BAT Hunting

Log Title: BAT Hunting Characters: Chi, Cookie, Poise Location: Philadelphia, PA Date: August 26, 2018 TP: America Burning TP Summary: Gi Joe needs some mostly intact BATs to study. Cookie and Poise go get a couple. As logged by  Cookie Log session starting at 18:26:11 on Sunday, 26 August 2018.

Warehouse

What was once a plain, empty warehouse has been converted into a temporary living and work space. At one end of the building, a kitchenette has been installed with a combination countertop and breakfast bar for both cooking and eating at. A section of the warehouse has been curtained off and contains some cots and some storage bins. There's a bathroom with a stand-up shower. All the amenities of home, provided you don't mind giant fans running overhead.

In the middle of the vast open space are two large cages made of fine mesh fencing wrapped around some sturdy wood framing. The cages are big enough to contain cars, but certainly not sturdy enough to stop anybody determined to get out.

The warehouse is at the edge of Pittsburgh, a city currently controlled by Cobra and mostly patrolled by androids, with few humans to oversee the day to day so far from the active fighting that's been over on the East Coast. That's an opportunity for the Joes, one that Cookie wants to take advantage of: get a BAT or two out from under Cobra's noses so the techie boys can figure out a way to disable them en masse.

Mainframe has most of a robotics lab set up inside the two wire Faraday cages in the middle of the warehouse, all ready for guests. Cookie is dressed down in civilian clothes, carefully tucking away a few items for the hunting expedition.

"Thanks for coming along," the young woman says to Poise. "I didn't really want to try this without backup, but we're stretched so thin these days."

"Yeah. World-wide wars are the worst." Poise is sans Nebulan jumpsuit for her first time here. The Nebulan is a little shorter and stouter than most of the GI JOE ladies, but she's attractive enough. Wearing a pulled up hoodie marked in dayglo to declare 'GREEN SKIN', she wears those Earth eyeglasses that she's found to be pretty cool. "This isn't exactly my wheelhouse but I've got the optical suite from my rifle detatched and on me so that should help. I'm not sure how we're going to disable one of them though without my cycle. I don't want to just fire off Puitron rounds in the middle of the city here to wax some robot."

Cookie nods. "We don't want to destroy them, anyway. I figure we can try an electrical overload. Failing that, good old percussive force with a blunt object. Probably best if we can sneak up on them, though." She checks her equipment- a radio jammer, a taser, her concealed pistol, a small first aid kit just in case. It's a good thing her Carhartts have deep pockets. "Let's go find us a good target." She heads for the door.

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania - USA

Philadelphia is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the fifth-most populous city in the United States, with an estimated population of 1,567,442 and more than 6 million in the seventh-largest metropolitan statistical area, as of 2015. Philadelphia is the economic and cultural anchor of the Delaware Valley -- a region located in the Northeastern United States at the confluence of the Delaware and Schuylkill rivers with 7.2 million people residing in the eighth-largest combined statistical area in the United States.

Poise shrugs a little, "So you can stop them from transmitting but then it just comes down to bashing one down. That seems a bit quaint but okay. I'm owe you guys one. So I guess first up is finding a quarry....which means one that is working solo or we draw one out with bait."

In Cobra occupied territory, there's a BAT on practically every street corner, but warehouse districts have much fewer corners and a lot more shadows. It's not too hard to slip away from the Joe prepped warehouse- it's in a mostly unused section for a reason, and that includes fewer people around.

It takes only a few minutes to discover some BATs. Two of them sit within eyesight of each other (and presumably earshot and radio, as well). They're in stand-by at the moment, but they'll spring to life soon enough if anybody gets close enough.

The night breeze carries the sound of workers loading crates. If this is going to stay covert, it's going to have to be quick.

Cookie takes a deep breath and lets it out. "Well, there's our target. Let's make sure they don't bring a whole platoon down on us, shall we?" She takes out the jammer and makes sure to cover all frequencies.

GAME: Cookie PASSES a TECHNICAL roll of Very High difficulty.

