>>17542150

Your forces hold the central section of the ship over several decks and advancing forward and aft. The Pirates are being steadily pushed back towards their ships but for the moment they still hold the Bridge and the engines. Their exact numbers are unknown.
Current force strength:
38 marines
150 damage control personel
57 crewmen

30 security personel
+200 armed militia /passengers
As more pirates are killed and their weapons taken more militia will become available. Most do not have body armor and will not last long in a fight.

Fuck yeah. I've got some shopping to do before the shops close but after that I'm all over this.

>>17542163
You, Chief Kavos and the group of Marines you were on patrol with are currently rearming and trying to determine where to head next.
Before you head out again you decide to ask the Chief something.
"Why is it most of the people we've found are middle class?" You ask.

"Because they're not worth the trouble. Most of the crew and stewards will be Lower class tending to the upper class and Nobles aboard. Upper class are valuable and worth ransoming, lower class wont be missed so they'll be sold into slavery. Middle class are problematic. Most will have had military service at some point if only to pad their Resume or to get out of the lower classes. They're not worth ransoming but people will be annoyed enough that they're missing to have them looked for."

Your navigator Linda approaches. "The next group of rescued passengers will be arriving soon." she informs you and the Chief. "They're falling back towards the engines and the bridge. Most arent even bothering with a rear guard. We've got them on the run."
"The real trick will be finding their leader." states the Chief "He'll have the remaining upper class passengers."

Linda pulls out a bulky communicator that's making a faint beeping noise and checks the screen on it. "Its the Knight Lieutenant."

>>17542206
"Chief Kavos are your pilot still alive?"
"Yes sir." he answers before giving the officer a quick status report.
You're feeling a little left out of it at the moment, but then again you're still on the bottom rung.

"We've got a problem." The Lt informs you "The liner has its shields up. The pirates may be trying to jump the ship to another location so they can escape with their boarding craft. We'll be able to track you if that happens but it'll take us a minute to calculate an accurate enough fix so we can jump after you. That's all the time they'll need for their own ships to scatter and escape.
I have some good news though, a Battleship with a battalion of Marines will be here within an hour. You have to keep them busy until it arrives, how you do it is your call."

The Chief turns to you. "We could try to disable the engines to cut power and keep them from jumping out but the pirates have more of their ships aft, it'll be harder going. Or we could head for the bridge and sieze the command and control interface. The Marines also found some of the Nobles in the forward areas."

"They might have cut the controls between the bridge and the engines by now." points out Linda. "It would be a bitch for them to plot a jump but it might be possible."
"Thats also a risk." admits the Chief.

>Your Orders?
[ ] Head for the bridge
[ ] Head for the engines
[ ] Other

[X] Bridge

>>17542257

Head for engines, so we can be sure that they won't jump

Just going to wait a little while longer to see if there's more votes.

In other news, the nearly new Cruise ship Costa Concordia ran aground yesterday and capsized.

>>17542257
>"They might have cut the controls between the bridge and the engines by now."

Is there any way we could very if this is the case or not?

>>17542545
*verify

>>17542505
For soem reason, that picture makes me terribly sad.

>>17542257
Any way to disable those shields? Where would they be located?

>>17542545
You could ask some of the damage control teams and some of your ship's crew to check the major trunk lines as they secure parts of the ship. To do it quickly would mean pulling 20-30 of the damage control people from combat. This will slow the advance of the friendly troops in taking the ship slightly.

Do you want to do this?

>>17542592
Power for the shields is drawn from the engineering section but there are generators scattered around the ship. Without them the sections of the ship lined with viewports would be uninhabitable during an FTL jump because of radiation.

>>17542604
>Do you want to do this?

I think we should as long as those 30 guys aren't too much of an impact. Ask the chief if he can spare them.

>>17542641
Okay, in that case let's not do anything to those generators. The pirates can't switch them off to kill us if the manage to do a jump, right?

>>17542661
>Ask the chief if he can spare them.
"We might be able to. Whichever section of the ship we decide to head for we'll just have to take most of the Marines with us to punch through."

