The Dragon: Once per episode, at the beginning of combat place an Advantage on the field representing a cunning tactic or strategy devised by Danara Pel.
NAME
USS Voyager
PROF.
MULTIROLE
CLASS
Sovereign Class Heavy Exploration Vessel
CONST
2371
SHIELDS
13/13
RESISTANCE
6
SCALE
6
POWER
13/13
CREW SUPPORT
6
SMALL CRAFT
5
COMMS
ENGINES
STRUCTURE
COMPUTERS
SENSORS
WEAPONS
BREACHES
0/6
0/6
0/6
0/6
0/6
0/6
9
11
10
11
9
10
COMMAND
3
12
14
13
14
12
13
CONNING
2
12
14
13
14
12
13
ENGINEERING
2
11
13
12
13
11
12
SECURITY
3
13
15
14
16
13
14
SCIENCE
2
11
13
12
13
11
12
MEDICINE
2
11
13
12
13
11
12
TALENTS
Command Ship: Can give advantages using Command within range to Away Missions or to supporting ships.
EMH: Has an EMH!
Improved Warp Drive: When going to warp, roll 1cd on an effect, regain the power point.
Quantum Torpedoes: Can use Quantum Torpedoes! (60 total)
Secondary Reactors: +5 to Power
High Resolution Sensors: +1 momentum to out of combat sensor checks.
TRAITS
Federation Starship – A highly sophisticated and advanced vessel, with holodecks, replicators, and similar comforts, primarily designed to handle multiple operations. Highly sensitive and requiring constant maintenance, the vehicle is less rugged than other interstellar craft
Maquis Crew - a good chunk of the crew are former Maquis troublemakers. Expect discipline problems and unorthodox plans.
WEAPONS
Phaser Arrays
Power Cost: 1-3 | Range: Medium | Damage: 9cd [+1 per extra power spent]
Can Use Spread: Hit +1 time at ½ damage per effect OR Area: hit +1 ship per effect within close range.
Versatile 2: Gain 2 bonus momentum with a successful hit
Photon Torpedoes
Power Cost: 0 | Range: Long | Damage: 6cd
High Yield: If it causes 1 breach, it causes +1 breach
Quantum Torpedoes
Power Cost: 0 | Range: Long | Damage: 7cd (Vicious 1 - +1 damage on effects)
High Yield: If it causes 1 breach, it causes +1 breach
Calibrations: Requires 1 minor action to calibrate
Tractor Beam (Strength 5)
Power Cost: 0 | Range: Close | Damage: None
Effect: If successfully established, enemies face a diff 5 check to escape.
SCIENCE: Tuvok (Skilled: Science | Weakness: Emotionless)
COMMS: Lt. Bian T'are (Skilled: Communications | Weakness: Combat)
MEDICAL: The EMH (Skilled: Doctor | Weakness: Kind of a Dick)
ENGINEER: B'lanna Torres (Skilled: Engineering | Weakness: Also a dick)
SECONDARY CHARACTERS
Ensign Steve (Useless Security Goon)
Ensign Becky (plural fighter jock)
Petty Officer Third Class Jessie (Hard working engineer)
Crewman Billingsly (Dude, Billingsly!)
Crewman Chandra (Concerned Crewman)
Bifurcate (bidimensional robot girlfriend of Harry Kim)
Princess Lyan Positron (runaway daughter of magician most foul and girlfriend of Harry Kim)
Soria Flyte (Pegasus girl and girlfriend of Harry Kim)
Mirror Universe Trevor (he's fine!)
NAME
MRSS Val Jean
PROF.
TACOPS
CLASS
Keldon Class Heavy Cruiser
CONST
2370
SHIELDS
12/12
RESISTANCE
5
SCALE
4
POWER
7/7
CREW SUPPORT
4
SMALL CRAFT
3
COMMS
ENGINES
STRUCTURE
COMPUTERS
SENSORS
WEAPONS
BREACHES
0/4
0/4
0/4
0/4
0/4
0/4
9
9
9
8
7
10
COMMAND
3
12
12
12
11
10
13
CONNING
2
11
11
11
10
9
12
ENGINEERING
2
11
11
11
10
9
12
SECURITY
3
12
12
12
11
10
13
SCIENCE
1
10
10
10
9
8
11
MEDICINE
2
11
11
11
10
9
12
TALENTS
Electronic Warfare Suite: Whenever making a Jamming or Intercept communications check, can spend 2 momentum to select +1 target (repeatable.)