Poise frowns as she looks over to Cookie. "Well....okay. I'll get its attention. We'll try to get them to split up then we...I don't know. shoot one of them." She's not too keen on the planning part too. "Hope you've got somewhere to stash it if this does work."

Poise motions towards the alley, gesturing that she'll run that direction after she draws attention.

Poise picks up a discarded TV box from the alley, runs forwards towards the targetted pair, then just heaves it at the two. In terms of damage, it is utterly harmless. In truth, she's hoping that such a low threat attack on her part is enough to get them to pursue but not open fire. "Hey Uglies!" She calls out in her high-pitch tone, "You all.....uh....SUCK METHANE!" With that, she starts to scramble away from the pair.

GAME: Poise FAILS a COURAGE roll of Very High difficulty.

GAME: Poise PASSES a COURAGE roll of Very High difficulty.

The jamming field goes up without a hitch, blanketing the area with an invisible barrier. Poise throws the box a little early and a breeze catches it, tumbling it away before it can hit the BAT, but fortunately the alien manages to get close enough to trigger the android's sensors.

The first BAT rumbles to life and proclaims, "Citizen! This city is under the control of Cobra. You are the property of Cobra. You are expected to obey any and all orders immediately and without question. Failure to comply will result in punishment. Curfew is eight o'clock p.m. Any citizen on the streets after this time will be subject to punishment. Mandatory broadcasts are at ten a.m. and six p.m. All citizens must observe these broadcasts and obey the orders given." It begins to walk after Poise, lifting one arm with an attached weapon... some kind of ray gun?

Cookie decides to just go for it and run up to the BAT with a taser. Sure, it's not the brightest idea, but sometimes a smash 'n' grab is what you need. She takes out the taser and waits until the first BAT follows Poise a little away from the other one before pelting after it to take her shot. She swallows an urge to yell as she charges. We're supposed to be discrete tonight.

GAME: Cookie PASSES a FIREPOWER roll of Above Average difficulty.

Poise blanches as the BAT draws some sort of raygun. "Jeepers." She starts to book it back to Cookie, around the corner, when she spots Cookie charging in. There's a bit of dismay on her face, Poise starts to protest but just rolls with it. She rolls to the side, attempting to stay clear of the BAT's fire, even as she unholsters her own sidearm in response.

GAME: Poise PASSES an AGILITY roll of Above Average difficulty.

For not having planned any of it out, the two women work together really well. The BAT has all its attention on Poise, unsuccessfully trying to target the Nebulan. Cookie gets a direct hit with her taser, and the android twitches as she empties a charge into it, making garbled noises, but it's not quite enough to bring the BAT down yet.

The second BAT seems oblivous to the first one's predicament, instead coming to life and giving its pre-programmed speech to some workers that got a little close. The workers back off, but the BAT scans the area before going back to its stand-by.

Cookie overhears the message and looks up just in time to see the BAT coming back this way. "Oh, crap," she mutters. This BAT isn't down yet and she's used up a full taser charge on it.

Blunt force it is! She grabs a stray half-brick and gives the BAT a nice whack on its back.

GAME: Cookie PASSES a STRENGTH roll of Average difficulty.

Poise 's gaze shifts from the first BAT to the second one. The second was returning to passive mode, meaning that they were in the clear for the moment. She considered her OpLo device she had patched together, to help overload robotic optical systems. "Let me bl...Okay hit it with construction material. That works." Poise draws the little handheld strobe, and turns it on from behind Cookie. Its a good disruptor for Earth-tech systems, making Cookie's job a little easier.

GAME: Poise PASSES a TECHNICAL roll of Above Average difficulty.

After the thorough beating its systems got and a firm whack from behind, the first BAT goes down. Poise's alien tech is more than a match for the terran design. The second BAT pauses as the strobe overloads its optical sensors.

"ERROR. VIDEO FEED DISABLED. ATTACK IN PROGRESS. DESTROY." It begins to flail about wildly, shooting blindly but mostly towards the human and the alien.

Cookie curses like, well, a sailor, ducking down to avoid the barely visible beams coming their way. "Damn robots!" she swears, and lobs her half-brick in its direction.

GAME: Cookie FAILS a DEXTERITY roll of Average difficulty.

