Mission 14

An urban search mission. There were reports of a dangerous cult operating in one of Kano's larger cities. Unexplained memory loss, fires, individuals missing, and mental illness. So, the obvious side effects of a functional alien artifact. The objective of this mission was to find it, find out what it is, grab it, and run, while avoiding unnecessary destruction. Which of course isn't what ended up happening. Due to the urban setting, no battle suits or avatars or other excessively heavy equipment were permitted with the first team. They did have Jack Hansan's APC as transport, though.
==Links==
MISSION BRIEF	MISSION START	MISSION DEBRIEF
== Deployed Teams ==
=== Original Team ===
* Morul Migrurkeshin
* Taddok Find
* Hasala Nabin (Tempkilled)
* Jack "Knight" Catar
* Faith Valentine
* Yttra Mour
* Pancaek Nilys
* Kyle Johnson
* Lerman Russ
* D'usse de Cognac
* Konrad Curtz
=== Rescue Team ===
Mission Control (not on the ground):
* Miyamoto (Radio Controlled)
Drop Team A:
*Feyri Nirel
*Jack Hansan
*Auron Kell
*Cecil Altobelli
Drop Team B:
*Renen Averius von Raptum
*Flint Westwood
*Knuser Ansitker
*Jonathan Somerset
== Order of Battle ==
=== Team 1 ===
Orders: Take care of the wounded and the APC.
(Taddok and Konrad were here, but they've been transferred to Team 2.)
(Hasala Nabin - Wounded)
(Kyle Johnson - Wounded)
(Lerman Russ - "Wounded")
=== Team 2 ===
Orders: Take care of the outside of the diner. Protect against external threats. Take care of civilians.
Flint Westwood
Pancaek Nilys CURRENTLY HELPING TEAM 3
Knuser Ansitker
D'usse de Cognac
Yttra Mour
Jack "Knight" Catar
Konrad Curtz
Taddok Find
=== Team 3 ===
Orders: Investigate the inside of the diner. Start with the basement. Be careful.
Renen Averius von Raptum
Feyri Nirel
Auron Kell
Cecil Altobelli
Jonathan Somerset
Jack Hansan
CURRENTLY AIDED BY PANCAEK
== Provided Gear ==
=== First Team ===
* APC (Jack Hansan's)
* 4 Shotguns (100 shells)
** Claimed by: Hasala, 35 shells; Taddok, 25 shells; Jack, 25 shells; Yttra D'usse, 15 shells
* 8 Riot shields
** Claimed by: Hasala, Kyle, Lerman, Yttra, Konrad, Morul, Pancaek, D'usse
* 6 Bulletproof vests
** Claimed by: Hasala, Lerman, Jack, Yttra Kyle, Konrad, Pancaek D'usse
* 5 Helmets with face visors
** Claimed by: Hasala, Kyle, Lerman, Yttra (placed in Rescue Team box), Taddok
* 16 Flashbangs
** Claimed by: Hasala(x2), Lerman(x2), Jack(x2), Yttra(x2), Taddok, Faith, Morul(x2), Pancaek(x2), D'usse(x2)
* 10 Nightsticks
** Claimed by: Hasala(x1+2), Kyle, Jack, Yttra, Taddok, Konrad, Morul, Pancaek
* 20 Artifact containers
** Claimed by: Hasala(x2), Kyle(x2), Lerman(x2), Jack(x2), Yttra, Taddok(x2), Faith(x2), Konrad(x3), Morul(x2), Pancaek(x2)
=== Rescue Team ===
* Several big boxes, able to be closed (Buried in rubble)
* Long pliers (Buried in rubble)
* Smoke grenades (Some claimed by Flint and Yttra [2], any remaining grenades buried in rubble)
* A Goop-thrower (Claimed by Jack Catar)
* "A few" goop-thrower ammo canisters (Two claimed by Yttra, any remaining canisters buried in rubble)
* "A few" Goop grenades (Some claimed by Auron [1 or 2], Pancaek [1], and Yttra [2], any remaining grenades buried in ruble)
== Mission Summary ==
The original team were dropped off in a spaceport in the city, where the APC, the SWAT gear, and the NPC driver were waiting for them. As the most veteran ARM member present, Faith took command, and divided the team into 5 pairs of two. The gear was divvied up amongst team members, and the APC dropped the team off a little ways down the street from the target building, in broad daylight.
