Gently Rotting

2 Operation Fuse, Or, Shadows Of The Mess You Made

15 min read

Author: Nafees Mujtaba

The IPS-N dropship Coracle is fuelled up and ready to leave from Baldachin. Aboard, they find a bright and cheerful Andy Velejo - in his early 20s, perhaps freshly out of higher education, he is excited to be part of the Union effort, and almost too helpful. The team can’t help but dampen his spirits with their combat veterancy, but they try not to sour the mood too much as they depart for Outpost 278-Indigo.

Musing over options to maximise their capabilities, they convince Velejo to help them set up one of the six drop pods to be an explosive drop, in an attempt to cause some level of damage and some distraction as they follow.

Mission Preparations

Assets available:

  • LONNIE ABEL, piloting the Gob Knobbler Goblin frame: None deployed
  • GORN TYBURN, piloting the Cruel World Vlad frame: +2 Heat cap modification
  • MI-TENZ, piloting the Feline Pain Mourning Cloak frame: Control cuff (mech-activated controls can be activated at range using Ferrous Lash)
  • YUMAI, piloting the Careless Whisper Metalmark frame: Union-chartered IPS-N orbital dropship “IPS-N 2900 Coracle”
  • AUTUMN FALL, piloting the In Defence Of My Name Balor frame: Alzabo public manifest with omail addresses (+personal weapon accuracy modification)
  • GROUP: Explosive-rigged drop pod

The plexiglass floor of the ship illuminates with a view of the area below.

There are several areas that appear suitable for landing. While the explosive drop pod is designed to cause a distraction, it’s not clear how effective this might be. Several areas are mildly hidden by smoke from this distance, which might work in favour of the insertion team. They decide to prioritise disabling the defence emplacements as fast as possible, inserting to the west of position 3 behind the gatehouse buildings.

The team suit up and load into their pods. Gorn (whose player is away for the first combat session) appears to be having a little trouble fitting his gigantic mech into the pod and is delayed - but one imagines the dynamic entry will be exactly Gorn’s style.

Sun It Rises

The explosive pod launches first, and adjusts course to aim for the fuel depot in the middle complex. Behind it, four pods scream silently, crescendoing in the most gentle manner through the thin atmosphere of the planetoid.

Through the explosions and smoke, the four pods make planetfall behind a gatehouse and administrative building, and they emerge (mostly) out of the line of sight to the base entrance courtyard.

The courtyard is a large, open field strewn with debris; mech-sized shipping containers allow for hard cover and concrete barricades for soft cover, all parallel to a huge siege wall with a giant gate to the outside of the base. Flanking the entrance are two gigantic missile batteries - these are the anti-orbital launchers. Treated as custom tiered Rainmaker ship-class NPCs with tier 3 missile pods, these size 3 turrets can be operated by any mech adjacent to them as a quick action, and are otherwise inactive. If more than one faction “controls” the turret, neither can use it.

As the team files out of their entry method, visual contact is made with a ragtag band of enemy forces in the courtyard:

  • She Got Dressed, a veteran tier 2 Barricade with an almost knitted appearance, piloted by Delling H’nketon (he/him)
  • In The Hot Hot Rays, a veteran tier 2 Pyro piloted by Kim Farthing (she/her), glowing fiercely
  • Anyone Who’s Anyone, an aquiline looking elite veteran tier 2 Ace piloted by Alice Venger (she/her)
  • Textbook Love, a spark-lashed veteran Support piloted by Tara-G1229 (they/them)
  • So Long To The Headstrong, a monstrous plated veteran Demolisher piloted by Winston Feldt (he/him)

There is also a hapless grunt hanging around; while they had been picking at the wreckages of scattered vehicles and mechs like carrion, the explosion and sudden mech-sized slams have shaken everyone to battle stations.

Tiger Mountain, Peasant Song

Before anyone can move, the Anyone Who’s Anyone speeds to the nearest turret and fires - 20 spaces away. At this stage, the only mech seen by the insurgents is Autumn’s Balor class mech towering over the gatehouse building, and it takes a solid hit. However, the defenders have been taken by surprise and are not in ideal deployment formation.

Agreeing that the turret is a good idea, Mi-Tenz makes use of her lash on the nearer turret, firing a barrage into three enemies from a distance and fairly combusting the grunt. This is another shock to the defending team and they scramble.

The fight develops - Yumai’s mech has been retooled to focus on invisibility and map control, and he darts to the flanks, scanning for intelligence on So Long To The Headstrong as he passes, learning of the power of its enormous hammer and its self-destruct protocols. Spotting its low E-Defence, Yumai transmits this information to Lonnie and begins waging psychological warfare on the Demolisher1, who simply responds by radio: “You do know my mech’s name, right?”

In that moment, Lonnie’s Goblin, the Gob Knobbler, slinks off towards the nearer turret, hacking the Demolisher unimpeded. Meanwhile, the Feline Pain and In Defence Of My Name are beset by fire - the In The Hot Hot Rays is a dangerous defender. So Long To The Headstrong groans with mechanical impotence as it tries to head towards the fight, slow and steady, its internals warming up.

