I remember that when Hoft's D-Gun charges, it makes some kind of suction vacuum that destroys matter... it's how we made that one hole out of the guilder ship, right? Well if his gun is currently uncharged, I'd recommend that as he runs to the cave he Charge the gun and aim the suction-vacuum-thing upwards at the cliff, which might either bring part of the cliffside down and unbalance the guilders up there or if we're really lucky it might eliminate them entirely.

shoot at the gunner on the ship. just need to get close enough that he pauses trying to shoot.

Oken 2011/07/03(Sun)14:41 No. 321135 ID: e1c562
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Oken makes a shot for the gunner

Oken 2011/07/03(Sun)14:42 No. 321136 ID: e1c562
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Oken and Hoft dash for the cave

nice shot. be ready to give cover fire.

That was... surprisingly simple.

Yes, get that guy to Hoft's left who's hitting his shield. Hoft's got the guy on his right pretty good.

If you get a another sweet shot like you did on the gunner you have to blow on the end of your gun because honey you are shooting HOT today

Oken 2011/07/03(Sun)23:06 No. 321418 ID: e1c562
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Oken provides covering fire, but her shot doesn't find it's mark

* * *

huh? they're not following us, in fact it looks like they're falling back to their ship . . .

We have to assume that if they're falling back it's because they've got a plan B. So rather than sitting around waiting to find it, we need to look for an alternate escape route. Now unless the cave actually leads somewhere, we're going to have to make our own exit. Ask Hoft what he knows about his D-Gun... He seemed to know what he was doing when he made that escape hole out of the guilder ship. If we can do something like that and 'dig' ourselves an alternate exit that the guilders don't know about, we might be able to escape that way.

Or the cave is filled with horrors and they have given us up for dead.

Retreat further in incase they bombard the entrance.

I know this is a different planet, but in case they spread, keep an eye out for hungry ceiling-mounted tentacular monstrosities.

Or wall or floor-mounted. With flora this big, I doubt the cave is devoid of fauna.

>>321418
Hopefully they aren't about to lob stun bombs or something into your cover.

If you can keep moving, do it.

Oken 2011/07/04(Mon)15:00 No. 321609 ID: e1c562
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we travel further into the cave, it goes on for quite a bit further but it's too dark to see where the cave ends

Hoft: "If you want I can blast us a new way out

Hoft pulls out the AntiMatter cannon.

Oken: "are you sure it's safe to use the Cannon? it looks damaged."

Hoft: "huh, it does?

Hoft examines his weapon

Hoft: "it's just a couple scratches, superficial damage, I'm sure it's fine."

Oken: . . .

"for all you know that scratch is in the main power line. just have mint give it a once over before you use it. would you rather take a little longer and guarantee it works or go now and risk it blowing your arms off?"

Mint's the Engineer. She should be the one to determine whether or not it's in any condition to fire. Speaking of fire, however, we're going to need something to use to light the way if we wish to continue down this way. Any of you got anything that can be used for such, or are we going to end up setting fire to our own clothes wrapped around a stick as a makeshift torch?

Mint is the ship's engineer. She might be able to fix such a weapon if it were broken, but Hoft has surely had more experience with it, and would be a better judge of whether it was broken. He might find it insulting if you tell him that Mint knows his weapon better than he does. Do not insult the man holding an anti-matter cannon.

lol just kidding a baby could tell that thing's shredded, and the containment field is clearly full of cracks. Insult the man if you have to but do not let that chunk of anti-matter fall out of its containment field.

>>321609
Get a second opinion. Mint isn't nearly as attached to the thing and should give a more precise diagnostic. If Hoft objects, remind him how powerful and important the cannon is, and that it could be damaged further if something wrong was overlooked.

Say nothing about the horrifying possibility of it blowing up the next time he pulls the damn trigger.

>>321609
"And if it's not we all die in a misfire.
Mint! Inspect this weapon."

