Celestia's Finest: The Sun Always Rises

[DigoDragon]

Multitasking? Geez, Rose can some days barely walk and chew gum at the same time. How could this changeling be the station and fight off the EDF at the same time? 'What if he can't?'

Rose levitates a smoke grenade and runs into the room pulling the pin. However, she doesn't let go of the grenade, instead levitating it close to her as cover while she runs across the room like a big dumb smoky distraction. "Computer specialist? Please, the nerd at my local Geek Squad store could design a better interface. Does The Maretrix know you stole their design? Badly?" She laughs in taunting with a somewhat higher pitch due to her speed.

"True changeling? Oh yeah, cosplaying like the last prune in a jar is certainly true something. Just one bowel movement ready to get flushed from the station!!" she taunts.

Spoiler: OOC

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So, with Altered Time Rate I guess she has two actions, moving twice as fast. Just gonna run around in the room with a smoke grenade as cover, all while insulting him as a distraction.

Yes, I realize this is insane. But if it breaks his concentration to where he can't multitask that forcefield and attack me... worth it.

[Miltonian]

Two of the turrets track Rose as she moves. "Rose Croix," Bristle hisses, "A cybernetic unicorn extremely vulnerable to emp bursts. You do realize that I can see through smoke, don't you? Well, you won't be burdened with the knowledge of your error for long." He rises into the air points dramatically at her. "Fire!"

The turrets go to fire, but instead shut down with a whir. Bristle lets out a scream of rage and reactivates them, but Rose does not get pasted to the wall by EMP bullets. This time.

[D.KnightSpider]

If he had known Rose was going to run around like a lunatic he would have just eaten the dumb muffin. What was with her and her constant need to be in the front lines?

Sniper had no answers. All he had was her lead to follow, and it wasn't like he had any better ideas.

Multitasking. Ugh. The very word and situation brought back memories of Rarity. Sniper ripped them out of his mind before they could germinate. He needed no distractions for his next suicidal charge.

He holstered his rifle. Then he dropped to all fours and took off at a hard gallop for Brazen. The stallion was going to need some magical mystery muffins to make it to the tube and blow it up.

"Let me guess?" Sniper shouted in an attempt to draw attention away from Rose. "You're going to identify me based off of Chrysalis' information, make some snide remark about my mental state and try to kill me. Congratulations! You have demonstrated the mental proficiency of a kindergarten foal playing memory match and all you had to do was turn yourself into a freaky cyborg cosplayer to do it! Your mother must be so proud!"

[DigoDragon]

'Stars and moon, what the buck am I doing on this side of the rock?' Rose thought to herself. She wasn't trying to be suicidal, she just thought that with everything moving slower around her that she... um, crap. What was she thinking? There had been a thought, an idea, a plan, but it was a fleeting one that escaped her. She looks at the turrets all over the room. That was a lot of guns that could easily kill her.

'Okay, piecemeal, welded, wired... had to have been a quick and dirty job, right? So, power is... gotta be a junction box down below somewhere, right?' Rose drops the smoke grenade and looks for some panel to access under the floor. There had to be one around here, right?

Spoiler: Rolls

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Spending actions to find a way down under the floor.

PER 13

(3d6)[10]
(3d6)[9]

[Elbeyon]

Loves neck almost snaps backwards looking for Rose. She yells, "What are you doing!?"

She rushes to the tube to press her head and hooves against it, to force Spinal Jack to move for another view. "Woah! Woah! What are you doing!? Don't use Emps!" She waves a hoof to Scope, "Our penetration expert couldn't even hurt you. You don't need to go blasting up your own room to take us out. Slow and methodical wins the race. You're a expert. Win this one with a cool head. The most dangerous pony in this room, besides yourself, to bug butt's plans is me. This entire room is useless to my team if I'm not around. You wanted us to peacefully surrender. How about I surrender to you and you let my friends go?"

