8 areas back, and will get lost following Dalek 1, so I won't track it.

Tarys:

Running desperately through the base, passing storerooms and unmanned Dalek repair workshops, it was only a matter of time before Tarys came to somewhere. Running down corridors, coming to junctions, choosing whether to go left or right or up or down – it was, architecturally, a lot like navigating through branching alternities.

She passed a window, a thick pane of transparent aluminium that looked out onto the barren lunar landscape, all sharp-edged mountains, blasted craters, and plains of still dust, dark-grey against the black of space.
This message was last edited by the GM at 12:37, Thu 07 May 2015.

Axander, Bluetooth, & Stirix:

'Well, I suppose you could call it... an inverse-spin electron pulse generator.' Ramst suggested.


OOC: Remember that Farren, Tarys, and Trace have gone to shut down the power generators, so the question may be moot...

Before Farren opened the doors, he glanced at his "smartwatch" and then looked over at Trace (or rather his "eyestalk" did) as he said in a soft, concerned tone, "We need to be extra careful past this door Trace.  I don't know exactly what is on the other side of this door, but my "readings" indicate that there is something particularly nasty or at least damned unpleasant on the other side.  We may be dealing with some sort of superior or advanced form of Dalek, maybe even one of their leaders.

In any case, we really need to be on our guard.  I'll take point but... if whatever is on the other side of this door is a high ranking Dalek, the odds are my disguise won't fool it for very long."

"We're in a Dalek fortress," Trace said wryly, "outside of space and time, trying to find and disable a Dalek superweapon. You don't need to tell me to be on my guard." The boy glanced at the door. "If there is some sort of 'super-dalek' in there, we might be in trouble as I don't have a clue how to disable one short of running in between two of them to get them to 'EXTERMINATE' each other. And that sort of trick only works once." Unconsciously, he began to pat his pockets, hoping that something useful would present itself.

Tarys loses track of how long she stands there, looking out at the afterimage of the little girl.  Who was that?  A vision of the future, of the past?  If it was of the past, was it Tarys' past?  She couldn't really discount that.  She had spent so long, it seemed, trying to reassemble her mind in those early years, even with Marsillanon to guide her.

Then, with a start, she remembers where and when she is and what she is meant to be doing.  The disconcerting thing is not that she believes she has been waiting a long time and giving the Dalek the chance to gain ground on her: it is more that she lost track, as that is something she rarely does.

But she remembers leaving Trace and Farren behind and the presence that was waiting with the generators.  They might be walking straight into the grip of something they had no way of dealing with.  It is time to go.

The pursuing Dalek rounds a corner.  "HALT!  EXTERMINATE!"

Tarys takes to her heels, her mind leaping ahead of her as she imagines the snaking pathway through the fortress passages, back to where she began.

OOC:

21:13, Today: Tarys rolled 13 using 2d6+6 with rolls of 1,6. Trying to break contact with the Dalek: Coordination(4) + Athletics(2).
21:14, Today: Tarys rolled 11 using 2d6+6 with rolls of 2,3. Dodging Dalek fire again: Awareness(4) + Coordination(4) -2 (second action).

This message was last edited by the player at 02:15, Tue 05 May 2015.

Farren sighed, a rather odd human sound coming from an apparent mechanical Dalek, as he said in a resigned tone, "I know where we are and what we're trying to do.  I also realized you know this and are familiar with the fearsome reputation of Daleks.

Thus when I still feel compelled to advise caution despite all that, there is a reason... the reason being that whatever is on the other side of this door is a threat level beyond what we have already been facing.

That said... I regretfully do not have any better ideas for how to "deal" with whatever is on the other side than you do.  I really wish I did.  But in any case, we have to press on regardless of the danger or our mission is for naught."

Allowing himself a deep breath to steady his nerve, Farren added very softly, "Ok... here we go."

Giving Trace a chance to hide or conceal himself before proceeding, Farren carefully opens the doors "the Dalek way" and readies himself for whatever he's about to face on the other side.

As Bluetooth was waiting for a response from his allies, he remember that the others were going to shut down the power plant. If they did that, he wouldn't have the ability to affect the Daleks except on an individual basis.

And what if the others were having trouble getting to the power plant because of Daleks? If he could affect them all, that would make their job easier, wouldn't it?

It seemed like a good idea, so he connected the spin gun to the base power. As soon as it was ready, he pulled the trigger!

Axander, Bluetooth, & Stirix:

Seeing Bluetooth start to plug his contraption into the laboratory wall-socket, Ramst came hurrying over, perhaps faster than he'd seen any scientist run. 'No-no-no-no-no!' he yelped frantically, interrupting the Rakshasa. 'It'll just wipe out the laboratory systems. We'd lose containment, experiments, computer failures. Not Daleks. To affect the whole base, it needs the full output of the generators, and to be connected to the heart of the network.'

Tarys:

As the Dalek screamed, Tarys ran, faster than the Dalek but not faster than its death-ray as it made good on its threat. She heard the weapon's whine, the crackle of burnt air...

As ever, she had a choice to make.


OOC: Tarys's starting lead is 5 Areas. Difficulty is 9 so, at 13, Tarys has a Good result and gains +2 Areas on top of her speed, 4, moving 6. Dalek has a Success result, and moves 2 + 1 Areas. The new lead is 8, so Tarys successfully escapes.
20:32, Today: GM BadCatMan, for the NPC Dalek 1, rolled 10 using 2d6+2 with rolls of 5,3. coordination(2) + athletics(0).

But not before...

Second action: Dalek shoots at Tarys, attack 11. Tarys dodges at 11, so that's a marginal Success for her, but still taking 4 damage: -2 to Resolve or Strength, -2 to Coordination (for the paralytic effect).
20:33, Today: GM BadCatMan, for the NPC Dalek 1, rolled 11 using 2d6+3 with rolls of 6,2. coordination(2) + marksman(3) - 2.

On the other hand, you were standing in front of a window onto space, so there may be something in that... Three Story Points to have the beam hit the window instead, and take your chances.

Farren & Trace:

As Trace backed against the wall, Farren opened the doors to the power generator room. In their explorations, they'd become almost accustomed to the incessant double-pulsed heartbeat of the Dalek base, but now, as the doors cracked open, the dreadful sound spilled out with greater intensity, painfully loud and maddeningly insistent.

In the guise of a Dalek, steeling himself, Farren advanced inside. At first, he didn't quite know what he was seeing, as if it was all too much to take in at once.

There was...


A large, darkened cubical chamber, lit by dim blue lighting with no apparent source. The walls were surfaced in some kind of heavy metal shielding, dully reflective and giving a sensation of the room being much, much larger, and himself much, much smaller. Before him was a control console, bearing readouts and displays and Dalek access ports. Two thick conduits ran out of the back, leading to two tall columns in the centre of the room, on either side and behind the console.

They were...


Tall cylindrical vats of a transparent blue liquid, softly glowing and illuminating the room. Bubbles of air ran up the column of liquid, and flecks of tissue spiralled and bobbed about.

Inside was...


Thin, brightly glowing fibrous cables snaked up inside the vat, inserted into...

Into...


