All Along the Watchtower - a Modern Strike Witches Quest

[Zoosmell]

---

[X] Food truck
-[X] Local (sausages and arepa)
--[X] Cheese arepa
--[X] Eggs arepa
--[X] Meat arepa

---

The food trucks call out to you like sirens to a sailor in a typhoon. You know there's no way they could be considered 'healthy'. The smell of motor oil mixed with the smell of cheese and meat (and their grease) emanates from them. You can see a deep fryer hissing through the window, and a grill with arepa buns, tomatoes, and meat directly on it, with eggs to the left in a pan. Over the sound of cooking fats and an idling engine, you can hear your arteries clogging and your waistline swelling like a Liberion's.

It's intoxicating, like the food at a stadium. You need it.

You walk up to the counter and are greeted by a well-mustached man who is a very close approximation of a sphere in a white shirt and smock, as well as a chef's hat - but this is a food truck and he's not fooling anyone into thinking that this is the fine dining that requires a chef's hat. You suspect he doesn't care.

"Si?"

You pause for a moment, trying to decide how to properly ask for the arepas you want in Spanish.

"Una arepa carne, una arepa queso.... ummm.... una arepa huevos... una cola por favor."

He grimaces, but he understands your message.
Tourists. The sign's in English and Hispanic. Why don't they ever realize this? I need the English practice too.
"8,000 Pesos."

You gladly pay, slapping the money down on the counter with maybe a bit too much force. The man hrmphs before turning around to work the grill. You tilt your body side to side every few seconds to try and sneak a look at the grill, but his mathematical roundness is too great. The fact the grill is at his waist level is not helping matters.

Eventually he turns around and hands you a brown paper bag with the three arepas in it, and a paper cup with a straw. You move to a nearby bench (putting your collapsible broom on your lap to do so) and get to work on breakfast.

You'll have to go back soon, but you still have a few minutes to spend before turning in your AAR. Besides wandering around the city, you have a few options:

• There are several shopping malls very close to the base, two of them are right across the street from it.
• There is a large park directly across the highway from the base, featuring a pool, a few ponds, a zoo, and a planetarium. It's doubtful you'll have time to give them more than a passing glance, but it'd be nice to see.
• Explore the airport the base is a part of. There's probably an arcade and a few stores to explore there.
• If you're fast, you can fly up the mountains to the north and get an excellent view of the Caribbean.

---

[ ] One of the shopping malls
[ ] The park
- [ ] Planetarium
- [ ] Zoo
- [ ] Pool (You don't have a swimsuit!)
[ ] Explore the airport
[ ] Fly to the top of Pico Naiguatá
[ ] Just fly around the city
[ ] Just walk around the city

 

[Zoosmell]

---

[X] Explore the airport

---

You decide that since you're going there anyway, you may as well familiarize yourself with the airport/airbase you will be calling home.
Rollan for traffic = 90
However, as you approach the entrances you discover that you may have a small problem seeing anything inside the airport.



As it turned out, the Colombian government had decided that the moment of your arrival would be a perfectly good time to begin evacuation of the entire city of Caracas, moving everyone by plane, car, and train to the remote Andes and the Mayan border. You overhear some people talking and find out the plan was to get as many people as they could afford out by plane (as it was the fastest method), with most heading for Simón Bolívar International in Maiquetía and the rest (mostly those who either couldn't afford or couldn't be arsed to get to Maiquetía) heading to the airport in town.

Not helping matters is the Colombian government having vastly overestimated its road network's capability to handle the sudden movement of over 5 million people. You didn't notice it before because you were walking, and most of the traffic had already migrated to the airports.

Heading into the 'airport' proper, the airstrip is crowded with cargo planes filled to maximum. You spot Eli talking to a few other witches you don't recognize. She waves, and meets you as you walk towards her.

"Lieutenant Colonel! What is going on?"

"Mass evac's getting borked up, borked up bad, and borked up everywhere. Major highway out of town got blocked in a landslide, along with both major bridges on the Orinoco further east. Looks like we're going to be stuck doing escort duty for a while."

You groan. A full-scale evacuation could take weeks, and that's if the Neuroi stay in their hive and do absolutely nothing, an event you sincerely doubt will take place.

"I second that groan," Eli says. "But there's nothing we can do about it. LoN squadron 50X Caribbean may be, but we're still technically subservient to the Colombians. Unless one of the colonies or San Domingo or Cuba ask for us, expect to be doing a lot of escort duty for a while."

