Toxoglossa 2017/02/13(Mon)20:16 No. 779397 ID: b073ca
File 148704579510.png - (102.56KB , 600x515 , 2-2.png )

Incoming call

Bucky: "Sam! Sam pick up! Oh God, pick up Sam!

Toxoglossa 2017/02/13(Mon)20:16 No. 779398 ID: b073ca
File 148704580363.png - (96.15KB , 600x359 , 2-3.png )

Groggily, you pull yourself out from under your slumbering girlfriend and find your datapad. Annie sits up and yawns with a ruffle of feathers.

Sam: "Bucky? Calm down, what's wrong?"

Toxoglossa 2017/02/13(Mon)20:17 No. 779399 ID: b073ca
File 148704582403.png - (127.94KB , 600x529 , 2-4.png )

Bucky's voice comes to you from the edge of tears, and from the sounds of it, still in his spacesuit: "Oh God, I fucked up, Sam! Th-they found us! They just warped in!"

You feel your fur stand on end: "Who? Repo men?!?"

Annie's irises shrink to furious pinholes; she's immediately out of bed and gearing up.

Bucky swallows his fear and croaks out a terrified: "Yeah...re-repo men... Sam...I... what're we going to do?"

>>779399
The crew of the Sunfish will help. They want to stay hidden.

Immediately tell Polly that a hostile ship just warped in. Ask if the Sunfish has any ship to ship weapons. Also we're probably going to have to negotiate quickly with the security team to organize a joint defense if the repo-men stage a boarding party.

>>779399
>what're we going to do?
We're going to kill repo-men, Bucky.
I'd think that would be obvious.

Your best bet is to rile up security and make them force-push all the armored forces to the ground.

Lure them in, near a bottleneck, then get out of the way and let the Repos have it!

>Yeah...re-repo men... Sam...I... what're we going to do?
...hide behind the people here. Try to get them to do our work where we can. They don't all trust outsiders, and they're desperate for resources. So we feed them the repos, if we can. And we kill the fuckers ourself if they give us an opening.

Where are you Sam? We've got a crowd to hide in down here, but the ship is right out in the open.

You're at the railgun Bucky, you telling me you CAN'T obliterate them right now?

turn off the radio, panic and scream, then turn on the radio, and calmly do this: >>779411

We're going to kill them all, of course.

>>779413
Except Sam and Annie don't know about the mass drivers built into the asteroid. Bucky found all that out while Sam and Annie were asleep and so far hasn't informed them.

Also, those are fixed position industrial mass drivers, meaning they can't move to track anything on their own. It'd require turning the entire asteroid to aim one at the repo men's ship, which means it's going to be very obvious and it's not gonna be accurate at all. And the target ship would have to be clear of the Sunfish, lest the shot blow a hole clean through both it and the Sunfish.

>>779450
It'd be easier to lure the repo ship in front of a railgun. Heck, if it tries to dock with the starlette to send in a boarding party, we can make sure the starlette's airlock or whatever is facing an area where the railguns can fire into. Then if the ship docks with the starlette we can fire the railgun and already have it aimed correctly.

Of course by doing this the asteroid will get knocked out of position, so we'd have to reposition it somehow. The starlette might be able to help with that... give it a nudge, maybe?

Okay, first, tell Bucky we'll figure it out, you just need him to breathe and calm down while you think. Ask him to recount what happened with him since your last contact, and just how he knows there's a ReNu repo man ship out there, while you yank your clothes on. You can tell he's in his spacesuit, so did he get the spare suits? Is he in the bunker or on the asteroid's surface or what? Did he see the repo men's ship with his own eyes or the Starlette's sensors? Did the repo men see the Starlette? Is the Starlette safely out of their view behind the asteroid? Well, however he spotted the repo men, you need him to upload the proof of it to your datapa; Either the Starlette's sensor logs or video or images of the ship he takes from the asteroid. You're going to want to show it to Polly and anybody else on in Sunfish's crew you need the help from as proof ReNu has found the Sunfish. And keep an eye on the repo men, either by ship sensors or by eye, and keep you updated on what they're doing.

As for what you want Bucky to do, that depends on whether the repo men spotted the Starlette or not, and if they didn't how easily they can detect it. If they didn't detect it, you don't know whether you want Bucky going back to it or not. He may be spotted crossing the surface of the asteroid and that'll be that. They'll swoop in and scoop him up. And we might need to use the Starlette at some point as a misdirection or diversion that'll be risky to it and you don't want Bucky on board if it comes to that. But really, you can't say for sure what Bucky should do until you know more about the situation, both from him and elsewhere.

Ah, but there is one thing you know you want Bucky to do: Try and figure out how the repo men found us. All three of you should think back and try and figure out if any of you made a mistake. Because you know you three were damn careful about losing them, and you need to know it wasn't error on our part. Because if it wasn't a error on our part, then somebody, or something, we don't know of gave us up.

Anyway, you need to bring this emergency to Polly's attention as soon as you and Annie are dressed. She'll know more about the crew and how to inform them and possibly bring them around to helping you, or at least not wanting to lynch you for leading ReNu here.

Unfortunately, just killing the repo men more likely than not won't be the end of it. If they checked in with ReNu before jumping here, reporting the coordinates of this system and why they were coming here, and then they don't check in within a set time period, ReNu is going to figure something went wrong and possibly send another ship to investigate. The repo man's ship will have to be seized in order to pull its logs and records to find out what they know and sent back to ReNu before coming here. There's also the possibility that when the repo men run the Sunfish's name through the ship registry database it'll come back with a flag added by ReNu to immediately report its position back, which would mean either a repo man team'll enter the Sunfish before their pilot jumps back to report, or the ship'll jump back shortly. And then there's the likely situation where a repo man team'll disembark, their pilot will stay behind in radio contact, and if the repo man team doesn't report in on time or thinks they're dead, the pilot will jump away. And if that happens, the Sunfish is 110% screwed 'cause ReNu will come back with a fleet to capture it.

...And a terrible thought just went across your mind: What if it wasn't Old Sam that got you loose, but ReNu letting you go to lead them to the Sunfish. That they either couldn't get Old Sam to cooperate and give up the Sunfish's location, or she had actually died or was in the wind and all ReNu had was a sample of her genetic material and a old neural pattern scan. So they clone you up and fabricate a message from Old Sam, leave you the resources you need to get away, and then tail you to find the Sunfish... And if they did this, that may mean the Starlette is compromised. That it has a tracking beacon or some such hidden on board, leading them here. But this is speculation, and you can't go chasing after speculation. And you can't have Bucky tear the Starlette apart trying to find a tracking beacon that may not exist outside of your fearful imagination.

>>779462
That's actually a decent idea. It'd just take Bucky nano-fog hacking the railgun central control system, which might be in the asteroid bunker and thus accessible to him, or convincing the relevant Sunfish crew to cooperate with the plan. Though, it raises the question of how to get the repo men to not think it was some kind of trap. 'Cause they'd figure Sam and company would be fleeing from them in the Starlette, not sitting about.

>>779462
I'm pretty sure there's more than 1 railgun on the asteroid. We can just fire one on the opposite side to push it back into position.

Toxoglossa 2017/02/14(Tue)17:25 No. 779642 ID: b073ca
File 148712193177.png - (92.42KB , 600x506 , 2-5.png )

Sam: "Calm down, Bucky. Its going to be okay... Now, how d'you think they found us?"

A ragged, frustrated sigh comes through the speaker: "It must have been the guys that helped me get the Starlette. I promised them a percentage of my cut and they needed info as insurance ... Renu must have gotten to them."

Getting dressed, you pause and frown: "Or maybe they were watching us the whole time..."

Bucky: "What? Why?"

Sam: "They might have set us up, gotten us to take them right to the Sunfish. There's something here that they desperately want; something that Old Sam wouldn't give them. They used us to find it."

Bucky: "What is it?"

Sam: "Immortality, Bucky. The real deal. No more installment plans, they'd be like gods... we have to stop them."

Toxoglossa 2017/02/14(Tue)17:25 No. 779643 ID: b073ca
File 148712194083.png - (61.98KB , 600x397 , 2-6.png )

Bucky: "Dude, they have a frigate out here, the Starlette wouldn't last two seconds against that....Although..."

Sam: "Although what?"

Bucky: "The asteroid has railguns on it: industrial ones. They mighe be enough but they aren't designed to be fired at anything... I'd have to lure them into range, that or rotate the whole asteroid."

Sam: "Could you do that?"

Bucky: "With the grapples: maybe...I don't think they've seen the Lette yet, but judging by how close they warped in, they can guess where I am...they just don't care...yet. Oh by the way, I got a space suit for you, although it sounds like..."

Sam: "Yeah, we can't leave yet... I'll trust you to figure out the railguns. No matter what, keep the Starlette safe: you're our only way out of here..."

Bucky: "Sam..."

Sam: "Don't worry about us. We're going to talk to the crew here and see if we can convince them to help us resist. It sounds like they want to stay hidden, so it's in their best interests to fight back."

Bucky is quiet for a while, but you hear his breathing steady itself. He laughs: "Goddamn it... I got tears in my helmet... stupid..."
He sniffs: "Okay, leave it to me. Sam, Annie... I love you... I won't let you down."

Sam: Talk to crocodile.

Bucky knows what to do, we can leave him to do his thing for a bit. In the mean time we need to get the message up the chain of command as quickly as humanly possible, as safe as we can. Talk to polly, tell her to keep quiet about us being a clone and to pass us up the best way she can. Use our likeness when we need to but save it for now.

>>779643
Love you too, hot buns. We'll get through this together.

You bunnies, so emotional.

>>779643
Love you too, Buck. Be safe.

>>779643

Holing up in the Sunfish may be our best bet, since they wouldn't dare wreck the thing and ruin what they'd need, all things considered.

Right now as much as we need the Starlette to get out, it's too risky to try to do much more than grab what from it we can and relocate. Same with the asteroid; both are sitting targets and can drift, easy.

Let's get Bucky in as well, as risky as it is. He's safer with us and that means we can fight back if need be, too.

