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Post by Gravedust on Oct 19, 2016 16:04:04 GMT -8
Geist ||| - Tower
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Male and Female firstborn children shall be exempt from Service.
Their duty is to preserve society and maintain infrastructure, to provide for those in Service.
Subsequent children shall be raised by their parents until the age of 10.
At that age, they become partial wards of the state, however they remain in the care of their parents until the age of 15, upon which point they become full wards of the state and will be removed to an education and training facility.
At the age of 20, Service begins.
At the age of 30, the survivors may retire as honored citizens, to begin their own families.
Their male and female firstborn children shall be exempt from Service.
- From 'Provisional Laws of Survival' ______________________________________________________________________
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"I think we always assumed we'd escape after we gave up on earth.
But no matter how far we go, and no matter how many times we split, they always find us.
The truth is, we can't get away."
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"I've been asked many times why we don't simply abandon the so-called 'citadel worlds' after decades of stalemate. The reason is simple; while the Geist are fighting us there, they aren't looking for us elsewhere. As we learned after the abandonment of earth; Unless we keep them occupied, they will seek us out. The Citadel worlds act as shields to countless other human colonies, and the struggles there are as real and important as any other."
- Ministry of War adjutant Victoria Clemens
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"Can I have your name, sweetheart?"
"Williams, Antoine M."
"And the last four of your service number?"
"Four-three-one-one."
"Okay." The Freeze Tech taps at her pad and continues her patter with the pleasantly officious air of an amusement park attendant. "Please have a seat right there and put your arm on the rest. Line your wrist up with that metal strip and press down lightly. We're going to check your vitals and then give you your final injection."
Antoine lowers himself into the seat and puts out his arm. The seat is already warm and probably had another occupant less than a minute ago. The whole company is shipping out today.
The Freeze Tech's pad beeps and she smiles again. "Looks good. Now be honest, no water in the last 72 hours, correct?" Antoine nods. Instead of water he's been drinking cryofluid, a synthetic water substitute engineered to not expand and burst his cells when it freezes. It tastes like silt, and while it may be nearly identical to water, his body can tell the difference. Despite drinking gallons of the stuff, he is hellishly thirsty.
"Not a drop."
"Great. I'm going to give you your injections now. You might feel a little sting. Try not to budge, hun." She busies herself with a small white device the size of a cigarette pack, with an elastic loop and trailing clear plastic tubing. She slides it up his arm and cinches the loop tight. He feels a sudden sharp pain like the bite of an insect. Lights start to blink on the device, and Antoine watches as fluid starts to move slowly through the tubes.
The Tech begins to make small talk. "So this is your first time being frozen?"
"Yes ma'am."
"You don't have to ma'am me. Well it's nothing to worry about; you're doing great so far. First deployment, too?"
He nods. "Yeah." The injection machine vibrates very slightly and his skin begins to itch. He imagines he can feel the fluids entering his arm, crawling up his veins like slugs.
"I'd ask where you're going, but from what I hear the only place soldiers ever go is somewhere called OpSec." She grins impishly at her joke.
The soldier laughs and the slugs are forgotten. "Haha. Yeah, that's where we're headed. The planet OpSec." He knows he is heading to Tower, one of the NEA's Citadel worlds, halfway overridden by Geist and already the setting of a decades long war of attrition. A five month trip under subdrive.
She takes a seat next to him, close enough for him to catch a faint trace of perfume. "Well then let's stick to questions you can answer. So, Antoine. What do your friends call you?"
"Ant, usually."
She laughs. "On account of your size, or because you can lift fifty times your weight?" Antoine is five foot seven but muscled like a bulldog from years of PT, helped along by cooperative genes.
"Little bit of both. ...What's your name?"
She smiles as though flattered. "I'm Sharon. A bit old fashioned, but I've grown to like it." Sharon has beautiful blue eyes.
"It's a pretty name." Antoine says. A thought occurs to him, slowly. His head is beginning to feel all foggy inside. "Are you freezing me here? ...I thought that would happen on the ship."
Sharon shakes her head. "No, honey. Freezing takes a lot of power, and living bodies take up a lot of room and oxygen. We put you under here, then freight you to the ship in your pod. When you wake up you'll be at your destination. On the ground, safe and sound."
"Oh." The Soldier says quietly. "I wanted to see space." For a moment he looks so disappointed Sharon puts her hand on his shoulder. "Sorry, sweetie." The injector on his arm hums quietly, filling him with chemicals. His head begins to droop to one side and he straightens up, blinking slowly.
"Starting to feel sleepy, hun? That's good. Just relax. Lean back and breathe slow." Sharon rubs his shoulder reassuringly, leaning closer. "Antoine. I want you to know we all appreciate you for what you're doing, and I want to thank you for it. Wherever you're going, I'll be thinking of you." Her voice now seems to come from very far away, though he can still smell her perfume.
