Waltz for Eternity | Ep. 4 | Army Dreamers

We are Legends of Avantris. Pilots to your stations. Sync your cores. Fire up the engines and prepare for launch. This is Waltz for Eternity. Elm Squadron flies through space and formation, leaving the wreckage of the destroyed Saurok fighters behind them. Ahead is the toxic green eye of a planet that awaits you all. Abort the huge transport you surround. Captain Crockett radios in to your cockpits. Making final approach. Engineering. Make final checks on the world, piercer. Elm Squadron. Attach for final repairs and shield recharge. This is our last chance to prepare for the assault on Morzib. The engineering crew aboard the transport emerge from the ship in environment sealed suits as they assess the damage of your rooks, following the battle. Once you confirm with the chief engineer the needs for each mech, you close off your comms. So it's a loop just between the four of you. Shhh. Do we know roughly how long or how far we have to go, like for the remainder of this portion of our mission? I would say that you know that you are beyond the defenses of the planet itself. Okay. You would have been briefed and are aware that there are orbital defenses, but you've made it... Intense pause. Yeah. You've made it through the initial skirmishing squadron that attacked you, certainly. But with them destroyed, you're sort of floating in not deep space, but far enough away from the planet that it'll take you a little bit to get to the planet, but far enough away that you've not been detected. I'm just trying to get an idea of spatially where we're at over the course of this mission. That was long. Absolutely. And I would say that in your relay with Captain Crockett back and forth before, as they assess the damage, this is a little intense. This is a little intense. This is a little outrageous. Your foot got out of a barrel. Yeah, yeah, you did, but all right, let's see where we've got. So you go. He would have said that their jamming field that they are able to put out was responsible for making sure that the Saurians weren't able to get in touch with the planet or any of their allies, and that that's still active. That they didn't get the word out. So right now, as you are waiting for their technicians to go through and use their repair parts to get your shields back up, get your hull back. If you actually took any physical damage repairing those and sealing those wounds of the rooks themselves, that you're ghosts right now. So we know for sure then that the pilots we just fought, if they were attempting to make distress signals, they couldn't do it because there was a jamming signal. So they couldn't have called to the planet surface of Morsy. They didn't seem to be aware, but there were a few on the shared channels of combat where they were communicating with you, broadcasting their threats or their screams. You recall that there were a few times where they voiced confusion, that they weren't able to relay any communication back to the planet of Morsy or to any Saurian forces that might have been able to back them up or something like that. Captain Crockett would have made clear that this is because it's one of the many features of the Star of Utham, the ship transporter that is here with you, not just for the... Damn, that's cool. You said a Star of Utham? Yeah, yeah, that's the name of the ship. Damn! It's not just transporting the... Coldplay should say. Nobody likes to show off. It's not just here to transport the weapon that they've brought aboard. The tool that they will use to allow you entry into Morsyb, but also that the jamming, the signal was another important function of the ship. And we only faced representatives or ships from the Saurok dynasty. Exactly right. We have not seen fighters or mechs or anything from Morsyb itself. That's correct. And whatever government. Morsybians defenses may be very different. If we are ready to RP, I just want to cut anybody off their question. No, it's to level. And I think just our mission, right, is that we... And so we know that the other two squadrons are also doing their missions. Yes. We haven't gotten any updates on that. No, at the very tail end, you did get an update regarding Ash Squadron and Oak Squadron. Oh, that's right. They had their own fights, fighting even larger contingents of the Saurok dynasty. Twice the amount of combat. Exactly right. They get more dangerous missions than we do. And they've been given more serious priorities. They've been asked to destroy Harmonite stores to take care of more dangerous mission objectives. You've been asked to scan for the plans of whatever it is that they think they can build using these tremendous Morsybian factories that exist well below the Earth's surface. And just since I hear a lot of questions, your mission is to get below the surface. That's only going to be possible with this world-piercing technology that the transport itself is equipped with, the Star of Utham. In order to do that, I'm just going to lay it all out. The Captain Crocket would relay if you have to clear these orbital defenses so that the ship can stop and even deploy the tool in the first place. So you know that you're going to have to reach the low orbit of the planet, destroy these armaments, these anti-air, anti-laser lasers, for lack of a better word. And then once the planet surface has been breached, go down and find the data that you need to scan. Also, I'm seeing a lot of comments and questions in chat. I think it's just important to address some of them because we're using a new system and we're using new stablocks and things that people don't recognize. The heat mechanic, there's really no danger in going up to five heat. You don't take the exhaustion as you go over five heat. That's important. Also, whatever your heat max is. Whatever your heat max is. Mine is low. Mine's only three. Mine's five. I took no hull point damage. All my damage last time was shields. Did anybody actually take much hull point damage? I know it's getting repaired. I did when you tried to blow my ass up. I thought you'd actually happen because I thought you... I don't know. My brain is cooked. Who knows? No, it's important to the story. It's important to the story. It's important to the story. You rolled a dex check and you passed. It took half the damage. I've never lost all my shield points. Yeah, I had only lost my shield points. I didn't take a single hull point damage. You took some hull point damage. Yes, I absolutely did. But presumably, Captain Crocket's engineers and stuff are working on our roof. That's happening actively as we speak. There's conversation, the pressure that you would have needed. At any point, if you need to go back to that conversation and ask me some meta question about the mission or something, please do, because this is the moment that you would have had to have the equivalent of a shorter or long rest for your roof. In the reality of the universe, you're all paused, floating in space as small, suited humans of the Cavalon Empire would jet out to your roof and actually go onto the surface of the arm and repair the shields there or repair the hull damage or make sure that the venting steam that you took when you were pushing the red line didn't cause any damage. I think that's one of the most exciting parts. Very similar to the way a squire might tend to his knight. It's like when an airplane refuels another airplane mid-flight. Yes. So we're probably tethered to the Star of Uthin, like a Prada-Tail Mary style, where we have probably this loose tether but we're still floating. Yeah, you would have docked. Not docked, but essentially attached yourself. And then when you turn off comms, you know that the Star of Uthin's crew have this minute or two to get to work. You, while listening to Badass Guitar Solo after Badass Guitar Solo, are given a moment of respite and an ability to sort of regroup as a team and check in. As they're finishing, I'm going to say, thanks for taking such good care of Valarwing to the engineers, as I'm going to be thanking them. You would be able to broadcast that easily and you would see a few arms wave in this moment as they signal their... I know they can't see me, but I can see them, so I'm waving at them. That's great. Once the comms are closed loop, like you'd scrub. That'll close, that'll close the comms. So we can have a conversation. The first thing that I do is radio over and I say, Elm Squad, this is Elm Leader here. Everyone, sound off. Where is Elm? What are our call signs? You're Elm 2. Just Elm. Now just Elm 2. Okay. Two, three, four. Elm 2, sounding off. Elm 3. Standing by. Elm 4, standing by. I'm all good, thanks to the engineers. I took a bit of a beating, but Valarwing's going to be okay. Everyone did well out there. I'm proud of everybody. That was our first true skirmish. And we came out unscathed. Well done. Did you see what the might of House Maycore was able to accomplish by detonating those mines? It was incredible. You were incredible. That was quick thinking. That was tactical brilliance. Well done, Varys. It was not me, Elm Leader. That was the might of Ironwall. I did not know if I would survive, but Ironwall kept me safe. Ironwall was my shield. As he and I owe the shield for the Cavalon Empire. Ren, you all right? How'd Bitterfang hold up? Sorry about the little bit of friendly fire there. Oh, it's okay. I actually think that was expert piloting. Disregarding the safety of your squadron so you could swap flies with a flamethrower. I'm going to take that as a yes. Bitterfang will be fine. Yeah, well, I mean, and going forward, we really shouldn't be putting... We shouldn't be the ones firing on our comrades. All due respect. Heard, Milo. Heard. I had to make a decision. Quick decision. He do the moment. No pun intended. Elm Leader, you are our leader, and it was the right decision. Sometimes sacrifices have to be made. And if an attack needs to be done, if a weapon needs to be fired, that will bring an end to any of us. If it means the safety and security of the Empire, none of us should hesitate. I just don't want Ren to get hurt. For what it's worth. Ren is incredibly skilled. I knew he'd be fine. And situation, role reversed, I'd expect him to do the same thing to me. All right. Roger that. Yes, Elm 2 would have died a glorious death if that attack would have brought an end to his life. It wasn't needed. Those Saurok pilots knew they were going to die. They were already dead men. Ren? Yes? You know I believe in your skill, right? I think you hold my skill in high regard, Jace. Yes. I think you also used an untested weapon against an untested weapon. In a moment we could have cut them down easily. I think your excitement to be the best pilot out in the stars drove that attack. As you so colorfully called out your finishing move. What was it in the end? If the Star of Huthin had fallen, the mission would have been over before it began. Well, it's a good thing that didn't happen. But going forward we'll be able to execute our mission without having to turn our weapons on each other. Okay? I have no problem with that. Milo, I don't want you hesitating. I'm sorry for hesitating, Elm Leader. But I was not needed to execute any killing blows. The two of you had it well under control. The time may come, Milo. And if I'm standing in the way I expect you to do the job. Go through you, you mean? Yes, Milo. Whatever it takes. I'll do as I'm ordered, Elm Leader. I would be sort of sitting still kind of almost in awe of like the power that I felt. And... I'm not sure if I'm going to be able to do that. I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I will... Can I calm in privately? You are able to have one-on-one conversations with anyone on your... You know that even in battle you're able to send broadcasts to opposing ships. And so if you needed to have a one-on-one with any of your squadron, or if you wanted to talk to the captain, or even convey information to someone doing one of the repairs on your hull, that would all be possible. So Milo, Jason's lost his marbles. I don't know about that. And what I will say is... That was pretty good. This is something to think about as the adrenaline is coming down. You've jetted away from the wreckage of the fight where you left those ships in... Nothing but polymer and metal. Barely anything remained after you destroyed those Sarian ships. The adrenaline took longer time to process. You've trained. You've been in life-threatening situations, but there is a very big difference between that and the mantle of the Cavalon Empire weighing on each of your shoulders. And so what you're thinking about focusing on in this moment is that the planet that sits just in front of you, just what feels like almost an arm's reach away, is it the ship, is it your crewmate's health, is it your own performance in that battle, and going over through the motions of every little twist and turn and what it felt like to heave one of the controls forward, all of those thoughts are running through your mind and what your character might prioritize in this moment. It could look like, for you, Iron Wall's tremendous defensive abilities. There's a reason why it's named Iron Wall. Every step, every swing of the mace that you have at your side feels like an expression of your home in a weird way. And that flows through you as you consider perhaps sending a private communique. I'll hit a button and open one-on-one cops. Elm 4. Jesus lost his mind. You tell me. I hear you, Varys. If you lack faith in your commanding officer. Oh, shit. There's one thing I don't lack, Varys. It's faith in my God and in my friends. Chase is just a little hot-headed. It was his first time using Brightroar. I don't think it'll happen again. Your concern for the enemy is disturbing. I understand that you do not wish to end lives, but it is our honor duty to return our enemies to the oneness of the harmony. Is it not? It's our honor duty to protect the innocent. That's why we're fighting, Varys. Yes, to protect every citizen of the Empire. And to do so will require killing. We will all be faceless in the end, but for some, they will be faceless sooner than others because they wish to bring harm to the innocent. Valarwing is suited to support those who are more skilled at killing than I am. I'm grateful that Chase and Ren are so good at it. I won't let you down, Varys, I promise. I don't believe you will. I just want to remind you that Elm Leader is our commanding officer. When he makes a call, we must support him. Those are orders. Do you copy? I copy. I'm free. I'm free over and out. I would basically wait for the repairs. I would basically wait for the repairs to be over, and maybe we're having questions or I'm fielding questions from the Elm Squad where we're talking to each other. But basically the summation of all of this stuff is we're getting ready for the next leg of this. I would basically just radio to the rest of the squad and say over the intercoms, Elm Squad. Again, good job. I'm proud of you all, but this is only just begun. Let's stay focused. Let's move forward. Do not falter. Do not falter. And we'll be victorious. And when we get back, first round of Pal heavies are on me. Longer that, Elm Leader. There's another question that hangs in front of us before we continue. It seemed like they knew to target the transport. And it felt like they were here to meet us. Before I would think that ground-based detection would have seen us coming. Elm 2, I agree. I think there's going to have to be a full debrief, post-fact, something to keep in mind, but nothing we can do about right now. And I won't even... I feel like I'm picking up what Ren's putting down. I'm not even going to utter the word mole or like at all. Like, I don't... But I'm in... Through my speech, I'm trying to insinuate that I understand what Ren's saying, and I'm also concerned that there's potential information leak, but I would never utter those words over any kind of line of communication, especially like in the field like that. Sure. Regardless of what we do when we get back, it may mean that the welcoming when we touch down is going to be a lot heavier than we thought. Agreed. Be ready for anything. We'll be ready for anything. And I'll have a chocolate milk, please. Like, you don't want to have a... You don't want a beer? I'll have a chocolate milk, please. Now's not the time to argue that, I suppose. Let's focus on the mission. That's right. Valarwing, are you okay? And I'm going to kind of like run my diagnostics, make sure that Valarwing, you know, I'll see the whole damage that was done, probably get like sanded down and repaired and finished by the engineers as they're going back to the... the Star of Uthun. As... You hear each of you a... as the captain attempts to... Not... He doesn't jump into comms with you. There's a... This is a respectful tap of the shoulder, letting you know that he's waiting to communicate with you. I think the moment that I see this message come in, and we're like wrapping up, I would patch him in, or at least accept the signal. When Elm Leader does the same face of the captain appears on all of your communication displays, and you see him at the helm of the Star of Uthun, and he turns... Sirs, repairs are complete. We're moving. Jamming field is active. We're ready when you are. Yes, yes, captain. Elm Squadron is ready. The first step of the mission is successful. I hope you are pleased. He salutes back and... You know that you'll need to boost forward and take care of the... At least a section of the low orbit of Morzeb's defenses in order to make it possible for him to approach with the... and deploy the weapon, the World Peercer, that he has been equipped. There's also been some communication when we need to RP this, but you know that all of the stars are communicating with each other, talking to their own squads, and you're getting some information that the other Oak and Ash squadrons are completing their own repairs, and that this is intended to be a coordinated strike. Their lights are green. It's time to go. Yeah, I mean, if we are ready, and the rest of Elm Squad doesn't have anything else from me or the captain, then I would basically be like, you know, in the affirmative, we are ready to proceed. And mechanically, you enjoy your HP comes back to max. Any of your refreshing abilities would come back. Obviously, your shields would turn back on. Your heat is reduced to zero. That would have been expressed immediately, stair casing down coming right out of the fight. We get a rook rest. But you get a rook rest. I love that. That's fucking fantastic. You castle would be another perhaps way of... Ooh, that's funny. That's funny. And you start to boost forward towards the planet of Morzeb, unless there's anything else that you wish to accomplish. Nothing for me. We will sunder their defenses, sir. You jet away, and the four of you assume a attack formation. Jace, you take the lead and behind you, almost spinning in a... like a corkscrew, the three other Elm Squadron pilots, fly behind you, waiting to see how far away you have to get in order for the perimeter to arrive. And you don't see them at first, but you do see the blasts. All of a sudden... Lasers start to fly from these orbital defenses. These are anti... I don't have a word for it. Anti-air is the only thing that I can really think of. Anti-airial? But anti-ether. These are designed to prevent the exact kind of assault that you are all performing, and you can see those lasers are getting closer and closer. They've spotted you. It's now or never, and I need everyone to roll for an issue. Oh! Let's go! Oh, damn. Come on, Quagga. I didn't expect that. Oh, it was almost a 20. I will open the radio as we're soaring through, and I'll say, Elm Leader, request to enter shield formation. And then... You've read my mind, bro. I don't even know how you get out of my brain. No, I'm sorry. I was just trying to do that. No, no, no. It's perfect. I don't understand how you get in there. You got me so rattled, I can't even RP. You've become a well-oiled machine. 