>>779650
This in a place that's private.

Toxoglossa 2017/02/15(Wed)17:43 No. 779889 ID: b073ca
File 148720943369.png - (98.07KB , 600x546 , 2-7.png )

Sam: "We love you too, Bucky. Stay safe..."

You hang up and check with Annie, she gives you a determined nod. Together you slip out of the sleeping area and go looking for Polly. You find her deep in an argument with a stocky, familiar figure.

Polly: "I don't care what Feist says. If she wants them, she can come down here and get them herself. And if you try and take em outta here I'll rip your fucking head off mister Flint..."

Flint growls defiantly back at the gharial: "Don't test me, miss Polly. I know they're down here and I have orders."

Polly: "I could give a ships worth of shit about your 'orders', butcher..." Flint flinches as she spits the word.
Polly: "You know the arrangement, when they're down here, they're mine. If you don't like it, you'll see how long you can last with no water or septic system."

Flint squirms and avoids eye contact, catching sight of you: "You! Commander Feist wants a word with you!"

>>779889
"Too bad. Learn your manners."

Talking with him might end up being beneficial, but we should do it on our own terms.

And I want a word with *him*.

Look to Polly. Butcher?

>>779889
Okay, call her up on the ship's comms. She needs to know the ship is about to be boarded by a hostile force.

>>779889

Hey, it's the jerk that stole our stuff! Stolen goods first, then maybe we'll entertain some talk over a comm system.

>>779889
Well tough fucking cookies, I'm the one in charge here, not the commander, and I'll play in the goddamn trash all I want. I started this ship and its project after all, Mr. Flint. I'm YOUR SUPERIOR and FEIST'S AND I WILL NOT BE ORDERED AROUND.

I supersede ALL ORDERS! Save from Polly's orders, since I respect her and from the pecking order sounds like, yeah, she'd have more power than the project head anyway due to her having the loyalty of the crew.

Also, you should pull up defenses because there's now more than just us new arrivals. Men after the research here have arrived and they're no allies of ours. Our mission was to close loose ends (and make some bank from dna cough cough before that changed cough cough), but now it's to defend the research. You're going to need our help since we're more antiquated with modern tactics and their technology. Not to mention you're going to get our NEO Scavenger when this is good and done with, so hey, I'm thinking about nothing more than your best interests here. And ours too, but they're one in the same at this point.

You WANT this entire crew to be vivisected alive, or are you going to bow down to your old master, Flint?

>>779889
Just one word? Doesn't sound very important.

>what do
Negotiating with these guys in some way is probably important, but following him into security territory, where they can decide to hand us over to the repo men in trade or in response to threats is probably a bad idea.

>>779894
This.

>>779889
"We have bigger problems than just us being here. There's a warship of Repo-men outside!"

>>779897
DO IT MAKE THEM BOW BEFORE YOUR POWA.

>>779889
Look dude you heard the nice lady, but we're willing to talk if you're also willing to listen, you've got some bad dudes incoming who are going to see and treat all of you like so many lab animals.
They don't have morals, probably won't negotiate and sure as hell aren't going to stop now that they've found this place.

Just thought you'd like to know.

Flip him the bird.

And by that, I mean have Annie do a somersault kick to his fucking face.

>>779889
You got bigger problems. A hostile assault frigate just pinched in. You'll have armed boarders to repel shortly.

>>779889
>"You! Commander Feist wants a word with you!"
"Sorry, but we're not interested in talking with Feist, the second in command. Tell her to get her boss to talk with us."

And like Polly said, you're protected down here, she won't let Flint take you unless Feist herself shows up.

Angry confrontation is the wrong approach here. To seize control of a situation effectively, first break the opposing party's rhythm by behaving in a polite and reasonable yet utterly unexpected manner.

"Ah, you must be head of security! Just the man I wanted to see right now. I'll get straight to the matter at hand: what ship-to-ship weapons do you have besides those industrial railguns?"

>>780009
I like this one, changing vote to this.

Toxoglossa 2017/02/16(Thu)17:32 No. 780154 ID: b073ca
File 148729517186.png - (83.21KB , 600x466 , 2-8.png )

You glare at him: "Well if you want to talk, you can start by returning our suits..."

He scoffs: "Get real kitty cat."

Sam: "But we've got bigger problems: there's a warship parked outside."

Flint snarls: "Oh? Is that a threat?"

Sam: "What? No! It belongs to the investors: the people who built the Sunfish. They know what you have hidden here and will tear the ship apart to get it."

In a smooth, calm motion Flint reaches into his coat, pulls out a communicator and holds it next to his head without ever breaking eye contact.

Flint: "Security, I want a...really... uh huh... you sure? Alright, I want a squad escorting her...."

He closes the device: "Engineering reports that they saw a ship appear a few minutes ago. Feist is on her way down..."

Polly snorts: "Great, as if it doesn't stink enough around here."

>>780154
Tell him if they kill the repo men you will be able to get all the resources they need for whatever they want to do in the long term on this ship. You are their golden ticket.

Let's get to Engineering to intercept Feist.

You're... really short

>>780212
He's so tiny the scowl suddenly makes him look adorable.

>>780215
Can we take him home?
Take him home, Sam.
So like does he know your Sam yet? What's his opinion on that?

When feist gets here, we should where she put his leash so we can take him for a walk.

>>780154
take a deep breath, you want them on your side for now remember, even if him and his boos sounds like gits.

>>780212
Laugh and pat his short tiny head.

>>780154
"I'd rather not talk to Feist, who is only the second in command. I'd rather talk to whoever her boss is."

Toxoglossa 2017/02/17(Fri)18:11 No. 780435 ID: b073ca
File 148738388020.png - (102.31KB , 600x527 , 2-9.png )

Flint stands awkwardly at attention, attempting to ignore the tension in the room as he waits for his superior. You look over his head and snicker.

Flint: "Something funny?"

Sam: "A little."

Polly strangles a laugh as the canid shoots you a glare: if looks could kill, you'd be a pink mist.

Toxoglossa 2017/02/17(Fri)18:11 No. 780436 ID: b073ca
File 148738388807.png - (109.42KB , 600x551 , 2-10.png )

You spot several popsicles peeking in on the tableau, making sour faces at the security officer. A bolder soul approaches the group and, looking for a softer target, Flint snaps at him.

Flint: "What?! Something bothering you?"

The worker flinches but holds his ground: "Um... we heard there's a ship... does that mean we might get to leave? To go with them?"

Flint and Polly both suddenly seem very uncomfortable and deliberately avoid each others gaze. You can see Flint rolling several responses around in his mind.

Finally, he sighs: "I don't know. I suppose that would be up to commander Feist... and the captain..."

Polly scoffs cynically, but some of the fire has gone out of it.
Polly: "What gives you the right..."

Annie catches your eye and wordlessly sends her intentions: she wants to speak up and is looking for backup.

Tell her the plan we discussed with the Doctor.

>>780436
Let's see what she has to say.

...huh, did anyone say what the captain's name was, yet?

>Annie catches your eye and wordlessly sends her intentions: she wants to speak up and is looking for backup.
Nod, or make some gesture in the affirmative. You've got her back.

>>780435
Flint's the one who should be laughing, he'll never bang his head on an airlock.

Nod emphatically at whatever Annie says.

>>780436
You can go over to Annie to prob. What's Gimli gonna do anyway as long as you don't run?

>>780436
I think we can guess the gist of what Annie's gonna say and agree: 'you don't want to go with this ship, these guys are like slavers but want to give you over to even worse people'

>>780436
annie always has our backup

Toxoglossa 2017/02/18(Sat)19:15 No. 780987 ID: b073ca
File 148747413179.png - (83.10KB , 600x465 , 2-11.png )

Sam: "You don't want to go with these people."
You feel a lot of eyes on you and the popsicle regards you suspiciously: "Why not?"

You feel Annie's hand on your shoulder as she steps closer to you: "Because they're slavers. All they want from you is your DNA so that they can keep cloning people over and over again. Your genetic code is worth more to them than your lives."

You hear another voice from the nearby shanties: ""Who're you, then? Why do you care so much?"

Sam: "We're clones, I'm a copy of someone who helped build this ship and I'd like to help. We were planning on trading medical supplies for some genetic data, then using it to figure out a way to get people off the ship... we had no idea people were still living here, we were just looking for a way to escape these slavers."

Toxoglossa 2017/02/18(Sat)19:15 No. 780988 ID: b073ca
File 148747414009.png - (131.23KB , 600x577 , 2-12.png )

Flint opens his mouth to say something, but stops as he hears a group of footsteps approach. The security officer stands at attention, bringing himself up to his modest maximum height and a tall woman with a sword strapped to her hip steps into view, flanked by a trio of guards.
Feist: "Dr. Tran, you have put me in a very difficult position..."

>>780988
Shake your head. "Maybe Doctor Tran put you in a bad position, but I'm not her. I'm just Sam."

Go down to record store.
Pass out American Dickings.

"Sorry, my memories of that time are a little fuzzy. Which position was it? The reverse nelson, or the sideways charleston?"

"Mom does that to everyone she meets. Your point?"

>>780988
No I haven't. Just help me kill the slavers that arrived and we can relocate the SUNFISH. Then you'll be hidden again and everyone will be happy. Except the slavers. They'll be dead.

>>780988
"I may look like her, but I'm not her. I'm just her clone with only some of her memories. Which is how I found this ship all the way out here in the middle of nowhere."

"So you're the second in command, huh? Where's your boss? I'd like to speak with him or her about the current situation."

Clarify this for her.
You are NOT Dr. Tran.

Try and start talking about a possible game plan here on dealing with these slavers.

>>780988
No the people out there did. The investor's of this project there did. Me? I'm trying to get out of the position they put me in, and hopefully you too. It's in our mutual interest to work together.

We need to kill them, and then maybe actually get you to actually colonize a new planet or otherwise integrate into modern society without spilling the big secret so you can stop living miserable lives on this bucket of bolts. It's not going to last forever and you're all mentally dying without proper stimulus and engagement, which will lead to mutiny that even the harshest sanctions you could pass won't resolve.

