The Children's Crusade - A Postapocalyptic Mecha Quest

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Talia B said:
Stress is temporary damage that prevents further gains in Trust until addressed. If your Stress in a relationship ever exceeds Trust, it rolls over to a point of damage.

Damage permanently reduces Trust. (You can regain it later, with difficulty, but it can't be easily fixed the way Stress can.)
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Alright, well I think that we're at Trust 3 with 0 starting stress, so yeah, might as well take risks early.
 
[X] Tough out it's counterattack; you can take it. (Gain one Terror, which rolls over into a single point of Trauma. This is survivable - even fixable - but it's going to suck.)
 
Adhoc vote count started by Talia B on Jan 28, 2024 at 9:47 PM, finished with 8 posts and 6 votes.
  • [x] See just how much damage your Reactive Shield can absorb.
    [x] Take it on the chest and trust Luiz's damage control skills. (Luiz can reroll any or all dice put into the Chassis, so put a - result here and hope he negates the damage. This may stress out or even damage your trust with Luiz.)
    [X] Tough out it's counterattack; you can take it. (Gain one Terror, which rolls over into a single point of Trauma. This is survivable - even fixable - but it's going to suck.)
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Keeping this open until 6 tomorrow for the tiebreaker votes.
 
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  • Voting
    • Scheduled vote count started by Talia B on Jan 25, 2024 at 12:46 PM, finished with 9 posts and 6 votes.
    • [x] See just how much damage your Reactive Shield can absorb.
      [x] Take it on the chest and trust Luiz's damage control skills. (Luiz can reroll any or all dice put into the Chassis, so put a - result here and hope he negates the damage. This may stress out or even damage your trust with Luiz.)
      [X] Tough out it's counterattack; you can take it. (Gain one Terror, which rolls over into a single point of Trauma. This is survivable - even fixable - but it's going to suck.)
    Click to expand...
     
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    • Talia B said:
    Scheduled vote count started by Talia B on Jan 25, 2024 at 12:46 PM, finished with 9 posts and 6 votes.
    • [x] See just how much damage your Reactive Shield can absorb.
      [x] Take it on the chest and trust Luiz's damage control skills. (Luiz can reroll any or all dice put into the Chassis, so put a - result here and hope he negates the damage. This may stress out or even damage your trust with Luiz.)
      [X] Tough out it's counterattack; you can take it. (Gain one Terror, which rolls over into a single point of Trauma. This is survivable - even fixable - but it's going to suck.)
    Click to expand...
    Click to expand...
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    Right.

    Roll me a d6.

    +: the Luiz gambit
    0= take it on the sheild.
    -= oof ouch my brain.
     
    Mission 00.2 Resolution
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    • > 2d6 for the VALKYRIE CHASSIS:+-

    > 3d6 for the REACTIVE SHIELD:++=

    > 2d6 for the SCANNER CROWN:+-

    > 3d6 for the PLASMA SHOTGUN:+--

    Total:+++++=----

    PRIMARY TARGETING :: + : Objective completed

    COMMUNICATIONS :: + : Control maintained

    LUIZ/CHASSIS :: + : System nominal

    ISAAC/SHIELD :: = : SYSTEM STRAINED, Trust 5/1 Stress

    REGINALD/PLASSHOT :: + : System Nominal

    VICTORIA/SENSORS :: + : System Nominal

    HEATSINKS :: ---- : Sinks 4 Heat, Total 20/108


    I raise my left arm and set the glowing energy shield, twisting my body so that there's no part of me not behind it, just in time for the Cataphract to rain down hammer blows with those obsidian-sharp hooves.

    They flare in pulses of blue fire, the flashing hurting my eyes even through the dark lenses of my helmet. Hopefully it was having the same effect on it. I raised my shotgun, and the dream demands I pump it -

    When the halo of the beast before me flares and resolves into a single star-hot sun-bright lance of light that splatters against my shield even as it continues lasing it.

    The panel of that shield shifts from blue to green to an alarming shade of orange, the redshifting spreading in an arc across the surface of it as alarms rang out.

    I need to end this.

    I boost forward, under the blows, sliding so I'm under my shield as I shift where on it the beast is blasting. My crown locks it's inertial tracking crosshair on a beating, glowing red heart barely protruding from an external ribcage.

    I lift the shotgun, grimace and fire.

