Waltz for Eternity | Ep. 5 | Taste of Battle

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. The rabid march of rolling drums echo through the highest hanger of Castle Ascalon. What is typically a chamber for rooks has been transformed into a chapel. The lights are low and the banners of the 12 great houses hang from the upper gantries, unmoving. Along the far wall, the surviving rooks stand in their berths with their heads lowered. At the center of the hanger, beneath a column of light sits a steel coffin. Engraved on each side are the sacred crests of Durgan's world and the great house that sponsored him. On its face, engraved letters read, Sir Durgan Wellbar, Knight of the Cavalon Empire, lost beyond recovery and loyal defiance of the enemy. You stand with the officers of Operation Waltz and Formal Rose. Sergeant Margath is on one side, cigar absent for once. Dr. Crescent stands with his hands clasped, looking even smaller than usual. The surviving members of Ash Squadron stand in the front line, as still as the rooks and the banners. The great doors open and General Sigurd enters in black ceremonial armor, his medals replaced by a single white sash marked with the crest of the Cavalon Empire. He walks alone to the empty sarcophagus and stops before it. When he does, the hanger is filled with the sudden report of every officer standing at attention. Every commander who wears a clean conscience is lying to themselves. I have given orders that placed good men and women in the path of fire. I have watched names vanish from active rosters and appear on memorial walls. I have stood before mothers, fathers, husbands, wives, children, squires, crews and houses, and I have told them that someone they loved will not return. It never becomes easy. If it ever does, remove me from command. We do not gather here because Sir Durgan died. All men die. All women die. Every night who needles and takes the oath knows the sword may someday fall upon their own neck. We gather because in the moment when fear had every right to command them, Sir Durgan did not obey. In the moment when survival would have been easy, he chose duty. In the moment when the enemy reached out its hand to claim what was ours, Sir Durgan closed his fist around fire and took it with him into eternity. General Sigurd draws his sword. By the authority vested in me as commanding officer of Operation Waltz, and in witness of the officers, knights and sworn servants of Castle Ascalon, I commend Sir Durgan to the eternal honor of the Cavalon Empire. For his courage in battle, for his loyalty to his squadron, for his obedience to the charge placed upon every night of the Cavalon Empire, and for his final act of loyal defiance against the enemies of the Empire, I enter his name among the honored dead. No grave receives him, but this stone shall bear his name. Nobody returns to us, but his oath remains. General Sigurd raises his sword. For Sir Durgan, for the Cavalon Empire, for the Empress. For the Empress. General Sigurd turns his face grim and resolved. He repeats, for the Empress. For the Empress. For the Empress. For the Empress. The funeral ceremony concludes, and the hangar empties, as the column of light remains fixed upon Durgan's coffin, which rests assuredly empty. Only hollow words and vague notions of gratitude will be sent home to his family in a metal box. Many of those in attendance walk up to the coffin to pay their respects, but as you all watch the murmuring crowd return to their duties, you notice that the entirety of Oak Squadron has already left. You watch as... oh, no, please. No, sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt you. We know that Rena is Ash Leader. Do we know which one are two, three, and four, and which one Durgan was? I think he was three. Yes, I believe that that's correct. He's Ash Three. And do we know what Pate and Olena, or Olen... Olena? Olen? Olen? Olen? Olen, excuse me. Pate would have been two, and Olen would have been four. Okay, because Jace would know, and I just don't want to fuck it up. Thank you. You are all standing there, watching as the general and Dr. Cressen are exchanging a few words with Ash Squadron. And more and more people are beginning to file out. Many walk up to the steel symbol that represents the fallen warrior, the fallen knight, the fallen lord, Sir Durgan, and maybe put a hand on it, perhaps speak a quiet prayer, and then move on. Find yourself standing there absorbing this information. It's been more than a few days since you returned home from Mordzeb, and this ceremony has taken some time to put together, and there's been something of a haul on those few days. You've recovered your wounds, you're no longer in any danger, but this ceremony has relieved some of the tension, but not all. I think if given the opportunity, I would try to be the first one over to Ash Leader, as Elm Leader, to try to address her and the remainder of her squadron with condolences. If I feel like I can find her relatively easily and have a moment with the rest of the squadron, I would take that opportunity when it presents itself. I think it's understood that the Ash Squadron, they seem to be standing there talking to General Sigurd and Dr. Crescent, but they're remaining Crescent, almost as though it's part of their duty. And the moment that the General and the Doctor exchange a few parting words and themselves peel off and start to make their way out of the hangar, to have whatever discussions they've been locked away for days, I'm sure, talking through what's been happening and unpacking and debriefing. You're able to approach, the four of you are able to approach, and the squadron leader, Reina, a beautiful flambéna turns, sad expression on her face. Before we approach, they would be kind of a softer reserved, more so than you guys are probably used to from Jace, just an Elm Squadron with me, as I would lead us over to what remains of the Ash Squadron. With you. As soon as we are within respectable distance, I would, Ash Leader. Elm Leader. I would like to offer my deepest condolences from Elm Squadron to Ash Squadron. Ash Three was brave, loyal, noble, selfless. And it is because of his sacrifice and his duty that we were successful. He was a true knight, and he remembered his vow and the words and what they mean. He's a better knight. He was the best of us. It's hard to look on Reina's face in this moment. It is being held up by what strength she has left. She not break her composure, or perhaps there are no more tears left. She nods and says, Durgan was the best of us in many ways. I was honestly surprised when I was chosen as leader. Durgan was in many ways a father to us. He was the one who was so capable of being firm, but firm in such a way that always felt like he had our back. Do you know? And he hanged your back until the end. And I'm sure in that last moment he felt the warmth of the hearth mother before he did what he had to do. Pate is also standing with the rest of Ash Squadron, and he has a more frustrated expression. His face is one of reliving that experience over and over. And you can tell even just by his expression that he's replaying moments. How could it have gone differently in his head? He is merely tolerating the fact that he's standing here rather than going back and grieving in his quarters. We're going to be okay. Reina, turns to each of you. Ash Squadron is still strong. We will do everything we can to honor Durgan's memory. We will continue to fight. Durgan would have hated all of this pomp, to be honest. Dying in the name of the Empress, in the name of the Cavill on Empire, is the greatest honor a knight could have. And even though he was a knight for so short a time, he'll never be forgotten. He'll be a knight forever now. Thank you. Thank you. Truly. And Reina, I keep thinking back if there's anything that we could have done. I know we were halfway across the world, but I wish if I had prayed harder. I should have said an extra prayer for Durgan. He may no longer be with us, but it was thanks to him that we were able to successfully complete our mission. So your prayers did something, I think. It's the Hearth Mother. She's the guiding light in protecting the community, the home, the town, the family. And when this is all done, all of our families will finally be safe. Just like the General said. Reina, I'll step forward closer to her. I'll reach into my pocket. I'll say my sister sent me a care package, and I don't know if your source could get this, but it's not a lot, but it's the last one I have. And I will hand a very pink wrapper that is Fluffy Puff brand sweet-cupin' cakes, but it's very, very flavorful. And it's very bright and pink and extra delicious with sprinkles on it, with extra sprinkles. She accepts your gift softly. She's not trembling, and there's no moment where you feel like she's being overwhelmed. She accepts the cupcake and looks down at it and a small, just a small smile curves the edges of her lips. Thank you. This means a lot. Would you like a hug? Yeah. It's not going to be a big bear hug, but it'll be very soft. I'll give her a hug, and I'll hold it as long as she holds it. I'm doing the Disney World rules. That's very funny. Don't break first. She gives you a quick squeeze, and you feel the tension in her body. And she releases, and you feel like you've given her some solace, but you can tell that there's a lot of pent-up emotion within her. I will quietly think of a prayer and would try to use, not mechanically, calm emotions. It's cheesy D&D stuff, but basically whatever kind of I will pray to quietly and silently to the hearth mother, to Vistaya, to hopefully ease, bring the comfort. I know that it won't bring Durgan back, and I know it won't ease the pain, but at least bring the solace and the comfort that there is this community that she still has. Thank you. Your words, your actions are of a true night. As I said, we will not back down. We will not break. We will be strong. We will fight on. And... He'll fight even harder, because he's going to be with you guys now. Yeah. Yeah, we'll fight even harder. And we'll pray that none of us suffer this kind of loss ever again. The rest of us are going to make it to the end. Ashlater, if there's anything at all that the Elm Squadron can do, please let me know. I think that we have licked our wounds, and I think... I believe that the rumor is we will be unpacking what happened on Morsiib and looking on to what we'll be doing next very soon. Yes, there's to be a debrief. We'll be there. I'll basically... I'll look back and I'll say, there's anything that you need. I'm right down the hall. Of course. This entire time, the squadron, the Ash Squadron has been engaging with each of you. There's been eyes shifting from face to face, reading emotions, looking around. You can feel the bitterness exuding from Olien. You can feel that guilt and frustration in the body language of paint. And Reina is trying her best to keep everyone held together. None of them look back to the Steel Clawson as you find that time is right to peel away yourself and let the next group come and say their kind words. Will we be able to have time with the coffin first? Or at the coffin or off your side? I would say that they're 10, 15 feet from the coffin. It's not like they're standing right next to it. You wouldn't be able to reach out and touch it in this moment. But if you wanted to go to it first or if you wanted to go to it now, you'd be able to go. I would have been after I left right now. I think we would all stop by the coffin. You all turn and make your way to the memorial object, this Steel Star Calfa guy that represents Sir Durgan's surface. I've been kind of like hyper-focused on the coffin during that exchange. I would sort of just been kind of, you know, I said my words, but I've just been kind of looking at it. And I would approach with my squadron. I definitely, depending on how everybody's like moving or reacting, I assume I'm probably leading, as I approach the coffin, I would, would it be inappropriate to put a hand on it? No, many, many, including the general, have placed a palm on the side or the surface of the steel to feel it and feel the engraving, that sort of thing. No, no, then I would just do the same. And is it cold? It is. I think that would like almost shock me. Like I would, I would only, I wouldn't try to let it show on my face and I wouldn't recoil, but I think that it would kind of freak me out a little bit, that it's so cold. And I would think to myself, I wouldn't say anything out loud, but I would think to myself about how actions have consequences and decisions in the heat of battle have consequences and how they're, all of our lives are in my hands to some capacity when making decisions and calling the shots. And it would be just a moment, but I'd whisper a silent goodbye and a thank you. And then I would step out of the way for whoever would want to be next. Your hand is shocked by that brief moment of coolness, the metal beneath your palm. And in the time that it takes you to say your prayer and think of your duty, it warms. The contact underneath your hand absorbs that heat from your own body. And by the time you pull it away, there's a brief ghost image of your hand, which evaporates very quickly. I'll approach next to Jace, and I will place my own hand on the coffin. And I'll say, when the time comes, will I be ready to make that sacrifice? Will any of us? Will I be as ardent as Dagon, as chivalrous as unbound? I think all of us would have made the same decision. You especially, Varys. I believe so. I want to make so. He is of the harmony now. He is faceless as we all will be when our time comes. I will never forget his sacrifice. And his reminder of our duty. My eyes are almost unfocused, and I'm staring at the coffin. And I'm like, after saying that, I lock in. Duty. Like so many before him, he has fallen. Given his life for the Empress, for the Empire, told that it was good, that it was right, and now we honor him with his name carved in stone. I bet he'd trade that carving for sunlight on his face one more day. Do you forget your vows, Ren? No. Varys, I don't. I want to live to see them fulfilled. Not buried in a coffin. Not even that. Scattered like ash on a distant world. I know you don't hope for that either. None of us do. As this box stands empty now, and that's all we are. We're all just one piece of the grand harmony. And what matters is that the Empire stands. That every citizen, every knight, every peasant, every lord, every Empress, is safe. It endures. That's what matters. That's what you've been told matters, since you first served your house. Do you think the lords would do the same for you? At the mention of this, I'm like working around to see if anybody can hear this conversation. This is a part of the ritual. There's that column of light. And when someone is in there, it's intended to be a private space. The closest is just beyond the perimeter of that beam, the ash squadron. But they're without a hear shot. They're not able to hear it, as long as you're not openly yelling this out. No, I was assuming at this point that you were trying to... I think that to pay your respects, you're all being given a private moment. My understanding is we're having a quiet moment facing the coffin, not near anybody else. Still, at the mention of this, I shoot you a look, and I say, don't you forget yourself. Show some respect. Keep your opinions to yourself until we're back at the barracks. Very well. I dreamed of this coffin. It was my name on it. My sisters were there, my parents, and the rest of the town. They had a ceremony on the landing strip. My mother brought purple flowers, and they were very pretty. And the weather was warm, but the box was cold. And I don't know if I was in the box or not, if there was anything left. But these are the nightmares that you were telling me about? It was a dream. I don't know. But the box was cold, and the flowers were pretty. Listen, we are all still here because of his sacrifice. We get to live another day because of Sir Durgan. Don't take it for granted. I won't. And regardless of his own wishes to feel the sun upon his face, it matters not. Will we all be certain when the time comes? Will we all be measured? Yes. Yeah. Because we're knights who won't forget our vows. And I'll reach into my coat, and I'll pull out a little envelope. The same kind of envelope that you all saw when you first arrived to Castle Askelion. And if there's any kind of place where there's cards or anything, I would just place it very gently on top. And it would say, for Durgan. There is a handful of memos and letters, many of them addressed to Durgan's family. But not enough. And you place your kindly written message for Durgan down on this side. It, hit by the light from directly above, produces a dark shadow beneath it until it lays flat. I'll place it down and then I'll put my hand on the coffin and I'll say, Yeah, it was about that cold. And then I'm gonna turn around and walk out. Before we leave. I'd probably be the last one there, because I'm really fixated on this. Unless there's anyone else, anything else. I wouldn't touch the coffin, but I would leave. And once Milo walks away, I'd remove myself and just basically wait by the exit for all of my squad mates to take as much time as they need and wait for you guys to be ready to go before we all leave. I think it's fair to say Jace Milo, Ren, Varys, and the three of us start