Overmind Dead Body
| Overmind Dead Body | |||||||||
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| Part of Swarming Season | |||||||||
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| Factions Involved | |||||||||
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ShadowHaven UCAS Army | Kansas Swarm | ||||||||
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Katherine Tyler Ashford Pasiphae Ez-Azael | Century Cicadas | ||||||||
Summary
A century cicada reaches critical mass and begins to feed her swarm. Runners go in to rescue whoever's left alive before air strikes begin.
Background
A century cicada queen's mass produced invested workers for her hive with the help of an unknown number of insect shamans working for her. With an invisible will backing her actions, she's managed to reach cataclysmic numbers. Unfortunately her swarm can only remain dormant for so long. Most of the hosts are beginning to grow weak from malnutrition. She begins her attack to devastating effect: the small towns of Moundridge, Goessel and Hesston are eaten alive by the swarm.
The Meet
The meet happens in Ft. Lewis where Al-Ahmar, a former shadowrunner and now UCAS Army security spider briefs the team on their assignment: they're needed as rapid responders to rescue people left in the swarm's territory. They're advised to avoid engaging the swarm due to its massive numbers and to concentrate on rescueing people so the local air force assets at Fort Riley can begin bombing runs and wide area bombardment on the swarm. The team agrees and due to the time-sensitive mission, they'll negotiate pay later. Janet shares this intel once they're already on the aircraft, heading towards Hutchinson
The Plan
Three locations are identified: Hesston which is an overrun town near the entrenched defense line the Army has established between the swarm and Wichita, a smaller rural residence belonging to a relatively wealthy couple and a farm. Ashford does astral scouting despite the risks and manages to see the Army being outnumbered forty to one in their fortifications. An unmarked farm bears horrid astral background counts and half-eaten bodies of metahumans. He retreats instead of risking being swarmed by insect spirits on the astral plane.
The Run
Using a Dodge Goliath the team has supplied, they approach Hesston first and find a stranded squad of Army Rangers which take a bit of convincing to pacify. They're low on ammo and extremely paranoid of unknown faces, expecting them to be insect infiltrators. Once they provide communications with Janet, however, the spider can provide security codes that validate her identity and the team leader agrees to get moving before more cicadas arrive. A vibration on the ground, however, turns out to be a bad omen as thirty burrowed Invae crawl out of the dirt and ambush Kate point blank. With a deafening blast, Kate's made almost deaf by the swarm using their sonic projections to suppress her considerable skills. Spirits of Man and the mages do their best to support her and Pasiphae who fight in a mix of defense and offense. The team takes damage, but the Rangers pull their weight by aiming carefully, lining their fires and waiting for the right opportunity to shoot several of the insects down. This thins the swarm enough for the team to clean them up and run through the corn fields to the Dodge Goliath.
The second location is a quiet rural home with dead people inside. Kate finds four commlinks and picks one titled "Merle." Once she sends a message to it, an Army private named Joe runs out and thanks the runners as saviors finally coming to get him. He insists the team doesn't go in to look at the house, however, something Kate ignores and begins initial exploration. Ashford's curious about an Army soldier with no ammunition, sidearm or name tags and grabs the rifle to psychometrize it. He finds out a terrifying vision: that heavily armored figures with laser weapons had surrounded the couple and executed them through the windows while the soldier hid the two children the family had into a closet. Once he heard the attackers were coming inside, he suspected them of wanting the children for infestation and made the heart-breaking decision to take the children's lives, reassuring them the entire time things would be alright. The vision doesn't show how he evaded detection in the cleaning closet, but Ashford recalls Kate, telling her there's nothing in the house and that they should be moving on. Private Joe seems extremely traumatized and shellshocked, staring blankly into nothingness as he's escorted to the Dodge Goliath. He's of no use for the entire time, destroyed by what he did even if it was to make sure the children avoided worse horrors.
The third location is bizarre as the team meets an invisible businessman with pointy ears and an inhuman-looking gray face, asking if he's allowed to observe their actions. After careful assensing, he appears completely mundane (something that arouses suspicion) but little else is found out about him. He answers some queries, claiming he is from Mars and that he's here strictly to observe and report. Ashford attempts to gain deeper insight, so the man makes him an offer: drink the spinal fluid of an insect hybrid and allow him to watch what reaction occurs. In exchange for such information, he's willing to elaborate more about who he is and who his employers are.
The farm itself contains two farmers in horrid condition: one appears to have been subjected to a Force 18 Curse removing his sight while the other has his eyes, mouth and ears completely missing, replaced with smooth skin and flesh where they'd normally be. Perturbed, the team grabs both of them, now using Kate's motion sensor to spot the ground vibrations and avoiding an ambush completely.
Aftermath
The swarm pushes the frontline further south by another five kilometers, but Fort Riley's Air Force assets are finally online. Artillery strikes also begin and much of the region is turned into a warzone, forest being decimated and smaller residences vaporized to stem the flood of over a thousand insect hosts. At the end of the mission, the team receives an update on estimated casualties: over 138 Army troops killed in action, 302 civilians dead and 46 police officers eaten by the swarm. This number will likely continue to rise, as Janet elaborates an ex-Firewatch member is on site as an advisor but Ares is not yet permitted to interfere and the special forces team sent to find and kill the Queen haven't reported back, presumed KIA.
The Swarm continues pressing south, hiding in trenches, buildings and town bunkers to avoid the most egregious shelling. Their offensives have slowed due to air support causing severe losses to direct massed charges, but it's only a matter of time until they find another avenue of attack. In the meanwhile, the UCAS Army forces continue to reinforce a quarantine cordon around the area, focusing their protection in the cities of Wichita, Hutchinson and McPherson.
Major General Harry Vought is in charge of Fort Riley and is currently under colossal pressure to minimize civilian casualties as well as ensure the extermination of the swarm. He's received a healthy budget for the operation, but mobilization is slower than he'd like and as a result he's sent discreet briefs to other military bases across the United-Canadian American States requesting them to draft trustworthy and professional mercenary companies and shadowrunners to work as temporary strike teams when needed, especially when it comes to performing tasks within the swarm's current territory.
Rewards
- 10,000 Nuyen or double that in Ware up to base avail 19 (5 RVP)
- 10 Karma (10 RVP)
- 4 CDP (1 RVP)
- +1 UCAS Military Reputation
Game Quotes
Player After Action Reports (AARs)
"Bugs really aren't a joke. Even though we faced a whole swarm of those monsters the most haunting thing was the fate of that Joe, truly tragic. I wish I could have helped him in any way to prevent this, but I am sure he is going to have a better next life far away from those bugs."
"Damn insect spirits. It's really just abominable, but one day I think we can learn more about them to deal with this issue that's already taken so many lives and forced the hands of good men. But for now, it's just trying to fight the tide and hope it fades away while we give it our all."