>The pirates can't switch them off to kill us if the manage to do a jump, right?
"That's iffy. Most of the combat has been in the interior away from the viewports with the occasional team flanking through the outer sections. I dont know enough about the armor rating on a ship like this to say for sure. As long as we dont go stargazing we should be fine."


Someone from the damage control team runs up. "Hey Chief we got one of the big trams working! We've got a hacker that got bored and managed to convince the computer to get the tracks clear. We could drop a 50 man team wherever we want in a couple of minutes."

"Did they detect you?" Asks Kavos frowning.
"Uh, maybe? I dont know. We triggered a 10 minute lockdown to prevent anyone else from taking control of the trams so we've got that long to use them."

>>17542765
Could we use the tram to travel directly to the engines and circumvent any blockades on the way?

>>17542813
They could be used to travel closer to either location. They do not directly enter the engineering section or the security zone around the bridge. If the pirates have not retreated past those points already you would abe able to avoid the bulk of them.

>>17542886
Let's use the tram to get as close to the engines as possible. Other teams can use it to get closer to the bridge.

>>17542914
I agree.

>>17542914
>>17542934
>Let's use the tram to get as close to the engines as possible.
You wish to go with the team headed for the engines?
>Other teams can use it to get closer to the bridge.
You only have enough Marines to reliably secure one location via tram assault before the lockdown ends. You could try sending more damage conrol personel with each group but this could leave the militia exposed or halt their advance.

>>17543008
Yes, head to the engines. I guess it's better if we only focus on engineering if we can't easily do both.

>>17543008
Engines it is, then.

Okay. Typing.

Do you still want those damage control people checking the connections between the Bridge and Engineering?

>>17543068
Yes.

>>17543068
Yeah, why not.

"We should head for the engines." You suggest.

Kavos doesnt say anything, he just nods and moves out. You follow him as he rounds up the 24 Marines present, the rest not having made it back to the dock yet. Another 10 Security crew volunteer go with you leaving room for 14 more damage control personel.

The tram itself fits perfectly with the rest of the ship. Glass sided with two levels, long curved ramps connecting them giving the impression of a pair of grand staircases. The windows are armored and there are concealed crash restraints that look like they could quickly deploy to prevent serious injury.
"This tram car is bigger than the inside of my parents house." you comment.
Marines coming aboard take up positions near the doors, while a few set up some of the captured sniper rifles on the upper level. The last aboard is one of the marines that was with you earlier doing something to the damaged fuel cell from the captured anti-tank weapon.

"Good luck!" One of your crewmen shout from outside.
The doors slide closed and the tram begins to accelerate.
"Wait who is driving this thing?" You ask.
The Chief crosses his arms looking out the forward window. "Our hacker is doing it from the terminal at the dock. Hopefully we end up in the right place."

(Next post will be delayed due to dinner.)

rolled 7 = 7

>>17543349
The tram flashes past residential sectors at an increasingly fast pace. Or so it seems, its hard to get an accurate idea with some accomodations the size of mansions. An average looking Middle class section is next with rooms one might see at a Hotel. After that the tram turns toward the ship interior not slowing down for the corner. You're glad these things have inertial compensators but that doesnt stop you from stumbling a bit as you had started to lean in prepaation for the turn.
If anyone noticed they keep it to themselves.

"Five seconds! Last ammo check!" Shouts a Marine.
The car rapidly decelerates as the maglev system locks down, the sound of screeching carrying through the floor.

The doors fail to open.
"Blow it!" Orders the NCO in charge of the Marine squad at that door.
Someone slaps a half sphere shaped object on the armored glass and two seconds later it shatters. There is a slight pressure drop but there is deffinitely atmosphere on the other side.

Not one of the leading team hesitates charging through the opening as someone from the second line scoops up the device.

Everyone files out at a quick jog, crossing the disembarking area and heading aft.

"Motion trackers read clear, we might have made it here before the main unit."

rolled 1 = 1

>>17543677
Finding the correct way through the crew accomodations isnt difficult but is time consuming. Twice having to stop to hack doors open, everyone worried that you might be detected. Storage is next and its where you run into the first signs of anyone being present.
A forklift carrying a crate rounds a corner headed straight for you. The driver has just enough time to shout at you all to get out of the way before a Marine puts him down. A second loaded forklift rounds the corner in time for the driver to see his follow fall out of the first vehicle dead.
The grey skinned Kavarian yells something along the lines of "Oh fuck!" before diving off and taking cover.
"Get him!" Yells the Chief.

