Thevshi

The antibodies all fail their toughness saves and go down. Coiled Lightning is up!

Fox, E, give me reflex checks for Tiamat and Fleur for trying to land safely/on their feet as the gravity comes back.

Tiff, Traveller is up!

GM After checking briefly to ensure Paradigm had things well in hand with those two large pirates, the glowing Praetorian still hovering in the air turned her attention back to the other pirates preparing to launch a counterattack. Deciding the pirates armed with the heavier handheld weapons appeared to at least have the possibility of being a more serious thread, the Praetorian decided to focus on dealing with them first. She once again began focusing energy between her hands for a few moments, before launching another barrage of rapid blasts towards the gathering pirates. Once again dust and rock chips were kicked into the air, as multiple pirates were blasted off their feet and unconscious. As the dust settled however, there were still three pirates standing, although injured, and a forth who had been knocked off his feet, but was not unconscious.

As Paradigm held the much larger hand of one of the hulking pirates with only her left hand, she could feel the pirate's powerful muscles trying to pull it back free. But as strong as the pirate was, the deceptively small Naram was stronger still. She spotted a slight look of worry come over the pirate’s face as it realized it was not going to be able to easily overpower her. "You would do well to consider surrender." Paradigm stated to the pair of pirates that had moved in to engage her. To which she immediately followed up with a powerful upper cut with her free hand against the pirate who's fist she had stopped. WHAM The blow caught the pirate directly under the chin, the force of the blow echoing through the canyon. The pirate’s head snapped backward, as it was lifted off its feet and sent flying backward nearly thirty feet to crash back down on the rocky ground. Dust kicked up around it, and the pirate groaned slightly as it tried to push itself back upright, dazed, but not yet out of the fight.

GM Back in the cave, Huhunu led the rest of the stealth team forward, moving quickly through the narrow cave. It was not far before the narrow cave opened up into a larger space behind some outcropping rocks. Moving carefully ahead of the others, Huhunu found they were on a small ledge, overlooking a larger chamber below. Within that large chamber sat a larger spacecraft nearly the size of a cruiser. It had been augmented with welded on armor and weapons which were clearly not part of its original design. There were a pair of smaller spacecraft as well, and around them all were dozens of pirates, rushing about trying to prep the vessels for takeoff, or grabbing weapons to go out and fight the Praetorians out in the canyon. Out in the canyon, several of the pirates had started to get organized in trying to repulse the attacking Praetorians. A trio of pirates were directing others into position, some of which were armed with heavier weapons than the personal blasters most had been using thus far. The two hulking pirates that had withstood Paradigm's shockwave and the barrage of energy from the glowing Praetorian both rushed forward toward Paradigm. The pair were nearly as large as Seresk, towering above the young Naram as they attacked. Paradigm easily sidestepped the first attack, the pirate’s large fist smashing up rock and dust as it created a small crater. She then caught the second attack one with one hand, her smaller hand holding the much larger one tightly, stopping it altogether.

The two tough pirates will move over to engage Paradigm. They both end up missing. Paradigm will try to punch one in return, hitting with a 21. That is a DC 28 toughness save for the pirate: 19 which is bruised and dazed and knocked off its feet and about 25 feet back. The energy controlling Praetorian will use her cone attack once again, this time catching 8 regular pirates and 3 elite pirates in the blast. The elite pirates presence means she needs to make an attack roll: 22, which is good enough to hit them all. The average pirates make toughness saves: all miss but one who gets and natural 20, and thus only takes a bruise. The Elite pirates roll: 20, 25, 23, which means all three are bruised, one also being dazed and knocked off his feet.

Like the other gathered Praetorians, Paradigm had followed the briefing intently, studying the twelve criminals closely as they were presented by Commander E'tten. When the primary briefing ended and various Praetorians began asking questions, the Naram continued to follow the discussions, while leaning off to one side for a quiet conversation with Elite. She then began to select the Praetorians who would be part of this mission team, pressing keys on the console in front of her to organize the mission team in the computer system. While the number of opposition they could face easily warranted taking the entire team, Paradigm did not want to commit all of them to this mission, particularly if something were to arise that could require some of their assistance while they were gone. As Kharag received an answer to his question, the Naram spoke up as well. "Before we start trying to determine who we might wish to face in personal combat Kharag, let us not forget that they might not be so accommodating as to accept any such challenge. I rather expect that the majority of these individuals will use whatever advantages they can obtain in facing us."

