HOMEWORLD: The Sword of Caaliburnous (She-Ra/Homeworld crossover)

In a single flash, Ajora saw the three dimensional space - in the moment before the incoming Turani fighters opened up, she could picture their exact formation, their plan. Stick into a tight claw to focus their fire in a single, interlocking point, then break for evasion and surround tactics.

So. Don't be in their grasp, then.

The moment passed.

The Turani's guns winked in the darkness.

Ajora twisted hard on the controls. The RCS on her Blade hammered against the hull, the nozzles rattling in their housings as she kicked the fusion engine onto full burn. The weight of it, even countered by the Blade's AG systems, crushed her into her seat and caused the cockpit to thrum, like she was caught in a full force gale down on a planetary surface. The mass driver rounds meant for her swept past her tail - empty rounds, whipping into space, to join the countless billions fired over the galaxy's long, turbulent history.

With her life no longer hanging by a thread, she took a moment to sweep her head around - looking through the canopy, her HUD threw up the signal flares of the Bandits and her two wingmates. They were easily outnumbered three to one, maybe more, and the Bandits were doing their best to take advantage of it. She watched as Bow took several glancing shots along the side of his Blade as he tried to shake two Bandits on his tail - the rounds flashing in the night.

Our armor's thicker than their guns can easily penetrate, Ajora thought. Advantage.

But that advantage wouldn't matter if the Bandits kept in close on her wingmates tails.

So.

She was going to do something about it.

"I can't shake him!" Glimtara shouted as she twisted in a curving corkscrew that bought her a few precious seconds as three Bandits filled the space behind her with streams of tracers. Ajora flipped, her vision turning to a hazy red tunnel, then burned. The sudden change in gravity pushed her back into her seat and blood pounded in her ears. She thumbed down on the firing controls and the forward guns on her Blade filled space with chattering death. The Bandits had to choose: Stay on Glimtara's tail and eat a face full of mass rounds, or break.

They broke.

"Thanks!" Glimtara's voice cracked in Ajora's ears. Ajora's cheeks heated. Then she saw that Bow was trying to drive his enemies off by cutting thrust, tumbling, firing, thrusting again, tumbling, firing. It was daring - but it needed something extra. She grinned, then cut her own thrust. Her aching body thanked her...until she tumbled herself again, threw in a hard burn, and started spraying down the cluster of Bandits. They broke wildly, and Bow waggled the angular chisel that was his fighter's crude approximation of 'wings' at her.

"Form on my wing, Glimtara," Bow said, his voice firm. "Lets show them why you don't break formation so easily."

Glimtara and he matched velocities, their noses angling towards the Bandits that scrambled to recover from their scattering. Their course took them ahead of the ion array frigate. Ajora couldn't believe her eyes. Her training had hammered home, again and again and again, you never crossed a beam line. Then she remembered, echoing in her head.

What the hell was that.

"BURN! BURN! BURN!" Ajora shouted. "Now! Now!"

The nose of the Assassin winked, for a moment, with red light.

The two Blades kicked their thrusters on.

Then a scything beam of brilliant red light ripped through where they had been moments before, screaming through space, the nose of the Assassin trying to track and bring to bear on the two fighters - but they had moved quickly enough that they had managed to clear the range on the Assassin's RCS adjustments. Before the beam even got close to them, the emitter had faded and dimmed down to a dull, glowing red.

"What the fuck was that?" Glimtara shouted as she, to her credit, opened fire on a Bandit and took out their engine section in a spray of rupturing ceramics. The Bandit kept going for a few hundred meters, tumbling, before it flared to life like a tiny sun. Bow had shot another one's cockpit out - a murderously good burst of mass rounds, Ajora had to admit.

"Ion canon!" Ajora said, her voice tight as she watched the Assassin for a moment. It wasn't showing any sign of cooling in a hurry - good. It was standard ion cannon fire rate then. You never knew when a Turani might trick their vehicle out with something they'd found on some rimworld that had been built when the Precursors had walked the galaxy. "It's a beam weapon, anti-capital."

"And it's heading for the Mothership," Bow said, grimly as he swung his fighter around - taking advantage of the disruption in the Turani formation to take out another's engines. This Turani managed to eject in time. Glimtara decided to match him with her own spray of mass driver rounds.

