REVOLUTION - Story - Chapter 24: Automated Craziness

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Date: 6:27:38 PM, October 8th; 6:13:10 PM, October 15th, 2017.
Metal Man (GM): Recap
The Questers made a deal: End the Erastian pseudo-occupation in exchange for dealing with the Erastian Automated Authority that was accosting the Time Cop space.
Thus the Questers went over there to do just that.
However, it was not so simple, as there's a giant flying city full of super death robots to deal with. I'll re-load where we left off, and then we can continue there.
Louisoix and Nonna and Xavier were at the bottom, looking at an elevator room.
The entrance is... well, into a swanky looking techno-dystopian hallway of sorts, leading up to an elevator, which has one of those ethernet port like holes in the wall next to it and no obvious switches.
Meanwhile, Valron, Lyx, and Demon were presumably atop the tower, having had just caused a domino effect by pushing over server cases to distract the master controller bot.
King Demon: *Would aim at the rack, and launch; trying to knock it over; if he can cause a domino effect, all the better... though he wishes he had something better to throw; like a part of a robot.*
Valron goes to hide behind the shield as well. He'll sneak out once the robot's distracted.
Metal Man (GM): You knock over the racks, causing a chain reaction.
They all fall over simultaneously, causing a ton of noise, shattering windows, and causing the lights to flicker.
The robot gets up and looks around, befuddled.
Aaaand... I'll pause here so you don't get too far ahead of the bottom group.
So we continue. The distraction has occurred up at the top, leaving the controlling robot befuddled.
Back at the bottom, the group is facing the ominous elevator and the ethernet port dealies to plug in to.
Continuation
Louisoix: "Well, could try and make something like this." *Would wave the crappy panel he swiped earlier around* "Or just hack this instead. Considering their faulty work before, might not be too bad to get past this."
Metal Man (GM): Also Kumiko, if you wish to join in, it's mostly a choice of higher route or lower route.
Xavier Ridgecrest: "Well, I figure that weird entry device would let us control the elevator, I'm just not certain what would happen when plugged in. Is it secured or not?"
Louisoix: "Or compatible, anyway." *Walks over to look at the port* "Well, I could attempt to make a cord to fit this, then connect it to some other device I could make that could read the inputs... but it might be too much. Like I said, place seems to have sketchy work done for it." *He'd plug the panel he swiped into the wall* "We'll see what happens. Who knows, maybe they were so cheap this was intended."
Metal Man (GM): The panel lights up, and currently says '1'
The 0-9 buttons can be pushed.
Louisoix: "...yep, that's what they did."
Nonna: "Hmm. It looks like it'll take a CAT5."
Louisoix: "I imagine since this is the bottom floor..." *He'd hit zero.*
Metal Man (GM): The elevator opens up on the bottom floor.
Nonna: "...No offense Xavier, but I'm starting to wonder many things about the overall competence of the ECA."
Louisoix: "Well, where to now... meander a bit? I imagine the other team is already doing stuff on the top, so no reason to immediately follow."
Nonna: "Think it'd be best to take out as much as we can as we go up, while they take out as much as they can as they go down?"
Xavier Ridgecrest: "That seems to be the order of the day, yes."
*He takes out his golf club.*
Nonna: "Okay, let's see what's on the next floor, then. We'll cover you, Lou."
Louisoix: "Thanks." *He'd go inside, expecting that there was no panel inside, but was willing to be surprised.*
Metal Man (GM): There is no panel inside, that is correct.
Louisoix: "Mind grabbing the panel? It seems we'll be carrying a rather bulky key for a while."
Xavier Ridgecrest: *Grabs the panel* "No problem for me to hold."
Nonna: *She went inside after them.*
Xavier Ridgecrest: *Plugs in the panel* "Which floor then?"
Louisoix: "Thanks." *He'd hit floor 1* "Next floor up, of course."
Nonna: "Any elemental weaknesses you can think of, Xavier?"
Metal Man (GM): The floor opens up. Inside this room are a series of machines plugged into consoles. They look a lot like Xavier, but much shinier, and with soulless red vacuum tubes for eyes.
Xavier Ridgecrest: "...Electricity."
Metal Man (GM): They start to all get up in unison.
There's at least 5 of them.
They speak in unison as they point at the elevator.
Louisoix: "Well, think they also have your weaknesses?"
Xavier Ridgecrest: "Possibly, I don't know how to swim very well, that is for certain."
ECA Unit 1: "Unknown unit. Identify yourself or be annihilated."
Louisoix: "Well, no luck with that."
ECA Unit 1: "Scanning..."
Metal Man (GM): A red wave of scanning energy washes over the elevator. It tingles a little.
Louisoix: "Dr. Louisoix Fils-Aime." *He'd just say it even though he knew it wouldn't satisfy them.*
ECA Unit 1: "..... ."
Metal Man (GM): They make some noises much like an old hard drive.
ECA Unit 1: "Renegade Military Traitor Xavier Ridgecrest 'Metal Man' #88 has been identified. Apprehend immediately with maximum prejudice."
Nonna: *She prepares an electric ele for them.*
Metal Man (GM): Xavier takes out his weapons and cracks his neck.
Xavier Ridgecrest: "Let's take out the trash cans."
Metal Man (GM): BATTLE 1: Xavier, Nonna, Louisoix v. ECA Unit 1.
Louisoix: "Well, no way out of this, then."
Metal Man (GM): Wow, that's some... hideous dice luck.
Order: ECA, Xavier, Nonna, Louisoix
ECA Group
ECA Unit 1: "We live to serve. You die today. Your life is forfeit. Your possessions obsolete. You die for us. The everlasting fist. That smashes all that lives."
Metal Man (GM): They robotically all point their arms in unison and open fire with a hail of radioactive bolts, threatening all three of you with their massed fire. Dodge, block, or parry?
Rolling for Xavier's mode...
Xavier stomps his feet into the ground and anchors himself, and all his different guns appear, popping out of his body and onto materializing gun-mounts, which he points at the oncoming fusilade, and returns fire, aiming to parry the shots with his own.
Going in order of reactions, first, Louisoix goes to block.
Louisoix's block fails. Then... against Nonna's parry...
They manage to beat out the parry there.
Then... against Xavier's parry...
They hit him also. Now to calculate damage...
50 damage each.
50 to all, that is.
They then stop to reload, ejecting their depleted fission cartridges behind them.
Xavier HP: 50/250 (in the format of damage taken/total HP, as I tend to do)
The ECA end their turns.
The area around the elevator is full of pockmarks from the explosive blasts they fired.
Xavier Ridgecrest: "Well, they want a fight... time to bring it to them."
Nonna: "Let's fry 'em!"
Louisoix: "You do that, I'll see about fixing the little force lightning problem."
Metal Man (GM): Heavy steel boilerplate style.
All metal.
Xavier picks a random attack!
Louisoix: "Well, if this works, might need your help with Kinesis if you can do that."
Metal Man (GM): He goes with "Parryblast" and fires...
The Dryer o' Doom.
He fires a giant dryer at the 5 robots before him. Its huge size causes it to threaten three of the enemy robots at once.
The robots hold up their hands to try to shield their faces as a huge explosion occurs when the dryer careens into the consoles and at the robots.
They fail to block it entirely and the dryer causes 3 of them to get full of dryer-based shrapnel, dealing 39 damage to 3 of them.