Oken 2011/07/04(Mon)20:43 No. 321799 ID: e1c562
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>Light source

my RayGun can provide a dim light to see by, but it's charge is down to 20% so I might not want to be to conservative with it. I suppose I could also ask Mint to make us some torches.

Oken: "Mint, can you take a look at Hoft's gun and tell us if it'll fire?"

Mint turns around

Mint: "yeah, it'll fire, it'll fire in all directions at the same time. it'll solve our light issue in one heck of a way"

Hoft: . . .

Mint: "what I'm saying is It's going to explode meat head, sooner rather than later if you try to use the damn thing."

Hoft: " . . . can you fix it?"

Mint: "heck should I know? you're the gun enthusiast."

Hoft: . . .

*sigh*
"I might be able to stabilize it, but that'll take at least an hour or so, I'll let Twiggy make the call whether it's worth the hassle. first things first, you need to shut your toy down before it microwaves us all."

Hoft powers down the gun

"just stow it for now, we need to keep moving. if i have reason to believe we will run into more armored targets then i'll say to fix it."

We certainly can't just wait around for an hour now. Keep the weapon stored, if nothing else it should serve an an excellent deterrant if they think that it's capable of firing... they've seen its destructive potential.

Torches it is.

Oken 2011/07/05(Tue)10:09 No. 322005 ID: e1c562
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Mint explains that she could easily make some torches

Mint: "I can use some of these Shroom roots for the shaft, but we'll need some cloth, and we'll need to sacrifice a RayTech device to get the flammable battery juice "

hmmm, so we need to sacrifice some cloth and a RayTech device, what can we afford to lose?

fuze's laser gun? if that wont work then check which of hoft's shield modules have the least energy.

Sacrificing a shield device should be a last resort, those things can save your life even at 1% power.

Ask Mint if it will ruin the device or if she just needs to remove the battery.

>>322005
>sacrifice a RayTech device to get the flammable battery juice
Well nuts to that. Make your pistol glow instead; at least you might be able to recharge it.

Mint's time is best spent making our only heavy weapon usable.

>>322023
This.

How about we get a list of things that'd work and their respective energy levels at the current time?

You said you've got your gun at 20%, what else do we got?

Oken 2011/07/05(Tue)18:54 No. 322192 ID: e1c562
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>Fuze's gun
StunPistol (6/20 shots), Solars made this gun, Mint says it's battery is not good

>ruining the device
Mint says the device will be fried and useless afterwards.

Here's a list of RayTech devices we have and their current charge rating
GravBoots(x4)(84% charge each), RayGun (2/10 shots, 20% charge), StunPistol (6/20 shots), hat, HandLaser (10/20 shots, 50% charge), HandLaser (16/20 shots, 80% charge), NanoStitcher (72% charge), Tazer (90% charge), AntimaterCannon (70/100 shots, 94% charge), ShieldBattery (x4)(94%,96%,96%,90% charge), SpaceCompass! (70% charge), RapidLaser (2/50 shots, 5% charge.)

Battery (100% charge) it's probably not a good idea to use this one, it's too useful for charging another device

I also need to decide what cloth source to use

>>322192
The Rapidlaser. Two shots means that thing doesn't have a lot of use left and it's less useful than the raytech piston and the antimatter laser by far.

Hoft is obviously the Kirk of the group, I'm a little surprised he hasn't volunteered his shirt already.

We'll want to continuously feed the flame so that we don't have to use more battery juice to rekindle one, right? I mean, it'd suck to have to sacrifice ANOTHER thing to the flame, so that means we need to have a steady flow of flammable clothing to the fire. And since we're prudish Astranians, the bandana and hat should definitely go first.

When it comes to what item to sacrifice for its battery juice, I'm against using the rapid laser. Sure it's low on ammo now, but we can recharge it, while we can feasibly sacrifice one pair of boots (or maybe just one boot) and have Hoft carry whoever doesn't have a working pair when you need to. Alternatively, the RayGun seems to have a low ammo capacity AND a low current amount of ammo/charge, so that might be easily sacrificed, unless it's more powerful/effective than the HandLasers... or the Stungun, which has a better ammo capacity but we're not exactly in it for nonlethal means, right?

