Looks like this was likely the power cable to the first floor. That's not going to be a simple fix.

Could you get back up into the ceiling in the Security Room and see if the power cable runs back there? Then you could cut it with the plasma sword. Failing that, you could break the seat and back off that broken chair in the other room and use them as "stepping stones" in the electrified water, assuming they're non-conductive. Either way, once you're close enough to the power cable, you can jump onto it and climb up to get a clear shot at Rokoa.

Of course, this plan is moot if the bio-armor is electrically insulated. If it is, you could even pick the power cable up to zap Rokoa with the live end, if you get the chance.

1/2 Polo 2012/04/05(Thu)22:49 No. 398951 ID: d6af4f
File 133369134340.png - (22.12KB , 800x800 , 225.png )

I move back, and use my grappling hook to move back into the ceiling. I do not know if bio armor is resistant to electricity, but I would not think Rokoa would set up such a trap if it were.

I am also reluctant to spend my frags too liberally now.

2/2 Polo 2012/04/05(Thu)22:49 No. 398952 ID: d6af4f
File 133369139194.png - (11.39KB , 700x700 , 226.png )

There is a wall extension that blocks passage, but I can see three wires that move through that each appear they could be the stripped one in the hall. They do not plug into anything that I can reach, so I will either need to guess one at a time, ignore them, or save time and cut all of them here.

Fuck it. Plasma sword all three. We have the advantage in the dark, anyway.

>>398952
Cheat. Cut a hole in the wall above it so you can look through-wait then she'll see us, nevermind. Actually, I suspect she has a plasma rifle aimed at this location, where she expects you to cut the wire. So keep your head off to the side.

*does some HAX*
The center one is the right color on this side, but what's that dark bit at the end?

Don't slice all the cables. You don't know what you'll need power for later, and sliced cables are not easy to repair.

That live cable must be drawing a lot of current through, so it's going to be warmer than the others. Try holding the back of your hand to each cable to judge the heat level. Also give each cable a solid pull. If there's no additional anchor on the cut cable, it'll pull through the hole.

>>398961
Her hands are covered, so maybe an ear would be better for gauging temperature.

Oh also be careful about getting shocked by the live wire after you cut it.

1/2 Polo 2012/04/06(Fri)00:00 No. 398965 ID: d6af4f
File 133369561916.png - (126.85KB , 700x700 , 227.png )

They are heavy, but the middle one feels perhaps a bit warmer and like I can pull it back more. Based on how the colors change in nightvision as well, I am near positive that it is the middle one.

I slice it with the plasma sword, and it immediately slips through while I keep my distance from the live wire.

I am also certain that Rokoa noticed that, and she falls down and moves to my left.

2/2 Polo 2012/04/06(Fri)00:03 No. 398967 ID: d6af4f
File 133369578281.png - (8.43KB , 900x353 , 228.png )

She probably went in to room 202.

Check to see if there is any way to firmly lock that door.

>>398967
She knows we're here, so call out to her. Tell her we can still negotiate. It doesn't have to end like this.

>>398973
Ooooorrrr we can kick in the door and scream "HEEEREESS POLO!!" like a boss.

Take a peek behind both of the knob handled doors and into room 201 for anything that could help you. Check the control panel on room 202 and lock it, if possible. Hopefully room 201 is another test room with a window into room 202, similar to the floor above.

Tell Rikek and Rakae to lock and blockade the door that leads down to the second level. If Rokoa tries heading back up while you're chasing her, that might slow her enough so you can catch up.

Polo 2012/04/06(Fri)06:06 No. 398993 ID: d6af4f
File 133371758488.png - (10.62KB , 900x353 , 229.png )

Unfortunately, it is a sliding door, I cannot imagine how I would prevent it from opening.
I check the first handle door. It appears to be a janitor's closet as well as other miscellaneous tools. Aside from cleaning supplies, there was a fire extinguisher and a few tool boxes. Other miscellaneous , but I will move on without taking look of a detailed stock.

Inside room 201 are the three neumono soldiers along with many empty beds of many various sizes. They have been so subdued that that I almost forgot about them underneath the sense of Rokoa.

Negotiating with Rokoa may be unlikely to yield anything, but it is tempting nevertheless.

Call you friends down. Set up a firing line on the door to 202.

Where is Four Stripes at?

We could take her hive members hostage for the purpose of negotiation.

Just make sure she won't, like, jump down on you from the ceiling.

get the soldiers to open the door to 202 if you can. have your strongest ranged weapon at the ready.

>>399044
Err... we could have one of them open the door while pointing a gun at its head? Hostage situation, basically?

>>399053
>hostages
>Rokoa
...you didn't think this through too well, did you?

>>399057
You should probably say WHY it's a bad idea instead of mocking me.

>>399058
He's mocking you out of the assumption you had also read the previous Asteroid Quest threads, and were equally familiar with Rokoa's unique personality.

