Freedom Five #801: Itsy Bitsy Spider Bots
Megalopolis has seen better days. Quite a few of them. Although the city survived the rampage of OblivAeon, it hasn't escaped unscathed. The area around Freedom Tower, more accurately where Freedom Tower used to be, took the heaviest beating but the rest of the city wasn't left untouched by the cosmic entity.
The government science teams are still picking through the wreckage, searching for anything that might have survived. Still wearing radiation suits against any lingering radiation, they're poring over the rubble.
Over your radios, you hear firefighter chatter as they deal with a still burning building on 5th Street, ambulances wailing as they head to 7th where a family has been pulled from the wreckage.
Still, despite this, the city remains as it always has, locals helping out, digging through shattered homes for survivors, arriving on scene with hot food for the rescue workers and firefighters, or meeting under the titanic boughs of Akash'Flora in what used to be Freedom Park and is now a city block-sized tree that other scientist teams are trying to understand.
RevoCorp has even sent the leader of their new team, the Paradigms, to help. She's due in today and it will be good to meet up with your old intern.
So, heroes, what are you doing?
Tachyon is helping to rescue people from buildings and getting them to proper emergency medical personnel. She is explaining to them what issues they might have but is talking/moving so fast they have no idea what she said.
Bunker is currently assisting a rescue crew at the moment, either using the instruments of his suit to target weak points of collapsed structures that might break and come crashing down at any moment OR using the strength of his suit to lift heavier slabs of debris that might otherwise need a crane or some other heavy machinery. "This is a mess." he mutters to himself, making sure his mic isn't on.
As he works, he keeps in contact with the other members of the Freedom Five. "I'm almost done with the heavy lifting over on 35th and Lee. How's everyone else doing?"
The Wraith is using the Mega-Computers to try to run data analysis in looking for survivors and potential secondary disaster spots - electrical lines in danger of coming down, undetected gas/water leaks and the like.
"Tyler, it looks like when you're done there we've got a slow leak in a water main up by 9th and Grant. Traffic analysis suggests that the utility company is on it, but extra eyes on the scene might be good since there's a major freeway on-ramp nearby that we don't want to have get sapped by the drainage. Unless you'd rather hop over there, Dr. Stinson?"
“Ialreadygothereasyouweretalking”
Tachyon starts looking over the drain to figure out what can be done.
Tyler smiles. "Always one step ahead of the game, Doc. I'll still make my way over just in case you need an extra set of hands. Might not get there as fast as you, though." Loading up the last chunk of larger walls onto a dumptruck and leaving a thankful word to the rescue crews, the massive metal suit loads up and starts the trek over to the freeway.
Having made his way to the fire on 5th Absolute Zero heads into the building. He triggers the opening of the aperture on his left hand and with a sharp intake of breath, a beam of cold energy shoots from his hand and puts out some of the smaller fires. Ryan giving his suit a chance to warm up before tackling the larger blaze.
In the apparent solitude of the burning building, Ryan asks over the coms "Meredith did you manage to clear out any of the civilians on 5th. Don't want to have any unseen surprises."
Cycling his coms to a more public frequency. "Cheif Jenkerson do we have any idea of the integrity of this building? Are we looking to save the building or just not let it spread?"
“Well, son, fire like that, it’ll probably have to come down at some point, but if you can keep it standing for a proper demo job when things have calmed down, it’d be appreciated.”
(If you want to put the fire out in one go, it’ll be an overcome check. Twists could be hindering or damage as you get hit by shifting building parts)
Legacy has been flying around, helping the assorted groups of fiefighters and officials mantain order and rescue people, and generally supervising the help efforts. Legacy thought on this that he had become more and more detached from the action and taken a supervisor's role. Oh well. He would notice the large fire and talk into his com "Frost, you need any help over there?"
"Your help is always appreciated Paul. If this doesn't go to plan I may need you to keep people clear of any debris."
With a few quick finger taps on his suits internal sensor array to do a sharp sudden exposure of Absolute Zero's forearms to allow for rapid fire suppression.
( Overcome using the Principle of Cold, Green Dice, Creativity : 5 Minor twist: Take min dice damage 2 )
With a blast of cold, the fire flares once and dies. However with his focus on the fire, Absolute Zero misses on key structural weakness in the floor beneath him. With the sudden shift in temperature, the weakness caused by the fire expands and the floor collapsing under him.
When the noise stops you hear over the coms "Well that was unpleasant"
Unity turns the corner of 8th and Grant, riding on an saurian robot. "Whoo! Sorry I'm late, guys. GPS is wonky and Mr. Chomps got lost."
"Mr. Chomps" does not resemble any previous incarnation of Raptor Bot, apparently being made out of some mismatched car parts and a broken manhole cover, but it's in the same ballpark. It steps in a sodden piece of ground and gets stuck. Unity simply hops off and lets the bot disintegrate.
"Hi, Doc! Good to see ya again! Wow, what a mess, huh? You got this one figured out yet?"
While she's talking and without waiting for a reply, Unity assembles a golem that resembles a centaur/ant with a dump truck for a back, with multiple limbs for assisting in multiple types of repair work. (Spawn Golem: 4 Robotics, 3 Creativity, 10 Status, mid=4 for a d8 Boost Bot.)
"Frost, you alright?" asks Vance over the coms. "Sounds like you may have had a bit of trouble over there." The Bunker suit walks along whatever is the clearest path, which just so happens to be along the sidewalk at the moment. Realizing how long it will take him to get to the freeway on foot, he spots a large and empty flatbed truck just finishing dropping off suplies to a work crew. "Excuse me," he asks the driver, the suit kneeling down a few feet away from the drivers seat. "If you don't mind sparing fifteen minutes, could I ask for a lift?"
