Marduk

[Legion Lee]

Leon will keep an eye out for the rocketeer and if the chance arises....zap


Tower attack [2d6] = 9+3 =12

[The Bindoner]

Round Four:

The Serpent hovers menacingly over the southern exit from the town, landing gear deployed ready, hold doors open. The computer-controlled lasers continue super-heating and cutting into the structure of the tower. With a groan and rumble a section of the front face collapses, huge blocks of stone falling away, bouncing off the great rock and landing among the boulders below. Unsupported now other sections above begin to sag and fall away, revealing glimpses of chambers and machinery behind before dust clouds obscure the view.


Sigmundr lobs a Tear-Gas grenade through the window the shotgun was fired from and rallies his band.

Spotting the three running toward the sea he signals Þórir who raises his launcher and fires a volley of grenades at them. This time he has loaded Tangler-Foam. Again his first round is way off target, long and high to the left, bursting high on the wall of the Town Hall. The rest land among the fleeing civilians. Two are hopelessly trapped in the rapidly expanding foam but the third, a man, tears himself free before it hardens and plunges onward.

Yngvildr notices the figures running to the south of the buildings the band have been sheltering among and points them out to Sigmundr as he reorganises the group to sweep across the market.

Gesturing at the alley running south from the rear of the courtyard Sigmundr yells: Gulbrandr, four runners, cut them off!

Gulbrandr acknowledges with a hand signal, taps Dagný on the shoulder and sprints off with her following.

At Sigmundr's yell of Go! Ragnheiðr and Yngvildr charge forward screaming fiercely. Sigmundr is just behind them while Þórir holds position in the courtyard entrance to deny it as an escape route and provide support.

As the girls run forward a light machine gun opens up on them from an upper window of the Town Hall, spraying wildly, one bullet glancing off the vambrace on Ragnheiðr's right forearm. A rifle shot at Yngvildr likewise goes wide.

Ingunn moves the Doomsayer out in support. Sverrir steadies the Autocannon and puts a burst along the second storey front of the Town Hall, rounds bursting along the line of embrasure-like windows where the defenders had fired from. One round strikes the frame of the narrow window the LMG fired from while another bursts directly on the metal plate filling the space, leaving a jagged hole. The rifleman's position is bracketed with bursting rounds that do not penetrate. Hrafn spots the four running figures and swings the Water-Cannon around, but aims too high and hoses the area south of them.

Ingrid triggers the Serpent's Autocannon aiming for the Town Hall but misses left and high ( the front is a difficult target from this angle ), the rounds exploding on the tiled roof of the warehouse beyond.

In the northern street Rúna runs up to the captives. Pulling binders out of a pouch at her belt she quickly ties the woman's hands and moves to the couple. Hróarr, bleeding freely from his leg wound and still furious, orders the fleeing woman to halt. When she doesn't he aims a shot at her, missing short and right, the round impacting behind her running feet and rebounding past her legs. This causes her to shriek in terror and fall to her knees in tears with her hands up.

In the market area Stáli lobs a smoke grenade toward the flagpole to supplement Raven's. It goes long to the left, ending against the building behind the APC.

Raven's band rise at her command and sweep forward in a line, sprinting south into the area where the citizens are cowering. As they close the gap a shot is heard from the unseen sniper on the hill, but nobody sees where the round went.

Most of the people remaining penned in the market just get up and flee from the approaching warriors toward the ship, but some throw themselves forward trying to break through and escape north. Two men lunge at Bjartr, but fail to get past him, hemmed in by stalls as they are. He strikes out with his stunstick but misses. One man rushes at Erlingr, trying to dive past. Erlingr smartly brings his Stunstick down on the man's head and he drops like a puppet with it's strings cut.

A young woman of about 19 and a teenaged boy dash toward Raven, one on either side.

Down in Engineering the siren continues to sound a high-pitched modulating tone. The Computer intones Contaminated Air, breathing apparatus must be worn and the Engineering Locker door unlocks automatically. The exits from the Engineering section, however, check their seals and lock.

Edited (extra content: Ingrid and Engineering)

[Tiglath]

Raven simply counter charges the youngsters using her armed and armoured presence to intimidate them onto another course. She has no intention of losing her tactical focus in distraction with teenagers. She calls into her comm “Serpent land now – let’s get these sheep aboard”. Switching to the warband channel she commands “Rúna, Hróarr back to the Serpent now - just bring what you have. Use the smoke to cover your movement”.

