The Raid - Eureka Moment

Hal and Hope's first, shared, Eureka Moment, The Raid, sponsored by jimmy_eat_meatloaf and Zathar, interrupts the 7th Sea campaign (part 16, 8th Feb 2017).

Ivan (DM): It's raining. The sounds of scrap metal and the sloshing of red mud penetrate the sounds of the ongoing downpour. Five figures stand next to you, shrouded in cloaks with wrapped limbs and tight-fitting body armour as you walk through the ruins of buildings amidst the heavy downpour. [Amy (Hope): Are we wearing those things too? Ivan: Yes.]  Thunder rattles around you as you both, Hal and Hope, continue to move in a singular path through some disheveled streets. A man in a full mask with optical attachments stops, and has you all duck behind a coarse piece of rock. It's that moment that you can hear the sounds of a loud metallic hiss and the smell of ozone permeate your senses. Through cracks in the rubble you can see a swarm of flying insects accompanying lumbering metal tanks of creatures that span three stories wide by two stories tall. The insects seem to be grabbing whatever they can, while the larger creatures move at a rhythmic, steady pace. Six legs crush and demolish small piles, as it pulls a huge trailer with rigid bars on either side, like a crib the size of a warehouse. Items continue to drop in the cart as the flying creatures pass and drop their cargo into the cart. Hover platforms keep it a smooth and easy ride as inside the trailer you can see a swarming mass of movement.

"Collector carts!  We have to wait for them to pass before we move on," says Hope.

"We can't! These storage batteries are just a click [1km = 0.64 miles] away from them. We need those batteries or else the hospital's main system will start getting brown-outs," says Hal. You hear these words come out of your mouth without even realising that you're saying them.

At that moment, lightning cracks the sky and you can see the silhouette of two moons through the cloud line, as one of the other cloaked figures approaches you both, saying, "Look.  We can set up a distraction and maybe divert their path while you go for the batteries.  Or we can just try to take it down.  But remember, we're not even supposed to be here on this side of the divide.  We get caught, we're building fodder."

What do you do?

Jason (Hal): We've gotta get those batteries.

Amy: I'm with you. If we can cause a distraction, that might keep us hidden, at least for a little while, but I'm not going without my brother.

Ivan: You can ask the five who are with you to cause a distraction. You two are very obviously in charge.

Amy: "Alright.  Private Ryan Green, take you and the other four -- make a distraction.  Do you have the explosives on you?"

Ivan: "We have EMPs to disable all the insects."

Amy: "Go east.  We'll continue north."

Ivan: "Alright.  They're heading straight for it, so you'll have to be quick, but we'll do our best to divert their path and buy you some time."

Amy: "And meet us at the rendezvous point."

Ivan: "Right.  We'll meet you back at base."

You duck out, and watch as they crouch and dart from cover to cover as they make a beeline straight for the lumbering figure.

Amy: We're going to go for the batteries.

Jason: We can probably make it there in about 8-10 minutes.

Ivan: You have the rendezvous point laid out on a PDA with you.

Amy: Do we know the privates?

Ivan: Yes, this is your team. You're very familiar with them. They would die for you.

As you continue to dart and duck and move forward, you go through pieces of cracked rubble. You see some buildings are in better condition than others. Some of the more aggressive insects are coming by as you watch them with big clamps pick up anything that doesn't seem to be dirt or stone -- metal, electronics, anything not nailed down -- and fly it to the cart. [Jason: This has a Terminator-style post-apocalyptic vibe. Ivan: Yes.] It is a large organic creature that seems to be hauling this trailer. The bugs are not paying any attention to you.

As you move from cover to cover, and go around old apartment buildings and an old parking garage, you see a couple of humanoid figures -- shadows -- passing through windows as you come by across the side of a wall. You know they have patrols looking for survivors that you need to sneak around or evade.

Jason: Let's sneak by them.

Amy: Yeah, I'd hate to have more blood on our hands, or make more enemies than we already have.

Ivan: You hear as clicking moves around and you hear the crunch-crunch, crunch-crunch.

Amy: Let's surprise him. I wanna choke him out.

Jason: I'll assist.

Amy rolls 2 successes, Jason rolls 0.

Ivan: You watch as this creature comes clicking around the side. You leap through the window and double across the wall. You realise that it's a giant four-legged creature with two arms in front (similar to those in Diplomacy). It is a giant six-legged creature like an insectoid centaur. You leap up on top of its thorax and grab a hold around its neck and try to choke its windpipe to deny it consciousness. It drops its weapon and reaches its arms in an attempt to throw you over, as Hal comes in front of it and puts its momentum in front of it so that it doesn't have the opportunity to flip you over. It fights back. You hear the sound of blades erupt from its shins as it cuts Hal for 2 lethal damage. It continues to struggle and move in front of you, slamming you against the wall. You continue to tighten your arms more and more and start to feel it go limp as it passes out.

Jason: Thanks!

Amy: I thought it was going to be easier than that.

