Act 3: Ashes of Power

[TheRealSife]

Karrik's arrow, which destroyed the first power coil along with a well placed shot from Janna's rifle, ricochets off the power coil and lodges itself in 109.XY's shoulder. He spares Karrik a hateful glance, but simply reaches up and snaps the arrow shaft in half before discarding it and continuing to work. Damage has been done, but it will take more than that to slow the L1z1x down.

[eltorin]

Jana

"I'll take care of them, keep hitting the device!" Jana yells to her companions, and attacks the L1z1x that's the closest to her. "We need to take care of this quickly, I don't know how much time we have!", thinks, gritting her teeth involuntarily. The stakes are rising for all of them, she can't escape the feeling, and the L1z1x's intrusion is not helping at all.

[Malkavian Grin]

Wounds 0/11 | Strain 1/14

"I'm on it!" Karrik confirmed as he drew another arrow and nocked it on his bow. The blowing steam added a sense of tension that the Shikrai didn't need. Inwardly he cussed out the force field that crackled around the device. It didn't matter, he'd just have to keep shooting it until it stopped. The galaxy needed him to win this. He pulled his bow up and fired the moment he lined it up.

 

OOC

Firing a normal arrow and hoping for a ricochet.

Adding Jana's boost die.

Well, that's... a net 1 Advantage. I don't think I can do anything with that? Do I even hit without a success? Can I give Jana a boost die?

 

[TheRealSife]

109.XY acts quickly to get the node he is working on to power up and his efforts are soon rewarded as the device hums to life. There remain two unpowered nodes though and the plain irritation that is beginning to show on the cyborgs face is a sign that the process has not been effortless. (2 strain suffered)

Still, with this nose activated, he moves on to the next, continuing to ignore the battle between his underlings and the Keleres.

That battle, meanwhile, is shifting in the Keleres' favour as Janna lands a lucky shot directly into one of the cyborgs main power cores, causing an overload in the man's cybernetics that electrifies him into unconsciousness. The remaining minions continue to fail at landing a shot as the haze in the room dissipates. There actions do seem to be getting more coordinated though as they begin to get a sense for the Keleres' combat techniques (spending advantage for a boost die to their next roll).

Edited November 16, 2023 by TheRealSife (see edit history)

[eltorin]

Jana

"This is not good, we need to move faster..", Jana thinks while letting another blast go at the L1z1x's.

 

[Malkavian Grin]

OOC

How many story points do we have now? I think you spent one or two this combat.

@eltorin Don't forget your difficulty dice.

 

[Malkavian Grin]

Wounds 0/11 | Strain 1/14

"No!" he shouted as his arrow bounced off the machine. "There must be somewhere that's vulnerable! Maybe..." Karrik said mostly to himself.

 

"I'm going to try something!" he said, sounding less than confident. His hand drew a grav-arrow instead of a normal one from his quill.

 

OOC

Firing a grav-arrow which adds a purple difficulty die but it'll deal damage and makes 109.XY's next roll have the difficulty upgraded twice. I'm hoping he ends up messing up the computer himself or something.

Adding Jana's boost die.

Result: 7 Advantage... huh. Let's use 2 to roll another boost die.

New Result: 5 Advantage and 1 Success. That's 1 damage (ignoring soak) and the target has the increased difficulty.

Spending: 1 A to grant a Critical Injury, 2 A for a ricochet to the machine, 2 A for a ricochet to a minion

 

[TheRealSife]

Though outnumbered and outgunned, Janna's training continues to shine through as she lands a perfect headshot and outs one of 109.XY's minions down permanently. She's not finished there though as another of them is caught in the line of fire and sustains a serious injury, though it yet lives.

Karrik's arrow meanwhile flies towards 109.XY himself and though it is unable to penetrate his armor it manages to his just the right spot to knock something loose in his circuitry. the lights mounted about his body flicker briefly before settling on a somewhat dimmer if no less menacing glow.

In an amazing trick shot the arrow itself manages to ricochet off his body, smack one of his minions across the face and finally bounce off the forcefield of one of the nearby nodes.

109.XY lets out a menacing growl, but proceeds to the next nod unheeding of the interruptions around him. Once there he again attempts to activate it, though it is clear the last attack has not made it easy on him. Amazingly though he managed to push through and activate yet another node. Two of them now hum with life, and only one is left before the device powers up. [spending triumph to upgrade minions next skill check. Taking 2 strain from threat]

The cyborgs are having less luck, in fact they seem to be hitting everything but the keleres! Still there aim can only get better from here. [spending three advantage to ignore negative environmental effects until the end of the next turn]

Edited November 22, 2023 by TheRealSife (see edit history)

[eltorin]

Jana

Jana is encouraged by Karrik's successful attack and thinks it's time for a coordinated assault to speed things up a bit further. "We're running out of time, Karrik, let's end this now!" She takes aim now at 109.XY, only slightly changing her angle and takes another shot.

