Typhoeus II
We pick up where we left off with Regina having shot and captured one of the space-suited "humans". The captive at her feet is clearly badly wounded and his suit has been breached. Sun has rejoined us but we have yet to seriously address her recent bizarre behavior.
Scene three:
As soon as she sees the wounded man, Sun taps Deke to patch up the wounded Cylon humanoid's suit while she moves forward to do her best to assess his wounds. She tells Aella and Nike to look for another prefab building with environmental integrity where she can treat him as well. This quickly leads to an argument when Regina pushes her away from the wounded Cylon, refusing to let her treat him. Nike and Deke likewise question the wisdom of wasting time treating the Cylon when our current situation is so precarious. Aella, however, ends the argument by ordering us to comply with Sun's requests, intending to interrogate the Cylon and find out what she can about what's going on around here.
While Deke moves swiftly to patch up the wounded Cylon's suit and Sun tries to assess him, Nike and Regina look around for a building that isn't too terribly damaged and, hopefully, still has some functional environmental control. The one right next door to the building we just snatched Sun from looks promising and we can't see any of the other dozen or so buildings that don't appear heavily damaged from where we stand. Aella keeps an eye out while we focus on other tasks, especially watching the door nearby for signs the Cylons within are coming out.
Regina continues to argue that it's crazy to waste time on the Cylon and that we should just kill him or leave him to die. Aella finally has to admit that we don't have the time or resources to treat him without putting ourselves in danger. As it stands the Cylon and the two centurions inside the nearby building could come out at any moment, probably after finding Sun missing, intent on killing us all. When Sun reports that the Cylon is almost out of oxygen and that he requires immediate medical care Aella finally decides interrogating him isn't an option after all and orders Deke and Sun to leave him be. While Deke, Nike and Regina are in agreement with Aella's order (to one degree or another) Sun most certainly is not. She simply grabs the Cylon by his suit and starts dragging him toward the neighboring building, ignoring Aella's orders completely and clearly intending to haul him inside to treat him.
Aella's Unstable complication kicks in, confronted with a subordinate who refuses her orders in a combat situation. We're a bit surprised (especially Sun) when she shoulders her GMAR and threatens to shoot Sun dead where she stands if she doesn't fall back in line. A stare down ensues with both Aella and Sun refusing to budge on the issue. The GM has Aella roll Willpower + Influence/Intimidation (+ Unstable) vs. Sun's Willpower + Influence (+ Contrarian, Idealist) to determine who backs down first. Sun wins handily and returns to dragging her patient toward the building, daring Aella to shoot her. Aella drops her aim in disgust, swearing to court martial Sun when we make it back to the Admiral.
With Aella's authority largely undermined for the moment, Nike and Deke decide their best course of action is to help Sun in her endeavor. Regina is still furious that we're all wasting time on a murdering Cylon and demands Aella do something. Aella simply orders her to shut the hell up and stomps off after us to help secure the building.
Inside the building we find it largely empty, though there's evidence that it was recently occupied. Half the building has been breached on the far side and we're stuck with just one room to work with. Deciding that we'll keep our suits on while Sun works on the Cylon (in case the three next door come over to start shooting up the place) Aella positions Nike and herself in the airlock to cover the entrance while Regina and Deke watch over Sun.
Sun strips the Cylon out of his suit and gets to work in the one room with a stable environment. In the end, though, it's all for naught as Sun works for several minutes trying unsuccessfully to resuscitate the now dead Cylon. When she at last gives up Regina lights right into her for wasting their time and putting them all in danger. Deke is finally forced to intervene with the two when Sun decides she's had enough and jumps up to start snapping back at her. Once Aella enters the room and smacks some sense into everyone she soon has us heading back out the airlock, intending to head straight back to the Griffon.
When it becomes clear that we're bugging out Regina dithers, claiming the dying Cylon said something about a device that's being hidden in the stone temple that she gathered was some kind of high priority intelligence or something. She insists we go back and find it in order to bring it back to the Colonial Fleet (which she apparently assumes is parked somewhere nearby). Everyone is now naturally furious with Regina for not mentioning this a half hour ago and saving us all a lot of drama.
