- Pronouns
- She/Her
[X] Intercept the endlave, giving the Earthlight the opportunity to escape. (1.2x)
Hostis Humani Generis - PiracyQuest
- Thread starter Ford Prefect
- Start date
- Original
The Sandman
So Zetta Slowpoke
- Location
- Wherever I am, which isn't where I'm not
[x] Dive towards the mysterious black ship and force a response. (0.8x)
I really kind of wish "stand on our ship and cut the endlave in half with our laser sword if it tries something" was a viable option, though.
I really kind of wish "stand on our ship and cut the endlave in half with our laser sword if it tries something" was a viable option, though.
- Location
- The Hague
- Pronouns
- He/Him
[x] Intercept the endlave, giving the Earthlight the opportunity to escape.
You take a long, shaky breath, your finger caressing your throat. Without look back you say, "Hey, Hilia, how do you like the chances of the Earthlight escaping right now?"
"There aren't any chances."
"Want to give them one?"
You hear her sigh, then her arms wrap around your shoulders. You hold onto her wrist for a moment. She says, "I guess I always wanted to go out in some kind of blaze of glory."
"Really?" you ask as she releases you.
"No of course not. I want to go out at an old age in a pile of money and rum."
You can't help but laugh. She can't help but join in and the two you start howling, feeding off each other, tears pour down your faces. It wasn't even funny. You wipe at your eyes with the heels of your palms. Then you grasp the controls. One unarmed monoracer against one of the Royal Spacy's cutting edge aerospace warfare endlaves. It's like the encounter with Vector only literally eight sextillion times harder.
The Swordfish vibrates and it races towards the endlave. You think maybe you can stall it with some fancy flying. You can hear Hilia tapping away at her terminal. She's a wizard, she might be able to bother the pilot. The streak of light ahead is growing larger. All you need to is give the Earthlight a few seconds. A few seconds is all Beriliz needs. Beriliz ... Fion ... Dad ...
You shake your head and focus on the enemy in front of you. You have to be calm. It's only seven thousand kilometres away. basically in range of any of its weapons. You can dodge anything it throws at you. It appears directly in front of you.
"Zero-shift!?" you snap, rolling away, but it appears on in your path again, one hand grabbing the Swordfish. You work the controls, the drive tail waves wildly, but you just can't get free. The endlave holds you up before it, cockpit level with its head.
It's nothing like you've ever seen before. Prominent angular brow and pointed chin. Eyeless. Red and black, silver-white detailing. The meshing of curves and angles reminds you of the ship that emerged from the gas giant. You suppose a next generation spaceship might have other next generation gear. It considers you for a moment, then taps the cockpit with one finger. There's a beep and a hollow hum and the racer shuts down completely.
"Guess we didn't stand a chance, huh?" Hilia says, letting her terminal float away. You try to restart but it just won't.
The endlave turns, still holding the dead Swordfish in one hand. You expected it to just leave you adrift, but it's hauling you back towards the planet. It wasn't actually after the Earthlight?
"Do you think they're after you?" you ask. Hilia crosses her arms, one finger tapping away.
"I guess it's not impossible ... Ashleigh this is getting rapidly weird."
"At least they're letting the Earthlight go," you say. But even that's confusing. Still, right now you need to decide how to approach things when you get delivered to ... wherever you're being taken.
[ ] Go quietly. This is a military operation, which means that you'll be facing military operators. Best be safe. (1.1x)
[ ] Do not go quietly. You have weapons in storage and if it's an R&D project they might not be fully equipped to take you on. (0.9x)
You take a long, shaky breath, your finger caressing your throat. Without look back you say, "Hey, Hilia, how do you like the chances of the Earthlight escaping right now?"
"There aren't any chances."
"Want to give them one?"
You hear her sigh, then her arms wrap around your shoulders. You hold onto her wrist for a moment. She says, "I guess I always wanted to go out in some kind of blaze of glory."
"Really?" you ask as she releases you.
"No of course not. I want to go out at an old age in a pile of money and rum."
You can't help but laugh. She can't help but join in and the two you start howling, feeding off each other, tears pour down your faces. It wasn't even funny. You wipe at your eyes with the heels of your palms. Then you grasp the controls. One unarmed monoracer against one of the Royal Spacy's cutting edge aerospace warfare endlaves. It's like the encounter with Vector only literally eight sextillion times harder.
