Robotech - Southern Cross Adventure

[D. Rex]

Spoiler

MDC
Main Body: 475/
Cannon: 150/
Arm L: 150/
Arm R: 150/

Arm Shield L: 500/

Arm Shield R: 500/
Leg L: 260/
Leg R: 260/
Pilot Compartment: 150/




In the Hover Tank:
Number of Attacks: 6, +1 attack per melee round at levels 1, 3, 6, 10, and 14
Strike Cannon: +8 (+2 UC)
Strike EU-11: +10(+2 UC)
Strike MIW-20: +8(+2 UC)
Hth strike: +9(+2 UC), +12 damage
Parry: +10 (+1 UC)
Dodge: +9 (+1 UC)
Roll: +10
Perception: +9
Initiative: +2 (+1 UC)

105mm Shells
APFSDS: 14
Plasma: 15
MPAT: 15
HEAT: 0
Canister: 0
Smoke: 3


105mm Cannon, Damage
APFSDS: 3d6x10
Plasma: 2d8x10, 25ft AoE
MPAT: 2d6x10, 50ft AoE
HEAT: 2d6x10
Canister(half range): 1d8x10, 25ft AoE
Canister(full range): 1d4x10, 50ft Aoe
Smoke: n/a, 100ft AoE


Rate of Fire: Twice per melee round
Payload: 48 rounds
Note: Typical loadout for the Hover Tank is nine shells of each kind except for the smoke rounds. Those have three rounds, unless something different is required for the mission.

EU-11 Gunpod
Single blast: 1d8
Five shot burst: 1d4x10
Ammo(rechargeable): 140/140

MIW-20 Triple Barreled Ion Pulse (tank mode only)
Three round burst: 1d6x10
Ammo: N/A

Marlon immediately dropped the trailer, and raised his tank off the ground, ready to advance as directed. First thing first. He immediately set his eyes on the radar, and then to the road ahead. The fire may have seemed to be trying to die down, but if this place got hit, it is a hot enough zone to check for traps before running in.

 

[WlfSamurai]

Alissa tightens her spacing up with the rest of the convoy and begins dialing in her ouwn sensors to warn her. Having done so, she starts a visual check pattern to keep her head on a swivel.

Burning, she considers. Could be heavy action. Best to keep myself ready to change modes. She gets on the team comm. "If we have to fight in town, battloid will work best to minimize damage. Ready to transform as needed."

 

[Psychie]

Using extreme caution, the squad advances. As you get closer, you start to get more details on what you can see. It is indeed the town on fire, or to be more accurate, it is burning out, with most of the buildings having been blasted and put to the torch. Bodies scatter the area, most of them having been hit by MDC weapons.

Marlon's keen eyes spot a section of recently disturbed earth in the main road leading into the town, and your training tells you that this would be a perfect spot for some kind of explosive device to be placed to destroy the unwary. There is just enough room to be able to move around the area, but you don't know if it is due to the placement of a possible explosive or if the hover effect of the tanks put you high enough away from the potential device to keep it from blowing up.

This was a farming village, and from the looks of it, the locals never even had fired a shot in return. This was a true slaughter, for no other purpose than to kill everyone that the attackers could find.

Everyone, please give me a Horror Factor roll, along with another set of Perception and Trap/Mine Detection.

 

[Sherwood]

Deunan can feel the bile rising up in her throat as she sees the bodies blasted and torn apart in the streets. "Keep your heads in the game, people. Whomever that did this may still be around, and we need to do a search for survivors. Do not split off by yourselves. Marlon, you are with me. Neo, Alan and Alissa, you are team two. Watch for booby traps. Neo, call this in."

Spoiler

I'm also going to try a Detect Ambush Roll - 66%.

