Celestia's Finest: The Sun Always Rises

[Elbeyon]

Love keeps hugging Rose not knowing when to stop.

[DigoDragon]

Love keeps hugging Rose not knowing when to stop.

Rose felt a bit awkward and hugged Love back in appreciation. And after she finished that, she... is starting to blush as the hug from Love seems to last forever. "Uh, Love? You--you can stop hugging now. I'll be alright for now so we can take this station."

[Elbeyon]

"Right," She yelps! The hug finally stops. "I just. You feel better. I gotta go open that door!" She sprints off, stopping a few feet away when she reaches the door. Her head quickly buries itself in the door's mechanisms and she goes about ignoring what happened.

[Miltonian]

Crow Lock texts back. "Disturbing. I have not seen anypony pass through my area of patrol since you left, so I cannot provide information on that front. However, I will not be caught off-guard now if a group of changelings should try and move through this section. I will stop them and detain them for questioning."

"Star Chaser's not feeling so good right now," Pinkie Pie says in an unusually sad tone of voice, "So for now, I get to be your radio-pony! I will be sure to send that info right out. Once I figure out how to change frequencies on this radio. Nope, that's not it. Nope, that's not it. No-- Found it!

Love's bot shows her that Applejack is awake and is talking with the guard, discussing their current (limited) options.

-----------

The tram slides into the station. Love easily manages to get the door open early, giving Rose a good opportunity to deploy the smoke grenade. "What in Hellsgate's? Where'd these loons come from?" one of the ponies shouts as Brazen charges forward. A simple barricade lies in front of him with three ponies behind it. Another guards the door and a fifth stands behind a reinforced glass overlook. They fumble with their weapons and try to bring them to bear, but the EDF is just a little faster.

"Equestrians steel-hides!" the one in the tower shouts, "Sound the alarm! Kill 'em all!"

Pinkie Pie's contribution to the battle is a stirring battle theme played over the radio.

[userpay]

"Alright then, on your marks, get set, hit it!" First things first. Depriving the ponies of their barricade. However he wasn't quite close enough to bound over it yet and it would be unwise to leap over without having some idea of their loadout. Thus Brazen fires what some might consider a warning shot if it wasn't actually aimed at one of the ponies. "Ah suggest surrendering before ah get over that barricade of yours. We ain't happy about you offing ah changeling being controlled against their will our quarrel is with Chrysalis for the moment."

Spoiler

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Performing an all out attack. Move forward 3 hexes towards the barricade and firing one shot. Either at one of the ones behind the barricade or the one by the door if they've got less cover/penalties. I've also just realized it's much more effective to add the positive modifiers directly to skill level rather than 'subtracting' it from my roll. How I've gotten this far playing gurps and not realizing that I don't know. Apply whatever penalties for range or cover as needed.
Shotgun (effective skill 18) (3d6)[12]
Damage crushing (4d6+6)[25] (0.25 armor divisor, double knockback)

[DigoDragon]

Rose pulls the pin on the grenade and lobs it out the doorway, to the right of Brazen (south on the map, so that blocks sight for the one on the guard overlook and the lower part of the box fort).


Lob? (3d6)[6]

[Miltonian]

Brazen's shot plasters the one by the door. Though he is wearing some stolen guard armor, the sheer force behind the shot ensures that, even though nothing pierced his skin, it broke several bones and left him with blood trickling down his chin. If anything, though, this makes them angrier. "Power armor!" one of them whoops, "Gun him down!" Of course, their problem is that he is now concealed via smoke thanks to Rose.

Their attention is now solely focused on Brazen. What will Sniper and Love do to take advantage of this situation?

[D.KnightSpider]

For the moment, Sniper felt confident enough to remain in place inside the trolley. He looked down the length of his rifle, sizing up distances and running calculations in his head.

"Targeting the first one on the left- behind the barricade."

Spoiler: OoC

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Yeah, not taking a -8 on that shot. Sniper will take an aim maneuver.

[Elbeyon]

Love peeks out the tram, her helmet working overtime to filter out the fog. The helmet can do a lot of things, the least of which is give her predator vision. She lines up a shot on a body of heat and lets loose a bolt of lightning.

Spoiler: Roll

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Shoot the right baricade pony
Heavy Electrolaser (Ultra p. 120) vs The right pony
(3d6)[15] vs 12 (Beam Weapons (Rifle) (p. 179)) + 1 (Smartgun) + +/- (Others)

Damage
HT-6 (2) aff (Stun)
(1d6)[2]-2 Burn

[Miltonian]

Love's shot goes wide and splatters harmlessly against the back wall of the station. The smell of ozone fills the air near her. The Red Scorpions are still focused on the pony in power armor. Unfortunately for them, there is smoke blocking their vision. Only a single round hits Brazen, and that pings off his armor without even leaving a dent.

