0.4 Unforeseen Attack

Keith made his way through the mall and down a wide-open corridor that led deeper into the facility. This place was built like a lot of other mining installations, and he'd seen plenty of those in his career with the Guild. They hadn't all looked the same, but he had a pretty good sense of how they were designed, largely meant to keep the permanent population (the miners and ore processors) contained and secured.

Residents of these places didn't mingle with incoming captains or share stories with the traders because that might give them ideas. They might want more than dingy walls and dilapidated sleeping quarters. Freedom... Keith had put down at least one mining rebellion in the year before he'd managed to escape, and it had been a brutal situation with far too many casualties. Occasionally, he still dreamed about the blood-splattered walls of that assignment.

As it was, he turned a corner and noted the steady, slow tap-tap of footsteps somewhere up ahead. Security. It had to be something he'd triggered when he'd pushed through the facility's feed shields. These kinds of places had automated bots, and the moving steps sounded metallic.

He paused and counted them. Looks like I'll need to deal with security, he told San. Standby.

Make a Connection - [Weak Hit: 1 + 2 + 0 = 3 vs 1 | 6]

Acknowledged, the ship AI answered. Make sure to come back alive. Can't have a ship without a crew.

Keith shook his head. Thanks for the vote of confidence. I'll try not to die and inconvenience you.

You do that, San added. The banter was still cautious, but Keith was coming to appreciate the AI's personality.

Meanwhile, it was time to deal with the bots.

Enter the Fray - [Weak Hit: 3 + 3 + 0 = 6 vs 9 | 4] (Keith is in control of the situation)
Started a new progress track called: " Defeat the security bots to continue on to the mining authority building!"
Gain ground - [Weak Hit: 3 + 3 + 0 = 6 vs 7 | 4] (Closer, still in control)

Keith approached the corridor bend cautiously, carefully, and peeked around. He'd been right about the bots — there were three of them, each one the size of a large dog, with sharp claws and teeth. They were meant for close-quarters combat, which made sense given the limited space available inside a corridor.

There weren't any places to hide, exactly, and the fading lightning didn't leave much room for stealth. The construct went for his knives, his grip sure and steady. Then, he took a deep breath, rushed forward, and attacked for the first of the bots, striking at its fragile center when he got close enough to reach. The bot crashed onto the floor in a pile of limbs, no longer powered and thus, no longer dangerous.

Strike - [Weak Hit: 3 + 2 + 0 = 5 vs 6 | 3]
[Mark Progress: Defeat the security bots to continue on to the mining authority building! :3 boxes]

It had been a good move, but these assholes worked as a team, so even as Keith took down one of them, the other two sprang into action. They weren't strong as far as bots went, but they could be a real pain even two against one.

Clash - [Miss: 6 + 2 + 0 = 8 vs 8 | 8] (-1 health)
Clash - [Weak Hit: 2 + 2 + 0 = 4 vs 2 | 7]
[Mark Progress: Defeat the security bots to continue on to the mining authority building! :6 boxes]

Keith grappled with the closer of the two remaining bots. He parried one hit, but the machine's jaws clamped onto his shoulder, and those teeth tore right through his EVAC suit, rendering its protection against the station's air useless.

The construct winced from the pain, thankful he could briefly tone down — ignore — the agony, and took down the attacking animal-bot. It wasn't as clean as the first attack, but it did the job. The second bot let go of his shoulder and slumped onto the ground. The clang as the bot crashed onto the floor reverberated through the hallway.

[Progress Roll: Defeat the security bots to continue on to the mining authority building! :Strong Hit = 6 vs 3 | 2]

The third bot made its attack, and Keith got lucky as fuck when it came at him from an angle he could use. Dropping to the ground, he brought up his daggers and sliced straight through its central processors. Momentum carried it forward a few more feet before it crashed into a wall.

[Mark Progress: Quest: I vow to assist the Providence mining facility with their troubles. :2 boxes]

Taking out these bots now meant they wouldn't haunt Keith later, though they raised more questions than they answered.

With a groan of pain, the man pulled off his damaged EVAC suit and examined the shoulder wound. It wasn't deep and his augmented organics already cauterized most of the bleeding, but it throbbed, and it made moving his right arm more difficult. The stiffness would settle in shortly.

With a sigh, he sheathed his knives and kept moving.

(Quick note: this was my first foray into combat in Starforged so I played out the fight in my head, ran through the moves, and then wrote the narrative. Obviously, that's backward to how it should have worked, but I struggled with the moves and specifically with whether one move would cover the whole battle or not. Later battles don't have this problem. 

Another thing that came up was how easy it was to die in a Starforged game. I meant to make the bot threat minuscule just to test the waters of combat and managed to lose some life and narrative high ground in the process. So, I did some rethinking as the game progressed. And decided early on that my character was going to get very good at picking himself back up.)