World War II - The Vanguard Issue #4a - All aboard the Odin!

With Sentinels power applied he was able to 'collapse' the floor in on itself, an oozing mess of melted metal and hissing coolants which made the corridor impassable by foot. Meanwhile Frostbite helped the ladies into the access hatch, turning to call out to Sentinel that the way out was ready. Sentinel ducked back into the room as the corridor filled with laser fire behind him!

The group squeezed into the hatch as the sound of boot jets flaring up rang out. Frostbite turned intangible rather than squeeze himself into the narrow space to follow the ladies (OOC I'm assuming this, let me know if otherwise) and Sentinel was able to use his power to 'flow' through the tunnel as the sides simply expanded to accommodate him thanks to his metal morphing power! Even as the group got only a few metres into the conduit passage, there was a huge explosion behind that rocked everyone (save Frostbite who was intangible). Fire flushed through the tunnel stopping inches short of Silver Sentinel, and the group hurried on as best it could. It was clear that the boot jets of the Cyborgs had ignited explosive gas that had lit up, taking out a large section of the ships interior with it!

Heading forwards as a scout, Frostbite was able to follow along the conduit and come out into an empty room that looked like crew quarters. It would take some time for the others to crawl along the passage before getting there, but it seemed safe, and was locked. Somewhere to rest up and take stock of the situation?

=========

Saladin sped round the corridor, hurtling past a group of nonplussed Skrall technicians who simple carried on with their duties!

His instincts, the so called 'sixth sense' that warned him of danger, told him a group of several Skrall 'Borgs were up ahead. With a curse, he knew he'd have to play things cool - rushing in would quickly see him bogged down. He could take on one, two, maybe three of these Cyborgs, but any more than that would slow him down and eventually they'd get a lucky shot in! With a growl he looked about, seeing doors set into the corridor. As his gaze rested on one, he frowned, then shook his head. He sniffed, shook his head again, and sped over to press the door panel.

=========

With a sigh Silver Sentinel sagged into the room, then with a moments thought, smoothed the ripples out of his suit

Frostbite, Fastback and Guillotine were already in there, sat on the bunk. Guillotine was tearing the sheets into strips for bandages. "What now?" asked Fastback. She was battered, but alright thanks to her superhuman physique. "This place is crawling with those robots, and they have no qualms about blowing themselves up? How long before they fine..."

Everyone stood as the door hissed open, ready to fight!

It closed after Saladin/Lionheart stepped into the room, frown on his face. "I am never rid of you?" he muttered.

OOC Current situation - you're in a crew room, complete with bunk, sink, toilet in the corner and locker. Outside and all over the ship the Skrall Cyborgs are clomping about, looking for superheroes to beat/blow up. It comes down to; Stealth, and luck, or a straight fight, unless you guys can think of another way. Frostbot is still 'the ghost in the machine' and you can access it from a console in the corridor - ah yes, the same corridors that have Cyborgs patrolling them every now and again... over to y'all (the group is together again)

Brief Interlude

"BLAST IT!!!!"

Bentham tossed a heavy paperweight through a monitor screen, smashing the thing and sending sparks everywhere! Nazi officers glanced over nervously. One of their number hadn't taken too well to the mans colossal arrogance, his sneering self importance, and challenged him, expecting the man from the future to back down to his towering 6'5" heavily built frame. Instead Bentham seemed to thrive on the challenge, seemingly knowing exactly where to place himself when the fists started flying! "I can read you like a book" he'd said, calmly. "My mind is empowered beyond your comprehension! I can see your muscles twitching and accurately predict within 99.462% where you will swing, when... and..." he moved aside as another wild swing from the Nazi sent the man sprawling, gasping for breath, and turning about, lying on his back and looking up whilst Bentham looked down on him. "I can predict the future. Yours is bleak." With casual speed he'd raised the Nazi officers own luger - stolen as the man fell past - and shot the man between the eyes!

Since then the challenges had been few and far between, but Bentham still had to 'toe the line'. He'd apologised to Adolf Hitler, who he himself had resurrected from the dead! Well, with Trowers aid, of course, but Trowers knew the mechanics of the mind and body, the chemical structure, DNA and so on, better than anyone. Where Bentham was useful was predicting probabilities and acting on them. Decades of research and trial and error could be avoided by simply placing a series of choices in front of him, and he would - normally - get it spot on.

