>Last time in Freelance Ghost quest: You went to collect Lisa while Quartus picked up Murphy and Sextus got your new suit, and planned your actions against Weissdammer. After a brief negotiation, Weissdammer gave you an ultimatum which you rejected. You rushed onto the bridge With sextus while Quartus took Murphy and Lisa to try and wrestle control of the vital systems from Weisdammer. Entering the bridge, you narrowly avoided most of the blast of an EMP grenade, but got your cloak disabled.

>Votes last time were a bit scattered, but I distilled attacking the marines with kinetic wave from them (3 wanted to attack marines vs rushing past, 2 kinetic wave vs 1 matter bomb)
>Also because I don’t like to start with rolling, I did some rolls in private. I rolled a 1, a 15 and a 20. I’m serious. Anyway, you passed)

The marine in front of you starts to turn towards you, but you’re faster. Repositioning yourself ever so slightly, you unleash a Kinetic wave into his abdomen, slamming him into his comrade behind him. You quickly look over your shoulder to check on Sextus. He seems to be fine, even if his cloak also got disrupted, and has brought his C-10 rifle to his shoulder again.

An extremely bright flash fills the room. Your suit automatically compensates and you can see again after a second or two, but it seems the rest of the room wasn’t so lucky. Sextus’ flashbang gives you precious extra time to deal with the situation.

The two marines in front of you are down but not yet out, even if it’ll take them a while to get back up and into the combat. The marines to your left are blinded but will soon recover, as will the psychic bodyguard and Weissdammer himself in front of you. With the marines floored, you have a clear line of sight now, though the two men are quickly diving for cover.

>Psi points: 4/6
>Cloak is disabled for another 2 rounds.
>Hand cannon ammo: 12/12

>1. Finish off the downed marines. Don’t want them to surprise you later (execution with hand cannon)
>2. Attack the other three marines (specify hand cannon or psi attack)
>3. Get the bodyguard before he gets into cover (specify hand cannon or psi attack)
>4. Write in.

>Note: Sextus will be acting on his own to best support you as he sees fit. You can issue him orders for a more complicated plan, but it will cost you a few seconds. Depending on the situation this might increase the difficulty of your own rolls slightly.

>>32859605
>>1. Finish off the downed marines. Don’t want them to surprise you later (execution with hand cannon)

>>32859605
>2. Attack the other three marines psi attack

>>32859811
>>32859914
Was just about to call it.
Oh well, tie, rolling in 3 minutes if there's no tiebreaker.

Rolled 2

>>32859927
1: finish them off
2: attack other marines

(also, specify what psi attack to use)

>>32859971
Well, attacking the other marines it is. I do need a specific attack. (mind shock is single target, so I suppose not, but still, kinetic wave or matter bomb)

>>32860000
Matter Bomb

>>32860000
Matter Bomb. Just as expensive as kinetic wave & far more registering. Lets make sure we don't hit important tech, though.

>>32860038
>>32860047
Ok, writing.

>>32860058
And I keep forget to let people roll. Gimme some d20's while I continue writing the part that doesn't depend on them.

>>32860106

Rolled 11

>>32860106

Rolled 15

>>32860106
here you go

Rolled 13

>>32860106

>>32860130
>>32860135
>>32860157
Success. Post incoming soon.

Rolled 6

>>32860106
Let's make it quick and painless. Methinks it would be best to take Weisdammer hostage after we take out his ghost

>>32860214
We'll see how it goes, since his "anti-ghost material" (a single EMP grenade???) backfired, he might give up soon if he has no plan B

>Regenerated 1 psi point: 5/6

The marines in front of you are a low priority you figure. A more acute concern are the three marines now fumbling with their gear and slowly recovering their sight. You focus on them and gather energy. With a well placed matter bomb you figure you can take them all out, or at least incapacitate them.

