https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WiEDvIlndEs
Episode 30 - Flight
The jolt of the maneuver engine jostled Ardelle to wakefulness. She blinked bleary eyes, yawned, then tapped a button and zoomed in on the tactical map.
“What is it?” Elliot asked also coming awake. Emerging from the darkness, he joined her under the soft blue glow as she hunched over the tactical map. She heard the sounds of soft breathing coming from the cargo bay as chameleons and marines slept or tried to.
“Just hoping for a miracle,” she said as she studied their approach to the blinking dot.
“Is that the Oracle?” Elliot asked, pointing at the dot. “How did you--”
“It might be. These were coordinates I found in some ancillary data from the brief connection you had with them. Like I said. I’m hoping for a miracle.”
“Ma’am,” the pilot called over the comms. “We’re approaching rendezvous with target.”
She looked out the view port and saw that they rose into a massive ice field formed by comets or asteroids passing near the planet and getting caught in its gravity well. Ice crystals as large as glaciers on earth drifted by. She blinked against the bright sun reflecting from and refracting through the crystal-like ice structures.
“Good. Continue on course,” she said and then keyed the internal comms to both shuttles, “Listen up,” she said. “We’re coming up on where we think the Oracle is located. We don’t know what’s out here, but we think she’s hiding from something. Everyone stay buckled up but remain sharp.”
Do they spot the Oracle right away?
(Somewhat Likely | 4[d10]) No, but...
But it might spot them...?
They were close. But where was it? Their passive sensors had still not detected anything. She gripped the console, knuckles white as the numbers counted down. “Come on,” she whispered. Without active sensor sweeps, it would be nearly impossible to locate she knew. Visually spotting it was worse than a needle in a haystack. It’d be a needle in an ice-stack. It had to be along their current trajectory...
“Lot’s of ice up here. Plenty of places for it to hide,” Elliot said. “I’m sure it’s here. Just hiding.”
“If Oracle is hiding in this field, that means it had to move off its previous drifting course or risk smashing into something, right?” Ardelle asked. She leaned back and massaged her forehead. “If it was the Oracle to begin with. What if I grabbed some random numbers from something completely unrelated and created this out of whole cloth?”
“You did what you could,” Elliot said, touching her arm. “Don’t be hard on yourself. You saw something in those numbers.”
“If it’s hiding behind miles of ice, would passive sensors would be able to sense it through these fields? How close would we need to be?”
“As long as it’s emitting something, passive sensors should be able to at least detect--”
“Ma’am, something has pinged us with active sensors!” The pilot said and Ardelle could hear the tightness in his voice.
“Is it--” but she couldn’t complete her sentence, the pilot jinxed so hard she and Elliot floated for a moment and when other thrusters kicked in the motion threw her against Elliot, slamming both of them into the interior bulkhead.
“We’re being fired on!” The pilot shouted.
An ice mountain exploded next to them sending smaller chunks spraying out into their path. Some of those chunks were as big as their shuttle and the glistening chunks headed straight for them.
“Hang on!”
TN 6 to pass.
3 = 3[d6]
3 plus pilot of 3 = 6 success
The shuttle twisted, and she and Elliot once more slammed into one of the shuttles walls before the pilot leveled the shuttle out again.
How is the Egg Crate faring?
Punish / Love
Sounds like it took some punishing damage when it veered away to avoid a crash with Seraphim? How bad is the damage?
(11 = 11[d20]) Minor Damage: Largely superficial; degrades performance, but not disabling.
Not that punishing...
“Who’s shooting at us? The aliens?” She asked as Elliot helped pull her to her feet. She felt bruised all over. She buckled herself into her seat and motioned for Elliot to do the same. He sat down with a groan next to her. “I hurt all over.”
“I don’t know ma’am,” the pilot said. “With only our passive sensors, it’s hard to--”
“Forget about that! Whatever is shooting at us already knows we’re here. Ditch the passive sensors! Do an active sweep, full sensors! Now!”