The Anyone Who’s Anyone decides to try and flank, making for the same turret that Lonnie’s after. It’s a close call - Lonnie in hiding manages to fire off a few rockets before cat-and-mousing with the eagle-like Ace around the turret.

Yumai deploys a flash grenade, all-but blinding multiple enemies, all the while transmitting demoralising propaganda. This is catastrophic for the enemy - Autumn closes in to begin shredding them. Panicking, the She Got Dressed and Textbook Love both start hunkering down as their allies are boxed in around them2.

Mi-Tenz darts through and begins the process of trying to chip away at the Pyro trailing fire, working with her teammates to secure structural damage. As it pushes itself to its feet again, pouring burning fuel from punctured tanks, Andy on board the Coracle radios in - reinforcements are incoming3.

Heard Them Stirring

The So Long To The Headstrong marches towards Lonnie’s turret in anger and slams it with his hammer, severely damaging it. On the other side of the field, Autumn fends off the In The Hot Hot Rays, shredding it to pieces before it can even close in. Mi-Tenz begins a dogfight with the Anyone Who’s Anyone, and Yumai harasses the Textbook Love, with Lonnie firing more rockets across the field.

From the skies comes a meteor and His name is Gorn - plummeting into action, Gorn lands almost into the seat of the unmanned orbital emplacement missile battery and fires a volley into the flank of the defending force. They’re in trouble, and radio communications are going haywire. Mi-Tenz turns her baleful gaze at the Anyone Who’s Anyone and instils terror - causing them to begin to flee for the outer siege wall of the outpost, eventually escaping. The She Got Dressed begins moving away from Autumn, watching the Textbook Love get torn to shreds by multiple attackers.

The base gate lowers, but a reinforcing giant simply barrels through - the Icicle Tusk, a 20-metre tall, size 3 Elite Goliath with a pair of deadly drum shotguns, piloted by Nikolai Demer, leads two grunts, the Chaff and Fleet Fox 3, through the breach. Demer promptly turns his guns to Lonnie cowering behind the missile turret, and fires two shells, almost structuring the Goblin twice. Lonnie escapes behind nearby cover as the tide of battle turns.

The In Defence of My Name begins to lumber forwards, drawing itself closer to the Barricade defender as Gorn runs it over and impales it, the two melee mechs pinning it in place. Mi-Tenz, deprived of her kill on the recently escaped Anyone Who’s Anyone, vents her fury against the helpless mech, destroying it before using her ferrous lash to fire more rocket rounds at the enemy, destroying the Fleet Fox 3 and damaging the Icicle Tusk - the Feline Pain knows no end to rage.

He Doesn’t Know Why

From this stage onwards, the battle stabilises - the attackers slowly move round, with Lonnie hacking enemies to render them useless as they hang just out of effective range. Nikolai and Winston both curse into their radios, impotent as their titans simply disobey their controls. The tiny Gob Knobbler takes the spirits of the gigantic robots by the legs and hurls them into the Duat, eventually completely paralysing the Icicle Tusk. The team sees an opportunity to capture an enemy combatant here - now it’s just a matter of executing the task. For Gorn, it’s just executing the enemy - he spins up his combat drill and deals a colossal amount of damage to the Tusk, reducing it to a vulnerable state.

Mi Tenz takes out the last grunt as Yumai closes in on the So Long To The Headstrong. Pouring psychological warfare into the ears and eyes of Nikolai in the Tusk, Yumai proclaims that capture is possible - but not for Nikolai’s comrade. The actor sweeps his blade through the body of Winston’s mech, leaving a clean, burned line through the axis of its body. Its hammer slowly falls limp to its side. “I know what your mech’s called,” Yumai coolly quips. “I don’t forget.”

The sight of the blade going clean through his ally’s robot is the last thing that Nikolai sees before Lonnie’s tech attack reaches the fourth level of the Duat, and he is summarily ejected onto the lorry presenting soft cover for his mech. Slamming backfirst into the corner of the vehicle, Nikolai is out cold before he hits the ground and the Icicle Tusk whirrs to a halt.

The team congratulates itself on a job well done when a robot hand grabs the Careless Whisper by the throat. “You don’t forget, huh?” hisses Winston from his glowing mech. He feigned death - and Yumai dimly remembers the phrase “self-destruct protocols”. Bracing himself, the last Yumai hears before a giant explosion sends his mech flying is Winston: “So long.”4

The Careless Whisper grinds to a halt - it has mercifully managed to take about the minimum damage it is possible to take from such a close range mech explosion, and finally the team can truly breathe as silence falls over the battlefield.

Battle report:

  • Yumai - Careless Whisper - Minor damage. 1 enemy kill, 4 enemy assists.
  • Lonnie - Gob Knobbler - Structure damage. 6 enemy assists, 1 enemy capture.
  • Gorn - Cruel World - Structure damage. 2 enemies killed, 2 enemy assists.
  • Autumn - In Defence Of My Name - Structure damage. 2 enemies killed, 2 enemy assists.
  • Mi-Tenz - Feline Pain - Structure damage. 3 enemies killed, 1 enemy assist, 1 enemy routed.

