The destruction of all that we know will be brought
about by pacts made with those who lurk amongst
the stars. I think I got that right. Those were
the words that the prophet Brahamanta spoke,
which served as the basis for Clusterism and
fueled their hatred for us, our alien allies,
and our way of life. In 2370, as you all know,
our war with the Clusterists began. What should
have been a swift and decisive victory against
a lesser enemy was complicated by the bureaucracy
back home in the Seoul system. Nearly half of
our government and the population they represent
believed that for some reason, all of a sudden,
this was an unjust war and not worthy of funding
or support. So as a result, we're undersupplied
and undermanned. As you also know, this conflict
started because our dear allies, the Uro, had
an existing claim on the Clusteris colony of
Terra Brea. And without their support, we would
be hundreds of years behind in technology, and
our colonies would quickly fail. You know, you've
heard all of this on the news, folks. Every day,
the war is becoming less popular, more difficult.
God, you know this. I'm sorry, I'm kind of repeating
myself, but I have to read this. You know, we
were given 13 years by the URO to clear the planet
Terra Brea of the Clusteris. And it's been ten
years and two months since the start of the war,
and we are only just now capturing the capital
city. You know, this doesn't reflect on you guys
at all. It's just funding, really. You know,
we've been sending more soldiers back home because
we can't afford them. And now we have to root
out an insurgency before the deadline is up.
And that sucks. And if you're hearing this, it
means that, you know, you're one of the lucky
bastards who's going to be rooting them out.
So keep your gear close and give them hell. Thanks
all. Welcome to All That You Know, a Beam Saber
actual play podcast. You decide. My name is Colin,
and I'm the GM for this series. Joining me today
are Brian. Hi, I'm Brian. I'll be playing Hex,
the bureaucrat. Zach, also known as YZak. I'm
Zach. I'll be playing Geist, the ace. Ewan. Hi,
I'm Ewan. I'll be playing Loyal, the empath.
And Adam. I'm Last. I'm Adam. I'll be playing
Joseph, the infiltrator. Great. Usually, I would
have you guys read your character beliefs about
each other, but we're not going to be making
those until the end of this mission, so let's
get into it. Okay, narrative. So, following the
taking of Brea City one month ago, the Seoul
Union has slashed the budgets of the peacekeepers
on Terra Brea. A vast amount of machinery, soldiers,
and resources have been recalled and are being
sent home. The bureaucracy is pretending like
the war is coming to an end and are making a
show of it. With much of the general purpose
staff and loaders already recalled, you've been
asked to assist with loading up the last few
shuttles prior to your briefing on your new squad.
Some of the last few FDL -capable vessels are
landed here in the makeshift spaceport in the
center of Brea City. You all see somebody leaving
that you know or knew. This is not someone on
your character sheets or someone otherwise noted.
It could just be like a cafeteria worker or a
former squad mate or just like some guy you shared
a drink with at some point. They might look back
at you, maybe give you a shrug, a cheeky salute,
or just a nod, but you get the feeling that you
won't be seeing them again until this is over
one way or another. As you finish loading up
the supplies that you've been tasked to load,
you all receive a notification to head to one
of the administrative buildings for your briefing.
You each arrive with this being the first time
you are seeing your new squad. Each of you is
sitting behind a placard on the table with your
call sign in front of it. So let's go around
and do a quick description of your looks and
characters. And we'll start with you again, Brian.
Hex, what do you look like? Hex appears to be
a very inconspicuous office bureaucrat and visually
really... It matches that description. He stands
at an average 5 '8", with average brown hair
and average brown eyes, with a stoic face. It
doesn't look like he's the type of guy who would
sign up for the squad, but nonetheless, here
he is. Geist. Geist probably makes a little bit
of a stir as he enters the room. He is very obviously,
very heavily augmented. His arms and his legs
are bare metal cybernetics. You can kind of see
there's not even in some places, there's not
really even any casing above it. So you can kind
of see the machinery whirring beneath. He is
wearing like a flight suit kind of over top of
it, but the sleeves are rolled up and it doesn't
really fit very well for his head. Basically
below his nose is some, it's like partially like
a facial prosthetic, but also again, not a very
good fast meal. He doesn't have like a mouth.
And when he speaks it, The voice sounds kind
of audio modulated, like it's from some sort
of a synthetic speaker of some kind, although
it does still sound like a human voice. And his
scalp is bare, and on the left side, it has sort
of like a webbing of burn scars, but he does
still have some hair on the right side of his
face. He looks pretty gruesome, kind of creepy.
Did you play Knights of the Old Republic? I did.
I'm getting Darth Malak vibes from this guy.
Yeah, definitely in the jaw, you know? The jaw
area, yeah. He's kind of got that similar thing
going on. Mirage. Mirage is a robot. He is an
emergent personality, class 2 .5. He looks like
a robot skeleton. He's thin and hollow. Hollow
enough that he could, like, fold up into a little
box and hide. He has no facial features on his
skull besides one right red eye. which has an
eyelid. Otherwise, he has these big, large orange
staples kind of like around his jawline and maybe
at the top of his scalp that keep his skull together.
And he is sitting down where he should. What
a good boy. I know. And Loyal. Loyal is an uplifted
dolphin and looks very strange at first glance.
If you have never seen one with the kind of suit
that he uses to get around, he wears. an exopod
which is a large glass pod in this casing that
looks kind of insectoid in nature it's metallic
but the technology used to power it is decidedly
alien he is a bottlenose dolphin with some tattoos
on his body on the chest it's in the shape of
a nautilus and he kind of floats around in this
exopod and has Two robotic arms on the front
of it that are humanoid in nature, with hands
on the front of them that he uses to manipulate
his environment, since he doesn't have his own
hands. Just has fins, obviously, being a dolphin.
But, yeah, he's a bubble boy. He's just floating
there, placidly. Am I right in thinking that
Loyal takes up, like, four times as much space
in this room than, like, any other person? Yes.
Oh, absolutely. Because, like, dolphins are big.
They're big. They're like 8 feet, 9 feet long.
They weigh a lot. And then his pod surrounding
him is full of hyper -oxygenated fluid, which
he breathes. So he has fluid in his lungs right
now, and that's how he is alive in there. I'm
imagining a guild navigator, but they're just
a dolphin. Just tatted up. Pretty close. Pretty
close. With you all sat down, or three of you
sat down, two people enter the room. One is a
tall man with a buzz cut, the director of the
pilot division, who you know is Kilo Germain.
Beside him is a woman that Hex and Loyal, you
recognize, Nyla Westedge. Kilo speaks up. He
says, My name is Director Germain. I'm pretty
busy, so let's make this quick. And he thumbs
through some papers in front of him. As you know,
the Seoul Union has significantly decreased our
budget. We've been forced to dismantle a number
of squads and form new ones to comply with new
regulations. passed by the central government
as a result the people in this room will be your
new squad mates alongside a small group of support
staff you four represent a unique blend of background
with most of you not having seen proper pilot
on pilot action for some time if ever as such
you will be fulfilling a unique role in the pilot
division an all -purpose squad to fill in the
gaps in our coverage and he looks at the papers
like he is reading them for the first time and
he kind of like grimaces a little bit and he
says Your handler, Mrs. West Edge, will be your
new control. If you have any problems, you tell
her. With our current resources, things are going
to be very difficult. And I wish I didn't have
to say this, but I need you to know that the
only way any of you are going home before this
insurgency is stomped out is if it's in a body
bag. With that said, our assets still dwarf out
of the Clusterists. In an open engagement, it'll
be effortless to crush them. The bigwigs up top
expect us to get this job done with what we have,
and we will. So be efficient, be careful, and
look out for each other. You can't count on the
Union to bail us out of this if things get hard.
Please direct any questions to Miss Westedge.