Not to mention there's the threat of the small mutants on board I've seen.
So really, without proper adaptation, you're all either going to end up as corporate cows and frogs, kill each other, or go through a survival horror scenario as the mutants continue to grow and become more threatening. Really, it's a good thing I came. Old Sam's info can deal with the mutants, we can deal with the repo men, and some of the Starlette's equipment can tide you over until we can find a better long term solution like a new colony or modern integration. So let's get over old fueds and personal conflicts and solve some shit.

Now, let's commence the traditional diplomatic orgy to signify the deal between us and go kill those repo men. I can give tactical suggestions to your squad leader's while you're eating my ass. Come on, off with the pants, we don't have time!

Slap Ernie Keebler's ass.

>>781022
>No I haven't. Just help me kill the slavers that arrived and we can relocate the SUNFISH.
Um... The Sunfish doesn't have a pinch drive, so the distance this ship could cover in the time before another hostile ship jumps in to investigate what happened to the one that didn't report back would be... inadequate, to put it mildly.

>>781093
Didn't Sam say that towing a ship was possible? We could just pinch it to orbit some other nearby planet or star.

If towing isn't possible... what about taking the pinch drive out of the starlette and installing it on the sunfish? Or something like that?

>>781100
>pinch drive out of the starlette and installing it on the sunfish? Or something like that?
Better idea: Take the pinch drive out of the enemy ship and install it on the Sunfish.

It wouldn't matter either way. The Sunfish wasn't built to use pinch drives, so it'd fall apart upon activation. Or because of the crew cannibalizing the insides of the ship for who know how long, the Sunfish's structural integrity wouldn't be able to handle a pinch drive being turned on.

>>780988

As much as you'd like to have a doctorate and the vast knowledge of a prominent geneticist, you're just a flake that managed to get out of having her head used as the backup of someone who might be centuries dead by now.

Put simply, you're in the right place at the wrong time.

>>781106
Well in that case we can just get the immortal regenerating crew to overwhelm/outlast the slavers and steal their ship. It can hold more people, I'm guessing. Maybe enough to fit all the passengers in it, especially if the cryo tanks are portable. If the sunfish can't be moved, then it can be scuttled. Store all the research information, destroy any physical evidence of the research, and crash it into the planet once everyone's off of it.

Oh shit I had an awesome idea. How about we funnel them into whatever's sealed away in the comms section?

It could also maybe be possible to use the asteroid itself as a weapon, not just the railguns on it. How fast can it get moving? Could the starlette or the sunfish push it to get it moving fast enough to cause damage to the slaver ship, but decelerate at the last second so it doesn't take damage itself? Obviously we'd have problems with the thing being attached to the sunfish, but the equations for the relative forces involved could be solved by an engineer on board.

Toxoglossa 2017/02/20(Mon)17:15 No. 781590 ID: b073ca
File 148763972651.png - (88.30KB , 600x432 , 2-13.png )

Sam: "For what it's worth, I'm not dr Tran. I'm just a clone, sent here by her."

Feist: "I figured as much: The Samantha Tran I knew would never have led the investors here. I'm afraid I don't know you or your comrade, and as such can't be sure of your intentions."

Annie bristles: " Our intentions? We want to help! We've been running from those bastards! We only came here to- to-"

Feist: "Steal our secrets and earn your freedom?"

Annie glowers: "Its not like that..."

Sam: "Look, we don't have time for this; we need to be preparing defenses or to move the ship! Where's the captain? I demand to speak with him."

Feist sighs: "Captain Stokes is, unfortunately, not in a condition to receive visitors at the moment. He has entrusted me with the safety of the crew and passengers and until this situation is resolved I ask you to accompany us."
She pauses, noticing Polly's darkening expression and exhales a haughty huff.
Feist: "Out of respect for our arrangement, however, I will allow you to remain here under Ms Polly's care, should you wish..."

If the crew's supposed to be immortal the captain is supposed to be too, so it should be impossible normally for him to be indisposed. "not in a condition to receive visitors" means he's probably in the blocked off area. He might even be the source of the teratomas.

Anyway, we can't do anything useful from down here. Either we go with her, or we stay here until she leaves and then we sneak away to do something.

Personally I'd go with her. Maybe find out what she thought of Old Sam.

>>781590
So you killed Stokes some time ago and now you want to put us under your thumb so we can never escape and potentially spill the big secret, am I right. Well heres some news all we want is some fucking baby batter and to kick these repomens ass and we will be on our marry fucking way.

>"Steal our secrets and earn your freedom?"
We had no idea what we'd be walking into, here. We had no way to know if there were even anyone left to steal from.

>Feist: "Out of respect for our arrangement, however, I will allow you to remain here under Ms Polly's care, should you wish..."
What's the alternative? House arrest down here or up there? Or are you willing to work with us? Cause if there's one thing we know, it's fighting those bastards when they come after us.

We know their tactics, we're familiar with their gear. You need up to date intel.

>>781595
This.

>>781590

Yeah, nah ... we're staying here. At present her staff have taken our stuff, threatened us, and insofar it sounds like we're more likely to be thrown into the brig or whatever their equivalent of a holding cell is rather than let go.

Is that selfish of us? Maybe, but no more selfish than making such demands after everything that has happened.

>>781590
>Captain Stokes is, unfortunately, not in a condition to receive visitors at the moment. He has entrusted me with the safety of the crew and passengers
"How convenient, it's almost as if you did something to him and took over the ship by saying that he's in a 'condition' where he can't receive visitors. So what'd you do to him? Turn him into a popsicle? Kill him and jettison his body? Who else can validate your story? How many of the crew helped you take over the ship? Has anyone else seen him to confirm that he's still alive? Anyone that isn't your loyal lapdog that does whatever you say?"

"But, instead of standing around and arguing, think about this: Technology has advanced by leaps and bounds since you were last in contact with civilization. Think of all the things you could use that's probably on that warship right now. Food, medical supplies, maybe even some clothes. Those are the things I can see you desperately need here. All you'd need to do is figure out how to get it from the enemy."

>"Out of respect for our arrangement, however, I will allow you to remain here under Ms Polly's care, should you wish..."
Not sure about this.

We could go with her to start building trust and show that we do want to help. Maybe even get our suits back or something. But there's no telling if she won't just attack us or shove us into cryopods and then eject us into space.

It's safer to stay with Polly because Feist can't touch us down here. But then we can't build any trust with her.

What to do?

>>781594
>>781609
Honestly, I don't see how pointing out her power grab / accusing her of a power grab do us any good at the moment. The accusation won't destabilize her control (her two man security team will be people she trusts, and Polly's sorters are already on the outs with the people in charge), and it'll just antagonize her.

>>781611
Agreed.

Flint is Feist your Mom?
There's a resemblance.
I mean, beyond that you both start with the letter F, but I was talking about how you're both canines.

Actually no it's actually the F thing.
Flint and Feist, Flint and Feist, they'll make you shout "Jesus Christ!"

So we... can talk here then, right? In neutral territory where you have no clear advantage and kill us the minute you can hide us because it might seem like the best option to your short sighted minds?

>>781611
Yeah, that's not good.

Maybe we can bring a friend or two with us?

>>781622
>Talk in neutral territory.
Yeah, let's do that.

"For all I know it's a blatant murder coverup, but I can't seem to care. Where's the best place for ambushing repo men?"

"If you'd rather make enemies than friends, then so be it -- but that's not the attitude a wise leader carries with her."

How bad are the mutations? How warped is Captain Stokes? If the corporations get this faulty la-la land delusion of yours, they will reverse-engineer it, and they will repurpose it to their own profits. Want to find out just how thoroughly a horde of freshly mutated citizens can decimate their own planet? No? THEN TAKE OUT THAT @#$%ING SHIP.

Mention but downplay the power grab, state we simply don't care about the captain then. If we can be of help then please let us help, if you don't want us then we'd prefer house arrest down here. We need to focus on fighting, ambushing, stealing from, fooling or escaping the repo men.

>Captain Stokes not in condition to receive visitors.
Does it involve the weird cancer creatures or the ominous sounds from communications?

Toxoglossa 2017/02/21(Tue)18:06 No. 781930 ID: b073ca
File 148772921967.png - (115.56KB , 600x600 , 2-14.png )

Sam: "Not receiving visitors? What is he, under the weather? I thought you people were tougher than that..."

Feist: "Do you have a point?"

Sam: "Seems odd is all. Convenient..."

Feist sighs: "Hardly. Despite our conditions, we aren't perfect; in fact the treatment can actually complicate otherwise manageable conditions. Dr. Spencer, for example, suffers from an astigmatism that is resistant to corrective surgery, Ms Polly experiences chronic pain due to her unusual size and I have to live with my gender dysphoria because of the lack of treatment options. Captain Stokes was among the oldest of us to receive the treatment and occasionally suffers from... complications."

You look to Polly for confirmation and she gives you a grudging shrug.

Polly: "Its alright... I manage."

Do these 'complications' tend to scuttle around in the maintenance shafts?

>>781930
Hmm. Well, looks like they didn't get everything they wanted, then. I'm guessing their bodies are locked to how they were when they became immortal. Chronic diseases still occur, because the body won't change. It's like they're locked in time...

Anyway, ask Polly if she has any advice here. Can you trust Feist?

>>781930
"Fair enough. Not trying to stoke fires, just a bit on edge. Like I said, the ship outside is bad news. We had no intention of stealing anything, we were going to sell random dna samples we found around the ship and in return for that, get you guys fitted with a warp drive. The twins can confirm it, we were being squirrely because we didn't want a rush of people going "give us a ride out of here" because our ship isn't equipped for more than a few passengers."

Or something to that effect. Honesty and an edge of desperation about the gene slavers.

>>781930
"I'm willing to team up against the investors, but we're going to need something to guarantee we won't get stabbed in the back."

>>781935
Basically this.

>>781930
>Ms Polly experiences chronic pain due to her unusual size
Tell Feist that it's not nice to call Polly fat.