Inside each vat was a massive head, six times the size of a human's. It was mostly brain, exposed and throbbing, bloated and overgrown past the confines of a cracked skull. The skin outside was gnarled, twisted, folded in on itself, covered in weeping sores. Tentacles, stubby and atrophied, dangled uselessly below its mass, waving in the bubbling liquid, amongst feeding tubes. The ruins of a face hung low, with one bulbous eye closed, a flap of a mouth drooping open, a few blackened teeth bared in a snarl of pure hatred. It was a Kaled mutant, mutated into something utterly, unspeakably horrific.

And the base power supply was fed from the console, which was connected to the conduits, which were plugged into the vats, which interfaced with the optic fibres, which ended in needles plunged directly into the overgrown Kaled mutants' brains.

And those two brains throbbed in time with the double-heartbeat of the base.


At Farren's approach, on each mutant, the single remaining eyes snapped open, pale, poached-egg things that fixed Farren with baleful glares. The things thrashed violently in their vats; the needles and inserted tubes tearing at their flesh.


But soon they were exhausted, unable to keep up the struggle against the agony of their existence, collapsing back into a terrible sulk.

Tarys feels the discharge of the Dalek's disruptor, more than sensing it in any conventional way.  She hurls herself out of the way of the blast by instinct, before fully apprehending the fact that a miss is likely to blast out the window behind her.

She gulps as much air as she can, before shutting off her respiratory bypass and springing off ahead, hopefully before she can get caught by any sort of decompression -- and in the further hope that she can find an emergency control to seal off the area behind her.

OOC:

Gah.  I'll spend the three story points, just to avoid the ignominy of being kind of terrible at what I was trying to do.  That takes me down to 4.

When no harsh voices yelled out with orders, Trace poked his head around the corner. At first, his attention was focused on their prize, the power generators. Then he spotted the floating heads. "Eww, what the hell are those?"

Trace & Farren:

As soon as Trace's head appeared around the door, both Dalek mutants spun in their vats to glare hatefully at the human adolescent, their mouths forming savage snarls. Their exposed brains began to spark and glow with a sickly blue light...


OOC: That's such poor timing I'm going to give Trace a Story Point for his Insatiable Curiosity. :)

Conflict! The Dalek Power Brains go on Fight.

Tarys:

The Dalek death-ray blasted the window, melting a hole right through. In an instant, a terrific wind rushed through the corridors and out of that hole. The Dalek, already speeding for the junction, couldn't slow itself, and in fact sped up alarmingly. The small hole was bad enough – a massive Dalek crashing through the window was quite another. The wind became an irresistible gale.

Tarys had been sprinting for all she was worth, but the force of decompression was slowing her down, driving her back. She had to grab hold of something!


OOC: Roll Coordination + Strength versus Difficulty 15 to hold on and not get sucked out.

As Tarys feels the blast of escaping air start to catch her, she digs the soles of her boots against the floor and leans into the wind to try to brake herself as she's pulled toward the vacuum outside.  This isn't exactly her first explosive decompression, after all....

She takes the Possible Knife in her hand, and as air pressure flings her into the gap that the Dalek smashed through the window in its passing, she brings it around hard, striking at the discontinuity between the here and now, where she about to be thrown out onto the airless surface, and the possible tracks of time just next door where the window was never shattered, and the integrity of the base was maintained.

The Knife catches in empty space, and slowly drags down, bending reality in its wake....

OOC:
I'm spending one of the Knife's story points on this roll... which may not have helped me all that much, as it turns out.

I'm not sure if the reroll for Unlucky applies when you have used a SP and the "first two" dice come up 6s.  If so, I rerolled those and got a 15, which would engage the Skewed Probability trait of the knife in addition to whatever other nastiness you imagine.

If not, I got a 23.

12:25, Today: Tarys rolled 23 using 4d6+9 with rolls of 6,6,1,1. "Unbreaking" the smashed window: Coordination(4) + Fighting(3) + AoE Knife(2).
12:26, Today: Tarys rolled 4 using 2d6 with rolls of 2,2. Reroll for Unlucky.

Tarys:

The knife slashed through the fabric of time-lines, cutting and re-joining the threads of possibilities, bringing about a desired alternative. At the instant she was to be sucked through the hole and onto the airless moonscape, Tarys suddenly slammed into a perfectly whole transparent-aluminium window. Then she felt a sudden searing pain in her shoulder as she remembered that the neighbouring time-line in which the window was not broken was one in which the Dalek had shot her instead.

But she'd certainly lost that Dalek now.

Recovering, Tarys looked out the window to see what become of it. Daleks could survive vacuum and de-pressurisation. But she was surprised to see shattered and smoking wreckage, strewn across the barren grey moon-dirt. She spied sensor globes, twisted skirting, a dismembered manipulator arm. Something had blown the Dalek up. But what could do that to a Dalek in a heartsbeat?


OOC: As promised, that injury happens anyway.
−2 to Strength (selected at random), −2 to Coordination.
I'll award Tarys a Story Point for the drama and plot discovery.

Oh bloody hell Trace!  Of all the times NOT to be a "kid", this has to be near the bloody top of the list!

Still... those things seem to buy my deception, at least for the moment, perhaps I ought to play it up... a little "Dalek ham-ing"?

Farren-Dalek's eyestalk rose up as if in alarm and Farren-Dalek's head-dome rotated (in the incorrect/opposite direction of where Trace was) as he said in his best menacing Dalek tone, "Who said that... who said that!?  Hu-man In-tru-der in the Po-wer Gen-er-ator Room!

Ex-ter-min-ate the In-tru-der... Ex-ter-min-ate the In-tru-der!

Must Ex-ter-min-ate the In-tru-der before the In-tru-der damages or harms the psychic Kaled mutants.

No harm must come to the psycho-kinetic energy sources!  The In-tru-der must be Ex-ter-min-ated to pre-serve the psychic Kaled mutants!"

There... that should tell Trace what, or perhaps "who", to target... I just hope I'm right about the Kaled mutants and I hope Trace has some trick up his sleeve for "pulling their plug"!?

Farren-Dalek made a deliberate "wrong turn", thus buying Trace time to get past him and further into the room.  As Farren-Dalek turned "on his heels" (or perhaps "on his wheels"), Farren "accidentally" hit the control button that closed the doors behind them.  Not that it'll slow the real Daleks by much, but even their gunsticks won't be able to blow this door instantly... I hope!

Tarys reels from the shock of the disintegrator burns.  But she is able to catch herself before she falls, and she breathes deeply, centering herself and warding off the pain to try to prevent any worse effects from taking hold.

Causality was ever the most treacherous of dance partners, she reminds herself.  Teasing and flirting with it was apt to get one slapped, hard.   Still.  Better to be burned, breathing, and safely inside an intact sealed atmosphere than thrown into a barren vacuum, with scarce minutes to reach oxygen again.

She concentrates and studies the landscape beyond the window more carefully, to try to find if there are any more telltales that might explain what destroyed the Dalek before she tries to make her way back to Trace and Farren.

OOC:

21:55, Today: Tarys rolled 17 using 2d6+8 with rolls of 6,3. General observation: Awareness(4) + Ingenuity(4).

At the last second, some professor told him it wasn't going to work that way... just plugging it in to a wall socket... here.

He was only momentarily frustrated, however, before his general optimism kicked in again.

"Hmph. If you can't take the temple to the mountain, take the mountain to the temple. Old Hadonese saying. I think it loses something in the translation," he announced.

"So we can't help the others... from here... at this point, so back to the original plan... save the prisoners."