After a bit of cursing all around Aella orders us right back to the building we've hanging around far too much already. Having decided that if we're going into the temple she doesn't want those three Cylons inside to come after us (and that she's tired of anxiously waiting for them to jump out at us) she concocts a quick plan to eliminate that threat. To confirm her observation that the temporary building's walls are mere plastic and not to heavily fortified, she has Deke take a moment to examine one of the nearby building's breach holes. He quickly confirms that they are indeed merely insulated plastic and provide little defense at all. She then has Deke and Nike take aim one spot on the wall adjacent to the room that, we assume, the Cylon humanoid and the two centurions are still occupying. After we blow a fist-sized hole through the wall with a couple of bursts she tosses in one of her two fragmentation grenades and ducks for cover. A moment later the explosion blows out most of the wall and we can see the humanoid lying dead from the blast and both badly damaged centurions getting clumsily back to their feet. Deke and I take the initiative and drop a couple of bursts in each one, dropping them back down again.
With all immediate threats neutralized Aella is ready to recon the temple. Moving forward alone she scouts down the declining stone hallway leading into the structure. Dropping 2 Plot Points on her Covert efforts she's able to move within sight of the central chamber where ten centurions and three suited Cylon humanoids are working. While she can't make out what exactly they're all up to the centurions seem to be more or less cleaning up debris and sealing the last few stones in place along the walls. The three humanoids are working at something on the floor in the center of the chamber.
Taking in the fact that she seems to have avoided being noticed and that the hallway she's crouched in is on a slight incline up from the chamber, Aella decides to take immediate advantage of the situation. She pulls the pin on her last fragmentation grenade and pitches it down the hall into the chamber. The explosion kills the three humanoids instantly and knocks the centurions around a bit, damaging them all significantly but destroying none of them. Unfortunately Aella neglected to account for the grenade's extended blast radius and takes a few hits from fragmentation as well. She takes over half her Life Points in wounds and is now suffering the -2 step Attribute damage penalty.
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1)
As Aella still has the initiative over everyone (including the rest of the team) she decides to stay and fight it out, despite the fact that her suit is now breached. She calls out for us to reinforce her over the suit radio while she lays down a spray of autofire on the chamber below. Unfortunately she only causes minimal damage to a few of the centurions there. Realizing she may have screwed up Aella turns and runs back up the hallway out of sight before the centurions can return fire, belaying her last order and telling the rest of us to take cover.
Regina jumps behind the boulder farthest back from the temple entrance and readies her pistol to fire on the first centurion she sees. Nike and Deke likewise crouch down behind the two large rocks nearer the entrance and ready an attack. As the centurions in the chamber below all regain their feet and sprint up the hallway after Aella, Sun draws her pistol and runs to take cover next to Regina.
2)
Aella clears the temple entrance and takes cover behind the rock next to Deke, readying an attack. A moment later the first centurion bounds out of the entrance, guns extended and already firing on the run. Aella fires two bursts into it and Regina fires four shots as well but neither of them breach it's armor. It moves out right into the middle of our position, apparently intent on overrunning us and eliminating our cover. Drawing even with Aella it lays down autofire on her as it runs past but misses when she dodges. Deke and Nike both fire two bursts into the centurion as it passes, dropping it.
As the centurion falls and skids to a stop in the brown dust of the moon, the remaining centurions (nine of them!) pour out of the entrance with guns blazing, fanning out to overrun us. Aella takes a light hit for 2 wounds and Nike is hit for 1 stun and 2 wounds, placing his total damage equal to his Life Points. I go ahead and roll his Second Wind for the day to get rid of the 2 stuns and keep him in the fight. One of the centurions botches his autofire attack and slightly wounds another centurion that ran into his line of fire. Sun fires one round at the nearest centurion but misses.
3)
Aella fires a burst at one of the three centurions charging for her position, dropping it, and another burst that misses her second target. Regina fires four more rounds dropping one of the damaged centurions in the middle of the group that's heading her way. Deke unloads a burst into one centurion and destroys it, combining his second burst with Nike's two on a second centurion which they manage to bring down as well.
