Some players just can't stand the CS. Some are fans, some
are sympathetic, and some couldn't care less, and with the CS war brewing
up, everyone now gets to pick a side and debate all of it. In this
section we will discuss missions (ie-adventures), logistics problems, reputation
problems, and exactly how bad it is going to get for those allied together
against the CS.
First of all, war is never pretty, and in a world where a squad
of men pack as much firepower as 20th Century armor company, it's going
to be brutal. These adventures will put the CS in the light as an
evil force for the most part, burning down villages, raping, looting, pillaging,
but sometimes an uncaring military juggernaught, and other, just as much
victims as the rest of the participants.
The PC's have no chance of overcoming full CS units, but can
be part of battles, iniate assainations, hit and run strikes,and saboteuge.
Whatever side they will work for will help provide military intelligence,
provide re-arming and refitting, resupply, and whenever possible, reenforcements.
Provide the PC's with a definate chain of command, bases, other
soldiers, special operatives. Remember, the party can be split up
by assigning some of them to the task of infiltrating CS posts, impersonating
CS troops, while magic using or supernatural creatures can be assigned
as backups.
For those of you who have been in the military, you know that
just because you need something, doesn't mean you are going to get when
you need it. If you're tank needs a new alternator, good luck getting
it, your weapon has a damaged bolt, tough shit, need new boots, buy them
or live without them. Just because you need it, doesn't mean it's
in the supply room, the supply sargeant hasn't sold it or lost it, or he's
not a miserly son-of-a-bitch who just doesn't like you!
Military Intel will be wrong 60% of the time, and when it's
right, it will be the time you have disregarded it. Depending on
it solely will get you killed, but so will disregarding it. Go figure
it the best you can. It may be as little as missing 2 or three guys
that are normal infantry, but it may be as massive as mistaking a armored
division in a permanent firebase for a supply company in temporary fortifications.
These adventures won't change the tide of the war, but can adjust
it's length, and what eventually happens may be slightly affected.
The CS troops will be outlined according to my Basic CS Trooper Profiles
sheets, and armed according to my page on CS Troop Basic Combat Load.
Any PC's who choose to complain must realize, this a huge, professional
army, who actually brought too many players to the game, and that might
work against them. This series of adventures is meant to run together,
with incidents in between the highlights detailed below.
Anyway; On with the Adventure! You will need to check
the following pages: Quick Troop Stats,
the page on Basic Troop Load, and the page on
Mission
Variable Munitions.
Background-AKA making it work....
All right, most PC's will have Black Market contacts, or know
people within the Federation of Magic, Tolkeen, New Lazlo, or Lazlo communities,
and will discover that the Forces of Magic are hiring just about anyone
they no is not CS aligned. The best place for the PC's will be in
guerrilla warfare and LRP's, not on the battlefield where everything get's
chewed up in one monster whirlwind of blood.
They will be hired on, mostly with some pay a month, outfitting,
resupply, and refit. The standard contracts go like this:
Little Known (1-3 level)-Base pay is 500 credits a month,
2500 credit sign on bonus. Used ammo and damaged armor will be fixed
or replaced. Powerful assets such as dragons, GB pilots or cyborgs
will recieve a 50-250 credit bonus. Magical assets will recieve and
addition 25 credit bonus per level.
Known (4-7th level)-Base pay is 2000 credits a month, 10,000
credit sign on bonus. Used ammo and damaged armor will be fixed or
replaced, weapons and equipment can be requested. Powerful assets
such as dragons, GB pilots or cyborgs will recieve a 500-2500 credit bonus.
Magical assets will recieve and addition 50 credit bonus per level.
Well Known (8-11)-Base pay is 5000 credits a month, 25,000 credit
sign on bonus. Used ammo and damaged armor will be fixed or replaced,
weapons and equipment can be provided. Powerful assets such as dragons,
GB pilots or cyborgs will recieve a 5000-25,000 credit bonus. Magical
assets will recieve and addition 100 credit bonus per level.
Legendary (12-15)-Base pay is 10,000 credits a month, 50,00
credit sign on bonus. Used ammo and damaged armor will be fixed or
replaced, weapons, equipment and magical items will be provided.
Powerful assets such as dragons, GB pilots or cyborgs will recieve a 10,000-50,000
credit bonus. Magical assets will recieve and addition 150 credit
bonus per level.
The Hook:
The PC's have been assigned to recon the area around the village
of Sampsil, where there is a small factory capable of repairing or rearming
robots. It is in the area where Illinois, Missouri and Kentucky meet.
There is a ley-line nexus a mere 8 miles from town that the PC's can use
to travel there.