"Now, how are we going to do that again? Inverting the timeline of the big gun won't free these people, right? It won't even make this base go away. If nothing can get in or out, then all we have to do is become... nothing!"

He was rather proud of his circumlocution! It never even occurred to him that they couldn't somehow make all the prisoners 'appear' to be nothing.

Trace winced has he attracted the attention of the freaky head things. At least Farren had the presence of mind to drop him a hint as to what he should do.

Using the opening given to him, the boy darted into the room and ran to the nearest piece of machinery for cover. Maybe from there he'd be able to work out what he needed to do to carry out Farren's plan.

Farren & Trace:


Darting in behind the Dalek-shape of Farren, Trace ran toward an energy storage stack that looked like a good hiding spot. But he got only a few paces when he collided with a strange repulsive force. He felt an overwhelming sense of hatred, of loathing and disgust, that slowed his movements, pushed him back, pushed him down, made him small and hated and unwanted.

Both Dalek heads glared savagely at Trace, teeth gnashing, black blood drooling from their mouths and eyes. Suddenly, one of the brains flashed, and lightning arced towards Trace!


OOC: Wall of Hate: Trace, please make an Ingenuity + Resolve roll, Difficulty 22, to get past the psychic wall of hate. I know, it's very difficult. You may apply Brave.

Psychic Blast: Trace, please make a Coordination + Awareness roll, Difficulty 15, to dodge the psychic attack. Damage 3/6/9 (spread evenly amongst Strength and Resolve, with the remainder placed where you like).

Farren, I'm not sure telling the Power Brains to exterminate Trace was quite the best idea. :p BTW, I'll award you 2 Story Points for the sheer Dalek-balls of impersonating a Dalek to a Dalek's face.

FWIW, I'm treating the Power Brains as machines (as the sourcebook implies) rather than NPCs, so they're easily fooled or instructed. They've accepted Farren as a Dalek, for example.

Round 1:
Talk: Farren warns
Move: Trace hides
Do: Farren closes door
Fight: Power Brains attack, raise hate-wall as second action

Axander & Bluetooth:

Ramst looked lost at Bluetooth's words, shaking his head. 'Inverting the timeline? I don't know what you mean... But if you can shut down all the Daleks, then maybe we can make a break for your ship... Where is it? How many can it hold?'

From a neighbouring lab there was a whistle, a short little tune such as someone might idly play while working. Yet Ramst grew tense and worried. 'You better hurry this up, the Dalek's returning.'

Tarys:

Tarys didn't see anything more through the reformed window.


OOC: Let's say you can return to the Power Generator room next round.

Farren & Trace:

21:06, Thu 14 May 2015: Trace rolled 17 using 2d6 + Ingenuity 5 + Resolve 3 + Bravery 2 (Fail)
21:08, Thu 14 May 2015: Trace rolled 15 using 2d6 + Coordination 5 + Awareness 3 (Pass on the nose?)

Tarys sets her jaw and moves off down the corridor, favoring her burned arm and side, but making her way back toward Trace and Farren as swiftly as is possible while being as silent as possible.  She worries what she left them to walk into -- the psychic presence at the generator had been formidable, and even though the pair of them were steadfast and capable, they had only their human will to defend them.

Oh hells bells... those bloody mutants are actually "taking orders" from me!?

And poor Trace is suffering the consequences, damn!

There must be something I can do... think Farren, think!

Farren was glad the Dalek shape was so limited in its ability of expression or the Kaled mutants would no doubt have noticed an obvious "cringe" as Trace came under attack.  Having locked the door behind them (and mentally crossing his fingers that it would hold any real Daleks for at least a few minutes), Farren-Dalek turned around and faced the "Intruder".

In an angrily surprised tone, Farren-Dalek said, "Wait... wait... In-tru-der is not one of the Hu-man Pris-on-ers!  Who is this In-tru-der!?

Un-known In-tru-der must be ques-tioned... Un-known In-tur-der must be ques-tioned.  Stand-ing Or-ders, all Strang-ers must be cap-tured and in-ter-ro-gat-ed.

Cease ex-ecution, cease ex-ecution... Un-known Strang-er must be taken alive for in-ter-ro-gat-ion!  Must in-ter-ro-gate the Un-known In-tru-der!"

Farren-Dalek "rolled" closer to Trace as he said in a menacing tone, "Who are you In-tru-der!?  Where have you come from!?  Why are you here!?

You will an-swer!  You will Obey!"

Hopefully those mutants will halt their attack long enough for either Trace or I to have a moment or two to catch our collective breath and perhaps get a spark of an idea... hopefully!

Axander & Bluetooth:

At Ramst's urging, Axander looked around, expecting someone else to be with them. But it was just the pair of them: Axander and Bluetooth and no one else. Farren, Tarys, and Trace had gone together to the Power Generators, while he and Bluetooth had come to speak with the scientists. Only the five of them had come to the base. No one was missing.

Axander realised no one was missing because... someone was missing. His TARDIS had gotten here on six pilots. There'd been another, a sixth person, a loyal friend. And now they were gone. And now they never were.


OOC: Axander realises that Stirix doesn't exist any more (temporarily, at least).
14:34, Today: GM BadCatMan, on behalf of Axander, rolled 16 using 2d6+10 with rolls of 2,4. awareness(3) + ingenuity(5) + FtTotU(2).

Farren & Trace:

Diving for the floor, Trace narrowly avoided the psychic blast, his teeth tingling and hair on end. But he still couldn't struggle past the repulsive psychic barrier that barred him access.

The second brain was charging up for another shot when Farren interrupted. Yet it continued to charge, and charge, and then...

 But nothing happened.

Farren-Dalek rolled over to Trace, making a show of interrogating him, the eyes of both power brains fixated on him and Trace.


Tarys:

Finding another route around the base, Tarys soon found her way back to the Power Generator room. The other Dalek was gone, Trace and Farren were out of the sight. The doors were closed. Then, approaching, she heard a ferocious zap behind the door, and a furious Dalek voice. 'Who are you, in-tru-der!? Where have you come from!? Why are you here!? You will an-swer! You will obey!' The doors were locked!

Trace staggered as a wave of hatred struck him like of thousand angry voices screaming in his head. It was only pure look that instinct made him open his eyes and look up to see the incoming psychic blast.

The boy dived out of the way, rolling on to the floor and backing away from the giant floating heads. His retreat was stopped when he came to face-to-eyestalk with a dalek, screaming at him to explain. For a split second he forgot it was Farren.

His mind went blank. Okay Trace, he thought, talk your way out of this one.

(might need a moment to think about this)

The doors are locked.  If she really wanted in, there was always the Possible Knife.  But her arm and her side throbbed with a recent, painful reminder of just how fickle the paradox artifact could be, and she knew that the timelines were still jangling from that.

The doors are locked.  But they'd been shut before, when she'd paused to bait the Dalek guards, and she'd felt that monstrous presence anyway.

The doors are locked.  But the gates of the mind are never closed to me!  And as much as any Dalek mind has been bred to hate anything not like itself, it has surely been taught that a Time Lord is not merely to be hated, but to be feared.  If she can penetrate its thoughts, she hopes, it should notice.  And that may distract it enough to give her allies the freedom to defeat it.

She concentrates and sends her consciousness plunging through the doors, past the vague hints of Farren and Trace that she feels, and into the seething pit of hatred beyond them.