You hit the middle marine right in the face. He doesn’t even have time to scream before his suit implodes and his body is crushed. The marines around him get pulled in towards him, and while they escape most of the damage, their arms are crushed beyond use. The one on the right’s rifle is pulverised as well. Even if they use stims they won’t just shrug off that pain. They’ll be out for a while and if they recover they’ll be severely handicapped. The remaining two marines topple over, dropping themselves behind their barricade and out of view.

Meanwhile, Sextus read your actions and started delivering suppressing fire towards where Weissdammer and his pet ghost are. They scrambled behind the captain’s chair, which seems to be quite solid and armoured, but thanks to Sextus they haven’t had much of an opportunity to fight back. The ones next to you are slowly starting to recover. It won’t be during the next few moments, but soon.

>Psi points: 3/6
>Cloak is disabled for another round of action.

>1. Execute the downed Marines (will need rolls this time)
>2. Jump over to the two marines you just wounded, try to finish them off (specify method)
>3. Try to flank Weissdammer and his bodyguard.
>4. Write in.

Rolled 6

>>32860296
>>1. Execute the downed Marines

>>32860214

If We were Primus, we would break his marines, use them to kill his pet ghost, then spend some 'quality time' to break old Weisdammer, and use him as a puppet ruler, forcing the population of the planet to start some heavy mining operations to provide materials to build the Omega Empire with....

But since we're Secondus, kill everyone but Sixtus and Weisdammer, try to negotiate with Weis, end up being attacked by Weis, then kill him...


>>32860296
Kill one marine, use the other as mobile cover.

Next round, we cloak, push the marine we are holding into Weis, then deal with his ghost while Weis struggles with a collapsed Marine on-top of him...

Rolled 4

>>32860296

>3. Flank Weisdammer and his bodyguard, hit them both with a full-power shockwave.

Rolled 6

>>32860359

rolling for execution of marine...

>>32860296
>1
I'd like to clear the room first, we can manage the ghost and Weisdammer once their support is gone

>>32860330
>>32860359
>>32860372
>>32860385
>>32860395
Execution time. Give me some d20s.

Rolled 11

>>32860428

rolling

Rolled 18

>>32860428
Execute

Rolled 5

>>32860428

Rolled 15

>>32860428

very well then.

>>32860435
>>32860440
>>32860480
Success, writing.

You roll over to where you blasted the closer marines before, and deliver a quick shot to the face of the first one. The bullet pierces the armoured glass of the helmet easily, ramming through the head of the hapless man inside the suit. You look up, seeing the second one, half lying under his comrade, bringing up his weapon towards you.

It doesn’t matter. A few steps towards him and you’re too close for him to shoot you. He tries hitting you with his rifle instead, but you dodge easily. Another pull of the trigger and it’s over.

In the background during this, you heard three bangs from your left, telling you that Sextus has done the same to the other marines. You won’t have to worry about them anymore. Now it’s two on two. You’re starting to feel kind of bad for Weissdammer. Against a single ghost it would have definitely worked, but the both of you are beyond regular ghost levels. Still, he might be holding something back. You never know.

You look up from your grisly work and see the bodyguard flinging himself at you. Faster than most people could have managed. He’s holding a strange device in his hands. You don’t get a good look at it, but something tells you you’d rather not find out what it does.

Roll to dodge!

Rolled 8

>>32860638

Rolled 6

>>32860638

When you see a blast, duck and cover!

>>32860638
Combine with kinetic wave to slow him down.

Rolled 20

>>32860638
Stupid phone.

Rolled 20

>>32860711
yay

Rolled 6

>>32860638

Out of the door please sir!

>>32860653
>>32860681
>>32860711
Nice. Critical success.

>>32860733

Good End?

He’s coming in fast, but he’s still too slow. You anticipate his movements, and as he thrusts the little device at you, you twist aside and grab his arm. In a swift movement you deliver a blow to his wrist and it’s pushed towards his own body. The instant before it hits, you can see his face contorting in panic as he realises what’s happening.

