Thursday, October 20, 2005

SESSION FOUR
(As Written by Selena)

3 weeks later...

The group is still keeping things under wraps in regards of the satellite

Hikaru is trained in mecha ops and is a mech lieutenant. He still is hitting the labs to get his fix as he needed. Ripper has been using him as a lab rat.

Rudy has been in the medic bay and by hunting. He's been taking lessons along with Ripper with Brother Mercer: meditation, spiritual energies, and the penumbra.

Ripper has been trying to figure out the implant, and figure out who he is. The dreams have not stopped, but nothing else clear.

DJ ...TOYS..... Sirrel, another tech is fascinated with his fascination with Star Wars. He's also been trying to figure containment. He has gotten his computer working and his files back, and a shellpack for his personal laptop.

The group is gathered. Lt. Jordan, a blonde petite female, is present. They are working on the generators that have gone down. They are going to swipe hardware from the Imps.

The Kurzo compound outside the green zone is the target. Sub optics from one of the generators will be plenty. Hikaru is on the mech squad. The other 3 will be in the infiltration squad.

(do you want me to fix ya, or do you want me to fix ya up?)

There is a backpack for carrying the optics.

DJ wants a mountain bike.

Stick asks for clarification on a few other points.

Gear will be vibroswords, handguns, ammo as needed, assault rifle, stealth suit, light battle armor, 5 frag grenades,

Lt. Greaves is in charge of the mechs

Group gets ready and head out. Stick and Greaves chat about tactics.

Jordan will be taking out patrol with compound bows.

They get to the operation base. Scouts are sent out for the perimeter of the base. 2 hours Mercer comes out to tell about the patrol, there is an encampment nearby; there are sentry droids there when the storms are not hitting.

Storm arrives. They head out and get to the initialization point. The teams of bowman head out, Rudy goes along with them.

Mercer reports the patrol and Rudy relays. The leader goes for an ambush a bit away, the team follows. They see the patrol come over the ridge and see the trail that they are walking along.

The dogs almost immediately stop and point. The team leader orders the team to take their shots. They hit even with the darkness and the wind. One of the guards gets 2 arrows the other falls out of his saddle.

Rudy draws his knife and gets ready in case a dog attacks. The arrows are loosed again and the arrows find their mark as the fallen is now a porcupine. The horses flee.
The archers drop their bows and run up. The dogs run down.

One dog is cut on the way to the guards. The archer takes the flare gun and takes the flare out of the chamber.

They move to hide the bodies and go to meet the second patrol. The ambush spot is perfect and they are also taken out.

Mercer tells the mech pilots that they are go.

One of the other members, Billy has the M3R. They have to take the manapault. There are two forward scouts that keep the insertion team from running into patrols.

The mechs pilots see the torch lights along the walls. Greaves comes into huddle and they can see the runes glowing. They think they can do mortar rounds since the darkness of night would be able to help since the Imps have lanterns.

Stick volunteers to open the door. If he doesn't, Noble will try her hand.

The mortars are deployed. Billy Bob is on his shoulder. The mortars start firing.

Meanwhile, on the other side, the insertion team starts getting their positions together and is setting up the manapault.

The big gunner, Club, puts the helmet on and shows how to operate the contraption. He looks to Thornton and Derry. Derry is the biggest guy in the group; he goes last since he can crank the thing himself.

The fire starts, the Imps scatter. The insertion team waits another minute and a half. Smoke rounds go off. Stick gets his pack and heads to knock on the door. Two shots ring off stick's mech's armor but just bounces off the armor. As he gets up to the gate, the bullets march across the grounds and manage to minorly penetrate.

Stick slaps on the charge. The smoke and everything, Stick manages to trip. Billy rolls out but manages to get before he's hurt. Stick gets the pack on the door and BB gets back into his pod. Stick sticks close to the wall.

Club gives a nod to the big guy and is launched. He goes over the top, managing to show off. He sees a guy with a LAW rocket who doesn't see him at all as he goes over.
Club pulls his chute at the right point and he avoids the building. He touches down, pulls in his chutes and he gets behind some crates.

DJ goes next and gets shot up, but has to pull his shoot to get to where he can glide. There are 2 men carrying a weapon and he moves to get out of their line of sight.
He manages to skip behind them by 12 feet. He lands on top of the crates where Club is hiding behind.