“Aye ma’am, full active sweep!” There was a brief pause, and she heard him pressing controls. “Sensors are still screwy, but we’re close enough to get some data. Coming on tactical now.”
Her eyes darted to the holo-tactical and her heart fluttered as the stats came in on the scanning results. The holo image flickered, winked out and then came back on its digital image hazy.
“It’s not an earth ship...” Elliot said as she pulled up the information on her own console.
“No, it's not.” she exhaled a sigh of relief. “Not from earth. But it is clearly a human ship. I’ve seen the type. From the size and engines, I’d guess a light cruiser class,” Ardelle said.
“Bigger than Oracle then?”
“Yes,” she said. “It’ll have shields, about triple the amount of weaponry...”
“Great,” Elliot groaned.
She pointed to the console next to her. “Take over on sensors so the pilot can focus on his job. See if you can find the Oracle.”
“Aye ma’am,” Elliot sad sliding into the console next to her and looking over the sensor data.
She keyed the comms to the other shuttle. “Egg Crate, how’re you doing?”
“We’re okay for now ma’am,” the pilot said in a confident drawl. “Some ice messed up our paint job. Minor damage that could cause problems in atmo. Other than that, we’re good.”
“Good.”
The pilot jinxed the shuttle again bringing them around the other side of a large ice rock.
“You’re not going to believe this,” Elliot said studying the scanning data coming in.
“Try me,” she said.
If the bug aliens aren't in space here, the only thing I can think of is that there's an unknown possibly hostile ship of human origin. They could have managed to detect Oracle’s route to the jump point to Spenalk. Makes sense that there could be another hostile ship out there. It could be one from the Independent Coalition of Colonies (ICC... or abbreviated as TICC for those from earth / sol system).
Is that what it is?
(Likely | 9[d10]) Yes
Is the human ship larger than Oracle?
(50/50 | 6[d10]) Yes, but... +Event: Change / Intrigues
Yes but not by much. It’s a ship class larger. It’s been modified and its presence is a mystery (intrigue).
“It’s a ship from the ICC!”
“What’s a tick ship doing way out here?”
He shrugged. “Want me to patch comms through to them so you can find out?”
“Is case you haven’t noticed, they aren’t much in the mood for conversation,” she said.
Does the other ship spot their approach to Oracle? I'll say SU given the sensor situation in the system.
(Somewhat Unlikely | 10[d10]) Yes, and...
Great... AND the trajectory of the shuttle leads them to locate the silent-drifting Oracle. They'll have to dock quickly and get out of there. There are a lot of asteroids meteors etc in this system. So lots of debris and things to hide behind or run into in a chase scene. Should be fun...!
And once it locates the Oracle does it attack the science vessel?
(Somewhat Likely | 5[d10]) Yes, but...
But it's hampered by targeting systems getting screwy with the cosmic storm and asteroids, meteors etc, causing issues.
So, it'll be a race to see who can get to Oracle first and who doesn't get pummeled by the meteors.
“They’re firing again! Two missiles inbound!” the pilot shouted and again jinxed and chaff and countermeasures streaked out behind them. This time she and Elliot were buckled into their seats, but the motion slammed her teeth together anyway and brought tears to her eyes.
“They missed?” Ardelle asked.
“Don’t...think so,” the pilot said. “I’m doing what I can, but you know how good targeting computers are, especially at these slow relative speeds.”
Elliot shook his head as the missiles streaked onwards and beyond them. “No... they’re targeting something else! Ahead of us.”
The tactical readout showed two missiles... zipping past them. Through the camera feed on the viewport she saw their contrails arc and twist as one slammed into a frigid asteroid ahead of them. Thousands of ice shards spread out in a glowing shimmering cloud. The other missile zipped through the expanding ice cloud continuing onwards.
Seraphim raced through the cloud and Ardelle heard the plinks of ice on the hull and felt small shudders as larger chunks struck their armored surface.
Elliot said. “I’m picking up energy readings ahead of us. Weapons fire! Not at us... two pulse shots just struck the ship behind us!”