And he exits the room. Miss Westedge takes central
stage and looks over each of you. She's a dour
woman who has clearly seen some combat in her
day. Her right arm is this opaquely bionic, strange,
synthetic skin device. Kind of top -of -the -line
synthetic arm. She slaps the folder onto the
table and looks it over. And she says, We're
sending you into the West City. There's still
plenty of clustrous activity there, but they
have primarily gone to ground. We need intel
on their operations, so we need you to head in
there and stir some shit up. Provoke them into
attacking you, then capture one or more pilots.
If you can capture a leader of some sort, that
would be ideal, but we don't know exactly what
you'll run into. We cannot afford to be seen
as the aggressors here. There are too many eyes
in the city, so get creative to lure them into
attacking you. Alongside you will be support
staff, including air support, scout drones, and
some infantry and snipers, which you can utilize
as you see fit. Rules of engagement are as follows.
Do not kill any civilians or unarmed clusterists.
Do not excessively damage any infrastructure
or non -hostile vehicles. And no preemptive use
of lethal force. Any questions? So we're just
rolling out there to get shot? Yes. Alright.
After Guy talks, you just hear a voice emanate
from Loyal's exopod after Knightless' initial
question, saying, No questions, ma 'am. Thank
you. Oh, fuck, you're one of those. Well, let's
get on with it then. What did he mean by this?
Sorry, I assumed that that was like telepathic
communication. Is it like a speaker on the pod
that's talking? It is a speaker on the pod, but
it is not visible, and anytime Loyal speaks,
there is no indication that he is speaking other
than you just... hear his voice near him. Does
his mouth open and close? His mouth only opens
when he is angry and trying to show his teeth.
It doesn't happen often. He prides himself on
being a nice young fellow. That'd be really disorienting
if he did the dolphin chittering while the actual
voice was coming out of the pod speaker because
that would be very... If you get close enough
to him, you do hear clicks and whistles when
he's talking. You have to be really close to
his tank to hear it. When he's really pissed
off and yelling, is it like the full dolphin
sounds? Like Spongebob? Yeah. Go ahead, let's
hear it. You would make that sound if he was
out of the water. If he's in the water, it's
just clicks, whistles. Geist gets up and starts
like... Stumping off to, I mean, I assume that
our frames are somewhere. Yeah, so when none
of you ask any questions, Control says, we have
your frames ready for you in Hangar G. Head over
there and suit up. You deploy in two hours. Yeah,
Guy starts going. Great. But he kind of looks
to make sure that the rest of the squad's following
him. Yeah, Hex kind of is sizing everyone up,
giving a strange look over to Adam's character,
actually. then follow suit. Adam's character
being Mirage, the robot man. Or you could call
me Joseph. I'm thinking Mirage from Incredibles.
I've been thinking Mirage from Apex Legends.
I'm thinking of the Mirage tank from Red Alert
2. Me as well. We're all on different pages here.
That's what I'm thinking. So, you all head over
to Hanger G, an old logistics warehouse which
used to service the city prior to the war. As
promised, all your frames are here, ready to
go. Also here is Captain Spud, the commanding
officer for the infantry groups. And as you approach,
he gives a very severe look at Joseph, but he
shifts off of that and he begins to remind you
of the resources that will be available to you
due to your mission being so close to the Peacekeeper's
main base. And he says, yeah, so you've got a
lot available to you. You got your scouts, the
Sparrows. They're going to be able to scout out
targets for you if you need intel. And my guys,
the Raptors, they can handle infantry targets
if any crop up. And we've got a couple snipers
if you need that. You're going to be the tip
of the spear here with your frame. So just tell
us when you need us and we'll handle it. You
got it. What kind of numbers are you looking
at for your deployment here? What can you hit
precisely? I've got a couple squad of infantry
and the scouts are just one squad. All right.
What kind of capabilities on the snipers? Just
anti -personnel? Yeah, anti -personnel. Nothing's
going to scratch a frame, unfortunately. Alright.
Well, watch your house out there, buddy. He nods
to you and walks off to fraternize with his other
infantrymen. Before he walks off, Loyal says
to him, doesn't say anything else, but it's like,
are you, by chance, from the human place of California?
What? I was born on Teklar 6. I don't know what
you're talking about. The city of San Diego.
Your speech patterns, they're very lovely. Thank
you. Far out, man. See you around. We need to
talk about the method you're going to use for
this operation. This is a very high concept.
You don't do a lot of replanning in this system.
You just need to choose a tactic, and there are
six main tactics to choose from, really. and
then the tactic requires detail so for instance
you got assault and the detail you need to figure
out is the point of attack deception requires
a method of deception stealth requires an entry
point scientific which requires a procedure social
which requires a connection of some sort and
transport which requires a route that is very
vague intentionally and obviously some of these
aren't really options here so you need to come
up with a basic idea of how you're going to approach
this Then we're going to do a little narration
and then we'll do what is called an engagement
role, which will determine how the action starts.
OK, so right out the bat, I think that maybe
deception is our way to go for this one, just
based on the way that the mission is, because
I'm just looking at my playbook gear and one
of the things I can get on my mech is a high
quality shield. So maybe some kind of deception
plan where basically we find using intel from
our scouts to know whereabouts the enemy is hanging
out. We have Geist go in first and make it seem
like he's broken down or something. Just like
an easy target for them to pick off a clusterous
frame. And then as soon as somebody fires on
him, everybody else like jumps out of like whatever
nearby positions they are. Or somebody else could
be the bait too. But that was just my first idea.
That's my first thought is that we should basically
just do a little ruse, get them to shoot at us,
and then that satisfies the rules of engagement.
And then we can just go sicko mode and try and
go from there to identify a high value target
or like a leader or something. That makes sense.
I'm here for it. With that in mind, are you sending
your scouts in first? I think so. Does this work
like blades in the dark where when we're like
tallying up how many dice we get? for our engagement
role we can like talk about different factors
that might help us with the plan yes we're ready
right now cool cool i imagine that they would
be one of those but like if there's like some
other procedure for getting them into the mix
that's no the only thing i was going to have
was have you roll a gather information role for
them to see if they gather any information because
they do have a tier and if you want to utilize
them i think it would be a good opportunity to
try them yeah they are Oh, shit. Why is that?
Roll me 2d6 and we're going to take the lower
result and see. They're not going to get hurt
because of this. It's just going to be if they
can benefit you. Do you know if founder uses
the same syntax as roll20? Can I do a keep lowest
one? I guess that was... Yeah, you rolled two
ones. Holy shit, there's some snake eyes. We're
off to a big start. Is that bad? No. They tell
you that they basically immediately got made
and they had to get out of there. So they will
not be able to give you an upfront benefit here,
unfortunately. I'm going to do a little narration
and then we're going to start tallying up the
engagement rule. Okay, so since the taking of
the city, there's been a rudimentary perimeter
that's been constructed, isolating the western
districts from the inner city and the eastern
gates. It's not perfect, but... Acts of clusterous
terrorism have fallen drastically and allowed
for civilian life to more or less coexist with
the peacekeeper occupation in the city. You proceed
through a peacekeeper checkpoint and into the
western city. The developed high -rises give
way to simple printed structures, narrow streets,
and without a doubt, a hostile populace. As you
walk through the gates, what do each of your
frames look like? And we'll start with Hex again.
Sure thing. X's mech appears unremarkable and
ordinary at a first glance. Its appearance is
plain and unassuming, lacking any distinctive
or eye -catching features. To the untrained eye,
it may even seem boring and unimpressive. However,
beneath its unassuming exterior lies a powerful
military workhorse equipped with many redundancies
and constructed out of fairly common equipment.
Its unremarkable appearance allows his suit to
blend in and go unnoticed. Wow. Good work blending
in all the quirks there. yeah that was that was
the goal uh okay loyal loyal's frame is made
entirely out of this iridescent mother of pearl
metal and has an interesting combination of organic
and geometric shapes is like reminiscent of the
ocean there are decals that look like shells
or waves it looks very similar to loyal's exopod
And the fact that it looks alien in make, but
also still decidedly mechanical. And has a lot
of rounded shapes. It has a visor that has a
kind of melon shape at the front. Still humanoid
in face shape, but definitely has some ocean
dolphin theming in it as well. And on the back,
there is a large shield. Cool. Mirage. My mech.