OOC:  So, I don't have Telepathy, and can't exactly project to "call out" the brain or brains.  But I figure that it should certainly notice my attempt to read it / them with Psychic.  And do I read the traits correctly, that Psychic and Psychic Training both apply if it counterattacks?

Call that a mind reading attempt, plus an attempt to resist psychic attack as a second action.  Can I tell if the doors are providing a lot of psychic shielding?  I might have to delay and get the doors open first if that's the case.

OOC:
Tarys: There is some degree of psychic shielding, reflecting back the psychic energy (the inner walls are reflective and could function as mirrors with the lights on), and but some still leaks through. The Power Brains can't attack through the closed doors.

Psychic Training gives +2 Resolve to resist a psychic assault of some kind. That will apply to getting through the wall of hate effect. OTOH, Psychic gives +4 to resist being mind-read or possessed, but the Power Brains aren't attempting that, so it doesn't apply.

Please roll Resolve + Awareness + 4 as normal for Psychic to make contact or try to read the brains.


Trace: You can spend a Story Point for a clue or idea of mine. ;)

OOC:

I'm torn between spending a story point for a clue, or to find something useful in my pockets (Resourceful Pockets). Go for whichever ks

is cooler.

[Definitely liking the passive roll being done for me. Makes things much easier. :D]

So many pieces of the puzzle, and Axander didn't have Tarys on hand to tell him what was best. She was more experienced, more used to this black ops specialist stuff. She'd seen the War firsthand. But that didn't matter. She was busy, and doubt wasn't going to make any of this any easier. Axander was together with Bluetooth on this. Together, the two of them could...

"Two of us? Bluetooth, where's...?" Nothing. He snapped his fingers as though trying to conjure someone from the void. "We had six pilots. Elona was full. There were six of us!" The young Time Lord's face went pale as realization stuck his gut like a knife.

"Someone's missing. Oh by Rassilon's wisdom, someone's missing from my mind... P-Professor, one problem at a time. Bluetooth, one Dalek at a time. We can free the prisoners, make our way to the generator, plug the device in, fry the place, sabotage the infernal contraption, and make our escape, good plan? Great pla--" The panic had him speaking quickly, but his mind worked just as fast. It really did sound sensible to him. What didn't sound sensible was talking with a Dalek on the way.

Part of him was terrified. Part of him was excited. He had tried to ignore that bit most of his life, pretend it wasn't there. This time, maybe it would be of use. A moment of clarity and he glanced at the machine Bluetooth had created.

"Blue, get ready!" With that, he quickly found a hiding spot and pulled the Professor down out of sight with him.

Tarys feels the static of whatever shielding the Daleks have designed into the door as soon as she starts her probe, but she pushes ahead anyway.  Perhaps it will be enough....

OOC:

Tarys rolled 16 using 2d6+13 with rolls of 1,2. Probing / distracting the brain mutants: Resolve(5) + Awareness(4) + Psychic(4).

Farren & Trace:

As Trace searched desperately for something to say, the power brains began to rotate furiously in their tanks, snarling and spitting.


Tarys:

Tarys's keen mind penetrated the shielding, finding it only worked one-way, designed to keep a psychic force in and reflected back on itself, more than to keep one out. She touched a mind, no, nigh-identical minds, of pure, unrelenting, and incessant hatred and loathing, nothing but hatred, cold and sharp and crystal-clear. They pushed intolerantly at her, but she slipped under like a shadow.

Axander & Bluetooth:

Ramst was bewildered. 'Missing? But there were only the two of you...' he began, before Axander suddenly dragged him behind a laboratory bench. The terrifying silhouette of a Dalek loomed up the corridor wall...


OOC: Bluetooth? Both of you, please make hiding rolls and state any actions prepared.

Quickly, as an idea came to him, Trace cowered in front of the "Dalek," covering his head with his arms in a futile attempt to ward off the Dalek death ray.

"Please master,"I the boy whimpered, trying to put as much fear into his voice, "I ...  was sent to check the power regulators. The weapon lab isn't getting enough power to test the latest weapon. Please don't kill me, I was only doing what I was ordered to!"

[Stealth roll, Awareness 3 + Subterfuge 1. Coulda been Coordination, but it's also 3 and I think Awareness makes more sense in context.

15:10, Today: Axander rolled 15 using 2d6+4 with rolls of 5,6. Awareness+Subterfuge.]

I don't know what it takes to hide, but Bluetooth isn't very good at it. Not even sure the word is in his vocabulary!

08:36, Fri 22 May 2015: Bluetooth rolled 10 using 2d6+2 ((3,5)).

He has no subterfuge, so when hiding appears to fail, Bluetooth is all ready to use his Dalek Decimator gun (sounds better than what Ramst called it!).

Farren & Trace:

The power brains seemed satisfied by Trace's story, or at least, they were no longer concerned with him. They were more agitated now by the unseen mind poking them from afar.

Axander & Bluetooth:

As Axander and Bluetooth dove for cover behind the laboratory bench, the Dalek turned into the lab, stopping before Ramst and focusing its eyestalk upon the trembling scientist. 'Why are you not at your sta-tion?' it growled.

'I— I came to adjust the power relay junction. It was out of phase, 3.1 amps.' The slaves were naturally incredibly nervous around Daleks, so Ramst's anxiety was only to be expected.

The Dalek swivelled to look at a control panel. 'The power is cor-rect.'

'I've adjusted it now.'

The Dalek stared at Ramst for a long time, before finally uttering 'Return to your sta-tion.' Ramst started walking, then jumped as the Dalek screeched 'Halt! What is that be-hind the work-bench?' It was a tail, a furry Rakshasa tail.

'...A duster?'


OOC: A "No, But" Failure for the Dalek. Bluetooth is spotted, but can get the jump on the Dalek.
10:22, Today: Secret Roll: GM BadCatMan rolled 12 using 2d6+7 with rolls of 3,2.

Still whimpering a little, Trace scuttled backwards away from Farren and got to his feet. He moved warily towards the large console between the two monstrous heads, eying it as he approached. Maybe he could kill two birds with one stone; use the console to send a surge through the tanks while he set the power generators to overload.

Farren & Trace:

As Trace approached the console, he found the repulsive psychic force field was still up. It was only when Axander gave the order and a nod of his eyestalk to the power brains that it had. Trace stumbled through and made it to the console, uncomfortably close to the hateful brains.

He found a typical Dalek console which was, needless to say, complex and difficult to use. For one, he didn't have a Dalek plunger to interface. He found he could shut down power to the whole Citadel of Eternity from here, though not the Daleks or the Temporal Exterminator, which drew its power from the Tantalus Eye.


OOC: Make an Ingenuity + Technology roll versus Difficult 12, at a −6 penalty for the difference in Tech Levels. You can apply Technically Adept and AoE: Computers.

After the field dropped Trace stared at the controls, attempting to decode their workings. Not being designed to be operated by human hands, the young engineer had to ignore the layout of the switches and dials, and instead trace the flow of power in his head.

His heart sank a little when he realised that he could not send a power surge to the Weapon or fry the big giant heads. But he could control power to the entire Citadel. At the very least, that would buy them some time.

"Master," he said in a fearful voice addressing the 'dalek' behind him. "Do I have your permission to initiate a manual power cycle procedure?" He hopped Farren would get the message as to what he was about to do.