>Polly's eyes are orange.
Ask Polly if she's knows her eyes have changed color and are orange instead of green like they were earlier.

"If you wanted to talk, then let's talk. Right here, right now. Since you all say Polly's area of the ship is considered 'neutral grounds', I'd say this is the perfect place for you and me to talk. First order of business, getting rid of those guys outside. I'm sure we can both agree that we don't want them here. So let's work together and get rid of them."

>awkward immortality stuff
Well, if it's any consolation, having an incomplete copy of another you in the back of your head has its downsides too.

>>781935
Yeah, you might as well come clean. Her (if that's the right pronoun) speaking honestly about their difficulties is a gesture of trust, and reaching out. Reciprocate.

You honestly didn't know what the hell you'd be finding here, so you were playing cautious.

But look, you're in trouble, you're tied to my past, are you willing to work with us here? I don't think the people out there have any of our best interests in mind, and we're gonna need each other to get through this.

And the treatment is... irreversible?
I mean, I guess it would be stupid to to make a cure to immortality, but there would be merit.
Maybe Old Sam working with Spencer could make a cure, I would just need to lose myself for a bit. If she thought of something, anything, well you might still have it

WHAT ABOUT THE CANCER CREATURES AND THE SOUND FROM COMMUNICATIONS!

>>781930

Alright, well … sounds like we all got off on the wrong foot and maybe acted a bit hastily, though all things considered there are some pretty pressing matters for everyone involved.

So how about we all just, walk over there so we aren't overheard, Polly comes with us, and we just … talk? Figure out what to do, work together, and make sure everyone gets out of this OK. Everyone.

>>781930
So I'm assuming the regeneration will repair things it believes are relevant to the specimen's biology, sort of a backup of a specific state of being even if it includes maladies?

Toxoglossa 2017/02/22(Wed)17:17 No. 782177 ID: b073ca
File 148781267755.png - (82.91KB , 600x501 , 2-15.png )

Sam: "Do these 'complications' scuttle around and have multiple beady eyes?"

Feist tilts her head quizzicality: "Wha- oh, you've seen the teratomas. No, I'm afraid those tragic creatures are unrelated. If we had time I could tell you all about their sordid history, but I think our current situation takes precedent."

Annie gives you a nod and you come to a decision: "We'd like to help. We have info about what kind of technology they'll be packing, and Annie probably has much experience fighting repo men as anyone alive."

Feist does a heel turn and starts walking: "Excellent, if you'd follow us please..."

Sam: "But..."

She pauses and half turns back to you, cocking an eyebrow from over her shoulder: "But?..."

Sam: "We'd like some kind of guarantee of our safety if we do so."

The commander mulls this over for a moment and pulls her goat companion aside: "Jasper, I want you to gather their spacesuits, have them delivered into Ms Polly's care. Should we successfully repel the investors, I'll agree to allow you the freedom to come and go from the Sunfish, as long as you refrain from causing trouble. Does that satisfy you?"

>>782177
"Good as we can ask for. We'll try to get you guys hooked up with a pinch drive."

>>782177
Technically, that doesn't in any way stop her from holding the two of your prisoner once you're in her grasp, but that's about as good a gesture of good faith as she can offer you in your current circumstances.

Accept her offer. I think that's as good as you're gonna get.

>>782177
All right.
One more thing, so it's not hanging over our heads and we can have it out and discussed and not have it come out later at an even more pressing time.

Why is Flint's nickname the butcher and not the baker?
Cause I bet he makes mean shortstacks.

"Sure. Let's go kick ass together."

It's a fair shine better than the alternative. Let's rock.

>>782177
"Sure, that'll work."

As soon as you get your spacesuits, double--no, triple check them to make sure Feist or one of her goons didn't mess with them! I wouldn't put it past her to put something on the suits so that you have to do what she says or else she'll make your suits malfunction and have the vacuum of space kill you!

That's all we can really ask for.

Sure, that's acceptable. Never thought I'd be so happy to hear about all my stuff being thrown in the garbage.

>>782177

Considering we'll all probably be dead if we don't? Fair enough. It's a deal.

First up, jam communications. These guys will send out a broadcast once they've confirmed this place is the real deal. Then wipe out the enemy squadron, burn everything you find and drive the ship into the sun just to be safe.

Toxoglossa 2017/02/25(Sat)08:29 No. 782870 ID: b073ca
File 148804019094.png - (130.37KB , 600x600 , 2-16.png )

Sam: "That sounds fair, count us in."

Polly: "Don't worry, I'll make sure no one messes with your stuff. You two just come back safe."

Feist motions for you to follow and you fall in behind her long, serious strides.

Feist: "We're headed for the gaps, we expect them to breach through the cargo bay and hope to hold them there. You'll have to brief me on the way: what are we up against?"

Annie: "We call them 'repo-men', they're a private military force: shock-troops mainly. Very mobile units designed to quickly breach, strike, and capture their targets."

Feist: "But not kill?"

Annie: "If they have to, they're slavers: they only get paid if their target is alive."

Flint: "Hah, better for us then."

Annie: "They rely a lot on intimidation and surprise, which means they may not be expecting an organized response. If we can force them back they may want to parley."

Feist: "We don't have a lot to parley with but we can address that problem later. What kind of tech can we expect?"

As you travel you share your info about the various items you've scavenged from previous Repo-men encounters. You arrive at one of the lower entrances to the gaps as you finish up.

Feist: "Really? Tape?"

You shrug: "It's handy stuff. What're you guys packing?"

Feist looks worried: "Very little I'm afraid. We have two pushguns for peacekeeping purposes, a mining laser, although it's too large to easily move, some grav hammers from mining and other assorted tools."

Perhaps you can weaponize the life support. Explosive decompression? Disable door safeties to shock them/turn them into guillotines? With some PVC piping and an air tank, you could make a potato gun that shoots... anything, really. Knives, glass shards- speaking of sharp objects, departmental tools like welders and circular saws could serve as melee weapons in a pinch if you're driven to close quarters.

Don't forget to spread space lube on the floors, honk!

We've got a piece of grav plating and a stun baton here, could probably make either another pushgun or a pulse bomb if we have a power source.

It sounds if we might be outnumbered, if we compare raw numbers of armed combatants. But we have some time to prepare which might even things out somewhat.

Try not to mention this if there's any popsicles about.
Previous data on how they operate might not apply here, since before they're trying to capture escaped installment plans, here they've got data on immortality to get. They might not know what form it takes so they might still stick to non-lethal if they suspect the crew might be immortal, but I'll bet they'll be pulling out all stops to try and get what they want, which might mean unseen equipment or just being more aggressive.

We noted that you've got industrial railguns around the asteroid that you're towing, do you think those could be used to damage their ship if it was lured into their arc of fire?

We also have Bucky.
Bucky has a gun.
A gun with fucking armor piercing ammunition.

>>782870

You're in a siege position, potentially, and if the gaps are what I recall, then you've got long shots and a bunch of heavy stuff that can crush things or become dangerous projectiles with enough momentum.

Strand and isolate them, then bring down platforms or send debris to them. Grav plating could help with that, potentially, same with the hammers. Guerrilla tactics will be safer than a frontal response, since the repo-men are likely better armed and armored than we are.

Our big surprise, though, is potentially being able to flank: Bucky. He could maneuver the ship or even the asteroid into a position where they're forced to either defend it or themselves, at which point we can likely make proper demands.

>"If they have to, they're slavers: they only get paid if their target is alive."

I have a crazy idea for if this goes catastrophically wrong. We're no use to these guys dead, right? If Bucky can stay hidden, we can keep him out of this by pretending he ran off without us. As for ourselves ...

Okay, this is crazy, but we can stage our own deaths, perhaps. Ask Fiest how exactly the "treatment" is administered, how long it takes, and what kind of damage can be recovered from. If completely necessary -- and ONLY THEN -- we could appear to die to the repo-men and they'd have no reason to do anything but back off. The trick will be "dying" in such a way that we can recover.

It's a risky bid and one we should only consider if we don't expect to be able to get out of this any other way, but ... if we "die," it also means we won't be hunted any more.

>Annie: "If they have to, they're slavers: they only get paid if their target is alive."
>Flint: "Hah, better for us then."
Does that matter as much here? This is a resource rich environment, for them. They could slaughter everyone who mounts a resistance then still sweep up the hundreds of popsicles who can't fight back for a payday.

And information on how the immortality tech works might be more valuable than the lives of every single person here.

>other assorted tools
A lot of tools are pretty deadly. Especially if we're talking space-future tools.

>>782871
This. Play like a Rogue SS13 AI.

>>Mining tools as weaponry
aww yiss we deadspace it up in here

If they're after the "immortal" DNA, not really sure if they're going to care too much about killing off people and just taking a bunch of their DNA samples. It'd be better to assume they intend on using lethal force without hesitation than assume they'll only use it as a last resort.

>>782870
also the railguns.

I wonder if the repomen have some kind of solvent for the weldtape? If not, a couple pieces looped so they're sticky side up and down can do wonders. (maybe on the ladder on the way up?) If they can't move without messing up their suits/the floor/ladder they would be in a good position for us to surprise them. Only question is where would be a decent starting place? Lights off for the cargo bay to start with. Have someone primed to shut down gravity for the room. That or unsecure some of the more worthless/heavy cargo, start with grav off and turn it on to try to squash them.
Push guns would be pretty effective in knocking the enemy back/shooting debris at them in zero-g.

I'm idly wondering if we could Tech the Tech in order to turn one of those Pushguns into a Space-Ghetto Railgun.

Something something reverse the polarity of the graviton field and channel it along the magnetic coil tube.

Toxoglossa 2017/02/27(Mon)15:58 No. 783468 ID: b073ca
File 148823989285.png - (57.58KB , 467x600 , 2-17.png )

Sam: "How about we weaponize the ship itself? Can we rig doors to electrocute them, or decompress or just locked out? We could increase or reduce the gravity in some rooms and take away their mobility..."

Annie: "We also have a loose piece of grav plating that could be adapted into another pushgun."

