Create Mail Create MailRange Modifiers Range ModifiersSpeed Table Speed Table

Turn
Campaign:Gamma Company
Adventure:Behind Enemy Lines
Send To:Cal, Erict, Mack, Marko, Peter, Rock, Shooter
Turn Start Date (ex. 12/31/6565)11/12/6569
Turn Number:4.7
Combat Turn:
Subject:Beyond Warning Barrier
The group begins putting their plan into motion. Rock and Shooter climb to the top of the wall. Rock uses his Clinging ability while Shooter climbs up the old fashioned way (TECH: Climbing 14-, +2 for easy climb, need 5 successful rolls, only natural 18 indicates fall, but will use ropes and Rock to reduce effect, [rolled 11], [rolled 12], [rolled 10], [rolled 12], [rolled 9].

Erict teleports to the top of the wall with Peter once Rock and Shooter have reached the top. They take a good long look around before beginning the process of getting everyone across.

Erict knows from experience that he is unable to teleport with Rock due to the large man's greater mass. So Rock climbs down the far side of the barrier while Erict teleports down with the lieutenant. A short time later, after teleporting back to the north side of the wall, he teleports to the top again with Caerlina and the cartographer goes to work on her computer, mapping what she can through the thick fog that only lifts occasionally enough to see distant landmarks. At such times, she has Shooter study the landmark and measure distance, and occasionally looks through the rifle scope herself to study the terrain.

ERICT: If there are any specific landmarks that she cannot see quite well enough and is curious about, Erict will take a moment (which gives him some rest) to sense through the fog in an attempt to clarify what it is. (base PER 15-, +2 vs range, [rolled 13]). This will probably take place both now for a few seconds, and then later when he comes to pick them up as we're finishing up the move.

On the south side of the barrier Rock immediately goes to work hollowing out a cavern in a rocky mound within a stand of trees about 100 meters from the wall while Peter remains nearby. Erict begins ferrying people across. First across are Mack and Private Sentice who keep watch while Rock continues his work. As discussed previously, Lt Sterling will take charge on this side of the barrier, while Captain Insecki takes command on the north side of the barrier, with Marko and Private Caplix standing sentry duty.

With the military assets properly deployed, Erict gets to work teleporting all of the civilians across. The experience of constantly teleporting people is obviously draining to the highly intelligent medic but he is all too aware that this phase of the operation depends on him and he measures his pace for maximum effect. Each person is two trips across the barrier, first taking the person with him, and then coming back. Twice those nearby witness the buildup to the teleport and then a fizzle as it fails, leaving Erict tired but otherwise with no ill effects. He simply catches his breath and then tries again.

ERICT: The first time it happens Erict grins sheepishly and says, "Nothing to worry about, it does happen occasionally. I'm still trying to figure out why it happens, but all it takes is trying again."

Eventually the last civilian is across and Erict starts ferrying the supplies across. This operation has been well planned over the past three days and the supplies are bundled together in roughly 100 kg bundles, the maximum that Erict is able to take with him.

When the last of the supplies are across, it is time to ferry the soldiers. Private Caplix is first, followed by Marko and then Captain Insecki.

Everyone is now on the south side of the barrier except for Caerlina and Shooter who are on top of the wall. It is a simple matter for Erict to teleport up and bring each of them down, one at a time.

By now, Rock has hollowed out a small cavern that will be cramped but will allow Erict to rest for a time after his exertions.

ERICT: Erict asks for just one minute before we get moving. The effort of walking will be far less than the effort for all that teleporting, so he figures he can move off at least half a click before wanting any more rest, and can rest while Rock prepares the next shelter.

GM: Everyone made it across with no sign of Maginite Aerospace Fighters. How long do you want to wait here before proceeding on?

ERICT: I recommend our advance scouting team move off to the half-click mark and start preparing another shelter while the rest hide in the current one. If a fighter comes while we're busy, Peter can hide us. The other possibility is to wait here until one makes a pass, but that could be a little while, and more importantly, it gives them an extra chance to sense the large group of people near the wall. If we can get the next shelter made and get some distance quickly, they shouldn't sense us at all unless someone gets caught out in the open. If we use that same scouting team of Rock, Shooter, Peter, and I, Peter will be able to hide us if they come, and relay instructions to Marko through the mind link for when he wants the others to start moving to the new shelter. I would suggest simply moving the people and not the supplies at first, get everyone far from the wall and then we can go back for the gear after the fighter overfly.

PETER (GM): Two questions: (1) is the land around the barrier solid enough for Rock to tunnel? Even a half a klick of tunnelling would be a great help. (2) How long did it take to move us across? More importantly, once we finish, how long has it been since the last fly-over? If it's been 40 minutes, that's one thing. If it's been 2 hours, that's quite another.

GM: The land on this side is still too low to allow tunneling. Caerlina believes that it will rise after a couple of days. It took about 10 minutes to get everyone across. It's been about an hour and 10 minutes since the last flyover.

PETER: That's not a bad idea. Better still would be to have the other members of the scouting team (likely Erict because of his special senses, and Rock because of his ability to dig) stick close together and have Peter put up his illusions as they travel. A small herd of deer shouldn't raise any notice.

