Sci-Fi Mini Event 2

[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

[glorious]

Are we preparing for a mission...?

Re: MINGLE

[tormado]

[Missing his bike, his face is still kinda messed up from that stupid Magical Girl game. He's nettled.]

Guess so.

[He looks at the chambers.]

....I guess we're supposed to choose one of these.

Re: MINGLE

[likebigboats]

[Checking out the loadouts.]

Hopefully this time there won't be any interruptions if I find a particularly interesting hologram.

Re: MINGLE

[tormado]

What about a hologram?

Re: MINGLE

[tatsumi_textiles]

[having been here the entire time, really, Ochre almost immediately walks into the heavy's booth.

Sorry everyone, he wants the gun.]

SQUAD

[soulping]

OCHRE - HEAVY
CALLIE - SHADOW
TAMA - SHADOW
LION - ARCANITE

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!]

Re: CHOOSE YOUR LOADOUT

[glorious]

[choosing The Arcanite!]

Re: CHOOSE YOUR LOADOUT

[soulping]

[Rolled a 1d4 for Tama, his class is The Shadow]

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

[tatsumi_textiles]

Less anyone knows how ta hack, and's doin' it right now, I say we get onna them ta talk.

[Guess who doesn't know how to play 'subtle'?]

Re: ROOM 1

[likebigboats]

[checking out the surroundings, and heading for the console]

I don't see why we can't go for both.

Re: ROOM 1

[glorious]

I'd like to help with the talking. I'm certain we can give them reason to be...agreeable.

ROOM 2

[soulping]

[You manage to run like hell out of the cargo hold. The trek to the waypoint is, uh, interrupted as a few guys try to waylay you and you have to gently dissuade them from the attempt. Really, it's very boring stuff.

Thankfully, things thin out by the time you get to the waypoint, a closed door. Sparks chimes in:]

"Okay, switching to thermal imaging."

[Thermal imaging reveals...about a dozen and a half figures in the room. One is crouched, against the wall, hands behind their back. The others are either staying close to her or pointing guns at the door.]

"Oookay, that one. The one on the ground. That's Princess Stela. The other ones are guarding her...and also getting ready to fill you guys with lead the second you open the door. 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, but right now, they're all upturned to serve as makeshift cover. There's also an air vent at the back of the room, high up on the wall and behind Princess Stela.]

"Okay...your weapons will pretty much cut through these guys like paper, but there's a lot of them. You might wanna try and find another way in or something."

Re: ROOM 2

[tatsumi_textiles]

I'm guessin' you sneaky assholes won't climb through the vents and toss this grenade through, huh?

[Since it. Would kill the hostages.]

Re: ROOM 2

[soulping]

[Sparks:] "Yeah, let's not throw grenades while the Princess is still there."

"...afterwards, though, great idea, I'm all for it, personally."

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 the armor of that pirate you scanned 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. 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

[tatsumi_textiles]

Alright, let's get outta here.

[To the teleport pad!]

Re: ROOM 3

[likebigboats]

[glancing at the princess]

No objections, dear?

Re: ROOM 3

[soulping]

[Once you all get to the teleporter pad, there's a single pirate standing near it, inspecting it. He looks up - his hand starts to go for his weapon, but he sees how drastically outnumbered he is.

So he pulls a grenade from his belt and unpins it instead, holding it in his hand.

You're gonna wanna move.]

ROOM 4

[soulping]

[You all get topside. The gravity out there is much lower, but your armor has magnetic boots, so you don't have any trouble getting a grip on the ground. The Princess just uses her Arcanite powers to float telekinetically. Sparks speaks after everybody's up there:]

"Okay, I've got a lock on your location. I'll have a shuttle there in just a few..." [He stops. Something below rumbles.]

"...oh, hell."

[A short distance away, a chunk of the ship's roof explodes and flies off into space. A giant, blue clawed hand reaches out and slams on to the top of the ship.]

"Get your guns out, people."

Re: ROOM 4

[tatsumi_textiles]

[Runs over to the hand

Gravity hammer to the face, bitch!]

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, sorry Callie) from Princess Stela. Especially the ones who tanked grenade/cannon fire for her.]

...and my sincerest thanks, naturally.

[u are space heroes. good job.]