Battletech: Planet's Fall

Somehow they had ended up in the local gaming centre. Not that Catherine is all that surprised about it. It looks like a fun place and everything is still shiny, fresh and clean. No better time to visit the newly reopened Gaming Centre than now!

Wow! It is quite noisy in here. Let's see ... what are the best games this place has on offer?

"What do you say we do first, Laks?"

"Too many choices." Laks states, walking around and noting each different machine and game. "I usually make a mental list and then I see what's free. Nothing worse than finding a game you like and playing that only to find out they had a newer version or a game you liked more tucked away somewhere else."

She was treating this like a connoisseur, sussing out the market and planning her strategy.

"Let's stake out the place first then." Catherine walks alongside her Captain, looking curiously left and right at the machines they pass. "I can spot some good looking games here. Like that one, even if the name is silly." She points at a co-op shooter.

Mecha Ultimate!
Infantry vs. Mechs!
Attack its weak point for massive damage!

"I heard there is a pair of sim pods here as well. I wonder if that's true."

"Let's try that one." Laks agrees, committing it to memory. "And yeah, they had a few signs up advertising them. We'll find them."

She points to a sci-fi space shooter as they near it. "That's fun. Fast paced."

The Last Spacefighter
Alone against the evil Armada!
Fight for the Star League to save the universe!

"Oh, can we play that one together?" Catherine skips over to the pointed out arcade game to take a closer look. She turns back towards Lakshmi. "I'd love to try that one. Let's put it on the list."

"Done. There was a co-op mode when I last played it. There's probably a... hai." She has moved around the row of machines to check what was on the other side. There was an identical Spacefighter machine adjacent to the first. "Looks like we can play together. That'll be fun." She smiles happily. "Okay, so, what's different up this row..."

Laks starts pacing up it and checking each game here and up against the wall. One caught her eye. A super sci-fi robot game with flying mecha that shot loads of lasers. It seemed to be an action fighter in 3D. She notes it in her mind.

"Anything you'd like Cat? Beat em up? Puzzle game?"

Catherine cheerfully follows after her Captain, looking at all the machines as well. The robot combat game absolutely gets her attention for a moment.

The question makes her laugh. "Stop teasing me, Laks. You know I suck at both of those."

"I like this kind of game." She points towards an arcade with actual physical plastic gun as controllers, connected via cables. Being the proud owner of a laser pistol, the tomboy is quite good at them, at least when it comes to marksmanship.

"I definitely try this one." She gestures at the aforementioned super sci-fi robot game.

"And this one looks interesting." She points out a fast paced dancing rhythm game.

Laks turns around to give Cat a knowing grin. "But it'd be funny." She protests with mischief in mind.

She stops to look at the new gun game. "They're usually a little static for me, but sure. We'll do both."

Then Cat was pointing at the rhythm game.

"Oh yeah! Kami, I hope I'm not too old for that now. You don't think I'd get strange looks, do you?" There were a few other customers and they were all practically half Laks' age and a good few years younger than Cat.

"You just want to see me suffer, Laks." Catherine laughs and joins her friend at the other gun and offers. "It's no laser tag arena, that's for sure. If we find one, let's go there for sure, okay?"

She gives Captain a bright supportive grin. "Who cares, Laks? It's our fun that matters, not theirs. And I am sure we can show them a thing or two. Starting with this."

She raises the gun up and aims it at the screen to check the sights.

"Did someone chew on this?"

"I haven't played laser tag since I was a teenager. Is it still a thing? Definitely, we'll go."

She chuckles as Cat points out that fun was what mattered. "Okay, let's have our fun. This'll be a good warm up."

Leaning toward Cat's gun, she checks it out and nods. "Could be. Try a few shots to make sure it's on target." Saying this she gets out a few coins for them. "How is it?"

"No idea." Catherine shrugs and continues with a hopeful smile. "But I hope it is."

Rubbing her arms, the young tomboy gets ready for some shooting.

"Firing."
After whispering softly to herself, because it had been drilled into her strongly enough, she then tests the gun. First shot a clear miss. Second shot a clear miss as well. Third and following though are all hits with increasing accuracy.
"Clear."

She turns towards her Captain. "Ugh. This gun's totally off, but not too badly. I think I can manage."

"Okay. I'd get a staffer, but... eto."

She tries her own gun. It was fairly on target.

"Swap with me. I get to pick the next game." She nudges Cat over to the more accurate gun. "Ready?"

"It's fine Laks, I already figured out how far the aim is off." Catherine shrugs and grins. "I just wanna shoot some pixels with you."

However the gun situation is resolved, the small tomboy resumed a stable fighting stance and prepares herself.

"Ready Laks! Let's do this."

(Roll Small Arms: Pistols [Dexterity] to see how well you do!)

"You have that one. I'm older." She states with finality, giving Cat's back a pat. "Okay, level 1, Zombie Land."

Even with the aim being off, Lakshmi effortless mows down hordes of the shambling undead without losing a life.

"Yes, Ca- ... I mean we both have this one, Laks." Catherine grins and focuses on shooting pixel zombies into giblets.

She is an amazing shot and quickly falls into the zone as well, managing to keep pace with her Captain, since she is not hampered by a slightly off gun after their switch.

It helps that they know each other well enough to know exactly what target to take out when. No shot goes wasted on either side.

The poor level 1 zombies never stood even the slightest chance.
____
Zombie Land, Level 1 - Small Arms: Pistols [Dexterity] - 7k4: 50

It's the first time for them both to play this game, but the format is simple and it's similar to many games they've each played before. Cat focuses on one side of the screen and Laks focuses the other. Both provide assistance if one side has more enemies or they gang up on enemies with more health or that are more dangerous. It works out well.

"Barrel, top lef-...-nice."

"Doorway, a big mob's gotta spawn there." And they do. "Good grenade."

"Glowing bits." They both mow down the special enemies by concentrating damage on their weak areas. The level goes quickly. By the time they're on level 3 a trio of bystanders have gathered as an audience. No life had been lost, no civilian killed and their score was already the highest for the three levels.

"Want to keep going and try to finish it all? Three more levels after this according to the text." She points to the information under the screen while waiting for the boss fight cinematic to finish.

Catherine laughs happily, as they play together. She is a great shot and Laks easily compensates for Catherine's only flaw, her lack of knowledge when it comes to games like this. It helps that the young Mechwarrior is trained to follow her Captain's orders promptly and precisely.

"Why quit halfway through, Laks?" She is eager to keep going to the end. "Let's finish this together."

"It's going to take a little while and it'll get harder from here, but... you're right. Let's do this!"

Laks gets her gun ready with a manic grin. The boss fight starts a moment later and another person joins the audience.

She blasts away at the boss, hitting its weak points and whittling it down. The gun being inaccurate was only impeding her a tiny amount.

"Zero credits run, here we go!" Catherine cheers and joins Lakshmi in blasting away the enemy hordes.

While the young redhead is really good at it, the Captain is playing in a different league.

Either way however, she is having loads of fun.

____
Zombie Land, Level 3+ - Small Arms: Pistols [Dexterity] - 7k4: 7d10o10k4 29

Cat loses a single life of three in the boss fight, but they bring it down. The next stage goes well and both of them lose a life in the fifth (again during the boss fight). The sixth level was the most challenging, but they each make it to the boss fight.

This time Laks loses a life early as the boss suddenly uses a crazy laser beam attack. They each only had one life left! She keeps shooting it, but it was much harder than the previous bosses.

"Just a bit more!"