He looked at the blank screens, connected to the 'Odin'. These... 'Vanguard' he could not predict. For some reason, they defied him at every turn! He'd predicted that they would make a 'play' for the captured P'utinarians, and ensured there would be metahuman enforcers on hand to deal with them. The reports were that a captured - and that grated on his nerves too - Skrall Science vessel was attacking the base. Doubtless that meant the one they called 'Anyman' a freakish thorn in the Nazis side that inspired fear and hatred in equal measure! He chuckled. The others - this, 'Frostbite' for instance, were no less accomplished.

The blank screens were testimony to that. "Even in 1940 you are somehow able to adapt and interfere with computers that belong to an Earth Centuries from now. How is this? What is your secret?" he muttered to himself. They adapted to every situation, and no deathtrap was secure enough to stop them? He sat down again, idly looking at the panel in front of him, typing in a line of code and pressing the Skrall button for 'enter'. One of the screens on the wall flickered into life, and on it, Nazis and Skrall alike were racing down corridors, looking for the Vanguard. Then, as before, the feed was cut, from somewhere on the ship.

Trowers and the others were obsessed with Lionheart. In truth, he'd evolved beyond even Benthams' ability to foresee, but there was something else going on here. These... 'mystery men' who'd sprung up, who were they? From whence did they spring? He stood, causing the Nazis in this control room to look up in fear from their stations, and strode to another console, typing away, creating a computer program that would feed and enhance his own incredible ability. This Vanguard had a secret. He would find it, and make it his own...

End of Interlude...

Admin wrote:Everyone stood as the door hissed open, ready to fight!

Frostbite shot him a glance that made even Saladin, reconsider his arrogant indifference. "Nice to have you home honey!" He said with not a trace of a smile. Saladin was about to say something back, but Frostbite simply raised a hand. "I don't like what you are up to, but I don't like my friend being shut out of his own body, whilst you take up residence either. Nothing personal. But we've got to get what we came for and get of this ship, the others are taking on the Nazi's below and every moment we delay helping them, gives our enemies a chance to get us all."

Frostbite gave it some thought. "We need to take control of the ship, if we can shut down the Cyborg Skralls we can then at least get what we came for and take the ship to boat. Bletchely would be only too pleased to have one of these to study uninterrupted."

"Sentinel I think we're going to have to take the direct root..." As he said this Frostbite looked up. The others just gulped, "Do you think you can make a hole through the floors till we reach the command deck?"

OOC:

Ok So if Sentinel can burrow vertically a tunnel to the command deck that would be great, meanwhile I am going to contact Frostbot and firstly tell it what we plan to do and ask if it can alter the ship so that the Skrall Borgs can be diverted elsewhere. If there is any chance we can get them rooted to an airlock to shut them out or something.

As for the rest of the team Saladin can fly, as can Sentinel Guillotine and Fastback will have to hitch a lift either with me or Sentinel unless they can climb up inside the shaft safely.

Sj

"There is some outside interference on my programming." said the computer 'inside' Frostbites' head, surprisingly. "I will try my utmost to remain 'at wild' in this ships computers, but an aggressive hacker is attempting to circumvent my level 6 4096bit encrypted firewall. Interesting. I raised another firewall, only for the intruder to circumvent almost instantly, as if the person or persons were able to somehow predict and counteract my actions. I will modulate my remaining 5 firewalls between varying encryption levels and attempt to slow down the intrusion, but it will be a delaying tactic at best!"

Many of the terms were lost of Frostbite, but he got the general gist - the Frostbot was under attack!

"I can send a root command to the Cyborg Skralls but whether they follow it or not is an outcome I cannot determine. Unfortunately it will require dropping... another firewall is down. Attempting cascade encryption. Four firewalls remain. To send the command to the Skralls will require this unit to drop another firewall. Please advise if this is acceptable, as it will reduce the functionality I can provide you. With the internal scanners I have determined you are two levels below the bridge section, but not far from the science section where there are large numbers of classified experiments ongoing. Attempting to access. Failed. Attempting reroute of codebreak. Partial access gained. There are means of transferring the brain patterns from one humanoid creature to a central database, and from there into a vat grown form. Accessing."

All this was taking place in seconds inside Frostbites' head. He wondered what would happen if the Frostbots last 'firewall', whatever that was, was to fall to this attacker?

"I have a fragmented file I am de... Another firewall has been breached. I have a fragmented file I am decoding. It is partial, with only the bare minimum of details, but the system for cloning and transferring minds has been used on subject: Hitler, Adolf."

Fastback, with ear pressed to the door, turned "I can hear doors opening! They are checking every room! There seems to be lots of them!" she cried!

