>>1077221
>>Sortie the new Viola, try to drive them off through aggressive maneuvers.
And get us a closer look if they're all real and not spoofed.

Also, 'sup King.

>as usual the first voting period will be extended

>>1077221
>Sortie the new Viola, try to drive them off through aggressive maneuvers.

Hey King, how's things?

>>1077221
>>Sortie the new Viola, try to drive them off through aggressive maneuvers.

>>1077221
>>Sortie the new Viola, try to drive them off through aggressive maneuvers.

>>1077250
Okay. I've been considering how to wrap SoZ up in the next couple of threads.

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>writing
3d10, DC 18 Crit 20, best of four
It's a cooperative exercise, and if you succeed odds are good you'll REALLY succeed, but you're also outnumbered.

Rolled 7, 9, 3 = 19 (3d10)

>>1077288

Rolled 5, 6, 4 = 15 (3d10)

>>1077288

Rolled 7, 8, 9 = 24 (3d10)

>>1077288

>>1077294
Woot!

>>1077294
That did it.

>writing

>>1077304
Waiting warmly.

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>>1077304
You leave the bridge abruptly, with only a few curt words of explanation. “Outmaneuver them. Try not to kill them all.”

Even though it feels a little like you just stepped out of the cockpit, you find yourself climbing right back in again. Don't run yourself ragged, sis. You're no good to anyone half-dead.

“I'm fine,” you grumble. “Just get ready to manage the funnels and sensors.”

'kay.

You sigh, switching on vital systems and shutting the cockpit hatch. “This is Viola, prepping for emergency launch.”

“Intercept in sixty seconds,” Rosswisse reports sternly. “Load up and I'll have you shot right down their throats.”

“Understood,” you reply through the series of bumps and grinding noises as your machine is positioned on the Sericea's catapult. “Launching.”

Acceleration briefly slams you back into your seat as the Viola darts clear of the launch ramp and your own thrust kicks in, continuing the acceleration.

Counting sixteen targets, Catrina silently tells you, having harnessed the Viola's sensors to be her own eyes and ears. Marking them for you now.

The mobile suits, predominantly the heavy, almost offensively-overbuilt Zaku III type scatter as you overshoot them right through the center of their formation. Behind you Rossweisse adds thrust to maneuver Sericea through the hole you made, advancing rapidly on Sweetwater in the distance. You reverse hard, straining against your harness before flipping vertical and using your main thrusters to push you back towards the ship to ward off a group of Zakus regrouping to her ventral arc.

“ALICE, see if you can't mess with their sensors,” you suggest. “Make it a bit harder for them to coordinate and counter our movements.”

“Yes ma'am, deploying broad-spectrum ECM and Minovsky particles.”

“Belay the Minovsky jamming,” you order, making a snap judgment. “I'm going to try enhancing the blips for my funnels.”

“Sis, can you make it seem like they're mobile suit-sized targets?”

I like it. I take it you want me to maneuver them in a typical attack formation?

“That's the plan,” you nod as you release the weapons. As the aggressors try and put together another wave of attackers to threaten the Sericea Catrian guides your funnels around the side of the ship and begins enhancing some of their signatures as best she can. To your amusement the attacking force withdraws as if confronted by a real team of mobile suits.
>1/2

>>1077352
Each of the Zaku-III teams numbers four, and yet a counter-formation of three 'suits' drives them off. Hell, seeing you barreling at them full-speed scattered them in a panic.

“They're not keen to play the game,” you muse over the comms. “Despite numerical superiority they're blinking first every time.”

“You think they're rookies?” Rossweisse wonders aloud as your sister continues to spook the Zakus with her new favorite trick.

I dunno, but it's funny as shit! Zooom motherfucker!

>Try painting one of the teams with an old-fashioned radar lock.
>Get a little more aggressive, swap paint with one of these jokers.
>See if you can't shake the mobile suits and continue onward.
>Just keep going as you are until something changes.
>Other?

>>1077365
>>Try painting one of the teams with an old-fashioned radar lock.

>>1077365
>>Try painting one of the teams with an old-fashioned radar lock.
Assuming they are rookies, their reaction would probably involve putting some distance between us to get off the lock.

Hopefully, it'll give us space to work with so we can move on, since our MS has the thrust and maneuverability to disengage smoothly (or re-engage, if necessary).

>>1077365
>>Get a little more aggressive, swap paint with one of these jokers.

