Briefing

Delivered by Commander Seo-Hyun Park

After two weeks of downtime the team is summoned to a 07:00 briefing with one Colonel Anders

• Greying man, probably in his late 60s
• Wearing a rather ostentatious uniform, covered in medals and gold braiding

He informs them that it’s time to get back to work

• Detected an encrypted message from within the Borean asteroid belt
• The BDF Pride of Borea is being sent of to investigate and Whisky company will go along with
• They are to:
• Identify and destroy any smugglers
• Capture any Aun for interrogation
• Find out what they plan to do with the bioweapons they’ve been smuggling

Action

The briefing is suddenly interrupted by blaring sirens and flashing red lights as a voice informs them that the base is under attack

• The squad rushes out of the briefing room as explosions rock the base
• De-pressurisation alarms sound as the base is punctured and oxygen levels start to drop
• Emergency pressure doors slam shut, cutting the team off from the rest of the base
• Basco remembers seeing emergency spacesuits
• Benno and Aeric head for the suits
• Staying behind to try and get back into the still pressurised base, the rest of the squad are caught in a tunnel collapse which gives Basco a concussion and traps Gethin below some rubble
• They can hear a hissing sound as the damaged section of corridor starts to vent air
• Basco attempts to seal the gap with clothing to slow the leak

Aeric and Benno reach the sealed door of a mess, beyond which they can see frost and dead bodies

• They force open the door and rush for the spacesuits
• They grab them, pull them on and then hurry back to the rest of the squad
• Suited for vacuum the squad has no choice but to head to the hangar for their mechs

Reaching the hangar they find Yukina and the other mechanics frantically finishing work on their mechs and not a moment too soon as a blast blows in the hangar door and depressurises the room

• The team suits up as Aun mechs rush in

Using their new mechs the squad is able to destroy the attacking force

• During the battle Benno’s mech AI starts to cascade and decides to take apart a forklift to see how it works
• It sends strange messages to the team until Benno manages to reset it
• Most of the mechanics are able to escape into the base but Yukina grabs a spare mech and goes with the team

With the battle over, Basco checks outside and sees chaos

• Dropships are descending from the sky into anti-aircraft fire
• They get a broadcast message from Col. Anders ordering all forces to converge on the landing pad at hangar 4
• It is interrupted by a wide band broadcast from the Aun
• An old white-haired man in a white robe with a purple trim demands their surrender

  Attend my words heathens. The crusade fleet is upon you. I am Warpriest Malith Bin-Metat, marshal the second flight of Glory Wing. Your unconditional surrender is demanded, you will deliver to us those of the eccumen that skulk amongst you, you will renounce the false god of Union and you…

• Col. Anders’ signal briefly interrupts the message before plasma fire from orbit scorches the base and his signal is cut off

The team decides to get away from the base as soon as possible to avoid any orbit fire

• Above them they can see a battle as the Aun fleet destroys the BDF
• They pick up a short burst transmission from the Thermopylae

  ATTN: Borean High Command
  MESSAGE ORIGIN: UNS Thermopylae

  AMBUSHED BY TWO AUN FRIGATES+++OPFOR KIA+++AUN CAPABLE OF FTL TRAVEL+++ALERT FANSIPAN STATION AND ANNAMITE LINE COMMAND+++RECOMMEND FULL SECTOR ALERT+++RETURNING TO BOREA 0.95c+++PLEASE ADVISE YOUR STATUS

The team is worried that the Thermopylae is heading into an ambush, but the only way to communicate back is to take the base’s comms array

• They can see 15-20 ships in Borean orbit, including some capital ships

Yukina leads them to a human sized tunnel that should get them to the comms array and they dismount

• Heading down the tunnel they find Aun infantry at the array
• They use some grenades to make a distraction whilst Mirbana and Basco sneak in and send the message

Retreating to a crater to hide and repair in they wait for a response

• They spend a day in hard vacuum effecting minor repairs
• It seems like the Boreans have surrendered
• They get a response from the Thermopylae saying that their message has been understood and that the Thermopylae will give up on Borea but will do its best to pick them up
• The team needs to get into orbit within 12h for pick up
• They reason that they may be able to steal a dropship from a landing pad
• Mirbana calls in her contact favour and gets a pad location and a warning that they’ll need to disable nearby anti-air batteries
• Her contact has been captured but wishes them good luck

They carefully make the journey to the pad and find it heavily defended

Deciding to rush the dropship before the Aun can call in reinforcements the squad gets to work

• The air defence batteries are defended by heavily armoured mechs that the team has to cut through and the batteries themselves are capable of firing at ground targets
• During the fight the team expends most of their ammunition and has to dodge incoming orbital fire support
• They eventually make the dropship, although Benno has to drag Gethin and Basco the last few metres
• Yukina powers up the dropship as they hook up their mechs to it’s hardpoints
• They blast off into orbit

