Lets Play - Falcon 5: The Dying Sun

Thaluikhain · Post by **Thaluikhain** » Sun Mar 25, 2018 1:26 pm

249
As you slowly overhaul Lord Pilota's craft the enormous sail changes its angle to the sun in a majestic sweep of glittering silver. The Lord of TIME has deliberately set her racer on collision course with your own. If the sails become entangled it will mean death for both of you. Will you:

Hold your course?
Take evasive action by moving further away from the sun?

Omegonthesane · Post by **Omegonthesane** » Sun Mar 25, 2018 3:15 pm

We hold position. The real Pilota would never risk herself like this.

SGamerz · Post by **SGamerz** » Sun Mar 25, 2018 5:44 pm

Hold.

Pariah Dog · Post by **Pariah Dog** » Sun Mar 25, 2018 6:22 pm

I know I'm out voted here but evade. Precisely for the reason Omegon said. The Real Pilota would not do this. Its either a cybernet goon, Yelov, or some mind controlled patsy.

Thaluikhain · Post by **Thaluikhain** » Mon Mar 26, 2018 3:52 am

267
Reckoning that Lord Pilota is too experienced a racer to endanger her life needlessly you hold relentlessly to your course. The arcing span of silver that is attached to her blue and white racer glitters ever closer to the Silver Dart's sail tips, but at the last possible moment she gives way and her racer falls into your wake. At the same moment above and behind you there is a sudden flare of a firing rocket motor. A yellow disk-shaped racer with red fangs painted on its front cuts across your field of vision. Singleship Sly has used some of his precious manoeuvring fuel to surge across your bow and dip down close to Sirius. The Silver Dart's acceleration drops away. Lord Pilota, thinking you are the young Siriun racer, has placed her ship between you and the sun. She has taken the solar wind from your sails. If you stay where you are you will lose too much time and die of radiation sickness. Will you:
Follow Singleship Sly down closer to Sirius?
Edge into a higher orbit and let Lord Pilota through?

Pariah Dog · Post by **Pariah Dog** » Mon Mar 26, 2018 4:12 am

Pull up? Goal is to come out of this alive, not in first place. If someone can provide a better argument to dive I'll go with that.

Omegonthesane · Post by **Omegonthesane** » Mon Mar 26, 2018 7:15 am

Agreed if it'll make us go faster. We've been prompted that radiation sickness is now a mortal danger.

SGamerz · Post by **SGamerz** » Mon Mar 26, 2018 11:30 am

Agree with the majority.

Thaluikhain · Post by **Thaluikhain** » Mon Mar 26, 2018 12:43 pm

419
You lose time as the Silver Dart sways majestically out of the path of Lord Pilota's racer and out onto a higher orbit. You catch sight of the Clyss insectoid's racer which floats along in her wake as she corrects her course to fly the path that you would have flown. By the time you are on your new course two other racers have overtaken you and one of them seems to slacken speed, dropping back towards you. As the racer drops back towards you, you see it is black with red flames licking backwards from its nose as if Sirius itself has kindled it. Will you:

Try to steer the Silver Dart so that the Indigo racer of the insectoid Clyss comes between you and the black one?
Continue on your present course?

SGamerz · Post by **SGamerz** » Mon Mar 26, 2018 2:20 pm

Steer. The black racer is probably Yelov's agent looking to wreck us.

Omegonthesane · Post by **Omegonthesane** » Mon Mar 26, 2018 4:41 pm

Agreed, though I have half a suspicion that it's Yelov himself.

Thaluikhain · Post by **Thaluikhain** » Mon Mar 26, 2018 5:26 pm

Oh, just noticed I'd miscounted Falcon's Endurance, he should have been killed by the Enforcers. But I'll overlook that, I think. That might be an omission, as every trip through time lets him recover 12 in a medibay, but there's no mention of that during normal space travel for some reason.

371
The repeated maneuvering tests your skill but you manage to hide from the black and yellow craft by staying close to that of the Clyss. Suddenly the black and yellow racer turns towards deep space. Just when you are wondering whether its pilot, probably Yelov, is going to be entombed, a fast-moving blip appears on the deep radar display which docks with his racer. He has been saved but you can't tell who has picked him up. You are forced to continue the race or die so you move back on course. Soon you have completed your orbit and sight the pale green planet Sirius Secundus and accelerate away from the sun on the wings of the solar wind. You are in radio contact once again and can hear the Intelfax commentator's report on the race. Singleship Sly has crashed into the sun and the commentator assumes that the pilot of Yelov's craft is dead too. You finish in fifth place, Pilota has won again and the Clyss, the Phocian and Goldwing have also beaten you to the finish. The freighter arrives to tow you in.