ECA Unit 1: "Enemy Xavier Ridgecrest imperils mission with illegal explosives."
Metal Man (GM): Xavier rolls the dice again for a second attack...
He attacks with a more concentrated artillery blast at a single target...
And uses the Freaky Gun. The silver gun fires ionic bolts of stunning electricity at one of the robots.
It gets hit and stunned! It takes 30 damage.
Nonna: *She fires off a lightning Ele on one of the robots!*
Metal Man (GM): It manages somehow to leap aside from that one. ...Stupid dice.
A console in the back is exploded by it instead.
Since there isn't really anywhere for the Ele to GO to other than vulnerable machinery.
Nonna: "All that time travel's made me a bit woozy, it seems."
Xavier Ridgecrest: "Should be able to hit them sooner or later, they can't run away forever. The stunned one really can't run away."
Metal Man (GM): Xavier points to the one that's still feeling the effect of the Freaky Gun.
Louisoix: "Freaky."
Xavier Ridgecrest: "I had forgotten what it was for. The way it stunned it so easily... seems obvious, I had to fight something like this before."
Metal Man (GM): Anything else, Nonna?
Nonna: *Done for this turn.*
Louisoix: "Here goes nothing." *Attempts to make a lightning rod that he can set on the ground.*
Metal Man (GM): So is this an ephemeral use one?
Ok.
2 AGI and... now I roll.
The dice hate everyone but me tonight. *smacks dice*
You create... a metal stick.
It's not got any of the advanced functionality of a lightning rod.
Louisoix drops metal stick, tries again.
Metal Man (GM): This time you make a lightning rod. Whatever you stick it in to can channel all the lightning into what it's stuck into.
It has a magnet if you want to stick it to a magnetic surface, or you can attach a wire. It takes 1 AGI to affix it to something.
Louisoix puts it on a nearby wall.
Metal Man (GM): Of note, there's surfaces like the floor (where it'd channel it into the floor and potentially shock everyone, or ground it, it's unknown if the floor is grounded), or the walls (which are separated from the floor) ... or the computer consoles, which would probably maximize damage.
It is attached to the wall. Electricity near it will go into the walls. Probably causing some issues and also preventing it from spreading across the floor and shocking everyone at once.
Xavier is a giant metallic lightning rod so he definitely isn't either
The ECA entities are fairly dumb, and as such, just simply shoot at everyone yet again.
Once again, threatens everyone.
Xavier's mode changes again, since the round has changed, so...
Xavier lifts off the ground, activating jets in his sleeves, and steps on his rocket skateboard, now floating off the ground a bit, ducking a bit due to the ceiling.
Nonna tries to Parry again with her remaining two AGI.
Louisoix: *Has no AGI to do anything.*
Metal Man (GM): You could try dodging, it's free.
7 isn't much but it's more than nothing.
Nonna goes for parry...
Nonna successfully parries.
Which attack do you opt to smack them with?
This also interrupts their attack on everyone else.
Nonna: *Point-Blank Starlight Breaker! 110 damage according to the new updates.*
Metal Man (GM): 110 damage. Since it's 5 of them en masse, though, it interrupts 1 of the 5's attack and protects Nonna by virtue of her hitting one of the 5, so for the remaining ones, we'll see what their parries/etc do.
Wow.
That 1 unit now has 1 HP.
It's basically knocked over, its helmet shorn off, the mass of wires approximating an Erastian face staring soullessly at Nonna.
ECA Unit 1: "You. Will. Not. Persevere."
Nonna: "I beg to differ."
Metal Man (GM): Xavier's parry....
He succeeds in parrying with...
He smacks one of them in the face with the Executive Desk of the Questers.
Xavier Ridgecrest: "CHAIRTABLE TIME!" *SMASH.*
Metal Man (GM): All of this while flying, so basically you see him fly into one of them holding a giant wooden desk and violently shattering it into the robot's face.
26 damage.
The remaining shooting is going on at Louisoix, who...
Gets hit for 30 damage.
As before, they go to reload.
Xavier continues flying around, his jets on his arms burning the floor as he goes to attack with...
A simple strafe attack.
He goes with his fists alone, going to try and punch one of them in the face.
He misses at high speeds.
Xavier Ridgecrest: "Curses."
Metal Man (GM): He goes in for another attack, however, as his speed increased in this mode.
He takes out a huge hunk of black plastic and begins firing From Justin to Kelly, The Room, and The Emoji Movie on DVD at the robots.
The DVD flies through the face of the 1-HP robot, killing it.
And they just keep going, flying through the robots, hitting the other 4 as well, flying through the wall outside after slicing through all of them like butter.
26 damage to all the robots, in effect.
Nonna whistles.
"Saving the big guns for later, huh?"
Xavier Ridgecrest: *Places the DVD launcher back on his shoulder-rack* "I've always had more weapons than I knew what to do with, it's only been recently I figured out how to use them... ...at random."
Metal Man (GM): Xavier ends his turn, having used the max he wants to use AGI-wise.
Xavier Ridgecrest: "But yes. There is an even bigger gun."
Nonna: "Get ready to finish more of them off."
Xavier Ridgecrest: "They called me the Time Bandit. My memories show me attacking an entire battlefield with all my guns at once. I had forgotten that there were foes that required such violence, but I remember now, seeing these things."
Nonna: *She uses her remaining 4 AGI to heal Lou with Uruz.*
Louisoix: "Thanks."
ECA Unit 2: "You will be punished. This violence cannot stop us. The glorious union never ends. We will make everything one machine. It will salute the Erastian flag."
Louisoix: *He'd use his AGI to move the lightning rod to the floor in front of the three, and then cast kinesis on both himself and Nonna (since Xavier is airborne already)*
Metal Man (GM): Indeed, you succeed at that since Nonna isn't opposing your attack, so everyone is in position.
Xavier Ridgecrest: "I figured you might need me to be in the air... now if only I'd ever learned how to do skateboard tricks with the Star Board."
Metal Man (GM): So, Louisoix, you moved the ground into place... doing a lightning spell, or?
Ah, trying to trap their attacks... guess I didn't exactly communicate what their attacks were... but if your intent was for that... ...heh, I know what to do, so we'll carry on with it in front of them, since they don't know what it is either, pointing at it.
They go like a broken slot machine, going to fire again, even the ones that have huge holes in them.
The "Lightning" rod, however, behaves abnormally. Since Louisoix thought they were shooting lightning, but they weren't. But he made it intent on stopping them...
They fire their atomic radioactive fission blasts and it attracts the blasts to it...
BOOM
They all get blasted in the face with their own explosion, 40 damage to all of them.
It detonates the 'lightning' rod and leaves a crater.
Louisoix: "Huh."
Xavier Ridgecrest: "Ah... that was radiation, not electricity, Louisoix. But... magitek doesn't really need to know what it is to work, only the intent, so..." *Shrugs.*
Louisoix: "Well, that's convenient anyway."
Metal Man (GM): For what it's worth, it channeled the energy into the floor, causing the area where it was to be a crater and a molten one at that, with the lights in the room beginning to dim and electronics beginning to really act weirdly.
Xavier Ridgecrest: "Hm... I hope we have some curative spells, it is getting a bit radioactive in here with all these dead robots..."
Metal Man (GM): The remaining robots reload, now having learned not to shoot when one of those things are in front of them.
Xavier remains in aerial mode.
