You have 4 drones left - Arketta missed. Sorry, I should've been clearer between "shoots at" and "shoots". Jonno rolls a d8 for computers stuff with a d6 Aspect specifically for Imperial security. Luis, in contrast, rolls 2d10 with a truckload of WD.

I'd just like to mention that if you crack the security system and turn the drones on the Imperials, you don't need to monkey around with the IFF. Angel still hasn't gone yet, and if Jonno can hold it together for one more go-round, the drones will almost all be dead anyway. I'd turn that massive WD advantage towards cracking the security now.

Punkey wrote:

I'd just like to mention that if you crack the security system and turn the drones on the Imperials, you don't need to monkey around with the IFF. Angel still hasn't gone yet, and if Jonno can hold it together for one more go-round, the drones will almost all be dead anyway. I'd turn that massive WD advantage towards cracking the security now.

Agreed. 2d8 is good enough for me.

Goddamn, go combat monsters!

:shock:

A little bit of Wild Dice turned a reasonable 2 kills into "OMGWTFBBQ" (and of course freed up both your computer guys to make sure the drones won't be any more problem)

If I'd known I was going to be proving the case for representative democracy and the idea of nationalism, I would have read up on Locke and Rousseau.

In a strange way, this is actually something that Davis would know about. He's been heavily involved in dealings in the Middle East, and one of the big ideological changes the US is trying to get going in there, particularly in Iraq, is the idea of nationalism and democracy, since probably the biggest problem a unified Iraq faces is the tribal-based identity of the people instead of a nation-based identity. If the tribes in Iraq think of themselves as Iraqi first instead of Sunni or Shi'ite or Kurdish, then almost all the infighting would stop. So, I'm justified in having him know this stuff, okay?

ADS, I'm assuming (perhaps wildly) that these "hooks" the Imperium techs are using are some kind of combination Denial of Service and Anti-Virus programs on steroids. Any chance of being able to turn them around, confuse 'em by altering their target "IP"? Could I send them after a dead number? Or even those of the deployers? Or am I stuck with something more traditional (the computer equivalent of joining the melee)?

No, that's cool. The dice didn't come up in your favor, though - after several back and forth rounds, the Imperial security has 3 advantage left before they're shut out. You guys, ironically enough, ALSO have 3 advantage left. Without Wild dice, the bad guys beat you by 2 this round and they would be 3 to your 1 advantage. It would take 4 of your 6 remaining WD to knock it out of the park. Do you want to spent 'em now and have a guaranteed victory, or let it ride one more round?

admiralducksauce wrote:

No, that's cool. The dice didn't come up in your favor, though - after several back and forth rounds, the Imperial security has 3 advantage left before they're shut out. You guys, ironically enough, ALSO have 3 advantage left. Without Wild dice, the bad guys beat you by 2 this round and they would be 3 to your 1 advantage. It would take 4 of your 6 remaining WD to knock it out of the park. Do you want to spent 'em now and have a guaranteed victory, or let it ride one more round?

Depends if I'd still have Jono with me. He's been good help so far, and his dice could make up for my lower WD remaining. Hence, if he stays, I'm fine with being down to two WD.

Alright, four things to get done in the security center:

1. Lock that sucker down. We're not the only ones with access to the Palace Cortex network at the moment, although that could possibly be changed. If not, I want that sucker sealed off as best we can.
2. Gather intel. We need to know exactly what's standing between us and our exit, every inch of the way. As far as the neutron drones go, we might be able to detect them through other means, other cameras, power use, data flow, a fancy map, something.
3. Lock down our escape route. Close and seal every blast door between where we are now and the Black Gate, make a secure corridor so we don't get lost, don't get locked out and don't have to worry about nasty surprises any more than we already do.
4. Clean the escape route out. Fill that sucker with attack drones and sweep it clean. We're gonna be at least five minutes or so, that's plenty of time for as many drones as we can get our hands on to search and blast everything that looks like it might be threatening, and I mean everything. If the drones spot a suspicious-looking end table, I want it reduced to splinters. Neutron drones are the big fear, that's why I want everything that's not structural to the building in our escape route destroyed (and some things that are), if we can't detect them, we just destroy everything. Especially in the Repository vaults and in the Black Gate room, get at least a dozen more drones on that sucker and kill everything. After it's been swept, activate the killswitch on all the drones and blow them up, burn them out, whatever it does to take them offline in an emergency.

Edit: On #4, we'd probably need to create a sterile cordon around the sealed doors, say a hundred feet or so. We still kill every drone in the Palace once we're ready to roll out, though. It'll be the last thing we do before we crack the doors and leave.