100%. Where you understand exactly what needs to be done, and the response back to you is, without even a hesitation, is formation, stall lock shield. And you know what that means, and we basically form whatever formation it is that allows you to do what you need to do. Okay, G. Stalman, shield. Roger. I am in high position. I would basically boost to the lead, and I think we would have practiced approaches like this, where I am going to basically like shield rush from World of Warcraft and hold my shield up and rush behind it. I think we would be single file behind me. I will take that into account for this first round. Sure. But what I will say is that these defenses are hundreds of feet apart. And so at a certain point, you know that once you take this initial volley, you will have to break in order for each of you to reach the destination. And then it'll be up to you tactically, whether or not you want to try to dash to get close to them in order to use melee or if you're going to use range. But first, I need to get everyone's 22-30 initiative account. Not me, not this guy. 15 to 20. 19. Ooh. Ooh. 10 to 15. I got a 10. I got a 7. Oh. With a natural 1. Very good. Oh. Shhh. I was a little out of it right now. The only action that I would say makes sense for this first round for any of you would be to dash. So I'm going to go through the entire initiative order, and I'm going to attack each of you with the laser battery as the defenses unload. That's going to be a natural 1. That's going to be a 17 to hit you, Varus. Misses. Does the Halosy have Dyson still? That's going to be a 19 to hit you, Jace. A 19? Yes. No, that's definitely, that's what I'm still, that's what I'm sitting still. So my AC is 22. 22. Oh, and you're using your total cover thingy, right? Yes, I am using my shield wall. Until the start of my next turn, the mech has resistance to all damage, and it provides total cover for its allies instead of half cover. Okay, so theoretically, they can't be targeted. I'm the only one that can be targeted, and if I do get hit, then I am resistant to damage. So the only one that I think matters would have been that 19. Would that have hit? No. Okay, wow. So I would say that it's not that they miss, it's that you are doing a very good job. 100% of the sudden you see these beams hitting this shield, and you are all watching a dazzling display of light in front of Varus as he continues to press forward. Another round goes by. I'm going to do that one more time before you get into range. Absolutely. That's going to be a 20 to hit. Misses? 22. Misses? 27. Hits. Hits, and then one more. Nope. So the 27 hits. That's going to be... Oh, 23. Oh, 23. 16 points. I'm sorry. 21 points of radiant damage as these blasts smash into your shield. I will take 10 of them. If I may act after that happens. Oh, yeah, yeah. Each of these turns are happening. Presuming I'm directly behind Varus, I will say initiating shield replacement is I'm going to use my damage control. I'm going to use my action, and heal 15 of those shield points. And it's like we're playing Team Fortress 2, and I'm the medic, and you're the heavy weapons guy. Easy. I am with my, the wings of Valorwing, I am channeling the shield regenerating mist that then surrounds it or replenishes 15 of those shield points. With Jace and Ran at either side, your wings actually almost spread out, and it's like this shield, it's like a battering ram, you are all flying forward. It's at this point that you know that you need to break in order to reach these floating, you can now see them, you're close enough having dodged as best you can, having absorbed as many strikes that you can. You have the option of moving, and making an attack, or trying to dash, and then knowing that they'll get another attack on you, get within melee range at this tremendous velocity as you all fly in. So at the top of the round, Ran, you spy one of the orbital defenses floating in low orbit above the green toxic surface of Morzib, and you're able to jet off towards it breaking from this initial formation, knowing that it needs to be destroyed or the Star Ruthin will never be able to deploy. Time to take these things down. I will dash, you said I can't get there though. You can either move and get halfway to it, or you can use your dash in order to get it, but obviously that'll take your action. So whatever bonus action or whatever you might have. So you basically have a choice of getting halfway there and using a ranged attack, or trying to get within range. I will dash, and get right towards it, and as I draw my twin blades, and as I'm pulling up in front of it, the rook, I start to almost spin in twirls. I'm moving as definitely as possible, so it's having a hard time watching my incoming approach. This is like as you get closer, you see this orb with this centralized ring around it, and with a few boosts, this eye almost turns, and you can see that this is the targeting reticle that it's shooting from. And as it's trying to lock onto me, the blade's drawn, a gleaming of light as my rook core powers into it, and I'll disappear from view. Badass! You vanish. Let's fucking go. For a brief moment, the stars have a reflection, and then they return back, and you can see this eye start to boost as it's trying to figure out your position, but seemingly you are. There's almost like a weird shimmer in the stars. Invisible. As a movement that would be impossible to detect. That is your turn, Varys. You have the same choice Ren has as you spy another one of these orbital defense lasers floating in low orbit in another direction. As I use my bonus action, Snow Blind, the mech gains the invisible condition until the start of its next turn. Great name for a feature. Hell yeah. I would like to use my movement. I would just really wait for the command, presumably what Elm Leader says to break formation and then spread out. So I now know that my role is not to be the shield wall, and that I just need to get to basically pick one, and we're all spreading out and destroy it. So I will use my movement to get halfway there. And as I'm rushing forward, I'll lower my shields, and I will flip like a little cap on one of my joysticks, and there's a big red button. Let's go, baby. I will say Elm Leader initiating... What should I call this? Ren's over here making a bunch of Jester's finishing moves. Elm Leader initiating shield breaker, and I hit the button, and all sort of like jet and boost back a little bit, and like get upright, and the missile pods on my shoulders will all sort of open up. And it will be a swarm of these small little missiles that kind of shoot from my shoulders, and they all kind of travel together, and they're sort of all swarming around, and they will move an additional, I believe, nine hexes. So it's as if I'm dashing, but they're moving the rest of the way. And it looks like Itano's Circus cool. Oh, hell yeah. Oh, absolutely. Affirmative, Elm 3, nice shot! Notice how there's one big hammer-mountain smasher. A spray of missiles, knowing that now that you have all been detected, time is of the essence, and the missiles reach the laser battery. Go ahead and roll how that works. I will make an attack roll. It's technically a missile, I'm just flavoring it as it's because of how the missiles work. Oh, hell yeah. My interpretation of that is a swarm. Plus 12? Oh my god. 22 to hit? That hits. These are breaker missile pods, so they are designed to basically break down shields to then make it, to then try to punch through the hole with a secondary explosion. So I'm flavoring that as some missiles are hitting first, and wearing down the shield as the slower, bigger missiles that hit in later, to attempt to break the hole of what were the two stage fireworks. I just want to say I'm honored to have you guys on my squadron. You guys are all so cool. Two, three, four. So first, the shield points are going to be reduced by 40, 10. 10, 15, let's fucking go. 25, 32 points of damage. Okay. As you let these missiles fly. And that's just shield points that are reduced. It... You realize that there are, these are numerous. There's an array of these orbital offenses all across the planet. As tight in as you've been able to reach this point, you're able to destroy this one particular laser battery and start to open up the hole that's going to be necessary for the... Oh, it's just that? Yeah, yeah, you absolutely just knocked it out, Scott. Are you rolling for more damage? It still takes all this more damage, but it's... Oh my... I totally obliterated. I'll mark one of my missiles as expendable. Damn! You absolutely annihilate this thing. The missiles do their work very quickly. That's my turn. And in this moment, the three remaining that are in range of you all take a crack at you each. I'm going to go with... That's absolutely... Misses... Oh, I can't... Yeah, you're right. Let's just do... 19 to hit you. I'd be in range. As long as I'm moving, I have a 20 AC. Man, you're... 19 on all and able to move. Your ACs are out of control. Laters are flying in all direction, but at the moment that you gave your commands to break, they all started shooting in different directions trying to track multiple targets. No longer able to concentrate power, all of the shots go wide, and Milo, you're up. Well, Jason's to go. I skipped you and I went right to monster. Oh my gosh. You're about to take away one of those attacks. I know where you parked. Not only do you miss this turn, but you also will miss this turn. Oh, the barrage glows. No, to be fair, I don't even think I can... You said I have to dash to get to him. No, no, no. You can use half of your movement, you can just normal move and you'll be halfway to it, and you can make a ranged attack, or you can dash and try to get into his face. You think his shoulder is functional? Those are your choices. Oh, I dash. And I would even say that if I have to use one or two power dice to use extra movement to get there, I am more than happy to do that shit and crank up a couple of E. Oh, yeah. Yeah, absolutely. I'm sure that I can get there by dashing. I expend two power dice to get extra movement to start generating heat in Bright World. You can get behind it. Yeah, and basically do some cool ass fucking side jet like... Also real quick, as a side, I know this is not a one-to-one comparison, but I imagine you shooting the rockets is very much like the Liger Panzer. That's so heavy that it can't hit me. Oh, yeah. It's just heavy weapons out of the ass. Yeah, 100%. And then at the end of the fight, all the armor falls off and the steam fucking shoots out of the Liger. Yeah. That's so cool. I throw all the fucking blade sword as I fucking dash around this thing, and I try to get behind it and get ready to attack, and that's my whole turn. Okay. Mylon, now you're up. I'm up to two E. I will... I will hit the radio and I'll say, I promise I won't let any of you down ever again! And I, as Valorwing, takes its feathery wings and flaps them as jets, rocket out of them, and I use my boost as a bonus action. So I have 24 hexes as my bonus action. Oh, my God. There's formation that's fucking good. Let's fucking go. I am almost like spinning at this point as I take my lance as the jets on the lance also erupt out of it. So it's not just the jets on my boots and from my wings, but also my lance as a huge laser spear, or is this not a laser spear? It's like a cyclone. It's like a thunderous cyclone that almost like turns my spear into a lance. Hell yeah. As I rocket forward to make this attack against the one that is closest to me. If we were animating this, this would be the scene where they stretch the perspective and it like, long-gauge as you hit the perspective. If you get stretched back into the seat as you go at an insane speed for a mech. And these are like more zibian built, right? So it's kind of like the heavy, like green metals. Yeah, this has a color of metal that represents the more zibian world itself. It has a kinds of bronze-ish and greenish colors to it. It looks kind of like a ball bearing in space, aside from the fact that it has this very bright neon green eye that is able to target and shoot directly from that. That's cool. I'm going to get a 23 to hit. Oh yeah. And because we're at the bottom of the round, I'm just going to tell you, the AC is 15. Oh my god. Oh good luck. Yeah, good luck not hitting it. Damage matter. Who engineered these pieces? The HP does matter. Okay, okay. You could roll low enough. That's defense. I have a blaze sword. It's just that Varys over here decided to use missiles. I did. I did. That was awesome. I think half the fun of this campaign is just describing what we do. 100%. That's the fun of every campaign. That's all the campaigns. It's just really fun to use language units. Oh, yeah. I forgot. I forgot. Thank you, champ. There we go. There it is. Now it's talking. And that will be true as long as you remain in your mechs. Yes. 27, 27. For our audio battle with Earth, we just changed the overlay to our Rookmove. 34, 45, 45 points. Oh, no, sorry. 49 points of lightning. Sorry, it's lightning and force damage. Okay. I'm using a force. Sorry. You push the spear into the eye and you hear a shocking crack as you watch as arcs of lightning and electricity bolt out in all direction. You're able to pierce all the way through it and it splits apart like a coconut as it shatters into space. It doesn't even explode, but you do hit whatever was the battery or reactor or energy source of this thing. It explodes into a cloud of that same neon light and you fly through it at rocket speed. Mike, quadrants clear. Right. I will just try and lay into this thing with a natural 20. Oh, well, God. That's damn. Okay. Holy shit. I think it's be you're invisible. So your first attack allows you to strike with almost casual precision. Gary's popping off. I can't go to this. Use them all now. I have 250 extra attacks waiting for me around the corner. Can we get up to Alex Chen for designing and illustrating these incredible back up? Can we just give it up to Alex Chen? Lead artist over to Fantasy Entertainment. 43. Yeah, they're just so good. They're just so good. It was an honor to be able to use them in the intro, to be honest. And these head images, he's just like, oh, I thought it would be cool if I did it. So I did it. Yeah. He's like, I just wanted to. I just wanted to. We were just casually chatting and I was like, well, the intro is cool. And like, I'm really inspired by this thing and we watched a few things. And then hours later, he was like, how do you feel about this? And I was like, yeah. Yeah. Yes, please. 56 points of damage on the first. Absolutely foul. On the first slash. You don't need to make a second slash. If you want to roll it. If it explodes, it does. It does. It does. That's awesome. Let's go. It slices apart like a sword going through a tennis ball as it shh. And then the two halves float off into both. Does it explode? Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. I turned my back to it. I don't know. I slashed through. Oh, yeah. You fly forward. My cloak flies around me. There's that blast explodes. My clothes. There's that fragment anime pause. Yeah. As you fly forward and then behind you. There's an eruption of sound. And I'll say as it explodes. When the fox hunts, no one sees it coming. Oh, and then I'll just, I'll actually re-sheath my blades and make my way back towards iron wall. You were still on comms with Captain Crockett and you hear, damn. And then you fly back as you, they're all in the air. And, uh, uh. Oh, it's the line hot. Jace, you have an opportunity to, there is, it is technically your turn. You're out of distance unless you want to make a like ranged attack at disadvantage against the one that Jace is on. But as you're scanning around, you realize. There are only four that we need to worry about destroying. You, as you are looking at your scans, you're realizing that the orbital defenses that you've immediately destroyed in this vicinity has, with the exception of Jace's, just about cleared the path for the, uh, transport ship to reach, to even be able to approach. Yes, to answer your question. Um. Seeing that just in the reality of the six second, six second round, that basically, right where is it about to just demolish this thing? Um, I think what I would do is I would use my action to take the search action. If I could use my scanners to basically like scan out to see, do I see any more ships coming? I'm being mindful of the next our goal right now is to protect the star booth and, and so I just want to kind of basically look through my scanners and just detect. Do we think that we've blown enough of a hole through their defenses? Um, once this one goes down or is there something else that feels like a check? Yeah, absolutely. But I think that using your, uh, scan, like scanning is something that we actually have rules for in ship, in ship combat. So let me just, let me just, I have a whiz mod, I have an, is it just as simple as that? Yeah, so my, in turn, my computers, my whiz would be my scanners and my charisma would be my comps. Let me confirm that very quickly. It is, it is computers. Comp. Whiz is scanner. Scanners. Scan. I'm gonna, I'm gonna confirm this one because I'm curious and I don't have every little word in every little ruling and all of that stored in my brain and two, because no GM should ever be a fear to look things up for a hot sec to make sure that they're doing the thing. I was going to say because I left my binder, I don't have the second set of met rules for the power race, but I almost all memorized. Let's pull that up here. I almost have to memorize. What was that? Uh, it is computers, whiz is scanners and charisma is comps. Communications. Okay. Strength is the mech fusilist stat. That's right. Go ahead and make your more check. Uh, I'm not finding it. I just want to make sure. I think a perception check is probably just sort of, you know, what I'm gonna do here. I just wanted to make sure that there wasn't like a use scanner. Natural 20 plus four. Okay. You're like set up the next phase of the mission. You're ready. Uh, what you sense is that, um, your location has been, uh, as you, as you pull up a hologram display, you, you, uh, a shockwave of light goes out indicating, uh, where you are able to receive signals from. And you can see that there's now a hole and the, the display of this hologram indicates that the hole is nearly closed. You can see that if Jace does that, that there will be a wide enough perimeter for the star of ooth and to lower down and get close enough to deploy its, um, world piercer. However, uh, you can also see that beyond that perimeter, there is a much larger contingent of these orbital lasers and that they are actually slowly closing in. These are not built for speed, but they are aware of your presence and they are starting to push in only a matter of perhaps 10, 15, 20 minutes. They would be able to, uh, uh, get within firing range. Helm leader, there are more defenses closing in. Finish the last one and we can let Captain Crockett know affirmative. That's one of the three. I put Jace. Just the bomb on the table. I turned it. You're up. What else has more? Um, ooh, I got a 17. Uh, 18, 15. Oh, that was, there's sounds. This makes it like, I'm not rolling well. Yeah. Uh, I'm just using my blade sword, which is, uh, 60 10 plus four fire damage. Damn. Nice. Oh shit. I rolled pretty good. 27, uh, 27 plus eight is 35. That's one more. Five. 40, 44 points of fire damage. I rolled really well. Um, as with the others, how do you want to do that? Um, basically just after I did this sick, you know, like maneuver around this thing, I would basically do this uppercut slash, uh, slicing it in two. And then the moment that, um, everything kind of has a second to just settle for a minute, I would, uh, radio over to the commander and say, uh, commander, this is Elman leader. The star of Uthin is clear for advancement. You are to go over. Lane looks clear. We're on our way. You, uh, uh, and it pauses for a moment. And then there's a, uh, a moment where you hear the captain come back onto the comps. Sir. And then, uh, you, uh, feel on, you don't even have to look at your, uh, your controls. You know that they are just behind you, starting to rock it into this vulnerability, this hole that you poked into the defenses of Morsy. Balm Squadron, well done. Keep your heads up and let's move forward. Roger that Elm leader. You push, uh, uh, away knowing that the star of Uthin needs to, uh, uh, lower down. And sure enough, looking up, you watch as this transports. Flies in between the circular, uh, perimeter as you all look around, making sure that nothing can attack it. There are no laser blasts. A blaring horn erupts from the star of Uthin as its cargo doors open and an enormous wonder of technology emerges. The world piercer. It looked like a cross between a Kavalon eight pointed star, a lance and an orbital cannon. Damn. Propelled by its jets built into its construction, the world piercer takes position and orbit. Its lance cannon pointed precisely at the coordinates dictated by the mission brief. From your altitude, you're zoomed in displays, see what looks like an unpopulated wasteland covered in radioactive haze. I, I don't think that I would radio over it during while this is happening, but I think that seeing this thing for the first time would actually give me pause. And I would be like in awe of it. And I, and I would, I don't think I radio over anybody. I would just be like focused on the mission, but like unable to like not take this in. I mean, just have to. All you can do in this moment other than a glancing behind your mechs shoulders in order to make sure that there aren't any incoming assaults or anything like that. And you've got a clear path looking, looking at your scans again and again and again. You've accomplished what was needed. The lane is endeared clear. You can hear Captain Crockett yelling commands back and forth with the crew. Drill to, to Lemmerty coming in. You hear him as he speaks into the comp. Is there anything else you would do in this moment? No, I'm just on guard. I get back into formation in whatever my quadrant is to protect the, protect the, the world piercer. I think we just be in positions around the world piercer as it goes online, just watching to ensure nothing's approaching it. All clear. His voice crackles in. Clear on my side. His voice crackles in through your cockpits as you hear the Crockett. World piercer three ready to deploy. Dr. Cresson sends his regards. Firing in five, four, three, two, one. Firing. Then all around you, silence suddenly as a flash of blinding golden light consumes your vision. You hear a worrying, a crackle and a cacophonous burst as an enormous beam rockets towards the surface of Morsyb like an enormous lance of colossal scale. It crashes into the planet sending cracks along the irradiated earth and boring into the world. All you can hear is the impossibly loud weapon as it pushes deeper and deeper into the world, disintegrating crust, metal, stone, concrete as it breaks into the oculoc civilization below. It feels like the world piercer is firing for hours, but it can only have been minutes when the beam finally shrinks, slows and ends. Immediately the weapons jets propel it back to the transport and rockets off. Captain Crockett radios you one last time as the starship disappears. Good luck Elm Squadron. For the Empress. Thank you commander. For the Empress. For the Empress. For the Empress. Elm Squadron, advance. You all start to boost forward and down getting into formation as you enter atmosphere and lower dropping down into Morsyb. That's where we'll take a quick break. Oh, holy hell. Have you ever seen something like that before? Fuck no. That's pretty fucking crazy. That's fucking insane right? A more interesting question is has anyone ever seen anything like this before? This is... No, there's no way. Up until like a month ago, the Rook was the most impressive piece of technology that Jace would have ever witnessed. Oh yeah. And this is like something on another level. Yeah, well even Dr. Crescent sends his regards. This is even other super tech from Crescent. Oh my god. Hey everyone, Andy Flynn here and I have huge news. Our next Kickstarter campaign is coming and it's called Neon Odyssey. It's a 1400 plus page space opera trilogy for Dungeons and Dragons 5.5e. It has tons of options for players and GMs alike including an entire galaxy to explore, 30 plus species, 40 plus subclasses, a brand new space combat system and so much more. It's taken us three whole books to fit it all in. You can become a VIP at neonrpg.com to unlock a free set of neon nights, sharp edge resin dites and more. It's only a dollar. Become a VIP now at neonrpg.com. Thank you. All four of your rooks get information and you initiate full power on your thrusters. You thrust forward turning the sky to green fire as you enter the atmosphere of Morsyb. Huge plumes of toxic haze fill your viewport as you rock it downward to the enormous hole that has been pierced into the world. The hole gets larger in your sights as you see the now enormous forms of mutated creatures shambling on the surface. Falling in with screams as a waterfall of irradiated waste, ooze and gasp pour into the subterranean civilization below you. You close the distance towards this gash in the world and pass the layers of the planet's crusts until you finally enter a city below. It is extremely spartan and industrial with efficiently designed dormitories built along cavern walls and streets and rails throughout. The coordinates flash on your screens is where you need to head. You're close, but you have entered in a relatively undefended residential district. However, you see that the world pierces are shot far deeper than to enter just this chamber. The huge hole now goes deeper into the world and you see huge pools of bubbling acid and shapes moving within underneath you. There's not time to dwell on that. It's time to complete your mission. You all lower down bursting into this open space. You can see the cavernous walls all around you. A mishmash of technology that's clearly been burrowed deep within the crust of the Morzib. What are you all doing? I, based on what you said, we have coordinates. We know where we're supposed to go. You can pull it up very easily and now that you're in here you almost get a map display that makes a very clear indication. It's not like it shows you which road and which left and right to take. You have a general heading. I make a mental note of what you said about residential and dormitories and it being relatively empty. But I don't delay. I don't dwell on it. I don't let it halt me at all. What I would like to do, and I don't know if... I would tell everybody, I would basically like to use my scanners to, while we're proceeding towards this point, these coordinates that we have, to scan for potential threats and even any kind of life that we might need to... Computers or perception? Well, oh. Is it plus four probably or are they not? No, I have plus two on my computers and both share my scan. I was hoping to use my scanners. My Int is 14, my wisdom is 16. Then you should use... Wisdom. Scanners. I want to use my scanners to see if I can scan for life or threats. Use the scanner. And I think I would tell the rest of Elm Squadron to do the same. We would have a procedure for this. As soon as you enter through the ceiling of the subterranean city, I will say that you all start scanning so I'm going to ask you to do it at advantage. Oh, sick. Nice. We're all helping you with our scanners. Okay. I got a 15, which isn't terrible. 15. It is not terrible. You are able to look at... All of you are taking in this information. There's a big difference between being shown it in a holographic display during a mission briefing and actually being there, sitting in your cockpit, looking out at the world, looking down and up and seeing this massive new shaft that has been perfectly precision-borne down into the world around you. And you are able to pick up a blip finding the nearby engineering lab where the data centers through your reconnaissance that you've been given by the Cavalon Empire would indicate. You have a very clear direct line, but it will require you flying over and through this residential district in order to get to that research area where the oculocks do their... our research and development. Yeah, I mean, I don't hesitate and I continue to move forward. The scan is just to make sure that there are any threats in the way as we're making our way in the lab. I see. You don't need a scan. The heading gives you a very clear and direct path. It will require you to navigate. There are massive columns that lead from the ground to the ceiling. There are lights in all directions, but below you there are rounded buildings. Again, you can feel that this is a very residential area. You've not broken into some sort of a military complex or... even though everything feels relatively industrial around you, this is not the factory district or something along those lines. At the same time, without... it doesn't require computers or anything like that in order for you to suddenly feel the... as something slams into the back of you. There are still some amount of defenses within even this area as smaller grade weapons are shooting at you. Some... many bullets are just bouncing off of the thick hull or the shields that surround your rooks, but you can tell that as quickly as they can, the forces that do exist even within this district are starting to amass. I mean, I think that depending on the caliber of weaponry that's being fired at us, if most of it is harmlessly plinking off of our shield generators, then I probably wouldn't do much about it. But if I saw something that looked like it was bigger or could potentially pierce the shields, I'd probably just like shoulder cannon and run and gun and just shoot as we're going. Does this look like... are these like laser defenses, other mags? Are we seeing people on the ground with anti-aerial shoulder mounted missiles? All that and more. It's not just one turret or something along those lines. Some of these buildings, there are clearly people that are on top of the building using what arms they have to try to fire up at you in defense of the city. At the same time, you also see that there are movement in the narrow streets of this area. Turrets are being turned towards you. You imagine that it's very obvious that you are coming in, breaking in through the ceiling. Anyone with eyes looking up would know that you're a threat and either be taking cover or looking to the local police force for assistance, whatever they can amass. I'll stick with what I'm doing. I'll look down, I'll say. The rope piercer went too deep. I don't know if we hit the right target. This is like a neighborhood. Elm 4, steal yourself. We have to keep moving. We have the coordinates of the lab. Alright. We aren't in charge of how deep the rope pierces as bored. We have to keep moving. I'll follow you, Elm Leader. It's not something we can control right now. We must stay focused on the mission, destroy what defenses we can, so we can escape as needed. My goal would be, if we're passing a turret or something, I want to smash it and break it. I'm just running down. Right now, I would say that you're perhaps a few hundred feet up, still using your boosters to stay above the city line, the top of these buildings. The moment that one of you suddenly feels this, and there's this plasma cannon that actually hits the side of one of your shields, doing significant damage, you realize that in order to progress through the city, perhaps the safest thing is, indeed, to get down, stop flying, and actually run through the streets themselves. Jesus. Is what you are forced to do as more and more fire starts to centralize on your position. You are forced to down and down and down. It's not going to be but a few minutes of on foot, rook travel, in order for you to get to where you need to go. But, Jace, with you and the lead as Elm Squadron Leader, I needed to roll a D12 for me. D12? Yes, exactly right. Be careful of collateral damage! Yikes, ooh. Milo, they built this facility next to a residential district. What happens next isn't on you, it's on them. I got a six. A six. You land down and you start to race forward. Whatever is in the building adjacent to you, it must have been severely damaged by some of the falling debris from the hole above, because you're only still just starting to penetrate the city itself, and there's this massive explosion. I need you to make a constitution saving throw. Jesus. This is very specific. Not the mech making a constitution saving throw. Me. If I can ask you to make a constitution saving throw. Interesting. I should get a 16. 