Typhoeus I
As the session starts Sun has since calmed down and collected herself, though she claims confusion as to what caused her unusual behavior (Nike, Aella and Deke all roll and fail Perception checks on that). Aella has been in contact with the Kapanea who's due in moments with Captain Hanson's second in command, Jarvis Carder, supposedly to escort the Griffon back to the Rock. Deke is in the cargo bay with Sun, whose checking the civilians for any obvious cause of death, and Nike has retreated to the cockpit where things aren't quite so bizarre.
Scene one:
As the Kapanea pulls alongside and docks, Aella meets them at the airlock. When Jarvis enters he makes short introductions before marching straight for the two dead civilians who attempted to jump us. In his wake we're a little concerned to see three armed and rather dubious looking men accompanying him. Aella nevertheless tags along to offer what report she can, as these men are here on Admiral Drake's behalf. Still, she's none too pleased to have civilians poking around the Griffon.
As Aella answers questions about the civilian's behavior and the incident that led up to their mysterious deaths, Sun checks over the bodies of the dead civilians. It becomes apparent to her that the civilians all suffered some form of toxic shock, most likely a nerve agent of some kind. A quick check confirms that each of them had a small capsule imbedded in the soft tissue at the base of the cheek and all of them have ruptured, probably having been bitten in order to commit suicide. Sun leaves Deke to watch over the corpses while she reports this to Aella and the three men from the Kapanea. On hearing this Jarvis relays to Aella that he's been given authority to move the dead civilians over to the Kapanea and that the Griffon has been ordered to proceed to Typhoeus (the nearby moon) to gather intelligence on the events that recently occurred there. Aella, however, refuses to allow them to do so until she can sends Deke up to the cockpit to confirm the orders via radio. When Deke does so and relays their authenticity to Aella, she steps back and allows the three men to start hauling the bodies over to the Kapanea.
Before returning to Sun and Aella, Deke takes a moment to offer his apologies to Nike for his earlier behavior, intending to avow that he won't let his relationship with Sun be such an obstacle to the team anymore. Nike, though, is a bit put off considering his horoscope's insistence that this is a bad time for trivial distractions and that he must stay serious, focusing on his work. He interrupts Deke and essentially blows him off, chiding him to remain on task and go run an overdue routine maintenance check on the Griffon. Deke is naturally insulted and decides Nike's just a hopeless jerk. He heads back to Aella before beginning the long overdue maintenance check.
While Aella watches over, Sun gives the three men basic instructions on handling the bodies to avoid the small chance they might come in contact with the nerve agent. In moments the men have cleared the cargo area as well as having removed the bodies of the two civilians who attacked them near the cockpit door. Before the Kapanea can depart, Nike catches one of the men near the airlock and convinces him to part with his Picon P90 SMG in exchange for the gold watch he won from Madison in episode two (I had honestly grown a little weary of plinking away at Cylons with a pistol.)
Following orders we wait until the Kapanea's two Vipers can disengage and escort us before proceeding in closer to Typhoeus. At Sun's directions Nike pilots the Griffon in closer and closer until we're practically in low orbit. Eventually Sun claims she can't gather any more pertinent information from orbit at all and recommends landing for an eyeball inspection. Nike and Deke immediately object but Aella considers the matter for a moment before contacting the Kapanea to relay the request (having taken a moment to insure there's nothing apparent nearby to intercept the transmission). Eventually we get the go ahead from command and Nike reluctantly drops the Griffon into Typhoeus' thin atmosphere. Unfortunately I make some horrific rolls on the Average complex action of approach and landing, despite spending all six of my starting Plot Points and Aella spending all six of hers as well through her So Say We All asset.
Nike completely and utterly fails and he crashes like a first week Viper trainee. An attempt to avoid damage with an Agility/Piloting (Griffon) roll produces a 4, vs. a falling "attack" of 30. After convincing our sadistic GM to allow Griffon's armor to be taken into account we're looking at 8s/10w to the Griffon. If that isn't bad enough the Griffon fails her Endurance check and is Disabled immediately. Once Nike shakes off the shock of crashing he quickly makes a Damage Control check and rolls Griffon's Strength to reduce the stun damage by 4. We then have to break from the session for a moment to bitch about our horrendous luck before proceeding. [It was an Average complex action, for crying out loud! I just needed 35 and I botched twice! I'm still pissed about it.]
Once we return to the table armed with pizza, fresh sodas and grim determination, Deke unbuckles from his safety harness and dashes off to inspect the damage. Nike takes a moment to assure everyone it really wasn't his fault, honest, while Aella and Sun head aft to see if any of the gear or technical equipment was damaged. Luckily, no one sustained any injuries from the stunning display of poor piloting. Nike eventually tries to pitch in with Deke but he waves him off angrily so he goes to help the girls check out the gear instead.