A pair of Marines charge for the corner, one stoping for cover the other diving out in a slide. Both men open up killing the pirate before he has time to draw a weapon. When you catch up you see he had a communicator in hand.

"What's going on down there!?" a voice shouts over it.

>Bluff yes/no?

>>17543791
Bluff. Convincing anyone everything is fine is probably not going to work, so let's go for misdirection.

>>17543820
Yeah, let's say a crate fell of the forklift. Or something like that.

>>17543846
And let one of the marines answer. Both of the pirates were male.

rolled 7 = 7

You motion for everyone to be quiet, the Chief pantomiming the words "what are you doing?"
Grabing the handset you set the mic to mute.
"Who has a voice in the same range as either of them?" You ask everyone.

One of the security crew, another Kavarian, runs over. "I think I can fake his voice, we might be distantly related."

You hand the com to him and he hits the unmute. "A crate was overbalanced, it fell off and slowed us down. Should we bother to waste time with it or grab another one?"

The voice on the other end sounds just as pissed off. "What am I paying you people for!? You said you could take care of sorting that loot and getting it loaded in time. If I dont see one of your sorry asses up here in five minutes I'm curring your pay, you hear me? Now double time it, we're evacuating after your next run."

The security officer says everything will be taken care of then turns off the comlink.

"I figure we've got ten minutes before they send someone down here."

>Take the comlink with you or break it?

>>17543965
Just leave it there while we go on.

>>17543965
Can we use it to listen in on their comms? Then keep it. Otherwise break it and keep moving.

rolled 13, 15, 17 = 45

With the close call avoided everyone steps up the pace to a run. You consider yourself to be in good shape but this armor is starting to become a drag. You wonder how much some power armor would cost or how long it would take to afford a set on your pay. Can minor Houses even afford power armor?

"Security station coming up." reports a Marine looking at the maps for this section. Everyone skids to a stop before a corner, the man in front holding out an arm to keep anyone from stepping past him out of cover. He sticks a micro camera around the corner and forwards the picture to everyone with a HUD on their helmet.

There's a sentry gun and a pair of heavy weapons on tripods guarding the main cargo door into the central engineering area. Each turret weapon has a pane of transparent armor protecting the gunner.
"Not good but we've seen worse."
"How far down is it?" Asks the Chief.
"Far. We're going to have to use most of our launched grenades and some flashbangs I think."

"Why not use the sniper rifles?" You ask.
"Might not penetrate the armor plate around the turrets, but if you want to line up a shot go for it."

[ ] Let the Marines handle this
[ ] Let me try that rifle (Roll 2d20)
[ ] other

>>17544194
Does anybody have grenades? Is there a way around?

>>17544194
Do we have any training with the rifle?

>>17544216
The Marines have a few launchable grenades but not many.
>>17544218
Pic related. No not really, but then again would that really stop you? You never really had that much training with any gun before today. Maybe its the awesome heads up display in the armor helping you?

rolled 6, 5 = 11

>>17544325
Try the rifle.

>>17544216
> Is there a way around?
Whoops, missed the most important part.
Yes. But it'll take 5-10 minutes to detour through some crawlspaces.

rolled 19, 14 = 33

>>17544325
Okay.
Ask the guys who were originally on the ship if there's any other way into engineering. If not, try the rifle.

>>17544358
In that case, take the detour. Those gunners will be much easier to kill when they don't have the protection of their shields. Or guns.

rolled 5 = 5

>[x] 5-10 minute detour through some crawlspaces
Was supposed to have been an option there >>17544194
My bad.

"Can I see that map?" You ask.
One of the Marines send it to you. "Okay?" he asks.

It doesnt take you long to find an access route through some of the maintinence tunnels.
"We could cut through here and just avoid the turrets." you explain.
"That doesnt give us much time until they realise those forklift guys are missing." Points out the Security guard.

