The Ballad of Echo Company - Episode 2 - Toujours En Avant

[MrAbdiel]

Doc has just finished his efforts healing Sgt. Vognar before he's bounding off, flying up and over the machinery consoles and launching himself to the gantry where K'ral bleeds. A moment later, K'ral lets out a screaming gasp as the curative shot drags him back to consciousness; and he has enough of himself to thank Doc with a croaky whisper from his bloody lips, and then to crawl off the gantry and drop into cover. For Wolf, watching, this is just more proof of how fortunate their squad is to have such a capable medic - and one so gifted at climbing.

Spoiler: OOC:

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K'ral is back to full from that inspiration heal from the Doc. He crawls down and into cover, and uses his action failing at perception, eroding the Weakpoint DC.

Wolf gains Inspiration from witnessing Doc's healing!

Sal's instinct proves out; he wrenches open the loose panel, and reveals the guts of the machine within; a core of pneumatic pistons, and wires, and rubber tubing. Once it's opened up, there's no delay in the Psychos capitalizing on it - both Pvt Ginger and Sgt Vognar open up, pouring lead into the cavity until it streams sparks, and burning globs of machine oil like the infernal blood of some great steel demon.

"Technikerwarnung: Dieses Gerät ist beschädigt. Code Zwölf."

Spoiler: Kreigspiel:

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Technician warning: This device is damaged. Code Twelve.

Some internal countermeasure goes off, and soon that open cavity hisses and bubbles as it runs with greasy, fire retardant gel, staunching the accruing damage. But the machine is wounded; it favours the wounded side as it scans about with its sensory apparati.

Spoiler: OOC:

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Sal pops open the weakpoint, and erodes the DC a little more for the next one.
Between Ginger and Wolf, the weakpoint is fully exploited and the machine takes a chunk of damage - slightly over 1/3. The Angreifer takes a legendary action to perceive his surroundings.

Xilo recovers his mine, and slips around behind the Angreifer; using the angles to try to escape its immediate attention. But as it takes a backward step, it swings its leg out viciously, and only the elf's honed reflexes permit him to dive out of the way while gently cradling the active mine in one arm. A second kick at Salamir forces the engineer to take evasive manoeuvres of his own; but they can hardly halt its movement. The Angreifer backs up against the wall, putting all its foes in front of it, and opens fire with a hurricane of lead - at Sgt. "Wolf" Vognar, who has so greivously wounded it.

Spoiler: OOC:

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Xilo's stealth doesn't succeed, but the Angriefer fails to hit him with a legendary action, and then fails to hit Sal with its bonus action - rolled 2 2's.

Between Sal, Xilo, and K'ral, the Weakpoint Perception DC has eroded down to 19.

But the big deal is the way it opens fire on Wolf: the Sgt needs to make a DC 17 Reflex save (with advantage granted, from his cover) for the privelege of taking only half of 60 Piercing Damage!

[Novabomb]

Gabriel Ginger
Well, isnt that just the perfect place to place a weasle.
He rigs up the weasle, and tries to sneak that into the cavity.

Spoiler: OOC

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Slight of Hand: (1d20+10)[27] (Magehand Legerdemain)

[Waistcoatwill]

Doc uses the vantage point of the gantry to look for any more signs of weakness or damage. Surrounded by K'ral's blood, he realises the precariousness of his position he clambers back down off the gantry into cover close to Wolf.

Spoiler: Roll

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Perception (1d20+5)[18]

[Continental Op]

Wolf, now hiding behind the crates in earnest, grunts at his open wounds from the walking tank's barrage. Damn, that smarts, I just got out of the way in time, he thinks. He takes a deep breath to center himself, like in the huddle playing tackleball--but here, with much more at stake. He looks over the top of the crates and uses the iron sight of his M1 to pinpoint the next weak point to take that walking monstrosity down.

Spoiler: OOC

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Using bonus action for second wind: (1d10+5)[6] HP
And making Perception check to find a weak spot: (1d20+8)[17]

[MrAbdiel]

There.

