Celestia's Finest: Comrades in Arms

[D.KnightSpider]

Bottom line: we were providing entertainment for beings of immense power from another dimension. Meta.

Longshot begins gathering up the steam clouds and transporting them outside the ship. It felt like things were winding down but one could never be certain. Maybe he'd get lucky and run into the Admiral while doing cloud detail.

He finally takes the time to contact his ScoutBot. Instructions are given that the ScoutBot take one look around the area and then report back to him.

Spoiler: Cloud Plow? Mist Detail?

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Perception (3d6)[2][6][6](14) VS 16

Meteorology
(3d6)[2][3][3](8) VS 16 (14 Skill, +2 Software)
-2 Artificial Cloud penalty canceled due to Artificial Cloud Technique

[DigoDragon]

Rose loads the video recording into her cell phone, after waiting for the GM to post because it's only fair to give him a moment to respond before jumping into the next thing, and holds the screen up for everyone to see and hear as the video plays out.

[Elbeyon]

Love says to her cheerful friend, "Thanks, Little Torch."

Scomm (EDF), "The book closed." That went surprisingly smooth.

Love examines her surroundings again to try to get a new read on the reality distortion. Pony! Seaworthy!

Love moves and Scomms (EDF), "I'm leaving the book on the floor. Seaworthy is burned by steam. Condition unknown." Hopefully, Rose can heal him to health before he even knows he was burned. She'll start paying attention to the BugBots that already have a view on the book (even if they're rather confused currently).

She grabs him and flies out of the room. She sets him down away from the steam near the working Longshot and Brazen. (I believe they're in the reality distortion, but if Love has to leave that area she tests to make sure Seaworthy can leave the area safely.) She examines him to see if he is under the affects of Suspended Animation.

Spoiler: Edit

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Changed what Love said about his condition

[userpay]

"I'm bringing one of the zombie remains topside if the admiral would like some proof." Which also begged the question of what would be the best way to dispose of said remains later. From the strangeness going on it didn't sound like they'd want to keep it aboard. For the moment though the earth stallion settles for dragging the corpse to the top deck.

[DigoDragon]

"It sounds like you're not trying to kill me."

'Do be glad that I'm on your side,' Rose thought to herself.

Scomms (EDF), "I'm leaving the book on the floor. Seaworthy is burned by steam. Condition unknown."

'Guess I ought to block out the next hour to see what's left of that poor, unfortunate soul...'

And now the song is stuck in her head.

[Miltonian]

Between the video and the remains hauled onto the deck, the Admiral's view of his subordinate takes a sharp turn for the worse. Longshot is, unfortunately detained by his duties, but he does manage to mostly dissipate the cloud. It's still quite humid, but it's no longer deadly.

As for Seaworthy, it is fortunate that people affected by Suspended Animation don't have to breathe... He is still alive, though it is only the spell keeping him that way. As for the reality distortion, it slowly fades away and eventually ceases altogether. Normalcy, such as it is, is restored.

Rose is free to go and has access to the ship's medical bay for use in her treatments.

[DigoDragon]

Comm (EDF): 'I'll be waiting in the ship's medical bay. Do not be late.'


Rose sits on a chair in the medical bay. She casually eats some popcorn while listening to the audio of her squad screaming earlier in the engine room.

[D.KnightSpider]

EDF Comm: "Going to be busy for a few minutes. Will regroup when able."

In the midst of his duties, Longshot takes possession of the accursed book. The book is sealed with their Hyper-tech duct tape and placed in his backpack. Maybe he'd add a grenade later and blow the whole thing to Tartarus.

Longshot corrects his ScoutBot and attempts to further clear the air. Maybe he can work something out with nearby cloud cover.

Spoiler: Pegasus Cooling and Air

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Meteorology
(3d6)[5][6][3](14) VS 16

[Elbeyon]

Comm (EDF), "I'll take Seaworthy to the medical bay. He is in bad shape. The only thing holding him together is Suspended Animation. He is ready to fall apart without his stop gap." Love looks at him and frowns. She really messed things up in there. She hopes he'll be alright.

Love checks herself over for any magical curses or worries before she sends away her armor.

Afterward, Love packs Seaworthy up for transport to Rose. He is heavy, but she is fast. Her spell will fade away soon enough. It only lasts a minute.

Love takes a deep breath and wipes some sweat off her head. She is exhausted.

She scomms (EDF) on the way, "Rose, don't underestimate him. He is a powerful chaos mage. He tried to fill my lungs with seawater."

