ALL THE BRICKS - Prologue: What Rough Beast

Lunchmeat goes sprawling a few steps, three new holes in her ballistic vest. She was nearly knocked unconscious by the impacts but none of the bullets seem to have made it through. She'll have to remember to post positive feedback for Ares Macrotechnology on her favorite social media platform. Assuming she survives the gunfight.

[sblock=OOC]6 bullets fired, RC 7 = No recoil

Agility 8 + Automatics 6 + Machine Pistols spec 2 + Take Aim 2 - Suppression 5 = Pool of 15

Attack 1
Rolling 8 dice, 3 successes ^link
Scored 1 net success
Ares Crusader II Damage Value 7P + 1 net success = modified Damage Value 8P
This does not meet or exceed Lunchmeat's armor, dealing stun damage
Target rolls 5 successes on Body + Armor, reducing damage to 3S
Target dealt 3 Stun Damage

Attack 2
Rolling 7 dice, 4 successes ^link
Scored 1 net success
Ares Crusader II Damage Value 7P + 1 net success = modified Damage Value 8P
This does not meet or exceed Lunchmeat's armor, dealing stun damage
Target rolls 5 successes on Body + Armor, reducing damage to 3S
Target dealt 3 Stun Damage

Dealt a total of 6 Stun Damage to target. 33/40 rounds remaining in each Crusader[/sblock]

---

[MENTION=4936]Shayuri[/MENTION], it's Death Otter's turn.

Death Otter glances at the displays she'd summoned around herself, including the feed from her team's gun cameras. Things didn't look particularly good. Stealth suit or not, if the car got rushed she'd be in danger. But Black IC meant this host's security response was jacked up too. Unless their spider was a slacker, he'd be in any time...and letting him take the initiative would be very dangerous indeed. If he could link-lock her, this whole op became very VERY messy.

"You guys are gonna hafta hold just a biiiiiiiit longer," she muttered, then whirled to fix FUTBOL with her gimlet gaze.

"Alright, ten HUT!"

The sprite hunched down, and its blazing eyes narrowed. Its skin was grey and leathery and kind of...corrugated, like a rhino's, under the armor.

"Here's the play. Wait here, until a new persona shows up, then KILL IT and anything else I point at! Target priority is my designation, then target threat level, then anything you want." She patted its cheek, and it rumbled angrily. "Go to town!"

She turned back to her hovering readouts and tapped a quick set of instructions. Messing with sprites didn't ping on the Overwatch Division, but she'd been hacking too...better see how much leeway she still had.

(Giving command to sprite to wait for the spider and then attack; with Otter being able to designate targets for it as needed. Then checking OS as simple action. 13 dice in the pool.)

Death Otter let the walls of the host shake with white noise, let the sounds of the NYNet grid outside pour in. She could tell she'd left a trail of breadcrumbs for GOD to follow, but not too much. Kind of funny considering what a disaster things had become in meatspace.

[sblock=OOC]As I explained earlier, your Overwatch Score would normally be higher. It'd contain results for all the illegal things you did as part of the Pensodyne run and your attempts to put marks on the subway train icons in order to mark its host, all the Spoof Commands in order to take control of the train as much as you have so far, etc. I don't like making rolls against players for things they haven't actually done, so instead I only rolled once for the host prior to the start of the game. Then the successes scored against her when she failed to hack the lights. Death Otter's OS is very low indeed.

You scored 5 successes ^link
This exceeded the 6 dice rolled against you

Death Otter's OS is currently 4 - not including any successes made against her during the Check Overwatch Score attempt.

So her Overwatch Score range is currently: 4 - 10. She has plenty of time before having to worry about GOD.[/sblock]

---

Lum's Roto-Drone doesn't have a clear lock on Lunchmeat at all. It's still lurching from the recoil of its heavy assault rifle, still grinding along the textured steel floor after its close call with balaclava, still in the field of suppressing fire, no way it could make a shot. Instead it grinds along the floor toward the corner. GRGRGRGRGRRRRRR is the sound of scratching along its belly. That's going to mess with its paint job.

[sblock=OOC]The drone is making Take Cover and Take Aim simple actions.[/sblock]

---

Lunchmeat runs her fingers over her chest, feels the hot bullets in her vest. She can't believe she's alive. Next moment she's reaching into a jacket pocket and bringing a transparent plastic inhaler full of black-red smoke to her lips. She sucks in with all she's got and sprays the drug into her lungs. Immediately she's drooling and spitting in a rage, face and arms shaking, eyes wider than ever. The veins on her face are burning red through her skin. The empty inhaler falls to the floor. "Rrrrrraaaaaaaaaahhhh!" Her screaming is animal. She's about to be totally out of control.

Kamikaze. It's a hardcore, super-illegal combat stimulant particularly famous for its use by military forces in west Africa. You'll run faster, you'll jump higher, and you'll make all the three pointers. It's highly addictive and it will make you go insane (literally) but it'll pick you right up in a pinch.

[sblock=OOC]At the end of this round Lunchmeat will get +1 Body, +1 Agility, +2 Strength, +1 Willpower, +2 Physical Limit, +2D6 Initiative Dice, +High Pain Tolerance 3.[/sblock]

---

[MENTION=40413]GlassEye[/MENTION], it's Lum the Mad's turn.

The sparks and PRICHOWs of bullet impacts are all around Lum. It's a good thing he made it to cover behind the side of this bench. He hears Lunchmeat scream.