>dice+3d10, DC 17 Crit 21, best of 3

Rolled 9, 2, 2 = 13 (3d10)

>>1077405

Rolled 1, 4, 3 = 8 (3d10)

>>1077405

Rolled 4, 3, 2 = 9 (3d10)

>>1077405

bah i was tabbed out

Rolled 6, 4, 10 = 20 (3d10)

>QM rolling

>>1077405
“I'm painting one of them with an old-fashioned radar lock,” you announce. It's an ages-old way of inviting someone to get out of your face, and add to that the fact that you're not even really close to a proper firing position it should be a gesture even a rookie can understand.

Unfortunately you really overestimated the Zaku pilots.

As soon as you even briefly paint the first target he snap-shoots a 300mm bazooka at you, which misses wildly and streaks towards the Sericea. His squadmates open up as well, two beam shots and a second missile joining the first shot.

“Hold your fire damn it!” you roar over the comms as one of the beam rifle shots hits the Sericea. You open up with your own vulcans and spot guns...

>dice+3d10, DC 16

Rolled 7, 10, 7 = 24 (3d10)

>>1077449

Rolled 7, 5, 3 = 15 (3d10)

>>1077449

Rolled 4, 10, 4 = 18 (3d10)

>>1077449

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>>1077449
… and obliterate both of the rocket-propelled explosives in a single extended burst of weapons fire.

“Okay, okay, time to deescalate,” you sigh, quickly backing off the Zakus even as the fireteam you painted begins to recover and fall back as well. “Sorry about that. Did I hit you by mistake?”

“Scratched the paint,” Rossweisse reports. “No serious damage, no casualties. I couldn't fire on them from here in case I hit you.”

“Much obliged.”

“That being said,” your partner continues, “please try not to do that again.”

“I didn't expect them to react like that,” you admit. “That was a total loss of composure. They didn't even try to aim.”

We must have them jumpy, Catrina observes. But we're not that much of a threat.

“It's probably because they have something to hide,” you guess. “That's how they're acting at least, like a kid telling his mom he hasn't eaten any cookies when the jar's right there under his shirt.”

“Moving up,” Rossweisse reports. “ALICE, how are the mobile suits responding?”

“It appears one team of four has retired. The remainder are keeping at least a thousand meters distance, but are following our course.”

>I'm returning to the Sericea, then we'll try and arrange to dock.
>Put us through to the colony, we'll keep you covered from here while you dock.
>Hold off here while we negotiate, try and deescalate the situation.
>We're going in hard. Stay here and cover while we seize the docks.
>Other?

>>1077483
>>Put us through to the colony, we'll keep you covered from here while you dock.

>>1077483
>Hold off here while we negotiate, try and deescalate the situation. I don't think we really want to push these guys with how jumpy they are.

>>1077483
>>Put us through to the colony, we'll keep you covered from here while you dock.

>>1077483
>Hold off here while we negotiate, try and deescalate the situation.

Seems we're at an impasse. I'll give it five more minutes. Or I'll just start writing if someone votes right before I post.

>>1077483
>>Hold off here while we negotiate, try and deescalate the situation.

>writing

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>>1077562
“We should hold off for now,” you suggest. “Agreed?”

Agreed.

“Agreed,” Rossweisse confirms across the comms. “Take up a position in my ventral angle.”

You maneuver to the spot Rossweisse requested, covering her from that direction in a way her own turrets can't really manage while your funnels follow you. Three dart about almost aimlessly for a few minutes while ALICE tries to force a connection with the dockmaster at Sweetwater, before Catrina directs them to dock in their cradles and launches a different set of three. Finally you hear the voice of an irate man crackle across your communications system.

“Who are you and what do you want?” he demands.

“Two Captains of the Colony Transit Fleet, on an investigation into connected acts of terrorism, piracy, kidnapping, and illegal weapons sales,” you tell him, laying out the full laundry list of offenses you've witnessed so far since finding that derelict vessel just a few days ago. “The kidnapper I mentioned pointed us towards Sweetwater under interrogation.”

“If you have a specific charge that warrants invasion of our sovereign space I would suggest you come to it,” the man fires back.

“We have reason to believe a man posing as Char Aznable is currently basing his activities out of Sweetwater,” you press, refusing to concede so much as a proverbial inch to a voice on the radio. “He's charged with twelve counts of kidnapping, eleven counts of human trafficking, six violations of Lunar arms import laws, breach of the Von Braun Weapons Limitation Treaty, and conspiracy in the murder of a former Earth Federation official.”

“Preposterous,” the man on the radio scoffs. “You don't even know the name of this purported criminal mastermind, and yet you claim you're here to arrest him? Sounds like a flimsy justification for an armed intervention to my ears!”