"I'll be thinking and praying for you, hun, and wake up." A crushing weight falls across his chest and she slaps him, hard, across the face. "Wake up!" He jerks, trying to rise from the chair. His eyes won't seem to open and his arms can barely move. Air whistles and rushes all around him. He raises his hand feebly to his face as he's slapped again, hard, this time from the other side. "Come on! Wake up!" Another slap rocks his head to the side and one of his eyes opens a crack. Light-blind, the outside world is a searingly bright blur, like an overexposed film. Sharon's face is a horror. Her teeth are bared and her cheeks have sloughed, run downwards and hollowed into wrinkled grey skin, covered in black patches. Black eyes stare from vacant pits, gleaming with pinpricks of reflected light. Her voice has become a gritty rasp and her perfume has turned to caustic smoke. She hits him again. "Come on, fucker! Wake up!" He cries out, raising his arms to defend himself.
Immediately, the weight disappears from his chest. "Good." The voice says. As his senses clear, Antoine realizes that the voice, the face, and the cracked hands all belong to a grizzled man in battle gear that stands above, looking down with pitiless eyes.
"Listen to me. You're in Rim City on Tower, and shit's fucked. The city is overrun but we're holding a perimeter to evacuate civilians and the frozen. Your gear is stowed in crates outside and you've got ten minutes to wake your squaddies, arm up and muster in front of the terminal or you are all getting left the fuck behind. Lost minutes are lost lives, get your ass in gear!" This last is said over the grizzled soldier's shoulder as he moves on to the next room.
Antoine pushes himself upright and swings his legs over the side of the pod, trying to force the soldier's words together in his mind. Rim City. On Tower. Overrun. On Tower. He'd made the trip already. Been frozen and shipped and thawed on the ground five months later. It seems like twenty seconds ago, he can almost still smell Sharon's perfume.
He shoves himself to his feet and nearly falls; his legs barely support him. It feels like he has been hollowed out inside, like all his organs have shrunk two sizes, and as he fumbles for a handhold he is hit by a wave of hunger and nausea so powerful it almost makes him fall all over again. But he does as he was trained to; Grits his teeth and forces his body to perform. Thaw the others. He sees another dozen of the squat metal pods in the room and staggers to the nearest one. He sees immediately the bright orange handle and the orange arrow that points to it, marked EMERGENCY RELEASE in smeared black stencil. So simple even a frost-dazed grunt can figure it out. He pulls hard on it, noticing the strength beginning to return to his arms.
The hatch to the pod pops open in a burst of frigid mist and a chorus of warning alarms. Bats is inside and she looks dead. Her mouth is slack and half-open and so are her eyes, lifeless and fixed on a point a hundred miles in the sky. Her skin is the color of fog.
"Bats." He croaks. "Bats... Wake up. Wake up."
She looks dead. Remembering his own awakening he reaches out and taps her cheek. "Come on." Her skin is cold and she doesn't move. "Bats, come on." He taps harder, until finally he reaches back and slaps her across her face, leaving red finger marks across her bloodless skin. Suddenly she coughs, jerks forward in her coffin and draws a breath for the first time in five months.
"Oh.. Oh fuck." She croaks. "What the fuck is going on?"
He still doesn't actually know. "We made it to Tower but shit's fucked. Help me wake up the others."
With his strength returning and Bats' help, it doesn't take long. The word is passed around. They wear the shock of bad, unexpected news on their faces, but as each familiar body is revived from the cold they feel more like what they are; fighters. A unit.
((Here is where the game begins. Players who have signed up will have soldiers rolled for and assigned to them. The number of soldiers per player will depend on the number of players, but it it likely to be between 2-6. If you are interested, please post in the OOC/sign up thread.))
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Post by Gravedust on Oct 23, 2016 19:54:34 GMT -8
((Okay. Here are your troops: Each one has been given an ARC and an ammo loadout, but you will be able to get different weapons/gear for them in a second. If you feel the need to trade soldiers now or later, be my guest. We'll be rolling right on to the equipping phase by tomorrow hopefully.
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Post by Gravedust on Oct 24, 2016 21:02:31 GMT -8
They stumble as a group out of the holding bay and as promised their gear is there, packed up in reusable cargo crates with their unit emblem stenciled on the side. In a matter of moments the crates lie open and Antoine and his fellow soldiers are pulling the guts of of them; rifles, ammo pouches, web gear, shock plates, commo sets and all the apparatus that war demands are strewn out on the floor. (( This pile represents the equipment the unit has available, which has been divided into lots A-V
I figure we can most quickly divvy all this up using a bid system.
Each player has 20 points total, and they can bid these points on a Lot. Highest bid takes it, ties will be rolled for. Be aware that if your bid does not win, your points will not be refunded. If you want to modify your bid, please edit your original post.
...Or you can just try to agree on who wants to take what, there is probably enough for everyone. You can also freely trade equipment after the game starts.
Please also indicate which of your soldiers will carry the equipment you are bidding for, and whether or not you want them to drop the ARC and ammo they already have so I can equip it on them immediately.