Since it is clear you are not, I will explain:

Rokoa does not take hostages. At most, she has pretended to take hostages by snapping their neck and carrying the body with her. If a living being enters into Rokoa's 'Attack of Oppurtunity' radius, they end up dead or traumatized.

Even if Rokoa were the type to care about hostages in the first place... I'm not sure that those three would work right now, anyway. We're probably better off trying to sneak up on her - take advantage of our major strength in the situation, that she can't sense our location.

tl;dr:

Rokoa is basically a murder machine that occasionally finds a reason to restrain itself. It currently has no reason to.

>>399064
A) that contradicts what she said earlier in this thread and also what happened in the mission in the main thread, and
B) WE are the one with the hostage.

We don't know SHIT about how Rokoa reacts to the enemy holding a hostage.

>>399053
>>399057
>>399058
>>399064
>>399065
>>399066
>>399078

Are we certain that this is still the same cannon? It is quite possible this is an out-of-time intermission, as last we saw Rokoa (>>384706), she was definitely pretty far away from here.

It is likely a prequel.

Call Rikek and Rakae and inform them that Rokoa broke the electrical cable to the first level, so there's no way to get the equipment up there working for now. Get them down here to provide backup when you breach room 202. But before breaching from the hall, check the ceiling in room 201 for another way into room 202.

>>399078
Going by the general attitude of Rokoa and Rokoa's hive, she'd probably shoot through the hostage to hit Polo. Rokoa knows her hive's soldiers are tough, and these soldiers would have somewhat failed in her eyes, since they were captured. Where the price of that failure lies on the scale of discipline to death is unknown.

>>398565
I addressed your question in the quest-dis.
>>360802
pinch of salt required

>>399097
Second post no longer seems to exist.

So, the neumono see the salikai as monsters because they don't do empathy. I assume they don;t all enjoy inflicting pain, though.

>>399100
Let me try a direct link
http://tgchan.org/kusaba/questdis/res/358671.html#i360802

>>399106
Oh, cool, thanks. Using >> doesn't seem to work between boards. Links work fine, though.

1/2 Polo 2012/04/06(Fri)19:19 No. 399128 ID: d6af4f
File 133376515681.png - (11.70KB , 800x706 , 230.png )

Four stripes is one or two floors down, depending on how much of a gap between two floors there are.

I have great doubts that a hostage may help, but given their docility, I don't believe it would hurt either. Perhaps I will call Rikek and Rakae down here as well. They can remain in the jammer bubble themselves. On the other hand, they probably are in the middle of barricading the door, and perhaps it is best if I face Rokoa.. alone..

"Rikek, Rakae, please come downstairs instead and give me backup. I am going to talk to Rokoa. Just stay off to the side and watch my back."

A moment passes while I gather myself, before telling Kara to follow me. It didn't strike me at first, but I realized how odd it is that she does follow my order rather than me having to pick her up and guide her along. The manner in which the predators are affecting them are beginning to get entirely unpredictable, not that I ever fully understood them. I may want to test this fact later. Nonetheless, because of the unpredictable nature, I would rather bring one soldier than all three. I doubt it would make a difference to Rokoa.

With all of us gathered and the hostage in position, I hit the button, and the door opens.

2/2 Polo 2012/04/06(Fri)19:21 No. 399130 ID: d6af4f
File 133376531273.png - (17.16KB , 800x706 , 231.png )

>"Hello. Nice armor you've got on."

The lights inside are off. It's likely that she sensed Kara coming.

"... I want to negotiate. If you try anything, I'll... shoot your hivemate."
>"You don't say. Let's negotiate, then. Who do you like least among your friends? The wimpy boy, or the family runt?"

"I'm an emotional cripple, like you said. I don't care about either."

Then cut her into many tiny pieces and incinerate the pieces.

Okay, that'll probably end up causing a paradox, but you should at least try.

Say "run". Shoot the barrel.

She's going to take it a lot worse than we will.

"that fire will hurt you more then it will hurt me, simply put, i'm calling your bluff"

Kill plan:
Shut the door. Then shove the plasma sword in the lock to disable it on both sides. After that, start cooking a grenade and cut a hole into the door to toss it in. Then slap the fallen panel over the hole to keep her from throwing it back out NO MATTER WHAT.

Talk plan:

Tell her that's irrelevant. We're willing to take the deal she gave us before in exchange for safe passage offworld for both you and your friends, and some way to improve the odds that you'll come back from the mission alive, aside from her armor. She's not going to kill your friends, mostly because she's going to be tied up with guns pointed at her while you're gone.

>>399130
Don't say anything. Shoot the base of the match, then shoot her in her good eye. Get the hell back, because she's going to be wildly swinging that axe at you. Dodge to your right so you all have a clear shot, then unload into her. When you're certain she's dead, keep firing.