OOC:
23:09, Today: Trace rolled 16 using 2d6+7 with rolls of 3,6. Ing(5)+Tech(4)+Aoe(2)+Tech Adept(2)-Diff(6).

Also, is it possible to reroute the power back to the reactor in an attempt to destroy the citadel's power system?

OOC: You can do anything you want to try, with the right roll and technobabble. That includes destroying the power generators or the brains.

Farren-Dalek's eyestalk followed Trace as he said, "Oh so you are the Hu-man slave sent to adjust the pow-er levels.  Your dis-patch was re-port-ed to me.

You should know bet-ter than to fail to re-port your arri-val im-medi-ate-ly to the rank-ing Dalek.  How-ever, as you are currently use-ful, I will not ex-ter-min-ate you... for now."

When Trace requested permission, Farren-Dalek replied, "You have per-mis-sion to carry out your task.  You will make the nec-ess-ary cor-rec-tions to the pow-er levels... im-med-iate-ly!"

In a soft whisper, Farren added, "Slave, if you need me to in-it-iate the fi-nal po-wer cy-cling as your pathe-tic in-fer-ior species lacks the sup-per-ior Dalek tech-no-log-ical in-ter-face, you will in-form me im-med-iate-ly.

There will be no ex-cuses for fail-ure to re-dir-rect sufficient po-wer to the weap-ons lab-ora-tory.  The weap-ons test-ing must not be de-layed!  You will Ob-ey!"

Bloody hell... this mental "translating" of even the simplest ideas into "superior Dalek-ese" is turning my brain into mush.  How can a species this backwards in communication command such deadly technological advances and instill such abject fear!?

Trace began to flip switches, opening and closing relays across the citadel and rewiring the power grid by remote. By routing the power through several systems, including the giant head jars, and then sending it back to the generators, he was able to set up feedback loop. Each cycle through the loop, the charge grew ever higher, and system after system would short out and blow. Deep below, the atomic generators began to get very warm.

Hopefully there was enough time for the others to do what they came for.

Not sure if I'd ever given it any thought before now, but, yes, Bluetooth has a tail. Of course, now I'm picturing the Cowardly Lion from the Wizard of Oz...


Still not sure of his options... is the Dalek Decimator functional... against one Dalek... without having to be plugged in somewhere? If it has to be plugged in, Bluetooth will quickly scan the workbench for an outlet to plug into, then fire at the Dalek.

If that's not an option, he'll jump on top of the Dale and try to pry the dome off or break the eye stalk. Watched the first Peter Cushing movie over the weekend... The image is stuck in my head.


If he needs to plug in, he's looking for some place to do so:

22:29, Mon 01 June 2015: Bluetooth rolled 10 using 2d6+4 ((1,5)). Awareness+Ingenuity

If he can fire the Dalek Decimator that he jiggery-poked together...

22:30, Mon 01 June 2015: Bluetooth rolled 14 using 2d6+9 ((2,3)). Coordination+Resolve+Brave

If the gun doesn't fire/work, he'll physically attack:

22:31, Mon 01 June 2015: Bluetooth rolled 16 using 2d6+10 ((1,5)). Coordination+Strength+Natural Weapons

Farren & Trace:

Trace's power feedback loop did its destructive work, overloading systems at random throughout the base. Error messages in Dalek script scrolled down the screen. The lights in the generator room dimmed and the throbbing psychic heartbeat of the power brains skipped a beat.

The power brains thrashed in their tanks, bobbing furiously up and down.


OOC: A straight Good result for Trace; he shuts down power to the base until the Daleks can fix it.

Farren & Trace:

Out in the corridor, the lights dimmed briefly and Tarys heard something far off sizzle and spark.

Axander & Bluetooth:

Given that cue, a ferocious tiger-man leaped up behind the work-bench, wielding a terrifying agglomeration of technology and wires, which he levelled ominously at the Dalek. He jammed the button down.

Click.

Click.

Whoosh! Violet lightning erupted from the parallax inversion module, arcing across the lab and striking the Dalek in its approximate front. Immediately, it let out an electronic squeal, 'E-mer-gen-seeee!' its dome spinning around and around as lights flashed and eyepiece raised up and down. Finally, it stopped, everything drooping. The Dalek seemed to entirely incapacitated.

Yet Ramst looked at the dormant Dalek with white-faced horror. 'That's done it. We have to escape now.'

Suddenly the lights dimmed, plunging the lab into a momentarily blackout before returning to normal illumination. Then the power relay junction on the wall sparked and exploded.

'Now!'


OOC: The Dalek Decimator has its own power pack, sufficient for blasting one Dalek at a time. I don't think you actually need a roll for a Gadget to hit.

Dalek is stunned for a number of rounds.

The sudden power failure argues strongly to Tarys that Farren and Trace have accomplished their task.

Tarys checks the door.  It seems likely to her that the failure state of the door would allow it to be shifted manually, because otherwise the Daleks would have no way to access the controls to effect repairs.  As she tries to force it, though, agony shoots up her injured arm.

She decides to risk calling out.  With her good arm, she beats a staccato on the door that a Dalek would have difficulty replicating.  "Trace?  Farren?  You hear me in there?"

She listens intently, not just for a reply, but for noise outside in the base.  The Daleks will, in all likelihood, be sending units to investigate the outage before long.

OOC: Figure it won't be easy to move that door with a Strength of 1, alas.

Trace jumps back from the console as a shower of sparks erupt from one of the shorted controls. "That's our cue to leave I reckon," the boy says to Farren as he beats a hasty retreat to the door. "Tarys, is that you?" He calls out to the muffled voice on the other side of the door.

"Wow. Did I do that?" Bluetooth asks when the console explodes with sparks.

Knowing that the Dalek is only temporarily stunned, Bluetooth wonders what a second shot would do...

Then another thought hits him (he forgot to duck).

"What happens if we tip the Dalek over on its side? Is it like a turtle? Would it be stuck like that?" he asks whoever is still around... Axander...Ramst.

A shower of sparks had never been anything to run from, in his book. Still, he's torn between attempting the tilt-a-Dalek ploy and listening to Ramst.

Axander stayed hidden from view as best he could until he heard the device's noise (he assumed it was the device, anyway) and the dalek went quiet. That was quite a ruckus. He slowly looked out from behind the table, even as Ramst frantically tried to get them moving. Everything was dead. Did the gun really knock out power to the whole lab? Maybe it was the others, and they just happened to have extremely coincidental timing. They did have a Time Lord with them, after all. A proper one.

"Hm. Normally touching a dalek would set you on fire instantly. With its power off, I suspect that isn't the case. Regardless, the antigravity modules that allow it to fly would also allow it to right itself with far less effort than it would take us to tip it over in the first place. I suggest we listen to the professor and get the other prisoners someplace they can do some real damage. Well done, Bluetooth. Professor, lead on!" A small smile was creeping onto his face. They'd just fried a dalek. The monsters weren't invincible. Not totally, anyway. The thing wasn't dead, though, and it would be right behind them in a dramatically appropriate period of time. Xander assumed that would be about the time they started mobilizing prisoners.
This message was last edited by the player at 22:50, Wed 03 June 2015.

Farren, Tarys, & Trace:

Reunited, albeit on opposite sides of the door, all that remained was for Farren to unlock the door before they could be on their way again – toward the Temporal Exterminator and the fate of the universe.