Commander Feist nods: "Some of our engineers should be meeting us shortly, we'll see what they can rig up."

Toxoglossa 2017/02/27(Mon)15:58 No. 783469 ID: b073ca
File 148823990313.png - (139.88KB , 600x600 , 2-18.png )

A few minutes later, a small group of crewmen wearing heavy, utilitarian clothing and hauling an assortment of tools show up.

A squirrel with a head covering reports in, acknowledging you with a confused expression: "Wherde do you want us?"

Feist: "Our plan is to use the ship to bottle them up. Dachell, can you lock down the corridors leading to the gaps and force them into a chokepoint?"

While the twins' accent was clipped and chirpy, Dachell's voice is fluid, practically a purr: "How llong do we have?"

Feist: "Unknown."

Dachell exchanges a glance with a nearby engineer: a massive vulture carrying a bulky arrangement of tubes and radiators on his shoulder. You assume it must be a laser; anything with that many fins has to pump out some serious heat.

Dachell: "We can prdobably give you two or three chokes. No guarantee."

Toxoglossa 2017/02/27(Mon)15:58 No. 783470 ID: b073ca
File 148823990819.png - (91.31KB , 544x600 , 2-19.png )

Annie holds up the grav plate: "can you do anything with this?"

Dachell: "Do you have a power sourdce?"

Annie shows her the baton and the engineer scratches her chin: "Give me a few minutes, I'll see whatd I can do."

Inquire about weaponizable systems that are difficult to automate. Life support probable wasn't designed to allow someone to suddenly kill people, but maybe Bucky can take control of stuff like that.

Ask if they have any explosives.

An well timed IED or throwable explosive would be absolutely devastating to a group of enemy combatants in a choke.

touch fluffy tail
Genuflect

Better tell Feist now about Bucky's idea to blow the repo men's ship away with one of the asteroid's mass drivers. Tell her now because if you're gonna do it, Bucky'll have to turn the asteroid slow enough that it doesn't ping on the repo men's ship's sensors. You're also gonna need them to operate the mass driver remotely. (You don't want to risk Bucky going out on the surface of the asteroid on the side with the repo men's ship and possibly being spotted nano-fogging the right mass driver.) We're only gonna get one shot, and we have to take it 'cause if that ship isn't destroyed their pilot will jump away and report where the Sunfish is once they lose contact with the boarding party. Frankly, you'd prefer to blow that ship away before they attempt to board the Sunfish, but if the asteroid is turned too quick they'll spot it. And you also don't know if we could get a clear shot at the moment.

Also ask how extensive the Sunfish's internal network is and how many systems are hooked into it. 'Cause one potential route the repo men could take is breaking into the Sunfish's network, either via a hardline networked device or a wireless access point, and either using it for recon or turning them against us. And it'd be dead easy for them to do if they have a info warfare system on their ship, since every vulnerability of the computer systems installed in the Sunfish would have been archived, and the encryption they use is ancient.

>You assume it must be a laser; anything with that many fins has to pump out some serious heat.
Ask if that's a laser, just to confirm that it is indeed a laser. Probably the mining laser Feist mentioned.

>>783477
Trouble is, what're the odds at least one of the repo men is gonna keep their space suit on in anticipation of atmo shenanigans? After all, screwing with the air is one thing boarders would expect the defenders to do. Same for fucking with the gravity plating, so expect mag boots, and possibly a personal grav generator to counter.

However, one thing they couldn't counter would be setting up a explosive decompression trap, but not one that blows out into space. Suck the air out of one compartment, then rig up the connecting door to the compartment the repo men come in through with a remote control. Open the door as fast as possible and the rush of air'll send 'em flying into the formerly empty compartment.

>>783486
Maybe mining explosives, though I doubt they have any left after so long, if they ever had them in the first place. But another tact they maybe could use is either a dust explosion or flammable gas explosion. Run the oxygen level up in one of the choke point compartments to dangerously combustible levels, combined with a bag of flour and a pneumatic tank with a remote control valve. Or a flammable gas canister with the valve wide open ignited and shot into that compartment like a rocket. Though, the problem with running the O2 level up is their atmo sensors'll detect it and probably start screaming alerts at 'em.

>>783486
Can we please not use explosives inside the ship that's literally falling apart on the inside?

Plus, the crew has been canablizing the insides for an extremely long time. There's no way of telling if the ship won't fall apart from an explosion.

Any chance of switching the area they're likely to enter through over to a nonstandard breathing mix? Something that's safe in itself, and easy for the locals to acclimate to given a few hours, but might incapacitate intruders by isobaric counterdiffusion when they take their helmets off or suffer a suit breach.

What happens when you put a pair of opposite-polarity grav plates on the floor and ceiling, or facing walls? If you can arrange choke points, don't just station people there with improvised weapons, make sure to lay out some nasty fixed traps too. Heap of jagged red-hot slag on the "ceiling" of the most obvious approach, then an intruder "falls up" into it because that section has gravity facing the opposite way, that sort of thing.

Toxoglossa 2017/03/01(Wed)19:02 No. 783993 ID: b073ca
File 148842374603.png - (119.61KB , 600x555 , 2-20.png )

You watch as the engineers get to work sealing bulkheads and cranking up the gravity, creating a corridor into the gaps. You don't see anything that could be used as an explosive, when you ask about it Dachell looks at you like you grew an extra head.
Dachell: "No, not here. Too dangerrous."

Toxoglossa 2017/03/01(Wed)19:02 No. 783994 ID: b073ca
File 148842375199.png - (133.12KB , 600x603 , 2-21.png )

You help out by using your tapegun to weld shut doors and collecting debris to be used as projectiles by the pushgunners. It's not long before your datapad chimes.

Bucky: you've got incoming
Sam: how many?
Bucky: small craft, looks like a scouting crew
Sam: what's the progress on the asteroid?
Bucky: slow, trying to get the ship attached without them noticing
Sam: good luck, bun. were counting on you

Toxoglossa 2017/03/01(Wed)19:02 No. 783995 ID: b073ca
File 148842375657.png - (112.78KB , 554x600 , 2-22.png )

You find commander Feist sizing up ambush points and directing officers where to wait.

Sam: "I just got word: they're coming."

Feist: "Word from where? Oh, your pilot?"

Sam: "He's on the asteroid right now, he wants to use your railguns to try an attack on their ship."

Feist: "He what? I... suppose that could work, but they can't be aimed..."

Sam:"It sounds like he's going to try and rotate the asteroid using our ship."

Feist sighs: "Then I suppose all we can do is trust him to pull through. Unless you can regenerate, I'd suggest staying behind us."
She raises her voice: "ALRIGHT! EVERYONE IN POSTITIONS! IF YOU AREN'T FRONT LINE FALL BACK AND WAIT FOR ORDERS!"

Unless your clothes provide some degree of ballistic protection, discard them now and save yourselves the patch job later! It will intimidate the boarders too, like Celtic warriors!

>>783995
>Unless you can regenerate, I'd suggest staying behind us.
Stand directly behind her. Is she asks say, "What? You said to stay behind you guy. Being behind you has to be the safest spot!"

Wait, weren't you and Annie supposed to get your spacesuits back before the fighting started?

>>783995
Flirt with Feist
"Oooh, I like someone who knows how to lead"

>>783995
Well you're not front line. Fall back and wait for orders. Where's Annie?

>>783993
You'll risk dying in an explosion or sucking vacuum over being taken alive, any day.

>what do
Follow Annie's lead. She's your combat expert. She knows what she's doing, and how best to deploy you.

>>784000
>>784012
These.

>>784000
Hahahahno, that was bad history, stupid Victorian shit, and you know it. Even normal clothes can protect some from shrapnel too. But DO follow the lead of others for combat stuff.

>>784043
Fake history or no, Victorians couldn't regenerate. These Terrans can!

Realize Feist is actually pretty hot, blush uncontrollably as you get into position.

>>784050
Not all of them. Only the important people in the Sunfish can do that. Meaning the popsicles, Sam, Annie, and Bucky can't regenerate. And you're making the stupid suggestion that Sam should go in like an idiot with no protection.

So, no, we're not doing that!

>>783995
btw, i bet they tried radioing and got the same werird clicks

>>784087
Is it somehow not already clear that this is a suggestion for the ones that *can* regenerate? And live on a ship where even patched up clothing is a commodity?

Any way to try and disable the communications of the Repomen? Don't want them to call in reinforcements if it isn't looking good for them.

>>783995

Okay, she's actually pretty attractive when she stands like—

Right, getting to cover! (So we can keep watching her ass. Damn, those are nice legs …)

Toxoglossa 2017/03/02(Thu)18:52 No. 784366 ID: b073ca
File 148850954650.png - (117.89KB , 585x600 , 2-23.png )

You fall back to the secondary line alongside the engineering crew. Annie joins you, hefting a jury rigged pushgun.

Sam: "Will that work?"

Dachell: "We'll find out soon."

Toxoglossa 2017/03/02(Thu)18:52 No. 784367 ID: b073ca
File 148850955368.png - (73.50KB , 600x492 , 2-24.png )

The dozen or so officers fall into positions around the two choke points and wait.

Toxoglossa 2017/03/02(Thu)18:52 No. 784368 ID: b073ca
File 148850955855.png - (70.70KB , 600x492 , 2-25.png )

And wait.

Toxoglossa 2017/03/02(Thu)18:52 No. 784369 ID: b073ca
File 148850956382.png - (124.50KB , 600x549 , 2-26.png )

A pair of loud clangs ring through the hall. The assembled squad mumbles to themselves and there's some nervous laughter.

Feist shushes everyone and you listen to the whalesong of the hull groaning: "They're attached. Keep your heads on people."

In the privacy of your mind you wonder if she's always this authoritative. You make a note to find out later; maybe Old Sam has some memories of her.

Toxoglossa 2017/03/02(Thu)18:52 No. 784370 ID: b073ca
File 148850956942.png - (108.99KB , 600x467 , 2-27.png )

Various clangs and cacophonies echo from the maintenance bay and you feel your hackles rise as the seconds tick by.