So for clothes I'd say sacrifice the Bandana, Hat, and Gloves (in that order as necessary to feed the flames), and when it comes to raytech, I'd sacrifice a boot (or two) or the StunPistol

Use the spare battery to charge something else up, and then cannibalize it for fuel. Charge up several somethings in fact. Top off the space compass and NanoStitcher and then put the rest of the charge into the hand lasers and rapid lasers.

>>322200
Uh, the RayGun is Oken's gun that kills absolutely everything ever. We want to keep that.

use the simple handlaser since you have two of them
everything else is potentially too useful

Sticking with >>322023 .
But, failing that, >>322196 .

Oken 2011/07/06(Wed)14:28 No. 322474 ID: e1c562
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Hoft and Mint offer to sacrifice their headgear for the greater good of the mission.

the RapidLaser is also sacrificed.

* * *

after what feels like an hour of marching, Hoft sees what appears to be natural light

tell hoft to turn his shields back on and check it out. make sure they don't have a surprise waiting for us.

>>322475
quite right

Remember not to bring your lights/torches too near the entrance, they may be watching for them.

Oken 2011/07/07(Thu)00:19 No. 322772 ID: e1c562
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Hoft hands Fuze his torch, turns on his shields and stealthily approaches the light source.

Listen, then take a peek if you can't hear anything.

...proceed...

Hoft 2011/07/07(Thu)15:34 No. 323042 ID: e1c562
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I listen for a while but don't hear anything, guess it's safe enough to take a peek.

Can't see any pirates up there, looks like just a bunch of rocks and shrooms.

stand there on guard and wave the others forward.

First check to see if there's anything visible further down the cave length, then get everyone forward and you can perhaps get someone to peek and see what's above. Also Oken needs to check her Space Compass to see if we've been heading in anything approaching the correct direction.

Oken 2011/07/07(Thu)20:33 No. 323276 ID: e1c562
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the passageway seems to continue going after this point, Space compass indicates the passage is going in a north east direction.

Oken: "Hoft can you go take a look around up there?"

Hoft: "Sure thing"

Hoft takes a look around

the cliff to your left looks off.

>>323276
Don't get shot in the face.

Is it possible for Mint or someone to modify the space compass in order to detect the presence of guilder technology nearby or something? If not, it still seems like it's time to cautiously get everyone up here, then proceed towards the town

Oken 2011/07/08(Fri)16:38 No. 323779 ID: e1c562
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let's check the "pirate" setting on the SpaceCompass!

hmmm looks like there's a distant pirate reading coming from the south

Well since your last contact with the guilder pirates was to the south west, this makes sense. It's also very handy. Anyway, looks like it's time to scratch Mint behind the ears for luck and head above-ground, then hopefully make it to the town before anything else goes wrong.

Let's go.

Oken 2011/07/09(Sat)18:27 No. 324372 ID: e1c562
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Now what to do with the torches?

snuff them and put them all on the opposite side of the hole you are going.

>>324372

Get some pitchforks and pretend to be an angry mob of villagers.

Perhaps set fire to the forest in order to create a smoke cloud cover and possible a forest fire to make a diversion? Or would it attract attention to us? Maybe if we can make it a delayed fire...

>>324376
>Set fire to the forest your in.

Nope.jpg

You have no sense of adventure.

But like I said, maybe you can make an hour-long fuse before it lights fire to the brush?

I don't think there 'is' brush here... or anything to burn really, mushrooms tend to be fairly damp things, might be able to burn the spores, but the caps and stems should be too juicy I imagine.

Oken 2011/07/10(Sun)16:26 No. 324746 ID: e1c562
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the torches are put out and left behind

* * *

Travel continues,
but after hours of further marching my team has become exhausted and still there is no hint of our destination.

There haven't been any complaints, but I can see their weariness in the way they limp forward.

our bodies aren't built for this kind of travel, I'm not sure how much further we'll be able to walk . . .