Quiet Houses

Now that the dust has settled and Yumai has picked himself out of his crater, the team can tend to their wounds. Deactivating the Icicle Tusk in fairly good condition means that the squad can salvage it in short order - though it is already a fairly scrappy looking giant. They scrounge two repairs’ worth of viable scrap and set to work fixing up Gob Knobbler.

They also um and err over what to do with their captive, who remains out cold. They settle on shoving Nikolai into a shipping container and flattening the ends shut - he’ll keep til later.

While Lonnie finishes his repairs, the others poke around and examine the wreckages. These are pretty rough and ready mechs - the escaped Anyone Who’s Anyone was the only military-looking unit among them. They’re not sure whether this means reinforcements are inbound, but their objective is still to clear the base.

The group head towards the barracks area, coming across the remains of a battlefield days old. There are corpses everywhere, mostly burned almost to cinders, with a few unmarked bodies scattered amongst them in rough work clothing and protection. The buildings here are in really bad shape - some of them are even still on fire, with burning chemicals trailed across them leaching long-lived incendiary phosphorous into the thin atmosphere.

The team double check their map - the most likely position for enemies would be inside the inner compound, and there’s only one obvious entrance, the gate. However, Gorn has a much more direct approach in mind, hefting his mech drill. With three successful rolls to create a new entry point, the group moving directly from position 5 to area 7 on the map above - in relative stealth and in good time. This lets them set up behind cover, out of line of sight and with excellent information on their next battle, as their sensors begin passively registering new enemies:

  • Sun Giant, an elite tier 2 Pyro, seeping hot white incendiary chemicals from between ramshackle plating, piloted by Jonathan Smoky5 (he/him)
  • Drops In The River, a veteran tier 2 Bombard, tucked away behind a fuelling array building, piloted by Blaisse Arthurs (she/her)
  • English House, another enormous tier 2 Goliath veteran, piloted by The Fourteenth Man (he/him)
  • Mykonos, an industrial tier 2 Bastion piloted by veteran Sue Annais (she/her)
  • Innocent Son, a sleek tier 2 Scout piloted by Victor Money (he/him)

In the area of battle is one missile battery - the team are keen to get hold of this, but it’s on the other side of the field with three enemies in their way. There are also the three massive fuel tankers on their left - they’re spaced evenly and the furthest of them is still lightly on fire from the remains of their drop pod. It’s not clear how much damage has been done - scanning later might give them that information, but they all seem like they have fairly good structural integrity, still.

Lonnie activates his core ability - attaching his mech to Yumai‘s, figuring the invisibility from the Careless Whisper‘s core ability would be put to good use here. They stack up, rack their guns and all hell breaks loose.

Ragged Wood

Normally Innocent Son, with its viper speed, would act first, but with their ambush setup, the team goes first. Gorn charges in, grappling the Goliath, Fomorian frame and knitted synth-muscles straining to keep the monster in check. The scout immediately darts past, drawing visual attention to what appears to be a small, person-sized device next to English House. It’s not yet clear what this is - so Yumai and Lonnie roll into action, scanning it.

It’s a locator beacon.

Worse still, it looks like it’s been going for about half an hour - roughly when the team made planetfall. Yumai takes aim with his veil rifle, covering Gorn and hitting English House and Sun Giant and the beacon. The beacon is destroyed essentially immediately, but the damage is already done - whatever it’s alerted is probably already on its way. Lonnie starts hacking English House, keen to keep up the team’s advantage before Careless Whisper hides and manoeuvres back around the administration building for cover, falling back to Mi Tenz’ position.

This turns out to be a mistake.

The Innocent Son radios into the Drops In The River - the scout’s Sight is completely unaffected by Yumai‘s attempt at stealth. Mykonos takes aim at the coordinates radioed in and fires a huge arcing round.

Gob Knobbler and Careless Whisper are invisible here, and this saves Yumai - but not his passenger. Lonnie takes the full brunt of the explosion, taking 13 damage and losing two structure immediately. Worse still, Mi Tenz, who hadn’t even been spotted yet, is in the blast radius, and the Feline Pain feels 13 points’ worth of pain, too. She’s livid with Yumai - this was a massive unforced error6.

The Feline Pain takes its move, attacking the Sun Giant. Its armour shrugs off most of the damage but this isn’t insignificant, prompting a retaliatory area attack to begin heating up the Feline Pain and Cruel World while the Mykonos begins to close in.

Footnotes

  1. Orator is a hilarious talent, but Yumai opts to use this to play various videos that could pass for the destruction of the mech in combat. ↩

  2. This was an extremely messy fight start for the defenders but the group truly earned it. ↩

  3. insert gif of BT-7274 giving a thumbs up here ↩

  4. Genuinely could not make up that the arrogant Yumai forgot the self-destruct sequence here. Truly cinema. ↩

  5. Love you, honeybear. ↩

  6. This was such a punishing attack - Drops In The River had cluster munitions, which I only realised on the subsequent turn. Watching Lonnie’s player’s face falter as both the structure he’d just put back on his mech disappear was heartbreaking, but that’s how the dice roll, sometimes. ↩