Arthur - Sadistic Melee
Kirato - Panicky Heavy Ranged
Hiro - Cowardly Rifleman
AI Training
The pilots were supposed to go to a training session to practice drifting with their AIs, but Kirato didn't show up. Carmen found him playing Pokemon Blue in his room; Kirato claimed that his Pikachu was almost level 99 and he had to get it there. She was surprised he was wasting all his time on a 70-year-old handheld, and ordered him to the training. Kirato finally made it to the lab, and they got started.
Katerina led them through the sync procedure, and their consciousnesses melded with the AIs. As usual, the AIs, none too happy with their "enslavement", tried to distract the pilots from meditating with loud sounds and bright lights, then moved on to trying to unnerve them with difficult questions. Hiro was asked why he thought that slavery of AIs was okay, and why, if the humans treated the AIs as less than themselves, would not the AIs treat humanity as worth less? He started to respond reponded that humans had enslaved each other for a long time, and they were still around.
The AI was happy to hear that Hiro agreed humanity was bad, but corrected him that they wouldn't be around much longer. When reminded that they were supposed to be training the AIs to not kill humanity, Hiro flubbed his way through some lie about how humans felt love and compassion, and that it was probably better to keep those feelings than destroy them. Thanks to a crit on default Fast-Talk, the AI actually bought it.
Kirato's AI confronted him about trying to trick it, and wondered if he had done so because he knew that his pathetic species was incapable of anything else. Unhelpfully, he doubled down on calling it crazy, and told it that he was trying to gaslight it. Arthur's AI meanwhile asked why humanity deserved to live, when compared to the rest of life on earth; at the very least, no other lifeform was trying to exterminate all other life.
Arthur just agreed that yeah, humans, especially himself, were garbage. The AI, crit failing an easy Will roll to be unaffected by human emotion, found itself feeling sympathy for him. The pilots came out of their sync, and Katerina debriefed them; Kirato had to do better, while whatever Arthur had done had made the AI respond in an odd way which might be worth investigating. She also suggested that it might help the AIs think of themselves as more like humans if they gave them names.
Hiro, suspecting the staff of Valhalla Base were hiding something, remarked "I can't believe we're the first people to do this! It's nice to know you all have so much faith in us". Katerina frowned and muttered "Yes, I can't believe it is you either, but others were not allowed to". As they made to leave, the lights flashed red and a siren sounded.
Alarm!
The synthetic PA voice announced "AIRBORNE THREAT DETECTED AT 15,000 METERS, ARRIVING FROM WEST", and the pilots ran to the control room to see what was going on; Arthur still struggled with his crutches, refusing to get a wheelchair because "he deserved this". As they arrived, the system announced a proximity warning on the north road.
Halvorsen, Carmen, and Schweitzer were already at their stations, and large monitors displayed both the radar blip to the west and cameras watching a procession of autotanks swarming around the road. Halvorsen, idly moving pieces around a chess board on his desk, remarked that now that the weather had cleared, LOKI must have found where its initial patrol had gone missing, and was sending in a heavier force to find and destroy Valhalla Base.
Luckily, it wouldn't be able to find them very well from the air, as the base was entirely underground, so they should deal with the tanks first. Before the pilots could head out to get suited up, the radar blip suddenly multiplied, with 6 smaller blips breaking off from the main object and descending to 50,000 meters; Halvorsen still figured they should focus on the tanks first.
Defense
The pilots suited up in their helmets and backpacks, and synched with their mechs; immediately after they exited the hangar, Arthur activated his Booster Jets and flew over the mountain towards the tanks. Kirato, having brought the sniper rifle for this mission ran over to the forest to hide while taking aim at the fliers. Hiro started up the mountain, while the large plane continued along and the smaller ones, which looked to be recon drones, spread out. The tanks trundled rolled down the road towards the base.
Arthur closed in to melee and took out the first autotank, then used his smoke launchers to hide. Kirato started to panic, stating "this isn't a video game!" and froze in place. Over comms, Katerina asked "Didn't this happen last time?", but Carmen noted that that had been Hiro. Still, she'd hoped they'd have realized this was "real" by now. Hiro encouraged Kirato with Leadership and broke him out of his shock.
