Robotech - Southern Cross Adventure

[Rykon]

Alan wheels a couple crates of weaponry and armor into the small cargo area of the appropriate transport before hopping into his own assigned Spartas for loading. His smile began to grow sore on his face by the time he had to exit the tank after getting it secured for liftoff. "They sure didn't give us the hand me downs, did they? I can't wait to take them out in the field. Sucks we get this tease before a day-long flight."

 

[Sherwood]

Deunan nods in agreement. "I know how you feel. These are brand new tanks, and it looks like we are the first operators for them. I'm very interested in seeing what these little babies can do!"

 

[D. Rex]

Marlon plopped down in a seat across from Deunan and Alan. After making sure his gear was stored and his tank safety secured.

"Well they ain't gonna be new for long. The jungle and Zentraedi are going to make sure of that." He chuckled. "But this long flight isn't all that bad. It gives me some time to do little research." He said as he patted a few books and manuals in his lap.

"Plus get rid of any nasty side effects of last night. Oh and that reminds me, Sergeant. With you being the boss and all, you got any special rules or conditions or expectations you are wanting of us? I know we are a new team, but I'd like to know what sort of style you will be employing. And given that we are a recon squad, what sort of tactics you prefer and avoid. So we can best. Eh. Synergize."

 

[Psychie]

It takes about a half hour for the cargo masters on the big jet to be able to have all of your tanks tied down and safely secured. During that time, everyone makes themselves comfortable in the passenger section of the jet, and while you are waiting, you get some time to do a little research into the area you are going to.

Over the past few weeks, the Zentraedi in the Control Zone have been increasing their raids on the surrounding towns and convoys in the area to an alarming level. Several sizable battles have taken place near three of the Border Surveillance Posts (BSURPs) with a verified force of over forty Regult Battlepods of various models, and several dozen heavy infantry and upwards of fifty Micronized troops. These strikes were beaten back, but at the cost of some heavy casualties on the side of the RDF defenders. As a matter of fact, the post you are going to, Anton-17, suffered losses of six of its heavy Destroids, with them taking so much damage that they were a total loss. Only scrap metal is left.

The Army of the Southern Cross has been asked to provide assistance in hunting down the source of these raids, using the smaller but still very powerful hover tanks to go into the jungle and root out the cancer that is festering in the Control Zone.

 

[Sherwood]

Deunan looks over at Marlon and the rest and ponders her response. "Welp, I look at the amount of ass kicking that five Spartas tanks can bring to bear, and when I look at the losses that the RDF have suffered in the past day or two, I am thinking that we will be in the midst of some heavy fight soon. As a Heavy Recon Squad, we will be operating out forward of our allied lines, hunting for signs of Malcontents and their allies. I can also see us doing our best to make nice with the local villages, since they might be a good source of intel. Basically, we are the tip of the spear, looking for where these assholes are located, so we can then have the combined air and ground forces to bring a world of hurt on them."

 

[Rykon]

Alan seems to be visibly fighting sleep at this point just to speak, "Perhaps we should consider what might be causing or enabling them to escalate the conflict like this. Ideally after a good bit of sleep. I'm no expert on anything Zentraedi, but I s'pose we'll have to learn on the fly." He said, locking himself into his seat and throwing on sunglasses to dampen any light that would cause him to wake early. "Not like it isn't what they picked us for anyways."

 

[Psychie]

Neo chuckles. "Sounds good to me, boss lady. According to the latest reports, there has been a new Warlord that has clawed her way to the top of the food chain down there, a former ship captain named Taniya. There is one hell of a price listed on her head, and if we can find the location of her hideout, that would be a real feather in our caps."

Looking over the bulletins, Marlon sees that there is indeed a large scale hunt underway, looking for where this new Warlord is based at. High Lord Taniya has proved to be a nasty player, and the captured Zentraedi troops are a mix of in awe and fear of her. Taking her out would be a major blow to the morale of the insurgents in the area.


Soon, you can feel the pressure change in the Tunny, marking it sealing up the doors and getting ready to taxi out to take off for the beginning leg of your journey. With the length of the flight, it will require the Tunny to refuel halfway there, but you are not going to be on the ground for that. All of this will be done with aerial tankers to fill the fuel up to get you to your destination that much faster.

Once you are in the air, there is little to do to pass the time. Some sleep, others have games or movies that they have on their tablets that they watch. No matter what you do, though, it will still be about an eighteen hour flight to go around the Control Zone and come into Brazilia Base from the east, probably with fighter escorts to make sure you get there in one piece.

The good thing about the long flight is that it gives you all plenty of time to recover from your partying the night before and be sober and clear headed upon landing. You will be given a brief amount of time to shower and freshen up before being sent out on your way to Anton-17 to reinforce the beleaguered defenders of the outpost.

