Robotech: Army of the Southern Cross - IC Thread

[Psychie]

Sgt. Dorsey gives Kitty a thumbs-up as she returns, and says quietly, "We can question him, but we don't have much time before the party starts. Hmm. It looks like that the machine gun was set up in a position that gives a good bit of visibility on the target. We can use that location to paint our targets for the bombardment." He glances at his watch, saying, "Ten minutes to go time. Lets move. While we wait for the strike to begin, we can see if our new friend here wants to cooperate."

Moving quietly, the five of you make your way up to the ring of sandbags and take a look out over the upper hull of the crashed command ship. With practiced efficiency, the big Texan pulls out his laser and starts to survey the area. While he is looking at the ship, he says, "Nova and Kitty, see if you can't get Sleeping Ugly here awake and talking. Try to keep him from screaming until the attack is underway and it won't matter anymore. Steven and Chris, set up your designators and start to look for good targets to light up."

 

[Purr]

GunMan2 Psychie Sherwood

"Yes, sir," Kitty replies with a curt nod. To Nova, Kitty does not bother stating the functions of a stun baton, instead choosing to respect the older Meltrandi and presume Nova knows how they function. Kitty retrieves her helmet, uses a cleaning napkin from her survival kit and cleans out the inside of it (in case he has left any messes). She then uses another napkin tied to the first to act as a blindfold. The less he experiences, the less he shares.

"Care to perform the interrogation?" she asks Nova without using her name. "I imagine you are better at this sort of work than me."

 

[Sherwood]

While the ladies are making their plans to interrogate the prisoner, Steven quietly sets himself down at the edge of the ring of sandbags and pulls out the laser designator. Working smoothly, the soldier quickly preps the item for use, looking up and over the edge of the improvised bunker to pick out quality targets to lase.

 

[Psychie]

"Care to perform the interrogation?" she asks Nova without using her name. "I imagine you are better at this sort of work than me."

Nova nods, and pulls out a long bladed survival knife and holds hit in her hand. She takes a nearby canteen and splashes water into the face of the captured man, causing him to sputter and cough through his gag. Once he's done choking, Nova calmly places the knife against his groin and says in a quiet voice, "I'm going to take out the gag now. But if you yell, it will be in a falsetto for the rest of your life because I'll cut your balls off. If you cooperate and do what you're told, you have a chance of getting through this day with all of your parts intact and still alive. Do you understand me?"

Fear flashes in the eyes of your captive, and he finally nods with a jerk.

Before taking out the gag, the Meltrandi woman says, "First off, how many troops are here, either human or Zentraedi?" She then yanks the cloth out of the mouth and waits, knife hand still positioned between his legs.

In a shaky voice, the man replies with, "I-I don't know exactly, I swear! Hundreds of Zentraedi are here, along with scores of human mercs that are working for the money."

With her helmet hiding her smile, Nova says, "Good. Good. Now, is the High Lord here?"

With a shrug, the prisoner says, "I don't know. He comes and goes, and no one tells me where and when he's here."

She takes the knife and presses it harder against his groin and says, "Not good enough. You should know when your puppetmaster is here. I won't ask again. Is. The. High Lord. Here?"

He shakes his head, saying, "Nonono! At least, I don't think so! I don't know for sure, I swear! Just don't cut me!"

Stuffing the gag back into his mouth, Nova pats his cheek. "Good boy. That wasn't so hard now, was it?"


For Steven, Chris and Doug, things are somewhat less dramatic, if no less important. With the three of you setting up your target designators, you begin to pick targets on the upper hull of the Command Ship. Time passes, seemingly taking forever, but in reality it is only a few minutes before there is an alarm being sounded from somewhere below you inside the ship. Air defense turrets begin to track on the incoming missile barrage, causing multiple explosions to take place up in the air, but with so many different missiles and shells being launched, some manage to snake their way through the gauntlet of defensive fire and begin to hit the ship.

Even with the heavy armor of the hull, it doesn't protect very well against the massive Reflex missiles and artillery shells that are raining down on the target area. Huge explosions rip into the ship, first destroying the modified anti-ship laser cannons that were so successful in taking out the various Valkyries flying escort with the Cats Eye AWACS aircraft that was also lost.

As more explosions rock the hull of the Command Ship, a static filled signal can be heard over your headsets, being relayed from the larger transmitters on your tanks. "3rd JSOG. Report status of target."

Dorsey begins to describe the effects of the artillery strike even as more missiles and shells begin to arc over and head down to deal their damage. "The primary weapons of the ship have been destroyed. The airspace is now open. Bring the heat."

"Copy that. Friendly aircraft are inbound."