"Then they go running around looking for us. By the time they get down here we'll be inside."

The Chief doesnt seem happy. "I dont like it. We'll be screwed if they catch us in there. We should split up and take two different crawlspaces. Pilot Sonia you go ahead the way you wanted, I'll cut through this elevator shaft here with a team." He points to another access way. "We'll be in position to catch someone from behind if they have you pinned."

The team splits up by even numbers and each head off in their seperate directions. Your team is forced to hack a door into the cawl spaces open then you have to deal the the difficulties of getting through the low lying equipment, pipes and electronics while wearing vacuum suited armor. More than once you have to stop because you've gotten hung up on something, but within 8 minutes you reach a blast door with *ENGINEERING* painted on it.

rolled 2 = 2

>>17544649

Opening the blast door takes another minute then you're inside. You're not certain how much time you have left but it must be getting close. It still doesnt feel like the ship is accelerating though.

The Security officer notices you pressing your hand against a structural frame. "This ship is too new, and its a civilian one. You cant feel the engine output like on old warships."

Passing through a few more sealed sections and parts bays your team enters the engine room. The large radiation shield that would normally be closed around the FTL core is open. By the looks of it someone has either been trying to replace to focusing systems or remove them so they can be stolen.

"Looks like we dont have to worry about them jumping out." Comments one of the Marines.

"I wouldnt be so sure about that." Issues a voice from the intercom, the voice echoing around the room.
"Drop your weapons and surrender and we wont just stuff you inside the radiation shield before we turn it on."

Soldiers in body armor appear on a balcony that encircles the engine room. Twenty up above and another ten approach from behind the core.

[ ] do as he says, the Chief will rescue us
[ ] start shooting now, the Chief better hurry
[ ] try to convince him to surrender instead
[ ] other?

>>17544850
[x] try to convince him to surrender instead

[x] start shooting now, the Chief better hurry

>>17544850
I think we're pretty much cornered. We should
>[ ] try to convince him to surrender instead
if only to buy a little more time for the chief in the worst case.

>>17544879
>>17544935
"I think you should be the one surrendering instead." You speak up, careful not to raise your weapon.
"This ship is surrounded, you're going to be swimming in Dominion Marines in a few minutes, give up now and save yourself the trouble."

"Hmm... I dont quite know. Somehow I get the feeling I have you backed into a corner. Keep trying to convince me, you never know something might catch my interest."

>>17545046
"You're the ones in the corner. You have already lost this ship. The only thing left to determine is how many people have to die before you acknowledge it. If you pack up and leave right now, you might be able to get away before our Battleship arrives to seal the deal. We won't stop you. It's the hostages that are important."

>>17545083
You wait expecting an answer even if its only a quippy one liner.
There's no answer.
After a few seconds the men on the balcony are starting to get impatient. "Boss can we shoot this mouthy bitch or not?" asks one of the Pirates.

"Boss?"

Roll evasion 2d20

rolled 16, 17 = 33

>>17545176
The dice here tend to hate me...

You've been waiting for it, stalling as long as possible but when it happens it still catches you by surprise. Fire from the Chief's team rip into the pirates on the balcony, some of them are caught by surprise but most of them open fire. The delay is just enough for you to dive for a piece of the radiation shield that's sticking up out of the floor. With cover against those on the balcony you fire back at the pirates near the core. The ones on the lower level retreat while those on the balcony put out as much fire as possible, spraying everything in the room.
A grenade goes off among them forcing half their number into retreat. You feel a dull thump not like the rest of the weapons fire and look around. The first thing you notice is the core focusing systems are locking into place, something must be controling them remotely. Then you see what really made the noise, the radiation shield is descending.

"GO! They're going to lock us in!" You shout. And an the Security guard grab a wounded marine by an arms and drag him clear.

"PIlot Sonia, get the hell out of there!" orders the Chief.
"Already clear!" you inform him. You duck to avoid shrapnel from a grenade then put down supression fire so another marine can clear the radiation shield. He makes it but barely.
The only ones left inside were those already dead.

