(09:37, Today: The GM rolled 1 using 1d2 ((1)).

Buzz takes 1 new damage.)




BZORCH. A powerful laser burst blasts out from the mech suit's main weapon.

It hits the Flame Witch's left arm, and her left forearm disappears in a cauterizing sizzle of energy.

Horrified, she uses her remaining right hand to touch one of her earrings, and she disappears.

"Short-range teleporter!" shouts Dr. Cagliostro. "I--"

An alarm starts going off. "WARNING. WARNING. HANGAR BAY IS ABOUT TO OPEN. ALL PERSONNEL MUST LEAVE AREA OR BE WEARING PROTECTIVE GEAR. WARNING."

There's about 2 seconds while this sinks in, and then all the cultployees panic (even more than they were already panicking). About a third of them head for the airlock. Another third of them run for protective suits hanging over by the walls.

The rest are smarter-- they all scramble to get into the various spaceships in the hangar bay (except the one to which the Danger Patrol agents are standing closest to).

Most of the robots attack the cultployees who are scrambling for the protective gear.

Some of the robots attack the cultployees who are trying to get on board ships.

The cultployees trying to get in the airlock are the least-attacked, except that they're attacking each other to frantically be the ones lucky enough to get into the airlock before it's too late.

"She's teleported into one of these ships!" shouts Dr. Cagliostro. "Based on these readings, I think it was the one that was right behind her! But hold on just a second!" She does something with the device in her hands...

(10:02, Today: The GM, on behalf of Dr. Cleopatra Cagliostro, rolled 8 using 2d6+1 ((5,2)).)

"UGH, that's not what I'd hoped for!" shouts the doc. "I tried to hack her ship long enough to delay her taking off so we could board her ship-- I don't think there's time, even if all these stupid robots weren't attacking! All I did was delay it! I think our best bet is to get on this ship here that's closest to us! Any objections...?!"

"Not from me!" shouts Johnny, glancing at Buzz and Flash...

Flash was already acrobatically flipping and climbing his way up to the entry hatch.

Pulling it open, he shouted, "Lets Go" ... and realising the slight possibility that the Flame Witch was inside this ship (they really weren't sure which, right?) he leapt down into the ship first, to protect his allies from anyone who might be in there already.

The chaos of flame walls, insurgent robots, and panicking henchmen was not Buzz's idea of a good time, at least not from the vantange point of an infected mech suit whose triggers had started sparking.

The moment a full ship was presented as a plausible means of both escape and destroying the Flame Witch, Buzz was already leaping toward the port, dodging shots, screams, and punches, and reviewing the control configurations and start-up sequences memorized from years of training and experience.  She pushed past Johnny and the Doc, nearly beating Flash.

"Hello, lover!" she lavished on the controls.  Especially the weapon controls.

"There's no time for that, Captain Corey, you can talk dirty to me later," called Flash, as he sealed the four Danger Patrol members into the ship, "after you save my life".

As a passable pilot himself, he headed for the co-pilot's seat (leaving the two NPCed PCs in the back), he began helping out as he could, trying not to get in the Maestro's way.

Flash seals the doors of the ship just in time. The ceiling of the hangar bay splits down the middle, and opens up, the huge metal sections of the ceiling retracting into the walls.

Dust from the planet's surface rains down, and another ship takes off-- but not before Buzz gets a shot off.

BOOM! The Flame Witch's ship takes a solid hit!

But that's not enough (not yet, at least) to keep it from leaving.

Quick, after it! (Just do one Agile roll to pursue... I'll combine it with continuing to fire on the other ship, unless you want to do some other clever or crazy thing...)

On one hand, Buzz's next shot misses... on the other hand, she is able to keep up, as the two ships streak over Mercury's surface...

But the Flame Witch's ship isn't faster than the one the Danger Patrol agents are in, so... where does she think she's going...?

(Now's a good time to try to mess with 'er some more...
--To chase/fire again, do Agile again, Buzz...
--Flash, you may try one Insightful roll to look for auxiliary weapons systems, so you can help...)

Buzz tries to fire at the Flame Witch's ship, but not only does the blaster not fire, it shorts out one of the auxiliary maneuvering thrusters.  "Who in the blasted void was in charge of maintenance for this thing?" she manages through gritted teeth, doing her best to follow her quarry.

