Biocorp Conflict Turn 1 Incident Report
Muyuan Meat and Food Industry Complex, Nanyang, China, 6:30 AMJennivieve Life, esteemed scholar, lab rat, and an heir to the Life family fortune, and her
platoon of bodyguards were guided in their black SUVs to a staging area the Chinese military had set up for incoming foreign aid. She was looking forward to work in the field - something the rest of her family often frowned upon. Still, getting her hands dirty was much preferable to Jen than stuffy board meetings. As soon as she stepped out of her vehicle, two soldiers hastily approached her.
One spoke in pretty good English, "Your men's gear has arrived and been set up. They will be led to their tents. You will follow me to the General now." Even from this far away, he had to raise his voice to be heard clearly over the squealing.
Jen, in her sharp red suit, looked over her shoulder as she was led away. The Chinese soldiers were on edge - her bodyguards were veterans and carried themselves in a very military manner, and this was making the local troops uncomfortable.
Jennivieve was brought to a large enclosed tent outfitted with all sorts of antennae and electronics. She stepped through the flaps and was greeted by a half-dozen people working various equipment, two men looking over a table, and a third standing upright and speaking between them. One was General Wang Chunning, and the man speaking was his translator. The second man had a face she knew very well.
Major Cedric Corbec was a very well-decorated Special Forces operator with extensive time in the Middle East, earning himself a Silver Star (that was later upped to a Medal of Honor) in the process before suffering injuries in a rocket attack that left him mostly blind in one eye, and very scarred. He was eventually hired by LifeChem as a Security Advisor after his honorable discharge, and eventually got promoted to Head of Security. He worked for Jen, her family, and the company during the early acquisition of B.O.W material from the black market. He was also there when Jasper Life killed two other board members, and was the one who killed Jen's uncle. Once the company split, the Major hid under the protection of Medtronic as the head of Medtronic Security, a
Company-sized outfit.
Both of them felt themselves tighten at the sight of one another, but nobody else in the tent noticed.
General Wang spoke in Chinese as Life approached. "Hello, Ms. Life," the translator...translated, "Please, come to the table."
Jen walked forward and looked at the table. Overhead images of the entire complex, layouts of the various buildings, and pictures of the interiors and of dead
Bullswine were scattered across it.
"As the General was telling the Major, we are giving foreign, uh, assistance permission to clear the rest of the circled building here," the interpreter said while the General placed his finger on the overhead image of the facility, "The first floor is clear, any
Bullswine on that level have tried to escape by now and been killed outside. Power is out in the facility, so the lifts won't work, but there are maintenance stairs on the east and west sides of the building. Anything alive in there either doesn't want to or cannot move between the floors."
General Wang Chunning rifled through the images and put a picture of the pig holding areas before the incident at the top of the pile. It showed a narrow row of pens just large enough for the pigs to be crammed in, lay down, and eat, "This building has two floors with rows of pens like this, but the top floor," the General pulled another picture out, this one of larger rickety pens holding a half-dozen pigs or so each, "Has an open floor plan like the ground floor. Since both of you are the first to arrive, we will ask you both to tackle this building as quickly as possible," the General pulled a blueprint of the building from the stack and laid it atop the pile, "This is the building. Make your plans, time is in short supply."
Life and Corbec proceeded to speak as if there was no sort of animosity between them.
"I think it's best if we come at this from two sides," Corbec suggested.
"I agree," Life responded, "We'll come in from the east. My men can clear the second floor while yours take the third. The aisles should turn them into a shooting gallery."
"Tight quarters, that'll restrict our numbers," Corbec observed, "So it's just going to be us and our most skilled. And the top floor?" Corbec asked as he looked up from the blueprints and toward Jen.
"We hit it from both sides simultaneously," Life spoke, her voice just barely betraying her utter contempt for the man who killed her uncle.
The two locked eyes. Corbec spoke, "And then we meet in the middle."
