1. Gallowglas runs into the Control Room, and says to Stick “Where do you want the mattress?” Stick points into the corner where the drilled and removed collar
   from Dallas Williams is lying. “On top of that,” he says. Gallowglas tosses the mattress into the corner. C4 holds her action, as she is clinging to Slammer down on the mine pit floor. Alphonse runs into the Control Room with P-1 (one of the twins). and lines him up behind Cassandra for collar removal.

Stick, having just finished drilling out and removing Dallas William’s collar, looks up and looks around. With his Chi-vision, he notices Gorman and his men skulking about at the top of the stairs. “There are 5 assholes at the top of the stairs, looking for trouble. Would someone please go give them some?” he says on the radio. Gallowglass is practically jumping with glee, “Pick me! Pick me!” she shouts. Alphonse takes her remaining half-action, and runs back out into the hallway. She notices Gorman’s eye peeking out from the open crack of the door, as well as his blaster muzzle. “That didn’t work out so well for the last 20 guys that tried it,” she says as she runs past the door, and takes up position behind it. Stick, continuing, says to Ghost “Watch carefully so you can do this with Cassandra,” as he fits the blast shield pieces to Agni’s collar. He points out where to place them to cover the three shaped charges.

Wm.Bear Claw finishes his ritual with Dallas Williams, an 8D6 Aid STUN, and rolls 17 on 8 dice (6, 4, 2, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1), bringing him up to 33 STUN. He continues his ritual.

Slammer activates his mega-levitation with enough power to travel all the way to the Control Room on one go. He has to negotiate two open doors and about 10m of hallway, and succeeds in the required DEX rolls to avoid bumping his bulky cargo (of C4, P-2, P-3 and Suzy Bear Claw). C4 drops off in the hallway when she sees Alphonse, taking cover from Gorman behind the corner. The other passengers form a line behind P-1 to have their collars removed. Ghost starts fitting the second set of blast shields to Cassandra’s collar.

Gorman uses a half-phase action to close the door and rig two grenades to the door as a booby-trap. The 5 men then fall back to the landing, where A-5 and A-6 use their knives to cut the zip ties on A-3 and A-4. All five are now brandishing blasters, trained on the door. Stick, noticing the movement, calls it out on the radio. “Those 5 assholes have now moved down to the first landing, and are lined up on the doorway.”

1. Gallowglas follows Alphonse out into the hallway, and takes up position against the wall on the non-hinge side of the stairway door. C4 and Alphonse exchange glances & nods. Gallowglas does NOT follow. C4 delays, waiting for Alphonse to open the door. Alphonse pulls the door open, and the grenades explode: 5 STUN and 8 STUN (AVAD vs Hearing Flash DEF), 5 segments Sight Flash, 9 segments Hearing Flash. This effects Alphonse, Gallowglas (although the door frame blocks the Sight Flash), Gorman and all of his men (the 4 that are up as well as the two still lying on the stairs). A-5’s Hearing Flash DEF fails to activate, he is knocked out (at -7 STUN he is still in once per phase) and deafened for 9 segments (he was the last one to wake up, and was nowhere near full STUN). C4 does not have a clear shot. Alphonse, blind, deaf and majorly annoyed, orients on the door and fires her TK Shove down the stairs (Yahtzee – 6x6 + 5 on 7D6 for 41 STUN and 13 BODY, with double Knockback). This catches Gorman and all his men. Their armour all activates for the primary attack (all are STUNNED, all but A-5 drop to 1 STUN, A-5 was unconscious and took double STUN ending up at -69 STUN), but for the Knockback damage (21D6, for 72 & 19) A-5’s armour does not activate, and he takes 7 BODY damage in addition to all that STUN. All are well into GM’s discretion, A-5 is at -201 STUN and 3 BODY. Gallowglas, peeking around the corner and down the stairs, calls out (in far too loud a voice, since she is temporarily deafened by the grenades) “I AM NOT HAPPY!”