Operations briefing reports that the town is nearly undefended,
with few protectors capable of standing up to even bandits. The factory
contains a hidden stock of missiles stolen from a CS convoy some two weeks
ago, and is capable of repairing small RPA's, PA's (exluding glitter-boys)
and body armor. They do not have force fields or any weaponry on
the premises. The local contact is a man named Shamus O'Toole, who
can be identified by a bad scar on his face from plasma and a cheap cybernetic
arm. The PC's mission is to feel out whether or not the town leaders
will allow the Forces of Magic to build an underground base, and to recover
the missiles.
Arrival at the nexus point: The nexus point is small and
is where a moderate sized ley-line splits in two. The land has recently
been bulldozed inside the nexus point, and the trees cleared around the
ley line a mile along the lines, and 200m back, with a cleared strip approximately
500m around the nexus point.
Arrival in Sampsil-The village is gone. Just plain gone.
The only remaining things are the factory and the well. There are
the tracks of heavy vehicles, and several tracked vehicles, along with
SAMAS and UAR-1 tracks. The factory building is slightly damaged,
while all of the equipment is gone. The missiles are still in place,
all 15,000 of the high explosive medium range missiles (old style, not
the new stuff from CS war), but will need to be checked. They have
not been tampered with, and it looks as if the CS has overlooked them.
Searching around the town of Sampsil will reveal a mass grave,
where all 150 inhabitants are buried, including the PC's contact.
They've been mowed down by SAMAS railgun fire. There are also several
small surviellance cameras, siesmic sensors, and motion detectors hidden
in the woods and around the grave, transmitting a burst transmission every
five minutes. Tampering with the sensors will cause a self-destruct
charge to destroy everything inside the casing.
(This is an easy mission, with no threats, only clues and a
sense of foreboding)
The Sinker
Radio transmissions have picked up an emergency beacon broadcasting
sporadically just inside the Magic Zone. A patrol engaged a SAMAS
patrol and some foot soldiers 5 miles west of the beacons location, moving
to the west, back toward Coalition Territory. The emergency beacon
is getting weaker by the hour, and it will not be too long before it ceases
transmission. The PC's are assigned to go and recon the area.
If Coalition presence is not too strong, the PC's are to eliminate any
and all Coalition forces around the beacon, and salvage/retrieve anything
of value to the Forces of Magic.
Approaching the Beacon: The PC's will stumble on a battle
site. Shards of Coalition armor and blast marks typical of CS weaponry
are in the area. The destroyed remains of two Sampson Power armors,
and a Big Boss ATV will be discovered, along with 8 bodies, tied with restraints
and executed, are in the area. This location is two miles from the
steadily weakening beacon. Track marks and damaged brush lead to
the beacon area, along with streaks and pools of hydraulic fluids.
There is too much ambient clutter, since this had once been the site of
an Amerikan Empire city, for radar to be very effecive, MAD scan will be
useless, and radio commo is slightly jammed because of the metal debris
in the ground and in the fiolage.
The Beacon: Is coming from a badly damaged CS Mark IX
APC. There are smoking holes in the armor, and it looks as if the
vehicle has thrown a track at this location. The weapons have been
removed or are destroyed in place, and the reactor has been shut down,
with the fuel rods removed. The sensor array and the scanning and
targeting gear is one fused lump from scuttling charges. It looks
as if the vehicle has been partially blown in place, but the CS left before
finishing the job.
It also appears that three more Mark IX's left the area, leaving
behind the destroyed APC, 2 destroyed Super SAMAS and 3 destroyed Light
Assault SAMAS. The APC is cleared, and it looks as if the 5 SAMAS
have been field destroyed, with the Battle-ROM's removed, until the Light
Assault SAMAS's are checked. There, it becomes evident that the Battle-ROM
access port is damaged, and the CS tried to open the hatch, then just abondoned
it. The sensor system is also intact, giving the PC's a chance at
a mil-spec sensor suite. The PC's can take the SAMAS and run, or
rip open the hatch to grab out the CR-EPROM (a robot mechanics roll at
-25% or risking damaging it with a vibro-blade (45% chance of damaging
it) to open the hatch)
While the PC's are investigating or trying to recover the battlerom,
a CS recovery team will enter the scene. Someone will see 2 Old-Style
SAMAS coming in NOE, the sound of their engines breaking the silence.
The pilots are green troops packing
standard rail guns and APERS mini-missiles. Behind them are 4 more
old-style SAMAS and 2 flat-bed recovery trucks and another Mark IX APC.
