(set: $lives to 3)(set: $endingDeath = "You fall on the floor with your conciousness slowly slipping. Your eyes tunnel vision and become cloudy with a black fog, as your body feels cold. You try to reach for your emergency medical supplies, but your arm doesn't listen...
You can almost hear something... Until the black fog engulfs your vision.
You died.")The civil war on the //Azorakian Galactic Empire//, lead by //the Coalition//.
The war has been going on for a few years. It has been detrimental to the galactic economy, and has only become more and more lethal. It was started by the newly founded Coalition, a faction mainly led by //Humans//, claiming to protect the survival of their species against the //Azorakians//.
The //Azorakians// are an alien species, from the planet //Azorak//, the Imperial Capital planet.
The Coalition has been looking for manpower ever since its creation, and they often did this by hiring mercenaries, just like you. They have invited you to a top secret meeting, at one of their pseudo military bases, located above a gas giant on the very edge of the galaxy.
<img src="https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/602882347544608768/666391738952450089/GasPlanet.png" width="1100">
You land on the platform to the base. Standing outside your ship, you take a look around at the many floating platforms.
[[Enter the meeting]]You're sitting down at a table. The faction known as //the Coalition// is explaining a very important mission to you. //The Azorakian empire// is in the posession of the plans for a deadly super weapon, which would be capable of destroying entire planets. These plans are currently under transport from the rim into the core.
You are a Mercenary, a human, like //them//, you work jobs all over the galaxy for money, anything from assassinations to retrievals. Todays case seems to be the latter.
You're sitting down at a table with high ranking officers of //the Coalition//, about to explain a very important mission. They start off by asking about your proficiencies, to determine if you are suitable for the job.
(link: "You are proficiently skilled in the arts of speed and swiftness.")
[
(set: $class = "Light")
(go-to: "Mission Assignment")
]
(link: "You are a veteran at work with heavy armour and high level weaponry.")
[
(set: $class = "Heavy")
(go-to: "Mission Assignment")
](if: $class is "Light")[<img src="https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/602882347544608768/666391740575514635/Runner.png" width="1100">](if: $class is "Heavy")[<img src="https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/602882347544608768/666391738432225293/Gunner.png" width="1100">]
(if: $class is "Light")[You talk about your speed and swiftness, and assure them you can get the job done, as you always do.](if: $class is "Heavy")[You talk about your heavy armour, and how deflective it is, along with your new rifle that's one of the only weapons that can reliably penetrate such an armour on the first shot.]
The officers find you suitable, and begin explaining the job to you. //The Azorakian empire// is in the posession of the plans for a deadly super weapon, which would be capable of destroying entire planets. These plans are currently under transport from the rim into the core onboard a large Dreadnought.
They ask you to steal these plans, so that //the Coalition// will be able to destroy it.
[[Accept the job]]
[[Decline]]You take the job, and (if: $class is "Heavy")[slowly rise up from the chair,] (if: $class is "Light")[swiftly get out of the chair,] making your way to your ship.
You're sitting in the cockpit, ready to head off to start the mission. The mission sounds quite dangerous, and you are slightly unnerved. Nevertheless, you consider your options.
You know that the plans are aboard a ship travelling from somewhere in the rim. However without more information, you will have to improvise a way to find the ship.
[[Fly to a nearby imperial outpost where you can ask]]
[[Fly around blindly]]
[[Procrastinate]]You respectfully decline the mission before heading back to your ship.
(link: "Start booting up your ship")
[
(go-to: "Coalition boarding")
]You indecisively decide not to begin your travels, instead you decide to boot up your terminal and open a hidden folder with all of your games. Which do you decide to play?
(link: "Minecraft")[ (go-to: "Coalition boarding") ]
(link: "Fortnite")[ (go-to: "Coalition boarding") ]
(link: "Grand Theft Auto")[ (go-to: "Coalition boarding") ]
(link: "Pubg")[ (go-to: "Coalition boarding") ]
(link: "Red Dead Redemption 2")[ (go-to: "Coalition boarding") ]
(link: "The Witcher")[ (go-to: "Coalition boarding") ]
(link: "Overwatch")[ (go-to: "Coalition boarding") ]
(link: "Dark Souls")[ (go-to: "Coalition boarding") ]
(link: "The Legend of Zelda")[ (go-to: "Coalition boarding") ]
(link: "League of Legends")[ (go-to: "Coalition boarding") ]
(link: "Skyrim")[ (go-to: "Coalition boarding") ]
(link: "World of Warcraft")[ (go-to: "Coalition boarding") ]
(link: "Dota 2")[ (go-to: "Coalition boarding") ]
(link: "Hearthstone")[ (go-to: "Coalition boarding") ]
(link: "Bloodborne")[ (go-to: "Coalition boarding") ]
(link: "Destiny")[ (go-to: "Coalition boarding") ]
(link: "Apex Legends")[ (go-to: "Coalition boarding") ]
(link: "Call of Duty")[ (go-to: "Coalition boarding") ]
(link: "Battlefield")[ (go-to: "Coalition boarding") ]
(link: "Forza Horizon")[ (go-to: "Coalition boarding") ]
(link: "Star Wars Battlefront 2")[ (go-to: "Coalition boarding") ]
(link: "Counter Strike: Global Defensive")[ (go-to: "Coalition boarding") ]
(link: "Sekiro")[ (go-to: "Coalition boarding") ]
(link: "Spelunky")[ (go-to: "Coalition boarding") ]
(link: "Tetris")[ (go-to: "Coalition boarding") ]
(link: "Pong")[ (go-to: "Coalition boarding") ]
(link: "Pacman")[ (go-to: "Coalition boarding") ]
(link: "Civilization")[ (go-to: "Coalition boarding") ]
(link: "Rainbow Six Siege")[ (go-to: "Coalition boarding") ]
(link: "Metal Gear")[ (go-to: "Coalition boarding") ]
(link: "Assassins Creed")[ (go-to: "Coalition boarding") ]
(link: "Cuphead")[ (go-to: "Coalition boarding") ]
(link: "Touhou")[ (go-to: "Coalition boarding") ]
(link: "Osu")[ (go-to: "Coalition boarding") ]
(link: "Stardew Valley")[ (go-to: "Coalition boarding") ]A security crew somehow manage to forcefully enter your ship from the outside, and you hear them making their way to the cockpit, where you will have no escape. What do you do?
