Operation Neon Tiger - episode 05

Intro

It wasn't difficult for Brother Hermann to obtain the necessary information from Koseacasomov. He certainly did not lack means of persuasion, even if not perfectly in line with the procedures of the Concilium.
After that, brother Hermann retired to his cabin in the Uluru, to record the information snatched from Koseacasomov into his personal log.

"That thing is an xeno archeotech artifact that allows to track down a place, but its technology is still shrouded in mystery. Koseacasomov was unable to explain how it works, but he was certain of one thing: that the artifact only works in right hands. "

Hermann has rarely found himself groping in the dark in his life. Uncertainty is not part of his person. Yet this time he feels he is out of step with his enemies. It is an unpleasant, burning sensation, especially considering the quality of the troops he has moved for this mission.

"If I have to stay behind - thought Hermann - at least those in front of me had to feel my pressure."

Thanks to this thought, he found a little determination, just enough to make a decision. 

He exited the cabin and headed for the Uluru control deck. Since the Sahs had disappeared from the Pano tracking systems, he gave the order to intercept and follow the Nomads ship . 

To Hermann's utter astonishment, the Quetzal was tracked down to a nearby spaceport. If itwas there, very likely, the Shas would be around too.

Panoceania Cutter: my best painting effort so far.

“Nemo nos effugit” (Nobody escapes from us), motto of the Naval Chasseurs Regiment

"The Cutter is the Remote Presence tactical armored gear (TAG) model used by the Varuna Chasseurs Regiment of the Rapid Intervention Division. It was conceived for undercover operations and amphibious or underwater operations. Its design includes sound-suppressing equipment and an environment-adaptive skin capable of changing its reflective, radiative, and electrical properties at will, effectively canceling its optical and thermal output.
Cutter units are also used by the armored division of the “Blue Sea” anti-terrorism project. They are responsible for undercover insertions in highly volatile areas, but their operational remit also includes punitive actions and control of operational perimeters to avoid target withdrawal."

Operation Golden Ratio: episode 06

Intro

As the landing shuttle was approaching the surface of Rodne, J. "Wimpy" Wellington turned on the team radio:

"The high wigs pulled many jackets in the O-12 commissions and in compensation of all Aleph's dodgy deeds we got permission to inspect that research facility no one did know about and that was checking data and running experiments in parallel to what was going on that mess of a space station lab. We are officially entitled to go in and recover as much data, information and material we can. 

I cannot and do not want to understand what is going on here, I just want to get this done as effectively and efficiently as possible. Questions...?"

Unknown to VIRD High Command, TJC's operatives are also approaching the research facility to clean up all evidences and make it a... safe area 😉

Missions and lists

300 pts - Safe Area form ITS Season 12 supplement - 

🕷 Tunguska Jursdictional Command Vs 🐬Varuna Immediate Reaction Division.

Two different although similar lists: 

✅ defensive big links

✅ aggressive haris with specialist

✅ EVO hacker and mimetism -6 REMs 

As differentiators Tunguska brought 2 Puppetbots FO and Combat Jump Raoul while Varuna a pair of midfield Zulus, an Echo-Bravo parachutist and some more SWC in the big team.

Deployment

Tunguska wins the roll-off and decides to go first. Varuna deploys second on the side with the tallest building . The areas with the trees on top are played as difficult terrain (jungle) and saturation zones.

🕷 Tunguska places Core link on the right, Haris link in the middle and on the left EVO, Clockmaker and Puppetactica.

🐬Varuna goes for big link in the center (MSR and HRL both standing), Patsy Haris on the left and EVO-Bulleteer on the right.

Turn 1

🕷 Tunguska

The main threat are definitely those linked ARO pieces with LoS on a large portion of the battlefield. It's time for the Vostok to pay its cost back. 

1 order for Assisted Fire, 1 order for White Noise, 1 order to position and the REM is ready to engage the Kamau HRL first and the Kamau MRS second. Dice roll in favor of the Vostok and both Kamaus are shot to pieces. The Haris can then advance and position ready to defend, the Stempler FO in contact with a Console.

Then the Puppetbots are sent forward to contend the Console in the Varuna's half of the table. In the process they also discover and kill on of the Zulus.

Last order to slightly reposition the big link and brace for impact waiting for the imminent Varuna's retaliation.