Well all we can really do is check the various settings of our Space Compass (tm) and see if there's any nearby tech that might correspond with either the Pirates or the Town... and then we can rest, but is it possible to make the Space Compass into an alarm where it goes off if Pirates come near? And while we rest Mint can repair shit.

go to the top of the cliffs to get a look around.

Oken 2011/07/10(Sun)20:06 No. 324908 ID: e1c562
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the cliffs go up too high, so I climb a mushroom instead, it doesn't give me much better bearings on the area . . .

I try flipping through the space compass's other settings. there are some inclinations towards north east but I can't get any sort of accurate distance reading.

Mint might be able to rig the compass into some sort of alarm but I'd rather she not tamper with it.

before you come down can you see any small caves to rest in?

Well then find a suitable place to camp and have Mint fix Hoft's gun. Silly small-legged Astranians... Mr Jones made the trip in less than a day!

I think you should keep moving, the pirates might also be able to sense the distinctive power signatures of Astranian tech (what if they have a Space Compass too?)

Don't want to be caught by them again.

Oken 2011/07/11(Mon)10:08 No. 325050 ID: e1c562
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At this point it seems that rest is our only option.

Oken: "this looks like a good place"

During the rest time as team leader I can choose to Bond and increase the morale of one of my team mates, who should I pick?

Uh, why don't you guys just sit in a circle and talk as a group?

Start by talking about the first thing you want to do as soon as you get out of here. Maybe have a nice Skrynn trout dinner or a Maloran ice pop on the beach at sunset.

>>325050
Hoft.
He's been hostile to Mint, has shown poor judgement, does not deffer to your command, and has shown unstable and irrational behavior.

You need to find out what's going on and get him back under control before he screws everything up again.

Either Hoft or Mint. Hoft seems like he's kind of becoming a crazed loner but Mint seems more the type to harbor secret grudges and then turn traitor. Fuze, to note, is wonderfully submissive to your every tiny-deer whim.

Talk with all of them and improve TEAMWORK. MORALE is ok, but TEAMWORK is better (and much more in need of improvement).

>>325050
I would suggest Mint. She seems to have been hiding some Bad Habits from everyone, and had a bad run in with that creature in the swamp.

You may need to find out what her problem is before you reach civilization. It could be harmful to everyone if she goes into withdrawal in the middle of nowhere, or tries to sneak away for a 'fix' somewhere in the trading post ahead.

Given the circumstances, try not to 'fix' her issues, or force her to make any promises regarding them. A greater awareness is the best you can hope for right now, so you can better protect one another.

Getting Hoft to stop being crazy is a good idea, I think.

Oken 2011/07/11(Mon)21:35 No. 325213 ID: e1c562
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Hoft: " . . . Oken, I owe you my life. if you hadn't come back for me that Guilder would've torn my head off!"

Oken: "Hoft, I would never leave anyone behind!"

Hoft: "that's why you're team leader and I'm not.
It's hard to follow orders, to just be the pawn on a chess board, to accept that others know better than you.
but now I understand how foolish I've been, now I'm ready Asnia Oken, I'm ready to obey!"

Oken: "thank you Phestrius Tsen-Hoft"

Oken performs the ritual of bonding

* * *

The Ritual is successful! Hoft's Loyalty is now bound to Oken's Command!

Hoft: "Oken, I'm sorry for all the mistakes I've made, I will not fail you again! I shall fight by your word now and your word alone, I swear it"

>>325213
ASSUMING CONTROL

"one last thing, you aren't a pawn, you're a knight"

THAT was your idea of BONDING? No wonder you Astranians are so depressed.

Seconding the knight reference. that'll do hoft.

mint can be a pawn. i bet she only moved two spaces one time in her life ever until she becomes queen.

Oken 2011/07/12(Tue)12:56 No. 325404 ID: e1c562
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Oken: "Phestrius, you are not a pawn, you're a knight!"

