OOC: Rob, Duncan's plan is to take an ATV or other such similar vehicle towards Southey. His goal is to try to come into contact with any locals who might have been able to evade the RWR troops rounding everyone up and see what they know about the situation. He also hopes to find a spot with a decent view of the city and watch the city with a pair of binoculars for a couple hours to see if he can figure out how many RWR troops are in the two towers and whether or not the RWR forces appear to be rigging the buildings to explode. He's also trying to observe basic information such as where the RWR troops have set up their headquarters and barracks. Duncan will not be going in uniform, nor will he be carrying any equipment to identify himself as a member of the SLDF. Duncan would like to avoid any RWR troops, but hopes to pass himself off as a local hunter (so he will have a rifle with him) if he encounters any. He'll also bring some money with him in case he needs to bribe anyone for information or to leave him alone. I figure the stealth, acting, and negotiation skills are appropriate here. Additionally, the artillery skill could feasibly be used to plot the location of enemy forces with some degree of accuracy. Furthermore, I will be spending 30 XP to purchase Stealth +1 and 30 XP to purchase Small Arms +1. Lastly, how long does it take for a mech to perform a cold reactor start up?
XP expenditure noted and logged. Check StratOps for reactor startup times. Otherwise, a COLD reactor takes a few hours to startup. A hot but powered-down reactor takes between 10 second and 5 minutes, depending on the state it was left in.While the rest of the unit works to get themselves ready for combat, you grab one of the ATVs "liberated" from the supply depot and head towards Southey. You know not to enter the city proper; they're bound to have restricted the flow of civilian traffic. It'll be difficult to find a place high enough to grant a good view of the city - it's not like there's a lot of hilltops to exploit. After your two-hour drive into the surrounding vicinity, you spend a solid three hours searching up and down residential boulevards looking for someplace to reconniter from. (
Random encounter rolls: 2, 5, 4. No random encounters). Eventually, you manage to land in front of a cheap hotel wedged between a couple of bottling plants. Its small footprint means that it stretches well above the surrounding buildings - a good 15 stories high. You park your ATV around back and walk through the front doors.
The concierge greets you and beckons you to step up to the counter. You inquire about renting a room for a few days; being a "winter hunter" means you'll need to have your weapon and equipment with you as well and "would that be acceptable"? (
Acting Skill Roll=9. MoS/F=?). The concierge looks at you sideways for a moment, and then notes that he'll need to have your hunting license on file with your ID. Smoothly, you mention that it's in a protected box in your vehicle, and you'll be glad to bring it to him after you've checked in and gotten your things out of the cold, planning the whole time to be done with your recon and gone by the time he gets around to remembering it's not there. (
Acting skill Roll=9. MoS/F=?). The man agrees that would be fine, and takes your ID, checking you in, and deducting what must be a week's wages from your balance in exchange for the romm. You don't argue the point - a real hunter would want to stay more than just the few hours you're planning to.
Checked in, you cart your cased weapon and equipment up an elevator you share with an overweight woman who smells faintly of rotten eggs - probably a temporary worker for one of the bottling plants next door - and check in to your room. As per your request, it's on the 14th floor and overlooks the city itself. You settle in for an easy afternoon of reconnaissance, quite happy to be out of the bitter Canadian winds.
During your hours of observation, you notice that, outside the Southey beltway, there's a fair amount of traffic. But inside, there's very, very little. What traffic there is seems to be entirely inward-focused and made up primarily of large trucks.
Perhaps they're thinking about moving the hostages, you ponder. You also make note of a lance of blue-and-white-painted Mechs that patrols this sector of the city. They tend to move in fits and starts - moving from one position to another every ten to fifteen minutes in an irregular pattern. The lance consists of a Griffin, two Javelins, and a smaller Mech that you cannot identify but which mounts a good-sized laser on the arm. (
Career/Soldier skill Roll (untrained Single-attribute check)= 10. MoF=4...and ALL PCs were supposed to have the Career/Soldier skill as per the Master Rules Thread. Don't worry about it for now, but assuming you survive to get off-world, you'll be taking it. ) You can see at least one additional lance of Mechs moving about on the far side of the city, but are unable to identify any of them save for the distinctive extended missile launcher of a Thunderbolt.