The target building was four stories tall, with the ground floor converted into a diner. There was also a hatch in the kitchen, with a ladder leading down into the sewers. Those team members with CamEyes immediately noticed that they could not see anything inside the walls of the building, except for the diner. While Morul and Yttra headed around the back of the building, to sneak in through the kitchen door, unfortunately vague actions and piecewise being piecewise led to almost half the team walking straight up to the diner's front doors, and standing around while wearing spacesuits and holding shotguns and a flamethrower. At the same time, Faith climbed up the side of the building from the alley, and attempted to punch through the brick wall on one of the higher floors. A black barrier inside the building's walls sent her crashing back down into the alley. While Faith ran for the front doors to attempt diplomacy and Lerman flashbanged everyone at the doors and inside the diner, Morul quietly and competently used his Mass Manipulation Psychokinetic Amplifier to open the locked kitchen door. He found a cook in the kitchen, who was distracted by the flashbang in the diner. The flashbang sent most of the diners running, and Hasala used twist-ties from behind the counter to tie up those remaining. When the cook noticed Morul and Yttra at the door, he attacked. Morul promptly killed him before anyone could come running, and found a Burnout Amp in the remains of the cook's brain. The cook was also carrying a set of keys that unlocked the door to upstairs and the hatch down. Lerman manned the (armor piercing) machinegun turret on the APC and began to encounter Will rolls, while Hasala rolled the Venetian-blind-like metal curtains down over the diner's windows. Lerman failed his second Will roll and promptly shot up half the team with the machinegun, tempkilling Hasala, heavily injuring Kyle, and injuring Taddok and Jack Catar. He also perforated the metal window curtains and destroyed quite a bit of the diner, though the hostages were saved by already being on the floor when he started firing. Lerman passed another Will roll not long after, breaking the mind control. While Yttra provided improvised medical assistance, Morul went down the ladder in the kitchen alone, while uninjured team members went up the stairs to the second/first floor (depending on where you live; the floor above the diner). The second floor was mostly one large room, with sheets hung to create "rooms". There were three cultists on the second floor; one without a head fled upstairs upon contact, while Faith kicked the second one into a wall and the third hijacked Konrad's body by grabbing his Laser Rifle. After a short stint controlling Konrad, the cultist transferred into Faith's (synthflesh) body, and proceeded to use her Kinetic Amplifier-studded club to wreak havoc, destroying Pancaek's legs and severing Lerman's. Pancaek managed to use his Mass Manipulation Psychokinetic Amplifier to hold "Despair"'s arms behind her back, which seemed to immobilize her. Meanwhile, D'usse took hostages in a building across the street, and moved the diner hostages there, as well; and Morul was exploring the sewer after passing through a black barrier while climbing down the ladder (this one was permeable, unlike the ones inside the building's walls). He encountered two more cultists, guarding a door through a newer brick wall in a side-tunnel of the main sewer tunnel. One was wearing scuba-gear, but with water inside, rather than air, while the other was wearing bandages and holding a gun. After being alerted to his presence, Scuba ran for and dived into the sewer water, while Bandages attacked. Morul managed to defeat both cultists, but got shot by Bandages' gun, which caused pain and covered him in "glowing termites"; he retreated back up the ladder, afterwards.