OOC if Silver Sentinel is fine with the melting of the ceiling to go up, we'll proceed with the plan to take the bridge... At the rate the Vanguard/Borgs are going, there won't be much left of this ship, given the mess that's already been made...Frostbot has 3 firewalls remaining. You should know who's doing the hacking from the 'interlude' but of course, the characters can only wonder...

Admin wrote:OOC if Silver Sentinel is fine with the melting of the ceiling to go up, we'll proceed with the plan to take the bridge... At the rate the Vanguard/Borgs are going, there won't be much left of this ship, given the mess that's already been made...Frostbot has 3 firewalls remaining. You should know who's doing the hacking from the 'interlude' but of course, the characters can only wonder...[/i]

OOC: Ok since you said in a post in the other thread, why don't we use the dark power more (well because I'm worried about it being out of control) but the kicker is the less we use it the more we handicap ourselves anyway. So whilst we are talking about escape, I need to boast the computer. Can I use the dark power to advance its sentient systems (kinda like give it a level 2 boast) for a couple of frames till I can take it back.

Frostbite will surmise that Bentham is behind the attack and will also be quiet surprised that Hitler had been the last recipient of the brain transfer, it sounds as if that might also be what Saladin and Lionheart need to separate again. But I don't want it to happen if Bentham is poking about, that is why I want to boast the Frostbot programme and give Bentham pause for concern.

Sj

"Do you think you can make holes through the floors till we reach the command deck?"

Sentinel willed his armour plated helm back so the vanguard could see his face
"So what your telling me is you want me to blow holes in the ship???? .........yeah Im fine with that"
He answered with the biggest cheaky smile they had ever seen.

Jenson mustered all his will to blast through floor after reinforced floor, through check plates & steel joists all the while hovering and humming happily to himself, for he was truely more happy then when he was blowing something up of destroying it in someway, then moving to the next floor and starting again.

What he lacked for in finesse, Silver Sentinel made up for with enthusiasm and effectiveness. A circular hole was made in the ceiling, the metal simply oozing apart, and in some cases dripping downwards like molten wax! Pipes, conduits, the structure of the ship, nothing was spared from his power to break down the molecular bond of metal! He was most effective when he touched the metal itself, but simply being near, within 2m, was enough to start the process! Taking hold of Guillotine whilst Fastback was scooped up by Frostbite, the group went up, through the middle of the ship! Saladin floated on his own, aware that he had crossed the line in taking control of these peoples' friend, and that his own goals were becoming different to these people who called themselves - and were in truth - heroes.

Frostbite, meanwhile, concentrated, summoning the Dark Power from within! Had Fastback been looking at him, she'd have noticed his glowing blue eyes turn black for a moment!

OOC 2d10+5=12 Dark Power, 2d10+12=19 Frostbite. Assumed you'd go for something safe, around 5 points as boosting the computer to an equivalent of Grade 2 would cost 15 points. And with lousy dice rolls like 5d10=19, it's a good job you didn't try for less. Frostbite has now earned 4/5 Dark power experience points. One more and he becomes more versed in the use. Don't get too casual with it though - the dice are, after all, fickle!

"Computing power increased!" announced the computer in his head!

=========

Elsewhere....

Benthams smile faded as he looked at the blinking symbols on the screen, showing he'd been kicked - and locked out - of the alien program dancing about in the Odins mainframe! How? How was that possible? Why could he not foresee it and compensate? Troubled, he ignored the frightened looks of the Nazis at their stations as he stalked off, hands behind his back and brow deeply furrowed...

=========

Guillotine looked up...

"The next level is the bridge. It's likely to be guarded. Is there any plan, or do we just..." she looked at Saladin with a frown "'Rush 'em'?"

Admin wrote:
"The next level is the bridge. It's likely to be guarded. Is there any plan, or do we just..." she looked at Saladin with a frown "'Rush 'em'?"

"Hang on moment!" The group looked puzzled as Frostbite again looked for an available panel to which to communicate with the Frostbot. "How you holding up there? We're just below the Control Deck, we want to come up and stage a fight from there, I think there we'd stand the best chance of taking the ship. I want you to be ready, lets try and do this with the minimum of damage."

After letting his "companion" know what was going on, Frostbite turned to the others. "Right Guillotine, you need to get to the controls and take the ship over, the Frostbot will help as best it can. Meanwhile Fastback you run interference and make sure Guillotine's back is covered. I don't want her having to worry about defending herself so you make sure she doesn't need to." Then turning to Sentinel, Frostbite said, "We need as much of the ship intact as possible, but we both know how destructive those Cyborg Skralls can be, so its more important we get what we came for and be able to try and fly this thing back to rendezvous with the others. But of us all your the ace in the whole when it comes to damaging these creatures. I'll try and cover you're back so you can just concentrate on stopping them."