Suddenly, there's an authoritative knock at your door. You look through the peephole. not expecting company or room service (although having seen the maids, you were sorely tempted). You see the concierge, flanked by a pair of policemen, both standing apart and slightly back from the door, taser pistols drawn but pointed towards the floor. One is speaking quietly into a headset radio. "Mr. Reed? I'm sorry, but I'm afraid these officers need to talk to you. Your face was flagged in the system when you entered the building, and they need you to answer a few questions."
You briefly contemplate a daring escape through the window before you recall that the exterior of the building is smooth glass without much in the way of handholds...and that you're 14 floors up. It's a given that reinforcements - maybe even actual Rim Worlds troops, are on their way, so you heave a sigh and unlock the door. The officers have moved backwards and have their pistols pointed at your chest; you raise your hands to show them you're unarmed and back away from the door, thinking furiously. The officers follow you into the room, moving to either side of the doorframe as they enter. The shorter one tells the concierge to go back downstairs, and he immediately complies, scurrying away hurriedly with his shoulders hunched over as if he was expecting a blow.
The taller one looks at you and lowers his pistol slightly. "Mr. Reed, we have to ask you a few questions regarding the nature of your activities in Southey. You are not under arrest at this time, but be aware we will have to detain you for a period of not more than two days while this issue of your identity is sorted out. Please look directly into the camera on my shoulder and state that you are aware of and fully understand what I have told you."
You do so, and suddenly (
Tactics/Land Skill check=11, MoS=2) a thought pops unbidden into your head. You clearly can't let yourself be taken into custody, and there's no way they're going to just let you go given that you've got a military-issue weapon in that case and not license for it - not to mention the possibility of their cross-referencing your ID with any sort of military lists the Rim Worlds forces may have distributed. But there's your half-full glass of scotch on the counter, and standing next to it would put the officers in a direct line with one another, so that one would block the others line of sight. It's not much of a plan, but it's something.
They begin to ask you a few simple questions - what you're doing in Southey, how long you've been hunting, a few querries about which calibre gun is better for which game. While you're sure Marshall would do a better job of it, you manage (
Acting Skill Roll=13, MoS=3) to bluff your way through the conversation until you've meandered your way over to the glass. In mid-sentence, you suddenly hurl the spirits at the shorter officer's face (
Thrown Weapons Skill Check, untrained=13, MoF=1). Moderately-expensive scotch gets in his eyes and he turns away, cursing. You dash forward and slam into him, controlling his taser in the shock of the moment and bringing it to bear on the taller officer, who scrambles to pull his Mauser laser pistol. Enough of the alcohol is in the smaller man's eyes that he can't put up much of a fight, but he puts up just enough of one that it delays your shot - the taller officer brings his weapon to bear and fires at the same time you do. Your taser shot (
Small Arms skill Check=10, MoS=3) hits him in the neck and he falls convulsing to the ground, but a cold burn you feel along your right shoulder tells you he hasn't missed (
Take 2 MechWarrior Pilot Hits). Gasping in shock, you shove the taser into the blinded officer's armpit - avoiding his body armor - and pull the trigger. He, too, falls limply to the ground with only a startled grunt.
Wincing in pain, but grateful that lasers cauterize their wounds, you pack up your things and rush down the hall to the elevator, ignoring the few startled heads that popped curiously out of doors at the laser's *crack*. You ride down to the first floor, flip a coin to the startled concierge, and briskly walk out the front doors. You break into a run as soon as you're out of sight of the front lobby, and dash to your ATV. You've driven perhaps a hundred yards when you hear police sirens crank up in the distance, but you know b the time anyone gets there, you'll be long gone.
Back at the bivouac, you have to sit through one of Joanna's lectures about "letting the
trained scouts do their job" as she patches up your side (
MedTech Roll=10, MoS=1; heal 1 pilot hit). It's a small price to pay for the information, though you'll be tight along your side for a few days. Hopefully it won't affect your piloting in the battle to come. (
You will start the October 8th game with a single MechWarrior Pilot Hit)
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Topic: IC: 8 January, 2767 (Read 6740 times)