16 is enough. You are not going to have the poison condition as the radiation from this explosion ignites Jason to your mech. You run through it and you only take five points of necrotic damage, and all of the clicking. To me as a person? Exactly right. As the radiation actually affects you, you can feel the sickening sensation of nausea in your stomach as the radiation is that serious, but you try to shake it off and continue to run forward with knowing that the other three rucks are right behind you. I radio in. Elm Squadron, be aware. Radiation. Watch out for explosions. I, like Milo said, avoid collateral damage. Roger that. Helm Leader. Switching to range weapons. This is beginning to feel like not the training exercises in space or the training exercises even in your rucks, but the training exercises that you had as a squad on foot where you were needed to run up against buildings or take defenses in defensive postures in trees of the jungle, very, very literally. You are now using the buildings themselves to run through alleys, down streets, across bridges, through narrow walkways in order to try to reach your destination following this constant heading towards the engineering lab. Who's next behind Jace as you are all sprinting forward? Probably me. Roll a d12 for me. Four. Four. I need you to make a vehicle dexterity saving throw. Decks, you say? Oh, no. 23. Oh! Let's go! 23, you are rocketing forward and the weight of your iron wall is so great that, again, you are still just at the perimeter and you know that there's a sea of acid below this subterranean city and it's as you are stepping on one of the low bridges trying to cross almost like a canal that there's this eruption of acid that bursts out from the collateral damage that's still domino affecting the city. You're able to jump off of this geyser in time, but you know that you could have been consumed in acid and perhaps taken a considerable amount of damage as you continue to race through these streets. Don't forget there are some heat uses that we have for things like dex checks and the like. Oh, right. Right. It's really trouble. Who's behind Varys? I'm probably lingering. I'm like standing over the hole like just surveying everything that's happening. I'm sure it's absolute bedlam just from the result of the cannon firing in. Oh, no. It is. I will say that it's not just your own alarms that are going off. It's also the sounds of your allies, the rest of Elm Squadron screaming over comms, communicating, go left, go right, go left, go right. But even through that, you hear muffled through the sound of your cockpit, the sound of the alarms of the city. As they are in absolute bedlam panicking. And more and more defenses are showing up. Literal tanks are beginning to roll down the streets as you race by. Some of them are too slow to catch up, but you know that the entire city is very aware of your presence. I will radio in. Elm Squadron, the asset proves below erupting. Watch your feet. Understood, Elm 3. Elm 4. Elm 4, do you copy? Elm 4. I can see that he's not with us. We have all these sensors and shit. We have our Star Fox 64 multiplayer little like... I know. What are you doing? I'm coming. Please minimize collateral damage. Do the best that you can. As I, I guess after Ren takes off, I'm going to snap out of it. And I am going to try to, with Valor Wings Grace, try to go fly above the streets. Even if it puts me at risk of like any kind of level threats. I'm going to try to basically fly over it without doing as little collateral damage and trying to minimize as much as possible. You jump up and you boost forward to catch up with your companions and we'll resolve that in a moment because you will be successful in catching up. But I have a potential risk for you as we go. I need you to roll a d12, but what are you doing? I would just be following in suit, moving, following towards these coordinates. And with the call out from Jace and now Varus as well with all the environmental like acidic issues around us. Unless something is like directly within melee, I think we'd be keeping kind of a tight formation and I'd be leveraging my cryo beam to try and take out enemies from a distance without approaching. And I'd also be attempting to use extreme precision. Every... But I'll roll a d12 for you. No, no, no. Before you roll the d12, I'm going to ask you to make a attack roll to get a sense of how well you're doing. Crush it, bro. 20. 20. I will say that the tanks that are rolling in, you are able to target and hit only those tanks. You see one or two rolling up or you see some of their defense system. And you're staying low and close to the ground like Varus and Jace, but you are, when you spot down a long highway, a number of these defenses, other vehicles having gotten out of the way to clear a path for the folks who are trying to put a stop to your assault, you're able to target them blasting out the wheels or the movement and putting them into a stop before they're even in range. Now roll a d12 for you. Five. Is that what you roll? I roll the four. Oh, five. Five. Very interesting. We will resolve that shortly. He says very interesting when we saw that shortly. Oh no. Milo, I need you to roll two d12s for me. All right. Oh no. All right. That's fine. That's fine, Game Master. I'm going to use two of these dice. One of which is my retin' handkerchief. Ten and two. Ten and two. I'm going to take the lower. Ten o'clock and two o'clock. I'm going to take the lower of the two values and as you are racing forward, one of Ren's precision shots hits a tank that's actually very close to you. You might have been able to dodge it if you were on the ground, but because of the nature of your flight, the plume of flames actually catches you for a moment. I need you to make a dexterity saving throw. Vehicle dexterity saving throw. Don't forget, you got power dice. Twenty-two? Twenty-two. You did not get knocked prone. You would have been pushed by the concussive force of this explosion onto your back, but you're able to do a barrel roll and just rocket forward well enough. In this same moment, there is a deployment of weapons. Careful, Valorant! From the ceiling, almost like bombs being dropped by a bomber plane. Shit! Number of mines. That's the two that you... Oh, not the two. That was the five that you rolled. As mines start to drop in, I need all of you to make a... Dex-ho. Oh. My lord, are you okay? I'm fine! Thank you, Valorant! As I spin it, it looks really fucking cool. I'm just like gracefully... You actually... What you need to do is decide, are you going to slow down and maybe roll again on this complication table, or are you going to race forward as these mines start to gravitate towards you? They're easy enough to dodge. They're not moving very quickly. I'm racing forward. If I feel... I would make a split second decision based on where my low is. If I feel like Milo is with us, I would make the call for Elm Squadron to push ahead. I've caught up. There are bullets and lasers and ordnance flying in all directions, and if he hadn't been knocked prone, he'd be far behind you. But he was able to barrel roll out of the way, and he is now just behind you alongside Varys and... I make these split second decisions to say, Elm Squadron, push forward! And whether they choose to listen or not, so be it. But I want us to... I try to give the command to rush forward. We're with you, Elm Leader. In line! Elm Four! Are you with us? Elm Four is here! I'm gonna take... I'm gonna take the rear now. Okay. And my goal if we have actions, I'm gonna be using shield wall to cover our back, like our rear flank. Obviously, we can be shot from all sides, but at least from one angle down whatever street we're going. I want to be blocking if people are coming out of the streets and shooting us or there are tanks following us. I want to be able to cover that flank with my shield. Thank you. Do we get the sense that the Morsebian government is also dropping mines onto us from this perception? Make a... Chase. Make an intelligence check. Load to see. I rolled a national three, so I don't think... Oh! You are shocked by the events that are occurring. You are aware of the importance of your mission, of the importance of the threat that the Sarek dynasty occurred here, but what's being presented to you all around you is shaking you as you continue to now just are running through and trying to stay up, stay aware and stay with your allies. Okay. That's a good question. You race forward. I need each of you to roll a d10. Oh, wait. Oh, d10? Oh my God. Seven. Ten. Eight. Seven. You all take that much thunder damage, ignoring your damage threshold. Oh my gosh. To shields? Or to hull points? To the hull. As these mines are clearly designed for some other purpose. These aren't designed for mechs. They drop down and crash into each of you as you take this much damage as the concocture. You are trying to race through, but by your command, Chase, you're not slowing down. You are not able to navigate around them and you barrel through. To be clear, our shield points were made at full. It just directly damages the hull. Is that how it works? It's actually correct. Okay, got it. Okay. Ouch. And, Chase, you are still following this. You've made good progress. The shaft that was made by the borehole, for lack of a better term, made by the Star of Ooth and by the World Peercer is well behind you now. It's not that it's getting quieter. You still feel that there's a lot of heat on your heels when it comes to the defenses, but you are starting to leave the residential area that you are immediately confronted with as you see enormous metal scaffolding in front of you. Giant crane arms on tracks that are moving around, passing crates and boxes in all directions. I need you to make one more D12 roll for me as you start to cross the threshold, indicating that just around the corner, the engineering lab can be found. Exactly right. Ten. I don't know if higher or low is good. I'm fucking terrified. High is good. No complication. The ground troops... Look, seven through twelve was all golden, baby. You guys just rolled like shit. Wow. Jeez. You are able to run away from that initial wave of defenses, and with the mines deployed, with all of that fire being so heavily concentrated with your initial assault, you are able to race away and get to a slightly quieter area as you turn down one of these enormous quarters. Clearly some sort of a shipping tunnel or something along those lines, big enough for a rook to fit in. I am trying to maintain this level of coolheadedness so that I can think tactically and be directing the squadron to the best of my ability. But inside, I'm sure I feel like something's not quite right. This isn't quite sitting right with me. But as we around this corner and we get to this tunnel or this archway, is this a straight shot now to the lab based on our coordinates, or does it look like there's still kind of some twists and turns? It's a straight shot down the corridor, and there doesn't appear to be any left or right. So you have to make a split-second decision based on what you're reading on your map. Do you try to go around, up or down, or do you try to go through here and hope that perhaps there's a way in? Because wherever you're headed, there appears to be the engineering lab where you'll be able to do this data scan that you've been tasked to do, your duty to the Cavalon Empire. It's unclear if there will be an entrance there. You can't tell from here whether or not you're going down a dead end and will have to backtrack, or if you're going around a long track, or if you will literally be able to just find a doorway there. You're not familiar with this, and it's not like you have Google Maps right in front of you. You have a heading. I would make the decision to try to take the path ahead of us that seems like it's the quietest, because I'm worried about Milo, and I want to avoid as much confrontation as possible with civilians. Make a perception check. And I want to keep us out of danger and get there without as little as complication as possible. And if that eases the burden on Milo and his brain and his feelings, then that's what I would do. What am I making? Perception. That uses wisdom. That means I got a 12. 12 is good enough. I would say it's just good enough. You recognize as soon as you pass into this tunnel that it might be a gamble, because you'd have to face what is on the other side if this is not the right path. But with the pressure of Milo's mental state being what it is, you see a switch for the door. There's a switch just to your side that you'd be able to smash or perhaps interface with using your computer, that you'd be able to close the massive blast shield behind you and seal off this tunnel for a moment once your companions have made their way in. This is an anti-question. I'm sure that Jason will answer this. Who amongst our crew do I think is our tech person? That's a good question. Because it's definitely not me. I'd be the closest. It's either Ren or Milo, and you would know, especially given his cybernetic background. I have augmentations. You have absolutely seen me engage with computers and general states of technology through months of training. L2, the interface, see what you can do. There. And I would mark it through the computer. Like it would like the pilot air screen. I see. It's like middle clicking in Fortnite. All you have to do is look at it, and all of a sudden you see a little reticle and a pinpoint show up on the scanner. And I'll try and interface with it to shut the blast doors behind us once I see that everybody's through. As soon as the rest of you are able to pour through a hail of bullets in all directions, make a computer check for me. Load easy. Elm 3, make sure you cover L2. Yes, sir. 16. 16. Well enough. You don't have to smash it or destroy it in order for this door to drop. You are able to engage with it. Not even having to plug in or anything like that. Your rook systems take care of the rest, and with a few keystrokes, you're able to bypass the security defenses there. And you all watch as a few lights emerge and circle in all directions, and the door comes down very steadily. Elm 4, with me. Until the door is closed. Before there are no vehicles that fly in under Indiana Jones style at the last second, you're given a moment's respite from the sound of the city that was burning behind you and the sound of the ground troops and defenses. You're in this quiet corridor for just a moment, able to catch your breath. I would say that as the door goes down, I'm on the other side of the door, and Valorwing is turned looking at the destruction that we've experienced. And it's still going down. And you might have to yell at me a couple of times. Elm 4, with me. Oh, you're outside the door. Oh my gosh. Milo! Milo, move through the door! Snap out of it, with me, I said, with me! And right before it gets too low for a huge rook, I will immediately turn around and the huge wings of Valorwing will beat, and all of my thrusters will engage, and I'll get low and just slide in. There's a spray of sparks as a few parts of his shield and his hull itself scrape against the metal tunnel floor, and the door slams down. You even could see that there was a tremendous amount of just gunfire that was spraying against the shield. That all comes to a silent halt as Milo is able to join the rest of you in this large container tunnel. I'm going to radio over to the whole squad. Milo, listen to me. I understand that this is difficult. I need you to hear me. We have a moment, just a moment. When we were able to seal the door with our outside, we're going to avoid collateral damage. Are you with me? Those weapons weren't even built for war, they were for anti-personnel and anti-mutant. Milo, listen to what I'm saying. I hear you. I do. There will be time to discuss this, but now is not the time. I'm behind you. I won't let you all down, no matter what happens. I just think they fired at the wrong location. We just need to get to where we need to be and everything will be okay. We are in arms reach of accomplishing our mission, M4. It lies ahead. I hope World Peercer One and World Peercer Two fired at the right location. We have, I imagine, screens where we can see each other's faces. Yes, there's a very clear heads-up display where you can see... That's cool. Where you can see each other if you are in need of anything. I look up directly into the camera and I say again, Milo, look at me. I hear you. Trust me. I trust you, Jace. I trust you with my life. And the hearth mother will look after all of these Morsebians. We just need to be victorious for now. Trust me. I do. I trust you. I trust all of you. We're going to move forward. We're going to scan what they have and we're going to find out what they're up to. And it's all going to be worth it. Elm Squadron, with me. I snap to it. I, the labs ahead, I will follow Elm Leader. I think we move with haste. But not a reckless haste. I'm trying to, with the help of Ren, especially him being our computer's guy with the help of the rest of the squad for scanning and trying to find a direct route that will cause the least amount of collateral damage and just not get us into complications and try to get to the lab as quickly and smoothly as possible. I'm at your left hand, Elm Leader. And I would be wanting to flank Brightroar's left shoulder, basically. And just, if there is any sense of we turn a corner or like saving Private Ryan's style, we'll tank there, right? Like jump and throw again. And like take the rocket to the dirt to the dirt. Absolutely. You never know. That's pretty cool. That's working the sniper on a bell tower. I have no idea. Falling in the bell tower? The tunnel feels a little claustrophobic, even though you know that this is a massive delivery channel for whatever mech needs or factorial needs or industrial needs might need to flow through this space. But with the door closed and you having a moment to breathe through, Jace's rallying cry, you're able to stop forward. Jace, you're thrilled to find that you made the right choice as the corridors, it's a bit maze-like, but you're able to continue on your way towards the heading. You finally arrive at the engineering lab. And you finally see the garrison defense in this relatively remote chamber of the city. Four Morsebian hulks, each larger than your rooks, stand before you. Excuse me? They are made of sturdy green brinzium, and you can see in their gas mask-looking helmets a singular large camera that evokes an eye. They wield brutal laser morning stars, and as soon as you approach, their huge foot thrusters blast them towards you. I need everyone to roll for initiative. And if you don't mind, I want to know what everybody gets on initiative. Natural 20. Oh! Plus, plus four, 24. Nice. Oh, man. I get 11. 