Robotech - Southern Cross Adventure

[Sherwood]

Deunan takes a deep breath and says, "It is worth looking into, but now we must focus on telling the computer to shut off the impending fold. Lets see if I can navigate the maze of options that must be there to disable it." With her calm returning, she begins to use her computer skills to try and find a shutdown option.

 

[Psychie]

Sherwood you can go ahead and give me a Computer Hacking roll with a +10% to the roll due to Gabi's assistance. That will help to balance out the negatives you are suffering.

 

[Sherwood]

Deunan has a Computer Hacking sill at 98%.

 

[Psychie]

With that roll, Deunan is making good progress through the alien computer. It has a very different system of folders and files to it, making for a complex task to try and turn off the fold engines.

Sherwood Go ahead and give me another roll.

 

[Sherwood]

Lets see if I can do this!

 

[Psychie]

Deunan's fingers dance over the keys, and once more, you make several leaps forward in your efforts to find the command to shut down the fold engine. One more roll should be enough to safely stop the countdown.

 

[Sherwood]

Another roll.

 

[Psychie]

Whoops! A dead end. Now you'll have to take a step back and try again. Go ahead and roll again.

 

[Sherwood]

Rolling.

 

[Psychie]

No progress, but not a backslide. You are running out of time. Go ahead and give me another roll.

 

[Sherwood]

Rolling.

Booyah!

 

[Psychie]

With only 2 minutes left, Deunan is able to find the fold engine protocols. With your fingers racing over the keys, you are able to keep from going off into deep space. A real sense of relief can be felt by everyone, knowing that you have gotten the job done.

 

[Sherwood]

Deunan takes a deep breath and lets it out, finally saying over the radio, "I think that did the trick. We are no longer in countdown to jump." She leans back in the seat and looks over at Gabi and Neo. "I don't suppose either one of you can restart my heart? I think it is still stopped from shock."

 

[Psychie]

Over the next several hours, Deunan, Neo and Gabi are able to see that the virus program has finally installed itself into the computer and the Factory is now under the full control of the squad. Your only problem is trying to get used to the odd configuration of the computer controls and menus.

You do know that there are some thirty to forty Bioroids that were able to get on the station before you had full control, but so far, they have not shown themselves. One good thing is that they are now considered bad guys by the Factory drones, and if they do come out, they will be immediately targeted for elimination.

An additional level of help comes from the arrival of three more Veritech squads to keep control of the Factory. You do know that once the Mothership arrives near you, it will end up being an epic battle. On one side, you have a small number of ASC forces there with more ships and fighters racing to your aid, and on the other side is the Robotech Masters and their massive arsenal. But, you are not alone. The Factory has literally thousands of different drones that can be deployed . . . if you can figure out how to order the Factory to do so. You also suspect that the Factory has external fixed mount weapons, so all you need to do is to hit the right buttons to put the Factory on a war footing.

 

[Sherwood]

Deunan takes a moment to lean back in the seat, feeling her spine crack and pop as she stretches. "Damn, I'm exhausted. I don't know about the rest of you guys, but we need to take a short break and have everyone get some rest. Gabi, Neo, Alan, and O'Brien. I want you four to get comfy and catch a few hours of sleep, then we'll rotate and the rest of the squad can sleep. I have a feeling that we will need to be frosty and alert once the fighting starts. While you guys are doing that, I'll try to activate the defenses of the Factory and get it ready for the battle."

 

[Rykon]

Alan hands over a storage drive where he kept his A.I. project before turning in. "I don't know how much help it'll be now. Most of what it has accumulated is targeting and Veritech performance data, but perhaps letting it read a Robotech Master computer system will give it a chance to be of use down the road. Good luck Cappy."

 

[Purr]

Deunan takes a moment to lean back in the seat, feeling her spine crack and pop as she stretches. "Damn, I'm exhausted. I don't know about the rest of you guys, but we need to take a short break and have everyone get some rest. Gabi, Neo, Alan, and O'Brien. I want you four to get comfy and catch a few hours of sleep, then we'll rotate and the rest of the squad can sleep. I have a feeling that we will need to be frosty and alert once the fighting starts. While you guys are doing that, I'll try to activate the defenses of the Factory and get it ready for the battle."