[The Bindoner]

Raven simply counter charges the youngsters using her armed and armoured presence to intimidate them onto another course.

They are going to either side and are already committed to dodging past the scary raider. Raven could try to block, and maybe strike at the other. Each requires a roll. Picking one makes that task easier, but both are simple tasks for an experience raider like Raven.

[Tiglath]

Raven will attempt to grab the older female evadee and ignores the "yoof".

[2d6] = 7 (+1 Str / Dex?)

(OOC: We'd probably have to throw him back anyway - ruddy quotas! )

[The Bindoner]

The young woman, wide eyed with fear and desperate, startles Raven with her speed and agility as she dives and rolls under Raven's reaching arms, springs to her feet and sprints off. The boy heads to pass her on the left but his nerve fails and he turns back to rejoin the crowd fleeing south.

Steinn, on Raven's left flank, turns and snaps off a burst of bean-bag grenades at the fleeing woman, missing with all.

Stáli, bringing up the rear, changes direction and runs to cut her off. ( result next turn )

Ridley puts the Serpent down at the south end of the market. Áshildr, with Sniffer on a leash, jumps down early and moves west and north. Manfred jogs off toward the Temple.

The four people fleeing west see Gulbrandr run out from the houses in front of them and turn in their direction, followed by Dagný. They slow and look around for another way out, and Dagný throws a Flash-Bang at them. It sails over and lands behind them, stunning the man at the rear of the group and frightening the others who turn to run SE back toward the crowd. Gulbrandr keeps sprinting after them, gaining ground.

The roll for the girl had already come up 11 several days ago. Add dodge to that and a roll of 7 wasn't enough. But 3 misses by Steinn is shocking. I suspect the dice like her.

EDITED to add Gulbrandr's section and correct Raven's.

[The Bindoner]

Round Five next.

The Serpent has landed, the crowd are being driven toward it, most of the raiders are amongst the prey.

There appear to be no more heavy weapons ( though possibly there is an ATGM launcher on the ridge ), but there are still some militia with small-arms taking pot-shots.

Actions?

[Gorethirster]

Remington did his best to follow the comms chatter he could overhear in engineering, but lack of practice reduced it to a semi-intelligible blur. From what he could gather lots of people were busy shooting at each other, and that necessitated Ridley to swing the ship around like a gymnast in a competition. He supposed he should be thankful for the maneuvers, since they kept the ship from being shot down, but he couldn't quite get over being thrown around in the back. The overwhelming amount of noise and occasional maneuvers numbed Remington to the point where he barely even registered the air purity alarm. What actually snapped him into action was the unpleasant rasping in his lungs and irritation in his throat. Suddenly his insistence on keeping the engineering crew in void suits looked like a wise precaution. As he scrambled for his helmet, he snapped to Gris and Handson "You're in void suits, seal them. God knows what's broken or what it's doing as we breath the fumes. Once you're sealed, damage control. I want to know what's smoking and how fast we can put it out." As Remington locks his helmet to his collar he notices Gris and Handson are already a step ahead, suits sealed and following the smoke. Apparently they're more used to these sorts of things than Remington is.

OOC what should I be rolling for damage control? Jump engineer with a -1 or -2 since I'm assessing all sorts of drives and not just the jump? Or should I assume Gris and Handson are going to the M Drive and Power plant while Remington checks jump? Also, did we establish that I'm rolling for G&H when doing engineering stuff or was Bindoner?

[Gorethirster]

Suit sealed and bearings acquired, Remington is the closest to his element he's been in a long time. He's certianly not used to working in a vacc suit, but he IS used to expensive and high energy devices doing their best to kill his aides. As he realises that for the first time in quite a while he's doing what he's been professionally trained to, Remington's orders get less vague and more useful.

"Gris, you know what you're on about with the power plant, see if it's taken any damage. I suspect the captain might take issue with his ship losing power mid-flight. Handson, M drive, same story. I'll check jump. If none of those are the problem, next step is life support, although I'm guessing that isn't the case or whatever's tainting our air would be circulating the rest of the ship."

After mentioning the captain, Remington realises he probably ought to mention that there's an as-yet-undiagnosed problem in engineering. He hops on the speaker horn to the bridge and says "Attention senior bridge crew, there is currently a slight problem in engineering. Hazardous vapors have sealed the airlocks out of our section, but we're working to resolve the issue. As of now the problem seems confined to engineering's air quality, and does not affect ship maneuvers. Be advised however the problem may spread, and require breathing gear for all ship's crew. We will not be available for other projects until this is resolved, unless those projects take greater priority in preserving the ship and crew."