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10:17 AMAt first glance one could have mistaken the two squads approaching Building A as part of the same team. They all wore identical
BRIGANDINE suits, save for the patches representing their corporate affiliation. Jennivieve and her squad of bodyguards were armed with their standard
Samurai Edge sidearm, as well as the
'Hail' 12 Gauge Dual Action Shotgun (A 90-70cm, 6.5kg shotgun with retractable stock, ergonomic pistol grip, multiple rails for accessories, a sling, and 20-round doublestack box mag. Has access to slug, buckshot, flechette, Dragon's Breath, and Neurotoxin Sabot syringe shells. The Botulinum-based neurotoxin causes paralysis and suffocation within minutes), while Corbec and his select squad of Medtronic Security carried the
Samurai Edge to complement their
Bioweapon Elimination Engagement Gun, or
BEEG (A 3kg, 54cm carbine firing special 6.8mm bonded bullets at 1000RPM that mushroom while remaining intact. Comes with 10 and 30 round magazines, very comfortable one piece polymer furniture, two rails, and a bayonet).
The ground between the buildings was streaked with pools of blood and the occasional
Bullswine part, and the first floor of Building A was somehow worse. The concrete floor was one giant bloodslick, and the barred partitions that used to be pig pens were mangled heaps scattered across the massive single room. Both squads consisted of
Organized and Hardened Veterans of conflicts in the Middle East, and a couple of them had crossed paths overseas. This meant that the only real difference between the squads, other than their primary weapon and logo, was their leadership, and this was reflected in how they tackled their objectives.
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The MusicJen's Guards held their position on the first floor as Jennivieve took a moment to take a look at the blood at her feet. They watched as Medtronic Security disappeared into their own stairwell. Once Jen was satisfied she'd seen enough, she ordered her guards to advance upward. Her two lead guards were loaded with Neurotoxin with the sole purpose of moving ahead of the rest of the group and tagging the
Bullswine. The stairs came up at the end of a row of pens, and it looked like a mess. Much like the ground level, the floor was a mess of blood, parts, and pen bars. About halfway down the aisle a
Bullswine was in the process of gorging itself on it's latest kill (a smaller
Bullswine).
The target beast was more like a large rhinoceros than pig, with massive tusks jutting upward from it's lower jaw and curling slightly back drenched in gore. It's hide was darkened and covered in short bristly fur, with a longer mane sticking upright from the forehead to the back of the neck of the creature. The noises it made as it fed were unearthly. The air filled with two rapid cracks as the pointman let two Neurotoxin rounds loose. Both struck the
Bullswine in the ass and stuck firmly. It immediately reared up and bucked, stomping the carcass beneath it into a paste as it turned to face it's assailant. The
Bullswine let loose a low-pitched squeal and charged. Another Neurotoxin round was fired, but it didn't manage to find purchase as it deflected off of the beast's sloped forehead. The pointman withdrew into the stairwell and let the
Bullswine slam into the wall at full-tilt. Jen watched, and felt, as the large feral beast reared back and slammed into the doorway again, and again, and again, each time with a little less force. It took a few minutes, but eventually the
Bullswine just stood a few feet back, staring blankly, foaming at the mouth and breathing heavily. One of Jen's Guards stepped forward as the beast's front legs buckled, placing the barrel of his
Hail against the
Bullswine's eye. He pulled the trigger and the slug managed to kill the beast just as the Guard was thrown from his feet by a
Bullswine that came at him from the side, tripping over the other
Bullswine as it went, going ass-over-head, and landing on top of the Guard. If that hadn't killed him, the
Bullswine's flailing as it tried to right itself definitely did.
Jen's Guard's repeated the turtleing strategy they used on the first
Bullswine for the second and third, albeit a little more cautiously when going in for the kill. It was a slow process, but it worked pretty well for them. The
BRIGANDINE doesn't end up helping much against the
Bullswine, but otherwise effective equipment and a solid plan more than make up for that.
