Sci-Fi Mini Event 1

[soulping]

[You find yourself in an armory. There's benches, both to work at, and just to sit down. There's maps of star systems, planets, coordinates you don't really understand, no matter how long you look at them. And, yes, since it's an armory, there's armaments. Plenty of them. On one end of the room, there's four small chambers, each with an silhouette of person in a suit of armor over them:

One is a large, muscular person, holding a machine gun in their hands.
One is a much more diminutive person, manipulating a wrist-held device of some sort.
One is a person crouched down, holding a sword in both hands.
The last has no weapon, but instead has energy radiating from the palms of their hands.

If you step into one of these chambers, they'll open, and in a short time, you'll be augmented with the armor and weaponry of your chosen loadout. On the other side of the armory is a shooting range. If you step into one of the booths, holographic enemies will appear for you to practice your new weaponry on. Beyond that, you might as well relax. Things will get crazy soon enough.]

Comments

MINGLE

[soulping]

[Mingle. Start mingling. DO IT, NOW!]

Re: MINGLE

[kungfusion]

Well. This is... different... from the last event I was in.

[ Contemplating between two doors: the one with The Incredible Bulk on it, and the one with... The Shadow... ]

Hmn...

Re: MINGLE

[justichthys]

[ Hi, I'm still myself. Super still myself, and I may or may not have been followed into this mini-event by two dumb guys—unless they just decided to come along on their own. ]

[ The world may never know. ]

Whoa! This kind of thing again?

Re: MINGLE

[kungfusion]

"Again?"

[ Guess who is like, super not herself. ] Did something happen while I was participating in the other... event?

Re: MINGLE

[purrtylittlewires]

[WELL, BULKY ARMOR SEEMS]

[FAMILIAR]

Re: MINGLE

[justichthys]

Oh, hey …

You came as well?

Re: MINGLE

[carptricks]

. . .

[i really don't want to be here, thinks the guy wearing a dumb pink and blue headband]

SQUAD

[soulping]

REN - SHADOW
AOKO - GADGET
KAITO - SHADOW
PUMA - HEAVY

CHOOSE YOUR LOADOUT

[soulping]

[If you haven't chosen your loadout, or if you'd like to change your chosen loadout, reply to this comment!

Be sure to choose your loadout before the start of the game or one will randomly be assigned to you!]

[carptricks]

I FORGOT TO CHOOSE shadow for this guy!

Re: CHOOSE YOUR LOADOUT

[purrtylittlewires]

Heaaaavy

START

[soulping]

[Alright. You've chosen your loadout. You've equipped your armor. You've tested your weapons. You all find yourselves before a glowing blue pad on the ground, large enough to fit all of you. A voice buzzes in your ear.]

"Alright, squad, eyes up. I'm Sparks, I'm gonna be your support for this mission. In case y'were catchin' up on your beauty sleep during the debrief, here's the long and veiny of it. Princess Stela, a diplomat from Europa (y'know, one of Jupiter's moons?) was abducted by Space Pirates and taken hostage. Now the problem with this, is Princess Stela was spearheading a collaborative initiative between us in the Milky Way and the rest of the organized races in the galaxy. Trade routes, travel rights, collaboration between Earth and Europa's militaries and other races to hunt down the Space Pirates...so yeah, you can see why they had a problem with it. Basically, the initiative is on ice as long as Stela's in pirate hands.

To complicate matters further, the pirates are demanding the typical stuff for her release, y'know, cash, ships, weapons, a bunch of their imprisoned scumbag buddies released back out into the wild...aaaand, here's the kicker; the Europans are actually considering complying! That would be a real bug in the rest of the galaxy's bonnet, so, y'know, we on Earth, we like to keep things smooth. So rather than let this become a problem, we went looking for Princess Stela, and, surprise, we found her! She's being held in a pirate ship in low orbit above an alien planet. Our advance scouts set up a teleport pad that'll take you right on to their ship, so, here's what you're gonna do. You're gonna jet up in there, find the princess, gently and eloquently convince the pirates to hand her over, as only professionals of your standing are capable of doing, then get the heck out of there and to the extraction point as soon as possible.

No pressure, but... ...well. I'm not saying galactic peace hinges on this, but, just make sure if negotiations break down and the lead starts flying, that Princess Stela keeps her head down. Like I said, no pressure."

[With that done, it's time to step on to the pad and get going. Once you're all on, you feel a feeling of weightlessness take over your body...then suddenly everything around you blinks into darkness and you're no longer where you started.]

ROOM 1

[soulping]

[Weight comes back to your body and you can feel your feet underneath you again. You can take a look around and see a lot of big metal crates stacked on top of each other. You and your squad in particular are right behind a really big crate that keeps you more or less obscured from sight. Up above, there are catwalks. A few Space Pirates patrol the catwalks, glancing around occasionally, but your squad is outside of their field of vision.

A short distane away, but still mostly in cover, is a wall-mounted computer console. After you take some time to look around, you hear Sparks again:]

"Ooookay, squad, looks like we've got you somewhere in the ship's cargo hold. You should be nice and tucked out of the way, but still, don't make too big of a fuss unless you wanna attract some undue attention."