He then flies at high speeds and leaps off of his board, intent on using the mass and the amount of extra AGI left over to cause massive damage with...
His TT-33, which he is able to combine with his mass by the fact of shooting them first and then crashing into them moments after.
Though it is a 'miss', they are blocking, so, 50% of the damage goes through.
Even with the block, the sheer mass slamming into them deals 67 damage.
ECA Unit #1
Robot 2 explodes violently from the smash, pieces of it raining everywhere.
Then Xavier...
Goes for a more typical strafing attack.
He casually throws a radio at one of the bots, intending to blow it up.
Another block... 20 damage.
That bot is nearly dead.
3 robots remain. One nearly dead, one half dead, another 1/3 dead.
Xavier Ridgecrest: "I'm going to be picking pieces of robot out of my armor all day tomorrow."
Nonna fires off a Lightning ele on each of them, spending all her 6 AGI.
Metal Man (GM): The remaining ones are mopped up and blow up.
The room goes dark, the radiation from the remaining smoke coming out of them making it pretty clear this isn't a safe place for life for long.
Xavier lands and takes his Star Board back off his feet and stows it in his hulking armor, switching to his normal mode.
Louisoix: "Well, there we go, though my random strategy wasn't exactly too beneficial. I mean, we got radiation to deal with. Er, well, you do."
Xavier Ridgecrest: "Well, mostly Nonna. I am... like these robots. Radiation doesn't bother me."
Nonna: "I... don't feel so well."
Louisoix uses this time to heal everyone up.
Xavier Ridgecrest: "We have a gun on the ship that can heal radiation. Though curative magic can reduce its effect, at least the ones that handle status effects. In fact these robots are attacking this planet because they think the gun is on that planet. What a cruel irony that we have it."
Metal Man (GM): Nonna has RAD level 1 now--which, I should probably also put in the system, since like Chronomentia, it builds up. At this amount, it's temporarily feeling not so well without any stat penalties, but indicates contact with radiation. (Thankfully with said radiation curing device, it's less of a problem as far as it sticking around mission-to-mission.)
Xavier Ridgecrest: "Shall we go to the elevators, then?"
Nonna: "...Let's."
Metal Man (GM): Xavier walks to the elevator, ready to go up to the next level (which is, most likely, less radioactive.)
Louisoix: "Yeah, lets do that. Next floor, then."
Nonna: *She stumbles around as she follows them.*
Metal Man (GM): Xavier sets the floor to 2, and now we look to the other side, so as to continue them.
Kumiko: Wish to jump in on the topside, or still watching for now?
Kumiko: *Hmmm... let's do that...*
Metal Man (GM): Yes, not with the current group though, I'm thinking the top group.
As Demon is gone so...
Top of the tower group
Up at the top group, Valron just finished observing Demon knocking over all the towers, causing the one robot to stand up and begin looking around for the culprit. Valron and Demon were hiding behind a huge metallic shield device thingy.
Right now it's trying to figure out what's going on. It sees nothing but destruction all around it.
Answer: Yes, although with risk of being discovered. The more ostentatious the hack, the more obvious it becomes.
Sure. You can try to go for all the marbles at once and risk instant discovery, or try to stealth-hack and take longer.
Yes. Your skills on my sheet show 20 to Computer, but highest is 10. But with Gibson that adds the 10 that you would otherwise not have, so, still 60 to Computer use check. Attempting to just turn off the entire invasion is a tall order, so, this may be outside what you can do... or it may not. Let's see.
You manage to issue the recall order. Alarms go off everywhere and the robot definitely knows someone is in this room, but, the ones on the planet have been set to recall to the base.
From here, you can see their ships coming here.
ECA Commander: "ECA Commander Unit to Base. An intruder has manipulated outlying systems. Disabling further communication with systems."
Metal Man (GM): It unplugs some sort of device from the console, and the console turns off, severing any further interaction.
ECA Commander: "Mission: Find and Destroy Interloper."
Metal Man (GM): It takes out two belt-fed machineguns... but each of the bullets is actually a radioactive explosive...
Valron: *Then he promptly turns around, flips out his spellbook, and goes to blast the robot with a Disruption! Best not to let it really complicate things.*
Metal Man (GM): It shakes them up and down to cock both of them, then begins scanning the room with its scanning vision. Just as you do a Disruption. Cue Matrix effect as it sees the Disjunction and attempts to counter the Disruption with bullet fire, as everything goes red for a moment from its scanning light....
Hm, your magic stat still 28 after reduction, or is there anything bonus-ing it or such?
Your disruption fails; it returns fire on you.
Block, dodge, or parry?
ECA Commander: "Secure the Erastian Central Authority. Kill all who do not salute its majesty."
Metal Man (GM): It hits with... *calculates*
Hit.
No special effects from his gun at least.
I have a rough idea but gotta use my calculator to make sure it's all in-system and all, so, one sec. (Generating enemies on the fly, wheee)
Ah. It just so happens to be 69 damage. He has multi-hit, but the low hit % means no extra hits for him!
Next question: Battling this commander unit, or, running away?
While it got you there, you're near the stairs, and it is not.
Valron: *He bites back the urge to make any sort of pained noise as he's hit, staring the robot down. He still thinks he has a shot, and even if things do go to pot, he's still got an out.*
Metal Man (GM): Kumiko: Joining in the battle or too out of it?
a30 Kumiko
Order: Valron, Kumiko, Commander
Valron: *He gives a nod to Kumiko, thankful that he has some backup. Then he looks back at the Commander, glaring at him... before deciding to try to hack it as well. He's still got his guitar and visor shenanigans on him, and if that fails, well... He'll get to it when he has to.*
Metal Man (GM): Valron deals some damage to its internal logic. It is 1/4 hacked to shut down by that, and begins throwing out weird beeps and errors.
Valron: *He furrows his brow, seeming to concentrate intensely. He shakes himself off a moment later, before going to make another go at hacking away at it!*
Kumiko: "...what a stubborn opponent."
ECA Commander: "You think you can stop the storm. But you will be the only one destroyed. The pride of Erastia goes greater. Than any one of you pathetic worms."
Valron: *Nods. He makes a crushing motion with his free hand as a way of asking Kumiko to help with weakening the Commander's defenses. Bit odd that he's not speaking, but... he probably has his reasons.* (End turn)
Kumiko: "Pride only hides weakness. Allow me to demonstrate that carefully to you."
ECA Commander: "We are the spear, we are the spine, we will hold the line."
Kumiko: "Spirits of truth and love, guide my passage. Form the pact with Miss Siergedge and blast away my obstruction. Go!! SPARKLE DANCE!!"
*She pulls back Blodsabel as she unleashes Sparkle Dance on the Commander.*
Metal Man (GM): He uses his block, halving damage taken.
He takes... 32 damage.
If you had been damaged, you would have been healed 20 HP.
Used 2 AGI of your 5. Anything else?
Kumiko: *She then refocuses her grip on Blodsabel, and attacks the Commander with one Harmonia Strike And this time, she does only one.*
Metal Man (GM): He has no remaining defenses so he gets hit instantly. The damage is...
52 damage.
Kumiko: "...hrm... interesting..."
Valron: *He ponders to himself for a moment. He's got a plan formulating in his head, at least. Hopefully it's not a case of too little, too late...*
Kumiko: *Briefly tosses Blodsabel out of her hand and grabs it. She's trying to figure out if she seriously wants to try another move...*
Metal Man (GM): I believe... 2 AGI remaining.
