Session 32: The Enemy of Mine Enemy Report

General Summary

Introduction

The darkness of the valley between the mountains on New Avon is only partially marred by the dim light of the Chariot settled with Ramp buried in the grass as Nathaniel, leader of the Underground Resistance of New Avon, steps forward with his long, dusty brown coat blowing gently behind him. He strides towards the Shadow Secretary of the Court of Scavs with purpose, resolve, but also a faint anxiousness obvious in his gait. Aris steps in front of your group, her blue hair only faintly visible in the night from the twinkling reflection of the starlight from the twin rings above, and crouches down with you as you wait. “Dad said to wait a few minutes here. It’s not usual for the Shadow Secretary to come, they usually just have a could of guards come by to drop off and deliver. He wants to make sure everything is okay before you move up.”   Nathanael stops in the distance at the base of the ramp with a slight lean to one side as she stands reserved with in perfect posture a few steps a above him. You see faint, quiet greeting exchanged. Nathaniel gestures calmly with his hands as they talk and she seems to respond with simple, precise gestures of her own. A few crates on hover-dollies are rolled forward towards the edge of the ramp with a slight hum by a figure within the Chariot. Aris gestures towards the guards who quickly respond with a closed, slatted crate of salvaged parts and tech.   Meanwhile, the two guards that initially exited the ship seem to have stepped to the side of the ship and started to attach something to the front and back of the Chariot. Observing the activity is interrupted as Nathaniel turns towards your shadowed group and motions you forward towards the Chariot. The Shadow Secretary turns to look in your direction as Aris speaks up “I guess it’s clear for you guys to go talk to her. I’ll hang back here and keep the jamming signals going just in case.”   Chiara speaks up “I’ll stay back here for now and stay ready to come in swinging if you need backup. Don’t want to push my luck with Scavs, after all. Not after last time.”

Game Start

Meeting with the Secretary

The group was invited into the Shadow Secretary's Chariot to discuss their situation and negotiate passage off-world.

Secretary's Dialogue

"I am here for a very specific purpose. The Lady Ash has discovered that the Krappers, *ahem* my apologies, Krasia has been following a similar playbook in each of the worlds we have been able to re-establish a hold. Each time, they arrive in power, they decimate local resistance with overwhelming force, then they leave an occupation force that is just slightly too large to be justifiable for the world's size or resources. They immediately adopt a strategy to strain resources of the local population just to the point that a region or town steps out of line. At that point they sweep in, they round up the offending population as an example, and they erect some prefabricated micro-fortress in the town or region. The population they rounded up disappears, supposedly sent to the Colonies as "nonconsensual labor contributors" and the erected facility remains as a prison and monument to their power. The excess of their occupation force trickles away over the next few weeks to a more reasonable force as Blackshirts betray their own kind and dissidents are rounded up, sent to the facility, and shipped off-world every few days."   "As things continue, restrictions tighten further and further to weed of 'undesireables' until after a few months everyone with the strength to fight back is stretched thin paying their taxes, serving the occupation as a Blackshirt, or shipped off-world to the Colonies. We have tried finding every crack and route through Krasian lines to trade food and even weapons for tech and salvage to support these resistances, but the first worlds conquered have already cracked and many others aren't far behind. When everyone you see serving the terrifying master has great lives and everyone biting back at the hand disappears around you, it is little wonder their spirits break. But that is the devil we knew. That is, besides the singular oddity of the focus of shipping people away instead of openly enslaving or murdering them, not too far from Krasian tactics in the War of Colonization."   "However...we've discovered something else...odd. We have recently secured a reliable contact within the Colonies who has aided us in information. Some of the information we were seeking was the whereabouts and safety of the families of those resistance warriors we are aiding. The goal was to mount an effort to boost morale and potentially rescue them, you understand, to keep the Rimmer spirit alive until other...avenues may be secured. However, we have discovered that none of the names from any of the worlds this tactic has been used on have been reported at any of the labor camps within the Colonies. Not merely a missing shipment, not a single name. Not from here or any other world. We have tried our resources within the Krasian fleets...not a single name was reappeared there either."   "So that is the question that has driven the Shadow Secretary, right hand of Lady Ash herself, to this backwater Rim world. Where are these millions of Rimmers disappearing to? Krasia's core principle is value...what could be more valuable to Krasia than the slave labor they claim to have? This planet, out of all of the occupied territories, seems to have one of the smallest holding facilities and thus the greatest promise in successfully breaching it. Breaching the Hold, as this one is called, is to be no easy task, but my life is already committed to the completion of it."   "That is where you may come in, should you so choose. I was given dispensation from Lady Ash to carry out this task with the hope of garner whatever local support I can. I have already seen your fortitude in both facing Krasia and openly denying Lady Ash, renegotiating with her, and delivering an alternative to a called in favor. I know you have either her attention or her favor as she has yet to set a contract on you based on the refusal alone. Your strength would be a greater guarantee of success and survival than the...alternatives I had resigned myself to. I will not insult you with terming this as a basic credder as this is indeed our survival as individuals and a free culture as a whole. So, knowing my purpose here and the weight of the task at hand, what price would you have of me to serve as my Blades in this? "