Fast Targeting Systems: No +1 diff for called shots
Improved Hull Integrity: +1 Resistance
Cloaking Device: Spend 3 power, and make a Control+Engineering + Engines + Security check with a diff of 2. If successful, gain the Cloaked Trait (impossible to detect, cannot attack, shields are down.) It takes a minor action to decloak.
TRAITS
Cardassian Ship – Durable, uncomfortable, close, cramped and cheap. Thinks creature comforts are for other people and technical sophistication is for people who haven't spent decades starving to death. The fact that the starving could have been avoided if the government were less...you know, monstrous doesn't seem to have occurred to that many of them.
Okampan Crew – the crew are bright, perky, cheerful, and incredibly psychically powerful. Individually, they're all better than Vulcans, and as a gestalt? Who knows!
WEAPONS
Phaser Arrays
Power Cost: 1-3 | Range: Medium | Damage: 7-9cd (Spread: Hit +1 time at ½ damage per effect OR Area)
Versatile 2: Gain X bonus momentum with a successful hit
Disruptor Banks
Range: Medium | Damage: 8-10cd (Vicious 1: Each effect adds +1 damage)
Crewman Stadi - Age 23, Betazoid, born Beta Colony-5 to Zani and Talwyn of the House of Riis, survived by her sisters Tari and Batri.
R'mor - age 182, Vulcan, burn on Romulus to R'tan and Leslali, survived by his twelve nieces and nephews across the Empire
[X] Break the news. The Talaxians and the Haakonain and other governments may know or guess, but their people don't. Tell the Kazon too.
-[X] Include instructions on how to synthesize a cure for the Phage using available Delta quadrant technologies (including Vidiian tech) in the same transmission.
-[X] Put this on navigation probes set on random courses, programmed to start broadcasting years or decades after we leave.
-[X] While Voyager may not be able to liberate every single Pod, at the very least you can free the people of this Pod... and provide them with the tools to take on the rest of the Emergency.
Adhoc vote count started by DragonCobolt on May 31, 2022 at 11:51 PM, finished with 47 posts and 24 votes.
26
[X] Break the news. The Talaxians and the Haakonain and other governments may know or guess, but their people don't. Tell the Kazon too.
-[X] Include instructions on how to synthesize a cure for the Phage using available Delta quadrant technologies (including Vidiian tech) in the same transmission.
-[X] Put this on navigation probes set on random courses, programmed to start broadcasting years or decades after we leave.
-[X] While Voyager may not be able to liberate every single Pod, at the very least you can free the people of this Pod... and provide them with the tools to take on the rest of the Emergency.
[x] Break the news. The Talaxians and the Haakonain and other governments may know or guess, but their people don't
-[X] Include instructions on how to synthesize a cure for the Phage using Viidian technology in the same transmission.
-[X] While Voyager may not be able to liberate every single Pod, at the very least you can free the Viidians of this Pod... and provide them with the tools to take on the rest of the Emergency.
-[X] Plan : The Monstrous Coalition
- [X] Call for the aid of the Kazon,by arguing that the Viidian technology could bring down the wrath of the Borg on the entire segment, and not even their hidings strategy would work
- [X] Call for the aid of the Talaxians and the Haakonains, who surely are just as outraged at being decieved and were not at all in cahoots.
- [X] Rope Dar into the plan. We can always just leave, so we don't need him. If we burn this place down, we won't care next week because we'll be somewhere. Dar however needs this system. He can cooperate however. If he secures all the existing ziphead formulations for all the species, then he'll have a decent economic base to build from. The existing stuff can be made to work with cultured tissue. There will be no new treatments, no specialized anti-aging stuff, but the old basis of the economy will be there, and he can have a chunk of it, if he helps. [Note: Do we backstab him once we have the files?]
- [X] Prepare to release the cure and ways to synthesize it as broadly as humanly possible
- [X] ...honestly, C'nola's right, lets do that.
[x] Break the news. The Talaxians and the Haakonain and other governments may know or guess, but their people don't
-[X] Include instructions on how to synthesize a cure for the Phage using Viidian technology in the same transmission.
