06/28/18 session:
- Nicky (an Aina) gathered a group to discuss an issue in the Idylwild forest (controlled by the SED). Raziel, Kacey (not SED, but considered friend of), Li-Ge, and Saffron attended.
- Nicky is one of the higher level commanders, and did a lot of work when we were fighting the cultists. She has a zoomed in satellite map of an area in the idylwild forest - an area inside of SED territory. We see a fairly large cargo ship (larger than a hammer, smaller than the rex) in a clearing, with various items scattered around it - hard to say what they are from the image. "We've had reports of this landing a few days ago."
- "For now, we've created a no-fly zone around them so as not to cause problems, and have been observing from afar. To date, only one small craft has detached and flown towards Neopolis, however it was quite fast and not easy to catch. It left in the evening, and returned a few hours later. We can confirm the presence of automated drones, making getting close difficult."
- "We see evidence of some sort of outdoor activity daily, Raziel, suggesting they've landed due to some nessecity. It could be ship repair or something else. It's not really clear. As for what the Hammer was shot with, it appeared to be some sort of energy-based weapon that partially cut through the hull. Nothing explosive, and possibly automated."
- The group gathered up gear (such various drones for Li, weapons, and other supplies) and set out in an armored personnel carrier to where the ship had landed.
- Missiles were aimed at the ship and ready to fire if needed.
- As the group approached, they tried to hail the ship, but it did not respond.
- When they got close enough, Li's drone was sent in to investigate
- Li-Ge-IA-6 approaches the barrier, making sure the parley flag is nicely visible.
- Li-Ge heads towards the clearing, unimpeded at first. As she gets closer, she can immediately see there's something unusual going on. Clumps of dead woodland animals litter the grounds around strange, shimmering hides (roughly person-sized) being tanned in the open air. A few portable shield units are placed in strategic locations, mostly to protect personnel wandering around the perimeter of the ship, and to protect the hides. Land-based drones walk about, fully automated, patrolling the outer perimeter.
- The ship itself is quite large, and very blocky. It's clearly a cargo ship with extra armor and weapons bolted on, built to carry stuff and do offensive operations too! A few lizard-like creatures are wandering about, with tough scaley hides, strange goggles on their foreheads (ready to bring down at a moment's notice), and all are armed. Looks like a motely crew, but all are the same species. The cargo door is currently closed.
- As Li-Ge approaches, one of the automated drones spots her, lumbering over on two metallic legs. It's a heavy combat model, and it's got a very solid sound and appearance to it, not to mention it's bristling with weapons! It seems to regard Li's drone for a moment, as if trying to decide if it recognizes it. One of the lizards glance over, shout something in a foreign tongue.
- The drone responds by aiming twin machine guns at Li, and starting to open fire! We can hear it from back where we're parked.
- In response to this, Kacey ordered the missiles to fire on the engines of the ship.
07/05/18 session:
- Kacey ordered an artillery strike, which did not result in any damage. The ship shot down (pre-exploded) some of the shells with high powered lasers or energy weapons, and a shield activated for the one shell that did get through.
- The presumed captain of the ship told Kacey over comms: "You have no authority over us. This planetoid has no official government or security force." and said if they would leave the ship alone for a few weeks, it would fly off without incident or further trouble.
- Kacey disputed that statement about no government, and wants to disable and board the ship. The ship captain is not giving up and denied the request to stand down.
- When Kacey read out her space police ID, the ship captain said there are others who would pay good money to see her head in particular mounted on a wall, meaning she is probably now a special target.
- After the exchange over the comms, the real action started!
- Little drones started pelting the armored personnel carrier (APC) with very small bullets, enough to hear but not cause any damage. Larger, ground-based combat drones started moving towards the APC to directly engage it.
- Saffron snuck towards the ship (using magic to make fake versions of herself as decoys) and was able to shoot one explosive KR round into the ship's engines before the shields went up again. Damaged was caused, but it's unclear how much.
- Kacey enabled various jammers so the drones could no longer communicate with the ship.
- Raziel got onto the top of the APC and used the roof-mounted heavy machine gun to shoot down the tiny drones.
- A foam round from Saffron hit the nearest ground combat drone, rendering it unable to see. It stopped moving. Raziel was then able to use the machine gun to destroy it.
- Kacey tried to hack the ship, but was unsuccessful, possibly due to the jamming she's also doing. Instead, she started listening to the signals to learn more about the systems she wants to hack.
- By the end, Raziel had left the APC completely to get ready to take down the shields with their electrical abilities. Saffron had snuck back inside the APC for protection.
- There is a roughly two football field buffer zone all around the ship.