The APC contains 10 mechanics, a powered winch, and recovery tools, along
with some 50 fusion charges to destroy anything unrecoverable. The
SAMAS pilots are green troops, the engineers are veteran support troops,
the drivers are veteran vehicle drivers, and the shot-guns are all hardened
veterans. They will radio for support as soon as the PC group is
sighted, and within 10 minutes an Armored Search and Destroy Team will
be discovered inbound. (It's a little hard to hide 2 Skull Smashers,
a pair of IAR-5 Hellfire's, 4 Super SAMAS and 6 Light Assault SAMAS coming
in hell bent for metal)
If the PC's exchange a few volleys and run for it, the CS will
let them go.
The battle-ROM? Ahh, the whole crux of the matter.
The EPROM is only nominally damaged in the fighting, showing a pitched
battle between CS forces and a group of bandits armed with 2 Sampson PA's,
2 mages, a burster, and two cyborgs, not counting several infantry types.
According the the EPROM, the CS suffered no KIA's, just a 14 WIA, five
destroyed armors, and a heavily damaged APC. According to the IFF,
there was 4 Mark IX's, 16 Super, 32 light assault SAMAS, and everyone aboard
were partial conversion Heavy Assault Infantry. This does not bode
well. The EPROM also contains a set of radio codes.
The Line
A group of guerrilla's jumped a CS convoy made up of primarily
HATCH
vehicles, but were seriously mauled by the heavily armed defenders.
The two groups pretty much wiped one another out, but the HATCH's got away
with a small guard force. The PC's job is to go out and take out
the defenders, and destroy or capture the convoy. The PC's are the
only available personell close enough to intercept the convoy. A
secondary mission is to discover where the convoy is bound to.
Enroute-It looks as if fighting in this sector is beginning
to become pretty steady. Smoke can be seen rising from several points,
and the sounds of weapons fire can be heard in the distance constantly.
Off in the distance a pair of dragons can be seen surrounded by at least
two score SAMAS, with fire support coming up from the ground and damaging
both sides.
The Convoy: 22 HATCH vehicles, all damaged, making very
poor time (15 MPH) and half of them do not have TC's and damaged cabs or
tracks. There are only 3 light assault SAMAS and 1 Super SAMAS, one
of the light assault SAMAS has damaged thrusters and is incapable of keeping
flight, only making powered assist leaps.
The convoy will fight to the death. Only five of the vehicles
have TC's, one of which is badly injured and running on hero juice.
All of these guys are hardened veterans, and the Super SAMAS pilot is a
hardened ace.
The convoy is rigged, with card-key and 6 digit (1-0, A-F) code,
rigged so that anyone trying to cut into the bay will be sensed, and an
IFF scanner. No card, no code, cutting into the bay, wrong IFF, and
boom, the convoy will start to brew up, one vehicle at a time, completely
destroying the contents, and doing 1d4x100 MD to the surround 50'.
Here's what's in the convoy:
HATCH #1-24 Striker SAMAS
HATCH #2-24 Super SAMAS
HATCH #3-24 Light Assault SAMAS
HATCH #4-98 CA-4 Dead Boy
HATCH #5-98 CA-3 Dead Boy
HATCH #6-Maintenance Parts for CTX-50 Tanks
and CTX-52 Tanks
HATCH #7-12 CS Skull Patrol Cars
HATCH #8-27 CS Scout Rocket Cycles
HATCH #9-9 CS Warbird Rocket Cycles
HATCH #10 through 12-6 CS Wind Jammer Sky Cycles
HATCH #13 & 14-1 disassembled Black Lightning
Helicopter
HATCH #15-12 Terror Trooper Power Armor
HATCH #16-36 Mauler Power Armor
HATCH #17-40 CA-5 Juicer Dead Boy, 58 CA-6c Dead
Boy
HATCH #18-75 C-20 Laser Pistols, 75 CP-30 Laser
Pistols, 150 CP-40 Laser Rifles, 75 CP-50's, 25 C-29's, 250 CV-212's, 25
CTT-P40's, 25 CTT-M20's, 100 C-200's.
HATCH #19-25,000 micro-fusion grenades, 1500 of
each grenade type, 100,000 e-clips, 250,000 rounds of railgun ammo, 250
of each mini and short range missiles.
