Hot Pursuit
Oct. 28th, 2007 11:57 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
terryclothFriday night we had a session of the Golden Compass themed shadake game. Having done all they'd been ordered to do in... er... that city... that's in the middle of scotland... the Order headed north to talk to some bears about magic guns.
But first, they had to get out of the city. During the week they'd been resting and repairing, the cordon around the city had been dropped -- it'd been ordered by the 'mayor', probably to demoralize people. So in theory, you could just walk out. It'd be a long walk, though, and all the major roads were closed, by enemy forces -- the military checkpoints hadn't held.
Wren's plan was to camoflauge Lord Wright's orphaned airship and sneak out by flying close to the ground, hoping not to be spotted by enemy patrols. The kids didn't have any better ideas, so they did that.
It didn't work. The intention craft they ran into couldn't *see* them (they dropped down to hide among some bushes when Eric spotted it cresting a hill), but it seemed to sort of know where they were, and set a huge area on fire with a previously unrevealed mode of its beam weapon. The airship pilot panicked (or perhaps, 'realized they would explode if they stayed in the middle of the fire') and lifted back off to make a run for it, jinking and dodging wildly as the enemy fired at them, until eventually he ran out of maneuvers and more or less crashed, although it was more of a very rough, powered landing -- they *were* in a blimp.
They'd gotten out of the fire, so it wasn't suicide to leave the ship and run for it, although they half expected the intention craft to just set another huge area on fire with them in it this time. Instead, it made a wall of fire around the tree where they were hiding -- perhaps to keep them prisoner?
Before it could do anything like broadcast demands for surrender (or, you know, blow them all up now that they were trapped inside a ring of fire) Eric decided to try his anti-spirit beam on the pilot. People had spirits, right? This didn't kill the pilot, but the reaction was immediate -- he started trying to kill them all.
One of the security guards with them was blown up when the tree exploded (everyone else managed to dive out of the way in time), two more were incinerated when they tried to surrender. But eventually Eric got another shot off that hit, and took out the pilot's spirit. The intention craft settled to the ground, and Jana pried open the hatch in the bottom.
They decided that flying in one of the enemy's ships would (a) be faster, and (b) let them pretend to be on the other side, to get through the rest of the blockade. Eric and Taegan knew how to pilot intention craft, but the airship pilot ws dead, so they tied a line to the airship and moved most of the stuff they cared about (which didn't include the prisoner -- the pilot wasn't *dead* dead -- or the remaining guards) into a box which they carried in the craft's legs.
The flaw in the plan came when the other intention craft radioed in to ask how the airship interception had gone. "Did you get them, Jeff?" "Um... yeah, everything fine. *click* I don't think they believed us. I also think I might have only shut off the speaker, and not whatever it is that lets them hear what we're saying."
So they cut the airship loose, and took off at top speed. They outran *most* of the enemies, but one managed to catch up. It tried to grapple their ship with the legs, but Taegan didn't let it, and Jana flew outside, smashed through the unreasonably tough windshield (again), and took out the pilot. Now they had *two*! Although without a windshield one of them was very unpleasant to drive. Especially in arctic territory.
But they'd been heading for the arctic, so they had winter clothing. And the armor on the intention craft was strong enough to resist all the bullets that got fired at them when they reached the trading post, until they could get the loudspeaker working and convince them to stand down. The bears at the post were able to verify that Wren was really who he said he was, and the humans there knew him.
Unfortunately, the sort of work they wanted done (along with the other things they wanted to do, like learn bearish blacksmithing techniques or apparently medicine?) wasn't done at the trading post, so one of the bears went to ask the bear king if he'd grant them an audience.
"Make sure to tell them that we're acting on behalf of Lord Asriel's daughter," Wren told them.
"What?!" Eric asked.
"She bailed out the Order when we were nearly bankrupt. Don't worry, she's nothing like her father, she hates portals more than anyone. I think she might feel guilty about what he did, maybe?"
"And when were you going to tell us this?"