That done, Remington gets to work on the jump drive.

Remington's J drive assessment: [2d6+4] = 7+4 = 11
Gris' Powerplant assessment: [2d6+3] = 7+3 = 10
Handson's M drive assessment:[2d6+2] = 3+2 = 5

[The Bindoner]

Gris points out: We're still flying, so the reactor and M-Drive are running. He runs checks on the Power system anyway, getting green lights all the way.

Remington can easily see the Jump Drive is serenely undisturbed, all readings normal on standby.

As he scans them he recalls the sound of the impact. It was on the hull, starboard side, forward end of Engineering... right by the fuel scoops and processor.

Handson reports Can't get any readings on this console, bloody thing's covered in frost.

Remington and Gris say, almost in unison L-Hyd leak!

There is a fuel leak, liquid hydrogen is spilling into the Engineering compartment.

You're right, the Vac Suit protocol really paid off

[Gorethirster]

"Well, figuring out the problem is step one. You two see if you can figure out where the leak is, and how big a problem we're dealing with. Best case, we slap a patch on until we aren't in the middle of a raid. Worst case we dump liquid hydrogen all over this town. I'll update the bridge that we might need to make a second stop at the gas giant."

Remington keys the suit's comm system. No point trying to shout through a bubble helmet into a voice tube when he has technology.

"Engineering to bridge, update. We have a fuel leak in the starboard tank. Currently assessing damage, but be aware if severe enough we might not have a choice other than emptying that tank until we can patch it. Unless you're alright with the drives freezing. And if you could avoid whatever caused this in the first place, that would be ideal. Two leaking fuel tanks would be a little much. Oh, and keep engineering sealed. No need to asphyxiate the ship."

With the bridge suitably appraised, Remington gets in with Gris and Handson to see just how much trouble they're in.

OOC Do you want a role to see if we can find the hole or is it bad enough that its fairly easy to find?

[The Bindoner]

Gris uses the command console to power down any systems in the Engineering section not needed to fly the ship and crosses to the starboard fuel processor where Handson is carrying out an inspection.

The ice is spreading from the bulkhead where the pipes running to and from the processor and its pumps emerge. The connection on one of the pipes has broken, and the cold is making the other joints brittle too.

[Tiglath]

Raven continues to herd the main body of prisoners towards the Serpent and advises Rúna and Hróarr that the young woman who slipped the cordon may be headed their way.

[The Bindoner]

Gris suggests: Safest to pump the air out of here. Less chance we blow up. Suited up already.

[Gorethirster]

"Good thinking. Have we got controls for that here or do we need to bother the bridge again? Either way, step one is to void engineering, step two is to vent the tank segment feeding the leak, and step three is to patch the hole. Since we can refuel from the ocean I don't see a downside to not having freezing hydrogen spraying at us. A permanent fix is the goal, but a temporary one we have to keep an eye on is better than nothing at all. Ideally we'll need welding gear and a metal patch, but some resin or particularly sturdy tape might do in a pinch."

OOC I am absolutely imagining the temporary fix being a massive application of infomercial epoxy sealant and tape.

[The Bindoner]

Gris: Got the controls here. I'll run the air pump, Gris, vent the tank.

Handson: We vent L-Hyd here we might catch the raid in the cloud, I ain't risking that. Freeze or fry anyone and we're dead. I'll try and plug the leak, we'll vent when we're clear.

Gris nods, shuts down the air cycling system for the Engineering compartment and puts the extractor fans on full.

Handson runs to the Locker, fetches a sealant gun and roll of tape and runs to the leak. Throwing the "gun" to Remington he tells him: I'll tape, you spray, I'll tape again. Repeat 'til it works.

Remington's planning is sound. A 2d6 roll might give some more insight..

[The Bindoner]

Round Five ( part one )

Rúna and Hróarr are herding the four prisoners south toward the smoke obscuring the market when they come under fire from the junction to the north. A shotgun blast hits Hróarr in the back of the head and shoulders, the force of the impact throwing his head forward but failing to penetrate his helmet and armour, a rifle bullet whips past Rúna's head and a burst of fire from the Autorifle slams into the wall next to her. Spinning around Rúna spots a running figure in the street by the house the automatic fired from and puts a burst from her ACC into his legs. The man cries out and stumbles out of sight. By the time Hróarr looks back there is nobody in sight, but there is smoke in an upper window of the house and on the east side of the junction. He fires a burst at the window.