Axander & Bluetooth:

Led by Professor Ramst, Axander & Bluetooth hustled out of the lab, finding the power failures and overloaded circuits had spread much further than the expected yield of the Decimator. Puzzled scientists were creeping out of darkened labs and workshops, staring blankly at the travellers. One was a Martian, still in his armour; he looked eerily familiar, but in no way Axander could put his finger on.

Quickly, Ramst rallied the enslaved scientists, and a stream of them poured toward the exit. They found the security doors unlocked and sitting open – an emergency measure in case of vacuum or fire, designed to expose the slaves to whatever was afflicting the base as a last act of Dalek spite.

They were back out in the main base, ready to be on their way – toward the Temporal Exterminator and the fate of the universe.

Tarys raises her voice, even as she turns away from the door, to better watch for the approach of enemies.

"We should move," she says.  "The Daleks may be confused or inconvenienced for a time, but they will soon react.  They know the signs of a threat.  They will bring overwhelming force to bear if we linger here long, and they will also move to defend their weapon.  Our only advantage," and here she feels the ghost of a smile, "is the time it will take them to do so."

Unfazed by spark showers and exploding consoles, Bluetooth goes over to the Dalek and ponders it for a second. Axander's words were somewhat disappointing.

"Oh, farg!" he says to no one, and shoots the Dalek again... for good measure!

Then he hurries after the others out into the main base. Just to be on the safe side, he rushes/pushes his way to the front in case another Dalek shows up.

Hurrying out of the laboratory section, Axander and Bluetooth led a stream of escaped scientists and engineers through the open doors and into the main base. All around them, the lights were dimming, systems flaring up in sparks or abruptly shutting down as the erratic power failed or overloaded at random.

Stealing past the monitoring chamber, they found the Daleks in disarray, screeching reports and orders. There was something about how the Defence Grid had failed momentarily, how the Time Lord weapon had penetrated the base. There was no time to stop and listen, and the Daleks were too distracted to see the escapees sneaking past. Finally an emergency door crashed down, locked and bolted, blotting out further information.

Seeing a Dalek speed around the corner, Bluetooth bravely stunned it and the group rushed past as it spun.

Soon, they were reunited with Farren, Tarys, and Trace. They gave directions back to the TARDIS to some of the scientists, those not qualified to sabotage the Temporal Exterminator. Six others who'd actually worked on it and found the courage to confront the Daleks and destroy what they'd been forced to help create, including Ramst the familiar Ice Warrior, followed the time travellers. Following Ramst's directions, the group frantically made their way to the adjoining building where the Temporal Exterminator was located.

The whole base was groaning now, as its structural integrity field failed and the force of vacuum pressure loosened its bolts, not helped by the escalating system failures. Panels fell from the ceiling, systems exploded and sparks flew about them. The four time travellers and five scientists had a perilous journey crossing the collapsing, Dalek base.

Suddenly, a Dalek came flying around the corner, emitting a terrible electronic scream. It seemed to be fleeing something. Wielding his Decimator, Bluetooth stunned it, ending its panic. Turning that corner, seeing a Dalek, he almost fired again – but the Dalek was already destroyed. Only the skirt remained, the entire top section exploded outwards and the mutant obliterated. Briefly examining the damage, Tarys recognised the impact of a Gallifreyan staser rifle, standard issue to soldiers. Had a Time War–era Gallifreyan commando squad infiltrated the base to aid them? They weren't here now, and they couldn't wait.

Finally, with the four scientists behind them, they were at the great doors to the Temporal Exterminator. Farren determined they were unlocked. Ramst and the others had described a massive chamber like a repurposed spaceship hangar, with monitoring and power regulation systems around the walls. He said there was a kind of control room at the very centre, where the Temporal Exterminator was operated and targeted. The place would be full of Daleks, either operating the weapon and the systems or standing guard. Through the doors, they could Dalek reports and warnings of damage in other parts of the base.

'Pro-tect the Temp-oral Ex-term-inator! Con-tin-ue e-radi-ca-ting the Doc-tor from the time-lines! It is our only chance! How long until he is ex-term-inated?'

'One hun-dred fif-ty three rels.'

So, three minutes to save the Doctor. Three minutes to stop Daleks. Three minutes to end the Time War. Three minutes to save the universe. Three minutes to save everything.
This message was last edited by the GM at 06:43, Tue 16 June 2015.

Battle!  The reflexes drilled into Tarys by her long training and dedication urge her to move, move, move, but they are tempered by the knowledge that her injuries are dragging at her steps and sapping the force she can bring to bear.

Timelines are in flux here.  The operation of the Time Exterminator is kicking up, if not proper time winds, then perhaps a swarm of causal dust devils skittering all around Tarys and her allies.  She tastes those eddies and swirls as they pass her, trying to read disasters and triumphs that may lie beyond the door, trying to find a course toward the latter and not the former.

OOC: Dropping a story point for Precognition, down to 4.

PM

Trace moved up behind Tarys. He looked curiously, and not a little apprehensively at the door. The boy had learnt his lesson (for now) and decided to let the others go first. Trace was about to raise his scanner gauntlet to see if there was any way he could get some readings on the other side when he realised there was a chance that the Daleks might detect the scans so he hesitated.

Tarys draws a breath.  "Give me covering fire, if you have a weapon," she says.  "Our new friends should take advantage of that to move to their tasks, and if you do not have a weapon, do what you can to keep them safe.  I think I will do something that the Daleks will not be able to ignore.  The price for that, of course, is already written, but a universe where I pay it is quite literally better than no universe at all."

She blinks.  Is that a tear?  No.  Quite impossible.

She looks at Axander and Farren, Bluetooth and Trace.  "And if I do, please just do one thing.  Try to remember that I lived."

She places a hand on the door.

Axander takes a series of deep breaths, clearly not as calm as he's hoping to appear for the others' sake. There's just so much between them and where they need to be. If only he could think of a proper distraction...

His eyes shoot wide as Tarys speaks up. She often knows the proper course of action. The safest. Her ability to see the motion of time itself regularly keeps them from getting hurt. Axander has never heard her talk like that before. He opens his mouth to protest, but nothing comes out. She's already heard what he would have said, anyway. Anything he would have said. And yet she's still going.

"...Bluetooth, you've got the hang of that thing, right? You're her cover. I'll go with the scientists. Trace, Farren? Can either of you...?" He's having a hard time finishing that sentence, but he gestures to Tarys, voice steady but terror in his eyes.

Farren shrugged as he drew his standard issue SSS service laser pistol and said with a hint of uncertainty, "Certainly I can do my best to cover Tarys with my sidearm, though my training is not strictly speaking "military" in nature.

For what it is worth, my laser pistol is fairly reliable against most targets... but then again, Daleks are not really like "most targets".  Still, it should at least serve as a distraction is nothing else."

Under her breath, Tarys murmurs, "Gallifrey stands."

She  slides the door aside, and then she is moving forward, with what grace and speed she can still manage after her injuries.  She draws the Possible Knife and assesses the scene ahead of her as she advances.