The Mothership loomed in the distance - kilometers upon kilometers of decks, holding the last survivors of the entire Kushan people. All of them that were left - and would ever be, if they couldn't find a Homeworld. And as Ajora watched, bright blue flickers came...and the rest of the Turani task force arrived. She counted at least one more frigate before she had to jerk her gaze back to the battle.

"Well, at least we're not going to be bored," she said, trying to sound chipper.

She might have bought time enough for her friends to clear out space a little - but this battle was far from over.

"Hey, are you gonna shoot any of these jerks down, or is it all on us?" Glimtara asked, her voice playful, snarky.

Ajora grinned.
---
CURRENT SITUATION
Since Ajora used a power, 3 NPCs could act! However, each fighter (being lowly 1 action NPCs) had already acted, leaving only the frigate (a 2 action NPC) to act! It fired it's BEAM WEAPON, which does 40 (!!) damage in a 40 hex long line. AOE damage takes effect when you enter the AOE or if you end your round in it! So, Glimtara and Bow flew out of it using their free move, then both took their actions - taking 1 then 2 then 3 heat to take out a bandit, a bandit and a bandit. Then Glimtara vented her 6 heat to 0 with her End Turn power of Just as Planned, which gives her 1 Planning Oomph to place on the field.

She gives it to you! You can spend it as a free action to get +1 to a skill check.

Bow, meanwhile, vents 3 of his 6 heat to use the Danger Close power he has. He gives himself 2 Danger Close oomphs, which he can expend to negate an AOE's damage on himself. Just in case he gets stuck in a situation with an ion cannon!

The round ends, all oomphs decay (leaving Bow with 1)

Then I, the GM, spend shock! This is a Danger 11 (0.5 per goon, 6 for the captain), and there are 3 PCs! That means I have 33 Shock, which I spend to bring in reinforcement waves! I'll spend 12 to bring in two more Ion Cannon Frigates around the Mothership, and the remaining 9 to bring in 18 Bandits, also around the mothership! I'll keep the remaining 12 for future use!

The arriving NPCs act! The 18 bandits will begin by engaging the NPC defenders of the mothership, clearing room for the Ion Cannons to open fire! They do 40 (!!) damage! Even reduced by the mothership's 21 armor, that's 38 damage! Fortunately, it is AOE damage...unfortunately, the mothership can't move!


0/6 HEAT
[ ] The mothership can take a few hits...lets clear the skies a little! Take out three fighters for 6 heat, vent all 6 to create 1 jerry rig oomph (on the mothership, they'll need it!)
[ ] Ajora will remove those damage oomphs by precise firing at the lenses and focusing apertures of the ion cannons turrets. By using her Vehicular Guns, augmented by the targeting systems of her Blade (since she needs to hit very precise targets that can't dodge well), she'll have a total value of 8 (2 for skill, +6 for targeting value) versus a diff 1 check. That removes 8 damage, then 7, then 6, then 5, then 4, then 3, then 2, then 1 (by taking multiple actions, at +1 diff each time), dropping the damage from 40 and 40 to 19 and 27. By taking 6 heat, she can drop that 27 to a 21! This means the mothership takes 0 and 0 damage (post armor.) Vent 6 heat to gain 1 jerry rig oomph (on herself.)
[ ] Write In
[ ] Write In

Ajora saw the Assassin frigates cruising in, trying to angle their heavy beam emitters towards the Mothership.

There are six hundred thousand civilians on that ship.

That thought, clear as crystal in her mind, set her moving almost before she could process it. Her hands gripped the controls as her Blade screamed forward. "Ajora, what are you doing!?" Glimtara's voice rang in her ears. "You don't have anti-capital guns on that thing!"

It was true. Even a relatively lightly armored Assassin had more dense ceramic hull plating than Ajora's forward mass drivers could handle. They'd just bounce off. But there was one thing that could get an ion frigate to redirect their weaponry: Danger to the focal lenses. They were recessed down a perfectly vertical one meter armored shaft, with raised lips around each edge to protect from spalling and shrapnel. It'd take a nearly perfect shot. Ajora heard the blaring warning of target locks and almost felt the Bandits screaming on her tail. She focused everything ahead of her.

The targeting computer chirruped.

The Assassin's nose began to glow bright red, the beam prepped.

She cut her forward thrust, kicked the RCS thrusters to the side, slewed, drifted, and fired in a single flickering heartbeat.