Kumiko: *Glares at the Commander with a grin on her face, she suddenly lunges at him and attempts a powerful thrust attack!* (Thrust)
Metal Man (GM): 68 damage. It cuts a gaping hole in his frame, but he's still standing. Seems like he's built sturdier than the rest.
ECA Commander: "Though you seek our death. We do not care. We will march onwards. Over your corpse's hair."
Kumiko: *And finally she stops, saving that last AGI*
"Death? I'm simply having fun.
...though I can't say whether or not that's a good thing."
Valron shrugs, simply waiting to see what the Commander does next.
Kumiko: *She keeps an eye on the Commander, being noticeably more sinister in her tone and more focused in general.*
Metal Man (GM): The ECA Commander's red vacuum tube eyes spin in their sockets some, then he points his rifles; one at Valron, one at Kumiko, and he opens fire with a spray of deadly nuclear bullets at each. Dodge, Parry, or Block, Kumiko and Valron?
Kumiko uses her Block.
Valron: *Also attempts to block.*
Metal Man (GM): Half damage to Kumiko.
49 damage (actually miscalculated the first time I had the robot use it, but, oh well)
Full damage this time; whopping 99 damage (rounded off when /2'd)
No multi-hits due to relatively crud roll.
Kumiko: *She merely stays in the same stance she was in prior to taking damage, about the only thing she changes is that she tosses off her hair ties with her free hand.*
Metal Man (GM): The ECA Commander reloads. Also, 1 AGI.
He deals a truckload, but, he also is using fairly inefficient ammunition.
Kumiko: *With her hair now free, and Blodsabel being unable to influence her... she takes a hard look at the Commander while waiting for Valron to do his thing.*
Metal Man (GM): You can hold your turn, yes.
Valron holds his turn.
Valron: *He takes a quick bow, as if going 'after you' to Kumiko, figuring it'd be best to let her further wear down the Commander first.*
Kumiko: *She switches her fencing stance to more of an iaido stance and attacks the Commander with one Harmonia Strike, trying to find out how many hits she can land in succession.*
Metal Man (GM): He tries to block and fails, taking 51 damage and recovering you 22 HP.
The Commander unit is beginning to look a bit beaten down. Attacking again?
Kumiko goes for two more Harmonia Strikes, then finishes with a Thrust.
"Can you keep up? Or are you too slow?"
Metal Man (GM): Half damage--25 (heals 22 HP), then he's out of AGI, resulting in an instant hit for 51 (heals another 22 HP)
Thrust then deals another 68 damage, knocking the Commander-bot to near death.
That of course, uses up your AGI, thus...
Valron: *After Kumiko finishes tearing through the Commander, he pulls out a vial and drinks from it, promptly discarding it once it's emptied. He's looking a lot better now.* (204/280. Also, as of this round, Silent Fury's now kicking in, right?)
ECA Commander: "You may have the tactical advantage, but you will never have the true advantage, the history controlling superseding knowledge that we possess."
Valron: *He shakes his head in response to the Commander, a hint of contempt on his face, before going to start hacking it again, figuring that with the considerable damage to it, along with the progress he made earlier, should be enough to force it to power down. At least, that's what he's guessing*
Metal Man (GM): The robot lurches towards you, but, due to the damage to it, it is unable to both focus on staying alive and prevent shutdown.
Thus it shuts down, falling down and shooting sparks, while it burns a little on the ground.
Kumiko: "It couldn't keep up..." *She smirks as she reties her hair.*
Valron: "Ugh, finally." *He shakes himself off, looking a tad irritated that it took that long.*
Kumiko: "Still, that wasn't easy."
Valron: "Yeah, let's not throw down with another one of these guys any time soon. As good a team as we are, that... wasn't fun."
Metal Man (GM): 2x Nuclear Assault Rifle: +15 Accuracy, +30 Damage, Multi-Hit 1x, Radioactive, Reload Required (1 TP use after each attack). drop to the ground.
Lyx appears out of nowhere and casually hands Valron some sort of module he ripped out of an Erastian computer.
Lyx: "I was going to help, but, you had it handled, so I stole some technology instead."
Valron: "Hey, Lyx. Mi- Oh." *He pauses as he takes the module*
"Much appreciated."
Kumiko: *She quietly puts Blodsabel away.*
Lyx: "I don't know yet what it's for, except that they were using it to control their robots far away. You were hacking it indirectly. I figure later you can go and do something with it."
Valron: "Mind holding the rifles? As interested as I am, well... I doubt anything that leaks radiation is going to play nicely with organics, y'know."
Lyx: "It's no problem for me."
Metal Man (GM): Lyx picks them up and places them on his person. His radiation field results in them no longer radiating the room.
Lyx: "Besides, now I can literally shoot parts of myself at people to kill them with these. I could do it before, but now I look at least twice as violent doing so."
Valron: "I can certainly see some potential in them becoming even more substantial with a few tweaks in the future. In any case..." *He scans the module, deciding to get down to business. Serious hacking business*
Metal Man (GM): Erastian Control Module: Encrypts the Control Commands for all of the Erastian Central Authority. Appears that, with some time, you could create a remote control for all of the robots with this.
Kumiko: "I'll let you do your thing. Hopefully we do not get attacked again..."
Metal Man (GM): The way down is now clear.
And this floor is wrecked. Lyx casually ripped out the main thing making it even function.
Valron: "You've found a real winner, here. With a bit more time, I could definitely make a remote control for all the robots here. And to think, I thought it was nice having one remote-controlled Heavy Metal. But with a straight-up army..." *He trails off, laughing to himself for a moment as he goes down the stairs.*
Metal Man (GM): Going down the stairs... aaand we'll pause now. Next time: The next two floors, and thus, the conclusion of this dungeon/tower crawl.
Also the groups reuniting it up.
Session Complete -- To Be continued
Metal Man (GM): Recap
The group continues their split adventure, as the top group took out the Erastian Automated Commander and the bottom unit took out the soldiers. Both advance on to the next floor, respectively. Let's see... we'll be continuing with Nonna and Louisoix's side, first, see how long it goes, and if I can hold out, but one way or another, by next session we should finish this whole block of stuff.
I'll set the stage: Nonna and Louisoix and Xavier make it to the next floor, and there the elevator goes to open, only to not open. It gets stuck part-way. Nonna is still irradiated a bit, and Louisoix and Xavier are standing there, with the control panel socketed into the control spot on the elevator, reading out the floor '2'
Nonna: "I guess sooner or later, this was bound to happen. I'll handle it a bit forcefully. Unless you have a better idea."
Metal Man (GM): I'll be slow, just a heads up: eating tostadas.
I may switch over to Valron's side since everyone is here for that, but we can get this one started. Let's presume for the moment Louisoix is busy maintaining his systems after getting hit by all that shrapnel.
Yes, Demon, you were with the top side.
I'm continuing the bottom side first, since they were last waiting for a turn.
Almost done eating this tostada...
Ok.
So then.
Xavier Ridgecrest: "Yes. Forcefully."
*He gets out a random weapon to deal with it.
*Jams the electrified barber pole baton and shorts the door out some, causing the lights to flicker** "...Whoops."
Metal Man (GM): The door is open now, into a rather dark room. Giant toggle switches are on the wall.
They are labeled in Erastian, except the labels have melted off. Some weird chemical.
Nonna coughs and stumbles out into the room.