(if: $class is "Light")[
[[Run past them]]
[[Throw a concussion grenade]]]
(if: $class is "Heavy")[ [[Fight them directly]] ]You mentally prepare to run past them, your reflexes were trained for this moment... You instantly jolt as you see just a glimpse of armour turn the corner, knocking the gun out of the first guy before using the walls and the roof to swfitly make your way past each one of them with such speed that they barely get to fire a shot before you're out of your ship again.
The alarm in the station goes off, and a heavy reinforced door shuts off way towards the meeting room. The only other way leads to the officers' docked ship.
Your decision making is cut short by the sound of another approaching security crew from behind.
[[Continue onto the station]]You open fire as soon as one of the security guards turn the corner, gunning all of them down ruthlessly. The small amount of plasma they manage to shoot at you barely scathe your armour.
[[Continue onto the station]]
[[Flee the station with your ship]]The ship door is locked, and while you scramble to figure out how to unlock it with the terminal, the security behind you manage to open fire and eventually kill you before you can close the gap.
//(print: $endingDeath)//(set: $event to (random: 0, 2))
You pull out a bomb, unwrapping it to reveal it's greater size, before sticking it onto the reinforced door. The security crew cuts your work short, as you are attacked and forced to engage in a direct gunfight. There is little cover.
(if: $event is 0)[Your armour is instantly penetrated by their plasma shots, and as you fall you're left wondering whether they had specially strong weaponry, or you were just unlucky.
//(print: $endingDeath)//]
(if: $event is 1)[Your armour softens the blows of most of the gunfire. Though it hurts quite a bit, you've tried this before. You manage to defeat the entire team, and stand for a bit just looking down at your armour. It looks scarred, and you realize the pain came from some of the plasma penetrating through.(set: $lives -= 1)
[[Flee the station with your ship]]
[[Continue to detonate the explosives]]]
(if: $event is 2)[Your armour softens the blows of the gunfire perfectly, it almost doesn't even hurt, and you finish off the team with such precise deadliness, that it even stuns you for a bit.
[[Flee the station with your ship]]
[[Continue to detonate the explosives]]]The reinforced door blows up, and you make your way through a a small square room into the meeting room where the officers were hiding. You spot them, and immediately both open fire.
(if: $lives >= 3)[The officers cower behind the furniture, the doorway you're standing in doesn't provide much cover, but your instincts manage to help you use it perfectly. Your plasma fire manages to burn through the furniture, and one by one the officers are shot down.
//The station is left empty, and you hurry your way to your ship, to get out of Coalition territory, there's an uncertainty whether what you did today was a good or a bad thing. Either way, seems like the Azorakians may provide better living conditions than this.//
//You killed the Coalition Officers and escaped safely. You did a good deed for the empire.//]
(if: $lives < 2)[The officers cower behind the furniture, the doorway you're standing in doesn't provide much cover. Tthe officers' weapons are relatively weak, however they manage to burn through your damaged armour. One shot strafes your shoulder as you go back in cover, going right through your armour. Your instincts kick in and you begin to back off. Your armour feels heavier than ever as you make it down the hallway, and the officers swiftly catch up to you. Uncountable amounts of plasma bolts penetrate your back, each one pushing you with greater force into the floor.
//(print: $endingDeath)//](set: $flushairlock to true)
You throw a concussion grenade at the security crew around the corner, their noisy footsteps making it very easy for you to throw it directly underneath their feet. A large zap goes off, as the crew are immobilised in the airlock, and you quickly shuffle over to the terminal to close them inside of it while they cant fight back. You're safe, though this blocks the way to the station, and the only other route is to leave on your ship.
[[Flee the station with your ship]]The alarm in the station goes off, and a heavy reinforced door shuts off the way towards the meeting room. The only other way leads to the officers' docked ship.
Your decision making is cut short by the sound of another approaching security crew from behind.
[[Flee the station with your ship]]
(if: $class is "Light")[
[[Run towards the officers' ship]]]
(if: $class is "Heavy")[
You might be able to fend off the crew while exploding the door.
[[Detonate the door with explosives]]]In a rush, you barricade the door to your ship with whatever you can find. You manage to boot up the ship and take off before another security crew could arrive. The comms repeatedly pick up warnings from the Coalition before you shut it off. Seems like it's time to leave Coalition space, for greener lands.
//You managed to escape off the Coalition station, after seemingly being betrayed. Who knows where the next destination will be, as long as you can manage to escape Coalition space before being blown to pieces.//
//You escaped, but who knows how far you will get?//You decide to set course towards a small planet, which acts as an Imperial exclave otherwise surrounded by Coalition territory.