She saw the readings on her tactical display.
“Something shooting it? Is it the Oracle?”
“Bringing it up now on tactical...Yes! We found her!” Elliot said.
The relief in his voice sounded as palpable as her relief felt. Like the sun had emerged behind a dark cloud bank during monsoon season on Spenalk 3. When she saw Oracle on her tactical, she almost whooped. But her relief drained away, and her leg started jogging up and down as she tracked the missile continuing towards Oracle.
Oracle tried to use her directional thrusters to edge behind an asteroid, but the missile had too many smarts for that. It arced around the large ice rock and an orange explosion erupted in front of them.
“No...” Elliot gasped.
“She’s a tough ship. She can take more than that. She has class 3 armored hull. She can take more than a single missile strike.”
But Ardelle knew that Oracle wouldn’t be able to stand toe to toe with a light cruiser class for long. Even if Oracle hasn’t been converted from a military destroyer and had her full complement of original weaponry, she’d still be outgunned. It’d be a closer fight, but in all the combat sims she’d been a part of, a light cruiser class was simply a heavier ship. Slower yes, but able to dish-out and withstand more damage.
Their only option was flight.
She jammed the comms button. “Oracle? This is Ensign Ardelle Leathe! We see you. We have critical information that needs to reach High Command. We’re coming in fast... Open the landing bay doors!”
They streaked around another asteroid, keeping it between them and the Light Cruiser behind them. The enemy ship that would be in medium shooting range of Oracle shortly. Another missile streaked passed them towards oracle and impacted off its armored hull.
The comms crackled and flared to life in her ear. “Ensign Leath,” it was one of the watch standards on the bridge. The voice sounded nervous. Tense. “We’re in a combat situation and cannot--”
Ardelle dug her fingernails into her other arm. “Who’s in charge?”
“That’d be Lt. Garcia, Ensign, and he said--”
“Connect me to him on the line! Now!” She shouted into the comms. Elliot looked at her his eyebrows climbing his forehead and then shifted back to his console.
“Wait one,” the comms officer aboard Oracle said.
While she waited and ground her teeth, she shifted her attention to the pilot of Seraphim, “Get us to Oracle! All possible speed! We must get board that ship!”
“The landing bays doors aren’t open,” the pilot said. “They’re not ready to receive us.”
“Just do it! I’ll get the doors open.”
“Aye ma’am!”
She felt the after burner kick in and gripped her console as the shuttle darted past more hulking blue asteroids that shimmered rainbows in her eyes.
A slender older man with gray hair, a gray handlebar mustache, and piercing blue eyes appeared on her holo-display. The picture shimmered, pixelated and then came back a little clearer.
“Ensign. Lieutenant Garcia here!” a voice like scraped gravel barked, and the holo display in front of her flared to life to show the interior of the Oracle’s bridge. “We’re in a bit of a situation as you can see,” He sat in Captain Alestranda’s chair his rail-thin frame taut with tension. "What's the emergency?"
“They just took another hit ma’am,” Elliot said. Ardelle registered the red damage markers that flared to life around the Oracle’s display on the holographic tactical map and Lt. Garcia swayed in his chair. She zoomed in on the Oracle. Seraphim’s own cameras were updating her own data. The ship was still in one piece. More armored hull blown off and probably some minor damage inside.
“Sir,” she said. “We are inbound. ETA 3 minutes. I need those doors open and ready to receive us!”
“Ensign. Get off the comms, and get me Captain Alestranda. We’re being fired upon. I need her orders, and I needed them yester--”
“Both she and the XO are dead!” Ardelle said, shoving the bluntness of the fact full in his face.
“What? Dead?” Lt. Garcia whispered and he seemed to teeter on his chair. In his mid fifties, she had thought Lt. Garcia was already ancient, but now he seemed to age another ten years before her eyes.
“How...? No. Nevermind, I need you to--”
“They died in combat on the surface!” She swallowed as the bitterness rose within her. “You are right that we have a situation, but trust me, it’s much more than just this one ship.”