Looks like an Avatar mech, but with double the
limb length. So just want to picture one of those
from the movies. And then the cockpit is more
angular. It's kind of like one of the Halo cryopods
that Master Chief starts in. You know how he
like lays in that thing? Like Joseph isn't sitting
in a chair. He's like standing when he pilots
this thing. But it's not full glass on the cockpit.
He's just got a little tiny window in front of
his eyes. He's got wheels. Maybe like he probably
has two small wheels on each limb. So, you know,
if he falls around, you could scoop if he needs
to. He also has very sharp corners, and that
means spiky fingers, which are kind of like claws,
which help him climb. Like a gibbon. Yeah, like
a gibbon. I'm liking this. And he has a sizable
laser on his shoulder, not too big, so he can
get around. And that's his frame, called Moment.
That's the name of his frame. So it's like real
kind of chunky and utilitarian. It's pretty thin.
It's pretty thin and spindly. Aren't the Avatar
mechs, like, the chassis, like, real thick, though?
Let's look at the Avatar mech right now. Less
sharp angles. The Avatar mech is very broad -shouldered.
It's wide, you know what I mean? Did you see
the toy picture that I put in there? I did. In
fact, I'm looking at some right now. Yeah, look
at that toy picture. Okay, now imagine those
arms, but more of them. I mean, longer. That's
kind of my guy. So it looks kind of chunky around
the cockpit. Exactly. But his arms are much thinner
than his actual fucking thingamajig. You know,
the place that they put the people in. So he's
not going to catch a Navi arrow is what you're
telling me. He better not. That'd be embarrassing.
Catch it with his super long arms before it even
touches him. Are the Navi in this universe, Colin?
Yes, but they're only for pleasure to the flesh.
Thank God. Season two. I'm wiping them out. Geist.
Yeah. Geist's robot actually is more like Sunlit's,
I think. It's more like Loyal's. So he's driving
the XV388 Changeling, which is, I mean, it's.
It's like an R &D prototype and it looks like
it. It's very, very, it's humanoid proportions,
but it's extremely sleek. A lot of shaped plating.
It's like almost halfway between a Mecha and
like a Harrier jet in the sense that it looks
like it was very much designed for speed and
to be very aerodynamic. And it has very, very
large jet engine, like air intakes on the front
and then exhaust. like little jet boosters on
the back. And I mean, it looks like it was designed
by like an R &D nerd engineer, like that kind
of idea of what looks cool, which kind of contrasts
with the very serious way that Geist, how seriously
he takes himself. But he is in the cockpit and
he's plugged right into it. It's one of the benefits
of a primarily cybernetic body that doesn't work
so good is that he can at the very least hardwire
himself right into his systems. Right. Before
we make the engagement roll, so... Remind me
what your intended way of agitating these people
is. I think we're going to use Geist as bait
unless somebody else has like a better survivability
tool. I think Geist is probably the best bet.
The force field doesn't function as armor, but
it says that it can affect your position. So
presumably it can make me a lot safer when I
get shot at by that opening salvo. I could. camouflage
near you so that the moment they move to attack
i just on camo and fuck them up that would be
ideal to have everybody isn't um isn't joseph
an infiltrator joseph is an infiltrator yeah
does he does he have any sneaky where are you
adam i'm looking for my phone i don't know where
it is he's in his frame he's in his gibbon i
dropped my my phone beneath my frame seat and
it's gone Yeah, he's an infiltrator. Do you have
any stealth abilities? Because I think that the
closer we can have everybody to wherever Geist
is when he gets shot at, the less dead he will
be at the end of this entire exchange. I think
I have some goodies. Then the fine optical camo,
that would probably allow you to remain cloaked
somewhere nearby. Basically, how this works is
we just decide what our plan is, and then we
make our engagement rule, and that determines
how well it works. So if our plan is to have
everybody nearby who can be hiding, which is
probably Loyal and... Sorry, what's Joseph's
call sign again? Is it Mirage? Yeah, so if we
can have Loyal and Mirage... cloaked nearby,
ready to go, and then when things get hot, they'll
be right there, and Geist doesn't have to wait
for everybody to show up to have backup. I don't
know about Hex. Hex is probably just going to
have to stand behind a building. Well, he's fairly
innocuous, right? That's kind of his frame's
whole thing, is that it looks pretty normal.
It does look normal, but it is obviously a frame.
That is true. Frames are like 20 feet tall at
minimum. Raj, you were declaring fine off with
camo so that you can stay hidden. I am. Cool.
So we'll set that up. And Geist, you're kind
of stomping down the road, hoping someone takes
a shot at you, right? Yeah, basically. I think
maybe we could like play act a little bit like
he can just like fiddle with his joystick. So
it looks like he's having like motive system
problems or something. Just kind of like fake
like it. He basically just to make himself a
more appealing target and be like, oh no, my
legs aren't working and my shields are down.
I hope nobody shoots a recoil as a rifle at me.
I'm stuck in this dryer. Oh no. Elevator closed.
Okay, let's get to the engagement roll. So, engagement
roll. You get 1D for playing Old Luck. The next
question on the list is, is this mission bold?
I'm going to say not particularly. Is the mission
especially complex? I would say also no. Does
the mission exploit the target's vulnerabilities?
Not particularly. I mean, it depends how you
view it. I mean, what if they're opportunists?
That makes them a little vulnerable, you know.
Their vulnerability to attack soft military targets.
I don't know if that... Yeah, I don't know about
that. They're victims of their own greed. I don't
know, it's kind of philosophical. Yeah, I don't
know if that's going to work. Is the mission's
tactic ineffective against the target? No, I
don't think it is, because, you know, it's not.
Are you receiving external support for the mission?
Yes, you are being helped. You have a bunch of
support staff with you. Is anyone interfering
with the mission? No. Are there any other factors
that affect the mission? There's a big tier difference
here, because of all the support you have. And
you're very close to... like a checkpoint. I
would say that you're like maybe a kilometer
away from it at this point as you are like trying
to draw them out. So you're going to get three
dice for your engagement roll, which is a very
good situation to be in. Yeah, that's awesome.
So who wants to roll it? Not me. Somebody else
should do it. What's the syntax? I'm happy to.
Slash R space 3D6. 3D6. Let's see it. OB. That's
not great. That's a big number. Well, you got
a five, which is a partial success, which puts
you at the beginning in a risky position. So
let's set this up for you a little bit. As your
frames move through the streets, pieces of debris,
chunks of concrete, bottles, and rotten foods
are thrown at you from windows where people live.
You know, people live in this part of the city.
They all ping harmlessly. off of you so there's
no damage but as you continue eventually the
people go inside and the plinking of debris is
replaced with an eerie silence your ground teams
report this as well as they are trailing behind
you a haze warning pops up and communications
cut off your your scouts drones which they've
been using the scout ahead lose reception and
coherence and one by one your links back to the
home base start to get cut off from the haze
and for those of you who need a reminder of what
the haze is it is this field that is very easy
to use and it's kind of the reason the frames
are so popular that affects remote controls and
communications and most like signals and tracking
systems it typically means shit is about to pop
off when the haze goes up you know in front of
you someone's like honking their car horn at
you still and as this is all going down you detect
a number of heat signatures lighting up at once
there is one in a parked truck just ahead of
you maybe like I don't know, 200 feet, one in
the sewers beneath you. There are tunnels that
run underneath the ground and there's at least
one or two in a warehouse building just to your
left. And it looks like you have a slim margin
to act first, but it's going to be very dependent.