<img src="https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/602882347544608768/666391742693507091/SwampPlanet.png" width="1100">
As you are technically not affiliated with either side, you easily get permission to land, and upon doing so you immediately set off to find the Imperial presence on the planet, which shows itself in the form of a relatively small outpost. They must know about the whereabouts of this ship, but you stop to think about how you're gonna get this information.
[[Attempt to sneak in and hack their systems]]
[[Lead an officer away to interrogate them]]
They insist on a pair of officers following you. A minor setback however, but you're confident this wont be a problem, you can take them on.
(set: $decisionImperialOutpost to true)(set: $event to (random: 0, 5))
You set course towards an area with the highest concentration of Imperial exclaves inside of Coalition space. You believe it is most likely that the Azorakians stole the plans somewhere close to their outposts.
Upon your arrival, you decide upon a perimeter of the furthest distance it would've likely gotten away towards the core, and begin your search. The area is vast however, and you're unsure if you'll actually be able to find it in this space.
(if: $event is 0)[You've spent a long time searching through empty space now. Just as you're about to give up, your attention is drawn to a random close-by asteroid, where you far away in the distance, see a small part of a ship barely peeking out from behind it.
Turning your ship to pass by the asteroid, a huge Dreadnought is revealed, with a semblance of Imperial design, and what looks like markings of the Azorakians.
You are delighted, and immediately plan out how you're going to approach the ship.](else:)[As time goes on you become more and more unsure, if you’re actually going to find the ship. After a while you notice, that your fuel tank is getting close to being empty. The ship stops. You start to panic, while trying to remember if you packed any extra fuel tanks. You actually manage to find a small fuel tank with enough fuel to get you to a nearby planet. You experience an immense sense of relief run through your body, as you get eaten by a space shark. You die immediately.]As you gaze upon the Imperial outpost you decide that interrogation might be more trouble than it's worth. Wanting to avoid unwanted attention you decide that hacking their database might be the smarter option, it's simply a waste of resources to attempt to go in guns blazing. Even so you are now faced with your next obstacle, making it inside to the databank unnoticed. You decide to plan ahead, the less time wasted inside, the smoother the job.
You’re not entirely sure that the Dreadnought even came by this planet, meaning you need to figure out if it has been here to begin with, and afterwards its destination.
You look around the outpost, carefully observing the guards. You notice a blind spot in their surveillance in the edge of the outpost. The outpost is partially on land, and partially over water. There’s a blind side towards the water, and it looks like you could swim in under the base from there. You equip your deep space unit, hoping that it should survive an underwater dive that you assume would at most take a few minutes. Moving into the water through some of the tall grass, you submerge yourself in the water the outpost was partially located upon. Once underwater you turn on light amplification, to see in the dark. Without a proper map scan it becomes hard to find, but searching around a bit, you eventually you find a service hatch which leads inside.
You climb through the hatch, and find yourself in a small room. You disable your deep space survival unit. The room you're in, seems to serve no other function than tool storage, and having the access hatch in it. You carefully open the door leading out of the room, not being sure who or what could be outside the door, as your surveillance only covered the exterior, not interior. You see a console on the other end of the room. It also appears there’s no one in the room.
[[Run over to the console]]You need to lure an officer away to knock them out, so that you can interrogate them about the whereabouts of the plans.
You move up to speak to an officer at the outpost. You find a not-particularly well equipped, nor specially strong man, asking him to help you with a domestic dispute back at your ship. The officer however, expresses his need for a second officer to follow. Despite your best attempts at convincing him otherwise, he insists, and another more well equipped officer also follows you back to your ship.
(link: "Abort plan")
[
(if: $class is "Heavy")[(go-to: "Imperial Outpost Complications")]
(if: $class is "Light")[(go-to: "Abort plan")]
](if: $decisionImperialOutpost is true)
[
(if: $class is "Light")[It is too late to stop the officers now that you already convinced them to follow you. Instead you lead them to a building, where you can hopefully ditch them around the corner.
As you get close to the wall of the building, you attempt excusing yourself, telling them help isn't needed anyways, without being able to come up with a good excuse. The officers are visibly confused, and insist that you lead them to your ship.
You give up on that attempt as quickly as it started. In the same moment you pass the building, and immediately dash around the corner.
You swiftly outrun them, your specialist armour helping you dash in between the buildings with marvellous speed. As soon as they're out of sight, you turn and sprint for your ship.
You manage to arrive at your ship before any other officers, and quickly run inside, locking the door and preparing takeoff. You get away from the planet safely, and fly far enough away into space, that they wouldn't possibly track you anymore.]
(if: $class is "Heavy")[You give up on the other Officer and run towards your ship instead. Your heavy armour weighs you down, but to compensate you keep firing shots backwards to supress the Officer, and ward him off from following you. It seems successful, but as you arrive to your ship, you see it surrounded by several Officers. Thankfully this imperial outpost is deep in coalition territory, and is undersupplied and undermanned. It must have been a long time since they've received supplies from the empire out here.
This is only to be taken advantage of, and you feel confident in your ability to fend them off. You immediately enter the landing bay with your guns blazing, you manage to take out two Officers before they ever notice you. However there are still a couple scattered around, now ducking in and out of cover. Taking them out turns out to be a long gruelling impossible task...
