Overview

The party goes behind Molten Legion lines to recover a lost IZC intelligence facility.

Cast

Billi, Bulwark, Care, Honest

Mission

IZC: 

• Primary: access the secret lab in a city that has fallen behind Molten Legion lines. Transfer lab data to ship in orbit, hold the facility long enough to complete the transfer.
• Secondary: Rescue staff stranded in the facility, keep facility out of enemy hands.

Rules of Engagement: The terms/ROE

Synopsis

This was one of three hooks given to the team at the end of Joust. (guy who gave mission, mint somebody maybe? Fresh? Tilmak Fresh?) is the owner if an information startup that was causing a huge splash in the industry. Unfortunately, their headquarters were near the front lines of the conflict, and a week ago Molten Legion forces took the city where they were based, forcing him to flee. However, the facility is well hidden and deep underground, so it is likely that their equipment, staff, and data is still undiscovered and intact. The groups mission is to infiltrate the city, sneak into the lab, and begin to upload the lab's data. When they begin this process, the signal will alert enemy forces, and they will need to hold the facility until the transfer is complete. They can also try to get the staff out if they really want to. They will receive payment, including full access to the facilities information banks, which could include valuable information that the team wants for personal reasons.

Before the team sets out, (vicious appears). (I dont remember how we justified this)

The team enters the city on foot to avoid detection. They narrowly escape an encounter with a Chimera, and climb a precarious cliff in order to avoid further run ins on the street. They successfully find and access the facility, hidden under the ruins of a normal office building.

When they arrive, they are greeted by armed and desperate staff, ready to fight for their lives against Molten Legion incursion. The party manages to talk them down and convince them they they are allies, and the lead scientist agrees to take them to the data center. On the way there, Honest feels a strong impression from Eternity that there is something important below them. They give into its insistence and tell the party that they need to do something on their own. Billi, Care, and Vicious continue toward the main objective, but Bulwark follows along with Honest.

Honest and Bulwark climb deeper and deeper into the lab, and Eternity becomes more and more excited, until they come to an enormous metal door. Eternity says that what they are looking for is on the other side, but Honest is unable to get the controls to work. Determined to get what they are looking for and feeling their mechs urgency, they use their strange power, and blast a hole in feet of steel with a single punch. Inside, Honest and Bulwark find a huge figure in a glass tube. It appears to be a giant Nudibranch, floating in some kind of liquid. Above its head, glowing streams of letters flow in a complicated matrix, streaming up to the data center above. Honest looses their concentration and can't control Eternity's excitement, and Eternity (). The Nudibranch reaches out and touches Honest's mind, and though it does not use words, communicates feelings of joy and camaraderie, and the impression that it is meeting one of its own kind for the first time. It explains that it is like Honest, and was created in this place. It seems to be able to break the rules of language and communication. Fresh has been using this power to collect and translate intelligence for profit. Despite its apparent exploitation, the Nudibranch does not express dissatisfaction or ask to leave, but when Honest explains the situation above, it agrees to venture into the wider world. Honest instructs Eternity to make a tunnel for it to escape the city, and they part ways, Honest and Bulwark going to rejoin the party.

Above, Care and Billi reach the data center and prepare to transfer data. On hearing their plan, the researchers again become upset, assuming that the group is only interested in the data and is planning to reveal their location and leave them to the mercy of the Molten Legion, at the instruction of (fresh). Billi and Care again talk them down, and agree to get evacuation underway before they activate the data transfer. The head scientist also reveals that the lab has self destruct capabilities, and agrees to activate it once her staff are safe.

The group reconvenes and organizes the staff for evacuation. When they are ready to go, they activate the transfer and the self destruct countdown, then make for the surface.

They emerge into the cover building and come face to face with the enemy - A pair of Chimeras are waiting in the square, and the party and their charges are pinned in the building, defenseless without their mechs. Bulwark and Billi activate their remote mech control, but while the Artemis can come to Billi automatically, Bulwark must be piloted. Bulwark attempts to drive his mech to him, but struggles in the tight confines of the city. To buy time, Billi climbs the building and uses her anti vehicle rifle to distract the Chimeras. The ground shakes, and the head of an enormous dragon mech appears over the edge of the cliff. Bulwark gives his controls to Care, who frantically pilots the mech across the city. The dragon continues to claw its way up into the square, but stops short as Bulwark and the Artemis finally appear - Bulwark, stuck at the bottom of the cliff face, uses the Dragon's tail to pull itself up. The two pilots board their mechs, and Bulwark and the Dragon face off, leaving Billi in the Artemis to deal with the Chimeras.

On seeing Bulwarks mech, the pilot of the dragon gets on his loudspeakers, and reveals himself to be Nicodemus, the brother of the mad prophet Zacharias. He claims that Zacharias has disappeared, and blames the party for helping to capture him. As Bulwark and the Nicodemus trade blows in the square and the Artemis takes to the air and engages the Chimeras, the rest of the party seizes the chance to guide the lab staff away from the action and out of the city.

Bulwark and Nicodemus are evenly matched, and their battle draws out. As the facility's explosion draws closer, Bulwark has an idea. He carefully maneuvers to draw Nicodemus toward the cover building, and, seconds before the explosion, pins the dragon, shoving its head into the elevator shaft. Even with it's fire resistant build, the blast melts the mech's head to slag with the pilot inside. Bulwark only escapes the same fate using his oversized shields. He and Billi clean up the last Chimera, and the party flees the city.

Downtime

AR echoes, aurora, apple pie party?