"Doc?!  You don't happen to have an engineering degree, do you?"

Flash did exactly that ... a cursory look to find any auxiliary weapon's systems that he might use.
- rolled 5 using 2d6 with rolls of 1,4.  Find an auxiliary weapon to use.

But finding nothing, Flash turned to Buzz with a big shit-eating grin on his face, as he moved towards the hull door,
"Get me beside her", he yelled ... "or" even better "above her ship" as he prepared to open the hatch.

Doctor Cagliostro comes over. "Oh, for pity's sake," she says, and she starts flipping switches and turning knobs here and there. "These controls are StarCore manufacture... When they got shut down a few years ago for dangerous corner-cutting, they really deserved it." She flips a few more switches... "Try it now."

(Buzz gets +1 to her next piloting roll. She also gets 1 xp. The bad consequence is that in the meantime, the Flame Witch has really pulled ahead, and will be hard to catch up to, which will be necessary before you can do what Flash wants you to do...)

There is a sudden fit of turbulence. The ship drops suddenly, then raises back up just as suddenly. Flash bangs his head, hard. Stupid cramped ship interiors.

(Flash loses 1 hp. He also gets 1 new xp. On the third hand, he can't help shoot at the Flame Witch's ship...)

Cagliostro's repairs seem to work and their ship accelerates as Buzz redoubles her efforts to pursue the criminal.  "Nice work, Doc!"

Although the Flame Witch's ship isn't going any slower, it seems to move from the horizon to only a couple of hundred yards ahead.

So far, it's still streaking along in a straight path...

Will Buzz try firing again, or will she try to push even closer, so Flash can try whatever sort of aerobatic maneuver he has in mind...?

(It's one or the other...

Also, keep in mind, the bonus from what the Doc did no longer applies...)

Trusting her teammate, Buzz pilots her ship to the best position she can above the Witch's.

"All you, Green Man!"

OOC: Rolled an 11

Buzz Corey’s piloting was, Flash had to admire, awesome.   What he was about to do was dangerous enough, but somehow she accelerated and positioned him perfectly for the idiot stunt he was about to perform.

And when the moment was right, Flash leapt from their own SPORT (Suborbital Planetary Operations and Recreational Transport) onto the one being flown by the escaping Flame Witch.
- rolled 15 using 2d6+3 with rolls of 6,6.  Agile jump.
It was, by any standard, an acrobatic manuveur  that would have impressed any Olympic Judge.

He’d drawn his Magna-Grapple Line from his belt as he’d leapt ... and the moment he landed he fired the Magna-Grapple onto the SPORT, creating a tether, anchoring him to her ship even if he fell.
But, to be sure, he also grabbed a handful of hull-structure to secure himself ... then began making his way towards the nearest entry point.

He hoped that, piloting her craft, the Flame Witch had remained ignorant of his successful boarding, and that he’d be able to get within without her noticing.

Both maneuvers, piloting and aerobatic, are highly successful.

On Venus or Jupiter, this would be madness. But the air is so thin on Mercury, Flash is not quite blown off so far...

Flash reaches an entry point... It's sealed...

(Brute Force entry? (Forceful)
Or try to unlock it? (Insightful)
Something else...?)

Buzz works on piloting in a way that is most likely to put her in a position to help Flash and least likely to get her ship fired on or otherwise put in harm's way.

<goldenrod>"What else we got, folks?  Don't just sit around twiddling your ectoplasm!  Can we jam her comms?  Can we disable her engines?  Gimme ideas!"</golderod>

Now at the entry hatch, Flash reached behind him with one of his spare hands, and pulled over his head the hood to his uniform ... which sealed his face and concealed his identity behind a ski-style mask and goggles.

Then, he forced his entry, reefing open the entry hatch with all his strength.
- rolled 12 using 2d6+3 with rolls of 6,3.
It wasn’t too hard: after all, these sub-orbital SPORTs were not made to counter vacuum conditions, nor entering entry while in flight.

If he could get it open, he agile dropped inside ... ready for action.

"Sure, I can jam her comms..." said Dr. Cagliostro. She started fiddling with a device from her pack. "I... Wait, then we couldn't hear if Flash Bang took over the ship and tried to contact us. Maybe I can... uhhhhh, give me a minute..."

