Out Front: Chang Sheng-Xin

AS he watched, one built like a Hoops linebacker nudged the door open and moved inside with the fluid movement of someone with years of training.  The shorter guy went right on his heels, going low.

The leader--the one who'd bene showing them a holographic display of some sort, cocked her head to one side, then her helmet nd the inscrutable face-plate turned towards Sheng-Xin's direction.

"Move along." She said, curtly, as if she simply expected to be obeyed.

Moments later, she lifted a hand to her helmet, fingers over where here ear would be.  And her head cocked to one side.  Like she was listening.  Probably to an internal broadcast.

--
Where'd the Crowd Go?
Only the Sound of the System

Out Back: OK
Kaede moved silently forward and with a surprisingly minimal use of force, was able to upset Soldier-4's balance, casting him into the laser tri-line of the device.   He froze, arched his back, and twitched in a rigid seizure that just had to have hurt like no tomorrow...

It looked like it must've been an electrical jolt.  Like a taser or stun-baton.  But localized.    Probably only enough charge for one burst, though there had been no flash of light.  Even the detonation had been a minimal whump of static discharge that tickled across some of the neural receptors on Kaede's ports.

For all the armor, he was taken out by his own device.


So... having taken out soldier-4 and triggered the tripwire.   What now?

The silence that followed was eerie.  Except for the ever-present breath of air that registered on her sensor grid, nothing moved...
This message was last edited by the player at 22:16, Mon 05 Sept 2022.

INSIDE:  Baylee, Gothique, Viper & Gilina
& Uncle Marcus, the Importer

Maissa fought against Viper's rebellious nature, her urge to give the guys the middle finger, and burst into a wildcat all-out attack of kicks and shouts and bites and scratches.

She felt the adrenaline flow into her vein, but she knew part of it was due to her shame of being the cause of the arrest. They could fight her way out of this place, out of the strong doors to space, capture a shuttle and reach the Orishi, then what? This was the best place in the system for cast-outs like them.

They had no choice, but to stay on K-Zino. That wasn't to say they would surrender everything if they could do otherwise.

She pushed the canister into Car's hands.
"Consider this, officer" she spitted.
She took the most reasonable tone she could: "We're not bio-terroristes and we have no idea of what Nano Horizon is or was. We don't want to die from some unspeakable disease * either.

However, we also defend ourselves when our freedom is threatened. Which is precisely what you're doing by pointing your gun to our faces, which makes us very nervous and inclined to respond in kind. This is the Belt, and You Can Pry Our Freedoms From My Cold Dead Fingers, you know that

Do not try to hide your turpitude behind a show of force. You did a mistake by not stopping us at the customs when you detected something. Now, lower your guns and turn off that beam and discuss. I agreed to surrender and follow y'all, and the teen doll also, so take us both to your lab to examine us and scan us, while the others stay here in quarantine as many hours as the analysis takes. The alternative - I swear - we'll start a very stupid fight just because you seem trigger-happy. De-escalate. Comprende?"

Viper's muscles are tensed and she's ready to jump down and sweep the female soldier.

* A member of Parliament to Disraeli: 'Sir, you will either die on the gallows or of some unspeakable disease.' That depends, Sir,' said Disraeli, 'whether I embrace your policies or your mistress.'
This message was last edited by the player at 05:18, Tue 06 Sept 2022.

Baylee was about to respond to the threats and instructions. By the look on her face, the response wouldn't have been half as civil as Maissa's, but then she was distracted by the notice from kaede over coms. Well, more, she was distracted by the 'captain' and -'sama' in the same breath. She didn't know what the second was, but the combination felt extremely formal to her. Grunting with surprise, she then noticed that MAissa had taken the lead in the neogtiations. That produced a second frown. But as she processed what the woman had said, she grit her teeth and waited.