GM Commander E'tten turned to regard Kharag for a brief moment before he replied. "The answer to that rather depends on how you define 'most dangerous' Praetorian. If you are meaning in terms of raw power, then I believe it would be Adiri, with Cor likely next." The Lor officer replied, bringing the images of the two criminals back around toward the side Kharag was standing on. "If you are referring to skill and finesse, then Sullek and Procyus are rather closely matched, with Rux not far behind." He then added, bringing the images of those three individuals around as well. "Of course, these answers assume you are inquiring about melee combatants." "Has there been any distress calls from either the colony or mining facilities in the sector?" Seresk asked. "No." The commander responded, pausing a moment before adding, "but the long range comm relays in this region suffered heavy damage during the incursion, so communications with much of the sector has been disrupted."

GM Up in the sky, Communion needle fighters continue to dart about, trading fire with the allied fighter aircraft and the two glowing heroines flying close together. A group of four needle fighters level out and open fire on Stella and Young Britannia. Flashes of green energy streak around the two young women, as one of the Communion fighters manages to score a hit on Young Britannia. Stella sends a blast of light back in return, managing to blast one of the four out of the sky as the other three streak by. As several more needle fighters dive down towards the area around the UNISON building, one opens fire on Ulysses as it descends. The blasts of green energy land off to one side of the steam powered hero, blasting small craters in the ground. The fighter, along with several others, then crashed down to the surface, its sides opening to release the antibodies contained within.

Round Four 23 Needle Fighters 22 Stella d'Argento (unharmed) 18 Foreshadow (bruised, 1 HP) 16 Coiled Lighting (bruised, 1 HP) 16 Young Britannia (2 HP) 13 Professor Chiron (bruised) 11 Synapse (unharmed, fatigued, 3 HP) 7 Antibodies 1 Ulysses (bruised 2, 0 HP) Needle fighters continue to fire on Stella and YB: 11, 19, 28 and 18, so one hit on YB (luckily by a minion, so not critical). DC 25 toughness save for YB. One of the needle fighters diving toward the ground fires at Ulysses on the way down: missing with a 14. Stella returns fire on one of the fighters that shot at her, taking 10 to hit. It misses its toughness save and explodes. Foreshadow is up!

Yep, still minions. But the last three pirates are more spread out now, so Kharag can only go after one. And that one completely fails his toughness save and goes down.

Nah, no need for an IC post, Frost is able to get there without too much issue from other antibodies. In the reactor he finds about sixteen antibodies crawling all over the place. They have ripped open numerous access panels and been rewiring things, they have also set up something that looks like a portal. And just as he arrives, the fire back up the reactor...

Tsunami gets a 22.

Tsunami had little time to feel much disappointment over the sharkman failing to heed her warning, as she easily dodged the improvised projectile from another of the creatures. She felt a slight feeling of worry as one of the sharkmen bit Thaelia, but the Atlantean teen was very durable, and remained on her feet even as the sharkman remained its bite. Focusing on another of their opponents as she continued to circle the vessel on her water spout, the Asian teen sent a blast of water toward another of the sharkmen. The twisting coils of water slammed into the creature with tremendous force, but it remained on its feet, appearing to suffer only minor damage from the powerful blast.

GM "Officer K'zan is correct Praetorian. Each of these particular criminals are among the worst the Republic has had in custody." Commander E'tten stated in response to Mater Vyrdna's question. "We could spend the better part of a standard rotation detailing the various crimes these particular twelve criminals are responsible for. We of course have all that information available for you to review." The Lor officer then turned to Dragonid as he posed his questions. "There have been no known reports of any of these twelve, or the other prisoners aboard their transport Praetorian. However, we do have some information which can help to at least narrow the initial search." The sector of space that had been sitting in the center of the holodisplay enlarged slightly, as the images of the twelve criminals reduced slightly in size and dropped down a bit lower to provide an unobstructed view of the star chart. A red dot appeared in the image, toward the center of the map. "This is the last known location of the Sar-lan before its identification beacon went offline. Needless to say, disabling that beacon would have been a simple matter for X'madi if she and the others had seized control of the vessel." Another dot appeared toward an outer edge of the map, this one green in color. "This is a suspected sighting of the Sar-lan made by a long range scoutship one standard rotation ago. It is toward one of the outer edges of the Republic bordering the contested space that sits between the Republic, the Unity and what remains of the Khanate. The nearest systems contain a small number of habitable worlds, with only one currently colonized by the Republic. There are also two deep space mining facilities in asteroid belts in the region."

Okay, that is easy enough, I will call that a targeted touch area attack (based on the length of the needle fighter). So I will say he can catch the four antibodies that just exited the fighter in the sweep. They all fail their toughness saves and go down.