Wonderful.

"Speaking of duty, we have a few. There's a ship with a load of aluminum leaving from Guayana City and the Colombians want us to escort it, there's one. A transport plane full of refugees already left from Guayana city and tried to come this way dangerously close to the hive; they tried to avoid getting hit by going at night, didn't work. Colombians want us to provide air cover for the rescue effort, that's two. Lastly, there's air cover over a bauxite mine - should be only a few days, the company in charge wants to get whatever they currently have out before burying it."

"...which ones will you and Ruya be on?"

"I'll be with the ship, Ruya will be providing cover for the mine burial."
This update was actually going to feature you exploring the airport until I remembered that it's just one strip and a few hangars

---

[ ] Ship escort (go with Eli)
[ ] Rescue air cover
[ ] Mine operation cover (go with Ruya)

 

[Zoosmell]

---

[><] Rescue air cover

---

You decide rather quickly. "I will assist with the rescue operation." Life trumps property, or at least that's what your father would tell you. Besides, it wasn't like northern Colombia wasn't already swimming in aluminum. They could easily find more if they needed it so badly.

Eli seems wholly unsurprised by your decision, but not displeased either.

"All right then. Makes sense. Nomura! Fitzalan-Howard!"

Two girls walk towards the two of you. The younger is a slender Britannian who just reeks of class, the other a brown-tanned Asian girl whose ethnicity you can't quite place, though by the name you would guess she's Fusoan.

"Flying Officer Lady Louise Fitzalan-Howard, Lieutenant Tomoe Nomura, meet Junior Lieutenant Klavdia Ilyinichna Fedchenko. Junior Lieutenant Klavdia Ilyinichna Fedchenko, meet Flying Officer Lady Louise Fitzalan-Howard and Lieutenant Tomoe Nomura."

"Hello."
"A pleasure."
"Konnichiwa."

"All right you three, you can get greetings later. For now, arm up, and get in the air."

"Lieutenant Colonel," the one you assume is Louise asks, "what sort of enemies should we expect to face on this operation?"

Eli shrugs. "The pilot and copilot are both dead - we know that much at least - and the black box indicates that somehow nobody could tell if the lasers that hit the transport were coming from the ground or the air. So we're not sure what attacked the transport to begin with. More annoyingly, we haven't had much chance for recon in the area, so we don't know what could come after it - if the Neuroi even come after it at all. They may have already gotten what they were looking for, or have only been interested in shooting the transport down."

"So what you're saying is, you have no idea?"

"Correct, Flight Officer. Now get loaded up, the helicopter leaves in five minutes, and the less time you spend talkin' is the more time you spend escortin'."

---

[ ] Solely air-to-ground munitions
- [ ] Missiles
- [ ] Bombs
- [ ] Rockets
[ ] Mostly air-to-ground munitions
- [ ] Missiles
- [ ] Bombs
- [ ] Rockets
[ ] Equal mix of air-to-air and air-to-ground
- [ ] Missiles
- [ ] Bombs
- [ ] Rockets
[ ] Mostly air-to-air munitions
[ ] Only air-to-air munitions

 

[Zoosmell]

---

[><] Mostly air-to-air munitions
-[><] Missiles
-[><] Rockets

---

You load up with mostly air-to-air munitions, consisting of missiles and a few rocket pods.

Spoiler: Loadouts

You :

• 6x K-73M 'AA-11 Archer'
• 2x B-8M-1 rocket pods (Contains 20x S-8KOM high-explosive anti-tank rockets [+5 against Armor rolls]

Louise:

• 2x AIM-9X Sidewinder short-range missiles
• 6x MBDA Brimstone [+15 against Armor rolls]

Tomoe:

• 1x FIM-92 Stinger [Boosted to Heavy AA Missile status, +20 against aircraft Armor rolls]
• 4x AIM-9X Sidewinder short-range missiles
• 4x GBU-38 JDAM 500-pound bombs

The three of you quickly load up and take off simultaneously - Tomoe has a little trouble though and loudly complains in Fusoan - something about the F-35 and elephants. You don't know a word of Fusoan though so you have no idea what she actually said. And you don't know enough about Fusoan culture to recognize what she's saying.

It takes a few minutes, but you soon catch up with the helicopter. A medium sized Sikorsky that vaguely resembles a Liberion Black Hawk, but painted a brilliant white with blue stripes and a big red cross on the side. Very hard to miss, really.

