[Game Thread] (2.1) Catalyst, Part II

[Jocularity]

Another cleave from Rennik's blade almost cuts the creature in half, and it hangs keening and suffering on the cable for a few moments until Lakissi's blaster bolts finally cause it to drop. It falls another few meters, cracking against the corner of a terminal and clattering over onto the floor, twitching and bleeding venom and ichor all over the glass.

Jelena, only now that it is reasonable safe, takes a few steps closer and fires a bolt at its head with her hold-out blaster. "Have at you, nightmare!" She fires again. "Die!" It keeps twitching, probably involuntarily as its brain activity dies down. Further up the shaft, you now notice that you've started hearing noises. Something must have noticed the sounds of combat. It may be the Mynocks, or perhaps some long-dormant security system that survived all this time.

[GrandCommander13]

Rennik, already in the air, finishes his flight upwards to a ledge in the shaft (T0). Rennik looks up the shaft, taking full advantage of his helmet's sensor suite to try to see whatever is approaching—or at least try to identify what it is by sound. "Mon," Rennik says over comlink. "What is your location? The cloaking spider is down, but we have more contacts approaching us in the ship."

Rennik activates his armor's stealth field generator and kneels down. Keeping his attention upwards, Rennik shoulders his weapon and points it up the shaft.

[sneakybastard]

~"Rennik, I'll be right behind you."~

Lakissi turned towards Jelena after catching a breather. "Should I carry you? We should move along before they catch us here." The Mandalorian preps here jetpack into stand by waiting for the OIC's response.

[DraconigenaArma]

"Copy that on the spider. Anyone hurt? I'm closing in on the shuttle, but no where near your location." Mon's response is quick. Pnyx and him must still be walking with little else to pre-occupy them. "What evidence have you that there's catalyst at all, now that you've had a look inside?"

[Jocularity]

From far above, Rennik is getting sure that the sound is of Mynocks getting in the investigate the noise and energy expended in the fight. Rennik mightn't have too much trouble wading through a swarm of them in his heavy armor, but Jelena's suit is much weaker, and the young Kel Dor is only in his clothes.

Jelena hold her arms out to Lakissi. "If you can get me out before they reach us." She says, before activating her comm. "Lieutenant, i'll let the ones who could comprehend the blueprint explain it. Right now though, i think we need to run."

[DraconigenaArma]

In the moment of comm silence everyone can picture Mon's face as if he were there on holo-vid, clenching his teeth and making his unhappy face. "Then why aren't your feet moving?" He reply comes at last. "Rendezvous at the shuttle. If you're bringing company on your heels give us warning so we can warm it up and bug out."

[sneakybastard]

Lakissi sighed at the thought she'll get scolded again. More so that the officer didn't expect them to be trailed by a swarm of angry mynocks when they dropped by the nest in the first place. The Mandalorian nodded at the Arkanian's affirmation.

Carrying Jelena while maintaining perfect balance for flight would be tricky. Carrying her by the arms, while it may be comfortable, will shift the center of gravity to the front. Carrying her on one shoulder, like her quarries, will shift it to one side. Which means...

Lakissi knelt down and said, "Get over my shoulder, quick." There seems to be a hint of awkward reluctance in Lakissi's voice. She instructed Jelena to place her body laterally over her shoulders while her arms are hooked to Jelena's limbs. She has done this before though exclusively to her Manda'o: brothers/sistersvode. To do it outside her people is almost synonymous to submission over higher powers. Once secured with a 50:50 weight distribution, she gave her final instructions, "careful with the exhaust and try not to move a lot."

Lakissi reached for the jet pack controls and they were up in the air albeit slower than usual; the thrust was more than enough to carry an excess of 200 kg but the climb was sluggish. Reaching the top seemed like an eternity but it actually took less than half a minute.

Lakissi knelt down again and let go of her passenger. She turns to Rennik assessing the situation. She can tell he is expecting plenty of targets. The Mandalorian then reaches for her bandoleer and grabs a pair of helium and ion grenades. She pulled the safety and gave a distinct charging sound ready to be thrown at the sight of danger.

[GrandCommander13]

"Can we lay down thick enough fire to convince them to back off?" Rennik asks, deactivating his stealth suit as he becomes more and more sure that their enemies are mynocks. He thumbs his rifle's action selector to full-automatic and switches out its power pack for a fresh one. Thinking for just a moment, he reaches to his leg holster and pulls out his heavy blaster pistol. "Jelena," he says holding it out to her. "Something a bit stronger than your holdout blaster."

[Jocularity]

 

"We can spook a couple with a spray of blasts." Jelena concedes hesitantly, having climbed down from Lakissi's shoulders without really recognizing the significance of it. "But it will only kill or spook the ones you fire on. The rest will be attracted to the energy output, and surge in harder."

You're back at the top of the shaft now, where the cable hands down from an open panel in the floor which is currently a wall, and Sate is waiting patiently for you. Ahead of you now is the series of walls that you had to climb several meters to get to the door of each one. A major hurdle, literally, especially in your time-pressed circumstances. "We'll never get past those in time! Those Mynocks were monsters, they'll rip us apart just to eat our electronics. And woe betide those of us with implant packages!" Jelena says. "We'll have to climb our way through slowly and hope to be able to fight them off without powering our weapons..."

