Turns 4.4 - 4.6 "Giving Chase & Electronic Surveillance"
Dr. Lugwig suddenly snapped out of a stint of indecision to find himself
falling to the floor. At first there were so many curious things going on he
wasn't sure which way to turn. After hearing the gunfire Lugwig's mind quickly
sharpened. "My friend'sss might be hurt, mussst lookie lookie." As fast as
his T'sa legs and dexterity could carry him, Lugwig ran toward the Main
Engineering area looking for any fallen comrades.
Nola had thought to herself during the mess of zero-g, "How the heck was I
supposed to know what was going to happen?" She cursed herself and Akers, too,
for forcing her hand and making her take the shot.
Knowing time was being lost if she pondered her situation any more, she
shouted, "Dimitrio shut the lights off! Shut them back off!"
Dimitrio was just about to say something ironic about the gravity and all
when he heard more desperate orders coming from Nola. He saw the t'sa zip past
him almost heading into him as he went back into the control room, yelling all
the time, "Alright, I'm going. I'm going. Hold on a second..."
"What happened in here?" exclaimed Alex, even as Cal started feeding him
reports. He took it all in through his ears: the gunshots, the wounds, the
falls. It was a drama unfolding before him.
As Nola got up to give chase, she called to 'Dig', saying, "Jake follow me,
he must be going to the airlock, get him!"
Jake had hit the ground like a sack of spuds, instinctively going into a
combat roll, and apparently not too well, and had silently thanked his Maker
that gravity had come on just in time. Yeah, it hurt like hell to hit the
deck so hard, but it was a damn site better than losing one's gonads to that
freak's laser pistol.
Coming out of his combat roll, he heard the two shots as Akers dashed away.
Fortunately they were wild, so he grabbed his rifle and got to his feet,
looking toward Nola. And, off she went after Mr. Freak-Eyes. Jake gasped at
her wounds and quickly leaped for her.
"Whoa, Nola, hold your horses," he urged her, just catching her arm before
she could start toward the door, "He's not going anywhere fast. The only ship
just left, remember. Let's see if one of the computer geniuses can track him
rather than us running headlong into a laser tag party, OK?"
"Besides," he added with a note of concern, "You're hurtin' lady. Hey,
Doc! Get your scaly butt up here, we've got wounded, yesssss?"
"Oh no, bad yessss, ssstay ssstill Lugwig fixey fixey", yelled Lugwig over
the hum of the room. He reached into his pack with both hands and pulled out
the trauma pack and the anesthetic. With remarkable speed and agility, Dr.
Lugwig began to treat his patient, taking only a small glance at Nola's front
teeth.
----------
In the meantime, Alex moved back toward the engineering control room...
"Dimitrio! Zach!" he called, sliding back through the mechanical doors.
"Can you track this guy through the station? Is there a record of the doors
opening or something?" He knew little about the computers on the station
beyond how to operate the more simple tasks and those that dealt with the
hangar.
Once in the control room, Dimitrio had begun to shut off the emergency
lights as told while explaining to Zach, "I think someone is hurt and they
are definitely having problems out there." He continued on with his mad
rambling, "Why is it that I don't have my gun, eh? I mean, I'm a full-fledged
Concord citizen but no, no guns. What about if something like this happens,
eh? Who takes care of me, the security, eh? Fat chance. All I ever get
from them are orders and not even thanks for doing what they tell me. You
know what? I'm going to keep my gun next time I find it, and I don't care
what they say about it..."
Standing next to him, Zach vaguely heard Dimitrio's words, not really
following the Nariac's ranting, as he focused on the world of the Grid. When
Alex stepped back into the room and asked for a surveillance check, he
definitely heard that, though...
"I can't get a record of all doors in the station," he called out, keeping
his eyes closed as he communed with the computer-world, "The system's not set
up that way. There are really only certain doors that are monitored. They're
all security checkpoints. I should be able to get access to a camera, as well
as the internal security logs for whoever passes through them."
He logged back into the engineering system and sent a request to the
security station to monitor important doors and access hatches in the nearby
vicinity. "I've got nothing here...," he called out, "No security-checkpoint
hatches have been opened in the past few minutes...no lifts are currently
moving...and the airlocks are all sealed...no...wait...uh-oh, that looks
bad..."