What do you do? Don't we? OK, so I this is probably
something that Geist would know, but I do not
is like what are the so we were told to allow
them to shoot first. Do I have to wait? for,
like, bullets to start pinging off my frame before
I deploy my anti -infantry countermeasures and
shred these people? Or, like, is the deployment
of a Hayes field and the letting up of Hayes
signatures enough of an act of aggression that
I can be like, alright, let's fucking go? You
haven't been on deployment for a while, but I
would assume, in Geist's opinion, this is enough
justification to Geist? Like, if there was media
here? and they saw you just go, well, I'm going
to shoot into this building now. They might not
see it the same way. Colin, I have a universe
question. So the haze disrupts comms, right?
Or did I mishear that? So do we have body cams
of any sort? Or the equivalent? Because what
I'm seeing is there is no record anymore, so
why is that? Yes, so you are not required to
have body cameras on because, you know, you're...
Soldiers, you do bad things. But that's not a
guarantee that other people aren't recording.
OK, well, you know, you know, people live in
this district. There's a guy in front of you
in his car honking at you. So just keep that
in mind. I think Geist is not going to go sicko
mode just yet. He's going to he's going to wait.
He's going to wait now. Maybe I took cold instead
of vicious as my trauma, so I'm going to say
that here it keeps him cool. He's going to wait
until he really has justification to go off.
Sorry, where did you say the other heat signatures
were other than the truck? So there's one in
the truck, not the one honking at you. There's
one underneath you in some tunnels, and there
are two in a warehouse off to your right. Okay.
They wouldn't attack us with their own civilians
around. I think they would. Would they? Reading
the brief, it seems like they started. I think
they would. Yeah, they started going real crazy
under new management. They've been doing some
real nasty scorched earth tactics, right? Yeah.
Do we have no communications between each other
because of the Hayes field? You have enough communications
between each other. It's just longer range ones
are the problem. Like you could get a message
to your industry, but it'll be very indistinct.
OK, cool. Oh, yeah, I'm going to. Sorry, go ahead.
Is my sonar impacted by the haze field? One of
my quirks is that I have 360 sonar. I don't know
what the range is on that. I guess it depends
on the haze. It depends on the haze and how well
you roll, ultimately. So if you roll badly, then
yes, it's affecting it very much. But I would
say baseline, it affects it a little. You're
not going to be crippled 100 % unless you roll
bad. Sure. I'm going to... Geist is preparing
to be fired upon, but he just basically sends
out a message of... I mean, he assumes that everybody
can see the heat signatures, but so these heat
signatures, would they be heat signatures for
vehicles or like what? What does that sort of
scan generally indicate? Are they just do people
ping off that kind of thing or is it specifically
like it's definitely like hardware? The one in
the warehouse is more indistinct. That could
be one or two. You're not sure without a role
of some sort. Yeah, so I'm just going to prime
up. I'm checking off one load to say that Geist
is priming up his fine force field. um but he
does not fire at the truck although he really
wants to you could scan that is true this version
of my mech is quite good at scanning i'm gonna
see i'm gonna see if i can get find out a little
bit more about these targets so he i basically
i wanted to determine which one seems most the
most impressive so i'm gonna go ahead and risky
standard Well, fuck me. No. So on a three or
two, you do a full failure. You do not get a
partial success. You scan and you kind of notice
it too late. You know, the other signatures are
kind of moving a little bit, but the one in the
tunnels isn't moving at all. And you scan and
you're like trying to determine there any more
targets around you. And then you realize the
reason it is not moving at all is because it's
a decoy. And you realize it's too late as the
ground caves in. around you and a big hand grabs
your frame's leg and yanks you into the tunnels
underneath the ground. You're now in a desperate
position. Okay. So under the entry for shield
or force field, it says it does not count as
armor for reducing damage, but can alter position.
Does that, I guess it probably doesn't do anything
for me here because I am not being harmed. I'm
just being grabbed, which the force field would
not be able to really. What is the description
of the force field? Like what does it do really?
So, I mean, the description is a pilot directed
thick alloy plating or electromagnetic barrier
held at a distance from the vehicle's body to
protect it from incoming attacks. Does not count
as armor for reducing damage, but can alter position.
And I have a fine one. I would say right now
it is not going to help you because you're being
grappled. But remember that you have it when
you do get shot and it will affect your position.
Absolutely. I will do that. But yes, I am not.
going to hurt you yet, but you are in a desperate
position now as you are separated from your teammates
and you are in a grapple with, you can't really
tell what it is. It's definitely a frame of some
sort. Everyone else, who wants to go next? So
to paint the scene for you, if you want to decide
what to do, I know Loyal and Joseph were crept
up a little bit and I think Hex was hanging back,
but your point man has been pulled into the ground.
like a sinkhole almost, and a hand yanked him
down. You also know that there are two more frames,
at least, maybe three, ahead of you. That's been
conveyed to you by Geist, so you could attack
those if you felt that it was now appropriate,
or you could do something else. You could try
to help Geist out as well. Geist, I can talk
as a free action, right? Yeah, absolutely. As
Geist gets pulled down, he'll yell something
along the lines of, I'm fine, deal with the rest.
Hex heard that loud and clear. He wants to survey
the area to find those other frames. You actually
know where they are at this point. Okay. As part
of your risk position, you know, unless you want
to look for more things that you might want to
worry about, that could be a survey. It'd actually
be a scan to turn your mech, just so you know.
Those bottom two categories are going to be your
mech skills, for the most part. Okay, so that's
going to be a manipulation scan. Okay, well,
I want to scan just to see what Hex is getting
into. Wow. Oh, I failed. I don't know how to
use this computer. Yeah. Oh, you only have one
die. Hex, always the cautious one, decides to
go for another scan. And as you are scanning,
you notice that there are some people on top
of the occupied residential building farther
down the street, and they fire a recoilless rifle
at you. And it barely misses you. Barely. But
now, not only is Geist in a desperate position,
you are all in a desperate position until these
anti -tank crew on top of the building are taken
care of. Surprise! Yeehaw. Could a destruction
tool be my drill? You could just do... This is
a melee weapon, ultimately, right? Actually,
selecting a melee weapon would be the choice
there. I want to, whatever my turn is... Drill
the hand that's grabbing Geist. Sure. That is
going to be a battle. In this system, you can
push yourself by exhausting a quirk if you would
like to do that. What pushing yourself and exhausting
a quirk means is that you check off one of your
quirks from your list and you get a plus one
D or greater effect to your roll. Yeah, I want
to use... ominous appearance for this but since
this person's like in the tunnels when i'm trying
to attack them are they seeing me like how much
of them is buried right now what's their field
of view can they be swayed by my ominous appearance
as i'm going in with this drill um they might
not be but there are other people looking at
you as well you could say would be affected sure
check it off and then i'm gonna give you plus
one okay uh so you're gonna roll a battle roll
it's going to be a desperate standard roll and
you're going to get plus one d Let's see what
happens with this drill. Wow. How many failures
in a row is that now? That's three failures in
a row. That was bad. We're not having a great
first mission. They set us up. Oh, God. Yeah,
you go in to try to drill this hand. Sorry, Geist.
I think you might get tunnel visioned a little
bit as... All of a sudden, there is a heavily
modified pitchfork is thrust into just below
your cockpit, barely missing you. You know, like
all the alerts suddenly flash red on you and
you are forced up and to the left into like this
large truck access alleyway as a frame barrels
through you and impales you. And you're going
to take the level two damage impaled. And I resist
being impaled. You can't resist being impaled,
and you can also check off armor to reduce effect
as well. I would like to do that, checking off
armor. Okay, so you've checked off armor, which
will reduce this to level one. There's going
to be another consequence as well, which is that
you are going to damage some buildings as you
are barreled over here. And because of the unfair
mainstream media, you will be blamed for this
damage. So you can resist the level one damage
you now have, or you can resist that. Or you
can resist both, but they have to be resisted
separately. I want to resist the falling into
the buildings. So, you know, check them all off.
You're out of quirks, and you now have the level
one damage stabbed. Would you use all four quirks?
Yes, because Ewan has a one dot in prowess. It
costs... Actually, that'd probably be expertise.
