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Cowls: A World of Supermen and Subterfuge

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We are a teleporter with access to the floorplan and camera feeds, as well as the only technopath on site, as far as we know, on our side. Us getting and staying cornered isn't trivial for our opponents, particularly since we can leave Flamestrike in the proverbial dust[1]​, and would probably involve Plasmius using his cognitive augs and bullshit powers to do something absurd.

[1] Though he might try something... indiscriminate. I don't know what his scale is like - worst case he can flood entire sections of the building with flame.

@Pandemonious Ivy , an entirely possible fail state for your plan is that Plasmius twists as he falls and uses an ectoplasmic construct/his hands to throw us into the lethal barrier as we're halfway to fainting from pulling 2-3 multi-person, momentum conserving teleports in quick succession. He passes harmlessly through the barrier because it's keyed to Synicate IFFs.

I'm not as afeared of our opponents offensive abilities as some because I note Immolator isn't medium rare right now despite having no exceptional physical enhancements but this is really serving oneself up on a silver platter.
 
NonSequtur said:
I'm not as afeared of our opponents offensive abilities as some because I note Immolator isn't medium rare right now despite having no exceptional physical enhancements but this is really serving oneself up on a silver platter.
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Immolator's Plasma Control could very well have helped him here, if used in a directly defensive fashion.

Sadly, we don't really know how Flamestrike's powers work so we can't be sure one way or the other.
 
At this point, it seems like nobody has convinced anyone else.

With a running plan in the lead, I suppose we'll all have to hope that it's enough.
 
Another plan set up. It's like yours @Omicron, but a bit more detailed and with more dramatic editing.

[X] Plan: Technopaths OP
-[X] Sweet talk Immolator into running away with us. Impress the tactical situation on him, remind him that we're his only way out, and remind him that we don't believe in leaving men behind. [Negotiate] 4 + [Strategist] 2 + [Ex-Military] 1. +3d6. 10 dice total. We want him on our side.
-[X] Scatter the bots, have Shamus direct them per our orders.
-[X] Get Shamus to set off all the sprinklers (so whenever Flamestrike uses his powers, he loses vision due to the enormous steam cloud)
-[X] Building like this has got to have internal security systems; Shamus bypassed them on our way in, but there's no reason we can't reactivate them. They probably won't be full-lethality, but expanding containment goo turrets will keep Flamestrike on his toes (or locked in place), and lock down Plasmius' zombies. We can help him with the tactical angle. [Tactical] 1 + [Hacker] 3 = 8. +2 successes from [Technopath] to do the trick and +1 success from [Mental Boost] to coordinate them all at once. +3d6. That's 11d6, +3 autosuccesses, and more if our own [Strategist] or [Ex-Military] provides a benefit for coordinating this trap.
-[X] This building will probably have a fair bit of concealment smoke (laced with various sensor baffling agents) at key points to disorient attackers and allow building security to maximize their camera-coverage advantage. Trigger those clouds. Lace some of them with our bots for ambushes, but not all of them -- scatter them enough to force them to be cautious whenever they advance through a concealed location. [Tactical] 5 + [Remorseless Killer Robots] 3 + [Automated Sentry Mode] 1 or 2. +3d6. 12-13 dice total, and that's if our own strategist and environmental manipulation don't apply.
-[X] We would have brought infrared goggles, of course; they're invaluable for finding flame-users like Immolator, and can see through all sorts of concealment smoke. Use them. They'll let us spot people like Plasmius through conventional walls, too.
-[X] We, ourselves, will play fucking keep away. Run primarily, carrying Immolator, teleport if needed. No more than three jumps with Immolator; if we can, we want to save him, but we can't risk knocking ourselves out for it. We have the floor plan, we have them distracted, we can plan out an optimal way to do this. It's not like we haven't been in similar situations when we were in the military. [Tactical] 5 + [Strategist] 2 + [Ex-Military] 1 = 8d6. +3d6. 11 dice total for keep away, plus three autosuccesses from our [Physical Enhancements] and 4 from [Teleporter]. We have the cameras, and Shamus has the mental boost to keep an eye on all these things at once. These will hopefully provide extra advantage for us.
-[X] If they catch up to us, Immolator will drive them back and while we keep running with [Tactical] 4 + [Down On His Luck] 2 (he's used to running away...). +3d6 = 9d6. [Plasma Control] adds 3 autosuccesses. This wouldn't be enough on its own but could turn the tide.