As you give up on that, you instead decide to suppress the Officers by burning your last reserves of ammo off rapidly, in an attempt to run towards the ship. You run up the ramp to your ship and frantically take off, their weaponry not being able to damage your spacecraft. You don't make it in fully unscathed, your armour having taken some blows, but hopefully it can be repaired on the way wherever you might go now.]
]
You still only know that the plans are aboard a ship travelling from somewhere in the rim. Without more information, you will have to improvise a way to find the ship.
[[Fly around blindly]]It is too late to stop the officers now that you already convinced them to follow you. Instead you lead them to a building, where you can hopefully ditch them around the corner.
As you get close to the wall of the building, you attempt excusing yourself, telling them help isn't needed anyways, without being able to come up with a good excuse. The officers are visibly confused, and insist that you lead them to your ship.
You give up on that attempt as quickly as it started. In the same moment, you pass the building, and attempt to run around the corner. Your heavy armour slows you down, and you realize that you won't be able to outrun them with their light loadout. Instead you bring out your weapons, and open fire on the officers as soon as they turn the corner.
You injure the less experienced and poorly equipped officer, however the other ducks in behind the corner again before you can shoot him too. You are forced to duck into cover yourself too. This turns into a gruelling and annoying gunfight where you cannot manage to hit him.
[[Obliterate his cover]]
(link: "Run to your ship")
[
(go-to: "Abort plan")
]
[[Rush at him]]You fire off a final shot to supress the Officer before letting your weapon cool down, making sure it's warmed up, but not heated before charging up the firerate to the max. Once ready, you pull out of cover and crouch down on the ground where you can do a better job of steadying your weapon for the unwieldy amount of rapid firepower that fires out of your weapon, smashing the Officers' cover, and leaving him no place to run. The wall he hides behind begins to crumble, and as your plasma finally burns into the light armour of the Officer, you immediately stop firing. You decide he's more valuable alive than dead, but as he mutters a final line into his radio, he drops to the ground injured enough to drop his weapon.
You quickly run towards the Officer, and kick his gun away from his hands. You firmly but somewhat calmly assure him that he will live, if he gives you the information of the whereabouts of the Dreadnought you're looking for. After doing so, you become unsure of how the Officer should know about the specific ship. Almost unable to speak, he whispers about his radio, which you quickly reach into his equipment belt to retrieve.
You give one last look at him, if you leave him here, reinforcements will surely rescue him, but who knows what complications this might instill on the mission.
[[Kill the fallen Officer]]
[[Let the fallen Officer survive]]You run out of your cover as fast as you can, pulling the weight of your heavy armour towards the Officer. His shots keep scratching your armour, and while it does absorb it, it's still painful. This almost distracts you from the fact that the Officer continously changes cover every time you get even slightly close, his light armour letting him swiftly duck around every corner in sight.
Hope seems lost, as you slowly give up and give in to the pain, scrambling to find cover again. As you do so however, a shot hits right in the skull, disrupting your brain in ways you don't even know how. It feels like whatever you try to think of, you're forgetting everything...
//(print: $endingDeath)//You keep your head cold, trying not to think about it as you pull the trigger. You've killed many people, but there's just something about a defenceless man just doing his job, that makes your heart sink, as his limp body gives a last shake from the plasma of your weapon swiftly burning into him.
You conciously remind yourself not to think about it and continue on.
You arrive at your ship, your helmet picking up the scannings of many footprints in the ground having run to your ship and away again. There must have been other reinforcements who were too intimidated by your heartless actions. You feel confident that they won't come back, as you head onto your ship and take off.
As you exit the atmosphere, you realize that damn Officer turned off the radio. You try out some buttons and finally figure out its inner workings and get it turned on again. You wait patiently, and before long someone reveals the approximate location of the Dreadnought.
[[Set destination towards the Dreadnought]]You decide to let the Officer survive, knowing that he will be rescued by his colleagues. In your heart you know you did the right thing, but your mind can't stop worrying this might cause complications later on.
You arrive at your ship, your helmet picking up the scannings of many footprints in the ground having run to your ship and away again. There must have been other reinforcements who ran to get their fallen Officer, shooting the other two Officers probably intimidated them aswell. There may not be long before some of them come back though, so you hurry onboard your ship and take off.
As you exit the atmosphere, you realize the radio is turned off. You try out some buttons and finally figure out its inner workings and get it turned on again. You wait patiently, and before long someone reveals the approximate location of the Dreadnought.
[[Set destination towards the Dreadnought]]You power the ships jump drive and enter hyperspace in your travel towards the approximate location of the Dreadnought. As you exit hyperspace you're thrown out into empty space, with no sight of it. Immediately your scanners light up and highlight a huge vessel directly behind your ship. You turn your ship around, resulting in a metallic vessel that emerges from the corner of your window and slowly fills your whole vision.
<img src="https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/602882347544608768/666391736444256266/Azorakian_Dreadnaught.png" width="1100">
It has a semblance of Imperial design, and what looks like markings of the Azorakians. It's the Dreadnought you've been looking for, but it's much larger than you imagined.
[[Forced entry]]
[[Enter through the ships largest cannon]]You look at the Azorakian Dreadnought, scanning it for entry options.
The only logical way you can see to get in, would be forced entry. Luckily, you brought the boarding explosives.
You land on the exterior of the ship, just near the reactor sphere. You take on your deep space life support unit, and walk out on the ship surface. You find a weaker looking spot on the sphere, and plant the boarding grenade. It tears a hole in the hull, and starts dropping grenades. After dropping what must’ve been the entire load, there’s a hole through the hull. But only barely enough space to get through.