Does Lt. Garcia listen and open the doors?
(Somewhat Unlikely | 5[d10]) No
He straightened in his chair, “I’ll be the judge of that.”
“Sir, you have to listen to me!" she said and knew anger tinged with desperation had crept into her voice.
"No I don't. The situation is critical. Now get off this channel!"
So many more dead if she failed now. "Sir, I’m ordering you to open the doors! Under authorization code--”
“You’re ordering me?” Lt. Garcia gave a mocking laugh, but it was humorless and icy cold. He leaned forward looming in the display. “You listen to me, Ensign, I am your senior officer, and you know the line of succession goes to the next highest ranking line officer. And that’s me! When you get on board, you’ll be court martial-ed for insubordination. Now clear this channel! I have a battle to run.”
The comms went dead. A battle? Ardelle slammed her fist on the console and jammed the comms button again. No answer from Oracle's bridge. Elliot glanced over at her. “A problem?”
“Is he really thinking of going toe to toe with the light cruiser?”
“Ma’am?” the pilot’s urgent voice came over the comms.
“Stay the course,” she said.
The shuttle twisted between two asteroids that collided in a shower of crystalline shards behind them as a missile joined the mix in a ball of light.
“Elliot, know anyone in Engineering that’s good with computers?”
“Good? No. But scary-crazy? Yes. Crewman Marisella Libby,” Elliot said.
“Scary-crazy works for me,” Ardelle said. “It sure beats dying out in an ice field from a crazed ICC ship,” she muttered. “Get her on the horn.”
“On it!” Elliot said.
A few seconds later, a short and stout woman of Asain descent appeared on the holo-screen.
“Crewman Libby here. Oh... hey Ell?”
“Mari,” Elliot said. “We need a favor.”
--
How is the Light Cruiser modified?
Fight / Portals
First thing that comes to mind if boarding pods.
*is
Is that it?
(Likely | 9[d10]) Yes +Event: Heal / Power
I'll ignore the Heal / Power...
So it sounds like it's basically a pirate ship, designed for speed and to get in close and launch boarding pods.
Is it unshielded?
(Somewhat Likely | 3[d10]) No
We'll see if it hits the Oracle.
Oracle is hiding strategically behind ice. I'll say that adds one to the defense.
Is the commander of the ICC ship a skilled commander?
(50/50 | 2[d10]) No
What about Oracle?
(Somewhat Unlikely | 6[d10]) No, but...
No, but better than the ICC commander. Well, that's something.
We roll initiative. Oracle gets Quickness of 8 plus Command of 2, plus die roll:
3 = 3[d6]
So 13 total.
Thunder gets Quickness 6 plus Command of 1, plus die roll:
1 = 1[d6]
So 7 total. Oracle acts first.
Artillery skill of ICC ship:
1 = 1[d3]
Shooting skill of ICC ship:
3 = 3[d3]
Shooting skill of Oracle:
2 = 2[d3]
So Oracle is being targeted. They rotates weapons and shoot first.
Str 9 + Shooting 2 = 11 -- That's an automatic hit on the cruiser without rolling any dice. Hmmm. Not sure I like that.
What about Thunder shooting at Oracle:
Str 11 + Artillery + 1 = 12 -- Modified defence of Oracle is 12
Sound like the dice rolls aren't going to be used at all? What am I doing wrong?
Let's see what happens:
5 = 5[d6]
So if they roll a 5 to hit Oracle. They get a 17. Oracle takes 5 damage...?
So it's down to 23/28.
But oracle would have hit it first:
11 +
4 = 4[d6]
15 total vs Defence of 11. So 3 damage. It has shields of 5 so the pulse shots don't break through the shields...
I'm not crazy about the spaceship fighting system in OneDice. It doesn't seem nuanced enough for me. If I do a season 2 of this story, I'll be switching RPG systems.
So once the shooting starts everyone sees each other.