On Foot:
Number of Attacks: 5
Strike: +7
Parry: +9 - +12 with Heavy Combat Shield
Dodge: +10
Roll: +6
Perception: +12
Initiative:
Damage: +2 from Ps

In the Hover Tank:
Number of Attacks: 6 - +1 attack per melee round at levels 1, 3, 6, 10, and 14
Strike: +9 with Cannons, +10 to HtH, +11 with EU-11 (+2)
Parry: +13 (+1)
Dodge: +13 (+1)
Roll: +9
Perception: +12
Initiative: +2 (+2)

APFSDS: 30 / 29
Plasma: 5
MPAT: 10
Smoke: 3

Left Shield: 500
Right Shield: 500
Main Body: 475

 

[D. Rex]

"Stop the tanks!" Marlon announced very firmly. "Possible minefield." He said.

Possible. Something dangerous enough he considered to be treated as if there were. There were many types of mines. Many varying degrees of damage and purposes. Some a hovertank at Max height would not be safe from. And you dont ignore a mine... because there is rarely only one...

Marlon would run a sweep over the road with his thermal imager. No, not All mines would show up to the device. It depended on the mine. But seeing temperature differential spots would show something was likely disturbed.

Regardless of what the thermal scans show, he would need to check manually. "Sergeant. Requesting permission to leave the tank to investigate. If the answer is no, then I suggest we take another way around, and mark this are as a minefield to be checked later. However mines here could be mines elsewhere." He stated.

"And yes ma'am, I'll be right beside you."

 

[Sherwood]

Deunan flips her tank into its Battloid mode and scans the area. "Permission granted. If you spot an explosive, and feel confident in your ability to do so, try and disarm it. We can't leave explosives lying around, ready explode when some innocent person comes along. Everyone else, carefully go around and search what's left of the village. We are looking for possible survivors along with any trace of who did this. It is probably going to be the Zentraedi, but lets not make assumptions."

Spoiler

On Foot:
Number of Attacks: 5
Strike: +7
Parry: +9 - +12 with Heavy Combat Shield
Dodge: +10
Roll: +6
Perception: +12
Initiative:
Damage: +2 from Ps

In the Hover Tank:
Number of Attacks: 6 - +1 attack per melee round at levels 1, 3, 6, 10, and 14
Strike: +9 with Cannons, +10 to HtH, +11 with EU-11 (+2)
Parry: +13 (+1)
Dodge: +13 (+1)
Roll: +9
Perception: +12
Initiative: +2 (+2)

APFSDS: 30 / 29
Plasma: 5
MPAT: 10
Smoke: 3

Left Shield: 500
Right Shield: 500
Main Body: 475

 

[Rykon]

Alan enters battloid mode and steps slowly through the wreckage on the other side of the village. He hated seeing such a sight, but he couldn't afford to look away. These people certainly deserved better than a slaughter like this.

 

[Psychie]

Marlon climbs down from his tank and approaches the area of disturbed earth with your demo kit in tow. After a bit of careful probing, you do find a explosive shell buried in the ground. You will need to make a Demolitions Disposal roll in order to render it safe.

Being focused on the mission at hand allows you to be able to push past the horror of the broken and burnt bodies without losing it. Do not let this fool you; it is a horrible sight. Probably the first time you have seen the effects of heavy military grade weapons on a human body.

As Marlon begins to work, Neo is on the radio, calling in the report to Anton-17.

Moving throughout the remains of the village, Alan and Alissa can clearly see signs that this was done by large mecha. There are several places where footprints have been mashed into the earth, showing you that at least one of the perpetrators was in fact a Zentraedi Female Powered Armor.

 

[WlfSamurai]

Alissa feels the nausea creeping into her mind and gut. The thought of innocent lives being lost in such a slaughter drives emotion through every tip of her body. It begins with deep sadness and ends in a fiery anger. All of it she keeps to herself and remains professional.

Flipping her Veritech into battloid, she begins moving through the village, looking for evidence and potential survivors. Noting the signs of large mecha, she warns the team.

"Seeing large mecha footprints here," she says over the comm to the team. "And Marlon, if you find a device, I can help you disable it."

 

[Sherwood]

Deunan is doing her best to remain professional, but the sight of all the loss of life here is almost too much for her to be able to put aside. Right now, I don't think I could handle taking any prisoners if a Zeek decided to try and surrender to us. She glances down at the body of someone, nearly unrecognizable as human and shakes her head, feeling the anger continuing to grow inside her.