It's Wolf who sees it first. Whatever internal fire-suppression mechanism the machine has comes at a cost; a discrete flap on the rear of the machine, near its armoured and metal-grated diesel-smoke spitting exhaust port, has sprung open about fifteen degrees to accommodate the air intake needed. The canny sergeant can't see underneath it - but they wouldn't need an open-shut mechanism if it wasn't vulnerable, would they? They'd just cover it like they did the exhaust port. If someone can get that open, break it off maybe, it must have more of the machine's vital guts concealed within.

Spoiler: OOC: Partial turn resolution!

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Doc erodes the DC, and Wolf spots a weakpoint - a weakpoint that can be exploited in some interesting way.

Ginger's turn resolution pending, since I should ask a question in the OOC first!

[JbeJ275]

While the weasel bomb rocked the machine from one side, from the other Sal attempted to take advantage of the pause to weld open another section, a series of cables connecting it’s sensors to its guns. Should the steel plates be pried apart Sal makes to stick his Hellfire Rifle on the gap, and put a concussive round directly on its internal mechanisms, otherwise he’ll focus his efforts on avoiding the machine’s attacks.

Tinker’s Tools: (1d20+11)[14]
Shatter: (4d8)[14] DC 16 Con save with disadvantage for half.

[Waistcoatwill]

Doc

The diminutive medic quietly peeks over the various crates around him. Spotting an opening he snaps off a shot before throwing himself flat once more.

Spoiler: Actions

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Stealth (1d20+4)[22]
Firing at the machine, hopefully with advantage
(1d20+7)[15] Or (1d20+7)[16]
(1d8+4)[7] damage and hopefully (3d6)[10] sneak attack
Dropping down prone afterwards and hoping that puts the wee surgeon out of sight! For future reference, is it possible to drop prone after doing a Steady Aim?

[Cavir]

2LT Xilo deftly dodges the tank's attempt to squash him into some chewed up gum stuck to the bottom of its metal foot. Instead he found himself right in front of the deadly monstrosity. Even if it had shot elsewhere, his current spot out in the open was asking for trouble. Xilo drops the behir in front of the tank again and darts over to the enemy lab coat to make sure he wasn't trying something funny.

He called out to his squad. "That's it! It's wounded. Focus on finishing it off. K'ral, Doc, keep those Wonders coming! Wolf, take the shot!"

Spoiler: OOC

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Drop the behir in front of the tank then move to the labcoat.
Grant Inspiration to Doc and K'ral. 50% chance to grant to a third. (1d2)[1] (a two is good)
Commander Strike for Wolf. He gets an extra attack now with (1d8)[4] extra damage. 3/4 SD left.

[MrAbdiel]

The 'Weasel' blasting device is named for the distinctive pop when it detonates with it shaping cap; more of a terribly loud 'TOHH!' than a 'BOOM'. Of course, when there's several packed together like the Psychos found themselves doing with the sealed door beneath Naphto, the sound is a little more a 'BOOM' to be sure. But Ginger's slyly flung Weasel slots into the open cavity, explodes with its trademark pop that echoes in the warehouse-hangar, and causes the great machine to rock to one side with a gout of smoke and fire pouring out of that gutted side.

"WARNUNG - KRITISCHE FEHLER ERKANNT."

Spoiler: Kreigspiel:

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"WARNING - CRITICAL FAILURE DETECTED."

Pvt. Salamir makes his move. With Lt. Xiloscient calling for supporting fire over his shoulder, the tiefling makes his lunging effort with his 'sparky' torch in hand; but this time, the machine is ready with its punchcard-approximation of learned lessons, and human cunning. As the head of the torch touches it, the Angreifer recovers suspiciously fast from the rocking blast of Pvt. Ginger's 'Weasel', stepping back and pivoting with with a swing of its leg that catches the engineer full in the body, carries him into the air, and leaves him skidding limply to a halt amidst the mangled and perforated bodies of the Grenzsoldat the Skyknives so recently blew through. It looks to be ready to follow up, but a grinding disagreement of gears suggests some mechanical indecision as it confronts the mine Xilo has laid in its path. Its guns swivel to the Lt, but with hunkering near the Kreiger labcoat, it defaults away from opening fire in that direction and pivots away, even as it approaches the labcoat and the lieutenant with a backwards gait.