Episode 30 - Flight
The jolt of the maneuver engine jostled Ardelle to wakefulness. She blinked bleary eyes, yawned, then tapped a button and zoomed in on the tactical map.
“What is it?” Elliot asked also coming awake. Emerging from the darkness, he joined her under the soft blue glow as she hunched over the tactical map. She heard the sounds of soft breathing coming from the cargo bay as chameleons and marines slept or tried to.
“Just hoping for a miracle,” she said as she studied their approach to the blinking dot.
“Is that the Oracle?” Elliot asked, pointing at the dot. “How did you--”
“It might be. These were coordinates I found in some ancillary data from the brief connection you had with them. Like I said. I’m hoping for a miracle.”
“Ma’am,” the pilot called over the comms. “We’re approaching rendezvous with target.”
She looked out the view port and saw that they rose into a massive ice field formed by comets or asteroids passing near the planet and getting caught in its gravity well. Ice crystals as large as glaciers on earth drifted by. She blinked against the bright sun reflecting from and refracting through the crystal-like ice structures.
“Good. Continue on course,” she said and then keyed the internal comms to both shuttles, “Listen up,” she said. “We’re coming up on where we think the Oracle is located. We don’t know what’s out here, but we think she’s hiding from something. Everyone stay buckled up but remain sharp.”
Do they spot the Oracle right away?
(Somewhat Likely | 4[d10]) No, but...
But it might spot them...?
They were close. But where was it? Their passive sensors had still not detected anything. She gripped the console, knuckles white as the numbers counted down. “Come on,” she whispered. Without active sensor sweeps, it would be nearly impossible to locate she knew. Visually spotting it was worse than a needle in a haystack. It’d be a needle in an ice-stack. It had to be along their current trajectory...
“Lot’s of ice up here. Plenty of places for it to hide,” Elliot said. “I’m sure it’s here. Just hiding.”
“If Oracle is hiding in this field, that means it had to move off its previous drifting course or risk smashing into something, right?” Ardelle asked. She leaned back and massaged her forehead. “If it was the Oracle to begin with. What if I grabbed some random numbers from something completely unrelated and created this out of whole cloth?”
“You did what you could,” Elliot said, touching her arm. “Don’t be hard on yourself. You saw something in those numbers.”
“If it’s hiding behind miles of ice, would passive sensors would be able to sense it through these fields? How close would we need to be?”
“As long as it’s emitting something, passive sensors should be able to at least detect--”
“Ma’am, something has pinged us with active sensors!” The pilot said and Ardelle could hear the tightness in his voice.
“Is it--” but she couldn’t complete her sentence, the pilot jinxed so hard she and Elliot floated for a moment and when other thrusters kicked in the motion threw her against Elliot, slamming both of them into the interior bulkhead.
“We’re being fired on!” The pilot shouted.
An ice mountain exploded next to them sending smaller chunks spraying out into their path. Some of those chunks were as big as their shuttle and the glistening chunks headed straight for them.
“Hang on!”
TN 6 to pass.
3 = 3[d6]
3 plus pilot of 3 = 6 success
The shuttle twisted, and she and Elliot once more slammed into one of the shuttles walls before the pilot leveled the shuttle out again.
How is the Egg Crate faring?
Punish / Love
Sounds like it took some punishing damage when it veered away to avoid a crash with Seraphim? How bad is the damage?
(11 = 11[d20]) Minor Damage: Largely superficial; degrades performance, but not disabling.
Not that punishing...
“Who’s shooting at us? The aliens?” She asked as Elliot helped pull her to her feet. She felt bruised all over. She buckled herself into her seat and motioned for Elliot to do the same. He sat down with a groan next to her. “I hurt all over.”
“I don’t know ma’am,” the pilot said. “With only our passive sensors, it’s hard to--”
“Forget about that! Whatever is shooting at us already knows we’re here. Ditch the passive sensors! Do an active sweep, full sensors! Now!”
“Aye ma’am, full active sweep!” There was a brief pause, and she heard him pressing controls. “Sensors are still screwy, but we’re close enough to get some data. Coming on tactical now.”