Stick uses the drill on Agni’s collar, reading “4:39”, but needs another action before he is able to release it. Wm. Bear Claw continues his ritual on Dallas Williams. Slammer attempts to help Psyclist wake up, shifting him from GM’s discretion to one REC per minute. Ghost delays, waiting for Stick to remove Agni’s collar so she can take the blast shields and fit them to Suzy Bear Claw.

1. Gallowglas, deaf but not blind, descends the stairs to the landing where Gorman’s men are piled up. A-5 is very obviously seriously injured, with all his limbs at unnatural angles. Gallowglas gingerly picks him up. C4 delays, waiting to see what happens. Alphonse, still blind and deaf, delays, waiting to see if she draws fire. None comes her way. Stick releases Agni’s collar, and tosses it under the mattress with the other one. Ghost takes her delay, takes the blast shields and fits them to Cassandra’s collar.

C4, concluding that the action is now over, decides to take a smoke break. “Stick, I’m going for a smoke,” she says on the radio. Not wanting to have to go out through the dome, she notices the door to the Motor Pool in the hallway. Recalling the LAST door someone tried opening, she takes her delay, targets it with Ground Zero (12D6 AE 1 hex), and obliterates the door.

Wm Bear Claw completes a second Aid STUN on Dallas Williams, rolling 30 this time. Accounting for the 17 from last time, Dallas is now at -20 STUN (once per minute). Slammer continues to help Psyclist. Stick notices the effect on Dallas, and says to Bear Claw “You should use that on Psyclist.”

POST 12 REC (NB: Dallas Williams gets one as he was KOed on turn 1, this is the end of turn 5, and he was at once per minute – he is now at once per turn).

«LEAVING COMBAT TIME»

TURN 6

Gallowglass takes A-5 up the stairs and into the Control Room. On the way by, she pats Alphonse heavily on the back and says, sarcastically, “Well done.” She draws Stick’s attention, and gets him to check out A-5. “Put him at the end of the line, he can wait until I’m done with collars, that has a hard deadline, no pun intended,” he says while gesturing at the line. Gallowglas, still deaf, puts A-5 in the triage queue, then she goes back to the stairs and sorts through Gorman’s squad looking for someone about her height. Gorman is closest, so she strips his armour off of him and takes it for herself. She thinks for a moment, then strips him down to his skivvies, and drops his uniform down the centre of the stairwell. “Explain THIS to your boss!” she thinks gleefully.

C4 goes into the garage, decides that’s far enough, and lights up.

Ghost and Stick work the line of collar removals: Cassandra, Suzy Bear Claw, P-1, P-2 and P-3.

Wm. Bear Claw performs two rituals on Psyclist. The first is 8D6 Aid REC (+14 REC), the second is 8D6 Aid STUN (+30 STUN). Psyclist wakes up in very short order. “What did I miss?” he asks.

Slammer works on enlarging his Life Support bubble to accommodate all the additional passengers he’ll be carrying.

TURN 7

Ghost and Stick finish collar removals. All are performed successfully, the blast shields are not exercised. The last collar reads “4:15” when it is removed. Stick applies Healing to A-5, adding 4 BODY, bringing him up to 7. His limbs no longer dangle at unnatural angles. The STUN improvement is irrelevant, A-5 is still more than 100 STUN into GM’s Discretion.

