Quickly realizing that the Burrowing Sentry Machine is able to home in on active tunneling, the team decides to simply run down the existing tunnel. The team begins running down the tunnel at a pace that quickly puts a couple of kilometers between then and the sentry. Then Rock forms a solid barrier using a power that is less noisy, and thus less likely to draw the attention of the sentries, than his tunneling ability. Then the team continues moving, putting more distance between themselves and the spaceport, and thus the burrowing sentries. At intervals, Rock stops and scans the earth all around the team but finds no sign of pursuit.
GM: At the point, the team is underneat the southern edge of the city. Your existing tunnel curves south and then east to the point where you spent the previous night. There is a cross tunnel that you made when initially departing the city and leads further to the west. Let me know what you want to do now or where you want to go.
MACK: After nearly an hour of continuous observation, Mack will stumble and fall, as if he has lost his balance. It is a brief episode, and he offers no immediate comment, except a slight curse under his breath and then moves on. As he's rear guard with Shooter (or was), Shooter seems the most likely to notice the episode.
SHOOTER: Shooter, who is right behind Mack, steadies Mack as he starts to fall, but does not say anything as Mack curses and moves on.
ERICT: Base PER 15- to notice this with Spatial Awareness [rolled 11]. If I notice, I show concern, check his vitals, ask if he's had this happen before, the usual.
MACK: Mack growls, "I'm fine. Evr'ythang jus' went clear, tha's all. Happens all the time."
ROCK: "I'm going to work on my tunneling to see if I can make it quieter."
PETER: When the group stops for a rest Peter stands up and addresses them all. "Well, it looks like the spaceport is going to be a tough nut to crack. I'm glad we hit it during the invasion to get what we needed. We'll have to put a lot more effort into this when it comes time to steal a ship. But that's for another day. Right now we've all been pushed hard - particularly Mack and Rock - and we need to rest. Tired people make mistakes and we can't afford that in our current situation. We've got what we can get in the short term. Now the invaders are fortifying and we need to plan things more carefully."
PETER: "I say we head back to where we stashed our equipment and stores and make some long term efforts. First, we need to find a permanent headquarters. I'd like somewhere underground, cut off from the regular tunnels, defensible, and connected to an above-ground location that's also defensible. We should also set up a few hidden caches in other locations on the outskirts of the city. We might get discovered and have to bug out quickly. And I don't want to lose everything we have in that case. Frankly, we could make a few of those caches into hidey holes in case we have to go to ground. Rock, I'm afraid the bulk of the work will fall on you again. But I can help out a bit. I know the city pretty well, as does Mack, and I'm pretty good at keeping things hidden. Anyone who thinks they can lend a hand, let me or Rock know."
PETER: "Once we have our base of operations set, we need to get serious about some intelligence gathering. The entire landscape of our operations have changed in the last few days and we need to know how. Marko and I can do some telepathic investigations. Cal and I can do some overland recon. Shooter, I understand you've got what you need to fix the radio. Get on that so we can hear what the chatter is on the air. I fear anything important will be encrypted, but we'll cross that bridge when we get to it. At least we'll hear any propaganda the invaders broadcast. Mack and Rock, we'll need you to keep your eyes on the paces of interest that are hardest to reach. With your special sight we can keep tabs on the invaders better than I might have hoped. Erict, I'm not sure how you can best be used for intelligence gathering, but I'm working on it. As for the rest, if anyone thinks they have any skills or abilities that will help us out right now or has any ideas about gathering information, I'm eager to hear them."
SHOOTER: "Concerning the radio, sir, I know how to use it but not how to fix it. That's Cal's territory but he has said that he has what he needs to fix it."
MACK: "If'n ya' need help, Cal, don't hesitate ta ask. Had a job in an eelectronics shop last few months. Radio's a radio."
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ERICT: I can move significant amounts of cargo with my teleportation for short distances, in case there's a tricky spot that this would help with. I am very good at spotting hidden things and hiding things to keep from being spotted, so I will gladly help you conceal the entries of our hideyholes. I'd suggest that in each of these hidey holes we make two chambers, one for the outer area that anyone can find, looking as natural and innocent as possible, and then an inner chamber where we hide the supplies. Once we're done moving supplies in, Rock can use his rock-shaping abilities to cover the small hole adjoining the two chambers with a thin layer of rock, perhaps 2-5cm thick, which any one of us could break through if we knew where it was. This gives us the benefit of underground, fully hidden storage, while still allowing us to access it if we get separated from Rock.
ERICT: I'm afraid I don't have any intelligence gathering abilities other than stealth, unless you count my Spatial Awareness. I can of course scan for bioweapons and viral agents once we reach the surface, but from the evidence and descriptions that Rock and Mack have given, they have not used any.
ERICT (for GM): How does that Spatial Awareness work? Can I sense around corners with it? That could be useful. Can I sense the contents of a closed room through the doorway? With or without the door cracked open slightly? etc.
GM: Spatial Awareness does allow awareness through barriers so, with the Ranged adder, you could sense the contents of a room without opening the door. In fact, you could also detect the Burrowing Sentries although, without Discriminatory, you could not really tell what they were, only their exact location and the fact that they were moving.
MARKO: I mentioned that Marko would be doing regular mind-scans...do you need rolls for those? And what kind (how many dice)?
GM: Your mind scan is 8d6. I need to know what you are scanning for. Are you just scanning for anybody in the vicinity? If so, how far out? 100 meters? 500 meters? 1 km? |