You drop in, and see there’s a full alert in progress. Of course there is. Luckily, the hole in the hull will keep most of them away for some time, as they’ll need their deep space units as well.
[[Go to the bridge]]You look at the main cannon of the ship, it's a giant beast. You're sure if you were a Coalition vessel it wouldn't hesitate to shoot you. Well perhaps it wouldn't even waste ammo on a small ship like yours. Your ship is actually so small, that it wouldn't be completely impossible to fit through. It sounds like a risky plan, but having flown your ship for many years makes you confident in your ability to maneuver inside.
You quickly fly around to the front of the ship, lining yourself up. Onboard comms attempt to contact you, but you attempt to stall them as long as possible as you power up the engines, heading straight for the barrel of the cannon. A large boost sends you flying towards the barrel, as you push a button that temporarily sends your ship into sleep mode, throwing off their scanners as to what you're doing. If they knew you were in the cannon, you would surely be blasted to pieces. Just as you finish the thought the cannon suddenly gets extremely close, and next thing you know you're glide inside at a way too fast speed. Perhaps you were too overconfident.
Almost by instinct you let go of the temporary shutdown, and as your ship almost instentaneously boots up, the engines turn on firing backwards, putting your ship in a standstill. The dust settles upon your ship, dirtying your windows. looks like nobody has cleaned this part of the Dreadnought for a long time. The only thing you can see is a massive wall with burn marks from your thrusters, melting inwards. You conclude that it seems pretty logical that the interior of the cannon isn't very well armoured.
You grab your deep space unit and go outside your ship, clinging on to the walls to climb inside one of the holes that were melted in the wall. There's a full alert in progress. Of course there is. You managed to get in unscathed, but they probably heard where you are at now. Luckily, the hole in the hull will keep most of them away for some time, as they’ll need their deep space units as well.
[[Go to the bridge]]You have to get to the bridge, where the plans are located. The elevator to the bridge is located straight ahead. Afterwards you'll have to search for the plans on the bridge.
You go through the maintenance door of the reactor core, with guns at the ready, red lights flashing constantly. You walk down the hall carefully. Step by step. Listening for any sounds. For a second, you thought they might not know where you are, but this belief was cut short by a sound from the ceiling. You immediately jump into cover behind some structural pillar, in the edge of the hallway. They have deployed automated sentries. It’ll only be a moment before actual soldiers come as well, so you’ll have to deal with the sentries quickly, before rushing for the elevator.
(if: $class is "Light")[
[[Throw a flash grenade to blind the cameras]]
](if: $class is "Heavy")[
[[Blast the sentries to pieces]]
]You blind the sentries by throwing a flash grenade, that momentarily overloads the sensors, disabling them. You exit your cover, quickly shooting and destroying the sentries. You start running for the elevator, hoping you can make it there before the soldiers come. You manage to reach the elevator without anyone interfering.
You’re not entirely sure which floor it’s on, but you try to read the panel, even though your Azorakian reading skills could be better. You think one of the words could be vault or secure, so you go with that one. You press the button, and wait for the elevator. Tightening your grip on your gun, you hope that it makes it here before the soldiers. Every second feels like minutes, you start doubting the elevator will arrive before the soldiers.
Your doubts were confirmed, as you hear steps coming closer and closer. Azorakian soldiers storm your location, and has you backed up against the closed elevator door. They call out to you, saying something that’d translate roughly to //“Surrender or be obliterated”//.
[[Wait for elevator]]
[[Start Shooting]](set: $event to (random: 0, 100))You prepare your weapon, and dash out of cover. You start firing immediately, hoping to destroy the sentries before they destroy you.
(if: $event is > 35)[You miss a few shots at first, but the computerized aim of the sentry doesn’t. You take a hit on the shoulder and chest plate, but manage to destroy the sentries anyway. Your armor took most of the hit, but you’re slightly damaged.](else-if: $event is > 17 and <= 35)[You miss a few shots at first, but the computerized aim of the sentry doesn’t. You take a hit on the shoulder and chest plate, but manage to destroy the sentries anyway. Your armor took most of the hit, but you’re slightly damaged.(set: $lives -= 1)](else-if: $event is > 7 and <= 17)[You miss a few shots, and then get hit twice by the computerized aim of the sentries. This throws you off even more, missing more hits. But you just barely manage to deal with the sentries. You feel a sharp pain, and place your hand on your stomach. You notice that you’re bleeding, but it appears not to be a lethal wound. You bite it in you and continue.(set: $lives -= 2)]
(if: $event is <= 7)[The computerized aiming system of the sentries aren't deterred, and instantly fire a bolt of plasma through your throat, leaving you unable to breathe.
//(print: $endingDeath)//](else:)[You’re not entirely sure which floor it’s on, but you try to read the panel, even though your Azorakian reading skills could be better. You think one of the words could be vault or secure, so you go with that one. You press the button, and wait for the elevator. You tighten your grip on the gun, and hope that it makes it here before the soldiers. As each second goes, you start doubting the elevator will arrive before the soldiers.
Your doubts were confirmed, as you hear steps coming closer and closer. Azorakian soldiers storm your location, and has you backed up against the still closed elevator door. They call out to you, saying something that’d translate roughly to “surrender or be obliterated”]
[[Wait for elevator]]
[[Start Shooting]]
(if: $class is "Heavy")[
[[Throw Grenade]]
](set: $event to (random: 0, 100))
You stand there, frozen solid. Gun at the ready. You don’t know how to proceed exactly, so you just stand there. Perhaps you can draw this out just long enough for the elevator to get here.