---

Once he tears open the entry hatch, there is no resistance to Flash Bang's entering the ship-- no one and nothing so far is putting up a fight to him being on board so far...

(Will he make his way to the bridge? Or somewhere else on the ship? Right now he's just in an uninteresting corridor near the outside of the ship...)

"Yes, keep our lines to Flash open!  But he should have his wrist communicator, so maybe work around that?  You're the tech-brain.  I'm just keeping us in the hunt."

Buzz continues her cautious but relentless pursuit of the Flame Witch's ship.  "And speaking of hunting ... Rookie!  Make yourself useful and familiarize yourself with those fire controls and targeting arrays.  Never know when we're gonna need it."

Prepared for an attack from any angle, Flash makes his way towards the bridge*.


* Bridge?  or Cockpit?  How big is this thing?   I assumed they were small across land shuttle-esque craft?

(A little smaller than the Millennium Falcon but bigger than an X-Wing)

As Flash enters the bridge area, the Flame Witch is furiously trying to work the complicated controls (one-handed).

Her back's to Flash. She seems to have no idea he's there.

I mean, she's probably aware that the hull's been breached, from all the alarms going off, but she seems to have no idea that a Danger Patrol agent is literally 12 feet behind her right this very second.

(Now what?)

Suspicious of a trap, so watching he entire area about him*, Flash moved forward with the hope of delivering a pistol whip to the rear of the Flame Witches head that would bring this to a (mostly) bloodless end.


* also, aware that she is attempting to drive this buggy one handed ... and ready for the other to suddenly appear holding a gun or some other threat

If he can, indeed, deliver the blow:
- rolled 10 using 2d6+3 with rolls of 6,1.  Forceful.

("The other?"

OH. You mean her other hand. She's doing it one-handed because a shot from a large laser that the mecha suit that Buzz was operating back in the hangar bay burned the Flame Witch's other arm off near the elbow, removing and cauterizing in one fell stroke. So you can rest assured, her other hand isn't going to show up and menace you suddenly...

09:26, Today: The GM rolled 10 using 2d6+1 ((5,4)).

On the other hand, she does notice you before you can knock her out.)

Flash moves toward where the Flame Witch is sitting, but...

Did you ever have th' feelin' you were bein' watched...?

The Flame Witch apparently has that feeling, and at the penultimate moment, she realizes someone is behind her, turns, jumps up, and gestures with her remaining hand to burn Flash...

(09:27, Today: The GM rolled 6 using 2d6+1 ((1,4)).)

She misses, partly because she's off-balance, partly because she noticed at a sub-optimal time, partially because of Flash's Titanic reflexes.

She damaged some of the ship's circuitry, though...

(It's Flash's move, but the ship is going to crash in a few rounds if no one takes the controls or does anything useful...)

---

Dr. Cagliostro has been monitoring the situation... "Bad news. The other ship's systems just had a catastrophic jolt. It's in danger of crashing if it stays on autopilot... But maybe I can work up a tractor beam here that would help... Give me a few moments..." She plugs the device she was using into a socket in the pursuing ship's controls, and starts adjusting the controls, furiously...

The sudden action by the Flame Witch didn't change Flash's plan, and with a Forceful swing, Flash brought the grip of his held Ray Gun down on the woman's head.
     - rolled 11 using 2d6+4 with rolls of 6,1.  Pistol Whip her with ma Ray Gun.
              choose to do an extra 1d6 damage but risk exposing yourself to enemy attack.
      - rolled 10 using 2d6 with rolls of 4,6.  damage to Flame Witch.

Flash knew he had to end this fast, and take control of this SPORT before things got REALLY explosive.

"I'll keep her steady and in pursuit.  Let me know if you get it working."

Buzz is pondering filing a report when they get back to headquarters.  That rookie is just no help in a tight spot.

The Flame Witch is on the floor, out, definitely unconscious... if not worse.

What now?

--Check and see if she's dead or dying? (No roll required, but do you choose to sacrifice the precious seconds it'll take?)
--Try to safely land the ship? (Insightful)
--Take the time to try to find out where she thought she was going? (Insightful)
--Contact Buzz and the others? (No roll required, but do you choose to sacrifice the precious seconds it'll take?)