Scomm to Longshot, "I'd like to keep that book, or at least take a closer look. Little Twi warned against reading the book without the proper precautions so there may be a safe way to investigate it. It could provide valuable information. I didn't really get a good look at with the spells and zombies all around."

Scomm (EDF), "I'll get in the engine room and see what I can do as my next stop."

[DigoDragon]

Rose mentally sends a Comm (EDF), 'Hold up. Let me make sure I understand this. You all went shooting monsters down below while I sat out with a sword pointing at me, and now you want me to heal the leftovers you all didn't kill? Did I get that right?'

[D.KnightSpider]

Longshot considers both situations. The truth of it was simple: he wanted Seaworthy healed so that Seaworthy would feel it when the answers were beaten out of him.

The matter of the book, however, that was something else entirely. They were fortunate that the spells had gone off in the middle of the ocean. If they'd triggered while they were on the docks...

Subvocal Comm to Love: "Maybe. That's all I'll say for now." It's a very definite answer.

A verdict is reached on the pending explosion between Love and Rose. This isn't the time for him to enter the fight. He leaves his EDF Comm comment as: "Longshot copies."

[Elbeyon]

Scomm to Longshot, "Copy," on the book matter. Love has two very important tasks first (at least).

Scomm (EDF), "I think the two were undead." Liches. Love should look into that as legally as possible. Hopefully, their bodies can be returned to normal for their families. "Seaworthy got real injured under my care." Love should have been watching after him. "I think he is in critical condition. Yes." Love answers Rose's question in the affirmative to both questions. "I'd like you to try your best to stabilize him."

[DigoDragon]

There is a long pause in the reply as Rose crams a hoof-full of popcorn into her mouth. She chews, considering her words. There are many to pick from. She swallows her food and replies on Comm (EDF), 'He will be stabilized; there is no try. Get him on this table ASAP and it shall be done.'

[Miltonian]

The popcorn could use some more butter, but the real sweet taste is that of self-vindication that Rose can feel right now.

Longshot manages to cool things off a bit more, as a pegasus does. It's not a huge improvement, but his practice has been paying off. His skills are on par with the average weather worker now!

Love manages to pack Seaworthy away and get him down to the infirmary in record time. The spell has faded by the time she arrives, but the trauma unit is able to sustain him long enough for him to get to Rose.

[Elbeyon]

Comm (EDF), "That's good news to my ears! I'm on my way!"

Love goes through the ship keeping an eye out for anything strange. Greeting ponies along the way, she can't slow down to talk to them but she acknowledges them unless they look busy.

Love walks into the room with a hot face. Her back supporting a pony. Sweat has infused her coat, and her warm clothing drenched is water. She huffs for breath as she brings Seaworthy to a bed. Assuming, Rose has no issues with the placement, Love gently as possible lays him down.

She sits there for a second catching her breath before she starts pointing to the bracelet on his backleg. To Rose, "If you take the bracelet off, his body functions will resume at their current capacity." She takes another deep breath and explains, "No horn means no horn cuff, but we've got Stun and Suspend Magic cuffs." Love digs into her saddlebag until she finds a battery. The type of battery Rose might be familiar with from the last mission.

Spoiler: Edit

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Just a bit more text up top.

[D.KnightSpider]

Longshot manages to cool things off a bit more, as a pegasus does. It's not a huge improvement, but his practice has been paying off. His skills are on par with the average weather worker now!

Mediocre status: achieved.

Yay.

Longshot dismisses his armor and takes up a position by the upper deck railing. Having run out of physical distractions, His mind runs about trying to create mental ones by dwelling on how the Battlesuit left combat unsatisfying by blunting the combat rush... anger at Seaworthy and Captain Stormwind... or how much of a cruel joke his love life was... or his growing resignation to ending up like Wildcat.

But Longshot had been around the block enough to know how it worked. The distractions wouldn't help matters. They'd only make it worse. The root issue had to be dealt with lest he drive himself crazy again.

He mentally reviews the encounter with the secretary, examining it for any clues he might have missed. Nothing was immediately obvious. The rules of the game had suddenly and violently changed and he was simply not in a position to know it.

The final attempt to put the pony out of her misery was not good enough, despite his best efforts. It might not have even been possible for her to die at that point, which, again, was outside his knowledge.

All he could do was forgive himself for not being good enough to save the secretary and try to be there for the next pony.

A slight silver lining was that at least enough empathy was regained to feel bothered over the situation. Progress, maybe.