moving. No, so no rush. We would wait for you as long as you need. I put my hand back on the coffin again. I really feel that there's nothing in there. Right. That he's not in there. You feel like if you knocked on it, you might hear a reverberating hollow boom. Durgan. So Durgan. You may not rest on the mausoleum moons with the great heroes of old, but you were a knight of the Cavalad Empire. And the glory of your sacrifice has gained you immortality all the same. We may be joining you soon enough. Goodbye. I'll lift my hand up and join my friends. As you walk out of the circle of light, a pair of officers, you recognize to be intelligence officers who would have known Durgan well. Step in to make their own goodbye. And the four of you are able to assemble and seeing that the space will be open for visitation for the remainder of the day. Many others are just taking their time speaking to each other, thinking their thoughts, looking up at the rooks that stare down at the banners and absorbing this period of time as officers like yourselves are allowed to do to try and process this sort of information. Time passes and you make your way back to your quarters. And it isn't much more time before you get the summons. The summons for a debrief. And a fresh mission briefing. Because it feels right, I'm actually going to say let's take a quick break. You okay? Dang. The top brass of Operation Waltz are already assembled around a massive hollow table. Tactical projections showing fleet movements and Saurak dynasty insignias flicker in the layered light. Dr. Crescent stands near one side of the display, hunched over a data pad with red and tired eyes. The general steps forward. The enemy believes that we, that they have built a weapon that can end the age of the Cavalon Empire. They believe that they have studied us, measured us and found the shape of our defeat. They are wrong. Despite the loss of Sir Durgan, for all intents and purposes, the mission on Morsyb was a success. Critical Harmonite stores were completely destroyed by Oak Squadron. The Cavalon Empire secured enough Brinseum to make a huge impact and is already being participation, partitioned for applications across the R forces. And the intel gathered by Elm Squadron revealed the existence of a super mech. An operational prototype moved to Crater, intended to be deployed against this very station. You all are sitting in this briefing room, bathed in light in all directions. I'm going to turn this down, because it's much more intense than I anticipated. And you've all been briefed on the particulars of why you're here. It's this debriefing unpacking what has happened, but it is looking forward. Dr. Cressen swipes a few gestures on his datapad and immediately returns to an image of Crater itself. The possibility of a direct attack, unfortunately, is something that would be quite impossible. No, no bad idea, very bad idea, terrible idea, in fact. Unfortunately, it is where the, for lack of a better term, super mech exists. He pulls up a display and you can see the same information that you were able to pull from the computer terminals on the surface of Morsyb. You see this massive mech ship. It's absolutely towers. You can even see on the display one of the rooks. And you can see that this ship is three times the size of one of the mechs that you yourselves pilot. This is quite a challenge all on its own, but the Cavalon Empire's never, never made a direct attack on the whole world of the Saurok dynasty. The current Crater is a tremendous amount of defenses. And that is not just because of the technology that they now wield in this super mech. No, it is because it is possible for their capital ships to warp directly to its defense. There are two other worlds that are, they have tremendous harmonized crystals that allow them to effectively teleport. If they need to come to the defense of any of those core planets back and forth, we have quite a bit to unpack here, but it is going to require a coordinated effort. He looks around, staring at the four of you, staring at the rest of the squadrons who all sit flanking either side. You can see Ash Squadron is sitting there. They are the three of them sitting very attentively. You can see that there's a glimmer of determination in their eye. Yes, the events of today sort of made real for them the disastrous results of the mission on Morzib, but they are as present as anyone else in the room. To the other side of this mission briefing room, you can see the Oak Squadron all sitting there. Zaro has his feet up on the hollow table. His arms crossed, sort of leaning back with a smile, kind of getting excited for the next big goal. As I was saying, the coordinated effort will require us to attack on three fronts. We will have to not just be attacked on a crater in order to try to get the supermech to come out, but we will have to also attack Viridar and Lysora in order for us to keep those forces at bay in order to make sure that we are not overwhelmed. This is a terribly dangerous endeavor, I'm afraid. It is something that will require the utmost precision, and we can't send all three squadrons to all three planets. The power of this supermech is challenging to describe. As you can see, it takes the shape of one of Crater's most deadly predators, and it is covered in the same brinzium. The armor itself is reinforced. I believe L Squadron, you yourself came into direct contact with Mechs that wore this very same armor. It offenses, the fortifications are formidable. On top of that, you can see the crystals running down here from the back of the neck, down the spine, all the way to the end of the tail. This indicates that despite its massive size, that it is extremely fast, extremely fast. It is brutal, it is monstrous, it is enormous. And we've been unable to identify a weakness. That is why we have begun work on programming a simulation. All four of you, all three squadrons will begin work immediately in simulation, attempting to pilot your rooks to see how you might face off against such a terrible monstrosity. Any questions on that point? No sir. Dr. Crescent? Yes, yes, yes, Milo. If all of the squadrons are going to be heading to Cretia, what will be the force to go to Viridar and Lathora? We have support ships, squadrons. We may be able to send a capital ship, but it is going to largely be a skirmish. That goal is merely to distract, not to try to destroy those forces. That way they will not be able to respond, arrive at Cretia and defend the supermech. Our hope is that by preventing the arrival of the capital ships, that the supermech will be forced to be drawn out. And that is where you will come in. Thank you sir. Unfortunately, we anticipate heavy losses on the side of the distraction forces, but it is without question that these... A weapon, the size of this, one with the power to destroy a space station as sizable as Castle Ascalon, cannot be allowed to exist. The general steps forward and puts both of his fists on the surface of the hologram. Dr. Crescent is right. There is no way for us to protect all that we hold dear, as long as this machine, this terrible dynasty force exists. If we are to defend ourselves, we must take the initiative. Only by taking a... making a direct strike against the supermech will we be able to protect those that we hold dear. The many lives of not just the people of this fortress, but the people of Uthun, and the rest of the core worlds. If they were able to build more of these, if they were able to... Fight their way through and reach our defenses, there's no telling how much damage they would do. We must attack and we must take the initiative. Is that understood? Yes sir. Yes sir. Understood. Question, general sir. Maris. The plan is for us to stand by then when the fighting begins. We do not engage until the weapon appears. Correct. He fiddles with the controls of the hollow display in front of you and a simulation of their attack begins. You can see that there are sort of three planet objects that are in the display. And you can see how they're intending on distracting with the other two planets to prevent those forces from combining by teleporting into Cretia. And then you see a smaller fleet move, roll forward. Your rooks, all three squadrons are represented in a second wave, but a first wave goes forward and starts to move forward, making a faint and coordinated attacks designed to create a corridor where hopefully they'll be able to draw out from the surface. Not just the surface ships and defenses and orbital defenses that would exist around a planet such as Cretia, but the supermech itself lifting off. And it's within that window of opportunity, brief as it is, according to the way that it's being displayed, that you would be able to rocket forward and engage with the supermech in close combat. Just as you see here, these ships will move forward and once they've created a lane, that is when you and the other squadrons will attack. Thank you, sir. Now, are there any other questions before we begin training? How many of us will it take to bring this thing down? Our initial calculations are simulations. They are only guesses and based on the success of your work within the simulations, we'll be able to know for sure. But I want no question. I do not want there to be any risk that we do not take this thing out and end the threat to the Cavalon Empire once and for all. I am sending not just Elm Squadron and Oak Squadron, but Ash Squadron as well. All eleven rooks. It is our hope that that will be enough to take down a machine with this level of power. Understood, sir. Sir. And there'll be no civilian vessels engaged. We have ordered the... we will command the other forces that we send along not to engage any civilian ships. They are only there to cause trouble and to make a perceived threat. So clear that the Saurok dynasty has no other option but to send this and that is when we will strike. Understood. Thank you, sir. I see what's happening. This one song has been repeating over and over. I'll stop that now. How strange. The rest of the mission briefing continues. If you have any more questions. No, this is actually a good time to ask a meta question. Yeah. So you had mentioned that the Saurok dynasty capital ships have the ability to show up for instant reinforcement. Yes. How long have you known that until this moment? I think that you would have in your academic education classes, you would have gone through all of the sort of Saurok dynasty known technologies. And because of the abundance and their access to and their privileged knowledge regarding Harmonite, you know that there are these massive crystals that float and orbit around many of their core worlds. The three core worlds that he's described are adjacent enough that any sizeable enough ship that can attune to those kind of, can resonate with those kinds of crystals would be able to move from planet to planet almost instantly. Okay. That would have been known knowledge to you. They're repeating all of this information as part of the briefing to make sure that that's clear. But it is well known, at least among military elites such as yourself. So we're hoping that the force that we bring with plus the 11 Rooks is enough to bring the capital ship reinforcement, but to naturally draw out the super weapon. The goal is to make sure that the other two planets can't send reinforcement. Thank you. And so just for a setting thing for folks at home and for folks that haven't been as involved, the Saurok dynasty has three, like seats of power, three different worlds that are pretty far apart across the galaxy. Right. They have no locations are not like giant. They have limited ways to teleport from one to world. And that's pretty established. Usually the capital ships have some way to kind of use that technology. And it's very rare. You know that the Cavalon Empire's equivalent are these warp gates. You travel through one in order to reach the outskirts of Morsy. And then you would have had to make your journey back a few days ago, certainly. But this we understand to be instantaneous. This is this is like a little bit of a go into warp speed. Star Wars or debops. Totally different thing. Right. And so in order for so they're going to send forces to those two planets to prevent the war so that so that if can't get real if creative goes oh shit, we're in trouble. They're like we're dealing with our own assault. We're dealing with our own war. We're dealing with our own problem. No, that's why I wanted to ask. I just want to clarify the actual order of operations. That's fine. No, but you know, no, no, no, that's really important. Are there any other other meta questions so that I don't have to RP Chris? I'm an ask one in question. Yeah, yeah, yeah. In character. Oh, yeah, yeah. Sorry. Yeah, in character. Varus, go ahead. Excuse me. So of course, I'm sure the doctor in his brilliance has thought of this, but we did experience Brindzium armor on the surface of Morsy. But even though I landed a crushing blow against my enemy, it glanced off and did not strike as true as I was expecting. Are we accounting for this or do we just hope for the best? Apologies, I was multitasking. Can you see? I was asking more mechanically about how my crit got negated even though it was really cool, but I didn't do crit damage. And you know, just... That is exactly why we wanted to collect the Brindzium. We will be able to use that and I assured you that we will be considering equipping the works that you pilot with this same kind of fortification. However, there's a lot of work to be done. We have to learn how to use it to the same degree. But to your point, yes, the remarkable strength of this metal. You saw the demonstration and I watched in the hologram recordings of your fight that it did exactly as what's written on the Brindzium, as they say. Thank you, sir. Thank you, sir. I'm out of both of them. I'll go back to Out of Care. I have any character question. Back to Incarec- Back to Incarec- I love it. How dare you try? How dare you try? How dare you try? General, is there any indication that they're aware of the events on Morse? Do they know the intelligence we have and should we expect enhanced resistance on Crater? I am certain that they are fully aware of what happened on Morse. There's no question that they would be in communication and it's been days now. Whether or not they would expect a strike or whether they're aware that we would know that their supermech is on the surface of Crater, that is unknown. We have to be ready for anything, which is why we are hoping to spread out their forces as thinly as possible, draw out this supermech and destroy it. If there are no further questions. No, sir. I'm good. No, sir. He nods to the others and he dismisses the mission briefing. You can see Ash Squadron immediately run up to the general to ask a few questions. Dr. Cresson immediately goes back into sort of hyperfixated mode, writing on his data pad, doing calculations, tapping his finger against his lips and then looking back down again and continuing to jot down notes. And Oaks Squadron, they are, for lack of a better word, pumping themselves up. They're bumping chests, they're slapping each other's hands, they're revving themselves up for what must be another exciting mission. You said that Dr. Cresson had red eyes, that he was like, does he look rough? Yeah. He sounds tired. Yeah. He's been working on his time. He's been with this data analyzed. Data analyzing and programming and talking to engineers, talking to the general, figuring out what strategy makes sense. He's the nexus for so many critical functions within this arm of the military. The red eyes look to you to be not just exhaustion, but it looks like also that he was affected by the outcome of Morzine. And in all that time, in all that work, he's determined this has no weaknesses. Not that they've found so far. So the look on his face isn't a good one. No, it's definitely not. There's an air of frustration and light. He's a little urn-er. Not good for morale. I would like to approach him if the other squadrons are kind of dealing with the general. And I'll say, Dr. Kressen, are you sleeping? Are you all right? You're looking... I appreciate your concern. My low, I always have appreciated your sympathy in this way. I don't need a cup and cake, but... But you are correct. I've been working overtime to make sure that this mission is a success. There is no time for me to take a few z's, as the kids say. It is the utmost important for us to strike and strike quickly. If we reach Crater, if this mission is a failure, then think of what harm could be done with such a terrible weapon. But we'll do whatever it takes. I just want to make sure that you're the brains of this entire operation. You need to make sure you're taking care of yourself. Girls were all lost. He sort of squints and squeezes just underneath his eyes. Lifting his glasses up, he destresses momentarily. I appreciate the import of my position, but I am supported by a team of fantastic Cavalon engineers. And we are doing our very best to make sure that if there is a weakness, we find one. If we can equip you with all the knowledge that we can in order to ensure this mission is a success, then we will make sure you are equipped with it. I will not rest until I see that you are all safely home and that this third of the Cavalon Empire is ended. Dr. Crustin, if I may. I understand that you're still looking for a