19. 17. Gosh, I could use all that information in order to set up your initiative card. Sorry, it's not Varus. Varus, sorry. Ran, let me actually roll for these for a moment. Oh, hilarious. Okay. Jace Milo. That makes sense. Jace Milo, what was yours? I just wanted to know what the Gorgor was to call the formation and what the Gorgor I was hoping for. Yeah. There's a lot of permutations. There are. There are. You race into this engineering lab. We're going to have to create a map real quick. So we're actually going to do this as true and proper battle combat. However, you race into this large open engineering lab is the correct term for it. That's what it is. But what feels like a massive data center. This is very obviously the archives of all of the R&D that is being done by the Oculoc, the Morzibians, the inhabitants here. If there is the information that you need in here, it's in one of these massive towers that exist on all sides of the space. You can tell that these are an array of information. It's extremely valid to remind everyone now that we're looking at the map and you can see the massive laboratory all around you, this data center of all the research that goes into building machines like the ones you're about to face. That these mechs are 20, 30, 40 feet tall depending on the mech. So are the ones that you're facing. These are actually even bigger than all of you, much taller, let's say 50 feet. They're as tall as a building. You are nearly that tall, but these are absolute hulks. And so for the purposes of simulation, as you're looking at these maps, these are not five feet per square. Each one of these squares represents 20 feet of movement. And so as they race forward and move from space to space, bear in mind that all around them, the ceilings go up hundreds of feet. The walls themselves are covered in technology. They blast their thrusters forward and land here in the center, their eyes scanning, and all of a sudden there's a massive blast as these cannons races forward and spreads against the four of you. So I'm going to switch over to combat playlist here. Why don't I just do that? I know the verse is going first, but I have a brief moment where these things land. And I under my breath, I say, oh, hell. And then over the intercom, I say, formation, shining lance. You say this. Then you and you all hear those words in your cockpit as the sound of bullets start to pelt you. This rotary cannon spins up and lays down suppressing fire. I need you all to make a strength saving throw. Strength saving throw. 21. Nice. 17. 18. 12. All of you are able to push against this attack except for Wren. Is there anything that we have to boost him? I don't think I want to see. I know there's one for decks, but I don't know if it's generic saves. I don't want to just want to check. That's the only one I don't have memorized. Oh, power dice. It would be 39 piercing damage. Oh, it was saving throw. But I wasn't sure if it was specifically a deck saving throw. Isolate signal reaction. Deck check. When you add, this is an ability to save, you can spend power dice to add to the total. I would isolate signal. I would use mine. Watch out, Wren! So you just have to generate heat. As I am going to take a heat. That's a reaction. I'll add three to that. 15. 15. Just enough. Good shit, bro. Just enough. You each take half of 39 damage. This one's for the Mars mother. Oh man, you would have been pushed back a hex and your speed would have been halved until the end of your next turn. That's crazy. So the suppressing fire lays down. But as soon as the gun is clicked to a stop and you are confronting these mechs, you can tell that there's a huge amount of damage. A tremendous amount of communication happening between these mechs, but they're not engaging you except in silence. As Varys, you are able to take the initiative and do whatever it is that you want to do now that you have been able to shield yourself. And you know that the information in these terminals are of tremendous value to the Cavalon Empire. You know that this is for the good of the people saving lives if you can get this information back for analysis. So I'm not the computer's guy. My job is to defend. I have 80 feet of movement, which is only four squares. And so I'm not very fast. What kind of weaponry do these hulks have? You can see that they have a rotary cannon, which they use these large... It looks like the... What's his name? Wow, I'm really a terrible nerd sometimes. I just never keep... Vulcan Raven. It looks like one of the massive miniguns that Vulcan Raven has in the original Mellgir Solid. It's a very, very long, multi-barrel spinning rotary cannon. Very cool. And that's on one shoulder. And in their hands, there's some form of a mace. It looks very similar to yours, except instead of being attached by a laser chain like your weapon is, this is a hard mallet, and from all sides of the actual business end of this weapon, there is fusion geysering and spouting out as those... There's some sort of energy core right inside. It's sort of like nuclear morning stuff. The term that I have in front of me for the attack itself is fusion mace. God, that's fucking cool. Also, I know you said you're not the computer's guy, so I imagine you being like, Saren, the printer is out of toner. Is that different than me? And yes, like a Gatling gun would be another way of saying it. Do we take damage with that spray? Yes, all of you will have taken half of 39. Which is 19. 19 more shield points. 19 more. Was that... Piercing. At the beginning of the round? Yes. Okay, that's 19 points. If you had a reaction or something that you wanted to do, I jumped in there, but only because we got such a good hyperion. 31 shield points. I also presume I'm back to zero heat, because there's been enough time. Sir, is it 17 damage? 19. The moment that you took coming out of going into the tunnel would have allowed you to express that heat. Okay, cool. I will... And knowing that Ren is our computer's guy, and he's our board, I would want to make sure that I protect him. So I'm going to move 20, 50, 80. And that's as far as I can go. And then... I will be scanning. Do they all look the same? There's differences only, not in the design, but there's differences in the, for lack of a better word, the vertigree of the metal. This Brinseum has such a color shift to it. It reminds you somewhat of the orbital defenses that you saw in space, but clearly this is much more masterfully engineered. So there's a color variation that makes them almost look different the way that one tiger might look different from another tiger, but they're still tigers. They're all the same class of mech. Yes. Okay, so I'll stomp forward and try to cover the right flank here. And I'll say, Fire and Shield Breaker, Iron Rain! And I'm going to hit a button, and the missile pods will open up. And again, a burst of these small missiles with a volley of faster missiles coming in to hit, followed by... Damn, I need a cigarette. followed by chunkier, slower missiles. I'm going to make an attack roll. And number two, as I turn to face and just brace myself against number four... I see. It's just trying to kind of control and be the tank in the situation. Okay. I'm going to roll a natural one. Let me see if there's anything I can do to re-roll that. And for anyone asking, because we're doing ground mech combat, power dice and all of the space combat, Akutraman, come with the mech package. So we're still running all of those rules, but it's in a square grid instead of a hex grid. And facing is not as significant and important as it is when you're flying through space with momentum being what it is. Gravity now being back in action. I'm not forcing them to worry terribly much about facing. Reaction when you... So I believe a natural one, no matter what, I think it misses. Even if I try to boost the hell out of it. So basically, it'll miss. I don't know if it will continue going and they'll spin around and... If they're function like missiles, if I attack, then it should. How much movement do the missiles have? I believe it is... I believe it is nine hexes. Okay. It was a crazy distance. Which is a crazy distance. So my thought was, I don't know if they would just smash into the walls in this scenario, or would they spin around and they just start to be coming back, no matter what, they can't make another attack this turn. Okay. So regardless, that's my whole turn. I will say that they fly around, but they are boosting forward too, and they're just fast enough before the missiles are able to make contact. They spin up and around, trying their best with what limited intelligence those heat-seeking chips on the actual missiles have. They try to avoid their own destruction unless they're hitting the target, and they fly up and start to spin back around. You will be able to make another attack with them at the beginning of your next turn. Excellent. It's a big area. It's a big zone. This is a big zone. And, Ren, unless there's anything else there, you're up. That's it. Oh, it's each of my turns. Sorry. So at the beginning of my turn, my shields, you see they take a pretty big hit, but they almost fill back up as my shield generator on Ironwall is particularly... I have a Bastion shield generator. Hell yeah. So I read 15. Remember, there's a couple steps at the beginning of your turn. You roll to expel heat, and you also regenerate your shields. If that's part of your mech, and then before you do anything else. I need a rules buddy. So remember those couple of pretty big attacks. Be my rules buddy. I appreciate you. I don't have any heat, so I have nothing to worry about there. And that is it. I also have not as good as yours, but I also have a shield cycler. So I will regain five shield points at the start of my turn. I will first, before moving, I will privately calm Milo. Milo, is it still your wish to help us see our dreams realized? I'll do whatever it takes, Ren. For your dreams, Ferris's dreams, and Jace's dreams. There's a haze on the battlefield that begs your attention, that claws at it from all sides. You have to quiet everything, focus on what's in front of you. Down here, they will die, or we will. We're not gonna die here. You have my word, Ren. I'll make sure of it. That's enough. I'll go invisible. That's sick. That's a badass shit. I will... My speed... Oh wait, oh yes, my speed is... Can I run faster with the power dash? Yeah, you can. You can't just expend up to three. Two, two, get like extra three hexes or something. One, two, three, four, five. You might not need it, but... Oh, because it's two each. Oh, it's two, you should go one. Right, you were counting 20, 50, I believe it is. Yeah, so you can move five squares. So one hex or basically one square, so you could spend... Two power dives, you get there. One more power die, hit him. Right, so the idea is... Just one power die. Or two power die. One's enough. Okay, one's enough. Do I not want to be standing in front? Can you do something like if I'm within five feet? You're within five feet of me, so that should work. As far as I can tell. Hell yeah. I can get my shield in there now that you're next to me. That's what I'm talking about. I will dash forward, expending, pushing my mech just a little bit further. Pushing the rook as I will blaze forward with... Or I'll lunge forward with ripping out of invisibility with twin strikes of my blade as I start attacking. Oh, and I am also, as we now all know, I'm the computer's guy. So you have... Andy is me here, I'm the computer's guy. Andy's drawing these beautiful computer interactables around the room. Do we know what to do with this? Do I understand? Is this... You're going to have to repeat your question. I was just doing a little bit of admin work on my side. No problem, no problem. The computer interactables in these three stations around the room. Because Ren thinks to look, you check your computer readout and you realize that the signal of the data that you can scan is getting closer as you get closer to this particular interface of technology, this huge terminal on this side, even though it is a huge tower of racks of information, you know that similar to how you scanned the door panel and was able to bypass its security and lock it, that your mech is equipped with the interface it needs, but only if you're in range. And so by merit of getting closer, you look down and you can see that there are a couple bars of signal but that you would need to get in and stay in range of that particular wall or any of the other walls that are in this space that have the technology that Andy has so kindly drawn for me in order to start the data scan. This looks good on the map, Ken. Got it. And you imagine that it is anywhere within four squares of the wall would be enough to get you there. Do I have to use an action to scan? It doesn't require an action or a bonus action. The download will start immediately presuming there's no interference. I'll use one more power die, if that's fair to say, and just move there. One, two, three, four. Let's use six of your heat. Two heat. But I'm ice cold, baby. You take two heat but you're ice cold and you immediately see your rook. The rook knows or rather the people who designed the rook knew that you'd be perhaps piloting this in the heat of battle. Without you even needing to do more than a keystroke and verifying that it happens, the computer is already doing the handshake necessary in order to start the scan and it's seeking. Whatever it is the Cavalon Empire is here for, it is here to put those puzzle pieces together and you start to see a download bar. Click up. Yes. 18 to hit. My first hit. Got it. Oh boy. Okay. All right. There's no way this thing is going to go down in a single hit. So I'll tell you what's going to happen. I'll roll the damage and I'll tell you about my die move. That's not right. Oh. Six. Oh. 27 points of damage. 27 points of damage to number... Seven of it is cold damage. Oh, it's a number four. Cold damage if that's relevant. You slash forward with your first strike and you're used to the strange sensation of hitting a shield. If I may. When you're hit with this, your damage threshold and mishap threshold, if any, are 10 lower against my attacks. That would matter if I had to worry about damage threshold, but you've not pierced its shields yet. Oh. Wow. Well, let's hit him again. Okay, so I cut through with the first blade and I swing my second around and I'll try for a second hit. Second hit doesn't land. Second hit doesn't land. You don't know what it was, but... It was natural one, so I'm pretty confident. Yeah, I feel confident about that too. Come on, guys. Warm it up in here. Yeah, it's getting cold. You guys cold? It's getting ice cold. Yes. Okay, and I went stealth through the start of the turn, so that is just me, but I'll call out. The terminals around the room, move close. We'll download what we need. Knowing that the rooks will know what to do if you get in range, Jace, you're up. Over the intercom, I message the squadron and I say, Elm 3 is with Elm 2. Elm 4, you're with me. And I move 3, 6, 9, because I have 90 movement, so I'm just going to move it a diagonal. I think that's correct. And then I'm going to fucking hit the jets and just fucking sweep this bitch up as I move two more squares to get within four and to attempt to attack number three. That's going to be a 16 plus eight is a bunch. 24. Yep, that hits. As I am blasting the jets, the actual blade sword is dragging across the ground as I am getting ready to use ground force slashes. The booster jets from my feet are going and I make this slashing movement up. I also have the shield cycler to heal five, so I go up to 36 shield points. That is going to be 60, 10 plus four fire damage to this. I am not bloody to ignore it max heat, so I don't do the extra damage. Not great. Not a great roll this time. Eight, nine, 10, plus. That's going to be 10, 16. Oh, plus another eight is 24. 