"All right. Form up around the helicopter. Junior Lieutenant!"

"Da?"

"You have the mostly anti-air loadout, you take the nose. Tomoe, you take the left side, I'll take the right."

You're not sure it's a good idea to put yourself in front (Combat experience or not, you still consider yourself a bit of a newbie), but you pull ahead to the lead anyway.

The helicopter only has a top speed of 155 miles per hour, so it will take a little over an hour to reach the crash site. Below you is the smooth grassland of the Los Llanos, occasionally interrupted by trees, ponds, and cattle, along with weird rabbit-horse-things.

Spoiler: Rabbit-horse-things

You get a decent look at all of it, because you're practically flying upright. Your Strikers feel less than pleased with this, but you doubt it'll cause any problem - all Strikers can hover and upright-forward for extended periods of time, some are simply better at it than others. It helps that Strikers can only stall due to lack of air or extreme turbulence.

"Looks like it'll be a while."

---

[ ] Continue on with Klava to crash site
- [ ] Listen to the radio
- [ ] Talk with... (About? Write-in)
-- [ ] Louise
-- [ ] Tomoe
-- [ ] Ruya / Eli
- [ ] Try and contact the crew already there, if there is any.
- [ ] Skip to rescue site
[ ] Perspective hijack!
- [ ] Louise / Tomoe (Pick one)
-- [ ] Listen to the radio
-- [ ] Talk with... (About? Write-in)
--- [ ] Tomoe / Louise (Pick the other)
--- [ ] Klava
-- [ ] Try and contact the crew already there, if there is any.
- [ ] Ruya / Eli (Pick one)
-- [ ] Talk with Eli/Ruya (Pick the other)
--- [ ] About Klava
--- [ ] About the Neuroi
--- [ ] About Colombia/Caracas
--- [ ] About eventual 50X Caribbean name/insignia
--- [ ] About Syria
--- [ ] About the plans for a dedicated 50X base
-- [ ] Talk with [CLASSIFIED] (Eli only)
--- [ ] About [CLASSIFIED] progress (Eli only)

 

[Zoosmell]

---

[X] Continue on with Klava to crash site
-[X] Listen to the radio
-[X] Try and contact the crew already there, if there is any.

---

You continue on.

About halfway to the site, you start to tune your radio, trying to find the signal for the rescue crew's radio on your own without bothering to ask the other two witches for assistance. You assume that, being a rescue crew, they would pick an obvious and frequently used signal, or more likely just put out a signal on all channels.
Roll for success probability = 90 | Roll for failure probability = 50 - Success!
As you get closer, you find out that what rescue crew had already arrived on the crash site were indeed sending out on all channels. Though since it's in Hispanic, you can't make heads or tails of what they're saying.

<<Flying Officer... Fitzalan-Howard, I have a radio signal from the crash site, but...>>

<<Yes, Junior Lieutenant?>>

<<Well... I don't speak Hispanic.>>

Louise pauses. You can practically hear her pinching the bridge of her nose in annoyance, though you can't see it without turning around - which you don't think is a good idea, especially this close to a helicopter.

<<...at all.>>

<<I understand, Junior Lieutenant. I will translate then.>>

<<It's... well we at least won't have to deal with much fire. It seems that most of the fuel has already burned.>>

You think of burned corpses, like the ones you saw in films about the First Neuroi War.

<<Some died in the flames, but they think about two thirds or so survived the crash and the fire. The plane must not have been flying very fast, even if it landed belly-first.>>

Those numbers are not good, but considering the plane very easily could have had its wings sawn off, it could have been much, much worse.

<<Any Neuroi presence?>>

<<None so far,>> Louise adds, <<but the radio they have is a civilian model, and the crews don't trust it.>>


<<Why wouldn't they trust a radar,>> you ask. <<Radar is radar, and so long as it is on the right... band, is it? It will pick up Neuroi just as well as any other.>>

<<Could be an older model.>>

---

You soon get your answer as you approach the crash site. The plane landed near a bend in a river that was noticeably tree or bush free. Around it, the grass had been burned away, and there were significant scorch marks on the fuselage. One of the wings had clearly been unable to take the strain of crash landing, and had snapped off entirely - it lay several meters behind the plane, bent slightly in the middle where the engine was.

