Army of the Southern Cross

[AldarisLordOfLight]

"Artillery did a very good job at stopping this Cyclops. Almost obliterated the thing too." Adrian sighed in the end. "I hope the thing's flight recorder is intact despite the damage. Here's hoping for a miracle." He said softly before trying his best to search.

 

[Sherwood]

Give me a d20 roll for Perception, please.

 

[Orikanyo]

"Moira, remind me to get you drink." Heinrich then began to rely information as it came to him, including the location of the captain and a few other reported distress calls along with the downed tiger eye.

 

[AldarisLordOfLight]

Adrian tried his best to search through the wreckage and he found...

 

[Sherwood]

Between the keen eyes of Heinrich and Adrian, you can find a twisted box that fits the description of the onboard flight recorder. It might be possible to access the data, but it will take someone with Basic Electronics and Basic Mechanics to make a interface that you can use. Eric has the needed skills; it will just take him a few minutes of time to make the hard connection needed unless someone else wants to give it a try.

Heinrich is able to get a signal out to the same firebase that housed the artillery units that wiped out the Cyclops, and they in turn are relaying the contents of your signal to the regional command. "Good work, Hussars! You are the closest allied units to the coordinates of where the lasers have come from, so locking in the exact position of the guns is falling on your shoulders. We are placing you on the priority list for future artillery attacks once you have a location for the Monsters and Phalanx Destroids to hit. We need to get our air power back in the sky, and this is our only option. Keep your comms open and continue to report in your progress. Brazilia Fire Control out."

 

[Orikanyo]

"Roger that." Heinrich responded before looking to his squad. "We have the go ahead and priority of the artillery, all we have to do is line up the shot, and hope I don't screw it up." he was honest, he had a bad gut feeling shot was going to hit the fan again.

"As we do so, we should remain with a low profile, keep low, fast, and out of sight. Hard for tanks, yea, but the less we deal with more missiles the better. Adrian, think we can bust that basted open?"

 

[AldarisLordOfLight]

"Given enough time, some decent information, and a few good men and women, I think we can. Luck has been on our side for the past few battles. What more could happen with Lady Luck here by our side?" Adrian responded as he inspected the onboard flight recorder.

"Tsk. It's damaged, we'll need Eric's expertise to get this bitch up and running again. I personally could do little to help, I'm good with computer repairs but I don't know it that would be enough to get this damned thing going, so we need the resident mechanic to take a look at this."

 

[Sherwood]

Eric gives a nod. "Let me break out my toolkit and take a look at that recorder. This will take me . . . oh, say fifteen minutes? Just to give you fair warning, this box is pretty hammered, and it may not be able to reveal any useable intel on the location of the base this Cyclops came from, but I'll give it my best shot."

While he works, what will everyone else do? Do you send the six Zentraedi soldiers on their way now that they have been disarmed?

 

[Psychie]

Moira would continue to try to pump the troopers for more information on the ship and the number of troops located in it. If they don't have any of that intel, she would vote to let them go after making sure that their radios are toasted. No need for them to be able to call in a warning that they are on the way, right?

 

[Sherwood]

The six soldiers don't have exact numbers, but they do tell you that the ship is home base to hundreds of Malcontents, and they have been using the mecha stored onboard the destroyer to help equip the forces to be able to attack the RDF and other local military forces in the area. Other than that, these guys are pretty low on the totem pole, and don't have much other information that they can give you.

After working for a bit, Eric tosses his tools down in irritation. "This thing is pretty thrashed. I don't know if there is anything that I can recover from it at all. Those Monsters did a good job in hitting the Cyclops, but they sure didn't leave me much to be able to work with. Perhaps if I had better tools? I don't know. Sorry, guys."

 

[AldarisLordOfLight]

"Here, let me see that." Adrian said as he moved in close and inspected the terminal alongside Eric. "I have a hand in tech as well, Eric. Maybe I can help shed some miracles for us..."

 

[Psychie]

Moira offers to take a look at the wiring, too. "Between the bunch of us, we should be able to bring this back to life."

 

[Sherwood]

Despite Moira's interference, Adrian is able to get a signal coming from the black box. It will take you a few minutes to make heads or tails of the alien signal format, but once you get a grip on just how the system is reporting its data, you are able to accurately track the flight path of the Cyclops. As expected, its point of origin is right in the middle of the mountain range that the Tiger Eye was able to identify as the source of the heavy lasers. Assuming that the Cyclops launched from the destroyer, you now have a lock on where the ship is. All you have to do now is get there to be able to get accurate coordinates of the guns to call in the thunder.

 

[AldarisLordOfLight]

Adrian lets out a sigh of relief. "Well, we now have a direction, and assuming our dear Moira has found something from the computer of hers as well...we now have a good idea on where this destroyer is at. All we need to do now is go there, confirm it, then call in the thunder to bring down the rain." He smiled at his cheesy little moment in the end. "So Sarge, what's the attack plan?"

 

[Orikanyo]

"We'll remain under cover as much as possible, we cannot risk another battle, but we must clear this air supieriority while we have the momentum. We have the key to solve this, and we must use it, lives are at risk." heinrich walked his mecha forwards. "lea the way, we will lay low if we spot any enemies, we will be shadows in this jungle."

 

[AldarisLordOfLight]

"Righto, Sarge! Moira, come join me up front; you also have a piece of the map after all. Plus, I feel safer to have someone with a sure shot with me at the front of the pack. Life and death can mean between who has the quicker draw." Adrian called out in the end as he quickly got on board his Chimera. "This will be an exciting hunt! Instead of wild game, we'll hunt down a destroyer." He said with a toothy grin.