28 points of fire damage. To number three. To number three. And I am in range of the data center. Again, you slash in and you feel the resistance of a shield, not the hull, as you crack forward. You aren't quite able to break through it with this first strike. That's my whole turn? Real quick, Derek, four would have taken just four more points of damage. I just didn't add my plus damage. So 27 plus four? Yeah, it would have been 31. So just... Well, that's extremely important information, one moment. If it does something real bad, and I missed it, I'm sorry. No, no, no, no. It does something real good as you slash in. You slash through and you feel that resistance break, Ren. Nice. And you cut through the shields as it shatters. And you finally, with your second hit, are able to make a very light contact with the Brindzium armor. And it's this first moment. You don't connect through the shield with 28. But with a 30 shield point technology, you break through and that one extra point hits. And it sounds like in every classic Western, when you hear a gun ricochet, there's this immediate sound as your weapon makes contact with the hull doing just a smidge, but not enough to truly damage it as you are able to cut in. You know that these are made of the very finest material of Morzib. And that becomes clear when that sound rings true and reverberates and echoes through the space. Milo, you're up. I'll take a little thank you. Do I get the sense that basically if there are three of us downloading at the same time, we'll be able to finish up our mission faster? Yes. I will say, only Valorwing is fast enough to get to the back. I've got it by myself. And I just leap forward, boost exactly 10 squares. You know what they say, but it's unbelievable. As I get within the four squares of that. You leave the floor for a moment and you boost forward as you fly and you're able to get within range. Your head, your rook makes the handshake. You can see that the download has begun. Making an attack on number two. That is a 22 to hit. I could have used heat. I could have generated more heat. And so that's going to be 60 10. Dispiercing versus four. Dispiercing matter. No, you can have those both up. Okay. Yeah, just give me the full total. One, two, three, four. Four information. It doesn't cost a bonus action to use the power dice to move more. And I could have used my bonus action to raise shields. Oh, I did not realize that. No, it's just for you. Just burn the dice. So that's on me. Sorry. No, no, no. If I've been listening. No, look, it's the first time I forgot my folder. I've been so good at letting my folder at home. I think I have a spare. Hold on one second. But also I would have gained five shield points at the end of that at the beginning of the turn. And then also need to roll. How do I roll a d6? And I got a power dice. Did I get any heat? No, no. You generate, you get rid of the heat on a five or six. Except for 19. Yeah, he's got 29. 29. And I just choose to keep the heat. 31, 31, 38, 38, 40. Sorry, 38. Damn. 41 plus four. 45 points. A piercing and force damage as I lance into number two. Despite being so hesitant, perhaps in battle, man, you really do a fuckload of damage. Milo, you crack through the shield with your spear instantly. And you all hear that as the shield, your spear actually makes contact with that Brinseum armor once again. Not enough to cross its damage threshold, certainly, but enough to break through. Shields down over here. I'm downloading. And you watch as you are all connected in a network of sorts. And with Jason on one side, with you on this side, with Milo on the other, Ren, you are all adjacent to the three data points that are needed to coalesce. You realize that the data is downloading that much faster. Clearly, this data had been separated in order, like a puzzle. And as soon as you watch that, all of a sudden the download bar starts to rock it forward in a way that it had been stalled before. That said, that said, the more it's easy to reach my reactions. I actually got to build heat. I just got to build as fast as I can. Are you a target or are you invisible? I'm not invisible. I went invisible to start my turn because it was cool as fuck. Yeah, it is cool as fuck. But unfortunately, this Hulk stares down at you with its singular lens-like eye. And it reaches down and it's going to make two fusion mace attacks, which is appropriate. Two of them? Given your name. Two of them? It's mace myself. Little me. The first is going to be a 17 to hit. No way. Not even close. 24. That'll do it. That'll do it. Okay. What's your AC? Well, actually, are we unable to maneuver while we're on the ground? You can use all of the usual space combat pieces as a mech because we're doing mech combat. Well, I just mean like, oh, you're already C23. I'm one off. I mean, I'll jam if nobody else wants to jam. I keep track of your reactions as we go into this. No, I have my reaction. So, I mean, if you think that would be more, like, this is the, so that was one of the things I wanted to ask about is, this is the only time I think that we should, like, Well, we might also, I agree. ... met a game and talk about how we're using our reactions. I guess sensors are crazy. I would guess that if you were willing to do that, there may be other hits that are really bad that I might want to save my reaction for. Right. So, I know. No, but the thing is there may be ones that, you know what? I'm going to do this. Okay. I'm going to do this. That's fine. Careful, M2. I'm going to jump ahead. I'll use my reaction to shield parry. If you're within one hex or 20 feet, if you're hit by an attack roll, I can use my reaction to add five to its AC against the attack. Huge. Oh, you just add five. Just add five. Oh, wow. That's a 28. So, you're at 28? That's a 24. And I'm at 24 to hit. That's great. And it's actually, as you know, it's meter beat, so. These Morzebians are furious. I don't blame them. I'm going to use a reaction for number four to target lock itself. And it doesn't make it. So, it's unfortunately unable to do that attack down. However, the way that this looks is you are absolutely going to get cooked by this fusion maize. It comes flying down and Varys, you jump in at the last moment. I jump in at the last moment and I raise my shield and it, I think you were almost jet back as I jump ahead. Yeah. I throw my shield out. I duck down almost. It would clash against my shield as I fall backward into my position as I don't have to move to do this. That is the first of these hooks. The one standing next to Milo is going to slam down. The lowest is going to be an 18. It misses. The highest is a 28. It's going to smash into you unless there's anything else anyone wants to do. I don't even remember. What's your AC? 23. With a 6. Or a 5. I'll take it. Number two? Yeah. You take 26 points of force damage. It's okay. Let me know when I start getting into hull. Okay, I'm not at hull yet. Your shields. Okay, that's fine. That's a reaction. Got it. That's a reaction. Got it. Love it. It smashes into me. I'll stumble back. I'll look and say, we're all going to achieve our dreams. We're going to get it and we're going to get out. This is the price of war. As I will take my lance and just do a counter attack. Oh, that's right. I love that you have this. As I will run towards. As I will step forward. And that's got to be, that's a 20. Another 21 to hit. Based on mentally unstable bills. Hell yeah. Because we're past midnight, after midnight, AC is always on the table. We're looking at AC 17 boys. What's going on? What's going on? What the hell? We started at 1145. I know. I mean, I know, but I don't know. I'm like, something happens. I'm pretty amped up right now. Time is dilated and I just fucking fly. Mikey's counting though. Mikey's counting. Let's get some peace. We know how it goes. 26. Smoke. 36. 31. 30. 36. 35. 35 points of piercing damage. I will. That's fucking massive. Bro. No, Milo. Cook. You do a lot of damage, man. That's number two. Yep. Okay. I'm going to need to do a quick thing here. Just give me 30 seconds because you've done a significant amount of damage to that was just normal damage to number two. Yeah. Your piercing piercing. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Let me do this. That's my reaction. Let me pull this up. I just have to. A couple extra detains for those of you playing along at home. I'm pulling up the play test document because I want to access the same information that you might have if you were. I'm going to do something along his lines and I'm dropping all the way down to page 18. I would normally roll a Starship mishaps if this were a combat in space. However. Okay. You bust something essential. A tube goes. You manage to find just a sliver of vulnerability and you can see coolant of some kind leaking out and it's clearly struggling to have as much turn as possible. Mechanically you imagine that it probably would fail dexterity checks if needed to make those kinds of vehicle checks. Okay. And do you do anything else? No. It's still my turn. Oh my goodness. I'm doing so much shit. It's not. It's not. It's not. It's not. It's not. You are really a danger Milo and so number one is going to turn to you. Oh no. We don't disarm you. We don't disarm you. We don't disarm you. We don't disarm you. We don't disarm you. We don't disarm you. We don't disarm you. We don't disarm you. You know listen to the gentleman. You know listen to the gentleman. You know listen to the gentleman. You know listen to the gentleman. You know listen to the gentleman. You know listen to the gentleman. You know listen to the gentleman. You know listen to the gentleman. You know listen to the gentleman. You know listen to the gentleman. You know listen to the gentleman. You know listen to the gentleman. You know listen to the gentleman. You know listen to the gentleman. You know listen to the gentleman. You know listen to the gentleman. You know listen to the gentleman. You know listen to the gentleman. You know listen to the gentleman. You know listen to the gentleman. You know listen to the gentleman. You know listen to the gentleman. Okay, to spend a power die to subtract from the attack roll system. We have three heat I'm gonna roll like a gig a chat here. You're gonna do it. I believe in you. I believe in you five Stabbed in I don't even see this guy. I don't even notice what he's doing That's fucking crazy I Enjoy it enjoy it while it lasts the You you Put in a few key commands and in the last second your rook is able to engage with its targeting Ability just enough for the gatling gun to be to the side and you watch as the bullets rip up the side of the wall Creating a terrible pattern of destruction But not destruction on the fret the armor of your friend Milo now You protect and now To yeah, here comes the natural fusion may just come flying down attacks come flying down in your direction It's worth I gotta protect my own 21 miss 23 hit At 23 shield points, I mean I 36 sorry That's going to be 16. Well, what was it? It was 23 to hit I'm gonna have a 22 AC my reaction you gotta roll to Don't want one maze don't do it Just enough just enough you can power it back. Well, I guess he could fuck no he can't that's crazy These guys But it's way too sexy that you guys are all helping each other out I'm gonna say that the fusion mace Slams down you are you're too busy to deal with this but all Ran you key a few commands and your boosters go off Shocking you for a moment pushing you forward and it's the handle of the fusion mace that hits against your shoulder before Coming away you would have been hit by that that energy Absorbing mass at the end focus on your battle you but ran is able to make you dodge out of the way in this last final moment and They continue thank you continue there there is all you're not hearing the sounds of voices come through the the comms or screams Or anything like that There there's you imagine that there's a tremendous amount of chatter on their end in the same way that you're communicating with each other in these moments This is just a silent battle to the death anyone watching this would just be watching machines Wrestling wallop each other as we get to the top of the round Varus At the end of the round first you will see iron walls totally like Panels of energy flying up. I have no heat master I'm looking pretty pretty healthy besides the the whole points that we took from the radiation mines Oh, is that a power dot to do that right? What does I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Oh Um the next thing you would notice is the the missiles the shield breakers Oh Who shields are down who shields are down just armor crushers. Oh Our boys about to pick up a pretty hefty kill count. I gotta feel it Um, I rolled with two this time which is better because I can reaction to make it better Well, do we know what their AC is? 17 said it's 14. It's about to be. Oh, I mean that's pretty good. It's about to be on like down Three three enough the question is do I want to save my screw it? I'm going to I You know if this is almost gonna happen automatically as these things really want to hit I'm gonna expend the heat since I have five max heat And I'm gonna use my reaction to try to make this hit Oh So That is a 12 13 14 20 to hit that hits They all collide in and the smaller faster this will explode But they almost completely glance off of its hole because they only do shield damage But the larger First I know I know we're doomed the first few missiles hit him like someone getting pelted with an airplane It's it's laughable. There are these small little sparks of explosions a paper airplane. I'm sorry paper Like paper airplanes as they they crush and almost disintegrate their purpose No longer needed with the shields removed these massive Come in and collide Like fireworks going off Echoing and reverberating through that engineering turn is gonna be devastating. This is about this guy's game vapor This whole route is going to be devastating 28 It was like 48 force damage to its whole Or just just period number number two That's a lot of damage Yeah, I've hit him twice and this is a big little chunky here You were all right you're doing big damage Oh, yeah, okay, I have you have me you destroy So it was it would have been hanging on by a thread and we would have continued to simulate the this Morsebeans Hulks battle But I rolled a natural 20 on the ground vehicle mishaps because you crossed its mishaps and the natural 20 The vehicle rolls over and so it would have been crushed and fallen to the ground And the fact that it would have gotten pushed by the concussive force of this blast would have had it roll Taking additional bludgeoning damage that easily would have pushed it over the head. So when I get my low You are watching as you are stabbing into this thing continuing to attack and it's almost like this thing gets hit by a truck's sideline and it just crushes and disappears flying into the center of this chamber in disintegrating into nothing this gone um I Seeing that Milo's been Feeling all these ways being hesitant and then rushing in recklessly. I Don't really know how Milo's feeling very concerning to various yeah, and I see that Both of these guys. I think that they various feels like they are more ready Mentally for this mission and so I am going to privately come in to Milo Come to I Mean Elm for don't forget your vows in the name of the faceless be measured And I'm going to jet forward 12 Grace pieces And I'm going to basically rocket in here and I'm going to spend two heat to me to cover this distance as I use That is not a bone a reaction. I believe no, it's not you're good. No you just spend you spend up the three That's all Start stomping and running and activate my boosters and interpose myself between this mini gun That's gattling down Milo and raise my shields as I let me add two more heat here Oh my turn started You you already got your shield you got your shields you got your reaction didn't have any oh So I got this you just turn on your turn right on my turn. Okay, perfect. And so with my action I will As part of this pad this engine boost I'm gonna just bring my blast flail in and down and we'll see if I hit this Yeah, look at the missile is passive passive after you fire it if your friends and family aren't watching Wolves for a turn I Okay, and tell them Nipg.com to watch waltz for turning you to fucking now you too can do this I roll a 16 Oh, that's enough. So I is it 15? 