Xavier Ridgecrest: *Walks out and looks around in the dark* "Hmmm..."
Metal Man (GM): Xavier takes out the Sword of Light and projects some light.
This room is different. It isn't a room full of active enemies. Instead, there's some area in it that's behind a giant gated lock with 3 locks hanging off of it, and not much beyond it, plus the three switches on the wall that aren't labeled.
Nonna: "With our luck, the keys were melted."
Xavier Ridgecrest: "These are Erastian locks. Which either means they'll fall off when I try to open them, or are so sturdy, one could use them as weapons."
*He shakes the gate.*
Metal Man (GM): It's actually pretty sturdy.
Some faded Erastian that translates to 'SCIENCE LAB' can be seen on a sign hung over the gate.
Xavier Ridgecrest: "Ah. The SMART people were in here. ...So smart they melted the labels off of the switches? Maybe not so smart."
Nonna: "Do keys fit them, or are they controlled by those switches?"
Metal Man (GM): Xavier holds up the padlock. There are definitely some keyholes, one in each. different keys for each too.
Nonna: "Anything else I should know about these kinds of Erastian locks?"
Xavier Ridgecrest: "As seen before, Erastian things are either made by or to defeat idiots. So either there's something stupid that'll open it, or it relies on something sneaky... also nothing is lightweight about most Erastian things."
Nonna: "Hold out your hand."
Xavier Ridgecrest holds out his hand.
Metal Man (GM): Xavier's hand is mechanically like somebody created the image of a 'human' hand, but built it really thickly. That said, the fingers do end up being skinny enough to have dexterity.
The tips of the fingers are odd though, not like normal fingers at all.
Nonna: *She creates an ice copy of what should fit the third lock, and hands it to Xavier, before making the keys for the first two locks, one in each of her hands.* "Just in case, we'll insert the keys and turn them at the exact same time."
Xavier Ridgecrest: "Ah. Sounds like an idea to me."
Metal Man (GM): Xavier gets into position with the ice key he has.
Nonna: *She gets into position too* "On 3...2...1..."
Xavier Ridgecrest: *Nods* *Turns the key once the countdown reaches 0*
Nonna does too.
Metal Man (GM): The locks loudly clatter to the ground. While they were decent locks, their large keyholes made it fairly easy to make an imprint out of ice.
There is no other defense. The gate casually falls open, opening the solid metal door and revealing... a science lab.
And in this science lab... there's a dead scientist. Long dead, skeletonized. Out of any place here, though, this was clearly where organic people lived--there's also old dusty food boxes. It's all so old that it's ancient history now, but...
There's some computers sitting in there that have long been disconnected from power.
The scientist also has some sort of remote control device in his hand. He smashed it some time before he died, clutching it.
Nonna: "Wonder what was worth locking up in here. Anyone you recognize?"
Xavier Ridgecrest: "Nope. There were a lot of scientists like this that experimented on me. However, this is... like... I'd argue these people postdate me. The fashion on that man is... different from any I remember."
Metal Man (GM): Xavier takes a badge off of the man's outfit.
Xavier Ridgecrest: "Science team 548? There were hardly three of them back in my time..."
Metal Man (GM): Xavier shows the badge to Nonna.
It says, "Science team 548: Automation Team."
Xavier Ridgecrest: "Never can do anything without it ending poorly... These things must have gone as rogue as I did."
Nonna: "Cycle goes on, I suppose."
Metal Man (GM): Xavier looks at the broken computer.
Xavier Ridgecrest: "Wish I could hack computers. Well I can, but it involves an axe."
Nonna: "We could have someone take a look at it at some point."
Louisoix attempts to hack it.
Nonna: "Oh, hi!"
Metal Man (GM): Lessee...
You succeed to the max (TM)
Louisoix: "Easy peasy. Lets take a look, then." *Lets the others go through it.*
Metal Man (GM): Louisoix plugs it in, fixes a random missing part that had broken off, and even uses the fact he is a machine to brute force the password and log in.
Nonna keeps a wary eye on the semi-damaged remote control device.
Metal Man (GM): The remote... is still dead, at the moment at least.
The strangely messy, Windows 95-ish desktop has the logo of Erastia on it.
It also has ULTIMATE COMPUTER CLEANSER 3000, ZOTMAIL 25, and what everyone needs on their computer, MURDER KILLERIZER GAME 3 GAME OF THE YEAR EDITION
...And an anonymous looking 'research documentation' folder off to the side.
Xavier Ridgecrest: "Spent too much time gaming as the world fell apart, I guess..."
Nonna accesses the research folder.
Metal Man (GM): Pages and pages of documentation, all of it poorly cataloged and categorized, and randomly thrown about. The gist you can see though is all encapsulated in a file translated to English as "report_of_findings.movie."
Which you can open, or you can look into the 'statistics' folder... or dig around a bunch of 'logs'
Nonna checks logs first.
Metal Man (GM): The logs indicate various experiments.
Experiment #1: Attempted synthesis. Catastrophic failure.
That goes on for about 240 of them.
Experiment #241: Attempted modified synthesis using hybrid craniology. Activation detected.
The logs get more detailed, until it reaches the point that the AI has the ability to reason of at least a 5 year old child. Researchers are logged as discussing what to do.
Nonna: "Xavier, keep on guard."
Xavier Ridgecrest nods and stands guard. He blocks the entryway with his body and looks around just in case.
Metal Man (GM): The logs are interesting at this point...
Experiment #294: Intelligence reached that of a 5 year old child. Many debated whether we should refuse to proceed. However, the admiralty has determined that Time Cops may come for us and kill us at any time. The only weapon to defeat them is something that can out think them. Proceeding with this AI and allowing them to increase sophistication.
And that's the last log, as no more experiments were done; they simply continued with the results of Experiment #294.
Nonna: *Next checks the statistics folder.*
Metal Man (GM): The statistics are tracking the effectiveness of the AI. It starts out as pretty much useless.
It's testing the effectiveness of the Robo-Soldiers.
They start out as pathetic, and eventually begin to defeat most enemies thrown at them.
However, something obvious can be seen: they're only trained fighting eachother.
The effectiveness at destroying their own selves increases incredibly!
Then, as a weird anomaly, it suddenly starts noting 'Time Cop Casualties' 'Celian Casualties' 'Unknown Casualties' 'Erastian Organic Casualties'
The Time Cops manage to do well against it; it only rarely kills those.
Celians die so much to it that it notes after a point, 'No further Celian contesting of our zone was recorded.'
The Unknowns are just a catch-all for the others. Then, the Erastian Organic Casualties...
'After a point the Robot AI wished to taste flesh, and so began shooting researchers and others of the remnant Erastian Central Authority. We modified it to not do this, with mixed results.'
The statistics continue until it reaches astronomical amounts of Erastian Organic Casualties and then is no longer updated.
Nonna grimaces and then opens the video file, looking for any volume switch so it does not suddenly blast noise and reveal their position.
Metal Man (GM): This is Erastian tech.
There's a huge 1980's volume knob.
With LED display showing the %.
And there's even a graphical visualizer for the amount of sound coming out of it.
It's all done in woodgrain and chrome.
The video file opens up, with the scientist that is dead over there giving a report to a room of high ranking looking Erastians.