Longshot turns away from the railing and goes to regroup with the others.

[DigoDragon]

Rose shakes her head at the 'leftovers' but she seems perfectly fine on the bed Love put him on. She will accept the anti-magic and stun cuffs if they are offered.

"Alright, you'll have one stabilized pony in about ten minutes. You can go help fix the engine and I'll let you know when I'm done," Rose tells Love.

Rose will make use of the cuffs to keep him pinned to that bed (for once, not in the dirty way) and then start with a Major heal spell at full power to get the copy stable (+8 HP). She will open her bag and consider that she will probably use up all her burn cream by the end of this (Oh well).

[Elbeyon]

Rose will get the cuffs.

Love rolls up her soggy sleeve. A bracelet underneath. She brings the battery to her wrist. She loses herself in thought for a moment.

Her eyes focus on Rose again. "Ten minutes!? That fast?" Love looks Seaworthy over and frowns. Her mulling over some worry leaves a knot in her cheek. "Take whatever time you need." Love reaches into her bag and grabs some BugBots and Nanobugs for the room/pony.

She asks Rose, "Would you let me know when the Captain makes his way down here?" She thinks. "Actually, I'd like to know when either wakes up."

Love waits for any answers before she leaves. She adds before she heads out into the hall, Rose, "Thank you. I'm sure they'll appreciate your work." Love slings a pun before she steps out the door, "Take care now."

Love should go find Longshot.

Spoiler: Roll

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Steal Power
(3d6)[6]

[DigoDragon]

Rose watches Love put the bugs down, but she answers her questions while watching. "I doubt the captain will come through here. You might want to check the brig since he got off easy with just a bruise. Still, if he shows up, I'll let you know."

"Ten minutes to get him STABLE. Patching his burns will take a few hours. But I won't rush that job."

Rose will watch Love leave.

[Miltonian]

The healing goes a long way to keep Seaworthy tethered to this mortal coil. However, Rose has quite the job cut out for her. Let us hope she can do it well.

Longshot turns away as Love approaches. However, out of the corner of their eyes, they see dark clouds on the horizon. Dark and approaching quickly.

[DigoDragon]

Hmm. So he's not conscious yet. Did the suspending spell end, or did Rose not pull off the bracelet? She removes the bracelet if it's still there so that it doesn't get in the way of her work. While she's on the subject of removing things, Rose also gathers all the little bugbots and nanobots she can see and packs them into a Ziploc bag. She usually takes her patient-privacy rules seriously. Also, Rose just doesn't want to be spied on.

The bots get put in a corner and a towel tossed over them.

Okay, back to the patient. Rose starts the long-term care part of the process and sees where this goes.

[D.KnightSpider]

As if we didn't have enough troubles...

"Hey." Longshot calls to Love. "is every pony alright? I think we came through that unscathed for the most part."

He nods skyward at the approaching clouds.

"How are the engines? I'd hate for us to be caught dead in the water when that hits."

Spoiler: Avast! A Storm Approaches!

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Perception
(3d6)[3][6][5](14) VS 13

[Elbeyon]

Nanobugs - they're plan old super small recording devices. They aren't robots like the BugBots.

When Rose goes to move the BugBots, Love says through a BugBot, "I was planning to track Seaworthy if he teleports away."

-------

Love looks out towards the horizon. She chuckles, "Spaceships and now sailing through storms. I can now say I have more experience with the former than the later." That seems to tickle Love. She lives a life beyond her childhood dreams. "I might need to grab some sea sickness medicine." He clothes are still pretty wet.

She looks to Longshot. "Hey." She walks up to him. She doesn't restrain herself from frowning at his question like she would most other ponies. Longshot is special. "Seaworthy is in Rose's hoofs. I'm sure he'll be alright. Rose has chosen to relax with some popcorn. She seems alright all things considered. Brazen is Brazen. I've not seen the Captain. The ship is moving forward - figuratively" She half agrees. The ship hasn't sunk. The admiral is alive.

She rubs her mane. "I'm still dealing with everypony's death." The mage, and the crew Seaworthy killed. She sincerely asks him, "How are you?" She points her hoof behind her toward the ocean. "I saw." They were in battle, and Love was watching the BotNet/TacNet.

She answers him about the engine, "I wanted to see you before I headed off to the engine room. I take it your done clearing out the steam? It's real dangerous; good job on clearing that out. I figured the admiral wouldn't mind me giving the engine a check over and a few wacks with my wrench."