The one in the booth ducks down and disappears behind the control panel.

[D.KnightSpider]

Gotcha.

His aim was true and his breathing still. Sniper Scope zeroed in on the object of his hunt. He waited for the split moment between heartbeats and fired.

Spoiler: OoC

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Firing at the aforementioned target.

(3d6)[4][1][1](6) vs 14 (13 DX +12 Acc +1 All Out Attack +1 Laser Sight -8 Distance -5 Face)

Doing some of that from memory, so please adjust as needed.

[Miltonian]

Sniper's target dies cleanly, not even knowing what hit her. Her companion, on the other hand, let's loose a wild scream of pain and fury. She begins casting her eyes around, looking for the one who shot her friend. Pure murder is in her eyes.

"What the flying flapjack is going on down there?" Powder Keg's rough voice snarls over the intercom, "Somepony, give me a report! Is it changelings?"

[userpay]

"What? So you can blow up more changelings being controlled against their will? Guess again." Brazen sweeps the room with the hyperspectral visor built into his suit. Technology had such wonderful toys to keep you from getting shot back at, mostly. Brazen tunes his voice to the squad's channel as he moves forward quicker. "Someone keep eyes on the booth? Don't want no surprises if we can help it." Reaching the barricade he fires off a hasty shot at the pony towards his left.

Spoiler

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Doing a move and attack this time.
Shotgun (effective skill 12) (3d6)[6]
Damage (4d6+4)[18] (crushing, 0.25 armor divisor, double knockback)

[Miltonian]

Brazen's shot floors the stallion and sends him skittering backwards on his rear end. He is prone, which currently places him out of the EDF's sight. After two shots to the chest, he lets the weapon fall from his grasp and hunkers down.

[Elbeyon]

Love gives a reactionary "Uh oh" that's probably too normal for anyone to hear under all the gunfire. A hallucination hits her of some horrible future that has yet to play out: the Red Scorpions firing explosives into the tram's innards. The team's alpha strike is over and now it's time to ready for anything. She heaves her gun to one arm and readies her other hoof over the doors' close button. "I'll keep an eye on them. You keep doing what you're doing." She is ready to close the door if it looks like Powder Keg's people live up to their reputation.

Spoiler: OoC

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Love is readying to close the door to prevent explosives from entering the tram.

[DigoDragon]

"I dunno if tram walls built by the lowest bidder is going to protect us from anything." Rose decides to move into the room, using the grenade's smoke for cover. She moves toward the guard tower, keeping to the smoke and using the wall for her bearings while visibility is hampered.

[D.KnightSpider]

A quick glance at the control room forced him to report: "Negative from me, Brazen. No visual." The smoke grenade worked both ways. The Red Scorpion couldn't see the EDF, but the EDF couldn't see the Red Scorpion.

Sniper turned his attention to what he could see: a flailing mad mare who needed to be put down. He sighted along the length of his rifle and took aim.

"Targeting the next one in the line."

Spoiler

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Using another aim maneuver.

[Miltonian]

The mare in the middle fires blindly at the tram door. The shots from her pistol go wildly all over the place, anywhere but where Sniper is. The stallion that Brazen shot twice now rolls over onto his hooves again and winces. He eyes the exit hopefully. The mare to the EDF's right pulls back from where Brazen is and fires a few wild pistol pistol shots at Rose, which thankfully miss.

But the real problem comes with the reappearance of the pony in the guard tower. She steps onto the ramp, standing on her hind legs and bringing a long, metal tube to bear aimed right for Brazen. And it does not look nearly as friendly as a party cannon.

[D.KnightSpider]

As the old saying went, if you aimed at nothing then you would hit it every single time. The enemy's shots were wild and unfocused, so he paid them no mind. Sniper watched the end of his laser sight, drawing it across the mare's body. His mind clicked away at various factors and taking them into consideration. Over-reliance upon technology could be just as catastrophic as a failure to properly utilize it.

He attacked.

Spoiler

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Attack Roll:
(3d6)[3][1][5](9) vs 13 (13 DX +12 Acc +1 Laser Sight -8 Distance -5 Face)

Damage:
(5d6)[2][1][3][5][3](14)

[Miltonian]

The second mare goes down hard to join the first. She should have ducked.