Her eyes darted to the holo-tactical and her heart fluttered as the stats came in on the scanning results. The holo image flickered, winked out and then came back on its digital image hazy.
“It’s not an earth ship...” Elliot said as she pulled up the information on her own console.
“No, it's not.” she exhaled a sigh of relief. “Not from earth. But it is clearly a human ship. I’ve seen the type. From the size and engines, I’d guess a light cruiser class,” Ardelle said.
“Bigger than Oracle then?”
“Yes,” she said. “It’ll have shields, about triple the amount of weaponry...”
“Great,” Elliot groaned.
She pointed to the console next to her. “Take over on sensors so the pilot can focus on his job. See if you can find the Oracle.”
“Aye ma’am,” Elliot sad sliding into the console next to her and looking over the sensor data.
She keyed the comms to the other shuttle. “Egg Crate, how’re you doing?”
“We’re okay for now ma’am,” the pilot said in a confident drawl. “Some ice messed up our paint job. Minor damage that could cause problems in atmo. Other than that, we’re good.”
“Good.”
The pilot jinxed the shuttle again bringing them around the other side of a large ice rock.
“You’re not going to believe this,” Elliot said studying the scanning data coming in.
“Try me,” she said.
If the bug aliens aren't in space here, the only thing I can think of is that there's an unknown possibly hostile ship of human origin. They could have managed to detect Oracle’s route to the jump point to Spenalk. Makes sense that there could be another hostile ship out there. It could be one from the Independent Coalition of Colonies (ICC... or abbreviated as TICC for those from earth / sol system).
Is that what it is?
(Likely | 9[d10]) Yes
Is the human ship larger than Oracle?
(50/50 | 6[d10]) Yes, but... +Event: Change / Intrigues
Yes but not by much. It’s a ship class larger. It’s been modified and its presence is a mystery (intrigue).
“It’s a ship from the ICC!”
“What’s a tick ship doing way out here?”
He shrugged. “Want me to patch comms through to them so you can find out?”
“Is case you haven’t noticed, they aren’t much in the mood for conversation,” she said.
Does the other ship spot their approach to Oracle? I'll say SU given the sensor situation in the system.
(Somewhat Unlikely | 10[d10]) Yes, and...
Great... AND the trajectory of the shuttle leads them to locate the silent-drifting Oracle. They'll have to dock quickly and get out of there. There are a lot of asteroids meteors etc in this system. So lots of debris and things to hide behind or run into in a chase scene. Should be fun...!
And once it locates the Oracle does it attack the science vessel?
(Somewhat Likely | 5[d10]) Yes, but...
But it's hampered by targeting systems getting screwy with the cosmic storm and asteroids, meteors etc, causing issues.
So, it'll be a race to see who can get to Oracle first and who doesn't get pummeled by the meteors.
“They’re firing again! Two missiles inbound!” the pilot shouted and again jinxed and chaff and countermeasures streaked out behind them. This time she and Elliot were buckled into their seats, but the motion slammed her teeth together anyway and brought tears to her eyes.
“They missed?” Ardelle asked.
“Don’t...think so,” the pilot said. “I’m doing what I can, but you know how good targeting computers are, especially at these slow relative speeds.”
Elliot shook his head as the missiles streaked onwards and beyond them. “No... they’re targeting something else! Ahead of us.”
The tactical readout showed two missiles... zipping past them. Through the camera feed on the viewport she saw their contrails arc and twist as one slammed into a frigid asteroid ahead of them. Thousands of ice shards spread out in a glowing shimmering cloud. The other missile zipped through the expanding ice cloud continuing onwards.
Seraphim raced through the cloud and Ardelle heard the plinks of ice on the hull and felt small shudders as larger chunks struck their armored surface.
Elliot said. “I’m picking up energy readings ahead of us. Weapons fire! Not at us... two pulse shots just struck the ship behind us!”
She saw the readings on her tactical display.