Any items left over will remain on the map in storage and can be retrieved later while the mission is under way. (though that might not be easy, depending on how things go. ) ))
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mydad
Full Member
Posts: 121
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Post by mydad on Oct 24, 2016 22:24:35 GMT -8
(( Shame we didn't get any F3s sharpshooters or an F2D2 convenient scout. Rangefinder and heavy armor should ABSOLUTELY go either to Squid's Lea Whiteley or to Helmet's Jenn Holland to help target down nasty enemies, I won't bid for it. I'd prefer Squid since he has more guys with gunnery, so an extra reason to take more grenades (balistic) instead of better rifles. I have the best pilot, Tobias. Since I don't have any armor or D2, and the rangefinder will go to someone else, I'll take the longer ranged non-explosive stuff. That OK with you guys? Also, I'd suggest you do some soldier trades, it might be worth getting both D2 soldiers in one team to use as dedicated frontliners. I'd suggest giving them light armor and the battle rifles e: derp, meant heavy assault rifles. My bids for the moment: G (battle rifle&ammo) 1 E (smoke grenades) 1 I (MMG) 1 H (LMG) 1 Q (medkit) 1 Troops: G | Clint Trijo | Battle Rifle | Battle Riffle Ammo | Medkits | H | Leola Rowland | ARC Rifle | ARC Rifle Ammo | Medkits | I | Darnell May | ARC Rifle | ARC Rifle Ammo | Smoke Grenades | J | Marina Batrice | MMG | MMG Ammo | MMG Ammo | K | Tobias Hammersmith | Smoke Grenades | Battle Rifle Ammo | Batle Rifle Ammo | L | Rhona Marlland | LMG | LMG Ammo | LMG Ammo |
))
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Post by Abyssal Squid on Oct 25, 2016 11:36:21 GMT -8
Sounds good. Viking Helmet, you wanna swap Kurt Morgan [T:2|D:2] for Jenn Holland [T:3]? It looks like I'm going to be kitted out as auxiliaries. Bidding 1 on each of: CD MN S A | Antoine Williams | Grenade Launcher | GL Ammo | GL Ammo | B | Lea Whitley | ARC | Medkit | Rangefinder | N [C] | Jenn Holland | ARC | Medkit | L Body Armor | D | Corina Kirk | ARC | RPG | RPG Ammo | E | Erwan Vance | ARC | ARC Ammo | Frag Grenade | F | Neva Burgess | ARC | ARC Ammo | Frag Grenade |
Hardly any ARC ammo there, so I'll want to set up a supply cache early on.
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Post by vikinghelmet on Oct 25, 2016 13:28:40 GMT -8
Alright - I'll set up as a more front line unit then. I'm going to give the heavy assault rifles to my 2 better shooters though - having 2 rolls instead of 1 translates into ~25% better chance to hit if the difficulty is in the 5-15 range, which seems likely. The auto injector is tempting, since it has more uses than a medkit (though less rolls depending on tech) and acts instantly which prevents increasing difficulty from a rising wound counter. On the other hand, if most damage coming in results in 10+ wounds then it's not going to be very reliable and there's also the risk of instant-kill hits. I think it makes sense to stick it on the lighter-armored heavy, relying on the heavier armor to keep the other one safe. Frags seem generally more useful than smokes since we're primarily ranged while the enemy is mostly melee - I'll include one in case we run into something really nasty to let us get away and regroup. Bidding 1 on each of: AB F J O R UV M | Steven Moys | ARC | ARC Ammo | H Body Armor | | C | Kurt Morgan | ARC | L Body Armor | Auto Injector | | O | Malcolm Dent | H. Assault Rifle | H. Assault Ammo | Smoke Grenade | | P | Merril McDonald | H. Assault Rifle | H. Assault Ammo | Frag Grenade | | Q | Will McKinley | ARC | ARC Ammo | ARC Ammo | | R | Violet Willsley | ARC | ARC Ammo | Medkit |
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My last two soldiers are pretty much just shooters with extra ammo and a medkit just in case - I'm expecting this group is going to be putting down a lot of fire.