critical weak point, an opening for us. May be so bold as to ask if you've considered the critical mass self-destruct. That is a tool that still exists in your arsenal, but understand that the option for you to self-destinate your rook is only there if you believe that your rook might fall into enemy hands. It is not a weapon in that sense. We do not want you to fight without honor. We want you to go there and kill it the way that it needs to be killed. This is war, yes, but to overwhelm it with our... The nukes that we've equipped your rooks with is not a consideration. I would say the best it in battle would reflect best on the Empire and the Empress. Understood, Dr. Crustin. Elm Squadron would never needlessly throw our lives away, but we'll also do exactly what we need to make sure that the mission is a success. I will admit, after the events on Moisebe I consider disabling such function on your rooks. However, it has been made clear to me that protecting our technology is as mission critical as our ultimate purpose, the defense of the Empire. And so I ask you to use your discretion, only use that if you are in dire need. Understood? Yes, sir. Yes, Dr. Crustin. You will not allow this technology to fall into the enemy's hands. Are there any modifications you're making to Rook Valarwing or any of the rest of ours? If there were time, I wish we would be able to equip you with the Brynzium. That might have given you an edge. Certainly, it's ability to take such massive blows without cracking or denting is significant. But it would take longer than we have. If we had just another week, or maybe even days, we might be able to do all 11 rooks in the same fashion. Coat each of your rooks in this unbelievable technology, but I'm afraid all we've been able to do is repair your rooks. They'll be fully functional and they should look as though they did the first day that you drove them. So without the Brynzium, sir, then how devastating would a direct attack be from the superweapon? This supermech is already formidable. It will be fast. It will hit hard. He pulls up that same display and he's pointing out how it looks like it can do, it can engage in battle. The same way that you might engage in battle with your sword, with your rook, or with your, I want to say Morningstar, but that's incorrect. You have your flail, your swords, your spears. The same way that you might have those sorts of attacks, this mech uses its claws. It has the ability to use its tail, the ability to bite down on its enemies. It is truly modeled after the same kind of ferocious intensity of the beasts that exist on the surface of Kretta. That is what they've learned is a very effective and intimidating fighting stance, and he's demonstrating these things as he goes. It is a formidable, fast, powerful creature, and it is massive. It will take quite a number of attacks in order to bring it down. But the weapon that it can discharge and destroy a station of this size with, even a rook would stand no chance against a blast like that. If you see this supermech start to unleash that kind of power, all I can tell you is to step out of the way. Understood. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. I promise, when you get back we will upgrade your rooks. We will equip it with the finest brinzium technology and you will be that much better for it. I ask you to train now, as best you can, go through the simulations, and then we will be ready to deploy. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. We'll do our best. We'll do our best. We're getting right away. Yes, sir. Understood. And we're going to do great. Durgan's going to make sure we do great. I watched you all. You were tremendous. I am so proud of each of you. The ferocity that you brought to your mission. Nature, the squadrons, had utmost importance. Such utmost importance. And you clearly have skills. I have utter faith in all of you. Thank you, sir. I'll be here. I'll be working. And once you're away, I can rest. You won't let you down. None of us will let you down. For the Empress. For the Empress. For the Empress. For the Empress. For the Empress. You all salute and you make your way. There's a bit more discussion in the room, but you know that you need to go back to your quarters, eat, sort of debrief on your own, figure out how you're going to handle what is coming next, knowing that the decision to the commandant, may come down to start this mission at any time and that you have only so much time to read the dossiers, go back over the data that you were able to extract from Morzib, again and again memorizing that shape, those attacks, and sitting in a simulator if you can, pretending to be in your rook to try to train as best you can in the short time that you have. And I'm going to switch over the music, because I have that power. I would, if we have the evening, or I guess if we have time and we're going to share a meal, and we're heading back to our squadron bunks. I would say that you would know that you would have a meal served. It's about that time when, because of the station that you have, the, I guess I'll go with this one, let's just try this, because of your rank within the castle, that there's always hot food prepared to your tastes. They've learned your dietary needs and what you like and dislike, and so when you return to your quarters, there's already a spread laid out for you on the central table. Oh, Lord, her favorite. In addition to stacks of papers with more information about the different coordinated efforts that are happening across this larger strike. Loaf of meat, my favorite. We've been here, but we've been here for like a couple days, right? Because the rooks have been worked at this. We're not like just getting back day one. That's correct. Can I say that in those days, I've been purposefully moving through the squad room, especially the shared common areas, and I am looking to try and discern if I find any recording equipment or communication equipment. I'm looking for bugs. I'm sweeping the place for bugs. Oh, to see if they're like listening in on me. Make a... And I've been doing it over days. Make an investigation check at advantage, and if you have a feature that allows you to perceive that kind of technology, then you can certainly peek at that. Like cyborg hands? Yeah. I know, I know. Do you have like a robot sense? They're all for killing people. They're all for bullying people up. I don't think you high enough level yet. If the room is dark, I have dark vision. That ain't gonna help. And I know signal the language of programs and bots. So if the bugs are speaking, I can hear them. Exactly. What did you say, Daryl? Investigation. Six. Bologna. I wrote a four on five. Oh my God. That's brutal. Disgusted by you. They might be both hidden. Sorry, that was your line. I'm gonna assume though, presuming I don't find any, I'm gonna assume if I've been searching for days that I would take away from that that there's not one here. You are... Here's what I'll say. I could be wrong. Here's what I'll say with this. But I don't think I would think that I would fail at this. You wouldn't know? I would just assume they're not here if I can't find them. I see it everywhere. There's absolutely no way that I missed a single bug. Absolutely. You feel very confident that there isn't additional bugs or surveillance technology in the quarters that you share with the rest of Elm Squadron. You check behind paintings and you check fabrics, you check the walls to see if you can find those little marks where someone might have drilled a hole in, inserted a microphone and then covered it up. You sweep the room and when nothing comes up that jumps out at you, you feel pretty confident about that. But in the back of your mind, you're also surrounded by technology. There are communication tools in this very room. There's a wall where you can go and make a call or get a communication from the general or from the doctor where there's effectively a webcam and a display and a phone. Run with a tape over that tape. Right. In fact, I would say that there probably is a slide. But the ability for somebody to remotely turn that kind of technology on and listen in would be, you wouldn't even need to bug a room like this if you had control of the network. I hear what you're saying. That was a dumb idea. Thanks. No, it's not a dumb idea. I hear what you're saying, Darren. No, no, no. I think it's an important question, but your suspicions focus on those existing technologies and you know that if someone had access to the network, you feel very confident that they would be able to listen in. Got it. You may now continue with your loaf of meat. Oh, I was just eating my loaf of meat. Be careful, sir. Most structured mince form factor. I don't know how you eat that. I've always liked Hamburg Bleast Steak. Yeah, it's good. It's got a lot of protein in it. I think I need the extra sauce, though. The sauce doesn't prove it. Mine has onions. I thought you didn't like onions. I don't. But my lady mother told me it's good for me. Fair enough. Something about nutrients. Hey, Milo. You gonna be alright? Yeah, why? I don't know. I just get the feeling you're gonna ask if you can stay in my room again. It's fine if you want to. I'm just... Making sure you're okay. I can't be those are the both BS. Why is it either or? You tell me. I'm okay. There was room in my room if this bothers you, Chase. No, I'm used to it. I'm just worried about the dreams I'm gonna have. You know, I'm starting to worry about them, too. I'd never seen that coffin before. The first time I saw it was in my dream. I don't know. What if they're too powerful? What if we're just B? The Saurik dynasty was here way before us. What if we're just a blip on their timeline? Well, if that... We rise and we fall. That's true. And our falling will not be for nothing. The Empire will use the data. They'll improve. They'll find more knights, more rooks. Time will go on and so will the war. With or without us. With all due respect, Chase. Failure is not an option. If we fail, then this supermech will destroy Castle Ascalon. And then, Uthun is next. And they won't stop there. They'll spread their savage tyranny through the galaxy. You're both right. Failure is not an option. My apologies. It is irrelevant that we are the knights or others are the ones who defeated, but it must be defeated. And... whether it is fate, the gods, the stars, the harmony or anything else, we were the ones that were chosen. And so we must fulfill our duty. We must bring an end to this technology. And I will do anything it takes to destroy this thing. Are you with me? All of you? Of course, Vars. It has to be destroyed. All... all of those people, all the civilians, and Morzib, they would have died for nothing. We don't put a stop to this. Durgan would have died for nothing. Durgan would have died for nothing, and he's not going to die in vain. We'll only walk with Durgan if we need to. Listen, Vars, you know that I believe we'll win. I always do. I know we will. I hope we do. Because there's no other option. Their weapon is stronger than us. It's more durable. It's faster. But we have one thing they don't. They don't have better pilots. Except maybe Jace. I believe Jace is better than any Sauron pilot. Yeah, I mean... I get how they would have had to train... They would have had to train... train a mech pilot. And maybe just their inexperience. It's not part of their culture like it is a... a... a Kavalon culture. They've only developed this weapon. They can't yet be comfortable with it. That's going to be our best opportunity to find it in. Yeah. There's just no room for error. We can't make a single mistake. I mean, you heard Dr. Cressen. One slip-up and it's over. No mistakes. No mistakes. We have to be perfect. Like I know we are. Like we can be. We have to be the best. Like I know we are. We've been training for months for this moment. And... The odds are low because... They twist the harmony to their own aims. They abuse it. They harness it for... Destruction. We will put an end to it. By the way... Ren... You've got to be careful what you're saying. You can't be saying that stuff when we're standing over one of our comrades' coffins. I don't even necessarily disagree with you. But that was out of line. What were you thinking? What if someone overheard you? Tears aren't going to bring Durgan back. We face down a super weapon that could destroy Ascalon... Uthin. Who knows what next? And we spend our time... Not burying him. Carving his name into stone. We should be training. We should be focusing. We should be sharpening our minds, our blades... To gain every advantage we can get against this thing. Because we're only going to get one shot. We're only going to make Planetfall on Krita once. One time. That no shit, Ren. But come on. Read the room. If you have something you want to say, and you don't want other years to hear it... Save it for here. We can be open here. But don't do it in front of others. And that was a good thing that we did. Honoring Durgan. We're better than our enemy. We're better than all of our enemies. We take the time to honor. He who is the most honorable of all of us. And the knight deserves... To send off of a hero. He said the words that we did. May all of us be so lucky. I'm going to try to get some sleep. Alright. I'm going to pray for a while. I'll pray extra hard for you guys, okay? Yeah, enough, uh, you know, when you're done. If you... Want to come over to my room, that's fine. Just let yourself in. Never stop you before. I'll think about it. I'll get up and I'll push my chair and then I'll... Head back. You each, uh, confront the possibility of this mission in different ways. Milo makes his way back into his room. A sack of mission details, dossiers. The compiled and analyzed information about the supermech. Sit next to a loaf of meat. The... In your own time. You eventually make your way to bed. I would just, after Milo leaves, I would, you know, be leafing through. Maybe conversation has kind of stalled for a moment as there's kind of this awkward silence. And after looking through some things, I'd probably throw the dossier back onto the middle of the table for anybody who wants to. And I'd start to stand up and say, uh... I'm gonna turn in as well. And listen, Ren. I know you think... That I'm incapable of making intelligent decisions and I might be rash. But I want you to understand that every decision that I make... Ways extremely heavily on me. I understand... The consequences. The choices that I make. That have direct impacts on your lives. The three of you are my brothers. And I have to live with whatever happens out there. So yeah. I'm sorry... That I fire on you. But in the heat of the moment, I did what I had to do. To make sure that transport ship made it around. I need you to trust me. Like I trust you. Ssssss... We're not brothers, Jace. We're squadron. You know what's gonna happen when we go to Crata? One of two things. We all die. Or... We're victorious. Do you know what happens if we're victorious? Ferris does. He was trained. He understands. The leader of a squadron to take out the super weapon on Crata, you would be uplifted. You would be deemed one of the best pilots possibly in the galaxy. You might be given a fleet. We might get our own squadrons. You know what would happen? They would rip us apart and it is their right. We'd be cast to the winds, not a family, but warriors. For them to do with what they want. And you would accept it. Because that's your dream. You would leave like anybody else would. So enough of family. We're here together, we fly together. We cut enemies down together. Because that is our charge. Um... I'm sorry to see it that way, Ren. I'm gonna turn in. Ferris, don't stay up too late. Tomorrow's chest day. Oh, that is right. My favorite day. And I'm gonna turn. And I'm gonna head to my room. The two of you remain. Reading. Thinking. Consuming the remainder of the loaf. I'll have another slice of loaf of meat. Ren. I slimm the... Oh. No, no, no. No, no, no. The loaf. Uh... I slimm the dossier down on the table. After a couple minutes. And I stand up abruptly. I'm going to bed. You study the dossier. You. Everyone else is asleep. Oh, I thought you were asleep. No, we're going. Oh, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. It's just you and me, Ren. It's just you, Ren and Ferris. We both... Yes, Ferris. Yes, I have. You feel prepared to follow Elmly to his orders? I'll follow his orders. Like I did on Moorzeeba. When we fled. When we fled. We may not be blood brothers, but we are a squadron. And he is our leader. It is your duty to follow orders, as is mine, as is Milo's, and as is Jason's. I don't believe I need to remind you of that. But... I will tolerate... spits and spats at the dinner table. I won't tolerate it tomorrow. Do you understand? Thank you. I understand... the way you were trained, Ferris. I understand... what you believe, what you stand for, and... to an extent you might even say that I admire you for it. You need to understand yourself. Your following orders, without question, is obedience. It's not discipline. I'll stay in formation, and we will fight together as we have for months. And we will be victorious, because I believe as you do, that if we are not, everything is lost. And I won't stand for that. And we are aligned. Good night, friend. Good night, Ferris. Ferris, you... are left alone in a stack of papers, and... A third. What