I'm not exactly sure what that's suppose to mean, but it seems to make him feel better anyways.

as I talk more with Phestrius, the conflicts of our cultures, the politics between our worlds and all the other differences we hold seem to have faded away. It is as if we are simply two clanmates, long time friends and true allies fighting against the universe for our survival.

We exchange war stories, reminisce of simpler times, and joke about our plans for the future.

Time seems to pass quickly . . .

Someone needs to photoshop above/under Mint 'And so a super villain was born'
Seriously, great job on Hoft and all (even if Oken used a chess analogy when Astranian culture has no knowledge of chess) but I'd be surprised if Mint doesn't turn traitor soon

>>325419
To be fair, Fuze is there too, Mint just looks naturally sulky I suspect.

Besides, I don't think we have the luxury to get all paranoid, especially not after saving her life.

mint may be a druggy but i can't think of any reasons for her to betray us.

Fuze 2011/07/13(Wed)00:00 No. 325876 ID: e1c562
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Fuze: "you don't appear to be working on AntiMatter Cannno . . ."

Mint: "I'm not, I'm working on improving the piece of pinkskin scrap you've been waving around"

Fuze: . . .

"How did you get that anyways?"

Mint: "I picked it up after you dropped it back in the tunnel."

Fuze: "I don't recall that . . ."

Mint: "your welcome."

She doesn't seem in much of a mood to chat

just stutter out a 'thank you'

>>325876
It's kind of rude to accuse her of stealing when she's only trying to help. Say thanks.

Fuze: Weep quietly because no one ever understands you or appreciates your good intentions.

Mint: Explain how exactly you're making his weapon better. No use 'upgrading' it if he uses it in the same way he always has been, right?

Oken and Hoft: Get it on.

Seriously though, do make sure to get that Antimatter Cannon fixed, or be ready to explain why you didn't do so.

Fuze 2011/07/13(Wed)14:57 No. 326043 ID: e1c562
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what am I doing? Mint has been a great asset to our team, and has worked very hard to insure our success. Despite her peculiarities and objectionable attitude she deserves far more respect then I've given her!"

Fuze: ". . . thank you Mint, thank you for everything you've done for us, none us would have made it this far if it weren't for you, I apologize for my poor conduct and lack of respect."

Mint: "Don't worry about it Fuze, like any good soldier I'm just doing what's best for the Alliance."

Fuze always looks so sad...

He does have a bit of a 'long face'...

Huh, I wonder why he hasn't gotten surgery for his eyes. I mean, surely that would be possible?

Fuze 2011/07/14(Thu)20:47 No. 326444 ID: e1c562
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hmmm something sounded off about what she just said-

huh? what is she doing pointing the gun at-

>>326444
DODGE, POINDEXTER!

Fuze 2011/07/14(Thu)20:50 No. 326446 ID: e1c562
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oh!

I feel a sharp burning sensation in my chest!
I've been shot!

I try to cry out, but the words die in my throat

everything begins to fade . . .

FUZE

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Relax, it's just a stun gun. I'm sure she's just going to use the opportunity to get the physical gratification out of him that she'd never manage were he conscious.

>>326446
Which is hopefully limited to making him out to be a random chick she found and laughing as Meaty McHotPants gets it on only to realize... it's Fuze! (not that there's such a difference)

oken: turn around and draw your gun due to gut instinct.

WHAT A TWIST!

Fuze 2011/07/14(Thu)21:23 No. 326467 ID: e1c562
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Chapter 3: End

MINT I AM GOING TO THROTTLE THE LIFE OUT OF YOU, YOU LITTLE SHITWHORE

BELIAL FUZE IS TEN THOUSAND TIMES THE ALLIANCE CITIZEN YOU ARE, AND IT WOULD BE IN YOUR BEST INTEREST TO FUCKING TINKER WITH THAT GUN ENOUGH TO MAKE IT LETHAL AND THEN TURN IT ON YOURSELF BEFORE I GET THERE AND TEAR YOUR FUCKING FAT HEAD OFF WITH MY BARE GOD DAMNED HANDS