GM With one of the antibodies having moved up to attack him, Professor Chiron turned his attention away from the needle fighters and toward the immediate threat. The Greek hero delivered a solid blow with one of his gauntlet covered hands, smashing in the chest of the cybernetic threat and sending it flying backward to the ground. The UNISON soldiers Coiled Lighting had assisted gave him an appreciative nod, as one resumed firing on another antibody emerging from a downed needle fighter, while another started pulling an injured comrade away from the front line. But even as the heroes managed to clear their immediate area of Communion, more of the antibodies swarmed forward, as Synapse's mental voice came over the psychic link she had reestablished. We have got some of these buggers in the building. I am going to do my best to keep track of their movement, right now they are on the upper floors which are deserted. Three antibodies rushed towards Foreshadow, the first two moving right after each other, their slashing claws aimed and causing the agile hero to move into the path of the third's attack. But though Foreshadow seemed to be moving directly into the path of that attack, the precognitive hero knew exactly what was going on, and easily deflected the last attack with one of his escrima. A pair of antibodies closed with Coiled Lightning, the first missing with a slash. But the second managed to score a hit, the claw biting into Coiled Lightning's left thigh. On the other side of the building, another antibody closed with Professor Chiron, but the Greek hero managed to block the antibody's attack. Ulysses similarly found himself faced once again with a pair of antibodies, but managed to avoided their claws that crackled with green energy, although one just narrowly.

Professor Chiron turns his attention to the antibody that came over to attack him, taking 10 to hit it. The antibody fails its toughness save and goes down. More antibodies move forward towards the various heroes. A trio move toward Foreshadow, two trying to aid the other: both succeeding, giving the second +4 to hit: it still misses with a 15. Two move up to attack Coiled Lightning getting a 14 and 23, so 1 hit (DC 23 toughness save). Another moves up to attack Professor Chiron: missing with a 10. A pair move up to Ulysses: both missing. Ulysses is up!

So...where you trying to possible score a crit Fox? They are minions, so you could have just taken 10.

Okay, the pirates roll their reflex saves: 5, 21, 15, 5, so one makes it, halving the effect. Their toughness saves (the second one again the one who made his reflex save): 18, 25, 22, 24, they make some good rolls and only one goes down. Kharag is up!

Yeah, Tsunami has not worked with any of the others in the past.