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Major Corbec directed his squad up to the third floor. They reached their target position and, much like the floor below, were staring straight down an aisle of carnage cutting clear across the building. They quickly fanned out and spotted their first
Bullswine two aisles over. It was at the far end of the building walking along the opposite wall, tossing it's head and lapping up whatever chunks of old pig and
Bullswine were littering the floor in front of it. A second one rounded the corner at the left end of Medtronic Security's side of the building. As soon as it saw movement the beast charged. Corbec's squad concentrated fire on the charging creature, absolutely peppering the
Bullswine's head, chest, and forelegs with 6.8mm bonded bullets. It took a barrage, but the beast collapsed before it could endanger the squad.
The other had been drawn by the gunfire and was already plowing down an aisle before one of Corbec's security called it out. It was a lot harder to concentrate fire down the aisle, and the relatively small size of the bullet (when compared to the typical sizes of bonded rounds) weren't as effective against the densely built
Bullswine as they might have hoped. The Security forces tried to space out as the
Bullswine reached their end of the aisle, but one of them was unable to clear out in time and caught a tusk under the ribcage and getting pinned to the wall. Blood spattered the inside of his helmet as the
Bullswine kicked and bucked while it wormed it's massive body in line with the side of the building. The beast was caught in a crossfire made somewhat less effective by the meatshield hanging from it's tusk. Nevertheless, Medtronic Security managed to bag the creature and catch a third at a distance down another aisle. They tried to stem the bleeding of their injured comrade, but were unequipped to do so before he died of his wounds.
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One of Jen's pointmen was the first to reach the top floor. He reported to the rest of the squad that the entire floor was open, save for the pillars spaced out evenly and the ever-present gore and mangled metal. One thing stood out among everything else, however.
A single massive
Bullswine grazed on the loose bits of gore and lapped up blood, snorting grossly as it went. Easily twice the size of the others, this one was clearly benefiting from the more open floor plan. It's tusks were easily the size of a human leg, and it's thick hide was cracked from the spectacularly immense muscle and bone growth the beast had undergone.
Debris blocked the view across to the other stairwell, but since the
Bullswine was generally non-aggressive at the moment, Jen assumed that Medtronic hadn't popped up yet. She ordered her two pointmen to try hitting this massive specimen with all the Neurotoxin they had left. They rapidly unleashed a flurry of the lethal syringes but only a few found purchase enough to latch onto the hide, and fewer still struck where the hide was stretched enough to allow full penetration and delivery of the toxin. The impacts sent the
Bullswine into a frenzy as it bucked, stomped, spun, and eventually charged toward the offending shooters. Once again, the plan was to pull back and let the neurotoxin do it's work. It took a few minutes longer for the
Bullswine to begin losing functions, and even then only after a massive tantrum that saw it demolish a concrete pillar.
By this point
Medtronic Security had failed to appear, and Jen could only assume that they had to withdraw, or perhaps they got smeared across their floor. More likely, Jen mused, Corbec the Coward had fled her fury to curl back under the protective wing of his corporate masters. Still, it paid to be cautious, so Jen had her squad of guards fan out and watch all angles while she took a closer look at the large
Bullswine. It was breathing laboredly as Jen walked circles around it, but it didn't do more than twitch occasionally and stare ferociously at her. The beast was so much larger than anticipated. Based on this building alone Jen could presume that maybe food supply and space had an unusual and significantly larger impact on overall growth than expected. Jen peeled back an eyelid when a series of loud pops rang out through the floor. One of Jen's Guards took two rounds to the facemask and dropped like a stone. Another took a round to the chest but the
BRIGANDINE managed to negate a significant amount of the impact, though the suit was atmospherically compromised in the process.
Jen took cover behind the
Bullswine and her guards found the closest pillar they could get behind as
Medtronic Security cracked their door, took their opening shots, and rushed into the room in a fury. The firefight was intense and explosive as the urban-oriented
Security forces kept pressure on Jen's Guards, but when a Guard did manage to get a shot off it either blew apart cover
Medtronic was using or laid someone out - the
BRIGANDINE wasn't designed to take 12 gauge slugs and it showed.