She didn't really want to be the one that escalated this now. That'd make Viper look a bit foolish, right? That didn't feel right. Besides, to Bylee's line of thought, Maissa was being exceedingly rational. Plus, she'd already threatened the guards, so that was done. Besides, baylee didin't like thrats nearly as much as actual violence. She waited, a tension building in her shoulders so powerful she was shocked others hadn't noticed.

Gothique too was stunned....her last move already mustered up pretty much all of her courage that she likely ever had. And yet Maissa just seemed to have an everlasting pot of both courage and something else.  Gall?  She also was just starting to develop some confusion on who should be in charge but it passes as her brain rationally can't figure out any of it and better to just go with the flow!

She does wait to see how this plays out before she tries her one last hail Mary.

INSIDE:  Baylee, Gothique, Viper & Gilina
& Uncle Marcus, the Importer

Viper handed the cannister to the smaller of the two armored militiamen, as she made her speech, offered her own threats.

"Nuh-uh." the big one said, the flat tone of his voice suggested that he'd had this argument before.  "Don't know you.  Don't trust you.   You walk back to customs, submit to bio-scan. It's an arn, maybe two.   You throw down now, the entire section gets locked down."

The smaller one, with the cannister, shook his head, but he was still very careful with the cannister.   "There's maybe two hundred AE's in this section.  It'll take scrubbers maybe a full orbit before it's cleared.  That's a pretty long time to be trapped here.  It is great way to make friends with all the locals, though.  I'm sure they'll appreciate your curtailing their freedom to move to other sections, to return to their homes or jobs."

"Look, we're not cuffing you, we're not knocking you out." the big one said.  He shifted his weight, his stance lowering a little bit.  "But if you run, we'll do it.  If you fight, we'll do it.  Don't make this worse than it needs to be.  If you've any weapons, please place them on the counter, then step back and place your hands on your head so we can search you for any other weapons.  Marcus, I'll need you to step out into the front, please."

"Me?" Uncle Importer sputtered.  "But, I'm not...  They just arrived..."

""You know the drill.  Guns and blades." the big guy responded, but his tone softened a little.  Something like respect in his voice.  "An arn at customs, and you'll be compensated for your time.  Thus is the price of safety."


--
These guys don't appear to be taking viper's bait (the comments about turpitude and you made the mistake in not catching this sooner).
Also, a reminder: AE - Autonomous Entity (biological or mechanical)

Scene Aspects if you want them
Small Space, Big Shadows
Car: Big Clumsy Gloves



Casks:
The militiaman (woman) at the front of the import shop spent some time with her head bowed, leaning closer to the door, to listen... probably to the discussion inside.

Sheng-Xin also notices the subtle change in the background noise as the major prevalent rhythm of the machinery around them dropped by a couple of notes on the audio-scale.


OK:
So, having take the guard out, Kaede returned to one of the crawl-spaces above the buildings.  There was perhaps five or six feet total between her and the ductwork and piping that had been laid as the functional services-grid for this section of the colony.  Beyond that was  several dozen feet of asteroid ... rocks and metal.

OK also notices the change in tone in the surrounding ambient noise.

<Orange>You've got a high enough tech skill to correctly surmise that this is switch over to an auxillary system.  If it's such a pervasive tone, it's probably for power-generation, water filtration, waste removal or atmosphere generation.

So... what now?
This message was last edited by the player at 05:07, Tue 20 Sept 2022.

Orochi stares at the ductwork, her cyber eye giving her the necessary info on what that is,"Hmm, air-conditioning.... Space colonies need air to breathe... If I destroy some of the pipes, it would be repaired easily..." she says, and stares at the store, noting the fact that the captain has chosen not to exit yet,"Captain Baylee-senpai hasn't arrived, I gotta do something." she says, then her mechanical arm starts shifting it's gears and suddenly, several sharp knife protrude her arm,"Ah, did I always have those? Was I a cook before... Nevermind, I think I know what to do." she says, her eyes scanning for weakpoints to the ducts. Once done, she throws her shurikens at the pipes and immediately runs off.