You get a good look at the gadget when it slams into his chest. It’s a flat metalic cylinder, with several green lights on it. Six pins of about an inch long protrude from the side now slamming into the man’s body, and the lights all flash red the instant it hits. The man seems to forget he’s falling, and grabs his head with both arms, screaming loudly. The fall doesn’t seem to matter to him. In fact, it doesn’t even interrupt his screaming.

Stunned, you look down at the man, who is now wildly flailing his arms around, and you get a clear view of blood dripping down from his nose, eyes, ears and mouth. You were right, you really didn’t want to know what it did, actually.

You remind yourself that you’re still in a battle ant twist towards where Weissdammer was just a moment ago. You’re just in time to see him fire his hand cannon at sextus. Who swats the gun downwards just before his opponent pulled the trigger. The next moment the plump man’s arm is twisted in a way it’s not supposed to, and you can see the armour breaking and probably biting into his flesh.

That was a short battle.

>You can now cloak again.
>Psi points 4/6
>Hand cannon ammo: 10/12

>1. Put the bodyguard out of his misery.
>2. Go over to Weissdammer, disarm him and get him out of Sextus’ vice-grip.
>3. Inform Quartus that you have the bridge.
>4. Write in.

Rolled 9

>>32860947
>3. Inform Quartus that you have the bridge.

>>32860947

This has been going on long enough. Make sure Weisdammer doesn't do anything funny and inform everyone on ship over intercom that we have Weisdammer and his men should stand down.

There has been enough death today.

>>32860947

end the suffering of the bodyguard. Clearly someone has been working on some form of Ghost incapacitating technology.... and we don't want him recovering, if that is at all possible at this point...

then we can inform Quartus that we have the bridge, Then deal with Weis....

>>32860947
>2
followed by
>3

>>32860947
>1. Put the bodyguard out of his misery.
>2. Go over to Weissdammer, disarm him and get him out of Sextus’ vice-grip.
>4. Get Sextus to make sure Weissdammer didn't start up the self-destruct, or access the lab data our something equally dangerous.
>3. Inform Quartus that you have the bridge.

>>32860994
>>32860997
>>32861011
>>32861014
>>32861068
Writing.

First things first. End the screaming. You try to hold the man down, but his wild movement makes it next to impossible. It’s even hard to reliably put a bullet through his head. The other option then. You gather some psionic power and send it into his head. It takes a while before you manage to do what you wanted, but it’s a precise manoeuvre. In an instant, he goes very still. His arms fall next to him like a balloon deflating. That was a bad way to go.

You focus though. You walk over to Weissdammer and Sextus lets go of him. He falls to the floor on his knees, clutching his left useless arm with his right.

“I think you made a bit of a miscalculation here, Otto.” You helpfully find some wire suitable for restraining him on your suit. After removing the armour, except for the crushed part around his left arm, you bind his legs together and drag him over to a corner where he can’t inflict any harm. Meanwhile, you ask Sextus to see if he did anything funny to the ship and if possible, undo it.

You walk over to the intercom yourself. “This is Artemis. I have your boss captive, and I’m ordering you to stand down. Hand over your weapons to the crew and get out of your CMC’s. Crewmembers, please bring any confiscated weaponry and armour to the armoury, and return to your posts.”

You close the channel and open a new one to Quartus. “I’ve got the bridge. Five marines and one ghost down. Weissdammer’s in my possession.”

“Good, I was just about to contact you when we started hearing gunfire. I got into the systems, and it’s a good thing I did. He started tampering with the emergency overrides. Nothing major yet, but it wouldn’t have been long until he could have just spaced everyone. Everything’s in the clear now.” You look over to Sextus, and he calmly holds a thumb up, indicating the systems are fine as Quartus told you.

>1. Question Weissdammer (Got a rough idea what to ask, but specific questions are welcome)
>2. Ask Quartus if there’s any holding cells and bring Weissdammer and his marines there for now.
>3. Ask about the girls.
>4. Write in.