The group moves quickly heading south under the cover of the fog and the terrain. The fog hampers the group's ability to detect any incoming aircraft. Erict's spatial awareness, and everyone's hearing are the only tools available without risking the use of radar (both Caerlina and Captain Insecki have radar capabilities built into their handheld devices). Unfortunately it's much more likely that an aerospace fighter will see the group long before the group notices the fighter. It's a calculated risk. The flyovers average every 5 hours. The least duration between a flyover has been 3 hours and 22 minutes. The longest was over 10 hours.

The group travels fast for an hour before stopping at a likely looking rocky hill. Rock goes to work hollowing out a shelter. And none too soon. Five minutes after the group has moved into the shelter, they hear the distant sound of an aerospace fighter thundering by to the north, probably paralleling the barrier. Typically an aircraft flies in from the west and disappears to the east, and then reappears from the east a few minutes later. It then flies west until it is out of sight. So it is no surprise that the sound of the aircraft recedes to the east. The group waits calmly for the sound of the aircraft returning a few minutes later, and they are not disappointed. The aircraft returns. However, it does not continue flying west. Once it gets to a location near where the group went through the barrier, the sound changes as the aircraft slows down and begins circling. With his spatial awareness, Erict is able to occasionally "see" the aircraft as it conducts ever widening circles. The pilot seems to know that something happened though the group is at a loss to figure out what the pilot may have seen to make him suspicious.

ROCK: Rock has no actions and will follow the team's lead. Am I correct that we didn't leave any modified structures behind? That could be a dead give away if there were these little cave structures here and there.

PETER: "Damn!" Peter says sharply, showing some of the tension everyone has been under for months. "We've been so careful. I'd give a month's pay to know what tipped them off." Then taking a deep breath he continues in a more even tone. "Well, what's done is done. At least we're on this side of the Barrier. And by the look of the plane's sweeps, they know somethings funny, but don't know who disturbed things or where we are. At least we have that going for us. And every hour they don't find us expands the circle they have to search in."

ERICT: Erict doesn't speak at first, deep in thought, then says, "I suppose it's possible that all that teleportation left an energy signature that they can pick up, or maybe they sensed it from far away as I was using it, and just came to the spot it was sensed and are searching for the source of the anomalous reading.

PETER: "As I see it we now have one overwhelming goal beside which pretty much everything else pales: we must remain hidden. The Maginites have air supremacy, incredible mobility, extremely high military strength, and outnumber us by several orders of magnitude. If they find us, I don't see as we have much hope of escaping - at least as a group. A few of us might go to ground, but the bulk of us would face capture. And given what the Maginites do to their captives, that's not an acceptable option."

PETER: "I think we should avoid surface movement until things quiet down. With over a dozen people, plus equipment, we'd never be able to avoid air surveilance. Unfortunately, with underground movement also not an option, that leaves us very few ways to move. Erict, how far is the farthest you can go using a Far Move? And can you fix on a place, or do you need to see it to move there? It's not ideal, but if you can get any sort of distance, we could try hopping between a series of underground holes heading south. Or maybe we should cut southeast or southwest so as not to take the obvious route. Frankly, with even a day or two of travel we should be able to significantly reduce our chances of being found."

ERICT: "I can go just short of 200m on a single Far Move (OOC: 96" or 192m exactly, but I doubt Erict knows it that precisely). I do not need to fix a place, because I can use my special sense to target it without seeing it. Sensing a small underground cavity from 200m distance is the problem more than targeting it, I'd have to get pretty lucky (edit: to find it in the first place, not to get there once it's found). Oh, and remember that I cannot teleport ROCK that kind of distance, he would have to rely on his mud form or something.

PETER: "We could also try and have a few of us lead any search teams farther away. Rock and I should be able to move without being seen, and I can hide one or maybe two others. Unfortunately, as long as they have a bird in the air using radar, we can't rely on Cal's ability to hide. In any case, the decoy team could head off leaving a fairly visible trail and then double back. Maybe make it look like we headed to a river, made a makeshift raft, and then went down river. Did you see anything close enough that might serve that kind of ruse, Caerlina?"

PETER: "In any case, my fear is that if they bring any ground assets here, we run a far greater risk of being found. So one way or another we have to hide ourselves a little bit better. We've tried as best we can to keep our tracks minimal, especially near the Barrier. But nothing's perfect. And right now, if they pick up that track, it'll be an arrow right here."

PETER: "So, anyone else have thoughts? About moving, hiding, defending ourselves, fooling the Maginites? Anything. We're in uncharted territory here, and all suggestions are welcome."

ERICT: "On the off chance that the plane can sense my teleportation somehow, I would suggest that my first attempt be made with you, LT, so that you can hide us both on arrival. If the plane zooms off after us, we keep moving, leaving the false trail you speak of, while the rest of the team and civilians moves off in a slightly different direction. Marko's mindlink to help us coordinate would be great..." He trails off momentarily in thought, then brightens up and continues, "Speaking of his mindlink... What if it's the mindlink itself that was sensed by their sensors? They presumably have mental sensors very actively scouring the planet from orbit, it makes more sense than them sensing my teleportation... Since we're not using it any more it makes perfect sense. The orbital sensors (or whatever) picked up the use of a mental power from this location, and they sent a plane to check it out. It got here and can't detect it any more, so it's performing a standard search sweep. It was a weak enough mental power that they didn't send a whole squadron with psychic bombs, just one plane to check out an anomalous reading..."