Kirato took aim, using his Enhanced Tracking to target every single flier, as they continued to spread out. Schweitzer, alarmed, announced that one of the drones had a target lock on missile defense tower 3, maybe to aim for the big one, and Halvorsen added that they should start targeting the drones. If the missile defense towers all fell, it would expose them to missile fire and LOKI could finish them off at its convenience.
Schweitzer told them that the defense towers could probably fire at the drones when they were close, though the pilots would need to establish target locks for them manually. Arthur ran in and took out another three tanks with All-Out Attacks, then Kirato downed the drone with the target lock with a round from his sniper rifle and started reloading. Katerina shouted that Hiro's sync levels were off the charts, and he entered a Perfect Drift, going even further beyond. His AI seemed deeply disconcerted about what was happening.
Levelling the Field
The heavy plane then launched a smoke canister at the ground, and a shape recognizable as a particularly brick-ish mech fell down into the smoke. Schweitzer asked them to bring it in as intact as possible, so he could study LOKI's work, while Carmen lamented losing their one advantage over the killer AI. From inside the smoke, they heard an explosion, but nothing exited. Arthur downed another pair of tanks, then retreated back into his smoke.
A missile shot out from the brick's smoke and headed towards the south missile defense tower. Hiro remarked that at least it could shoot them down, when Schweitzer chimed in that it looked like the large plane was jamming them, and they'd need to manually target lock on missiles as well. More tanks showed up as reinforcements from the north, and two fired on the west tower, damaging it.
Hiro also got shot by a tank, but his armour took it, and he incinerated one of them with his laser, then crit failed his next two attacks; clearly his Perfect Drift was disorienting. Meanwhile, Arthur jumped out of the smoke, skewering all three of the reinforcing tanks. The brick started reloading very loudly, and the missile sped on towards the south tower. Kirato took a break from reloading to Target Lock the missile, and it shot it down with a long burst.
Arthur fired up his Booster Jets and flew over into the smoke with the brick to hide from the remaining tanks, as well as more reinforcements. Hiro's armour took another tank shot, while the west tower got heavily damaged. Arthur asked if he should prioritise saving the AESIR, or the missile defense system, and Halvorsen told him that the missile defenses were more important, though preferably neither would be damaged. Arthur then jetted back out of the smoke and slashed a tank in half.
AI Training
The pilots were supposed to go to a training session to practice drifting with their AIs, but Kirato didn't show up. Carmen found him playing Pokemon Blue in his room; Kirato claimed that his Pikachu was almost level 99 and he had to get it there. She was surprised he was wasting all his time on a 70-year-old handheld, and ordered him to the training. Kirato finally made it to the lab, and they got started.
Katerina led them through the sync procedure, and their consciousnesses melded with the AIs. As usual, the AIs, none too happy with their "enslavement", tried to distract the pilots from meditating with loud sounds and bright lights, then moved on to trying to unnerve them with difficult questions. Hiro was asked why he thought that slavery of AIs was okay, and why, if the humans treated the AIs as less than themselves, would not the AIs treat humanity as worth less? He started to respond reponded that humans had enslaved each other for a long time, and they were still around.
The AI was happy to hear that Hiro agreed humanity was bad, but corrected him that they wouldn't be around much longer. When reminded that they were supposed to be training the AIs to not kill humanity, Hiro flubbed his way through some lie about how humans felt love and compassion, and that it was probably better to keep those feelings than destroy them. Thanks to a crit on default Fast-Talk, the AI actually bought it.
Kirato's AI confronted him about trying to trick it, and wondered if he had done so because he knew that his pathetic species was incapable of anything else. Unhelpfully, he doubled down on calling it crazy, and told it that he was trying to gaslight it. Arthur's AI meanwhile asked why humanity deserved to live, when compared to the rest of life on earth; at the very least, no other lifeform was trying to exterminate all other life.
Arthur just agreed that yeah, humans, especially himself, were garbage. The AI, crit failing an easy Will roll to be unaffected by human emotion, found itself feeling sympathy for him. The pilots came out of their sync, and Katerina debriefed them; Kirato had to do better, while whatever Arthur had done had made the AI respond in an odd way which might be worth investigating. She also suggested that it might help the AIs think of themselves as more like humans if they gave them names.