"OK here is how its going to play, I'll come up in a different part of the deck, draw attention my way, make it look as if we've been fooling them all along and then Sentinel you bring the others up through the Decking."

Finally turning back to Saladin, he offered, "I guess you'll do you're own thing anyway, but we're here because of you, so it would be good to know that you might see you way to returning the favour."

With that Frostbite shot off through the bulkheads on that level to the far side of the ship to where he knew the lift was.

OOC:

Ok I'll go up through the lift shaft and prize open the doors, the others can come up them from the other side, so that we can hopefully use the double movement to fool the enemy into thinking they're being attacked from both directions.

Sj

"keep the ship intact! Hey its me remember, careful is my middle name. You can count on me Frostbite" sentinel answered with a friendly slap on the stern heroes back.

"And Frostbite.....gods speed" he added

OOC: I'll take whoever cant fly with me i'm guessing i can only carry two people really?

IC: "Okay you heard the man and you know the drill, lets do this"

"RIGHT" the others shouted in unison as they flexed their muscles, loaded their guns and ready them selfs for the unknown as they have done so many times before

OOC My hard drive crash means that I'm struggling to find the picture I have of the deck plan. No matter - we'll wing it.

Frostbite sped off, intangible, then angled upwards. Meanwhile Silver Sentinel and the two ladies prepared to come up through the floor once more. "Watch the hand, buster." Guillotine muttered as Sentinel slipped an arm around her waist. Then she turned to face him slightly, gave a cheeky glance and smile, and readied her pistols. They were useless against the Skrall Cyborgs, but she was an excellent shot and figured there'd be other targets - like Nazis.

Meanwhile Frostbite got into position and into the lift. He turned solid, pressed the button for the Bridge and waited. The lift lurched into life... then halted mid floor! They were trying to trap him! He looked up at the camera in the lift. Suddenly the lift started moving again! "Suggest you make ready. I have overridden their attempts to trap you, but they believe the the lift is immobilised." said the Frostbot from a comm panel on the wall!

Amazed at the living computers ability to leap about and control what it touched, Frostbite turned intangible and stepped out onto the bridge. He counted five... no, six Skrall Cyborgs, a dozen Nazis in uniforms who were arguing about the best course of action to take and around 30 skrall technicians who scurried about, monitoring stations and altering controls. The wall of screens all showed static thanks to the Frostbot and the Nazis were looking desperate. First their own bomb had been used against them, then THEY'D been attacked and boarded. Now their computers were playing up and reports were that the ship was badly damaged in places, and the man from the future, Bentham had sought to expel the rogue computer virus in the system. Though having been trained by futuristic techniques in hours what would have normally taken years, the Nazis use of the computers was limited thanks to their lack of imagination. Suddenly the turned as a Skrall Technician tugged on one of the Nazis' trousers, pointing across the bridge to where Frostbite stood at the lift entrance.

Everything went silent...

Then all hell broke loose!

Even as beams from the Skrall Borgs blasted out, shots from the Nazis lugers, Frostbites eyes narrowed. Stood across the bridge in a small group were four people in grey overalls. Two were men, two women. The men were twins, identical! But there was something... Spartan! They looked exactly like Spartan! And the women... one was like Bodicea, the other, Guillotine!

The Skrall Borgs started marching towards Frostbite when the floor opened up some metres behind them, a near perfect circle of melted metal dropping away as Sentinel and the ladies flew up to land lightly on the deck! The Vanguard had the surprise (and initiative) but against so many, could even their power prevail?

OOC You face: 6 Skrall Cyborgs, 4 Cloned PSI Agents, 12 Nazi officers (and a partridge in a pear tree). Initiative is at +4 for surprise attack 1d10+4=6 Heroes, 1d10=1 Bad guys. Frostbite is intangible. You have 3 frames before the bad guys act. The Skrall Cyborgs are roughly in the middle of Frostbite and Silver Sentinel, 4m away from each of you in a small group. Guillotine needs a frame to move to a computer console and start accessing it, then Fastback will act as decoy/defence for her. That leaves you two to take down the bad guys. 3 frames apiece, over to you.