(If you continued on your present course they open fire, and you get into a space suit and lean out the airlock and shoot at them with your captured pistol and with luck drive them off, which seems cooler to me)

Some hours later you are sitting in the Central Office of the Siriun Enforcement Agency. It seems that Sparrowhawk used her powers as a Special Agent of TIME to smuggle Yelov into the black solar racer, then she kidnapped you and forced you to take part in the mistaken belief that Yelov would be able to kill you. The ship which rescued Yelov was a high speed freighter controlled by CYBERNET, and Sparrowhawk followed it soon afterwards in a hijacked scoutship from the Siriun navy. The Siriun commissioner of Enforcers is very apologetic and ashamed that Sparrowhawk was able to beat his security so easily, but she was a trusted part of it. The Siriun navy tracked the course of her ship and the CYBERNET freighter and it is 97.797% likely that they are heading for the exile-planet Barbarossa. The Siriun commissioner places his fastest deep- space fighter at your disposal with which to follow them. As it is probable that they have a Time Machine on Barbarossa, you decide to travel to that dangerous planet.

If you are to seek Yelov and Sparrowhawk on Barbarossa, a planet whose denizens make the criminals of the Earth jail, Chicago, look like volunteer Medtechs, you will need some support from your team of Special Agents. If the CYBERNET raid on a starport warehouse was successful...

As you are preparing to board the Siriun deep-space fighter a holophone message from Jobanque, the Lord of TIME, comes rough. 'Congratulations, Falcon, I hear you've given up your duties with TIME and become a solar racer.' You laugh and he goeson: 'But you've left one small problem here on Earth that needs looking after. Please detail one of your agents to follow up the attack on the starport warehouse. We must recover the
polybdenum. Terminating holo-contact. Falcon. Good luck.'

Seeing Jobanque's face reminds you of Leopard whose brain has been placed in a nearby resuscitation tank. He has suddenly recovered consciousness and his mind shouts out to yours: 'For space's sake get me out of here and inside a tin-can body, Falcon.'

Don't worry, you'll be back in the Health Executive hospital in Alpolis tomorrow,' you think back, and his mind leaves yours. Youdecide to detail your least experienced remaining agent, not Chameleon, to track down the polybdenum and send a holophone order to that effect.

77
You order Cobra to track down the polybdenum from the starport and Chameleon to accompany you to Barbarossa, telling him to board an Earther navy ship which will dock with the Sirian craft carrying you in orbit above the exile planet. Cobra replies, 'Listen Section Chief, I've been hunting CYBERNET agents for years. I know Barbarossa. If the polybdenum is anywhere it's there. I can be of use, let me go with you.' If you confirm your order for Cobra to start his search from the Starport, turn to 129. If you deckle to let Cobra come to Barbarossa with you and Chameleon, turn to 115.

Pariah Dog · Post by **Pariah Dog** » Mon Mar 26, 2018 10:41 pm

Cobra is immune to the symbiont who is still on the loose so, I say take him.

SGamerz · Post by **SGamerz** » Tue Mar 27, 2018 12:11 pm

Bring the mental/psychic meatshield.

Thaluikhain · Post by **Thaluikhain** » Tue Mar 27, 2018 1:40 pm

You order Cobra and Chameleon to board an Earther navy ship which will dock with the Siriun craft which is to carry you in orbit above the exile planet. You will make a three-strong team,.

When the two ships have docked above the orange, gas- wreathed planet Barbarossa, Agents Chameleon and Cobra meet you on the bridge. Chameleon is in the form of a handsome Farther in a green costume with blue circles. You confer together and come up with a plan. Chameleon will change his appearance to look like a member of the criminal underworld of Barbarossa, Cobra will not look out of place - his slim, whip-like figure looks forall spacelikea CYBERNEThired killer. Together you can penetrate a public gathering place to search for information as to where, near the starport, Yelov's Time Machine is hidden. You decide to make disabling the machine your top priority.
The area surrounding the starport is called Smugglers Port and it contains many warehouses in which a Time Machine could be easily hidden. Your own Time Machine, Falcon's Wing, has been freighted to Barbarossa under Chameleon's directive and will be kept on the Siriun ship under armed guard. Sparrowhawk and Yelov arrived on Barbarossa some hours earlier but the TIME beacon has not registered any disturbance of the time flux so Yelov's machine is still nearby.

Barbarossa is an anarchy world without Enforcers. It is a haven for any criminal, sadist, bully or cheat who cares and dares to make it his home. An offworlder, as they refer to new arrivals, is always in danger, all the more so if he or she is an Enforcer. Barbarossa is CYBERNET's stronghold from which the tentacles of the underworld reach out to poison the galaxy.