was originally a sizable loaf of meat. Sit there. I'll have a drink. Take a bite of black bread. Mm-hmm. Damn, it's a good black bread. Good bread, this. He says to himself, I say to myself, I finish my meal, and I'll go to bed as well. You all tuck in, but... you do not enjoy long rest. You have had a long rest. It's been days since you arrived here, but... it's not another... hour and a half, two hours. This is... incorrect. In the early hours of the morning, when suddenly... Let's... do this. In the early hours of the morning, suddenly, a klaxon alarms. Meow. Meow. Meow. Meow. Meow. The lights in your room automatically turn on, and you are forced awake by the deafening sound as you hear the voice of the general coming on over the communications. Squadrons, to your rooks, we have intel that there is a... a... demonstration, a... test being done of the Super Mech in orbit of Crete. We must act now. Everyone is being coordinated immediately. We do not have days, we have minutes. I need everyone to be ready to launch immediately. Get to your rooks as soon as you can. The training! Are we going to be able to do this? No choice? The time is now, let us go! The only choice is victory, as we get ready and... I'm going to suit it up. Yeah, and I'm going to... start running to the hangar. You immediately pull on your rook suits, and you... run a hand through your hair as quickly as you can, feeling the lack of sleep as you punish yourself to get through the corridors as quickly as possible. I would... as soon as... as soon as... Varus and... Ren... leave, I would hold... I would put an arm on Jace's... a hand on Jace's arm. It's like, Jace, what is it? What is... what is it? If this is it... I didn't say earlier, but... if we're all supposed to be in the hearth mother's warmth... why was the box cold? Hey, hey, hey, hey, look at me! Look at me! Is the box going to be cold? Does that mean that the hearth mother is not going to be there? Milo, Milo, I need you. If this is it? I need you to look at me. This is it? I'm going to be cold? Come on, we're going to be all right. That's not going to happen. Stay with me, look at me. Come on. We're going to be all right. We're going to get through this. Yeah, let's go. Yeah. Come on. Okay, Jace. And then I follow. You all race through the halls of Castle Ascalon, and looking out through the window, you can see that a huge force has amassed. There are carriers and fighters and other support craft burning into space, all launching from... not just from the many hanger bays of the castle, but also emerging from the atmosphere. Oh, shit. As the force of the Cavalon Empire of the center world is beginning to coalesce. And in no time at all, you are all sitting behind the controls of your rooks, knowing that the mission for the fate of the Cavalon Empire awaits. You wipe the sleep from your eyes and you hear the crackling voice again of General Sigurd come through the comm system. Knights of Operation Waltz. Today, the enemy learns that the Cavalon Empire will not abide by our enemies as they plan for the destruction of all we hold dear. Today, they learn why the Tyranarch King knew only fear when he faced the First Emperor. All squadrons, launch. The siren blares, as one by one, all eleven rooks blast out of Castle Ascalon and head into space. A huge fleet of ships has left the other hangars of the space station heading towards the various warp rings that neighbor the core world of the Cavalon Empire. The three-pronged assault on the Saurok dynasty is underway, and you are a critical part of it. All of you make your way to the liminal ring that opens to the fastest route to Krata. As you pass through, all turns golden, and you rock it to beyond light speed. Damn. Let's fucking go. This is bad as shit, man. Hell yeah. Is there somewhere in our manual that received how to report another cadet for psychic evaluation? Is that a type evaluation? Is there like an anonymous tip system? We would have some time in this limited space. Oh, for sure. That's a joke. Jace would never in a million years rat out Milo. No, absolutely not. This is actually an interesting world-building question. As you're being pulled through this, I imagine that it's sort of Star Wars-style. You're in a space, but you're rocketing through together, and you might even be able to communicate. Is that something that we can align on, in terms of the way that this is... Basically, it's Star Wars and K.A.W.A.V.E. Bop. We're shooting through... We're in a tunnel. We're tunneling through space. Yeah, exactly. So this takes... It's not instantaneous. It takes some time, and you find yourselves rocketing forward, seeing in the far distance the first wave of the fleet of the Cavalon Empire that's intended to distract and create the opening for the 11 Rooks. Ash Squadron is to your left. Oak Squadron is... I'm sorry. Oak Squadron is in the center. You are on one flank, and the Ash Squadron is on the other side, and you're able to communicate to each other for these brief moments before you arrive near this planet of Kreato. I would just, as I'm checking over things, monitoring my Rook, making sure that he's good. I would press whatever button I would need to communicate simultaneously to the entire squad, and just say, uh... Elm Squadron, sound off. Everybody all right? Give me some updates. Elm 2 is here. Better fang is flying fine. Elm 3, standing by. Elm 4. Everything's fine. Rook Valor, wings fine. Come on, guys, be real with me. How are you feeling? I understand the mechs are okay. How's everyone feeling? We feeling good? I'll say Elm Leader. Elm 2, Elm 4. No matter what happens today, it's been an honor serving the Empress with you. And... being a knight fighting beside you in the pinnacle of Kavalan technology is a glory I do not deserve. But I cherish it whole dear, and if I'm remembered when I am faceless, I hope it is our fellowship, our deeds, in the might of Rook Ironwall, that is remembered. Elm 3, those are some valiant, true, and inspiring words, but come on, I want to hear you get fired up. Let me hear something good here. Come on, guys. How are we feeling? Let's get fired up. Come on. How about we save the mushy stuff for after we kill the super weapon? Elm 4, you still with us? The hearth mother's warmth will keep us together, and will ward off the terrors of the night, the terrors of our enemies, and in that fire of the hearth, our enemies will be incinerated, and we will destroy the super weapon, and all those that would threaten to poison and destroy our family, and they will know that we are the Cavalon Empire. Alright, after all of this, Jason Morales in all time, this is a nightmare, but Jason's going to try to hold a brave face, and to, of Jason's morale, you're going to hear what I'm about to say in a second, then you can make your decision. I'm trying to get them fired up, and I'm not getting anything from these guys. This is like starting to worry Jason. Meanwhile, the Oak Squadron, they're literally doing circles around each other, and like, they're rock maxing. Just give me this awkward pause as Milo finishes what he says, and I'm going to just radio over and say, okay guys, look, whoever kills this thing is drinking free on me for the rest of the night, okay guys? Come on, we can do this. Who's going to get that kill? Drinks on me, let's go. I will aim too. I'll take you up on that. Although I don't think Ren will let that go by easy. There's a pause. Then you're... even chocolate milk? Even chocolate milk, Elm 4. I'll buy the gods. I'm going to blow it up. Alright, let's do this thing, and remember, don't get hit. You got anything to say, Elm 2? We cut through Brinsey and Mon Moiseeb. We'll do it again. That's what I like to hear, get ready. Elm Squadron, like Milo said, we must not forget. In the name of the heroes, we shall be chivalrous, in the name of the empress, who will live, fight, and die for the Cavalon Empire. And we're all going to make it home. That's right, Varys. All of us are going to make it home. Eleven of us are going to make it home. For the empress. For the empress! Feeling rallied. So you can feel about that however you like. You know, however you like. There are only, unfortunately, a few moments for you in the warp tunnel to share these moments. And... Jace has done his very best to unite Elm Squadron against... Elm Squadron? I mean, it's only... 1.30 in the morning. Beed. You leave the warp tunnel and are confronted with the planet of Creta. You see an enormous planet of green and blue. It's various moon shimmering with crystalline light. Already. Before you. It is war. Cavalon and sar'ak ships engage in battle as you rocket towards your target. civilian vessels diverting their course away from the chaos. The sky fills with death and destruction, but you know it is all a diversion. As you see, you get a notification that your target is elsewhere and orbit and your course is set. Each squadron moves in tight formation, far enough apart to be able to split off for incoming threats. I would just radio over to the other squadrons, just to basically check in and say, Ashleader, Oakleader, this is Elmleader. The young squadron is ready for information. Can I get status update? Over. We're on your far side. This is Reyna. Ash Squadron is making our way. We're going to stay low. We're going to stay low and we're going to do our best to get in there. We're going to hit them hard and fast. We're going to hit them hard and fast. You hear it, Zorro. Damn right, we're going to hit them hard and fast. We're taking the center. You just sit back and watch how it's done. That's what I like to hear, Oakleader. Ashleader, remember your formations. Remember the briefing. Stay tight. Damn, those Cavalunch ships are really giving them hell. Heard that, Oakleader. Heard that. Over. They're already taking a lot of casualties. Their sacrifice won't be in vain. Ashleader, Reyna, you're going to do great. No one. Let's make this worth it. Let's get in there. See if we can see this thing. Anyone pick up any, the, the, the, the, the, the, anyone pick up the Supermech on their sensors yet? I'm not getting anything. I would just do a quick scan. I would check my, uh, negative squadrons. Nothing from us. You continue to rocket around, staying at a distance from the absolute bedlam that is happening in near orbit above Crete. You are watching these, uh, ships do their very best to stir trouble effectively. And are we spreading out as well, like as the various squadrons? The squadrons are starting to separate. Uh, you had to obviously, uh, uh, sort of cinch together in order to get through the liminal warp, uh, ring, but, uh, as soon as you came out, I imagine that you actually sort of, spread apart not hundreds of thousands of meters, uh, flying around, just trying to get a bird's eye view of all of the action. And the hope is that you don't see capital ships warp in from any of the, uh, other worlds that are controlled by the Sarek dynasty. And the hope is that you, as you continue to make your way, that you will see the Supermech. If it truly was correct intel, uh, doing its test or, or not even on the surface of the planet, but somewhere in outer space where you'd be able to destroy it. If it's not being piloted, even better, you can, you can run and gun and, and try to destroy it without, uh, even a fight. This hope sits in your heart as you continue to rocket around, uh, uh, making your own kind of, uh, orbit, uh, around the planet of credit. I'm assuming there's no little sense about our scanner. No. Um, Yeah, I just assumed, sorry, I shouldn't have done that. No, you're, you're, you're all right. Normally I would make you roll for it, but, uh, uh, it is, uh, not evident to your eyes and it's not something that shows up on your, on your scanners. And the other, uh, squadron leaders confirm, uh, what, uh, Jase, uh, asked, until then you see the behemoth. Oh, okay. There it is. Hard to miss, eh? Oh no. You fly around and down and it is, uh, uh, uh, near one of the moons of Crata that you see it. None of you thought that a mech could be built this large. It is not in the humanoid shape of your rocks. This is beastial, prehistoric, evoking the apex predator of dinosaur kind, forged from brinezium and harmonite, covered in massive weapons. It appears to have just finished his own test before the cavalon fleet and ambushed Crata. Colorful harmonite smoke billows from the enormous cannon from its jaws. This is the perfect and only opportunity to attack. You feel the thrusters engage on the mechs of, uh, on the rooks of ash squadron and oak squadron. They've cited it too. And they fly in. It's not a matter of sensors anymore. Your target is clear. What do you all do? Oh, I mean, the moment that we hear the, I wouldn't even have to tell them. It would be a formality of me radio and basically saying, uh, Elm squadron, the time is now, strike! And they would know because we all hear the engines go from the other squad. We know it's you and we would, we would be position out for engaging. You pour all of your strength into the engines and you feel the massive amount of force as the rooks take off and you rocket forward as you rocket through space. The behemoth turns toward all of you. It lets out a horrid mechanical roar and turns its weapons in your direction. Then you get an alert in your systems as rapid beams of light erupt to your starboard and a huge squadron of sauroc fighters move to intercept you after teleporting in. Immediately oak squadron diverts their course as you hear Zaro's voice through your comp. Damn it, they were ready. As much as I want the glory here, you guys aren't the fleet killers. We are. Looks like to be about 24 of them. We'll make quick work of them and then we'll join you at the monster. Try not to hog all the renown out of here, okay? I'm squadron, good luck. 24. We read your lab and clear. Oak squadron, good luck. Oak squadron moves to engage the ships and soon there are only seven rooks heading toward this behemoth. Both of your squadron stills very far apart. Then you see the imperosaur glow as it is massive embedded harmonite gems flare with colorful light. Then it's gone. An instant later you realize it is teleported directly in front of ash squadron. Reina's voice comes through the comms. It can teleport. We need backup. We need backup. We're coming Reina. I go through and I am not staying in formation. I know that Valorwing is faster than everybody else. I kick up the thrusters. I've got my fucking, I've got my crazy bonus thrusters. I'm boosting. My wings fan out all of the jets. I also ignite the jets on my lance as I am running forward. I have four of you immediately pivot as on a dime and start to race forward. But Milo's rook is incredibly fast and he bolts forward. But the distance between you and the squadrons is so spread out that you can already see an unreal clash happening between the three rooks of ash squadron before you and the monster's behemoth, the imperosaur. The moment that I'm able to maneuver bright roar and kick on the jets to try to chase after Milo and get to ash squadron. I'm on the comms. Elmphor, you're falling out of formation. Over. Elmphor. Elmphor, you're falling out of formation. Do you read me? Over. Fuck the formation! Reina needs help! Milo, you've got back here. That's in order. Listen to me. I don't respond. Milo, you're going to get yourself killed! And no response. The blasts before the wings are going. I'm going ham. I'm going to this fucking thing. It'll be moments before you arrive, but as you rocket towards ash squadron and the imperosaur, you see Page Rook eviscerated, turning to metal scrap in the enormous jaws of this beast. Reina and Olien don't miss a beat as they move in perfect unison, dodging all the massive mechs attacks as they make critical strikes against various weak points. And then a misstep. Olien lingers too long after an attack and a beam of gem-colored light erupts from the machine, fully engulfing her rook. Reina is barely able to get out of range of this immobilizing EMP effect, but Olien is now sitting duck. Moments later, she too is annihilated and Reina is alone. Don't you listen to me! Page, no leader, dead! I'm coming Reina, hold on, I'm almost there! Milo, get back here, they're getting eviscerated! I am the lance of Cavalry Empire! Your thrusters are overcharged as you attempt to engage in battle as quickly as you can, but it is now one-on-one, Reina versus the beast. She gracefully dodges attacks, but she no longer seems to be attempting to strike. Her voice comes through on your communication. This is it guys, I failed, Durgan, I failed, Page and Olien, I failed my squadron, I won't fail you. This should take out its immobilizing at least for a bit, maybe slow it down. As soon as I can get it opening, I'll give you the best shot to taking this thing down. No, no Reina, I'm almost there! I'm almost there, I'm coming! There's no time, there's no time Milo! Please Reina, please, I'm almost there, please! Milo, live! Go home, have an extra cup and cake for me, see you later! Immediately, Reina dodges a brutal scale strike, her rook spinning and glowing with destructive energy. She plunges her weapon into the throat of the Empirosaur and explodes into an impossibly huge fireball. The Empirosaur takes an enormous hit as the Shockwave blasts all of you back, and nothing remains of Reina. Do I get caught up in this blast wave? I would say that you were close enough that this is akin to