The Chem-Troopers Adventure/Session 1

Although former captain Georg (Brandon) fought valiantly to escape his imprisonment in Jolloh's slave trade, even killing one of his captors, his luck ran out and he was knocked out by gas. Jolloh, equal parts savvy and scumbag, used the footage to advertise Georg's combat prowess, attracting more buyers and selling him off for a good rate. Could he perhaps get himself into a position that values his services? Of course not, he's bought up for the Thannasid meat grinder. Thanks to a supply of mind-altering substances, he finally agrees to sign up for the Thannasid cause. He's given around 2 months of intense chemical and physical conditioning, during which time his replacement hand was destroyed as the shifting of his musculoskeletal structure formed a disgusting claw in its place.
The Chem-Trooper program is the brainchild of the Alusian state, later appropriated by the Thannasids. Through significant drugging and brainwashing, these beefed-up, dumbed-down monstrosities will destroy everything in their way until their bodies collapse in on themselves, all for the glory of the state that originally made their lives forfeit (those must be some good propaganda drugs). To save money, these troopers are not given any power armor, as it's more valuable to the state than they are. All they get is standard-issue armor, a hydrogen rifle, and a power sword before being dropped into the unknown.
The unknown this time is Kolong, a GCC gate-world occupied by the Shantine (complete with cleansing fire!). Since null bombs and other occult weaponry have made off-lane travel more difficult, taking the gate is paramount. As the Shantine have reduced their presence, the iron is hot, so Georg is sent to the frontlines to help force them out and kill any stragglers, along with a motley crew of menacing muttonhead mongrels:
*Enya Song (Craig): A conscript from the Alusian colonies. In addition to being a sharpshooter, she can inflict psionic damage with a terrible scream.
*Arob Tidgug (Bruce): An Orc with an itchy trigger finger. When in bright or etheric light, he appears to be rotting from the inside.
*Sebek (Dustin): A blind Thannasid slave, punished for making eye contact with a superior and running a failed insurgency. A capable psionic who occasionally weeps a greasy substance.
*Natoma (Nathaniel): An Elvish refugee from the enclaves, imprisoned and inducted for "rehab". Mute due to his prehensile tongue, and his face resembles a series of tubes.
*Gorgeous Jorb (Karl): An Alusian "true believer". Eldritch symbols are carved into his skin, which has a sort of shell of ugly, hardened growths. His face has withered to a skull that constantly shimmers in the dark.
*Rick "Wreck" Stein (Sean): A conscript from the Alusian colonies. He has natural armor and an unholy blood infusion that toughens him up to physical damage but weakens him to Thannasid magic.
The group waits in silence as the armored truck we're in crosses the wasteland toward what was once a city. On the way, we hear the howling of a firestorm. Arob, on instinct, tries to shoot at it, but our guns are locked up for security reasons. Sebek looks around at the group (through someone else's eyes), pausing at Natoma's grotesque facial structure (aka "a series of unfortunate openings") and digging into his mind. All he gets back is "that was stinky" and Natoma's wish to stand closer to the firestorm. Jorb starts a rousing (grating) rendition of the Alusian National Anthem, and Arob joins in. Sebek looks through Jorb's skull, finding his vision to be normal and his mind inundated with implanted visions of Alusian glory. Enya and Rick join in singing the anthem, Enya managing not to accidentally let off a damaging scream. Natoma half-heartedly whistles along, and Sebek silently weeps in the corner. Georg is generally weirded out by his comrades but brushes it off for now.
We arrive at the frontlines and can finally stretch our legs a bit. As our guns are unlocked, we're approached by two floating orbs, which display images of our enemies and a map of the area we're set to take over. Our job is to take over a bridge manned by Shantine machine gunners without destroying it. As the most heavily brainwashed of the group, Jorb becomes the "orb-bearer" and unofficial captain for the mission. He ponders the orb, then asks it to play the national anthem (again).
We head over to the bridge, Arob chanting "kill, kill, kill" all the way over. The bridge leads into what used to be a city, crossing over what was once a river before the Shantine vaporized it. Half of the bridge is collapsed, while the other half is relatively stable. Melted glass buildings and burned cadavers litter the area. Across the bridge, there are two machine gun nests on the riverbank, and two more in nearby buildings. Sebek gets a more detailed headcount, finding each nest to contain 4 people, and 15-20 more people underground in some sort of basement area.
Arob channels his inner Leeroy Jenkins and starts shooting at the nests. We're still 300 yards away, so all he manages to do is attract their attention. Natoma screeches angrily at Arob's impatience, and Sebek alerts us to get ready since they know our position. Jorb consults the orb, which simply tells him to "kill the enemy". Jorb suggests we pick up scrap metal and use it as moving cover so we can get up to the mouth of the bridge. When Georg suggests an alternate route, Jorb chides him for going against the mission. Georg, not feeling like arguing, takes cover at the mouth of the bridge.
Rick looks around for a way into the river. Georg points out a path down the collapsed section of the bridge, and Rick rushes headlong down the riverbank, avoiding the minefield there despite not seeing it. Everyone except Georg follows him. Arob throws a smoke grenade to provide cover in the riverbed. Everyone manages to avoid the mines on the way down. Jorb shoots across the river and manages to kill two Shantine. Arob tries to follow suit, almost hitting Rick in the process. Enya and Natoma run further along the riverbed to find a position to provide suppressing fire.
Georg peeks out to survey the nests and add his own cover fire, but they see him and critically wound him, blowing off his good arm along with one of his eyes. He can't use his claw hand with a gun, so he crumples to the ground behind cover. He ends up being the only one they hit, as they miss Jorb badly. Meanwhile, Rick throws a new smoke grenade and moves up to the next smokescreen.
Enya continues to add suppressing fire. She hits the gunners' cover twice, but they don't see her. Natoma moves up by Enya to take cover. Sebek tries to follow Rick into the next smokescreen, but faceplants in the open. Jorb sees this and radios Natoma, asking why he's cowering in fear. Natoma whistles back, and Jorb assumes he's dead. Enya radios to Jorb saying "I'm Natoma and I'm dead." In frustration, Natoma fires at Jorb, who fires back full auto, hitting him twice. Natoma screeches at Jorb again. (This is going extremely well.)
The gunners hit Sebek and Jorb, giving the latter significant nerve damage. Arob and Rick are using their smoke grenades to full effect, moving efficiently across the river. Natoma shoots at the gunners, managing only to hit their cover. Georg, still languishing behind cover, weakly peeks out, seeing no return fire, then rests. Enya kills two more gunners, clearing out one of the nests. Using Jorb's eyes, Sebek gets up and catches up to Arob and Rick, giving them his grenades.
Jorb looks back to see Georg lying in a heap and scolds him to get him more involved. Georg weakly throws a smoke grenade into the riverbed. Jorb warns him about participation and heads back up the collapsed part of the bridge to drag Georg into the fray. On the way, he draws more fire and takes more internal damage, very nearly stepping on the mines as well.
Arob carries Sebek on his back and tells him to hold on. The two of them, along with Rick, make it far enough through the river where the gunners can't reach. Enya takes more potshots and hits the building gunners' cover. Natoma fires at the building gunners, hitting them once. Rick, Arob, and Sebek climb out of the river and reach the empty gunners' nest. It's full of incense, tea, and propaganda. On a more unsettling note, the signals Sebek saw in the basement area merge into one big signal. Sebek sees it, and it sees him. It screams and starts to move…
Category:Session Summaries