A postapocalyptic mecha quest in the vein of Evangelion. Reader discretion is advised.
You are Becca Knightely, and you don't remember a world before the coming of the Invaders and the Pale. Now at 15 years old, you're finally allowed - over the protests of your brother - to join the ranks of the Paladins, an elite core of soldiers operating the psychic mecha called the ONI, at the direction of the last adult on Earth. You're here to fight monsters, beings without a scrap of humanity. That should be simple, right?
The first few seconds after the Dive always feels like drowning, before my body remembers that the water I'm under is pumped so full of air that I can breathe it.
Then I inhale - and don't choke on water. I finally relax, weightless and free, nimble as a bird in the air - or maybe a mermaid in this water, warm as the skin it's trapped against in my armored Divesuit.
Oracle Luiz has been muttering directions through my headphones the whole time, walking me through our corner of the Pale, telling me all about the comfortable seat for me to sit in, the gauntlets and greaves that protect and track my arms and legs, the flightsticks for my hands and the pedals for my feet I use to control my Armor, the screens and readouts I use to see and fight.
Hypnotizing me, so my mind is halfway between awake and dreaming, somewhere barely beyond the Pale. In a space that's usefully liminal for anyone picking a fight with the Invaders.
Luiz snaps his fingers and my eyes snap open. "Talk to me, Bec. Status report."
"I feel great," I say, curling my hands around my half-real flightsticks, resting my thumbs besides triggers. "I'm - I'm so ready to fight."
"And that's primary induction sorted," Luiz says, with a snorted laugh. "I've formed the head."
"You formed the body," I tease. "I'm pretty sure the last time we tested my ONI Major Lam formed the head."
"Hold that thought," Luiz says. "Let's go over the mission before you Draw your arsenal out of your -"
"Heart?"
"There works too," he allowed.
Then he took a deep breath, and connected me to the team.
The reassuring smoky steel of Major Lam came through my headset, crisp and clear. "This is Sunshine, Phoenix Dragon, Double-Zero Actual. All units report."
A deep chuckle, and Reggie responded. "Romeo piloting Zero-Three, the Saturday Knight. All systems go. You there, Bec?"
"Right here. Wouldn't miss this for the world," I said.
"Cut the chatter, report in," Major Lam said - cool but not cruel, nothing personal.
I felt myself sit up straight, clutch the sticks in my control gauntlets. "This is Crybaby piloting Genki Valkyrie, Zero-Four, awaiting briefing," I said. "Sir."
I could practically hear Lam nod approval. "Mission is simple. The Invaders are pushing at our base; we're pushing back. Onieroscope tagged three Cataphract-class raiders heading our way. Each of us gets one. If you destroy yours, report it and I will inform the other that you're on the way to help. Any questions?"
"None, sir," Reggie said, voice a lot more sober than it was a minute ago.
"Wilco," I said. Or: Orders received. Will comply.
"Crybaby." Lam pauses before continuing. "You've been assigned to intercept your target because it's tailing a VIP."
My breath hitches for a moment.
"So that's where my brother went off to this morning," I mutter.
"Radio discipline, Crybaby," Lam reminds me - not harshly. "He's escorting new recruits to the base. Make the enemy pick on someone it's own size instead of them. Questions?"
I take a deep breath. "No, sir."
"Start final preparations and launch," Lam ordered. "Good hunting, Crybaby, Romeo. Lam out."
We two acknowledge, and then I get a message intended only for me.
"I'll try to wrap up fast and come running," Reggie said.
"My hero," I deadpan. "No, I've got this."
"Hope so," Reggie allows. "Good luck."
I grunt my thanks as I Draw out my ONI's systems.
Welcome to The Children's Crusade, a postapocalyptic mecha quest. Don't say I never got you anything for Christmas, SV!
The way it works is that you need dice to power the systems of the ONI - the Onerial Neural Interface you use to create a psychic mecha. You get dice for each optional system you bring into play and the chassis - powered by psychic energy, your Resonance Factor with individual named characters.
You must always have Primary Targeting, Communications, and Heatsinks active - and draw on your relationship to your Oracle to create your psychic mecha's Chassis. You may then similarly draw on other characters you're on at least a first-name basis with to gain weapons and more dice (Resonance Factors). In future missions, you'll get to pick your loadout; for our purposes, it's predetermined here.