K'ral, now on the ground level and shivering with the dual torments of blood loss and the brain-sizzling stimulants injected into him, pokes up to train his rifle on the Angreifer, tracking his scope over the vent that Wolf revealed to be a liability. To make an impact from here, Pvt. Burnfaire would need to put a round not into a vent, but into one of the screws holding that vent in place; an incredible shot, but one a marksman like himself or Ginger could manage comfortably. But to do so while the machine was in motion, making combat blows with its titantic legs against his comrades and coming about for tracking fire, was nearly impossible. Still, nearly was nearly; and holding a breath and slowly releasing it, forcing his hands to still with a heroic effort, he remembers the days hunting with first longbow and rifle in the wild places of Amcara and the Fey realm beyond; how his father and uncle showed him not just to hunt, but to hunt as elves do; not just as elves do, but as eladrin do. He focused on the enemy, his prey, and fired.

The bullet rebounded with an audibly impressive ping, but a moment later, the vent on the machine's back, loosed by the blast within it, swings down on its one remaining screw, exposing its critical innards to the fury of the Pyschos.

The Angreifer's fury is not yet exhausted. A punitive hail of bullets rakes across the lockers and crates where Gabriel hides, the machine apparently aware enough of his presence to be suspicious of him; or else choosing him at random for suffering. Simultaneously, its backward stride accelerates to bring it close to the labcoat under its protection - close enough to slam into Xilo, whose nearness seems to have spared him bullets, but not intervention entirely.

Spoiler: Turn Resolution!

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Wolf identified the weakpoint.
Xilo blocks the Angriefer's path with the deployed mine, and retreats to the side of the Labcoat.
Sal fails to expose the weakpoint; the Angreifer uses a legendary action to kick him hard as hell, putting him on his back at 0 HP.
K'ral succeeds at his nature check in the skill challenge to open the weak point! It's open! A third of the Angriefer's total hitpoints are now open to conventional damage, and the remainder are open to damage to which it only has resistance, thanks to a little luck and Ginger's determination to get that Weasel into action.

Theoretically, all it'll take now is firepower to bring it down.

THINGS TO RESOLVE:

Lt. Xiloscient will take 30 bludgeoning damage if he's not slippery enough to avoid a 23 to hit his AC.
Pvt. Ginger will take a punishing 62 piercing damage from the Angriefer's fire, or half of that if he can succeed at a DC17 dexterity save. Since he's in cover, he can have advantage on the roll.

Since Sal (and possibly Ginger) is down at the start of this turn, I'll ask the player(s) to hold off acting for the moment. If someone manages to get you up, you can take your action as normal, starting prone; if not, then after the others have had their turns, I'll need a Death Save.

Doc, you made your attack prematurely - but it wasn't bad! 16 was the number you needed to hit, and with the Sarge's distracting shot, you'd have advantage and therefore the ability to sneak attack. I'll let you carry that over to this turn if you want; but I know Doc's a medico first, so I'll allow you to nix that if you intend a different, probably more medical action.

[Novabomb]

Pvt Gabriel Ginger

Spent a bit too much time admiring his own work, and admiring the flames and gas escape from the death machine. Hes several seconds too slow as it fills him with iron. Even as he falls he has a smile on his face.

[Waistcoatwill]

Doc

The sickening crunch as the machine connects with Sal makes Doc wince, but fortunately not look away. Cogs turn in his head.

Blunt trauma...down but not pulped...must be fibrillating!

Without thinking he sprints over, the limp form somehow less irritating and objectionable in this defenceless state. His fingers instinctively grab the crackling, cracked form of Sparky.

I've seen this work on mice!

He slams the doohicky into his comrade's chest, just to the left of the sternum, hoping to restore a normal rhythm and not just fry him!

At this point he sees both the looming monstrosity and the hail of fire felling Ginger. With a final burst of speed he desperstely tries to make it to his next patient, now left dangerously out in the open.