 

[Sherwood]

With the order given, the tanks of the Winged Hussars start out through the jungle towards the hopeful location of the destroyer and its heavy guns. On your radar, you can track multiple airborne targets that your computers can identify as Zentraedi Fighter Pods and Male Power Armor, all heading out to support the waves of Battle Pods that are attacking the various towns and bases in the area, and your radios are all alive with reports of more and more Zentraedi units striking out and rampaging across the countryside.

Using stealth, you are able to avoid any other encounters as you work your way towards the probable location of the ship. As you reach the top of a tree covered ridge line, you can look out across the mountains in front of you and Moira's trained eye immediately spots the distinctive outline of a crashed Thuverl-Salan class destroyer that has plowed nose first into the earth. Camouflage netting and large mounds of earth have been piled up to help break up the silhouette of the vessel, but from her years of being assigned to one of these ships, Moira is certain that it is the target that they are after.

Looking down into the valley next to the ship, you can spot that there is several dozen Regult class battle pods on patrol, keeping watch over the ground approach to the destroyer. Any attempt for a mecha to approach close enough to help guide in missiles or artillery will risk being discovered. Proceeding on foot might be the safest way to get within range to paint the three main gun turrets on the top of the ship's hull.

 

[Psychie]

Moira exults inside as she looks out at the destroyer lying in the dirt. "Got it! There it is, guys. That's the sonofabitch that has been causing us so much trouble lately. All we have to do is get close enough to it to guide in the artillery. I see that we have two options that might work. First, we see just how well the stealth systems on the Chimera work and have Adrian slip forward enough to get the coordinates of the three guns. Second, we approach on foot, and use a portable laser designator to paint the turrets. I'm willing to go forward on foot to do the designating; being so small compared to our enemies will make it harder to detect me, unless you want to try and have our stealth tank make the run."

 

[AldarisLordOfLight]

"On foot or on the Chimera, I'm ready and able. If I'm going in on the Chimera, I hope you boys and girls are ready to pull my ass out of the fire when it all goes sideways. On foot, I have a LAR-12S Sharpshooter Sniper Rifle with me so keeping the distance and the pain constant is good on my end." Adrian replied to the squad comms.

 

[Orikanyo]

"The stealth tank will be safer in case you are spotted.. but the on foot choice... We could attempt a distraction as you perform the painting, i anthing to keep them distracted for the time required. Start a fire? fire upon them and run for cover? make a large explosive for them to investigate?" Heinrich posed some ideas. "Eric, think you can rig up something something big and explosive to get the job done?"

 

[Sherwood]

Eric ponders the options. "I don't have much in the way of explosives with me. Hmmm. I could repurpose a few plasma shells as IEDs. It would take me a few minutes on each one that I work on, unless someone wants to jump in and help out. How many shells are we talking about? Besides, I thought that the whole idea was not to draw any attention to ourselves."

So, what is the plan? Does Adrian plan on advancing forward to help target the artillery in his tank? Or are you going to go forward on foot?

 

[Orikanyo]

"the plan is to draw attention elsewhere, if we are able to set up the IED on a timer or remote trigger we can blow them far enough from the base, but enough to cause interest. they will send people to investigate and allow Adrian an opening to paint the target through a gap in the defence, or atleast some time that their interest will be put elsewhere. I'm not sending him in without some sort of distraction. if we use 3-4 shells of plasma rounds it would create a big enough explosion to draw interest. It's not like I'm saying blow ourselves up so we can draw enemies to us, we'll be long gone before those things blow. I'll help you with the project how I can, Fia, Moira, help as well, we will then place the shells on the opposite side that Adrian will be heading."

heinrich better explained the plan, before looking to Adrian. "Adrian, i think you would have a better chance of not being spotted on foot. Along with the fact they won't catch much heat signatures from you, unlike the tank. We only need you to pain the target, and get out. No need to chat with them, they are waiting on our call." he explained himself before giving the codes to the man. "once the bombs are ready, we can begin. the signal to start heading in will be obvious, so find a good place to hide and stay low until the big plume of smoke rises high. Are there any questions? Any problems?"

 

[AldarisLordOfLight]

"As much as I trust the sensor spoofers my Chimera has, going on foot is a lot less conspicuous. I'll tag the damned thing, eh? Sounds easy enough. I suggest adding in a couple of HEAT round to your little IED for a louder bang."

Adrian said as he grabbed his sniper rifle, some spare power cells, a portable laser targeting designator courtesy of the team, and his satellite radio pack for the occasion.

"Right, I expect the explosion to be something that can thin the herd and weaken the defense net around the area. I'll keep you guys posted on any sudden changes, but I'll definitely be in there radio-silence. Don't want any of them picking up our comm signals unless it's boom time from artillery. Okay, if no one objects or no one wants to accompany me on this romantic rendezvous, let's get the party started."

 

[Orikanyo]

"The plan wasn't to put the explosive inside the base or it's encampment, but your idea is noted." heinrich gave the man a nod before moving to aid his compatriot how he can.

 

[Psychie]

"Maybe we can arrange to have the artillery to drop a few AoE shells down into the valley; soften up the Battle Pods and distract them that way, too. In the meantime, I'll take three of my own plasma shells and wire them together to make a bomb. I'll set them up with a remote detonator, and once Adrian is ready for the distraction, we can blow them and see what happens."

Spoiler: Ammo Loadout

12 Sabot
7 Plasma
8 MPAT
5 HEAT
5 Canister
3 Smoke
-200/80/200 MDC