There's a small noise at the end of the hall and, sensing movement, the officers duck out of sight.

>>784370
This reminds me of a scene from Star Wars.

...we should've set up Kilroy to get a better look at things down there.

FIRE AT WILL, GET THEM VALIDS BOYS

Follow the lead of those with more tactical training.

>>784370
Whisper, "That's a scout drone! They're trying to see how many of us are here!"

>>784383
This.

>>784383
You're right. They have Kilroy's evil twin! Come to think of it we can expect them to have pretty much everything we have.

Nobody get grappled, now- wait a minute. Let's grapple the drone and pull it back in here then disable it.

Stay frosty, follow Feist and Annie's lead. You're not the combat expert here, or in charge.

>...we should've set up Kilroy to get a better look at things down there.
We could turn on the acoustic mapping right now. Might tell us how many are down there and what they got.

Toxoglossa 2017/03/03(Fri)17:47 No. 784626 ID: b073ca
File 148859205762.png - (141.11KB , 512x600 , 2-28.png )

You hiss: "Drone! Stay down!"

Various sweaty hands clutch their weapons tighter as breathless ambushers hunker down.


Annie activates Kilroy and gets it to start ultrasonic mapping. The two drones weave a confusing tapestry of information as their overlapping sound waves crash against one another. It doesn't let you see anything new, but at least should obscure your position.

Toxoglossa 2017/03/03(Fri)17:47 No. 784627 ID: b073ca
File 148859206318.png - (90.40KB , 522x600 , 2-29.png )

No one moves for a full minute. You feel your teeth grind against each other as you silently beg for something to happen. Your ears prick up: a tinny click clack of petite talons as the drone brazenly marches down the hall. It pauses in the doorway as it casts its tiny eye around, unaware or unfazed by the looming death on either side of it.

Toxoglossa 2017/03/03(Fri)17:47 No. 784628 ID: b073ca
File 148859206979.png - (129.64KB , 600x536 , 2-30.png )

There's a whine and a clack. You resist the urge to peek, keeping your head low. You're suddenly startled when a white orb arcs overhead, lands behind you and turns to pin you in its mechanical gaze.

Grav the sucker! It's probably outfitted with a flashbang for shock trooper tactics.

If you can make it look like a random accident by staying in stealth while blindgraving, they might think you have an environmental advantage and will change tactics to something less antipersonnel.

Flash it before it flashes you!

>>784628
Shove your grapple in its face.

>>784663
This, grapple it by the eye and fling it back where it came from like a trebuchet.

>>784673
Why fling it back? Let's keep it. Turn it off or take out the battery or however you disable one of these things.

>>784681
This.

Grapple it and pull it to you. Then disable it.

I don't think it saw the hammer guys by the door so we have to disable or destroy it before it does. Its also now seen us so they might be more eager to try get at us but they are now also aware that we probably informed the crew what ti expect and that we are not very well armed.

Bust that son of a gun now!

Toxoglossa 2017/03/06(Mon)17:55 No. 785567 ID: b073ca
File 148885173589.png - (77.13KB , 600x396 , 2-31.png )

You whip out the grappling gun and quickly harpoon the tiny drone, dragging it back to your hand.

Toxoglossa 2017/03/06(Mon)17:55 No. 785568 ID: b073ca
File 148885174371.png - (135.40KB , 600x582 , 2-32.png )

Sam: "What'do I do now?"

Annie gives you a wild eyed shrug and grabs the orb. She slams it against the floor twice and the legs stop moving.

Toxoglossa 2017/03/06(Mon)17:55 No. 785569 ID: b073ca
File 148885175121.png - (91.16KB , 465x600 , 2-33.png )

Seconds later a plume of smoke pours into the hallway, moving with sinister intelligence. As it fills the space, tendrils of fog reach for the lights and with a caress, extinguish them. The smartfog creeps into the chokepoint, spilling across your makeshift cover as the sounds of movement fill the corridor.

>>785569
Smartfog means any non-trivial electronics need to be stowed in a way that they cannot be used against you. That means getting Kilroy out of the room.

Fire the pushguns!
Get the guys manning the door to bumrush straight after the volley with hammers and throw kilroy the other way down the corridor.

Fire Annie's and 1 other pushgun through the smoke, ready the laser and the other pushgun while you reload.

>>785569
Sam, think quickly! How is smartfog destroyed and/or rendered useless? Fire? Water? A really strong magnet?

>>785761
Fire or heat. Nanos have very little room for heat dissipation.

Breathe in all the smartfog so it can't obscure your vision!

Do we have someone on HVAC control? Start up a pressure difference, blow the fog back down the corridor.

Toxoglossa 2017/03/07(Tue)18:22 No. 785893 ID: b073ca
File 148893977349.png - (104.02KB , 600x537 , 2-34.png )

You keep a wary eye on the smartfog cloud, aware that it could short out Kilroy and your datapads. Fortunately, the limited size of nanites mean they can't operate for long without drawing from a power source. Once sprayed, they have only a few seconds to find a target and latch on before going dead. Thinking back to the extensive warning labels, you seem to remember something about keeping them away from open flame.

The repo men hang back in their cloud; having lost the element of surprise, they seem to be hesitating.
Something finally snaps. A howl echoes through the gaps as one of the pushguns launches a length of copper pipe into the cloud.

Toxoglossa 2017/03/07(Tue)18:23 No. 785895 ID: b073ca
File 148893979737.png - (113.21KB , 396x600 , 2-35.png )

There's a thunderclap from the hallway and the projectile is hurled back, blown into a perfect metal floret. The smartfog clears and suddenly the repo men are exposed: one nursing his chest from the shieldpack explosion. Suddenly the air around you is filled with the snap of gunfire.

>>785895

A staff?

Did we invent Space Magic ...?

>>785895
Maybe you can grapple one of their guns to steal it? You'll probably need some way of anchoring yourself to ensure you don't get pulled forward, and you need to keep a real good grip on the grapple.

Annie can pushgun the busted drone back at them. It might even screw their smartfog over by causing the fog to attune to the busted drone.

What happened to the guys either side of the doorway with gravity hammers?
Get in there, dudes.

>>785901
We probably need to wait for an opening before we try that. Grappling when they're prepared means we're connected to someone who might yank us out of cover, or who has mag-boots to keep them in place.

>>785899
Or a restraining collar.

This is where the regenerating meatshields come into play. They should have spared their clothing from the bullet wounds, but does anyone listen? Nooooooo.

Anybody on your team with guns, focus fire on the stunned guy so as to use up the rest of his shieldpacks. Grapple the staff and brace your feet against the crates. If the repo man in back holds on to it, you'll be dragging him deeper into the killbox while knocking the rest of his team out of formation. If he lets go, you probably get a new nonlethal melee weapon.

>>785966
>If the repo man in back holds on to it, you'll be dragging him deeper into the killbox while knocking the rest of his team out of formation.
Or he turns on his magnetic boots and his buddies cut the cable.

My God they're birds! Was old Annie part of the repomen?

>>785968
Magnetic boots don't make somebody immune to leverage, and if you see one of them reaching for a knife you can probably hit the 'release' button before they bring it to bear.

All that being said, on second thought delay grappling until you're reasonably certain shieldpacks have been depleted, unless you're confident the grappling hook wouldn't be targeted as a projectile.

>>786084
What if all Repomen are brainwashed clones of the same model as Annie?

Toxoglossa 2017/03/08(Wed)17:46 No. 786202 ID: b073ca
File 148902397753.png - (113.17KB , 600x506 , 2-36.png )

In seconds everything has gone to hell. The two hammer wielding guards rush the corridor, and you hear a series of wet slaps at they catch multiple rounds in their center mass. One manages to connect with a hammer, only to have it shrugged aside as its sensitive electronics are disabled by the smartfog.

Toxoglossa 2017/03/08(Wed)17:46 No. 786203 ID: b073ca
File 148902398331.png - (136.91KB , 600x600 , 2-37.png )

Peeking from cover, you eye the staff, having never seen anything like it before. You take aim with the grappling gun and try to snag it.

Your claw is swatted out of the air by a second concussive blast, clattering to the floor in a wretched ball like a dead spider.

Toxoglossa 2017/03/08(Wed)17:46 No. 786204 ID: b073ca
File 148902399012.png - (114.27KB , 527x600 , 2-38.png )

The vulture with the laser hoists it to his shoulder and aims it at the group. Seeing the weapon, the guy with the staff raises it and you feel a shiver course through you as the group instantly vanishes.

Well now that you've dented the grappling hook beyond usefulness, you can keep rewinding it to shoot it and waste the rest of their shieldpacks.

Fuuuck, Cloaking Tech. We need AoE, can you do a sweep with that laser at say shin height towards the entrance, big guy?

>>786204
Well great. Use Kilroy to see if they're still there. They've either teleported or gone invisible, and we need to know which is the case.

Ping via ultrasound, I mean. Non-visual location.

Interesting, their shield-packs seem to overexert itself when faced with massive force or velocity.
The fact that the pushguns work should be capitalized, once Kilroy here echolocates them.

Anyways, do we have an improvised shotgun/scattergun/shrapnel launcher/mini flak cannon handy? We could detect their shields and cause damage simultaneously this way, should Kilroy's echolocation fails.

Oh, one problem with them being invisible is if it's done by bending light around them the laser will bend around them too. Heck, they did this in reaction to the laser and not just immediately, so it's probably JUST to defend against the laser. Don't waste the shot!

>>786235
This.

Depends on what kind of Cloak it is.

If it's just your basic light-bending field, then you could easily track them via heat sources or ultrasound.

It gets a bit trickier if it's more of a phase shift that slips them into subspace or some other extra-dimensional layer of the fabric of space/time.

Toxoglossa 2017/03/09(Thu)18:23 No. 786376 ID: b073ca
File 148911261929.png - (103.17KB , 600x600 , 2-39.png )

Feist glares at you: "What happened? Where are they?"

