Calmaxys

Wanted by British Gas

  • he/him

20, compsci student, Polish expat in UK.


I'm going to give another recap of the session! For those just now joining us:

The mini-campaign I am in the process of running focuses around the work of the MRRT (Mechanized Response and Rescue Team), more specifically their PHOENIX Squadron (the player team). The squadron consists of:

Wildfire (Cross) - an ex-vigilante from a group called Inferno. Joined the MRRT to do some good on the right side of the law for once. Hated by most of his vigilante friends, but hasn't had the chance to see them again yet. Pilots a custom IPS-N Raleigh, "Scorching Nova".

Event Horizon (Ashley Cage) - an ex-Harrison Armory engineer experienced with working in hostile environments from the time she spent in a dangerous system. She just wanted to help make the galaxy better, has no beef with her previous employers. Pilots a custom WORLDKILLER Genghis MK. I, "The Flame of Liberty".

Aegis (Carina) - An Albatross trainee whose first mission went terribly, seeing her entire squad eliminated bar her. Her superiors didn't see it as a big deal, she saw it differently and stowed away on a passing trade ship to leave her Makteba and join up with the MRRT. Nervous and cowardly, but puts on the facade of a hero by taking hits for her entire team. Pilots a custom SSC Orchis, "Shut Up And Get Behind Me, Sir".

Enceladus (Brynn Lunas) - An ex-Mirrorsmoke Mercenary Company soldier. Part of 281st Batallion, "Murder of Crows". Had a mission go terribly, with her squad being killed by a rogue cell of HORUS militants. Took the NHP Casket from her friend Cain's mech and inserted it into her own. Quiet, somewhat reserved, deeply bitter about her incident - it left her with a prosthetic arm, leg and eye. Pilots a custom HORUS Goblin, "Goodbye World".

Repose (Apollo Callahan) - Another ex-Mirrorsmoke mercenary. Part of 634th Division, "Wolf Dogs". His squad was wiped out by space pirates and he saw it as his calling to see nobody else dies on his watch again. Somewhat of a tsundere - he'll heal people and then berate them for getting themselves in danger to begin with. Pilots a custom IPS-N Lancaster, "Deus Ex Machina".

The group awoke on base, a week or so after their last mission. It's been a slow week, but the downtime was appreciated. Carina had a new message on her dataslate, a delivery confirmation from SSC that stated her Orchis was successfully delivered. The group, after waking up, went down to get breakfast and chat about things. As they were finishing up, someone arrived to inform Ashley, Cross and Apollo that they had visitors waiting for them in the hangar. Learning this, the entire group made their way over.

Ashley was met by a Harrison Armory representative. They needed to speak to her about something, and needed to do so in private. Once they made their way to her quarters, the man opened up. As it turns out, one of Ashley's distant relatives, Ashton Cage, has died. In his last will, he left Ashley to inherit his old WORLDKILLER Genghis MK. I, as it was only used for customs and parades and has seen no actual combat use. Ashley signed off the paperwork and requested to be informed of when the funeral would be taking place, so that she may go pay her respects.

Apollo was met by the same pirate-tongued IPS-N representative as last time. After being sort of rudely told to cut out the pirate speak by Apollo, the representative gave it to him straight and offered him a Lancaster license.

Cross met another freighter pilot and received another delivery, this time a Raleigh frame and a license to go with it.

Brynn received a message from a friend around this time, the same friend who she spent the night with modifying her Chomolungma a week before. The friend was asking if she was doing okay after last night, and Brynn responded in the positive before checking her message history. What she saw is as follows:

Shep_herd messaged YOU at 3:43 GST

See, it turns out a bunch of Phobia Distro cryptonauts discovered that ancient Old Humanity .gif files can store an inexpressibly high amount of data using very specific compression algorithms, but it had limited utility consider that the resulting file is functionally indistinguishable from a cognitohazard. For instance, this one puts you in a fugue state and makes you build a Goblin! [ATTACHED FILE: goblin.gif]

The attachment had been marked as opened. Brynn then looked around the hangar and sure enough, saw a Goblin just standing there. She looked to the Goblin, then back at the message, then back to the Goblin.

Once the group were all done marveling at their new machines, Manny showed up. He told the lancers that a new mission had finally come in - a bust on an illegal arms factory that the MRRT had been scouting for the past week or so. They took some reserves, prepared, and entered their mechs before boarding the Dawnbreaker.

As Carina boarded her new mech, she noticed it had a coffee machine inside and the seats were done in leather, despite her having asked for neither of these modifications.

The group landed in a fairly disused section of the Titan Megaswathe, looking around until they found the warehouse that supposedly housed the arms factory. They saw that the North and West walls looked rather weak - possible to smash through. Looking in from the west, Brynn noticed a few people wandering around and some mech frames lined up against the eastern wall of the warehouse. With this, the group formulated their plan. Apollo, Ashley and Carina would bust in through the north wall while Brynn and Cross made their entrance from the warehouse shutter on the south end. They would request a surrender and then attack if the suspects didn't comply. After this, they moved.

As the wall came down and the shutter came open, the suspects made a mad dash for their mechs. They managed to get in, but would need some time to start them up, giving PHOENIX Squadron some time to reposition, take cover and prepare their strategy.

They were faced with the following, at least at first: 1x MK. I "Amnesiac" CHASSIS - Exotic Hive (Chronoturgy Disruptor) 1x MK. I "Reddick" CHASSIS - Commander Aegis 2x MK. I "Hiroi" CHASSIS - Industrial Mech Cataphract (Industrial Clamps, Electrified Lasso) 1x MK. I "Viper" CHASSIS - Scrapper Wingman (Fragmented NHP)

As such, they got to work. The first rounds of combat were nothing special. The group traded blows and managed to split attention between each other fairly well.

After a few rounds, when a single Hiroi and the Amnesiac had fallen, something showed up through the wall they busted through. 2x MK. I "SWORDMASTER" CHASSIS - Ronin (Chaff Launchers) 1x "ADRAMALECH" PROTOTYPE GENGHIS MK. III - Veteran Pyro (Limitless, Legendary, Lightning Reflexes)

I threw on a new music mix (yes, I made a music mix specifically for the Adramalech) and the group got to fighting the new enemy while managing the stragglers from the first group.

The fight from this point was long. Like, really long. The players have a lot of CC potential now, with pushing and pulling and proning and immobilizing enemies and the Adramalech's 4 speed could barely keep up. This, however, does not mean they weren't in danger - the Adramalech's flamethrower stacks 5 burn and doubles its burn damage on targets who already have any burn. This meant that at one point Carina's Orchis was afflicted with a total of 15 burn (and took structure damage for it). Apollo's Lancaster lost both of its weapons and was left with only the Latch Drone Launcher.

The group didn't let up, however, and it paid off - careful setup and a lot of turns of preparation led to them doing a total of 45 damage in one turn. Cross stacked a lot of accuracy enhancing effects and fired his entire arsenal at the Adramalech, with supporting fire from Brynn's Autopod and the three turrets he had placed earlier. The Adramalech was brought to its knees by a broadside this strong (it had already lost a single structure, this was enough to do 2 more structure damage to it).

The session ran a bit long as my players got to grips with their new toys, so we haven't done the post-combat RP. However, Brynn picked up what little was left of the Adramalech - a small, damaged computer, monitor flashing and sparks crackling. Maybe she could do something with it during downtime?


You must log in to comment.