01 - City of Gold

[sulldawga]

Aug 5, 2013 9:47:56 GMT -6 gronkthebold said:

Regin will run to the sedan and with one revolver clenched (and the other placed in its holster) will release a bullet to the wheels also. "Constabulary are gonna be here quickly enough, and I'm also guessing whoever owns these warehouses won't be too happy to see us as-well." Regin will yell this to his group. If any thugs try to attack Regin hand to hand, that opponent will get a nasty surprise in the form of a chain-sword.

Don't forget: you're 100 meters away from the alley, and another 20-30 or so from the back lot of the warehouse. If you forgo shooting and take a double move next turn, you'll still be 60 meters away from the alley.

You can't see the sedan from where you are (I'm assuming Rahim is relating all of this to you, as he's the only one with line of sight to the back lot), and the only enemy you can see (the lookout) will run away from you and duck into the back lot before you can act at the start of the next turn.

[gronkthebold]

[/quote]Don't forget: you're 100 meters away from the alley, and another 20-30 or so from the back lot of the warehouse. If you forgo shooting and take a double move next turn, you'll still be 60 meters away from the alley.

You can't see the sedan from where you are (I'm assuming Rahim is relating all of this to you, as he's the only one with line of sight to the back lot), and the only enemy you can see (the lookout) will run away from you and duck into the back lot before you can act at the start of the next turn.[/quote]

Cool, thanks for the clarification. Regin will not give chase after the lookout because his mind is occupied by the blinking sensor, and he will then say his warning about the constabulary before getting ready to flee the scene with the others after they are finished with their actions.

[eris]

Mike will get the tag number on that sedan! If he can't clearly see it, he'll use his PRISM to get pictures that can be "enhanced" later, but he wants that number so the sedan can be traced.

[sulldawga]

Hearing the boss yell out orders, the lookout scrambles around the corner and into the back lot. He's about to open the right front door of the sedan.

Mike holds in place, peering at his display on his PRISM, trying to make out any identifying details on the sedan. So far, he's got nothing. The car does not appear to have any tags on the front bumper.

Regin holds in place, staring up at a small black box on the side of a nearby building and then warning the team that the police, public or private or both, are probably en route.

Rahim figures the Pugilist will end up behind the driver, not the old man, and thus it's safe to take aim at the driver. He carefully aims his Mag and squeezes out a shot that smashes through the windshield of the car right about where the goon's head should be. It's too dark to tell what exactly happened but you hear muffled cries of alarm from the back seat.

Wurster double-times it down the alley in an attempt to regain line of sight on the old man's attackers.

Rik also double-times it down the street, trying to get closer to the action.

The Pugilist decides that it's time to take Rahim seriously and pulls out a pistol of his own. He walks down to the car, pauses in front of the left rear door, takes aim at Rahim... and then stops.

And grunts.

And shoves his pistol into his waistband, opens the driver's door, and dumps the limp body of the goon onto the ground. The corpse looks suspiciously like a burst of flechettes blew its head clean off.

Wurster is 20 meters away from having line of sight into the back lot of the warehouse.  He'll have the chain link fence in front of him but will be able to take another shot next round after his move if he so desires.

Rik is 60 meters away from the alley. If he spends another turn making a double move, he'll be close enough to act in the round following that.

OC:
Initiative
Lookout - 3
Mike - 3
Regin - 1+1
Rahim - 1
Wurster - 1
Rik - 1
Pugilist - 1
Goon 1 - 1
Goon 2 - 1

Combat
Rahim - d20 or better to hit, +7 for Goon's AC, +1 attack bonus, +1 DEX, -2 for cover. d20+7 = 18+7 = 25. Hit! Damage 2d6+2 = 4+1+2 = 7.

[coffee]

Hearing more shots from ahead, Rik will indeed double-time toward the action.

[gronkthebold]

Not wanting to be the only member there when the police arrive, Regin will double-time towards the group.