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Post by Gravedust on Oct 25, 2016 21:39:07 GMT -8
Marina remembers her first time being frozen, and it was not like this. Her first time had been on her dustball of a colony, too small and insignificant to even have a NEA facility. And so four days after her fifteenth birthday she had been frozen and packed and shipped away. At that point, it had been the happiest day of her life. Her birthday present was a trip to somewhere that mattered, to become someone who mattered, at least a little. On that first trip she hadn't dreamed. You aren't supposed to dream in cryosleep. The name itself was a lie; it was not sleep, it was death that could be reversed. But on her way to Tower she had dreamed, and it had been a nightmare. She could not remember what it was; it had vanished the moment Ant had slapped her awake and back into the world. But she can feel the cold scars it has left in her mind and a new tightness around her heart. She glances around her and licks the crack on her frost-dried lower lip. She wonders if they can see it on her face. That she feels changed. "Bats." Ant calls her. "Yeah?" She rasps. Her throat feels like she has been drinking sand. "You good to do a little recon? Let's find out what the fuck is going on out there." "Sure thing." "Keep an eye out for a guy in uniform, thin face, thin all over. He's the guy that woke me up." "Yeah." She hefts her weapon and moves to the exit. Shoving the heavy door aside and stepping out, she becomes the first among them to see the horror that Rim City has become. The skyline to the south is ablaze with fire, an artificial sunset the color of an old wound, holding the night at bay and painting the tall glass-and-metal buildings in bloody reds and oranges. She thinks she sees a million fluttering moths in the air, but as one is swept by her face in the mounting winds, she understands they are only flecks of ash. The wind carries also the smell of burned plastics and chemicals, caustic and heavy. An anguished keen sounds from the throats of a dozen distant siren towers, to the accompanying ripples and hollow coughs of small arms fire and heavier weapons. All this is distant, but getting closer. And moving with it, driving it, she knows, are the Geist. She can feel the twist of the Haze, the same as she felt near The Box at academy. For an instant she can almost see them, like ghost-spots on her vision, reverse shadows crawling towards her. "Jesus fuck!!!" She backs up in a panic, the door slamming closed against her back, and rubs hard at her eyes. Nothing there now. "Fuck... Just fucking Haze..." She scowls, furious at herself. She pushes the fear out with anger and forces herself to look at the City again. The city is a burning mystery. "How did this happen?" Rim city was one of three Secure cities on Tower. Protected by NEA troops manning ring upon ring of defensive works, and backed with all the supplies and logistics the city itself can muster. "How the fuck did this happen?" The wind brings her the sound of a huffing motor, and a transport rolls around the corner of the warehouse and halts. From Ant's description she recognizes the grizzled soldier. He is perched half-out of the vehicle's unbuttoned turret, hand pressed against his earpiece. He is growling something to someone, snapping his teeth in front of the microphone. He is thin and sharp-angled, and from the flapping of his loose combat uniform he reminds her of nothing so much as a scarecrow. She reads the rank off his shoulder and approaches, touching her brow in salute. "Combat-ready and awaiting orders." He turns his hollowed, exhausted eyes on her for a moment, and then understands what she means. "Good." He says, the wind almost blotting out his words. "You were the only ones here. I'm district command, my unit callsign is WOLFHOUND. Get on our comm channels, and give yourself a unit callsign." "Scarecrow." She says immediately, answering for the group. The rest of the unit have stepped outside and are beginning to fall in around her, leaning on the man's words. "SCARECROW. Good. This is the situation: The city is fucked. We are salvaging as many lives as we can. To the north of you is a reservoir canal that runs east-west through the entire City. As of now it is our main defensive line. We can't stop the Geist there, but we can buy more time to evacuate and set up our next defense line, one that might hold. The Geist are advancing from the south. The canal in this area is crossed by two vehicle bridges and a number of pedestrian bridges. Your orders are to relieve my men at the bridges and then hold for as long as possible to allow our people to cross. When there are no more survivors coming through or you can no longer defend your position, blow the bridges and retreat north to await further orders. My man at the bridge has further details. Make use of the motor pool here, those vehicles are gassed up and loaded. Actually, make use of anything you find. We might lose this whole fucking city, so take what you can." He pans his eyes over the assembled. "You are about to have the back of this entire army. You do not have the luxury of fucking this up, understood?" "Sir the only thing this unit fucks up are Geist!" Moys pipes up from the back, and Bats grins. Stupid fucking Moys, he could always make her smile. "Goddamn right." WOLFHOUND grunts. "I leave it to you, then. Get it fucking done." MAP NOTES:: (( Grey (^)'s represent friendly soldiers, Grey X's are fleeing civilians. Civilians and soldiers are also evacuating in Grey vehicles. The red words under each vehicle's section are the destroyed penalties, which are visible even if they are not active. I have made them a bit too dark, I'll get that fixed. But the vehicles are all fine. Above that are the structure bars, which read thusly: [red=hit range][Grey = Armor value][Orange=Structure] The compound is surrounded by wall segments. Each of these has [Armor:10][Structure:100] and will collapse when destroyed. They are considered buildings and so their armor cannot be depleted. Geist have not yet advanced to this area; you have a few short turns before they make their appearance from the south. The brown trio of shapes with A is a Supply cache, which is where your unequipped items have been stored. You can try to load some of that into vehicles, but be aware that moving a lot of items takes a lot of Actions and loading may therefore take quite a while if you intend to take everything. Caches do not block soldier movement. Contents of Cache A: (Probably will be converted into text in the future)
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Post by Gravedust on Oct 25, 2016 21:50:34 GMT -8
(( Oh, and I will probably be messing around with the vehicle movement rules some, with the intent of making things a bit easier to handle. ))
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Post by Abyssal Squid on Oct 26, 2016 1:39:37 GMT -8
Anything we leave behind is going to be lost, so we should try and grab as much as we can. That means vehicles as well as supplies.