Her Response regarding Off-World Passage

"This information is both the guarantee of survival for me, my men, and the resistance of this world, but I will grant you this much. Krasia's patrol patterns are both randomized and thorough, as you will well know if you have attempted to breach a Core Territory world at any point. We have a singular resource remaining within this barricade that provides us with a very specific flight path that will have narrowly missed one patrol team and allow us to be out of scan distance of the secondary team. If you aid us, we will provide you passage off-world as best we can with either that information or a seat on our Chariot. Our payment of supplies can be held here on good faith to take you instead, should the need arise."

Her Response regarding them wanting a Ship

"After the Ambush, we've found ourselves left in an unfortunate situation of having more ships than skilled pilots. Should you desire a ship as your price, one may be provided upon our success and extraction. Should we succeed and you are willing to fly it for the aid of the Scavs and Rim as a whole, I have no doubt you may have one of your choosing." 

Known Obstacles in the Hold

"Fake IDs will not allow us access. Standard operating procedure for each hold has been a set team of Fists on constant rotation. Blackshirts aren't allowed entry but we've learned even other Fists aren't allowed entry from a previous...failed attempt. We have heard rumors that even the Occupational Commander isn't allowed access after the facility's construction has completed, which is unconfirmed but exceptionally odd if so. Allow me to show you the long-distance scan we pulled on entry."
"Mid to low atmo approaches over the airspace are under a "Fire without Warning" Restriction from those anti-air cannons. They have shredded ships fighter size up to freighters in a single salvo on other worlds. There are local anti-personnel turrets within the walls and a ring of security cameras along the sides. They seem to be isolated shock cameras, so they can tase you should you be detected within the firing distance. They are nasty fuckers."

Planning the Heist

The crew met the other members of the Scav team as they hid their Chariot. The Pilot, Marina Bladebron, remained out of the operation. Juri and Killian, the Tempest Guards, seemed amicable to the others. Killian gave Tumerian one of his spare broadswords. Finally, Lira Starling, the engineer, would accompany them as well. The Shadow Secretary, Maria, gave Dash the 6 trackers as they prepared. They had 2 1/2 days to make the window to leave the planet so immediately jumped into action. Maria gave everyone a pill, Proactivia, that she said would help prevent sleep for 3 days, but they would fall asleep for 3 days after that to catch up on sleep. All but Rose took it.

Mapping Sabaton

They lightly briefed Nathaniel on the mission and asked for anyone who may have lied in Sabbarton. He found someone who was able to provide them with maps of the districts as well as maps they requested of the Sewer System that the Hold was build on top of. They also convinced Nathaniel and Aris to allow her to come along with them. Nathaniel made Jason promise to watch after her, protect her, and make sure she comes home safely to him.

The Underground's Aid

Nathaniel approached them with 7 of his guards saying they wanted to help. The Hold was a blight on their land that has snatched up friends and family for months and these guards were willing to lay down their life to help undermine it and rescue those that were taken. Dash tried to convince them to stay behind, but an older guard explained that he's a Rimmer to the end and won't have that much longer anyways so would rather spend his time and death on something that matters. The argument seemed to convince the Crew and they allowed them to come. The Crew decided to take them up on their offer and have the 7 (plus Nathaniel, as they discovered later) go up in the Gator ATVs towards the other city of Sabaton to stage an attack then flee. They tried to talk Nathaniel out of coming but he explained he wasn't sending his daughter in anywhere he wouldn't go himself. They told the Underground team that they would send up a signal when they needed them to attack (fully intending to never send that signal to keep them all safe).