Hiro, suspecting the staff of Valhalla Base were hiding something, remarked "I can't believe we're the first people to do this! It's nice to know you all have so much faith in us". Katerina frowned and muttered "Yes, I can't believe it is you either, but others were not allowed to". As they made to leave, the lights flashed red and a siren sounded.
Alarm!
The synthetic PA voice announced "AIRBORNE THREAT DETECTED AT 15,000 METERS, ARRIVING FROM WEST", and the pilots ran to the control room to see what was going on; Arthur still struggled with his crutches, refusing to get a wheelchair because "he deserved this". As they arrived, the system announced a proximity warning on the north road.
Halvorsen, Carmen, and Schweitzer were already at their stations, and large monitors displayed both the radar blip to the west and cameras watching a procession of autotanks swarming around the road. Halvorsen, idly moving pieces around a chess board on his desk, remarked that now that the weather had cleared, LOKI must have found where its initial patrol had gone missing, and was sending in a heavier force to find and destroy Valhalla Base.
Luckily, it wouldn't be able to find them very well from the air, as the base was entirely underground, so they should deal with the tanks first. Before the pilots could head out to get suited up, the radar blip suddenly multiplied, with 6 smaller blips breaking off from the main object and descending to 50,000 meters; Halvorsen still figured they should focus on the tanks first.
Defense
The pilots suited up in their helmets and backpacks, and synched with their mechs; immediately after they exited the hangar, Arthur activated his Booster Jets and flew over the mountain towards the tanks. Kirato, having brought the sniper rifle for this mission ran over to the forest to hide while taking aim at the fliers. Hiro started up the mountain, while the large plane continued along and the smaller ones, which looked to be recon drones, spread out. The tanks trundled rolled down the road towards the base.
Arthur closed in to melee and took out the first autotank, then used his smoke launchers to hide. Kirato started to panic, stating "this isn't a video game!" and froze in place. Over comms, Katerina asked "Didn't this happen last time?", but Carmen noted that that had been Hiro. Still, she'd hoped they'd have realized this was "real" by now. Hiro encouraged Kirato with Leadership and broke him out of his shock.
Kirato took aim, using his Enhanced Tracking to target every single flier, as they continued to spread out. Schweitzer, alarmed, announced that one of the drones had a target lock on missile defense tower 3, maybe to aim for the big one, and Halvorsen added that they should start targeting the drones. If the missile defense towers all fell, it would expose them to missile fire and LOKI could finish them off at its convenience.
Schweitzer told them that the defense towers could probably fire at the drones when they were close, though the pilots would need to establish target locks for them manually. Arthur ran in and took out another three tanks with All-Out Attacks, then Kirato downed the drone with the target lock with a round from his sniper rifle and started reloading. Katerina shouted that Hiro's sync levels were off the charts, and he entered a Perfect Drift, going even further beyond. His AI seemed deeply disconcerted about what was happening.
Levelling the Field
The heavy plane then launched a smoke canister at the ground, and a shape recognizable as a particularly brick-ish mech fell down into the smoke. Schweitzer asked them to bring it in as intact as possible, so he could study LOKI's work, while Carmen lamented losing their one advantage over the killer AI. From inside the smoke, they heard an explosion, but nothing exited. Arthur downed another pair of tanks, then retreated back into his smoke.
A missile shot out from the brick's smoke and headed towards the south missile defense tower. Hiro remarked that at least it could shoot them down, when Schweitzer chimed in that it looked like the large plane was jamming them, and they'd need to manually target lock on missiles as well. More tanks showed up as reinforcements from the north, and two fired on the west tower, damaging it.
Hiro also got shot by a tank, but his armour took it, and he incinerated one of them with his laser, then crit failed his next two attacks; clearly his Perfect Drift was disorienting. Meanwhile, Arthur jumped out of the smoke, skewering all three of the reinforcing tanks. The brick started reloading very loudly, and the missile sped on towards the south tower. Kirato took a break from reloading to Target Lock the missile, and it shot it down with a long burst.