[premmy]

Rahim would have preferred to take the pugilist alive, but now he's too close to driving away in the sedan. Seizing the moment while he's still standing outside the car and thus more visible, he fires another round, hoping to drop the man.

[eris]

Mike is still trying to get all the data on the goons, pugilist and car that he can. After this turn, though, I think it is going to be time to beat feet in the other direction before any Security forces arrive to investigate.

[Deleted]

Wurster takes the shot as soon as he reaches the fence, then attempt to climb over the fence.

[sulldawga]

The Pugilist reacts swiftly to the death of his driver. He utters a short, gutteral command to the lookout, who stands behind the passenger door and returns Rahim's fire. The bullet grazes Rahim's shoulder, drawing blood but not really doing any serious harm.

Mike asks Jak to tell him why he can't seem to find any identifying marks on the sedan. Jak replies, "Vehicles in El Dorado don't have license plates. They have a tag embedded in their GPS that the local government can scan every time they ping a sat. Before you ask, the answer is yes, those are Navy sats. Serious encryption."

Regin double times it down the street, attempting to catch up with Rik.

Rahim opens up on the Pugilist, who does have a bit of cover from the open sedan door. However, current events are proving that cover is no advantage for Rahim's targets, as his Mag pistol burns a hole right through the door and (apparently) hits the man in the leg or thigh. He cries out, as much in anger as in pain.

Things go from bad to worse for the Pugilist, as Wurster skids to a stop in the alley behind him and takes aim at his back through the chain link fence. Wurster doesn't even bother to account for the fence, as his Laser burns right through the chain links. The shot barely misses, singing the man's hair and rudely informing him of Wurster's presence.

Rik keeps running. He's getting close enough to the alley and the back lot that he needs to decide what to do once he actually gets there next round.

The Pugilist looks around and quickly decides that [1=Rahim, 2=Wurster. d2=1] Rahim is the greater threat. Pulling his Mag back out from his waistband, he aims and squeezes off a shot. The shot flies well wide and burns a tight spread of flechettes into the wall behind Rahim.

The Pugilist then quickly ducks into the car and slams the door shut. The engine roars to life.

Actions?

OC:
Initiative
Lookout - 3
Mike - 3
Regin - 1+1
Rahim - 1
Wurster - 1
Rik - 1
Pugilist - 1
Goon 1 - 1
Goon 2 - dead

Combat
Lookout - d20 or better to hit, +8 for Rahim's AC, +1 attack bonus, +1 Combat (Projectile), -2 for cover. d20+8 = 15+8 = 23. Hit! Damage d8 = 1.
Rahim - d20 or better to hit, +4 for Pugilist's AC, +1 attack bonus, +1 DEX, -2 cover. d20+4 = 17+4 = 21. Hit! Damage 2d6+2 = 3+2+2 = 7.
Wurster- d20 or better to hit, +4 for Pugilist's AC, +1 energy weapon, +1 attack from behind. d20+6 = 13+6 = 19. Miss!
Pugilist - d20 or better to hit, +8 for Rahim's AC, +6 attack bonus, +3 Combat (Projectile), -2 for cover. d20+15 = 1+15 = 16. Miss!

Morale
Lookout - 2d6 = 6+2 = 8. Pass!
Pugilist - 2d6 = 4+4 = 8. Pass!
Goon 1 - 2d6 = 6+5 = 11. Pass!

Hit Points
Rahim - 7/8

[coffee]

As he approaches the sound of the gunfire, Rik will slow down a bit so as not to run directly into someone's field of fire. He'll get out his medkit and look at all of his friends, seeing if anyone needs his attention. But he won't call out or anything just yet.

And if he sees a weapon swing round to aim at him, he'll duck.

[premmy]

Rahim breaks out of cover and rushes towards the sedan, gun blazing, squeezing off as man shots as he can at the driver or the wheels, whichever offers a larger profile. "Suppressive fire!" he yells at whoever's close enough to hear.