Ghost goes looking for backups in the Server Room. Stick says “There’s still that scientist down in the lab. What should we do about him, take him with us?” There is general agreement. Alphonse says “I’ll go fetch him.” She finds Dr. Tompkins in the lab collecting files. He says “I presume you’re here to arrest me? Let’s go.” He walks out with his files in his briefcase. Alphonse is disappointed he didn’t resist. They return to the Control Room. Tompkins and Slammer see each other, and there is a flash of recognition. “YOU!” they both exclaim simultaneously. Tompkins goes on. “How are you still alive!” he exclaims incredulously. Slammer walks over, grabs Tompkins by the neck and hoists him up. “So, we meet again,” Slammer says while using his TK Choke Hold on Tompkins (5D6 NND, -14 STUN). “I know someone who wants to have a LOOOOONG, private chat with you!” Slammer drops him in a heap on the floor, gasping for breath and STUNNED. “He was in charge of the experiments they did on me, when I was abducted,” he says to the group. “The mind control and extra powers experiments. The ones he expected to have killed me by now.”

TURN 8

Warden Dallas Williams wakes up, and begins struggling against the zip ties, to no effect. Stick notices, and says to him “I hope you end up in here with a collar on when they catch up with you!” Psyclist asks Dallas about any other institutions he might know about, while telepathically scanning him. He picks up on Alert and the Peterborough Pharma head office, which recently burned down. They decide to leave Williams behind.

They load everyone (Stick, Gallowglas, Psyclist, Ghost, Alphonse, C4, Wm Bear Claw, Agni, Cassandra, Suzy Bear Claw, P-1, P-2, P-3 and Dr. Tompkins) into two HMMVs in the Motor Pool. C4 is not finished her cigarette yet, and has to stub it out. Slammer picks them up and they leave (1:36 after contact).

15 minutes after the alarm was given, DAGGER flight reaches SOLITAIRE.

“ALERT from DAGGER 1, no activity in view, but there is a hole in the dome.”

“Roger DAGGER 1. Sweep the area for hostiles and clear the LZ for QRF and SENTINEL. ALERT out.”

15 minutes later, two V-22 Ospreys, two Griffon helicopters and a giant robot all fly into view. The helicopters take up positions where their door gunners can cover the field between the facility and its landing pad. The V-22s approach the pad fast, flare to a stop, drop their ramps, disgorge about 50 troops (which take up defensive positions), and fly off. The Sentinel makes a showy, 3-point super-hero landing in front of the facility’s open garage door. Nothing moves for a moment, then the troops advance, carefully entering the facility. The robot stands by, menacingly. The helicopters orbit the facility, with their guns trained on it. The CF-18s circle overhead. After about 20 minutes, the all-clear is given. The Ospreys and Griffons land, the Hornets and Sentinel return to Alert.

Callouts:

Stick:

• extensive use of Soliloquies
• PRE attacks
• repeatedly demanding surrender
• acrobatics in the stairwell
• dealing with deafness
• thinking of making blast shields
• mission planning

Gallowglas:

• creative use of Gaelic in Soliloquies
• taking charge when Stick was deafened
• organizing collar removal
• “perseverance in the face of adversity” (being behind in movement, missing so many rolls)

C4:

• staying in character
• using staying-in-character as a threat against OPFOR
• herding cats
• colourful invective
• creative use of Ground Zero to open doors

Alphonse:

• creative piling up of agents
• fetch-and-carry running the stairs
• “Are you guys about done?” soliloquy.

Slammer:

• rescuing Psyclist
• finishing off Squads B, C & D
• interaction w/Tompkins
• use of Breakfall
• carrying everyone up to Control Room
• mission planning

Psyclist:

• charging the guns
• questioning Dallas
• mission planning, observing induction of Agni

Ghost:

• initial infiltration
• dealing with Dallas & the control room guard
• sticking to the task of dealing with the collars
• helping Stick with the blast shields

Experience: The team was not outgunned, but was outnumbered. Two team members were outmatched, but on the whole the heroes had the advantage.

2 combat points for everyone, plus 1 combat point for the extended duration, plus one non-combat point for mission planning & prep.

Stick: +1 combat, +2.5 non-combat Gallowglas: +2 non-combat C4: +1.5 non-combat Alphonse: +1.5 non-combat Slammer: +1.5 non-combat Psyclist: +1 combat, +1 non-combat Ghost: +2 non-combat