"They're going to try and jump the ship soon." States the Chief.
You check yourself for injury then respond.
"I know, we have to find a way to stop them!"

Sorry OP, I'm almost nodding off. You'll have to continue without me.

>>17545526

"We could try to hack the control systems, which may take time. Or we could try to cut power feeds to the core."

You look over at the core shield and the dozens of giant cables that extend from it. "That could take awhile too." You comment.

The Chief makes his way over to you, running from cover to cover, the rest of the Marines finding ways into the upper levels to secure the area.
"Cutting the sync systems between the core and the drive plates wouldnt take long and it'll buy us time. A navigator can correct for it but it take a good five minutes."

"What about those damage control teams checking the trunk lines between the brdige and the engineering section?" You ask?

>Your orders?

[ ] Try to hack the systems
[ ] Cut power feeds
[ ] Cut drive plate sync
[ ] Try to contact damage control teams

Cut the sync

>>17545631
[x] Cut drive plate sync
[x] Try to contact damage control teams

Do both at the same time.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j1eI-7XWjho

"Right. Who has explosives? I need two bricks!" Asks the Chief.
There's more gunfire from the direction of the balcony. The engineering control room was probably up there. After a few seconds a Marine tosses down some plastic explosives from the balcony.
"We've only got a few more." He shouts before rushing off the join the others.

Kavos takes a second to catch his breath then runs to the far side of the radiation shield, checking the large cables as he goes.
"No, no, no, yes!" Finding the one he's after he mashes the explosives into a weak point in the casing and inserts the detonator. "One down one to go."

You pull out your communicator and try to contact the team at the dock. You cant get a signal.

"Chief my comlink is blocked!"
"Shielding around the engineering block!" He informs you, not stoping. "Get out past the heavy shielding and you'll be able to get a signal. Dont bother trying to use the hardlines, they're not secure and the pirates will just listen in if they're still aboard."

You turn to the security officer. "What's the fastest way out of here?"
"Back through that door the turrets were right in front of."

[ ] Kill the turret gunners from behind
[ ] Too risky, try the maintinence tunnels again
[ ] other

[x] Kill the turret gunners from behind

"Hey." motions one of the wounded Marines. "Its dangerous to go alone, take this."
He hands you a frag grenade.

"Go!" You yell at the guard, running after him.

"What's your name?" you ask him when you catch up.
"Just call me Fen, everyone else does. My mother thought it would be hillarious to name me something that Dro'all and Humans cant pronounce. "
"Really?" you ask, panting for breath as you wait for a door to open.
"What? Na- no I mean, she was a friggen supremacist. Didnt care what other species think. Makes it hard to get a decent job."

Your legs are burning when you reach the last door. You pull the safety on the grenade and nod for Fen to crack the door open.

Roll 1d20

rolled 6 = 6

>>17546029

>>17546056
you fucked us all to hell

... I dont see anyone else rolling?

>>17546153
We'll live. We haven't even crashed our ship yet, despite our luck.

Guys I average the rolls but if you want it to stay bad I guess we could go with that.

rolled 7 = 7

>>17546029
One more, then.

rolled 15 = 15

>>17546232
oh, usually its stuck to 1 roll

The door opens two handspans before it stops and you take the chance to toss the grenade through. It hits the floor on the other side and bounces away a bit before exploding. Fen slaps the door control to open it the rest of the way once the worst of the blast is past.
The gunners are still alive, the grenade having gone off in front of their armor shields. You cquickly empty your magazine into the side of a pirate drawing his sidearm while your ally does the same. You attempt to get in close to one of the turrets so that the shield is blocking you from the sentry gun but dont quite make it in time. The small weapon sprays you with bullets as you lunge to the side. Fen kicks the gun out of line before it can swing around to target him next. Reaching down he rips the belt fed MG from its mount.

"Are you okay?" He asks.

You dont feel okay but looking down at your armor you dont see any blood gushing out so you guess you'll live.
"Fine." you cough out, trying to get your breath back.
"This is Pilot Sonia Reynard to dock areas come in."

Linda responds. "Go ahead pilot, what's your status? It look like the ship is getting ready to jump."
"Contact the Damage control teams. They need to cut the trunk lines from the bridge ASAP."