"Just keep focused on your search. I am hoping that we can find someone alive here, but it is starting to look like we are too late to do much more than avenge the deaths here."

 

[D. Rex]

Very gingerly, he approached and very gently brushed off the loosest of dirt until he saw what it was. "Not a mine. Which is good. Looks like some unexploded ordinance. No less dangerous, but it means they didn't take the time to leave a mine field." He explained.

He knew better than to dwell in the bodies. In his explosive classes, he was made well aware of what an explosion could do. It never was the fire that killed you... you were never incinerated instantly. The flash of fire itself would not do much but give some burns and singed hair. It was the shockwaves. If you weren't ripped apart by the blast, then your insides were mangled by the concussive force. And if you somehow were lucky enough to survive the blast... then you would be shredded by the shrapnel, which normally traveled much farther than the lethality zone of the shockwave itself. Those who survived that somehow... concussions and blown eardrums. No... he didn't need to see the bodies to picture the damage. But knowing what it did, and seeing it in photographs still paled to seeing it in person. It was was a macabre blessing that in the front lines... your brother and sister soldiers were armor. That even should they die, ruinations of what is left behind was somewhat hidden by that armor... even if it couldn't protect them.

"I should be able to take care of this, Alan. Rookie stuff. But watch out for pock Mark's in the ground without explosion craters. The Zentraedi could be using expired or bargain bin munitions. You know as well as I do that just because it didn't explode on impact that it cant be set off." Yes... there were plenty of stories about that in the wars of old. Where entire regions got carpet bombed, and the bombs kept killing even years after they fell.

Marlon would work to remove and disable the shell.

 

[Psychie]

With slow, methodical movement, Marlon goes to work on the explosive. In this case, you know that haste will end up in a massive explosion right in your face. As Deunan stands guard over you, it takes you a couple of minutes to clear away the dirt enough to get enough of the shell exposed to work on. Then you are able to open up the explosive and begin to render it safe.

All the while that Marlon is working, the others are moving through the ruins of the town. The destruction is total, with hardly a brick still standing on top of one another. It is clear that there are no survivors. The Zentraedi were quite thorough in their work.

Soon enough, a signal comes through from Anton-17, acknowledging the report of the attack. "Understood, Third Heavy. Once you have completed your sweep for possible survivors, move on to deploy the radar set, then return to base."

 

[Sherwood]

Deunan keeps a close watch out as Marlon finishes his work disarming the warhead, listening to the report from Anton-17. "Copy that, Anton. We are finishing up our sweep, and just have the radar dish to set up, then we are RTB. So far, no sign of any survivors." She then calls out to the squad. "Once Marlon has rendered that warhead safe, we are out of here. We are soldiers, and we still have work to do."

Spoiler

On Foot:
Number of Attacks: 5
Strike: +7
Parry: +9 - +12 with Heavy Combat Shield
Dodge: +10
Roll: +6
Perception: +12
Initiative:
Damage: +2 from Ps

In the Hover Tank:
Number of Attacks: 6 - +1 attack per melee round at levels 1, 3, 6, 10, and 14
Strike: +9 with Cannons, +10 to HtH, +11 with EU-11 (+2)
Parry: +13 (+1)
Dodge: +13 (+1)
Roll: +9
Perception: +12
Initiative: +2 (+2)

APFSDS: 30 / 29
Plasma: 5
MPAT: 10
Smoke: 3

Left Shield: 500
Right Shield: 500
Main Body: 475

 

[Psychie]

Continuing your sweep, you are not able to spot any survivors. If anyone did make it through the attack, they may have run as soon as the shooting started. In any case, there is nothing alive in the town now.

Regrouping, you get back to the road where Marlon has finally finished disarming what you discover is a Long Range Missile that had not exploded. It was rigged to explode when someone drove a vehicle over it, obviously expecting that someone would come and investigate the silence from this town.
A short run back down the road to where you left the trailers reveal that they are still there, waiting for you, all set for the trip to deploy the mobile radar set on the nearby mountain top.