Spoiler: *Cough Cough* OoC

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The scoutbots are totally helping/aiding with perception/searches. I'm sure the team would tap into that line of information to help with any perception/search checks. *fake coughs more*

[Miltonian]

Bristle glances at Sniper and then does the one thing that he thinks will really get on the pegasus' nerves. Ignores him completely. He is not relevant to the current conversation. Talking to him, acknowledging him, would be a waste of the changeling's valuable time. "True," he said, "Which reminds me of something." Two of the machine gun turrets open fire on Love's drones, but miss due to their small size. "That would have been so much more poignant if I had hit them. Ah well," Bristle says. He glowers at Love. "I know what you're doing. It's transparent as this glass. But if you're so eager to surrender..." Several turrets turn towards her as the ones that fired at her drones cycle back online, "Then stand still and I promise you won't die."

Meanwhile, Rose spots three panels around the room that were pulled apart and then poorly welded back on. It seems the changelings were in a rush to complete the defenses to Bristle's specifications. Brazen could yank them up and probably could survive the furious hail of bullets Bristle could send at them. He's been toying with them so far, careful not to shoot too much lest he damage the Maneframe.

[userpay]

Brazen grins unseen behind his helmet as the shaped charges finally stick just right with a small unsticky patch for grabbing by. Throwing wasn't the best option for these but set them juuuust right and the force of impact would do the placement work for you. Task complete a quick glance around showing... Chaos of sorts. Rose running around like a sugar hopped foal who just got their cutie mark, Love charging in right to the tube, and Sniper heading right for Brazen with... A muffin? "Foods always welcome though nows an odd time fer it." He glances towards the speed up ponies. "... Ah heck with it, everypony could use ah lucky muffin. Thanks." Brazen pops the visor of his helmet as Sniper arrives and passes off the muffin to him. Said muffin is soon squished inside for the earth pony to begin munching at with the helmet snapping closed behind it.

Standing Brazen carefully puts the charges in the crook of his neck to free up his hooves. A moment passes as the earth pony peaks around the pillar then he's racing for the tube. Body surging as the muffin takes effect. Eyes darting to the different readouts, compiling a message, and sending it to the rest of Harrier Squad. The trigger for the charges.

Spoiler

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Mmmm... As much as I'd like to chuck it now better off getting closer, at the very least hoping the closer I am the better the chance of a scatter still hitting the tube. Anyway double full moves for now so 12 hexes total unless keeping ahold of the charges slows me down.

[DigoDragon]

Rose whispers through the radio at her team. "Three loose panels to get at turret controls below; two-o'clock, five-o'clock, and eight-'oclock."

She then goes for one of the panels and attempts to get it open before Bristle notices.

Spoiler

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Strength (3d6)[16] vs. 10

Also full defense (+2 dodge) cause I don't think that ST check is easy for Rose.

[D.KnightSpider]

Sniper took a quick stock of the situation. Love was pinned down inside Brazen's impending blast radius. Rose was going for the maintenance access. Brazen was being Brazen, which left him as the distraction. Overall, the situation was not good.

He swung around the corner of his terminal and reached for his laser rifle. Maybe if he could peg a few of those turrets Love would be able to get away.

"No snappy comebacks or witty rejoinders? Really? Ignoring me is the best you've got? It's no wonder that you're so eager to have Chrysalis take over your mind. You don't have an original thought in your brain! Or maybe they've rotted away from all of those video games. I bet that's it. We finally have living proof that computer use kills brain cells! You're a prime specimen! Is that why they put you in a giant test tube?"

Spoiler: OoC

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Fast Draw:
(3d6)[5][4][4](13) VS 15

If Sniper passes the check then he'll aim at one of the turrets pinning Love down this turn.

And the irony of Bristle ignoring the obnoxious stealth pony is not lost on Sniper.

[Miltonian]

"Ah-ah-ah, Brazen," Bristle says. Two turrets spit out 40mm grenades in his direction one misses, but the other will strike him dead-on unless he dodges. Which he does. Hurrah for everything else moving in super slow motion. The two grenades strike the wall instead and explode in a burst of foam. Bristle scowls. "Well, let's kick off the festivities then."

Several turrets (4 of 20) swivel towards Rose, but she does have that extra burst of speed to try and pull the panel free one more time or run for it. Sniper sees three more point towards him. And all except two of the rest, which are keeping Happy pinned down, aim at Brazen/Love.

[DigoDragon]

The access panel was apparently welded on the slightly better side of shoddy. Rose tried again to pull the darn panel open as hard as she could, but it seems that these damned useless legs were worthless! Buck! She cursed these legs. cursed herself. She couldn't do a damn one thing right with this useless body of hers.

