Depths of Regina – Turn 1.6 – Finalizing the Waterfall Bid
After further review and discussion the group settles on the heavily defensible craft approach. ETC provides a quote of 60,000cr for the heavy transport with two pilots.
As for escort vessels, ETC also has three models that you determine would work for the assignment. First is the Scythe, an unmanned drone described as very fast and agile, able to carry light or medium weapons. It was listed at 29,000cr. The Interceptor is a single manned craft with speed and maneuverability comparable to the Scythe but is only capable of lightweight weapons. It was listed at 21,000cr. Finally, there is the Convoy at 25,000cr. It’s a two man craft that while still fast is noticeably slower than the other two but can carry more weaponry.
JACK: Is the Scythe something that Surge could pilot remotely? You
go on to talk about lightweight and medium weaponry, but below you
don't really distinguish, is there any of the systems that Midnight likes
that is a 'medium' weapon and cannot go on anything but the Convoy
or heavy transport? What about an enhanced avionics package,
would this take up a mounted weapon 'slot'? Our primary concept for
the escort would be for detection, and it would only engage with long
range accurate weaponry after the threat was confirmed, so maybe
one of the laser cannon turrets and a pair of Seeker rockets.
GM: Surge could pilot the Scythe remotely but he would not be able to control it fast enough.
On the lighter craft there is a limit to what they can take. Neither can carry a quad laser but otherwise can carry the other weapons listed.
All of the escort craft have an enhanced avionics package and there’s nothing feasible that you can purchase for it. Since these vessels are being leased on a very short term basis there are only certain modifications that ETC will accept. Avionics and other integrated systems would be too difficult to swap out.
VAMPERINA: Do the escort craft come with pilots or would we need to
provide? Also, what is the SPD of the Interceptor?
GM: They can provide pilots or not. It actually doesn’t change the cost since there is more insurance necessary if they are not piloting the craft themselves. The Interceptor and Scythe are both SPD 6 while the Convoy is SPD 5. All the transports are SPD 3.
VAMPERINA: Wow, SPD 6. I like it. :)
That does raise a question. Very few humans have a SPD higher than 4
and human average is 2. So how do slow humans handle a vehicle with
such a fast response? Here are a few examples that I can think of.
1. A hot shot fighter pilot might have a bonus to SPD only for the
purpose of operating a fighter jet. At max, this would probably be +1.
2. The fighter pilot might be injected with some sort of reaction
enhancing drugs. At max, this would probably be +2 for a few minutes.
3. Most pilots probably have a SPD of 3 or 4 and simple aren't capable
of taking full advantage of a high tech craft like the Interceptor.
Would it be safe to assume that number 3 is the most common situation?
If so, then where do the pilots who would be operating the Interceptor
fit in? Could Vamperina join them in a simulator, obstensibly so that
they could judge her skill but really so that she could get a feel for
the skills of the pilots who would be operating the Interceptor if we
decide to go that route instead of manning it ourself?
GM: Correct, most humans are not capable of controlling the craft to
its full potential. An interesting side note is that the 5ER book
lists the F-15E Eagle fighter jet at SPD 5. So if a pilot is not
capable of reacting at that speed then the vehicle essentially holds
its action until the pilot can react. There are some situations where
a lower SPD pilot can benefit from the higher speed. For instance, if
the pilot wanted to accelerate as fast as possible and not do any
course adjustments he could use the craft's higher speed. He
essentially would command the craft to accelerate and it could
continue to do that until the pilot changes his input.
GM: Vamperina is able to join some ETC pilots in the simulator and
you learn that they have several 'hot shot' pilots that can pilot the
crafts to a SPD of 5. No one you encounter can pilot the Interceptor
sims to a SPD of 6. You would put their piloting abilities in the 14-
to 15- range. You leave with the impression that while you are a
better pilot than any of them they have several good pilots that would
do a fine job of escorting the transports if you chose to go with
them.