We spend over an hour checking everything out before Deke reports that the crash caused a lot of structural damage that can all keep until we can dock somewhere. However, Sun reports some systems damage that will keep Griffon disabled until it's repaired. Aella is already outside in a space suit reconn'ing the immediate area so we contact her there with our report. After Sun and Deke finish glaring at Nike she decides we'll effect repairs first before heading out toward the structure to eyeball the aftermath of the battle (she wants us to be able to make a quick getaway if necessary). Aella orders Nike to grab his new SMG and join her on patrol while Sun and Deke get to work. Nike first radios in to the Vipers in orbit to inform them of the situation and is told they'll remain on patrol in orbit until further notice.
Sun and Deke decide to focus on repairing Griffon's stun damage as it's the easiest and quickest thing to work on. Full repairs are impossible as the wound damage is 10 (requiring specialized components we just don't have) so they're goal is simply to get Griffon up and running again. Using Indirect Assistance they manage to get Griffon's stun damage fully repaired in about 40 minutes. Deke and Nike then run system checks and one last look around for any critical damage they might have missed before everyone gears up, dons space suits and heads out for the structure.
Having "landed" a bit off course we have to hike for nearly four hours to reach the site. With that in mind we immediately start keeping track of our suit's air supply (about 46 hours, going loosely by the BSG episode "You can't go home again"). On approaching the site Aella holds up the team and proceeds forward alone to scout out the area. After a time she returns to lead us in, having spotted no movement or sign of any survivors.
Once we reach the large crater we can already see hundreds of Cylon centurions scattered (most of them literal "scattered" in pieces) around the lip. Peering over we spy the two earthen ramps leading down to the base of the crater and hundreds more centurions lying about "dead" there as well. With weapons out Aella takes point with Nike in the rear, everyone keep an eye out for movement in case any of the centurions are still functional enough to fire on us. We also notice something odd about the centurions in that about half of them bear an odd symbol, like a welded on badge, on each shoulder. We eventually reach the base and approach within a few hundred meters of the structure without any action. Around the large stone structure are several small prefab buildings, most of them destroyed or heavily damaged in the fighting.
With our space suits and the thin atmosphere of the moon we can't hear much going on around us but we all make Formidable Alertness + Perception rolls. Only Nike makes his roll, adding in his Sixth Sense asset. He spots movement nearby to the left and is able to draw everyone's attention in that direction in time for us all to see a lone Cylon centurion bound around one of the prefab buildings and come to a halt when it spots us.
Everyone rolls Initiative with Aella taking the first action. She fires two bursts into the centurion, shooting from the hip, doing enough damage to drop it and nearly emptying her clip (she never reloaded after the incident on the Griffon). Before the centurion falls, however, someone else lands a hit with an explosive round on the centurion's head from somewhere off out of sight during the same Initiative point. We also note that the centurion had just begun to turn and look in that direction when both attacks hit it.
Aella immediately signals everyone to take cover back out of sight behind the boulders nearby and we all scramble to hide. Most of us can't see what's going on though we can all see Aella who's peering out from cover. She simply signals us all to stay down while she watches about a dozen centurions and, surprisingly, five humans in space suits. Aella makes an Awareness + Perception check and recognizes two the humans from a distance through their faceplates (she can't get a good look at the others). One is identical to the Gina/Karen model and the other is identical to the female that attacked us on the Griffon. She also sees that all of the centurions accompanying them bear the hydra-badge on their shoulders. She then ducks out of sight to avoid being seen and we all wait to see what develops.
Aella decides that she'll peek out every three turns to check what's going on and manages to see the group examine the dead centurion and realize someone else has fired on it. She spies the hydra-marked centurions fan out with weapons ready to cover the humans while they work on the dead centurion, removing something from we hadn't noticed it was carrying in one hand. With a final look Aella sees the humans head back behind the nearby small building, making for the far side of the stone structure while the hydra-badged centurions fall back warily to cover them.
Unbeknownst to the rest of us, Sun has been making progressively more difficult Willpower + Discipline checks during all this, spending three Plot Points on her final effort and finally failing. We're all surprised when she suddenly stands up and starts following the centurions, moving haltingly and obviously confused. It's only moments before the hydra-centurions spot her and have her surrounded. Nike and Deke look expectantly at Aella, waiting for her to give the signal to open fire and rescue her but Aella's Unstable complication kicks in, effecting her judgment. Her Willpower check to overcome it fails (with no Plot Points left to influence it) and she signals us to stay down. Sun is disarmed and led away toward the stone structure.