By default, each system requires a single die to power up; trauma to the pilot will increase this.
And yes, this is based on a particular tabletop game I'm sure some of you will recognize. Part of my permission to eventually novelize this from the author of that game involves their request that I file the serial numbers off of it, so I'm not naming it. That said, be warned of these extensive content warnings:
Child Soldiers
Child Neglect
Abusive authority figures
Drug abuse
Implied teenage sexuality (nothing "onscreen," but relationships including romantic relationships are a major factor)
Implied sexual abuse
Unreality
Implied Cannibalism
Racism, Sexism, Homophobia, Transphobia
MISSION 00 SYSTEMS MANIFEST - Rebecca Knightley
> PRIMARY TARGETING
>> Required to advance mission objectives and damage Invader forces. No dice or a negative die fails the objective. Blank dice stall the enemy for one turn. Positive dice advances objectives/damages Invaders.
> COMMUNICATIONS
>> Required for pilot safety and to maintain communication with the Oracle. No or negative dice traumatizes Pilot and severs communications. Blank dice inflicts temporary Terror on the pilot and compromises communications. Positive dice (re)establish communications and protects pilot.
> HEATSINKS
>> All excess dice go here. Each negative die gains 1 Heat. Each positive die gains 3 Heat. Pilots must retire after the mission when they exceed 108 lifetime heat.
Main thread: Please roll:
> 2d6 for the VALKYRIE CHASSIS
> 3d6 for the REACTIVE SHIELD
> 2d6 for the SCANNER CROWN
> 3d6 for the PLASMA SHOTGUN
I Draw on memories of my brother's stern face, of his literally standing between me and the Colonel, and at the same time Luiz flips a switch. A panel pops out of Genki Valkyries wrist - my ONI's wrist - and I hold it out in front of me; it projects a hexagon of blue fire that covers my frame from sensor turret to tread, head to toe.
I draw on Reggie tossing out presents, scavenged books and DVDs from the mainland, with a smile (and Luiz flips a switch) and a firearm materializes in a puff of lemniscate blue, taking on the image of a magnetic bottle with an open end and a shoulder brace, a plasma shotgun projecting fireballs that splinter into many embers and shock with ionization.
I draw on a million drills and lectures and lessons well learned from the Major, (and Luiz flips a switch,) and my vision sharpens. I see additional readouts, rangefinders, and a secondary crosshairs that hours of practice tell me will lead my targets for me, as a third eye bracketed by sensors and antennae blossom from my ONI's sensor turret like a rose in fast motion.
"Genki Valkyrie, all systems go," I say.
"Double Zero actual acknowledge, you are cleared for launch. Repeat, cleared for launch," Lam says.
"Allez," I mutter, and grin.
"Oop!" Luiz replies, as I'm catapulted up over the bay. "Moving you to intercept the target - it's making it's way across the Bay Bridge, presumably to intercept our boys in the 108 bus. You see them?"
My target isn't hard to find - wouldn't be hard to find with the Mark-I Eyeball, let alone with Lam's Fancy Blinkenlichten Array. The Invaders are capable of subtlety, of daggers in the night, but Cataphracts are blunt objects - hammers they bring down on any mortals too uppity to realize that dreams are under their new management. In this layer of the Pale, Cataphracts ("Cataphractoi," Yuki corrects, looking up from the comic book she's reading to push round glasses up her nose and glare at me) resemble great, black elk with skulls for heads, projecting a burning halo above their antlers.
It's impossible to miss one striding across the bay bridge, and I follow its gaze to what my dreams make of the 108 bus.
"I see it," I say, and, "Laying in intercept course."
The cataphract finds what it's looking for and the halo above it flares, spinning faster, as two pinpricks of light in the hollows of the skull's eyesockets focus on the 108 bus.
This is normally the part where I'd have some audience participation about how to allocate your power rolls, but, uh, you rolled so well that I'm not about to let you do something other than "place all of your + results sensibly." Here's what that looks like:
PRIMARY TARGETING :: + : Objective completed
COMMUNICATIONS :: + : Control maintained
LUIZ/CHASSIS :: + : System nominal
ISAAC/SHIELD :: + : System nominal
REGINALD/PLASSHOT :: + : System Nominal
VICTORIA/SENSORS :: + : System Nominal
HEATSINKS :: =--- : Sinks 3 Heat, Total 16
And now back to the show.