That's 15 dice spent; we have 4 more. If anyone has suggestions, go for it.
 
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notthepenguins said:
Another plan set up. It's like yours @Omicron, but a bit more detailed and with more dramatic editing.

[X] Plan: Technopaths OP
-[X] Sweet talk Immolator into running away with us. Impress the tactical situation on him, remind him that we're his only way out, and remind him that we don't believe in leaving men behind. [Negotiate] 4 + [Strategist] 2 + [Ex-Military] 1. +3d6. 10 dice total. We want him on our side.
-[X] Scatter the bots, have Shamus direct them per our orders.
-[X] Get Shamus to set off all the sprinklers (so whenever Flamestrike uses his powers, he loses vision due to the enormous steam cloud)
-[X] Building like this has got to have internal security systems; Shamus bypassed them on our way in, but there's no reason we can't reactivate them. They probably won't be full-lethality, but expanding containment goo turrets will keep Flamestrike on his toes (or locked in place), and lock down Plasmius' zombies. We can help him with the tactical angle. [Tactical] 1 + [Hacker] 3 = 8. +2 successes from [Technopath] to do the trick and +1 success from [Mental Boost] to coordinate them all at once. +3d6. That's 11d6, +3 autosuccesses, and more if our own [Strategist] or [Ex-Military] provides a benefit for coordinating this trap.
-[X] This building will probably have a fair bit of concealment smoke (laced with various sensor baffling agents) at key points to disorient attackers and allow building security to maximize their camera-coverage advantage. Trigger those clouds. Lace some of them with our bots for ambushes, but not all of them -- scatter them enough to force them to be cautious whenever they advance through a concealed location. [Tactical] 5 + [Remorseless Killer Robots] 3 + [Automated Sentry Mode] 1 or 2. +3d6. 12-13 dice total, and that's if our own strategist and environmental manipulation don't apply.
-[X] We would have brought infrared goggles, of course; they're invaluable for finding flame-users like Immolator, and can see through all sorts of concealment smoke. Use them. They'll let us spot people like Plasmius through conventional walls, too.
-[X] We, ourselves, will play fucking keep away. Run primarily, carrying Immolator, teleport if needed. No more than three jumps with Immolator; if we can, we want to save him, but we can't risk knocking ourselves out for it. We have the floor plan, we have them distracted, we can plan out an optimal way to do this. It's not like we haven't been in similar situations when we were in the military. [Tactical] 5 + [Strategist] 2 + [Ex-Military] 1 = 8d6. +3d6. 11 dice total for keep away, plus three autosuccesses from our [Physical Enhancements] and 4 from [Teleporter]. We have the cameras, and Shamus has the mental boost to keep an eye on all these things at once. These will hopefully provide extra advantage for us.
-[X] If they catch up to us, Immolator will drive them back and while we keep running with [Tactical] 4 + [Down On His Luck] 2 (he's used to running away...). +3d6 = 9d6. [Plasma Control] adds 3 autosuccesses. This wouldn't be enough on its own but could turn the tide.

That's 15 dice spent; we have 4 more. If anyone has suggestions, go for it.
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Hmmm...

Yeah, okay, this is probably better than my plan. Safer to enact, relying more on external assets, and with good use of the environment.

I only regret the name :V

[X]Plan: Technopaths OP
 
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I generally prefer proper write-in snippets, but this one is frankly the best plan yet:

[X] Plan: Technopaths OP

NonSequtur said:
Tempera said:
Pandemonious Ivy said:
4. Can we bring others with us when we teleport?
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Yes, but it drains a lot of energy. I'd make a rough estimate of being able to teleport about half a dozen times when carrying that much extra mass before passing out from the energy drain.
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Six teleports. 4 minutes. At least one of them used to leave the foyer, and we can't actually collapse unless we're okay with Shamus being on his own and us probably getting dragged in by the supercops, so we've got maybe one teleport every minute, as opposed to being as carefree with them as we were when we took on security.

You want to make that trade?
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Guys, can we please remember that exhausting all our teleports here and now means that Shamus is going to die horribly in five to six minutes? I don't want some Syndicate brat over the dude who actually told us this was a trap and has a skill set oriented towards doing things we suck at. We need to keep ourselves fresh enough through the next 3-5 minutes we can book it to Shamus once the shields drop and kick his killteam's ass.

Frankly, I'm willing to wager one, maybe two teleports carrying Immolator around, but more will exhaust us enough in the process of trying to not die horribly we won't be able to make to Shamus.
 