An image came to him inside the whirling sphere of multi-colored lights,
an image from the security camera at the airlock on Level Five, the Hangar
Deck. There was a person lying on the floor. He couldn't see the face or
upper torso, just a pair of legs hanging out of the airlock. The person was
dressed in a tan jumpsuit and wearing a pair of standard-issue boots. The
alarming thing was the dark red pool of blood all around on the floor.
"There's someone down at the airlock in the Hangar Bay...not the bay doors,
but the airlock itself. They look really hurt...probably dead," he told them,
his hands trembling a bit as he fought down his stomach's urge to give up its
dinner.
Zach wasn't sure of all that was going on, yet, but one thing was for
sure... he wasn't going to find out much more from here. And he really didn't
want to stare at the image from the security camera any longer than he had to.
He disconnected and said, "I've got to get to comm-central. It's the only way
I can complete anything that might help us. Let's try to help catch that Akers
guy and find out what he knows and then get out of here. With gravity back,
someone will know we are here and probably come looking." He reeled in his
wires to his gridcaster and looked about nervously.
Both Alex and Dimitrio could tell that Zach was uncomfortable and they
could see in his eyes that there were many other places he'd rather be than
trying to save the station. He started to rock back and forth a bit, obviously
impatient and worried that something worse might be happening on the station
than a renegade engineer...people were being murdered.
----------
Meanwhile, in the Main Engineering Chamber...
Nola impatiently waited as the good doctor finished applying something for
the pain, and wrapped a curative bandage around her lower leg. Finally, she
pushed herself up and toward the door. Her face grimaced as the movement sent
pain lancing to her head from her leg wound, the anesthetic not quite having
had time to do its work yet. Her heart pounded as she began to give chase,
knowing that chasing people was always folly, but she knew that she had backup,
and catching this man was important. Ducking just outside the door she turned
right and looked at the access panel.
For the second time in just a few seconds, Jake hit the ground like a sack
of spuds, trying to reach for her. Groaning, he watched her lithe figure zip
off after Akers. "Nola, stop!" he shouted. Then he got to his feet and took
off after her. Remembering too many horror stories from the veteran drill
instructors of marines who had run into ambushes because they hadn't taken
the time to look over the ground or be careful, he shook his head. Rookies...
Seeing the access panel to the ladder just around the corner, Nola's eyes
widened as she realized it was gaping open. So...the engineer was heading for
the the Hangar Deck? She stuck her gun-hand down the shaft, pulled the trigger
twice, and then looked down. The shots ricocheted against the sheet metal and
ladder, but nothing else.
"Damn it," she thought, "Nothing. The headstart must've given him enough
time to reach the bottom." She looked down at her leg again and then back at
the ladder, unsure if she'd be able to navigate it with the gravity restored.
Lugwig would probably advise her against it, she knew.
Coming up behind her, Jake skidded to a halt, thinking she would have
raced down the hall, and surprised to find her standing there instead.
"Whoa!" he grunted, bumping into her slightly, then helping to keep her
steady as she wobbled on her bad leg.
"He's gone... probably on the Hangar Deck," Nola said, leaning heavily
on him and finally pointing toward the access shaft and the ladder.
Suddenly the station lights flickered out, as Dimitrio successfully
issued the command to the engineering control station. The rest of the
group began to shuffle out into the hallway behind Jake and Nola. Lugwig
was there first, his reptilian head twitching back and forth like a
salamander to look both ways. Then Alex, Dimitrio and Zach came through the
door as well.
"Jake , Nola, hold it up there," Dimitrio said, "We got him in the dark
wherever he is and if we walk around to the security office, I can probably
shut down all the checkpoint doors on him. That would keep him out of most
places. He won't be going nowhere important anytime soon. So, where's my
gun? I want my gun, man and I am keeping it, OK? I ain't going loony
hunting without a gun, no sir. C'mon Dig, go get my gun, man."
Of course, all the guns were stored up one level on the Crew Deck, Jake
knew... and only two people had the key to the weapons locker... the Station
Commander and the Security Chief...where were they?