(if: $event is 0)[You hear a very monotone //bing// behind you.
The elevator arrives, and without looking back you dash inside and close the doors behind you instantly.
You catch your breath as the doors close and you rapidly start going upwards. It’ll take a while. You look at the wall opposite the door, and notice that the paneling has a couple of holes in it, and some parts of it is burning. It would seem as the soldiers had been shooting at you and, luckily, only hit the walls.
You know that as soon as the elevator arrives at the secure transport floor, soldiers will already be there waiting for you. You decide to start reloading your weapons, and patch up your armor with a field repair kit, to the best of your ability. You also start trying to plan ahead, but there might be fewer options than you’d like.
[[Get ready and hope for the best]]
(if: $class is "Light")[
[[Climb ontop of the elevator and hide]]
]
](else:)[One of the soldiers start yelling something to you. Your listening comprehension of Azorakian is better than your reading, but you can still only make out a few words of what the soldier is shouting. You however do notice, that he’s starting to count down from ten. You want to yell something back, but you don’t know what to say, or how to say it in Azorakian.
You stand there, nervously, as the soldier counts down from ten.
Three.
Two.
One.
Everyone starts shooting, including you, but the many soldiers easily defeat you. You stood no chance against that many. You drop to your knees, plasma shots shredding your armor, still trying to shoot them, but all you hit is the ceiling and walls. Before you manage to do or think anything else, you see a bright, red light, just in front of your eyes.
One shot directly through the visor was all it took to finish you off. //(print: $endingDeath)//](if: $class is "Light")[(set: $lives to -= 1)(if: $lives < 1)[The officers arrive at a quick pace. There doesn't seem to be many, so you begin firing in their direction. After downing the first, you quickly realize that your injuries make it extremely hard to aim with your usual precision. With deep concentration, you manage to down another one. But immediately as you do that, one of their bolts hits you in the shoulder. The pain from your other injuries intensifies along with this new one, throwing you out of cover. Out in the open, another shot hits you, and another one. You don't even know where at this point, your whole body hurts, and they finally stop firing on you. Instead they merely approach you to kick away your weapon.
//Your conciousness slowly slips away. Your eyes tunnel vision and become cloudy with a black fog, as your body feels cold. You try to reach for your emergency medical supplies, but your arm doesn't listen...
You can almost hear something... until the black fog engulfs your vision.
You died.//](else:)[(set: $lives to -= 1)As soon as the officers arrive, you begin firing them down. Lckily there aren't many, but they're still better equipped than you are, and one of the plasma bolts manage to scrape a burn onto your arm before you finish off the last officer. It hurts, but the elevator has arrived, and you should still be good enough to continue the mission. The elevator has arrived, and you go inside with other arm gripping the wound.]](if: $class is "Heavy")[You quickly charge up a salvo on your weapon in advance, releasing it at once as you see the first couple officers. The first two get hit and fall instantly, making the rest hesitate to engage you. This turns into a drawn out gunbattle where none of them have quite the balls to put in the proper effort to take you down. This lasts until the elevator finally arrives, and you swiftly dash inside.]
(if: $lives > 0)[The doors close and you rapidly start going upwards. It’ll take a while, but you know that as soon as the elevator arrives at the secure transport floor, soldiers will already be there waiting for you. You decide to start reloading your weapons, and patch up your armor with a field repair kit, to the best of your ability. You also start trying to plan ahead, but there might be fewer options than you’d like.
[[Get ready and hope for the best]]
(if: $class is "Light")[
[[Climb ontop of the elevator and hide]]
]]Your gut feeling says that close quarter combat usually doesn't turn out pretty with so minimal cover. Instead you quickly pull out a grenade from your belt, throwing it down the corridor.
The grenade blows up, and you hear the officers startled by it, but shortly after the footsteps continue towards you. The footsteps reveal that a couple of the officers fell, which gets confirmed as they arrive. There are just a couple officers, who you quickly manage to outgun from your superior position. Thankfully before any more arrive, the elevator bing is sounded behind you, and you go inside.
You catch your breath as the doors close and you rapidly start going upwards. It’ll take a while, but you know that as soon as the elevator arrives at the secure transport floor, soldiers will already be there waiting for you. You decide to start reloading your weapons, and patch up your armor with a field repair kit, to the best of your ability. You also start trying to plan ahead, but there might be fewer options than you’d like.
[[Get ready and hope for the best]]
(if: $class is "Light")[
[[Climb ontop of the elevator and hide]]
](set: $event to (random: 0, 2))You take a deep breath as you finish up preparing your gear. You stand ready at the door.
It slides open, and not even a second goes by before you fire and kill the first soldier you see. You keep firing, trying to down as many as you can before they down you.
(if: $event is 0)[(set: $lives to -= 1)(if: $lives < 1)[The doors open, and you immediately open fire, however your injuries take away your focus, and you get overwhelmed with the large amounts of Azorakians who instantly gun you down.
//(print: $endingDeath)//](else:)[
You keep shooting them, almost all of them are down by now. There’s just one left, but before you manage to take him out, he hits you in the shoulder. Once again the armor seems to take most of the hit, but you do feel a burning sensation - even if it's only faintly](else:)[You keep shooting them. There's just one left, but before he fires his shot you manage to juke his shot, making him miss before you land a killing blow on him. All the soldiers are down.]]