Admin wrote:OOC You face: 6 Skrall Cyborgs, 4 Cloned PSI Agents, 12 Nazi officers (and a partridge in a pear tree). Initiative is at +4 for surprise attack 1d10+4=6 Heroes, 1d10=1 Bad guys. Frostbite is intangible. You have 3 frames before the bad guys act. The Skrall Cyborgs are roughly in the middle of Frostbite and Silver Sentinel, 4m away from each of you in a small group. Guillotine needs a frame to move to a computer console and start accessing it, then Fastback will act as decoy/defence for her. That leaves you two to take down the bad guys. 3 frames apiece, over to you.

OOC: Oh boy this is going to take some smart strategy...but you've got me so start to panic.

Right three frames a apiece, we need to concentrate fire, Saladin, Sentinel and myself need to take on the cyborgs, nothing fancy just take them out. When the other Psi agents come in, we'll have to worry about them also.

Frostbite will move forward and lay some smack down with strength, I'm thinking about getting my energy manipulation cold back as it would be great in this situation to freeze their inner workings. Anyway for now I'm trying to rip off them the sorts of things they need to control their suits. Leaving Sentinel time to melt them.

Saladin will use Psi blast, since attacking them physically seems a waste of energy - I should have said before, but clearly going into a combat situation, its entirely logical (I hope you agree) that he would have already put up his force field. If you don't agree, because I forgot to say it, then I put it up now, before attacking.

Anyway help the computer can give - turning on the ships defences against the Psi agents would be much appreciated. But I think we need to focus fire, rather than split our efforts or else we'll come unstuck, divided we fall and all that.

As for defences, Frostbite will attempt parry's unless he can soak up damage and Saladin will dodge, dodge, ddoge.

Sj

OOC: Good plan. Is it possible for guillotine to pop a few Nazi heads and thin out the heard before she access' the console or even while she access' it?

Really must stop those cyborgs first, dont want any of those things going off in our faces (after all my face is my money maker)

Bring it on

The Vanguard sprang into action!

Frostbite turned tangible and moved (1fr) to the nearest cyborg, swinging at the thing...

OOC Roll 11+2+6=19. 2 Accuracy, +2htc +17 (str) reduced by Dividers (Htk 4 Htc 3) to 7Htc

Though his punch shook the Cyborg, its thick plasti-alloy hide barely registered the hit! With a groan Frostbite swung again...

OOC Roll 10+2+6=18. 1 Accuracy +1htc +17 (str) reduced by Dividers (Htk 4 Htc 3) to 6Htc

His follow up punch, albeit powerful, wasn't particularly accurate. The Cyborg grunted. At that rate he'd still be battling this thing until the end of the war!

With his forcefield raised (OOC no problem setting up defensive powers before a fight because much of the pre fight stuff is 'hand waved' anyway, so we aren't acting round by round.) the glowing energy around Saladin crackled and glittered, lighting up the Lion logo on chest, belt and wrists! The Lion 'leapt' from the PSI Agent into the nearest Cyborg...

OOC They have a form of mental shield effectively doubling their ego. Don't worry though, it's only gone from 6 to 12. Ego 18 + 8 (double 4) + 13= 39. Cyborg 12 (defensive) Ego +9 rolled = 21. 18 points x2 (Maximum PSI attack for 10 points, 12/22 Energy remains round 1/5) means 36htk. I figure Saladin isn't too fussy about whether these things die...

Despite the powerful shields in place the Skrall Cyborg staggers backed, seemingly mauled by a glowing lion!

Where they stand, the Nazis look at each other in fear! The four PSI Agent clones simply look on, as if taking in all that is happening...

OOC Saladin has a single frame left, I assume that'll be saved to dodge or attack with

Over at the computer console, Guillotine shouts "Keep them off me! I need time to break into their systems!" Behind her Fastback nods and crouches, wondering if she has time to slurp down another sachet of grey Skrall gunk for nourishment.

Silver Sentinel moves forwards (1fr) and raises a hand, utilising his power to break down the molecular bonds of metal! One of the Cyborgs keels over, its legs and artificial body parts oozing like candle wax leaving what was left of its organic form to flounder and die before the metal sets into a hardened puddle!

OOC We have: One Cyborg (Frostbites target) having taken 13htc, Another (Saladins) having taken 36htk, badly wounding in (one more hit will see it dead), Sentinel has taken a Cyborg out completely (effectively he has field manipulation of a powerful type over which he has little or no control).