14:11, Today: Orochi Kaede rolled 1 using 4 Fudge dice.  Overcome (Tech +4).

Orochi's attempt at destroying the ductwork resulted in a +5

OK rolled 4dF(+1) + Tech(+4) to Overcome(+5)... something.

I prefer to think of the overcome action as something to clear past a hurdle or remove an obstacle.  It sounds like you're going for straight damage here.  To my mind, that's an Attack.

However, since we're not rushing forward, let's backtrack for just a moment...

For a colony embedded inside an asteroid--especially one with a history of some conflict and the ever-=present threat of asteroid collisions--I just don't see them having a rickety, weakness-prone life-support system. Most of the colonists would be walking around in EVA suits just in case the life-support systems went down.

On the other hand, you are taking initiative and trying to move things forward and I definitely want to reward that...  So... in the scheme of "Play to see what happens", we'll roll with it....

OK:
Kaede threw out a couple of jagged metal projectiles with unerring accuracy.   The shrapnel wasn't enough to actually pierce the atmosphere conduits.  That would have required substantially greater force than she had mustered.

But it probably wasn't a coincidence that moments after the jagged metal projectiles made contact and clattered off into the distance, that a klaxon sounded throughout the section.  It wasn't particularly loud, but it was shrill and high-pitched, and it played across several frequencies on her integrated receiver.

Whatever she had done had set off an alarm.

"Your attention please." a dispassionate woman's voice said  It was distant, vaguely distorted.  A recording.  "A threat to the life-support system has been detected.  Please adopt stage-one precautions.  Maintenance crews have been dispatched."

The recording repeated once more immediately...
This message was last edited by the player at 04:23, Fri 30 Sept 2022.

Casks:

The lone figure outside the front of the junk shop lifted her head suddenly, the helmet swinging back and forth.  She raised a hand again to the side of the helmet and then hunched forward.

Moments later, a distant klaxon--not unlike the one that had awakened him aboard the Ptolomen Space Station--began to go off.

"Your attention please." a dispassionate woman's voice.  A recording.  "A threat to the life-support system has been detected.  Please adopt stage-one precautions.  Maintenance crews have been dispatched."

The recording repeated once more immediately...
This message was last edited by the player at 04:22, Fri 30 Sept 2022.

 distant klaxon--not unlike the one that had awakened them aboard the Ptolomen Space Station--began to go off.

"Your attention please." a dispassionate woman's voice, audible even inside. "A threat to the life-support system has been detected.  Please adopt stage-one precautions.  Maintenance crews have been dispatched."

The recording repeated.

"We're out of time, folks." the bigger of the two militia men said.   He let out a big sigh and pointed his rifle at the floor.  The corrugated steel floor of the junk shop.



I'm waiting on an indication of where we're going next...  Waiting on an IC or OOC response from Baylee's player.
This message was last edited by the GM at 04:28, Fri 30 Sept 2022.

Honestly, sometimes watching was fun in a morbid sort of way. Baylee was quite happy with her new lover, but the weird paradox of Baylee's existence was that that did not mean that she trusted her. Oh, to a certain degree, sure. But completely, no. So, it was nice to see the woman had some sack. It probably didn't hurt that the innocent meeting was almost certainly going to go poorly for them. Trying to talk someone innocent down with reason only actually worked when that person was really innocent. Baylee wasn't exactly certain what part of their past was biting her in the ass right now, but some part of it was and going along seemed a bad idea. Well, now, an out of the question idea.

But the idiots had guns. Baylee cocked her head to the side and sighed. Not like this was the first time someone had used guns against her.

Baylee rocked back and then sprang forward. It was nice to be in gravity slightly belong planetside. She felt more comfortable. As she moved, she saw Maissa trying to damage the ducts and her eyes widened. Well, okay! She rushed in to grab the taller one's collarbone, yes it hurts when you do that, with the intention of getting a good grip in close where the longarm wouldn't help him. Once she had her grip, she will throw him at the ducts. But one thing at a time.

