Chapter 1: Strike From The Heavens

As you approach Colonel Lazard, those who passed their PER + Observation checks will notice slight movements of her lips, indicating she is smeaking. The door slid open, revealing the inside of the pod. It was a little larger than the average car, with 9 harnesses around the walls much like in a stand-up rollercoaster. In the centre, on the floor, was a large lockable case to hold any equipment that could not be carried on one’s person. “Lock yourselves in and prepare for launch,” the Colonel said, demonstrating how the harnesses were adjusted and locked in. She stepped out of the pod and nodded to the team as they all strapped in. “I know you can do this. Good luck, and- For fuck’s sake!” Colonel Lazard began to rush away and the door to the pod slid shut before anybody could ask for explanation of the sudden invective. A loud humming sound began as the machinery started up.

Scene music:


The lower point of Black Knight opened up like a flower, revealing the titanic railcannon that was the Moonflower Orbital Deployment System. Whirrs and clunks surrounded the agents as the pod was pushed into position, and then a man’s voice could be heard over the speakers. “Pod F stocked and loaded. Moonflower firing in 3… 2… 1… Zero.” Suddenly, the pod was moving at incredible speed, a sudden flash of shielding flaring up as it hit the sound barrier, another a moment later as it hit the atmosphere.

As the pod flew groundwards, it began to shake ever-so-slightly, held firm by shields spread out across the inner and outer surface of the pod, glowing blue particles breaking away, dissipating, and disappearing as the shaking steadily intensified. A few feet above the ground, less than a second away from impact, the pod suddenly came to a stop in mid-air as the shields vanished from around the walls and formed a hard ion buffer beneath it. The agents were shaken, but miraculously not injured. As the buffer slowly disappeared and the pod sank downwards, the wall which did not contain a harness was automatically blown away, revealing the pod to be surrounded by enemies in hex G7 of the following map:
https://i.imgur.com/0u29p4r.png

Roll for initiative, and choose your position on or adjacent to G7. Once we have initiative, I'll take people's actions for the round.

A quick explanation of the map:

• You can move 1 hex and still take a normal action (e.g. attacking), or 5 hexes as a normal action. Nobody has any trainings like Freerunner that would change it, so no need to worry about that yet.
  
• You can share a hex with other characters, ally or enemy. They're nebulous but cover a fair amount of space.
  
• Adjacent hexes are close combat range, any further is not. If we’re in a situation where being at longer range than pistols can shoot matters, it probably won’t be on a grid.
  
• I'm not modelling height or anything here.
  
• The Progressor aerial drones are Mooks, indicated by having round tokens instead of hex ones. Mooks all share a single pool of HP. For each 15 HP lost from the Mook Pool, one Mook is defeated.
  
• Being Mooks, the Progressors don’t have shields as per normal rules. Instead, laser weapons will deal an extra 2 damage per attack to represent piercing the shield.
  
• The Progressors swoop in to attack; this means they can be hit in close combat, but have a Defence of 3 for Close Combat attacks only – ranged weapons used adjacent take no penalty.
  
• The humans are shielded and carrying plasma rifles.
  
• The Sentinel Droid and Light Tank are shielded.
  
• The Helpsalot is not shielded. It's a Helpsalot.
  
• Obviously, this whole map system is up to change depending how it works out in play, and I don’t intend to use it every single time combat comes up.
  

Zushe will start in G7 and rolls 18 for Initiative.

Voja got an 8 for initiative and will start in H8. With his Riot shield readied (a -8 penalty to ranged attacks against him, if it takes 50+ damage in one hit it is destroyed).

The Charge training lets me take a -4 penalty to do a full move and make an attack with Jannochka at the end. Am I right in thinking this would be a move of 5 hexes?

Fenris wrote:The Charge training lets me take a -4 penalty to do a full move and make an attack with Jannochka at the end. Am I right in thinking this would be a move of 5 hexes?

Yes.

Lester, tac shield clipped on, starts in G7. The thrill and enjoyment of the ride has given him an initiative of 15. It was certainly a fast way to travel. On the ride, though it was hard to hear, he would swear in Spanish. Now his face was pale and guns were ready.

James got initiative 10, Ref 6.  He will be starting on hex H6 (up close and personal with that lovely drone).  Tac ass shield is applied and switched on, sword drawn, and he is in a thoroughly happy and envigorated mood after the thrilling descent; he spent a good deal of it gleefully whooping.

Amp got initiative 8 (ref 6) and will be starting in I7. She also has a tactical Assault shield equipped and did not appreciate their insertion method.

Initiative:


The map, updated to show the PCs and split the drones into two initiative groups, is here:
https://i.imgur.com/7XG41wu.png
A blue circle on an enemy indicates a visible shield. The round tokens are the Drones, the Sentinel Droid is the one on S5.

I have thought a bunch about how to handle combat rounds, and for we’re gonna try with posting in conventional initiative order. PCs who are in a block together can go in any order, and then the NPCs after them will take their turns. So Zushe, Corva, and Lester, it’s your turns.

The sunken pod gives ranged attacks against you a -2 cover penalty while you're in G7. If you want to delay, post the initiative number you’re delaying to.

Following discussion on Discord, an update on movement: You can trade 1 attack rate for 1 extra hex of movement (on top of the free hex you can normally take when attacking.)

Corva immediately ducked into a firing position behind the other agents and swung their rifle towards the first human they saw (Human 1). A burst of blue lightning crackled and danced from the rifle's tip. The first show danced across the ground in front of the man, Corva's aim still shaky from the entry method, but the second burst struck him, or rather his shield, dead on. (First shot fail by 2, second pass by 5. Shield takes 16 damage)

Lester, shaken, watched with concern as Voja ran toward the first available target. Several things were sure: the droids would not be friendly, and it was better they were disabled than hurt more humans, especially with an unknown possible (probable) xenobomb in the area. Already they were sharing U-view, which helped him plan his method of attack.