 

[Rykon]

Alan opens the squad band after having given a surface scan of the village. "I don't see anyone still here that's alive. I suppose I could try and look for tracks, but I don't think the lot of us marching in with tanks would be the most welcome sight after this." Alan says, manipulating the Spartas to mimic his vague gesture at the wreckage. "Still, I'm not opposed to trying to sniff a trail if we have the time. What's your call sarge?"

[I just remembered I had this skill and I should have rolled it beforehand. I'll go ahead and roll now in the event anything stood out in the wreckage.]

 

[Sherwood]

Deunan shakes her head. "No, we need to get the radar set up and running. No time to go hunting for potential survivors when our very presence may terrify them even more. We will make the Malcontents pay for this with a very sharp knife cutting their fucking throats. Lets go."

Spoiler

On Foot:
Number of Attacks: 5
Strike: +7
Parry: +9 - +12 with Heavy Combat Shield
Dodge: +10
Roll: +6
Perception: +12
Initiative:
Damage: +2 from Ps

In the Hover Tank:
Number of Attacks: 6 - +1 attack per melee round at levels 1, 3, 6, 10, and 14
Strike: +9 with Cannons, +10 to HtH, +11 with EU-11 (+2)
Parry: +13 (+1)
Dodge: +13 (+1)
Roll: +9
Perception: +12
Initiative: +2 (+2)

APFSDS: 30 / 29
Plasma: 5
MPAT: 10
Smoke: 3

Left Shield: 500
Right Shield: 500
Main Body: 475

 

[WlfSamurai]

Alissa flips her Veritech back into tank mode and falls into the column as they leave. The horrific scene has taken it's toll, though she'd never admit it. A fatigue has set into her mind and chest. It feels like her heart needs a break from emotion.

All those people. Innocents. Dead. And for nothing, or so it would seem. She'd never get used to war, despite growing up with it. But, this is somehow different. All the combat carnage and atrocity has always had purpose to it. An objective. The most grizzly scenes she's been exposed to only included soldiers: men and women who's job it was to fight and die. Slaughtered innocent women and children without a chance stepped out of those bounds.

She does her job. The radar is still their objective. She scans with her eyes and sensors. But, she does so in silence, unable to summon the strength to speak more than necessary.

 

[Psychie]

For the rest of your day, there is no Zentraedi activity to report, and you have no difficulty in getting the mobile radar set up and running. At least that part of your day has gone by without any drama.

The drive back to Anton-17 is quiet and somber, with the images of the dead still fresh in your minds. It is with a sense of relief that you see the walls of the base up ahead, and after you have the minefield turned off, you are able to pull up into the large vehicle bay and power down. Immediately after that, the maintenance crews move in to inspect the tanks for damage, and all seem pleased that there is none to report.

As everyone is securing their gear and brushing off the dust from their boots, you are met by Doctor Lawrence. "I heard about what you found out there at your last stop. I want you to know that while I am primarily a medical doctor, I am fully qualified to act as a shrink for anyone that has the need to talk about what you saw, and to offer up a friendly ear. Everything you say in my office is confidential, so you can speak your mind freely. Just let me know, and I'm here for you."


During the next week, the squad is called on to do some more patrolling around, looking for signs of Zentraedi activity, of which you find none. This allows the Captain to decide to ease the alert level, and allow passes to be granted to go out to the nearby town of La Fuente. Since the members of the Third Heavy have been in the field for the past several days, Lt. Hulsizer decides to allow your squad the first of the off-base passes if you want.

 

[Sherwood]

After having a long week of patrolling out in the jungle looking for Zentraedi activity, Deunan is quite willing to go and have a good time relaxing in a civilian bar, and seeing what entertainment that La Fuente has to offer up. She thanks the LT for the pass, and goes off to find the rest of her team to see if they would be wanting to join her off base.

 

[D. Rex]

Marlon made sure that the radar system was set up properly. And made sure that it was covered with the camouflage netting that he had brought along. Should help it stay hidden.