A lance of light, a searing ray, shrieks from it's halo towards the bus.
It meets my shield and bounces, splattering where it's not deflected into the sky, parting a cloud.
"Holy shit, warn me when you're gonna do that," Luiz breathes.
"I did. Try to establish contact with the 108," I say.
The beast rears up, snapping its baleful gaze to me, circling it's obsidian hooves like they're daggers.
"I think I got it's attention," I say.
"I think you made it mad," Luiz responds.
"Good. Mad makes you stupid," I hope out loud.
Behind me, the 108 speeds for our base on Treasure Island. Further behind me, I hear chained detonations, see flashes of light - Reggie raining fire on his target.
Good. I grin, gripping my control sticks tighter.
For all the Invaders are literal nightmares for normal humans, one for one, the ONI is stronger than any of their cataphracts. (Cataphractoi.)
That went well!
As per your success on the Objective, the 108 bus and everyone on it is safe - it will get to the base with no harm done. Becca can breathe easier about that, at least.
But now she's in a duel with an alien warmachine. (Warbeast? Both? Invader technology works on dream logic.)
I must ask you again to roll for the relationships/equipment Becca currently has loaded:
> 2d6 for the VALKYRIE CHASSIS
> 3d6 for the REACTIVE SHIELD
> 2d6 for the SCANNER CROWN
> 3d6 for the PLASMA SHOTGUN
...and hopefully get back to this thread again in a more timely fashion. In my defense, whatever bug I got FLATTENED me for a week!
> 2d6 for the VALKYRIE CHASSIS:
+-
> 3d6 for the REACTIVE SHIELD:
++0
> 2d6 for the SCANNER CROWN:
+-
> 3d6 for the PLASMA SHOTGUN:
+--
Well.
The good news is that those are a lot of + results.
The bad news is that it's not enough to cover every system.
So here are your options.
Mission 00.2 Power Allocation Vote
Pick one.
[] Tough out it's counterattack; you can take it. (Gain one Terror, which rolls over into a single point of Trauma. This is survivable - even fixable - but it's going to suck.)
[] Take it on the chest and trust Luiz's damage control skills. (Luiz can reroll any or all dice put into the Chassis, so put a - result here and hope he negates the damage. This may stress out or even damage your trust with Luiz.)
[] Roll with the punches; trust in your armor. (This will stress out your relationship with your Anchor, Luiz.)
[] Overload the Plasma Shotgun to keep it at range. (This will stress out your relationship to your comrade, Reggie.)
[] See just how much damage your Reactive Shield can absorb. (This will stress out your relationship to your brother, Isaac.)
[] Burn out the Sensor Crown to jam it's sensors. (This will stress out your relationship to Wing Commander Victoria Lam.)
I'm willing to take two out of three odds for Luiz to pull it out.
[x] Take it on the chest and trust Luiz's damage control skills. (Luiz can reroll any or all dice put into the Chassis, so put a - result here and hope he negates the damage. This may stress out or even damage your trust with Luiz.)
[X] Take it on the chest and trust Luiz's damage control skills. (Luiz can reroll any or all dice put into the Chassis, so put a - result here and hope he negates the damage. This may stress out or even damage your trust with Luiz.)
Having entirely forgotten the mechanics for stress vs. damage, I'm willing to play the odds here.
[X] Tough out it's counterattack; you can take it. (Gain one Terror, which rolls over into a single point of Trauma. This is survivable - even fixable - but it's going to suck.)
[X] Take it on the chest and trust Luiz's damage control skills. (Luiz can reroll any or all dice put into the Chassis, so put a - result here and hope he negates the damage. This may stress out or even damage your trust with Luiz.)
Having entirely forgotten the mechanics for stress vs. damage, I'm willing to play the odds here.
Stress is temporary damage that prevents further gains in Trust until addressed. If your Stress in a relationship ever exceeds Trust, it rolls over to a point of damage.
Damage permanently reduces Trust. (You can regain it later, with difficulty, but it can't be easily fixed the way Stress can.)