(Overcome to persuade driver to let Bunker catch a ride: Intuition=1, Self Dicipline=5, Status=8; Mid=5)
"Wow, it's Bunker!" the worker exclaims happily, her head leaning out the window, throwing a thumb towards the back of the truck. "You need a lift, I'm your gal! Hop on! You saved my brother's whole unit overseas a few years ago!"
"Glad to be of assistance, ma'am. And thank you." The large metal suit steps onto the truck's flatbed, a loud-SNAP!-heard as it take's Bunker's full weight. Inside the large metal chassi Vance sighs. "Uh-oh..." the driver says. "I think you just killed the suspension."
"Sorry about that. Have your company send the repair bills to the Freedom Five. We'll cover them." With a nod the driver starts the engine up, driving carefully down the street.
"I'm not sure if this is a good thing or a bad thing, guys, but there's an impromptu Hooverville that's starting to form over by that big tree. Maybe good because it looks like it means we don't have many folks who are stuck inside damaged buildings, but maybe bad because there's a lot of them. Like, maybe as much as a tenth of the city's population, and that's really going to strain the capacity of Freedom Park to be able to shelter everybody and not run into sanitary issues." The Wraith starts running some analysis patterns on the Mega-Computers, trying to find a set of locations that might be able to break the gathering of the homeless up into manageable pieces and locations.
"I am just fine Tylor. Just decided to take the express elevator down a floor. Could have been worse it's not like it was a trap by Citizen Summer."
Getting up from under his pile of rubble a few superficial scrapes covering his multi-million dollar suit, Absolute Zero takes in his dark surroundings. The only light coming from the sunlight from the hole above Ryan. The piping covering the wall and the boiler off to one side shows he has fallen down into this building's basement. Ryan casts a quick glance at the stairs to see they are fire damaged and wouldn't hold the weight of a chihuahua let alone him and his suit.
"Paul about that assistance. I could do with a lift out of this basement. The fire has made getting out a bit of a challenge."
As Tachyon turns to greet her former intern, the manhole she was investigating clatters open, spilling out half a dozen mailbox sized metallic creatures. Four spindly legs scrabble on the tarmac as they turn unblinking red eyes toward the two heroes. Mandibles clack ominously as they advacne in waves of three.
On trio turns towards Tachyon. The one at hte back clamps its mandibles onto the manhole cover, cutting it in half and plugging the severed metal pieces into the robot ahead of it (Boost Roll 3 for +1). Aided by the influx of metal it opens a small port above its eye and fires a mesh of steel filaments at Tachyon, wrapping around one leg and making it harder to move (Hinder Roll 1+1 for boost and +1 for webbing for -1 penalty to Tachyon’s actions). The final member of the trio scuttles forward, raising its mandables and clamping down on her arm (Attack roll 6, 6 damage).
The others turn their attention to Unity. The first begins chewing on a nearby car to boost its fellow (Boost Roll 4 for +2). Its ally hurls the webbing, wrapping around Unity and Mr Chomps, binding them together as Mr Chomps falls to the ground in the mesh (Hinder Roll 6+2 Boost +1 webs for -3 penalty to Unity). The third advances, mandables biting into Unity’s shoulder (Attack Roll 5 for 5 damage).
Meanwhile, as Absolute Zero pulls himself out of the wreckage, he is confronted by a similar swarm emerging from the sewers. The first scrabbles over the fallen building, chewing brick and concrete to fuel the others (Boost Roll 1 for +1). Steel hard webbing flies out from the second robot to pin his arms to his sides (Hinder Roll 6 +1 for boost and 1 for webs, -3 to AZ). The final robot scuttles forward, sparks flying as it begins to chew on the armoured suit around Zero (Damage Roll 3, 3 damage).
As Legacy soars overhead, approaching his friend anoter trio boils out of the sewers, scrambling up the fre ravaged building towards him. Webbing flies out, round his arm as the robot tries to pull him towards the ground. (Boost Roll 2 for +1. Hinder Roll 3 for total of 5, -2 to Legacy) and the third robot leaps from the building, legs wrapping around Legacy’s chest (Damage roll 1, 1 damagej.
Meanwhile, meanhwile, across town, the truck under Bunker shudders as it rattles through the streets, the suspension complaining with every jolting pothole. Suddenly, the driver slams on the brakes. “What the hell are those?!” Bunker turns his head, sensors picking up three squat metl forms scrabbling towards him. One takes a bite out of the truck with its mandables, feeding the second at it scuttles over the cab. (Boost Roll 4 for +2). Webs spit out pinning one of the giant suit’s legs to the bed of the truck (Hinder Roll 4 for 7, -3 to Bunker). The third clambers onto the bed of thhe truck itself, mandables digging into the metal armour. (Damage Roll 3, 3 damage)
Finally, the Wraith turns from her mega computer as she hears a metallic clicking behind her, to find herself facing a trio of her own robotic terrors. The first tears up a power cable, sparks crackling as it plugs it into one of the others (Boost Roll 2 for +1). The other spider hurls a web towards the Wraith, tangling her in its mesh. (Hinder Roll 4 +1 for webs for 5, -2 to Wraith). Still dripping sparks and moving faster than expected on its still crackling legs, the last spider rushes forward to bite at the Wraith. (Damage Roll 2 +1 for Boost, 3 damage)
With a slight grinding of servos, Absolute Zero manages to get his hand free for an Ice Blast at the bot that managed to encase him in this infernal webbing.
(Attack using Freezer Burn: [URL=https://orokos.com/roll/589818]Damage:1(4-3) Self Harm:0(2-3)[/url])
The webbing had entangled some of the mechanics of the arm means only a sliver of energy shoots forth from Absolute Zero just glancing the webbing bot.