the Nuke you saw go off on Morzib, only it's an orb of fire that explodes and expands out in the weightless gravity of space, and you are pushed back. You all see as Milo's uh uh rook uh uh tumbles head over heels backwards for a brief moment before stabilizing. Milo's not centering the the the the the my land is gonna my spear goes back yeah yeah yeah yeah stunned by the uh impact of what just happened. It's not the explosion that that shocks you, it's the sacrifice. Dammit dammit Elm Squadron listen up it's just the four of us until the Oak Squadron can deal with their threats and get to us. Don't do anything hasty Milo dammit that was in order! Reina gave us an opening Jace we should move now this might be the best opportunity we have. You'll see Valorwing's hand stretch as the jets on the spear burst to life as uh in a twirl Valorwing uh regains its position in space wings out furl as the spear rockets back to my hand and clenches uh it. His tumbling is giving you just enough time to catch up and you are able to uh rejoin uh alongside uh Valorwing. Rens right there's no time don't hesitate strike Elm 4 do you remember your vows? Reina did I'll never forget and I want to see like what what damage did it do to this thing? Like you can see that um uh there is a uh sparks uh are flying there isn't there isn't fire like you would you'd hoped there isn't a huge chunk missing or anything like this but um the enormity of the blast is clearly uh uh stunned this uh massive super mech for at least a moment and and it's it's only if if a mech could shake it off uh the way that you've been able to uh uh read the pilot of another uh ship uh or or the way that one might be able to uh read the pilot of the uh of a mech you have a sense that the person within is themselves stunned by what's happened despite the violence that they were just unleashing uh against ash squadron and you feel like you have a moment. I will attempt and probably having no way to patch and maybe I am able to attempt to use my comm system uh to try to patch into whatever communications um the comms to this pilot oh to the best of my ability as I'm going to press on the button I don't know if it goes through uh and I will say you are an enemy of the cavalon empire and just as the first emperor slew the tear in our king we will take the head from your shoulders and I will click out. Do we hear? Yeah do any of us hear that? No it'll go it'll go to you guys. Oh shit. Come for in the name of the architect are you disciplined? I am disciplined. Varys let us use the discipline. Let's listen to the train. Let's follow the training. They beat the discipline into us. They wanted us to be killers. Let's kill. All right I'm four. You want to be like the first king? The information won. Shining lance. Let's go. Shining lance formation. Valar wing is with you brothers. Vion wall is with you. Let's take this thing apart. Let's kill this monster. You boost forward into formation and you start to approach and it's in this last second right before you get within really really close up enough to see what damage truly was done that you hear a click click click on comms. You can tell that communication was engaged. A response was attempted but no voice comes from the other side. Despite Reina's sacrifice and the enormity of the eruption the impurosaur is damaged but still functional along with nearly all of its weapons. Oh boy. Brinseum is bent. Harmonite shattered along its neck and underside but it isn't slowed down. It turns toward you and the roar it unleashes is sparking and strained but its attempt to immobilize all of you fails. She is shut down at least for a moment and there is no better opportunity. You close the distance as the behemoth prepares to turn you into prey. The atmosphere of Crayta is just below you as you resolve to finish this operation and save the cavalon empire. I need you all to roll for initiative. Holy shit. Okay. We need our map. 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. I'm rolling initiative. You all make your way following Milo's lead as you speed towards the super mech, the imperosaur and you engage with this monstrous titan of a mech. It is absolutely massive and Milo, you remember seeing much closer up than the others the evisceration of Ash Squadron as they were their rooks. Rooks as strong as powerful as yours were shredded before. There are fragments floating in space and this creature is turning towards you. It assumes a posture as though it is ready to pounce and darts forward and you are now engaged in open space. All around you there are smaller battles happening in every direction but your focus is not on the explosions that the oak squadron are making or the smaller skirmishes that are happening as the other forces are engaged. It is just you four and this mighty technological terror of the Sauron dynasty. 20 to 30. 20. Damn. That stands to reason. Is this fair? Would Milo be closer? Maybe we'll work further back. Milo is definitely the closest. You guys caught up. I would be tumbling. I got hit by the shockwave and got blasted back towards you. But it's also shining land formation so he knows it's up. 20. 15 to 20. 16. Oh thank god. Oh sorry I was 19. Sorry. Oh damn it. I forgot. I forgot. I'm less. It's fine. I got 13. I got less of the monsters. Got less of the 15. Yeah they got me. I got my shitty roll out of the way. I'm going ham now. Is this reasonable? In your mind what's shining land formation? You know what? You're the squad leader. You place us. Yes. Oh I love that. That's actually correct. Okay. I adore that. Actually the only way I would swap these two. Okay because I would hold my shield. Oh sword and shield. Yep. Yep. Yep. I love that. This is up front. Like a jousting night. Yep. That's awesome. Damn. Make sure that we get in there in one turn. We have power dice. We got boost engines. Also oh my god I got power dice to get there. No you might. Hold on. Oh my god. Okay. This is the apperance. Did you watch what happened? She would just have it. I want to get in there. I want to get up there. All right. This is loud. Oh thank you. Oh my god. 50. How many hexes? Oh. Oh dude you're fine. Are you kidding me. 10 hexes. We all have 10. Okay. We're 12 hexes. Yeah. Oh those are shield points. Oh sorry. How are you making it sound like you were. I was like okay. Oh dude got me. I was gonna shoot. Okay. I'm moving this back. I'm moving this back to exactly where our leader placed us. Oh I'm sorry. I didn't realize that my initiative was as high as it was. What? I was just adding the dex mod. Oh cheating. Oh it's cheating too. It's not based on everyone's genes. He tied with Milo. Oh my god. Oh well good luck Shiny Lance. You're you're borked. Milo however you were adjacent to this massive explosion and you can imagine how large that explosion is. For those of you watching at home each one of these hexes is 1500 meters. The feet? The feet. 1500 feet from edge to edge and yet you were still pushed back and still now you are able to reengage your boosters and fly towards this filled with whatever emotions Milo might be feeling at this time. It's your turn here at the top of the round. As you will hear the click off for Shining Lance as it goes just completely silent as I technically mechanically I would back up and then rock it towards this thing as you see Valor lunging for once again all the wings expand huge bursts of energy as I rock it forward. All of the jets on the spear go and a huge crackling lance emerges from my spear as I go in to this and going for hopefully the weak point that Reina um that Reina made as I will you'll all hear in your comms almost very quietly and it would be it'll I'll say her name was Reina as I then thrust my spear in that's gotta hit 22 and it's thank god uh wind spear should do 60 10 plus four oh I forgot I needed all the d10s I'm sorry everyone get your d10s ready oh I did I got my I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry you need some no no I'm good oh I just I just matter of compiling oh yeah yeah I said yeah I said my side foolish foolish foolish foolish foolish and you need d6 you need d6 too for heat I was prepared don't forget you need to use 2d6 just in case oh yeah okay never know you'd like to shake it up I want to make sure I get a sometimes they get a little stale who's after that okay sometimes they like to mock me like the gods above the gods below they mock me they both mock me they all mock me okay not terrible not terrible I didn't dare touch it I'm not here's here's a like random stone might that's this is not oh 12 not so oh missed it what you stole my d20 I'm stuck on 12 missed it what 12 I hit it under that cauldron 29 what you say 29 he's like he's sticking on a cauldron I was like I don't like it 34 34 41 41 points uh 41 45 points of piercing damage and the target is oh yeah uh and the target is technically is moved away uh one hex from me you smash into this uh you are able to find uh the damaged exterior of this armor you remember dr. kressen's words about not finding a weakness but reyna seems to have made one for you but the shield surrounding this massive mech is still in place and you smash into it the thrust blasts it back and it gets pushed back uh hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of feet flying backwards is that all you do with your that's it that's it uh oh uh oh preach yourselves oh and then you all hear uh in your comms the crackles guys I'm all right I'm just gonna grab my ankles that's my turn massive boosters behind this uh uh super mech ignite and it flies forward ready to return your attack as the super mech flies forward I need it to yeah just just move it back into the space and it engages you mylo uh it's going to immediately bite down with one of its massive jaws oh that's gonna be a 22 to hit 20 to hit I use my bonus action to jam sensors you're boning you can't bonus action sorry sorry reaction sorry reaction right I can jam sensors as long as you can react there's a reaction yeah reaction when you are now I sit by an attack you can spend a power night to subtract from the attack well uh subtract what is the what is the power die uh g6 and you take one heat to do it come on six minus uh minus six minus six yep and my ac 23 oh uh then the 22 would not have hit correct the first time oh I thought wait I think it's a 24 did I say you said 22 22 would have it would have missed it would have missed it would have missed it I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm stupid no no you're fine you're fine you're able to uh uh uh uh uh you were able to dodge to one side and sorry massive jaws jaws uh uh big enough to perhaps tear your torso apart uh clamp down just as you get out of the way uh you were able to dodge uh the next uh however it seems to have almost been a faint and moving at lightning speed it spins around and you watch as this tail seemingly made of huge floating crystals of harmonite come lashing around at you like a whip with a 27 to hit okay this time yes I will do it and I better roll a six again wait I don't need to roll at least a five I mean oh yeah five up it's just gonna crush you if you don't three okay oh the game might crush you the side of your mech takes a massive blow as you take I'm just gonna do this did you get your mic close you know all the bars are kind of like three times as far oof yeah maybe you lifted up a little bit you know you're just off the ground sorry you're all right you're yep oh my god I'm so scared okay better better yep these I imagine your shields take the brunt of this impact but it is crushing blow you are pushed in your seat as your mech takes 45 bludgeoning damage and similar to your sphere you are pushed one hex away because it was a side swipe I'm gonna ask you to move it to the side away from me oh like here uh no the other direction yep yep yep yep as you are pushed by the strength of this massive blow and this impure sore makes out another massive roar in Victoria's triumph is that your mishap threshold for show points no you only you only have to worry about that one of physical damage so Varys you're out I have five few more left uh no you're good um I will overcoms you'll hear initiating shield breaker iron rain uh and I am going to jet forward with my shield at one two three four five six I don't know how much speed seven eight but as I sort of reach my max speed my uh the missile pods on my shoulders will open up and it's like they've done before these sort of two weights of missiles were that they're all kind of small but one smaller and faster than they were they're bigger you're going to erupt from my from my missile pods and scatter out and then attempt to collide in with this uh with this impure sore so I'm just gonna roll the hip before I put a marker down see if I hit come on that's gonna hit uh but uh uh plus 12 that is a like 28 to hit um this is a missile these are missiles dumbass is this a uh for mechanics it's a single is it a warhead yes okay um it's going to use its reaction oh no as the missile flies in you are terrified by the speed of this creature as it turns and uh uh uh uses uh this um sort of uh battery uh attack and a massive uh beam of energy uh swipes out I'm going to uh make an attack roll against the warhead that's going to be a 25 to hit and I will um and the presumably you have the rules for if you hit or not uh the uh shard battery attack that it makes as it turns it demolishes the the missile in midair before it can it can hit and it crushes the missile uh before you're able to do damage it explodes harmlessly destroyed by the wave of energy that it's able to unleash with the slashing of its claws I'm a nice strong uh I am going to then well fuck uh what I'm gonna do I can spend heat to move faster right yes yes you can do it up to up to three power nicer I want to get in melee range with this guy fuck yeah it's the it's the harmonite blocked all of my missiles so I'm going to spend one heat to move one more square giving my friends openings to get it uh but that is my turn and I have one heat I want to have an 8000 geez okay so you use you use that just to get just to get in closer yes just so you just get me a range okay I already have my action and I don't have a bonus action that I can use um so I am unless there's something here that I want to be a um um do I just want to like start sending my heat seeing this thing I am gonna bonus action and uh high on well raise your shields and I'll spend one heat and I'll roll it and add it to um very wise my I believe we changed it to roll two dice oh if we did that I never got the update updated these are my I'll roll a single one these are very old yeah uh heat options confirmed but if he confirms that it's either 8 or it's 6 but either way yeah still rolled very well so I have an extra 8 shields and that costs me a heat to know so just call it to I'm at 8 shields or 58 shields and I have to call it to and so it's still one heat till you roll two dice I believe oh well you know why don't you say one and I'll just call it six almost dance otherwise keep it at six for now yeah cool yeah uh you all watch as the impurosaur uses the first of its legendary actions to uh immediately the crystals glow on the surface of its carapace and you watch as it shields the one that had been pierced by Milo seems to reinforce itself a little bit and you imagine that it has bolstered its shields uh what do you mean Derek I just told you that it uses its legendary abs action to regain shield points perhaps fire will help uh Ren you're up oh no I I'll look forward to this scene unfurling before me uh the the imperious the impurosaur impurosaur as you call that uh quietly the nights are dark and the days are gray we have to try and surround it outmanoeuvre the pilot oh nice nice nice wait that's a bad guy right yep that's the bad guy things in between me and the screen um oh and as I fly up a bonus action and the bitter fang will go invisible from radar and any screen as I shimmer away uh into the into the the the into into nothing into space um you become of ether and are indistinguishable from the uh uh sky for lack of a better word all around you I think that hits it definitely hits but does it crit hit uh I rolled a something crazy I think like a 28 to hit I don't know if I'm gonna later I rolled a 28 to hit it hits you can roll for damage okay and that is 5d10哎 30 points of damage from that. Oh yeah. Thank you. What is the nature of your attack? Is it your swords that you're slashing in with? Yeah, it's a badass blade. You slash in with your badass blade and you once again come into contact with the considerable shields that surround this massive titanic mech and you know that you weaken them. They are dimmer than they were before but you feel that moment as you slash in. I hit it again. No, I don't. What'd you get? Oh, four. I rolled a four. I hit the first one. That's probably not going to hit. We could probably all. With our powers, get off! We could probably all. It's not going to fall in. What dice are you guys going to form? I mean the first one was really great. The first one was really great on both. This one just happened to be bad. Okay. I'm playing pipe. You slash in with the first sword and when you come back with your next attack, where the empiric arc should be, it is not as it is moving at such great tremendous speed. Is that your turn? Yes. Jayce, just before your turn begins. The legendary empirosaur, you hear that same quick thing. Just so you know, you have disadvantage on vehicle ability checks until the start of your next turn. We'll see. I'll remember vehicle ability checks. That's good to know. Thank you. If that's relevant. This guy sucks. You don't know. This dude is. Oh, bro. Jayce, just before your turn, you are racing forward and you are watching your, you are racing forward and you are watching your squadron fly in and begin to try to take down this devastating Titanic as you begin to consider how you might attack. You hear all of a sudden, all of your lights and your console on your deck, all of a sudden lights start to flicker. You are being scrambled. Your sensors themselves. The target must subtract 1d4 from attack rolls and from ability checks and saving throws using wisdom until the start of the super max next turn. Oh, wisdom. Okay. So I don't. So he's still attacked. 1d4 from attack rolls and any wisdom ability checks and saving throws as your sensors are affected by the, clearly as the leader you've been targeted by this machine. What else is there? Your turn. I fucking boost my engines, baby. Before I do anything, I spent three power died to generate heat, but actually I take a step back and I'm going to teach everybody a little thing today because I realize after 10 years of playing this game that I don't think about this game enough like a magic player. So the first thing I'm going to do when I pilot my back event, uh, Mac is see if I need to vent any heat. I don't have to at the start of my turn. The next thing I'm going to do is check my shield cycler. My shields are max. I'm good to go. I'll keep draw. The next thing I'm going to do is move slash generate heat. Now I put my pedal to the metal. I gained three. Hell yeah. And, uh, because I can just do that. And so I'm going to gain three, which is going to give me three extra hexes of movement as I blast out. What? Four, five, six, seven, nine, 10, 11, 12, uh, 13. I can get right around the back here. Um, uh, basically I see all of my teammates, uh, uh, blast off and I watched this thing do all this crazy stuff and I have to get into the mix and do what I can. Um, and then, uh, I don't really have any other ways to generate heat because my shields are top. So I'm not going to raise my shields. I'm going to save my, uh, I don't think I have any other bonus actions to raise shield. Um, I mean, it could just do it. If you have a bonus action and you want to add heat. Yeah, I'll just do it. I'll generate a fourth heat even though I can't go up any higher. So already the steam is pouring off of my is already exhausting all of this pressure. Um, and then I will just make one attack, uh, with my blade sword. Oh, 16 doesn't hit. Uh, do we know what's AC? I have to matter. We do not know the AC just yet. Uh, after our first round, I will tell you if we haven't deduced it yet, but you flash in, I say that you hit the shield. You just don't make any damage. I'm going to save my reaction then, uh, because we're just warming up, literally warming up. And, uh, that will be my whole turn. It's tough. Wow. Top of the round. It's your turn. Um, now I got all my turtles all the way. Yeah. Yeah. Yep. Yep. Yep. Uh huh. Uh huh. Uh huh. Uh huh. Uh huh. Uh huh. I am going to, uh, drift backwards as I blip drift this one. One, two, three. Oh, one. Nope. I just drift backwards as, uh, I'll say we've got this. It'll only take four of us. We are going to kill this thing. Aren't we guys? We're going to a ventrana. Right. As I press a button and you'll see the green crystal, not the green orb in my chest crackle to light. And for the first time you will hear almost as cacophonous boom as this arcing zap of plasma rockets towards this thing as I am going to make an attack roll. All right. Come on. Come on. There's no way. As I just, as it black, it gets, what is it, a 10. A 10. Oh boy. Uh, it goes wide. It goes wide. It goes wide. It's all, it's all, it's, it's, it's, it's, by the time you blast backwards and you, and you unleash this attack, uh, uh, it's already so engaged with you. There's a moment of fear where you're worried that you might actually hit Jace, Ren or Varus and, uh, you try to try to attack. It goes low and underneath as it misses, you'll kind of see, uh, my arms, Valorant's arms drop as my wings kind of beat and I drift back a few more spaces and I kind of go drifting in the space. The question for Milo's turn is done. How long does the scrambled, uh, stuff last until the start of his turn? Okay. Not too bad. Good thing it was on my shitty roll. It'll use its legendary action before its turn and all of you are engaged. You're swinging in with your swords. You are flailing forward, uh, trying to overwhelm this thing when it teleports. Son of a, a wise man once said, what the ass? Exactly. Oh no. Oh. This dude, I, I fucking, me and my homies hate this dude. I assume there's no opportunity to attack here. No, there aren't. It teleports to an unoccupied space it can see within five hexes and it, uh, uh, Digetically in the world, that's actually why we all miss. Oh! Because I'll have to simultaneously attack. Yeah! Yeah! Yes. 1000%. Thank you. It's also simultaneous. Basically. Yeah. Yeah. You have one sort of attack for the second one and we all just, and, uh, Milo, it clearly has its sights set on you as it goes in for another one of these crushing bites, uh, this time getting a 24. If you don't have your reaction, I still have mine. I would like to recharge it. He just recharged it. He just recharged it. I'm going to use my reaction then. Okay. Because I'd like to get to five heat anyway. You do? So I'm going to attempt to. So them, them's the rules. Jam targeting to see if we can subtract from the attack roll. I also cleared my heat. Minus six. 24 minus six gets us down to 18. Yeah. So the, the, the crushing bite does not hit. However, however you're able to influence this moment, you, uh, prevent the crushing bite from attack. But once again, it seems to have been a faint as the, uh, 28, uh, uh, tails, uh, uh, slams into the side of, uh, Milo. And I'm just going to roll it because there are too many. I will take it for me to care about here. You have to roll six. 39 points of bludgeoning damages. You are hit from the other side and push towards me one hex as the, uh, uh, tail slams into you. So I was at 10. So what was the second attack to hit? We couldn't do anything about that. No, no. Or it would have needed to be too much. Legendary actions recharge and at the end of its turn, oh boy. So you take 29 whole damage, 29 whole damage. Yep. Oh, that's a mishap. Is that your mishap? Yep. Oh, go ahead and roll a d24 me. I mean, that's almost, that's what's one of 19 mishap. 19. Let me find out. Let me find the table. I should be good. It might mean nothing. I don't remember. Or you instantly die. Or, or how it explodes in the blood. The tail slams through your, um, uh, through your shield and you, you feel it break. You know that you are exposed to the raw power of this Titanic and there's a flash in your mind as you watch, uh, the Ash squadron being torn asunder and you're terrified as you feel the true physical weight of this massive tail slam into the side of your mech. One of your engines is damaged and your speed is reduced by one. Okay. As it cracks one of my vernier thrusters. Oh, yeah. Some gun and family. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. I use my reaction. Oh, that wasn't me. That's as cool as I, I will get cracked. Oh, and I will, uh, try to once again come in. In the name of the heroes, I will be sure is it just like Sir, God, the green. I will kill my monsters as I will use my reaction to counterattack. Yes. And thrust my, my spear into hell. Yeah. And I am going to get a 24 to hit. That hits. And it's going to deal. Could be worse. Twenty two. Thirty. Thirty eight points. Appears in damage. Wow. Okay. It's going to be here that it will use the first of its legendary actions and you hit cracking into this shield and the the wound is obviously great. The shields seem to be barely like flickering and staying on after you managed to pierce through it with your spear. And where the whole half occurred, you can see that some energy from one of the the crystals on the surface of its armor zaps out and regenerates just a little bit. But not fully. That's going to be the conclusion of the that action. Varus, you are up. Um, I will say I'll be totally taken aback by this teleport. I mean, mech and I will turn and I will see first my free turn. I'm going to move to face Milo and the imperial store. Milo. I'll say Milo stay in formation. I'm coming. One, two, three, four. Um, and I'm going to rush in and I'm going to try one more time. This is his reaction back. Get in the hell man. Dude, you can, you know, I'm going to rush in and just with my shield and my flail, spin it up and bring it down on this guy and hope I hit. Oh yeah, you got almost a 20, but that's OK. That's OK. 12 plus two, nine. It's huge. 21 is 21. It's been a full round. I will tell you that it's a C is 17. Oh, that's a big, it's a big. Yeah, it's a big. So I crack in an ideal 60 10. One, two, three, four, five, six. Seventeen. Twenty five, twenty nine, thirty thirty one, thirty two, thirty three, thirty four, three, seven, thirty eight, thirty eight points of thunder damage. And you have disadvantage on attack rules and ability checks until the start of my next turn. Nice. So. There's only 11 hexes of speed. Nine is fucking. What are you? I was wrong. This is dino nine. Oh, let me see if I cool off at all. I do. Nice. So then what I will do again. Shield recovery is I'm going to. Oh, I'm full health, but I believe I can keep pumping my shields with the bow. Oh, hell yeah. So I'm just going to take another heat and I'm going to roll. Four more shields. So it's go above the the max. Is that what I believe the bonus action does? I could be wrong. If I didn't actually roll mine when I did it, so I should I should add to it then. And if it's not, we can adjust. But for now, you put your shield up and remembering what happened to your missiles and you fly in with your flail and you watch as its shield finally shatters. Oh, my gosh. Breaking apart and you are actually able to. The imperator. Oh, yeah, the imperator. Oh, you're able to slam into the side of the side of this. This is you are going to put this motherfucking blender on me. You are horrified by how hard the the surface of this Brinseum and Harmonite built creature is you smash into it. But you were able to actually hit the surface of this for the first time and. And that's your turn. That's her. Dugging master. Yeah. Do we get the sense of like the only reason why we're standing on remote chances because of the massive like nuke that went off in its like throat? Yeah. OK. Oh, yeah. It would have been like it would have been like paid. And only it's already like it's already sparking. Right. Yeah. It's generating its shield. That's the only reason why you're even able to crack it in this moment. Like you've been given a tremendous opportunity here to maybe take this thing down as a squadron and looking up if anyone cares to. You can see that Oaks Squadron is still dealing with dozens of dynasty ships. Oaks squad like some of squad. That's great. I love that. I'm doing everything here. Yes, I do. Your lights and your control deck all had been flickering. But after the teleport, they'd come back online. Sick. Ren. Oh, Dungeon Master. Yeah, I'm invisible. Oh, you know, just so you know, when you attack, you know, not guys going off the wrong one on the attack, I go invisible. Oh, on the attack. You got no, no, no, no, sorry. This I make two of these and then the bonus action is to go invisible. If you are invisible, you would not be on sensors, correct? That's a good question. You get bonus action before or after. Yeah, you don't have the bonus action after your action. You do anytime. Yeah. But I was already invisible when I got to. So you attacked, came out of visibility and then ended his term when you're visible. Because he went invisible the previous term. Oh, got it. OK. That makes sense. So I can't see you on sensors, which means that I do not target you with sensor scramble. Hey, yeah, Derek, very careful. Be very careful. Oh, it doesn't make sense strategically for me to use Milo. He's just going to get it back immediately. That's fine. That's fine. Jace, your lights do continue to flicker as sensors scramble continues to affect you as he uses one of his. Really cool stat block. Yeah, it is very cool. I love you, buddy. That happens. And, random, it's your turn as you continue to enjoy invisibility. Get away from him. So he just targets me. I'm just cooked again. He's the same one before and. That's not going to matter. You get me minus D12. OK. And he sees low. Is he slow? You can't you got great roar is burning with the white hot fire. A thousand suns. It's just I'm the endowment of the spirit of all kind of giving a mech. That's right. I blast forward. None of us see this. Everyone sees the fire in my eyes. 18 17 CAC you hit nice. I come out of the visibility a slash in with my first blade. And that's cool. Why? Why? That's cool. That's pretty. Oh. 30 and. 34 38 points of damage. And actually, I was really wrong before, so we have that vehicle mishap thing. You you're damaged threshold against my attacks are is lowered by 10 and mishap threshold. Oh, OK. You're just able to get. A mishap. That's cool. That's neat. We're going to play this guy. Absolutely play this guy. I'm going to have some tricks that we see Derek's come for that ass. You smash into it and you do damage to a system that you imagine you've reduced its ship speed. Oh, but I guess it just teleports all of it. It doesn't fly anywhere. I try again. I try and hit again. Yes. Yes. I saw this thing attack. Yeah, I fucking haven't it. Yeah. Oh, I can't. Can I? Well, you know, it's Prince of Marlborough's broken. Well, we don't know that. It's pretty hard. They're all broken. It's a plating feature still exists. However, I was because of the new I'm going to I'm going to make the the way that it works. Prince in plating, a critical hit against the Super Mac becomes a normal hit. And then I would normally roll a D 10. I'm going to reduce that down and because on a one, if I roll a one on that D 10, the trait won't function again until it's literally repaired. So I'm going to roll a smaller die and we'll see if it repairs. But that's great for the actual critical. It is it is it is a nine. You hear that same reverberating sound that you remember on the surface of more Z. So now I have the opportunity to create if it doesn't repair itself. Correct. Yes. If you're also one, but that's got to be. Oh, he's got to roll. I need to roll. I'm going to I'm going to change that D 10 to a D four. It was it was so generous. When often it's fucking mouth. Derek has something up his sleeve. I'm trust about the fuckers. I can throw him. You did go up in his mouth. Oh, you don't know what we're not going to tell. No, I'm not going to tell you. Fuck. I'm going to tell you the next time you get a crit. Son of a bitch. You're about to tell me on my turn. Just know you're calling it now that I'm going hot knife through butter. OK. Yeah, the guy says, this is too easy. Something's wrong. Some severely wrong here. This is too easy. Too easy. 36, I think again, 36. I think that's exactly what I did last time. Damaged. Very good. And a damaged threshold is lowered by 10. There's no chance. The guys got a face in this and miss threshold. OK. Thank you. All right. And I will bonus action and go invisible. Very good. That's important for you. I will remember that. Hmm. He uses the fuck. He specifically. Yeah. I feel a little tired here, but don't don't don't look at my piece. Why do I want my piece? She's a fucking idiot. I'm not going to tell you. Why do I want my piece? I'll hold. I'll hold. You can do your turn. I don't like that. I don't like that. He takes his legendary action. Just flip you the bird. Step one. He's died. Do I have heat? Do I want to vent it? No, because this mech and shoes did not roll to vent heat. That's right. That's right. I am I am pouring steam off of my neck as the sword bursts into flame. Oh, my God. Having activated all of my extra stuff because I'm in max heat. I hold the sword low as I fly with jets blasting at this thing directly, preparing to make a quick up and down slosh because I have blazing strikes at max heat. I can make one sword attack. So I'll start by making attack number one. Ooh, that's going to be a 12 to hit, which would be a miss. I am going to attempt 18. Six would be an 18. So easy at five. Oh, and I have the minus one. I have the minus one d4. It's probably not worth it. We roll that first. I probably missed my first attack. Yeah, that definitely misses. I will try again. You got the sword. I'm not rolling very well. This one's rolling bad. It usually rolls really well. That's going to be an 18 to hit mine. I do it on both attacks. The minus d4. Yeah, all attacks. So I'm probably going to have to do the wonderful. That's enough. That's enough. That equals 19 to hit. Thank God. 19 to hit. Goddamn. But I had to use a heat to do that. So I'm going to push the red line to see if I can make a DC 10 Constitution saving throw. I need at least just a DC 10 to ignore that one heat game. Easy. The DC goes up to 15. The blazing strikes also increases a heat. I'm going to attempt to hold the red line to avoid that. Crushed it. DC goes up to 20. I'm still at five heat. I roll for damage. I need seven d10s because I get one extra d10 at max. Oh, nice. Nice. Nice. Nice. Nice. 27. 27, 35. 42 points of fire damage for one attack. Okay. Because I suck at rolling today for some reason. That's a good single attack. I'll take it. I mean, I'm not complaining. I'm complaining a little bit. What's your average? For damage? You should tell you right there. 37 plus 5, 42. So I hit exactly average on an attack. Oh, yeah. I'll take it. And I need to do one of these. Dancers, that's exactly average. Exactly right. Yeah, he nailed it. A sensible hit. It is sensible. I give a sensible chuckle as my sensible hit lands. What was the threshold? Yeah, you managed to cross the damage threshold. And I did roll on the mishap threshold as well. Okay. My shields were at top, so I don't have to worry about that. I don't have any more bonus action red line. I am good. I'm sitting at max heat. I passed my turn. As I quick slash this thing twice and only land once. Because this die hates me. I'm going to switch it out. It's time. Time has come. You're Steven. Oh, I'm max heat. You are. And I've held the line twice already. So I'm pouring the heat. He's venting out. Oh my god. After its turn, you watch as the Harmonite Crystals that are inlaid in its armor into the Brindium. The ones that are jutting out from its spine and make up the majority of its tail glow. And you watch as even the slashing damage that Bright War is able to deal to this Titanic mech heal a little bit. That makes sense. My luck. Even with the fireball, it sounds like it works in D&D. It's like a troll. Yeah, it's like a troll. It is clearly a troll. Yeah. Burned his troll flag. Oh. It was a mechanical. I look, does it, does, it still has like the, the cannon in its like mouth, right? Like the big super weapon to kill. It has a number of weapons that are all sort of situated. Because of the shape of this thing, you, you recognize that there is a central cannon. The big super as weapon. There's a super weapon. Can retract it. That would absolutely be part of like a roar style attack. But it also has like nearby missile compartments and, and smaller weapons. We need to go for the cannon. I'm going to live. All of us are going to live. Raina won't, but we will. As I am going to, I'm going to float backward one. I don't think I have an opportunity to attack. Actually, first I'm going to use my damage control as my wings wrap around me as I will regain 15 shield points and, uh, and a mishap. And if I'm bloody, I don't think I am. I'm not bloody. Taking a lot of damage, but I'm regaining shield points. So I'm up to 20 shield points. Thank God. Oh wow. Good. I'm still getting within five, five hexes. Rich, can you give me five hexes away? Away? Yeah. One, two, three, four, five right there. And if he can take an opportunity attack, I'll take it. He's not using his regaction. It doesn't matter. He has a trait called reactive. He can take a reaction on every turn of combat. That's cool to us. That's very mech. And so, I believe the Dershnite had that. Yeah. Oh yes. Yes, I did. With his attack of opportunity, he is going to make an additional tail attack. Actually, let's make it the crushing bite. That seems more correct. At 25 to hit. Does that hit, Milo? I think, I know that it hits. It says the question is, is there going to be any power dice fucking? I will use my reaction. Yeah, I don't mind. I'm saving it. I'm out for blood. That's fair. As I will use shield parry. This would have happened when he left the space. It would be what happened here, presumably. This macro, it's allies within one hex when they are hit by an attack roll or fail a dex check. Against a damaging effect, I will take my reaction and add five to your AC. Against that attack or saving throw. Possibly causing it to miss or succeed. 28 now. Unless he can lock target or whatever. I got a 25 now. Yeah. All right. So as Milo runs and makes the stop, I boost my jets and my, I still have momentum coming over here. And I just spin around and throw my shield in front and it just bounces off my shield. That's probably a big old job. Yeah, I mean, this is a massive thing, but your shield is just enough. The shield, even you imagine that at the bottom and the top as the teeth crunch in, there's a little bit of tooth dents that happen as it releases, but you are able to defend your ally. M4, I told you, formation! As I begin to charge the lightning zap cannon in my chest. We need to kill this thing. I'm getting a shot. Kill this thing. And that's my turn. Oh. You're charging up the lightning zap. It's just a narrative thing. I'm playing that using it on my next turn. Oh, you're not using solar beam. Yeah, I thought you had like a solar beam. I mean, that'd be cool. I don't have it, but it's... It'd be cool. Oh, and my Avernade thrusters are repaired because of my use of... Question Milo, do we know the nature of this attack being your squad mates and having on this? Yeah, it's my platform. Does it fire in a line or is it just a ranged attack? It's a ranged attack. Okay, I just didn't want to know where we're going to step back the way. No, no, no. It's just a targeted... Is it a chain lightning? I'm precise. I'm precise. But I don't want it to be all up in my grill. I want to be able to get a shot. No, no, for sure. And then cannon monsters turn. I love that. I love that. Oh, my God. And I've called out, go for the cannon. Go for the cannon. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. We have to destroy this thing. That's the cannon. That's cannon now. The... Chakku, Chakku, Chakku, Chakku, Chakku, Chakku. And Pyrosaur starts to glow more and more. And you realize too late that this is not just it recharging its shields or recharging its... Or repairing its impossible Brinseum armor as its crystals go impossibly bright, suddenly flaring out in all direction. You have to shield your eyes as a... Charge emanates from this Titanic mech. I need everyone to make a constitution saving throw. Uh-oh. Oh. All of us? Let's go. And anyone within 10 hexes. Yeah, that's everybody. Con saving throw, you say, eh? Yep. Oh boy. I got a 15. I don't know if that's going to be good enough. Oh. I don't have my reaction. Oh no. 20. 19. Uh-oh. What did you get? Tom? Yeah, Tom. Well, shucks. Tom. That'll be a 13. Oh. Those of you that 15 and higher. You only take one eye on exhaustion. Oh, fuck it. That's bad. Only? As your mechs are... Your lights go down and off and suddenly you're submerged in darkness, but you... You're not going to be able to see the light. Your mech is stiff to move, but you're still in control, still in power. What happens if you fail? My luck. The target shuts down and can't restart until the start of the super mech's next turn. And how much eye legs do I take? Uh, you must attempt to restart your mech. Okay. Using a DC-15 intelligence technology check, or the vehicle does not restart. So your mech completely shuts down. All the lights, the glowing chest of the Valor Wing, the lights in its eyes, everything, it's as though it has become like the debris of Ash Squadron that's floating all around as it goes completely stiff and just starts floating. Its sphere leaves its hand. I imagine this is really grim that it's a corpse-like nature. Oh, absolutely. It's just like floating in the maze. Oh, absolutely. It sort of turns over like he's in water. Yeah. Oh, my God. And I've just gone from like shouting like... The comms would have been cut off immediately. And then you'll hear kind of, I want you all to live. And then you'll hear as the lights will go out, the spear just out in space, and I just kind of like just drift as my wings almost kind of wrap around me. Out of four. Out of four, do you read? Out of four. I think he's completely offline. Milo. Milo! Uh-oh. It will... What is it? I don't know. It's like exhaustion. So any time you roll AD-20, you'll minus two. Got it. It's an exhaustion for vehicles. It'll use its next turn the same... I'm just going to flavor it as part of its EMP effect, but, Varys, you are now the one who is being affected by the sensor scramble, subtracting 1d4 from your attack rolls. I think that's fair. And it stays where it is. It's your turn. I just want to tell you that minus d4 has been devastating every time I roll. I have to pull less than three. Really? No. I got three, four, three. Get worse d4s. I don't know what to say. Yeah, I don't know. Can I get more d4s? Two? Two? Yeah. She's based. But I go, man, only never sort of fucking chance. No, this is definitely... Shit is then a fucking chance. No, no, no. The only thing, being able to turn off the whole roll is a brutal. I mean, if you had all rolled worse, this could have turned very... Oh my God, imagine we all failed that. Two, three. I'm going to get in the way for five. I'm going to interpose myself. And is it clear that Milo's lost power? Like, would I have a status screen that would show... The screen would have gone dark. I mean, for all you know, there's no way to know if he's gone. He's dead. I mean, there's no way to know. It would appear like a corpse to Andy's early... Elinor's gone dark. We must finish this fight! And you'll hear that crackling, because this guy is affecting my sensors and stuff. Oh yeah, lights are going on and off. The question is... Seeing that Milo is... I know roughly, I can see him floating, right? Yeah. So I am going to... Milo, if you're there, if you can hear me... We will all live! I need you to live! And I'll put my weapon down. And I'm going to hold my shield up, and I'll hit a lever. And it's going to be like Obi-Wan pulling down the power reactor, but it's going to be the opposite. Oh! And I'm going to use my action shield wall. And so at the start of my next turn, my mech has resistance to all damage. It provides total cover for its allies instead of half cover. So as long as I am between Milo and this guy, the shield is going to be like Reinhardt, where it's like the energy is going to shoot out and provide this massive energy barrier that will block you from even targeting Milo. I'm going to down! And I'm going to bonus action again, keep pushing the heat to try to build up shields, because he's not hitting me. And again, if we can't do this, I will take it all back. But I'm going to take the heat, and let me see if I cool down from the last turn. I do! I'm doing pretty well! Oh yeah! Iron wall's performing okay. That's my turn. Pretty cool. You can jam my attacks all you want. I'm just going to do the same thing. I'm just going to do the same thing. I'm just going to do the same thing. I'm just going to do the same thing. I'm just going to let this ride run your up. Seeing Varus create the Iron Wall and defend Milo, I'm just going to keep laying into this thing. I'm trying to cut it down. Hearing his call that we have to drop this and save Milo, I'm going to lay into it as hard as I can. And the burst you did, did that do damage? No, it was just a systems wide attack. So that I'm presumably still stealthed. Because only damage breaks it out. Nice. 23. Hits. You are currently on this attack. You are 20 lower on damage threshold and mishap threshold. Thank you. It would be almost impossible for you to miss based on the 40 and 35 damages that you're doing. That's fair. That's all your own average. 38 points of damage. And then I'll hit again, presumably. 24. This one's a little bit lower. 33 points on the second one. Thank you. How much was the first one? 34. Thank you. Thank you. 34 and then 33. And you're now 40 points lower on damage threshold and mishap threshold to me. What? And then I'm just kind of like, you know, narratively, I'm blasting around this thing, trying to move depthily fast so it has a hard time blocking onto me. I'm bursting out of invisibility, striking twice, and then jetting back and going back invisible as I take my position. At this point, I'm just trying to, I'm striking from my low calling out. I'm trying to target most of my attacks towards its jaw. I'm doing everything I can to strip armor plating or rip through Brynzium to hopefully give Jason opportunity to strike into its mouth and destroy the cannon. It is going to suddenly flare again. And for a moment, you're terrified that it is going to release another one of these devastating EMP events. And instead of warps, it vanishes. You manage to strike into it and you see you rending through the metal and causing significant damage to this titanic mech hitting into its arms, its legs, and it vanishes. It's going to... Let's go north towards, yeah, yeah. Let's get all the way onto the other side. It can move five hexes straight in that line direction. One, two, three, four, five, it's actually correct. It moves all the way over there. And this is going to be a lot of fun because I misread one of its rules, so it's going to suddenly get a little more dangerous. What? And now it is... I had a feeling Dan designed this to be... I don't know what I've been doing for two rounds, my apologies. Jace, you're up. Where's the front of it? The front of it is, sorry, it's this crystal. Okay, thank you. I'm assuming it's pointing at us when it teleports. Yes. Okay. Man, that's a cool-ass shit to say. Basically, I watch this thing teleport and I get my bearings, and as I draw Bright Roars, Blaze Sword, and I jet off at it, I go right for the cannon. Which was our face. Okay, here's the top. And here is how I misunderstood its point defense. When a starship moves within one hex of the supermech, I can use the same reaction that I used to destroy the missile. And I should be able to do that every turn. So I've been very, very gentle. Oh my... It's not rain out. I knew when I hit it. 25 to hit. It's power is coming back. Yeah, it's coming back out of line. I did this. 25 to hit. I have 22 AC. Yep. I'm taking a single hit. Bring it the fuck back. Yeah. I'll give it the fuck. You take 36 points of blood... Sorry. Piercing damage as it slashes out towards you as soon as you get into range. And it seems to be getting desperate now as it's making more and more... Rapid actions. Its speed is truly incredible. But you are able to get within range even though it slashes into your shields with its shard battery attack. I have shield points. And I will then make two blazing strikes. The first one will be a... 15. I'm going to use a die to make sure this hits. It does 18 to hit. That hits? Oh my god. Oh my god, it fucking popped off. 30, 39... 36, 52... Oh wow. 54, 58 points of fire damage on the first attack. Let's go! That's massive. And I'm aiming for the cannon. I'm trying to slice the cannon apart. That's just my first attack. I rolled three 10s at a 9. I'm rolling on the mishaps table. Yeah, get fucked and then I got another attack. This might be it, man. You slash into it and you see as I roll a natural one, a eruption of fire starting to jet out of the side of where you can only assume the cock that is. I am going to say that that was my bonus action blazing strikes. So I will generate one heat and attempt to hold the push of the red line. I need a 20 to do it. I do it. I got a... I got a 20... 23, 22? Nice. So now that he goes up to 25, I'm getting the point where I have to get a natural 20 to basically hit it. But I hold. That's my bonus action. And then I pull the sword and my arms back as the chest of bright war begins to glow. And I unleash the flame wave and I try to aim it like down the barrel of this cannon. So I'm going to need you to make a dexterity saving throw DC 16 and it's just going to blast through like a great fire line as it goes through. This is too perfect. It gets a... What did you say the DC one? 16. 16, it gets a 17. Okay, so it'll take half damage. And then I vent one heat. Yeah, I don't think we can make it fail a saving throw. I like where it's at though. This is going to be D12, 5D12. 