There's no reason we couldn't have everyone stash some supplies in the first round or two. Then we send a transport and machine gun team out to cover the exit while we keep loading. There's probably not enough time for everything, of course.
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mydad
Full Member
Posts: 121
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Post by mydad on Oct 26, 2016 6:30:11 GMT -8
OK, my team has the best pilot and the right gear to set up a machine gun nest. So my suggestion is for you guys to use your actions to have every single one of your soldiers put something they don't need or can immediattely replace from the stash into VC, while 5 of my soldiers hop in there and the good pilot hops into the scout.
My team then sets up north of the detention center, near the narrow alley, with the vehicle providing cover, and have 3 machine guns and a long-range rifle ready to fire from relative safety while you guys continue to pack. The scout vehicle can also serve as a pack mule. That works for you?
Example move:
H->VC(driver seat) I->VC(gunner seat) J->VC(passenger, turret section) G,L->VC(passenger, in the back) K->SA(driver seat)
12 inventory slots for you guys to fill up in VC before I move out, which is convenient because that's exactly the number of them you can fill up in the first turn.
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Post by vikinghelmet on Oct 26, 2016 10:16:58 GMT -8
We can get almost everything we need in one fill - almost everyone is already armed so we can leave most of the ARC rifles and at least some of the ammo behind. Distance to the trucks is a small problem - everything but VA is at least two rounds of walking from the truck. It also looks like a setting up a position by the detention center could go bad quickly, since there's no natural cover and it's right where the exit from the warehouse is.
I think we should get VA loaded with supplies and mydad's machine gun team this turn, and send the closest soldiers to go grab all of the other vehicles. We definitely want all of them - even the unarmed scout ATVs could make good blocking walls on the far side of the pedestrian bridges. Everyone else can grab more supplies and then load the supplies and themselves into the transports as they drive by, while mydad holds the exit. If too many geist show up, we can just pile everyone into the nearest transport and be out of there in 2-3 turns.
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Post by Abyssal Squid on Oct 26, 2016 12:29:51 GMT -8
By the rules I think picking up an item is an action, and stowing an item in a vehicle is an action (pass off), so even if you're standing right at a vehicle that's only one item every other turn. Still, even Bravo could get some benefit from stripping some of their gear and leaving it in the transport before driving off, if My Dad wanted to do that.
Alpha Squadron: put fungibles (ARC Ammo, Frag Grenades, Medkits) into storage in VC, specialty stuff (Rangefinder, GL and RPG Ammo, and eventually GL and RPG themselves) into VA. Put away everything you can.
Leaving VB for Viking Hat, since it should be able to leave before VA.
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Post by Gravedust on Oct 26, 2016 12:49:54 GMT -8
((Howdy folks. Didn't mean to bottleneck the game right off the bat with a bunch of inventory management, so how about this:
If you indicate who and what you want to go where in the trucks and other vehicles, I'll load everything and say it took ~3 rounds to do all that, possibly less depending on if you decide to leave things behind.
))
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mydad
Full Member
Posts: 121
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Post by mydad on Oct 26, 2016 13:09:42 GMT -8
I kinda wanted to get VC into the stated position ASAP, but other than that, I agree.
No point in dropping any of my items, the vehicle I'm entering is already going to be loaded to the gills. Keep the rangefinder equipped though, you never know when you're going to need it NOW NOW NOW NOW NOW, and a turn might make all the difference there.
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Post by Gravedust on Oct 26, 2016 13:27:56 GMT -8
(( mydad: Mmkay, If all you want to do is load up your guys and head out, I can have you do that while the other folks are prepping their vehicles and have a bit of a head start at the end of the 2-round housekeeping ))
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Post by vikinghelmet on Oct 26, 2016 16:40:41 GMT -8
Alright, if mydad is taking one transport then Abyssal and me can load into a transport and ATV each. We've got room for 18 items each after crew space, so I'd suggest this split:
Viking: 1x ARC Rifle 3x ARC Ammo 2x As. Ammo 3x Frag 1x Medkit 1x Light Armor - (11 total) Abyssal: 2x ARC Rifle 3x ARC Ammo 1x Smoke 2x Frag 1x Gren. Launcher Ammo 2x RPG Ammo 2x Medkit - (12 total)
That gets the specialized ammo with the right teams and a fairly even assortment of other supplies if needed. We could grab more rifles or ammo if we wanted, but everyone with a non-ARC weapon has quite a bit of ammo - I doubt we'll burn through it all before we have to retreat. I'd rather get to our positions ASAP.
If that sounds good, set me up with:
R piloting VB, Q crewing the gun, N and O in the passenger space M piloting SA, P in passenger All equipment in VB
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Post by Abyssal Squid on Oct 26, 2016 17:22:02 GMT -8
Sure, that sounds like a good division.