This is a vehicle action. So you're going to
have one quirk left. So choose whichever one
you want left. That's good to know. I'm going
to keep my camo. So, Geist is underground. Loyal
has been attacked by one of the warehouse mechs
and pushed off into a side alley, but definitely
stops from destroying a small, cute cafe, which
leaves Joseph. You are the only one who has not
made it in action yet. I want to shoot my laser,
if I can. Preferably at the thing that's attacking
Loyal. Okay. Just so you guys remember, there
are guys with recordless rifles on the roof that
are why you are in a desperate position. We could
call our snipers in to deal with them. I want
to save my friend. Yes, you can call in your
snipers, and that won't take up an action. All
right, I'll do that. Call them back up. Hey,
snipers. Roll me a D6. Oh, okay. I thought we
were role -playing it. I'm sorry. We'll role
-play it once we see how good you do. Check this
out. Every time! Are you fucking kidding me?
Are these guys suaded? You got no bars on you.
You got no cell reception. This shit. You call
into the snipers and you're like, what do you
say, Joseph? What are the words you say to the
snipers? Everyone's getting owned right now.
We need some help. We're on it. And there's a
large explosion in the background and screaming.
They'll be fine. Your cohort is going to be now
damaged. Now you get to actually do things, Joseph.
Now I can shoot my laser. Now you can shoot your
laser at the impaler. I'm ready to shoot my fucking
laser. Is that just a 1d6? What is your battle
score? My battle score is zero. I don't have
anything in battle. I could be persuaded that
this is a bombard since you're staying back and
you're cloaked. Yeah, sure. One would say you're
bombarding with this laser. Yeah, I don't think
anyone's on you yet. So I think you get a bombard
without having to. Should I just click bombard?
You click bombard, and then you're going to position
as desperate. Effect is standard. Yeah, five.
It's not a one. Partial success. Which means
you fire your cool laser rifle. It bisects the
mech on top of Loyal. Molten metal drips onto
your mech, Loyal, but does not harm you, as you
are now freed from this bad situation. Unfortunately,
because you were so focused on getting a good
shot out, Joseph, one of those recordless rifles
does hit you, exploding on you. And you take
the level three harm. Exploded. Ouch. Oh, I resisted.
Exploded. Yeah, so level three is very bad. Yeah.
Seems that there's three of them here. You should
probably resist that and check off armor, because
you'll be really fucked up if you just eat that.
So you do that, and now... You are going to try
to resist this, which is going to cost three
perks. So you're going to check off three of
your perks on those little check boxes, and those
are going to be used up for this session to avoid
this damage. We're getting our asses fucking
beat. So you're going to get the level one harm,
which you write in. The harm thing? It's under
damage, actually. It's not called harm for a
mech. So level one damage. And I would call this
concussed because like most of the damage doesn't
hit you. It hits next to you and like your sensors
get all scrambled, which means you're going to
have less effect on your next roll. That's the
situation. Pretty bad so far. I know what I want.
I want to do something really silly because I
think it's cool. It's your go. Go for it. Cool.
So I'm going to check off. What I want to do
is I want to check off. Two pieces of gear. I'm
going to check off my form -specific gear for
this transformed version of my mech for fine
mobility suite, rather. And then I want to check
off one other piece of gear, which is a piece
of generic gear for a grapnel system. And what
I want to do is I want to shoot the grapple into
the guy who's grabbing me, and then I want to
fly straight up into the air. Okay. I'm down.
Could that be a maneuver to just, like, bust
the fuck out of here? Yeah. I'll give that to
you. Can I also check off boosted reactor for
increased effect when speed or agility is required
to say that I just fucking, like, just, like,
put the pedal all the way down and, like, explode
out of the ground with this guy attached to me?
I don't see why not. Okay. Here's my question.
Before you roll, are you more attached to getting
out of here or are you more attached to attaching
this to him? Will this determine what dice I
use? It will determine the result. Okay, yeah,
I think I'm more determined to get out of here
because I can always just fly over and paste
the dudes on the rooftop if I'm not fighting
this guy. Sure, works for me. Let's maneuver.
I think... So my... Does that put my effect to
great because I'm using my boosted reactor? Yes.
Desperate reaction. Does the... Cool. Desperate.
Great. This is good shit. Okay. Um, I think I'm
going to also exhaust, uh, my roaring fast quirk
for one extra die on this. Okay. Sure. Yeah.
Cause we're going fast and I really don't want
to be stuck in a hole with this guy. And who
knows, maybe if it goes well, I can just fly
up. Effect when you push yourself. remember i
correctly do so hold on let me i think there's
an ability that does that but i don't think i
took it oh okay cool yeah that's uh adaptable
yeah so i i don't um yeah i don't get that i
took the transformer one instead so it's just
one die um great effect let's see what happens
please don't fail i'll be really sad oh whoa
critical success! I don't know if I ever got
one of those, even the whole time we played Blades
in the Dark. Oh, yeah. Also, whenever you guys
roll a desperate roll, you're supposed to mark
experience in the corresponding skill category.
So, for instance, if you rolled a desperate scan,
You're going to under acuity. There's these little
tabs on the right. You're going to click one
of those for each desperate role you rolled in
that category. Oh, yeah. So these snipers are
like an XP farm. I have bad news. I have a proposition
because I was already at great effect. So now
this is I don't this one step above that. Can
I say that Geist flies up and fucking swings
this dude at the snipers and then let's go with
the grapnel and throws him at them? I think that's
a good idea. I love this. I do like that idea.
Yeah, so you... Like, not only do you grapple
onto it, you manage to wrap it around him before
you blast off. Kind of like a lasso. And you
shoot up into the air. There's a burst of rubble
and dust. And no one can really see where you
are because no one looks up ever in life. But
then, you know, the... fucking recoilless rifle
people see a shadow fly over them just in time
to see one of these large frames which are um
the ones they're using are like these modified
agricultural frames used for like loading hay
and it's just flying at them at mach one and
just collapses on top of them and because you're
such an expert at everything the cable snaps
the frame in half, preventing it from destroying
the building there on top of just scratching
the roof while also turning everyone on top into
a paste. Man, we've really got to get the ability
that allows you to like cause collateral damage
without consequence so we can start throwing
people through skyscrapers because that would
be cool. But yeah, Geist is fucking loving it.
He fucking explodes out of the ground at like
100 miles per hour. Whips this guy at the snipers
and he's just. He's probably laughing maniacally
inside his frame, but he doesn't have his comms
active, so nobody else can hear it. He's having
a really good day. Really good day. I can hear
it in my heart. Next up, I think we're going
to have Hex go. You are no longer in a desperate
position. You're in a risky position because
the missile people have been taken care of. There
are two frames now. that have emerged. One from
the warehouse and one from the truck. And the
one from the truck looks a little different than
the rest. This one is a more modern model of
frame used in construction. It has what looks
to be an adapted nail gun and a big heated sledge
which is used for pressure welding joints on
buildings. Oh, that's the boss! We gotta take
him alive! This is the boss. All right. That
makes all the rules. All right. And then the
other one is just one of those modified farm
equipment. This one has like a mining laser of
some sort welded to it. Okay. And so I can just
check off a quirk and like assume that's like
a piece of gear that he's using that falls under
that category, if I'm understanding correctly.
So quirks you check off to push yourself. Where
appropriate. So you'd say like, I don't know,
your military workhorse is just good at like
getting through the shit. You check them off,
you get an extra die. But for equipment, you
want to go to the mech load tab and then hit
the plus sign there and add, you know, whatever
gear you're using. Like if you're using a machine
gun, you would check off. I think it's just called
machine gun. Yeah, it is. Okay, cool. I'm taking
a look at all these. I was wondering where to
find this. How about... And are some of these
class -specific or playbook -specific? Yes, the
letters next to them indicate what playbook they're
specific to. Ah, beautiful. Okay. And the ones
without, I assume, are just standard? That's
correct. Okay, then I'm going to assume he has
a rack of missiles. Okay. um they're gonna like
fold out of him portal turret style and and open
fire on the smaller mech that isn't the boss
because we need to take the other one alive okay
great um that sounds like it's going to be a
battle roll let's do it battle and it's risky
standard is your position Sick. And in a stark
contrast to Wyzak, his cockpit? Really quiet.