The Swordfish vibrates and it races towards the endlave. You think maybe you can stall it with some fancy flying. You can hear Hilia tapping away at her terminal. She's a wizard, she might be able to bother the pilot. The streak of light ahead is growing larger. All you need to is give the Earthlight a few seconds. A few seconds is all Beriliz needs. Beriliz ... Fion ... Dad ...
You shake your head and focus on the enemy in front of you. You have to be calm. It's only seven thousand kilometres away. basically in range of any of its weapons. You can dodge anything it throws at you. It appears directly in front of you.
"Zero-shift!?" you snap, rolling away, but it appears on in your path again, one hand grabbing the Swordfish. You work the controls, the drive tail waves wildly, but you just can't get free. The endlave holds you up before it, cockpit level with its head.
It's nothing like you've ever seen before. Prominent angular brow and pointed chin. Eyeless. Red and black, silver-white detailing. The meshing of curves and angles reminds you of the ship that emerged from the gas giant. You suppose a next generation spaceship might have other next generation gear. It considers you for a moment, then taps the cockpit with one finger. There's a beep and a hollow hum and the racer shuts down completely.
"Guess we didn't stand a chance, huh?" Hilia says, letting her terminal float away. You try to restart but it just won't.
The endlave turns, still holding the dead Swordfish in one hand. You expected it to just leave you adrift, but it's hauling you back towards the planet. It wasn't actually after the Earthlight?
"Do you think they're after you?" you ask. Hilia crosses her arms, one finger tapping away.
"I guess it's not impossible ... Ashleigh this is getting rapidly weird."
"At least they're letting the Earthlight go," you say. But even that's confusing. Still, right now you need to decide how to approach things when you get delivered to ... wherever you're being taken.
[ ] Go quietly. This is a military operation, which means that you'll be facing military operators. Best be safe. (1.1x)
[ ] Do not go quietly. You have weapons in storage and if it's an R&D project they might not be fully equipped to take you on. (0.9x)
- Pronouns
- She/Her
[X] Do not go quietly. You have weapons in storage and if it's an R&D project they might not be fully equipped to take you on. (0.9x)
I shall not go gentle into that good dark night, but rage, rage against the dying of the light!
The Sandman
So Zetta Slowpoke
- Location
- Wherever I am, which isn't where I'm not
[X] Go quietly. This is a military operation, which means that you'll be facing military operators. Best be safe. (1.1x)
Given how casually their guard dog shut down our everything, I'd rather not get into a fight without any info on who we're fighting.
Given how casually their guard dog shut down our everything, I'd rather not get into a fight without any info on who we're fighting.
- Location
- The Hague
- Pronouns
- He/Him
[X] Do not go quietly.
You reach behind Hilia and slide out one of the storage drawers. It's your little arsenal: your beam katana, the resonance blade you stole from Vector, and a small glassgun with a couple of magazines of ammunition. Against an R&D lab this hsould be sufficient, you decide. You explain this Hilia. She looks skeptical but defers to you on this. You're the Palmtop Typhoon, after all.
"I'm not in any sports clubs, you know," she says, and you shrug.
"We'll just have to make do. Show your pirate spirit."
The endlave doesn't take you back to the black ship. Instead, it drags you into the clouds of the gas giant and you descend towards the core. When you hit the helium-neon rain, you can see it. Wave-motion armour glitters like coloured glass, and beneath it there's an anchorage. It looks a little like a flower, with an impossibly long stem descending, you suppose, to the sea of metallic hydrogen many kilometres below. The anchorage is unmarked, but lit up by countless floodlights. the black ship is in the process of docking. The endlave passes through the barrier and delivers you to a small hangar overlooking the main dock.
It pulls away. You try the Swordfish one last time but you can't get it to respond.
Outside, standing fifteen metres away, is a small group. There are four of them in blue Royal Spacy officer uniforms with long white coats over the top. None of them are wearing hats, so they don't strike you as military professionals. In front of them are a pair of bulbous looking combat robots. In front of those, and most importantly, there's a lobster in an armoured skullsuit. You haven't seen an Elysian Regular in a long time, but their usual equipment doesn't seem to have changed much. They're standing with the butt of a Long Land Pattern glassgun on the deck with their hands resting over the muzzle. You can see a collapsible tomahawk on their belt. A veteran of the war with the Commonwealth?
The four scientist officers appear to be essentially unarmed. That's against regulations, but it seems you were right to an extent: security is lax.
The robots are 110 Armstrongs - they're armed with a primary beam cannon, some light glassguns and have a couple of manipulator tentacles. They're not very good, honestly. The Regular is the main problem. You need a plan.