The Distraction

The Scavs revealed that they had been in contact with another Resistance force on New Avon but preferred not to deal with them if possible. The force is a Hausaga Syndicate squad that was trapped on the planet from their occupation after Krasia arrived and is under the leadership of Willy the Wisp. The crew didn't recall the name but they decided that it would be wise for her to negotiate for the Syndicate team to attack a nearby town to try and draw away some of the Sabaton forces while also keeping them away from potentially messing up the operation.   The Scav team left to go meet with the Syndicate team, stating that they would be gone a few hours then they would leave to conduct the heist when they get back. After being gone for a while, they returned with Juri beaten up, Killian obviously scuffed, but they had come to terms with the Syndicate.

A Titanic Idea

Knowing that they intended to leave the Combat Dropship and the Titan for the New Avon Underground (as they couldn't take it on the ship with them), Dash got a sudden idea. He approached Aris Scoxand while they were preparing and asked if there was any way to splice Mark's Memory Core into the Titan that they'd stolen and unlocked. After serious examination, Aris said that she thinks that she could, it would just take a while. Dash gave her the Titan and the Memory Core to work on after to both bring back his ally and give New Avon a Titanic Protector, the former Protector of the Slush.

Rose's Folly

While everyone was preparing for this mission, Rose went off in the Volcanic Tubes that she and Chiara had first stumbled into the Underground through. She went off in the darkness to avoid being followed, sat down, then opened up the satchel with the Seed of Ydrissil containing the vision of her mother. She reached out and put her hand against it and waited.   Behind her, she heard her mother's voice calling her Briar once again. She spun around and realized that she no longer felt like she was in the darkness of the tube but in another dark void altogether. She began to speak to the entity that looked like her mother, though the edges of it seemed transparent and wispy. The form revealed that it needed her to take the seed back to the Lawkeepers immediately, Versia was ungoverned and unsafe without her, and she suspected that she'd been betrayed and only to give her (the seed) to all 3 Lawkeepers together. Rose focused all of her energy into maintaining the guise of innocence in her mother's death, but after the continued tirade essentially told her mom that she couldn't ever say it while her mom was alive, but she refused.   The form grew angrier and claimed she needed to be punished. It lunged forward, each step forward trailing behind another face of former Laws of Versia, until just the unknown face of Kushiel held her by the wrist. Rose tried to pull back but failed and felt herself being pulled out of her body into the Orb. She tried to jump back via the silver thread holding her consciousness to her body but was too slow.   Kushiel awoke in the body of Briar Bellock, going by the alias Rose Skytree. Deep within, the fragment of Rose's mind that had tried to make the jump back remained bound and contained by this powerful entity. Kushiel delved into Rose's memories and understood the deception it must maintain to return with the strength of allies to Versia. Kushiel, wearing Rose, returned to the group.

Storming the Castle

The Crew, Shadow Secretary, Aris, Lira, and the Tempest Guards loaded up in the Dropship by squeezing in. Nathaniel and the Underground met them, were told to hold off on a signal, and left on the Gators towards Sabaton. Jason helped brace everyone as the ship took off and smoothly wound through the volcanic tubes and cavernous openings in the volcano. Jason had received aid in repairing the Guardian armor taken in the previous combat and donned that. Li flew under the Radar as the Scav team slipped into Blackshirt uniforms to blend in while in town. Rose made a few odd comments that caught a few people's attention, but it was justified as nerves before the battle.   They traveled on and just narrowly avoided being scanned at one point while enroute. They landed while in visual distance of Sabaton just as dusk was falling. They walked into one of the side streets in town acting (successfully) as a group of Blackshirts and Krasian Enlisted passing a bottle around while heading into town. The Shadow Secretary split off as soon as they entered town to go find information on the number of troops they could be facing inside. As they wandered in, they moved over a manhole. Jason easily tossed it to the side and the first team dropped in as the others milled about around them to provide cover. Dash, Lira, Rose, and Aris dropped into the Sewers and moved in somewhat. The others moved forward, milled about, then turned back to drop in after the Shadow Secretary found them soon after. She revealed she'd discovered that therewere 4 total Fists within the Hold, 2 on duty, 1 on call, and 1 off duty.