If that barrel is open you could probably kick it and it will splash all over her and her candle thing.She also doesn't seem to have any guns, so keep an eye on her spacing from you if it all goes south backpedal and shoot.

Now she seems to be using the barrel of fuel as a bomb, but if she lights it up it'll probably just burn instead of explode. you could probably just shoot her.

Until you can get word from your hive it's best not to assume that's a safe place to retreat to anymore. About all you can gain at this point is information that Rokoa might know. If you learn why her hive has landed here you may be able to negotiate on their terms or at least figure out how to avoid them in whatever self destructive campaign they've embarked. The other thing you might want to know is who is this human Rokoa wants killed and what are the reasons that her hivemates would not have simply done the deed already.

In exchange you can tell her what you know of the predators and how you came to be in such an unfortunate position with regard to her hive. That is, you were hunting moton eggs as a tradition, when all hell descended upon your pathway out.

String Rokoa along for now; Answer "The wimpy boy." Then ask if she knows how to lift the lockdown.

Perhaps play to her vanity and compliment her on taking down that salikai bare handed. Maybe thank her for saving you the trouble of killing it yourself.

1/4 Polo 2012/04/06(Fri)21:20 No. 399146 ID: d6af4f
File 133377245594.png - (11.97KB , 700x700 , 232.png )

"That fire would hurt you more than it would hurt me."
>"Fire? This isn't some regular fuel. Yes, it will hurt me more than it hurts you if it goes off, but is that okay with you? There are more things below this bunker, and you'll have to go through all that if you want to get out of here scott free. The salikai, before I toasted him, told me it was like a whole subterranean jungle down there of things that not just seem to hate neumono, but seem to hate all living things as a whole. He had a whole family, he said! Gonna be real ticked off when they hear their green buddy is dead. Real interesting, and I'd love to see it. Think you can handle it yourself after you take a point blank explosion, with my armor or not?
"All that is irrelevant. Who is this human you wanted out of the picture? I am still willing to listen to that for safe passage out of here."
>"Just a trader, but I'm very very certain he's going to try and pull his diplomatic strings and play us like puppets. Rest of my hive won't listen, but I'd like to look out for 'em, you know? I don't want to do it myself, but if I can get someone outside the hive to do it, no skin off my back. After all, it's not like they'd believe you if you claimed I did it. Pretty sure Kara there is too braindead to worry about it either. A suicide mission on our flagship, like I said, but I think you'd do it for your buddies to get out of here!"
"I'm an emotional cripple, aren't I?"
>"No, idiot, if you really were, you'd be a rogue. You're cold and calm to a fault, and would see a mission through to its end and try to save everyone."
"I would like to know how to end the lock down."
>"Too bad I didn't ask the salikai how to do that, after getting him to lock it down. I just didn't care. Now about that suicide mission? If you accept, I'm sure we'll be able to carve our way through this facility just fine."

She's insane, and many of her actions don't line up, like why she didn't leave here or how she has been so lucid despite supposedly being 'pacified'. Trying to work with her, either to escape, hatch plans or do anything... I can't see it happening. Every part of the back of my head has been telling me that she needs to die, and the cards she has to play against me doing that will likely only strengthen over time.

2/4 Polo 2012/04/06(Fri)21:21 No. 399147 ID: d6af4f
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She is completely superior to me, and as I think of ways to kill her, almost all of them I am sure would result in my death instead. I have to keep it simple. It might be a bluff that this is a liquid that would explode, but I am absolutely positive that she is not bluffing when she could and would throw the fire inside.

"Rakae... Rikek..." I whisper quietly behind the cover of Kara.

They don't say anything, but they look to me to ask what it is. It is only important to understand the next word anyways.

"Run!!"

The door swings back to slam shut.

It's the little satisfactions I like most. A little drink after a long, hot day, a nice little word from a friend, or a day off of work that I have inarguably earned.

3/4 Polo 2012/04/06(Fri)21:21 No. 399148 ID: d6af4f
File 133377251319.png - (15.62KB , 700x700 , 234.png )

BLAM

So I can honestly say that I am absolutely elated, that in this move, I have wiped off that unending smile of Rokoa's. Even if it was just for just a fleeting instant, she didn't feel excitement or aggression, and just felt an honest, unpleasant surprise.

Asteroid Quest - Intermission 1-1 END (To Be Continued) Polo 2012/04/06(Fri)21:22 No. 399149 ID: d6af4f
File 133377255017.png - (8.11KB , 700x700 , 235.png )

It was worth that alone.

Polo?
POLO!?
POLOOOOOOOOOO!

You've created a TIME PARADOX

>>399149
Ok, now get Kara out of there!

>>399155
Erm... Kara is the thralled soldier that Polo is holding as a hostage/meat shield. If Polo survives this, it'll be 'cause Kara took the brunt of the flames and explosion.

too bad she would survive even if a nuke went off while she was fucking it.