🐬Varuna

Despite the unlucky ARO rolls, still plenty of orders (8+5) available to fuel the action in the active turn. Bulleteer is also granted Marksmanship and one of the Puppetbots goes unconscious.

The Bulleteer's advance on the flank is now threatened by the Grenzer MSR which has the advantage of range and the Mimetism -6 malus evened out by the MSVL1 and big link bonus. Patsy's team then advances in total cover on the left until the Kamau peeks out to pepper the Grenzer with HMG shells. Dice roll and Tunguska wins the FtF, DA ammunition sending the LI trooper straight to dead.

Echo Bravo then shows up, LRL loaded. He peeks out of cover and engages the Vostok but once again Tunguska wins the FtF and the Dam. 16 Mk12 causes another casualty. The remaining Zulu also goes for a surprise shot on the Vostok but does not have better luck and after a couple of orders he is killed. 

As ending moves the Bulleteer now opts for a cautious move to bypass the MSR threat and engages the Vostok through the saturation zone only achieving to remove one STR point from the REM. 

Turn 2

🕷 Tunguska

The turn opens with Raoul jumping in wearing a fancy suit he borrowed from a Hellcat. A mimetism -6 NWI Natural born warrior specialist operative is supposed to be quite a headache for Varuna to deal with. He rolls a nice 10 for landing and proceeds to engage Patsy. On the way in he is critted by the Machinist combi rifle and fails both the armor saves! He'll be dead at the end of the order but can still bring Patsy with him. Raoul wins the CC with an 18 forcing Patsy to roll 3 ARM checks with his DA CC weapon but she laughs at him passing all three as he goes limb with a combi bullet in the back of the head.  

Things are still looking ok for the Nomads. The Zondbot goes on an adventure and fixes both the Vostok and the Puppetbot. With burst and cover advantage, the Vostok then proceeds to disable the Bulleteer. 

Finally the big link gets on the move, climbs down the building and places points in the quadrant. The Interventor goes in contact with the Console and the Securitate Paramedic breaks the link going in Suppression. A command token is spent to reform a 4 men link.

🐬Varuna 

The best part of Turn 2 is spent by Patsy lobbing grenades on the Interventor. Statistics don't work and despite the large amount of coinflips (11s speculative fire vs 10s dodge) the Interventor ends up unharmed 

Patsy also tries to exchange fire with the Securitate Paramedic in suppression but loses a wound. 

 

Turn 3

🕷 Tunguska

The Vostok haris advances further to also contest the farthest quadrant shooting down the Machinist in the process.

The Interventor detaches from the link team and goes in contact with the console immobilizing Patsy in the process.

A new 4 men team is reformed without the Interventor and the Grenzer engages Patsy at short range. Patsy survives the first bursts, successfully resets and then the AP submachinegun rules over the MSR and the Grenzer is knocked unconscious.

The rest of the orders are spent repositioning and pushing points out of the deployment zone.

🐬Varuna

The order pool is now quite limited and Patsy walks back to remove the Interventor and get in silhouette contact with the Console.

Closing moves are played by a fusilier that peaks out from cover and fights the HRL Hollowman but no one hits and the game ends.

With more Zones and more Consoles it’s a Tunguska victory.

Debriefing 

🕷 Tunguska

Everything worked out nicely and the units under test, Vostok and Puppetctica did really well. Dice did definitely smile to the Nomads so it has to be considered that not all that glitters is actually gold!

🐬Varuna

The game was quite biased by Tunguska spiking too many FtF rolls. The list is solid, balanced and fitting the mission.  Should the game be played a hundred times victory would be PanO's at least 50% of the times 😉. Knowing the opponent was Nomads hackers and HI were kept at minimum, different variants of the list might include a crocman hacker and/or an Orc with feuerbach instead of the Kamau HRL.

Outro

The leds on the Stempler Zond dashboard blinked as it removed the data-link from the last Console chirping and beeping like an astromech droid in a XX century sci-fi movie. 

Servers successfully formatted and all data permanently deleted. Kasia, freshly appointed Securitate Lieutenant of the operation, nodded and turned on her headset moving a lock of pink hair:

"Spider-puppy to spider-mom: the area is safe. Repeat: the area is safe. Back to the nest.". 

Operation Golden Ratio: episode 03

In previous episodes, Nomads from Tunguska have been fighting against Aleph's OSS over a PanOceanian research facility on Space Station Donacimiento. Fights stormed both the station and the Nomads' hideout, while Aleph tries to get control over its mysterious assets on the Station but a distress signal is sent from the station to call for PanOceanian reinforcements....