HATCH #20-24 Light Assault SAMAS
HATCH#21-500 disassembled bunks, 1250 blankets,
750 pillows, 6 fusion generators (150 Kilowatts each), 1 holographic table
with computer, 2 disassembled phase radar arrays
HATCH #22-4,500 BDU's, 2500 pair of issue boots,
16 pallets of MRE's (126 boxes, 12 MRE's per box), 5000 pair of socks,
12 coils of concentina wire
HATCH #23-240 siesmic sensors, 150 motion detectors,
12 miles of microwave fencing
HATCH #24-2,000 variable mission mines, 2,500 AP
mines (bouncing betty, laser type), 1200 AV mines (EFP type)
This is a serious load! After a half hour, CS troops will
coming tearing ass from the west, consisting of 4 Hellraisers, 2 Skull
Mashers, 12 Super SAMAS, 6 CTX-50 Line Backers, 2 Mark VII with full troop
complement, 4 IAR-5 Hellfires, 4 IAR-2 Abolishers, and 2 CTX-52 Sky-Sweepers.
These guys will be primarily concerned with driving any forces away from
the wreckage of the convoy.
The only strange thing, is if PC's are on the ball enough to
yank any data from the HATCH computers, they will discover that the convoy
was bound for CS Firebase 339.
The Rod
Data recovered from the Convoy Battle several days ago has been
assimilated, examined, and yeilded the location of a new CS firebase some
25 miles west of the destroyed town of Sampsil. Intelligence wants
data on this firebase, that is assumed to be undermanned and underequipped,
since the convoy was destroyed/captured carrying so much equipment and
war material. This is not a fire mission, or a combat mission, but
a low-level recon mission, depending on stealth and recon, not power.
Military Intelligence has sent two patrols out, but niether
one has returned. This is a chance to gain some intel on what kind
of firepower the CS is able to bring to bear in the area, and possibly
find out where all of this firepower is coming from, since flyby's have
shown little or no CS presence in the area with the exception of the small
firebase. Transport will be via a rift to nexus just outside the
ruin town of Sampsil.
The Nexus: Can you say AMBUSH!!! The nexus and the
ley-line itself has been turned into a trap! Mines, sentry guns,
and troops behind barricades in the woods! There are some 10 veteran
SAMAS troops in the area, along with 75 hardened veteran infantry, and
25 hardened veteran cyborgs manning tripod mounted heavy weaponry!
The PC's have two choices, run back through the rift, run for it, or stay
and die. Sprawled about the nexus are the two other intel teams,
shot to pieces.
Overland travel if the PC's retreat or manage to escape, will
be tricky. THere will be SAMAS patrols (1 hardened Super SAMAS, 3
veteran Light Assault SAMAS), foot patrols (1 Partial Conversion officer
<career veteran>, 12 veteran infantry, 2 hardened veteran cyborgs) and
armor patrols (1 AIR-2 Abolisher <veteran> or 1 Skull Smasher <veteran>,
2 Terror Troopers <veteran> or Mauler Power Armor <veteran>, and
2 Light Assault SAMAS <veteran>) will be combing the area.
The base is small, harmless looking,
until an extensive recon is done, watching it for a long period of time.
There is a phased radar array, phased millimeteric radar, mini-missile
launchers and railguns for anti-missile and artillerly defense, all hidden.
These facility enhancements are largely hidden and are maintained at noon
and midnight.
Those watching will see that heavy amounts of armor and troops
enter buildings that there is no way could hold as many as are seen entering.
Anyone watching will also notice that the troop ID numbers are far more
varied than the 75 troops that the base would normally station. Anyone
tracking the armor numbers will be able to count at least 500 troops in
that base.
Now is the time to break and run. Any combat initaited
will result in the PC's getting slaughtered. They need to run!
The Hand
The base the PC's are operating out of is quiet, and has been
for 4 days. No attacks, no probes, no assaults, no activity outside
of normal at the CS base. Even it's patrols have decreased and pulled
back, and radio transmission seem to consist of standard operating procedures,
and military intelligence has managed to find out that the CS considers
this CS Firebase 217. Military Intelligence is getting antsy, feeling
like they missed something, and so is the base commander, worried about
the lack of abvious CS movement. That morning, several patrols did
not check in, and several perimeter guards are missing. No sign of
a fight, just gone. The PC's have returned from a night patrol at
0900, have eaten, and gone to bed.
At 1200 hours, psychics 6th sense went off, and a funny fluttering
noise was heard, right before a sharp whistle that quickly stopped.
Then came a 15 minute artillery barrage, savaging the base and the troops
stationed there. The PC's will be out of armor, weaponless, when
the barrage hits, and all that should matter will be surviving the hellstorm
of fire and steel.
Anyone with power armor will find their power armor is reduced
by 2d4x10% MDC, and anyone in armor or an MDC creature will suffer the
same. Before the PC's know it, they will be rolling shell shock HF:14
every minute. (See Shell Shock Rules, CS War page 58) Optionally,
make PC's make dodges at 8 or better. Anyone who fails has been hit
by an artillery shell from the CS big guns at the firebase (4d6x10 MD)
This is an excellent way to cut down on MDC.