>>32861364
>1. Question Weissdammer (Got a rough idea what to ask, but specific questions are welcome)

>>32861387

Explain to the man that the ship is ours and is going to regain that way. Since this misunderstanding is out of the way, we're going to need some assurances on his part that he will not indulge in petty vengeance towards innocents on surface. Use psionics to gauge how sincere he is.

He should be a practical man. Perhaps we can get into a business relationship, now that he knows we can wreck his shit.

Extend to him the courtesy he was offering us and send him planetside, after having the Doctor treat him.

>>32861387
>1
Newsflash:
You should've done a better job defending this room

Let's not be to aggressive, we might be able to get on his good side somehow... simply by not killing him

>>32861566
yeah, second this

>>32861487
>>32861566
>>32861580
>>32861600
Writing.

>>32861387
>1. Question Weissdammer
> Don't mention the girls, maintain Operational Security (don't give him anything that can be used against us).
Can we selectively wipe his memory, Supervisor?

>>32861649

He already knows of the girls. And I don't think we want to go the way Primus has gone.

We could make it a point to tell him that if he tries anything against us or our friends, we will not be so understanding as now when we retaliate.

You walk back to where you deposited Weissdammer. He went still a moment ago. The man knows how to handle his pain better than you expected. You hunch down on front of him. “Well, Weissdammer, as you can see, this ship is ours and it’s going to remain that way. Now that misunderstanding is out of our way, let’s continue the negotiations.”

His only response is a pointed frown towards you. “Now of course, I do need an assurance that you won’t indulge in petty vengeance over this, so you’re going to have to give me your word.” You prepare to enter his mind to check his credibility, but find it blocked by the familiar feeling of a psi screen. You quickly pull the man over towards you a bit and carefully take the device away from his neck. It was hidden in the folds of his clothing, and smaller than most psi screens you’ve seen so far. You carefully put it in a pouch of yours seeing how it’s worth more than your wraith.

“Excuse me, let’s try that again.” You say, and prepare to enter his mind again. His defence is formidable for a non-psychic, but it’s no match for you as you slip in between the seams. “Do I have your word that you will not pursue any action against me or any innocents on the surface?”

“Yes.” he barks, and had you not expected it, you might not have understood what he said. You sense his feelings, and you get the idea he’s practiced this situation before. He’s pushing all his anger and disappointment to the front to cloud your reading. Still, you can manage to get a glance at his true feelings.

He is one to hold a grudge. But he does it with clean efficiency. Harming innocents is generally bad practice and he’ll only resort to it if the profit is large enough. He might not strike out at random targets, but you’re convinced that if you let him go, he’ll try to take you down somehow.

>>32861831

>Do you still offer to let him go?
>1. Let him and his men depart in his shuttle.
>2. Let his men depart in his shuttle, but keep him imprisoned.
>3. Let his men depart in his shuttle, but kill him.
>4. Imprison them all.
>5. Kill them all.
>6. Any of the above but let them depart in the shuttle Lisa hired instead. They’ll have to return to the planet this way.

>>32861848
Oh, and write in option of course.

>>32861831

>1. Let him and his men depart in his shuttle

We'll have to keep tabs on him, but I'm convinced we can deal with whatever he would try out. Perhaps we can change his mind in time (without resorting to reprogramming it at least).

A small gesture might go a long way.

>>32861848
It seems that we have an issue, I might want to let you cool down a bit first
>1
And when they are gone, turn the ship's defensive systems back on!

>>32861905
had to be >2
instead of >1

>>32861848
>>2. Let his men depart in his shuttle, but keep him imprisoned.

I don't trust him

>>32861897
>>32861905
>>32861924
>>32861946
Writing.

>>32861924
>>32861946

This is not going to end well. If we keep him imprisoned, his resentment will only grow and the settlement will be at greater danger in the power vacuum.

“I think you might need some time to cool down.” You ask some of the crew to imprison him and ignore all orders he might give, and they carry him off. He’s silent, but from what you learned from his mind you figure he’ll be trying to think up ways to get out of here now.