That leaves 5 Skrall Cyborgs to attack the Vanguard trio; 2 On Saladin, 1 on Silver Sentinel 2 on Frostbite. On Saladin (energy blasts) of x5 multiplier each (for 5 points. They have 3 blasts then done). Roll 21 (Double)+3+6=30-17. 13 Accuracy (hit) x5 = 33htc 32htk. I assume he will dodge. Total 9 from the dodge. Reduces Accuracy to 4 and damage to 10htk, 10htc. Force Shield sucks up all the htk and all but one htc. The dodge takes up 2 frames leaving Saladin with 1 this round. Second attack: 7+3+6=miss. On Silver Sentinel: 11+3+6=20-17. 3 accuracy, 8htk, 7htc. Dividers reduced (-3DD) so he takes all of that. Any response or take the hit (I assume taking the hit, he's a tough guy). On Frostbite: 5+3+6=14 (Miss) and 19+3+6=28-17=11 accuracy (hit). 28htk, 27htc. Dividers reduced to 1/1 so Frostbite will take the hit unless he can dodge or parry (taking an action). Response?

The Nazi officers, complete with hand laser pistols and race over to surround the ladies. Acting as a human shield, Fastback calls out "Uhmmmguys? Weneedhelpoverhere!"

They are speaking to each other (in German) and the gist of it seems to be "If we shoot - and miss - we will destroy the spacecraft controls!"

With that, four of them move forwards to grab Fastback!

OOC Four rolls vs Fastback... They are WC0, She's DC6 and will dodge any grabs. 17 (hit for 6 accuracy). She dodges... Successful. Attack missed. 12 (hit). Dodge successful. 15 (hit). Dodge Successful. 7 (miss). Fastback has used up her remaining 3 frames this round.

Guillotine frowns. "You'll need to buy me some time! There appears to multiple encrypted firewalls and... oh. You lot are so backwards you won't know what I mean!"

Inside Frostbites head, he heard the cybernetic voice that was proving all too useful! "I have the ability to send a root command to the Cyborgs computer systems thanks to your human companions 'distracting' of the system resources. Though the command will take a moment or two to initialize and another few moments to actually occur as it filters into their systems, this unit believes it will be effective if the right command can be sent. Bear in mind it needs to be a single word, and that they may have failsafes, so certain commands will be ignored or overridden. The language barrier has proven problematic but I will use my processing power to translate the command into something they will understand. Which command would you like me to send?"

OOC Remaining frames - Saladin 1, Frostbite (depends on response) 1, Silver Sentinel 1, the ladies have their hands full (Fastback burned through her frames this round by moving once and dodging three times)

Admin wrote:Inside Frostbites head, he heard the cybernetic voice that was proving all too useful! "I have the ability to send a root command to the Cyborgs computer systems thanks to your human companions 'distracting' of the system resources. Though the command will take a moment or two to initialize and another few moments to actually occur as it filters into their systems, this unit believes it will be effective if the right command can be sent. Bear in mind it needs to be a single word, and that they may have failsafes, so certain commands will be ignored or overridden. The language barrier has proven problematic but I will use my processing power to translate the command into something they will understand. Which command would you like me to send?"

OOC Remaining frames - Saladin 1, Frostbite (depends on response) 1, Silver Sentinel 1, the ladies have their hands full (Fastback burned through her frames this round by moving once and dodging three times)

OOC:

Frostbite will parry, any attacks that he can.

Saladin will dodge and continue to keep up the mental barrage, HTK is definetly fine as far as he is concerned.

As for the mental command, its needs to be something easy enough to do, despite what is going on, I think it should be something like sleep or hibernate or even repair mode - something that puts them into a failsafe mode that locks them out of the current combat. I'm more worried about the Psi agent at this point through - their holding back is worrying.

Ok so between attacks being soaked up and attacks being pretty ineffective (Frosty - of for field manipulation a power born for my character that couldn't fail to hit) we'll keep on doing what we can where we can. We've got to fight defensively now we've used up our surprise until we can take advantage of their failure. But I suspect the time is coming also to use the dark power - soon, but not just yet.

Sj

Admin wrote:OOC I was going to resolve frostbites parry, but ended up scratching my head. He's going to parry with...? Normally a physical blow can be parried with a physical blow, but if Frosty wants to use his energy attack, that's fine, just let me know how many points to use (he's still on 15/15 if I recall, having only used punches so far). Otherwise he's parrying an energy blast with his arms, which will hurt A dodge will see him trying to dodge with 1D6-3 (WC of attack) meaning it's likely he won't dodge, or at best just avoid up to 15 points of damage. Your call. I'll assume Saladin uses his last frame to move in amongst the Cyborgs. Close up, they are likely to miss and hit each other, and he has several weapons at his disposal, being very strong and fast as well as the PSI bolts. If that's ok I'll assume Saladin is in melee range of two Skrall Cyborgs (and they him) to 'mix it up' with them. That just leaves Silver Sentinel (and Frostys parry or Dodge)

Sorry Paul should have made it clearer, I assumed that since the old rules said you can only parry a energy attack with energy attack you'd know that is what I meant when i said I'd parry. Sorry my bad, yes reluctantly he'll have to parry with his energy attack as I know that is the only way to parry without being hurt entirely ;-).