[userpay]

Two thoughts cross Brazen's mind. Aw buck no, and creative ponies aren't they? Without a properly shaped projectile it shouldn't do much to his armor yet it was something that one could not leave to chance. Moving behind cover would likely end in the mare targeting his comrades. With that in mind the battlesuited stallion brings his shotgun to bear on the tube bearing mare and fires.

Spoiler

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Normal attack, I'll go ahead and preroll a dodge in case the mare somehow gets the shot off.

Shotgun (skill 15 + 2 bonus - 5 distance = 12) (3d6)[10]
Damage (4d6+4)[9] (crushing, 0.25 armor divisor, double knockback)

Dodge (vs 9) (3d6)[7]

[DigoDragon]

But the real problem comes with the reappearance of the pony in the guard tower. She steps onto the ramp, standing on her hind legs and bringing a long, metal tube to bear aimed right for Brazen. And it does not look nearly as friendly as a party cannon.

"ARR-PEE-GEE!!" Rose shouts out to Brazen. She raises her pistol and opens fire at the mare on the ramp. The smoke is a problem, but that tube is a whole lot worse if she gets it off!

Spoiler: Attack Action

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Pistols (3d6)[11] vs. 14 (minus whatever the smoke penalty is)

Taking three shots. Recoil is 2.

[Miltonian]

Brazen's attack wings her, but fails to knock her down or do much more than give her a bruised rib. Her aim remains locked on him. Rose hits with one shot, the smoke spoiling her aim a bit. However, the shot still manages to down the mare. She drops to the ground and the rpg clatters from her hooves. It rolls down the ramp and comes to a stop at the wall.

Meanwhile, the two remaining Scorpions make for the door. The wounded one crawls along the floor, being careful not to stick his head up where it could be shot. The rightmost one just makes a break for it, firing wildly in Rose's direction.

[userpay]

"Oi."

THUMP

"You're supposed to be shooting at me numbskull." Brazen had jumped over the barricade. The one with the rpg forgotten as he focus's on the one that shot at Rose.

BAM

"Better sit your flanks down."

Spoiler

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All out attack on the one that shot Rose. I think it's a 3 penalty for distance? Either that or 4.

Shotgun (skill 15 + 3 - 3 = 15) (3d6)[11]
Damage (4d6+4)[17] (crushing, 0.25 armor divisor, double knockback)

[Miltonian]

Brazen's shot sends the other pony right into the wall. She cries out in pain and bounces off. But instead of whimpering, she glowers. That's earth pony endurance for you. "Stick it where your sun don't shine, Equestrian!"

[D.KnightSpider]

Sniper Scope felt himself relax. The mission was going smoothly and he was gaining a tolerable kill count. It had been far too long since they'd been Anne to engage in such brutal efficiency...

Then the tram doors shut in his face.

"What the--?"

Understanding dawned. He shot Love a look that, while not angry, clearly said: Do you mind?

Rose and Brazen were our there with an RPG. If anything happened to them while he was stick in here, he'd never forgive himself.

[Elbeyon]

Love could feel eyes on her. Not that she usually minded, but this time the purpose was something a little different. She shouts, "Opening~", and presses the door open button.

[Miltonian]

The wounded stallion crawls for the corner, away from Brazen. Very far away from Brazen. There is a look not unlike a that of a foal caught in some disobedient by the teacher on his face. To his eyes, Brazen is war incarnate, at least for the moment. He slowly raises his hooves, keeping them far away from his belt and the weapons stashed there.

The one remaining mare, however, makes a break for the door. She almost makes it too, but Brazen's shot limits her mobility just enough. "Ho! Ho!' she calls down the hall, "We got trouble here!" Could these be the last words she will ever say? Find out next post on Harrier Squad Z.

[DigoDragon]

"Oww, freakin'... grrr." Rose makes her way toward the guard tower ramp, soldiering through the pain of the wound she just received. She starts conjuring up in her mind various spells and medical equipment to deal with this. It kind of figured that with her luck, it's the team medic that's bleeding. 'Haha, oh irony. I'd laugh if it didn't hurt so much to do so.'

[D.KnightSpider]

"Thank you." Sniper said to Love.

He began moving past her to the open tram door. A quick glance around told him that there were no immediate targets-- one stallion was clearly surrendering and another was calling for re-enforcements. He instantly entertained the possibility of a snap shot, but rejected it just as quickly. Brazen was too close to his line of fire for anything less than a precision strike.

He went back to the comm: "Brazen, I don't have a clear shot on her. Rose, are you alright? What happened to the RPG?"