----------
As for weapon systems, Midnight narrows it down to a list of choices:
Mounted Weapons
Chain Cannon – fires many damaging 15mm rounds with continuous fire but limited range. 4500cr
Ion Cannon – fires a beam of ionized gas. Has limited range, slow recharge rate but can bypass armor and hulls to do electrical systems damage. Force fields negate the beam. 5000cr
Plasma Cannon - fires stream of super heated plasma that causes high damage but at limited range and medium recharge rate. 4000cr
Quad Laser Cannon – 4 high powered lasers mounted in a turret; capable of incredible distances with high accuracy; very damaging lasers capable of penetrating armor but has a slow recharge rate; taxes a vehicles energy system more quickly. 6000cr
Twin Laser Cannon – 2 high powered lasers mounted in a turret; capable of incredible distances with high accuracy; less damaging than the quad but still capable of penetrating armor; has a medium recharge rate. 4000cr
Rockets
Burst Rocket – a cluster of 5 small rockets; medium range but good explosion radius; 3000cr per cluster
Seeker Rocket – a highly accurate, long range air to air missile that is capable of very high damage. 4000cr per rocket.
MIDNIGHT (GM): What skills are needed to use each weapon appropriately?
GM: Steve will send clarification on what weapon skills are required if you have any questions.
GM: We'll use the SysOp: Energy Weapons skill for the non-missile
weapons (including chain cannon). SysOp: Rocket Launcher will apply
to both the missiles.
----------
After reviewing the craft’s specification Midnight determines that the heavy transport is not capable of carrying missiles but could take up to 4 mounted weapons. The Scythe and Interceptor can take two missiles and one mounted weapon. The Convoy can take 4 missiles and two mounted weapons.
JACK: These missiles are single missiles mounted to the 'wing' and
used up when shot, not actual missile launchers with magazines,
right?
GM: Correct.
GM: Please discuss and decide what craft and weapons you want to go with. After this is decided we’ll do the next month which starts off with you submitting the bid.
JACK: I definitely like the Ion Cannon for the transport, especially in
the case of a tractor beam or other high tech energy weapon, but I'd
only want one, since it's negated by force fields. In fact, this might be
what the enemy would use against us, so we should be sure to have a
force field, if not two ;) Perhaps that, a chain cannon for medium
range, a quad laser for long range, and a plasma cannon to make
them pay for closing to short range? Presumably most of these would
be covered by SysOps - Laser Weapons (laser turret) or SysOps -
Plasma Weapons (Plasma Cannon, maybe Ion Cannon?), but what
skill governs using the Chain Cannon, if any? Jack would be happy to
learn one of these systems as part of this mission, since the transport
can't carry rockets and it was deemed risky for him to pilot the escort
craft.
What kind of Power Plants are we talking here, for both craft? You
mention a high power drain for a couple of the weapons, could Surge
offset that somewhat? The heavy transport was listed as having a
large power plant easily capable of maintaining flight for days at a
time, but that may not imply weapons grade power usage over and
above just maneuvering. My concept of how the escort would fight
after the enemy is starting to close with us, and not need to maneuver
a lot would allow for some higher power usage without blowing out its
power plant. This way if the enemy craft veers off to engage the
escort they lose whatever pursuit range they had closed on us, and
the escort goes back to maneuverable defense mode (dodging) while
the transport weapons continue firing on the enemy. I suppose this
doesn't really account for the possibility of multiple enemy craft
though.
GM: All vehicles being considered have enough power to operate the listed weapons. The energy weapons do deplete the craft’s reserves (END) so it is possible to run them down if all weapons are being fired at maximum rates. The good news is that doesn’t mean the craft plummets from the sky once its power is drained. Core systems get their power before auxiliary systems such as weapons. The game effect is your weapons will have to wait for the vehicle’s power plant to recover. Surge could assist the craft some but Surge’s ability to produce power would not keep up with these weapon’s use of energy. To put it into perspective these weapons fire 3 times the energy that Surge’s top attack delivers.