Gabriela looked concered at Captain Conway. She'd been under a great burden since all of this started.

"'Ey capitana ("female captain"), how you gonna fix it all by yourself in your condition? Frankly, you look spent, ma'am. We only got this far together because of our combined skills an' talents an' now you wanna go it alone?" Gabriela stayed where she was and kept working the Factory's computers with that genius-brain of hers working unless Conway insisted. The way Gabi saw it, CPT Conway was running herself into the ground, but then again the tank-masters in A.T.A.C. crews weren't used to going out on what Recon Patrol called long missions. Few divisions did. Gabi had naturally been pacing herself since the mission started as the Green Berets of the Army of Southern Cross did.

"I've still got a lot in me, ma'am; in Recon Patrol, we often go out for days or weeks at a time with little support. Maybe we can get the defenses of the Factory up both with drones an' her big guns. The more we do now, the greater our chances our people remain around to do more later, if you know what I mean?" She looked back to Marlon and winked at Conway. "Please consider it? Besides, you keep doing this to yourself an' ol' Marlon will have to take over after you drop - and God only knows what he'll do in your absence, ma'am! Ai caramba!"

 

[Sherwood]

A sleepy Deunan looks over at Gabi with a slight smile. "A good leader thinks of the men and women under her command first." She covers her mouth to hide a wide yawn, then lets out a chuckle. "I guess you make a good point, though. If you don't mind, I'll trade off with you, and once we've had a few hours of nap time, wake up the sleepers and trade off so everyone has a chance to recover some energy. Marlon? You have the squad."

With that, she heads down to her tank, reclines her seat, and closes her eyes and is asleep in a flash.

 

[Psychie]

With Deunan and Alan catching some Zzz's, what is Marlon and Gabi doing in the meantime? And how long do you guys let the others sleep, keeping in mind that you are also tired and could really use a short rest, too.

 

[D. Rex]

With Deunan and Alan catching some Zzz's, what is Marlon and Gabi doing in the meantime? And how long do you guys let the others sleep, keeping in mind that you are also tired and could really use a short rest, too.

Marlon would keep watch, of course. Monitoring for the bioroids and other potential threats. He would give Duenan and Alan an uninterrupted six hours of sleep. Seven hours if he isn't too tired. Though would send Gabi and Neo to get some rest after early if the situation looks undeniably defensible.

 

[Purr]

"Ai Dios!" Gabi mock-complained with a laugh to her squadmate. "Marlon's in charge! What's gonna happen next?"

Gabi did her best to make the most of this opportunity with the Factory. This was the first time she had her hands on alien technology on such a gigantic scale. She absorbed all of the learning here that she could.

Foremost, she prioritized getting the drones and the factory's guns up to the ready. Were she successful, she next did her best to have the drones and sensors in the ship locate the bioroids inside the factory.

She prayed aloud in English. "Great Jesus! Guide our minds an' our hands. Let what we do here save as many of your people as possible and protect us against your enemies. You give us the boots, Father, an' we'll do the kicking. You watch an' see. And by that, I mean we gonna blast these son of a bitch Robotech Masters straight in their arrogant asses and send them packing into space... or send them to hell! In your holy name, amen."

Then Gabi got back to work with a new gleam in her passionate eyes.

 

[Psychie]

As half of the team scores some sleep, Lt. Costas comes up inside the command tower and does his best to help get the station turned from simple factory into a battle station. Also, while you work, Thunderbolt squadron arrives, consisting of four Logan and four Ajax Veritech fighters, and they join you in your efforts to keep the command center secure. Another squadron, the Vipers, are on another level, keeping an eye on the power reactor, along with a small force of security drones.

As of now, there is no sign of the Bioroids that were reported to have slipped into the Factory. They must be doing their best to lay low and stay out of sight.

As time goes by, the team is able to switch off getting some sleep so everyone has a chance to get their batteries recharged a little bit. No one will have negatives on their rolls due to sleep deprivation.

With the uneventful hours now behind you, everyone is awake and ready to go.