“If my personal suspicions are correct, and they usually are,” you counter, “he may not even know his own name either. Cyber-newtype conditioning isn't out of the question, in which case we'll need to extend our investigation into violation of those relevant treaties as well.”

“And what if we choose not to cooperate with your insanity?

>We have what we need to affect the arrest by force without collateral.
>Then we'll be back with more force. You'll have put off the issue a few days, tops.
>Then we'll tell Mars and Luna what we know, and they'll come after him.
>Other?

>>1077665
>>We have what we need to affect the arrest by force without collateral.

>>1077665
>>We have what we need to affect the arrest by force without collateral.

>>1077665
>Then we'll tell Mars and Luna what we know, and they'll come after him.

>>1077665
>>We have what we need to affect the arrest by force without collateral.

King, I'm sorry but I need to hit the road, I'll be back later.

>>1077674
>3d10, DC 16, Crit 19

>>1077665
>Then we'll tell Mars and Luna what we know, and they'll come after him.
>Other?
Try to persuade him that it'll be in his best interest to have us conduct this search instead of Mars or Luna intervening. Otherwise, it might entail putting their entire colony on lockdown or blockade.

Rolled 3, 8, 6 = 17 (3d10)

>>1077731

Rolled 5, 9, 1 = 15 (3d10)

>>1077731

Rolled 7, 7, 6 = 20 (3d10)

>>1077731

>>1077752
>writing

Oh fuck I missed the start of this. Monitoring closely.

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>>1077792
“We have no intention of starting a shootout inside a colony,” you declare firmly. “But we're also not going to let your colony's administration obstruct interplanetary justice and risk this fragile peace so many people have already died for.”

“And if we do come under attack consider this your warning: only your people will suffer, and thanks to our training, experience, and specialized equipment it will be only by your own hands.”

“Then I suppose this negotiation is over,” the man replies before the comm link terminates on his end.

“Rossweisse, Catrina, make the switch to clay munitions,” you order, your team already hard at work making the necessary preparations. “ALICE, you recorded that, correct?”

“I did,” the AI confirms, “according to CTF operational directives.”

“Good. Then do us a favor and hack the nearest transmissions satelline, get a full recording of the previous conversation out to the press, complete with timestamps.”

“You think we're being lured into this?” Rossweisse muses. “That these colonists are going to be used as a sacrifice?”

“Certainly feels like something Char might do,” you admit, “and I'm a little disturbed I thought of it. But civilian casualties at our hands would be an excellent prelude to a revived Zeon movement, or something along the same lines.”

“I will also monitor internal communications traffic,” ALICE insists. “Let me be your ears, I will tell you if they are planning any rude surprises for your arrival.”

“Speaking of which, drydock in ninety seconds,” Rossweisse announces. “Deceleration procedures initiated. I'll keep the ship docked, you can penetrate the interior of the colony.”

After positioning herself near the “floor” of the colony's drydock and releasing a number of her own funnels to watch her ventral arc for possible boarding operations from that direction, Rossweisse declares the Sericea's position secured and begins an intensive sweep of the interior space. Meanwhile you guide your gundam towards the axial spine: an area running through the center of Sweetwater's comparatively tight-packed closed half dedicated to service and maintenance.

>Order the dockhands to cycle the airlock for you.
>Have ALICE open the doors for you.
>Shoot your way through, and seal it off with construction plating and birdlime.
>Other?

>>1077851
>Order the dockhands to cycle the airlock for you.

>>1077851
>>Order the dockhands to cycle the airlock for you.

>3d10, DC 16 Crit 20

Rolled 1, 2, 8 = 11 (3d10)

>>1077915

Rolled 8, 3, 8 = 19 (3d10)

>>1077915
It's either they open it willingly, or they accidentally get spaced once ALICE gets in.

>still need one more roll

Rolled 2, 4, 10 = 16 (3d10)

>>1077915

>>1077948
You look over the airlock system until you find a viewport, which you tap on gently with your machine's manipulators while ALICE forces a commlink.

“You could open the doors, or we could cut our way in,” you threaten. “Though we are confident in our ability to repair the damage as we go, we'd prefer not to have to go through the trouble. And I'm sure you'd be more comfortable with your airlocks undamaged.”

After a few moments the doors open, you pass into the chamber, and the doors close behind you. Several men in space suits gather in a smaller airlock, prompting you to open your own cockpit hatch and peek around the corner with your own handgun drawn.

Several shots knock the paint off all around the airlock, causing your would-be attackers to withdraw.

“You're not being sneaky,” you chide them over the comms as you reseal your cockpit. “Those were nine millimeter rounds, the next time you try something stupid you'll see what ninety millimeter rounds do to a man.”