Toxoglossa 2017/03/09(Thu)18:23 No. 786377 ID: b073ca
File 148911263462.png - (100.57KB , 484x600 , 2-40.png )

You stammer: "I, I dont- this is something new. Some kind of-"

Toxoglossa 2017/03/09(Thu)18:24 No. 786378 ID: b073ca
File 148911264584.png - (179.28KB , 600x600 , 2-41.png )

A shiver passes through you again and something slams into your neck. You smell your fur burning as an electrical charge slams through your body like a truck. As your limbs spasm you're dimly aware of a modulated voice calmly reporting: "secondary targets identified, restraining."

Switch perspective to Bucky and his asteroid blasteroid.

Not the best move, tactically. In the actual combat action here, you're one of the least dangerous people here, and they've got one of your guys and the stealth stick occupied locking you down.

And your lover(s?) are gonna frikken rip them apart for that. And it cements their brutality in the eyes of the defenders here, by hitting a sympathetic target.

Unless they can immediately withdraw carrying you, they wasted their element of surprise there.

The gloves must be insulted to protect the vulture. But is the rest of his suit? Try and hook one of his legs with yours. If you're lucky, you can take him down with you by conducting the shock. Honestly, there ain't much else you can do right now.

Isn't Feist semi immortal? Sword those motherfuckers! Also isn't there a large semi immortal crocodile around here somewhere?

>>786405
Sword ain't gonna help because at least one of them has a shield pack. Shield packs have a maximum of 3 charges on them and theirs have already gone off 2 times, so it's still got 1 charge left. Unless the other 3 guys also have shield packs, then it'll be 1 guy with 1 charge left and 3 guys with 3 charges each.

Also, Polly is still downstairs because she said she'd watch Sam and Annie's stuff to make sure no one messes with it, which obviously meant she wasn't going to be fighting with everyone else.

>>786378
If he's using the staff like this, he can't use it to disappear again. It's laser time!

>>786378
if it's any consolation, revealing their secret weapon and keeping the hesd honcho occupied is probably the best you can manage in a fight.
do try not to get captured and taken on their ship, that would suck.

Toxoglossa 2017/03/11(Sat)12:34 No. 786653 ID: b073ca
File 148926449165.png - (215.46KB , 600x600 , 2-42.png )

Your limbs batter themselves against the ground as your muscles fire randomly, the agony of electric hell encompassing your whole body.

A rising, hateful scream fills your ears. Annie stands up and her pushgun vomits sparks as she dumps power into it. You feel a wave of pressure pass overhead like some huge angry animal and the painful clamp around your neck disappears.

Toxoglossa 2017/03/11(Sat)12:35 No. 786654 ID: b073ca
File 148926450050.png - (70.13KB , 513x600 , 2-43.png )

Limbs still twitching, you crawl forward, trying to outrun the dark curtain of unconscious as it envelops you.

Toxoglossa 2017/03/11(Sat)12:35 No. 786655 ID: b073ca
File 148926450549.png - (104.72KB , 600x495 , 2-44.png )

You are now Bucky.

>>786655
How close are you to annihilating their ship?

>>786656
Any chance of disabling the engines or cockpit? Or will you be lucky just hitting the damn thing?

>>786655
okay inside is dealing with the boarding party, how goes ship fuckery?

That death cannon ready to blow up their ship yet Bucky?

Set up your neural-stimulation funtimes to activate upon confirmation of a crippling kinetic hit on the repo ship.

>>786655

Hypothetical ideas here, but how do their grapples to the Sunfish look? Could we compromise those, set the bastards to drifting, and potentially drop an asteroid on them?

Or in the very least create a LOT of problems for them by mucking things up. Provided they didn't spacewalk over.

Toxoglossa 2017/03/13(Mon)17:33 No. 787158 ID: b073ca
File 148945161309.png - (79.31KB , 600x354 , 2-45.png )

You sigh and peek back at the sunfish. Moments ago an ugly black cockroach of a landing craft grappled to the deck and disgorged a small squad of repo men. You try to put your worry for Sam and Annie in the back of your mind, trusting them to stay safe. You turn your attention back to doing your job.

Toxoglossa 2017/03/13(Mon)17:33 No. 787159 ID: b073ca
File 148945161979.png - (64.15KB , 600x433 , 2-46.png )

Much of the asteroid is covered in a fine silicate dust, making grappling onto it difficult. After some hunting, you managed to find some exposed chunks of iron large enough to attach the cables. Aiming the launchers remotely, you target the stones and watch as the grappling heads decend from above. A pair of impacts vibrate through your feet, indicating good contact.
To be honest, you aren't really sure how you're going to get this to work. You'll only get one shot at it once the asteroid starts rotating. Additionally, you're worried about being caught in the open, should things go wrong. You consider retreating back into the mining complex, but realize that it'll mean you won't be able to control the Starlette while inside.

>>787159
Get the asteroid moving then position the starlette so that the cables will pull taut again at the right spot to get the railgun to aim at the target. Then tell it to hold position there. After that you can get inside the mining complex and feed ammo into the railgun before firing it.

>>787162
This.

Hope you've got good aim. If you miss, you'll end up hitting the Sunfish, which'll end up possibly killing Sam and Annie!

>>787166
We're not shooting at the enemy shuttle though.

>>787159
>Additionally, you're worried about being caught in the open, should things go wrong. You consider retreating back into the mining complex, but realize that it'll mean you won't be able to control the Starlette while inside.
How about standing on one of the grapples? If you need to bug out, you can ride it up to the Starlette while piloting away to the other side of the asteroid. In the event the railgun strike fails to destroy the main repo-man ship, you can at least play interference by heading to the other side: either they give chase and leave their shuttle vulnerable, or you get a chance to reposition the asteroid for another shot (and act as a ship-in-being they need to keep in mind before trying to depart with their own ship).

Toxoglossa 2017/03/14(Tue)18:02 No. 787386 ID: b073ca
File 148953976885.png - (89.80KB , 600x525 , 2-47.png )

You key in a flight plan for the starlette and watch as its thrusters light up. The tow cables stretch and vibrate like titanic bowstrings, and you feel the slightly tipsy whirl of inertia start pulling at you.

Toxoglossa 2017/03/14(Tue)18:02 No. 787387 ID: b073ca
File 148953977375.png - (96.43KB , 600x452 , 2-48.png )

Wasting no time, you scramble for the mining companies complex and let yourself in. The ladder up seems to lead to the control room, while the railguns themselves seem to be accessed by entering deeper into the facility.

>>787387
Check the control room to see if there's an automated loading process first.

Are the mechanics still there? Can you recruit them for extra help?

Well, hop to it, long ears! Get this cut-rate BFG warmed up!

Toxoglossa 2017/03/15(Wed)18:02 No. 787657 ID: b073ca
File 148962616743.png - (153.75KB , 600x600 , 2-49.png )

You scramble up the ladder to the control room. Inside is a collection of displays: each showing various camera angles, statistics and control programs. The electronics look as if they've all seen better days, having been much repaired with centuries of improvized engineering. Many of these systems look like they were custom made, and although they are ancient, they're pretty intuitive.
You look through them until you find one that looks like a master control for the railgun system. You identify the emplacement closest to the repo men's ship and set its capacitors to charge. There's a noticeable dimming of the lights, and the computer stutters a little as the facility shifts the power load.
You find the command to load the firing chamber, but an error prompt stops you.
Load unsuccessful: return null- continue for test fire y/n?

Hit N then run down there to the ammo is at. Either the rotation of the asteroid screwed it up or there was no ammo ready to be loaded in the first place.

This is your time to shine Bucky. You always knew it was your destiny to be a railgun projectile. Shoot for the moon! Even if you miss, you will land among the stars.

You are going to have to manually load something in there. Get to it.

>>787657
Be careful to prop the loading door open! In case of shenanigans!

>>787658
>>787680
Go check, but in fact, DON'T hit N first. You need to see if the loading was actually failed, or if the function merely erroneously reported failure (in which case trying to load it again could damage the railgun).

Toxoglossa 2017/03/18(Sat)14:12 No. 788505 ID: b073ca
File 148987155821.png - (163.61KB , 600x341 , 2-50.png )

You realize you're going to have to manually inspect the railgun. You leave the console and head downstairs and open the doors into the center of the asteroid.
Inside is an ants' nest of rock, crisscrossed with reinforcing supports and scaffolding. Theres a gleam to the stone that indicates a lot of raw metal, the edges having a melted, scalloped edge to them that looks like laser burns. Flecks of rock dust drift through the air and you're left wondering how long has it been since they've used this place. One of the first things you notice is a large chamber filled with squat, heavily insulated objects. Each one is connected to a set of panels by wrist thick bundles of cable, which then snakes out the door and deep into the facility.

>>788505
Batteries? Check the panels, you need to find the cables that hook up to the railgun you're operating, then follow them to it.

Careful, if they're not batteries then they might be the railgun's capacitors (Although I'd expect that to be closer to the gun), which are charged since you didn't abort the test fire.

Looks like either the batteries or the capacitors for the mass drivers. And since you didn't test fire the mass driver, you might be able to figure out whichever of these units is for that particular mass driver and trace its cable to the mass driver. If they're batteries, then the one battery with low charge would be the one you're looking for. If they're capacitors, then the one that is charged would be the one you're looking for. Now you just need a way to know what is charged or not. You don't have any sensors that can detect electomagnetic or heat do you? If you don't then look at the electrical panels. Do they have gauges or indicators on them? If they don't then you'll have to either spritz each panel with nano-fog and query their status, or, preferably, look about for a central control unit and spray that one.

>>788530
On second thought, deploying nano-fog near high voltage switching circuitry may be a bad idea. Those nanites are basically metal particulates, and unless they're non-conductive ones, a cloud of them touching both terminals of the high voltage side of the switch gear at the same time may be enough to create a arc. And a arc in here would be all kinds of bad. But then, what means does that leave you to figure out which of these units is connected to the mass driver you're looking for? ...Hm. Perhaps the heat of the unit and the feed cable into it. The amount of current dumped through those lines has to have warmed them up more than the others. If you don't have thermal sensors, then removing a glove and pressing the back of your hand to the gear would work.