She does not, precisely, make herself a sacrificial target for the Dalek guns, but neither is she going far out of her way to make use of available cover.  Her goal, after all, is to declare by her actions that one daughter of Gallifrey still stands and dares to oppose the Dalek Empire.  Her goal is to fix the attention and the hatred of the Daleks upon herself, to divert their attention from the other members of the little alliance that has come to them.  Her hope, even as she tries to identify what machinery or device houses the Time Exterminator itself, is that she can tempt the Daleks' bloated pride in their creation.  What better statement could they make of their contempt, than to strike at one of the last Time Lords with a weapon meant to eradicate their enemies' past, present and future existence?

(Her grasp tightens on the Possible Knife as she moves ahead, alert for their reaction.  If she has guessed right -- and if her wounded body can respond quickly enough -- then all of the faith that Marsillanon and his cabal placed in their creation will be paid back in full....)

OOC: I figured that was probably long enough to see if another player wanted to toss in a contribution.
This message was last edited by the player at 04:05, Tue 16 June 2015.

OOC: Looks like it is, thanks.


As Tarys drew open the door and slipped inside, her fellow time travellers and the escaped slaves had little choice but to follow her in, whether to do battle with the Daleks or to try to sabotage the terrible machine. Against death or defeat or utter erasure, they had this once chance to save all that was, all that is, all that will, and that could have been.

They burst in, weapons and tools raised – and stopped, for one critical moment, shocked.

They didn't see the Temporal Exterminator.

The chamber was as vast as told, a converted saucer hangar, with a compacted asteroid rock floor, polished smooth. The walls were lined with monitoring and control equipment. A hundred huge screens showed scenes of the Doctor's life and adventures, all fading away and being forgotten. The War Doctor, as Tarys knew him, sabotaging a Dalek saucer and sending it crashing – fading away. His prior incarnation, the eighth, leading refugees away from a shining city falling under energy beams – unseen. Then a much earlier Doctor, the second, in a Victorian manor, incredibly riding around on Daleks like they were bumper cars – the colours washed out to black and white and the image blurred, before being lost forever.



Even the very first Doctor, an old man, happening on Daleks investigating his TARDIS in an alien jungle before sneaking away. The image grew dark and burned up, and was gone.



They didn't see the Temporal Exterminator, not at first

The roof was open to space, covered only with force-fields to retain atmosphere. The massive accretion disk of the Tantalus Eye anomaly burned out there, like a single baleful red eye of a hungry god, looking right down on the impudent Daleks that stolen its power to fuel their infernal machine.

They still didn't see the Temporal Exterminator.

There were Daleks everywhere, some plugged into the control equipment. Others stood on guard, close to the walls, far from the centre, now reacting to the invading time travellers. Others were criss-crossing the vast open floor, some speeding away from the centre, other moving slowly inward, like they were afraid to venture to close.

And, at the very centre of the chamber, was...

Now they saw the Temporal Exterminator.


Suddenly a Dalek screeched, snapping them all back to the present. It was a Dalek Commander, rolling out from behind the strange edifice. 'Alert! Intru-ders! Acti-vate the Temp-oral Ex-term-inator!' All free Daleks turned in their direction.


OOC: The Temporal Exterminator itself is inside what you're seeing, accessed via the apparent entrance, which you'll have seen Daleks going in and out of. Obviously, getting inside and destroying it seems like a good idea...

Please post your reactions and your intended actions, but leave it there. ;) I'll sort matters out in my next post, then you can act properly.

His jaw dropped.

He remembered. That had been when he was still on the path to being a soldier, like his father, and his father before him. His line, filled with Grand Marshalls.

He couldn't remember the day he'd first decided to turn his back on that. Maybe it had been too much death and destruction. All he knew was that the day he'd turned his back on that, led to where he was; here and now. But it had also led to his race, his people becoming as nothing.

And his mind transported him back to a small child.

"Sir! Why must we always conquer and destroy?"


OOC: I'll get the sheet fixed this weekend for sure. Being slammed at work. Looking at around a 45 hour week this week.

"Oh holy hell," Trace muttered upon seeing the army of death that filled the room.

His gaze was drawn to the tower that dominated the centre of the room. The recollection struck him right between the eyes. "The salvage mission on Coronis 7 ... That's not possible." Trace remembered being sent on down to the surface of that world with the other junior crew members to salvage what they could. The silent cities and creeped him out far more than a planet of ruins and corpses would. There had been something ominous about the pristine and empty world.

Trace shook his head to clear his thoughts. "I guess we make a run for the tower and hope they 'exterminate' each other in the crossfire?" He asked with a shaky voice and preparing to run.

Tarys barely misses a beat: the appearance of the Tomb of the Vanquished is something that she welcomes almost as an old friend, as she welcomes the unlooked-for appearance of its name, and she begins moving unerringly toward it.

She hopes that her friends, at least, will show some more caution; she supposes that this gesture is as much for them as it is for the great sweep of the imperiled universe -- even Tarys finds it hard to apprehend more that an iota of that.  But even as she thinks that, she realizes that it is only through the courage of all of them together that the day could be won.

Bluetooth was busy looking at around at all the 'shiny'... the gizmos, devices, machinery... he wanted to know how it all worked. He only half heard Tarys's request and Axander's suggestion that he follow her.

Even half, though, eventually precolated into his consciousness, and he hurried after Tarys.

Yikes! Dalek's everywhere! That was what he'd been told was a 'target-rich' field!

Oh! Dalek Commander! Shoot him first!

Bluetooth aims at the commander and fires his Dalek Decimator!

He doesn't wait to see the result, but dives forward into a defensive roll, coming up on one knee facing another Dalek and shoots at that one.

Then he caught a glimpse of the Furnace. Well, it was a desert, but it looked like the Furnace. The reddish sands, the wind-sculpted rocks... and the cave. There couldn't be another cave like that in all the universe.

They had to go in there. Why did the Daleks put the Temporal Exterminator in there?

Wait! Maybe that's why the TARDIS found him in the first place! Because he had some connection with the cave. No, that's ridiculous. It's more likely the cave is some sort of illusion to distract or confuse him. He tried to convince himself of that while distractedly trying to protect Tarys.

The inside of the massive room chilled him to the bone instantly, freezing Axander in his tracks. So many Daleks. He could barely take his eyes away from the monsters that would certainly end his life any second, but the whole of time was at stake. There in the center of the room, the most incongruous sight he could have imagined. His glasses slipped partway down his nose as he stared in awe. From ages away, he could hear his companion. Trace's words jarred him back to the control room.

"Coronis 7? You don't see...? The thought seemed to concern him as he glanced between the young engineer and the whatever-it-was they were all looking at. He pushed the glasses back up the bridge of his nose and tapped them nervously as he thought.

"Okay, probably a-a temporal ripple connected to the observer, or a psychic illusion to hide the Exterminator's presence, or...or maybe it's just showing us our own timeline somehow. Either we'll end up in the same place together or we'll end up where we're looking, but we need to get in there. That's where the Exterminator is. If we get separated...well, continue the mission, alright?" Seeing Tarys and Bluetooth charge the entrance, Axander gave a few shaky pats on Trace's shoulder.

"Please don't die." He gave a sharp motion to the gathered scientists and then charged forward, toward the heart of this evil place.

Farren wasn't entirely sure what he had been expecting but he was fairly sure he had not been expecting this!  For a moment he was lost in thought despite a "room full of death" surrounding him in the form of swarming hostile Daleks.  The nagging "familiarity" of the sight before him and his inability to actually put his finger upon the correct memory that went with it was both frustrating as well as fascinating.  But he did not have long to struggle with connecting the scene before him with a corresponding scene from his past before the Dalek alert was raised in response to their presence.