Jennivieve emptied her
Riot around the
Bullswine as two more of her Guard fell to the powerful onslaught. Fire spat out from the
Dragon's Breath rounds she'd loaded her own
Hail with, and one of the
Medtronic Security agents caught a full blast head-on. Their
BRIGANDINE began to burn in multiple places as they were caught in the nearly 2000C fireball, and Jen could hear them screaming as they were flash-cooked. It was incredibly painful, but it wasn't quite enough to hold back the pressure
Medtronic was applying, and as the gunfight rapidly devolved, Jen called for a retreat.
Major Corbec, meanwhile, had been focusing his fire on Jen's position. The
Bullswine was littered in holes from his
BEEG at this point. Her remaining
Guards suddenly and rapidly began unloading their shotguns as they began to leapfrog from pillar to pillar back to their stairwell. Jen made her move, and Corbec saw his opportunity.
Three rounds hit Jen in the back, but only one punched through her
BRIGANDINE, nailing her in the upper back. She fell forward but a Guard was right there to flip her and begin dragging her back with one hand while firing with the other. Jen had dropped her
Riot in the fall so she did her part suppressing with the
Samurai Edge. Another Guard moved into position between Jen and the
Security forces to act as mobile cover. He died for his efforts, but did manage to keep Jen from taking any more hits.
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Overall, both companies saw some level of success during their respective
Muyuan Meat and Food Industry Complex operations.
LifeChem's Jennivieve Life and the Jen Guard had the tools and the foresight to play things smart when dealing with the
Bullswine, and they proved more than effective at taking on this BOW, even if they may have taken a loss to them in the process.
Medtronic's Major Cedric Corbec and Medtronic Security were more prepared for combat overall however, and were able to shoot their way through the BOWs. When it came to confrontation between the two,
Medtronic had the advantage with a unit led by a combat-oriented individual and a unit that focused on urban combat. The
Hail proved to be quite an effective shotgun, but a combination of weight and slower fire rate meant it wasn't up to out-suppressing or out-maneuvering the misleadingly named
BEEG. The enforced size reduction of the unit engaging in combat turned out to be not quite as impactful as it could have otherwise, as both units trained specifically to operate in smaller teams.
Both Corbec and Life met with General Wang once Life had her wound tended. They explained that the large
Bullswine was caught in a crossfire but refused to go down, and there were a lot of unfortunate friendly fire incidents in the process. The General didn't really care what happened since he was finally getting good news to send up the ladder, and mentioned both companies and their representatives by name in the report. The situation in China remains unchanged overall, but it looks like the Chinese government may allow larger foreign operations in the future.
Both teams gain +25 Reputation with Asia, bringing both companies to
Acquainted.
This grants the following bonus:
Human Wave: Taking a leaf out of Chinese war doctrine, making units at a
Company level is now slightly easier.
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In non-combat-related news, LifeChem launched it's new public campaign in
Africa. Warning of the dangers of eating unidentified plants found in the jungle results in a Relationship boost of +25, making them
Acquainted granting the following bonus:
Cradle of Humanity: Discovering our past lets us plan better for our future. Pathogens that target Humans are now slightly easier to create.
Medtronic also launched it's own PR campaign, although theirs was centered on
Asia. The phrase "Don't Grab A Bullswine By The Horns" translates well in multiple regional dialects. This additional +25 Relationship brings them to
Friendly, granting the following bonus:
Rising Industry: Asian nations are developing booming industrial economies, and we can take advantage of this. It is easier to produce larger numbers of low-tech equipment.
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It is now the Bio Phase.You have two actions with which to create new pathogens or modify existing ones. You can also combine both actions to make a specialized unique
Boss monster. Anything else that's important should be in your team threads!
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Topic: Biocorp Conflict - Core Thread - Turn 2 (Read 2715 times)