Erastian Scientist: "So, as you can see here. We have made the ultimate war machine. It has killed every Celian that dare attack us, even though they outnumber us 10 to 1 and use technology the Time Cops gave them to try to kill us. The few Time Cops who aided them also died. In fact, they have all built a giant barrier around our part of the planet and refuse to even enter it, and are in the process of making a gigantic metal barrier around the entire planet because they fear us so much!"
Erastian General: "With all due respect, those machines are killing everything they see regardless of who's side its on!"
Erastian Scientist: "Yes, the Celians are in fact closely related to us... a mistake, I guess, that we let it decide they were the enemy based on their blood type..."
Erastian General: "We need you to shut the AI down before it kills us all! We can't all die, if we do, only the AI and those idiots we lied and told were the real leaders of our society will be all that's left!"
Erastian Scientist: "Ah-ah! But we can't turn it off!"
Erastian General: "Why the hell not?"
Erastian Scientist: "That's precisely what the Time Cops have been trying to do, so I destroyed all the off switches!"
Erastian General: "Have you not been listening? The Time Cops have even admitted that our AI is so horrifying, they will grant us a separate place to live as long as we promise to take it with us! And perhaps turn it off, although I think they expect us all to be killed by it instead..."
Erastian Scientist: "Unacceptable! The next project is to send it to KILL all the Time Cops! As I speak, I have begun to tell it to research Time Travel..."
Erastian General: "That thing Illian gave us that nearly got us all killed when Project Xavier stole the Time Device and went to kill the Time Cops? ...Wait a minute... did YOU have anything to do with that?"
Erastian Scientist: "Oh no, that was Dr. Deathryl, not I!"
Erastian General: "Oh right. He died in that whole thing with the planet and... where was I? Oh right. We will invent an off switch for both the robot and YOU if you don't figure it out!"
Erastian Scientist: "Oh no, don't threaten me... the robot will defend me!"
Erastian General: "And then kill you."
Erastian Scientist: "Oh no, I figured a way around that too!"
Metal Man (GM): An Erastian Commander unit that is way more sophisticated than any seen so far by either group casually walks in.
Erastian Automated Commander: "You must go, Scientist. An evil Celian General has invaded."
Erastian General: "For the love of... you let it in here?"
Erastian Scientist: "Uh... actually I didn't."
Erastian Automated Commander: "Your speaking interrupts my contemplation of time itself. This meeting is terminated."
Metal Man (GM): The video abruptly ends.
Nonna looks at the skeleton again.
Xavier Ridgecrest: "...Whatever the hell that is, it's my duty as the first escaped rogue experiment to probably kill that thing. I gotta show it who's boss. I did it before it was cool!"
Metal Man (GM): The skeleton is that of the scientist in the video.
The room in the video is in another building. It appears to be a taller building than the one everyone is currently in...
Nonna: *Carefully pries the remote control device away from it.*
Metal Man (GM): The remote switch says 'OFF SWITCH'
It looks like the scientist desperately tried to wire it back together. But this room is threadbare and without much in the way of tools.
It looks like somebody originally took a giant sledgehammer to it. The circuit board is cracked everywhere.
Nonna: *Hands it carefully to Lou* "We may need this."
Louisoix: "Probably." *He'd look it over* "Salvageable, though will likely need to figure out a bit more about it, but could maybe fix it in time."
Xavier Ridgecrest: "It's clear that despite somehow surviving the first incident caused by the Time Cops, they never learned. Also explains why those people we exiled on the desert planet seemed strangely impotent. The only question remaining... why haven't we seen that robot around? ...maybe it's busy somewhere?" *Shrugs.*
Louisoix: "Well, that or it found a new body."
Nonna: "It's around."
Xavier Ridgecrest: "As much as I have no pity for the fools who made it, it's obviously not going to only kill off evil people, so when we find it, it'll be time to show it who's boss."
Metal Man (GM): There's nothing seemingly else on this floor, unless you're interested in the lint in the scientist's pockets or the 3 padblocks.
The keys to the padlocks are in the scientist's pockets, too.
Nonna: "After all, you'll be seen as an enemy by it too."
*She takes the keys, just in case.*
Xavier Ridgecrest: "It was so incensed that I stole my devices from my old house it flew after me and then when did what we did to lead it here it went here just because of that..."
Metal Man (GM): That concludes floor 3. A relatively empty floor as far as combat goes.
Xavier Ridgecrest: "I guess we can go up then..." *Heads to the elevator.*
Metal Man (GM): Next up... King Demon, Melody, Valron, up for continuing now, or rather do it later?
Ok, I'll get us started, and poke Demon more. Poke. Poke poke.
Floor 3
The Third Floor is the Tactical floor. As said in a sign that can be translated from Erastian.
It has a view of the entire 'city', and the planet below... and an unwelcome sight: an incoming giant horde of killer robot ships, the ones that were told to come back to this place. They're maybe about an hour away from returning.
Most strangely though, there are a bunch of robots in here... they are all asleep, in pods, on the walls of the room. In the middle of the room is some sort of launcher as if it can launch them outside.
Valron: *W* "...These guys know what tactics are? Could've fooled me." *And with that, he goes to scan the robots themselves, mainly to see if there's anything special about them, or if they're just grunt units.*
Metal Man (GM): There's also the elevator down, with no controls to open it with.
The robots are... generic soldier bots. However, they are 100% deactivated and awaiting a command to activate them.
Valron looks around the room, checking to see if there's anything around of note aside from the robots and elevator. Terminals, devices, that sort of thing.
Kumiko: *Mostly does the same without saying a word.*
Metal Man (GM): Heavy steel plates bordered by heavy looking pipes are everywhere, plus a control panel that's blinking away, as if somebody is controlling it--but nobody is sitting at it.
Valron goes to check out the control panel. May as well see what's up with that, first.
Metal Man (GM): 'AUTOMATED CONTROL ENGAGED'
It shows something controlling the resources. Several alerts have been engaged, noting 'INTRUDERS IN LEGACY TOWER 4'
It also notes, 'DEPLOYING ALL ASSETS TO INTERDICT'
The panel's buttons are basically a keyboard and built-in trackball. It seems to be locked out from manual control.
Valron starts running scans, mainly to see if he can discern if he can figure out where the one controlling everything is, and, of more immediate importance, if he can possibly hijack things from here, even if he has to do so by force.
Metal Man (GM): Whatever is controlling everything seems to be controlling this terminal. Your own terminal warns that attempting to hijack it may expose you to interactions with that thing trying to hack you back.
Valron: "Hrm. Best not to. Not yet, anyways." *He puts the idea of hacking whatever's controlling things on the backburner.* (Would it still be possible to trace where it's coming from without drawing attention, though? I'd imagine that wouldn't be anywhere near as risky)
Metal Man (GM): You can by just observing the data flow, yes.
It's listed as 'incredibly high bandwidth' and thus impossible for whatever is doing it to hide it.
Valron: *He does just that, observing the flow of data, checking to see where it all traces back to.*
Kumiko: *Quietly observes. She's mostly doing this because she trusts in Valron's ability to handle this situation, its not one she's amazing at.*
Metal Man (GM): The data traces back to two places.
One is a taller central tower;
The other is... to the groups out in space.
It appears to be some coordination signal--complete data on vision and other telemetry. Complete with realtime orders and algorithms.