The remaining five centurions continue running for our positions and are now scattered around between us, eliminating our cover in most cases. Four of them have a clear line of sight to Nike, Deke and Aella, so they switch targets to us to take advantage of that. Three of the five centurions turn to lay down autofire on Aella as they run past but none land a hit on her. One, in fact, botches his attack and finds itself out of ammo. The remaining two, one of which is now less than five feet away from Deke lay down a spray on Deke and Nike. Nike avoids being hit but Deke botches his dodge and takes enough damage to pass out. Deke takes his Second Wind for the day, dropping just enough stuns to avoid that fate. His botch, however, results in one round shattering the faceplate on this suit completely, leaving him unprotected from the near vacuum of the moon's atmosphere. He will begin suffering from suffocation on his next turn. Sun, meanwhile, fires a round at one centurion, breaching it's armor but not dropping it.
4)
Aella fires a burst into the centurion nearest her point blank, dropping it, then fires a burst at the one immediately behind him, missing. Regina fires four more times, miraculously dropping two centurions with her pistol. Deke fires two bursts at the centurion about the stomp on him, breaching it's armor with one burst but not dropping it. He is forced then to make a Hard Resistance roll to avoid suffocation and drops 2 Plot Points on it. He succeeds but his Out of Luck complication kicks in and forces a reroll. He fails it and suffers 2 stun, pushing his total basic damage just over his Life Points. He drops 2 more Plot Points on his Endurance check and manages to stay conscious until his next turn. Nike likewise fires two bursts into the centurion point blank but fails to drop him.
The two remaining centurions, one near Aella and one near Deke and Nike, fold back one of their machine guns to extend the blades on one hand, preparing for a melee attack next turn. Each fires autofire point blank into their targets, the one missing Aella completely when she rolls to the side and goes prone on her back while the other misses Deke with a really bad roll. Sun fires two shots from her pistol, no longer conserving a dodge as she tries desperately to drop the centurion attacking Deke. She misses with both shots.
5)
Aella attempts to fire a burst into the centurion about to slice her to ribbons, only to find she's down to two rounds. She fires a single round as a called shot to the centurion's head, dropping her last 3 Plot Points on the effort and lands the hit (thanks to a dodge of 3 by the centurion). It drops onto the dust beside her, destroyed. Aella wastes no time breathing a sigh of relief and instead sits up to fire her last shot at the remaining centurion about the skewer Deke. She lands the hit, breaches it's armor and drops it.
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As the battle ends Deke is already slumping over unconscious. Nike drops his rifle and snatches him up, struggling to run to the one remaining airtight room in the area (where Sun originally treated the dying Cylon humanoid). Seeing his intent Sun runs ahead to toss open the airlock. Aella sprints to Nike and helps him cart Deke through. By the time they reach it Deke has already suffered 2 more stun and 2 more wound points. Fortunately he hasn't suffered enough wounds to start dying just yet but if the bleeding isn't stopped he likely will soon. Reaching the airlock we all pile in (leaving Regina, who isn't wounded anyway, outside), close the door and pray the airlock will still cycle.
To our relief it does and we move Deke into the room beyond, stripping him out of his suit to allow Sun to tend to his injuries and stop the bleeding. Sun performs first aid on Deke, stopping any further wound damage before he starts to die. She then takes a moment to treat everyone else's injuries as well. Nike and Aella patch up their suits and find they're nearly out of oxygen from all the breaches, having less than 8 hours each. Once we're all relatively stable we suit back up and spend a moment trying to figure out what we're going to do next.
[Sun gets 1 Plot Point for her Contrarian complication leading to conflict with Aella and 1 Plot Point for successfully saving Deke's life (which proved quite difficult). Aella get 1 Plot Point for her Unstable complication leading to conflict with the rest of the team. Deke gets 1 Plot Point for his Out of Luck complication nearly killing him. Everyone gets 2 Plot Points for surviving the Cylon attack against all odds.]