Check to make sure the cables aren't severed anywhere.

Toxoglossa 2017/03/20(Mon)18:33 No. 789141 ID: b073ca
File 149005998813.png - (141.29KB , 600x464 , 2-51.png )

You tuck yourself into the cramped space and look at the readouts on the panel. A green light illuminates an LCD screen with a staggering number of zeros on it, labeled CAP 4.

You find the squat shape with a large 4 on it and follow the cable running out of it into the hall. You trace your hand along the conduit, and suddenly stagger as the whole asteroid lurches. It seems like the Starlette has reversed thrusters, slowing the rotation as it ponderously aims the railgun: all part of your flightplan. A cloud of rock dust is kicked up, casting strange shadows through the empty mine.

Huh. Well, there are ghost rumors. Might as well keep a look out (one of the shadows looks humanoid behind you).

Toxoglossa 2017/03/21(Tue)21:21 No. 789394 ID: b073ca
File 149015651792.png - (126.20KB , 600x451 , 2-52.png )

You feel the fur on the back of your neck bristling. Sensing eyes on you, you fumble to unfold the corner-gun with gloved hands. You whip around in a panicked arc and point the weapon into the shadows, daring anything to move. You feel awkward and stupid, not at all like an invincible badass.

Well keep the gun unfolded, anyways, and keep going. You don't need both arms at the moment.

Keep your cool. You got a job to do.

>>789394
That's definitely a space ghost
Prepare to go coast to coast

That's not smartfog, is it?

>>789394
If the dust continues to make humanoid shapes, then odds are that the dust is clinging to someone that's invisible and you're not alone in here. Wether the invisible person is from the Sunfish or one of the repo guys remains to be seen.

Yeah, that's the appropriate feeling you should have after wasting valuable time jumping at shadows. Now hustle! The fate of Sam, Annie and everyone else on the Sunfish is hinging on you blowing the Repo Men's frigate to bits and every second counts.

Check how much time you have until the Starlette's flight plan program completes and mentally go over what you'll need to do to fire this mass driver. Will you need any mass, any magnetically conductive mass, or will you need specific ammo like a shaped rod? Hopefully they left the launch mass stored next to the mass driver, but they might have moved it elsewhere thinking they wouldn't need to fire the mass driver again on short notice. Think back to when you were going through the lockers and remember if there were any rods like what would be perfect for a mass driver kept in the shuttle bay. If there were you'll have to decide if you run back and get one or risk that some are stored next to the mass driver.

Once the mass driver is loaded, what will you need to do to fire it? Will you have to run back to the command center or can you smartfog the network interface and hook back into the cameras and firing system? And you will want eyes on the target via camera before firing, 'cause if it's moved from it's current location you'll need to adjust the aim from the one you programmed the Starlette to take. You'll also want to roll the camera footage back to check if their boarding shuttle returned, because if it did then it's possible Sam, Annie or both of them are aboard.

And also think of what will happen if you do land a perfect hit on that frigate and blow it to pieces. Can the Sunfish's hull take getting peppered with debris from the destroyed frigate? Does the frigate have a reactor core or other parts that would explode?

>>789421
It's very, very unlikely that that is smartfog. The Repo Men would have had to launch a shuttle from their frigate without Bucky seeing it, then fly around and infiltrate via a mass driver to get in here without running into him, since the only actual airlocks into the mine are in the mining bunker Bucky just came from.

>>789394
Shoot at that shadowy figure on your left. Don't bother doubting yourself or hesitating, just shoot. Worst case, you waste a few rounds.

>>789425
And hit something important that, when damage, completely disables the railgun that we're currently trying to fix!

Shout a warning. If you don't get a response, fire for effect. This is a bit too high stakes to not shoot first and ask questions later.

Afterwards, scan for smartfog.

>>789427
It all looks like sturdy, non-wired industrial paneling, to me.

>>789467
Besides, smartfog could fix anything we break.

Deploy your own smartfog. Fight fire with NANOMACHINES, SON!

Guys, can we please not freak out and waste precious ammo and time firing at shadows and dust clouds. It's highly improbable that the Repo Men got down here and deployed a smartfog cloud 'cause it doesn't make sense if you think it through logically. If the Repo Men on their frigate had noticed the asteroid moving, they would have brought the frigate itself around to investigate from a distance, not send a boarding shuttle. And if they did that, then they would have seen the Starlette and either blown it away or shot out the tethers before they'd think of sending a boarding party down to check the mine. There isn't enough time to allow for a Repo Men team to get down here and catch up with Bucky. Especially considering he was in the control room only a few minutes ago watching the Repo Men's frigate on cameras the whole time and didn't spot any craft launching from it and heading here.

Toxoglossa 2017/03/22(Wed)18:01 No. 789595 ID: b073ca
File 149023088231.png - (110.93KB , 600x405 , 2-53.png )

Still shouldering the gun, you step backwards, uncertainly.
Bucky: "H-Hello? Who's there?!" You challenge.

Nothing.
You fire a round, which pings against several walls before running out of kinetic energy.

Feeling foolish, you check the time on the Starlette's flight plan: 10 more minutes. You turn back to the task at hand, and continue following the conduit.

Toxoglossa 2017/03/22(Wed)18:01 No. 789596 ID: b073ca
File 149023090455.png - (92.04KB , 600x340 , 2-54.png )

As you hurry into the heart of the asteroid, the other cables branch away to connect with the other railguns. You pass a number of alcoves stuffed with panels and support struts. You're surprised to see so much effort spent reinforcing a zero gravity mine, but you imagine the railguns must put a lot of stress on the foundation.
You finally find the end of the conduit: a large, roughly carved chamber braced with supports and housing a monsterous tower of electromagnetic coils. The entire structure is set into a wide, steel platform that distributes the railguns inertia into the asteroid without shattering it. A panel near the base is open, revealing an empty chamber.

Enter empty chamber.

>>789596
I think we need to put a slug in there? Look around for where they've put the railgun slugs.

Ok, unless the railgun has a metal sled to put things into, you're going to need something conductive to put in there. So go find that something.

I wonder if any of the support struts are small enough to fit in there?

Somethings wrong here keep on your toes.

Are there no projectiles nearby? Where does it look like people usually get ballast from?

Are the rocks magnetic enough to work?

Damn it, Toxoglossa, he was supposed to shoot without first warning our stalker to duck out of the way.

Alright. Look for a slug.

>>789700
If we can't find anything better, as many big boulders as we can load onto this thing may have to do...I get the feeling this is going to do little more than destroy the rail gun though.

Toxoglossa 2017/03/24(Fri)17:08 No. 790143 ID: b073ca
File 149040049816.png - (158.53KB , 600x547 , 2-55.png )

You take a look at the empty chamber: it looks like it's designed to hold something square, roughly two feet across. Knowing that, you look around for something matching the dimensions. A few alcoves back, you find a row of objects stuck to a magnetic strip. Each one seems to be a brightly polished, steel collar wrapped around a darker, coarse ingot of slag. Under standard gravitational conditions there's no way you'd be able to move it on your own, but once you pry one off the wall your able to shove it around.

Toxoglossa 2017/03/24(Fri)17:08 No. 790145 ID: b073ca
File 149040050870.png - (111.98KB , 600x456 , 2-56.png )

You shoulder the massive cube down the roughly cut mineshaft, shepherding it around like a dottering old relative. You pause, letting your payload drift ahead for a moment. There's definitely someone behind you, but you don't dare turn around yet.

Slowly put your hands in the air.
Make no sudden movements.

>>790148
That gives away whatever element of surprise we have. See if you can casually push the cube around a corner, then be waiting with your gun raised by the time your stalker follows.

>>790150
Yeah, we can do this. If whoever it is is following us then they'll be spotted at the corner. If they don't come around the corner then Bucky should really just continue loading the railgun. That's more important than jumping at shadows.

>>790145
your corner gun. would bending it towards them be faster than drawing it? we don't need accuracy for the first shot, only to make them take cover and give you time to draw the weapon.

>>790244
Careful here, that person seems equipped with melee weapon. "scrambling for cover" might resolve to "Chaaarge!" for them.

Do the slowest, clumsiest-looking forward flip you can manage. Kick some extra dust back toward them as you go, to further highlight air currents and spoil whatever active camo they're using. If they're not completely accustomed to microgravity, they'll read that as you tripping and falling down. Then, at the moment when your legs are pointing straight toward them, minimizing your target profile and putting thick layers of leg-meat between your vitals and danger, shoot 'em with the corner gun. Brace against the railgun slug to control recoil.

Does the corner gun have a muzzle camera with a wireless link you could connect to? I figure it has some kind of camera to allow aiming around corners, since otherwise you'd probably just waste your six shots blind firing. If it does and you can link your neural interface to it, then could you shuffle the gun around discreetly to get its camera pointed behind you to get a view of whoever that is, if there's anybody there.

If there is someone shadowing you, it's unlikely they're a Repo Man, since if they were there'd be more than one, and you'd either be dead or captured by now. But if it's someone from the Sunfish, how could they have survived inside this airless asteroid hidden from the rest of the Sunfish crew? And how are they able to hide themselves from you so well? Was active camo space suits even a possible thing back in the time the Sunfish launched?

Act like a clutz and drop the cube. As you bend over to pick it back up, slowly whip out your gun and get ready.

>>790496
Bucky can't do that 'cause the mine is a zero-G environment; No artificial gravity plating in here. He wouldn't be able to even budge that railgun round if it was normal gravity here.

I advise against attacking first. We're not yet sure whether Mr Stealthy here is a repo man or mining personnel.

We're in microgravity, and the enemy's gate is down. Climb 'over' the Railgun round and stand on it using the boot clamps, so the round is directly 'beneath' you between you and the intruder. You can stick the corner gun out and aim down at him, but he'd have to fire through a big chunk of slag to hit you unless he advanced very quickly, at which point you'd be ideally positioned to push off of the railgun round and away at full speed (with the bonus of the round then flying back at him).