He still has four bullets left and probably no time to change mags; he has three bullets to play with - the last one he keeps for his plan. He's rushing to close in with the estimated path of the sedan: he wants to be literally within arm's reach as it pulls away, just far away as not to be run over (preferably standing next to a lamp post, street corner or something else that would discourage the pugilist from trying to run him down). Once he's that close, he'll wait until the last moment and shoot at the driver from besides the car at point blank range as he zooms past. With luck, he'll hit him; with slightly less luck, the flash, the bang and the shower of windscreen fragments might cause the driver to jerk the steering wheel as he recoils and hit a wall.

[eris]

Mike says, "Jak, we gotta track that car! How are you gonna do it?"

[gronkthebold]

Regin will continue following Rik, and if he can he will fire a single revolver shot at the wheels or the pugilist in the vehicle.

[sulldawga]

The lookout glances nervously over at his boss revving the engine but he decides he's got time for one more shot. His shaky aim betrays him and the bullet ricochets off the street well in front of Rahim. He slides down into the passenger seat and slams the door.

Mike asks Jak for advice on how to track the sedan. "The city has several cameras in this district. I can check to see if the municipal system is less secure than the Navy's satellite system, if you so desire." Mike does so desire so Jak goes to work.

Jak's screen goes blank and then a stream of zeroes and ones, Matrix style, flashes up. Seconds tick... and then a map of the warehouse district comes into sharp focus, with a number of red dots at certain intersections.

Jak says, "I couldn't get into the city system but I found a 'net run by the power utility. I am not sure of its purpose, but it was much less secure. You will have to manually switch from camera to camera but we can follow them."

Regin breaks into a sprint. He's got his revolver at the ready but no one to shoot at.

Rahim instinctively realizes that he's vulnerable to vehicular homicide attempts at his present location so he jumps up and sprints across to the other side of the street, ending up next to the rear gate of the warehouse fence. He holds fire, waiting for the sedan to make its exit.

Wurster pockets his laser pistol and tries to climb over the fence. It's pretty high but, luckily, has no barbed or razor wire at the top. As we discovered the last time Wurster tried to climb something, physical activity is not his forte. He gets stuck toward the top and is really laboring to flip from one side to the other.

Rik reaches the alleyway and ducks in. Poking his head around the corner, he looks at Rahim and, judging by the blood flow from his wound (or lack thereof), decides he's not badly hurt at all.

The Pugilist guns the engine and, tires squealing, races toward the street. Right as he exits the back lot, Rahim takes his shot and pumps a round of flechettes right through the driver's window. The sedan doesn't turn at all, hurtling straight across the street and smashing into the building on the other side. A thin stream of smoke rises from the crumpled hood. There's no movement inside the car that you can see.

Suddenly, there's a flash of light from the far intersection. You turn your head to see a police drone silently zip around the corner. It comes to a stop almost directly above Rahim's head. A metallic voice emanates from a speaker at the bottom.



"Discharge of a weapon in this district by a civilian is a violation of El Dorado Municipal Code XC42.7.2. Drop or holster all weapons immediately. Deadly force response has been authorized."

Actions?

OC:
Initiative
Lookout - 3
Mike - 3
Regin - 1+1
Rahim - 1
Wurster - 1
Rik - 1
Pugilist - 1
Goon 1 - 1
Goon 2 - dead

Combat
Lookout - d20 or better to hit, +8 for Rahim's AC, +1 attack bonus, +1 Combat (Projectile), -2 for cover. d20+8 = 6+8 = 14. Miss!
Rahim - d20 or better to hit, +4 for Pugilist's AC, +1 attack bonus, +1 DEX, -2 cover. d20+4 = 16+4 = 20. Hit! Damage 2d6+2 = 6+2+2 = 10.

Security check
Mike - Difficulty 6 check, -1 because untrained, plus Int modifier. 2d6+1-1 = (4+3)+1-1 = 7. Pass!

Athletics check
Wurster - Difficulty 6 check, -1 because untrained, plus Str modifier. 2d6-1 = (2+1)-1 = 2. Fail!

