Traveller: Life in the Marches - A ship of our own

Banjo

Evan watches Barrymore as she glides her smooth, gleaming carapace across the common room, like a hot metal cat down a soapy gutter. "Min-es-troney!" He whistles. "Alex, you have the tactical training, l need you down in the cargo bay in 5."

In the aforementioned cargo bay, he powers on drone#2.
"Ok Cilla, diagnostic check, sync with the ship and let's see what you can do."

Professor Moriarty

Ooc I have intelligence of 9 - is that any good?

"I'm still unsure as to how we know the 'Rescue Ship' is in fact friendly but I trust my various captains. Still think rigging up a bomb drone to shadow the ship is a good idea and we could maybe send one to the pirate ship. But I'm only the cabin boy."

jasonb

"Well Seneca, we've got plenty of drones. One of them will head towards the Rescue Ship, the rest Evan is working on with Alex, so go have a chat with them and see what can be rigged up. If the Rescue Ship isn't friendly, the bomb drone could come in handy. If they are though, and they find out about the bomb, they might not be too impressed!"

OOC: I'd say 9 is pretty decent. Mine is actually 15, but I think that's really high. I'm not sure what the 'average' is?

Banjo

Ooc .Int 13 and 1 in electronic engineering, should be able to do this. Have no computers knowledge but can borrow the ships computer I think (my manual is not for the efition of Traveller we're playing). If you have computer skill pile on!. I think Alex is the one with tactics training, assume that's worth something for reprogramming.

Professor Moriarty

jasonb wrote: »

"Well Seneca, we've got plenty of drones. One of them will head towards the Rescue Ship, the rest Evan is working on with Alex, so go have a chat with them and see what can be rigged up. If the Rescue Ship isn't friendly, the bomb drone could come in handy. If they are though, and they find out about the bomb, they might not be too impressed!"

OOC: I'd say 9 is pretty decent. Mine is actually 15, but I think that's really high. I'm not sure what the 'average' is?

Ooc You're the egghead! You should do the programming.

"Okay, I think Milt is powering up another drone. If they are here to rescue us they'd probably see the bomb drone as prudence on our behalf."

Seneca goes to the cargo bay to find Milt fiddling with a drone. "Em, Milt, are you done with that drone? Glenn needs one on the bridge."

jasonb

OOC: I already have a drone, and have rolled to program it (this is the drone to go to the Rescue Ship). Got a good roll, just waiting to hear back from Fourier.

Banjo

Professor Moriarty wrote: »

Seneca goes to the cargo bay to find Milt fiddling with a drone. "Em, Milt, are you done with that drone? Glenn needs one on the bridge."

"I'm building an army, not boiling an egg! I think one of our captains needs Tea - see to it!

Carey, Cilla, show me again - attack pattern Delta!"

conor222

Alex heads down to assist

Fourier

jasonb wrote: »

OOC: I'd say 9 is pretty decent. Mine is actually 15, but I think that's really high. I'm not sure what the 'average' is?

OOC: Average Intelligence is 7. 15 is the limits of human intelligence.

Fourier

jasonb wrote: »

"Well Seneca, we've got plenty of drones. One of them will head towards the Rescue Ship, the rest Evan is working on with Alex, so go have a chat with them and see what can be rigged up. If the Rescue Ship isn't friendly, the bomb drone could come in handy. If they are though, and they find out about the bomb, they might not be too impressed!"

Glenn programs the drone to reach the rescue ship in time with very precise instructions, even managing to improve its AI in the process. It'll be able to report on their situation intelligently and independently, as well as send back rough psychological estimates of the rescue team via onboard lie detectors and pupil dilation meters.

Fourier

conor222 wrote: »

Alex heads down to assist

OOC: Okay so Alex, you do Tactics(Military)[Education], Ease: +2. Based on the results we'll do Evan's roll and see how well the droids were trained.

jasonb

Fourier wrote: »

Glenn programs the drone to reach the rescue ship in time with very precise instructions, even managing to improve its AI in the process. It'll be able to report on their situation intelligently and independently, as well as send back rough psychological estimates of the rescue team via onboard lie detectors and pupil dilation meters.

OOC: I guess that's what a good roll gets ya!

Glenn sends the drone on its way towards the Rescue Ship, and then heads down to see if he can help the others at all...

Banjo

"Alex! Ok, let me finish this one, then you start programming some actual manoeuvres in, this'll give you an idea of their syntax and an idea of how little Dune 2 has prepared me for life as a general.