Ripper hops up next. He makes it over and pops the chute correctly... however he drifts right near the barracks. Club curses and goes to a corner to give Ripper cover.
There are a group of soldiers running about 40 feet away and the last one sees Ripper, turns around and....

Meanwhile, Billy Bob is hunkered and covered. The blast sounds and Stick can't see the doors so he waits. Mercer tells him to wait and Noble's mech goes by.
She takes 2 hits but only takes minimal damage and sticks another blast pack to finish blowing the door.

Noble skids next to Stick and the pack blows the door off, the gate flying off in chunks. The dust settles, rockets start to fire out of the gate. Stick gives Noble a signal to see if he wants to jump and he wants to. He steps back from the wall and BB ducks down as the mechs jump.

Thorton goes next. Rudy uses his mage armor. Thorton doesn't get to the top of his arc and gets spotted and is fired upon. Thorton pulls his chute early and pulls out his gun, taking shots as best he can while moving.

Rudy takes a shot and hits the guy pretty square and knocks the guy off the wall. Thornton catches along the wall and drops the last 15 feet and there is a snap of the ankle, making him cry out.

Rudy refastens his gun and gets ready for his launch. Rudy has a few troubles and ends up a bit sideways and almost upside down. Rudy then pops the chute too late, the ground and building coming very fast at him. He barely manages to pull the chute open at 20 feet from the ground and manages to land, pulling a muscle as he came down the dome.

Darry goes next, and gets over the wall, pops the chute perfectly and comes down 10 feet into the clearing near Ripper. The imp gets a shot off at Darry and catches him square in the neck. Darry goes down and doesn't get up.

Rudy heard the action barely going on with his team and doesn't see any of his teammates except for DJ. He heads over next to DJ taking a defensive position.
DJ heads to the corner and fires his Glock at the one firing at Ripper, causing him to stagger back. Club moves to finish the guy off and does so.
Ripper goes around chucking a frag grenade behind the 5 and is off, it explodes behind a corner.

A grenade comes out and explodes, not enough to do damage, enough concussive force to knock Ripper back a step.

Rudy sneaks around the other side of the building to the diagonal corner. He sees two soldiers up against the wall at the generator building. DJ heads over to another corner close to the generator building, opposite now from Rudy. Club runs over to the wall by the door. Ripper runs towards the door, crouching down and peeks into the inset an auto fire hits, though doesn't hit him. He ducks back.

An imp battle rolls to the ground and sprays the area by Ripper. Ripper gets hit and he hugs the building. The pair that Rudy saw goes around the building, hugging close.
One fires at DJ and he dodges back, getting to cover.

Stick gets up over the wall. A two man group track and let loose a rocket and they miss by a good 25 feet. He lands on the roof and one foot breaks through but manages not to tip.

Noble hops over and doesn't get fired upon and he lands inside the walls.

Tuesday, October 18, 2005

INTERLUDE
Three weeks have passed in which time:

Hikaru
You have become familiar with the basics of mecha piloting. Through extensive use of Limestone's two simulators, your previous piloting skills and several test runs in the base's two RS6 Wolfs you're ready to receive your first mecha badge proclaiming you proficient in combat mech operation.

Although you have spent some time with the other mech pilots they remain a little wary of you and you have made no friends yet. Some seem upset at your fast promotion. Your previous rank of Captain has no particular value in the Gaean army. Due to previous military skill and experience you have been granted the rank of Mech Lieutenant and are immediately under the command of Mech Commander Marcus Summers, who commands all the mech units at Limestone.

Rudy
You have made a quick place for yourself in the Base community, contributing as a medic and hunter. Of all the group, you are most familiar with the lay of the land around the base, having gone out on several hunting trips. In addition to this you and Ripper have been taking lessons with Brother Mercer, the base's resident Druid Advisor and father to Lieutenant Turner (the rude man in charge who didn't trust the group back at the island).
Your druidic lessons include meditation techniques and how to properly cast spells, as well as your first introductions to the ways of the penumbra.

Ripper
You have been busy trying to solve the mystery of your strange implant and who you are. The dreams have not stopped since that first one on the operating table, but nothing else has been made clear to you through them. You have made some connections to the soldiers but remain a little distant and preoccupied. Along with Rudy, you're taking lessons from Brother Mercer. You haven't mentioned the dreams to him, but you can tell he knows something is wrong.