“Something shooting it? Is it the Oracle?”
“Bringing it up now on tactical...Yes! We found her!” Elliot said.
The relief in his voice sounded as palpable as her relief felt. Like the sun had emerged behind a dark cloud bank during monsoon season on Spenalk 3. When she saw Oracle on her tactical, she almost whooped. But her relief drained away, and her leg started jogging up and down as she tracked the missile continuing towards Oracle.
Oracle tried to use her directional thrusters to edge behind an asteroid, but the missile had too many smarts for that. It arced around the large ice rock and an orange explosion erupted in front of them.
“No...” Elliot gasped.
“She’s a tough ship. She can take more than that. She has class 3 armored hull. She can take more than a single missile strike.”
But Ardelle knew that Oracle wouldn’t be able to stand toe to toe with a light cruiser class for long. Even if Oracle hasn’t been converted from a military destroyer and had her full complement of original weaponry, she’d still be outgunned. It’d be a closer fight, but in all the combat sims she’d been a part of, a light cruiser class was simply a heavier ship. Slower yes, but able to dish-out and withstand more damage.
Their only option was flight.
She jammed the comms button. “Oracle? This is Ensign Ardelle Leathe! We see you. We have critical information that needs to reach High Command. We’re coming in fast... Open the landing bay doors!”
They streaked around another asteroid, keeping it between them and the Light Cruiser behind them. The enemy ship that would be in medium shooting range of Oracle shortly. Another missile streaked passed them towards oracle and impacted off its armored hull.
The comms crackled and flared to life in her ear. “Ensign Leath,” it was one of the watch standards on the bridge. The voice sounded nervous. Tense. “We’re in a combat situation and cannot--”
Ardelle dug her fingernails into her other arm. “Who’s in charge?”
“That’d be Lt. Garcia, Ensign, and he said--”
“Connect me to him on the line! Now!” She shouted into the comms. Elliot looked at her his eyebrows climbing his forehead and then shifted back to his console.
“Wait one,” the comms officer aboard Oracle said.
While she waited and ground her teeth, she shifted her attention to the pilot of Seraphim, “Get us to Oracle! All possible speed! We must get board that ship!”
“The landing bays doors aren’t open,” the pilot said. “They’re not ready to receive us.”
“Just do it! I’ll get the doors open.”
“Aye ma’am!”
She felt the after burner kick in and gripped her console as the shuttle darted past more hulking blue asteroids that shimmered rainbows in her eyes.
A slender older man with gray hair, a gray handlebar mustache, and piercing blue eyes appeared on her holo-display. The picture shimmered, pixelated and then came back a little clearer.
“Ensign. Lieutenant Garcia here!” a voice like scraped gravel barked, and the holo display in front of her flared to life to show the interior of the Oracle’s bridge. “We’re in a bit of a situation as you can see,” He sat in Captain Alestranda’s chair his rail-thin frame taut with tension. "What's the emergency?"
“They just took another hit ma’am,” Elliot said. Ardelle registered the red damage markers that flared to life around the Oracle’s display on the holographic tactical map and Lt. Garcia swayed in his chair. She zoomed in on the Oracle. Seraphim’s own cameras were updating her own data. The ship was still in one piece. More armored hull blown off and probably some minor damage inside.
“Sir,” she said. “We are inbound. ETA 3 minutes. I need those doors open and ready to receive us!”
“Ensign. Get off the comms, and get me Captain Alestranda. We’re being fired upon. I need her orders, and I needed them yester--”
“Both she and the XO are dead!” Ardelle said, shoving the bluntness of the fact full in his face.
“What? Dead?” Lt. Garcia whispered and he seemed to teeter on his chair. In his mid fifties, she had thought Lt. Garcia was already ancient, but now he seemed to age another ten years before her eyes.
“How...? No. Nevermind, I need you to--”
“They died in combat on the surface!” She swallowed as the bitterness rose within her. “You are right that we have a situation, but trust me, it’s much more than just this one ship.”