The shelling will cease, and the CS troops will exit the woods,
power armor, armored troops, dog boys, psi-stalkers, juicers, borgs.
This is a full blown assault, and it looks like the CS are going to ahnillate
the Forces of Magic base.
The PC's can encounter everything on their way out, from tanks
to wounded infantry, Whittle them down, hurt them bad, and let them
know that they are facing an unstoppable juggernaught. Let them escape
to another Forces of Magic base, and let them rearm and refit, and heal
up. The CS will have won that battle, mainly through deception and
surprise, but now the leaders are planning on turning it around.
The Fisherman
CS presence in the area is heavy, and military intelligence
is running a battle that they had never planned. Air Strikes are
common, and the base is turning out to be a tough nut to assault.
Mines, anti-air craft, anti-magic, counter-strikes, and armor assault forces.
The only hope for the besieged Forces of Magic is a strike the base itself,
and with much preperation, and planning, they have a chance.
Three days ago, a CS LRPS went to ground in the ruins of a Pre-Rifts
city, and mil-int has assigned the PC's with the task of taking them out,
equipment as intact as possible. On the way to the ruins, the human
PC's, non-magical, will recieve a cram course in military ettiquette and
the chain of command of Firebase 217, while the psi-stalkers and
dog-boys will recieve a same course. Monsters will know that they
will be excluded from the second part of the mission.
The LRPS team is an ass kicking team, all Elite troops, armed
with the latest equipment. 15 men, 1 partial conversion cyborgs,
2 full conversion cyborgs, 2 Juicers, 4 dog boys, 2 psi-stalkers, and 4
SAMAS pilots. The majority of these guys will be in full armor the
entire time. One of the full conversion borgs, and the dog boys are
all Navy Commandoes, and their armors will be underwater armor.
Once the CS troops are killed, the teams orders will be found.
They are to go Lake Kentucky and destroy the Tolkeen forces naval base
there. In one of the cargo containers is a Proton warhead.
Once the team is eliminated, the technichians will swap the
IFF's out of the damaged or destroyed armor and put it in identical armors.
Two technicians in the group will be creating false Battle-ROM's of the
LRPS team getting shot apart, and the warhead being damaged beyond use
or repair, making it look as if the mission was blown. Then, the
PC's will be instructed to follow the LRP's team map back to the Firebase,
report, and make their way into the base.
Entrance will be easy, some of the Forces of Magic's best data-slicers
are in that van, and the Battle-ROM is flawless, even containing the minor
flaws that give away a true one from a fake. No-one knows who these
LRPS are, and another mission packet is waiting for them. A strike
straight into the undamaged Tolkeen base that the PC's are in.
This mission requires stealth, guile, and role-playing, while
the PC's set timed explosives on the phase radar arrays, generators, and
fire-tracking arrays. The majority of the ground base is subterfuge,
the real base is below ground, part of an old Amerikan Empire FEMA site.
It is old, heavily constructed, and full of war material.
With proper role-playing, stealth, and luck, the PC's can even
get re-equipped before getting away. The biggest problem will be
the temptation to shoot the base CO, a hard looking guy who has part of
his face replaced with cybernetics, a cybernetic right arm and left leg,
and implanted cyberarmor.
The Fight
The charges have been set, and now the PC's have to cross 75
miles of enemy territory, in stolen gear, with both sides willing to hand
them their collective asses. Multiple patrols will be encountered,
and the PC's can encounter just about anything.
The Catch
Following the saboutage of the Firebase, airstrikes devastated
the aboveground structures, but robotic anti-aircraft handled much of the
problems. Forces of Magic assault teams over-ran the base, and the
CS troops had to pull a fighting retreat, but the cost was extensive, and
now the Forces of Magic have no choice but to send the PC's, battered,
bloody, after the long run back from the Firebase. Now, the PC's
are ordered to seek out and kill the former base commander, who set all
of this up, and orchestrated major defeats across the Tri-States area.
The target is one Colonel Nathan Shabazz, a double ace pilot,
in modified Striker SAMAS armor, who will be escorted by the members of
his old Commando force. Major Thomas Stryker, Major James Xian, Major
Paul Stracker, Captain Lewis Marker, and Captain Tim Masters, all of them
double-aces piloting modified Super SAMAS. The SAMAS suits are modified
with the Wild Weasel ECM package, Amerikan Empire Rail Guns, 25% faster,
and 10% more armor. While these guys may be only a few, compared
to the PC's, these guys are tough, canny fighters, and will have no problem
in refusing to engage, dropping to Nap Of Earth, and running for it.
This all takes place before the War.