08/09/18 session:
- With drones shot down and the pirates scrambling to get ready for a fight, phase two of the attack commenced:
- Once everyone was safely inside the APC again (except Raziel), Kacey the vehicle to charge towards the pirate spaceship, which had its shields up. While charging, Raziel unleashed essentially an electro magnetic pulse (EMP), taking out most of the shield generators and allowing the APC to charge right up to the ship, much to the surprise of the pirates!
- Raziel had to take a moment to recover, and after recovery was drawn to the few remaining shimmering pelts nearby, hypnotized.
- The group sprang into action, now that surprise is on their side.
- Kacey attached a charge to the ship hull so she could blow it open.
- Li-Ge-Ia attacked a land drone, getting between it and the others.
- Saffron sent out her 'ghosts' to distract the air drones and cause them to shoot just behind the pirates, unnerving the pirates and causing some confusion.
- The pirates responded by setting up some civilian 'meat shields' while they got ready to fire back from behind them. To show they mean business, one male feline civilian was shot in the head. Others brought in the frames holding hides they were apparently tanning, to protect the hides from the fight.
- Thinking the air drones were malfunctioning (but were actually just following the ghost Saffrons), the pirates grounded all of them.
- One pirate shot up Raziel to the point that a normal person would have died then and there. All it did was shake them out of their hypnosis, and got them mad! They started charging the pirate that shot hir. Uhoh! (results next session)
- Kacey's explosives went off, and she rushed right into the ship, her armor getting shot up in the process. If she takes more than a few more shots, they will penetrate.
- Li-Ge-Ia slashed at the land drone's legs, causing it to finally topple, but not before it heavily damaged one of Li's drone's arms. Noticing the downed drone's machineguns are pointed more or less at the pirate ship and pirates, she plugged into the drone to do a remote control (results next session).
- Leaving the rest of her team to deal with the outside threats, Kacey started attacking pirates inside their own ship! She ended up in the cargo hold, blowing up a mostly empty cargo container, injuring one pirate. The cargo hold is full is stuff, likely most of it stolen.
- Kacey noted there were alive prisoners in cages along the walls, including some whose pelts were outside.
- Continuing her assault, Kacey used the cover of the cargo to shoot small airburst-style explosions towards any pirates she could see, who were also getting into position behind cargo to shoot back.
08/16/18 session:
- Raziel and Li-Ge-Ia attack the pirates on the outside of the ship. Raziel by directly charging them, and Li-Ge-Ia by using the hacked drone to fire back. By the end, all pirates outside were either killed or badly injured.
- Le-Ge-Ia then freed the brainwashed civilians by properly removing the brainwashing equipment from around their heads.
- Saffron worked on widening the hole in the hull that Kacey blew open, by using the large machine gun mounted on the APC's roof.
- Meanwhile, Kacey is alternately avoiding and attacking pirates as she finds them in the cargo hold.
- When the hole is big enough, Saffron drove the APC right through it and into the cargo hold.
- Kacey uses an EMP grenade to disable the powersuit pirate in the cargo hold, but is later on shot. Her damaged armor allowed the bullet to go through and into her side.
- The rest of the group enter the cargo hold via the hole, and help Kacey by offering suppressive fire.
- The pirates retreat into the ship, in response.
08/21/18 session (FINAL):
- A better sentence is offered to pirates that surrender.
- Raziel shorted a major power cable on the ship, causing many breakers to pop and most of the ship to lose power.
- A few pirates surrender and offer details on where to find the captain. Three other pirates remain in the ship.
- The group goes furtherin. There was a brief firefight with one of the pirates (who fell, injured), and the other two surrendered.
- The pirate captain is holed up in the bridge. Saffron uses a thermite tape to lop off the blast shields around the bridge windows, and then uses the tape to break down the door into the bridge.
- Li-Ge-Ia kicked the door open and went in first, and was promptly damaged beyond repair by a very high powered, handheld laser-like weapon. The beam cut through her armor and internals, and the drone fell upon the captain, pinning his legs.
- The captain responded by trying to fire over Li-Ge-Ia's drone body at the others. Raziel stepped up, using their shield and magnetic abilities to try and knock the captain in the head with it. Saffron added fog with her ice powers.
- While the shield was cut into thirds, a piece did hit him in the head, knocking the captain out enough to be properly restrained and arrested.
- EPILOGUE: The remaining pirates are patched up and brought to justice, and serve varying sentences. Most are transported offworld by some of Kacey's fellow officers. Turns out this was a big catch! The pirates would board ships when the opportunity arose, and grabbed cargo, but also would take slaves. They also hunted those strange mini-bears on a particular planet, and came here to tan and treat the hides. Those hides, highly illegal, would fetch a fortune for their ability to hypnotize, though some are used as decoration. The slaves would sometimes fetch even more on the open market. Either way, these were not nice pirates, and hundreds of slaves had passed through their ship over the years. As for his weapon, that was stolen from a weapons research facility. It's a prototype.