Once she's sure the centurions are out of range of our suit radios she orders us to return to the Griffon. Nike and Deke initially refuse until she makes it clear that it's an order. Nike caves due to his Duty complication, though he's less than happy with the order. Deke no longer has a Jealous complication effecting his decisions but he's not under any particular Duty complication either. Aella and Nike wait for his decision whether or not to disobey orders and go after Sun alone and aren't surprised when he finally tells Aella off and takes off after Sun.
[Nike gets 1 Plot Point for his Superstition complication in play, Deke and Sun both get 1 Plot Point for repairing the Griffon's stun damage enough to fly again and Aella gets 1 Plot Point for her Unstable complication in play. Everyone gets another Plot Point for avoiding detection by the Cylons while they retrieve the object from the destroyed centurion and Sun gets another for allowing the GM to manipulate her character.]
Scene two:
After cursing Deke over her suit radio and ordering him again to fall back in line, Aella finally gives up. She gives the nod and then we both head out after Deke to either tackle him and drag him back to the Griffon by force or back him up in case he manages to get into trouble before we can stop him. We catch sight of him taking cover behind a small prefab building near the structure with his pistol drawn, standing near the corner. Before we can reach him he's spotted us and is waving us to take cover behind him, out of sight of whatever is going on around the far side. Once we reach him he puts his helmet to Aella's in order to communicate without using the suit radios. He tells her he saw the group of humans and centurions enter the trailer sized building we're hiding behind with Sun, leaving two centurions outside as guards. Aella decides to wait for a bit, not wanting to tackle and armed assault with over a dozen Cylon and human combatants inside the building.
After half an hour has passed we finally spot movement around the corner and Aella hauls Deke back out of the way, taking his place. She peers around and sees nine hydra-centurions and four suited humans heading into the nearby structure, leaving the two centurions posted outside the building. If her previous count is correct that leaves one "human" and two centurions inside the building with Sun.
Putting all our helmets together she makes it clear we have to take the centurions guarding the entrance to the building quietly before we can even think about freeing Sun. She orders Nike and Deke to dash around to the far corner and prepare to open fire on the centurion nearest them when Deke sees her fire on the one closest to her.
Once we're in position Aella reloads and moves as covertly as possible to take aim around the corner on her centurion target. Firing, she hits with all three bursts but doesn't drop her target. Spotting Aella's hits striking the centurion on the far side from his position, Deke leans out to fire on our target and Nike steps around him to do likewise.
----------
1)
Aella fires two bursts into her target, who is now aware of her and dodging. She lands both hits from medium cover but hardly drops it. It returns with autofire and she dodges successfully.
Nike, without any cover, fires two bursts from his Picon P90 SMG and lands both hits, though he barely scratches the centurion. It immediately returns fire with a spray covering both him and Deke (who's at medium cover at the corner of the building). Both Deke and Nike have dodged and it misses them. Deke then fires three shots at the centurion landing only one damaging hit.
2)
Aella fires another two bursts and goes ahead with a very nice dodge. She hits once doing moderate damage but still not dropping the centurion. It returns autofire again and misses her.
Nike fires two more bursts from the open, landing only one damaging hit and likewise goes ahead with a dodge. The centurion he's firing on lays down another spray on he and Deke. Deke dodges as well but this time Nike is hit for 1 stun and 7 wounds, breaching his space suit (the 7 wound damage now has Nike saddled with a wound penalty). Deke fires three more shots into the centurion hitting twice for minimal damage.
3)
Aella fires two bursts again and dodges, finally dropping her target. Nike, though wounded, stays where he is and fires another two bursts at the remaining centurion, dodging again. He fails to breach it's armor though both bursts hit. On the centurion's third spray Deke opts for innate defense and the spray fails to hit either of us. Deke lays four shots into the centurion, breaching it's armor three times and finally dropping it.
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Knowing that Nike's been hit and his suit is breached Deke rushes over to patch it up. After a little consideration the GM is kind enough to rule that space suits should darned well include some kind of patch kit for small tears and breaches so Deke uses this to patch up Nike's suit before he starts suffering from exposure. He does, however, lose a couple of hours worth of oxygen from his suit's attempts to compensate for the loss from the breaches.
Once Nike's life is no longer in danger we move to Aella, who's already taken position near the door to the small building in case whoever is inside is aware of the gunfight that just took place. Figuring that if the two centurions had radioed in about the attack before we dropped them there would be a relatively quick response, we decide to wait a couple more turns. When nothing comes bursting through the door to shoot at us we figure we still have the element of surprise.