Finally, what about defensive systems like Force Fields, deflector
screens (projected Force Walls?) and hull armor? Any options there
or are you assuming a standard package for each type of craft?
GM: Force fields are not possible for the heavy transport. It’s too large and the power drain would be too great. The craft does not have good armor either. However the escort ships do have both force fields and light armor. For the most part these vehicles will be as good as you can get given the price range and distance necessary to travel.
VAMPERINA: "My suggestion for an escort craft is the Interceptor for its
speed and maneuverability. I think we want something that can get
around quickly. I also prefer to rely on someone from the team rather
than a drone to quickly assess possible threats."
VAMPERINA: "For mounted weapons on the heavy transport, I suggest two
Chain Cannons, a Quad Laser Cannon and a Plasma Cannon. The Chain
Cannons have the advantage in that they are not going to drain the
transport's power plant when they fire. The Quad Laser will drain the
power plant but will give us a big punch for an initial shot at any
incoming craft. The Twin Laser gives us a little more versatility with
regard to recharge and energy usage."
JACK: I like these options, although I had originally suggested the Ion
Cannon in place of one of the Chain Cannons. I like the idea of
shorting out the enemy's electrical systems and forcing them to
abandon their pursuit rather than blowing them up, but that's just me.
We probably won't have energy to spare to use it anyway.
VAMPERINA: "For mounted weapons on the Interceptor, I suggest a Twin
Laser Cannon, a Burst Rocket and a Seeker Rocket."
VAMPERINA: "That does bring up another question. Who on the team is
skilled in using mounted weapons (TECH: Must have Systems Operation
skill with Energy Weapons to use the energy weapons, and Systems
Operations with Rocket Weapons to use the rockets)."
MIDNIGHT (OOC): According to my character sheet, Midnight does not have SO:
Energy Weapons. I'll spend the XP immediately since that's something he'd
clearly need/want as a chief gunnery officer.
Vamperina - Both
Midnight - Both?
Vareq - Both?
Jack - Rocket only?
Surge - None?
Kyle - None?
SURGE: Surge has no familiarity with weapon systems and thus would be limited to communicating with the Scythe(s) or other tasks involving his powers directly.
VAREQ (OOC): Glork.
VAREQ: Vareq knows his way around the Rockets and Energy
Weapons.
He votes one small unmanned and one small manned craft
in addition to the large craft.
KYLE: Kyle is so out of his league with this. He has no strong opinions as
to what armaments should be used. He's also not trained with any of them,
though he does have Systems Operations on a high roll, and could probably
train in some weapons systems between now when the contract comes in
(assuming we get it).
STEVE-GM: Just to be clear on how this works, when you use a weapon
remotely, you need to make a Systems Operation roll and, if you make
that, then you use your normal CV to determine whether you hit or not.
How much you make your Systems Operation roll doesn't really matter
(though if you rolled a natural 3, I would probably give you a bonus to
your CV). So, while Systems Operations is important, the more important
ability is your OCV (OCV from Dex, plus any applicable skill levels).
If you have an Overall Level, then you would have to decide whether to
use it for the Systems Operation roll, or your OCV with the weapon. You
could not use it for both as the act of firing the weapon is a single
action.
KYLE: I figured as much. Kyle's not that great in the OCV department either
- certainly not compared to some others in the group. Maybe he's best
manning the sensors *looking* for trouble while the rest of you shoot that
trouble.
GM: So the goal of 1.6 is for you to finalize your approach to the
contract. Turn 1.7 will include next month's action and the
submission of the bid. Before we can do that you need to decide how
you'll pitch the bid and what approach you'll take to defending the
cargo. We don't need to go into extreme detail but I do need to have
a good idea of what your plans are.