 

[Sherwood]

When they finally get into the air, the dull thrum of the engines and the soft movement of the jet lulls Deunan to sleep. After a good chunk of the trip is over, she finally wakes up, feeling very disoriented. It takes her a few moments to remember just what is going on, then she makes a hasty retreat to the bathroom to take care of the call of nature.

When she is finally feeling a bit better, she sets herself back down to begin looking over the personnel files on her team. Not expecting to see anything crazy; after all, they had all come from the same accelerated training program that required an intense background check just to qualify for it. Also, she takes a long look at their orders. What exactly are they to expect upon landing?

 

[Psychie]

Your expectations on the files of your team are pretty much as you expect: Everyone in the squad are remarkably intelligent, highly trained, and very motivated to excel. No black marks in their records at all, showing you that this is a real top notch team.

The orders you have are simple, too. There is a resupply convoy being put together at Brazilia Base that will be sent out to Anton-17 to help repair the damage done, resupply the base, and add to the infantry and mecha complement of the outpost. You are going to be a significant part of the convoy defense force, along with some older model tracked tanks and APCs. There are several fuel tankers, ammo haulers, and spare parts that need to make it to the outpost to keep it in business, so it is critical that this shipment gets there in one piece. In addition to the old style tanks and APCs full of heavy infantry, there will be four Destroids; a Tomahawk, a Defender air defense mecha, and two Spartans.

This amount of firepower going along shows the level of importance of the shipment. It has to get through.

Hours go by uneventfully. As you get closer to your destination, everyone has a dull headache from being stuck inside the Tunny for so long, listening to the engines roar through the fuselage of the aircraft. Finally, there is the announcement to fasten seat belts and prepare for landing. Dull clunks can be felt as the landing gear come down and lock into place. Soon enough, there is the thump as the transport hits the tarmac, signalling that you are at an end to the long flight.

Now, the next part of the journey begins.

 

[WlfSamurai]

Alissa sits up, startled. She pulls the blackout mask off her face. "We're here?!" she says. Looking across at the rest of the team, she sees how dumb her question really was. She collects herself and tries to wipe the surprise off her face.

Alissa sighs and begins gathering her things. "What's the scoop, Boss? We going to see action?"

 

[Rykon]

Alan pulled off his shades and attempted to pry the sleep from his eyes. "Well, things seem to be settling in. Hope I wasn't snoring loudly or anything." He said, face flushing slightly, hoping he hadn't aggravated his new team on the flight.

He cleared his throat, then scanned the interior of the plane looking for signs of departure from any other passengers. "We clear to disembark?"

 

[Psychie]

With the Tunny coming to a stop, the passengers rise and begin to retrieve their gear from the overhead bins.

To answer the question of who to report to, your orders tell you to get to the convoy assembly area and find Lt. Michael Calderon. He's the one that is giving the orders for the trip to Anton-17.

Once you get to the lower deck, you can see the cargomasters of the Tunny already hard at work unhooking the tie-downs on your tanks. One by one, you carefully maneuver your tanks through the massive cargo hold of the transport and down the ramp into the open air of Brazilia Base. Your first impressions are that it is a world of difference from Monument City; hot and humid instead of cold. Fortunately, your hard suits have the climate control in them to keep you cool and dry in the dripping wet humidity.

Driving through the base to the convoy assembly area, you can see that this is a fairly large production involving eight hover cargo trucks, four fuel tankers, six lightweight APCs being loaded with infantry, four older tracked tanks, and four Destroids; the Tomahawk, the Defender, and the two Spartans. Quite a lot of firepower that is making the trip to Anton-17.

Lt. Calderon is a short, stocky man with a head of bright red hair, standing off to one side of the convoy with a pair of NCOs. He watches as the five of you come pulling into the assembly area with an unreadable face. Once the tanks come to a stop, he walks over. With a quick glance at a datapad, he calls out, "Right on time. Which one of you is Sgt. Conway?"

 

[Sherwood]

Alissa sighs and begins gathering her things. "What's the scoop, Boss? We going to see action?"

Deunan stretches and can feel her back pop. "We are on our way to the front lines of the hottest spot on the planet, the place crawling with Zentraedi forces. You can bet your sweet ass that we will be seeing action, probably sooner rather than later. C'mon, everyone. Lets get downstairs to our tanks. After all, they aren't paying us by the hour."

Once the squad has cleared the Tunny and is free to maneuver, she sets course to the assembly point, her eyes looking over the large convoy. Damn. That's a lot of trucks to keep watch over. If I were in the Zentraedi's shoes, I'd hit this convoy hard to keep these supplies from getting to a already weakened BSURP. At least it won't be us by ourselves to keep an eye on these vehicles. When the officer comes walking over, Deunan jumps down and snaps to attention in front of him. "Sir, Sergeant Deunan Conway reporting as ordered with the Third Heavy Recon squad. Now that we're here, where do you want us, and when do we move out?"