Valron: "Let's see, here..." *He takes note of the two locations. He doubts trying to mess anything space-side would be wise, so, he sees if he can get a better read on the central tower, attempting to single out where from that particular area it's coming from. While he does have the inkling of a plan in mind, if he can get any more specific information, that'd help.*
Metal Man (GM): An interesting ghost can be seen in the data, where it appears to be repeating 'Can you hear this?' in various languages.
Valron: "...Huh. That's odd. Amidst all this there's some... ghost in the data, apparently? Wherever it is, it seems to be constantly repeating the phrase 'Can you hear this?' in a wide variety of languages."
Metal Man (GM): The signals are being sent wirelessly from here to the Central Tower--this appears to be a fallback channel, as it appears now and again to try and fail to connect to the destroyed top of the tower.
Valron: "I'm curious as to what'd happen if I were to send a response to the ghost in the data, but I'm not sure that'd be an especially good idea. In any case..." *He goes to further examine the robots, checking to see if they already have any orders pre-loaded into them or not. Best to see what's up with those before he puts them to use.*
Kumiko: "I guess all I can tell you is: Be careful, and I'll be ready if these go rogue on you."
Metal Man (GM): No orders have been placed in them as of yet, other than to stand by and wait for orders.
Valron: "Okay, good. These don't have any orders programmed into them outside of, well... Just standing by and waiting for orders. I think I've got something in mind, now..." *He goes to program in the order to distract whatever's sending commands from the central tower, and if possible, deal with it.*
Metal Man (GM): The robots attempt to 'distract' whatever has sent commands from the Central Tower, only to strangely shut down.
A strange voice echoes in the room.
???: "Mysterious intruders. Why do you meddle in things you do not know?"
Metal Man (GM): Clearly you have succeeded in getting its attention, even if it has no clue what's going on.
A distraction, just maybe not the one you expected.
Valron uses this moment to see if the distraction as loosened its grip on the terminal. In the meanwhile.
Metal Man (GM): It seems if anything it has tightened its grip. Most of its interaction is now through that very terminal, as it appears to be querying everything in the tower trying to figure out what's going on.
Kumiko juuuust prepares herself in case something does happen. Best thing she can do right now.
???: "I am doing what I was designed to do: destroy the Time Cops. You however seem to not be interested in that. If you do not step away from whatever it is, I will eventually find you."
Valron stays silent, checking to see if he can isolate the robots from... whatever it is that's controlling everything here. Let it talk, for now. While he's at it, he also checks the spaceships, curious as to whether they're still going at their current pace or not.
Metal Man (GM): They have picked up speed. The robots... seem to have been set in 'administrative shutdown' mode. The control device is busy trying to figure out what happened here and so isn't focusing on them.
Valron: *While the control device is distracted, he tries to sever the robots connection from the administrator's control, then goes to get them moving towards central.*
Metal Man (GM): Very well. There are 6 robots, so...
Four robots are taken over. The two that resist are activated instead by the intelligence.
???: "Trying to steal from me? Unusual. No one has tried. I must end this innovation."
Kumiko: "...Valron. Are we about to get attacked?"
Valron: "By two robots. I got the other four."
Kumiko: "Understood. Seems our remote guest is trying to undermine plans."
Valron: "...Doubt they're anywhere near as tough as that command unit, though."
Metal Man (GM): The robots stand at attention.
???: "I see you now... ...you are not Erastians. You are not Celians. You are... Time Cops? No... no residue..."
Metal Man (GM): The robots point their blasters at Kumiko and Valron.
???: "Identify yourselves."
Kumiko: *Grips onto Blodsabel* "Is this what you interpret as justice?"
King Demon: *Would be with the upper group.*
Metal Man (GM): Yes, I switched to the upper group, so you are there, Demon.
???: "Justice? What is justice? There are only enemies."
King Demon: "Enemies to who?"
Valron: "Not a healthy way of thinking, that."
Kumiko: "I'm sorry, some other mechanical mook pissed me off earlier to suppress Blodsabel. It hasn't worn off yet, so you may want to define your logic before we put you down."
???: "Enemies to me. Anyone who tampers with the main agenda is an enemy. If you are going to stall, then I will kill you, and dissect the corpses to figure out what you won't tell me."
Kumiko: "Consider yourself doomed."
King Demon: "And who are you?"
Erastian Central Authority: "I am the Erastian Central Authority. Destroyer of all that is not Erastian."
King Demon: "Uh... have you BEEN to Erastia lately?"
Valron: "Huh. And here, I thought it was referring to a faction and not a particular entity. Interesting."
Erastian Central Authority: "Identification query: are you the entities who invaded Erastia?"
King Demon: "Uh... not really; we are with the one currently in charge of it."
Valron: "If by 'invaded' you mean 'wrested from Time Cop control'...?"
Erastian Central Authority: "What is the name of your faction that displaced the Celians and conquered Erastia? If only so that it can be chronicled when the casualties of your faction begins."
King Demon: "Is he still asking who we are?"
Erastian Central Authority: "You went to pains to hide it. But clearly this member of your team is not able to stop from telling me what I want. That is the flaw of organic thinking."
Kumiko: "Let me confirm, your shields are activated?"
Erastian Central Authority: "Give up and leave and I can forget we had this interaction. Proceed and one of you will most likely give me the information I need. Shields? What shields?"
Kumiko: "Your system is secure, isn't it?"
Erastian Central Authority: "Security as in anyone who tampers with it dies."
Kumiko: *She's clearly just fucking around with this thing and knows it.*
Valron continues to check on the terminal, wondering if the ECA's grip on the it is still as iron-clad as before.
Metal Man (GM): It appears to be somewhat distracted by Kumiko, however it is still in the terminal.
The terminal is, in a way, a part of it.
You'd have a higher chance of breaking in to it, with the risks as noted before if you failed.
Kumiko: "Understood." *She grips tighter onto her sword while simply trying to buy Valron time.*
King Demon: "We have liberated Erastia from Time Cop control. What I don't know is what you are doing out here if your mission is to eradicate the enemies of Erastia, shouldn't you be going after THEM?"
Metal Man (GM): Presumably the more things the AI has to think about, the less control it has. Currently it's only talking to two people in a confusing way, so, it would be likely you could increase the distraction by increasing the cognitive load on it.
Erastian Central Authority: "I am the only judge of what is free from Time Cop Control or not. We are currently going after the enemies of Erastia--the Time Cops, as you yourself stated. If this is some attempt to fool me, do not think yourself so smart; I have already downloaded telemetry making it clear these two robots cannot take you in single combat. But what I am sending will."
Valron: "Add to it, what is even your plan for dealing with the Time Cops? Just indiscriminately attack everything in their sphere of influence?"
King Demon: "Then why don't you go to Erastia and see for yourself?"
Erastian Central Authority: "My plan to deal with them? I don't know. Who are you? I cannot tell potential Time Cops what I would do."
King Demon: "I mean, at the end of the day, you ARE a robot, are you not? You have nothing but time."
Valron: "Add to it, I doubt you've even figured out a way to deal with Autumnus. He'll probably take anything he can throw at you, and just start piledriving galaxies into your spaceships. How are you even going to deal with that, if by some miracle, you actually do manage to reach him? And for that matter, do you even know where their central command center is?
Seriously, it seems like you came in this guns blazing without any outline of a real plan."
Erastian Central Authority: "Enemies attempting to get information from me. I will provide none. Instead, I will play annoying music."
Metal Man (GM): Really annoying elevator music begins blasting in the room.
King Demon: "Great, this guy is almost as annoying as some of the idiots on Alsa..."