Quartus and the girls enter, and while quartus ignores the carnage, the others look at it in shock. The most grisly spectacle is the bodyguard, His eyes staring out at the ceiling with blood still dripping out of every orifice of his head. The other is the crushed marine. They quickly avert their gazes. You notice Lisa ask some of the crew to clean it up and they start working on it.

“So, what do we do with the rest of the marines? I checked and they all surrendered to the crew. They’re just waiting in the hangar now.” Quartus asks.

“Let them leave with their shuttle. We’ll have to take care to activate the defence systems again.”

“Erm, Secundus? They are active already. I made sure they were turned on again after your friends landed.”

“What? Then how did they get on board?” Puzzled, you look at Quartus.

“Well, either they had the IFF code, which I find unlikely, or they must have had some sort of cloaking device in their ship. Seem to be the only ways in. Seems like a nice ship. What a waste to give it to some renegade marines.” You’re not sure how you know it through his mask, but he winks at you.

>1. Let him have it, simply drop off the men at the planet.
>2. Go through with the plan. Let them have it.
>3. Strip it from all high tech apparatuses and weaponry and let the marines have it.
>4. Write in.

>>32862302

He makes a good point. He wanted a ship, after all, might as well keep that one.

>>32862302
Congratiulations with your new ship, Quartus!

>>32862297
If weisdammer gets out, Murphy's husband would be in a world of pain, for a start...
We should keep an eye on his cell, can Sextus do that right now, or do they want to leave immediately?

>>32862302
>1. Let him have it, simply drop off the men at the planet.

>>32862445
>If weisdammer gets out, Murphy's husband would be in a world of pain, for a start...

What why?

>>32862341
>>32862445
>>32862536
writing.

>Damn captcha

>>32862536
I read everything again, got a bit confused
Apparently he won't harm innocents but I still don't think he will leave murphy and Lisa alone when they return to the planet

“Very well, you can have it. Drop those men off at the planet first. You think you can take them on if they turn on you?”

“There’s what, fifteen of them? As long as they don’t magically reacquire their armour and weaponry, that shouldn’t be a problem. I’ll search the ship first.”

“Very well.” Suddenly you feel tired. The effort of the combat is suddenly sinking in as the adrenaline is wearing off. It’s not so much your body complaining as that you thought you’d had it with fighting for a while. You sit down in the captain’s chair. Lisa looks at you worriedly.

“Are you ok?” She asks softly.

“I think so. I’m just tired.”

“You should go sleep. We’ll take care of the rest.”

“We still have to park the ship somewhere else. It’s drawing enough attention as it is.”

“I’ll arrange things with Quartus, it’s fine.”

> Ship time: 18:30, frontier time: 13:00, slowly syncing up.
>1. Agree, go to sleep.
>2. You still want to do something. (specify what)
>3. Write in.

>>32862302

I assume that we can't do the Primus thing and Break Mr Weiserdammer into our slave puppet.... so we will have to either keep him imprisoned, or execute him...

I suggest we rip any useful knowledge from his mind then kill him. He is a liability...

Though it would be good if we could either get someone loyal to us to take over the planet, or bribe the remnants of his marines to inform his company that he died during a hunting accident, and let them continue to run the planet.

>>32862738

>1. Agree, go to sleep.

I kind of feel like our adventures on this planet are drawing to a close, but the characters we want to come with us, namely Lisa and Murphy would not join us due to feelings of commitment to the planet and it's colony....

Rolled 13

>>32862738
>>1. Agree, go to sleep.

>>32862742
Weisdammer is a liability
so yeah, he needs to die
But we might better just get some sleep before we rip his mind from information

>>32862738
>1

>>32862853
>>32862864
>>32862891
Writing.
Will be last post for the day.

>>32862742
>>32862891

We most certainly are not going to mindrape or execute weisdammer without taking the MC in a completely new direction. You will not retain your friends if you embark on this path.

Letting him go, now or later on, would be better for everyone involved. He was in the right when he boarded the ship, remember?

You cease protesting and go to your room. It takes a while, but you fall asleep.