[ ] Surrender. The enemy is a veteran with two support weapons. (0.9x)
[ ] Hand Hilia your glassgun and have her distract the Armstrong robots. Meanwhile, go after the Regular with Chidorigatana, with your beam saber hidden. (1.1x)
[ ] Hand Hilia your glassgun and have her distract the Armstrong robots. Meanwhile, go after the Regular with both swords - go all out. (1.1x)
[ ] Throw the Swordfish at them. (0.7x)
[ ] Give Hilia your resonance sword and get her to go after the officers while you attempt skirmish battle with the regular and both robots. (1.0x)
You reach behind Hilia and slide out one of the storage drawers. It's your little arsenal: your beam katana, the resonance blade you stole from Vector, and a small glassgun with a couple of magazines of ammunition. Against an R&D lab this hsould be sufficient, you decide. You explain this Hilia. She looks skeptical but defers to you on this. You're the Palmtop Typhoon, after all.
"I'm not in any sports clubs, you know," she says, and you shrug.
"We'll just have to make do. Show your pirate spirit."
The endlave doesn't take you back to the black ship. Instead, it drags you into the clouds of the gas giant and you descend towards the core. When you hit the helium-neon rain, you can see it. Wave-motion armour glitters like coloured glass, and beneath it there's an anchorage. It looks a little like a flower, with an impossibly long stem descending, you suppose, to the sea of metallic hydrogen many kilometres below. The anchorage is unmarked, but lit up by countless floodlights. the black ship is in the process of docking. The endlave passes through the barrier and delivers you to a small hangar overlooking the main dock.
It pulls away. You try the Swordfish one last time but you can't get it to respond.
Outside, standing fifteen metres away, is a small group. There are four of them in blue Royal Spacy officer uniforms with long white coats over the top. None of them are wearing hats, so they don't strike you as military professionals. In front of them are a pair of bulbous looking combat robots. In front of those, and most importantly, there's a lobster in an armoured skullsuit. You haven't seen an Elysian Regular in a long time, but their usual equipment doesn't seem to have changed much. They're standing with the butt of a Long Land Pattern glassgun on the deck with their hands resting over the muzzle. You can see a collapsible tomahawk on their belt. A veteran of the war with the Commonwealth?
The four scientist officers appear to be essentially unarmed. That's against regulations, but it seems you were right to an extent: security is lax.
The robots are 110 Armstrongs - they're armed with a primary beam cannon, some light glassguns and have a couple of manipulator tentacles. They're not very good, honestly. The Regular is the main problem. You need a plan.
[ ] Surrender. The enemy is a veteran with two support weapons. (0.9x)
[ ] Hand Hilia your glassgun and have her distract the Armstrong robots. Meanwhile, go after the Regular with Chidorigatana, with your beam saber hidden. (1.1x)
[ ] Hand Hilia your glassgun and have her distract the Armstrong robots. Meanwhile, go after the Regular with both swords - go all out. (1.1x)
[ ] Throw the Swordfish at them. (0.7x)
[ ] Give Hilia your resonance sword and get her to go after the officers while you attempt skirmish battle with the regular and both robots. (1.0x)
- Pronouns
- She/Her
[x] Give Hilia your resonance sword and get her to go after the officers while you attempt skirmish battle with the regular and both robots. (1.0x)
[x] Have her try to take them hostage.
[x] Have her try to take them hostage.
- Location
- The Hague
- Pronouns
- He/Him
For the sake of making it clearer, Hilia would be taking the officers hostage.
- Location
- The Hague
- Pronouns
- He/Him
I will only offer retries in the event that Ashleigh dies. You must otherwise live with the consequences of your choices.
Hilia's not in any sports clubs and a small glassgun won't cut it so I don't think we want her in combat-combat. As such,
[x] Give Hilia your resonance sword and get her to go after the officers while you attempt skirmish battle with the regular and both robots. (1.0x)
They also appear to want us alive, so we should be able to take on additional danger. This is also why I don't want to put Hilia in too much of it. They may be willing to kill her.
They also appear to want us alive, so we should be able to take on additional danger. This is also why I don't want to put Hilia in too much of it. They may be willing to kill her.
Last edited:
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Yeah, that was my reasoning.
As the better combatant we need to engage with the stronger opponent.
As the better combatant we need to engage with the stronger opponent.
- Location
- The Hague
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Remember, the vote weightings aren't arbitrary. In part they represent how good an idea Ashleigh thinks it is, based on how he perceives the situation. That isn't to say that he's necessarily right, of course.
