No Escape Part III - Operation Gramr
| No Escape Part III - Operation Gramr | |||||||||
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| Factions Involved | |||||||||
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ShadowHaven Ordo Maximus Erika Charon | NAME | ||||||||
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Bleach Delphi Doggie Bag Heart of the Tempest Iron |
Elykvir Liane Belmont | ||||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||||
| Cyberzombie Cyborg ("Metal Gear") | |||||||||
HEAVY WIP, GONNA BE A COLLABRATIVE EFFORT!
if you see this before I send it to people for backup, no you didn't.
Summary
The runners are tasked by Ordo Maximus's Cynthia Rochette to do the impossible: Kill a Dragon. Elykvir has stolen bleeding edge cyberzombie technology from Ordo Maximus, who had hoped to graft dormant ((there's a proper noun for the soulless essence battery guys, but I can't recall it)) onto other individuals to artificially inflate their essence. Having their prized research stolen was quite the insult, and OM wished for the situation to be corrected, and ideally, revenge to be taken. The goals are numerous but interlinked; recover the prototype and related research (at minimum, destroy it), exfiltrate the lead researcher (at minimum, neutralize them), kill Elykvir (if at all possible). During preparation, a deal was struck with Erika, who would benefit from Elykvir's mine being shut down. They asked for the place to be bombed, in exchange for assistance with the entry and exit, the team renegotiated for a less messy bombing, but still promised to leave the mine inoperable. The job brought the team to Greenland by sea, first scouting on a fishing boat, then returning in two groups. One was dropped off a ways away from Elykvir's lair and gold mine, while the other entered posing as new hires. Tempest and Doggie Bag walked the frozen waste and snuck into the facility with *invisibility* and Little Smoke. Bleach, Delphi and Iron entered with a group of fresh faced employees aboard an official vessel, some gear stored away on board. The team spent most of the day analyzing the area's security, and being especially enraptured with the cult that had sprung up in the area surrounding The Queen of Winter. That evening,
Background
odro project with the cyberzombie stuff
elykvir's theft
cover events of previous no escape runs
mention character ties to erika, charon (/BL), draco foundation
The Meet
fancy dinner, provided food, deep profiles on each of the runners
cynthia is there herself
things are genuinely tense and we (esp. delphi) are upfront about the realities of this request, negotiating for more specific and flexible run objectives (i.e., downgrading from "definitely kill elykvir and definitely recover the prototype" to "bloody his nose and make sure he can't keep our stuff")
The Plan
preliminary scouting mission and hacking attempt
erika assistance
two methods of infiltration
cult mystery + required adaptation
worker connections, sort of a lack of a true end goal in mind (we had some ideas but hard to be concrete with this level of layered obfuscation)
intentions that we had, ideas about how to fight the dragon, things that didn't necessarily materialize or had to be sacrificed to keep the actual on-job "safe" (relatively speaking)
The Run
probably considering scouting mission as a part of the planning / legwork section?
getting in (two teams)
hanging out for like two days - iron befriending workers - bleach poking at the cult - db looking for quinn montane - that night; cult meeting, delphi bleach and temp end up there (temp sneaking) - get spotted basically, but the queen wants to negotiate - tempest makes a deal with the devil - that night; db on an underground expedition (he finds bug spirits, real) (iron / others on support) - next day resting and planting seeds - iron sowing malcontent - db looks at the lair secret entrance - delphi looking at the lab and passing the F25 ward (spots liane iirc?)
go time - bleach / delphi nearby the lab - tempest begins at the armory - db with the worker leaders (respectable old guy) - iron kicks it off with the hacking bloodbath in the host, iron warriors just brick every device ever made - tempest cracks the armory to arm the workers - higher sec lab guards need some convincing - neurostun problems, db escorts a technician into the area (noble sacs the neuro) - one outer door guard leaves and the other gets influenced - bl/del get into the area, second even bigger door - iron comes back in to hack a fake call for aid, bleach smackdown con, gets some guards moving (one of the big door guys too), bleach donks him - del distract 2nd big door guard, bleach donks him - we actually negotiate with liane belmont - uh oh, the prototype has already been integrated (metal gear :O)
the endgame - big boy htr arrives 4 guys 2 f12 spirits - d.b. gets engulfed for 40p lmao - temp manabolts and iron commanding the spare drones / workers with guns for damage (incl big grenade bomb) - htr guys heavily wounded and do retreat, db goes down - liane riding the metal gear, moving with bl/del - we move to regroup - elykvir arrives (projecting) - delphi secretly reaches out (dragonspeech iirc), gets offered an astral gateway to presumably negotiate - this somehow works, and elykvir just lets us leave - we jump liane + metal gear before we get on the boat - del influence liane to get off, bleach goes to jump her - iron is snowmobile tackling the mg and does smackdown skinlink puppeteer / reboot - mg down, liane summons F15 guardian, db doesnt attack her (smartest ever moment), tempest blows up the cyborg with the fattest lightning bolt of all time - negotiate with liane's spirit, and take them both with us since borg is destroyed - tense moment on the boat talking amongst the team about what to do with belmont, iron wants to kill her, db wants to give her to om, delphi wants to give her over to the draco foundation. everyone except db is staunchly anti-om, and so we go with delphi's plan, though iron isn't happy about letting her live and may hold a grude
Aftermath
second meeting with cynthia, fancy dinner pt.2, delphi explains things more or less honestly. cynthia is expecting some weaseling / disloylaty, but is disappointed that elykvir lives and nothing was recovered for OM. still, revenge was had, elykvir's nose is bloodied, and he no longer has the prototype or the cybermancy research, so she is happy enough. db offers to snitch privately about the minor details that the others left out. in the followup snitch meeting later, (spoiler text this part? idk it's pretty obvious) db gives an honest recounting, delphi somehow got the dragon to not attack (some kind of negotiation is the most logical conclusion), belmont was given to the draco foundation purposefully to go against OM, and no one other than DB even really considered giving her over. cynthia asks db how he feels about his infection, and while it has been gruelling, he reaffirms that it has brought him strength, so there is some positive rep there.
metal gear & research destroyed
many many mine workers killed
cult of winter losing a lot of members, but queen still fine
tempest owes her sacrifices too (7/7/7)
elykvir pissed and some kind of deal with delphi (???)
erika upset with delphi/us for not actually bombing/destroying the mine, but at least we disrupted it heavily
liane belmont is only barely a blood mage, and has some realistic chance to be redeemed while working with the DF
db slightly buddies with cynthia