DJ
Oh the wonderful toys! In the three weeks since you arrived, it's been hard to pry you out of the mech bay and armory. Your main preoccupation of late has been with plasma energy and contained force fields. Images of light sabers dance through your twisted mind and of all the group, you are probably most happy with your strange situation. You've made a few friends among the mechanics, in particular a woman named Cyril who has been getting caught up in your search for star wars technology. She had never heard of the movies before and is fascinated with them... and you.

SESSION TWO & THREE

She explains that the creatures are Ulvish and the dog is a an Atlal hound. It will pick up their trail. The crew looks confused, stunned, disbelieving at the proof of alien weirdness. They discuss the option of attacking, then the same heavy hovercraft they saw before shows up and thoughts of attack disappear.

They instead allow KC, the red head, to radio in their position and situation back to "base". They set off higher into the mountains, looking for a good ambush or trap sight.

Eventually they cross a slide area and rig a trap with the small amount of explosives Ripper took from the ship. They continue and later hear an explosion from behind. At the top of the pass, far above tree line they stop and look back with binocs but can't see very far due to curves in the hillside. They also spot an old crash sight across the gorge but decide to cross to it would prove too difficult while being pursued. A storm approaches quickly.

Stick offers to run back along the trail and check on pursuit while the rest move down over the pass and into the neighboring valley, where KC claims to have a hidden camp sight.

Stick spies the two Ulvish and a ten foot mech still following. The dog seems to be out of the picture. He runs back to the group. Rudy attempts to create false tracks to lead their pursuers away from the camp. Making watch they rest for a short while. Once the storm passes KC radios base again and arranges for a pickup on the valley floor. Three Rebel Foxbats will fly in and pick up the crew.

Making their way to the valley floor they find that the Imperial Hovercraft has beat them to the spot and set up close to some boulders. They just have time to warn the foxbats as they enter from down valley. Two of the rebel hovercraft engage the hovertransport while the third makes for the pickup. The Ulvish engage the crew from within the trees.

As the crew approaches, the hover transport puts out defensive smoke but still takes several major hits from the foxbats. KC is critically wounded by the Ulvish gunfire. Stick and Ripper make for the first Foxbat as the earlier seen mech emerges from the trees and destroys it, sending them cartwheeling away. Going a little nuts, Stick draws his Katana and charges the advanced mech as it sends rounds towards the second foxbat. His attacks might be said to be ineffectual though they do give one of the Foxbats time to blast the mech with a rocket barrage.

Taking cover in the wreckage of the first Foxbat, Rudy, Ripper and DJ grenade the advancing Ulvish and manage to finish them off before they can get within whacking distance with their huge swords.

The mech retreats into the trees and the transport is finished off, leaving the rebel group victorious with two dead and KC seriously wounded.

SESSION THREE

In the wrap up to the rescue battle a rebel scrap crew is sent in to harvest parts from the wreckage. The alarm is given that Imperial Biomechs are approaching and everyone scrambles to leave. They head south but it's soon apparent that the ABM's will catch them without a diversion.

Xander, one of the Foxbat pilots volunteers to take a commandeered scout bike to act as the diversion. They power down and shell up as he speeds off being pursued.

Though he doesn't return and they have little hope he survived, his sacrifice allows them to reach "Rock Dock", a rebel camp on a small island in a nearby lake. There they meet Leuitenant Turner, who seems critical of the group and unbelieving of their story. After lying low for a day, Turner leads them by trickery into a makeshift scanner of some sort that is meant to determine if any or all of the crew are living, Imperial bombs. They are all cleared with the exception of Ripper, who has some kind of device beneath his ribs (which almost gets him shot on sight.)

A little smooth talking and DJ is allowed to check the scans. They determine that the device is of "old" tech variety and Ripper has no idea what it is. Rudy is allowed to operate on his crewmate to remove the device for closer inspection. None are allowed to return to the rebel base until the matter is resolved.

In the rebel transport, a makeshift surgery is performed and the device is removed. It turns out to contain two chemical agents of some sort that mix upon receiving a special close range radio signal. It's guessed that the chemicals would be toxic if mixed but nothing is known for certain and the device is boxed for later investigation after the Leiutenent determines that it is of no danger and confiscates it for the time being.