--------------------------------------------------
---------- Turn 4.4 - Turn 4.5 Comments ----------
--------------------------------------------------
1. Lugwig has successfully treated Nola's wounds, requiring a complex
skill check that took up a couple of rounds. As a result, her wounds have
been totally removed (in game terms). She and Jake are still suffering from
minor stun damage, however. Given another opportunity, Lugwig could probably
remove that as well...but I thought it would add a bit of suspense and
tension to have them at least start to give chase. If anyone wants to stop
for further treatment, feel free to do so with your next action. Nola, as far
as the removal of your wounds go, there is still some pain (so please roleplay
it that way), however nothing that would affect you in game terms.
2. Nola fired two shots down the second access ladder, bringing her total
ammo down to 11 (max. 15) in her current clip.
3. Zach was able to send inquiries to the security control station in
order to get a view of the current camera angles. He won't be able to issue
commands to change their angle unless he visits the security stations
themselves (i.e., you're still only able to issue inquiries, not commands...
to do that, you need to visit each station individually, or head up to the
main station computer on Level One).
4. Dimitrio was able to shut down all of the flourescent lights once
again. The red-lamp emergency lighting automatically kicks back on, in
response to any loss of normal station-lighting, though. So, you're back to
low-light conditions again...not complete darkness. To disable ALL of the
lights would take a lot longer...and several successes to override all the
safety lockouts. Should you wish to invest that much time in attempting it,
please let me know...
5. Just to keep things running well, I'm curious as to how each of you
feel about the game so far. Is the pace about right? Is everything
proceeding the way you expected? If not, please let me know so I can make
adjustments along the way. Thanks.
6. Next actions?
-- Neil
Neil I'm confused, for access to the cameras do we go to:
a) Compartment 1. Comm Pit
b) Compartment 17. Security Office
c) Compartment ?. Other?
And are the guns stored in:
a) Compartment 16. Master-at-Arms' Quarters
b) Compartment 17. Security Office
c) Compartment ?. Other?
As to Q5. everything seems to be doing fine at the moment. Except you're
allowing other people's interactions to interrupt actions, and then you let
the actions proceed. (BTW I was away from Friday to Monday and I would have
told you that Nola ignored Dig and Doc to have some shots at Akers, but
thems the breaks) An aside here: having Nola's wounds tended to and then
she fires bullets down the ladder is rather ludicrous. :)
Anyway, as I can't seem to suggest anything better except for me to write
back with my modified actions, don't change your style. Things are going
really well. Thumbs up! :)
-- Jamie
I'm enjoying myself, even not knowing the system. I think everyone is doing a
great job with their characters. I like the posts as well.
-- Rich
So far I'm enjoying the game, despite doing the upside ballerina thing
in null-g. The annoyances of having things happen that weren't stated or
planned are just part of the dice rolls, or they advance the story line in
some way, so I really don't mind. The pace seems about right, given the
situation. I assume we will get in situations where the pace is slower
(extended combat rounds) and faster (role-playing situations or those where
the story needs to move along). A definite thumbs up and an attaboy!
-- Paul
Game has been great so far! You are doing an excellent job putting our posts
together and advancing the story. I would appreciate more 'guidance' on our
responses. I know we are free to do anything but a small guidance would help
if it can be set forth.
-- Fabian
I'll go ahead and take a moment to answer a few of these out-of-character
questions, just so everyone understands. This isn't Neil trying to be
heavy-handed or anything. I just thought it might be good for us all to
discuss the game out-of-character a bit. Mostly, I just want everyone to
understand the reasons behind the choices that I've made so far... and also
to go ahead and provide you some additional information that your characters
would know.
Part of the difficulty of this particular scenario is that your
characters are supposed to begin with a reasonable "working" knowledge of the
station layout. Some of you have been on-board longer than others, so I
tried to include as much background as I could in your starting information
emails... Even so, I knew I wouldn't be able to explain everything to you
right away (Information overload! Aaaaaghhh!), so I thought I'd bring some
of that stuff to light along the way...
Of course, I also urged everyone to ask me questions regarding their
starting information if there was something else they felt their character
should know. Some of you took advantage of that opportunity... others
didn't... but that's okay. I knew I'd be providing some of this info
along the way, regardless...
[Jamie/Nola:]
Neil I'm confused, for access to the cameras do we go to:
a) Compartment 1. Comm Pit
b) Compartment 17. Security Office
c) Compartment ?. Other?