VAMPERINA: "I think the plan right now is to go with a single, heavily
armed transport to carry the entire cargo. Most, if not all of the team
will be on the transport to protect the cargo. I'm still undecided on
what escort craft to get. One the one hand, I would love to have an
Interceptor since I can take full advantage of the Interceptor's
maneuverability (i.e., I have a SPD equal to or greater than the SPD of
the Interceptor) and have the necessary skills to handle the weapons
systems. On the other hand, I would like to be in the transport itself
since that might be where the action will take place if a hijacking is
attempted. I would like to hear from others on this. I think we are
pretty much decided on a single heavy transport and just need to decide
what escort craft, if any, that we want. My input is that we should
definitely have at least one, if not two escort craft."
KYLE: "It might not be practical in the midst of a dogfight, but if the
Interceptor had a reliable autopilot, I could always come and get you if
things got tight onboard the main ship."
MIDNIGHT:"I agree the one heavy transport with two escorts. I think
Vamperina in the Interceptor would be a huge advantage to us. I know you
don't want to miss the action, but having you as our frontline of defense
would be VERY helpful. I’d rather have another armed Interceptor rather
than the drone to assist in ferreting out any air borne attacks."
JACK: "Also, this would give that weird sense of danger you have a
chance to assist us before it's too late, since the escorts would likely
come under attack first. Midnight, you mention 2 escorts, did you
mean Vareq as the other pilot? The other possibility is to have the
second escort be one of those unmanned Scythe ones flying very
high overwatch position, just watching for anything moving nearby,
Surge could use its sensors remotely... If we wanted to arm it with
anything, perhaps just a couple Seekers at most, but I think it will be a
sitting duck more than any help in an actual firefight.
GM: Just to clarify something, the Scythes are very sophisticated machines. While not as skilled as Vamperina they are very good at what they are programmed to do and would probably hold their own against most pilots out there. A human might be able to out think them but they're not pushovers. The group can communicate with it and give it new instructions so the Scythe is not a second class alternative especially if you don't want to risk some pilot's life.
GM: Also the transport's power system could handle 2-3 turns of constant weapons use. Where you will run into trouble is a long drawn out fight though you'll be able to manage your energy use.
MIDNIGHT: "Actually, I was thinking we'd let the contractor provide a pilot
for the other ship. We'll probably want Surge working overtime with our
sensor array since he's more tuned into that than most ship systems from
what I’ve seen. If they can provide a good combat pilot for the same
price, why not use him? Besides, I agree with Vamperina that we don't want
to split our group up too much. Having Vareq/Omen available may be key in
the long run."
VAMPERINA: Vamperina nods in agreement. "Why don't we plan to go with
an Interceptor and a Scythe."
----------
VAMPERINA (GM): How big is the cockpit of the Interceptor? Is it like
an F-16 or is it bigger? Basically is it feasible to have Kyle be able
to teleport into the Interceptor with the idea that he could then
teleport both of us back to the transport if need be? I'm assuming that
I could set the autopilot of the Interceptor to simply fly at a constant
speed and altitude until we could retrieve it later by having Kyle
teleport both of us back to the Interceptor.
GM: The Interceptor’s cockpit is not large enough for two people. So Kyle could not teleport into the craft while someone was already in the cockpit unless he can be insubstantial (desolidified). Kyle could teleport into the Convoy with a single pilot. Both the Convoy and Interceptor have sophisticated computer systems that are capable of true piloting. For instance, they can safely return to base and land if the pilot is incapacitated. They are not as advanced as the Scythe and do not have systems to determine targets and attack them as the Scythe can.
VAMPERINA: "Kyle, can you remotely teleport me? That is, if I were to
fly close to the transport, could you look out the porthole and teleport
me from the Interceptor to the transport?"
KYLE: "Unfortunately I haven't quite figured out how to manifest a
dimensional discontinuity at range - which is to say, no." He shrugs
apologetically.
VAMPERINA: Vamperina nods and replies, "it was a long shot, but I had to
ask." She continues on, speaking to everyone, "even though it looks
like I would not be able to easily get back to the transport if
something happened there, I still agree that the Intercepter and the
Scythe are the craft that we want. We do not have to decide today who
would pilot the Interceptor except to agree that it would be someone
from our team."