During the surgery, Ripper has strange dreams brought on by anesthesia. In them he floats free of his body and is visited by disjointed "memories?" of lying in a hospital bed and speaking with someone in an Arabic tongue; looking at schematics of the device in his body; talking of the Tracker Satellite. He is then aware of a separate entity sharing his dream. "Who intrudes upon my meditations? Oh look, a primate come to spy perhaps? We shall take care of you..." He sees strange, arcane symbols and 'awakens' to his magical gifts before being yanked back to consciousness by Rudy, who also awakens to his gifts in the same instant.

After recouping enough, Ripper and the rest of the crew are transported to LIMESTONE base.

Once there, they are shown to quarters and given a tour around the non-security areas of the underground base. They meet with the base commander (Commander Maddicks) and tell their story (keeping the Tracker satellite to themselves for now). They are made welcome until it can be determined what is to be done with them. When learning of humanity's role as slaves and the Atlantean Empires operation each decides its probably best to stick with the rebels for now and say as much to the commander. He officially recognizes them as new members of his base.

Ripper and Rudy are soon contacted by a nearby mind while in a meditative state. This person turns out to be a Druid, (Brother Mercer) who first informs them of the penumbra and shields their minds from Atlantean sorcerers, whom we believes Ripper has already accidently had a run in with.

SESSION ONE

The crew wakes up in their cryo-chambers and punch in their respective codes to get out of their cells. Convening on the deck and those that have woken up on schedule are:

Rudy Castillo: Doctor

Jack Nelson (Ripper): Chemical engineer

DJ McGrath: Technician in charge of the tracker satellite

Hikaru Wantanabe: the pilot and team leader is still in stasis

The UNS Savior is in high orbit around the earth and as the groggy crew are waking up there is a warning signal. Popping on the scanners and cameras, there is some metallic junk floating by their vessel.

Jack sees a UN insignia on the floating scrap. He starts to scan radio signals and only picks up one broadcast speaking in an odd language that none of the crew are familiar with.

DJ brings up an incoming message. On the view screen is a pale and hairless human being. DJ gives the standard hailing and then the standard answer when asked who they are.

The being asks them to activate their homing beacon, speaking in broken English. Jack requests to speak to someone in the UN and the being tells the crew to prepare to be boarded.

DJ sees on the long range sensors that there are huge incoming craft.

Jack switches to the UN channel and Rudy goes to check on Hikaru and Epoch, the dog that was brought along as a test subject.

A scruffy looking man comes on the video on the UN channel, demanding to know who has called.

The standard response is again given, and Jack is told to not use the channel again until contacted.

DJ starts to compute the orbit to launch the tracker satellite since preparations are starting to go underway to get into the re-entry vehicle. Meanwhile, Rudy has awoken the dog and Hikaru, giving the pilot a stimulant to take off the grogginess.

A call comes in and a new face appears, (Robed and bearded man) whispers something and then steps off screen. An older man steps up and states there is little time for
explanations. He gives landing coordinates and signs off.

DJ sees more blips on the radar as smaller craft have emerged from the larger ones approaching. Jack rigs a little booby trap, DJ has the computers set to be wiped and the crew gets into the reentry vehicle.

Hikaru speeds away and sensors show that one of the smaller craft has pulled away from the Savior to go after the crew. They enter earth's atmosphere and Hikaru works on getting away, beginning evasive maneuvers. The dive causes Jack to loose what contents there were in his stomach.

As they break cloud cover, they see that they are over a mountain range and Hikaru mentions the Rockies. There is a small strip of a lake that he goes for to land as fuel is running out, however they had managed to evade their pursuer.

After a vote, a delighted Hikaru makes the craft skip across the lake like a stone. After the fifth skip, they run out of lake and the craft flips, inflicting minor injuries to the occupants.

The crew grabbed their gear and crawled out into the snow. They notice the odd weather pattern and the green lightning crackling across the sky. They begin to set off away from the site, pass the tree line towards the coordinates given. The managed to find some boulders that provided a decent shelter from the wind to camp.

After the storm has passed, the group wakes, eats and get out of the shelter to take a quick survey of their surroundings. Hikaru watches the compass as it spins. and all electrical equipment is found to be non-functioning.

The sun rises finally as the group heads out, taking as much precautions as possible without sacrificing speed. They get to the ridge that is overlooking the lake and see a shape moving along the shoreline. Using binoculars, it's some sort of vehicle that is amphibious as it glides onto the water's surface.

They head out to get as much distance from the crash site as they can. They make another hidden camp and set up watches even as Hikaru seems to be catching a cold.

