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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lazybones" data-source="post: 5229530" data-attributes="member: 143">Heh, we'll learn more about the Blaster Launcher shortly. It featured strongly in the final part of the campaign. In NWN terms, it fired off a Hellball spell, which was pretty nasty (10d6 each electric, acid, fire, and sonic to everyone within a wide burst).Just a note that I'm going on vacation next week. I'm bringing my flash drive with me, but I don't know when I'll have access to a computer, so updates may be sporadic. I'll be back by the following Monday. * * * * * Session 23 (September 29, 2008)Chapter 103Heat rushed through the open visor of Vasily’s helmet, searing his flesh.  He raised an arm to protect his face, but felt impacts on his chest and shoulder, and could smell the acrid tang of burning flesh.  His flesh. He closed his eyes; he couldn’t trust them, although the darkness only slightly helped the swirling disorientation he felt.  He reached down to his belt, to his right side, where he carried his explosive grenades.  His hand closed on one, and he yanked it free, triggering the delay and hurling it blindly ahead.  He could hear it pinging off the walls over the sound of the plasma blasts, then there was a loud roar, and alien screams.  He opened his eyes, blinked.  The corridor had returned to normal, although streaked with black plasma burns.  Several sectoids were down, and as he watched another, tottering, collapsed as a plasma bolt sheared off half of its skull.  Jane and Hadrian were both firing, and as Vasily watched the last sectoid still standing withdrew back through the doors. Without conscious thought Vasily found himself back on his feet, pausing only to recover his dropped pistol before he charged down the corridor.  The door refused to open, but with a single shot he destroyed the locking mechanism, and the portals slid open.  A sectoid was there, lifted its pistol to shoot at him, but Vasily shot it out of its hands with a lucky snap shot.  The alien turned to flee, but was cut down from behind as Jane blasted it. The alien bridge was crammed full of alien navigational gear, command consoles, and display screens.  Vasily saw more movement behind a bank of machinery and didn’t hesitate, arcing another grenade that exploded to another cacophony of fire and alien screams.  Hadrian and Jane pushed forward, shooting another alien that staggered out of cover, trails of green alien blood slipping down its chest.  There was another shot as Hadrian made sure of a last foe, and then, quiet.“No Ethereal,” Jane reported.  She went over to one of the consoles, where bright indicators flickered and flashed, and started fiddling with the controls.“No Elerium, either,” Hadrian said.  “See if you can find schematic of ship,” Vasily said.  His attention was drawn to a large console toward the front of the room.  It was projecting a three-dimensional hologram of the entire planet, hovering over the unit like a ghost.  But before he could look at it more closely, he heard Jane exclaim to his left, “Communications console here!  I’ve got the signal from the Lightning…”  He joined her just as Ken’s voice came through the console.  “Alpha, is that you?  Where the hell are you guys?”“Lightning!” Vasily said.  “We in battleship.”“What the hell!  I’ve been trying to reach you for over an hour!”“We been in here for hour?  Well… it big ship.”“Okay, we’ve got sixteen alien ships headed our way.  Like, really fast.  I’ve been sending Grace my scans, and she doesn’t think that the nuke the Firestorm-1 is carrying will even scratch that ship.  You’ve got to take it out from the inside.  You’ve got to find the Elerium power source and set it to blow, ASAP!”Vasily looked to Jane.  “Go get others ready to go,” he told her.  Glancing over at Hadrian, who was working at another console, Vasily asked, “Hadrian?”“Not sure I can make sense of this,” the Marine said.  “Most alien ships, Elerium on ground floor, with engines,” Vasily said.  “Let’s go!”They made their way back to where they’d left James and Catalina.  The doctor had a new wound on his left hip, and two more sectoids lay dead on the floor, but Catalina was alive, and stable for the moment.  Jane and Mary took up the stretcher they’d rigged for her, and followed James, the doctor limping heavily, back down toward the lower levels of the ship. Vasily ran behind them, tapping his communicator.  “Ken?  Ken?  Gah, communications still blocked.”  As they made their way back to the front of the ship, Vasily stopped Jane.  “We need to find engine room.  Take others, get in Lightning.”  “We won’t leave you behind.”“If we not find Elerium, nothing left behind,” Vasily said.  “Go!”He and Hadrian made their way back into the bowels of the ship, navigating a ramp that they had missed before, one that led deeper inside the ship.  They had to force another door, but were rewarded with the sleek shape of the alien ship’s massive engines, and at the end of the room, the flickering blue light of its Elerium crystals.  “This is going to blow sky high,” Vasily said, as he took out the last of his charges.  “Better get to exit.”“I’ll cover you,” Hadrian said.  Vasily set the charge right on the power regulator for the Elerium array, and set the timer to four minutes.  “Go!” he yelled, following the Marine back toward the front of the ship.  As they emerged from the ship, the icy cold hit them like a hammer.  Vasily saw the others below, in the shelter of the ridge.  He also saw the Lightning zoom by, bright flashes of plasma energy exploding around it.  He and Hadrian ran toward the ship while the others came from the side, converging on it as Ken set the vessel down.  A dark shape appeared in the sky, but suddenly exploded in a violent flare; Vasily caught a faint glimpse of the Firestorm’s outline before it vanished back into the storm. The aircraft had barely settled long enough for them to jump inside before Ken took it back up into the sky, climbing at a steep angle.  James and Mary held onto Catalina and each other, while the others grabbed onto the seats as best they could; there was no time to strap in.  The Lightning bucked and jerked as it took fire, but held together as they were pressed down by the force of the vessel’s acceleration.  After a few more seconds the pressure eased enough for them to get into their seats and buckle in, while James and Jane worked together to get Catalina fastened into hers.   They finished just in time, as the aircraft suddenly bucked wildly, as though it had been smacked hard from behind.  A massive rumbling shook the ship, a crazy burst of turbulence that finally eased, leaving them all breathing heavily. Ken’s voice came over the intercom.  “Everyone okay?  Man, I wish you could see what I’m seeing right now.  The aliens are breaking off pursuit… there’s a huge fireball over the alien base…  We put the hurt on those bastards!”There was a collective sigh of quiet relief.  “But… what happens next?” Mary asked. Vasily turned to her.  His armor was blasted and broken, his face blackened and burned, oozing blood where the skin had cracked.  Somehow the upper half of his right ear had been mostly torn away, and it dangled on a few shreds of flesh.  The entire assembly encasing his right arm was bent and ruined, and almost immobile.  Dozens of small holes still penetrated his chestplate on and around his right shoulder, and a mixture of soot, blood, grease, and alien gore covered his legs almost up his waist.  “Next?” he said, leaning back in his chair.  “Next we do all over again.”</blockquote>

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