"First things first, you gotta find out where the princess is. This ship's too big to just stumble around, so either find something to hack into and get the lay of the place, or take one of the crew and squeeze it out of 'em. Your call. But if you kill one of 'em, it won't be too long before the rest of 'em find out. Then, uh, won't matter where you squeeze yourself, you'll have LOTS of company."

[Soooo, basically, the subtle approach may be worth exploring first.]

Re: ROOM 1

[justichthys]

[ mumbles ]

I'm all for trying to be subtle, here.

[ Peeking up and around, making sure to stay well hidden behind their crate. Something to hack, something to hack … maybe there's a terminal around here somewhere? ]

ROOM 2

[soulping]

[You manage to get out of the cargo hold without being detected, so the trek to the waypoint is, thankfully, quiet and uneventful. Eventually you come up on a closed door and Sparks chimes in:]

"Okay, switching to thermal imaging."

[Thermal imaging reveals five figures in the room. One is crouched, against the wall, hands behind their back. The other four are either staying close to the first or milling about the room.]

"That one. The one on the ground. That's Princess Stela. The other four are guarding her. Hold on. Let me get you the schematics for the room."

[And, everybody gets the room's schematics to look over on their HUD. It appears to be some kind of repurposed mess hall, benches and tables strewn all over the place. Once the door opens, it's pretty much an uninterrupted view of the four guarding her, making them easy targets. There's also an air vent at the back of the room, high up on the wall and behind Princess Stela.]

"Your weapons will pretty much cut through these guys like paper. But unless you take them all out at once, they'll be able to call for reinforcements before they go down, so, be careful."

Re: ROOM 2

[justichthys]

[ … WELP ]

[ This is a job for anybody but Aoko. ]

[ So she's just going to squint at the air vent and the surrounding area, trying to gauge how one might get up to it. ]

Re: ROOM 2

[kungfusion]

Hm. Maybe our other cloak can go in and go straight for the princess, while the rest of us take care of her guards?

ROOM 3

[soulping]

[On the way back to the cargo hold and the teleporter pad, Sparks chimes in:]

"Squad, I got some bad news. I pulled some data from those files you hacked into earlier and found out who the captain of this vessel is. It's Nestor, the Insatiable."

[... ... ...probably sounds more intimidating in pirate language.]

"Nestor is one of the most notorious criminals in the system. He's got a kill count in the thousands and this is just a guess, but I'm assuming he'd rather eat the princess than let her get away." [Stela grimaces, but doesn't react otherwise.] "Get to that teleporter and get the hell out of there before he comes after you himself."

[Sparks sounds nervous. Luckily, you've made it back to the cargo hold. Just gotta run to the teleporter pad and you're home free, right?]

Re: ROOM 3

[justichthys]

[ h … hahaha did somebody just say 'eat' ]

[ THIS WAS A MISTAKE ]

[ Aoko falters in place, freezing, face paling. ]

ROOM 4

[soulping]

[You quickly dispense of the meager couple of pirates guarding the shuttle bay and run inside, sealing the doors behind you, just to be safe, then picking out one of the shuttles. It'll take a few minutes for the Black Hat to hack one of them, but once it finishes, you're home free, for real this time.

...at least, that's how it seems until the doors to the shuttle bay start rumbling. Then, there's a very loud BANGING noise against it. It sounds like something's ramming against it, repeatedly. After you have a couple seconds to get nervous about it, Spark chimes in,] "....oh, hell."

"Get your guns out, people. Gadget, get that ship prepped to go ASAP!"

[A giant clawed hand punches through the door. Something on the other end roars. It sounds angry.]

Re: ROOM 4

[kungfusion]

[ Aw, I have to put the princess down in order to get out my shotgun and shoot the hand. Boo. ]

Re: ROOM 4

[justichthys]

[ meep ]

On it!

[ Wastes no time in DASHING FOR THAT SHIP, and once she's close enough she immediately connects her Black Hat to it. ]

ENDGAME

[soulping]

[As your shuttle flies away from the descending pirate ship as fast as possible to try and clear the definitely imminent explosion, the Princess stands and smiles to all of you.]

Now I can go back to work to ensure peace between our race and the other races of the galaxy. I'm sure the Europan royalty will want to annoint all off you as heroes and offer you the riches of our lands. Until then, however, all I have to offer you is...

[Everybody gets a hug and a kiss (on the cheek) from Princess Stela. Especially the ones who tanked grenade/cannon fire for her.]

...and my sincerest thanks, naturally.

[u are space heroes. good job.]

Re: ENDGAME

[kungfusion]

[ SEVERE BLUSHING ENSUES ]

It was what we were sent to do. [ huff huff ]

Re: ENDGAME

[carptricks]

[man]

[. . . now that it's over, that was kind of fun. he puffs out his chest a bit, easily slipping into the role, so when the Princess comes to bestow upon him a hug, he takes her hand instead. he then bows in front of her and kisses the bac of her hand. LIKE A GENTLEMAN]

We're only doing our duty, your majesty. ♥