"Or..." Sate considers aloud. Contrary to Jelena's suggestion, he powers his lightsaber. The room is bathed in blue light and the air hums to its tune. The blue light then tinges yellow and orange as he plunges the lightsaber into the interposing wall. "You may resist the stomach acid of mynocks, but you're still no Cortosis Weave!" He says joyously, addressing the ship. "Hold them off for a minute, they'll smell this fiercely and come at us in flocks, but this should get us out of here before they are all on us!"

Notes This is your normal top-down tactical map, not another vertical combat. The Mynocks will spawn in increasing numbers each round in the Shaft. Sate is cutting his way through the walls, but it will take him 3 rounds for each wall. You are working towards the narrow shaft you entered through, and must protect Sate until you have reached the exit.

[DraconigenaArma]

Jelena heavy swallow is audible even over the hum and spark of the lightsaber cutting through bulkhead, taking slow controlled steps backwards until she can feel wall at her shoulder blades. The last thing she wants is to be surrounded by them. She anticipates that Rennik or Lakissi will try to plug the hole with their armored selves anyway and being shoulder to the hole gets her out of their way quickly and efficiently.

“So, those grenades, you wouldn’t happen to still have some would you?”

OOC Move to M3 Dice Initiative: 1d20+5 (12)+5 Total = 17

[sneakybastard]

"I'll save 'em for later when they've really bunched up."

Lakissi anticipated more will come as an endless flap of wings can be heard further in the corridor. For now, she's all business with her desperado mien, armed with a pair of double barreled blasters. Her Chameleon Targeting system automatically activated splitting her HUD into two screens. Each video feed is slaved at her pistols' rangefinder. All she has to do is point and shoot instinctively to anything that moves.

She raised the twins of destruction and unleashed a volley at the first unwilling victims. "Ah, target practice! I could use a coat made out of them."

OOC attack center and 4 o'clock position for 18 and 24 dealing 18 and 21 respectively.

[Jocularity]

 

As the flock of Mynocks flutter down into view, Lakissi fires two shots with dead-on accuracy at the first two Mynocks to make an appearance. One loses all feeling in a wing and begins free-falling to the bridge before it even knows what happened, but the other struggles forward hanging onto its life by a thread.

Almost the whole flock rush into the room, but Lakissi's HUD counts an extra one disappearing, flying into a ventilation shaft in the ceiling that is your left hand wall. The ones that remain seen begin to swarm over the two mercenaries. From their tails, they extend barbed stingers; not a regular trait in Mynocks. As they try to latch themselves onto the defenders, there is a series of clicking and tapping as the barbed tails strike against armor over and over. One of them finds a weaker point in Lakissi's Beskar'gam at the neck, piercing the thinner mesh there.

It hardly causes any pain, she would notice. In fact, it didn't hurt at all. All she could really feel from the sting was a slight coolness where it struck, as well as a slightly drunk feeling...

Notes The Mynocks are now numbered for clarity in targeting. The Poison is not lingering, the condition damage is only on their successful attacks. Mynocks haven't spawned yet since technically round 1 isn't over until Rennik and Jelena make their actions. They will spawn every round from then on.

Summary Lakissi attacks Mynock 2: Killshot Lakissi attacks Mynock 3: 18 damage, -1 on CT 3 Mynocks attack Rennik: Miss Miss Miss 2 Mynocks attack Lakissi: Critical hit: Lakissi takes... er... 2. Poison attack successful, -1 on CT Miss

[DraconigenaArma]

Jelena heavy swallow is inaudible over the crack of blaster fire and the flapping of wings. She takes slow, controlled steps backwards until she can feel wall at her shoulder blades. The last thing she wants is to be surrounded by them. She anticipates that Rennik or Lakissi will try to plug the hole with their armored selves anyway and being shoulder to the hole gets her out of their way quickly and efficiently. Once against the wall Jelena steadies the heavy blaster with both hands, squeezing off a shot at the Mynock threatening to flank Lakissi. "The one on the right, get it!"

OOC Move to M3 Dice Aid Other Attack: 1d20+2 (20)+2 Total = 22 Mm...and I chose aid other because I was worried I'd have trouble hitting with that -5 into melee penalty. Lakissi, you get a +4 to your next attack against Mynock 1

[GrandCommander13]

Rennik groans. Mynocks. Vicious, nasty little things that swarmed in groups. Like Sith troopers who only knew how to use vibroblades, but otherwise a little smarter than their armored cohorts. Oh well, they still needed killing. Rennik slashes with his vibrobayonet at the one Lakissi weakened, tearing it open and carrying the swing over to its neighbor.

 

HP:102/122

Standard: Kill Mynock 3.
Cleave: Hit Mynock 7 for 20.

[sneakybastard]

Lakissi reacts against the approaching Mynocks and unleashes another salvo. Her HUD cues up the ones in front and her targeting systems were spot on thanks to Jelena's spotting. Blaster bolts fired point blank hit the Mynocks' suckers. The energy surge was a too much for them to digest and choked instead of absorbing it.

OOC attack 1 and 5 for 20 and 18 dealing 11 and 18 damage respectively.