"No one will blame us if they don't know. They won't know if you are corpses. See? Solved the problem."

17:47, Today: Bai Ling-Li rolled 2 using 4 Fudge dice.  +4 fight + 2 stunt.
Stunt gives me +2 fight in low-g or zero-g. Baylee is good at fighting. Total is 8, contested roll of course.

And yes, I said "grab the collarbone" and I expect that in and of itself will hurt. So, depending on my level of success, I might play with that.

I put this up so that you guys can post your actions as time permits without having to wait for the guy before you (or after you in the initiative, anyway) to post.  It's likely overkill because of what I have planned, but who knows?  It might go in a completely different direction than I expected.

As a heads up:
Kaede damaged the ducts.  She's outside the junk-shop, alone, away from the action.   Baylee wouldn't have seen her damage anything as there's the rear of the junk-shop and a locked door between her and that zone.  Kaede would have heard the situation go down, though, as she's on comms...

Combat Sequence:

• Zone 1: Inside Front
  
  • +5: Baylee - Legendary(+8) Fight Attack against Beta
    
    • Results: Determined but not yet revealed
  • +5: Beta (Big Guy)  - Action DEFINED
  • +4: Viper (Zone 1 Inside Front) - Action Undefined
  • +4: Gothique (Zone 1 Inside Front) - Action Undefined
  • +4: Gilina (Zone 1 Inside Front) - Action DEFINED
  • +4 Car (Little Guy with Big Clumsy Gloves and the Biological Sample) - Action DEFINED
• Zone 2: Inside Rear
  
  • +2: Marcus - Action Not DEFINED (but he'll neither help nor hinder... so maybe he should be a Scene Aspect instead: Uncle Importer )
• Zone 3: Outside Front
  
  • +7: Casks (Zone 3 Out Front)- Action Undefined
  • +4: Alpha (Distracted (+1 Invoke)) - Action DEFINED
• Zone 4: Outside Rear
  
  • +3: Kaede (Zone 4 (Out Back) - No immediate conflict.

Scene Zones:

• Zone 1 - Junk Shop Front Area
  
  • Small Space, Big Shadows
  • Fabricated Metal Counter between Zone 1 & Zone 2
  • Basic Fabricated Metal Door between Zone 1 & Zone 3 (Front Entrance)
• Zone 2 - Junk Shop Rear Area - Private Quarters
  
  • Small Space, Big Shadows
  • Fabricated Metal Counter between Zone 2 & Zone 1
  • Locked Fabricated Metal Door between Zone 2 & Zone 4 (Rear Entrance)
• Zone 3 - Out front, in the large common chamber.  Casks watching the Militia Lead
  
  • Open Space Common Area
  • Basic Fabricated Metal Door between Zone 1 & Zone 3 (Front Entrance)
• Zone 4 - Out Back, a cramped network of tunnels that lead to a "back door" to the junk shop.
  
  • Cramped Tunnels
  • Incapacitated Militiaman
  • Locked Fabricated Metal Door between Zone 2 & Zone 4 (Rear Entrance)

(excellent recap' control! I wonder when I got to declare Viper's actions)

Viper jumps down to the ground and quickly extend her legs with force to sweep the legs of the female soldier under her.

06:21, Today: Maissa Haukea rolled 0 using 4 Fudge dice ((0, -1, 1, 0)). +3 for Fight

(excellent recap' control! I wonder when I got to declare Viper's actions)
Any time!  Now's better than later!  So, thanks for doing it.

However, I need clarification.

Female soldier is outside the door, in zone 3.  Basically, she's guarding the door from the outside.  She's in the same zone as Casks. There's only Beta (Big) and Car (Little) in there with you.

DO you want to cross into zone-3 (try to pass Beta & Car and pass through the door to teh outside) in order to attack the female lead?