[userpay]

"Ah gotcha festivities right here tube jockey." Brazen sidesteps the grenades while hurtling towards the tube. He crosses another wide span in the blink of an eye, then stutter steps to bring the package up to throw. The maneuver costs the earth pony some momentum but hopefully it's enough to keep throwing the turret's aim off. Hooves skid on the floor as Brazen changes direction as he throws sending the package sailing towards the tube while Brazen himself aims for Love.

Spoiler

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Moment of truth! Estimate myself to be about 6 meters away from the tube thus should beable to reach Love next turn. The breaching charges are not set to go off on impact in case that wasn't obvious by sending the codes to everyone else so if we want to bargain we should hopefully have a nice strong position to do so from if it works.
Throwing (skill 14) (3d6)[16]

[Elbeyon]

"True," he said, "Which reminds me of something." Two of the machine gun turrets open fire on Love's drones, but miss due to their small size. "That would have been so much more poignant if I had hit them. Ah well," Bristle says.

"Nah, I got that. It would have been cool. What a missed opportunity." Love puts a hoof to her mouth to snicker.

He glowers at Love. "I know what you're doing. It's transparent as this glass. But if you're so eager to surrender..." Several turrets turn towards her as the ones that fired at her drones cycle back online, "Then stand still and I promise you won't die."

She shakes her head. "Ponies are too complicated to be transparent. Wait! Wait!" She says as the turrets point toward her. "My packs are full of delicate equipment. My computer, my life blood is in these things. Would you let me take it off before you shoot me?"

A moment passes as the earth pony peaks around the pillar then he's racing for the tube.

Love's about to unstrap when she interrupts herself with a greeting, "O-Oh, Hi, Brazen. Strange meeting you here. This tube sure is popular." She goes from unstrapping herself to plucking a frag grenade. "Ah ha!", she yells while she brings it to the forefront. She waves the grenade in front of Spinal Jack before moving it next to Brazen's pack. "You've lost Jack. Take another shot and we're all dead! My friend and I are loaded down with explosives, some improvised. We've got explosive packs, warheads, and grenades for days. My master plan has blossomed into a beautiful Rose! Mwhahaha! Now we're on equal terms. Let my friend with all the explosives go and my other friends too and I'll surrender without blowing us back down to equestria."

[D.KnightSpider]

Sniper abandoned his aim. Rose's predicament was the more immediate of the two and he wasn't about to lose her. Sniper pushed off from the ground and launched himself at Rose. He rotated along the horizontal axis in an effort to put as much flesh and armor between Rose and the bullet as possible. He was expendable-- she was not. He had to be fast enough for this to count. Nothing else was acceptable.

Spoiler: OoC

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With a 50% chance to succeed, there's still a chance that Rose's body will be wounded instead of her ego. Sorry.

Sacrificial Dodge:
(3d6)[5][3][2](10) VS 9

[Miltonian]

Sniper throws himself forward...but the bullet strikes true. However, not enough of the charge makes it through Rose's armor to give her more than a static shock. She's perfectly fine and has a few more moments while they reload to try and yank the hatch off, if she wants.

Meanwhile, Brazen goes for the throw, but this projectile is not aerodynamic at all. It hits the glass, but bounces off and lands two meters away from it instead, almost directly between him and the glass.

"Hmm, let me think about that real har--how about no?" Bristle says, "We're already headed down towards Equestria and this glass will shield me from everything but Celestia's 'Burn the Ground to a Crisp' attack. So in other words, Love, I'm calling your bluff. Go ahead. Blow yourself up. I know you'll survive. Maybe even escape. That's just a drone body, after all. But then, you'd have the deaths of all your friends on you conscience. Forever. Actually, I have an idea..." He grins and Love notices a lot of laser dots appear on the grenade as the turrets that were aiming at her all switch to the explosive instead.

[DigoDragon]

Sniper throws himself forward...but the bullet strikes true. However, not enough of the charge makes it through Rose's armor to give her more than a static shock. She's perfectly fine and has a few more moments while they reload to try and yank the hatch off, if she wants.