 

[Sherwood]

Now awake once more, Deunan throws herself into the effort to make the Factory as hard of a target to take on by the Robotech Masters as possible. From her position in the command center, she does her best to coordinate with the ASC forces that are on their way from the Moon to help protect the Factory, including looking at options for trying to move the massive station closer to allied forces.

 

[Psychie]

As time ticks by, more and more forces from both sides of the conflict begin to close in on the Factory, each side desperate to keep it out of the hands of the other. By now, the Factory has dozens of ASC ships along with hundreds of mecha there to face off against the Robotech Masters. This is going to be a huge fight with high stakes.

With the arrival of the various ASC ships, a flag officer is now in charge on the Factory with a full staff of technicians to work the controls, taking a lot of pressure off of Deunan and the members of the Third Heavy Squad. You no longer have the responsibility of having to be in charge of such a large force all on your own. Now all Deunan has to worry about is the members of her own team.

Since the hover tanks are not optimized for space combat, the plan is for your squad to deploy inside the station and act as a last line of defense for the Factory and the Command Center, since with the sheer number of enemy units able to be deployed it is certain that there will be intruders inside the station, and they will be looking to either retake the Factory or destroy it to keep it from being used by the Earth defenders.

While the Robotech Master forces close in, the big guns on the ships begin to fire from long range. Usually this has proven to be ineffective, but now there is the additional firepower of the Factory's arsenal helping out. But the fight is not one sided. The Mothership is laying down a ton of punishment on the Earth forces, and even though the station is very large, it is taking a beating. Then as the enemy closes in, thousands of Bioroids are launched into the fight. This puts the ASC defenders at a serious disadvantage, up until the defense drones are deployed, making the fight an even match.

But just as expected, the enemy makes entry into the station, and the members of the Third Heavy are now thrown into the fight. The fighting is fierce, and all of your mecha are getting battered, but you manage to hold your ground, even with everything that is leveled against you.

It takes days of hard fighting, and the loss of life is terrible on both sides, but finally the damage done to the Robotech Master Mothership is just too great for it to continue the fight, and the damaged ship limps away, leaving the Factory in human hands. The day is yours.


Despite the heavy damage done to the Factory, it still has much of its core manufacturing capability intact, and it is immediately used to begin to bolster the ASC forces in the battle against the Robotech Masters. Over the course of the next year, the fighting against the enemy is swayed in the favor of the Earth defenders, and the remaining Robotech Master forces are sent packing with their tails between their legs. But this was not an easy victory. Much of the planet is ravaged, and the ASC forces are seriously weakened, even with the aid of the Factory station. It was more a matter of luck that kept the enemy from taking the planet.


But our story does not end in a 'happily ever after' for our team and the Earth as a whole. There is a new threat that suddenly arrives: the Invid. Erupting out of deep space like a tidal wave, the bedraggled forces of the ASC were no match for the billions of enemy mecha that swarmed over the planet, and soon all organized resistance was crushed. The surrounding countryside is now swarming with the Invid as they build insect-like hives across the land, using force to enslave the population. There is just no stopping the occupation force, and the remnants of humanity are now a broken mess.

Once more, luck is on the side of the Third Heavy Squadron. You were back in Brazilia Base when the initial invasion took place, and even as you held your ground, the Invid were relentless, always outnumbering you. Under the relentless attack of the Invid, Brazilia Base was totally destroyed, and soon enough, you were forced to retreat into the jungle of the former Zentraedi Control Zone with all of your mecha critically damaged. But it is at this time that the luck of the team was enough to keep you alive.

As a member of the GMP, Deunan has access to information and resources that the typical tanker does not. As a holdover from the days of the Malcontent Uprising, the GMP had a few supply caches hidden away for a rainy day that Deunan knows the location of, and it is for certain coming down in buckets right now.

One such cache is a underground bunker, built along the lines of a BSURP that was never finished. Dug deep into the earth with layers of MDC shielding over the top, supposedly this bunker has its own independent power supply in the form of large diesel generators with enough fuel to run the place for nearly eight months of constant use, barracks with room enough to house a hundred people, food, fresh water, a fully enclosed air circulation system, a handful of lightweight conventional and MDC military vehicles, and most importantly, a small group of mecha stored away, complete with armor patches for the hull and ammunition for their weapons. In this day of Invid occupation and anarchy, this is a treasure worth ten thousand times its weight in gold.