What I've been trying to get across to everyone is that any workstation
can "inquire" on the status of another...but to actually manipulate one
workstation (i.e., modify the settings, change something) from another is
not possible, except in the case of the main station computer (located on the
Command Deck, in compartment 3) and the Secondary Command station (located on
the Defenses Deck, compartment 26) but only once it is brought online, which
must be done from the main computer (compartment 3, again).
There are three places where the security cameras could be "controlled"
from... however, any workstation on-board can at least access the cameras for
their current "view". Workstations are located on the Command Deck, in
Engineering Control, the Hangar Ops Office, the Security Office, and
Secondary Command. If you want to manipulate (i.e., directly control and not
just "view") the security systems, you need to go to compartment 17 (the
Security Office) or compartment 3 (the Command Deck). Again, there are also
the Secondary Command workstations in compartment 26, but these cannot be
brought online unless directed to do so from the main computer on the Command
Deck (compartment 3, again).
Lastly, I want to explain about the "other" computer system that is NOT
connected to the station's main computer. That system would be in the Comm Pit
(compartment 1), and it contains all of the specialized equipment for
controlling the drivespace relay satellites in orbit about the spacestation.
These are BIG computers and take up a lot of room and horsepower. They crunch
all of the data packets being routed across the galaxy, translating them,
encoding them, sorting them, etc. This system is ultra-secure and proprietary
to the ComTech Corporation in accordance with Concord laws which regulate
tampering with the "mail". They CANNOT be interfaced with via any workstation
other than those in the Comm Pit (compartment 1).
And are the guns stored in:
a) Compartment 16. Master-at-Arms' Quarters
b) Compartment 17. Security Office
c) Compartment ?. Other?
Believe it or not, the guns are kept in compartment 16 (the Master-at-Arms'
Quarters). They are inside a weapons locker maintained by Rieger Bloch, Chief
of Security. The locker is very secure with a bioelectric scanner built-in to
the mechanism. The only people that carry the appropriately encoded keys are
the Station Commander, Brian Rouen, and the Chief of Security, Rieger Bloch.
[Rich/Zach:]
I'm enjoying myself, even not knowing the system. I think everyone is
doing a great job with their characters. I like the posts as well.
I would agree wholeheartedly. All of you guys are doing a great job of
posting. The depth and detail that you're putting into them really helps me as
a GM to understand your characters better. Of course, from time to time, I
misinterpret some things. When that happens, let me know that I'm off-base with
what you intended and I'll try to put things right.
[Hai/Alex:]
Having much fun. Still don't know the system. School sucking me dry.
Can't talk complete sentences. See you all on the station.
Hang in there, Hai! Thankfully for me, school is over. But I can still
empathize with you. As a side note, any time real life situations come up that
will take you from the game... or slow down your response time... just let me
know and I'll hold back posting a turn summary for a little while longer. But
even if you do miss getting a stated action into the next turn, don't sweat
it... I'm not going to kill you off suddenly or anything. Of course, if you
miss a whole bunch in a row without telling me ahead of time... then we might
have to do something about it. Just FYI for everyone...
[Paul/Jake:]
OOC: So far I'm enjoying the game, despite doing the upside ballerina
thing in null-g. The annoyances of having things happen that weren't
stated or planned are just part of the dice rolls, or they advance the
story line in some way, so I really don't mind. The pace seems about
right, given the situation. I assume we will get in situations where the
pace is slower (extended combat rounds) and faster (role-playing
situations or those where the story needs to move along). A definite
thumbs up and an attaboy!
Thanks, I'm glad that everyone seems to be enjoying the game overall. And
Paul hit the nail on the head with respect to the die rolls sometimes fouling up
your stated actions. I do my best to incorporate what you guys plan to do... but
I still make some die rolls for you to determine how well you pull it off.
The zero-gravity debacle was definitely meant to inconvenience you guys.
It's part of the overall adventure, and once it's finished, perhaps it will give
everyone a reason to buy the skill? I especially like Jake's continuous and
inward cursing of the Concord Marines for not providing the training yet. That
makes for great roleplay. Even so, when I assisted everyone in character creation,
I did make it a point to have at least a few of you invest in the zero-g training
skill. After all, I didn't want *everyone* floundering around... or this first
combat could have been your last.
For the moment, the zero-g imbalance serves to give everyone an opportunity
to participate...and hopefully, it should encourage teamwork. If the non-combat
guy knows zero-g, but he's not so good at shooting... and the combat guy has a
great rifle skill, but no zero-g training... well, they obviously need to work
together to overcome their obstacles. It makes for good roleplay. And it makes
for a good story. In my opinion, at least...but that's just me.