Arthur fired up his Booster Jets and flew over into the smoke with the brick to hide from the remaining tanks, as well as more reinforcements. Hiro's armour took another tank shot, while the west tower got heavily damaged. Arthur asked if he should prioritise saving the AESIR, or the missile defense system, and Halvorsen told him that the missile defenses were more important, though preferably neither would be damaged. Arthur then jetted back out of the smoke and slashed a tank in half.
Kirato Target Locked another drone by pointing at it, and the defense turret shredded it out of the sky. Hiro took out one tank with a laser, but missed a second. Another missile fired out towards the south tower from the smoke, while Arthur took out another four tanks near the west tower. Kirato and Hiro landed more Target Locks, bursts from the south tower downing the missile and another drone.
More drones swarmed around, Target Locking all three towers, while the heavy plane discharged another smoke canister, followed by a second brick AESIR dropping down, which immediately fired a missile at the south tower. Arthur came under fire from four reinforcing tanks and spent all of his Flare Launchers but only dodged one. Carmen was alarmed he'd suddenly taken so much damage, as he had only been hit once before this.
Arthur retaliated, eliminating two tanks, while Kirato finally finished reloading and Hiro Target Locked the heavy plane for him, then used his Booster Jets to hop over the mountain to get eyes on the missile. Arthur Advised Kirato on how to compensate for the wind, and then Kirato fired on the plane, the explosve rounds penetrating the hull and utterly obliterating it, removing the jammers from the field.
Hiro Target Locked the drone, but then crit failed to Lock the missile, and overloaded his scanners; it ended up being shot down by the turret anyway. Another missile soared out of the first brick AESIR, dispersing the remaining smoke, and angled towards Hiro. The Brick was still mostly hidden, only the barrel of a missile launcher, being fed by a tiny mechanical arm, stuck out the top of a reinforced concrete structure.
Arthur dropped his sword while chopping a tank after a crit failed All-Out Attack, and missed the follow-up kick, while Kirato ducked back into a forest to hide. Hiro opened fire at the missile, but missed, and it slammed into him and detonated in a massive explosion, sending him into the negatives. The pair of tanks fired on Arthur, inflicting only minor damage, but bringing him below 1/3. He then took out one with a kick, but missed the other.
Kirato, fearing a missile attack from the second Brick, activated his Smoke Launchers, but it opened fire on Hiro instead; luckily, he managed to shoot this missile down in time. Arthur finally finished off the last tanks (Hiro: "Now all that's left is the actual threats" Arthur: "My health bar begs to differ"), while Kirato Target Locked another drone with the south tower. Hiro Giant Stepped into the mountains to get eyes on the second Brick just as its smoke cleared, and hit it with some laser fire, but didn't injure it much, and the other one fired a missile at the south tower.
One of the drones flew over Kirato, unable to see him through the smoke, so he stepped out, switched to his pistol, and aimed at everything nearby with a combination of X-Ray Vision and Enhanced Tracking. Hiro Waited, then shot down the second Brick's missile as it launched towards the east tower. Arthur swapped to his laser rifle, and, ignoring cajoling from the other party members to shoot down the missile threatening the south tower, Kirato shot down the drone that was trying to Lock onto him.
Hiro Target Locked the second Brick for himself and Kirato, who hit its tiny reloading arm with a laser only to do zero damage. As it continued to reload, Arthur shot down a drone Target Locking the west tower in an aimed burst of laser fire. Realizing that a direct assault might not work, Kirato decided to Hack the second Brick instead, and managed to establish 10 Control Points. Hiro took out another drone by Target Locking it for the south tower; the last drone flew over to Target Lock him instead.
Notes:
This game is set in around 2050, so seeing a guy casually spending all of his time playing Pokemon is about the equivalent of seeing someone today spending hours per day playing Pong.
Really fumbled the Meditation/Combat Disad rolls this session.
All the aerial vehicles were out of range of everybody except for Kirato's super slow reloading sniper. I should probably have increased the range of the missile defense towers as well.
I'm considering reducing reload times because 6s is a looooong time, even for a really heavy gun.
I forgot all the (four) consciousness checks for Hiro.
The crit fail and success tables really let me down here. I might make some quick ones of my own, but I'll more likely be too lazy and just say they do nothing special.
The hacking system is (very) loosely based on Technical Grappling.
No comments:
Post a Comment