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For the rescue team - How are you approaching the village in broad terms?

Route: Most direct route, or something more circuitous? If the enemy has patrols out, they'd likely expect you to come along a direct route. It's not much a stealth issue as... like, a tactics issue?

Stealth vs. Speed: Are you moving stealthy the entire way, or are you moving fast until a certain point - and what would that point be? Obviously if you spot enemy forces that'll be a point to slow down and reconsider, but is there a point where you'd slow it down on purpose?

Everyone has suppressors for their handguns, so you can make stealthy pistol kills if needed. Obviously Zaef's blades are quiet as well.

Gatac has said that leaving ASAP is best, so given time taken to plan and load up, it'll be roughly 30 minutes or so after Orange has taken off back through the jungle.

My thinking is that we take an indirect route by about, say, 30%...curve around a little so it's not straight on, but let's not get too carried away. Favoring speed until we're about half a mile out - I'd start sneaking sooner in different territory, but given the jungle, this really should be enough. My goal is to hit them soon, before they decide to do something to the prisoners, but not rush it.

ok, cool. Since the enemy is expecting you to try something, but they're not actively searching for you specifically, the best stealther amongst you rolls for the group, and since you are changing up your route some, I'll give Angel the benefit of Hugh's Cautious Aspect as well. You should be pretty invisible.

Alright, my plan here is that we take those guys outs. We've got enough firepower for a decent alpha strike.

I think a possible "softening" approach is for Zaef to use his close-combat skills to gank a roving sentry or two. Angel can snipe the elevated guys. Hugh and Luis go in heavy to get to the hostages. Arketta holds position to support us and keep our exit route clear, if necessary.

First things first, though, we should radio back to camp and warn them they've got incoming.

I'll leave informing camp to you, then.

More info about the hut and such. Because I am not going to have time to work out a proper map.

The hut is one story, with a mostly flat roof. It has windows, so to be a domicile and not an oven, but the view inside is obscured by hanging fabric or hide. It won't stop a flashbang from sailing through of course. The guard by the riverbank and the one on the longhouse have good lines of sight to the stone hut, but they're also watching the approaches to the hut. Plus, the one guy on top of the hut is doing a competent job of scanning his sectors. That said, it's not an impossible task for a small group to sneak through the village and get up close, it's just difficult without removing some of those sentries. Honestly, the 3 wherren right outside the hut are probably more for the hostages than for watching for intruders. Plus you don't know if there are more inside with the hostages, but it couldn't be too many more simply because of the building's size.

The main problem with a riverbank approach is that it got used as target practice when you guys were doing weapon training. It's fairly bare now, which is why the guy can be out there and still see the hut.

Okay, after consultation with Robert and Adam, here's an idea.

First, lure one of the wandering wherren guards away, and ambush him with silenced pistols and Zaef's knives. When he's down, repeat with guard #2. As soon as he's down, move with stealth to the stone hut, which should be significantly easier with two guards down, mirror the convenient windows to get an idea of what's inside, and then bang and clear the hut if the hostages are inside. Once inside, you'll have a defensible position to take out the other wherren from.

Everyone cool with that? Lure + gank some roving guards, then try to sneak close to the hut and bang/clear?

Fine by me.

Yep, good enough for me.

Angel's at 6/6 wounds, 11/14 shock.
Arketta's at 4/6 wounds, 5/12 shock.

Hugh's in the doorway, Angel's outside but right there near the door, Arketta's knocked prone out of cover next to the hut. Luis and Zaef are inside. The wherren is not in melee yet, he's gotta wait till his next action before he can axe anyone a question that's not "can you catch a thrown weapon?" The Cyllan is floating half-out of the river and moving slowly towards the riverbank. I'd describe it as suppressive fire if PCs actually reacted to stuff like that.

Quote:

Don’t you ever stand for that sort of thing. Someone ever tries to kill you, you try to kill ‘em right back.

Full auto at the hover octopus.

Hugh took 4 shock, Luis took 5 shock. Nothing that the kauka can't zip right up now that combat's mostly over. Except for that one guard who was just wounded.

Here is a big old status update:

Patrols: none

Foxholes: F8, H6, K7, and K10 (a semicircle close in on the west side of camp) They are 2-man foxholes, so that's cover for 8 defenders.

All three habs have crates armoring/reinforcing their walls. You can probably get 6 defenders able to fire from each of the 2 smaller hab windows, and 8 or so defenders from the mess hall hab windows.

In total, assuming best numbers for hab defenders, that'll be fortifications for 28 defenders.