Spoiler: Actions

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Bonus action dash. Action plus inspiration to use a med kit to give Sal a short rest heal. Using the remainder of his movement to head towards Ginger

[Continental Op]

Wolf follows the lieutenant's order, and takes aim at the walking tank. But then the monstrosity spins around and hits Sal. With half the squad down (and hurting himself), Wolf angrily tries to retrain his M1 on some soft part of the target. Then he sees the vent blow open and the "soft" insides of the tank.

"This is it!" Wolf shouts at no one in particular. "Time to make this thing scrap metal! Yyyaaaahhhh!" He walks slowly forward, unloading a full clip at the tank and trying to make each round count.

Spoiler: Rolls

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Okay, so Wolf gets an "extra" attack from Xilo, which he will roll first. He will then do a normal attack action, and spend his action surge for another attack action. So that is five attacks, total. He will spend any superiority dice necessary for precision attack, which I will roll in an OOC post after seeing how these rolls turn out. I hope this is enough to drop the thing, because Wolf ends the round standing in the open like a rube.
Attack A(from Xilo): (1d20+9)[29] and damage: (1d10+4)[7] plus the roll from Xilo's commander's strike?
Attack B1: (1d20+9)[24] and damage: (1d10+4)[9]
Attack B2: (1d20+9)[11] and damage: (1d10+4)[8]
Attack C1: (1d20+9)[15] and damage: (1d10+4)[11]
Attack C2: (1d20+9)[14] and damage: (1d10+4)[11]

[MrAbdiel]

With the sergeant's roar as he surges into the open, the rest of the battered and bleeding Skyknives - those who are capable of lifting their weapons - join him in pouring lead and wrath onto the machine. Most of the rounds go banging off its thick steel hide; but there's enough damage done to the chassis that such a majority effect doesn't make the telling of the story. Enough rounds pour into the opened and vulnerable vent; into the torch-cut, Weasel-gutted side; into the imperfect overlaps of steel created by the constant and relentless hammerblows of force against the warrior construct. As the barking thunder of Wolf's weapon clicks dry and his hands begin flying through the ingrained motions of reload, the Angriefer pivots to bring its guns to bear; but in a gory puddle of its own burning oil and loosed hydraulic fluids, it slumps to one knee with a terrible bang, its torso sagging.

"KRITISCHER FEHLER. SELBSTZERSTÖRUNGSAKTIVIERUNG: FÜNF, VIER,..."

Spoiler: Kreigspiel:

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"CRITICAL FAILURE.

SELF DESTRUCT ACTIVATION: FIVE, FOUR,..."

The last two words come with interspersed, flagging bursts of some internal klaxon; the machine's capacity to warn fading with its 'death', rapidly. This time, no one needs to translate its speech. You all know basic Kreiger numbers; and counting backwards from five typically preceeds only one thing.

"DREI,..."

Spoiler: Kreigspiel:

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"THREE,..."

No time to get clear of the room. The brave charge into the open is hastily reversed.

"ZWEI,..."

Spoiler: Kreigspiel:

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"TWO,..."

Your hurl yourselves into cover. It falls to Doc, and the groggy and recovering Sal, to haul Ginger out of harm's way; his previous cover shredded by high calibre gunfire that has pummelled him so viciously.

"EINS,..."

Spoiler: Kreigspiel:

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"ONE,..."

Bones jarred and possibly fractured, Lt. Xiloscient just manages to tow the hopping, wounded Kreiger labcoat with him into the cover of a tall and hopefully hardy piece of workshop machinery. Everyone covers their ears, and braces.

"System nicht gefunden."

Spoiler: Kreigspiel:

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"System not found."

And with a final, anticlimactic wheeze of perishing motors, the whole chassis slumps to the ground, shaking the steel tiles; but failing to explode in a hail of deadly shrapnel.

Spoiler: OOC: Victory for the Skyknives!

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Enemy slain! The room is yours. Ginger still needs help, but with only one death save to make before Doc can attend him, he is not in danger of dying before he can be stabilized. The Kreiger Labcoat, who was really counting on this machine to kill you all, is now miserably your prisoner.