As for the pace of the game, it is a little slow right now. Some of you
guys are still getting your feet wet with understanding the Alternity universe.
In addition, you're still learning more about the Kendai station as we explore
it together. Lastly, you still haven't quite figured out what's going on yet.
As such, the pace is going to be a little slow at first while you absorb some of
the answers to all of that.
Once some of those answers are discovered, the pace is definitely going to
pick up. Even during combat. The first encounter with Akers was just an
opportunity seized by your GM to let you experience such a situation early on
and see how everyone reacted (of course, there's a story-reason as well). As we
go deeper into the campaign and you are thrown into more combat situations,
hopefully you will have learned a few lessons here...both in and out of
character...with regards to how to overcome such a challenge. So, live and
learn... :)
--------------
[Note: I thought about addressing this particular concern individually with
you, Jamie, but as I wrote my response, I concluded that everyone else could
probably benefit from my explanation as well. I hope you don't mind...]
[Jamie/Nola:]
As to Q5. everything seems to be doing fine at the moment. Except you're
allowing other people's interactions to interrupt actions, and then you let
the actions proceed. (BTW I was away from Friday to Monday and I would
have told you that Nola ignored Dig and Doc to have some shots at Akers,
but thems the breaks) An aside here: having Nola's wounds tended to and
then she fires bullets down the ladder is rather ludicrous. :)
I understand what you're saying. In fact, I started to just say that Nola
didn't continue the "chase" at all. With two wounds, her action check was
suffering a penalty, so Jake and Lugwig certainly got to act first. Thus,
'Dig' caught Nola's arm before she hustled out the door, and Lugwig started
fussing over her right away. I would have had that happen even if you had sent
me an email between Friday and Monday, because of the way the dice came up for
initiative.
Nola might have desired to still go after Akers, but Jake would have at
least slowed her down... and Akers would have been long gone anyway. Would you
have fought against Jake and Lugwig to let you go after him instead of taking
the treatment? I guess we'll never know... but, for me, and the overall story,
I like how things worked out. It shows some relationships developing between
the characters right now... they actually do "care" about one another.
Even so, in the interest of the story, I decided to go ahead and use your
additional actions (even though I allowed Jake to briefly interrupt them). I
simply assumed that your next action, upon being healed, would be to at least
take a look out the door. At that point, you would have seen the access panel
gaping open. I just decided to have Nola go ahead and fire the weapon down
the chute just in case Akers was climbing slowly with his wounded shoulder
(who knows, you might have got lucky! ). Besides, I figured she might be
pissed off enough at Akers to do that anyway. If I'm misinterpreting your
character's personality... or interjecting too much... or assuming too much
about your actions, let me know, and I'll certainly try to adjust myself
accordingly. The same can be said for everyone else. If I'm ever
misinterpreting how your character would act...certainly let me know that.
At the very least, I won't make the same mistake twice, because I'll
understand the character better.
Anyway, as I can't seem to suggest anything better except for me to write
back with my modified actions, don't change your style. Things are going
really well. Thumbs up! :)
Thanks. I appreciate the positive feedback. I'd like to encourage
everyone to always write back with their modified actions (assuming you're not
away on vacation or something, of course... we all have real lives to live, and
I respect that). Keep in mind that I can really only go by what I've received
from all the players when I write the next turn summary. Please don't hold it
against me if I make a bad assumption as a result of not hearing back from
anyone. It's hard to put all of these posts together in a sensible and
believable way. Perhaps having Nola fire her gun down the ladder after being
healed *was* ludicrous... my thinking was that it moved the story along by
providing additional information rather than just stopping with her being healed
and sitting on the floor. And, it gave me the extra bonus of being able to
actually use what Jamie had already wrote up. I always try to include as much
of what you guys write as possible. I hope that's okay with everyone... but, by
all means, let me know when you've got a problem with my decisions. I'll be
happy to explain my reasoning and discuss the alternatives at any time.
Sincerely,
-- Neil
(
geocities.com/collegepark/quad/6096/rpgs) (
geocities.com/collegepark/quad/6096) (
geocities.com/collegepark/quad) (
geocities.com/collegepark)