Hit Points
Rahim - 7/8

[coffee]

If he doesn't see anyone else wounded, Rik will hold out his open hands (so the drone can see he is unarmed) and go over to the crashed car to see if he can help anyone there.

[gronkthebold]

Regin sighs and places the revolver in his holster before raising his arms slowly in the air for the drone to see. "Alright, alright, you darn reused scrap..." He mutters this as he walks quickly towards the group, seeing if there is anything he can do to help the others.

[premmy]

Rahim's mind is racing desperately to come up with a way out of this while he slowly and carefully holsters his pistol. His eyes dart left and right trying to find a spot within leaping distance where the probe couldn't pursue without descending into arm's reach: perhaps an open door, a window, or an unbarred overflow drain pipe.

He suddenly comes upon an idea crazy enough that it may work - and such ideas have saved his skin before.
"Attention, police drone!" - he intones in as authoritative and confident voice as he can muster. "That vehicle over there" - he nods in the direction - "was transporting a Nirvana citizen who was victim to a kidnapping. The fact that he was kidnapped suggests he may be a high-ranking public servant or other important person; the fact the car crashed suggests his medical condition might be critical. Checking the condition of a kidnapped high-value individual takes priority over investigating gunshots fired in order to prevent the same kidnapping. You should investigate immediately or else stop obstructing local passersby such as myself from doing so!"

"Come on, guys, get this thing off of me..." - he screams silently in the back of his mind.

[coffee]

If Rik is close enough to see inside the car, he'll check out the situation therein. Presumably there are one or more wounded people inside, in which case he too will yell at the drone.

"You!" he barks, pointing right at the drone. "Call an ambulance, now! Then stand by to clear the streets and coordinate."

He'll flash his ID so the drone knows who he is (and specifically that he works at Trauma Hut; that should give it a bit of pause.) All this might keep the metal bugger off my friends' backs.

After that, it's first aid. Starting with the kidnap victim.

[sulldawga]

The lookout emerges from the wreckage of the car, looking very unsteady. A thin line of blood curls down his forehead and drips into one eye. He is still holding onto his pistol... until he looks up and sees the drone. He quickly tosses the piece away to the ground and drops to his knees, shaking even more than before.

Mike holds position where he is and keeps a wary eye on the drone. He holsters his weapon.

Regin puts the Mag away and walks over to where Rik is standing. The drone doesn't react.

Rahim slowly and carefully holsters his pistol. He attempts to reason with the drone but it doesn't react.

Wurster finally kicks his body over the top of the fence and comes crashing down on the other side. He'll take a moment to clamber to his feet and brush himself off.

Rik holds up his hands and hustles to the side of the car. Looking at the driver's seat, he sees that the car's safety restraints had deployed and that they were of no help to the Pugilist. He's clearly dead, torn apart by Rahim's Mag. There is a lot of blood all over the interior of the car. In the back, the old man lies slumped in his seat, motionless. It's hard to say what shape he's in without a closer examination. The other goon is looking like he's about to open his door and get out.

Rik looks up and shouts at the drone to summon medical help. Whether it hears and understands or not is unclear. It doesn't react.

Just as Rik opens up one door to get a closer look at the old man, Goon 1 opens the other and emerges. If anything, he looks more unsteady than the lookout. He turns slowly, finally locking in on Rahim. As he points his pistol, his eyes go up to the drone and widen. Unfortunately, his pistol follows his eyes up and the drone reacts to being inadvertently targeted. A burst of laser fire squeals out of the crimson eye under the drone, eviscerating the hapless goon.

Other than the quiet hiss of steam from the sedan's engine, all is silent.

Then a human voice comes crackling out of the drone. "This is Deputy Constable Lucy Berwick. Everyone sit tight until I get on scene. Big Bertha there floating above you will not take kindly to anyone running. And you just saw what happens when she sees a gun pointed at her. You there, Trauma Hut boy..." - the drone spins and faces Rik - "...stay out of the car. If you've got someone needing medical attention, give me a video feed from your PRISM through the open EDPD channels. Your PRISM knows how if you don't."