-[X] While Voyager may not be able to liberate every single Pod, at the very least you can free the Viidians of this Pod... and provide them with the tools to take on the rest of the Emergency.
-[X] Do deep scans of the stuff on their station and take some samples for the doctor and science teams.
-[X] Get our security team to develop a computer virus for their computer systems, targeting the systems used on their Focused. Have it designed to evade and spread, to not trigger until each known station and ship has full infection rate. Once triggered, it scraps the systems connected to the Focused.
-[X] Have our medical and science team develop a virus to provide inoculation against the Phage, with a long term incubation period so it can have a wide infection rate before people understand what is going on.
-[X] Use the Val Jean as the operating center for Neelix to reach out to any contacts he has in intelligence to provide the full data package. Our sensor scans, evidence of their hostile actions, Dars own confession, our medical science on the Phage and its cure. Let other political entities use that to spread the truth among the people cause Intelligence Departments seem to have a stick up their butt about them always failing.
-[X] Explain to Dar the prime directive and that we don't intend to interfere any longer. Find out where he wants to go from here, because a Dar in the shadows makes for a pain for Nurel.
-[X] After tying Nurel up with negotiations and stalling using crew members of species that don't have biological tells for emotion, inform him that we have recovered all casualties, treated their boarders for their injuries, will be returning and leaving their space. Expect Nurel to not want us to leave it otherwise force the issue (hope our QM spends threat)
-[X] Optional: Offer a choice to any of the boarding crew after they are inoculated against the Phage to join Voyager, or return to their home.
[X] Plan: Revolution from within and without.
-[X] Send D-91 to make contact with the organ harvesters (since he's harvest-proof). We want to get their perspective and offer them the cure and the means to synthesize it with. No strings attached. (Though an apology to Neelix would be appreciated.)
-[X] Meanwhile, we inform the Kazon, the Talaxians, and the Haakonians about what is happening here. Per Plan Monsterous Coalition. And begin putting them in touch with our newly minted subversive elements. Include details on how to synthesize a cure for the phage.
Okay! Roll me a 3d20 to spread that news! It will be diff 2!
however, it also will create 3 threat.
"Why!?" you may cry.
Here's why: Whenever you create threatening situations, I can add more threat to the pool - this is cautioned against doing too often, but it is a rule that exists. The guideline is 1 for minor stuff, 2 for a complication level threatening, and 3 for something that's on par with a photon torpedo barrage*
*Yes, every time you use a full spread of photon torpedoes, I get +3 threat!
And since you're basically firing a full photon torpedo spread into the astropolitical situation in this area of space, 3 threat is pretty reasonable - even if you fail, you will have SERIOUSLY pissed off the Vidiians!
It's probably too late to bring this up, but aren't a good chunk of the Emergency's victims essentially brain damaged and likely in need of years of therapy? Would they be in any shape to live independently let alone lead an insurgency against the government that imprisoned and used them?
This, and the +1 threat for using grenades (iirc) makes me curious about how we are supposed to engage in combat. It seems like the system penalizes us for using our favorite toys most powerful tools.
Would it be cheesy to invest downtime actions into something like phaser-modulations that improve damage output without increasing threat? Or is the "threat" generated by combat just meant to balance Voyager's ability to generate Momentum both in- and out-of-combat?
I don't see how the latter is supposed to be any easier than the former when the person expected to do it has had their brain turned into a wetware processor and may not even have proper motor skills anymore.
I thought the boarding action was really exciting to read! Since this is still the very early game I'm still getting a feel for the mechanics. Seems like activating a full spread of torpedoes should primarily be used in situations where it can resolve the conflict entirely, thereby limiting the enemy's opportunity to use the threat generated.
This, and the +1 threat for using grenades (iirc) makes me curious about how we are supposed to engage in combat. It seems like the system penalizes us for using our favorite toys most powerful tools.
From my limited experience with the Modiphius Star Trek game, of which this seems to be an adaptation - I've played in two short-lived campaigns and ran one one-shot - the idea is that once one side escalates, the other side gets to escalate as well. Meanwhile, if you try to de-escalate - say, leaving Phasers on stun - you might have a harder battle, but an easier victory.
So much like the showrunners were limited when and where they could have a special effects laden battle by the limitations of a TV budget we too are limited only by potential Threat.
