Game 2 - Bunker RunTL2
12k team (2 Veterans; 2 Hardened; 2 Rookies)
Objective: destroy external sensor on bunker
Mission Length: 7 Turns. Do not linger here after darkness falls
Hot Spots, 4: Large House; Copse; Cemetery; Caravan
Location: a small hamlet in Eastern England, long abandoned
The squad had a team photo taken outside HQ after their successful first mission. From the left:
Windy Trumper; Ken "Slasher" Mackay; Chappelli; Pigeon McGrath.
At the back, slightly blurred (as is only right and proper), the two Rookies, Wingnut Gilchrist; Faith Heals
Slasher makes a short speech to the effect that they’ve been given this mission as a reward for successfully bringing in the Dukes brothers (ironic laughter from Chappelli and Pigeon). Slasher ignores this and emphasise that there’s plenty of opportunity for "private enterprise" on this job. This is how Security Squad veterans describe the salvage they can pick up on these excursions. Once they’ve paid the Captain her 10%, the rest is for them. Slasher and his squad now consider themselves veterans. They may be deluding themselves.
Slasher then gives orders and objectives:
"Righto you blokes. Two teams. Me, Windy and Wingnut will go left and checkout this little copse which may be of interest then we’ll go for the enclosure where the objective is located. Chappelli, you take Pigeon and Heals and look at the large house, then the cemetery and finally that crook looking old caravan. You should be able to get some juicy stuff from those places. You got plenty of scrap iron to toss into them? That’ll stir up anything lurking there. If it turns out that one of you gets to the main objective first, here’s the drill. Inside that bunker is some weird techy stuff that those drongo scientists from the university spread all over the place - basically, part of what caused The Incident, right? That stuff is as indestructible as you can get but, lucky for us mates, it’s dormant. You know there’s a ‘but’ coming up doncha? Here it is. Fixed to the outside of the bunker there’s a sensor. Delicate little thing but dangerous. Because if it ever gets the signal from one of those satellites the scientist put up there (here Slasher looks skywards in case any of the squad don’t know where satellites live), it says to the weird techy stuff - "hi there, weird techy stuff, this is your sensor speaking. I’d like you to go critical right now please and wipe out the rest of the freakin’ world."[
he didn’t actually say "freakin’" but this is a family forum]. The good news is that a few rounds from our rough and ready guns or a good, honest grenade would be enough to shut that sensor up for ever and make the weird techy stuff sleep the everlasting sleep. Got it? Good. Let’s go and break things, boys…!"
Turn 1
Slasher’s group head towards the copse. Slasher "encourages" Wingnut
[gives him an extra action] so they all move 12".
Pigeon and Chappelli head towards the large house, Heals, the Rookie, is lagging behind. Chappelli fishes out a bit of scrap iron and lobs it at the house. Being keen but relatively inexperienced, neither has gone Alert.
So when a mixture of horribly overgrown rats and spiders pours out of the house and heads straight for them, they are unable to shoot. The rats head for Chappelli and spiders go for Pigeon. Chappelli is the man for a rough house, even against monster rats, and he deals with them in short order. Pigeon is no milk-sop but he only succeeds in disposing of one spider. Luckily, he’s not an arachnophobe - where he comes from there’s a lot of spiders, most of which can kill you. However, they’re just spider-size. Unlike these beauties.
Turn 2
Slasher gives Windy two Actions so that he can get into a position covering the copse and go Alert. Along with Wingnut, Slasher follows up on Windy.
Chappelli reckons Pigeon can deal with one lousy spider and takes off at a run up the road towards the cemetery - no time to waste when in this part of the Territory. When he gets in sight of the cemetery, he pulls an old hinge from his trusty Pouch of Metal Junk and chucks it accurately into the middle of the corpse corral.
"Streuth!" Even Chappelli is shocked by what his missile has stirred up. It’s kind of humanoid but with a pointed head and covered in slimy, glistening mucus.
"Not nice" thinks Chappelli as he shoulders his SMG "those crazy scientists have a lot to answer for."
Pigeon, meanwhile, has squelched his spider and heads for the house that the vermin came from. He rubs his hands (not literally, obviously) in anticipation. Pigeon is a Scrounger and searching places is a real pleasure for him.
Turn 3
Wingnut moves up in support of Windy. Meanwhile, Slasher angles left and heaves some scrap iron into the copse to see what’ll happen. He doesn’t have to wait long. Six eerie figures drift noiselessly from the copse; vaguely human but not human - yet more examples of creatures created from the previous inhabitants of the area by the catastrophe known as The Incident.
No time to reflect on the criminal recklessness of the scientists who caused all this - these ghoulish aberrations had spotted Windy and they weren’t looking friendly. Windy is on Alert and opens up with his SMG. Three hits and two kills.
The survivors charge Windy.
The first fails to damage the beleaguered trooper. Another one rushes in - will he be overwhelmed by these horrors? Windy counterattacks and gets three hits on his opponent but receives multiple hits himself - Windy and his opponent are both down.