A few local ambulances, as well as what you assume to be a fire truck and a police car, have gathered around the wreck and started laying out the wounded on stretchers and towels. The dead were being buried, and a man-sized radar mast sat behind the police car.

The three of you land in front of the police car and quickly get your introductions out of the way, Louise translating for you since you don't actually speak Hispanic - Tomoe speaks enough to get by at least, so she introduces herself.

The police chief (who reminded you of a hispanic Peter Cushing) nodded, then asked if you had encountered any radar contacts on the way.

Louise shook her head.

["Nothing, sir. A few contacts further north, but they were just patrol craft and far enough off our flight path that we would've had to abandon the helicopter."]

["Very well,"] he sighs. ["I'd like constant air patrols of a ten kilometer radius of the site. Two of you in the air at any time."]

["Of course. I will send up my subordinates, for now I'd like to inspect your radar.] Tomoe! Klavdia!"

"Hai?"
"Da?"

"Both of you, in the air, 10-kilometer radius orbits of the crash site."

The two of you take off in separate directions, blasting straight up and lightly singing the grass around you.

<<Say, Tomoe...>>

<<Yes?>>

<<Why didn't they just take them to a local hospital? Why do they have to take the wounded all the way to Caracas?>>

<<Well they'll have to evacuate them anyway, so best get them to a city that's already safe...ish...>>

<<Oh for FUCK'S SAKE, MADE IN BRITANNIA, REALLY?[>>

<<Flight Officer?>>

<<Sorry... anything to report, yet, you two?>>

<<Nothing so far, ma'am.>>

---

[ ] Nothing.
[ ] Some small blips on the radar, but very distant.
- [ ] Seem to be land-based
- [ ] Seem to be air-based
[ ] There's something making a mole trail in the ground...
[ ] Perspective shift!
- [ ] Tomoe
- [ ] Louise
- [ ] Ruya

 

[Zoosmell]

---

[><] There's something making a mole trail in the ground...

---

<<This is Dekabrist. I see... something... moving underground towards the crashed aircraft.>>

<<Underground?>>
<<Is that even possible?>>

You soon get your answer as a rumble fills the air. Whatever's causing that trail is approaching the surface.

Spoiler: SUDDENLY

Drill tank.
Does whatever a drill tank does.
Rolls d200 for Armor, ignores Gun damage except from Anti-Tank guns
While underground, ignores all damage rolls except from bunker-busters and KEPs.
Can Ram, does d200 damage when it does so
Cannot attack aerial targets at all, unless on a slope.

Spoiler: MORE SUDDENLY

Standard Neuroi light tank.
Rolls d75 for Dodge.
Rolls d150 for Armor, ignores Gun damage except from Anti-Tank guns
Rolls d200 for Accuracy from each gun, d150 for Damage.
Can attack Aerial targets

A treaded vehicle with what looks like a mining drill mounted to its front bursts from the ground, soon followed by a group of three small tanks.

<<Uh...>>


The three vehicles pause at the entrance. The drill tank continues to run its drills for a moment, shaking a bit to get the dirt out. There's a tense second or two where neither side does anything.... and then the drill tank charges the nearest fire truck.

<<Fire! Fire at those tanks!>>

Spoiler: Rollan for Brimstone

+15 against Armor rolls

Accuracy: 82, 62
Damage: 139, 75
Target Dodge: 67, 19
Target Armor: 152, 69

The drill tank takes a pair of Brimstones to the face, the first merely slowing it down, but the second stops it cold. The core is visible, but it isn't destroyed.

Spoiler: Rollan for enemy accuracy

Enemy Accuracy: 58
Enemy Damage: 37
Dodge: 4
Armor: 7

Instead, it fires a laser at the fire truck directly in front of it, which immediately explodes.

<<What are you bloody idiots DOING? GET OUT OF HERE,>> Louise shouts over the comms, and the remaining civilian vehicles quickly do. They don't even bother to pick up the small radar tower, which the damaged drill tank quickly destroys with a laser shot.

