gurps rimworld: crash and burn

[Volthawk]

Alec swears under his breath and off-mic when Chad tells him the sensible choice. He knew it was the smart choice before he started talking but...damn, he hated it. "Looks like they haven't send anyone ahead, so the first of them will come on the fast vehicles as expected. We'll want patrols around the rest of the perimeter, just in case they try something, but I want the majority of the militia here when they arrive. You too, Myggie, Aerheardt is probably the most visually impressive thing we have. If we're negotiating, we need to put on a strong front, make them think they have less of an advantage than they might otherwise."

[bramblefoot]

the vehicles pull up outside the crashed hulk and a hulking man jumps out of the back. he hefts a light Gatling laser like it was an assault rifle, and stalks up to whoever is in charge "whoo boy, aint this just a peach of a find!" he crows, looking over the ship and the mech. "we're the tax-men, and we tax what we find. the only question is, what can you pay?"

[Feathersnow]

The Aerheardt trundles at reduced speed up to the man, keeping pace with the people on foot, belying its true speed.

[u-b]

Still at the sensors, Chad quickly opens the ship's cargo manifest on one of the monitors and starts to skim through it, looking for stuff, that:
1. Is valuable.
2. Is likely to have survived the impact.
2. We have had lots of and can deal with less.

An ideal case would be a load of light kevlar for everyone onboard, but Chad is not picky. He describes most interesting positions over the radio for Alec, Myggie and Jacob.

[Volthawk]

"Tax, huh. I see." Alec doesn't really hide the fact that he knows exactly what's going on here. "A lot of the people died when the ship crashed, so we've got spare equipment." He waits for Chad to have a good idea of what that spare equipment is exactly, before relaying it to the 'taxmen'.

[bramblefoot]

chad, make up what you give them and gimme a reaction roll at -5 pls

[u-b]

Chad proposes we offer a tax payment of:
1. Two tons of kevlar bodysuits (600 total).
2. Two tons of assorted medical supplies.
3. Two tons of assorted raw chemicals (pesticide, herbicide, alcohol, plastic granules, whatever).
4. Two tons of metal (tools, screws, copper wires, whatever)

Spoiler

Show

Negotiations are to be done by someone other than Chad. Maybe by Jacob, using his modifiers. Chad just provides an initial list of the stuff we are willing to offer.
Reaction: (3d6)[5] (with extra -5 and +whatever)
Diplomacy: (3d6)[12] (likely same mods)

Well, let's hope Jacob has enough diplomacy to succeed even on 12, overriding that disastorous reaction...

[bramblefoot]

the hulking man grudgingly accepts the tax, and his underlings bundle it back onto the jeeps. with a mocking salute, he hops back up on the overloaded chassis and the vehicles speed away

[Volthawk]

As he watches them drive away, Alec sighs before speaking his thoughts over the radio. "I wonder how often we're going to have to expect that, and if they're always coming with that many people and vehicles. I'm guessing they came in force this time in case we were better armed - say, if we were military rather than a colony ship - so they might not bring all of that every time. It's still going to be a problem..." He thinks for a moment. "Chad. Do we have the materials to rig up anything capable of dealing with an armoured vehicle? One of these days, their demands might be too much or they decide they want everything rather than a 'tax' and we're in the way, so we should prepare for the possiblity of having to disable one or more of those tanks, just in case."

[Feathersnow]

"I-I can dig ho-holes for p-pit traps" offers Myggie helpfully. "The Aerheardt i-is a-antipersonel and support. I-I am not able to deal with Armor with m-my current loadout."

"B-but it's bad t-to take things from p-people h-who are already str-struggling. They sh-shame their ancestors."

[u-b]

"I'll think about it, but if they ever decide we are hostile and they have artillery, then we are screwed. We can rig up some counter-battery radar and maybe arm some recon flyer, but that would be a weak and delayed reaction every time they decide to shell us. The problem is we are staying put around the shipwreck. I'd say we absolutely don't want to be labeled enemies of any local military. Shall have a recon drone to look at the state of theirs. Maybe they are small enough, but have to make sure."

Spoiler

Show

1. Is the ship armed with something for space combat?
2. Can that something be taken off or made to work where it is?
3. Anything suitable for Aerheardt ?
4. I am assuming we have some recon drones in whatever condition.

(3d6)[9] on Techie! 15 to fix a recon drone

[Volthawk]

"This isn't about making enemies. It's about being as prepared as possible for the very real possibility that they make the decision for us. I'm not saying we need to be on a war footing tomorrow, just...keep it in mind going forward, would you, that we're going to have to prepare for the worst? That said, at the moment getting more intel would be helpful, yes."

[bramblefoot]

1, 2, & 3. the ship does have some anti-ship and point-defense weaponry, however, getting it refitted and repurposed onto the aerhaerdt is gonna be a long one, full of blood sweat and tears.