It's probably too late to bring this up, but aren't a good chunk of the Emergency's victims essentially brain damaged and likely in need of years of therapy? Would they be in any shape to live independently let alone lead an insurgency against the government that imprisoned and used them?
She shook her head, slightly. "We buy transporters and ionic stabilizers from the Talaxians and the Haakonians, for example. Then there's the less...savory support we need. Kazon warfleets need their bribing, after all.
Secondly, their systems are highly automated, which means they are run by zipheads.
Third, the Phage is so important that pretty much everyone has a support job related to the Phage industry and a huge chunk of consumer spending is phage related.
The moment the Phage industry collapses, the entire economy implodes.
Hyperinflation as consumers no longer buy treatmemt, but import of consumer goods collapses.
Life support failing to adjust as Zipheads are decoupled.
Mass unemployment as the Phage industry is dismanteled.
Economic blockades as the ultra- rich take revenge for being denied immortality.
There is no chance here of them being able to field any meaningfull attack against the other pods. They can't even use the existing warships, as those also rely on Zipheads.
The best case scenario for the people of this pod is a Remora warfleet showing them up and taking them in.
The worst case scenario sees the habitat degrade slowly for lack of essential maintenance and ziphead oversight( ziphead programmed systems are noted for their ideosyncracities, making them ill fit for regular people) until it fails catastrophically.
Their entire economy is based on the Phage,in multiple ways.
Firstly, they import a huge part of their advanced industrial goods.
Secondly, their systems are highly automated, which means they are run by zipheads.
Third, the Phage is so important that pretty much everyone has a support job related to the Phage industry and a huge chunk of consumer spending is phage related.
The moment the Phage industry collapses, the entire economy implodes.
Hyperinflation as consumers no longer buy treatmemt, but import of consumer goods collapses.
Life support failing to adjust as Zipheads are decoupled.
Mass unemployment as the Phage industry is dismanteled.
Economic blockades as the ultra- rich take revenge for being denied immortality.
There is no chance here of them being able to field any meaningfull attack against the other pods. They can't even use the existing warships, as those also rely on Zipheads.
The best case scenario for the people of this pod is a Remora warfleet showing them up and taking them in.
The worst case scenario sees the habitat degrade slowly for lack of essential maintenance and ziphead oversight( ziphead programmed systems are noted for their ideosyncracities, making them ill fit for regular people) until it fails catastrophically.
I can see how the loss of the zipheads could cause everything to fall apart for the Emergency but that's not what I'm questioning. What I am questioning is whether or not the zipheads, when freed, would be in any kind of state to lead an armed insurgency as suggested by this portion of the winning vote:
-[X] While Voyager may not be able to liberate every single Pod, at the very least you can free the people of this Pod... and provide them with the tools to take on the rest of the Emergency.
Reading through the descriptions we've been given of the zipheads and their condition, I suspect these folks might not even be able to walk, as only the bare minimum of their brain is left untouched so that their bodies know enough not to die, but otherwise everything else is reconfigured to be used as wetware CPUs.
Pretty much, I'm concerned that when we pull these people out they'll be effectively vegetative and at best underdeveloped and in need of years of personalized therapy to get to a point where they'll be able to do things that we take for granted subconsciously, never mind have the presence of mind to fight their oppressors.
If the zipheads are so far gone it wouldn't matter how dependent the Emergency is on them. I don't need a highly advanced neural network to feel me up to date intel to know how to beat up a paraplegic that is suffering from Alzheimer's.
I also assumed there were a bunch of exploited folk outside of the zipheads that would be able to act as an insurrection. The people that eventually became zipheads or were forced into slavery as their bodies started falling apart. Since the overseers bodies are also falling apart it wouldn't be a completely one sided stomp after we distributed cure information.
With the cure being distributed any contractors or workers from other pods should be easier to subvert (with cures for them or their families) so other pods would have their own troubles and it wouldn't just make this pod blow up in isolation.
So assuming we're using personal and not ship stats here, then if our TN was 13, I.E. our "generic Bridge Officer trying a thing they are neither good or bad at" number, this is two Successes, so we just pass. If it was TN 17 because we could take advantage of one of our Bridge Officer's skills - the only option which seems likely is T'Are who is Skilled in Comms - then this is three successes, possibly even four successes if the 5 counts. (Depends if it's only results less than your relevant skill which give an extra Success, or less than or equal to, same as with beating TNs.)