    My blast tears a hole through the creature and engulfs it's heart in the core of a miniature blue dwarf star an instant before I hear one pane of my shield shatter, raining glassy embers onto me.

    There is a horrible pause.

    There is a horrible scream.

    I manage to turn my grimace into a grin.

    "Oh, thank god," Luiz says. "Signals dropping across the board, drop on my mark -"

    I drop on his mark and the cataphract explodes into a shower of flaming gore with occasional cybernetics. Bits of it bounce off my shield - or my armor. The scraps of it that don't hit the water start to turn pale and carbonize into ashy flakes; the part that hits the bay remains bloody chunks and chrome, which I know we'll get salvage teams on.

    After I'm back home.

    I take a deep breath and rise up.

    "Bandit down," I broadcast. "Lovely Valkyrie reporting mission success, repeat, bandit down, mission accomplished."

    Luiz nods, eyes flickering across his diagnostics. At the same time, I glance at my shield. It's already back to it's original shape, though it's perhaps a little more jade than cyan in color now, stressed out from the beating I took.

    "Acknowledge, Unit 04," Major Lam replies, her radio seasoned with crackling. "Bandit 00 also down, repeat, my target eliminated. Beauregarde reports entering a duel with his target."

    I take a deep breath. "Acknowledge," I responded.

    "Do you think he's got it?" Luiz asks, meeting my gaze. "...Or for that matter, do you think you've got another round in you to help him?"


    Vote:

    [] Reggie's got this. Wake me up. (Exit the Dream.)

    [] Reggie's got this... but that's no reason not to help. (Hotshot a New Objective: Assist Reggie.)

    [] I did my job, he'll do his. Wake me up. (Exit the dream.)

    [] Let's be the cavalry. (Hotshot a New Objective: Assist Reggie.)

    Voting opens at 3 Pacific, and closes Monday at 3 Pacific.
     
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    • Okay so yes having taken exactly one stress so far I think we can afford to pitch in and play harrier on the other part of the mission instead of bailing.
     
    Well, I'd say leaving a friend/ally behind when they're fighting for their life is a bad move in general. Shit can go wrong real fast, and we be like "screw you guys, I'm going home"?

    As for what to say... some fake bravado feels about right after what just happened. Decisiveness + audacity = badass type, my favorite.
     
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    • Mission 00.3 HOTSHOT OBJECTIVE - Power Generation
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    • [X] Reggie's got this... but that's no reason not to help. (Hotshot a New Objective: Assist Reggie.)

    "Reggie's got this," I said. He had been at it for a year and a half before my brother let me into the cockpit and knew what he was doing.

    But I clenched my hand around the control stick and turned towards Treasure Island.

    "But that's no reason not to help?" Luiz asked, rhetorically. He was already drawing up a flight path, bless him.

    "But that's no reason not to help," I confirmed. "Keep me out of his firing solutions and on course to crash into his bandit."

    "Aye aye, Lieutenant," he replied, exaggerating the Frenchiness of lieutenant as my attack vector appeared on screen.

    I saw some distant explosions. Unlike the Valkyrie, which wanted to get in close and stay there, Reginald's Saturday Knight was a sniper platform: I'd seen a railgun, a mortar and all kinds of rocket and missile launchers. I was seeing colorful flak detonations, rapidly blooming flowers of fire, bracketing another one of the Cataphracts while it tried to backtrace their source, stabbing at the sky and mountain with spears of burning light.

    I angled the hoop skirt of my mech and fired the boost thrusters, blasting with my shotgun, as much to get Reggie's attention as the Cataphract's.

    "INCOMING!" I screamed into an open channel.

    When I crashed into it shield-first, bowling it over, I could have sworn the thing managed to emote surprise despite having hollow eyesockets with no eyebrows to speak of.

    It recovered quickly, wheeling to face jagged antlers at me.

    "Bec, anyone ever tell ya you got a flair for the dramatic?" Reginald asked.

    "I've got it distracted. Toast it!" I replied.

    He laughed "Don't have to tell me twice -"


    As before, roll:

    2d6 for the VALKYRIE CHASSIS: - -

    3d6 for the REACTIVE SHIELD: - - -

    2d6 for the SCANNER CROWN: - +

    3d6 for the PLASMA SHOTGUN: - + +
     
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