Before we can make a pass at opening the door Deke is struck in the helmet by a small rock flying in from behind us. Turning around we see another person in space suit several meters away with a Leo Storm carbine trained at us. We immediately take note that the suit she's wearing is of a familiar civilian model, unlike those worn by the humans we've seen here so far (which appeared to be of an unusual design). Once we've seen her and have taken no immediate hostile action (we ourselves waiting to see what she'd do) she lowers her rifle and holds up one empty palm in placatory gesture. Aella instantly shoulders her GMAR and has the stranger in her sights but when she makes no further move we eventually wave her forward. She joins us, slinging her rifle and ignoring Aella's pointing at her. Once she's within grabbing range we disarm her and drag her around the building for a quick interrogation.
Wanting to waste as little time as possible we prod her a bit until we gather that she was originally part of a small security unit working for a mining operation elsewhere on the moon. Several days ago the Cylons descended and killed everyone there and she barely managed to escape alive, eventually coming here in hopes that she could steal supplies or possibly even a transport of some kind. Claiming she has information that may be of interest to us as well as combat training she nearly begs us to take her on in the hopes that she can accompany us off the moon before the last of her supplies run out (being on her last air tank, in fact). After considering it for a moment Aella agrees but gives her carbine to Nike, transfers his SMG to Deke and gives the woman (Regina) Nike's pistol.
Back at the door Aella relays instructions to Regina to stay outside and guard our rear while we move into the building. Getting inside proves easy as the door isn't even locked, though it turns out to be an airlock as we had suspected. Once inside we quickly move to cycle the airlock and move inside, assuming that the airlock is monitored from somewhere within. We can immediately see two doors, to our right and to our left. To the right, through the glass window of the door, we can see one human (identical to the Gina/Karen model Cylon we've already encountered speaking to someone else within the room.
As she doesn't seemed to have noticed we've entered the building we duck down and move as stealthily as possible to either side of the door and out of her line of sight should she turn this way. Since she wasn't wearing her helmet any longer we check the atmosphere and find it breathable, and so remove our own helmets to preserve what air we can.
Aella then spends her only 2 Plot Points on a small hand-held mirror stowed away in her gear, reasoning that it's the sort of handy trinket a serious soldier would carry around. Using it in conjunction with an Agility + Covert check she manages to spy out the room beyond the door and spot one human and two Cylon centurions inside without being spotted herself. Able to whisper quietly to each other now we discuss the situation and decide, since there's no other door in the room nearby, that Sun must be alone somewhere else in the building. Aella decides we'll look for her first before dealing with the people in this room and we move quietly to the opposite door. Again peeking through with the mirror Aella sees an empty area beyond with three more doors and we move inside. Peering through each of these doors with her mirror Aella discovers all three seem to be small storage rooms and quickly finds Sun sitting on a plastic crate in one of them, unaware that she's being observed. She then taps on the glass, getting Sun's attention. Once we're able to collaborate with Sun again through the window she's soon talking Deke through the process of overriding the electronic lock on our side of the door, which she pulls off with a extraordinary success, and we have Sun back with us again.
After deciding not to engage the Cylons in the next room we dig around in the other two storage rooms until we find Sun's space suit and have her suited up again. We then move quietly back through the airlock, heading outside again. In the process of this Sun informs us that she's overheard the humans working with the Cylons here talking about a "palladium", some object or device they seem to have brought here to Typhoeus. From what she was able to gather they intend to place it inside the stone structure, which they refer to as "the temple". Furthermore she confirms that the Cylon centurions here are definitely under the command of the humans, though it's already become clear to us these "humans" may not be human at all. As to explaining her behavior, Sun claims to have no memory of how she came to be captured at all. Nike, Deke and Aella all fail Alertness + Perception checks on that statement with Nike botching it and believing her without question.
Once outside again we find that Regina is standing well away from where we left her at the door with her pistol trained on a space suited human lying on the ground at her feet. A second glance shows this human is wearing the same odd space suit as the other "humans" we've met so far on the moon and that she's taken several bullet wounds, presumably from Regina's pistol.
[Aella, Nike and Deke all get 1 Plot Point for surviving the fight with the two Cylon centurions guarding the door to the prefab building, another 1 Plot Point for successfully capturing Regina without a fight and a third Plot Point for freeing Sun. Sun gets 2 Plot Points for missing out on the entire scene and a third Plot Point for successfully withholding the truth about her odd behavior from the rest of the team.]
[The session ended here with the second half of the episode scheduled for the following Saturday.]
* Nike's horoscope for the day: "Your mind is serious and you are able to concentrate on work that requires patience, attention to detail, and precision. Practical concerns dominate. It is a good time to learn practical skills, do your taxes, organize your files, and take care of business. You'll want to avoid light social conversation or trivialities that distract you from your work."
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