Reading through the descriptions we've been given of the zipheads and their condition, I suspect these folks might not even be able to walk, as only the bare minimum of their brain is left untouched so that their bodies know enough not to die, but otherwise everything else is reconfigured to be used as wetware CPUs.
Pretty much, I'm concerned that when we pull these people out they'll be effectively vegetative and at best underdeveloped and in need of years of personalized therapy to get to a point where they'll be able to do things that we take for granted subconsciously, never mind have the presence of mind to fight their oppressors.
If the zipheads are so far gone it wouldn't matter how dependent the Emergency is on them. I don't need a highly advanced neural network to feel me up to date intel to know how to beat up a paraplegic that is suffering from Alzheimer's.
I think that's probably true, but according to @DragonCobolt, the biggest class of Vidiian society are the kind of "middle of two pyramids", who are are not Zipheads or focussed, just trying to get by in middle management or other jobs. (Presumably a lot of the people who process the pharmacuticals.) So imagine a kind of hyper-precariat where if you lose your job, you aren't just unable to make the rent, but your boss also repossess your organs. I wonder if some of the organleggers are middle class Vidiians who ended up falling through the cracks like that, actually? Makes them slightly more sympathetic.
The zipheads/focused are going to need a lot of care for the rest of their lives, and realistically, a future Vidiian society without the podmasters might still end up utilising their talents at particular tasks. (Hopefully just in a less awful way.) Maybe they'll still retain elements of a caste system, or over generations, actually continue to diverge into separate sub-species. Ultimately, we've kinda decided that's not our choice to make on their behalf.
But the Podmasters are a literal slaveholding aristocracy, and even just beginning the dismantlement of that system could make things a bit better, I hope.
"We cannot fight an entire war by ourselves," Janeway said.
"Well, yeah, not with that attitude!" C'nola grumbled, her arms crossed over her chest.
"What we can do is we can provide the information to the people who need it most," Janeway said, tapping her finger against the table. "Blow the whistle, produce the cure, and spread both far and wide. And once we do that...we free this pod."
The others nodded, slowly. Harry smiled. "I know just how to do that - without causing too much damage," he said.
Everyone looked at him. Harry flushed, but kept going ahead. "See, the idea hit me when I saw the way their computers work, and when Trell was working..."
***
Nurel watched as Senior Podmaster Toman Ser Nurel leaned back in his ornate seat and rubbed his scarred cheek. "They're remaining at a distance?"
"Everything is peaceful - for now - but they will be striking back soon," Nurel said, firmly. "I have the final contingency prepared - but if the enemy ship survives, then the rest of the Emergency needs to be prepared. These aliens are a bigger threat than the Takers or the Kazon Bashers."
"What do you suggest, son?" Toman asked, quietly.
Nurel tensed slightly. Familial relations between the Podmaster class was no grantee of security or safety. Sometimes, the knitting held true, and you could depend on a brother or sister to watch your back as if they were your own cloned self. Sometimes, that just let them get close enough. But he and his father had always had a good relationship, and the security information that he had sent along with this subspace transmission was more than enough to provide logical backing to the emotional connection. That didn't mean he wasn't...a little nervous to bring this up.
"Bring out the Dragon," Nurel said. "We need it."
"It takes a vote of three senior podmasters and two family houses to authorize that," Toman Ser Nurel said, frowning. "The Dragon saved us from the Borg - but it's...dangerous. Are you sure about this?"
Nurel nodded. "I'm sure, father. If I-" An alert chime drew his attention. "Keep on this channel, Father. I have to attend to matters of security. You may need to watch." He turned and strode away from the screen - and came to his handlers, who were hunched over the Pod's displays.
"Sir, Voyager is arming their weapons and approaching on an attack pattern." The handler paused. "Sir, the security zips are freaking out about the impossible second ship - the..." His eyes widened. "Shit! The zips were right, there is a second ship decloaking out of the ecliptic, they're preparing to fire!"
"Torpedoes!" Nurel shouted.