The other loose ends from this room, from way back at the start of the fight, are the handful of technikers who escaped and dropped the shutter behind them, leading further into the facility, in the direction you are otherwise heading.

[JbeJ275]

For a long few seconds after the end fo the countdown Sal barely breathes, then with hands on his knees he leans over in shocked laughter, and makes his way to Ginger, applying a specially modified shield projector to contain the bleeding and reinforce his body while it healed, at least until Doc could see to it properly. Then he let Sparky descend from it's position on his shoulder, and walked over to Xilo and the labcoat, taking an interested look at the tank as he passed it.

"Good catch, Sarge. What are we doing with our friend here now, looks like he's got a lot of interesting things he could tell us."

Spoiler: Rolls

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Ginger gets (1d8+5)[8] HP back

[Waistcoatwill]

Doc applies a few bandages to Ginger's. Taking the opportunity provided by Sal to tie-off an otherwise tricky little bleeder. He scans the room to see how the rest of his squad are doing.

Nice one Sarge, remind me never to get on you're bad side.

You okay LT?

Spoiler: Actions

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Healer feat for Ginger (1d6+9)[14]

Looks like I got it wrong for Wolf earlier and he should have an extra 5hp from the earlier med kit.

[Continental Op]

Wolf nods to Doc and Sal, and looks around. "Damn, that thing almost got us. Is everyone up and accounted for? K'ral and Ginger able to move?""

He turns to Lieutenant Xilo. "Anyway, LT, do we need to track down more of those eggheads, or is this bastard enough? We should ask him..."
Wolf pauses, then leans in to the head scientist, and smiles menacingly, "You speak Amcaran, don't you? If you want to live, tell us how to get out of here and how much time we have before the place blows up. Better yet, how do we disarm whatever charges were placed down here?"

Spoiler: OOC

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Thanks for the extra healing Doc, I noted it on my sheet.

And in case an intimidation roll is needed: (1d20+5)[17]

[Cavir]

2LT Xilo hears the countdown. Knowing he can't get the lab coat out in time, never mind himself, he drags the enemy behind a desk and uses his own body to shield the valuable enemy scientist. When the explosion fails to come he gets up, making sure he wasn't pick pocketed in the meantime.

"Yes I'm fine." He doesn't get in the way of Wolf's interrogation. "Ginger, K'ral, take watch at either exit. See if the far exit door is operable. Sal, see what is useful here that we can carry. Do you think the railway we came in is usable to get back out? Doc, excellent work keeping us going. Finish up what you need. I'll see if I can reach the others."

He magically tries to contact the other squad. "LT, copy? Target scientist captured. New style tank is here, disabled and immobile. Over."

Spoiler: OOC

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While waiting on the countdown, use my Second Wind for (1d10+6)[14] hp (was at 45/62).

[MrAbdiel]

"You speak Amcaran, don't you? If you want to live, tell us how to get out of here and how much time we have before the place blows up. Better yet, how do we disarm whatever charges were placed down here?"

Now that the adrenal frenzy of the combat is over, the Vult scientist struggles with the pain of the bullet in his leg; trying to pressure his wound while the victorious soldiers of his enemy consolidate their victory. He glares up from where he sits, at the glowering sergeant; unhappy, but not uncooperative.

"Zere are many ways out to ze surface - including, no doubt, ze vay you came in. But... Was bedeutet das? Charges? Zere are no charges. Ve did not build zis facility intending to destroy it - you shouldn't even have made if off ze cursed beach! You should not be here!"

Spoiler: Insight Check: 15+, for anyone listening.

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The scientist seems... genuinely offended by the idea that Amcaran soldiers penetrated and trod inside this realm of sterile inquest and discovery.
The idea that the Vult forces would have been rolled back from Naphto beach to here sees genuinely shocking and disgusting to him. You can never be sure with enemy confessions, but perhaps he's telling the truth that there are no bombs - or atleast, that he doesn't know about any.

Is it possible that the Kreiger soldier, hassling the elven maid to flee with him, was lying, trying to compel the comely girl to come with him for entirely less tactical, and more base reasons?