17 it's My reaction's gone. Oh, and I think they need to go my turn. Oh, no, I use It's on his turn you didn't use your reaction. I did yeah, he did today. No you now have a new action Okay, okay, so I Barely miss as I come down and this thing just barely dodges It just takes one step back and I'm there like my engines barely get me here And these are one of the more zeeby and hulks and so they're not dodging these are not nimble things You smash into it and you're horrified when this Brinseum armor Absorbs the attack and it drops down That's my turn I'm gonna respond. Oh, and I'm gonna say oh Isn't it their fault why all those civilians are suffering because their government's plotting against the Empire? Um Good gymnastics Milo If I have a moment to respond You've earned it you've earned it. They're enemies of the Empire you return them to the harmony But do not be reckless. It is not your day to die Ren I Rolled a six on my yeah Heat yeah, so I'm gonna get one back. I'm now no longer. So my heat is only three So I currently sit at maximum heat. I now no longer sit at maximum heat Which is very good because at maximum heat all my stuff turns off. Oh shit Oh, you have to stay cool. You literally have to stay off your new show points show points as well You also recovered ship also show points. That's really sexy I like what do you need to hit to recover heat? Do you have a wider heat recovery range? I do it's it's it's super wide I just rolled six, but I have the cryo core heat sink So when I roll event heat at the start of my turn I succeed on a three four five six It's almost impossible not to succeed. So yeah, we we recover out of five up. This is a three out. Yeah Because the cryo core So I will see various moveover take position with Milo understanding that the Flow of battle is changing in our favor and knowing that the shield is down on the target right in front of me I'm just gonna keep laying into it We are that we're on people we're a beautiful team Okay, there's nothing that Derek can throw at us. We're the unbeatable squad. Okay, they're gonna pass them I'm throwing down the gauntlet Derek. Oh Yeah, we're gonna talk 28 to hit 28 to hit 28 yeah, the rule right here says except for 28 You mind you this attack your damage threshold and mishap threshold are treated as 10 lower against this attack You are just savaging this guy. Oh shit. Oh, that's a big roll. That's a big one Yeah He's dead, I don't know how to say this you're fucking about to get fucked up 28 26 33 plus 41 plus 4 45 points of damage on my first attack. Yeah. Yeah, okay Let me just do a little one of these and we'll just look over here real quick 10 lower 10 lower 10 lower on all counts Okay, you smash into it and for a moment. There's almost a second where Slice it it has to catch its balance. It almost looks like it's gonna go down on one knee and it catches itself as you And starts to swing in against you regaining its balance, but you've done a significant amount of damage. You still hear that same sound as you make connected it's all like Slashing into a bell or an instrument as you smash into it 15 to hit But I'm gonna try and target walk for my second hit and just don't roll a one Don't roll a one base. We'll get oh true I'm hot with the twos baby The twos know it's scary Too scary the two scary and they're not gonna use like he's my boys efficient. Okay, he's efficient. Yeah, I don't listen I don't like you know, you're not even breaking a sweat on style. I'm not greedy. It's whatever No kill like overkill I always say but you know I 30 six points of damage on the second attack huge one moment Okay, and I'm gonna do one of these got it. Oh That's really fun Roll a flip a coin for me Roll a d2 essentially Evens tails Okay You slash in and whatever the joint is on the minigun on its shoulder Is not made of the thick brinzium hide of this Hulk and you with your next attack like a precision swordsman you flip it and you're able to cut it off the entire gun goes flipping and you Have completely destroyed this Hulk's ability to use its rotary cannon for the rest of time as it crashes into the wall and slams into the floor That's that's great. He's not he's still barely hanging on but wow But you are able to have you've disabled him significantly and that and I and when I say significantly I mean be really glad that you did that I in this swirl of blades of I'm moving around him Slash with the first I now feel as though I understand that the machinations of this armor And I find an opening where I cut in and I slice off its blade and as I start to move around it I once more go invisible. Oh you go invisible All right J threw up the boosts are still just absolutely cooking and they do not stop So I spent another two power die to go up to maximum of five heat to thruster around this guy and put myself in a better position of the data center and This guy so gross though the warnings are just gone I gotta heal my my five shields. I got back up to 41 And because of part of my push the red line this met can choose to not roll to vent heat the start of a turn So I don't with this with this extra movement, which is head of sentence I'm now at maximum heat the warnings are going in the in the The bright work at this point. It's music to your ears But I've I've I did an upward slash before I made this move. So as I move around him The blaze sword now does an extra 1d10 fire damage because the mech is blooded or at max heat Which I am and I unlock my bonus action blazing strikes Where as a bonus action I can make one extra sword attack, but I will also generate one additional heat So I am going to attempt to make two attacks on number three. Okay, let's fucking go And so the first thing I'll do is make the attacks. Oh the four is probably not good enough I got an 18 for one of them. Okay, and for four is a 12 If you target lock there's a chance of a five or six Yeah, I'm gonna target lock But I do some things in a certain amount of order So the first thing that's gonna happen is because I use the bonus strikes attack I'm gonna generate a heat and potentially go to six which will trigger push the red line when the met gains heat while I max Heat I have to make a DC 10 vehicle constitution saving throw on a success I ignore the heat and then that DC goes up by five. Okay, damn. So I have to see if I can With my plus five to con I just the beat 10 I Do not So I'm gonna go to six heat. Oh Then I am going to target lock and try to generate another heat, but let's first see if the target lock hits Okay, so I need a five or six on the target lock And I will attempt to hold the red line again But the DC did not go up because I did not pass. Do you have Do you instantly get eye on exhaustion when you go to six heat? Presumably well now I have it, but it wasn't I didn't have it on That attack on the first attack because doing the bonus action. Yeah, right. Yeah, just rolled it first He rolled it. Yeah, I was I was thinking I guess would you know? Oh, it'd be better to try to just pass this and not have the exact exhaustion and then not target lock instead You know what I mean either way. I don't think it matters because I missed but I just Be you if you would still miss but then also have not it not exhaustion I just wanted to see like would you have that information to be like I guess but now you know No, no, I mean it's fine. I think it's fine. I think it's fine That's a pass. So I don't get the seventh. I don't get the 70 but I have a six heat and I will still deal And if now I do 70 10 plus four on that first attack, okay? I Bad not great. Oh boy. That's gonna be 1315 25 32 36 45 points of fire damage to number three You and Ren doing 45 points of damage. It's very funny. It's a lot of intense So now I have minus two on my d20 tests and rolls Correct but anyway 45 points of fire damage you slash into this thing and again There's this almost melodic sound as you crash into it Slicing with your sword you watch as its armor is rendered It takes a significant amount of damage and it's slower for having Taken the wound but it's still standing and now my DC on push the red line is 15 that's my turn Milo all radio into To Varus and Very quickly I will say each of your turns as you started in the proximity to the terminals your books are downloading data and the fact that It's all four of you. It's rocketing forward. You feel that the points that you would normally be accumulating very slowly are Multiplied by the fact that you're all downloading this. It's simultaneously in network your computers are able to Thread this information together creating a very complete file much faster than you would have So we've all spent at after Milo's turn will all spent two full turns in the end in Distance and I'm taking that into account Milo Elm three is iron all downloading Yeah, I believe it is down for I was a leader and I Blast off over and I see the as my She will flat for my thrusters will engage and I will go wide avoiding hopefully an opportunity attack because Varus has given me this Blockage. Oh, you can have a lot of pressure and as I go directly next to Jace I will wrap my wings around Him as the the mist and the clouds kind of Cover his almost a cool and a cool breezy cloud is I'm gonna use damage control as you are going to regain 15 chill points beautiful and You are gonna end one ion exhaustion level All you haters out there. See I got my boy right here When you stop with a flap of your wings you go into envelop the heat that is pouring off of bright roar and you Just by merit of landing are able to cool off Tremendous amount of his heat specifically based on the wording of the thing. I'm still at six heat I just don't have the you have the ion exhaustion So I can still on my turn choose to try to clear that six to get back to five and I'm basically good to go Yes, yes, but I don't have the ion exhaustion either. Correct. Thank you. Correct. So you lost the ion exhaustion Um, I am within range of this still I just switched to this zone. Yeah instead And I'm gonna radio into chase and say You're gonna achieve your team of being the greatest night in the Empire and the greatest reply to chase. I promise and that's my turn That's your whole turn my man turn amazing alright Oh, I got a reaction trying to attack an invisible mecca is very interesting I believe I just do it at disadvantage and swing wildly. I think yeah I'm also still right now. So number four is gonna swing. You and I don't have reactions and they do I don't have mine. Oh, you just I use the target. I use the target boost got a month or okay. So just you have the reaction this The Hulk swings wildly, but You're able to dodge out of the way without issue. No no problem. And yes, you just lean back very Rainingly I hit him with the trefour Belmont Oh, yeah Numbers one and three three's looking bloody One is uninjured has not been hit at all and it shields Both of them you see them sort of turn to each other and they there's a moment of understanding as they realized how Effective you all are and it turns in what feels like only seconds you have all immediately dismantled this defense line that they had intended to put up to defend their valuable data stores and You're tearing them apart as easily as cutting a piece of cake and They lower their gatling guns and they both unleash the suppressing fire that you Remember they opened with in this moment Number three is going to be able to hit both Milo and Jace. I need you both to make a strength saving throw. Oh And after that number one is going to be able to 20 20 20 20 23 23 ain't nothing stronger than the hearth mother's love Exactly right You take 15 points of damage to your shield to your shield as they absorb the Rapid but small bullets coming from this Mini gun is the shots from a fire forward 15 15 that was already half So it was 30 drop down to 15 got it might you see it pierce through my shields and Valor wings starts to take bullets You're actually the hole you actually see the bullets Emerge in the surface of this the metal of Valor now I'm minus 10 whole point and yelling to the mic Oh forget behind me This same cone of attack is of suppressing fire unleashes that you various I need to make a strength saving throw I'm proficient 16 that's enough. Okay, you're gonna take and I'm gonna roll it again half of 38 as this attack Unleashes against you pelting mostly your shields Roger that They're all looking weak and you are still Managing to survive as a team to work together constantly boosting each other alley upping each other Varus, what do you do? And I will say that in this moment you hear a ping You look down and the download is complete In a very anime like fashion there was like cubes of like five five cubes Rotating and twisting like so and and and and data inserting and flooding into information as As the pipes connect and they this all of a sudden you look down and you see that the the data file is complete it Slots into position and you realize that all of your mechs now possess the data that the cavalan empire was looking for your goal of Coming here and scanning for this To be analyzed data has been completed I Will open comms Squadron downloads are complete Elm leader can we retreat? Elm three I read you my readings are showing that the download is complete as well. Yep. We need to clean them up and then go home Yes, sir. Uh Knowing that I'm the slowest I Don't want to be the one lagging behind We've completed our mission. You don't have to kill these guys. We just need to get out So I am going to use four squares of movement to stomp away I Restore 15 shield points. So I am done two damage on that Let's see if I restore a heat. I do not I Will then turn and lay down this suppressing fire as I use another Shield breaker iron rain. I hit the button and the missiles will come out and the all shoot towards number one I know he has shields and I want to break them down I would say too that we would have some sort of code code word or some sort of understanding that We would all know that my call would be it's safe to tackle retreat when we have number advantage I think that's fair and it is we have number advantage now So like you you're starting to fall back will be fine, but like I'm not gonna run away when this guy can like cut me down You know what I mean? Of course, that's my call and basically I want to be ready to kind of reconvene into formation and plan our escape And he can take an opportunity attack if he cares to I will say to clarify the number advantage That we feel safe for treating it as an advantage of two to one. That's fair I'm gonna have to roll for that natural 20 Oh This is the opportunity This is why I play you take 42 points of force damage as you start to run forward and you aren't the fastest Mac But this fusion mace though it connects Um It doesn't it doesn't destroy you all right presumably Yeah, and a zillion shield was yeah as I turn I'm leaving my side open to basically try to reconvene And it'll slam into me You'll see it like hit the shield and flicker this kind of like pink red light Oh, and it feels like it's almost about to shatter But it barely holds on as I still have six shield points left Wow The best point is you only need one for the keep regenerate exactly And then I'm going to turn and like I said use the shield brace myself as they fire out and we'll make an attack roll here It's so give it right back it's so over Oh He is getting Rock iron the iron rain the homie send I got a hell one moment One moment. He says one moment in hell that sound the Brinsey and plating being what it is a critical hit Against the Morsebian Hulk becomes a normal hit. Oh Shit damn that's cool. That is cool. I roll a d10 Okay They got that can't get enough of you on a one this trade does not function again until it's repaired I don't roll a one the Morse as EBN Brinsey him hulking armor True and though you do a significant amount of damage you do hit you do not that enjoy a critical That's pretty good. That's pretty good Damn one two three nice. We'll play we're a little bit. We'll play we'll play it or whatever Just to see if a natural 20 was coming you guys could have not rolled a natural oh That felt really good. So the small missiles will hit and do 24 points of force damage just to the shields the number one It's a number one. Thank you and then That's a d12 pretty good a shield pretty good Oh God and then the heavier missiles will deal Oh I can love this move It feels really good to roll these dice to yeah Yeah, I like rolling dice 46 points of force damage To whatever he has left. Jesus that was without the crit. What the ass Imagine if it wasn't for the ants You still managed to best what what is a high damage threshold? Sorry mishap threshold and You reduce that damage threshold you it's almost like a crit you still do a significant amount of damage as the You buckle the frame of this thing and it collapses a little bit You can see it almost hobbling as you manage to connect with this attack That's my turn run your up Already healed my shields Oh Hey, okay, he's as cold as ice back. We're back I Will out of stealth once more Striping my blades and smoke them 23 yep that hits I Think it's mathematically possible for you not to kill this guy, but extremely unlikely. Yeah 39 points of damage. No, it's the number four number four on the first hit the first hit you are able to get behind this mech and Slide your blade in and just with an additional hit of your mecha hand Punch into you've gotten almost a eerie sense of where these weak points are and Without having to worry about rinzium armor things almost slow down and you're able to push in Destroying the mecha as it collapses to its knees and falls apart Hmm I imagine you come out of stealth and it's like real quiet you slide the blade and you're like quiet now dies Right where the cockpit is yeah, my my Silence my imagining is that I boost up just a little bit and take both blades and like fangs Straight into the top. Oh you call out like the bite of a fuck now Um You still have another attack and I think you saw my do remove that token and you I'm not sure I can get anywhere Meaningful that matters to even help when I see this happen. I'll say I'm too on my position You don't have to listen Jace you're on deck. Oh, yeah, I know I'm doing Again imagine I'm going ham do little waltz Are we really leaving these alive Is that to me it's your call squad leader all the comms light up. Yeah, I'm just Look Jason's quick thinking Andy is not it's I would call back to Ren Elm to you know the protocol once we're up to one route Elm for I will deal with this one. We leave the last thing get out Damn and you run up Choosing not to engage number one, but instead to turn and join Varus at his side. Jace you're up At the start of my turn, I am going to heal five shield points to go back to 40 Then I am going to roll to attempt to get rid of my sixth heat That's a six baby I'm back to five whoa And with that I will make two attacks using blazing strikes So I'm gonna roll for the attacks. This is one. This is two. I Will generate another heat Whoo, the first one is going to hit The second one is going to miss. There's nothing I can do to boost it. It's not even remotely close So I will attempt to push the red line on that second attack. I need a DC 15 or better I need to I need a 15 or better to not generate a 