Jason: I tripped, I just don't know what happened.

Amy: It's OK. Hey -- look at me -- it's OK.

Jason: OK

Amy: You did good.

Jason: No I didn't. [Laughs.]  We both know that. I completely tripped over my own feet.

Amy: Alright, we don't have time.

Jason: OK.

Ivan: You continue to move down, and see this power plant -- like a substation -- which you recognise as your destination. As you get closer, you see that it is guarded. It has a large fence that hasn't been disassembled yet. It has large abrasive wiring (like chicken wire) which occasionally shimmers in waves.

Jason: I think it's electrically charged. I'd try to cut through it, but I don't know what it would do.

Amy: There's got to be an opening.

Jason: Let's start looking for it.

Ivan: You move [Ivan: left or right? Amy: Right] down the building. You see the insects are getting more dense and the large tank-like creature is maybe a quarter of a mile behind you. You wonder why the distraction hasn't gone off yet. You see a couple more guards chattering. They seem to be engaged with data pads of some sort, and are working on their bracers.

Jason: That distraction should have gone off by now. Let's hide and wait and see if it does, and then we'll make our move.

Amy: OK. What if it doesn't though? Should we go back for them? Our squad is more important than batteries.

Jason: Yeah, but our whole mission is the batteries. Everyone knows the risk that they took. We need those batteries to power the hospital.

Amy: OK. The other thing we could do is get in there, take down the guards and get out as fast as possible.

Jason: We're looking at two guards.

Ivan: The guards seem distracted, but they are very much in the open.

Amy: How long are we going to say? 5 minutes? 10 minutes? 12 minutes?

Ivan: It's been enough time that maybe they got distracted or maybe it's about to go off at any moment. Will you wait or engage?

Jason: Let's wait five.

Amy: Disagree!

Jason: Alright -- you're the commanding officer.

Amy: It's good counsel, but I disagree. If we're waiting, there's no determined amount of time that will make sense. If it hasn't gone off now then it might never. The biggest threat is the guards. Let's try to sneak.

[Ivan: I'll take two dice away if you're going through the gate. Amy: I'll only have 1 die. Jason: That seems like suicide]

''They make a wits + composure roll. Amy rolls 3, Jason rolls 2.''

Ivan: You recall that your cloaks are reflective camouflage. You take the cloak off, roll it up and with a forceful movement you crack it like a glow stick. You shake it and the reflective active-camouflage trickles through the cloak completely. As you don it, it covers you completely. This is an extremely temporary thing. You can add 3 dice for that.

Amy rolls 1, Jason rolls 2.

Amy: I go first. I'm going as steadily as possible, walking almost as normal.

Ivan: You creep. Using your training you know that conservation of movement is key. You get close enough that you can hear the clicking and popping of the creatures' joints as they make small adjustments. They are holding their data pads up like paddles, and seem to be playing some kind of ping pong game. Their mandibles click as they communicate in overt language.

You sneak past the substation and get to the main door. That's when you hear the explosions. You hear electricity sizzling and see small lightning fizzles across the giant two-story creature, which rears in response to the explosion. The swarms of creatures look like they died on the spot -- they just fall out of the air. The second explosion is startling enough that the giant creature makes a sharp line curve as it banks immediately towards the left, away from you. As it makes the sharp turn, the trailer starts to tilt and crack, and begin to tip as its edge hits the ground and start to flip on its face. Your team start to run as fast as they can, as the cart is going to land close to them. You see a swarming mass of individual flightless creatures spill out of the cart and pour all over the landscape. You watch as that mass rolls over your team. [Amy: No! Jason sighs.]  The creature bucks and gears and continues to run off towards the hills, as the cart snaps. The drones you passed double back and run as an emergency response. Smaller figures start to converge on this giant mess amongst the pouring rain.

Amy: Are they dead?

Ivan: Hard to tell.

Jason: Look. They did this mission to protect the hospital. Everyone knew -- we've got to get these batteries. They wouldn't want us to go back there and die also. If they're dead now, there's nothing we can do.

Amy: That may be true.

Jason: The only thing they'd want us to do is get these batteries.

Amy: I'm going to get these batteries, but I'm also going to be carrying guilt with me for the rest of my life.

Ivan: At least there won't be any signs that you were there. These things strip everything -- metal, flesh, cloth and all.

Amy: I'm going to watch it happen then.

Ivan: You watch the swarthing mass come over it, a quarter of a mile away. One it moves over, as the wave splashes over, you see nothing.

You get into the substations and you manage to find the two very large batteries that you manage to attach hover disks on to to mitigate the weight. You carry them out through the back, and double back and get back to base without any difficulty, as all of the creatures are distracted. You push the batteries into a mountainside with a very well-disguised rock face as an entrance. You lift up a sliver of rock and put your hand print inside of it. The doors slide open, and your consciousness comes back in to the mast of a giant ship in front of you, and you continue to contemplate as the wind pushes the sail in front of you.

7th sea resumes.