From far away, you can hear the staccato buzz of a police siren.  It's getting closer...

Unless you boys want to do something else, we'll assume combat is over.  Congratulations!   You lived through your first confrontation with weapons hot!

What's next?

OC:
Initiative
Lookout - 3
Mike - 3
Regin - 1+1
Rahim - 1
Wurster - 1
Rik - 1
Pugilist - dead
Goon 1 - 1
Goon 2 - dead
Drone - 1

[coffee]

"Right, stay out of the car, got it." Rik says. He aims his PRISM at the kidnappee, using whatever enhancements he can to see if the guy is badly injured or not.

If he obviously is, Rik passes that feed to the police. If not, he turns to his friends.

"Anybody hurt over there?"

[premmy]

Rahim sullenly lounges around a bit, taking stock of doorways, windows and cover in case things go south when the police arrives. If he can do so without raising too much notice, he'll slouch closer to whoever he can reach and whisper to them with his back to the drone. "Do we just play it straight? We haven't actually done anything other than firing in self defense and rescuing that old guy. After all, they shot first, right?"

[gronkthebold]

Regin grunts irritably at the sound of the Deputy Constable, puts his hands in his pockets and whispers to Rahim: "I think we could play it straight enough. I don't want the d**n fuzz on our backs though, so we shouldn't try to get them too involved with what we're doing. Agreed?"

[sulldawga]

You wait about thirty more seconds, awkwardly staring at the lookout. His expression slowly turns from fear to hatred as he looks back at all of you, especially Rahim.

The drone remains in place, motionless and silent.

Finally, a hovercycle rounds the corner and stops about ten meters away from the accident scene. Deputy Constable Berwick dismounts and pulls out a Lazarus Patch from one of the saddlebags on the back of the 'cycle. She then heads directly toward the sedan.

"No sudden moves, boys. Everyone here is under a deadly force ruling and Bertha won't hesitate to burn you where you stand."

She pokes her head into the back of the sedan for a few seconds, and then comes back out.

"Looks like that one will live."

She walks around and examines the Pugilist's corpse, then walks over to the back lot, pointedly ignoring the corpse of the goon Bertha gunned down, and examines the corpse of the goon Rahim shot. She points to Wurster and tells him to move over to the street with the rest of you.

Then she walks back over and takes a long long look at your party. She seems to be ignoring the lookout for the time being.

Finally, she motions for all of you to walk over to the back lot with her. Once you're out of earshot of the lookout, she says to all of you, but mostly to Rahim,

"You guys are in a world of trouble. Unless you're some sort of Omega squad doing a really good job of looking like dirtside yokels, I don't think you fully comprehend what just happened here. I can't ID either of these bodies since this one..." - she points at Rahim - "...went all headshot happy, but I know that guy over there is definitely EHC. And you don't look like a match for EHC. So why don't we start by you telling me how this all went down. The truth is looking like your only option."

OC: Those with Culture (Nirvana) know that EHC stands for Eternal Happiness Cult. Despite the friendly-sounding name, they are actually one of the more ruthless gangs in El Dorado, posing as a quasi-religious organization. As one might expect, it's almost entirely comprised of Terrans with Japanese backgrounds. Wurster might know more since he has Culture (Criminal).

None of you gets the Omega squad reference.

[coffee]

"I don't remember anybody mentioning anything to me about the EHC," Rik says. "We may look like a bunch of -- what did you say, 'dirt side yokels'? (Sounds like a good name for a band.) We're just a few guys seeking a bit of supplementary income. You don't get out of the crab bucket if you don't hustle." And he smiles, if a sort of half-hearted way.

(OOC: time to see if that 17 Charisma helps at all...)