Then Kano's equivalent of SWAT arrived, in four yellow squadcars and a black armored van/truck. They formed an autocade with the squadcars, about 100 feet from the diner. Two police officers arrived in each squadcar, and men wearing body armor and longcoats and wielding compact Gauss rifles stepped out of the van. Morul stepped out onto the street to attempt diplomacy, but succumbed to mind control (from the same source as Lerman or from the "termites", we're not sure which), and the cultist now controlling Morul used his Mass Manipulation Psychokinetic Amplifier to release "Despair", whom he called Anne, and to punch a hole through the building's wall. Taddok, Konrad, and Lerman fled in the APC with the NPC driver and the bodies of Hasala and (the technically still alive but unresponsive) Kyle; Lerman once again manned the machinegun, shooting several of the police/SWAT team, as well as Pancaek's head (destroying his CamEyes); at this point, the machinegun ran out of ammo. Then Anne used Faith's synthflesh body to jump the entire distance between the diner building and the autocade. With the kinamp-club activated. This "Leap of Faith" destroyed the police, their vehicles, and the surrounding buildings. The diner building withstood the damage relatively intact, and the building D'usse and the hostages were in remained mostly intact, as well, though the front of the building collapsed. Jack Catar was also buried in rubble, pushed into a third building by the force of the blast.
At this point, the mission was pretty much declared FUBAR, and a rescue team was put together to help salvage the situation. They were dropped from two hotdrop shuttles onto the street; the smoke and exhaust raised by both the Leap of Faith and the shuttles gave them temporary respite from amp-based attacks, either from the controlled Morul, or the mysterious mind controller. Auron and Flint moved to engage Morul, but before any fighting took place, Morul managed to temporarily overcome the control long enough to press the button on his void suit, which freed him from the control, though it took him a few turns to recover from the mental fatigue. The team was notified at this point that Faith's body was underground, and headed away from the area at high speed. Flint sent a drone to follow her signal. Then the headless cultist returned to the second floor, finding Yttra alone. By this point, though, Yttra had looted Miyamoto's prototype chem-thrower from Hasala's corpse, and its Sticky Goop proved more than capable of disabling him. Headless was hung from the alleyway for safekeeping, while the remaining members of the original team joined forces with the rescue team to explore the sewers and the upper floors of the diner building. D'usse released the naked and almost-certainly mentally scarred hostages, at this point. Lerman was shocked into unconscious by Steve, on orders from Miyamoto, who was acting as Mission Control.
The sewer team proceeded down the ladder, recovered the "termite gun", and were blown into the opposite wall when one guy used his Kinetic Amplifier to get through the brick wall and door. After the temporary setback, the team picked themselves up and looked into the room on the other side of the now-obliterated door, The room was lit by strings of LED lights, large and roughly circular; on each non-door wall were three egg-shaped machines, all connected to a haphazardly-decorated throne in the center of the room, upon which sat a corpse. Auron stuffed the corpse into a box, and then Anne arrived, blowing past the team without getting hit once and slamming into one of the egg-shaped machines before turning to face the team. Apparently, the barrier that was passed through while climbing down the ladder transported the team to the sewer, which was not actually below the diner, at all. Anne had entered the actual sewer under the diner, and had raced north through it for several turns, heading into and then past the downtown area of the city, up into the hills, and arriving in the vicinity of the Hallbeck Radio Telescope Array - and the sewer team. After a short bit of combat, in which she lost both arms, and trying and failing to touch anyone with a fancy synthflesh (or better; Renen was present) body, Anne was pretty much obliterated. All limbs and half of her head were destroyed; her torso was only left intact because nobody wanted to kill Faith. Anne didn't really seem to care much at this point, though, because "Upload Complete!" We don't actually know what that means, but at this point the barrier on the ladder (and inside the walls of the building) disappeared, and control over what was left of her body was returned to Faith (Anne just evaporated, apparently; maybe the upload was her consciousness?). Everybody in the sewer seemed concerned that the diner building was going to collapse on them, and raced up the ladder, finding themselves in the middle of a cul-de-sac in the hills.
Meanwhile, the building team were temporarily stymied by a locked door; Faith had had the cook's keys when she was hijacked, so the door to the third floor had to be taken off of its hinges for the team to proceed upstairs. The stairs to the third floor led to a short hallway, blocked off by a solid black barrier. At this point, events in the sewers had reached their ominous conclusion, and the building started to groan and shudder. Everybody except Flint and Morul, who had just returned from the Void, raced out of the building; Flint tried to support the roof from the diner. Morul used his Void suit to bypass the black barrier, and found himself inside it, with six cultists, one of whom seemed to specifically be controlling/generating the barrier. Shockwaves and movement inside the barrier were extremely hampered, and Morul only managed to attempt to use his amp once (resulting in said shockwave) before finding himself suddenly hurtling through the atmosphere towards Kano, on the opposite side of the planet.