All - Safety engage.
Carey, Cilla, Home - front line!
Loc, Daywalt - Front Line hover mid!
Nancy, Ronnie - Pincer left!
Danza, Soprano - Pincer right!
All - Positions!"
Once the drones fall into position, he calls
"Front line - Attitude : Defensive, Fall back. wait envelop, adjust aggressive, close. Pincers, All - Attitude : Defensive, Wait Proximity, Adjust Aggressive, close.

All - Safety status."
The drones sound off a chorus of "Safety engaged"
Evan runs at the 5 drones in the middle, they fall back to the rapid clicks of disabled weaponry, while from the sides the remaining 4 rush him from the sides as he passes, and then he's swamped by metal. He cries out in a voice that betrays a tiny squeak of panic
"All - attitude - fluffy"
and the drones begin to gently nuzzle him.
"Huh? Huh?" he asks, grinning at Alex, looking for approval.

conor222

Excellent!
Alex smiles, these could be very useful

Fourier

OOC:
So Alex got a 7 (Just to help you conor222, you rolled 4 on the dice, +2 for ease and +1 because you have Tactics(Military) at 1.

Evan you now roll to program the droids based on Alex's instructions, due to his roll you have an extra -1, which has modified the difficulty below.

Roll Engineer(Remote Ops)[Education], Difficulty: -1

Professor Moriarty

Drew does not take part in Milt's drills. Instead, the drone shadows Seneca as he walks around. To the casual observer, it is obvious that Drew is obsessed with Seneca (some might say lovestruck) and becomes defensive when anyone approaches Seneca. Seneca awaits instructions from one of the captains.

Ooc I'm basing this on the fact that there were 10 drones of which 9 were drilled by Evan?

Banjo

OOC : Barrymore is the 10th drone, and she's with Glenn I thought or on her way to the Rescue ship. Drone Carey is a dude, by the way. Not saying that makes it better or worse, I'm not here to judge, I'm here to re-route power to the Kepler Fandangulators.

conor222

Alex struggles somewhat translating normal millitary tactics to formations and structures for the drones, the building blocks are there but it somewhat lacks the feedback hes used to from dealing with people instead of machines.

Banjo

All that nuzzling has caused a rush of blood away from Evan's primary thinkulator.
(2d6-1 = 2, Engineering 0, no Remote Ops specialisation, presume that just means roll with no penalty, Ed +2 - I make that a 4 total?)

Baggly

Banjo wrote: »

OOC : Barrymore is the 10th drone, and she's with Glenn I thought or on her way to the Rescue ship. Drone Carey is a dude, by the way. Not saying that makes it better or worse, I'm not here to judge, I'm here to re-route power to the Kepler Fandangulators.

OOC: We need TL:DR's on some of your more intricate posts :pac:

jasonb

OOC: I'm getting used to the fickleness of the rolls. You think that two dice will give you a decent number, but there's just as much chance of rolling a 2 as a 12, as I'm learning! And yep, super-enhanced Barrymore is on her way to the Rescue Ship

Fourier

Banjo wrote: »

"Huh? Huh?" he asks, grinning at Alex, looking for approval.

Evan hears an energy discharge behind him as one of the drones fires a blast into the cargo bay walls.

"Intruder detected, protect Commander Alex" they utter in unison.

Four have their weapons primes on Evan, as the other six spread out into the ship looking for imagined threats to Alex.

Professor Moriarty

Seneca hops into the cryogenic pod and locks the lid.

Fourier

The drones pass by the cryogenic chambers, uninterested in the occupants and proceed to Nestor's room.

OldGoat

In a overly dramatic show of faux modesty Nestor covers her nakedness shrilly shouts at the drones "Why Messrs. Drone, have you no couth?"

Banjo

"Alex," Evan says very calmly while slowly kneeling on the ground, putting his hands behind his head, "I believe it would be in everyone's interests if you give them the 'all - attitude - fluffy' command before they kill the pilot."

conor222

"Drones, stand down, weapons to safety. Attitude.... um... fluffy"

Fourier

The drones stop immediately.

"By your command"

conor222

"Scan the ship layout and build a defense plan for tactical positioning for both breech and distance attack scenarios"

Banjo

Evan slowly gets to his feet, ready to drop if he's perceived as a threat again.
"Vainglorious, when did Alex replace Glenn as captain?"

OOC : If commander and captain are different things, well chalk that up to my lack of naval experience.