Once in orbit the squad decides to hide in the debris from the recent battle

• They settle on a large piece of titanium armour plating and power down
• Manage to evade Aun patrols
• Make some repairs and Benno messes with the dropship’s reactor to give it some more power

The Thermopylae hails them with a message as it races into the system, it will only have a brief window to pick them up before the Aun fleet converges

• They power up the dropship and start flying towards where the Thermopylae will crash out of near light speeds
• Aun fighters spot them as they break cover and begin to attack
• Mirbana starts pulling some crazy manoeuvres as she tries to evade their attacks
• Aeric returns fire and Basco deploys countermeasures
• The dropship takes a hit and the overloaded reactor is close to rupturing, Benno ejects it and it explodes behind them, destroying a fighter and accelerating them forward on the shockwave
• As Mirbana starts to spin out of control, the collision alarms blare as the Thermopylae appears before them, point defences blazing
• They go screaming towards a hangar, crashing full-bore into it, bounce off the bay floor and slam into the arrestor net at the back of the hangar
• Hangar crew pull them out of the ship and rush them to crash couches before the Thermopylae jumps

Once at near-light, they get out and head to debriefing

• Intercepted by Major Sigurdsdottir and lead back to the hangar
• On the way she fills them in
• They need to let Cornucopia know what has happened
• The Borean omninet connection is down
• Need to get to the node at the edge of the system and retake it
• Got 8 hours to effect repairs and add EVA units

The node is on an asteroid cluster and is essential as all Dodona/Calvary signals go through Borean omninet

• Five asteroids, need to access 3 of them to collect signals from the colonies
• Then access the node to transmit them to Cornucopia
• There are two Aun frigates holding station at the point, the Thermopylae will crash out between them, fire a double broadside and fire Whisky at the node

The squad are catapulted through the void of space as battle is joined, rushing towards the node they can see Aun mechs

Basco darts to closest asteroid and accesses a packet of data from Borea, downloading relays of defence data including an alert:

BOREA.HIGH COUNCIL++ALL-SECTOR ALERT++PRIORITY BLACK MESSAGE ORIGIN: DALEN ATTN: ANNAMITE LINE COMMAND MESSAGE START: +++OPFOR IDENTITY:: AUN+++NO WARNING+++UNS THERMOPYLAE MIA+++INSUFFICIENT UNION SUPPORT+++ALL SIGNIFICANT MILITARY ASSETS LOST+++UNANIMOUS COUNCIL DECISION TO SURRENDER+++BREAK MESSAGE END:REPEAT CHARGE: N/A

The Aun fighter mechs attack as Mirbana reaches the asteroid with messages from Dodona

DODONA.COMMAND++ALL-SECTOR ALERT++PRIORITY BLACK MESSAGE ORIGIN: ATTN: CORNUCOPIA FLEET COMM MESSAGE START: +++FLEET DESTROYED+++ORBITAL DEFENSES OVERWHELMED+++STRATCOM LOST+++OPFOR GROUND FORCES LANDED+++FULL COLONY CONSCRIPTION INITIATED+++BREAK +++TO THE LAST MAN+++ MESSAGE END:REPEAT CHARGE: N/A

At one asteroid Benno gets 250yo messages from Dawn Throne

The fight rages on with Benno’s mech being taken out, leaving Gethin strapped to the now useless floating husk

• Gethin detaches himself and slides down the tow wire to the asteroid

CALVARY.ADMIN++ALL-SECTOR ALERT++PRIORITY BLACK MESSAGE ORIGIN:WATCHTOWER:SEND ID 0034529(GOLGOTHA) ATTN: ANNAMITE LINE COMMAND, ET AL MESSAGE START: +++OPFOR KILL INTENT ASSURED+++TOTAL BIOME KILL (TBK) EVIDENT ON:::DODONA+++OPFOR ORIGIN::ANTHEM SPACE+++WE ARE NOW ENGAGED IN -- TIER 1 -- TBK CONTINGENCY+++REQUEST IMMEDIATE TAC/COM INTEGRATION+++REQUEST IMMEDIATE BLINK PRIORITY+++REQUEST ALL-THEATER ORIENTATION+++BREAK +++NOT LOOKING GOOD ON OUR END+++ATTACHED IS COLONY MANIFEST FOR OFFSITE RECORDS+++BREAK MESSAGE END:REPEAT CHARGE: N/A

They are able to access the main node and send the messages forward to Cornucopia

• As the squad finish off the last of the Aun fighters, the leader blinks away

One of the Aun frigates is spinning out of control, the other is on fire and the Thermopylae doesn’t look much better

They get back on board and the Thermopylae makes the jump to nearlight, heading back to Cornucopia