As for Saladin, yes mixing it up sounds good.

Sj

OOC No worries mate - I'll assume you use 5 points (x5 multiplier). By the way, in the 'new' version of Squadron UK/Golden Heroes/The Vanguard house ruled version (updated rules put into something you can read without wondering whether you missed something) I'm thinking on making Strength a damage multiplier. Say you have 50 strength (currently +35 damage) that would be a x6 multiplier. If the defender has dividers of 4, they reduce the strength multiplier to x2. Saves on maths. I need to do the math (to make sure that the strong guy doesn't lose out. May need x7 or higher for the 50 strength, for instance) but a really accurate punch will be rewarded, a less accurate one will do less damage than the old system. I also plan to change Weapon Class into 'Combat Skill' (or similar) and Defence Class get ditched - faster opponents should be harder to hit without having to dodge. Slower tougher guys have their dividers, so why should they be as easy/hard to hit as a fast guy? Case in point Spiderman and Hulk. Both DC6 in current rules in terms of ease (or otherwise) of being struck. Yeah Hulk has a lower DC, yeah Spiderman can use his frames to dodge, but I'm saying he should be harder to hit in the first place, otherwise he'd have been a red/blue smear years ago. Anyway, I'm waffling.

Seeing the incoming blast, Frostbite threw up his hands and unleashed his own to meet it head on!

OOC Roll of 13 for parry. That's 7 points of accuracy (EA vs EA on parry table = 6) x5 for 35 points. That reduces the damage to 20htc. Frostbite has already taken 20htc and 10htk (from the explosion earlier on Oct 3 20:10) so he's down to 38/48htk 20/60htc. With my next post I will revert to keeping track of: Htc, Htk, Energy, Dark power use/xp, hero points, current powers being used and current status, just need to figure if there's some way to make it into a nice easy graphic or just use text. Also remember 'Healing surge – a ‘second wind’ that allows the player to heal HTC damage up to their vigour score once per game hour at any time of their choosing. Usually accompanied with some dramatic sucking up of air and uttering “I say thee... NAY!” or some such..' in the updated house rules. Yeah, they are patchy and messy. Yeah, I need to get on that. I'll nag myself so no need for you guys to pitch in Also Hero Point use has switched to using 2D10 (that needs updating too) to reduce damage as a 'last ditch defence' (doubles explode) if you need another option to keep Frosty on his feet.

Admin wrote:OOC: Also remember 'Healing surge – a ‘second wind’ that allows the player to heal HTC damage up to their vigour score once per game hour at any time of their choosing. Usually accompanied with some dramatic sucking up of air and uttering “I say thee... NAY!” or some such..' in the updated house rules. Yeah, they are patchy and messy. Yeah, I need to get on that. I'll nag myself so no need for you guys to pitch in Also Hero Point use has switched to using 2D10 (that needs updating too) to reduce damage as a 'last ditch defence' (doubles explode) if you need another option to keep Frosty on his feet.

OOC: ok I get the hint, and will take a healing surge, so I can continue to defy them their fun for one more round whilst I get my face punched in again ;-).

Then I'm going to set about dancing about them, whilst Sentinel does the real work of remoulding their armour.

Sj

"FROSTBITE........I'll take care of these goons you better get to the others and buy them some time" Jenson shouted above the din of battle as he moved towards his next target.

OOC: I'll get to a better position to attack the next cyborg with my remaining frame. Are you still holding back your dark power Dave? We can take these suckers.....whats the worse that can happen?

smaug wrote:"FROSTBITE........I'll take care of these goons you better get to the others and buy them some time" Jenson shouted above the din of battle as he moved towards his next target.

OOC: I'll get to a better position to attack the next cyborg with my remaining frame. Are you still holding back your dark power Dave? We can take these suckers.....whats the worse that can happen?

OOC: True, I get the impression from our GM, that he is wondering the same without actually saying it ;-).

Perhaps you can give it a go, see if you can amp up the effective range of your power, that way you could do an area blast, but affecting the cyborgs only. Frostbite is pretty useless against them it has to be said, I'm just trying to act as a buffer from them pounding on you all at once.