"Cut th- oh! OH! I'll get back to you!"

Fen helps you stand and you lean back against the wall.
"Sonia to Chief Kavos, if you can hear me I got the message through."
You hear the distant echo of explosives going off back in engineering. He must have blown the sync lines.

rolled 17 = 17

>>17546029

Meanwhile...

"Dammit, its accelerating. Dayton to all ships close to target and try to get tractor locks. Weapons, target their engines before they can build up enough thrust."

"Sir our phase cannon dont appear to be doing much to their shields. It must be equipped with the latest models. We wont be able to bring the shield down before they can jump."

"If they... How quickly can we load our two SP torpedoes?"
The engineer turned to him. "Sir, if we blow up their engines we wont be able to salvage that ship before more pirates arrive."
"How long?" Dayton asked the weapons officer again.
"Ninety seconds, I've got them transfering them now."

"They're activating their drive!"

The Knight turned back to his viewscreen, the ship was picking up acceleration slowly, the first flashes of subspace tearing were beginning to appear in front of the ship.
"Come on Chief, dont let me down." he whispered.
The fusion drives of the liner continued to glow brighter.

"They've reached 5G acceleration, we're plotting them as increasing to 20." sensors reported.
"Why havent they jumped?"

The sensor operators fingers flashed over the control board. "Their drive plates must not be synced. We're showing power output but they're not establishing a field. They-"
"They must have been sabotaged." Dayton finished.

"SP Torp locked and loaded."

"Hold your fire." Ordered the Knight Lt. "Keep trying to get tractor locks."

For five more minutes the squadron continued pouring on the fire then inexplicably the shields on the Liner failed.
"Cease fire! All ships cease fire, get those tractor locks quick and reverse engines. What happened to their shield you said it was still above 50%?"

"It was sir, it just cut out... and their FTL core has just powered down too."

"Thank god. How long until that Battleship arrives? Contact House Command if you have to."
"They say they're ready now. I've taken the liberty to transmit our coordinates sir."

"Good. Once we've dragged this ship down to a resonable speed I want it surrounded. Dont let any of those damn personal yachts escape."

When the Battleship 'Taskmaster' arrived on station with a crack boarding team everyone knew that the fight was over. Everyone except for the pirate leader who attempted to hold the daughter of some Nobleman hostage. Eventually after an hour long standoff on the bridge of the ship the Pirate second in command agreed to handing over all remaining hostages in return for was essentially a slap on the wrist. The former leader of the Pirate band was then executed by his own men in return for reduced sentences.

>Cont...

>>17546913

It was two and a half hours after you were shot up before relief arrived. It wasnt until Marines from the Taskmaster took control of engineering that the Chief was able to come and check up on you.

"We did it. The Marine intrusion expert was able to shut down the drives with the extra time we bought. With the trunk lines cut the pirates were never able to send new data to the engines and the drive plates. Now the ship is retaken and we can all go home for the day."

"Joy." you cough out.

"Cracked a rib?" asks Kavos as you and the other Marines make your way back towards the trams.

"Probably. The other boarding team barely gave me a second glance." you answer bitterly.
"Well cheer up. Its only a 2km walk from here back to the ship."

"...What?"
"The tram system is down. All of the engineers being brought over from Taskmaster will be concentrating on fixing the FTL then bringing the ship back to a friendly port."

>End Mission 2 B

Okay, so as usual started to burn out towards the end there.
Previous threads archived.
http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive.html?tags=House%20and%20Dominion

Comments? Criticism?
It's a little wall O'text I admit. Still working on trying to describe what's going on better.
A little uncertain weather to keep offering multiple choice to keep things rolling vs just asking WAT DO? and seeing what people come up with.

>>17547110
Sorry to say it, but it was a little slow. Harder to get into and keep up

>>17547142
Yeah I hear you. If I have a general idea of what direction things are going to take I can write up some stuff before hand and past different things in depending. This whole boarding action (this thread and last thread) I was kinda of dreading because I didnt have a clue about what direction it might take.
Mainly because I type so damn slow. I dont call myself 'That slow typing guy' for no reason.