[premmy]

"What he means to say" - Rahim interjects somewhat gruffly - "is that we've been connected by a potential employer about what, for all we know, was meant to be a completely legit job. We were given this spot as the meeting place. When we arrived, we saw these... EHC guys... beating up and pointing a gun at that old Asian in the car. Being all, erm, law-abiding citizens and stuff, we thought we'll help the man. Now, these idiots opened fire as soon as they saw us, so were forced to defend ourselves while they tried to drive away with the fogey, and, well, then you arrived."

He shrugs. - "I figure it's the old man who wanted to meet with us, and maybe he wanted us to protect him from these EHC fools, but they just got here too early. But that's just a guess, you know."

If the constable ever turns away for a split second, he'll use the chance to wink at the lookout and blow him a kiss.

[eris]

Mike has Jak blank the screen and has his pistol holstered. He's playing the model of the innocent by the time the cop shows up.

"Yeah, the old guy was the employment contact we were coming to see." Mike says, "He looked real hurt before they tossed him in the car and then it slammed that wall. Is he okay?"

"As for why some goons were roughing him up and then tossed him in the car, we have no idea." Mike adds, "But we couldn't let them kidnap the old guy could we? And the deadly force part was *their* idea, not ours."

[gronkthebold]

Regin folds his arms and stares at the Deputy Constable, speaking gruffly: "I had heard of this old guy offering a job and thought to myself 'why the heck not? I need a bit of cash anyway'. That's why, like my good friends here, we ended up trying to contact the elderly fella face-to-face, saw the commotion with those goons and attempted to save the man's life. In short, put the blame on that darn 'cult' because we were only trying to help a defenseless old man."

[sulldawga]

Berwick listens to your stories, one by one. She does not look happy.

"Ok, sit tight. This might take a while. Seriously, find a seat and don't go anywhere."

She turns away from you and goes over to question the lookout. You can't hear much but it looks like he's being very uncooperative. She secures his hands behind his back, takes his weapon, and leaves him where he is in the road.

Within two or three minutes, an ambulance shows up and the old man is taken away from the scene on a stretcher. You are able to confirm that he is indeed Aoki-san but, alas, he's unconscious and unable to immediately confirm your story.

About 15 minutes after the ambulance takes Aoki-san away, another Constabulary vehicle pulls up, this one a bulky van bristling with antennae on the roof. Two men emerge wearing full body jumpsuits. They open up the van and, within a couple minutes, get five or six small drones up and running. The drones zip about the crime scene, finding flechette darts and digging spent bullets out of walls. The techs concentrate their efforts on the corpses, taking blood samples and scanning hands and fingers. Then they "tag 'em and bag 'em".

It's a fairly efficient process, taking no more than thirty minutes.

All the while, Berwick appears to be communicating with HQ, or her handheld comm device, or both. Finally, she walks over to talk to you.

"You boys haven't been completely honest with me.  The gunshot audio would seem to indicate that you opened fire first. And all of the security cameras in this area have been disabled. However, I was able to get a sat image that appears to show these guys threatening the old man like you said. And all of these EHC thugs have priors. A lot of priors. Soooo, where does that get us?"

She sighs, looking long and hard at all of you (mostly at Rahim actually).

"It looks like we're gonna have to wait to see if the old man confirms your story or not. So I'll leave the choice to you. You can come in with me and sit in protective custody until he wakes up, or I can release you with the Invisible Fence treatment."

A couple of you have blank enough stares that she shakes her head and explains, "I put a cuff on your ankle. The cuff allows us to track you. If you leave the city limits, the cuff injects you with a mild toxin that paralyzes you.  I like to give people the option because, in some cases, the toxin works too well and they stop breathing."

"Ok, boys, what'll it be?"

[premmy]

"Ah, f**k" - Rahim mutters to himself, then speaks up. - "I can protect myself just fine, thankyouverymuch, I don't need no protective custody. These stupid cuffs, they don't have microphones or anything in them, do they? It's not like they'll be listening to everything we say and do, right?"

"Oh, and I'm just curious," - he adds, as if an afterthough - "what's this Aoki's full name? We didn't have time for introductions, and it would give me a warm glowing feeling to know the name of the guy whose life we saved."