Or do you want to attack one of the two guys in there with you?  Big Guy is Beta, Little guy with the big clumsy gloves and your biological sample is Car.

Orochi, hearing everything in her comms decides to call in,"Ah, Baylee-senpai, I don't think it is wise to make corpses. That is murder, and it is wrong, are you sure you want to proceed?" she says, her cold eyes staring at the damage ducts,"Back entrance is still secured, an avenue of escape is possible." the cyborg said, for now she waits until she's given a response. Judging from her cursory readings of the procedure of this colony, she has enough time before maintenance arrives.

Ah my apologies, Dr Control ; I thought I could just repeat my statement of Sep 6th, but I did not take the time to check that the scene of my theater of the mind corresponded to the recap... :)

Viper quickly assessed the situation. There were two targets : Beta and Car. Car's hands were full and he wouldn't just drop the can of paint. The Custom girl wasn't here yet. She had an opportunity and fighting with fists would be less a crime, were they to end up on trial.

She jumped down to the ground and quickly extended her legs with full force, targeting the place where the legs of the Big Guy will be after Baylee's and the guy's actions...
This message was last edited by the player at 16:14, Thu 10 Nov 2022.

Gothique addresses the situation and knows she is severely handicapped at this point.  She was not in anyway, shape or form a fighter or even combat worthy.  There was also a bit of a fight or flight in her....maybe it was genetically and probably be renamed flight or flight.  Which was odd for a cat!

Still this was a job for those capable, and her to maybe hide and as such she dives for the shadows and does her best to hide while trying to find anything that she can find to help or move towards the area as suggested by Orochi. But her main thing was tech.  So in her mind that is what she searches for.  A technological solution to help out.

The older man follows up on Orochi's comment over the comm, still speaking in Chinese while in the vicinity of Alpha.

"I agree, Captain.  'A friend made is a road paved; an enemy created is a wall built.'"

OOC: 交个朋友多条路，树个敌人多堵墙.  Jiāo gè péngyou duō tiáo lù, shù gè dírén duō dǔ qiáng.

Chang Sheng-Xin
The soldier at the front of the junk-shop  shook their head, then pressed something on their neck.   The visor on the helmet flipped up revealing a young woman with blonde wispy hair and a reddish complexion.  There was a nasty scar along one side of her jawline reaching right to the corner of her lip.  The other side of her face seemed to covered in fine writing, glyphs and symbols that Sheng-Xin couldn't identify from this distance.

"Delta, You sonbitch.  You'd better not be dead, or I'll kill you twice."  Then she lifted a hand to her ear again.  "Command.  Iridium-Alpha.  They're not standing down.  Lockdown Sector Bravo.  Belay Maintenance until the sector is flat.  If we have to---"


The muted sounds of gunfire from inside. "Aw, fuck."  Alpha, said.  "Iridium.  Lay them out!"
This message was lightly edited by the player at 02:31, Wed 19 Oct 2022.

Kaede
With a groan, the militia-man (Delta), rolled to one side.  He sat up and lifted both hands to his head.  The front of his visor was a spiderwork of cracks radiating out from where Kaede had sent him into the wall.  He moved uncertainly, shaking his head. Looking around the cramped back-alley.  His assailant, however, was probably long-gone...

Well, no, she isn't.

Kaede

• Please roll Stealth to overcome Delta's Good(+3) Notice roll to look for his assailant.  You can leverage The scene Aspect Dazed Militiaman if you need to... but it'll go away in a round or two.
• I'm waking him up because I don't want to keep you sidelined and I want to give you something to do.
• Because I'm waking him up, that boost is back on the table if you want it.  Though I suggest that Dazed Militiaman covers that well-enough.