60 Easy I get an 18 now the DC goes up to 20 And I will your madman, I know In the absolute casino machine that you created That's gonna be ten 2229 Only 33 points of damage on this one a fire damage to number three. I'm just rolling poorly 33. Yeah, all these d10s I've airing I know how variants 33 points of fire damage to yeah, I've missed every extra tag You can do six points of damage, you know, yeah do 60 Big swing. Yeah, okay Oh I shit, but I roll for three. Oh, so I there's no way I can boost it enough and I actually they all want to save my reaction It's it's clearly hurting, but it's hanging on by a thread and Milo you're right there What I'm gonna do though is just shift Mm-hmm and keep dancing around this guy and like try to draw his attention away from Milo. Okay It's swinging around now. It's got this mace and it's Lobbing it in all directions trying to attack Occasionally if scatling gun goes off but swings wide It's these this and all of these other mechs are trying to protect this place They want to hit you not flail around and and create Destruction in all directions and so you can feel that there's a bit of restraint happening when they can't land with their mace or when they take damage Milo you're up I'll hold my spear after healing chase and I see this and I'll say Or zone leader You would know that the order is to just dispatch this guy and get out that's that was the last so dispatch him yes We're not because I'm not gonna risk your life Running away from somebody that you're engaged with so the goal is to clean up number three and get out as I knew would have Heard me tell around that as well numbers advantage. We are two to one. You're two to one right but I orders out leader But I don't want you to take an opportunity to get fucking smoked orders on leader Dispatch this one and get to safety We're all gonna live our dream I'm gonna make an attack Look, I'm not gonna have you risk your life you can choose to not listen But you would know that I would not be comfortable with you like exposing your flank I yeah, that's a 20 at the 20 fucking four five from five to hit I 15 22 20 23 20 25 30 points of piercing damage 29 29 ports of piercing damage you slice in with your spear and you connect and You don't feel the resistance of a shield you feel the Unusual sensation of hitting the Brindium Ardomer But you're able to pierce through and by the time you pull it you realize that you've Ended this technology's life the Machine that is in front of you can no longer function enough to stand in it crumples before you I'm imagining this cinematically if you were filming this would be like Orders on leader orders on leader and you say dispatch this one and the camera would be Jace's with bright war facing the Morsevian and without hesitation It would basically pierce through splintering Probably carving the fucking oculoc pilot or whatever pilot is through you in this thing You hit very near the pilot. Yep cockpit and Langley the spear rips out Collapsing it as soon as I see this this mech drop. I would radio over again to everybody and say Elm for nice job now use valorings superior speed and get out of here I'll leave the way and then I will just use my bonus action to dash and I've My speed is 200 So what is that? Ten squares it's 10 10 10 squares. What am I going to diagonally three if three per two three You're able to effectively make it to the entrance. Oh, yeah, I'm gonna just blast forward But here I miscounted then I was doing something earlier here is where we're going to drop initiative. Oh, I Would ask you to hide the map of you for me because we're entering the Narrative theater of the mind play of a role-playing game that we all enjoyed runches and dragons instead of pursuit or more suppressing fire or a battle to the death the remaining Morsevian Hulk drops not because it has been felled by your Lasers or your swords or your beams or your missiles. No, it Puts itself into such a position that its cockpit can get to the ground as quickly as possible and as you all race out on following Jace the leader of Elm squadron and you start to turn back down into that industrial corridor Leaving back to the subterranean city Underneath the crust of the Morsevian planet you watch as the cockpit opens and in a Suit one of the oculoc pilots races out Sprinting towards the flaming wreckage of one of the other mechs clearly concerned For the fate of whatever pilot happened to be in that cockpit It's the last thing that you see is you turn bend and you begin to make your way back towards the sealed door Which you reach? moments later knowing your path is the only way to escape is to get back to that shaft that vertical Ascent that you're gonna have to boost up you know that behind these blast doors, which are still closed the behind the blast doors of This entrance there might be an army waiting for you defenses perhaps more of these hulking mechs Covered in the impossible Brinzium plate plate plating that you are now extremely familiar with what do you do? Is you reach this terminal point just before you? Break through Elm 2 on the interface Elm 3 and 4 with me be prepared for anything on it weapon side opening in three two one You blast through and into the subterranean city the scans having completed in the encrypted information being decoded by the highly Advanced programs within your rooks with how long you spent on your mission you expect a brutal fight Reinforcements blocking your escape, but your escape is clear You hear a horrific guttural Shrieking roar Followed by rumbling explosions often the distance you see a colossal mutated kaiju stomping through the city belching sprays of dissolving acid from its overly Enlongated maw its green scales repelling much of the weaponry of the defense force now solely focused on it Your thrusters engaged as you blast upwards past the pillar of radiation Spilling into the underground until you breach the surface Rocketing you through the atmosphere and finally off world As you arrive in space more zeb is left behind you and you are not pursued Your mission has been a success You rocket out of the toxic atmosphere of the irradiated surface of more zeb as you blast off into space using your thrusters at full strength in order to Reach a formation to burst through and out of low orbit there are the additional coalesced arrays of defense orbital Lasers that are there for the sake of trying to prevent the intrusion that you are all Accomplishing but moments later a few attacks a few defense parries you are able to blast through that Defense array and you are able to follow your guidance systems Towards the star of Uthod we're turning back in the direction that transport fled after deploying the World piercer and you find yourself moments later Free from any attack. There's no additional squadrons or or or starships in the immediate vicinity doing a quick scan You realize that Data in tow the four of you Perhaps a bit worse for the wear Your mechs being one thing, but your experiences being another you have jet off into ether into the space and you are minutes away from rejoining your Your your the transport that is the star of Uthod and you have a few moments to talk before Rejoining and you before making your way back I think the the only thing that I would do if I'm able to is The captain is the one that we have been answering to right Captain Crockett. Yes, Crockett. Um, I would just do a quick check-in To head off any like incoming communications because I know that we've just been through a lot And I don't want the almost quadrant to get bombarded by questions and I would radio the captain and I would say Captain this is Elm reader. Do you read Elm leader? Do you read me? Your little faint your little faint, but we we read you Will reunite with the rest of the squadrons momentarily I just wanted to report that our mission was success Elm squadron suffered no casualties over Sir, it's good to It's good to hear your voice We're here. We're standing by We will see you in I won't but you say like 20 minutes. Yeah, we'll see you about 20 minutes over That monster It was the world pierced with it Unleashed that under the city And all the radiation from the surface Who knows if that whole city that that whole district is gonna be habitable ever again Milo do you hear me I Hear you are you all right? We survived The hearth mother protected us from the horrors of the night. We are in her her warm embrace and we're together That's more than can be said and for a lot of people down there Milo, I want you to know earlier when I said that I heard you I Mentioned you're right Star of Ruth in it It went too far Whatever that thing was That that monster is a direct result Of the world piercer going too far Don't think I didn't notice I Hear you Elm leader elm for We've just completed a successful mission in the name of the Empress In the Empress's glory We were able to exhibit the immense technological prowess of the Kavlon Empire It was not our decision That the Bolshebian government was assisting the dynasty our enemies They mean to end our way of life In the name of the hearth mother We can be merciful But In the name of the architect Must be disciplined Do what it takes Best we forget Elm three is right We live to see another day and it's our first real success We'll get back safely and we can celebrate Have the other squads checked in I'm too I haven't heard anything yet. I'm sure we'll be updated as we get closer Elm leader is right. This is cause for celebration Allow me to be the first to say congratulations Elm squadron Echoed congratulations. Well done everyone. I'm proud of you We operated better than I ever could have imagined everything that we've done everything we've worked for It paid off. Yes, you're all amazing. Well done All of you fought well for the Empress For the Empress for the Empress We're all gonna survive We're gonna complete operation waltz and we're gonna defend our community the hearth mother's community No matter what We still have to get this information back And that's just the beginning All we've done is maybe Understand their plan You don't think Zaro and Grana squadron ran into any problems do you? Their mission seems a lot more dangerous than ours and we barely made it out I'm sure they encountered their own set of issues. This was this was no cakewalk set it yourself. It feels like we got the The easy end of the deal here All we can do is wait to hear back from the other squadrons. They are skilled knights Elm for and Their rugs are from great houses. I Have faith that they succeeded as we have Do I have the ability to try to radio Raina You know that with a few key commands that you could try to communicate with either oak or ash range is You know potentially an issue, you know that you were 10 minutes ago flying and and barely able to talk to your star of Uthun But if you wanted to give it a shot I'm gonna try I don't even make a Communicate with ash. Yeah, okay. I'll try to open up the channel And I'll try to say ash leader. This is this is Elm for our mission was a success Checking in on ash squadron You open up your channels and you attempt to communicate and you don't hear Raina or ash squadron you instead hear on the other side For the Empress and you hear the sound of Zaro's voice Chime in and the moment that you're able to get into range the the sound of oak squadron cheering Immediately floods all communications all of you not just you Milo because you open up the the channel have invited them into chat and You can hear Those more zebian punks didn't stand a chance those brisket stores are History gone gone gone and you hear them cheering each other you're able to listen in you know that you could chime in if you Wanted to but you continue to scam Congratulations oak squadron you filled the transports with Brinseum. Oh Hell yeah, you you you all right you get that data Oak squadron. This is elm leader. We did congratulations on your success. Yes Congratulations Before the Empress Well, that's two out of three. Oh oak leader in any word from ash squadron. We ain't heard nothing yet Ash leader this is elm for status report All of you hold your breath for a moment and you listen Ash leader Raina Raina You continue to radio and you continue to to push and Raina two minutes go by three minutes four minutes You're listening Oak is Zaro the rest of the gang they're all they're all communicating you can hear cross chatter now Everyone after a minute goes by after a full minute more you can still hear Them talking to their star and and and figuring out rendezvous points You radio into ash squadron one last time Raina and you don't hear anything back There is no response ash leader. You try to separate channels. You make multiple attempts You hear garbled static seemingly blocked by interference from the surface of Morsyb and then as you fly away from Morsyb Still that toxic eye floating out in the middle of space You look back and you see a massive explosion on the surface a Huge plume of dust and radiation crushes into the sky And finally you get a response as Raina's strange voice comes through the comms Mission success Ash three has been eliminated Durgan He got overwhelmed and initiated self-destruct to destroy the remaining harmonite He gave us an opening to escape Do quick question do we know that Raina is ash leader you do okay the flambé go laid a leader Durgan clearly didn't make it from what you're able to make out from the garbled communication ash leader. This is Elm leader. Do you read? We're coming in we we read Do not let ash threes sacrifice be in vain gets a safety Know that we honor his sacrifice for the Empress We will We will as I let go of the comms. I sink back on my seat and I say Dammit Glad you made it ash leader Derrick it Ash three was a true knight He will be remembered amongst the heroes of cavalon You hear for a moment a click and static It tells you that the channel is open, but you don't hear a voice in response and then a second click tells you that the channel has been closed Raina Couldn't find the words Or perhaps it's just interference Ash three is faceless now He returns to the harmony With great glory And his sacrifice has made us all safer all three missions successful now Remember Elm squadron That could have been one of us Be grateful that we have each other Heart mother take him into your embrace and show Durgan grace And I'm gonna fly back in silence you Take formation and you jet forward Not a moment later you see the star of Uthun and the rendezvous point What? Is needed to assemble in order to reach your next destination back to travel back through towards Home towards back towards the capital on empire back towards castle ascolon You hear the sound of the captain chime in So you have it then you have the data Clearly chiming in to speak directly with squadron leader you chase Yes, sir, this is Elm leader the mission was a success and we have the data What what did you find? The other missions were a success, but we we don't we don't know anything about what you were able to collect One moment sir, and I'm gonna look just kind of at my paneling Do I feel like I have the tech to start? Taking a look at what I have do I like is it would it be unreasonable for me to like he's asked me this question Do I have a way to start to take a look at the data or do I understand the mission to be to deliver it and not ask questions What would I know? You know that you could unpack this data right now if you wanted to you could double-click in and Because it had been assembled at such speed You didn't have a moment while you were on the surface of Morsy, but now that the adrenaline of the Mission has fallen by to the wayside now that you know that the other squadrons are there now that you're here at the rendezvous point You feel free to take a look captain Requesting permission to begin analyzing the data As quickly as you can we must know what it contains, please Understood it over and I'll begin the process Of whatever that would be maybe maybe asking Ren to help initiate the process letting my teammates know that the captain has made this request and that you know Access the file and by merit of your close proximity to the Star of Uthin you can see that this information is being shared and You start to work with your Rook. We start to work together to See what what these files contain this R&D this this tremendous data store of R&D The advanced computer terminal in your Rook analyzes the information that you scanned decrypting a simplified report That's presented to you as leader of Elm squadron Your assault on Morsy was certainly a resounding success and shutting down future Mecca development, but You're presented with dire news The Morsebian engineers and Mech rights developed a super Mech for the Saurak dynasty Several times the size of a Rook shaped like colossal mechanical dinosaurs powered by Harmonite and fitted with fortified armor that would make them immune to all laser attacks They are outfitted with an arsenal of weaponry including a pulse that can immobilize Mecca even Rooks and Worse a cannon within the jaws of the beast with the potential to destroy a space station in a single blast And you see that one such Mecca Has been completed and was already sent to Crete the capital of the Saurak dynasty It is fully operational and ready to be deployed Then you see more information notes left by the weapons engineers that reveal a horrible to truth The purpose for which its primary weapon was built You discover its primary target Castle Ascalon and That is where I'll end tonight's session Boys we might be cooked Gotta give it up Wow Thanks for playing No Good one