JACK: What about Omen? He calls his teleportation wormholes, can
he open one that is two-way without going through himself, so you
can use it to return to the transport? Preferably without harming the
Interceptor ;)
KYLE: An important add on to that question is whether he can compensate for
any velocity differential. Given the situation it might not be possible to
match speed and course.
VAREQ: "I don't know if I can open one without going through, or if I can
compensate for velocity. I'm not really interested in trying."
"Please, you have to understand. Kyle seems to have a very fine degree of
control of his teleportation. I rip holes in space with sheer power. I
don't do it very often, and it's not something to betaken lightly."
"I'll help in any way I can, but I don't recommend relying on wormhole
travel as an escape route."
VAMPERINA: "So when we make our bid offering, we will include the fact
that we would be going with a Flying Fortress concept, where all of the
material would be in a single, heavily armed transport. In addition, we
would have two armed escort craft. We would have a heavyweight combat
team in place on the transport to guard the cargo and man the weaponry.
We will emphasize that we are well equipped to deal with both mundane
and mutant attempts to hijack the cargo. We will include a "threat
assessment" based on our initial research and indicate how well equipped
we are to deal with each such threat, from mundane attempts to force the
transport to land, up to and including such esoteric mutant methods such
as creating 'dimensional continuities' through which to hijack the
cargo. Basically we want them to know that we have covered a great many
bases in preparing our bid and our threat assessment and have the means
to deal with such threats."
JACK: "Sounds good, we'll work on a few scenarios and ways we will
counter them, and couch it all in non-mutant terminology so that we're
not specifically exposing any of our powers. For example, we'd simply
say that we will have a backup power supply on board the transport to
keep them from forcing us to land that way, without mentioning that
the backup power supply is Surge ;)
----------
VAMPERINA: Turning to Kyle, Vamperina says, "If we do get this Waterfall
bid, then we might be able to use the detective that you talked to. As
someone who is not in the company, she might be the best one to try to
ferret out information on whether someone is going to attempt to hijack
the cargo. We might even want to hire her now to see what she can find
out and, if she does learn something, we would be forewarned before we
ever make our bid."
KYLE: "It would also give us a chance to see how she works in the real
world. Not that I'm saying she's isn't capable. But I have known a few
academics who never could make the change from the classroom to the lab.
I'd like to see her in action on a real case just to be certain."
VAREQ: "I don't think a detective will be necessary. If there's a mole
inside, I'll find him. Or her."
VAMPERINA: "I'm not talking about a mole inside the company. I'm
talking about hitting the streets and finding out if someone is planning
to hit the cargo from the outside. It's something that you or I or Jack
could do but we are all associated with the company and would only be
calling attention to ourselves."
VAREQ: Shrugs. "I already have a man on that, as well."
VAMPERINA: "That's good to know. Has he learned anything of
significance?"
VAREQ: "Nothing yet"
OOC: Still waiting for GM response
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KYLE: Also, Kyle will come in one evening and mention that he's met a
graduating student at the university that's looking for work as a
detective. She has very good academic credentials, but little work
experience. She's done a good bit of amateur sleuthing, but has no
professional experience. Apparently one of her parents was a detective and
she got some exposure there as well. Kyle will note that he got her CV and
will pass it on to anyone who's interested. His feeling is that he doesn't
think the group really needs a detective right now, but we might want to
keep her in mind when and if we expand in that direction. She certainly
interviews well, and knows her stuff, as far as he can tell. At the very
least she's worth talking to if we decide we need that kind of skill set in
the office.
VAMPERINA: "What's a CV?"
KYLE: A curriculum vitae. It's what we academics call a resume. Somehow we
always manage to slip an arcane language into the mix.
VAMPERINA: "She sounds interesting and I can see where having a skilled
detective in the company could be an asset. However, as you pointed
out, I'm not sure that we would have anything for her to do right now
since we are currently focused on the Waterfall contract."
KYLE: "I'll certainly keep in touch with her. We can always see if she's
interested later."