Scene four:
As far as we know all the Cylons and centurions we've noted in the area have all been destroyed. Unless there are others about that we haven't yet encountered, we figure we're relatively safe. We then decide that our immediate goals are to inspect the central chamber of the temple and then get the hell out of there before anything else shoots us. With that Sun volunteers to stay behind with Deke while Nike and Aella go back outside. Having done that Nike runs to recover his rifle and starts hiking out to the Griffon, intending to fly it in and land closer to the crater. He would then fetch a new space suit for Deke from the Griffon.
Aella, meanwhile, intends to gather Regina and check out the temple but finds that she's disappeared. With no trace of where she went Aella hikes straight down to the temple chamber and finds her already there with her pistol at the ready, scouting the three adjoining hallways. Taking a look herself she finds they likewise lead up at an incline to the outside, making the central chamber the only apparent chamber in the whole temple.
Working together Aella and Regina then look around the chamber for anything of interest but find nothing beyond a few loose stones and the dead bodies of the three Cylon humanoids. Aella takes a hard look at the spot on the floor where the three humanoids were gathered and finds they seem to have been working on a hidden cache of some kind, though it's currently empty. She checks the bodies and the centurions as well but finds nothing. She questions Regina but she, in turn, claims she hadn't had time to look around the chamber beyond scouting for threats. As far as she knows she hasn't moved or disturbed anything in the process. Aella is naturally skeptical but keeps her concerns to herself for the time being. Having found nothing of interest beyond that Aella and Regina abandon the temple and hike back up to the crater floor.
As Aella and Regina take up positions at the crater's rim to watch for anything approaching, Nike continues hiking out to the Griffon and Sun watches over Deke in the damaged airlock. Eventually Nike reaches the Griffon and makes an Alertness + Perception (+ Sixth Sense) check. He fails and doesn't notice the activity around the Griffon until he's already come into view. He is instantly spotted by the centurions (notably not marked with the hydra-badge at their shoulders) standing guard around the perimeter of the crash site. While he's still far enough away to possibly manage a mad dash for cover they nonetheless have him in their sights and Nike can't take another hit with the damage he's already suffered. Using my Intuitive asset for the day I ask if Nike will be killed if he surrenders and find that he won't. After considering the situation for a moment I decide Nike has no choice but to surrender and I allow him to be taken captive.
Nike is quickly disarmed and dragged into the Griffon where he's stripped of his space suit and restrained. He's then confronted with three Cylon humanoids; a male and female we haven't seen before and a male identical to one of those we've seen already here on Typhoeus. The interrogation begins immediately and though Nike does his best not to reveal anything it eventually extends well past three hours. Knowing that the his comrade's air supplies are running out (with Regina's possible already having run out) he finally caves and tells his captors there are other humans at the crater in need of oxygen. During the course of the interrogation the Cylons have already managed to learn where the team originated (Caprica) and that there are humans in Ragnar's storm, probably positioned near the station there. Nike likewise learns that there is another basestar in orbit around Typhoeus now and that the two Vipers that escorted them have already been destroyed.
Meanwhile back at the crater, as time ticks by it becomes more and more apparent that Nike has run into trouble. With their limited air supply, Deke's tenuous situation and Aella low on ammo and wounded herself, the situation looks grim. After several hours Aella and Regina spot the Griffon floating in over the crater rim and land at the empty pad at the base of the crater. They're not surprised when Cylon centurions begin pouring out of it to scour the surrounding buildings and the temple.
Regina and Aella discuss the matter, with Regina wanting to surrender and Aella more inclined to go down fighting. In the end, as the centurions approach the building where Sun and Deke are hold up, Aella becomes more intent on moving in and defending the building. At last Regina reveals to Aella that she suspects she may know what the Cylons are here after and produces a small, black globe from a pocket on her suit. Claiming she doesn't know what it is but that she found it in the cache at the temple, she's relatively sure it's something important that might be used to bargain their way out of the situation. She further asserts that some of the information she got out of the Cylon humanoid she shot certainly seems to indicate the object is very important to them. She further informs Aella that the Cylons that were building this temple on Typhoeus were some kind of religious cult. The "cult of Heracles", which apparently has something to do with the religious implications of the Cylon attack on the colonies and their attempt to exterminate humanity.