The Varuna Immediate Reaction Division was established to be the first to face any threat against the Hyperpower or its interests and a distress signal sent to Neoterra by space station Donacimiento was no exception. 

Minutes before docking, J. "Wimpy" Wellington briefed his soldiers: 

"They will let us in but it doesn't mean they'll avoid confrontation, aknowleding our authority. In fact, by entering the station, we're walking right into Aleph's trap. They'll try to crush us with everything they have and blame Nomads or what else for it. They have the station and they control the narrative, so we need to find what they're looking for before they do." 

He had already visited the station, six months before, escorting an S-tier classified sample to the attention of professor Anastacio Esguerra, lead research of project Laocoön. As he recalled the eerie sensations felt at the time, sitting next to the frozen tech-coffin, a bad feeling dawned on him: could it all be due to that sample?

300 points of masterfully painted Varuna 

This 300 point mission was Acquisition, from ITS season 12 supplement. 

OSS starts first and immediately tries to break Varuna's defensive stance by sending a Garuda tacbot behind enemy lines. The landing fails and the Garuda has to go back to table edge with the only positive effect, for both players, of revealing an hidden deployed Croc Man. 

Look at that spaceship!

On the other side of the table, MK2 proxy shoots the Orc, forcing him to duck down. Now, with only the Kamau sniper still standing, it is Marut's duty to move away from the center to PanO's left flank and shoot him. With the last orders, the Shukra consultant moves up on the right flank and completes the classified objective. 

Varuna starts its first turn by moving forward the haris fireteam on the left. The link is supported by the Bulleteer, which goes on a rampage over the Dakini link exploiting the assisted fire support program provided by the Mulebot. The haris team hacks and controls the left antenna, also completing the classified objective. Meanwhile, at the center of the table, the Orc and the Marut start exchanging shots, wounding the TAG. 

On turn two, Aleph secures the right antenna with the proxy MK1 hacker and shoots down a Fugazi dronbot with the Shukra consultant in an attempt to thin down PanO's order pool. Trying to take down the central Orc, the Marut is heavily damaged and has to be repaired, consuming important orders that would have been useful to neutralize the incoming Bulleteer. 

Varuna has the upper hand on turn two: the central Orc finally takes down both the Marut and the Shukra consultant, forcing OSS to play turn three in loss of lieutenant. The Deva hacker is also wiped out by the Bulleteer, leaving the table without having spent an order. With only two command tokens and five irregular orders it looks like things cannot be recovered by Aleph. 

Left: MK2 sniper controls the alley between the tech-coffin and left antenna.
Right: Marut is about to go down despite being in suppressive fire (don't mind the wrong token).

Turn three starts with Parvati: using her own order, she superjumps onto the center platform next to the tech-coffin. As a result, the camo marker is revealed to be a Zulu-cobra trooper who tries to take down the doc/eng with his jammer, but fails. With the last two orders provided by the netrods, the Zulu-cobra is shot down and the tech-coffin is controlled. The rest of OSS can do little if not bracing for Varuna's turn three. 

The Bulleteer uses all the orders from its group to take down Parvati but to no avail. The haris group tries to reach the tech-coffin from the left flank but is pinned down by the proxy MK2 sniper and the need to control the left antenna. Leaving its position, the Orc reaches the tech-coffin but its put to unconscious state by a lucky submachine gun shot. With the last two orders, the Fusilier lieutenant reaches the area but to no avail. The match, dominated by PanO firepower, ends with an unexpected 7-4 victory for Aleph.

What next?

Before retreating from the docking bay, J.W. looked at the tech-coffin one last time: the refrigerator module had been shut down and the frost on the front panel had started to vanish. Pressed against the glass, as crying for help or cursing its enemy, was a mysterious burned hand... 

Fake news!

Breaking news: In a dramatic turn of events, following a biotechvore hazard incident and rumors of an attack from Nomads terrorist, Space Station Donacimiento is once again in the eye of the storm. 

According to Alisaa Mudlock, Aleph's aspect now in charge of the station, terrorists have hacked the station to send a false distress signal promptly picked up by Varuna separatists who tried to seize the station. The attack was foiled by the OSS but the terrorists have taken control of one a station's modules and managed to compromise its orbit. 

The Varunan High Command still haven't made comments on the matter but a statement is expected by the end of today.