4. you easily get a recon drone operational. im assuming your sending it in the general direction of the column of vehicles?

[u-b]

The recon drone is sent to follow the tracks, climbing to some height where they are still visible, and maybe to catch up with the column of vehicles, depending of how far and how fast it goes. In either case, will climb some more when anything other than the tracks is observed, to avoid undue attention.

Spoiler

Show

1. Can point-defense weaponry made to work off the ship as it is?
2. Can bigger guns?
3. What kinds of weapons we have? Chad would like to have something like anti-missile lasers capable of shooting artillery shells, and something like anti-missile missiles capable of being repurposed for anti-ground service. Not sure about anti-shipping (nuke) missiles. I guess if we had any, some should have been used up.

[bramblefoot]

1. the point-defense guns are currently recessed on the ships back due to lack of power. you could attempt to crack one open, but that is fraught with danger. you prolly could pop the anti-missile lasers out easily, the only problem is the targeting software is designed to lock up when you detach it from the ship.

2. the main spinal railgun is shot. you prolly could get some of the guided missiles out of their storage bays with a lot of work and a lotta cussing

3. the ship had a spinal mounted railgun, two anti-ship missile batteries, and about a dozen anti missile lasers and point-defense cannons each

the drone spots the convoy headed into a walled base about 25 klicks southwest. it cant get too close, but it does get a good view of its defenses. whoever designed the defense grid was no slouch in the saddle. you're seeing a mismatch of old and new tech hardwired together in decent harmony, but you're sure with enough time to study the footage there will be a weakness. the drone hangs around long enough to get a decent picture of the base, then heads back to base

[u-b]

After the drone returns, Chad replaces its batteries, puts the drained batteries into a charger, then takes two techie guys and shows them how to operate the thing. While the drone is out again to start mapping the area around the ship, up to a practical radius, however many sorties that would take, and while Alec reviews photo-map of the settlement where the armed guys reside, Chad tries to estimate the remaining combat capabilities of the ship, given the current state of its weapons, solar panels and reserve batteries.

Spoiler

Show

Suppose about six lasers and six cannons are now on the upper side of the ship. Chad is going to run remote automatic diagnostics and perform a visual inspection on all of them. Then he will see if either of the two missile batteries is okay and points the right way w.r.t. the sky and the ground. The missiles (and maybe the cannons) should be ok with minimal power. The lasers not necessarily so.

(3d6)[16] on Techie! 15 (running the diagnostics, performing inspection, analyzing results and power requirements)

[bramblefoot]

from the glitchy auto-diagnostic readings, you get that the cannons and lasers are operational, but you don't get an ammo count for the point-defense guns or the missile batteries. to manually verify will take a check of the ammo racks (for missiles) or a crawl through the duct-work to check the flechette canisters mounted to each gun

also, the anti-missile lasers are currently unfireable due to the power restrictions. and you have no idea on the missile batteries, as their auto diagnositcs refuse to respond

[u-b]

This was going to take some time, but Chad absolutely checks the ammo racks and crawls the duct-work.

Spoiler

Show

(3d6)[11] on Techie! 15 (missiles)
(3d6)[8] on Techie! 15 (cannons)
(and maybe so on as required)

[bramblefoot]

the missile racks contain two dozen anti-ship missiles. only one of the batteries faces the right way. and it needs parts to repair it, parts you'll need to trade, raid, or kludge together.

the point defense guns have enough flechettes for one, maybe two encounters with that raider group or any other bad guys, but you still need to get them out of their recesses

[Volthawk]

While Chad deals with the ship's weapons, Alec cooks up the animals he caught last night and shares them out among any of the militia sentries who want some - it's not a massive amount of meat (and not particularly necessary at the moment given the stockpile on the ship) but it's a nice bit of variety from protein bars and freeze-dried food, and Alec just felt a small bit of satisfaction eating something he caught himself. Once his early breakfast is done, he investigates the tracks close by to the ship he found when they first arrived here, following them a short while on foot - he doesn't want to stray too far from the ship at this point, but still wants to see if he can figure out the story there.

Spoiler

Show

Since I suppose we're treating this as the next morning, Alec's usual daily checks:
Nightmares, frequency 12: (3d6)[15]
First Aid 13: (3d6)[10]

As for following the tracks, Tracking to do the main job and Perception/Observation to try and pick out anything on the way that might give context to them:
Tracking 16: (3d6)[9]
Per/Observation 15: (3d6)[11]

[bramblefoot]

the track marks though slightly washed away by the rain, are still visible and go towards the monolith that you discovered

Spoiler: ooc

Show

how far do you follow before you head back?

[u-b]

Chad considers the problem of getting the cannons out of their recesses. That is, why this is a problem and how one can solve it. Are the servos out or something?

