[b]Dudekov:[/b]

“The fountain collapsed when there was nobody left to maintain the workforce anymore.” Dudekov just sounds bored. “Australia was picked for being the largest industrialized landmass that was still mostly empty desert, that was always the plan. Your brother was happy.” He says it and narrows his eyes. “Goat was happy, we relied on that. You’re projecting your own values onto him, if he wanted to stop there was nothing we could have done to prevent it. Nothing stopped him from taking breaks except that it was torture to him to try.” He shakes his head. “Christ, this is like dealing with the Catholics again.”

He thinks, but does not say: If I had the power to do what you say I did, then I would have been infinitely less stressed these last twenty years. Would have had to sit through a lot less meetings. 

“No. None of you could never be given the power Goat had voluntarily, knowingly.” He looks at Black with deep, visceral, personal hatred. “You’d know how much power you held, and you’d leverage it. You’d take over the station with it. As soon as you thought you could.”

The hatred flashes away to something… genuinely empathetic and apologetic? The whiplash is incredible. “I hated the bombs, actually. You can’t show distrust if you want loyalty! The American didn’t understand that.” He’s not saying that in asking for absolution, he’s saying it because he’s embarrassed for being associated with bad policy. 

[b]Chase Black:[/b]

The helicopter maintains steady pursuit. It looks like it doesn’t want to engage, not while they’ve realized Dudekov is on the boat. Except:

It fires a single, bright-blue missile. 

Pink, you can knock it out of the sky with that laser shot, and you might have to - it’s an EMP burst to kill the engines, and while you and the laser itself might be EMP shielded, there’s no way that jank connection of battery packs is. Your best case scenario is the shot wipes, your worst is those batteries actually explode from the overload. 

Difficulty 7 to knock a moving weapon out of the sky with an improvised, but aimed and prepared, laser weapon you’re familiar with. You can justify other skill spends to enhance your shot, but at least one of them’s going to have to be your point in shooting. 

“The river is a closed circuit, you have nowhere to run.” The helicopter broadcasts through directed speakers as it fires, trying not to disturb the other residents. “Return the hostage before we resort to lethal force.”