[I think I worked this melee out incorrectly but got the correct result].Meanwhile, on the other side of the main road, Chappelli opens up on the horror from the cemetery. Its inhuman flesh is not easy to damage [
armour of 4 in game terms]. Nevertheless, Chappelli gets 4 hits and they all strike home. No saves. The mutant monster is down…!
Chappelli scrambles over the wall and searches the cemetery. Hidden in an open sarcophagus, he finds valuable treasure along with a med-kit and some sap liquor.
Taking stock of his surroundings, he realises that the cemetery is host to one of the mysterious Anomalies that dot The Territory. These can be dangerous but also very rewarding. Incredibly, it looks like a giant, artificial candle! "The hell with it" snarls Chappelli and reaches into the anomalous area. BOOM…!
It explodes in his face
[he failed his Will test] and he’s down - wounded. Things are not going well for the squad. At least Chappelli can apply the medi-kit he’s just found and restore himself to health.
Can Pigeon, the Scrounger, improve things with his searches of the large house. Having the Scrounger skill means he gets two search attempts. Success…! He finds some good salvage and two med-kits. He then realises that this house is also concealing an Anomaly - an unearthly glow is a sure sign of it. Something to think about next turn.
Finally, Heals, the Rookie, puffing and panting, draws near the cross-roads. If he’s ever going to improve his rating, he’s going to need to get fitter.
Turn 4
Windy is down and wounded but unfortunately, no-one in Slasher’s group has any med-kits! Poor planning. Chappelli’s group has three of the kits. Wingnut may be a Rookie but he’s of the right stuff. Standing defiantly athwart Windy’s prone body, he rattles off a burst against the nearest ghoulish enemy. Three hits. Two are deflected but the third is enough to kill the creature. Slasher moves to get line-of-sight of the rumpus swirling round Windy and expertly guns down the last ghoul. The ghastly thing suffers a critical armour fail and disintegrates in a revolting burst of foulness. Slasher then urges Wingnut towards the objective (
gives him his third action).
Talking of Chappelli, He spends two Actions to Unpin then uses his third to advance towards the caravan - he’s unstoppable! Pigeon, in the large house, decides to ignore the Anomaly and heads off up the road towards the enclosure within which is the objective.
Heals, seeing Windy down with no-one near him, decides to go and help him.
Turn 5
Slasher encourages Heals which enables him to reach Windy and administer a med-kit. Windy spends his actions recovering
(removing Pin status). Slasher then enters the copse and snags some reasonable salvage. Wingnut continues his move towards the compound.
The force of nature that is Chappelli lobs some more rusty old bolts into the caravan area then goes Alert. More mixed vermin - he’s no stranger to them.
His Alert burst of fire takes out the two rats and one of his hits is a critical, giving him another action.
It’s no surprise that he drops both spiders with his bonus burst. Go Chappelli…!
Pigeon, seeing that Chappelli is coping quite well in his own, carries on up the road towards the compound.
Turn 6
Slasher moves up to near the compound with Wingnut. Windy and Heals, the two Rookies, trail behind - they need some serious gym work, those two boys.
Pigeon has arrived at the entrance to the compound. It just occurs to the squad that no-one has any wire-cutters. The compound is ramshackle but they don’t have enough time to force an entry. Are the gates locked?
I decide it’s not likely considering the long-time abandonment of the area - I allocate a 1 in 6 chance of a secure lock. Die rolled - no lock. Pigeon fires a burst at the sensor and manages to miss completely…!
Chappelli, unaware of this potential disaster, enters and searches the caravan pitch. He finds a wodge of script and a scope - not bad! And there’s an anomaly. After his experience in the cemetery he decides, regretfully, to ignore it.
Turn 7
It’s now or never. The squad have to complete their mission this Turn. Only Pigeon McGrath can destroy the sensor. "Grenade, you bozo, grenade" yells Slasher helpfully. Pigeon has one grenade. He lobs it at the bunker. BOOM…!!! With great satisfaction, Pigeon sees the very delicate sensor smashed into myriad, glittering pieces. Mission accomplished.
The rest of the squad have formed up outside the compound gate.
By now, the sun is low. Its rays still light the rooftops but shadows are gathering below.
"Time to scarper, boys" shouts Slasher and they exit the area at their best speed.
After a cold, hungry night in an Authority secure refuge (all home comforts, including 5 year old teabags (most of which looked like they’d been used at least once before), a dubious water supply, some ancient strips of rawhide and unlimited sleeping area - the floor - the team heads back to HQ next day to sort out their swag.
Everyone benefitted by the sharp-end experience (34 Advances)
Hardware - 1 x scope (useful); 2 med-kits (there were 3 but Chappelli used one)
1 x shot of sap juice
Salvage - after a good deal of haggling with the trading community, the team end up with 2745 worth of paper cash. Back to HQ and that’s down to 2471 by the time Captain Lilianne Tomoe has skimmed off the "donation to the widows and orphan’s fund". Slasher grumbles, but only to himself.
Right. Time to go shopping.
Items used: 1 grenade; 1 x med-kit
Lessons learned by me:
Need more med-kits
Use your red-dot sights - I completely forgot about them even though nearly all the crew have them
Keep reading the rules
Slasher’s squad has already been briefed for their next mission. As usual, they’re not happy.
Doug