The paint claymores appear to be working pretty well. I've kind of assumed that anything that trips a paint mine can be blown to bits at your discretion by the real claymores.

Delta/Allied team onsite:
Cowboy
Semo
Davis
Hale
Swims-the-Black

Delta team offsite:
Hugh
Luis
Angel
Zaef
Arketta

38 Wherren in total:
1 shaman
6 Chosen
1 warboss Banur
1 escaped youth Joxur
29 warriors (Karon, Mola, and Sajuuk are some of the names here)

29 prisoners in total:
6 Turai (Kosai, 5 unnamed thus far - 3 of these have recently been maimed)
11 civilians (Zakpabo, 'medicae lady', 'crying lady', 8 unremarkable thus far)
12 Keepers (Shenest, Hoei, 10 unnamed thus far)

---

The enemy is on their way, and the camp has been informed that they are arriving today. My questions to you guys are first aimed towards Hugh's team at Village 815.

1. You still have a wounded enemy wherren guard. He is leg-shot and cannot maintain the speed necessary for you to take him prisoner and still reach the research camp in time to assist your friends. I'm not saying execute him (although he could just be feigning worse injuries to get an attack in if Angel approaches too cavalierly), but he'll slow you down.

2. The 10 hostages! As mentioned in the last IC update, Hiigra has told you of a fishing site upriver of the village that should be a safe shelter for the hostages. They could be escorted there and then you guys could head off after the Imperials. If you escort the hostages all the way back, they won't slow you down but stealth will be an issue, plus the dubious strategy of walking hostages into a potential warzone.

3. Your actual steppin' out plan: Do you take off ASAP after the Imperials? Do you follow their trail, try to catch up, or take a different route back to camp, knowing that you and the bad guys are heading to the same place? If you move too slowly, you might find yourself doing a rescue op on Cowboy, Semo, and Davis. However, the enemy likely knows (from the Cyllan's vox) what time you guys attacked. They may have rearguards or send harassing forces to stall you. I honestly would not worry about booby traps. They clearly don't have explosives to squander, and the VC-style punji sticks and whatnot take too long to make and aren't effective on anyone who's carrying a kauka.

Now, for the PCs at camp! Okay, that's only Cowboy and Davis:

1. Do you have last-minute plans? I know Davis wants to paint a message to the Khiraba about trading hostages, along with a vox channel to use, on the habs in that white paint the wherren used for their party. Anything else?

2. Where do you want to be when the Quixote hits the windmill? When the horde of screaming wherren run out of the forest, or the single orange messenger, or the sniper takes off Semo's head, or whatever they do, where do you want to be?

3. Same question, but for the NPCs. Where are your 38 wherren? Who's watching the prisoners? Where's Hale? Where's Swims? Where's Semo? Semo has an XM-25 man-cannon and is not available for prisoner duty. Likewise, Hale has been branded as a traitor and is not a wise choice for prisoner duty.

4. Who has the Claymore clackers and where are they set up (foxhole, in a hab, in the comm room? And yes, there are enough Claymores set up to where you kind of need a "station" of sorts) Normally this would be Angel, but he's not here.

Note: Kasey seemed surprised when I mentioned there were "only" four 2-man foxholes. If you thought there should be more, I need to know where they are going to go. I don't have a problem with retconning in some more dirt removal (up to a reasonable point), your guys have had time to do it. I just need to know 1) IF you need to make changes/additions and 2) WHERE these are to be made.

My point is I'm not building your base for you, I'm already taking the role of the attackers. I don't feel comfortable placing defenses.

Adam sent me the blank camp gridmap we used earlier. If I have time today, I'll post my suggestions.

Cool. After some chatting, you can add up to 6 more foxholes and even connect them up with trenches, as long as you're not redoing the NYC subway system or VC tunnels or anything. Trench, to me, means a ditch that you can fire out of when standing and then take full cover when you crouch down.

Punkey: So, in addition to the foxholes at F8, H6, K7 and K10, put foxholes at G6.5, J6, K-L10.5, I-J12, G12 and E10.

Gatac wrote:

Punkey: So, in addition to the foxholes at F8, H6, K7 and K10, put foxholes at G6.5, J6, K-L10.5, I-J12, G12 and E10.

I sent Adam a revised map that basically entails the above.

I got the map, it's all fine with me for "amount of work that I'd need to retcon".

Now that that's settled, where are you putting your forces? And don't forget my questions to Hugh's team, detailed in the OOC post(s) above.