As the building team watched the diner building collapse and the APC returned to pick them up, those of the sewer team still capable of moving fast rushed to destroy the Hallbeck Radio Telescope Array, due to the focusing array beginning to move. The building team got into the APC and set out for the extraction point, while the sewer team set off into the wilderness for their extraction point. But the mission didn't end there; Kano's military and police weren't about to let them get away that easily. Additional police forces approached from the east, aerial units from the south. and military ground units from north. Flint stayed behind at the diner, and used his multi-weapon to shoot bolts of lightning into the sky, as a distraction. With each bolt, though, the power draw grew larger, and was soon so large that Gilgamesh had insufficient power to do anything else. The lightning bolts created a storm, which dropped lightning bolts with alarming frequency; Flint had to climb out of Gilgamesh while the entire area was crackling with static electricity and lightning bolts were raining down to shut off the weapon. Needless to say, the several blocks affected by the lightning rain and the fires and destruction it caused was plenty distraction to draw off the aerial units. The police continued to follow the APC, though, and began firing rounds into its rear ramp, through slits in the metal plates that replaced their passenger-side windshields. The ramp quickly began to buckle under the gunfire, and a few rounds even got through - though not to the team members inside, thanks to all the riot shields stacked in front of the ramp by Konrad. Taddok tossed half a dozen grenades at the vehicles from the turret, and Jack Catar used a chem-thrower sent down with the rescue team to fire the namite canisters looted by Yttra at the police. After unloading the entire canister and looking through the gap in the shields and ramp, there was no sign of the vehicles, only a quickly vanishing fire behind them. Then Flint flew to the APC and carried it the rest of the way to the extraction point; the helicopters couldn't keep up, and the military wasn't fast enough to put in any appearance at all. Morul had managed to turn his freefall into an orbit with his amp, and everyone returned to the Sword for debriefing.
Casualties
* Hasala - Shot by Lerman in the chest: Very dead, both lungs and bottom of heart shot clean through. Revive counter: 2 hours, ~26 minutes remaining (as of September 15th turn)
* Kyle - Shot by Lerman in the gut, improv medic-ed by Yttra. Sepsis incoming - or would be, if he ever did anything.
* Taddok - Left arm broken by Lerman's shooting; improv-splinted and slinged by Yttra.
* Jack Catar - Shot by Lerman in the "gut", and left arm blown off. Was buried under rubble from the Leap of Faith, receiving a few scratches, a bit of mangling, and almost losing a mechanical eye - which is now dangling from the socket.
* Faith - Possessed by "Despair", AKA Anne, the cultist lady. Left arm severed; right arm, both legs, and the upper half of her head destroyed by Gauss rounds and shockwaves. Back in control of what's left of her body.
* Pancaek - Legs eradicated by Faith's Anne's kinamp-studded club. Head (and CamEyes) destroyed by Lerman's second round of machinegun-firing. An arm severed at the shoulder by Anne.
* Lerman - Legs blown off by Faith's Anne's kinamp-studded club, but reattached... to his chest. Yes, they do still work. No, that doesn't make sense to me, either. Currently being kept unconscious by spinal implant shock.
* Morul - Shot by some sort of weird cultist pain-gun; partially consumed by "glowing termites", losing his arm and half his upper body. Was possessed by a different cultist and almost lost a mental battle, but managed to regain control long enough to enter the Void, which broke the control. Ripped his lower body and most of the rest of his upper body away with his Mass amp while trying to push himself into a stable orbit, which he seems to have either succeeded or exceeded on.
* Knuser - Removed helmet and inhaled burning-hot cloud of toxic rocket exhaust fumes and smoke. That's probably not healthy.
* Cecil - Arm severed/blown off, both legs broken, brick and mortar embedded in his lower body. Major blood loss + shock, bleeding out rapidly.
Category:Mission