----------
MIDNIGHT: Besides working on the waterfall bid with the team, Midnight will
follow up on some other issues of his on. 1) Is Vamperina still willing and/or able to train Midnight in martial arts? If so, he'd like to keep up his practices; if not, he'd like to find a sensei in the city who would be willing to take him on.
GM: I'm guessing Vamperina would be willing to train you given her willingness in the past but I'll wait for Steve to confirm. If you need to look for training in Cape Goliath, let me know and we can resolve that in the next turn.
VAMPERINA: Sorry, I meant to respond to this and forgot. Yes, Vamperina is
more than willing to train Midnight. I'll send a better turn tomorrow.
2) Midnight would like to see Aeria one or two times more this month for dinner/movie/etc if she's up to it. He doesn't want to rush her, and if she's not comfortable with the extra looks they get, he'll try to back it down to casual friendship.
GM: You do see Aeria twice more in June. I’ll send you more details of what develops in July in the next turn (private).
3) Midnight stops working on a hand gun for himself. He enjoys working on bigger more
destructive weapons. Anything he'd build for himself would be similar to something he could buy at a good dealer. Instead he spends time honing his skills and powers.
GM: Sounds good to me.
----------
VAMPERINA: Vamperina begins training Midnight by espousing her martial
arts philosophy ... and that is that she doesn't really subscribe to a
martial arts philosophy. If Midnight wants to immerse himself in one of
the many martial arts cultures that include various 'lifestyle'
philosophies, then Vamperina is not the one who should be training you.
For her, martial arts is a combat form that she uses to kill her
opponents, nothing more. She initially learned it as part of commando
training way back when she served in Planetary Forces (before she joined
the Imperial Fleet). She has since refined her style quite a bit but
does not consider herself to be a "pure" martial artist. Her martial
arts power is derived from five factors: Speed, Accuracy, Strength,
Skill and Mental Power. Of these five, she can easily teach Midnight
only two of them: Accuracy and Skill (Combat Skill Levels and Martial
Arts maneuvers). Speed she can not teach but she does assure Midnight,
after a few practice lessons, that his Speed is better than most. His
Accuracy too, is above normal but the bad news is that 'above normal' is
not always good enough when facing a highly skilled, class A mutant
martial artist. The good news is that she can help Midnight integrate
his native mutant abilities into his martial arts, particularly his
Internal Gravity which will be the source of his strength. It's
somewhat unfortunate that he is not able to maintain his Internal
Gravity for more than a couple minutes a day but Vamperina promises to
make the most of those two minutes during the training sessions. :)
MIDNIGHT: Midnight's not looking for philosophy (although he might benefit
from it);
he simply wants to be better in hand-to-hand situation. He's NEVER won a
fight which
came to close hand combat, and he doesn't like that opion especially now
that his life
and his teammates lives may depend on him being able to at least defend
himself if not
outright defeat an opponent. He has improved his Internal Gravity to 5
minute intervals
through practice, but it's just too draining on him to go much more. He
sees this power
and his martial skills as short term necessities right now since he can
usually count on
Vamperina and/or Jack to handle the heavy duty hand-to-hand fighting.
-------------
KYLE: Upon returning to the SCE offices one day Kyle will let the group
know that Isobella took them up on their offer. She's going to try and dig
up what she can on any potential trouble with the Waterfall bid. Even
without any information she's already dug up some info. It seems that in
the past groups that tried to intercept Waterfall shipments were a bit
cavalier about whether people got killed. That lead to a real backlash with
the local authorities and now the groups that do try and intercept
Waterfall shipments work very hard not to kill anyone, and haven't done so
for years. So we can expect non-lethal opposition.
VAMPERINA: "Great! Since she is looking into this for us, then I would
like to meet her. Jack should also meet her if he hasn't already done
so."
 KYLE: "Not a problem. We can arrange a meeting over at the university,
probably in the next week or so. I think it's better to do it off-site to
preserve Isobella's distance from SCE while she's conducting the
investigation.
KYLE (GM): Kyle will contact Isobella and try and arrange the meeting.
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