E in cab, D in the turret, C and F as passengers, and all cargo in VA. A in the driver's seat and B as the passenger in the ATV. Giving the mortar team extra mobility seems like a good idea.
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mydad
Full Member
Posts: 121
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Post by mydad on Oct 27, 2016 1:23:49 GMT -8
Might be worth renaming the vehicles to match the squads, to help avoid confusion.
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Post by Gravedust on Oct 27, 2016 11:21:04 GMT -8
((Mydad, I changed your stated orders by popping Tobias(K) out of the ATV and into VC as driver, since otherwise Abyssal's squad would have run out of room since he put 2 guys on the ATV. (also he didn't actually have a weapon, and it's Dangerous To Go Alone.) So I hope that's okay. Map Time has advanced by 3 rounds and stopped because the trucks are now loaded and VC is in position more or less. M.D, you can deploy your troops or give additional orders, and VA and VC can set out to whatever destinations you like. I will fast forward until they either get to where they're going, the Geist make an appearance, or something else happens. ))"Come on, let's get this shit stowed!" Steven Moys grabs a full case and hauls it towards the nearest Buffalo. The vehicles have seen a lot of use, he notes, their doors and sides have been stenciled and re-stenciled with unit names and painted-over insignia, and just below the thick slab of bullet glass that forms the windshield he can see clearly see the rough-welded patch over what must have been one hell of a hit. He drops the rear ramp with a clang and climbs into a dusty interior that smells of paint and oil and rust, finds the right modular bin to stow the gear he carries and slams it into place. Others are already filing in behind him. He hops back out of the cargo bed and grabs another crate. His ungloved hands soon begin to ache from the thin metal handles on the heavy crates, but he's glad for the work. It's warming him up. After five months as a popsicle his body still feels half dead, but the work is getting his blood flowing again. ...And keeping his mind off the other thing. The thing he felt the instant he saw that blood-red firesky and knew that the Enemy was here. One look at the ashen faces around him says that the others are thinking about that same thing. That won't do at all. He slams another crate home and starts to sing, and old song that maybe only he knows, filling in the words when he can't remember, and making alterations when they suit better. 'Some people say a man is made out of mud, a soldier-man's made out of muscle and blood, muscle and blood and skin and bone!, a MIND that's weak and a BACK that's STRONG!'
You load sixteen trucks, whadda ya get? Another day older and deeper in death, St. Peter don't you call me 'cause I can't gooo, I owe my soul to the NEA Corps!
'I was born on a sunday when the sun didn't shine! I grabbed my rifle and a-headed to the line. I fired sixteen rounds, of seven-six-two, the DI said 'we'll make a man out of you!'
'You load sixteen trucks, whadda ya get? Another day older and deeper in death, St. Peter don't you call me 'cause I can't gooooooooooooo, I owe my SOUL to the NEA Corps!'
' If you see me comin', betterrrrr step aside! A lot of Geist didn't, a lot of Geist died. I got one fist of iron, the other one steel, if the LEFT don't get you then the RIGHT ONE WILL!'
'IIIIIIIIIIIII OWWWWWEE MY SOOOUUUUULLL-"
"SHUT THE FUCK UP MOYS!!!" Bats shouts into his ear and slams him on his armored shoulder plate with the box she's carrying. But she's smiling. Laughter ripples between the cramped bodies in the back of the truck. Nervous laughter, but it's something. Steven smiles, feeling better already. Ant's voice sounds from outside the truckbed. "Bats! Moys! You have just volunteered yourselves. Get out here." Bats shoots him a dirty look then turns and drops off the tail ramp. Curious, he follows behind, hopping down and landing hard in his armor. Ant is already talking to Bats. "Loading is going to take a while. While the rest of us do that, I want you to pick some shooters, take a Buff and find a good position out there. Get eyes on everything, set up a base of fire." Bats nods and licks her cracked lip, already forming a team in her mind. "I can do that." She turns and shoulders her heavy weapon. "Eastwood, Rowland, Mariland, May! Front and center! Tobias, get the fuck off that ATV, you're coming with me!" Ant turns back to him. "Moys, you and I are going to be mobile elements. Take McDonald with you and prep an ATV. Try and keep the bullshit to a minimum." Moys grins. "No promises." It takes him a minute to find McDonald amidst the moving bodies and confusion. She is behind one of the Buffaloes, wordlessly slipping assault rifle magazines into her web gear. Lips pursed, freckles standing out more strongly than usual against her pale face. "Hey Mer, you okay? We're loading up the trucks." "Yeah. Yeah." She nods, not looking up. Another magazine slides into place. She swallows. "Just. I don't…" "It's cool." Moys smiles. "Hey so Ant wants us on an ATV, you up for that?" "Yeah. Just give me a second." "Sure." She doesn't move. After half a minute so he puts his hand on her shoulder. "Mer. We gotta go. Come on." She stares straight ahead. "I'm going to die here. I don't want to die, Moys." He forces a chuckle through his tightening throat. "Holy shit, who said anything about dying? We're just going for a ride. You really think my driving's that bad?" She puffs out the dry ghost of a laugh. "Come on Mer. I've got your back on this, have you got mine?" Her head bobs. "Sweet. Then we're gonna be just fine." She looks straight at him. "That another song?" she asks, cocking en eyebrow. "Accidental rhyme. But hey, if either of us die, you can totally give me shit over it. " "You're already full of shit." She shakes her head, but a little life has returned to her eyes. Moys smiles. The tail ramps have been slammed shut on the buffalos, and Ant is already mounted up on the other