The Pod shuddered as the torpedo launchers opened up and strobing pulses of orange white light shot upwards towards the suddenly present enemy ship. Nurel hoped to see the flaring bursts of energy that meant they had been lucky enough to hit the window where a cloaking ship was decloaking to fire and still hadn't their shields up. Instead, orange-white shimmers appeared in the space above his station, and he saw the ship banking around, bringing her prow cannons to bear. Nurel tensed as a beam of emerald green energy leaped out and played along the shields of the Pod. The whole station rocked and the handlers reported the damage.
"Minimal effect - minor blowthrough on the unpeople'd part of the station, they're targeting the weapon arrays," the handler said. "The zips are still panicking about the change in the security parameters, though."
"Little shits," Nurel spat.
"Sir, Voyager is-"
The sleek bulk of the main enemy battleship swept past the Pod. Like their ally, they opened up with beam weapons - but their arrays were a lot faster. A lot. They were able to sweep their full saucer in a curving arc, and each moment of it, they were able to play their weapons along the stations. "Their phasers are set to low intensity, high burn," the tactical handler says. "Uh, shit, sir, sir, the zips are getting into tantrum spirals - we have fights in Pens 2 and 4."
"Cut them out, stun them with darts, and throw them in recyclers for all I care, I want coherence now!" Nurel said.
"There's some kind of communication going on between the...Voyager and us..." the handler sounded stunned. "Sir, they're feeding the zips security data! They're sending over the specifications of something called a...a USS Enterprise?" He looked back over his shoulder. "It's a ship a fraction of this size, with technology more primitive than ours, and they just dumped its entire data-set into the Pens."
Nurel looked at him in absolute bafflement.
Then the piece dropped into his mind, like a puzzle clicking into place.
"Corpsefetters!" He swore, then leaped to the console. He started to input the Podmaster override codes - desperate to shut the pens down. But it was too late.
Zipheads were focused - the name, the polite name for them was the Focused, after all. But that meant that when something in their purview swept into their position, at the right time, without censorship from their handlers, it could trigger...
"They're hyperfixing!" Nurel's tactical handler shouted. "We're losing all firing inputs and target tracking."
"Fire the ionics, full spread!"
Space lit up with glittering white pulses as the secondary batteries fired. But the crews, waiting for their firing codes and target acquisition programs, were forced to try and blindfire it. While the enemy were close for space battles, they were still far beyond the abilities of eyelines and guesswork. Voyager swept by overhead, but it was the other ship that came in close, revealing her dorsal banks of phasers. Nurel tensed, ready for the shot and the damage it would wreak. Their shields were drained, their tactical controls were completely undone by a tactic they'd never imagined...
And then...
The secondary ship fired a beam of pale orange energy - wide angle and gentle enough that Nurel barely felt the station rock. The shields, though...they flared, buzzed, crackled, then popped like a soap bubble. Nurel figured it out a moment before he heard the whirring noise. HE turned to see that a full team of six Starfleet officers had appeared in his bridge, carrying rifles that might have been disruptors, given an extra two centuries to smooth down the curves.
The leader was a tall, strong, fierce looking blond haired woman - and she had her rifle aimed right at his chest. Nurel leaped to the side, putting a console and several of his bodyguards between him and the barrel. Rather than a beam, a cone of orange light exploded out. It didn't melt the console, but it did cause most of his bodyguards to drop, nervelessly, as Nurel drew his needler and then popped out. He aimed at the blond woman.
And then he saw the other woman. The shorter, darker, cat eared one, coming right for him.
Nurel swung his pistol to bear.
The needler fired.
The darts quivered - embedded up to their feathered shafts in the plastic wall.
The cat girl was on him, her weight smashing him back.
The last thing Nurel thought before his head cracked against metal was: This is embarrassing.
***
"All right, hands up, everyone! Send the surrender signal to the rest of the Pod at once!" Alex shouted as she swung her rifle around to aim at everyone else in the command center of the pod. "Now!"
The stunned Vidiians started to get to work - and Amy breathed a slow sigh of relief as she saw that C'nola hadn't killed the Podmaster.
"I just concussed him, Adora, Emperor," C'nola said, dragging Nurel back around the corner of his cover, so he could sprawl in the center of the bridge. "You act like I'm going to murder every tin pot meglomaniac we meet."
"You have murdered every tin pot megalomaniac we've met," Amy said, quietly.
"Yeah, but it was really funny the last time I did it," C'nola muttered.
