Penultimate mission wrapped.
The back 2/3 of this mission was the Pay It Forward section. The second encounter was easier because of Mirage's downtime of finding a path, so they just had to play "avoid the security camera spotlight" game and reach the end. Enemy deployment was light
- 1 Zoner (Maximum Threat)
- 2 Assault Grunts
- 1 Ogre Grunt (Field Guide to Suldan)
One additional Assault Grunt was pulled in, due to an enemy living more than a turn. The only fail condition was getting caught in the rotating Field of View of the camera, which has a 90 degree sight window that rotated at the end of every round.
The Tortuga: Went up the hill and tried to stay just out of line of sight of the camera. The other two, in faster mechs (Morning Cloak and Vandal) took the road, using vehicles for cover, dealing with the ground troops. The Zoner laid some explosive caltrops at the Morning Cloak's feet, but lmao Teleportation is funny.
They got through this encounter pretty cleanly.
Here's where it got interesting. They had to infiltrate the Inari Citadel, a Dyanmis military base. Two members had their ins, Harper's Tortuga was registered to the system, and Holy man had an ID from a deserter (who joined his religion) who looked close enough like him that a quick glance wouldn't be suspicious.
Mirage opted to be on alert on the outskirts, hiding in the forest path they found.
So I gave her a modified version of the B-Plot move from Armor Astir. Instead of Confidence I allowed 2 Accuracy to be given instead, in exchange for complicating things. I still cut away and let them talk with their Enlightenment Class NHP/voices from a reincarnation. They told Mirage how uncomfortable HORUS shit made them feel
Inside the base, Harper ran afoul of security three times, and lost a sparring match, before ultimately hacking a computer at the shooting range, while Holy Man got a lay of the land, and managed to blend his way in to the war room, where soldiers got to choose from a list of available assignments. Fortune smiled as his ID was eligible for a strange mission to the north. One that had a payout of $0, compared to the others that had various payments. It was an escort of 7 frames to a Glorious Holy Land. He made note of the details and kept his head down.
Shit then went down outside, as Mirage, who opted to complicate their situation to give a bonus to people in the base. She was spotted by a scout (Saboteur unit), but a quick lie kept them from being fired on or the alarm raised, but they were being escorted ot the base for confirmation.
And then she teleported away.
This did not go over well, the alarm was raised, and several units of ground troops and a mech platoon was deployed, and Harper was supposed to be part of that deployment, but she was abusing an admin account to try to find information. By the time she was called to the hanger to deploy, the rest of the platoon had launched.
Unfortunately for her, the Security officer was in the cockpit of her frame, and found the AI she had made, a strict violation of the nation's religious doctrine. The religious technology country sure does not like the idea of controlling digital entities like that. She was under arrest. She got cuffed on one hand but broke free and recovered her AI, taking a shot to the back in the process, and was able to get into the Tortuga and escape.
Mirage, in addition to teleporting away and retreating to the spot where they split, took Holy Man's Vandal, and set off a bunch of mines and grenades all over to keep the base occupied. The chaos created was enough for people to slip out.
All in all, went well! Everyone got their final License Levels and will hopefully be ready to start the raid next week.