Nothing going on. Just quiet. Bird sounds. And
it's a partial success, you know? It's his first
combat. Baby's first. So, you open up with your
missiles on this frame, and they hit on target.
They splash across the thing, knocking off all
sorts of welded -on plating it doesn't like make
it blow up but it's completely crippled this
mech it has been more or less knocked out of
the fight like one of its legs falls off it's
like mining laser overheats and it's like just
melting down on itself however you did just fire
missiles in a residential neighborhood one of
them goes careening into one of these multi -floor
buildings and you see it explode inside of it
glass comes like flying out of it and moments
later you see like A woman run out with a child
in their arms, just like screaming. You can resist
this. My gosh. You can resist this consequence
if you would like. Let's see. Okay, cool. In
this case, I would call this an acuity resistance,
which would cost two perks to prevent you from
causing this collateral damage. They're in a
combat zone. Whatever. Sorry, guys. I like my
quirks. Okay. They are there to be spent, though.
Do they automatically come back at the end of
a mission? You get a free maintenance action
in downtime. You have to spend material to do
it, but you still get it. They're pretty cheap
quirks. If you cause this collateral damage,
you will fail one of your rules of engagement
for this fight. Okay, then you know what? I'll
resist it, and I'll check off military workhorse
and common parts. Beautiful. So instead of careening
into the building, you put in some new commands
to the missile and it just shoots straight into
the ground. Instead of hitting anything important,
you blow up a mailbox, which will not count against
you, I promise. Fucking with the males of federal
offense. Yes, you did not kill a child. Congratulations,
boss. Next up, Loyal, you have been... ungrappled
because the person who's on top of you has been
split in half, presumably dead. That's great.
So what is the combat situation at the moment?
Right now, down the street, there is a big mech.
The boss is here. The boss, presumably. And you
get a weird vibe. You particularly get a weird
vibe from this frame. What flavor? Flavor of
vibe? Spicy. It's like, you look at it and you
feel like a prickling in your... your melons
my melon delightful some psychic fuckery is what
i will say i don't i don't like that i was going
to say that i wanted to use a hollow projector
to like put some sort of decoy image away from
this city street that we are fighting in to lure
mr prickly melon away from the civilians so you
can fight someplace else but If he's psychic,
I don't think he's going to fall for that. So,
are we in active combat right now? Could we fall
back to a less heavily populated area? You could
try to. Geist will not. He's in it now. You'd
have to work really hard to convince him to stop
now that his blood is up. Especially because
he's way high up in the sky right now. He may
not even be in comms range of Geist. Also, I've
added a new clock to the sidebar. underneath
Insurgency Defeated. It's called Silver Sun,
which is the name of this mech, and you need
to fill this clock to beat it. And this is basically
like a health bar. In relation to me, how far
away is he? Well, you are in an alleyway, so
I would say a few hundred feet away. I mean,
they are approaching rapidly. Not you, probably.
The people who are in the middle of the street,
in my mind, are Joseph is at the front, and Hex
is a little farther back. And you are across
from Joseph. I want to make myself into an appealing
target. I will try to not do a holoprojector.
I will just do myself. I want to activate my
shield and start flying. I want to fly like sort
of not directly at Prickly Man, but adjacent
to him. So I'm in the air above the civilians
coming at him, sort of like strafing him to get
him to engage with me and go away from this place.
Sure. That sounds like a maneuver to me. Yeah.
I think so. All right. I am doing a maneuver.
I don't have any more quirks left, so I'm not
pushing myself. Since you are using a shield,
I'm going to give it to be risky standard. Excellent.
All right. Let's roll this shit. Success. Yay.
Cool. Cool. I'll take it. Great. So you skid
out from the... alleyway and do some evasive
maneuvers to try to draw this frame away and
you do manage to succeed the frame kind of turns
its back like back to the side a little bit towards
the warehouse they came out of which you know
now to be uninhabited uh it's just like empty
and some boxes in it will give you plenty of
room if you keep them inside of this warehouse
and so you do accomplish that because of that
i'm going to tick i believe i believe it's two
segments or a risky success The downside is in
order to accomplish this, as you kind of do a
close pass, they lash out with their hammer and
it smashes into the side of... Actually, you
have reduced effect. There's only going to be
one tick because you are harmed. You managed
to draw them out and you're going to take the
level one harm banged up. Banged up. And to resist,
I need to use a quirk if I wanted to. Yes. And
I don't think I'm gonna, so I'm gonna be banged
up because I have one more slot for level one
harm. Okay. Correct. Yes, and they don't stack.
Cool. So, you know, as long as you don't get
another level one harm, you won't get up to level
two. Joseph, you see this happen. The big frame
has been moved into the warehouse out of civilian
reach. Geist is up in the air. I think maybe
coming back down. Yeah, you just saw him explode
out of the ground after the guy grabbed him and
he's just gone. He's probably fine. Yeah, X just
took out a frame that was just off to your side.
So there's only one. Yeah, where's the last frame
in front of me? I'll head to your right in a
warehouse kind of facing down with Loyal right
now. Oh, shit. This is the guy we got to capture.
All right, well, I'll... Walk into the warehouse,
I suppose. And then what? I suppose, is it, maybe
I could like, I don't know, incapacitate this
guy by shooting him in the legs or something.
So then his frame can't really move. Sure. Yeah,
we're going to do another bombard, but this time
an interior bombard. Sure. Inside a warehouse.
Do you want to push yourself at all or you just
want to do it raw, baby? Let's do it raw. Let's
do a raw bombard. All right, roll it. Your position
is risky standard. Risky standard. Uh -oh. Oh,
my God. It's the game, everybody. Yeah, so that's
a one, by the way, for listeners. So you are
aiming down, like using your arm stabilizers
to get a nice clean shot on the legs of this
mech, and you don't notice it so much as Loyal
notices it. That weird tingly feeling, it feels
like a very violent gust of wind blows. and just,
like, seamlessly kind of somersaults over you,
Loyal, and throws you in the path of this laser
bolt. And it hits you instead of the Silver Sun,
which is the name of this frame. And so, Loyal,
you're going to take the level 2 harm bisected.
Well, not bisected. That's too severe. Melting.
You're melting. Benevolent GM. I... I'm going
to resist this. I'm going to use my intermittent
optical camo. Sure. So you can burn the rest
of your... Okay, here's the problem. Yeah. If
you resist this, it's going to take it down to
a level 1, and since you're out of level 1 slots,
it's going to take it back up to a level 2. Oh,
so I get minus 1 dice no matter what? Since you
have a shield, I will have it fully negated from
this resistance, but you're going to be out of
quirks. Yep, I'm going to be out of quirks. Yeah,
so... Also, I could save that little cafe. Yeah,
also you could, I mean... Save the cafe. You
saved the cafe. It's worth it. I'm sticking to
the mission, guys. Joseph, you know, you have
the shot lined up perfectly, and then by all
accounts, it should have hit, but for some reason,
the pilot of the Silver Sun was able to anticipate
your attack and causes it to bounce off of Loyal's
force field instead, which is a little annoying.
Geist, I think we're back at you. Okay. I think
so. Wait, has Hex gone this rotation? Yes. Yes.
OK. Oh, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's right.
I forgot that he went first. Yeah. Are there
any skylights in this warehouse, perhaps? Sure.