ATV. Moys cocks his head at the last unoccupied vehicle, and Merril nods. "Let's go." Please remember to put final orders in bold to help prevent mistakes. CACHE A:[ARC Rifle(x4)] [ARC Ammo(x4)] ::MAP NOTES::I am changing the way buildings work; instead of being treated as globular masses, they will have instead be made up of interior rooms. Buildings can be accessed by doors, which are visible on the map. (or doors can be 'made' by breaching charges or other equipment) The movement cost of moving through buildings is removed. Doors do not require actions to open (unless they are locked or something) but are also always consider to be closed, and block LOS accordingly. ALSO: new vehicle rules, for ease of use. They will need to be cleaned up some before they are incorporated into the manual. SLIGHT TURN:In addition to making sharp turns to change directon, vehicles can also make Slight Turns, which are analogous to lane changes on a freeway, moving the vehicle forward and laterally, but not changing it's direction. A Slight turn costs 2 movement points, and moves the vehicle diagonally 1 square forward, and 1 square to the left or right, without changing it's facing. CIVILIAN TRAFFIC (rule for this game only) In times of emergency, Civilian vehicles must yield for official NEA vehicles, and will move in such as way as to not interfere with their movement. (i.e. grey civilian cars will try to get out of your way, don't worry about trying to avoid them, even if they are directly in your way. They'll move. AUTOMATIC VEHICLE AVOIDANCEAll soldiers will automatically try to get out of the way of a vehicle if it is moving through their position. This may cause them to hold short of their objective or move without orders, but it's better than being crushed. As the GM I will also try to set the order of actions so both vehicle and soldier movement can succeed. VEHICLE COVERVehicles can be classed into 2 cover categories, "Full" and "half" Full-sized vehicles (trucks) block LOS entirely, half-sized vehicles (ATVs, civilian cars) add a cover bonus to units adjacent to them (if fire crosses them). these stats will be noted on the vehicle cards.
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Post by Abyssal Squid on Oct 27, 2016 14:37:04 GMT -8
Where are we expecting the Geist to to come from? The road to Rim City Starport seems like a safe guess, but what about the City Center and the unlabeled road to the west? I'm assuming the NEA Base is completely surrounded by walls and we can consider its perimeter secure.
Tentative plan: - SA to the north of the Mail Center, where Whitley and Williams can easily move to cover either of the main approaches with grenade launcher fire. - Let VB out, then park VA south of the NEA Base's gate. Burgess, McKinney, and Vance get out and prepare to throw frag grenades over the wall, which means McKinney stowing her ARC and picking a grenade up from the truck.
I'm probably underestimating something important, but hey, fresh meat here.
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Post by Gravedust on Oct 27, 2016 15:04:39 GMT -8
(( I purposefully leave a lot out, part of the point of this game it to give the player objectives but then leave it up to them how to actually achieve them. There's no intended way to beat this mission, but you will definitely fail it if you are forced to retreat (or all die) without blowing the bridges in the north. There is a guy up there you can talk to you about that.
Yeah, the base has a wall around most of it's perimeter, but there is a gate on the east side as well, so it is not totally secure.
The Geist are advancing from the south, so you can expect them on the south border first but as time passes, their spawn zone will begin to extend up the left and right sides of the map as well as they overrun the neighboring sectors.
..If you feel like you are underestimating something, it might be the number of Geist in the city. You will run out of ammo before you can kill half of them.)
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Post by vikinghelmet on Oct 27, 2016 17:03:54 GMT -8
Our orders are to go relieve the men at the bridge and then hold them until the situation becomes unmanageable - I think that should be our priority right now, since the NPC soldiers are probably needed elsewhere to help create a more defensible line. The tactical situation in the south or center of the map could also turn to shit real quickly, with multiple angles of attack and wide-open streets with no cover. The tactical situation by the bridges is better - the intersection to the north of the trolley station and power authority offices has limited approaches and covers access to all of the bridges except the one on the left, although there's the possibility of geist ambushing through the trolley station/phys plant square. With all that in mind, my rough plan would be: - Send an ATV to the bridge right away to get further info. The next steps might change depending on what we find out. - Park one transport each just to the north of the bottom left and bottom center intersections to give us some recon and give the civilians as much time as possible to escape. We'll pull these back as soon as there's any kind of substantial geist wave - my big assumption here is that the transports will generally be faster than the geist. If that's not true then things could get, uh, interesting. - Park the other transport with a smaller team on the far side of the main bridge in case there's any surprise geist coming out of a building or an unexpected direction. - Use the other ATV for recon - Gravedust , is there any chance that we might find useful equipment or anything in the various buildings? Feel free not to answer if that would be giving anything away, I'm just wondering if the buildings have a purpose beyond making the map more interesting and giving it some flavor. - Set up a secondary defensive line at the center north checkpoint and blow the west-most bridge. Hold this position until there's too much pressure, then retreat back to the far side of the main bridge.
