Preview Mode Links will not work in preview mode

 

A game about the pilots of powerful machines in a war that dominates every facet of life. They are trying to do their time and part, and get out physically and mentally intact. The organizations that perpetuate the War through all of known space are too incomprehensibly huge to take down. There is no “winning” the War, there is only surviving it.

These are their stories.

 

Become a Patron!

Mission Report 13 - The Thin Blue Line (Of Code)

Aug 14, 2019

This Mission Report is provided by Pteroid, a member of the Beam Saber community and discord server!

Briefing: Everyone’s favorite fascists, the Hammers, have recently completed a recruitment drive in Might and are receiving supplies to properly train their aspiring goon squad. Chief among them are state of the art AR Modules loaded inside helmets that supply chemical injections to the brain at the instructors’ discretion. Wholesome. Sciolist and her virtual associates don’t quite cotton to that idea and want you to hit the convoy en route from The Tower and either destroy the helmets (good) or transmit a specially crafted virus into the helmets (better).

Employer: Sciolist (Tier I S, Independent)

Target: The Hammers (Tier III S, Oligarchy)

Objective: Destroy or Subvert the Hammer training helmets.

ROE: No Non-Cop Casualties. Don’t Take Any Helmets For Yourself. Don’t Snitch On Scio!

Complications: The Hammers are receiving help from a group of Squaddies trying to get in Nor’s good books. A  Burden cell wish to steal the helmets to be reprogrammed for ‘interrogation’ purposes. The Hammers have four ‘Pulsar Platinum’ Escort mechs with the delivery truck and a LOT more waiting should it pass into the Autonomous Region.

Characters:

  • Zap! (They/Them) - A proxy affiliated with Sciolist, looks like a chibified lightning bolt, insists the ! means you should say their name with enthusiasm.
  • Vassal-Aspirant Targos Ribas (He/Him) - Jack Bauer-looking monster of a man, the current poster child of the council’s efforts to ‘Educate’ Izyans on the Norrish way of life. In other words an amoral bastard and career cop, in charge of the convoy, piloting custom Pulsar Platinum ‘Adamant Justice’.
  • Jimmy ‘Jock’ Philotes (He/Him) - Skinny, shifty, and crooked as they come. Working with the Nor in exchange for favor in the ongoing turf wars with the Rubble Runts and Burden, but despises Ribas due to pre-War rivalry. Can be bribed to ‘chase a target of opportunity’ away from the convoy with his cronies in exchange for securing something valuable (supply points, a favor, securing Adamant Justice for his own use).
  • Jenassa Cirrus (She/Her) - Scarred, tan woman with short green hair. Leader of the Burden Cell attempting to steal and reprogram the helmets to use as ‘interrogation tools’ against offworlders. Can be convinced to go along with the virus plan but will be enraged if any other plan occurs afterwards.

Challenges:

  • Three of the four Pulsar Platinums are designed for running battles making it imperative the team either be likewise fast or find a way to blockade their routes (of which they will have several). Pulsars are light mechs and come equipped with mobility suites and machine guns, relying on speed and maneuverability to avoid enemy fire. The Adamant Justice is the exception to this, being a medium version of the frame armed with a forearm-mounted ‘Cockpit Piercer’ in lieu of the machine gun and heavier armor.
  • The Delivery Truck is armored and outfitted with internal electronic warfare systems that will make seeding the virus into the helmets difficult without staying near it (how near is GM’s discretion). The Truck is likewise outfitted with a front-facing plow that can ram into obstacles (barricades, mechs, and pilots most pertinently) and 2 anti-personnel machine gun turrets.
  • Jock’s unit consists of five unarmored goons plus himself in two hovering patrol cars jury rigged into armor-plated technicals intended to serve as forward scouts for the convoy. The armor means they can take more hits but it reduces their speed making them easier to hit, making them less of a threat to mechs and more to the Burden forces and any pilots not in their mechs.
  • The Burden cell has set up an ambush plan involving stolen garbage trucks, one to block the street the Delivery Truck is driving down and another to ram into it from a side street. They intend to use anti-AWV infantry weapons from elevated positions on the buildings on either side of the street to deal with the Pulsars. They have a modified Agrarian armed with missiles and a heavy cannon as a trump card hidden away to hit the convoy from behind.
  • Jenassa Cirrus will inherently distrust any squad not made up entirely of Izyans that approaches her with the plan. Likewise she’ll immediately turn against any squad that previously allied with her if she believes they’re veering off the plan.
  • Zap! is relaying everything they see back to Sciolist and will gently nudge the squad towards what they (Sciolist) wants to happen. If the squad risks letting slip that Sciolist is involved in the mission, Zap! will begin attempting to sneak their way into the squad’s systems to acquire blackmail material for Sciolist to make crossing them a mutually assured destruction scenario.