Does Lt. Garcia listen and open the doors?
(Somewhat Unlikely | 5[d10]) No
He straightened in his chair, “I’ll be the judge of that.”
“Sir, you have to listen to me!" she said and knew anger tinged with desperation had crept into her voice.
"No I don't. The situation is critical. Now get off this channel!"
So many more dead if she failed now. "Sir, I’m ordering you to open the doors! Under authorization code--”
“You’re ordering me?” Lt. Garcia gave a mocking laugh, but it was humorless and icy cold. He leaned forward looming in the display. “You listen to me, Ensign, I am your senior officer, and you know the line of succession goes to the next highest ranking line officer. And that’s me! When you get on board, you’ll be court martial-ed for insubordination. Now clear this channel! I have a battle to run.”
The comms went dead. A battle? Ardelle slammed her fist on the console and jammed the comms button again. No answer from Oracle's bridge. Elliot glanced over at her. “A problem?”
“Is he really thinking of going toe to toe with the light cruiser?”
“Ma’am?” the pilot’s urgent voice came over the comms.
“Stay the course,” she said.
The shuttle twisted between two asteroids that collided in a shower of crystalline shards behind them as a missile joined the mix in a ball of light.
“Elliot, know anyone in Engineering that’s good with computers?”
“Good? No. But scary-crazy? Yes. Crewman Marisella Libby,” Elliot said.
“Scary-crazy works for me,” Ardelle said. “It sure beats dying out in an ice field from a crazed ICC ship,” she muttered. “Get her on the horn.”
“On it!” Elliot said.
A few seconds later, a short and stout woman of Asain descent appeared on the holo-screen.
“Crewman Libby here. Oh... hey Ell?”
“Mari,” Elliot said. “We need a favor.”
--
How is the Light Cruiser modified?
Fight / Portals
First thing that comes to mind if boarding pods.
*is
Is that it?
(Likely | 9[d10]) Yes +Event: Heal / Power
I'll ignore the Heal / Power...
So it sounds like it's basically a pirate ship, designed for speed and to get in close and launch boarding pods.
Is it unshielded?
(Somewhat Likely | 3[d10]) No
We'll see if it hits the Oracle.
Oracle is hiding strategically behind ice. I'll say that adds one to the defense.
Is the commander of the ICC ship a skilled commander?
(50/50 | 2[d10]) No
What about Oracle?
(Somewhat Unlikely | 6[d10]) No, but...
No, but better than the ICC commander. Well, that's something.
We roll initiative. Oracle gets Quickness of 8 plus Command of 2, plus die roll:
3 = 3[d6]
So 13 total.
Thunder gets Quickness 6 plus Command of 1, plus die roll:
1 = 1[d6]
So 7 total. Oracle acts first.
Artillery skill of ICC ship:
1 = 1[d3]
Shooting skill of ICC ship:
3 = 3[d3]
Shooting skill of Oracle:
2 = 2[d3]
So Oracle is being targeted. They rotates weapons and shoot first.
Str 9 + Shooting 2 = 11 -- That's an automatic hit on the cruiser without rolling any dice. Hmmm. Not sure I like that.
What about Thunder shooting at Oracle:
Str 11 + Artillery + 1 = 12 -- Modified defence of Oracle is 12
Sound like the dice rolls aren't going to be used at all? What am I doing wrong?
Let's see what happens:
5 = 5[d6]
So if they roll a 5 to hit Oracle. They get a 17. Oracle takes 5 damage...?
So it's down to 23/28.
But oracle would have hit it first:
11 +
4 = 4[d6]
15 total vs Defence of 11. So 3 damage. It has shields of 5 so the pulse shots don't break through the shields...
I'm not crazy about the spaceship fighting system in OneDice. It doesn't seem nuanced enough for me. If I do a season 2 of this story, I'll be switching RPG systems.
So once the shooting starts everyone sees each other.
(Enjoying my content? Want to show your support? Consider joining my Patreon at Roll, Ponder, and Play!)
)