To Lieutenant Xiloscient, after a beat, 1st Lt. Bathory replies; though the message spell renders her voice softly, with the haze of interferance present in areas of many overlapping magical fields or an intensity of arcane radiation. "Copy, Xilo. We went down furt-..."
A static hiss.
"...no sign of destructive charges or a singul-..."
Another one.
"...ey could overload, so we're stumped. Took some captive staff who weren't evacuating, which is strange. If they have the place rigged, it's not d-..."
A third.
"...where our sappers would have gone to do the job. I think the tunnels lead all around the village - there's not a bomb in the world big enough to -..."
A fourth, final hiss.
"...ill keep looking. Ask captive about the Dragonstrike weapons - tank tech good; dragons primary.
Over."

[Waistcoatwill]

Doc listens in as he glances over the labcoat to assess his injuries. He whispers to the LT before crouching down to look at the Krieger's leg.

This schmuck might be a maniac but I don't think he's lying.

He starts cleaning the wound in a robust but not intentionally cruel manner.

Hold still now, I'm just making sure you don't bleed to death on us. I don't need the extra work.

Spoiler: Actions

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Medicine check to ensure the wound is cleaned and bleeding managed. He isn't trying to restore HP, just make sure the guy makes it back for questioning in one piece.
(1d20+8)[24]

[Continental Op]

Wolf, not hearing Doc and not putting 2 and 2 together, continues his questioning. "Do you really want to die down here with us when this place blows?" He looks at the scientist for a beat, before a (incorrect) lightbulb goes off. "Wow, you self-important moron, they didn't tell you we were coming and they were going to destroy this place? Shows you what the top brass actually thought of you, huh? Does it hurt, being as expendable as all your underlings?" Wolf snorts and shakes his head.

He turns to Xilo. "Well, what are your orders? If everyone is mobile soon, should we follow where all the workers ran off to?"

[Novabomb]

Pvt Gabriel Ginger
First dismisses his illusion, and retrieves his Behir.
Despite looking like a pin cushion, he quietly takes up position at one of the exits.

[Cavir]

Xilo steps away from the interrogation so he can hear the magical message better but still keeps an ear to what the scientist has to say. He deals with responding to LT Bathory first, ensuring the scientist can't overhear him.

"Message coming in broken. Enemy not expecting us. No rigged charges or planned evac. Assistant scientists escaped for now but not via railway. Can pursue them after questioning captive."

"We used underground railway westward 1 stop after basement. Beware of damaged tracks. Our stop has enemy KIA in tracks. Suggest catching up with us since alarm has been raised."

Xilo turns back to the scientist, speaking formally indicating his educated and royal background. "Yes, Vult command assumed the Amcarans couldn't take the beach. But there was a small unit that made it past the beach, through the defenses. That made it to the top of the cliffs. That chased away a dragon. That found the secret command post inside the cliffs with an archmage that defended the beach. That killed that archmage."

With a minor incantation, an image of the archmage as he was being killed appears, floating in the air.

"That unit? It is nicknamed Xilo's Psychos. I am Lieutenant Xiloscient, Xilo for short. Xilo's Psychos just found your underground secret lab and captured you. Once we're done here we'll penetrate the front lines again and cause more chaos and another Vult defeat. " He pauses briefly.

"Did they even tell you the beach was taken? Given that your invention was still down here and not outside stopping us I assume not. Dr...?" Xilo gets the scientist's name. "Dr. <name>, they probably will not even admit to your capture. Your name will be forgotten. Your research here is over. You have a chance to continue your research. To prove your ideas right. To make your name famous for the ages. We can give you a safe place to continue your work. Help us find your staff and you can keep them with you in your new lab. Remember, those shooting at us would rather you be dead than captured. What do you say? Do you want to live and finish your masterpieces?"

Spoiler: OOC

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Now I wish I had Inspiration to use for a roll. Hopefully the circumstances, bad cop / good cop, and reasoning are boons.
Persuasion (1d20+5)[24]

[MrAbdiel]

"...oger, Xilo. I'm sure one of the-... ...-ay up, if we ask politely enough. We'll head to your position, but if there's any sign of d-.... ...-n-dez-vous on the surface and we'll call in the cavalry from the main offensive. Enough dead on the beach; be smart and we'll all-... ...-and out."