As they returned, Marlon indeed welcomed the break for the day. And hit the hay at the earliest convenience.

___


Then the time came for their very generous leave. Marlon indeed have the pass, but he was still debating on whether or not to take advantage of it. After all he figured there still could be work around the base that he could help with.

Duenan would find him in the mess hall sitting at one of the tables. He wasnt doing much but drinking a cup of coffee with some binders and booklets in front of him. They were manuals. Of the destroids, mounted armaments around the base, and the Spartan tanks.

Marlon was flipping through them, not so much of reading but stopping to look at the diagrams and cross sections. Less of an intricate study and more of just familiarizing himself with their innards. While it seemed a pretty lazy way to go about things, he felt that knowing what was where was just as important as to the finer aspects of the machines. After all, you aren't always going to have the specialized tools and parts to repair a lot of the parts on the field.

At the bottom of the pile of booklets was instruction manual on a minesweeper and list of explosives that has been witnessed and reported by the forces on the region. He would get to those eventually. Probably toward the end of his next cup of coffee.

 

[WlfSamurai]

Alissa notes the Dr. Lawrence's offer and decides she may take him up on it. Her mind feels as though it has lost its sharpness. Like someone has put a blanket over her head and she's disconnected from the world.

As soon as she's able, Alissa finds the shower and spends too long in it. Thinking, mostly. Doing her best to deconstruct her thoughts and feelings into manageable and approachable pieces. The carnage seems to play back in her mind every moment she stops thinking or focusing on something else.

The rest of the week on patrol finds Alissa distracted. Much of her feelings about the massacred town have dulled, but her mind continues to turn back to it at every chance. Unsure what to do, she spends most her time in her bunk, writing and rewriting. Anything she thinks or feels she free-writes, attempting to get it out her mind.

When the passes come in, Alissa goes to find Duenan.

"Sergeant," the Corporal says. "Would you ... want to hit the town. I mean, with me! Would you want to hit the town, with me? I need to blow off some steam. I need a damned drink."

 

[Sherwood]

Deunan gives Alissa a smile. "Hell, yeah. I was just about to go looking for everyone to ask just that question. After the week we've had, I can't think of anything better than decompressing with a few hearty drinks. Lets go find the others and check out a car from the garage."

 

[Rykon]

Alan had been the route of therapy before and didn't feel an immediate need to burn the doctor's time. He did, however, schedule time to vent when there was an opening. Surely any wounded or more disturbed soldiers took priority. His fears were more about becoming a soulless killer and losing his humanity.

After weeks of patrols, he certainly grew weary of all the field duty. His off-hours were often filled with a mixture of casual exercise, reading, or music, sometimes all three. When approached with the offer, Alan smiles. "As long as there is good food and a change of pace from base I'm in. Feels like I've barely had time to be that worthless maggot the drill sergeants saw in boot camp."

 

[WlfSamurai]

Alissa follows the Deunan with a smile. She tries to ignore the ache in her chest. A sort of disappointment that the others might join. She hadn't realized she wanted to spend time with the Sergeant by herself. Not until the mention of the rest of the team.

Alissa does her best to hide it all and focus on having fun. She knows as soon as she has a few drinks in her, she'll feel better. Or at least she won't feel. The heartache, disappointment, horror, distraction, and anxiety can melt into a medium buzz.

 

[Psychie]

When everyone is looking for each other, you find Neo in the Command Center, putting her comm skills to good use and helping out as best as she can. With the offer of going off base to see the sights of La Fuente, she is all excited about that. "I'd love to go! I wonder just what there is to do in La Fuente for a bunch of grunts like us besides drink ourselves to oblivion. Well, I guess we'll find out together!"

After a quick trip up to the vehicle garage, you are able to sign out a hover staff car with a GPS to be able to find the nearby town. Lt. Danfield tells you that while you are off base, you are to carry your sidearms, but there is no need for your armor megasuits. "Have fun out there, but make sure you are back by 2300 hours or the First Sergeant will have your asses in a sling."

Packing into the hover car, you set out for La Fuente.