Farren heard Axander's theory about how what was being seen was specific for each person and he thought that was an interesting form of camouflage (or an odd effect of the machine's workings).  But again, with the alarm raised, there was no spare time for thinking or theorizing.  Farren saw Bluetooth raise some sort of unusual device (he assumed it was a weapon of some sort) and he wondered what it could be that the Rakshasa could feel so confident it would make a "dent" in the notoriously tough "hides" of the Daleks.  But again, that was a question to be asked at a later time when they weren't being chased by murderous Daleks.

Knowing his own firearm to be woefully inadequate for actually taking down Daleks (at best it might "sting" them), Farren decided that the best move was to rush towards the device they were here to destroy and hope the Daleks' aim was subpar.

Some simply stopped and stared at this bleak monument to a forgotten past, wondering how in all the universe what they saw had come to be here. 'My old high-school laboratory...' Ramst whispered. Then they moved, leaping to action, time seeming to stand still...

Skirting the edge of the hangar, leading the scientists, Trace hurried for the power regulators—

Making a bee-line across the floor, Tarys raced for the Temporal Exterminator—

Following Tarys, covering her, Bluetooth raised his Decimator at the nearest Dalek—

Close behind the two warriors, Farren and Axander rushed for the Temporal Exterminator—

Beams crossing the chamber, the Daleks fired—

discontinuity

—Trace, Stirix, and the scientists were at the power regulation controls, hands on the panels and levers, frantically working at their sabotage. They paused, bewildered, forgetting their tasks, wondering how they'd gotten all the way here in an instant.

—Tarys, Bluetooth, Axander, and Farren stood outside the entrance to the Temporal Exterminator,  yawning darkly open before them. They paused, realising they'd somehow, against all hope, crossed the hangar floor in an instant without being shot by Daleks.

In an instant, everything was different. The screens showed different images. The Daleks were in different places, all much closer. Bluetooth was struck by a sudden pain, finding a charred burn on his back, the mark of a Dalek weapon.


OOC: Well, you run into a hail of Dalek gunfire...
16:06, Today: Secret Roll: GM BadCatMan rolled 10,17,10,11,12 using 2d6+5,2d6+5,2d6+5,2d6+5,2d6+5 with rolls of 3,2,6,6,2,3,1,5,3,4.
16:06, Today: Secret Roll: GM BadCatMan rolled 15,13,10,12,7 using 2d6+5,2d6+5,2d6+5,2d6+5,2d6+5 with rolls of 5,5,6,2,1,4,1,6,1,1.
I'm discounting everything 12 and below as a miss.

Attack 17 @ Bluetooth. I rolled 14 for Bluetooth to dodge. He takes 4 damage, reduced to 2 with Tough. Distribute among Coordination, Resolve, and Strength as you wish.
16:08, Today: GM BadCatMan, on behalf of Bluetooth, rolled 14 using 2d6+7 with rolls of 6,1. dodge Dalek gun.

Attack 15 @ Trace. I rolled 16 for Trace to dodge, success.
16:14, Today: GM BadCatMan, on behalf of Trace, rolled 16 using 2d6+7 with rolls of 3,6. dodge Dalek gun.

'Cease fire.' a Dalek ordered. The black-shelled Dalek Commander rolled unhurriedly up to the four. Somehow, it seemed be gloating, its harsh voice somehow mocking as it announced with flashing lights 'They have al-ready been ex-term-in-at-ed!'

They'd been struck by the Temporal Exterminator.

Ramst gasped. There were only three scientists left with Trace. Then there were only two. Then Ramst himself disappeared. Then he'd never even been there. Only the odd, silent Ice Warrior who'd agreed to help them back in the laboratory remained.

Confused as hell...


So here's the 'mental' plan... Bluetooth was firing at the Dalek Commander... so suppose he missed the Commander and hit the Temporal Exterminator instead? Willing to burn as many Story Points as it may take to accomplish that.

Otherwise, I haven't got a clue!

As Tarys stands before the darkened portal, she looks at those of her friends standing around her, and at the Daleks and the others elsewhere in the huge chamber.  Everyone is split into multiple images of themselves, some of them burning or visible as the skeletal silhouettes of a Dalek disruptor victim.  Tarys feels the echoes of the broken timelines that she'd stuttered across from the entrance of the chamber to the here and now.  She and the others begin to move into the opening--

No.

"STOP."  Very rarely does Tarys speak with anything but a measured tone.  When she speaks now, it is with the impact of her whole psyche behind it.  "Just because there is no door you can see does not mean that it does not need to be opened."  It's the last, most devious defense of the Time Exterminator: a dissemination loop that will fracture an intruder between every point in space and time that has been, is, or will be.  "Fortunately, I have a key for anything."

Tarys plunges the Possible Knife into the air at head-height.  It snags in the broken probability of the loop, and as she draws it down, there's a glimmering blue scar left behind in the shadows hanging in front of them.  Down to the floor, across the width of a body, then up again, sawing through the veil of shadow until she's standing again and can bring the cut back across, to join again with its beginning....

Axander comes up short behind Tarys and Bluetooth when he feels everything around him shift and change. The elder Time Lord can sense something wrong. The Daleks have stopped shooting. Something's missing. Someone? Axander gets that nagging feeling again. What did the commander mean by that? The team's already been hit? So why isn't anything...

Axander's eyes go wide as he realizes what it all means. They're already gone. Beyond dead. It's just erasing them back to front.

"B-Bluetooth...? You're...ah... you're going in right behind Tarys. Ready?" The burn on his friend's back isn't generally known to accompany the living. Axander takes his terror and turns it into something else. Hope.

Shaking hands lift the little psychic book from his bag, and he starts scanning the opening in front of him. Hopefully it can pull information from his psyche and perhaps guide him towards what is and away from what isn't. At the very least it can tell him how long he and his friends have by showing their history.

But Bluetooth had disappeared.

Pulling out his Psychic Encyclopaedia, Axander watched in mounting dismay as the text began to fade away, line by line, forgotten and erased by the Temporal Exterminator. A dozen adventures across several worlds, all gone, never happened. Only his Time Lord senses could tell him what he was losing, and even then not for long. He couldn't remember the last place they'd been before coming here. Only these moments in the Eternity Citadel would survive, outside time.

Here they were, at the start. And they had only seconds left...

discontinuity

Stirix had vanished.

The scan of the entry way completed, and some startlingly familiar results appeared. Axander saw something horrifying...

Then the book faded away.

Now Trace was gone.

discontinuity

All that remained were Tarys and Axander and Farren, standing before the dark entrance of the Temporal Exterminator, before oblivion. All around, the Daleks were laughing, a hideous and cruel cackle of electronic synthesisers and twisted throats.

discontinuity

As Tarys sliced the Possible Knife through the dissemination loop, a weird and ancient screaming echoed through the dark passage, as if of a living thing in pain. She completed the electric-blue cut – and opened the event horizon of the Temporal Exterminator, revealing what should never be revealed.

There was a flash of darkness—

The time travellers ceased to be—

discontinuity


Title page:

The End
This message was last edited by the GM at 07:38, Fri 26 June 2015.