Rose twitches at receiving the light shock. She shakes off the horrid feeling and returns to the task at hand/hoof. If the team couldn't disable the turrets, the mission was over. Rose grabs Sniper by his armor, ignoring his usual reaction to being touched and pulls him over to the hatch. She lets go and points. "We open this to get at the turret wires! On three!"

It was hard to wait for someone when you're moving at double their speed and Rose was trying not to forget that. Then again, when you have guns pointed at you... wait, did Sniper try to take a bullet for her? Ugh, think about that later. Hatch! Hatch! She tries to pause long enough for Sniper to react, and to a lesser extent decide whether or not to help with her idea.


"One Two Three!"

Rose tries again. Dear Luna almighty does she ever try again, pushing her accursed cybernetic limbs to their limits. Her ears swept back against her head. She strained, her servos strained, there was pain at the nerve connections where flesh and metal rubbed together.

(3d6)[12] vs. 10 (and whatever Sniper may help add if he tries too)

[D.KnightSpider]

Too slow. Too weak. He was always coming up short. Either he wasn't fast enough to catch Love's fall, take down Rarity or prevent Rose from being struck. The fact that she was mostly unharmed was immaterial to his failure.

Enough was enough. Sniper was fed up with being sidelined. He was tired of being a failure. This was his squad and he was not going to lose them to some maniac in a test tube.

Were it not for her muffin induced speed, Sniper would have been ahead of Rose's suggestion. He didn't even react to her touch. This was war. Nothing mattered but his squad.

He braced himself, set his mind and body to max and did everything possible to rip that plate free of its welding.

((Will check to burn some FP:
(3d6)[2][2][4](8) VS 11

Strength Check:
(3d6)[2][5][5](12) VS 12))

[userpay]

Of all the times for his pitch to fail, the earth pony just had to put to much spin on the breach ball making the unsticky spot hit instead. Stupid. He could probably pry it back up but that would leave Love vulnerable. "Ya think the glass gocha covered eh? What about its base?" Brazen tries to pick up Love as he speeds by. Keep Bristle distracted. Give the pony in the booth time to do something. On comms Brazen pings Love. "Ah gots ah warhead on my belt. We could drop it near the breaching charge and the two might make enough of ah hole to take cover."

[Elbeyon]

"Hmm, let me think about that real har--how about no?" Bristle says, "We're already headed down towards Equestria and this glass will shield me from everything but Celestia's 'Burn the Ground to a Crisp' attack. So in other words, Love, I'm calling your bluff. Go ahead. Blow yourself up. I know you'll survive. Maybe even escape. That's just a drone body, after all. But then, you'd have the deaths of all your friends on you conscience. Forever. Actually, I have an idea..." He grins and Love notices a lot of laser dots appear on the grenade as the turrets that were aiming at her all switch to the explosive instead.

Of all the times for his pitch to fail, the earth pony just had to put to much spin on the breach ball making the unsticky spot hit instead. Stupid. He could probably pry it back up but that would leave Love vulnerable. "Ya think the glass gocha covered eh? What about its base?" Brazen tries to pick up Love as he speeds by. Keep Bristle distracted. Give the pony in the booth time to do something. On comms Brazen pings Love. "Ah gots ah warhead on my belt. We could drop it near the breaching charge and the two might make enough of ah hole to take cover."

Love gives him a stiff upper lip. "You underestimate my power! You" *Oomph!* The mare will let Brazen pick her up. Still facing Spinal Jack, she bombs away/unties the warhead as quickly as she can manage. The grenade a thought of the past she drops that too to reach Brazen's payload. Sailing way into the distance on her trusty steed Love shouts, "Today is the day you almost outsmarted Love!"

She'll also tell her drones to pick up the shaped charge and move onto the tube. Either or both if one gets destroyed is fine. As long as one of them does it. She wants all the explosives near the tube!

[Miltonian]

Rose is too weak. Her single foreleg cannot move the panel. But then, Sniper grips it and channels all his rage into it. The metal rips free and flies into the air, revealing a narrow crawlspace underneath. They have just enough time to dive in before the turrets reload or take aim at them and send a hail of bullets over their heads. "No!" Bristle snarls, "Stupid turrets! Stupid rush-job! Stupid, incompetent mechanics!" He pounds a hoof against the glass.