 

[D. Rex]

Aside from the standard reports on Marlon's file, a few things peeked out to Deunan. He had low physical aptitude scores when joining. Combined with his high intellect and prior mechanical training he was to be a good fit in the engineering and repair crews. Despite doing well in the training, and despite the chance of him having the chance to be promoted to more esteemed engineering military careers, he appeared dissatisfied with working on base or in a hangar and insisted upon being switched to a frontline position. Was given permission to train for tank operations. Marlon redoubled his efforts, taking the initiative to apply his engineering skills to combat scenarios, fortifications, and explosives. As well as going out of his way to bring his physical fitness up to par. (Probably some inaccuracies, I apologize in advance if anything doesn't work like that. Just a summary i tried to get out quick, that sounds better than "explosive wielding tank medic".)



The flight was boring. While he did do a good spot of reading, most of it was just flipping through manuals and looking at a few reports of what was going on down there. Sleep did eventually overtake him.


He had woken up a bit before landing. Leaving him a little time to reflect. The deployment was going pretty well so far. Alan seemed pretty competent. Alissa was hot. So was Deunan, but she was also the lead. She seemed enthusiastic enough about the role. And they were to all go down to tropical climate, amongst thick flora, and try to hunt down a giant pirate lady.

He of course was not so disillusioned to think things were actually that rosey. He had read the reports after all. If the base got hit hard once, then this little reinforcement was not likely going to deter them from hitting it again. It also meant they would likely be expecting a serious enough force that they shouldn't be taking too many risks. Lady Warhammer was doing well out here, so he would wager she was probably going to stay in the offensive.


As the plane landed, and they got in their tanks. Marlon would follow Deunan. She was the sergeant after all. So when the met up with the Lt. He simply stayed silent to let her do the talking and get their orders.

 

[Rykon]

The inside of Alan's dossier was fairly standard, though there were couple more psyche evaluations than expected. Further probing would reference a case file where his brother had been convicted of assault against a man who was also convicted of two counts of accessory to attempted murder among other things. The first evaluation was voluntary at a police station after having assisted in the takedown of what all witnesses claimed were active shooters. Since then, he had enlisted three months after the conclusion of his brother's case and has been a dutiful soldier with only his testing and training performance to stand out. Military occupational programs include search and rescue, heavy weapons handling, and battloid piloting.

As soon as Alan stepped out of the Tunny, he thanked god for environmental suits. Sweat nearly immediately began to foam from his exposed forehead, leaving an unpleasantly wet feeling while saluting the Lieutenant. He stayed silent during the exchange and stayed to formation behind his squad leader. Wherever we end up, I just want to get this helmet on before I hit medium well.

 

[Psychie]

The lieutenant looks over the five of you with a dour expression. "Very good, sergeant. I want your Tonka toys to take point. The Zentraedi have never encountered your little mecha, so they won't know what to do about you. Perhaps you will be able to flush out some action for us to deal with while you sit back and watch the real mecha take charge." He looks over at one of the NCOs with him. "Give her the operating codes for this supply run, then get her into position. I want to be on the move in ten."

"Yes, sir. Sergeant Conway? Come with me, please." He heads back over to where the hover tanks are, and hands you his data tablet. "Here. Use this to enter in the encryption codes into your computers. And don't worry too much about the LT. He's a bit old school, and doesn't see a reason for there to be a new line of mecha when the Destroids did well enough against the Zentraedi in the past. Once you get to know him, he's really a good guy. I'm sure you'll get along with him in time. I'm Dennis Cole, by the way. Good to meet you."

Now that you have the codes in your computer, you can interlink them back and forth between the members of your squad. Once you have done that, you can hear the back and forth radio chatter between the various units of the convoy.

 

[Rykon]

Alan seemed cordial enough to Dennis and the Lieutenant, but once the squad was out of earshot of the other soldiers he whispered the snide remarks he'd been holding back. "Not sure I'm a fan of a butter bar smack talking my tank like that. I guess machines the likes of Freckles over here are just too majestic for an old fart to appreciate without being made deaf from cannon fire first." Evidently, the corporal had already conjured a name for his machine on the flight over amidst his nap. "Besides, I've handled Destroids and Bioroids before in training. Can't say they hold up to the thrill of a Spartas."

 

[D. Rex]

Marlon laughed. Trying to do so quietly. He did quite love snide remarks. "Well I'm sure he'll change his tune once he see's them in action. He isn't wrong though, destroids have done us well in the past. But judging from how the destroids on the outpost we are going to got decimated, these new armors will win them over fast. What turned them to scrap, will barely tickle us."


"But... Freckles? Why Freckles?"

 

[Rykon]

Alan chuckled, "Hey now, don't look at me in that tone of voice." He then pointed over to the sides of the tank where the cannons are mounted. "See those big white casings where the weapons are housed? See the red spots on em?" He said with a goofy grin. "Big ol' freckles... death freckles."

Spoiler: Combat Block (Freckles)

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

Ammo:
APFSDS: 30
Plasma: 5
MPAT: 5
Canister: 5
Smoke: 3

Rolls:
Number of Attacks: 6
Strike: +5 with Cannons, +6 to HtH, +7 with EU-11
Parry: +7
Dodge: +6
Roll: +6
Perception: +8
Initiative: +2

 

[Sherwood]

Deunan gives the lieutenant a salute when she is dismissed, and turns on her heel and guides the sergeant back to her tank. She keeps her mouth shut until Sgt. Cole introduces himself. "Good to meet you, too. I guess it will take a bit of work for us to show those out there that doubt the effectiveness of the Spartas just how good of a fighter it can be. Alright, now that we have our codes, we can get to our positions and head out when ordered."

She waits for Cole to leave before she climbs up into the cockpit of her tank and hits the squad only channel. "Conway here. Everyone, we may be the bastard stepchildren in this convoy, but when we go into combat, we will by God show everyone just what the Spartas and the ASC can do! But for the sake of your skins and mine, just remember that we need to be respectful to the lieutenant. Lord only knows how bad he will come down on all of us if we piss him off."

Deunan listens to the conversation between Alan and Marlon and chuckles. I need to come up with a good name for my rig, too. I wonder what I'll call it? "Once we are on the road, keep the idle conversation to a minimum and keep your heads in the game. Eyes open, and your head on a swivel. We are all in unfamiliar territory, but we have all trained to be the best no matter where we are or what we are doing. Lets get to it."

Switching to the command frequency, she says, "This is Sgt. Conway. Sir, the 3rd Heavy Recon is in position and ready to move out."

Spoiler

Psychie Since we have different kinds of shells for the main gun, what kind of ammo do we have loaded in them?

Spoiler: Combat Stuff

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
Parry: +13
Dodge: +13
Roll: +9
Perception: +12
Initiative: +2

APFSDS: 30
Plasma: 5
MPAT: 5
HEAT: 5
Smoke: 3

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

 

[WlfSamurai]

Alissa, having draped herself in her tank's cockpit before, snaps her harness in place and puts her limbs in the Veritech's controls. The feeling of being hugged to her tactical seat fills her with excitement. It had been far too long since she was on-mission.

The feeling gives way to anxiousness and exhilaration. The potential for enemy contact. Terrain she didn't personally know. A new team. All of it has her head swimming and her heart beating.

Alissa grips her controls tighter. "Kerensky, reporting in, Sergeant," she says after keying in the team channel. "All set here." She brings her Spartas into formation around the column.

Spoiler: Combat Info

In Hover Tank:
Number of Attacks: 6
Strike: +5 long range (+7 called shots), +6 melee
Parry: +9
Dodge: +8
Roll: +9 to roll impact, and +10 to roll with punch
Perception: +9
Initiative: +3

APFSDS: 30
Plasma: 5
MPAT: 5
HEAT: 5
Smoke: 3

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

 

[Psychie]

Once the squad is in position at the front of the convoy, it takes only a few more minutes before the order comes to move out. While the VHTs and hover trucks can hit a speed of 100 mph, the Destroids, fuel tankers and older tanks and APCs are quite a bit slower, keeping the convoy at a speed of only 50 mph.

Once you are away from the base, the road ends up being a divided highway, with each side being two lanes wide, and the jungle on either side has been cleared away to leave open ground to help prevent any ambushes. There is little traffic on the road in either direction except for the occasional transport hauling whatever goods they have inside. As the convoy travels down the road, the two Spartans are towards the front of the convoy, just behind the hover tanks. The Defender takes up position in the very middle, trusting in its advanced radar and long range guns to be able to reach out and touch someone, with the Tomahawk at the very end, with the APCs and tanks mixed in throughout the convoy.

Everyone, please give me three Perception rolls, and if have the skill Detect Ambush, three rolls of that one, too.

 

[D. Rex]

Roll for perception.

Do we add a 9 to each roll? If so, its 23, 21, 28

 

[Rykon]

Perception rolls... [+8 on these]

 

[Sherwood]

Perception +12 - Results: 22, 27, and 25

Detect Ambush 61% - Results: Don't see shit.

Rolls coming up.