I think it's like you can see this fight happening
through the sets in the skylights. There's a
lot of them. Cool. OK, so I'm just going to dynamic
entry fly through the roof and I'm thinking I
want to try. a repeat of the grapple trick just
to like throw him into a wall or something or
his mech looks his mech's not a piece of shit
right like this one looks a little bit nicer
like better made no this is like a it's a construction
max it's not military but these things are meant
to take punishment more than anything okay i
could check off okay so it's probably too heavy
for me to say grapple it and then like try and
like whip it into a wall or something you would
definitely have reduced effect Okay, cool. I'm
just going to dynamic entry through the skylight.
I will check off one of my special ability load
slots for a fine machine gun, which is something
that that's a piece of ace gear. So I'm going
to fly down through the skylight and basically
just. There's like a rotary cannon on one side
of, I guess I should probably decide if the mech
holds it in its hands or not. I like to think
that it doesn't. Maybe it's on the back of one
of the arms, but he fires a salvo of shells through
the skylight to kind of like fracture it. And
then he flies straight through it and just basically
opens up with a fully automatic salvo of fire.
at the mech as he basically fires his retro thrusters
and slows himself down so it doesn't pancake
on the floor um would that be a battle be a battle
cool let's battle um i got all these quirks left
i wonder if i should yeah you know what fuck
it it worked last time i'm gonna check off overburdened
with ordinance sure maybe this machine gun is
twin linked is this just a risky standard yes
all right let's get it You do it! That's a success!
So, you land, you put off a beautiful salvo of
machine gun fire. You know, some of them do miss,
but a lot of them hit the target right on. You
see them put a little... Some of them go through
and through, but the more critical components,
like the cockpit, they deflect off them. And
so, now this is two ticks more? That was a fine...
I don't know if that matters. That's a fine.
machine gun i'll give you an extra tick for that
because it's so fine um and after the bullets
are all shot the shells land on the ground it's
very cinematic because they're very big okay
i think after you goes hex hex yes yeah it's
me all right who can i help i mean just given
my position like do i have a line of sight on
anyone I think you are... It's been pretty dynamic
of a fight. So right now, it seems like everyone's
piling on to the Silver Sun, who's the enemy
frame in the warehouse. All right. I'm going
to run over to the warehouse. I don't think movement
matters in this, so... No. Okay. I guess we're
all piling on them, though, so I don't want to,
like, missile... We don't want to kill the guy.
And none of these bureaucrat ones help us out
much here, so I'm going to... Try a melee weapon.
Except the melee weapon is just a punch. It's
nothing crazy. You don't technically need to
declare a melee weapon if you're just punching,
but it will give you, like, less effect if you
don't declare a melee weapon. How about something
cooler than that, then? He, like, extends his
mech's arm, which is, like, plain looking, and
the equivalent of, like, an actual size, it's
a giant fucking steel girder, but it's the mech
equivalent of a collapsible baton. Yeah. Okay.
That's cool. Hell yeah. And he's going to just,
you know, hit him with a little bonk. So I'm
going to add the melee weapon to my load. And
you'd say that's a battle? Yeah, it's a battle.
Risky standard. Fuck him up. Oh my God. I can't
escape partial. The partial is where you want.
You can't really hope for better than a partial.
I've been getting really lucky, which is uncharacteristic
for me, but like a four or a five is good because
it means you've done something. I would love
to see how he manages it in here. Yeah. Child
with a balloon. My ball. The scene is Loyal has
his shield up, kind of hiding around, distracting
the Silver Sun. Geist is, you know, shooting
a bunch of machine gun shots at it. Joseph is,
I'm presuming, lining up another laser shot simultaneously.
And then you walk up and... You swing your giant
baton at this thing. I mean, you're trying to
incapacitate it, I presume, right? So you're
aiming at its sensors or whatever. Yeah, I'm
not trying to, like, Titanfall 2 execute it.
You cave in its sensors on the top of its head,
which essentially is going to blind it completely,
and it's going to go into, like, you know that
it's basically done now. And as you are, you
know, happy that it is over, the sledgehammer
comes back. and smashes into your cockpit. Full
strength, and you're going to take the level
2 harm, caved in. Okay, and is this where I could
try resist? Yes, you could. Alright. I want to
try redundant systems here. I'm going to check
that off. Or do I have to check off multiple?
This is going to be an expertise resist, so you're
going to check off two. Okay, and innocuous appearance.
Now I have a giant scar, so that's all justified
in my head. Sure. All right. And so that's going
to become level one harm dented. It'll buff right
out. It'll buff right out. But after that, you
did fill up the silver sun clock. So the silver
sun is deactivated. It is. It's down. What do
you all do now? Your next step. I think once
the mech stops moving, this would actually be
an excellent time to slap one of those, like
to slap the. The bureaucrat thing. The lock on
it. Oh. To make sure that it doesn't do that
hammer bullshit again. Yeah, you know my... Excuse
me. Inventory better than me. Let's see. We're
not in turn order anymore. The inhibitor clamp?
Yeah. One thing about the inhibitor clamp is
I... Is it vehicle gear? Yes. A device that locks
out the startup sequence of a vehicle preventing
its use cannot be installed when the vehicle
is piloted. Oh. The vehicle is piloted. Let's
just typically. You need to do something about
the pilot. Alright, well, can I rip him out?
Yeah, squish him. No, no, no, no, no. Go ahead.
Kill him! I would make that a manipulate roll.
Alright, guys. Pray. You don't actually fucking
squish him? What is your manipulate skill? I
got a point in it. Should we get the gibbon to
do this? The one, I mean, rolling one die is
better than rolling zero dice. He's reached in
and his poor little skull couldn't take it. Oh
no, he also might fuck you up. I hope it's that.
Can you tell me what, like, yours is a humanoid
mech, right? Cockpit in the chest. Okay, you,
you know, it's not moving at all. And you reach
in to grab it and you start to cave in. the cockpit
you know carefully because you don't want to
pop and the hatch blows up it blows outwards
uh crippling your hand but that's not really
the main problem the main problem is that this
tiny figure in a piloting suit jumps out uh it
runs up your arm and you see do you have cameras
on your yes yes and you see that the figure slaps
what looks to be some sort of patch on the front
of your cockpit, and your camera starts to go
out as it heats up, and there is a large explosion
as an anti -tank projectile blows into your cockpit.
Like from outside, or the patch explodes from
outside, baby. So you will take the level 2 harm.
I guess shred it as these tiny little flechettes
bounce around your cockpit. So I'm at level 1
dent. And then now shredded. All right, cool.
Actually, this is going to be to you. Oh, so
that's a harm instead. You're going to take level
two harm. Okay. Yeah, you're like slashed up
really bad. And one of your cameras is out. And
this figure jumps off the back of your mech and
is making a beeline for an urban environment.
And you also see, I'll just let you all know
this now that this failure has happened. The
other pilot has ejected from the missing mech
as well. And you don't know where they are. But
you do say the interjection port is open. Okay.
I'm looking at what I can do. I'm pretty sure
that I can't grapple this guy without killing
him. Can we, like, kick him? Like, break his
bones? Kick him against a wall. Just so you know,
I guess they're a little small, this person.
Oh my god, it's a goblin! Kill it! Really? They're
a little small? How old are they, I wonder? They're,
uh... Well, you guess they're young. They're
younger. It could possibly be. Goblin. Geist
is convinced it's a goblin. Goblin. So it would
be manipulate to try and grab this person without
killing them, right? I couldn't see it being
anything else. Yeah. I mean, it could be. I have.
That is, of course, assuming you're in your frame.
That is true. But outside of my frame, I don't
like I have one dot in struggle. So it's actually
about the same. We have an empath. You said you
had an idea? Yeah, my control. What skill would
it be to throw a flare mortar in front of these
people as they're running away to blind them
so they cannot run into the city? Can I eject
from my frame and use prowl to like pounce on
them? Yeah. Do I gotta wait? Is it turns for
that? It's not really a turn order. I want to
resolve Ewan's first. Sure. Sorry. I would probably
say that would be a bombard, if I'm being honest.