In the distance, you see a data vault. Or what you think to be one. If this is what you’ve been looking for, it’s not ideal, as you have no idea how to operate an Azorakian data vault.
[[Approach the vault]]You decide it’d be best to hide on top of the elevator. You open the service hatch, and climb up there before continuing to draw your gun, aiming down the hatch. You wait patiently for the elevator to reach the destination. It stops, and you hear the doors open. At first there’s a complete silence, then you hear a few Azorakians speaking. They sound confused. After a bit of back and forth, they send a man in. As soon as he enters your line of sight, you shoot him. He never saw the shot coming. They don’t send anymore men in, not yet. You suspect they’re merely planning what to do.
Before long, a small ball flies through the hatch. It’s a grenade. With lightning reflexes, you manage to grab and throw it back before it blows up. You don’t know if it took out everyone, but they’d definitely be way too close to not have been thrown off by it, so you decide to jump down and check for any survivors. The grenade took care of everyone.
In the distance, you see a data vault. Or atleast you think so. If this is what you’ve been looking for, it’s not ideal, as you have no idea how to operate an Azorakian data vault.
[[Approach the vault]]You approach the console of the data vault, and try to read some of the inputs and information displayed on the screen. It’s a lot harder than you had hoped. Suddenly, breaking the silence of the room, you hear a sound coming from the corner of the room. You’re not sure if you should investigate it or not, it could be a soldier hiding, or someone else. But your mind reminds you that you don't have time to be meddling around on this ship, you shouldn't be wasting your time.
[[Keep looking for the plans]]
[[Investigate the sound]]You decide it’s best to investigate it. You approach the origin of the sound. It would seem it came from behind a pillar in the corner. Your gun goes around the corner before you do.
You hear someone yelp from there, and think that a soldier wouldn’t be so cowardly. At least not a soldier that’s any threat to you would. You turn the corner, and see an Azorakian there. He’s clearly not a soldier. He looks like a scientist of sorts. Perhaps he’s the data handler?. He manages to say something in Azorakian, but you don’t understand him. Not even in the slightest. He looks confused, but then he gets an idea by the looks of it.
He pulls out a small cylindrical device. His hands are shaking as he turns the top of it, and then he continues to speak into it. It speaks back in your language - it seems like some sort of a translator. It says //“I don’t know why you’re here, or what you want - please, just leave me alone. I won’t stop you from doing whatever you’re here for.”//
You could just leave him alone, as he seems not to enjoy your company. Or you could try and ask him if he knows how to operate the data vault, if so it might be easier to get the plans you’re looking for. But you’re not sure if you can trust him or not.
[[Leave him and keep looking for the plans yourself]]
[[Ask him to help you]]
You turn back your head, and continue searching for the plans. After a long while, you finally stumble upon a data set labeled with what must be Azorakian for //Coalition//, as you can read it out to be //‘Rebellion’//, or something like that. You get it sent down to pick up, in physical form, making sure you extracted it so there's no other copies. It gets dispensed carefully by the robotic system.
You go to grab it, but you are stopped by an Azorakian. Probably the guy who made the sound, and the one handling this data you assume. He has a cylindrical device in his hand. He speaks, and the cylindrical device translates it into your language. //“Those plans are extremely dangerous”//. He points at the data pack in your hand. //“They’re for a weapon. It can ruin planets, destroy entire star systems”//. You reply, saying that that’s why you’re taking it away to the coalition, so the Azorakian Empire won’t construct it. He speaks into the device again; //“We, Azorakians, are not trying to build it. We’re preventing The Coalition from creating it. It’s their plans, that we’re trying to lock away. No one deserves the power to cause so much destructio”//.
//Could what the Azorakian says be true? Were these plans really created by The Coalition, as a weapon against the Azorakians? Can you even create a weapon with the power to destroy planets, and even star systems? If The Coalition really wants peace, then why create such a weapon?//
You’re having a hard time deciding whether to continue with your job, and deliver the plans to The Coalition, or if you should hand them over to the data handler again.
[[Hand over the plans to The Coalition]]
[[Hand over the plans to The Azorakians]]
You leave him be, and go back to the console. You start looking for the plans despite the difficulty. You keep looking for them for quite a while, until you finally stumble upon a data set labeled with what must be Azorakian for //Coalition//, as you can read it out to be //‘Rebellion’//, or something like that. You get it sent down to pick up, in physical form, making sure you extracted it so there's no other copies. It gets dispensed carefully by the robotic system.
You go to grab it, but you are stopped by the data handler. He has a cylindrical device in his hand. He speaks, and the cylindrical device translates it into your language. //“Those plans are extremely dangerous”//. He points at the data pack in your hand. //“They’re for a weapon. It can ruin planets, destroy entire star systems”//. You reply, saying that that’s why you’re taking it away to the coalition, so the Azorakian Empire won’t construct it. He speaks into the device again; //“We, Azorakians, are not trying to build it. We’re preventing The Coalition from creating it. It’s their plans, that we’re trying to lock away. No one deserves the power to cause so much destructio”//.
//Could what the Azorakian says be true? Were these plans really created by The Coalition, as a weapon against the Azorakians? Can you even create a weapon with the power to destroy planets, and even star systems? If The Coalition really wants peace, then why create such a weapon?//
You’re having a hard time deciding whether to continue with your job, and deliver the plans to The Coalition, or if you should hand them over to the data handler again.