The following morning, Epoch pads in with a bone he found to carry and gnaw on. They head out and come to a creek to replenish the water supply, and at DJ's suggestion, Rudy and Jack do a little fishing and actually catch a couple to augment their rations.

They make camp again but during DJ's watch, early in the morning, Epoch perks up and growls, scooting closer to DJ. DJ nudges folks awake and Rudy can make out hooves in the distance. Jack stands down thinking it may be deer.

At daybreak, Rudy goes tot see what was making the sound. He finds the tracks that could be shod hooves, possibly a horse, and then reports back.

The crew hears the sound like an engine, and then it stops. The group decides to head to the tracks, Hikaru and Rudy going on ahead stealthily.

They see the hind quarters of an animal and someone putting packs on it. Hikaru draws his katana and sneaks forward, Rudy takes a cover position. Hikaru disappears and then returns a few moments later with a pretty woman at sword point.

The woman is a red head, dressed for the outdoors, armed with an odd and heavy looking pistol and furious as hell.

Rudy takes her gun and questions as she growls. After establishing that Rudy and Hikaru are not with the Atlanteans, she says she'd take them up to the ridge where they can get transport away.

Hikaru goes to get the others and DJ is more interested in the gun than the owner of it. The boys follow her up the ravine to the ridge. She crawls to the ridge line and peers over with her rifle that Rudy didn't take away. The scope pops out and she peers through it. The others take out binoculars to look as well.

15-20 minutes later, a large, pony-sized dog pops out and sniffs around. Following it are 2 creatures about 9' tall and stooped over. They have black horns, a short tail and a digitigrade stance.

The woman goes to her mule and takes out a shell-like case, inside it is a radio.

INTRO

The low thrum of electro-stimulants coursing through your body was the first sensory stimulus you remember. That and the vid screen with the blinking green message, “Your name is CHARACTER NAME. you are a crew member of the U.N.S. Savior Exploratory Vessel.... Confirm.” You stared for a long time before you realized that this wasn’t a dream. The realization came along with the slightly stinging and rapidly diminishing cold of the cryochamber. The ships computer was awaiting the passcode that would somehow convey your mental stability after 22 years in a weightless icebox.

During the small party just before the return trip you and the rest of the crew discussed the prospect of forgetting your passwords. Slowly going insane while trapped in a cold metal tube was not anyones idea of a perfect ending to an otherwise successful mission. Supposedly even if the entire crew were quarantined to their cryochambers a beacon would alert mission command of their return and a rescue mission would be launched. Still the crew unanimously decided to... sidestep mission orders with the simple use of a black, wide tipped sharpy.

As it turned out the minor crime was unnecessary. Reaching up with cold, stiff fingers you punched in the code and, “Confirmation accepted” blinked back at you. Hundreds of tiny electro-stimulant cables withdrew from plugs on your cryosuit at the same time that a quiet “snickt” and momentary pain signalled the withdrawal of the intra venous from you neck. After float-stumbling around the antechamber and into your flight suit you made your way to the main deck to see how your crew members had fared. All in all you don’t feel too bad for a 60+ year old.


The U.N.S. Savior is a deep space exploratory vessel. Moderate gravity is achieved via two long arms attached to a central shuttle and reactor hull at the cost of minor nausea with extended exposure. At the end of one arm is a laboratory and all purpose main deck. The other arm-end serves as crew quarters and supply storage. The central shuttle contains the reactor, the cryochambers and the centrifugal and navigational thrusters - as well as a small crew cabin, loading bay and cockpit control deck. In the loading bay is a small utility shuttle and two space-walk suits. The Tracker, a military sensor array satellite is also stored here.

The Tracker Satellite was the key instrument used in your scientific mission to the edges of the solar system. It’s a highly secretive piece of equipment capable of multiple functions of scanning. In its more militaristic role its thermal and optical capabilities are used for superb spying and targeting. Its sensors can peer through large quantities of solid matter and pick up particular lifeform signatures or specially designed Tracker “bugs” planted by ground crews. Advanced sensors and links with hundreds of other satellites allow pinpoint targeting for ground or air based missile attacks. The operational computer deck is a hand held briefcase with passcode and retinal scanner. When the satellite is powered down, its power supply is shielded in such a way to be all but undetectable while in orbit.

Welcome to my RPG campaign blog for Gaea 2085, a D20 campaign with mechs, magic, genetic manipulation and aliens. This is mainly meant to keep an online journal of our sessions and allow for player input. Enjoy.

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