GM Commander E'tten cleared his throat as he turned to regard Traveller at her question. "Well, under ordinary circumstances, local law enforcement would be able to handle an escape of this many prisoners with some support from the Star Navy. Unfortunately, our law enforcement forces suffered losses during the incursion as well and are still being brought back up to normal standards." "But there are additional circumstances surrounding one of the lost ships that make this a far more dangerous problem, as I will explain when the briefing begins." It did not take long for the Praetorians to gather in the large room, forming a circle around the holodisplay in the center of the room and those gathered around it. "Praetorians," Paradigm began once the entire team was present, "may I introduce Commander E'tten and Aya K'zan here on behalf of the Lor Republic. The Republic has requested our assistance in a matter and Commander E’tten will be briefing us on the details." "Thank you Praetorian Val-Ren." The commander stated as he looked about at the gathered Praetorians. "As we were just explaining to your Imperatrix and her advisors, during the Communion incursion, several Republic planets were evacuated ahead of the Communion’s advance. These evacuations included a number of prisons. A handful of the transports carrying prisoners failed to reach their intended destinations, but the threat of the Communion did not allow for investigation into their fate and most were assumed lost to the void." "Recently, some of the prisoners aboard one of the transports have resurfaced, once again working with the criminal organizations they had previously affiliated with. We now wish to try to track down more of the lost transports." The Lor activated the holodisplay, images of a section of Republic space appearing in the center of the space above the display as smaller images of a number of transports appeared around the center image. "The situation is made more dangerous due to the presence of twelve individuals aboard one of the transports." The commander continued as one of the transports displayed enlarged slightly. "This is the Sar-lan, the transport that was carrying these twelve individuals as well as couple hundred additional prisoners from one of the Republics maximum security facilities. Each of them possess extraordinary abilities, in some cases superior examples of traits characteristic of their species, or in others the result of some sort of unusual incident. All were extremely difficult to capture in the initial instance, together they are a truly formidable force." The commander pressed a few keys on the holodisplay controls and an image of a female humanoid appeared among the other holoimages. She vaguely resembled a Lor or Terran, with dark brown hair and a light complexion. "This is Adiri, a Geox. Like most of her species, she is very strong and durable, but is able to surround herself with rock like armor, her strength and durability increasing significantly. She has proven able to shrug off turbolaser fire from Republic cruisers with little effect." Another figure appeared in another section of the area above the holodisplay, this one a male humanoid. He had dark black hair and very thin, sharp features. "This is Amikai, like most of his species, he is able to control localized weather conditions. However his abilities are far more powerful, allowing him to generate powerful blasts of electricity, destructive windstorms, and other weather effects." A third figure was brought up by the Lor officer. This one was a tall, wiry figure, appearing to stand nearly eight feet tall. The figure appeared to be male, hairless with a light grey flesh tone. Its facial features were rather square and angular, a small pair of sharp teeth jutting out of its mouth from the lower jaw. A number of intricate designs appeared to be tattooed on its head and other parts of its body in red ink. "This subject is Cor, a Gwahlt. Like most of his race, he is tall, stronger than average, and very durable. But in addition, he is able to generate psychokentic energy, which he has been known to use to form various melee weapons, making him even more dangerous in hand-to-hand combat, or to create barriers or walls to trap opponents." The next figure was a male humanoid as well, average height, with light blue skin, dressed in pants with a long robe-like coat that was open in the front leaving his bare chest exposed. On the figures chest was a dark purple tattoo vaguely in the shape of an eye. The subject had long blond hair and a moustache, with bright blue eyes. "This Futianni is known as Pheydyn." Commander E'tten stated. "Like most of his race, he has psychic powers similar to a Lor Mentat. However, he is considerably more powerful than most Mentats, with the ability to project powerful blasts of psychic energy, control the emotions of others or even directly seize control over their minds." Yet another figure appeared as the previously displayed figures shifted to make room for the newcomer. This one was a tall, thin, insectoid figure, with four long thin arms and dark green and grey chitin covering its body. "This is Procyus, a Drixxini. Like most of his race, he is far more durable that he would appear. He also is able to move at blinding speed, near achieving hypersonic velocity. His incredible speed and multiple arms allow for him to deliver ferocious attacks in rapid succession." "The sixth subject on the list is Rux, a Mekirri, a race known for enhancing themselves with cybernetics." The commander continued, as a new image appeared. This one was short, vaguely feminine in form, but appeared almost completely robotic, with gold and black metal covering all visible parts of its body. "She has the ability to create rifts in space through which she can teleport, is quite durable and can form plasma blades from her robotic hands." "This is Sai'x." The commander stated as an image of a female humanoid came up. She was of average height, with short white hair. Her features were thin, and she had pointed ears. Her skin was a dull black and her eyes were almost a glowing white. A pair of black, hawklike wings extended from her back. "In addition to being able to fly, she is able to generate powerful sonic blasts that are capable of shattering even some of the strongest composite metals." The next image was of a short, stocky humanoid with only three thick fingers and toes on his hands and feet. "Here we have Santri, a Nai-Koni capable of generated a personal forcefield and blasts of energy which can break matter down on a subatomic level, thus disintegrating targets." Another male humanoid figure then appeared, this one average height, with light grey hair and generally Lor/Terran features. Both of his arms were grey/silver metal, clearly robotic. "This is Sullek, another Mekirri, although one with far less cybernetic enhancement than Rux. Despite that, his cybernetic limbs make him far stronger and quicker when compared with the average Lor. He is also an extremely well trained combatant, preferring melee weapons." The next image was one that was familiar to Corna, a reptilian humanoid with yellow and green scales and a long snake like tongue. The Lor officer had encountered the reptilian criminal when he had been working with the Maw. "This is Valris." Commander E'tten stated. "While able to move at impressive speeds, he is not nearly as fast as Procyus. His bite is capable of causing paralysis." All of the original Praetorians recognized the race of the next figure to appear, a feline F'terrix with dark brown fur. The image brought back memories of Raark, the senior Praetorian who had been one of those who had overseen their integration into the order and directed them on several of their earliest missions. "This is Zadvian, like most of his race he is fast, agile and has incredibly sharp claws. He also has enhanced senses of hearing and smell." The commander paused a moment before he continued, calling up the final image. "And this brings us to our last subject. X'madi." The image was of a female humanoid, very attractive by Lor/Terran standards, with green hair and deep lavender eyes. "A former Mentat, she is a powerful telekentic, and also a genius. Given her superior intelligence and considerable charisma, we suspect she is likely the leader of the escapees."

I will get to what Huhunu and the others come across soon, but for now, Dragonid is up!

The first antibody fails its toughness save, so it goes down. You can take down on the second, it also fails its save.