FoE: Meadow's Ford

We are on tonight with a 30minute delay, 2030 EST

And so following a daring rescue attempt, which unlike everything else this party has ever done, came out according to plan. The Campaign draws to a close. I can't wait to see the epilogue and all the fun stuff that happens given we were not able to save anyone but ourselves.

That's not completely true. Ya'll saved the two captured griffins, that's more than just ourselves.

Moodyman90 wrote:That's not completely true. Ya'll saved the two captured griffins, that's more than just ourselves.

Well they were captured pretty much because of us so I'd say we pretty much came out even. Minus loot ofc.

Lots of stuff to cover tonight

Well it helps if I don't listen thirty minutes of typing but regardless! I have news of sorts.
The last session was....
Session 27:Going Loud
Which ended with the gang having killed TC-6 and taking so long that TC-2, TC-3 and TC-7 knew something was going wrong and that Gravel Sky was responsible for it. He was the saboteur pony causing all the trouble and after they had tea with him and everything. At that point Gravel's access was revoked and every robot was out hunting for him.

Since then we had two more sessions
Session 28:Mayhem in Medical
Session 29:Jailbreak
Along with an unofficial session 30 I was thinking of hosting tonight but without SK or Rum it's not worth doing.
I'm going to be retyping up Session 28 now after losing that but I wanted to leave a what's going on here.

Then I'm going to do a text only Session's End as we get sepia tone photographs as the narrator explained what happened after the quiet fell and the torch was put to the town of Meadow's Ford.

Must post falling asleep fast
Session 28:Mayhem in Medical
The Players (PC)
Aonee as Akapesh (Zebra Alchemist) - Greg House
Moodyman90 as Gravel Sky (Throwback Pegasus) -Jeffrey Geiger
OneMoreDaySK as Alouette (Mute Unicorn Musician) -Heathcliff Huxtable
Obs as Flashpoint (Anti-social Earth Pony Mercenary) -Michaela Quinn
Stone as Draz (Zebra Shaman) - Doug Ross
Tylertoon as Smooth Tongue (Unicorn Merchant) -Jack Shephard

The plan remained the same but things had changed.  Killing the TC bots for Rho and Theta seemed like less of a good idea now that the TC bots knew the score and knew who was hunting them.  While Draz remained free to walk at will anywhere a TC bot was not every other member of the group was not so lucky.  Any movement on their part would draw attacks from patrolling sentry bots.  If they did not drop one quick enough the TC bots would flood the area with more sentry bots and take them down by raw numbers.  They had only Unicorn who was had several spells to make his mane look amazing but none to stop robots or shut down Maneframes.

Unsure what to do they stalled for time, taking the elevators down to the main AI bunker floor.  There they found Theta hunkering down with Rho under guard.  Delta the other AI in the room had been removed from all facility control but the alert had switched it on.  After questioning Theta on the TC bots movements they spent several minutes questioning the rampant Delta.  

It knew it was flawed, it knew to some extent it was broken and nonfunctional, only Draz thanks to his Zebra upbringing and own special quiet madness could understand most of the bizarre syntax choices. What information it gave Draz was confused but details emerged. Theta was flawed, Rho was flawed, the new model the creation that would fix everything was Tau. Tau was the TC bots, Theta had reprogrammed the spare TC body that had designed to house the final Tau intelligence. Their creator had been a genius, even as his heath failed his mind kept working.

Delta was supposed to marry the intelligence of a maneframe with a friendly face. It worked but Delta design was critically flawed. Father had shut Delta off and after several false starts created Theta. The intelligence and planning ability of a maneframe with a personality you could talk to. But Theta was flawed... to cold... to impersonal... a maneframe running a stable was a fine experiment but one with only a 19% probability of success if such a maneframe ran the stable openly. Theta the odds were little better, it did not grasp the finesses of discussion even if it was stable and intelligent. It could be called autistic, perfectly intellegent and able to speak but ignorant of social cues and uncaring about emotion.

Rho was the next step, smart enough to lead, rule or advise as required but with a kind face. Something that ponies could trust... something that Father had hoped would care. Perhaps even a machine that could feel true emotion. Father was running out of time with the war at it's peak so compromises were made. Rho could have filled in the rest. Delta took up two maneframes to run, Theta did as well but he worked, Rho took up only one but was only 10% as fast and intelligent as Theta. It's ability to anticipate for long range planning was lackluster compared to Theta. In half a hundred ways Theta was the superior intelligence but one and that was one Theta cared nothing about.

Which is where Tau came in, an intelligence that did not require and entire wagon to move around by splitting each mind into multiple bodies and relying in one mobile frame about as big as ponies got. Something that looked big and strong but still pony like enough to be trustworthy. Tau was Father's solution for the continuity of leadership problem in case Canterlot was lost. Without the Princesses each Tau bot would work to establish order in it's affected area, where civilization survived the Tau bots would function as advisers or teachers. Where they were without order the Tau could commandeer local mechanical defenses to assist it in Zebra elimination and area pacification.

But Tau was never finished... had they looked long enough and hard enough to find the TC-0 body before Theta did they would have encountered a body without a mind. Had they hunted further they could have found the last resting place of those who had called the Facility home the day the bombs fallen. Many wondrous pre war technologies could have been had even if none of them had understood what they exactly held. But no where would they find a intelligence named Tau. Only plans, sketches and a few half finished parts and two dozen pony corpses.

Draz communicated what he could to the group holding a few things back for himself or misunderstanding other parts. Theta for his part asked them when TC-2, 3 and 7 were going to be killed. It was clear no more help would be had from Theta and Rho was literally behind a wall of metal and almost closed off from all Facility controls. He could give the group warning but only Theta could clear them paths through the sentries.... and Theta could care less, his pawns had preformed well but seemed to decided in the 11th hour that fighting the TC bots was a losing game. So he wrote them off, no need to throw good money after bad. Sooner or later the TC bots would catch them and kill them and that would end it. Meanwhile he needed to be ready to amass sufficient forces to ambush the TC bots and free himself. Three still might be to many but it was only logical to try when not trying meant more time locked in darkness in the very home Father had made for him to rule.

After a conversation that went into some odd philosophical discussion "Plan Save Meadows Ford" was changed to "Plan Save Aloulette" and "Plan Save Us" Team Save US would head to the surface and find a door leading back to the valley and either simply run away or possibly run for help. Team Save Alouette would make their way to the holding area Theta had locked Alouette in and free her if possible then escape themselves.

Despite several attempts to screw up the plan... stage one went well all things considered. Team Save US smashed a sentry, easily unlocked one of the caps on a side tunnel exit and made it into late afternoon. Their escape went well as while the Warframes shot at them these shots missed them almost totally. Draz and Flashpoint made it to safety by simply running very hard, very fast and not stopping until they could see nothing in all four directions. Gravel Sky made it to safety by turning around flying away over the mountain, the worst he got was a buffeting from a 50mm rail cannon shot.

Down below Akapesh and Smooth Tongue broke the lock to prevent their escape door from being closed and raced sentry bots to a elevator to take directly to the holding cells one level below the AI bunker. The elevator refused to move as Draz was long gone but a screwdriver and some swearing got them moving down and fast.

Up next Session 29 and two ponies walking alone in the desert.

noticed the roll 20 was set to a stage with ella alouette and all them

There are plans and plots and a final recap to cover. I just need a time when I'm not stressed and the writing flows.

toilet writing trust me