KarrikI'm using Jana's Coordinated Assault maneuver to give you an additional Advantage to all combat checks until the end of my next turn.

[Malkavian Grin]

Wounds 0/11 | Strain 1/14

Staying cool under pressure, Karrik replied, "I know!" as he reached for a regular arrow. "If only I had a bomb on the end of one!" He pulled the hard-digital string taught and let his skills continue to do what they needed. That machine could not come online.

 

OOC

Regular arrow, attacking the machine still.

Result: 3 Advantage... Okay, spending 2 for a boost die.

New Result: 1 Success and 2 Advantage. That's 1 damage ignoring 9 points of soak. 😬

Spending: 2 Advantage on a Critical Injury. I'm really hoping the machine can suffer from those at this point...

 

[TheRealSife]

Janna's stream of gunfire pierces though the L1z1x's hard metal body, clearly doing significant damage. 109.XY pauses in his journey to the final node to raise his arms and shield his face. The distraction is more costly than he realized though, as Karrik's arrow soars past his head with enough force to penetrate the protective energy field of the final unnactivated node. The clearly unstable device explodes in a nova of sparks that blasts the last remaining minion across the room where he is knocked unconscious.

The Kelere's have done it! The device is destroyed and the galaxy is once again safe. The same however, cannot be said for them.

Before the Kelere's can feel relief, 109.XY’s stare falls upon them. No longer cold, the eyes burn with resentful hatred. “Threat reassessment. Keleres agents have unforeseen potential. New priority: sample specimens to be collected.”

109.XY moves much quicker than you thought possible for his size and is much stronger than his spindly limbs would suggest, in seconds he has advanced on Karrik. His mechanical arms latch onto him, lifting the massive avian off the ground and flinging him towards the still sparking destroyed node.

Show this

@Malkavian Grin Make either a 2 purple, 1 red difficulty Athletics (Brawn) or 1 purple 1 red difficulty Coordination (Agility). If you fail suffer 5 wounds, 5 strain, and you have 2 black setback die to your next check, if you succeed you either land gracefully or absorb the impact, depending on the skill chosen and take no negative effects.

 

[Malkavian Grin]

Wounds 0/11 | Strain 1/14

Karrik's eyes went wide as the metallic-man darted at him with astounding speed. He hadn't expected it and made a mental note as he was lurched into the air. Wingless as he was, he still soared for a moment, bringing him a moment of clarity.

 

Landing on the node's side with his feet, Karrik did a simple forward flip and landed smoothly. His hand had drawn another arrow and nocked it as he came to rest.

 

"If I understand anything about you and your kind, it's this--" he drew his arrow back, "--you're expendable. An expensive toy to be replaced. No killshots!" His last words were shouted as he loosed the bolt.

 

OOC

Let's roll this! Going for Coordination (Agility) since I have that.

Result: That's 2 success!

If possible, let's go into a counterattack? I'm trying to disable him, mind you.

Result: 4 success and 2 advantage!

Spending: 2 advantage on a critical injury, to deal 4 damage that ignores 9 soak!

 

[eltorin]

Jana

Jana is not surprised but still disturbed by the sudden shift. "Let my aim be true", she says to herself and shoots 109.XY again.

 

[TheRealSife]

Janna and Karrik's combined barrage tear through the cyborgs hard metal carrapace, blowing off one of his four arms and leaving him barely standing, but standing he is.

A furious mechanical hiss filled reverberated out of his speakers as he raises one of his remianing arms towards Janna. A laser beam, not unlike those of his cyborg minions blasts from his palm. His seems to have significantly more firepower though.

 

OOC

Janna takes 12 damage minus her soak of 4, for 8 damage total.

 

Edited December 14, 2023 by TheRealSife (see edit history)

[Malkavian Grin]

Wounds 0/11 | Strain 1/14

"Did you not hear me, LAZAX!? STAND DOWN!" Karrik shouted, nearly losing his cool. He drew back the bowstring again and took careful aim to not hit a killing spot on the cyborg. The Shikrai narrowed his eyes, took a breath, then held it while drawing and then fluidly letting the arrow fly.

 

OOC

Trying to disable again. Using a boost die from Jana's last roll.

Result: 3 Advantage.

Spending: 1 Story Point for +2 Success and Advantage. 2 Advantage for a Boost Die to myself. 1 Advantage for a Boost Die to Jana.

New Result: 3 Success and 3 Advantage.

Spending: 1 Advantage for a Critical Injury (unless that would kill 109.XY, in which case I'll just give Jana another Boost die). 2 Advantage for another Boost die to myself.

Final Result: 4 Success and 1 Advantage. That's a total of 5 damage which ignores 9 soak.

Spending: 1 Advantage for yet another Boost die to Jana. (2 total unless the Critical Injury doesn't go thru, in which case it'll be 3 total).

---

Okay ignore All that. I spend the story point for a total of 2 success and 5 advantage. I give Jana 5 boost dice since i can't use em.

That's 2 damage instead of 5.