It takes several hours of hunting, but eventually you are able to find the entrance to the bunker. It is well camouflaged, but after a lot of hard, sweaty work, you clear enough of the debris and foliage to get access to the armored door. Using Deunan's GMP codes, you get the door open enough to squeeze into the place. It is dank and musty inside, with no fresh air or power to the lights. Definitely not a welcoming place. Using your flashlights and air filters on your megasuits, you make your way deeper into the bunker.

Located inside the base you find the following old RDF mecha:
Two Tomahawk Destroids
Two Spartan Destroids
Two Defender Destroids
Two VF-1A Valkyries

In addition to this, there are some Army of the Southern Cross gear:
Four VHT-1s Spartas Hover Tanks (the older, shell throwing model)
Two VHT-1A1 Spartas Hover Tanks (equipped with the particle cannon)
Four VFA-8 Logan Veritech Fighters
Two VFH-10A Ajax Veritech Fighters

Four M2200 Janissary APCs
Ten M-32 Light Hover Cycles
Two M-10 Hover Trucks
Four M-770 Staff Cars

All of the mecha are sealed up tight, and each one will take several hours of hard work to get them combat ready. The APCs, cars, cycles and trucks are in a ready-to-use condition. The rest of the bunker is in semi-usable state, but everything will take a lot of work to get the place livable. Right now, you have a place to work out of. It just depends on what you do now with the opportunities given to you.

Sherwood Purr D. Rex Rykon

 

[Sherwood]

Deunan is on the verge of breaking down. It is only the need to keep the men and women under her command safe that is keeping her moving. If she were to ever stop and think, the memories of seeing so many of her comrades getting killed would drive her mad. But for now, she has a reason to keep moving. If only for now, her sorrow is being bottled up inside her, waiting for the day that it fully turns into rage. Rage against the Invid, rage with the need for revenge. A shrink would probably tell her that this is not a good coping mechanism, but fuck it. Who's going to stop her? Right. So now, its time to stop moping and get moving.

The hard work of getting away from the Invid was troubling. Somehow, they seemed to know where to find them no matter what they did. It wasn't until they took the risk of shutting down their power systems to their mecha that it started to dawn on them that it was their own engines that were drawing the Invid in. So not only were they constantly outnumbered, but their own gear was betraying them to the enemy. Another kick to the kidneys while they were already down.

But with the discovery of the bunker, they had a hiding place to begin to think about how to proceed.

With a critical eye, Deunan looks into the mess that is this bunker. She doesn't complain, because the more work that she can pile onto the shoulders of the squad, it will keep them busy and not thinking along the lines of how futile their little efforts are. And there is plenty of work to be done just to get them through the night.

She claps her hands to get everyone's attention. "Alright, listen up! We need to roll up our sleeves and see if we can't get this place in a livable condition. Don't worry about the mecha in the hangar for now. They aren't going anywhere. But, we need food, water and power to make this place work. Marlon and Alan, you guys check out the generator and see what you have to do to get it running, and see what our fuel supply looks like. Neo. I want you to start to make up an inventory of every weapon and missile in this place, and see what condition they are in. Gabi, you are with me. If the generators can be brought back up on line, we will hit the computers and radio. See if we can hear anyone else broadcasting out there that we may be able to link up with. But, do not transmit anything, especially our location. Lets make sure that anyone we bring into our fold is going to be trustworthy."

Deunan pauses for a moment, then says, "Right now, we are deep in the woods, and there doesn't seem to be any way out. But we can't give up. This is our planet, by God, and I am not going to give up so long as I have any means of fighting back. We've all been through a lot, but keep your heads in the moment and get this place up to speed. It is going to be a long, hard road, but we are the Third Heavy, and we do difficult stuff in our sleep. The impossible will just take us a little bit longer to get done. If this disaster happened to any other team, they wouldn't have made it through. But we are elite, and we get the hard jobs done. Lets move out."

OOC Do we still have Cooper and O'Brien with us? Or were they returned to the Moon base?