Sj

Admin wrote:OOC You (Frostbite) have a better chance of using the Dark Power successfully than Silver Sentinel does (at the moment that is). Once SS gets to 5 uses he'll be using his full EGO score, not half as is the case right now. One more successful use by Frostbite and he qualifies for an upgrade (2D10 per Dark Power Ego point instead of 1D10. Opens up more grades, longer duration, adding more abilities...) Will be updating around dinnertime. I need to hit the sack after a night shift... zzzz. I am also making (another) determined effort on the Vanguard version of SQUK today. I want something I can hand out to you guys and run a Lore Knights episode with to trial. Right, sleep...

OOC: In which case maybe I need to do the rolling but let Sentinel have the power boost if such a thing is possible. Or sort of aid another, help keep his low ego in check (if you see what I mean) so he can make the roll, gain the benefit of practice and keep the benefit of the improved power. It will cost me frames but, so what that's team work isn't it?

I'll leave it to you to work out the smaller stuff Paul, but lets go for it.

Look forward to the new rules, reading them as is is a little difficult as they're not in a great format for reading on screen on finding what you need.

To be honest though we play this pretty rules light anyway, in the past the dark power seemed to be far easier to use and without the side effects we seem to be experiencing now (and we've had these character far longer but use the power far less powerfully). But that is more a plot device so we role with it because that's what the game needs. I guess (and I don't know if I speak out of turn here) rules help everyone know their being treated fairly, but in a PBEM like this I am not sure that we worry about it as much as we would if we were doing this face to face. But the rules are helpful as a backstop, rule zero should always be the GM has the last word on everything.

Sj

OOC that took, literally, ages to compile. I looked through every post of issue #4 to get an up to date total for Hero Points, Dark Power and Htc/Htk. I had it all down in a document which is lost (along with a pile of other stuff) when my hard drive died the last time round. It may still be on one of the hard drives but searching hasn't brought it up so far. No matter. I will be more organised with my backups from here. Let me know if it won't fit on your screens. I'll change the shape of it. Somehow.

Frostbite knelt, taking in a deep breath (OOC the 'surge' is only available to PCs and main NPCs, so the two ladies don't get it). He watched as Saladin moved amongst the Cyborgs and Silver Sentinel did the same. It made sense, but increased the risk from these Cyborgs being able to grapple the Vanguardians to the floor!

OOC Frostbite parried using this last frame and one from the next round.

Frostbite ground his teeth. They were more powerful than their opponents, but outnumbered and having to protect the weaker members of the team! He cast a glance at Saladin - this was all his fault! Biting back an angry shout he looked to where Sentinel was. His power to affect the cyborgs was the most effective, but would they last long enough for him to reduce them all to scrap, and what were those PSI Agents doing? Frostbite had a plan though, as usual. "Sleep!" he hissed.

Inside his head, the Frostbot replied "Affirmative. The command may take some moments to implement as there are set procedures that they have to cycle thr..."

"Just do it!" snarled Frostbite, standing and ready to take the battle to the enemy again.

OOC Sentinel and Saladin are within melee range of Cyborgs. Initiative time: 8 Heroes, 2 bad guys. Fastback continues her stalling action. She's just about out on her feet. Guillotine is in slightly better shape but working hard at the computer (which uses the Skrall language - luckily she's been using that on the old V-Ship). Everyone has 3 Frames, then the bad guys go. Then Sentinel has one and Saladin has two (Frostbite used a frame from last rounds parry).

Admin wrote: Initiative time: 8 Heroes, 2 bad guys. Fastback continues her stalling action. She's just about out on her feet. Guillotine is in slightly better shape but working hard at the computer (which uses the Skrall language - luckily she's been using that on the old V-Ship). Everyone has 3 Frames, then the bad guys go. Then Sentinel has one and Saladin has two (Frostbite used a frame from last rounds parry).[/i]

Frostbite moved over to the ladies, he felt sure that if need be he would call on the dark power to bolster their flagging lines. But for now he had to trust that Saladin and Sentinel could take on the remaining cyborgs whilst he helped protect Guillotine to get things done.

As he moved he readied an action.

Saladin meanwhile continued to fight back almost enjoying the fight, as it helped invigorate his flagging senses. Using his considerable mental powers he struck out again at the nearest cyborg.

OOC:

Ok Frostbite will move to the ladies side, and use energy attack if he has enough frames and or a target worth firing at or else just act as a buffer between them and their attackers.

Saladin will use his Psi attack as before, as he can in between dodging and fighting.

Sj