Spoiler: Enemy guns

You

Enemy Accuracy: 104, 109
Enemy Damage: 76, 19
Dodge: 88, 64
Shield: 92, 27
Shield Accuracy: 63, 51
Shield Damage: 100, 17
Enemy Dodge: 40, 20
Enemy Armor: 58, 104

Louise

Enemy Accuracy: 147, 134
Enemy Damage: 54, 32
Dodge: 2, 52
Shield: 98, 64

Tomoe

Enemy Accuracy: 53, 106
Enemy Damage: XX, 136
Dodge: 92, 55
Shield: XX, 6

The light tanks then open fire on you three witches. You do well, your shield managing to hold up against both shots fired at you and even sawing off the leg of the tank that fired at you; though your second reflection shot only manages to destroy the leg you had just sawed off. The tank responds by lowering itself to the ground and skittering side to side like a crab, trying to hide its vulnerable joints. Louise manages to tank both shots as well.

Tomoe even manages to dodge the first shot fired at her, but was too late to put up a shield for the second. Her left Striker immediately explodes, and her right one sputters and dies before emitting a trail of black smoke. Her parachute immediately activates itself and the right Striker falls away before it too explodes midair.

Shit.

<<Flight Officer Fitzalan-Howard to Generalisimo Francisco de Miranda Air Base, Lieutenant Tomoe is down and unconscious! We have three light tanks and a boring machine at the crash site, and bogeys inbound! Requesting immediate assistance!>>

---

[ ] Protect Tomoe!
[ ] Kill the damaged...
- [ ] Drill tank
- [ ] Light tank
[ ] Go after one of the other two tanks
[ ] Go after the inbound aerial targets

 

[Zoosmell]

---

[><] Protect Tomoe!
[><] Kill the damaged...
-[><] Light tank

---

Fuckity fuck fuck. Your first mission in the 50X and already you have a casualty. This is the opposite of good. This is more than doubleplusungood, this is doubleplusbad. And you only have rockets, so you can't exactly make goodthink fullwise again.
Post has arrived far later than intended because my parents went to a fair... 45 minutes away. I went because there was food.
<<This is Generalisimo Francisco de Miranda Air Base. We'll send out a medic, but it'll be some time before she arrives. Hold there until she arrives.>>
<<She'd best be armed, I suspect we will have to deal with air targets as well soon.>>
<<Of course I will.>>
Namely chili and taco burgers, and craft root beer. Oh and there was a National Guard booth that let you hold an M16, an M9, and a SAW.
You move to get in between Tomoe and the tanks. Hopefully your shields are strong enough to resist a tank's attack more than once.

Spoiler: Rollan for shields

+10% Dodge, Accuracy, Any Enemy Armor rolls below 42 are ignored

Enemy Accuracy: 122
Enemy Damage: 14
Dodge: 61
Shield: 19
Shield Accuracy: 71
Shield Damage: 22
Enemy Dodge: 8
Enemy Armor: 38

One of the intact light tanks manages to get a single shot off at you, and nearly cracks your shield. But it holds, and the tank is sliced in half for its trouble.
Oh and an M2.
<<This is Dekabrist, I am targeting the damaged light tank.>>

<<Understood. I'll take the other light tank and the drill tank.>>

Firing rockets is, as usual, awkward - you have to aim with your whole body, or at least your leg. You also have to be careful not to accidentally burn yourself.

Spoiler: Rollan for rocket fire

Accuracy: 109
Damage: 111
Enemy Dodge: 26
Enemy Armor: 39

The rockets are old, even for Orussian equipment, and you hadn't expected them to do much damage, even to a wounded Neuroi light tank. But they don't merely damage it, they completely obliterate it, tearing the armor and body to shreds before finally shattering the core. There wasn't much left to explode into a shower of white sparks.

<<Good kill, Dekabrist.>>

And good timing - as soon as the dust settles from that individual tank exploding, Tomoe lands on the ground.

Right as the drill tank points its face at the two of you, and starts spinning its drill parts.

<<Oh no you don't. Guns, guns, guns!>>

Spoiler: Rollan for guns

Core exposed! Recieves no Armor buffs besides dice changes!

Accuracy: 14
Damage: 79
Enemy Dodge: 4
Enemy Armor: 39
Rounds Used: 19

The drill tank erupts in a shower of sparks as it explodes.

<<Those fighters will be in visual range soon, Dekabrist. Get ready.>>

---

[ ] Go after the fighters
[ ] Go after the tanks

 

[Zoosmell]

---

N O N - V O T E U P D A T E 0 1 - W A T E R T O W N

---

Over the Orinoco River

Eli pulled ahead of the other two witches she had gone out to the Orinoco with in order to scout ahead.

It was also because she had gotten a brief communication earlier that day indicating that she was to do so, and that she would receive 'interesting information' when she did so.