7, 10, 11. Nice. I think it's going to rip me apart now. 21, 27, 27 and a half is... What, 13? Yeah. Yeah, round down. 13 points of fire damage. Unfortunately, it doesn't take any of that. And then I vent one heat. That's total 13? Yep, total 13. Thank you. Okay. I was hoping that was my finisher move. So he begins to pour off of Brikes. I don't have my reaction unfortunately. And that's it. You pour your attack into this and it's able to dodge out of the way. Despite the massive scale and size of this thing, it is still incredibly fast. Sparks are flying off of it and you watch as that fire that's erupting out of the side of its face goes out as it uses one of its legendary actions to undo a mishap. As it shh... Jesus. That'll do it. That's pretty fucking good. Immediately corrects its own damage, but that's the last of its legendary actions as Milo, you are up. I can't attempt until it's the start of its turn, right? Dan and I have agreed that that's stupid and that you can use your action to make your roll now. That makes sense. You would see as... If you were like, we had a look into the camera, you wouldn't see this. But if you were to film it... The camera was in the camera. It would basically be totally dark and Milo would have his hands on the controls and his head would just kind of be slumped forward. His hair is falling over and he's just slumped forward as he drifts. And he hears a... Look outside of it. Very faint. And slowly he's going to basically... Come on, Fallowen. Farayna. Heart Mother, please. It's so cold in here. It's like the box. Heart Mother, I need your warmth. Vistaya, I need your warmth. I will attempt to restart to power up. You go through the launch sequence and I need you to make a technology, intelligence technology check. Dan says you do also though to continue to drift with five more hexes. As you float off into space. Yeah, you're far by me. I'm off the map. One, two, three. He's at the edge. Don't force him off. But like... Four or five? No. That's crazy. He's off the edge. He did. We're out here wondering. Free floating. We could just shift everybody this way. Yeah, let's do that. Let's do that. One, two, one, two. And then that should put him right on the edge. And then he's working that way. Technology? So fucking good. Yep. That's 16. The DC was 15. You flip a couple switches manually pushing them up and down hoping for some response. And it takes you two tries to go through the launch sequence. But click, click, click, click, click, snap, snap. You push the button. And Valarwing springs back into life. Nice. And I'll feel for a moment. Valarwing, you're back. You're gonna let me down. I won't let you down. As I'll extend my arm as the spear rock into my hand. As I'm not gonna forgo, I'm gonna try to get up close and personal. As I bonus action, use my boost. As my wings unfurl all my jets at night. As I will charge forward. As you all... And I think I can just get here. 12, 12, yeah, I mean, I get 24 hexes. Oh my god, are you kidding? You get there, you get there, you get there, fly back to the edge of the map and come back. Yeah, if you want to. Yeah. I'm like Garth the Green. I will slay the dragon. As I... This creature does not, and this is just the dice telling the story, I have my reaction and when you enter the space I should be able to make an attack against you. But it doesn't think that you're coming back. It uses the MP pulse. It's not focusing on you at all as I roll a natural one. You are free to enjoy your full turn. Wow. And you are in Valerian the Molten Doom. And she was reina! As I am screaming, as I thrust forward, as I do the best that I can here. That's going to be an 18 to hit. Oh yeah, that hits. I'm going to deal... As I'm going down this thing's throat. I'm soaring around black, trying to basically get to the perfect... That critical spot where you know that super weapon exists. I decide Miles got this handle and I take a detour to Boobies. I go get a prize. We're all going to Boobies everybody. Yup, I love it. I love it. 12. 16. Not bad. 16. 21. 29. 29. Is that right? Yeah, 29. 36. What the fuck? 40 points of piercing and force damage. Very good. Just a quick check here. And him. Okay. It is barely hanging on. You pierce into the neck of this thing and you see sparks continue to fly out, but you are emboldened by the Ash Squadron sacrifice, clearly having done such tremendous damage to it that it's making it possible for you to tear this thing apart. And I'm going to try to calm Zinn and says, you're not going to get the glory you were hoping for. I'm trying to talk this thing. And you hear that click again and you feel that it is heard but can't respond. Faster. As this silent monster. Unleashes its die move. I'm trying to get up this girl. It's going to make another crushing bite attack against you, Milo. Let's see how that goes. 28 to hit. Yeah, little hit. I don't think I came in. I'm good. I'm good. I'm good. I'm good. I'm good. I'm good. I'm good. I'm good. I'm good. I'm good. I'm good. Oh, wow. I rolled very low. That's going to be 23 points of force damage. And then it's going to make its tail attack against who's my neighbor. I would like to use my reaction to counter attack. You may. Oh, oh. Before the tail swat. I have my reaction. If you need. Yes. Somebody boost it. I can't. I can't. Exactly 15. What? To hit? Boost it. I use my reaction. To jam it sensors. Valor means back online. 17. 17 hits. Roll for damage. Oh my God. I'm true. I'm false. You're back on mine. I'm true. I'm false. I'm true. I'm false. I'm true. I'm true. I'm true. I'm true. I'm true. I'm true. I'm true. I'm true. I'm true. I'm true. Oh man. I need to do math. 14. 19. 19. 20. 25. 29 points of piercing damage. The tail flips around and comes swinging in with a 29 to hit as it would have immediately continued to try to pummel you. It's almost felt like mono a mono. But how do you want to do this? Oh. And I will. I will. I'm screaming as I stab into this thing and it's not enough as it turns and it smashes in me. I don't try to dodge it at all. Valoran is incredibly graceful. I take the smash as then I will then I'm I'm screaming in all pause for a moment. In the name of the hearth mother. In the name of my friend Reina. And I stab into the cannon right down the beast's throat just as Garth the Green did to Valoran the molten doom. You feel the spear not just pierce the armor but crunch crunch crunch forward through the neck of this beast through the actual super weapon and you feel the head of the spear exit the other side as you pull back. Amidst the chaos of battle you strike the decisive blow to the jaw of this beast. Finally blessedly it breaks the heavy brinzium plating and the cannon within its mouth splits. The immense power core within pulses with crackling energy as it destabilizes. The beast lets out a horrific groaning bellow as the flashing crystal temporarily disabled by Reina seems to surge to life again in its one final act. The harmonite surges and all your rooks are bathed in that colorful light. Each of you see your systems power down as they spark and black out and then you all feel the brutal burst of the impurosaur as it explodes. Your display screens are black as the entire cockpit flares red. Your body is jostled about violently as your rook tumbles through space and you feel the intense gravitational pull of Crayta and then you fall. Reserve power surges and flashing red lights are garish and blaring alert is cacophonous an unsettling calm mechanical voice repeats. Losing altitude impact imminent losing altitude shock absorption protocol initiated losing altitude impact in imminent shock absorption protocol initiated through the atmosphere of Crayta. The reserve power attempts to surge to reactivate your thrusters it fails. In the final moments of your fall your sensors and cameras were back on and for only a moment you see the jungle on the planet surface careening toward you hundreds of miles a second. Then a minute all of you make your impact. And yet you are all alive. You wake up your entire body aches. It's in one piece. Press the buttons and the cockpit of your rook opens. Growning struggling and you see dim sunlight drifting through the broken canopy of the jungle of Crayta. You pull yourselves out of the cockpit and you see what can only be described as a burning crater. The four rooks of Elm squadron are in pieces and at the center of the crater is the top half of the enormous head of the empirosaur like a dinosaurs skull. It is all that remains. You are able to unbuckle yourself hitting a few buttons to release the cockpit and see that sunlight you feel that you would be able to pull yourself up and out but you're all at odd angles given the violence of your crash. If I feel that my legs and my arms still work and I'm not severely crunched into dust it would take a minute. I would make sure that I can remove myself from the cockpit of rightward and I am out like a flash trying to get to Milo try to get eyes on Ren and Varys but trying to make sure that Milo is okay try to get to his cockpit as quickly as possible. You can still hear each other on and off in through the comms but pulling yourself out into the humid intense atmosphere of the of Crayta you're able to see Valorwing and the other rooks just next to you all seemingly have been crashed into this one enormous crater. I will shout from the top of Bright Roar as I get out of the cockpit. Elm Squadron! This is Elm Leader! I'm alive! Sound off! As I jump down and try to as loud as I can over the burning, the wreckage, whatever it is the silence. I'll stand in the opening of Bitterfang looking out and presumably I'll see Jace maybe approaching. You know it still dozens of feet hundreds of feet but you're able to see what is very evidently Jace's body already darting out of the you can hear his voice very faint in these moments. I'll look around and just see if I can see Varys and see if there's a I'll start I'll leap down and start heading towards them and just say call out. Is Milo okay? I'm getting to Milo as quickly as I can! Elm 3 here! Ironwall is lost! And I'll sort of like be crawling out seeing that it's you said pieces? Yeah, you're looking down you can see that even the Ironwall is a leg is completely gone. The shield and the flail nowhere to be seen. It looks like a broken body on the surface of the scorched earth that your rook and the other rooks carved into the ground of this jungle terrain. The last thing that I would have seen before all of the cameras and stuff went off was you two being like right next to this thing is exploding. And so I'm feeling like Ren's fearing better but do we hear Milo laughing? I think that you would have heard breaking in and out on the comms you would hear that that just before your rook finally shut down you would have absolutely heard his laughter after the crash on the surface of Craydon. I would just almost like stand and turn around and look at my mac and say no. Ironwall, no! And I'm going to like start to kind of grab, I'm not strong, this is huge. But if I'm ever strong enough to like move a leg over and kind of like at least collect pieces or look for the shield or anything. I'm worried about that we are now on the homeworld of the Sorok Dynasty and high tech super classified important information and tech is here. The leg of a mech this size would be the size of like a Volkswagen bus, right? So you go up to the leg after crawling through the sundered ground and you're able to get in front of it and you try to shove it and it's rocking in the wet muddy soil. It's going to take tremendous effort and perhaps the benefit of your companion strength to even pull Ironwall together. Despite how big this crater is, the trees of the crater jungle are massive. The canopy still shrouds much of the sky but you can see just above and into the atmosphere the gleaming white ships of the Cavalon Empire engaging in a retreat. Just before the three colossal Sorok capital ships appear in orbit and attempt to pursue. Soon there's nothing but sky. Just trails that vanish moments later. I don't even look at Bright War as I am trying to get to Valoran wing and make sure that Milo's okay but I do take note of what you said and I under my breath I curse the Empire. Like just damn it they left they abandoned us. Milo I'm coming! Milo Hanzai I'm coming! And I'm just trying to book it over there and I'm like I'm overwhelmed with what do we do now. I know that we're abandoned. It takes a minute to scramble. It's hot. Not only from the heat of Bright War venting all of its tremendous amount of energy but in the suits that you're wearing it's not meant to be for jungle living but still you're sprinting across and through the mud hopping over massive roots and plants as you finally reach Valoran wing and you're able to get to where Milo is seated. With open giggling to himself. Milo! Jace! Milo are you alright? Yeah. I immediately start to try to unbuckle you and see if it's damaged. I pull out a knife and see if I can cut the restraints. Jace! Do you see me? I was Garth the Green! I killed the monster with me! I did it! Yes you did a great job! And I get all the chocolate milk and you gotta pay! I'm like poking you in the chest while you're trying to... And you gotta pay! Fine fine fine. Yes you win. You won the bet. Focus! We're in deep shit here Milo! Damn! I start weeping. Oh son of a bitch! Am I able to remove the restraints? I would say it takes a moment. You probably have some tools at your side and you're able to cut the straps from his cockpit and release Milo pulling him forward into a hug. Once he's released and I see that he's crying I will pick him up and I'll pull him into me. It's okay. It's alright Milo. It's alright. Breathe! Breathe! You did a really... Green is dead. You did a good job. You did what you had to do. Breathe! He is dead Jace. I know. I know. And I'm... Green is dead Jace. If I can pick you up while you're saying these things I'm going to attempt to get you out of the cockpit and make my way down. I crumple. I'm ragged. I'm basically ragged all the time. I want to curl up and my tail will wrap around your waist. I would imagine it's not very hard for me to pick you up. Yeah. Not at all. Not at all. And so I'll scoop him up and trying to just calm him down the best that I can as I try to climb my way back to out of Valorwing to get to the rest of the squadron. It's okay. It's alright. I'm here. You pull him free and minutes later you are standing before Varys who... And I'll throw myself on the ground. It's no use. Ren, you survey the scene. Looking at the jungle all around you. There doesn't seem to be any sign of civilization. There doesn't seem to be anything but the smoking wreckage of the ship but you know that that could be a beacon for any nearby or even perhaps visible from space and you join your friends. Is everyone okay? Physically, I think we're all right. No. Milo's struggling. Look at Iron Wall. What do we do? We have to get off this beach head helm leader. Do we set up a perimeter? If we defend them perhaps we don't have to distract them. If we can hope we're not found perhaps no one saw us. Calm down. We're not blowing them yet. What do we do? We set up a perimeter and we figure out why the hell they left us. Damn them! Our mission was complete. We destroyed the weapon. Perhaps this is our fate. Our duty is done. Look we uh and and I'm gonna try to like see if I can set you down. If I feel like you aren't gonna let go I'm not gonna like drop you on the ground. I'm absolutely not letting go. And see what you start to see? I'll like uh uh. Elm Leader what do we do? All right. What is your next order? First we do need to set up a perimeter. Ren I need you at high vantage point. But as far a sight as you could possibly see. And then and I'm gonna take a look around to see uh you mentioned uh uh the wreckage of the. Yes uh uh it's it's like uh uh you all hit at a strong angle and and and and scraped uh a scar along the jungle floor. And so uh even though there's uh uh very obviously a thick canopy in this section of the uh the jungle uh trees have been displaced and pushed to all sides allowing the light in. And uh at the end of that long trail you can actually still see what was very clearly the head the sundered destroyed head that you pierced uh uh like a dinosaur skull uh poking out what once was the head of the imperus or and then I say wait let stay with me. Varys listen to me. You do not hold the line. You are the line. As long as you do not step back we will not fall. I need you to go forth. Stay in front of me I can't Milo won't let go. Yes we need to check the skull. Yes I'll lead. I. Ben stay close. At your side. I still stand and draw breath. And I'll look up at the sky. I am Elm squadron's living shield. And I'll sort of stumble forward kind of catch myself build a light headed and I'll write myself and I will slowly walk in front of you. And we'll be a couple steps behind you. Is this a hot jungle? I would say that the humidity makes the heat even worse. Yeah. Mmm. I will suddenly I'll say guys do you feel that? I'm just going to immediately score I'm going to try to get out of your hands. I I I let you. Guys. Ugh. It's not cold anymore. I feel warm. That's the hearth mother's worth. You're warm. She came back and we're not cold and we're not in the box. None of us are in the box. We're all here. Grace. Hearth mother. Mechanically I'm going to cast bless on my friends. Oh, I will say a prayer to Vistaya as I will then start to kind of like maintain a level of lucidity as I will then kind of register what's going on. All right. Together with Ferris and the lead. Yeah. If they have comms in that head or something, maybe we can see if they if they know that we touched down if they're sending a war band. When you're at every advantage they get if they send anything here, this isn't a defensible location. I basically just ready a simple combat knife as we like that's all I have like I was whatever I used to help get my out. I've got a simple combat knife, you know, field issue as we prepare to move towards either either the inventory that would have been in like an emergency box or or locker inside of the cockpit that you grabbed or what would have been attached to your suit is readily at hand and the four of you start to make your way forward walking down the impact zone seeing right were at one side ballerwing to the other iron wall in another direction and rents better better thing. I couldn't remember. I'm sorry. And the bitter fang all of them crumpled some in more disrepair than others, but all of them clearly lights out. You all approach the severed head of the destroyed super mech. When you hear a loud mechanical groaning and a hiss at the top of the hatch, it lifts up in the cockpit opens. The pilot emerges. She twists her helmet and you realize that you're staring at a young to call woman and to your shock. She is no older than any of you. And that's where we'll call tonight's session. Oh, thanks for playing the session. Thanks for playing. Holy smokes. This is really fun. I like this camping. What is it?