Cath

The Eye of the Needle (where Fantasy and Sci-fi collide)

Zey emerged from the airlock with several of her crew into the corridor that ran down the middle of the lower forward deck. It was even loud and more uncomfortable than usual. The lighting was harsh, it smelled of chemicals and freshly fabricated metal. The engine vibrations were more pronounced, and right now there were over thirty civilians crammed into it. Some were milling around, trying to find a way out or place to sit. Others had just plonked themselves down on the boxes of supplies along the walls or the one sofa, chattering worriedly or checked themselves for bullet holes.

Vigdis and Mr Chappel the surveyor contractor stumbled away through the crowd and Zey didn’t have one moment to negotiate her own way through before she heard someone shout "Captain!". She looked and found Duncan Feng addressing her.

"You're intact right?"

“I’m fine!” Zey shouted back over the din, she unclipped an earbud from her communicator and pushed it into one ear.

“Get these people strapped or tied down, we’re leaving!” She patted the Doctor on the shoulder and made to turn toward the bridge when her XO appeared from the crowd, talking about going into orbit. She was relieved to see her second-in-command, though she didn’t show it. Having him on the bridge meant she could focus on not killing every stowaway on board.

Everyone’s voice was getting progressively louder, so Zey leaned in and placed a hand on Mallory’s shoulder so she could shout in his ear. “Negative, it's too risky! We’ll move the Jo to a TGOC ground installation to decant these civilians! Get to the bridge and plot us a flight plan out of here. Fast and low as this fat lady can go! Tell Anselm we need to break this comms blackout and make contact with HQ yesterday, get them to get an escort over here and prepare their site in Iceland or Russia for us. go go go!”

Someone from the bridge wafted into her ear.“Captain, there are two unidentified men with guns in the shuttle bay. I’ve sealed off the airlock. Edwards is still inside.”

Zey immediately spun around and looked through the viewing ports. The airlock was empty, and through the viewing port on the other side she locked eyes with Tyreese Darnell who was hammering on the door from the other side. A bulky soldier in full gear stood behind him, pointing a long gun at someone out of view - Zey presumed it was Eva as she’d have been strapping her mech in.

The man pointed at the lock, then put a sat phone with a floppy antenna to his ear and mimed talking. Zey could feel movement in her legs as the Jotunheim began moving slowly out of the hangar bay.

“They’re shooting at the jets!” Zey heard someone else call over comms.

“Bring our kinetic shielding online, direct it behind us.” The Captain ordered, still staring through the viewing port at Darnell.

---

Vigdis had to request access to the Engineering airlock twice before a grase-smudged face appeared and studied her at the other end, eventually opening the first door. Once she’d stepped in, the shaven head and face recognisable as Danny Varen, FTL, spotted the gun on her back. After a moment, he opened the second door. He was dressed in black flip flops, navy shorts emblazoned with the Tamerlane logo, and a plate-carrier over his bare tattooed chest. As soon as there was clearance, Danny levelled a black tactical shotgun at her body.

“What’s poppin’ Vigdis? Put the gun down and put your hands up."

Danny looked off to his left. "Search her.”

A second engineer stepped round the corner, shotgun in hand, and went to pat her down.

“Hey! What's going on back there? I need help powering up the shields.” came the stentorian voice of the Jotunheim’s formidable lead engineer, Zhào Jiāyí. Though short in stature, everyone knew this harmless-looking middle aged lady had all of her larger and younger engineers firmly in check.

"Its Vigdis!" Danny called back, not taking his eyes off her.

"Well, stop copping a feel and tell her to get her butt over to the shield console!"

Danny looked a bit sheepish, then cracked a grin.

“Sorry Vigdis. Gotta be safe. Whats happening out there?”

---

“You’re bleeding!” The teenage boy sitting opposite Fret called out, pointing to the blood on Mr Chappel’s hand.

“Oh my god! Is there a doctor on board?” His mum called through the open conference room doorway.

The Eye of the Needle (where Fantasy and Sci-fi collide)

@Expendable Thank you for writing up your Human character! There are a couple of small mistakes in your gear hiders to fix, but apart from that everything checks out! You are accepted and may post

Hi, RPGuildians!

@Sherlocke Welcome to the Guild! What sort of games do you like?

The Eye of the Needle (where Fantasy and Sci-fi collide)

@vietmyke Thank you for writing up your character sheet! It all makes sense to me. You are accepted.

The Eye of the Needle (where Fantasy and Sci-fi collide)

“Ok. Levi?” Ezra asked. The merc tending to their downed colleague looked over briefly, not even flinching as a stray bullet whizzed overhead. The sound of gunfire was deafening - there was a concerted firefight happening somewhere nearby.

“Mobile.” Levi confirmed before looking back down. He wrenched the assault rifle out of his colleague’s hands and placed it in her lap. He pulled out her sidearm and placed it in her right hand. He slapped her face lightly and her mask’s optical modules slowly focused in on him.

“It's loaded - watch our six.”

The female operator slowly nodded from her prone position.

Levi gave a thumbs up to Ezra, walked round behind the woman and grabbed a handle on her suit behind her neck. He hauled her into a sitting position with her legs trailing out, and dragged her towards the front line.

“You still want to do this?” Ezra asked Darnell. He nodded immediately.

“If I don't get this done, we’re all dead anyway.”

“Ok. Stay on my shoulder - don’t lose contact in the smoke.”

Without waiting one second to confirm Tyreese understood, Ezra emerged from cover in attack mode and his team spread out around him. Darnell rushed to get behind him as they entered the smoke.

---

Vigdis’ flechettes were not particularly accurate, but they didn’t need to be. With fifty vicious points in each round, it was inevitable that some would find the target. At least three dozen flechettes whizzed into the expanding smoke cloud, ricocheted off the floor and sliced into the calves and lower thighs of the first soldier huddled behind the droid. They let out a primal scream and collapsed on the floor clutching their legs.