I don't have a skill in bombard. You might hit
him with the flare. Yeah, it's either we get
out of our mechs and apprehend these children
physically, or... Only one of them is a child.
That's the one we're killing. The only one you
see is a child. The other one is missing, which
is perhaps worse. I mean, who cares about that?
We only need the one. um can i scan to try to
see where the missing guy is gone and then decide
not only could you scan for him you could probably
scan to wear this uh it's a girl i'm just gonna
come out and say this is a little girl that you're
chasing holy shit how little yeah um i'm three
years old why don't you catch her and find out
okay i'll do that by threatening violence my
one what's our position Your position right now
is risky. But you're... Fail. Fail to scan. Wow.
That's a two. Okay. Yeah, you know, this is kind
of a similar situation as Geist was in earlier.
You go to scan, and you discover exactly where
that person is, and it's because they are on
the back of your mech, clinging on like a monkey.
They're wearing some sort of... optical camo
over their clothing. And they are trying to get
inside of... Actually, not trying to. They are...
They have pried their way into the cockpit of
your suit. Isn't it full of water? I believe
the exopod is... The exopod has water. I don't
believe the Nautilus does. They're gonna change
your pH. That's fucked up. So I don't... There's
probably not a lot of room for a person in here.
But they are in here, and they have a high -powered
pistol, and they're aiming it at you, and you
are now in a desperate position. That is your
consequence. And it will be very hard for someone
to help you. Okay. Joseph, you wanted to go on
foot? Yeah, I want to chase the person right
away with my prowl. What do you look like when
you eject? I was thinking maybe he like shoots
out, you know, shoots out the top because he's
standing upright. So I imagine he like literally
shoots up like a firework and then does a little
somersault in the air and then lands on the ground
in a. Hell yeah. You know. Yeah. Let's see that
prowl. I want to see that prowl. You want to
see that prowl? It's going to be a five. Oh,
that's a success. Yeah. You fucking maybe like
kneel down a little bit and you shoot out like
out of a toaster. Yeah. And there's almost an
arc to it. It's beautiful. And you land right
on top of her. You pin her down with your legs.
She collapses onto the ground. Her arm is pinned
down. Perfect. Is this a child? It's a 14 -year
-old girl. That's who it is. And yeah, she is
in custody. Tie her up. Get her to a vehicle.
Yeah, can I, like, break her legs or something?
Oh, fuck me, that's crazy. I guess she's a robot.
Okay. I'm going to say that you broke her legs
landing on her. Sure. Maybe that was my trajectory.
I was like, just aim for the legs. All right.
Yeah, you land in, like, the back of the knee
where it folds in. Perfect. That's what I was
hoping for. Maybe, like, a fracture plus a very
serious dislocation. Yeah, she will not be walking
anywhere. That way I can tie her other hands
together and what's she going to do? Worm away?
Not going to happen. She is no longer a threat.
Perfect. Cool. My dog does that, Adam. Watch
out. You never know. Worms away. Worms away.
He can't walk with his hind legs. I think there's
a piece of vehicle gear. for another passenger
or some cargo actually i think the bureaucrat
i think hex can have a a special child case did
i like role play that as a child case i didn't
know i mean i mean it's it's room for another
character if you want it to be a locked room
i was talking about the fine cargo yeah oh yeah
i mean you can you can put her in a cargo container
yeah i'll put her in the i'll put her in the
hold We can't let the media see us carting off
a child whose legs we just broke or it's going
to be a VR nightmare. I claim the equipment.
We're good. They were just playing tag. So Joseph
starts to move her towards you. She is restrained.
She is kind of unresponsive now that her legs
have been broken because she is in a lot of pain.
She's like 14 years old. You keep mentioning
that. Not like a child child, but you know. Okay,
that's good. Appropriate child soldier age. You
didn't just break the legs of an 8 -year -old.
That'd be too hard. Appropriate child soldier
age. I wouldn't just break the legs, Colin. I'd
go all the way. What's the lowest you go? 3 years
old? Buddy, I'm punching. Alright, I'm punching
pregnancies. It's a baby breaker. But anyways,
on to more serious topics than child mutilation.
A dolphin is in trouble in Lego City. We can't
stand for that. I don't think anybody knows that.
Geist is presently trying to secure our exit.
I don't know that anybody actually knows that
there's an angry child in there. Not childless.
Is this another child? This is the prickly guy.
The prickly guy was the girl. Yeah. Child maybe
has some empath abilities or something. Is it
my turn to go? Yes. no we're not in turn order
right now but okay i mean you can also tell people
that there's someone in your frame as well i'm
a little preoccupied maybe i open up a live comms
as i'm doing this but as they are crawling up
behind me i'm situated how my exopod works is
i have an opening in the back of my mech where
i just float into it and it just jacks me into
it i'm all plugged in here there's like wires
around me but one of the features of my exopod
is that When I am outside of my mech, it can
activate a combat mode where I'm no longer floating
at a walking pace, and I can move quickly with
these telescoping spikes that come out of the
bottom of my exopod and kind of move at will.
Like, have you ever seen a sea urchin move sped
up? Yes. It's like that, but cooler. Anyways,
all of those extend at once. Hopefully grappling
this person who is aiming a pistol at me, and
I want to attempt to sway them and just psychically
speak out loud with my comms on. Just stop. Surrender.
Stop resisting. You've lost. Let's see that roll.
It's a sway. Let's see this sway. What is my
position? Desperate Grain. Come on, psychic powers.
Come on, psychic powers. XP, no matter what happens,
right? Hey! All right, you do it. You do it.
Yeah, he, like, points the gun at you, checks
something on his wrist, like some sort of diagnostic.
He whispers to himself, fuck. He drops the pistol,
like, in the in -between space in your mech,
and just kind of crawls out on top and raises
his hands up. God, I really want to just fucking
fire a harpoon through his chest so badly, but
I think I'm gonna not. Geist seriously considers,
like, I got the grapple reloaded, but he decides
he's not that psychotic. I mean, I don't know.
I don't know if we need to. I guess. You're beating
it at me. We're inside of my mech right now.
Wait, he climbed on top of it. Yeah, he's on
top of it now. He's left. Can we... We should
probably take him, too. Probably. Yeah. Can we
say that the, like, could a fine cargo container
be, like, a couple of small ones since it's,
like, really high end? Sure. I mean, yeah. I
don't have a problem with that. You can fit two
prisoners and they will not escape. You've already
won. Yeah. One of them's, like, spaghetti anyway,
so. Well. Get in there. Yeah. Yeah. Very easy
to fold up. Exactly. Yeah, let's load this guy
up and get the fuck out of here. Yeah. Let's
do it. You exfil. You pick up the raptors, which
is the name of your soldiers, as well as the
sparrows, which is the name of your scouts. The
raptors are short a few men now, and a few of
them have some wounds. And Captain Spud fills
you in and says, Yeah, there was some serious
insurgents waiting for us. It was really rough,
man. So close to the checkpoint. Concerning times,
bro. Concerning times. And he gives you the hang
loose symbol. Where is he from again? He's from
Teclon 6 Diego. Teclon 6 Diego. They have really
big waves there. Great space weed. Oh, you know,
it's in the Boklanov Expanse. That's awesome.
Yeah, it's great. I wish I was from there. You
could be. Anyways, you get back to The base,
you hand over your prisoners to the peacekeepers
who handle prisoners for the most part, and you
get debriefed. Nyla Westedge, your controller,
looks over everything. You all have to make reports,
of course, and we're not going to have those
be done because I've been reporting. But, you
know, she says adequate work, rules of engagement
were followed. That's good. Two prisoners, which
is more than I expected, though. The age could
leave something to be desired. We thought the
Silver Sun was piloted by someone a little bit
older. Yeah, seemed to be in some kind of leadership
role or, I don't know, better quality hardware.
Clusterists, they're not afraid of using children.
Sick bastards. Do not. And you are. Let's go.
You know, get your commendation. The Dusk Lights
are officially in action. And that's where we'll
end for today.