Homeward Bound By Ramshackle Glory
| Homeward Bound By Ramshackle Glory | |||||||||
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| Factions Involved | |||||||||
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ShadowHaven Ex-Firewatch | Knight Errant | ||||||||
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Aster Boom Poom Grease |
Knight Errant Patrol Team (15 members, lead by a 2nd LT) 3 Dodge Goliath APCs | ||||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||||
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2nd LT 5 KE officers 1 Goliath APC | |||||||||
Summary
In Puyallup, a group of 50 Ex-Firewatch civilians are trapped by a Knight Errant patrol team, barely held at bay by 4 Ex-Firewatch fighters. Runners are called in to get the civilians to safety. The Haven team (Aster, Boom Poom, Grease) manages to misdirect KE and keep them busy while the civilians' convoy is dug out of the Puyallup ash and sent on their way to an Ex-Firewatch stronghold.
Background
After the events of Fate of a Coward, hundreds of Ex-Firewatch members are exposed by a bug spirit infiltrator, resulting in a massive Ares operation to hunt them down. Though the infiltrator was eliminated by a team of Haven runners, that doesn't stop Ares from continuing their campaign of extermination. Part of Ex-Firewatch's efforts are to evacuate the most vulnerable members to a stronghold in the Puyallup barrens, where it is more difficult for Ares to attack them. But on the way there with 50 civilians, the convoy of 10 Roadmasters are mired in the Puyallup ash, leaving them sitting ducks for the pursuing KE patrol. With few defensive options available to them, Ex-Firewatch holes up in a nearby building, where 4 fighters hold off KE and call for a team of runners to get them out before KE HTR can show up to finish them off.
The Meet
Given the urgency of the situation, the meet with Ms. Johnson was simply a voice conference held via the matrix. It was obvious that the Johnson was in dire straights, as she regularly broke off mid-sentence to return fire at the KE attackers. Aster, having run for this Johnson last week, could guess the reason for the KE heat, so he cut right to the point: what's the pay. The team agreed to 10k NuYen each to get the civilians and their convoy moving safely to the Ex-Firewatch stronghold as soon as possible.
The Plan
The broken Puyallup terrain would have made getting to the engagement difficult, but Grease's driving skills (including jumping over a lava river flowing through an abandoned thermal power plant) got the team there quickly. On-site, the Haven team found a KE patrol team of 15 officers inspecting the Ex-Firewatch vehicles and searching for the civilian's hideout. Thanks to the ashen weather, visibility was poor. Not wanting to start a firefight with 15 KE, the team developed a plan to incapacitate the ranking KE officer and replace him with Aster, who would hopefully be able to misdirect KE long enough for the team to get the civilian's Roadmasters unstuck and on the way to safety.
The Run
When the KE 2nd Lieutenant was passing close to the runner's hiding spot, Grease piloted a drone just around a corner, where Aster mimicked sounds of an Ex-Firewatch distress call from its external speakers. When the 2nd LT came searching, Grease put a subsonic round from her silenced rifle through his neck, dropping him without a sound. The team quickly took his gear and began crafting Aster's disguise, altering his face to match and hiding the bullet hole in the armor. Boom Poom placed a trid phantasm over the armor as a 2nd layer of defense, resulting in a solid disguise. Though it appeared the 2nd LT's biomonitor went flat for a bit, Aster put on the dead man's biomonitor and passed off the oddity as brief interference from the Puyallup environment. Aster assumed command of the KE team, directing them to replace his malfunctioning commlink with the backup (granting the team access to the KE tactical network), then ordering them to move out to the north under fake orders from the Captain to intercept the Ex-Firewatch group in the wrong location.
With the KE team gone, Grease got to work with a winch digging out the Roadmasters. Meanwhile, Boom Poom gathered the civilians and organized their escape. By providing the KE tactical network data to an experienced Ex-Firewatch member, Boom Poom was able to plot a route to the stronghold free of KE interference, and the civilians were sent on their way.
While leading the KE team away, Aster made a few enemies by denying his subordinates' requests and misdirecting an Ares close air support VTOL. But before KE got too suspicious, the other runners showed up for an extraction. As Aster directed the convoy through an ideal ambush site, Grease T-bone rammed the lead Goliath at max speed, splitting the APC in half and killing everyone onboard. in a fake panic, Aster ordered the remaining KE to dismount and establish defensible positions in a nearby abandoned office building. Grease piloted their truck off a jump, landing in the 2nd floor office building and performing a pick-up maneuver to grab Aster at-speed. As KE was about to return fire, Boom Poom hit them with a F8 gravity well, pinning 2/3rds of them to the floor and spoiling the shots of the others. The Haven team got away before any more KE reinforcements are able to arrive.
But they weren't out of danger yet, as Boom Poom's wanted status with Evo caught the attention of a local Puyallup bounty hunter. As they drove back out of the area, the hunter followed closely on a motorcycle and peppered the truck with a warning shot from a shotgun. But before he was able to board the truck, Grease cut him off in a wild high-speed turn, forcing the bounty hunter to crash and giving the team the chance to escape.
Aftermath
The Ex-Firewatch civilians safely arrive at the stronghold in Puyallup. Ms. Johnson and her team survives their encounter with KE and pay the runners for their work.
Rewards
- 10,000 NuYen
- 7 Karma
- 2 CDP
- +3 Rep Ex-Firewatch
Game Quotes
Boom Poom, thinking: Oh, great, I'm the fluffy now. Little girl's mother: "No!" |
Player After Action Reports (AARs)
Aster
I know what ex-firewatch is up against; I was on the team that dug up the bug spirit infiltrator in their organization and put it down. They may not be one of us, but ex-firewatch is fighting the good fight nonetheless, so I couldn't sit and watch when this run came up. I'm glad I got involved, this team was exactly what we needed to get the job done. I felt equally in my element and out of my depth as I assumed the KE 2nd LT's position. I'm used to impersonating targets, but those targets are usually in nice suits attending a business gala downtown, not in Knight Errant combat armor prowling Puyallup looking for a fight. I think I made more than a few enemies by the time Boom Poom and Grease were able to pull my ass out of there; I'll have to study up on some KE etiquette so I don't repeat those mistakes next time.