At this point, Dorsey turns to the rest of the team and says, "Lets make our way back to our mecha. We can't do much to aid the fight from here, especially with all the firepower being thrown around out there."

 

[Purr]

Psychie

"What of him, sir?" Kitty asks Dorsey without using his name. She aims the barrel of her weapon toward his skull with one hand and with the other, she prepares another cloth from her survival kit to use as a blindfold. In Miyazaki's mind, this enemy's life is purely in the hands of Sgt. Dorsey.

 

[Psychie]

Psychie

"What of him, sir?" Kitty asks Dorsey without using his name. She aims the barrel of her weapon toward his skull with one hand and with the other, she prepares another cloth from her survival kit to use as a blindfold. In Miyazaki's mind, this enemy's life is purely in the hands of Sgt. Dorsey.

Dorsey is quiet for a long moment, then says, "Leave him his knife. If he can cut his way free before getting blown up by the artillery, good for him. We are not murderers to kill a helpless prisoner." He kneels down next to the man's head to fill his vision. "Listen to me. You have a chance to change your life. Take it, and don't cross our path again. You won't get this mercy in the future."

He stands up and begins to head down the path back towards the concealed tanks.

 

[Sherwood]

Steven doesn't say anything, but deep inside, he's privately glad to hear that the prisoner would not be killed. The thought of taking him out in the middle of a fight is one thing, but to kill him as he's helpless and in their complete control? No. That would be murder, and he is proud of the call made by his C.O.

With a quick step, he heads off back towards the waiting tanks.

 

[Purr]

Mercy was a concept unknown to Terror Team Six, the Hunter-Killer squad Miyazaki was cloned into. It was a way of thinking unknown to the war-bred, but one very familiar to the Earth-born who had taken Kitty and her team in when they had expected to be destroyed. Were it not for mercy, Kitty and her "battle-sisters" would be as dead as the Malcontents 3rd JSOG had already sent into the beyond.

Something in Kitty's killer nature needed reminding of this, but the realization didn't trouble her. After all, she was a clone created to learn, to adapt, to complete missions - why she enjoyed this process was a thing she never knew if she were created to do so or if it were just part of being Meltrandi.

With a silent nod to Dorsey (for what the prisoner hears, the prisoner can share), Kitty does precisely as ordered - all the while, she keeps herself ready to annihilate the enemy if he makes even a single wrong move. If he does not become a threat, he continues breathing. Mercy. It was much the prisoner's choice as hers.

With Fluffy still trained on the prisoner, Kitty tries to melt back into the jungle and - along with her team - rejoin Maru and 3rd JSOG's other Spartans.

 

[GunMan2]

Barns got his ass i high gear as they left the prisoner to his own devices. He felt sympathetic towards the soldier. What made him want to go out of his way to become a soldier in this conflict, what was the trigger.

Barnes would not know but the reality of trying to live with a second species on the planet. The them vs us mentality still persists even now that they know they are not alone in the cosmos but still the fighting will continue as it alway does. As he reaches his machine he silenced the thoughts as he focuses on starting up his machine and ending this entire rebellion once and for all.

“I hope that this is the only base they have if not” He looks to the field of battle. “Then we are in for a long war.”

 

[Psychie]

Moving at a run, you are all thankful for the rigorous physical training that you've been through as a stray missile strikes the machine gun nest that you were just sitting in, wiping it out, along with the subdued prisoner. If you were any longer in waiting, you would have been hit, too.

Back at your tanks, you see that the mecha are right where you left them, still covered in the camouflage netting that was hastily strung up over them. Dorsey calls out, "Don't worry about getting the nets folded up. We are in the middle of a firestorm, and our guns are needed on the line. Power up and lets get in it!"

 

[Sherwood]

Steven yanks the camouflage netting aside enough to get up into the pilot's seat of his tank and starts the mecha up, feeling the rumble of the power reactor coming through the hull and into his seat. A quick check of the systems and his ammo load shows that the Spartas had not been tampered with while they were on foot and his payload of heavy shells is still full.

Keying his short range radio, Steven calls out, "Bishop here, and my Spartas and I are ready to dive into the fray. We can't have those gun bunnies out there take all the glory from us."