Punkey wrote:

Alright, four things to get done in the security center:

1. Lock that sucker down. We're not the only ones with access to the Palace Cortex network at the moment, although that could possibly be changed. If not, I want that sucker sealed off as best we can.
2. Gather intel. We need to know exactly what's standing between us and our exit, every inch of the way. As far as the neutron drones go, we might be able to detect them through other means, other cameras, power use, data flow, a fancy map, something.
3. Lock down our escape route. Close and seal every blast door between where we are now and the Black Gate, make a secure corridor so we don't get lost, don't get locked out and don't have to worry about nasty surprises any more than we already do.
4. Clean the escape route out. Fill that sucker with attack drones and sweep it clean. We're gonna be at least five minutes or so, that's plenty of time for as many drones as we can get our hands on to search and blast everything that looks like it might be threatening, and I mean everything. If the drones spot a suspicious-looking end table, I want it reduced to splinters. Neutron drones are the big fear, that's why I want everything that's not structural to the building in our escape route destroyed (and some things that are), if we can't detect them, we just destroy everything. Especially in the Repository vaults, get at least a dozen more drones on that sucker and kill everything. After it's been swept, activate the killswitch on all the drones and blow them up, burn them out, whatever it does to take them offline in an emergency.

Sounds like a plan. I've let Jono start handling the lockdown while I take care of the people working on the Cortex vault doors. Shouldn't take long, just change their "recognize this code as friendly" a bit and set them for automatic clean-up of nearby now-marked-as-enemy bomb techs. If the Turai catch on and try to alter to it, switch it again. Once the door area is clear, I'll be taking the rest of Punkey's advice.

Your escape route.

How many drones are there in that area that I can get my grubby paws on? How many Turai/Keepers/others? Any secondary indications of nuetron drones (Cameras showing them, ect)?

I felt this was best responded to in the IC thread.

Anyways, now Luis is back with his hands full. Your drones in the immediate area outside the Cortex doors are dead. You know there are 3 Turai and 1 Caretaker, all wounded. You know the Imps aren't moving in reinforcements yet because they've decided to go Death Blossom on any drones they can find. You do not know how far along the guys outside got with their demolitions work before they were rudely interrupted, or if their specialist is still alive.

I mentioned that the forces inside the Palace are spread thin, but rest assured they are Gating and flying in reinforcements. Good news there is that 1) you don't plan on leaving that way anyhow and 2) those reinforcements aren't going to Boranai (or at this point, trying to figure out HOW to get to Boranai).

It even helps out Max with his little rampage.

I'd say this little hijacking is going to have ramifications on how the Imperium conducts its on-site surveillance and security from now on.

To mechanical matters: Luis and Jonno are in a second "duel" of sorts with the Imperial techs. The Imps need to get 10 advantage over Luis; Luis needs 8 over the Imperials to shut down their scheme (or enact whatever kind of reasonable objective he can think of). The Imps beat you by 1 this first round, rolling an 8 to your and Jonno's 7, so technically I suppose they need 9 advantage now.

Okay, forget sweeping the halls for the moment, we need all the drones we can get to move to the Court of Heavenly Purity. We need to take out those neutron drones with something that they can't hit back at. If the drones are high enough up, we should be out of easy range of the Caretakers, plus, they're not going to use explosives around their precious pillars. Also, can't we just issue standing orders, even if they shut us down? Like, order the drones to move to the Court and destroy the neutron drones, then attack the Caretakers? I can buy a $20 programming toy kit that can handle that kind of logic, can these things?

Throw some Wild Dice on this one if need be, because it's looking more and more like we're not getting out of here without his help.

Luis certainly could just tell the drones "go down X route, clean out Y area of Z targets". And if the Imps cut him off, the drones would still be running amok.

What do you want to do? If you delay, you lose drones. If you send them on their killing spree, well, I doubt the Emperor is going continue talking to you.

You can decide now, and I will say you have 20 drones close enough to the Halls to start wiping the Court clean of life.

Or, you can wait for the Emperor to respond and I will roll a round of shooting between the Turai and the drones.

You'll have at least 3 drones no matter what - the ones I said just happened to be in the Halls of Tranquility.

Can we move the drones to a more defensive position without forcing Luis to give up a turn? If not, we wait for an answer.

Giving that many drones orders will count as an action. Luis or Jonno can tell the drones to go full defense and still do other things, it's just going to count as an action (so any other actions will be penalized). It's not an action you need to maintain every round, but it does cost to start the drones a-dodgin'.

My advice would be to have Jonno command the drones. His d8 would drop to 2d8 lowest, but he'd get his d6 Aspect for helping Luis resist the Imperial hackers. Luis would roll his normal 2d10 hi roll. If Luis were to command the drones, he'd only roll 1d10 to counteract the hackers, with a d8 and d6 from Jonno's assistance.