The Sabaton Sewers

Dash, Chiara, Lira, and Aris moved up into the Sewers using the map that they'd been given by the Underground resident. The rest followed behind at a distance. As they moved up, Aris and Lira used their technical expertise to start killing cameras and laser grid security screens (they called them ratkillers). Soon after, they reached the screen between the obviously old concrete sewer system of the town and the new material of the pipes beneath the Hold. They disabled the screen and all moved in as silently as they could. Above them, they heard rising commotion of sirens and shouting, but it never seems to grow closer to them specifically.   While the advance team moved up stealthily, the team in the back soon discovered that the pure weight of Jason in the system was making far too much noise and actually cracking the system beneath his feet. The support team decided to stop just beneath the first manhole cover to keep an ear out and avoid drawing more suspicion. Li sprouted his Wings of Night, surprisingly not terrifying the Scavs, and flew towards the advance team silently. Lira, however, did almost scream in terror as a winged, dark nightmare flew out of the dimly lit darkness behind them. Her screams were stifled by Dash's quick reaction. They explained the situation and the advance team continued on.   They soon arrived at a large, bulbous tesla-reactor trap centered in the sewer that would fry them if they got relatively close. Lira and Aris managed to disable it, but Aris fortunately found that the trap had a secondary defense measure that would alert the security system if it was ever detected as offline. She was forced to stay still next to it and continue to ping and disable consistently to keep it from killing them or alerting the system that it was offline. Lira dropped beside her and assisted her. Li came forward to guard them and help them maintain clarity and focus as they worked.

Dash's Distraction

Dash and Chiara moved up further under what they believed to be the main structure. However, Dash saw from a fork up ahead a small girl in a white dress peering around the corner at them. She jumped back and seemed to run as soon as he saw her. He told Chiara they had to run but then thought twice and tried to hurry silently after the girl. He rounded the corner, didn't see her, then heard a voice behind him.   (Voice of Sathriel) “I see….it would have been you. He favored you, thinned the herd with you…groomed you. You were his Story, spun and woven, driven through deceits…all to be his vessel. His chosen. His fist and his gun.”
(Voice of Maiden) “But you, so full of self, so sure of your own desires, held when you should strike, struck when you should yield, stood when you should kneel. Tempestuous child railing against destiny.”
(Voice of William Blake) “Second choice…but still a choice. Always on the sidelines, never intended for glory…but when my moment came….couldn’t let me have that either. The second gun in the holster, the second hammer in the box…but even then, you couldn’t let my moment come. You killed me twice…friend…long before your fist cracked my jaw. Your refusal, your indecision…I should have seen it coming. After all…you always held my mark.”   Dash grunted out an angry "Not now" as Chiara seemed completely confused at why he was talking to himself in the darkness. They moved up and found large drains that someone slender may be able to squeeze through. Dash sent Chiara back to Li to assist. Li and Chiara returned to the hole and moved down the line to find the second one (that seemed identical). They waited until they heard no noise up above and pushed Chiara up into the facility. They climbed up as soon as she gave the all clear.

Back at the Manhole

The support team was remaining still in the sewers. Unfortunately, the strange mix of chemical smell and sewage began to get to many of them. Jason remained unaffected in his suit, but Kyra was the first to wisely mix together a chemical concoction to provide some temporary relief. Rose manufactured an impromptu mask to cover her own face in the meantime as did Kyra. The Tempests and Shadow Secretary pulled out breathing apparatuses.   After dealing with the filth and disgust of the sewers, the Shadow Secretary seemed to grow upset at being uninformed of any part of what was going on. She and her Tempests moved forward, with Rose, towards the other team. Jason and Kyra remained behind. Rose and the Shadow Secretary moved up past the tech team towards Dash and Li and found the light and commotion down the way they went.

The Facility

Dash immediately ran towards the computer to begin cracking into it to find the documentation. Li and Chiara ran towards the individual stasis pods that seemed to hold people inside. Li looked in and saw one with a young woman and noticed a faint shimmer on her cheek which he attributed to the frost or crystallization of stasis. Li and Chiara ran around and planted the trackers on the Pods as stealthily as they could, activating them to trigger and turn on once at their destination.   Dash cracked through the first layers of security and initially wanted to run a full data dump but realized he wouldn't have time. The commotion from outside had picked up and the Hold seemed to be alerted to noise, even if it hadn't identified where it was coming from yet. He opted to instead find the 5 most encrypted documents that seemed to relate to the pods and locations and dumped those onto his datapad.   Rose and the Shadow Secretary came up as they finished and they hurried them back down. They closed up the hole behind them and began to run back through the sewers. Everyone heard the shouting and commotion rising from up above and began to stealthily try to hurry themselves towards the city's systems. Li realized that many of them, Jason included, could definitely not do this on their own so began to fly them out one by one. He strained every muscle he had to get Jason out but managed to eventually at least lighten him enough to run out of the sewers sneakily.