“Spoiler: it's not pretty.”

The inner gate opens, and without any further ill-advised attempts you move out into the axial line. The walls of the colony rotate slowly around you, a sense of movement most of the civilians here never get to see. Below, to your sides, and 'above' are expanses of overcrowded city separated by much-needed green space. But that green is somewhat misleading.

“Get me a closer look,” you tell your sister, who brings up an expanded panel on your viewscreen using her longest-range cameras.

Good lord, it's a slum down there. The whole damn thing.

“Who are these people?” you wonder aloud. “Why were they willing to pack in like this? There'd be plenty of space in the Republic, or even on Luna.”

Might be refugees from Earth.

That seems likely. But you also can't help but think there's a marked difference between the cities and the slums, too. And this is just the closed cylinder, you have no idea yet what the 'open' portion looks like.

“No wonder,” you mutter. “I can see why people would try and cover for a known scoundrel like Char.”

“What do you want to do, Carya?” Rossweisse asks. “We have no clear plan to find the man we're looking for.”

“I was half-expecting him to attack us the second we penetrated the airlock,” you admit.

Same.
>1/2

>>1078023
>Maneuver towards the other half of the colony, get a good feel for your surroundings and plan the best possible escape routes.
>Set down in the closed cylinder, give the best possible opening for this Char-pretender to try something.
>Find a government building, try to solicit some official assistance by stressing the risk to Sweetwater.
>Other?

>>1078033
>Maneuver towards the other half of the colony, get a good feel for your surroundings and plan the best possible escape routes.
Time for recon.

>>1078023
>>Maneuver towards the other half of the colony, get a good feel for your surroundings and plan the best possible escape routes.

>>1078033
>>Maneuver towards the other half of the colony, get a good feel for your surroundings and plan the best possible escape routes.

>>1078033
>Maneuver towards the other half of the colony, get a good feel for your surroundings and plan the best possible escape routes.
>Other?
Check for any other Minovsky drive readings aside from the Zaku IIIs encountered. Something with a bit more 'oomph' than normal.

>writing
>due to IRL shit this will have to be the last update of the session

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>>1078033
You press onward into the colony's structure, moving towards the industrial center where the two are joined. “Do me a favor and scan for anything unusual, drive signatures, that sort of thing.”

Minovsky particle interference is well above combat levels, I don't think I could tell you if there was a whole Division of Zakus hidden in here.

“ALICE, can you confirm the source of all this interference?”

“It seems to be coming from the fabrication plants at the center of the colony,” ALICE tells you.

Confirmed, interference is increasing as we approach the center. They must be using hard-wired phone lines to communicate, nothing else would work in here.

“There's no way this happened by accident, they may as well have admitted to it on camera,” you grumble. “Either they really think we're morons or they're working on a plan.”

“Rossweisse, don't let your guard down.”

“I'll have the marines position themselves along the hull,” she sighs. “Could help to have the extra eyes.”

After passing through the fabrication center, you emerge into a much cleaner, nicer colony interior. Here the water storage tanks are clean, the grass is well-kept, and the cities feature walls of sparkling glass. It's totally different from the conditions immediately adjacent.

“Well, I think we've stumbled onto something here,” you muse as a GM of some sort approaches your machine slowly, no weapons immediately apparent. A small wire shoots out from its hand, clay slamming into your machine's chest to establish a contact link that won't be affected by the interference.

“You'd be Captain O'Hara, right? The President wants to meet with you... urgent business.”

>>1078118
And that's where I have to stop for the evening. Sorry for the short run but I have to be somewhere early tomorrow morning. Hope you had fun, and thanks for playing!

Archive is up, and I'll stick around a few minutes for questions. Next week we can hopefully conclude this extended episode and move into the endgame.

>>1078124
Thanks for running!

Has the CTF earned any favors from other space colonies, like Riah or Industrial 7, that we might be able to cash-in in a pinch? I'm assuming the response times for Luna (and especially Mars) would take quite a while for it to be worth calling on.

Thanks for running, King. Now to catch up. Sorry I missed out.

>>1078250
No big. I certainly know full well shit happens.

It's gonna be weird seeing this end, are you planning on running another quest alongside SSQ when this is done, or are you just gonna focus on finishing that?

>>1078258
I'm not keen to start something right away after this, and I don't think I'll start anything new after SSQ is done. So if I get a stroke of inspiration before that point fine, if not? I guess that would be it for me and QMing.

>>1078285
Be sad to see you go King, but at least we're not losing you to burnout or IRL bullshit. Or just sudden disappearances.