You are smuggled out of the starport inside a large gas cylinder from which you emerge into the slum of Smugglers Port. The buildings are a bizarre mixture of crude and crumbling archaic designs and occasional modern plasteel blocks funded by CYBERNET blood money. You are on your guard but the street you are in, Lasgun III, is deserted. Just as Chameleon is about to change his form into one of the stout tripedal Barbarossi, the ground gives way beneath you and sheets of spiked metal slam shut on your stomach and back. The spikes move to meet each other inexorably driven by an unseen engine. Lose 3 Endurance points. Luckily Chameleon is able to transform himself into a repnid and force the trap apart through sheer strength. The horrifying form of the repnid shimmers and ripples and Chameleon stands before you as a handsome Earther once more. 'Designed to catch Earther Enforcers/he says, pointing at the trap. You mutter your thanks and walk warily on.

As you tread warily together down Lasgun HI Street, the din of the air traffic which drones above the city and the hot humid air is oppressive. The dust makes your eyes smart when whipped up by a sudden oil-tainted gust of wind. There is a creaking and grinding and the plasmetal street tips up suddenly throwing you through a revolving wall into a dark room which reeks of narcotics. 'Welcome to the "Surprised Visitor",' shouts a gruff voice and there is a chorus of chirrupping, flute-like tittering and belly laughs like those of giants amid many other unusual sounds of mirth. The 'Surprised Visitor' is a narc-bar, where the decadent dropouts of many races meet to take smuggled mind- changing drugs. As you look through the drug smoke you can see perhaps seven different species: Siriuns, Hivers, Earthers, a huge Bequal wrapped in wet silk, a group of Clyss insectoids, native Barbarossi and, walking towards you, three Phocians armed with ultralasers!

405
An unnatural hush falls in the narc-bar as the three armed Phocians, sworn enemies of the Federation, walk over to you menacingly. 'Newly arrived, Earther? A long way from your nest, aren't you?' caws one in a rough imitation of Fedspeak. Their hawk-like faces make them look chillingly cruel, but it is not their beaks which you fear, but their ultralasers, deadly weapons with which it is difficult to miss, the only drawback of such weapons being that it is easy to catch one's friend in their wide blast pattern. These Phocians are obviously space pirates, well used to killing Earthers. Will you:
Yell Thinkstrike Chameleon!'?
Use your blaster?
Use your Power of Will on the Phocian who spoke?

(There is a picture here)

Darth Rabbitt · Post by **Darth Rabbitt** » Tue Mar 27, 2018 4:12 pm

I'd Power of Will the talker. They both have better guns than us, and said guns are drawn whereas ours aren't, and shouting our form of attack probably results in us getting deep-fried before Chameleon can back us up. (Also, shouldn't Cobra be able to Thinkstrike with us too? Yellowblades was the only recruit who couldn't.)

Pariah Dog · Post by **Pariah Dog** » Tue Mar 27, 2018 11:33 pm

Probably the best option. Barring that, thinkstrike.

Thaluikhain · Post by **Thaluikhain** » Wed Mar 28, 2018 9:22 am

Events overtake you suddenly. Even as you are calling out to Chameleon, Cobra has started blasting. Chameleon drops his weapon as you are both hit by the Phocian lasers. You lose 10 Endurance points. If you are still alive, note that Chameleon is down to 12 Endurance points. You mange to blast one of the Phocians and the Cobra has killed the others within two seconds; you arm yourselves with their ultralasers.

A portly three-legged Barbarossi waddles out of the narc-bar. Suddenly Cobra is sprinting through the mixed throng shouting, Tane Gamil! There must be a thousand megacreds on his head. He saw me, boss. I'm no use to you now until I've bagged him.' You lash out a Thinkstrike at the insubordinate Cobra but he is immune to your mental attacks and there is nothing you can do to stop him leaving the narc-bar without calling unwelcome attention to Chameleon and yourself. For the present you will have to carry on without him. You retire to a dark alcove to take stock.

221
All eyes are turned your way as you confer quietly in the alcove. In some cases this means many more than two per individual. The native Barbarossi are squat, yellow barrel-shaped beings with three legs, two eyes set in a face just above their stomachs and a third on top of a brown hump which is where an Earther's head would be. The Bequal wallows nonchalantly in its clinging pile of wet silk and the insectoid Clyss appear to be staring at you defiantly, but it is difficult to tell where their compound eyes are focused. Chameleon suggests that you choose a mind to probe If anyone in Smugglers Port knows where Yelov's hide-out is, they might well be among those lounging in the Narc-bar. Whose mind will you probe:

The mind of a native Barbarossi?
The mind of one of the fearsome-looking Clyss insectoids?
The mind of a Hiver?

(There is a picture here)

Pariah Dog · Post by **Pariah Dog** » Wed Mar 28, 2018 10:36 am

So assuming we got the usual autodoc 12 Endurance during spacetravel? Otherwise we've been sitting on 1 Endurance

The local Barbarossi I guess?

Thaluikhain · Post by **Thaluikhain** » Wed Mar 28, 2018 10:47 am

Pariah Dog wrote:So assuming we got the usual autodoc 12 Endurance during spacetravel? Otherwise we've been sitting on 1 Endurance

Yeah, there's a lot of Endurance loss, and if tehre's no autodoc, only 1 Endurance regained since being injured.

There might be a safe path with a minimum of Endurance loss that'd work without the autodoc, but it'd mean consistently picking the correct one out of three of four options more or less blindly over and over to avoid suddenly losing 10 points in one go or something. So I'm leaning to the autodoc working on space travel.

Omegonthesane · Post by **Omegonthesane** » Wed Mar 28, 2018 11:14 am

...but we picked Power of Will, not "call out to Chameleon"...

anyway let's pork the locals.

Thaluikhain · Post by **Thaluikhain** » Wed Mar 28, 2018 11:51 am

Oops, my bad. In which case, it would have been:

"Events overtake you suddenly. The leader of the Phocians comes under your domination but he is cut down by Cobra's blaster and soon the other two join him in death at the Cobra's hands. You start to reprove him for his excessive zeal, but arm yourselves with the dead Phocian's ultralasers nevertheless."

And then to the same section with Cobra running off.

In any case:

You choose one of the nearest Barbarossi and, using your Psychic Awareness, probe his mind. He starts as he feels the touch of your thoughts, but is soon cowed by a veiled thought- threat. He knows where two Siriuns have recently hidden a large container in a CYBERNET warehouse and you can read the location from his mind. You Thinkstrike to stop him talking until you are well on your way and leave with Chameleon before anyone realises anything is amiss.

As soon as you leave the narc-bar Chameleon transforms himself into a Barbarossi, capering comically on three short fat legs. Mindful that you have already fallen foul of two traps, including that which tipped you into the narc-bar, you tread carefully on your way to Subway Alpha VI where Yelov's hide- out lies. The streets are almost deserted, but the heavy air is still thick with the droning of jetcars and 'copters. You tell Chameleon not to use any of his powers of the mind until you give the command to attack, lest Yelov senses your approach. After no more than five minutes walk you enter the tunnel of a disused subterranean hovrail which leads to the back of the warehouse.

399
You peer through a gelquartz window which distorts the inside of the warehouse to make thing appear nearer, as if you were looking into a goldfish bowl. You can hear no sound through the warehouse door, but one glance confirms that you have found your quarry. Yelov is loading polybdenum rods into his Time Machine. The Symbiont is helping him and Dark Star is talking to Sparrowhawk. These two are sitting on hover couches half way between you and the Time Machine. No-one has noticed, you, but your quarry are all armed. A poor Barbarossi lies quivering helplessly on the ground behind the Time Machine. Will you:

Order Chameleon to open the door and walk in, pretending he is a Barbarossi?
Burst the door down together after Chameleon has reverted to human form?
Tell Chameleon to mimic a Barbarossi's death call and see if they come out to investigate?

Omegonthesane · Post by **Omegonthesane** » Wed Mar 28, 2018 11:58 am

Death call. Hopefully it'll lure "less than the entire foursome" out to be ambushed.

SGamerz · Post by **SGamerz** » Wed Mar 28, 2018 12:00 pm

Mimic death call.

Due to Cobra running off it's now 4-on-2, so let's see if we can split the enemies up by luring a couple of them out.

Thaluikhain · Post by **Thaluikhain** » Wed Mar 28, 2018 12:36 pm

You wait outside in the disused hovrail tunnel as Chameleon makes pitiful burbling noises before turning back into the form of a human. The warehouse door opens and you are suddenly face to face with Dark Star and Sparrowhawk, both armed with blasters. If you are using ultralasers, turn to 145. Otherwise make an Attack Roll.
If you score 2-6

Having ultralasers, Falcon goes straight to:

Your fire slices through Sparrowhawk's legs and she falls lifeless to the floor. Chameleon's attack on Dark Star is similarly successful and you race past the scene of carnage into the warehouse. Sparrowhawk's dying act was to think a warning to Yelov, her lover, and you arrive to see the other Siriun, Yelov, and the Symbiont being drawn up inside the Time Machine together. You open fire but it is too late. Seconds later the machine dematerialises. Once more Agidy Yelov has slipped through your grasp. He has jumped to a different timehole. There is nothing you can do but dash back to Falcon's Wing and chase him across time and space. You lose no time and within minutes arrive safely back at the Spaceport where Falcon's Wing awaits. If you brought Cobra to Barbarossa...

113
When you arrive back at the Siriun space craft. Cobra is waiting for you. 'I got him,' he says proudly. 'Tane Gamil - he's dead. I stopped him warning anyone about us. How did you fare?' Will you:

Tell Cobra that he will never work for you again and maroon him on Barbarossa?
Continue your mission with him?