For their part, Brazen and Love make it back to where Happy is unimpeded. All the turrets were aimed towards Sniper and Rose. Love's drones are also safe, therefore, to her joy and delight. And the explosives are all in one, big, happy pile, ready to be set off and bring down the house. (Hopefully not literally)

[DigoDragon]

Rose is too weak. Her single foreleg cannot move the panel. But then, Sniper grips it and channels all his rage into it. The metal rips free and flies into the air, revealing a narrow crawlspace underneath. They have just enough time to dive in before the turrets reload or take aim at them and send a hail of bullets over their heads

"Sniper I could hug you," Rose declares. However, she knows doing such would probably annoy him, not to mention she's exhausted and in a lot of pain right now from exerting herself. If it weren't for Adrenaline, she'd of given up back at the dragon. Rose jumps down into the crawlspace, and beckons Sniper to get in too where it is safer. "Come on, Super Scope!"

She looks around to find the junction box(es) the turrets are wired into.

PER (3d6)[9] vs. 13

[Elbeyon]

Love taps Brazen to release her. "Happy Hooves. Hide." Getting to her feet, she yells to her computer compadre, "Not long ago I said we were on equal terms! You should have accepted my proposition to surrender immediately. Now, we have the upper hoof." Love, with a bend in her foreleg, raises her hoof to her face. "I say again! Surrender! I plead with you! You're not beyond compromise. My friends are in your guts. Before you loose all your bargaining chips convert them into goodwill. You don't need to fight until the end. Help yourself. Come peacefully!"

[Miltonian]

Rose finds the first junction with little issue. It's right ahead, ten feet away. The wires are all exposed and a single yank should take down five or more of the turrets.

Happy looks at Love. "What do you think I've been doing?"

"I have not yet begun to fight!" Bristle declares, "Go ahead. Blow the room up. I'll be just fine, but I'm positive that you won't be able to say the same."

[D.KnightSpider]

"Sniper I could hug you," Rose declares.

"If it will get you into cover, I don't care!" His voice was urgent not angry. The growing pile of explosives had him concerned and worried. Not to mention the death turrets pointed at them.

Sniper had to question the wisdom of setting off that big an explosion inside the chamber controlling the life support system... And everything else for that matter.

Sniper follows Rose into the crawlspace. He's unable to contain a bewildered look at the new nickname. Did he look like he was wearing a cape? Once they get situated: "See anything?"

Spoiler: OoC

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Obligatory, "be glad it's not Brazen behind you" comment.

[DigoDragon]

Rose finds the first junction with little issue. It's right ahead, ten feet away. The wires are all exposed and a single yank should take down five or more of the turrets.

"Well these look important," Rose says. Cyberfingers wrap around the wires and she yanks them hard.

[Miltonian]

Rose yanks the wires out and hears the sounds of several turrets shutting down around her. Those were very important indeed. And up above, Brazen sees several of the heavier turrets suddenly slump down and go dark, completely out of power. Bristle looks livid. He is definitely not having a good day.

[DigoDragon]

Rose continues crawling around looking for more turrets to disable. Yikes this place was a mess. "This is almost as messy as behind my sister's entertainment unit." (3d6)[6] vs. 13

(Rofl, the RNG is bi-polar today)

[Elbeyon]

Happy looks at Love. "What do you think I've been doing?"

"I have not yet begun to fight!" Bristle declares, "Go ahead. Blow the room up. I'll be just fine, but I'm positive that you won't be able to say the same."

"Good. Good. You're doing a good job." Love will give her a hoof up.

Love can't help but shake her head at Bristle's reply. She really didn't want things to go this way. He was better than this. He didn't deserve to go down this way.

She'll command her drones back to her.

Spoiler: OoC

Show

I"ve already done my actions for this turn, I think. Just chatting now.

[Miltonian]

Rose spots two more, one to her left and one to her right. Both are full of wires.

Happy Hooves steps from hoof to hoof nervously. "Are we going to be safe here?"

[DigoDragon]

Rose spots two more, one to her left and one to her right. Both are full of wires.

If Sniper is here, Rose will point out the right junction of wires to pull. Rose will crawl to the left to yank them out. "Thank you again for helping with that hatch," she radios quietly just to Sniper. "I'm a bit useless at lifting with this broken leg."