Oh how she hated 'interesting information'. She wasn't stupid, and she wasn't a snitch either. Fuck the CIA and their insistence on using indirect terms for literally everything when dealing with witches. What, did they expect them to spill sensitive information all over Twitter? Witches with the clearance necessary for need-to-know information were smart enough to know who needed to know; they had to take the same screening tests any other Liberion soldier did.

Whatever. Here she was, and here she was waiting, exactly 25 kilometers away from the other two witches.

<<Paging Dr. Pavel, come in Dr. Pavel.>>

Oh my God, am I being Baneposted over secure channels? There's only one CIA agent I know of who'd do something so... ridiculous. This information may be more interesting than I thought.

<<This is the demon that comes when people call its name, how may I help you?>>

<<Ah, so you're still yourself I see. Good. I was worried.>>

<<What, that Neuroi headcrabs had taken me over? You watch too damn many horror flicks. So what's up?>>

<<Your favorite shiny new toy just got a whole lot shinier.>>

Called it. This is interesting information. 'Shiny new toy' means he's talking about Project Rudolph. My favorite.

<<Do tell.>>

<<We had a major breakthrough twenty-six hours ago with its main weapon system. Shinier than anything you or I have ever seen. Hopefully shinier than Ned's toys, too.>>

<<Well. That's good! That's very good. This should speed things up by a factor of a whole lot. When should it be ready now?>>

<<The sights could still use some working, but it should be ready by Independence Day.>>

A hell of a lot sooner than I thought it would be, even with this development. Damn good. I may even get to use them here.

<<I look forward to trying it out. ...Is that all?>>

<<Sakura says hi. She should actually be passing over you right about now.>>

<<Are you so desperate to see me that you're sending Liberion's favorite speed demon to take pictures of me?>>

Laughter from the other side.

<<Nah. We just needed up-to-date pictures of the Caribbean Hive to make sure it wasn't going anywhere. But that's all.>>

<<Alright. I suppose I'll see you when I see you?>>

<<Of course.>>

The line promptly went dead. In a few minutes, Eli would have to destroy her phone using her shields, then dump it in the river. No-one would be any the wiser.

 

[Zoosmell]

---

[><] Go after the fighters

---

You charge off after the fighters at as high a speed you can manage. The sooner you get to them, the further away they will be from Tomoe and the further she will be from any more danger.

You soon encounter the same type of Neuroi you encountered last night. Light fighters, flying in a tightly packed delta formation and approaching at high speed. They aren't on an intercept course for you, instead they are on a direct course for the crash site. They either don't expect you (doubtful) or expect you to deliberately cross paths with them. They are also all in a tight formation, so a few well-placed missiles will probably do serious damage.

That's the good news.

The bad news is that there are ten of them, and you only have six air-to-air missiles.

<<Dekabrist to Bedivere, I am grossly outnumbered. How far is backup?>>

<<They will be in air-to-air firing range in ten minutes. They just took off. Bloody Karlslanders take too long to get out of the air.>>

<<You took fifteen minu- Nevermind.>>

<<What was that?>>

<<Nevermind. What about the tanks?>>
Louise Luck roll: 81 | Enemy Luck roll: 59
<<I just cleaned them up. For now, we'll focus on those fighters. I'll stay here in case any more tanks come out, or anything else.>>

Lovely. You have to hold off ten fighters until backup arrives in as many minutes.

Ah well. They are at the least clustered together.

<<Dekabrist, Fox Two!>>

Spoiler: Rollan for missile

+10% Dodge, Accuracy, Any Enemy Armor rolls below 63 are ignored
K-74M range: 40 km

Accuracy: 56, 19, 81, 52, 100
Damage: 90
Enemy Dodge: 63, 78, 35, 96, 55
Enemy Armor: 40

Group Hit: 2
Group Hit Damage: 86
Group Hit Armor: 23

You hit the lead fighter of the group dead-on, destroying it completely from the force of impact alone and sending chunks of it flying out before they start to disintegrate. These chunks hit the two Neuroi next to it, and they too explode. The rest immediately scatter, then surround you. in a ball just loose enough that one missile will only be able to take out one Neuroi, if they don't all zap it out of the sky first.

блять.