Poise rolls her eyes, "Whoops! Didn't mean to get both of them. Well now I gotta shoot this one too before it hurts someone!" She draws her sidearm, a rather tall and narrow energy weapon. Poise clicks the optical feed on it, and links it to her glasses. Its effectively a smartgun, only allowing Poise to fire when there's a clear shot, and no friendlies/civilians in the line of fire.

She fires off two quick shots at the second BAT, sending tall blades of some foreign energy at the BAT.

GAME: Poise PASSES a FIREPOWER roll of Above Average difficulty.

Whatever the weapon is that Poise uses, it's very effective on BATs, it seems. A couple of precise shots drill right through the android and shuts it down. Now, the only problem is getting them back!

Cookie whews, going over to poke at the second bat with her foot. "I kind of wish I'd brought a truck."

Poise offers, "I can call my Cycle in" She smirks as she examines the downed BAT, "I just about don't have to do anything most of the time." She taps her forearm computer, bringing up that holographic display she uses. A few commands in some alien language later, "Its en route. Told it to avoid active scanning systems so it might be a bit. Well. I guess we did pretty good then. Its funny...I really wanted no part in my own planet's war and here I am helping out both Terrans and Cybertronians on occasion." She holsters her sidearm, "Part of me thinks I should go back I guess..."

Cookie grabs the second BAT and drags it over to the first one with some huffing and puffing, getting it farther away from any wandering eyes. "It's.. I've got things to fight for, here. Cobra's practically knocking on Norfolk's door, now, and, well, I don't want to see the tidewater area being treated this way." She waves a hand at the silent streets and the BATs. "I hate to see any area treated this way."

Poise nods silently, then after a moment agrees. "Yeah." Her mood brought low, Poise looks over the BATs, for a temporary way to keep them from self-repairing. "Well. Some of those wars can go on a real long time...." She says it, but she doesn't buy her own words. After a while, the cycle shows up, and with a bit of effort and improv, the two can return with a prize in hand.

Warehouse

What was once a plain, empty warehouse has been converted into a temporary living and work space. At one end of the building, a kitchenette has been installed with a combination countertop and breakfast bar for both cooking and eating at. A section of the warehouse has been curtained off and contains some cots and some storage bins. There's a bathroom with a stand-up shower. All the amenities of home, provided you don't mind giant fans running overhead.

In the middle of the vast open space are two large cages made of fine mesh fencing wrapped around some sturdy wood framing. The cages are big enough to contain cars, but certainly not sturdy enough to stop anybody determined to get out.

Cookie returns from her hunting expedition. She opens the large shipping door of the warehouse and hauls a BAT inside.. and then goes back out and brings in another, huffing and puffing as she shoves some VERY large amounts of metal around. She closes the door behind her and then starts the process of hauling first one and then the other into the wire cages in the center of the warehouse where Mainframe has his toys and tools ready and waiting.

Chi watches Cookie bring in the BATs and cheers!

Cookie looks up and grins. "Hey! Good to see you up and about!"

Chi says with a smile, "It's good to be up! How did you manage to get those things?!?

Cookie shuts the doors on the cages and turns off her radio jammer now that the androids are safely stowed. "Got some help from somebody with green skin," she says. "And not the Hulk. There's an alien named Poise that's been around and was willing to come along."

Chi says, "An alien? I'd like to meet her sometime. Now what do we do with them?"

Cookie grins. "Now, the techie boys get to go through their code while mechanics like me figure out the fastest way to take 'em apart. I'm hoping we can find some vulnerabilities that we can use to disable a bunch of 'em all at once next time Cobra wants a fight."

Chi approaches the cages and peers at the BATs closely. She says, "Chi flows through everything, so there should be a way for me to disrupt them like I do with humans."

Cookie huhs. "Well, we did manage to get a spare. If Mainframe doesn't mind, it'd be worth seeing what you could do to one."

Chi nods and says, "If you're sure you can spare it, I'd be happy to see."

Cookie nods. "I think I'm going to get some food going."

Log session ending at 20:47:24 on Sunday, 26 August 2018.