Triggered Traps

It quickly came down to just Li, Lira, and Aris as the rest ran away safely. Aris, having spent every resource she had, was barely keeping the system contained with Lira's help. She explained to Li she was trying to make it look like the trap had a fault that triggered it to cover up their intrusion but that there was no way to release the hack without the trap triggering. Li told Lira to run and tried to give Aris aid as Lira turned and sprinted out of the sewers.   Unfortunately, without the aid of the other tech wizard, Aris almost lost control over the system. She ended up overloading her holojack and searing her own arm that the jack was wrapped around to try and prevent losing control and frying them all. After Lira was safely away and far enough from them, Li wrapped his arms around Aris and flew with all of his might out of the sewers as she desperately tried to keep it together as long as she could. They narrowly managed to fly out of range just as the trap triggered and fried everything in the sewers around them, alerting the Hold to the intrusion below.

Sacrifice at Sabaton

The team sprinted through the sewers with all their might to the point that they'd entered. Sirens blared above them and distant gunshots echoed. They hurried up the sewers and exited the manhole to see Blackshirts and Enlisted Krasian Soldiers alike pouring out of buildings around them with guns. Those running towards the other end of the city spun and began firing into the Crew as they ran.   Jason realized that there was no way they would make it to the dropship under the gunfire without at least some of them getting gunned down. He remembered his promise to Nathaniel. He shouted "Keep running!" and spun back, drawing his vibroblade. As the others ran desperately for the dropship, he charged back into the growing group of soldiers and Blackshirts and began cutting them down mercilessly to draw their fire. It worked well, and only the combination of his Utopian skin and the Guardian Armor soaking up shot after shot kept him up and fighting as long as he did.   Alexa's voice entered his mind as he swung wildly. "If we have to go...I'm glad that I went with you. I'm glad to be part of your crew. Behind you!" With her aid, they fought until the Crew disappeared from sight, the vibroblade was shattered, and the Guardian Armor hung off him in tatters. Only then, with his friends safe and his promise kept, did Jason allow himself to fall.

Victory at a Cost

The crew loaded up on the Dropship and beat a hasty retreat back across the planet to the mountain range. They saw the smoke from the attack on the nearby city, they saw the gunfire and smoke from the other side of Sabaton, and they saw the building obscuring their fallen friend. As they flew, the Shadow Secretary spoke kindly about Jason and reassured them that should he have the wisdom to allow himself to be taken prisoner, they will get him back along with the millions of other Rimmers. The mission was successful.   As they traveled and spoke kindly of Jason, but only Chiara seemed to hear Rose mutter "He served his purpose". Chiara tried to make eye contact with her new friend but Rose avoided her eyes consistently. Chiara immediately seemed to understand that something was very wrong with her friend and immediately began to angle herself to watch her every move.   They arrived back at the Underground and were soon met by Nathaniel and his surviving guards. Nathaniel had been injured in the fight but survived, 4 of their team fell. The Crew were angry at them for not waiting for the signal, but Nathaniel argued that the sirens were going off and the city was going on high alert, they needed the cover and so his team provided it. Aris bandaged her arm, but the scars under her holojack were deep and likely to remain.   After they rested and prepared to leave the occupied New Avon with the Scavs, heading back to meet with Lady Ash, the Shadow Secretary offered them her heartfelt thanks and 1 favor (that does not compromise her loyalty to the Scavs or Lady Ash) in exchange for them bringing her and her team out of what seemed to be a suicide mission unscathed. She said they only need to invoke her name, Maria Venlua, to call on this favor. Then together, leaving their New Avon allies behind, they headed back into the stars once more.

Rewards Granted

[Minor Milestone]
1 Favor from Shadow Secretary Maria Venlua
Ship from the Scavs & Passage Off-World to it