-“Ah, there you are. I must warn you.”-

-You’re back at the protoss’ mental plane. Endless blue spreads out around you. “Warn me? What for?”-

-“I am not the only one who has noticed you. A particularly zealous Executor active relatively nearby felt you, and she doesn’t seem to share my feelings about you.”-

-“And those are?” You laugh mirthlessly.-

-“Feelings of hope. Hope that you might learn and become powerful. Perhaps powerful enough to strike at the Zerg cerebrates themselves.”-

-“So I’m being used again.”-

-The protoss looks thoughtful. Insofar as you can judge the thoughts of a protoss from its face at least. “No. They’re coming, no matter what. I seem to be amongst the few of my kind that realise this. The swarm is reaching out across the sector, and they do nothing. I am but a lone High templar and cannot do much on my own.” He looks concerned. “Executor Elthai wants to destroy you, seeing you as an abomination going against the codes of our race. I disagree. I wish to train you, but I fear I cannot until the mental block placed upon you is removed. When it is, I will contact you again with how to find me.”-

-The blue plane around you starts to lose colour and slowly fades. Moments later, there’s only blackness.-

The rest of your sleep goes on, dreamless.

>>32863099
>He is one to hold a grudge. But he does it with clean efficiency. Harming innocents is generally bad practice and he’ll only resort to it if the profit is large enough. He might not strike out at random targets, but you’re convinced that if you let him go, he’ll try to take you down somehow.
He is going to try and kill us and our friends if we let him go

>>32863180
Cheers for thread op
Well at least she doesnt want to kill us yet

>>32863180
>That's it for tonight, thanks for sticking around.
>Next thread will probably be friday or thursday.

And archived: http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive.html?tags=Freelance%20Ghost

>>32862853
I'm thinking about things like that too. I've got some idea where I want to take the quest, but I still have to work things out in detail a bit more.

>>32863256
cheers for the thread
I don't actually want to get weisdammer killed but we don't have many rational options.
Options that we won't regret later on

>>32863198

So what? That is his intention now. It doesn't mean he'll go through with the plan if we convince him otherwise in the meantime, if he will consider it to be outside of his ability or if he decides it would not be in hist interest. Even if he decides to follow through, he will not succeed.

If people eliminated every person that has grudge against them, there would be an awful lot more corpses around.

>>32863180

Noice. This is going to be interesting.

Cheers for the thread, OP!

>>32863334

Killing everyone who could be a threat to us is not something you wouldn't regret either.

Can't live a life without taking any chances.

>>32863256
Thanks for running, OP.

>>32863341

just going on the fact he can get C-10 rifles, a personal Ghost bodyguard, his unusually small Psi-shield, the fact he seems to be an arms dealer of high standing.... he is someone who could possible get things set on us which would have a good chance of killing us... It's not him as a person, but his influence that I fear may cause us harm... if we kill him now, nothing gets set in motion to have us killed.... directly at least...
>>32863256
Thanks for running Supervisor.

>>32863599

He is no doubt well connected and with many resources at his disposal.

To me, that's all the more reasons to not simply eliminate him - he might be more useful alive, even though getting past the grudge might turn out to be a chore.

If he dies, his allies might wish to extract vengeance - or attempt to fill power vacuum left after him. Most likely to detriment of the civilians planetside.

>>32863723

If we get his Marines to spread the story of his 'Bad Luck' on one of his 'Hunting Trips', it should be enough to satiate his 'allies' into moving onto who gets his stuff. We could always offer to move the Colonist onto our ship... bring up any useful equipment, such as the hydroponics facilities, get the colonists to make this big empty ship something more like a home.... they wouldn't have to worry about the native fauna and flora.... they would have the option of leaving the ship whenever they wanted to, excluding combat situations...

Question for an idea I have had... What is the average Terran civies knowledge of Protoss?
Have they started Glassing worlds yet?
If people know about/fear the protoss, we can use the fact that this Executor is coming to encourage them to evacuate onto our ship...