8. Mars

[Renekin Skywalker]

Miner Joe
[dice=20]
[dice=6]+4
[dice=20]

M2
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[dice=20]

M1
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Randomness
[dice=20]

OK, so, Miner Joe makes a couple of punch attempts on M2, just as Jessica and McKenna gang up on him. Poor guy.

Poorer Foreman, left all alone with M1, rolling in the dirt, fighting. But, we'll get back to that.



In terms of actions,

Miner Joe swings at M2, the former's fist connecting with the latter's stomach, doing all of 9 points of damage. Miner Joe didn't have time to celebrate his most palpable hit, since McKenna aimed poorly, sweeping Joe's feet out from under him. The biggish man of Miner Joe landed with a thump on the sand, kicking some up, Kurasawa-style.

This little slip-up allowed M2 to collect himself, dodging out of Jessica's way, and so her attack failed to connect.

Meanwhile, as mentioned above, Foreman and M1 were having at it in the sand. Foreman threw a punch which M1 failed to block. However, the connection of fist to target did no damage, since Dome didn't roll any.

M1 then moved to a new strategic path. With Jessica leaving them to fight M2, M1 and Foreman were basically alone, and the gun not far, on the ground. M1 decided to roll and aim for it. However, he paused almost as soon as he started, and Foreman could tell why. There was the hum of a heat gun a few feet from his head.

"Don't... Don't move!" Thing 2 said, aiming the gun at the pair of them. He didn't sound totally comfortable with the situation, but was trying. "We have your guns. You're our prisoners, now."

Mensk got the hint, too, and aimed at M2.

Foreman could feel M1 giving up the fight underneath him.[rand=47118223776116321910391264696734764228181119851789741122806491379]

[dakota]

with Mensk and Thing2 getting things under control, McKenna turned her attention to her screw up," I'm sorry Joe. Are you okay?"She offered a hand to help him up, then looked at the others," Is anyone hurt?"

[Dome]

Foreman pushes M1 away and climbs to his feet. He says, "stay down." He moves over to Thing 2 and says, "why don't you let me take this," motioning to the gun.

[Mierin]

Jessica looks over at McKenna and nods, "I'm ok." Looking over at Foreman, she surveys the scene, hoping someone will have a radio she can use to contact Tawfeek.

Perception: [dice=20][rand=4534315431910242419744933117253295152443062417606456096076382967]

[Renekin Skywalker]

Thing 2 nods, too carefully handing the tool over to Foreman.

Seeing his chance, Villain M1 clamoured to his feet and ran, disappearing up the tunnel. He was gone before even Mensk could get a shot off.

Villain M2 just waited. He didn't seem to see the point in running. By the look on his face, he'ld been through enough of these situations to not act scared. "You're not going to ice me too, are you?" he asked. "Forget the hypothermia, but you won't get passed the robots."

Miner Joe got back to his feet with a "I'm fine, thank-you" to McKenna. "He's got a point. If they scrambled before, they will again."

"So, where do we go?" Asks Thing 1.

Jessica, having saw M1 run, saw that the tunnel goes up, then down again, like over a hill.

And Foreman, having the weapon, and trained on how to handle them, generally, notices it's only got about half a charge left.

[Dome]

Foreman walks up to M2 and presses the weapon against his temple, "ice you? Na, but I'm fairly sure that at this distance, to kill you, I wouldn't need the damn ice," he says clearly angry. "Now you can explain yourself, or," he says placing the gun against the guy's leg, "I start with the legs."

[Renekin Skywalker]

"So, you're not cops," M2 sighed. " Warned them this might happen. Planet's just too small, now."

Hefting himself to a walking position, M2 headed up the hill. "All right. Might as well give the ten-cent tour before he Stormguards show up looking for you." GM: Stormguards are the Martian equivalent of the Coast Guard, so named for the significantly higher sand storm-to-coast ratio on Mars.

As the group crested the hill of the tunnel and saw be other side, a lot of things made sense for a lot of people:
Miner Joe knew an ore transfer point, when he saw one.
Jess knew a smuggling operation when she saw one.
Foreman knew loading set-up, when he saw one.
McKenna knew a government-made safety dome when she saw one.
and Mensk knew a First-generation geo-thermal cell-type ice-cracking/melting terra-forming generator when he saw one.

"oh! The ice conveyors were jury-rigged to go to the trucks instead of the generator." Thing 1 said. "The diversion must be what has cause it to under-perform."

"Yep, and those look like the trucks the repair contractors were supposed to use." Thing 2 said. "Hey must be pulling the ice off in some kind of smuggling operation."

M2 turned and looked at the others. "Not part of the core group, are they?" he asked, pointing at Things 1 and 2.

[dakota]

"Must be quite an operation to be able to afford all this stuff." McKenna said as they looked over the operation with the others. " Where are the rest of the people from the bus tour?" she asked M2, not acknowledging his question.

[Renekin Skywalker]

"Down in the cave." M2 answered. "You must have seen them. Just shut the robots down, and you will be able to free them. As for the set up... Most of it was grandfathered and jury-rigged off the existing infrastructure." The more he talked, the more experienced he sounded. As impressive as this semed to new eyes, for M2, it was all just work.

[Mierin]

Jess nods at M2 and turns to MJ, "Doctor, will you come with me please, so we can free them and you can administer any medical treatment they might need."

[dakota]

"Sure" Mckenna says, and follows Jessica, checking to make sure her medical kit didn't come open in the excitement.

[Renekin Skywalker]

Mensk (GMed) handed over the heat gun to Jessica. "Keep the settings low." He explained. "You'll get more use, of course, but it won't take much to make the ice breakable. I'm going to shut down the robots."

Which, of course, he did.

That left M2 with Foreman, Miner Joe and THings 1 and 2.

[Mierin]

Jessica nods at Mensk as she takes the heat gun and heads in the direction of where the other passengers on the tour bus were so she and MJ could free them.

[Dome]

"So you just attack every one that gets even a little close? If you had left us alone, we wouldn't have found your operation," Foreman says to M2.

"So where did your friend run off too?"

[Renekin Skywalker]

"Those trucks were supposed to leave during the storm. You were in the way of a shipment of ice. You do understand that, right?"M2 Answered. He simply shrugged to the second question.