Lester took a step into F8 and then used an extra rate to move to E9, in order to look around.
He spotted the droid with no one on it in I11, and attacked. He started attacking the N12 when the first one went down.
Shot one passes by 4. Eight damage.
Shot two passes by 7. Fourteen damage.
Shot three passes by 5. Six damage.
Shot four passes by 9. Ten damage.

With two droids down, he used his last rate to move to F10.

(Zushe also starts with a tac shield activated and swords drawn, in case anyone was wondering)

As his fellow close combat Agents fanned out to deal with the drones, Zushe did the same, moving to F6 to take on the (green) drone with nobody else attacking it. He then began to slice at it with his swords - short, hacking motions the showed a fighting style adapted to small enclosed spaces.

(All rolls include the Defence of 3)
First attack is a pass by 12 (AT=16, roll=4). Deals 24 damage.

With a single swipe, the drone was left sparking on the floor, so Zushe turned to the other drone, that James was squaring up to.

Second attack is a pass by 3 (AT=16, roll=13). Deals 11 damage.

After that drone went down just as easily, Zushe advanced into G5, making eye contact with Human 1 and marking them in his brain as the next target.

Human 2 moves up to R6.

As members of the group close on them, you get a better look at these two human members of the DLA. They’re both in light combat armour with helmets with all the corporate logos have been scraped off. You can make out through the helmets’ clear visors that both are masculine; 1 looks light-skinned and is wearing sunglasses under his armour, 2 is darker-skinned and looks calm in the face of danger.

The Progressor Drone in G6 fires its machine guns at Zushe, hitting with its second burst and dealing 18 damage to Zushe's shield.
The Drone in G9 moves to F8 and swoops in towards Voja and focus fires, but its first burst misses entirely and the second pings off the riot shield.

Then, another Drone flies in above C9.

New map.

James’ turn to post.

Having lost his initial target, James turned his attention to the nearest human DLA member, whom he now had a clear run to.

Move to hex I5.

Attack DLA human in K5 with longsword (mastered).

Attack 1:  Agility + Close Combat = 10 + 3 = 13 (pass by 7)
              Damage roll = 1d8 + 11 (str) = 16
              Total damage = 23

Attack 2:  Agility + Close Combat = 4 + 6 = 10 (pass by 10)
              Damage roll = 1d8 + 11 (str) = 15
              Total damage = 25

The human falls to the ground, definitively killed by the second slash.

The Progressor Drone in R8 moves up to J8, closing in on Amp. Two more drones appear on L14 and N14.

Human 1 doesn’t get a turn, because he’s dead.

The Sentinel droid’s siren flashes, blaring incredibly loudly. Anyone who is within 5 hexes of it at the start of their turn, or who enters that radius, will take 5 damage, ignoring AV.

New map here.

Amp, Voja, it’s your turn.

Amp stepped up to H6, the better to see the remaining drones and try to distinguish the control unit. (Passing Perception & Corp Knowledge by 4).

If the lawyer did identify a control unit then she took careful aim (vital shot 4) and fried, missing by 1.

Voja could here the telltale rumble of the tanks engine, which was why he was here. He shouldered the shield, while charging round the corner to D12. As he neared he fired up Jonnochka and delivered a powerful two handed blow to the light tank.

AT 14 (after charge penalty), 8 rolled (prof crit), 64 damage dealt ignoring 16 AV

Amp identifies the drone in N14 as the commander unit, but misses it. The commander unit isn’t a mook, and has an actual shield and 4 AV and stuff. It acts on the Blue turn.

The tank rolls back to D14 and hits Voja with its railgun, stripping 60 points of shield.

New map!

Congrats on finishing our first round! Zushe, Corva, Lester, you’re up.

Lester, Corva, you're with me - we need to get inside and find that artifact! Zushe barked over smeaker. James, Voja, Amp - cover the outside. Amp, you have command out here if necessary.

With that, he took a deep breath and charged towards the source of that godawful noise, moving to Q5.

Corva gritted their teeth at the thought of following this surface dweller's orders, but stepped out of the pod none the less. Loathe to get closer to the noise, they raised their rifle and took aim at the second human, hoping this time the shots would not go wide.

Both of them did. Corva uttered a sequence of words highly insulting to any one who was both a member of the WF corporation and who understood Abyssal.

Lester looked across the pod at Zushe, shaking his head.

He moved to G9. There was something compelling about cleaning the outside, disabling robots, but Zushe was right. If there was a massive xeno-bomb or some other xeno-tech that could disrupt the area--(Xeno-portal? Xeno-Gravity-Control-Device? Xeno-Antimatter-Chamber? He had had several thoughts in the last few seconds.)--getting to it was most important.

He passed his shot into the mook in F8 by 11. He dropped it with 15.
He then moved into its space. Then to the pod. Then to F6.
Then, unable to help himself, he shot at the mook in P6. He passed his shot by 15, dropping it from the sky with 20 points of damage.

With that, he glanced at Corva and pointed his head toward Zushe. He was obviously covering both of them. "Come on."

The human considers retreating, but instead opens fire on Zushe, the rifle bullets hitting his shield twice for a total of 26 damage.

The drone in E9 shoots Amp with its machine guns, stripping 36 points of shield. Two more drones appear in B8 and B10.

EDIT: Map updated.

It's James' turn.

"Moving to assist Zushe." James smeakered as he darted past the fresh corpse of his first adversary, gritting his teeth against the horrific noise.

Take 5 damage from sentinel sound.

Move to hex Q7.