"Well, I see my son was not underestimating you."
The voice that spoke came from one of the consoles. Amy and C'nola walked over to it - and saw an older Vidiian man, with a scarred face and gray eyes. He also was a near perfect copy of Nurel - save that he was older and had more gravitas to him. He regarded both of them through the screen with a cool detachment.
"Yo," C'nola said.
"Sir, my name is Lieutenant Amy Strong. We've liberated this Pod from the Emergency," Amy said, firmly. "We have a cure to the Phage, and we will work on a cure for the Focus."
The man chuckled, quietly. "It's...interesting that you say that like it means something." He leaned back in his seat. "We can and do cure both. Did you think Podmasters have to buy Product to keep ourselves alive?" He snorted, then sighed. "...however, you will learn this soon: unfocusing someone is often more cruel than focusing them in the first place. But there are times where it is required - when a Focus gets...particularly obsessed with some facet of their purview, they become useless and need to be retired."
Amy glared at him.
"This conversation has been...enlightening," Toman Ser Nurel said, lifting his hand up and making a little, mocking salute with it. "We'll be seeing you soon, Starfleet."
C'nola turned her phaser rifle on the screen and shot it.
TO BE CONTINUED...
Harry Kim makes his tricky roll, using Comms+Security to create a false connection: 2s, creating the advantage of "misleading the Focus"
Brian Wacoche makes his sneaky roll, using his Command+Insight to maneuver the Val Jean into a proper position: 2s creating the advantage of "Dead out of the Ecliptic"
The Emergency rolls their scanners against diff 1, +1 for dead out of the ecliptic then +1 for their trait (normally, this would help, save for Harry's advantage.) Total diff 3! They get 4s - just barely succeeding! Oh no!
EMERGENTS
Nurel has spent his 10 threat to summon the dragon, so he just rolls a flat torpedo spread against the Val Jean: He gets 3s and a complication (the complication is "Ziphead Meltdown in Firing Control"! Firing a torpedo is diff 2, so he succeeds with 1 momentum. 4 damage and 2 effects! He re-rolls some damage dice with his momentum and gets 10 damage and 4 effects, meaning he does 10/5/5/5/5 damage to the Val Jean, which the Val Jean reduces to 5/0/0/0/0! Their shields are dropped to 7, but they take 2 breaches (1 for 5+ damage, 1 for torpedoes being high yield, to sensors and structure! The Val Jean has +1 diff to shoot until a minor action is taken to fix the sensors and they take a casualty if they roll a 5-6 on a d6! They get unlucky and take a casualty.
STARFLEET
Realizing their plan has gone awry, the Val Jean takes a minor restore action, then does a called shot on the weapons of the Pod and fires their Disruptor banks. This is diff 2+1 for called shot, -1 for their advantage, and they spend 3 power on it to buff it. They get 2s - a hit with no momentum! However, thanks to Nurel using a 3 "threat" movement, you get 3 momentum*
*SIDE NOTE: It's...kind of unclear if NPCs using escalation gives momentum back to you, but that seems fair AND fun!
So, they spend 2 momentum to retain the initiative and banks the last for reducing enemy resistance! They roll a STAGGERING 15 damage (disruptors, man!) and the enemy's soak is only 8! That means they do 7 damage, inflicting a breach on the enemy's weapons and reducing their shields to 11!
STARFLEET
Voyager spends 2 power and unleashes their phaser arrays! Mr. Kim gets 3s versus a diff of 2+1 -1, so that's 3 momentum from the phasers. He drops it on reducing the enemy resistance from 10 to 6 and one on a re-roll for damage dice, bumping him from 8 damage +3 effects to 13 damage and 4 effects, for a total of 5/1/1/1/1 damage! (13/2 = 7, 7-6 = 1!) This drops the enemy shields from 11 to 2! Damn! The shields are still up! They also cause a breach to the the sensors.
EMERGENTS
Nurel, realizing just how effective the enemy shields are, directs his gunners to fire the ionic pulse turrets (they have area and pierce 1.) He takes a minor action to reset sensors and then gives you 1 momentum to take a second minor action to reset weaponry. He gets 2s...and ANOTHER complication. This will give you +2 momentum (+3 in total!) Now, his diff is 2, +1 for your advantage, +1 for his complication, so he misses completely!
STARFLEET
The Val Jean fires their phasers at minimum power! They get 3s, meaning they hit with 1 momentum, bumped to 3 from the phaser's Versatile quality, bumped to 6 by Nurel's spends. They roll damage on their phaser first. They do 5 damage! They spend 1 momentum to re-roll 3d6 and get +1 damage, for 6 damage in total! Then they spend 3 momentum to drop the Pod's resistance from 10 to 4. Their 6 damage is dropped to 2, which drops their shields to 0 - meaning they do 1 breach to the Pod's weapons...and they have 3 momentum left. They spend 2 to retain initiative and keep the last for eating later.
STARFLEET
Amy Strong lowers the shields with a minor action, then spends +1 momentum and 3 power - 1 to charge, 2 for bonus momentum - to beam their boarding parties onto the Pod at pre-selected sites. She rolls 5s, against a diff of 2+1 (targeting a non-transporter area), -1 (being in transporter control) for a diff of 2. So, that's 3 momentum, +2 momentum from power, +1 from banked, for 6 momentum. She spends 3 momentum to take a 2nd action, 3 momentum to take 2 bonus minor actions (giving her phaser rifle Area and Vicious 1.) This means, as she arrives, in the Podmaster's control chambers, she drops 8 damage with 3 areas, allowing her to hit Nurel for an injury and three of his four guards.
EMERGENTS
Nurel spends 2 threat (I.E, gives 2 momentum) to avoid the injury. He pops up, aims, and fires at Amy, getting 1s - a miss!
STARFLEET
C'nola spends a minor action to move into range and tackles Nurel. She gets 2s and he gets 1s - she wins the tie with 1 momentum! She does 7 damage, which drops his stress from 2 to 0, and does 5+ damage, so that's two injuries. He's down for the count! With 3 momentum from the roll and Nurel, she spends 2 to retain initative
STARFLEET
Alexandra Munroe shouts for them to FUCKING SURRENDER NOW! She spends 1 momentum for +1d20! She gets 2s versus their 0s and they're rolling at a diff of 2 thanks to the Zipheads going in a spiral.
I think that's probably true, but according to @DragonCobolt, the biggest class of Vidiian society are the kind of "middle of two pyramids", who are are not Zipheads or focussed, just trying to get by in middle management or other jobs. (Presumably a lot of the people who process the pharmacuticals.) So imagine a kind of hyper-precariat where if you lose your job, you aren't just unable to make the rent, but your boss also repossess your organs. I wonder if some of the organleggers are middle class Vidiians who ended up falling through the cracks like that, actually? Makes them slightly more sympathetic.
Where else would they come from? The upper class is both much smaller, and while a tiny fraction will get disgraced, most will be okay. Meanwhile, the Zipheads don't seem likely to build families, the Cattle are turning into goo, and the organleggers are probably not having all that many healthy pregnancies themselves.
In fact, I believe that the middle class, the reproducing class, exists primarily for that purpose. You need a good chunk of people to keep up with the high mortality rate in the other classes.
And you can't count on those classes reproducing themselves. For example, a Ziphead is created by erasing parts of the brain, not adding to them. So, if you want to have a Ziphead with some useful skills, you need to start with an actual person, preferably one who already knows much of what you want your ziphead to know.
With the cure being distributed any contractors or workers from other pods should be easier to subvert (with cures for them or their families) so other pods would have their own troubles and it wouldn't just make this pod blow up in isolation.
The problem is that the cure isn't being distributed.
We've send out the blueprints for the cure, but you can't exactly brew medicine in your bathtub.
What you need for that are advanced biomedical facilities and educated personal.
Only, among the Viidians, all the labs are controlled by Podmasters and producing Phage and Phage derivatives
And all the educated personel are likely to be either Podmasters or zipheads.
So, to the average Viidian, the cure is about as worthwhile as a spam email promising a miracle. They have zero ability to produce it, and don't have the knowledge to know it is real.
A few outside nations might produce and smuggle in the cure to help their trade balance, but domestic production is likely to be minimal to none.
We need to prepare both of our ships with exterior holo-projectors as soon as possible. They might not fall for their Focused being beamed direct information but we can use holograms to produce more impossible scenarios to force them broken again.
Heck, we could make fake clocked ships to try to confuse them.