Aella considers the matter as centurions move through the airlock into the building where Deke and Sun are, clearly intending to capture them both alive. Taking for granted Regina's confidence that this object is important enough that the Cylons might be willing to trade their freedom for it, it likewise seems certain to prove as important to the Admiral. Enough perhaps that getting the object back to him may well override any other consideration, including the fate of her comrades. As Aella continues to hesitate Regina suddenly stands and sprints down the crater toward the centurions with the object still in her possession.
Aella has no choice but to stay hidden and watch as Regina approaches the centurions until they spot her and bring weapons to bear. Regina then trains her pistol on the object in one hand and waits. In time she's approached by one of the suited Cylon humanoids and the two begin to converse. Aella is too far away to pick up on the conversation. As Regina continues negotiations with the Cylon humanoid the centurions beyond have already taken Sun into custody and are escorting her (and transporting Deke) to the Griffon. Finally, Aella decides she'd rather take a chance at being shot than continue not knowing what's going on and stands up to sling her GMAR and make her way cautiously down to the crater floor.
By the time she reaches her Regina has already wrapped up the negotiations and the Cylons have agreed to send three humanoids with the team onboard the Griffon, to be released elsewhere with the "Palladium" (the object that Regina recovered, apparently a religious artifact of some kind). Once everyone has suited up and regained our weapons we're back onboard the Griffon with the three humanoids who interrogated Nike previously, who are likewise now armed. Nike takes a moment to go over the agreement with the three humanoids, using his Lady Luck asset to reroll the Perception check and notes no blatant deception on their part. We are then allowed to take off in the Griffon and leave the crater area.
While Deke rests unconscious in one of the bunks on board and Nike is piloting the ship, Aella, Regina and Sun are left to face the three armed humanoids. With Aella injured we aren't very confident we can take them and can only hope the humanoids don't get too confident they can take us. Aella is both surprised and concerned when Sun takes one of the humanoids aside for a private conversation that lasts several minutes. When she returns she refuses to answer Aella's questions about it.
After traveling a good ways away and spotting nothing following us, we set down and escort the three humanoids off the Griffon with the device in their possession, taking off again without incident. As soon as the Griffon is airborne Aella immediately has Sun in her sights and forces her to surrender her weapon. Attempts to interrogate Sun are met with stony silence and Aella is now convinced that Sun is either a Cylon or at least in collusion with them. She has Regina restrain Sun, then locks her in the starboard airlock.
Despite having escaped the Cylons on Typhoeus we nevertheless still have a basestar to contend with. Nike is forced to do some fancy flying to scoot around the moon and reach escape velocity well away from the Cylon raiders that are already being dispatched from the basestar to intercept us. Once we break free of Typhoeus' orbit Nike gives everything he's got to evading the pursuing wave of raiders who are simply faster than the Griffon. He finally manages to calculate a jump plot and we jump just outside Ragnar's storm to dash inside and use the EM interference to evade pursuit. When we're relatively sure we're out of immediate danger we make all haste to return to the Anchorage to report in and warn Admiral Drake that a Cylon basestar is likely on it's way.
When we arrive to find the combined civilian fleet, the Kapanea and the Rock already formed up and pulling away from the area around the station. Almost immediately we're contacted by the communication officer on the Rock and ordered to fall in with the fleet and evacuate. Scout craft elsewhere in the storm have already reported recon drones in the area and two Raptors outside the storm are tracking the basestar and it's accompanying fighter squadrons inbound from Typhoeus.
[Nike gets 1 Plot Point for successfully resisting interrogation (for the most part, anyway) and managing to turn the tables on his captors to get some information of his own. He gets another for successfully evading Cylon pursuit while simultaneously plotting a jump, which wasn't easy. Aella gets 1 Plot Point for her Duty complication in play (she didn't abandon the team to take the Palladium back to the Admiral but she was fully prepared to). Sun gets 1 Plot Point for a secret complication in play leading to conflict with the team. Deke gets a mercy Plot Point for being unconscious during the final scene, poor fellah.]
* 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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