[[Hand over the plans to The Coalition]]
[[Hand over the plans to The Azorakians]]
You ask him to guide you using the console, warning him to not try anything shady. He agrees and follows you back to it. As he goes into the files on the console, you tell him what exactly you're out after, letting him find it. The data handler looks terrified, and begins shaking even more after letting him know what you need. He quickly goes through the file system and finds a specific file, that he then sends to physical extraction. Even though your Azorakian ain't that great, you quickly see the button he presses on and understands it to be labelled "Copy". You threaten him to delete the file on the data vault afterwards, which he begrudgingly does.
You go to grab it, but you are stopped by the data handler. He has a cylindrical device in his hand. He speaks, and the cylindrical device translates it into your language. //“Those plans are extremely dangerous”//. He points at the data pack in your hand. //“They’re for a weapon. It can ruin planets, destroy entire star systems”//. You reply, saying that that’s why you’re taking it away to the coalition, so the Azorakian Empire won’t construct it. He speaks into the device again; //“We, Azorakians, are not trying to build it. We’re preventing The Coalition from creating it. It’s their plans, that we’re trying to lock away. No one deserves the power to cause so much destructio”//.
//Could what the Azorakian says be true? Were these plans really created by The Coalition, as a weapon against the Azorakians? Can you even create a weapon with the power to destroy planets, and even star systems? If The Coalition really wants peace, then why create such a weapon?//
You’re having a hard time deciding whether to continue with your job, and deliver the plans to The Coalition, or if you should hand them over to the data handler again.
[[Hand over the plans to The Coalition]]
[[Hand over the plans to The Azorakians]]You decide to finish what you started, and hand over the plans to The Coalition. You push the scrawny data handler out of your way, and head back to your ship, before plotting a course back to the Coalition base.
Finally, you arrive, and enter the base. You hand over the plans, and he hooks up a screen to them, checking the plans through. You don’t manage to see anything specifically, just a lot of technical drawings of different components. He unhooks the screen, and hands the data pack over to one of the Coalition soldiers, who carries them away. //“What you have brought us, is invaluable to The Coalition efforts, to protect the Human Species,”// the officer says. //“We can’t thank you enough… But I'm deeply saddened to say that we also cannot let you live.”// Just as he says that, you hear a loud bang, and feel a sharp, burning pain in your chest. You put a hand on the wound, and look down. The wound goes deep. Your ears are ringing. Almost as if underwater, you still hear his voice; //“We hope you can understand that, you simply cannot live with this information out there”//.
You fall backwards, and you are now lying on your back. The officer grabs your hand firmly. //“You have just saved the entirety of the Human species. Well done. Your actions will not be forgotten...”//.
(set: $end to true)You decide to hand over the plans to the data handler. //“Thank you for making the right choice. If you let yourself be surrendered to the Azorakian court, I will tell them of what you have done, and try to shorten your sentence. I cannot guarantee that you will go free, but the courts will give you a fair trial”//. A larger group of soldiers storm the room, and you surrender to them. They take you to a guarded cell for the rest of the journey.
Finally you arrive at Azorak, The Imperial capital. The Dreadnaught docks at the military-designated area of the docking ring, surrounding the entire planet. You’re escorted to an atmospheric ship that flies you down to the surface of the planet. The planet is almost covered entirely by city, with the exception being most of the ocean. You land at the courthouse, and you are put before the judge. It is explained that you are being put on trial for plans of treason, and conspiration with //The Coalition//. You admit that you were working with The Coalition, and that you have killed Azorakian soldiers. But you also say you’ve been tricked into working with The Coalition, as they lied to you about the entire story. Nobody challenges your claim. Instead the judge redirects to the next phase of the trial.
Now, any citizen of the Azorakian Empire can express if they think you are guilty, or not, and how bad your punishment should be. Most who want to speak on your case are Azorakians, one of them being the data handler, but there are also other aliens, and even a few humans. The data handler says that you should go with a minor prison sentence, but the majority protest this, saying just because you didn’t give the plans to The Coalition, doesn’t mean you didn’t kill Azorakian soldiers, or infiltrate military property.
The judge silences the crowd, and takes a moment to review everything. You can feel the tension in the air, unsure what's gonna happen to you.
Ultimately, you are found guilty of Imperial Treason, and invasion of military property. The punishment is execution. All you can do now is hope that you gave the plans to the right people...
(set: $end to true)You run up to the console, and start using it. It operates in Azorakian, which makes it fairly hard to use for you, since you’re not that great at reading it. You try your best however, and find one function called //‘log’// or //‘journal’//. You choose that function, and it brings up a magnitude of text. You read through the text, there are a lot of words you don’t understand, but a few you think you do. One of them translate to //‘Star traveler journal’//. Despite your limited knowledge of the Azorakian language, you know this means //starship logs//.
You download the info into your suits data storage, and start moving out again.
You make it safely back to your ship, and start reading the data. With the help of your computers translation tool, you find out that an Azorakian Dreadnought moving from the rim of the galaxy, came by not too long ago, and is carrying classified data taken from The Coalition a week ago. This must be the ship you’re looking for. It’s on its way towards Azorak, using one of the many hyperlanes, within imperial territory. It’ll be a few days before the Dreadnought reaches this location, and you have to get the plans before it does, because as soon as it reaches the hyperlane, it’ll only take an hour for it to reach Azorak when it travels at a speed faster than light. You take the ships ID signature, and start looking for its location with your pathfinder, a tool that can find and calculate directions to other planets, ships, and so on. The pathfinder takes a minute to calculate the directions, and as soon as it’s finished, you take off.
[[Set destination towards the Dreadnought]]