Campaign turn 4
And so for Campaign turn 4, I chose another quest mission, the objective was once again acquire.
With Rogan Josh eliminated and Jal in the sick bay, the crew was short, so off went Rossi to see if they could find someone to fill the gap.
What she found didn’t really fill the gap. The only hand looking to get involved with the crew was a down on his luck, scrawny off worlder, an engineer, willing to work in return for a relatively secure place to sleep and regular rations.
Parfitt had analysed the data lifted from the terminal in the abandoned factory, which had revealed the location of one of the last shipments to leave the factory. If she could obtain a sample of the shipment and get it back to her SOYCO overlords, it might be enough evidence to get her and her crew a decent payday.
Meanwhile Wilmorton went to market, and traded a few of the crew's surplus weapons to get the credits that the crew needed to pay off the debts on their junk pile ship.
It turned out that the last shipment from the factory had been impounded and was still held, apparently long forgotten, at a secure logistics depot lying to the west of Folly, about an hour's flight.
The crew touched down about 5 clicks outside the facility and moved in on foot. As they got closer they were able to see the lay of the compound, and moving slowly around it, a group of security bots moving slowly around the depot, the light glinting off their metallic shells as they trudged up and down, mindlessly following the same path.
Unbeknown to the crew, they too had been observed. The crew's interest in the Corporation's affairs had not gone unnoticed. A nomad hunter had been contracted to observe the crew's movements and eliminate Parfitt if the opportunity should present itself.
Additionally, a lone administrator was stationed in the facility, who might provide additional intel as to what the original destination of the shipment was. (person of interest - story point)
Both the bots and the nomad had the defensive AI, meaning that they would not advance beyond their half of the table.
Conditions dictated that the crew would all act in the slow phase of the first turn. Obviously the nomad had alerted the facility to the crews approach.
Turn 1
The bots moved up on their preprogrammed route, which would take them in pairs around the compound, each pair climbing the observation gantry in turn and passing over to the other side.
The Nomad scout was faster that the bots, and got into position and let off at shot at the approaching crew which went wide.
Chester moves up and makes a dash for the objective in the centre of the table, Rossi breaks into one of the administrative buildings, looking to get into a good position to pick off the bots. Wilmorton moves up in the cover of the wall.
In turn 2, Parfitt acts in the quick phase and moving to the corner of the other building, takes cover behind a dumpster and lets rip with Josh’s rattle gun, hitting the nomad but failing to take him down.
The nomad returns fire but fails to hit, the central node bot (Lt) and another move into position and fire on Parfitt but fail to hit.
Two more bots move up on the other side of the compound, catching Chesterout in the open, he subsequently goes down under their fire. The specialist support bot with the rattlegun fires at Wilmorton but can’t draw a bead on her behind the wall.
Turn 3, Wilmorton activates in the quick phase, putting a bot out of action with accurate fire from her blast rifle before sprinting into cover behind the container holding the mission objective.
Parfitt also acts in the fast phase, putting a full burst into the nomad and taking him out of action. The node droid returns fire with its built in infantry laser and Parfitt is only saved by her combat armour. All the while Rossi climbs up the stairs in the admin building, trying to get into position.
Turn 4, the entire crew acts in the slow phase, enabling the bot specialist to fire on Wilmorton, who wasn’t as in cover as she thought, taking her down before she has a chance to access the crate with the mission objective.
The Node bot hits Parfit who is only saved by a power failure in the droid's laser meaning she didn’t receive the full impact of the shot. (luck point) In her return fire Parfitt eliminates the node bot and Rossi finally makes it into position on the top floor of the admin building.
Turn 5, Parfitt, acting in the quick phase, guns down the last remaining bot on the left flank, but she in turn is fired upon by the specialist heavy weapon bot, and would have been downed if she hadn’t spun at the sound of the engineer moving up behind her, the shots from the droid smashing into the concrete where here head had been milliseconds before. (Story point)
Rossi hits the heavy weapon bot but the shot fails to penetrate the bot's metal skin.
Turn 6, Rossi fires but fails to hit the heavy weapon bot, the bot tries to return fire but can’t lock on to Rossi's reactive camo. The Bots on the right flank have no targets and so stay in cover guarding that entrance to the compound. Parfit moves up to the objective.
Turn 7, the heavy weapon bot draws a bead on Parfitt and takes her out of the action (three 6s!!!)
The rest of the game is reduced to Rossi and the remaining bots trading shots until she eventually managed to pick them off one by one, while the engineer snuck up and seized the objective. A pretty boring and monotonous ending to what had started as a fairly gripping encounter.
As Rossi essentially held the table, she was later able to catch up with the terrified administrator who had been hiding under the observation gantry during the crew’s attack.
The administrator revealed that he’d been bribed to bury the last shipment under a mountain of administration, but he’d been contacted indirectly and had no idea whose bidding he’d been doing.
In the after action rolls it turned out that both Parfitt and Wilmorton had been seriously injured, and will miss 5 and 6 missions respectively unless the crew can come up with the funds for medical treatment, while Chester suffered a minor injury and would be out for just one. This in addition to Jal who was still out of action from the previous encounter.
Rossi was able to scavenge seeker sight from one of the wrecked bots, but it wouldn’t be much use without anyone to use it.
However, the next mission might bring this chapter to a close, and Parfitt’s instructions indicated that the only thing left to do was take the sample to a contact who would ferry it to Parfitt’s SOYCO handler. Although with only three of the crew active it had better be simple.
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April 27, 2024, 07:27:51 AM
December 14, 2014, 11:25:30 PM