The sullen scientist sits silently as Doc bandages the in-and-out bullet holes in his calf muscle; grimacing both from pain, and perhaps the weight of shaming in Xilo's (perhaps earned) gloating. His beady eyes watch the illusory playback of the events; skeptical as he might be of their dramatic realism, he cannot deny that he is in fact here, now, with Amcaran guns pointed at him and the mighty work of his hands smoking and sparking on the ground nearby. He may be a true believer in the Vult nonsense about supremacy and projected power; but more than that, he is a believer in personal survival; and Xilo's offer is more than fair.

"Ehh.. Doctor Franz Schiller. I am - I vas, lead developer of Applied Automatoniks at zis facility. You, ah... You want my peers? Maybe, give some of them the same offer? Many are reasonable. Others, well..." He shrugs, not wanting to commit himself to a promise of other folk's cooperation that he cannot ensure. "Zere are dozens of labs, down here; mostly supplimentary studies. Automatonics is one of ze three primary foci. Propulsion development is ze primary purpose of zis facility. Zere are many such labs here; most evacuated by now. But ze Applied Dracotelemetrics primary laboratory is, ah..." He pivots, wincing, and points to the door through which is treasonous Technikers fled. "Furthe down zis vay; the vay we had intended to go. Neat to ze primary surface hatch... beneath ze graveyard by ze Bastion of Tyr. Zey vill have evacuated much of ze materiel by now; but the propulsion engineers are primary, here; zey might have been making zere own needs primary. If you hurry..."

He trails off, all his bravado gone; now wishing badly he had not mentioned a need to hurry, considering what that might mean for a leg-shot enemy prisoner like himself.

Spoiler: OOC: The Shutter Out

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The shutter out of the lab is locked down. You can blast a gap in it a weasel, and considerable noise. With Inspiration, Sal as an Engineer can bypass it in a more quiet, but pleasantly dieselpunk fashion of his choosing.

[Cavir]

"Perfect." Xilo thinks to himself with the prisoner's willingness to help.

"Alright 5th squad, we're not done yet. Doc, Dr. Schiller is yours. Keep him with us and alive. Collect the unused explosives. Someone get us through that door. Quickly. Everyone be ready to move through as soon as it is open."

As Doc finishes patching the prisoner and getting him up, Xilo briefly steps away and reports back to Bathory. "Head scientist captured and cooperative. Dozens of labs down here. Will pursue remainder of objectives. Other scientists escaping out of hatch in graveyard of Bastion of Tyr on other end of town. Recommend have cavalry come round them up and prepare for counterattack to regain or destroy facility."

2LT Xilo returns to the pragmatic scientist and nods. "Same offer for the others. Our focus is capture not kill, but you saw what we can do when forced to. I need you to get us to the... Dracotelemetrics lab, convince your peers to come along, and get us to the surface. I know that leg is going to hurt as we move but I promise it will be well looked after once we get back. The more you help the quicker that will be. Understood? What else do we need to know?"

Xilo checks his gear and readies his rifle for the door getting opened.... somehow.

[JbeJ275]

Sal calls Sparky back to him, his construct still occasionally throwing small incidental bursts of fire but nothing beyond what Sal could handle. With the smaller droid back around his wrists Sal proceeded to the bigger one, pulling two long lengths of coiled wire out of it's arms. Then he placed them by the seals connected them in front, putting the full force of the robots leaking but still active reactor through the wire's filament, which swiftly heated the metal to white hot, allowing it to burn through the metal connecting the seals to the door as Sal stepped forward, brushed the cooling fragments of heavily oxidised wire aside and made to open the door.

"Come on, we can't stop now. Not 'til we're headed home with bas full of shiny new dragon lures."

[Waistcoatwill]

Doc

The diminutive halfing finishes his ministrations on the Krieger and helps him to his feet

Now take a few steps on that and tell me how you're doing. I'll be there to help but you'll be safer the faster you can move under your own steam.

As the murderous tinkerer moves slightly further away, Doc leans in to the LT.