Her shots were wide. The mass slugs slammed into the armored lip - which did exactly what it was supposed to do, reflecting the incoming rounds away with a flare of sparks and whining metal, barely visible against the searing red light.

The pilot of the Assassin, deep in his command bridge, felt those impacts, knew what they meant...

And did what most ion crews did.

He jerked back on his controls.

The flare of mini-thrusters burst to life on the bottom of the narrow frigate, twisting the aperture away from the threat of damage - lest a single slug ruin almost fifty million Imperial marks worth of delicate ion focusing equipment. The beam that scythed out of it whipped past Ajora's fighter so close that she swore she felt heat on her cheek. She kicked on thrust again, screaming between the spread wings of the ion focusing arrays, the bandits behind her peeling off.

"Kiith's blood!" Glitara shouted. "Ajora, you are insane!"

"Look out!" Bow's voice was tight as Ajora cocked her head, switching to general frequencies.

Two Bandits whipped by her and she corkscrewed around to try and present as narrow a frame as she could - while Bow and Glimtara moved in for their flanking. One of the Bandits burst into flames, then another, but Ajora had no time to focus on that. She was speaking as fast as she could: "Fleet Command - these frigates are the best the Turani have, they have full scale ion cannons on them. Grab them, if you can!"

"Understood."

Space began to explode with flares of bright white light - and Ajora saw that the main guns on the Mothership were beginning to put out antifighter rounds. A few shrapnel pings rang off her Blade as she saw the sense to it, several Turani ships were already beginning to show signs of scoring and damage.

Then she had no time to focus on anything but the sudden scream of alarms as a Turani ship came shooting straight at her, mass drivers roaring.

---
CURRENT SITUATION
Ajora swings in, taking out the damage, then overheats. This allows 4 bandits to act. They are already in range thanks to her coming up (which is good for them, NPCs have to act then move, not the other way around) - two work togehter to create 1 Weak Point Oomphs, and two put in 14 damage! Glimmer flies in, blows one out of the air, then a second (putting her at 3 heat), then takes 1 more heat to remove the weak point oomph. She then, rather than using a power, simply takes a hit. This drops her heat to 3, but means only ONE enemy acts. It zooms in to join the fracus, then ends its turn!

Bow zooms in! He has a skill of 2, versus a diff of 1, so that's 2 oomphs, takes 6 more heat to make it 8 oomphs, reducing Ajora's damage oomphs from 14 to 6! Then he vents 3 heat to use Marksman, allowing him to shoot his weapon twice (without increasing the difficulty), meaning he takes 0 and 0 heat to hit a Bandit for enough damage to blow it to pieces!

We're now facing 17 bandits, and 4 more get to act thanks to Bow having used a power. They're out of range, so they spend their turn moving in.

You may note that a lot of the NPCs (at least 4 bandits and all the ion cannons) did not get to act. This is because there are often more NPCs than there are NPC activations based on power use and PC acting. That's how the game's supposed to work! They're zoomin' around bein dangerous!

Now, everyone loses 1 Oomph. That triggers Ajora's damage, which is 6! What that means, we shall decide in the vote...

Next, I spend my 14 Shock! I will spend 2x6 to create an environmental die for "Flack Fire" - the motherships guns guns guns! This creates a double die of doom! 2 (for radius) and 6 (for danger), counting up, centered on the current furball. Everyone in that radius (which is the BFS and 9 bandits) takes 6 damage + the scale of their vehicles, for a total of 12 damage! This is nothing for the blades, but 2 damage for the bandits! this, sadly, does nothing...FOR NOW! (it will make it easier to blow them up, because the damage hasn't been resolved yet.)

This leaves 2 shock, which I will sit on!

0/6 HEAT
Ajora has just taken 6 damage! How do you distribute it?
[ ] Ajora dodges out of the way...BARELY! (Take all 6 damage as Heat, putting you from 0 to 6)
[ ] Knocked out sensors (6 damage to sensors)
[ ] Knocked out guns (6 damage to guns)
[ ] Damaged sensors and guns (3 damage to sensors, 3 damage to guns)
[ ] Disabled ship (6 damage to hull - you will have to eject)
[ ] Write In (no matter what, all damage must do something. You can't spend 6 damage to your fusion drive, because it takes 11 damage to disable it. You can take 3 heat and then take 3 damage to sensors! If you want!)