Amorous Intent said:
Frankly, I'm willing to wager one, maybe two teleports carrying Immolator around, but more will exhaust us enough in the process of trying to not die horribly we won't be able to make to Shamus.
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He's a technopath; they won't be sending high-level enhanciles to deal with him. If we can make it out of this, we can almost certainly just wipe out his kill team. We shouldn't need to chain teleport-hop carrying him.
 
notthepenguins said:
He's a technopath; they won't be sending high-level enhanciles to deal with him. If we can make it out of this, we can almost certainly just wipe out his kill team. We shouldn't need to chain teleport-hop carrying him.
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...wasn't even implying that. No, but they are going badass enough to handle a Gen 4 Technopath in his home domain. If they're confident about attacking him there, they're going to be pretty fucking badass. Badass enough to hold a candle to us? Probably not. Badass enough to gank us if we're only still conscious through sheer bloody-mindedness? Definitely.

We still need to be fresh enough to deal with a fully prepared kill team. We need to keep some reserves in the tank for that.
 
Alright, guys. MJ and I are going to need at least some broad consensus on a plan before we can close votes.
 
This plan seems to rely on Immolator for when Plasmius catches up. How sure are we that rank 3 plasma control can do anything to drive him off?

Actually, let me be more sweeping - I am suspicious of any plan that purports to slow Plasmius down when we know he can walk through things.
 
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NonSequtur said:
This plan seems to rely on Immolator for when Plasmius catches up. How sure are we that rank 3 plasma control can do anything to drive him off?
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It doesn't; it just uses him if he does catch up, while we keep booking it. Fundamentally, we don't have any good options for dealing with Plasmius if he catches up (aside from catching zombies in containment goo, I guess, but that's probably not going to do a whole lot). Immolator is just convenient because if he's slung over our shoulder he can keep chucking fire while we sprint away.

The primary handle-Plasmius element of it is using camera feeds + visual blocks + running running running and the occasional teleport to try to stay ahead of him if things really get bad. If you have a better idea for handling him, I'm game; I just couldn't think of one. We have 4 unused dice for it, even.
 
notthepenguins said:
It doesn't; it just uses him if he does catch up, while we keep booking it. Fundamentally, we don't have any good options for dealing with Plasmius if he catches up (aside from catching zombies in containment goo, I guess, but that's probably not going to do a whole lot). Immolator is just convenient because if he's slung over our shoulder he can keep chucking fire while we sprint away.

The primary handle-Plasmius element of it is using camera feeds + visual blocks + running running running and the occasional teleport to try to stay ahead of him if things really get bad. If you have a better idea for handling him, I'm game. We have 4 unused dice for it, even.
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I'm saying we shouldn't carry Immolator because Plasmius is about as fast as us if we're not using our teleport.
 
NonSequtur said:
I'm saying we shouldn't carry Immolator because Plasmius is about as fast as us if we're not using our teleport.
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Well, it's that or leave him to die, and I'd rather not go to that at the start. There's a reason I specified no more than three jumps with Immolator, though; at that point we will have no choice but to ditch him when we need to teleport again.
 
Pandemonious Ivy said:
Why that last one? Because he's going to get hurt at least a small bit and he's going to be hitting the ground from several stories up.

So it's supported by common sense, unless you have a better theory.
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Point of order, someone with physical mods like Ez is going to be expected to be able to do no-chute landings from airborne insertions-terminal velocity falls in full gear (and that's easily twice her weight in guns and ammo and armor) without giving a fuck. A GODLIKE, even a very weak one like Plasmius, is going to be significantly tougher even if they're not actually stronger. Falling several stories is not likely to inconvenience a superhuman with military-grade augmentation, let alone a GODLIKE.

Tempera said:
It's unclear exactly what safety methods have been put in place, but you're fairly sure that the system prioritizes your own safety above that of other objects. Attempting to teleport living matter inside of other matter will expend energy as normal, but fail to enact a teleport, instead returning you to your point of departure.
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It'd probably be clearer if Vector had a Technical higher than 0. :V

(No regrets for that score).
 
[X] Name : Charles Young
[X] Codename : Rooster
[X] Power : Enhanced senses, 'Danger Sense', and Physical Enhancement. Also does not sleep.
[X] Backstory : Charles Young is a NEET hipster living in his parents' cellar by day, but by night he is the ROOSTER, a vigilante assassin known best for the garishly colorful outfit he wears. Oh, and also the fact that nobody has been able to kill him yet.
 
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