Spoiler

Combat Bonuses
On Foot / In the Tank
Number of Attacks: 5 / 7
Strike: +7 / +10 with cannons and long-range weapons, +12 with EU-11, +10 in HtH
Parry: +11 / +15, +1 with Shields
Dodge: +9 / +12
Roll: +5 / +8
Initiative: +1 / +3
Pull Punch: 0 / +4
Horror Factor: +3
Maintain Balance: +2
Perception: +6
Critical Strike From Behind
Critical Strike on a Natural 18-20
Knockout/Stun on a Natural 19-20
HtH Damage: +2

Eu-11: 1d6x10+10
APFSDS - 3d6x10+20: 15
MPAT (AoE 50ft) - 2d6x10+10: 9
HEAT - 2d6x10+10: 9
Incendiary Plasma (AoE 25ft) - 2d8x10+10: 9
Canister - 1d8x10 (AoE 25ft), 1d4x10 (AoE 50ft): 3
Smoke: 3

 

[Psychie]

One by one, your tanks rumble to life - that is, all but Dorsey's. He tries several times unsuccessfully to get the engine to turn over before saying, "Something is wrong here . . . Wait a minute, what's this? There is something wrong with my engine. Its showing more red lights than I've ever seen before. Shoot." He reaches down to grab his gear and just as he does so, a bright plume of flame licks out of one of the hover jets with a bit of smoke.

Dorsey looks up to see the smoke and lets out an angry curse as he scrambles off of the tank. "Get back! The fire is next to my ammo storage bin! Its going to blow!" With a bright flash, the Spartas goes up in a violent blast that sends Dorsey flying through the air. He slams into a tree, and while his armor takes much of the impact, the big Texan hits the ground and is motionless, smoke rising off of his damaged suit.

Nova leaps off of her mecha and rushes to his side with an angry snarl. "Dorsey! Damn it! Bishop, get over here! He's hurt, and I am no doctor."

 

[Sherwood]

Steven scrambles out of the cockpit of his tank, pausing only to grab his field medical kit. "Don't move him! He may have broken bones, and shifting him may make it worse." Moving at a run, he skids to a stop at Dorsey's side and gets a good look at him.

OOC is there any kind of way to check his vitals inside his armor without stripping him out of it first?

 

[Purr]

"What in the universe?!"

Kitty is absolutely stunned at the sight of an Anton-19-approved Spartan VHT that has seen combat on multiple occasions suddenly spontaneously combust and explode before her very eyes.

As Steven springs into action, and with gun cameras on and recording all, she transforms Maru into transport mode and pulls up as close as she reasonably can to Sergeant Dorsey's immobile form.

"Sorry to rush you, Steven, but everything with a gun that heard that explosion is going to be coming this way." Kitty's head is on a swivel she listens and looks around for signs of that very happening.

"If you think Dorsey can be moved, would you load him up onto Maru? While hovering, he will be jarred as little as possible. We must get out of here."

Kitty gets on the horn to the ASC channel the team has been using and relays the incident, their position, and their situation. "Is there any possibility of a Valkyrie pickup? If so, can you give us coordinates to rendezvous?"

 

[GunMan2]

Barns looked shook at what happened. The man began to mentally curse as he saw Dorsey's mech explode, he should have been the one to check the mechs before they left. "This was definitely sabotage, no way this kind of thing could happen"
Immediately, he began to check his system for any possible sabotage or changes in the code. This was not how he operated but now he was not sure if they even had time to think of a proper way to deal with this. If their machines were tampered then a retreat is definitely the right move.

 

[Psychie]

OOC is there any kind of way to check his vitals inside his armor without stripping him out of it first?

I will say that each suit of armor has a small computer in it that keeps track of the status of the wearer that you can access and see in your own HUD. The numbers that you see for Sgt. Dorsey show he's alive and knocked out from the impact with the explosion and the tree, but the megasuit kept him from getting too badly broken up or scorched in the explosion.

Some of his injuries will be hidden from you as long as he's wearing his armor, but if there are any broken bones, the bodysuit will help to keep you from hurting him worse as you move him into one of the tanks. You can immobilize him well enough that you are confident that he can be safely moved without risk of further injury.

Barns looked shook at what happened. The man began to mentally curse as he saw Dorsey's mech explode, he should have been the one to check the mechs before they left. "This was definitely sabotage, no way this kind of thing could happen"
Immediately, he began to check his system for any possible sabotage or changes in the code. This was not how he operated but now he was not sure if they even had time to think of a proper way to deal with this. If their machines were tampered then a retreat is definitely the right move.

A quick look around the systems of your mecha do show that there is something amiss with your ammo feed to the main gun, and if you were to try to fire it, the whole kit-n-caboodle would blow just like Dorsey's tank did, and it would most likely kill you in the process.

Everyone please give me Perception rolls. Purr , what is your bonus for yours again so I can give you a roll with my dice?

 

[GunMan2]

Barnes instantly contacts the entire crew "Guys, we been sabotaged our guns ammo feed has been tampered with. One shot and we and up like our leader" He said it with great urgency in his voice.

 

[Sherwood]

With his attention focused on looking over the sergeant, Steven is somewhat distracted but tries to keep his situational awareness up and going.