The prisoners keep heading for the market, running from the gunfire. Yelling Hróarr, keep after them, I'll deal with those bacraut ok þeira niðings-verk . Rúna runs north.

Hróarr comments Ør-viti mær and limps on after the fleeing locals. As he passes the burning building, pursuing them into the smoke, the black-powder rifle roars again behind him, the ball whistling past inches away to ricochet off the road ahead to the left. He ignores it and keeps going.

At the western side of the square Þórir is watching Sigmundr and the girls chase the fleeing citizens toward the Serpent with one eye while lining up on the man fleeing for the docks when a shotgun blast from the house beside him tears through the slatted wooden shutter of the window, barely missing him and showering him in debris and pellets rebounding from the metal grill over the window. Spinning around he empties the grenade launcher of its last three rounds. Two hit the far wall of the room, filling it with foam, while one sails through the inner doorway. A dismayed cry tells him the foam has caught his assailant.

To the south of Þórir the four fugitives who had tried to escape west are being chased back toward the Serpent by Gulbrandr and Dagný. Gulbrandr is reaching for a stun grenade when he is punched from behind by a high velocity bullet penetrating his armour, his side and exiting the front of his Torso Protector. Spitting out Rassragr! he keeps running. His grenade lands some distance to the right and ahead of the group, among the rock piles. Dagný, seeing the hit, pulls out her Tear-Gas grenade, triggers and drops it as she runs. Its chemical cloud isn't as dense as smoke, but it is better than nothing.

At the northern end of the market Stáli, behind Raven and the others, is moving to intercept the girl who dodged Raven when he comes under fire. The rifle in the Town Hall is joined by a second, both narrowly missing him, and the woman in the house at E pops up in an upstairs window, fires and disappears again. The bullet strikes Stáli's right leg, but doesn't penetrate his armour. These distractions are what he'll blame for his failure to stop the girl as he fails to block her path or hit her dodging form with his Stunstick as she nimbly vaults a tumbled stall and runs on past him.

On the Serpent Regina still can't locate the sniper or the missile launcher on the ridge.

Ingrid switches her controls from the Autocannon back to her turret, transfers power to the pulse laser and starts to play it over the side of the Town Hall. The armour plates on the narrow windows soon glow red then white and start to melt, and some of the stones around them shatter and fall away.

Sigmundr, Yngvildr and Ragnheiðr get in close to the terrified crowd, herding them toward the Serpent.

Ingunn edges the APC south through the market, demolishing stalls and keeping pace with Raven.

Hrafn adjusts his Watercannon and plays the jet across the four people fleeing Gulbrandr as they turn for the cover of rocks, bowling them over one after another.

Sverrir sprays the front of the Town Hall with the Doomsayers Autocannon, but none of the shells seem to be effective for much beyond suppression and morale effect.

Raven, Steinn and Erlingr herd the people from the market south toward the Serpent. The three recovering from being caught in the first tear-gas grenade stumble along at the rear being threatened and berated by Erlingr. The woman who tried to flee through the gas is crawling along the Town Hall wall heading for its closed door.

Bjartr threatens both of the men trying to get past him, brandishing his carbine at one and striking out with his Stunstick at the other. He misses with the baton, but the men fail to get past him through the stalls, see the four people from the northern street emerging from the smoke fleeing in terror, the APC to their left, and give up. Turning south they run to catch the crowd.

Kar, Áshildr, Manfred, Remington, Leon and Raven to follow.

[Tiglath]

Raven continues to intimidate those caught in the closing trap and driving them towards the LZ.

On the comm she calls "Serpent land now if you can. We are taking fire and we can't fight off the town and drive these sheep".

Switching channels she demands "Rúna, Hróarr where are you? Return now!"

[The Bindoner]

Passing among the stalls Yngvildr's eye is caught by an object she takes for an idol, a tall silvery-white metal dragon rising up from a mass of rock and barnacles. Snatching it up she uses it as a club to brandish at the people she is chasing along.

Hróarr replies to Raven: I'm chasing the four through the smoke now Raid Leader.

After a pause he continues Rúna is preventing those coward snipers interfering. She'll be along in a minute.


The Serpent has landed, and is ready to load cargo.

[The Bindoner]

Áshildr, with þefa at her side, positions herself behind the ship to port, blocking the coastroad leading west.

Manfred is at the entrance to the ancient Temple, blocking that refuge.

Seeing them the people at the front of the fleeing mob slow down, and the crowd bunches up.