[DigoDragon]

When Rose goes to move the BugBots, Love says through a BugBot, "I was planning to track Seaworthy if he teleports away."

Rose is not deterred. "Another peep out of your bugbot and the channel changes to 'DeepCNN'."

[D.KnightSpider]

"Yeah. I haven't had any issues but I also haven't been aware enough of the sea for any sickness to manifest. Give it a storm or two and we'll see what happens."

Longshot listens to Love's report and then nods. "Three dead on top of that. Seaworthy and Stormwind have plenty of justice to face."

Then he adds in response to her question: "I'll have nightmares for a few nights but that's nothing new." It's an attempt at breaking the tension such as tension exists. "I'm not happy with how things were resolved, but I can't see any other plausible outcome so there's no point wasting energy on assigning blame. One thing I do know, though is that we don't have time to waste.

"The steam is gone so the engine room should be accessible. I'm going to track down the Admiral and see if we can make sense of this or how I can help with the storm."

It was entirely too convenient. A storm appears as soon as the book was closed on the subject? The timing rubbed him the wrong way.

[Elbeyon]

Love is silent for a second. To Rose, "I can be quiet."

-------------

Love lightly smiles at his joke. "We'll see if takes more than one storm. In movies, people usually eat their food in storms so that their plates move back and forth. Maybe, we should give that a try."

She nods at the death report. "I'm trying not to feel responsible." She lightly shakes her head. She looks like she wants more, but it's the type of conversation that could go on for hours. Hence, she choices not to continue her thought.

She says in response to the nightmares, "I'll be right there with you. A shame Rem isn't here to give you nightmares." Love means that in a positive way? She definitely means well. "I don't see any other either." She might need a few hours to find another way they might have been able to go. "You're right. Our energy is best spent elsewhere now." She thinks before she says, "You did well Longshot."

She nods. "Good luck. I'm heading off to the engine. Give me a signal if you want my voice." She says before they part. "I have legs for hugging and ears for listening if you ever want." She gives him a small reassuring smile. Longshot has the last/parting post before they split ways.

[D.KnightSpider]

"I know. It's hard not to feel responsible for everything that happens, but that's not our place. We'll talk later, Love. That's a promise."

"In the meantime, let's keep an ear open for each other. I'll be in touch."

Longshot sets off to find the Admiral. Along the way he keeps an eye on the clouds. Is there anything unnatural about their movements?

Spoiler: Meteorology is Getting A Workout

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(3d6)[5][5][5](15) VS 16

[Miltonian]

Rose has a good idea what to do here. Once she is well and truly left alone to do her work, she sets about saving Seaworthy's life. It will take her some time, but she does have him stable after half an hour as the others go about their business.

In the meantime...that storm is definitely not naturally occurring. Someone's whipping it together and sending it their way.

Love descends into the engine room to find the crew in the middle of a shouting match. The general gist of it is that one group is trying to tell the other what they need to do to fix it while the other group shouts back about how that won't work and will just blow the whole ship up.

The Admiral, meanwhile, has ensconced himself on the bridge, glowering at anyone who comes near, and listens to a barrage of status reports from around what is now indisputably his ship.

[DigoDragon]

Rose has a good idea what to do here. Once she is well and truly left alone to do her work, she sets about saving Seaworthy's life. It will take her some time, but she does have him stable after half an hour as the others go about their business.

"Well Death, seems this one won't be yours just yet. Heh heh, yes, you know as well a I that I follow equivalent exchange." With Seaworthy stable, Rose goes around the room to clean up her mess and lock the room. Just Rose and her patient.

She checks on the cuffs to make sure they are still secure to him. Once sure, she casts two spells. One to shroud the room in an illusion miasma of darkness, and the other to awaken Seaworthy.

(checks in roller thread. Awaken spell cures stun. Unconscious/asleep subjects get a bonus to HT equal to margin of success to awaken)

[D.KnightSpider]

Just what they needed, more magical headaches.

EDF Subvocal Comm: "We've got a storm coming in fast that's of the unnatural, magically generated variety. Answers from Seaworthy and engine power might be appreciated in the near future."

Longshot steps back outside and slips to the bridge's roof. There's no sense in pestering the Admiral until he has better answers... He recalls his armor and boots up its operating systems.

"Sorry to give you such a workout today." He says to their onboard AI. "Can you shed any light on our perfect storm? Is it linked to the tome?"

Spoiler: Cloud Watching

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SCAN
(1d6)[1](1) /2