ERICT: "We might even be best off just remaining completely hidden here in this mound. Moving in any way would be the most likely thing to draw more attention, and if they don't have exact topographical maps of this area to compare the current mound to the previous one, we should be undetectable I would hope. Or do you think they have ground-penetrating radar?

SHOOTER: "Sir, I believe that Erict is correct. At this time, the aircraft does not seem to know where we are and the most likely thing that would draw attention to ourselves would be to move. As long as Erict's special sense has no chance of drawing their attention, he could use that to look for a likely hiding place within 200 meters that we could head for if..."

As Shooter is talking, the group can hear the fighter coming around again. It is almost directly overhead and not more than a couple hundred meters above the ground. Erict is able to sense it with his spatial awareness. Suddenly, as the aircraft is almost directly overhead, it veers sharply from its circular search pattern. Two rockets detach themselves from the aircraft and immediately go supersonic, flooding the small cavern with a thunderous roar. But the rockets are not aimed at the cavern holding the group though only Erict is immediately aware of this.

PETER: "What the ...?"

ERICT: Erict immediately says, "Don't panic, not coming here..."

The rockets are too fast and too small to follow but Erict knows that they are targeted at something further south of the group.

Erict's attention returns to the aircraft, just in time to see it explode in a massive fireball though the reason for the aircraft's destruction is not clear.

ERICT: "Bogey confirmed killed, weapon and source unknown. Rockets went south... checking...
TECH: PER roll of 15-, +2 vs range, [rolled 14]. The good news is that it's a 360-degree sense, so I hopefully don't get distracted and miss anything because I'm 'looking the wrong way'.

PETER: "Keep us updated."

Everything happened too fast for Erict to follow. Even as the sound of the exploding aircraft is reaching those in the cavern, two more explosions follow as the two rockets impact their target some distance to the south. Exactly what the target might have been, and whether they hit or missed, is difficult to say. It sounded like they hit at least half a kilometer or so to the south, but it could have been up to a kilometer away.

Large chunks of aircraft fall to the fog-shrouded ground and then all is quiet.

GM: Erict can send me a PER roll to see if he was able to learn anything more.

ERICT: After a moment Erict shakes his head and says, "Sorry LT, I can't sense anything over there that might have shot down the bogey, the rockets went at least half a click south before impact, maybe even a full click. It all happened so fast. Everyone stay under hard cover, that plane is coming down in pieces."

ERICT: "Unfortunately after losing a plane in this area the Maginites are likely to come looking for it, so I think we're going to need to get moving again, though we will definitely want to stay away from whatever those rockets were aimed at. I'll start looking for the next hidey-hole for us to scout from..."

TECH: Base PER 15-, +2 vs range, [rolled 5]

GM: You manage to find a natural cavern about 180 meters to the southeast.

MARKO: Marko will look that direction and see if he can see any human minds in that direction. Rather than doing a Mind Scan and possibly giving away his own position, he's using his passive Mental Radar.
TECH: Roll to activate 19 - 3 = 16- [rolled 6], perception roll 15- [rolled 12]

GM: Marko does not see any human minds in that direction.

ERICT: "Hmm, I am sensing a pretty ideal little natural cavern about 180m southeast, LT." He points to the spot on whatever map we have, if Caerlina allows it. "Whenever you're ready to move I can get us there, but it's your call if you want to wait a few minutes to see if more trouble comes from the south first."

PETER: "I agree. My concern is how quickly the Maginites can get further resources down here. If they have to send them from the spaceport, it could be hours. If they drop something from space, it could potentially be a lot quicker. And we really don't know what they've been doing in the past three months. For all we know they've made a forward base closer to here. But there's nothing we can do about that, except make the best of the situation."

PETER: "Captain Insecki, I think we should move as quickly and carefully as possible for no longer than an hour to the southeast, getting distance from here, the Barrier, and whatever took out the plane. Surface travel is dangerous, but if there's going to be Magnites investigating this crash, staying will be more dangerous. I'd also recommend that we sacrifice speed for stealth. Our woodwise people can do what they can to cover our tracks, and I think we should distribute the load from the carts and carry them with us to avoid making tracks."

PETER: "Unfortunately we have to move quickly, so there's little time for debate. What do you think?"

ROCK: "Aye, sir. I agree. Since Erict can't teleport me, I can take my mud form and creep along the surface. I can move at the same rate that I can march though I'll tire more quickly."

ROCK (OOC): With Rock's focus on his mud form, he has improved it some. He can now sink into the ground so it can function much like his tunneling only without leaving as much of a trace. He also doesn't need to breathe while in his mud form so the water level is not an issue. Rock can maintain 12" NCM at 2 phases per turn indefinitely, so 24" per turn sustained movement.
File Attachments: