UEEF - The Shadow Chronicles - IC Thread

[Sherwood]

Three hours go by, faster for some than others. By the time you return to your mecha, you can see that all the damage has been repaired and any of the spent missiles from your internal payload have been reloaded, but not the Beta's wing missiles. Even so, the large Veritechs have a sizable amount of firepower available to you.

As you are examining the work done on your mecha, the squad is called over to the field command bunker with two other teams of pilots from the MacArthur. Inside the bunker, there are several large display maps of the area, showing symbols indicating the status of the planetary assault so far. From your quick look, it does seem that the UEEF forces here are making good progress, even with the hard resistance of the Invid.

The field commander, a stern looking major, motions for you to gather around one of the many displays. He says, "Ladies and gentlemen, while the overall assault has proceeded along well, we have had a few missteps and casualties of both mecha and ships. One of these is a troop transport, the Garfish Class vessel Dagger. The Dagger was coming down to deploy its complement of Marines to the fight when she was hit by powerful ground fire and was disabled, forcing a emergency landing somewhere in the mountains. At the time of the loss of contact, there were nearly five hundred souls on board, making it imperative for us to do what we can to find the ship and her crew."

He points to the map, and says, "The problem we are having is that the suspected crash site is under a heavy snowstorm, reducing our ability to spot the ship from orbit. Ground units cannot reach the area fast enough to make a difference, but the high winds are going to make any flight operations dicey at best. You may be forced to operate strictly on the ground once you get to your search area or risk getting blown away by the winds."

"Get out there, perform a search, and if you come across any trace of the Dagger, call it in for immediate rescue and recovery operations. Be careful out there, though. We know that it was ground fire that hit the Dagger, and whatever it was that did it packed enough of a punch to disable the ship with just a few shots. If you spot any Invid, deal with them with extreme prejudice. Any questions?"

jaydude Psychie Rykon D. Rex Mirgris

 

[Psychie]

Bigs listens intently to the briefing, taking mental notes as to the details of the mission. Five hundred or so people stuck out there, somewhere in the mountains. It is unlikely that there is going to be a ton of survivors, but some may have made it. We need to get out there and find them! "Do we have any solid information on wind speed and general weather conditions? How bad do we expect it to be? I don't want to fly out there and end up a casualty because of nasty weather."

 

[Sherwood]

The officer looks over at Bigs and says, "We don't have details other than the observed data of sustained winds in excess of one hundred miles per hour in the area. With the mountains, it will make for some truly hazardous conditions to fly in, so once you fly up to the search area, you'll need to go in on the ground to avoid getting blown into the rocks and crash. The only good news in this is that any Invid in the area will have the same problems with going airborne as you, so you should probably expect heavier ground units instead of the lighter Scouts that we've been dealing with in the city."

 

[Sherwood]

The officer looks around at the different squads and says, "If there are no other questions, it is time to move out." He waits expectantly.

Rykon Mirgris jaydude D. Rex Psychie

 

[jaydude]

Ian nodded, then turned to his squad. "Come on. Let's move out." he said briskly. "I wouldn't put it past the Invid to try and investigate the crashed transport as well."

Presumably those marines lost the ability to communicate with headquarters at some point, otherwise they'd have let us know of their status, he thought.

Spoiler: Beta Stats

M.D.C. by Location
Head – 75
Back Mounted Sensor Pod – 100
Hands (2) – 100 each
Chest Retractable Missile Bays (2) – 180 each
Shoulder Pop-up Missile Bays (2) – 160 each
EU-14 80mm Pulse Beam Cannons (3) – 100 each
Forearm Shields (2) – 375 each
Forearm Ion Blasters (6; three each arm) – 15
Upper Arms (2) – 120 each
Upper Legs (2) – 180 each
Wings (2) – 170 each
Main Body – 515
Reinforced Pilot’s Compartment – 170

Armaments:

MM-20 Missile Delivery System (2)
40/40 HEAP missiles

MM-16 Missile Delivery System (2)
16/16 HEAP missiles

Bomb Bay
8 medium bombs

Wing Mounted Hardpoints (6)
1/6 HEAP mini-missile pods

 

[Rykon]

Jake saluted when the briefing was over. This operation seemed fairly straightforward. Re-establish contact, save as many lives as possible. "Understood sir. I'll make sure we're equipped to survive the cold. I just hope the invid have a worse time of it than we do."

 

[Psychie]

Bigs nods, saying, "I think we have all the info we need right now, sir, and the sooner we get out there, the sooner we can find the Dagger and get her people back."

 

[Sherwood]

With no other questions, the various squads are dismissed to return to your Veritechs. Once in the cockpit, you can see that there has been navigational data already downloaded to give you your search area. It is roughly eighty miles away, so it will make for a quick flight to get in the general area before you will be forced to go to ground and move in on mecha foot.

All the damage on your mecha has been repaired, and all your internal ordnance has been refilled. The wing mounts on the Beta Fighters do not have any weapons on them in order to allow them to transform into Battloid mode.

Psychie D. Rex Rykon jaydude Mirgris

 

[Sherwood]

I am hoping to get some action in this game shortly now that the new year is nearly on us.

Psychie D. Rex Rykon jaydude Mirgris

 

[jaydude]

Spoiler: OOC

Yeah, soz. Just been busy with a load of other stuff in both the real world and the online RP one.

Once everyone was ready to move, Ian wasted little time shifting his Veritech into flight mode and setting off towards the search area.

Best get there quickly...

Spoiler: Beta Stats

M.D.C. by Location
Head – 75
Back Mounted Sensor Pod – 100
Hands (2) – 100 each
Chest Retractable Missile Bays (2) – 180 each
Shoulder Pop-up Missile Bays (2) – 160 each
EU-14 80mm Pulse Beam Cannons (3) – 100 each
Forearm Shields (2) – 375 each
Forearm Ion Blasters (6; three each arm) – 15
Upper Arms (2) – 120 each
Upper Legs (2) – 180 each
Wings (2) – 170 each
Main Body – 515
Reinforced Pilot’s Compartment – 170

Armaments:

MM-20 Missile Delivery System (2)
40/40 HEAP missiles

MM-16 Missile Delivery System (2)
16/16 HEAP missiles

Bomb Bay
8 medium bombs

Wing Mounted Hardpoints (6)
Empty

 

[Rykon]

Jake saddled up in his Alpha with his supplies and prepared for launch. At least part of the way north could be done by air, hoofing it in battloid mode could prove a bit of an issue though. “McGregor here, ready anytime sir. Lookin forward to the return trip. I wanna see how well I can get this thing to snow ski.”

 

[Sherwood]

As you fly out towards the search area, the weather goes from partly cloudy to downright nasty, with gusting winds driving rain and snow. It becomes quickly apparent that any low altitude flight will be very tricky.

Another thing you discover is that as you get closer to the mountains, your radio contact with the FOB is getting scrambled a bit, probably due to natural phenomena and not due to enemy action. Even your short range comms are getting a lot of hash on them, but you are still able to communicate between mecha without too much difficulty.

Setting down on the deck, you have the choice of proceeding forward either in the larger Alpha's and Beta's, or deplaning and making your way in the Cyclones and the Silverback in Victor's Beta. Which do you choose to do?

 

[Psychie]

Bigs can feel the level of tension building up in her as they begin to lose contact with the base. She just doesn't like to be out of touch like this. At least our squad comms are still up. "LT? I suggest we stick to the larger mecha and use the Cyclones only if needed. The smaller mecha might get bogged down in the snow."

 

[jaydude]

"Thanks for the advice." Ian replied to Bigs. "Okay, everyone. Stick close, and stay alert. For all we know, the Invid are already here."

 

[Sherwood]

Even on the ground, the strong winds buffet your mecha, but you are lucky enough to be stable enough to keep from getting blown away. Another downside you notice is that your line of sight with normal vision is crap, having entered near whiteout conditions. Your mecha are equipped with infrared cameras, granting you the ability to see through the snow as you look for any source of heat.

Rykon Psychie jaydude D. Rex Mirgris Please give me Perception rolls, and if you happen to have the skills of Detect Ambush or Detect Concealment, you can roll them, too.

 

[Rykon]

Rolling...

 

[Psychie]

Rolling

Spoiler

In the Alpha
Number of Attacks: 5
Strike: +10 / +11 with Gun Pod
Parry: +13
Dodge: +13 on the Ground, +15 in Flight
Roll with Punch: +8
Initiative: +6

 

[jaydude]

Perception roll

 

[Sherwood]

Moving forward, Jake is able to spot a glint of light through the snow ahead of the team through a gap in the blizzard. It is just enough for you to be able to lock your IR camera on to be able to get a glimpse of a large object on the top of a ridgeline. It is much larger than the other Invid units you have come across so far; it is over 100 feet long and 35 feet tall. Your computer gives you the info that it is giving it a 89% probability that you are looking at an Invid Fury, an artillery mecha capable of reaching targets up in orbit from ground level.



Since it is a slow moving heavy hitter, it will most likely have support units with it to help protect it from enemy contact, but even as you look, the snow comes in hard once more and you lose visual contact with the Fury. At the moment, the squad is roughly 2,000 feet away from its current position, well within range of all of your weapons.

What do you do?

Rykon

 

[Rykon]

"Hold back, we've got an Invid Fury just shy of half a mile ahead." Jake hailed on the comms. "It's probably got friends with it. I suggest we break out the hammer and squash the big one first before its buddies catch on. What're your orders sir? Permission to open fire?" jaydude

 

[jaydude]

Ian considered briefly, then nodded from within his mecha. "Permission granted."

 

[Rykon]

Jake is going to try and restore line of sight to the fury and paint the target for the squad. Any specific roll he needs to make?

 

[Psychie]

Sherwood Now that we know that the Fury is there, can we pick it up on our sensors to be able to target it with missiles?

 

[Sherwood]

Yes, you can now perceive it. Everyone gets a free shot off at it before needing to go to initiative rolls.

 

[Psychie]

Bigs wants to smack herself upside the head for missing that large thing, but saves it for later. "Targeting the bogey with eight of my HEAPs. Firing!"

550 MDC damage to the Fury

Spoiler

In the Alpha
Number of Attacks: 5
Strike: +10 / +11 with Gun Pod
Parry: +13
Dodge: +13 on the Ground, +15 in Flight
Roll with Punch: +8
Initiative: +6

MDC of the Alpha: 420
Payload
Short Range HEAP: 60 / 52
Fragmentary Mini: 8 /