Q&A...
Baylee:

• You delivered 3-shifts of stress to Beta.  Beta takes 3-shifts as Stress.  Due to both his armor and his military training, he's able to absorb and deflect much of the force of the blow.   The armor is a couple of layers of ceramic plating that distributed the kinetic energy.  But, like any ceramic plate, find the weaknesses or hit it just right and you can shatter it.  Not an easy task and not something she can take the time to identify in the middle of a fight...
• You've got: Solid Grip on Beta's Armor (as a 1-shot Boost)
• Given Viper's follow-up, do you want to sacrifice that boost and offer it to Viper in some form or another?    It would allow her to push her Attack(Tie) to an Attack(Success).

Viper:

• The Sweep was a tie.  So, Beta goes down.  However, it was a tie, which means you need to take on a minor cost.  Given the Electrical Field and Car's water-bomb attack (Everything's All Wet!), I think it apropos and narratively appropriate for Viper to be caught with Four on the Floor.. Your thoughts?
• Mechanically, you and Baylee can discuss her passing on her one-shot boost to you, to push the attack from an Attack(Tie) to an Attack(Success), which would remove the need for a cost.  But that's between you two.

Gothique:

• Are you looking to hide or escape?
• If Hiding, roll Stealth as an opposed check (On Car, we'll call it Overcome his Notice(+3) roll.  That's the final roll, not his skill level).
  The front of the junk-shop has an Aspect Small Space, Big Shadows.  That could help if you need it... to invoke it for a fate-point.
• If you're looking to escape, you'll want to move into Zone-2 where Uncle Importer is.  There's no difficulty to do so, it's just a narrative statement so I know what's going on.  However, unlocking the rear door to move into Zone-4, where Kaede is, is another matter  entirely...

Baylee, Gothique, Viper

• Beta & Car's attacks (narrative use, not mechanical, of the word "attack") have served to create Advantages.  They don't deliver stress this round.  But they will next round.
• I'm placing The Electricity at +2 on the Initiative roster
• Next round, I'll need you to roll Physique to overcome the effects of the Electrical Field and the fact that Everything's All Wet!.  This is a damaging effect and it will deliver a Fantastic(+6) Attack for the next two rounds, provided you are in contact with anything metal and/or conductive in Zone-1.

Seeing the soldier rises up from unconscious prompted Kaede to instinctually hide, considering that she was still on a rooftop, she jump down to an alleyway. Gracefully landing like a cat and she hid in the corner like a rat. Her cybernetic eye zooms in on the soldier,".... Everyone is counting on Kaede-chan to succeed..... Kaede-chan will not fail to secure." she says, for now she waits for him to make a first move. Be patient and don't be reckless is a motto her anime has told her, and she will follow that to the letter.

20:22, Today: Orochi Kaede rolled -1 using 4 Fudge dice.  Stealth (+5).

That's a +4, so how does one use Dazed Man as leverage. Is it like getting a boost?

So long as you can make a narrative link to why this Aspect comes into play, it's valid...
 Mechanically, it's a +2 to the pre-existing roll or a completely new re-roll.  Narratively, it's up to you what it looks like... as long as it's vaguely consistent with the Aspect.  So, yes, it's exactly like a boost.  I'm going to put a countdown on this Aspect as he regains his consciousness, to say that it'll expire in a couple of rounds.
This message was last edited by the GM at 02:21, Fri 21 Oct 2022.

Oh, sure. But she'll pay me back later! hehe. Now, how might that look?

Baylee grinned as she got a good grip on the big man's armor, "Thanks for wearing such nice hand holds! Did you think that armor would save you? How cute!" She was just shifting her muscles to leverage that grip into a throw when she saw Viper making her own attack. Her practiced eye saw the target moving in such a way as to reduce its effectiveness. That would leave Maissa in a rather awkward position. Grunting in annoyeance and mentally vowing that Viper would pay for this, she jerked the man into the attack rather than allowing him to avoid it.

Basically, using her hold to prevent him from dodging as effectively. Unfortunately, it would "shake loose" her good grip when he falls. *sigh* XP