OOC Total of a 19 on my Perception roll

 

[Psychie]

Purr GunMan2 Sherwood

Steven checks on the condition of Dorsey by plugging his medpack into the computer data jack designed just for times like this. After a moment, it shows you that he's still has a good, strong pulse and is still breathing, but from what you're seeing as you examine him he probably has a concussion and possibly a few broken bones. Right here and now is most certainly not the place you want to try and unseal his armor to get a better look. If there are broken bones, the megasuit will act as a splint, keeping him from getting even more injured as you move him onto Kitty's tank.

As the field medic is busy lifting the burly Texan onto the back of the waiting tank, everyone else is busy checking their mecha for signs of sabotage and are keeping their heads on a swivel. Chris spots that his own main cannon ammo feed has been jimmied open, and there is probably a nasty surprise waiting for you if you were to fire a shell out of the weapon. At this point, you do not see any signs that your tank's Eu-11 gun pod has been tampered with, so it is probably safe to fire. Same goes for your tri-laser cannon.

Probably.

But that's not all. Nova calls out on the squad radio band, "I seem to have some tampering with my - wait! Movement, from my ten o'clock! Range eight hundred feet! Looks like multiple micronian-sized targets incoming." Even as she is saying this, Kitty's sharp eyes are also drawn to the sight of at least six figures on foot, either micronized Zentraedi or humans, all advancing towards your position quickly, and now that they've been warned about the presence of the approaching people, Chris and Steven spot them, too.

Sherwood , since you only said that you were grabbing your medpack when you leapt from your tank, the only weapon you have on you at this time is your sidearm, not to mention the still unconscious form of Sgt Dorsey in your hands as you are working to gently and with urgency get him loaded up to get him out to a recovery point.

 

[Sherwood]

Steven doesn't waste his time swearing, he simply hoists Dorsey up on Kitty's tank quickly and carefully to try and avoid hurting the wounded man even more. "Numbers, Nova. Give us some numbers. How many targets are we dealing with? Can you see?" Once Dorsey is safely placed on the tank, he turns and sprints off to get to his own rig as fast as he can.

 

[Purr]

Steven doesn't waste his time swearing, he simply hoists Dorsey up on Kitty's tank quickly and carefully to try and avoid hurting the wounded man even more. "Numbers, Nova. Give us some numbers. How many targets are we dealing with? Can you see?" Once Dorsey is safely placed on the tank, he turns and sprints off to get to his own rig as fast as he can.

"Hop on, Steven."

Once Dorsey is loaded on, Kitty via Maru attempts to give her fellow 3rd JSOG member a swift lift back to his own tank. "With Dorsey down, Corporal Nova, I believe you are in charge as you are the corporal with the most experience. What are our orders, ma'am?"

 

[Psychie]

Nova barely hesitates as she flips her tank into its Battloid mode and readies a shot with her Eu-11 gun pod. "We haven't had time for any UEG ground troops to get here, so we shall operate under the belief that these are hostiles. First priority is to get our wounded out. Kitty takes the sergeant and the rest of us will provide cover and be her shield. Withdraw far enough out to be able to get an airlift for Dorsey. Everyone move!"

Initiative rolls, everyone.

Sherwood GunMan2 Purr

 

[GunMan2]

Barnes swiftly changed from guardian to battleloid to avoid using his cannon, decides to follow the group and provide cover for Kitty to get their commander out. He comms the other to see if they can hear him "If we are to retreat, we need to destroy Dorsey's Veritech we can't allow it to fall into enemy hands at all costs". Then get ready for combat.

 

[Purr]

Dorsey looks up to see the smoke and lets out an angry curse as he scrambles off of the tank. "Get back! The fire is next to my ammo storage bin! Its going to blow!" With a bright flash, the Spartas goes up in a violent blast that sends Dorsey flying through the air.

Kitty holds onto both Sgt. Dorsey and Maru's steering wheel in that order. To Chris, she says with an unworried tone, "Nothing to see there. Dorsey's veritech is in what Earth-folks might call Spartas Heaven. May I recommend using the many trees as cover as we make our way home?"

Kitty prepares to do just that.

 

[Psychie]

Kitty gets on the horn to the ASC channel the team has been using and relays the incident, their position, and their situation. "Is there any possibility of a Valkyrie pickup? If so, can you give us coordinates to rendezvous?"

It takes a few moments, but eventually there is a reply to Kitty's query. "3rd JSOG, you are right on the edge of a hot combat zone and all hell is breaking loose there. The few air assets we have overhead can assist you with air support, but they are not equipped to handle casualties. A rescue chopper is spooling up now, ETA to your area is thirty minutes. Try to get as far away from your new friends back there as possible and the Jolly Green will be vectored onto your current position."

Sherwood Still holding on an initiative roll for Steven