I'll keep this guy alive but you can't be serious about the new lab?! That monster taught that pile of junk to murder his allies if they try to surrender!

He gives the LT a hard look before hurrying after his change and fiddly with bandages once more.

[Cavir]

"You think he and any others wouldn't be closely watched? You and I want this war over. Depriving the Vults this brainpower and adding it to our own brings victory all that quicker. Win win. Come on let's go. The more we capture the sooner this is all over."

"Dr. Schiller which way to the Dracotelemetrics lab?"

[MrAbdiel]

"Zis vay, it's zis vay!"

Now that he's bought into the idea he might survive this, he is almost pathetically eager to supply validation to the option; limping along through the gap in the shutter easily kicked in enough to permit passage after Sal has wrecked its seals.

You hustle down more wide, tall, ironshod hallways. The doctor isn't lying; there are dozens of labs here, many ransacked and abandoned, many locked from their insides as their occupants apparently know or choose not to flee. The lopsided evacuation of this place is still a mystery - perhaps certain scientists are more valuable to the Vult than others. Perhaps the politics of academia has a new viciousness in the warfront. Perhaps the unbelievable reality of the allied advance makes the news travel through such resistance that this is the ultimate result.

After a brisk mark for several minutes, a huge spray-stencil on one of the arches of the tunnels offers the encouraging word 'DRACHETELEMETRIE' and an arrow indicating forward; but K'ral, who is marching legs riddled with bullet damage such that they are a dual testament to his courage as a soldier and Doc's mastery as a field surgeon, catches the sound first, and calls a halt.

"Troops coming, from the intersection ahead. A quick march. Maybe twenty."

Seconds later, you all hear the muddy synchronized crash of boots on floor too - with a small warning on your side to react quickly enough.

"Qvuick! In here! Schnell!"

Doctor Schiller wheels aside, guns pointing to his back in full expectation of betrayal, and hastilly thumbs a code into a mechanical sequence lock on the door of one of the corridor's many siderooms. When the door pops open, you are not greeted with the second half of an ambush to compliment the troops coming ahead, but a tight storeroom that has avoided much ransacking - one full of crates and Vult military supply. Dr. Schiller flags you in.

It's possible, even likely, that if your squad rushed into the room and closed the door, the troops coming would round the corner and carry on past, presumably expecting to reinforce the robotics lab you just wrecked. You could burst out and attack their rear, or let them go on their way.

On the other hand, if you were in this small room and say, the Doctor let out a shriek for help, you're a few stickbombs away from being blasted to chunky salsa in such a tight space. But Schiller doesn't seem like the kind of man who would die with the satisfaction of knowing he had taken you with him...

Spoiler: Anyone trained in Insight:

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Infact, Schiller seems to have wholly bought into the idea of being a VIP prisoner instead of being hanged or left for dead or shot and left stuffed into an airvent.

He is a coward, which is much more valuable to you right now than a courageous man.

Spoiler: Decision Point, Psychos!

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It's a naked, open corridor; the squad could take a knee and prepare to engage an unknown number and quality of enemy (maybe twenty?), but you'd do so with no cover.
You would, however, get a surprise round against the first few to round the corner.

Alternatively, if you choose to try to hide in the storeroom, I'll want Stealth Checks from everyone after the LT calls the move!

[Waistcoatwill]

Doc

Thaddeus follows his charge into the glorified broom cupboard and silently looks back at the LT, hoping to demonstrate that he trusts the murderous labcoat isn't trying to get them killed. Not this time at least.

[Cavir]

Keeping quiet, the LT waves for everyone one to quickly get into the side room. Once everyone is in the room he helps to silently close the door then holds up a fist, demanding not just silence but absolute stillness. While listening for the enemy to pass he considers the timing to himself. It took us several minutes to get here. It'll take them about the same to get to the robot lab and the same to get back. We've got time once they are past, but not much.

Once the enemy quick response unit passes, he holds his fist for another 30 seconds then signals it's time to go.

Spoiler: OOC

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Stealth (1d20+5)[13]
Perception (1d20+5)[7]