The droid didn’t stop. It unclipped a riot gun from its thigh holster and fired a bright blue baton round at Vigdis from round the side of its shield. The other people behind the droid just stepped over the writhing figure on the floor and continued. The third man spotted Eva and her mech among the last cargo crates. Knowing how much of a threat a machine like that could be, even without weapons, they immediately grasped for the grenade launcher on their back.

Eva put one of the final crates between her and the 40mm grenade that was fired towards her. The crate was shredded in the ground-shaking explosion and fell from her hands. She picked up another box and hurled it through the smoke at the advancing troops as Fret stumbled back up the ramp towards the ship. Facing being left behind if she delayed any more, Eva clanked up into the crowded shuttle bay as well.

Zey chucked Fret onto the floor in the corner of the shuttle bay, then moved out of the way as Eva’s mech packed into the claustrophobic space.

“Mr Chappel, Eva, you good?”

The cargo they’d managed to salvage had been tied down for the most part, but there still wasn’t a whole lot of manoeuvring room with the shuttle taking up most of the floor. The air stank of acrid smoke and gunpowder. Rounds had stopped pinging off the metal hull of the Jotunheim, but the sound carried on somewhere nearby.

“Vigdis, raise the ramp then get strapped in. Everyone should get strapped in somewhere! There are jump seats either side of the shuttle. Are they still out there? Don’t let anyone else aboard.” The civilians were bunging up the service corridors on the other side of the airlock, so it made sense to Zey for the last people inside to stay put and not add to the chaos.

“Bosko, I'm heading back to the bridge. Start the launch sequence!” Zey punched the airlock control panel and the doors whooshed open.

---

The riot droid was seven foot tall and built to hold the line against a crushing weight of people. Unfortunately though, the crate that Eva had thrown was full of heavy spare parts. It bounced off the deck once before sliding straight into the droid, knocking it clean over. The two gunmen behind it dived out of the way. It was when they got up that they realised that the people covering them from either side of the blast doors were still shooting, just not in the same direction. They were shooting at people behind them.

Then the gunfire stopped, and the noise from Jotunheim’s engines began increasing from a low rumble towards a crescendo.

The two masked killers looked at each other, then both turned and ran for the Jotunheim’s ramp, barely visible through the smoke.

It was too late. Bullets flew through the murky depths and into both their backs. The men collapsed dead on the floor. The Israeli operators and their benefactor stepped quietly and quickly through the smog. One of them dispatched the wounded man with flechettes in his legs with a bullet to the head. Another operator emptied a magazine into the riot droid as it struggled to its feet, sending it into critical failure.

“There it is!” Darnell shouted, breaking into a sprint; the soldiers around him reluctantly followed suit. As they approached they could hear the ramp’s mechanical parts working - it was nearly halfway up!

“Don’t shoot! We’re Tamerlane! Lower the ramp!” Darnell shouted over the din, waving his arms. The ramp didn’t stop. He turned to the mercs.

“Give me a leg up!”

Ezra had to make a split second decision. He needed to be aboard this ship, with or without his team.

“Ok, I'll go with you. While we’re inside, hold this position.” He directed the last part to his team, with a grim finality.

Without hesitation, the soldiers moved to hoist Darnell and Ezra up so they could grab onto the ramp as it moved towards 90 degrees. They tumbled into the Jotunheim’s shuttle bay with a loud crash, moments before it hissed shut.

“More of them are coming, get ready!” Levi ordered, peeking round the side of the ship. The three able-bodied mercenaries got ready to defend the hangar. The engine noise was overriding everything.

Hello everbody on this forum

Hey @Wordsmid, welcome to the Guild! SF + Fantasy collision roleplay open for you to take a look at here if it suits: roleplayerguild.com/topics/189457-the…

The Cradle

“You underestimate our ability to compact. Observe.” Searches Depths carefully took its AR glasses off and handed them to Gazes Fondly, followed by its lab coat. It then began tucking its appendages up around its main torso and retracting its neck. Its mobility suit began to shed outer layers of gel as the space was vacated - the offcuts sloshed over to join Gazes’ suit instead. After a minute or so, Searches Depths was about half the size; a glimmering slab of transparent flesh with just a hint of arms and legs.

“It is uncomfortable, but sustainable with practice. We don’t often contort for others, but this seems worth the effort.”

“What a disgusting parlor trick!” Chitnarit spat, clacking forwards a few paces.

“We will not sit back and play with robots while these smug bottom feeders galavant around on the surface, looking for mineral seams to exploit. We will use camouflage and go as our gods intended.”

The Eye of the Needle (where Fantasy and Sci-fi collide)

Sorry for not replying i'll get more free time soon to do so.

@Steel Legion

No problem at all, it happens to everyone

Eye of the Needle (where Sci-fi & Fantasy collide)

We have our first local map of Kanth-Amerek!



It is only a small part of a big continent, based on an initial scan by the Jotunheim as it enters the atmosphere. Most of the POIs are blurred out, apart from Ertiseda which the native characters have already visited. POIs will become clearer when the players get closer, or set up sensory arrays.

There is still time to join! Please join our discord if you have any questions: discord.gg/DDwhsgkn

The Eye of the Needle (where Fantasy and Sci-fi collide)

We have our first local map of Kanth-Amerek!



It is only a small part of a big continent, based on an initial scan by the Jotunheim as it enters the atmosphere. Most of the POIs are blurred out, apart from Ertiseda which the native characters have already visited. POIs will become clearer when the players get closer, or set up sensory arrays.

There is still time to join! Please join our discord if you have any questions: discord.gg/DDwhsgkn