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Post by Gravedust on Oct 28, 2016 8:09:16 GMT -8
Gravedust , is there any chance that we might find useful equipment or anything in the various buildings? Feel free not to answer if that would be giving anything away, I'm just wondering if the buildings have a purpose beyond making the map more interesting and giving it some flavor. Well, it's pretty unlikely you'll find a rocket launcher in an apartment complex, but in the right places you may be able to find useful things, sure. Edit: also, drew a Bats + MMG
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mydad
Full Member
Posts: 121
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Post by mydad on Oct 28, 2016 15:40:48 GMT -8
OK, sorry for taking so long, had a weird day. Move VC (hereby officially renamed to "Belfry" by Thobias) 3 tiles West and unload everyone but Darnell and Tobias. Bats sets up of the (mapwise) upper left edge of Belfry, Rhona on the right, while Clint and Leola move into the CPA office through the nearby door and try to find a good setup position along the southern edge, Clint taking the lower left corner if possible, and Leola watching his back. Cool pic.
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Post by vikinghelmet on Oct 28, 2016 16:51:03 GMT -8
OK - I'm going to assume that we already have the useful stuff from the base since our initial equipment had to come from somewhere, right? I also wouldn't want to get bogged down scavenging things and wind up having to fight to get out of the base. Here's my orders: Send SB (Roadrunner) to the main bridge to meet up with the soldiers that we're relieving.Send VB (Armadillo) out the gate and to the right, parking about where the small civilian car is now. Have everyone but the gunner get out and form a firing line to the left and right of the south end of the transport.Also, mydad - I'd be a little concerned about how long it would take your soldiers to get out of the CPA office if things start to go poorly. It's 7 spaces from your carrier to the inner SW corner of the office which is 3+ turns of movement for fully loaded soldiers. They also probably wouldn't have line of sight to shoot anything while running for the vehicle.
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mydad
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Post by mydad on Oct 28, 2016 17:11:18 GMT -8
I actually have no idea how much movement soldiers have. I tried looking it up in the rules but I must have glances over it somehow, so I hoped to wing it until I can infer it from watching the board. Those two can take up positions against the corners of the buildings in the alley then, I guess, moving the vehicle as north as needed for them to be able to make it there in one turn.
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Post by Abyssal Squid on Oct 28, 2016 18:23:37 GMT -8
Soldiers have 6 movement minus 1 for each item they carry, so everyone's down to 3 movement for now.
I still feel like that approach with the fortified wall is a prime place to use hand grenades, but it also feels risky to commit to that from the start. You're right about our primary mission being to relieve the soldiers at the bridge rather than to kill as many Geist as possible, so I'll get started on that.
Orders:
Send SA (Gazelle) to the north of the Civil Protection Authority Offices, so they can deliver grenade support as needed, or medical assistance, God forbid.
Send VA (Buffalo) to the bridges and begin relieving soldiers there. For now, I figure heavy weapons would be more of a liability than an asset against the incoming hordes.
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Post by vikinghelmet on Oct 28, 2016 19:08:13 GMT -8
Yea - the thing that makes me nervous about staying in the base is that we have absolutely no idea what the composition or number of the enemy is. For all we know, a massive horde of geist is going to charge up the street next turn and our only chance at survival will be to boldly run away. That's probably not likely, but without any real info I want to be in a position to withdraw rapidly if things go pear shaped.
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mydad
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Post by mydad on Oct 28, 2016 21:14:32 GMT -8
Actually, since you guys are moving and the Geist aren't on the map yet, should I go ahead to the next crossroad and set up there instead?
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Post by Abyssal Squid on Oct 29, 2016 7:22:22 GMT -8
Viking Helmet's still deploying a team to the north of their intersection, I'm just moving most of my squad (via Buffalo) to the bridges because it's not practical to deploy two teams side by side, and I've been convinced that it's probably a good idea to get out of the base ASAP.
Gazelle is still sticking around to provide artillery support as needed, probably staying near Viking Helmet because their only area attack is Armadillo's MMG. You've got two MMGs and a LMG so you can crank out a ton of lead. An AoE:1 attack can theoretically hit 20 enemies, compared to only 1 for a regular attack. We'll see what happens.
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