Then he starts to review the maps from the drone. Of particular interest are...
1. The settlements (location, apparent size / population, apparent technology level).
2. The roads (any type, including just trampled ground).
3. The fields (anything cultivated).
4. Major structures (of whatever origin).
5. Anything else that is not the normal wilderness.

Chad also wants to come to a conclusion if the settlement getting the "tax" is a part of some larger country or something.

Spoiler

Show

(3d6)[9] on Techie! 15 (recesses)
(3d6)[11] to analyze the maps (either Soldier 14 or some default)

[bramblefoot]

it appears that the recesses have suffered either a jam in the servos, or metal fatigue. the first will be harder to clear than the second

1.aside from the tax-mens base, you see the small village you traded with, and two other medium primitive villages that look decidedly unfriendly, judging by the heads on spikes thing they got going. there are also some caravans moving around, mostly with beasts of burden.

2. the only roads you see are trampled ground and deer paths

3. around the taxmans base, you see big plots of land worked by slaves

4. you see other monoliths of the same size in varying states of disrepair, and a large blasted tower sticking out of the ground about 10 klicks northeast

5. there is also a "ship graveyard" about 5 klicks from the tower

[Feathersnow]

"I wonder what those towers are for? And getting some scrap metal from the ship graveyard might be a goal, but we probably have enough salvage for a while. Best we fortify and plant."

[Volthawk]

Having returned once he was satisfied he knew where the tracks went, and eager to also go through the drone's feeds, Alec collates the information with his own map to get a better idea of where everything is, and notes the tracks he's found and the locations of the smoke signals (presumably they were located near to either the monoliths or other villages). "Guess those fields explain why they've been taking strong people away from the village. Good thing we had enough stuff to pay them off for now. Life as a slave in the fields is not a fate I want any of our people to end up with."

Myggie's observations get a nod from him. "We checked out one of the monoliths earlier. Bug tracks and offerings from the local tribals. Best to be careful around them - we didn't have any trouble there, and the tribals must be able to go there and back regularly without much trouble, but the risk of insectoids makes me nervous. Never seen one myself, but...you hear stories, you know? The big tower, though...not a clue. When we do need the graveyard, I'd temper our expectations there. If the taxmen were willing to come find us to check out the ship and see if there was anyone they could exort, they'll be willing to head out there too and will have taken a lot of the good stuff. Explains their mishmash of tech, too, thinking about it - the mix of old and new, presumably taken from a load of different ships and made to work together for vehicles and defences by their techies."

Her plan going forward gets another nod. "Yeah, digging in and getting set up seems like the plan. Let me know if you want a hand setting up the crops, but otherwise I'll keep supplementing our current food stocks with whatever I can find out there. Situation's not urgent enough to hunt big game, so I'll save the risk and the bullets and stick with trapping, foraging and...hm, maybe fishing, now I think about it. Could go for some fish..." Trailing off for a moment, Alec blinks and gets back into focus. "Anyway. On the note of fortifications, that should be doable. We've got enough scrap metal here to put some things together, right Chad? Might be worth setting up camouflaged positions a little into the jungle, too - besides the tactical advantages, having places outside the ship we can hide people and resources if things go south might be a good idea. Also...Chad, do we have any rope in our supplies? I'm thinking it might be a good idea to figure out a good route for getting up onto the top of the ship and that might involve a little climbing, but it'll be a good position if we do get attacked, and if you figure out how to get at the weapons having access to the space up top might be useful."

[u-b]

"Fortification-wise, I'd mostly stick to the ship. It is fortified enough as is and it would be too problematic to move the cannons. We can dig in some fortifications around, all right, but I'd only sparsely man them. Earthworks should do, maybe up to steel pillboxes. Go ahead."

Chad directs the two techies operating the drone to fly it closer over and around the "ship graveyard" while he takes the other four to try fix the servo (or what not) of one point-defense cannon.

Spoiler

Show

(3d6)[14] on Techie! 15 with complimentary (3d6)[7] (3d6)[8] (3d6)[13] (3d6)[13] on Techie! 12

[bramblefoot]

with a lotta cussing and more than a few skinned knuckles over several hours, you pop open the first of the point defense cannons. the cannon comes out of its recess and rotates. it doesn't fire yet, but its not quite sure whether y'all are targets or not

the techies say from the ground "uh sir, you're gonna wanna see this"

wdyd?

[u-b]

Chad switches the cannon to "safe" and goes to see that, picking up Alec and Myggie as appropriate.

[bramblefoot]

the drone is currently losing altitude rapidly. "the drone is fighting us sir, its almost like she wants to go to the tower" the two techies say in unison

[u-b]

"Okay, make sure it does that in circles and sends us good shots on the way. I want to know how that thing looks up close and whether attraction increases at reduced distance. How far away from the thing you have noticed the problems?"

Chad is committed to expend one drone to learn more details about the tower.