"It's not a name that usually makes any sense to mention," Wren explained, "Neither Lord Asriel nor his daughter have a very good reputation in the church. But both of them were close allies of the bears, so I think Iofur will let us speak to him."
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But first, they had to get out of the city. During the week they'd been resting and repairing, the cordon around the city had been dropped -- it'd been ordered by the 'mayor', probably to demoralize people. So in theory, you could just walk out. It'd be a long walk, though, and all the major roads were closed, by enemy forces -- the military checkpoints hadn't held.
Wren's plan was to camoflauge Lord Wright's orphaned airship and sneak out by flying close to the ground, hoping not to be spotted by enemy patrols. The kids didn't have any better ideas, so they did that.
It didn't work. The intention craft they ran into couldn't *see* them (they dropped down to hide among some bushes when Eric spotted it cresting a hill), but it seemed to sort of know where they were, and set a huge area on fire with a previously unrevealed mode of its beam weapon. The airship pilot panicked (or perhaps, 'realized they would explode if they stayed in the middle of the fire') and lifted back off to make a run for it, jinking and dodging wildly as the enemy fired at them, until eventually he ran out of maneuvers and more or less crashed, although it was more of a very rough, powered landing -- they *were* in a blimp.
They'd gotten out of the fire, so it wasn't suicide to leave the ship and run for it, although they half expected the intention craft to just set another huge area on fire with them in it this time. Instead, it made a wall of fire around the tree where they were hiding -- perhaps to keep them prisoner?
Before it could do anything like broadcast demands for surrender (or, you know, blow them all up now that they were trapped inside a ring of fire) Eric decided to try his anti-spirit beam on the pilot. People had spirits, right? This didn't kill the pilot, but the reaction was immediate -- he started trying to kill them all.
One of the security guards with them was blown up when the tree exploded (everyone else managed to dive out of the way in time), two more were incinerated when they tried to surrender. But eventually Eric got another shot off that hit, and took out the pilot's spirit. The intention craft settled to the ground, and Jana pried open the hatch in the bottom.
They decided that flying in one of the enemy's ships would (a) be faster, and (b) let them pretend to be on the other side, to get through the rest of the blockade. Eric and Taegan knew how to pilot intention craft, but the airship pilot ws dead, so they tied a line to the airship and moved most of the stuff they cared about (which didn't include the prisoner -- the pilot wasn't *dead* dead -- or the remaining guards) into a box which they carried in the craft's legs.
The flaw in the plan came when the other intention craft radioed in to ask how the airship interception had gone. "Did you get them, Jeff?" "Um... yeah, everything fine. *click* I don't think they believed us. I also think I might have only shut off the speaker, and not whatever it is that lets them hear what we're saying."
So they cut the airship loose, and took off at top speed. They outran *most* of the enemies, but one managed to catch up. It tried to grapple their ship with the legs, but Taegan didn't let it, and Jana flew outside, smashed through the unreasonably tough windshield (again), and took out the pilot. Now they had *two*! Although without a windshield one of them was very unpleasant to drive. Especially in arctic territory.
But they'd been heading for the arctic, so they had winter clothing. And the armor on the intention craft was strong enough to resist all the bullets that got fired at them when they reached the trading post, until they could get the loudspeaker working and convince them to stand down. The bears at the post were able to verify that Wren was really who he said he was, and the humans there knew him.
Unfortunately, the sort of work they wanted done (along with the other things they wanted to do, like learn bearish blacksmithing techniques or apparently medicine?) wasn't done at the trading post, so one of the bears went to ask the bear king if he'd grant them an audience.
"Make sure to tell them that we're acting on behalf of Lord Asriel's daughter," Wren told them.
"What?!" Eric asked.
"She bailed out the Order when we were nearly bankrupt. Don't worry, she's nothing like her father, she hates portals more than anyone. I think she might feel guilty about what he did, maybe?"
"And when were you going to tell us this?"
"It's not a name that usually makes any sense to mention," Wren explained, "Neither Lord Asriel nor his daughter have a very good reputation in the church. But both of them were close allies of the bears, so I think Iofur will let us speak to him."
last session | next session