Kumiko: "What you are doing is 100% meaningless. You have no plan, you have no objective, you merely plan to eliminate anything in your wake. That is no plan."
Metal Man (GM): This is the best time as any to attempt to hack the console--it appears to be on to something and thus is beginning to re-up its hold on the building.
Valron: *While he's busy with that, he continues to check on the terminal, and see if all the hubbub has weakened it any further* "Oh, AND ANOTHER THING! You call this annoying!? I'll show you annoying!" *He starts playing his guitar in tune with the elevator music. ...And it is as horribly off-key as he can mange. Oh god. ...And he's using it as cover to hack the console. oh goody*
Metal Man (GM): The hold it has on the console is very strong. You manage to obtain a brief lock on it. You can do one thing before it boots you out: what do you do?
You notice there is no shutdown switches for the main things. They have conspicuously been removed.
A certain person who made it made very certain nobody could shut anything down, it seems...
Of course, that leaves the other options--that is, issuing orders to things or more local concerns, up to you.
You can either disconnect the spaceships from the ECA or cause them to have crazy collisions with eachother. Your choice.
Valron disconnects the spaceships from the ECA. Try having a fleet now, Denver! stupid fascist-built super-AI!
Metal Man (GM): The fleet is disconnected, and now is aimlessly moving towards the planet. The Console reacts by being overloaded until it explodes, so as to prevent any further interaction.
Erastian Central Authority: "Sabotage will only get you so far. You cannot stop all of us. And when we arrive, you will die."
Metal Man (GM): Then it disconnects from the tower and the entire room, soldiers included, also shorts out, leaving nothing you can even interact with in the room anymore--it burnt it out.
Kumiko: "Well, that worked out..."
Valron: *Once he's done with his general bout of hacking shenanigans, he finishes his guitar cacophony off with a brief, yet much more pleasant-sounding sting.* "Well, that was ridiculous."
Metal Man (GM): All the soldiers, unfortunately. It learned from the interaction with you and attacked them while you were distracted.
Valron: "Shame about the soldiers, though." *In any case, he goes to make his way to the elevator door. He'll probably just have to break through it, more than likely.*
Metal Man (GM): Yes. All the computers, all the speakers, all of it.
The elevator door is locked shut. However, you hear the elevator coming up to meet you.
Valron: "...Oh. Well, then." *He goes to step back and wait for whatever's coming up to meet them.*
King Demon: *Sighs* "Thanks for that, Valron. For a minute I thought I was back home..."
Metal Man (GM): The door opens up... it's Louisoix and Nonna and Xavier. How scary!
Kumiko: "Well... I see things worked out..."
King Demon: "... Damn, and I thought it was going to be something to burn."
Xavier Ridgecrest: "Gah! It's... ...the others. ...No problem here, except the entire room being destroyed, but I would guess that's... on purpose, maybe?"
Valron: "Oh, hey there, you three."
Louisoix: "Ahh!" *Jumps back comically.*
Valron: "Sorta. I was busy... doing things."
King Demon: *Sighs* "Well, that was fun!"
Valron: "Originally, I was gonna hijack some of the units here to try and distract the ECA, but it noticed and, well... one thing lead to another, and ultimately I disconnected it from all the spaceships."
Nonna: *Coughs* "Hey."
Valron: "...At the cost of it throwing a hissyfit and frying all the stuff in this room... including four of the six soldiers I had managed to hijack. A shame, that."
King Demon: "Uh... yeah... about that... how is THIS ship still running without it's control systems?"
Kumiko: "I'm still a bit... stimulated from being forced to overcome Blodsabel. So I guess this means I'm gonna be very competent for some time. We made it however."
Valron: "On the other hand, I've already managed to get a rather excellent treasure from the previous floor, thanks to Lyx, so... Not too big of a loss."
Xavier Ridgecrest: "We just got done watching a video... showing the AI they created here killing off everyone, including the people who made him."
Valron: "Ah. I think we may have just talked to the aforementioned AI, then. At least, that's what I'd guess."
Louisoix: "Oh, guess Nonna was right then. Maybe I do need to fix this thing, then."
Nonna: "It's an omnicidal lunatic, of course."
Louisoix: "Of course."
Valron: "Yeah, 'course it is."
King Demon: "..." *Shrugs and looks around, somewhat nervous about this ship losing things like gravity and everything since, yaknow, they just killed the AI controlling it.*
Valron: "If we can shut it down, then we could at least get rid of that aspect. Maybe spruce it up into something less maniacal, but I doubt it."
Louisoix: "We probably have enough AI help, up to you though." *Looks that off switch over again* "Will need some parts, but I can make those easily."
King Demon: "I'm kinda wondering if we shouldn't try to finish the job wit that ECA. Is it somewhere on this ship?"
Xavier Ridgecrest: "Ideally we would destroy it. The question is, where it is... We only watched information about its history, after all. You guys were the ones who met it, seemingly."
Valron: "My best guess would be in the central tower, giving the bandwidth usage coming from there. At least, according to that terminal, back before it got fried, anyways."
Louisoix: "Well, let me attempt this first, anyway." *Would attempt a repair.*
Metal Man (GM): Repair on... which thing, in specific?
King Demon: "Ok, where's the central terminal from here? And, for that matter, how much of the ship did we just knock offline? Just this tower?"
Valron: "This city-ship should still be fine. It's the encroaching fleet that I knocked offline."
Metal Man (GM): There's the terminal that Valron was trying to talk to, the dead robots, or... whatever else you may seek, Louisoix.
I must note it very thoroughly fried the electronics, so repair may be a misnomer--perhaps more like 'rebuild'
Ah, the switch you were given by Valron.
Repairing that is fairly easy.
King Demon: "Oh... well... so it's just us vs whatever's on this ship, with no backup from either side? That makes it MUCH easier!"
Metal Man (GM): Oh, the broken switch.
That switch is... totally destroyed
You'd have to research it for a while to have any chance at fixing it.
Xavier Ridgecrest: "Yes, it seems we have a good setup to take it out. If we act quickly we can destroy it before it can fix what Valron did."
Valron: "And Lyx gave me a control module that was in the top floor. With a bit of research, I could create a remote control for all the robots here."
Louisoix: "Well, if you want to brute force it go for it, seems like a good opportunity. I'll keep an eye out for some clues as to how this thing may have worked and try to make one on the fly. Or make a flamingo."
Valron: "Want me to try and help?"
Louisoix: "Ah, did he? Hmm... if you think you can handle it, you can do it, the rest of us can try to 'punch even harderer' method of trying to go for him. Would be a good distraction anyway."
Metal Man (GM): I'll note I'm gonna pause in a moment, my energy levels are plummeting due to the cold. Been glad to have a nice session so far though.
Been something nice to do to distract me from the cold, though.
So perhaps, decide what you have in mind, then I'll pause.
King Demon shrugs and listens to the conversation, mostly waiting for something to do.
Metal Man (GM): Ok... I'll pool their work together on the device.
Louisoix succeeds and...
So does Valron.
The device is created. It's not an instant win button, but unlike just trying to hack the bots with the visor... it does allow for faster hacking attempts on them and more direct fighting with the AI over controlling things.
Valron: "There we go."
Metal Man (GM): On that note, I'll pause. Energy is depleted, feeling a bit feverish... but happy with the session. Next time: the conclusion session to this group of sessions.
Pause

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