[sblock=OOC]Lum the Mad is getting -3 to all actions due to wound penalties. On top of that, he's getting -5 due to suppression. If he's going to do anything involving dice rolls it's recommended that he delay his initiative to go after balaclava this pass (delaying would give him a -1 penalty to actions but it would not permanently reduce his initiative, just for this one pass). Balaclava is going to have to reload and that'll get rid of the suppression penalty, allowing Lum to return fire from cover or do whatever else you have planned for him.[/sblock]

Lum the Mad

Slumped against the wall of the train car the pain isn’t too bad. As long as Lum doesn’t breathe, that is. He fights through the pain-haze and tries to figure out what he needs to be doing. Remote pilot EmOne and get some payback by perforating Lunchmeat? As satisfying as that might be EmOne can handle that on its own and he needs to be thinking ahead. And with bullets pinging all around he can hardly think at all.

[sblock=OOC]Drone: do the Take Cover & Take Aim actions count to negate recoil?
Lum will delay until Balaclava ends the suppressive fire, then.[/sblock]

GlassEye,

[sblock=OOC]

GlassEye said:

Drone: do the Take Cover & Take Aim actions count to negate recoil?

Click to expand...

The way recoil works is that it grows by 1 for every bullet you fire and it accumulates over turns. Simply spending a pass not shooting (as it has just done) will totally reset recoil. The Roto-Drone will be back to slaughtering meatsacks on its next pass.[/sblock]

---

[MENTION=6776381]Mosier[/MENTION], it's Herald's turn.

Herald is on the floor but otherwise out in the open. Balaclava has to reload soon but Lunchmeat will be back on the attack any moment now.

[sblock=OOC]Just as a reminder, the suppressing fire will last until balaclava's next pass, so if the fire spirit were to manifest right next to Herald it would immediately get tagged by gunfire. But it can use its movement in astral space before manifesting as a complex action. So you could have it manifest this pass, say, right behind balaclava and Lunchmeat. Rolling into cover with Herald's other simple action is highly recommended.[/sblock]

Herald scoots over and takes cover behind a train seat. "Kill that one first!" Herald commands, gesturing to Lunchmeat.

Oof. The effort of speaking even such a short sentence as that has winded him. He coughs, and there's a rusty metallic taste of blood in his mouth. Herald is thinking that the taste isn't as unpleasant as he imagined, but the thought is interrupted by an eruption behind him. A figure is suddenly standing beside Lunchmeat, terrifying and familiar. The figure's skin is charred and cracking, not quite able to conceal a red-hot power threatening to burst forth from within. The thing's snarling and glaring at Lunchmeat with flickering embers for eyes, and blood-tipped horns curving around and coming to a point facing directly forward.

Herald is comforted by the knowledge that Lunchmeat is about to have a very bad day.

Balaclava's shooting comes to an abrupt end as molten shards erupt from the æther around him. The interior of the car is ablaze and wageslaves are running toward the tail of the train. "Shi-i-it!" Though clearly terrified, balaclava keeps it together. It's somewhat impressive, really - he's been the most professional of the bushwackers since the beginning. He doesn't flee from cover and begins immediately the process of ejecting his current magazine and slamming a new one in place.

[sblock=OOC]Balaclava spends his pass reloading.[/sblock]Initiative: Round Two, Pass Two
Crack Sprite - 16 ^link
Faust - 14 ^link
FUTBOL - 14 ^link
Death Otter - 13 ^link
Lum's MCT-Nissan Roto-Drone - 12 ^link
Patrol IC - 10
Lunchmeat - 08
Lum the Mad - 03 ^link
Herald - 03 ^link
Balaclava - 03
Fire Spirit - 01 ^link

[sblock=Fire spirit note]The fire spirit has manifested, so it's using non-astral initiative. Its initiative dropped by 6. ^link[/sblock]

---

Faust doesn't let up his shooting at Lunchmeat, spraying another half-dozen rounds at the traitor. She's peppered with more bullets, recoiling with each impact.

"Rrraaaaaaahhh!" Her neck and arms are bloodied, but kamikaze has eliminated her fear.

[sblock=OOC]12 bullets fired, RC of 7, for a total Recoil of 5.

Agility 8 + Automatics 6 + Machine Pistol spec 2 + Take Aim 1 - Recoil 5 = Pool of 12

Attack 1
Rolling 6 dice, 3 successes ^link
Scored 2 net successes
Ares Crusader II Damage Value 7P + net successes = modified Damage Value 9P
This met or exceeded Lunchmeat's armor, dealing physical damage
Target rolls 4 successes on Body + Armor, reduces damage to 5P
Target dealt 5 Physical Damage

Attack 2
Rolling 6 dice, 2 successes ^link
Scored 0 net successes
Attack missed

Funnily, if the first attack had done slightly less damage you would have knocked her out with stun damage[/sblock]

---

[MENTION=4936]Shayuri[/MENTION], it's Death Otter's turn.

The IC suppressed, the spider trap set, Otter could finally turn her attention back to the actual TASK at HAND.

Saving their collective butts.

A quick glance at the gun cameras showed the baddies still one car away. Right. She grabbed the icon for the team's car's coupling mechanism and augered her personas claws into it, and tried her trick again...commanding it in the system host's 'voice' to unlatch the connection between cars all the cars, both ahead and behind. Where they'd be going, they didn't want to take anyone else.

(Spoofing Command, on our car's coupling mechanism. She'd like to have it pop all our connections if she can do that as a single action. Otherwise start with the one between us and the cars behind us. 13 dice if I recall right.)

Lum the Mad

Finally the hail of bullets comes to an abrupt halt. Lum struggles up to peer out of cover looking for either Lunchmeat or Balaclava. Whichever he can get in his sights, he’ll take the shot then slump back down under cover.

[sblock=OOC]
Simple Action: Semi-Auto: Pistol 2 + AGI 5 + Semi-Auto spec 2 + smartlink 2 – delay 1 – injury 3 = 7 dice
I think that’s everything.
Simple Action: Take Cover
[/sblock]