Spoiler: Enemy Rolls

Enemy Accuracy: 46, 25, 21, 83, 44
Enemy Damage: XX, XX, 96, XX, 20
Dodge: 102, 40, 12, 100, 23
Shield: XX, XX, 92, XX, 77
Shield Accuracy: 37
Enemy Dodge: 76

You manage to dodge most of the beams, but you overcompensate twice and need to use your shield both times - and the first of those times, the shield fails at the last moment and you get blasted. It doesn't hurt (much) but it is distracting. The second time, you manage to get the laser to bounce back, but you don't hit anything. For now you're fine physically, but your luck won't hold out for very long, let alone ten minutes.

---

Break out and head for...
[ ] The backup
- [ ] Find out where they are
[ ] Louise
[ ] The air base
[ ] Write-in direction

Use...
[ ] Shields
[ ] Gun
[ ] Missiles
[ ] Rockets
[ ] Nothing. Just run like hell.
- [ ] But use shields if they attack you, just in case

---

7x Light Neuroi Fighters, undamaged

 

[Zoosmell]

---

[><] The backup
-[><] Find out where they are
[><] Use everything
-[><] But keep at least two missiles to spare so they don't dare to group up on you

---

You have a general idea of where the backup is going to be (since they'll be heading your way). And since they'll be heading your way first, it makes sense to meet them halfway - and hope that the Neuroi go after you and not towards the wreck site.

You hope it'll work. But first you have to, you know, actually escape the hairball. A small detail, but one that must be dealt with.

Spoiler: Rollan for enemy accuracy

+10% Dodge, Accuracy, Any Enemy Armor rolls below 76 are ignored

Enemy Accuracy: 53, 41, 34, 67, 89, 95, 49
Enemy Damage: 81, XX, XX, 35, XX, 22, 59
Dodge: 52, 56, 74, 40, 90, 78, 31
Shield: 84, XX, XX, 92, XX, 34, 98
Shield Accuracy: 55, XX, XX, 39, XX, 67, 7
Shield Damage: 88, XX, XX, XX, XX, 41, XX
Enemy Dodge: 18, XX, XX, 51, XX, 28, 38
Enemy Armor: 43, XX, XX, XX, XX, 33, XX

Lady luck smiles on you for a brief moment as you manage to take out two of the seven Neuroi with their own lasers, nearly getting a third but it dodged. However, instead of scattering, the Neuroi simply tighten their formation further. Any tighter and you don't think you'll be able to defend yourself.

It's now or never. You rush for a small opening in the formation...
Luck: 67 | Enemy Luck: 59]/color]
And just barely make it out. The Neuroi quickly form up behind you in a triangular formation. The group is tight, but not tight enough that they'll be taken out with just one missile.

Smart. Dangerously smart.

<<Dekabrist to Bedivere, I have broken out of their formation, but the remaining Neuroi are following.>>
Chance of Enemy Backup: 67 | Luck: 17 (Hurrr)
<<Understood. Meet up with the backup and take the rest of them out.>>

I was going to meet up with the backup anyway. <<The rest of them? I only see five.>>

<<Well my radar shows more than five.>>

You check your own radar. There are definitely more than five.

Spoiler: Introducing!

Standard Neuroi heavy fighter.

In addition to the five small fighters, you also find yourself being pursued by three much larger and tougher looking Neuroi. You really should pay more attention to your radar during combat.

<<I see them. Three large fighter types. They are in pursuit. Fox Two!>>

Spoiler: Rollan for missile

+10% Dodge, Accuracy, Any Enemy Armor rolls below 76 are ignored
K-74M range: 40 km

Accuracy: 67, 56, 78, 84, 81, 11
Damage: 98
Enemy Dodge: 89, 31, 15, 25, 80, 8
Enemy Armor: 70

Not so tough, the lead one was. It explodes in a fireball and shower of white shards as the other two move into the triangle formation. You aren't sure if the heavy fighters will be capable of more damage than the light ones, but you don't want to take any chances.

---

[ ] Ignore the fighters, just get to the backup
[ ] Mostly ignore the fighters, but bounce their shots back if they do fire
- [ ] Aim for the one that fired
- [ ] Aim for the light fighters
- [ ] Aim for the heavy fighters
- [ ] Use your missiles as well
- [ ] Use your gun as well
[ ] Screw the backup, take them on here and now
- [ ] Shields only
- [ ] Missiles only
- [ ] Shields and missiles
-- [ ] And guns

---

5x Light Fighter Neuroi
2x Heavy Fighter Neuroi