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[Taricus]

Wait, raven used to specialize in heavy weapons? I thought her vanilla traitset was as a marksman?

[Fikes]

Spoiler: Part 1: Battle for Omerta (click to show/hide)

The team's introduction to Arluco is a gut-wrenchingly low flight over the jungle and a quick zip line drop into enemy territory.

The openness of the field they had dropped into made the first order of business finding cover. All 5 set off for a building to the south west.

Only two of the team members had made it through the door when the first shot was fired; a red had rounded the distant building and spotted our team. His shot was rushed and went wide of Pies and Xeron.



Pies and Xeron both returned fire and after a few shots a bullet found red's leg and he collapsed. Instead of waiting for him to get back up, both men headed back for cover.

The team quickly established a defensive zone within the building; watching through windows and doors for enemy movements. It didn't take long for Shadowgandor to catch one on the move.



Her first two shots missed, but the third one was true and resulted in the first death of the battle for Omerta.

The second came shortly after, when a red went to check on his fallen comrade.



And shortly thereafter, the third, when the enemy foolished hoped to take us by surprise but instead was surprised to find a face full of bullets, curtsey of Booyah.

 

The fourth red was smarter, and when it became clear he wasn't going to fall into our trap, the team fanned out to track him down.

It was Booyah who stumbled onto the man, far in the southwest portion of the sector.

 

But there was no clear shot, so Booyah doubled back, called for backup, and headed for cover.

Booyah made it to cover, but the red still had the jump. Two of his shots made contact.

Booyah returned fire but none of the shots found their mark, instead he retreated deeper into the building.

By the time the red went to push his advantage again, he found himself completely surround by mercenaries. After an ineffectual gun fight, Euch and Shadowgandor pinned the red between them. Euch got the killing shot.

With the zone clear, our team got their first good look at Omerta. The town was in ruins. Enrico explained that this battered city was the home of the resistance, hopefully the people fared better then the walls.

It took a long time to find any living soles in the bombed out mess, but we finally tracked down an older woman and her son. After some convincing she realized we were in fact on her side and lead us to the rebel hideout.

The eastern sector of Omerta fared no better than the western. The old lady led our team to a large building in the center of town.



And introduced us to Dimitri, who was instantly distrustful. It took some time, but in the end we were all welcomed as friends and given the task to open a supply like between Drassen and Omerta.

Relations were helped along when Steroid-Pies declared himself “the man” and more or less threatened to destroy and seduce to Didreanna simultaneously.

Booyah asked Dimitri to join up with the squad but he declined, instead offering up Ira.



She isn't a great shot but she is a quick learner, or so he claims.

While we are on the personel subject, we extend Shadow's contract by two days so she doesn't take another job and run out on us.

With Omerta in our hands and Ira on our team, we wrap up our firstbattle and set our sights on the path ahead.

Wait, raven used to specialize in heavy weapons? I thought her vanilla traitset was as a marksman?

Raven actually did heavy weapons and auto-weapons. I thought that was strange too.

Will you be able to add the rest of us in when you've got more moneyz? 

Heck yes, I will try and add anyone who puts up a character, but it could be a while.

[Fikes]

Spoiler: Update 2: Battle for Drassen (click to show/hide)

Booyah was not cut out for this. It was a simple fact that he was here to lead while the others were here to fight and he respected that. He even envyed that.

But it wasn't his place. Booyah could inspire loyality, teach and learn, but he was not great in the field.

Specialization and trade. He told himself, that is the only way to win.

But even his own words didn't fully convince him. Soon he would be protected while his brothers went out to fight. Soon, however, was not now.

Now he stood with his men, sharing their disposition.

“Well?” Booyah asked.

Burntpies was silent as always, but it was Shadowngander who answered “Well what? Drassen offers a mine and an airport. We can get some income and order some weapons from Bobby-Rays. I need some new equipment.”

Everyone nodded, excepting of course, Burntpies who stood silent, fiddling with his lockpick set.

“Fair enough,” Booyah replied. Out of the six (their numbers increased by Ira) he was the only injured merc. The crew wanted to press on and the only person with reason to stall them was him and he would not be stalling.

The team looked over the spoils of war but decided none of it was worth taking. In the end only Eucher and Burntpies swapped gear; Eucher ending up with the shotgun and buckshot while Burntpies ended up with the pistol.

With the equipment issue settled, the team headed off towards Drassen.



Meanwhile....
Queen Deidranna hated idiots almost as much as she hated rebels, she reflected as she walked towards her meeting room. Elliot had summoned her. Elliot was an idiot.

“My queen,” he sniveled, “one of our northern patrols have been attacked!”

She slapped him then. His whining irriated her and besides, all the northern rebels were crushed.



But Elliot was oblivious. He stammered on explain how the patrol seemed to be taken unaware. It really didn’t explain anything. If the rebels had any ability to put up a fight, surely they would have taken the fight somewhere better than Omerta.

Deidranna was ready to leave when Elliot finally said something interesting…



“Mecernaries!?” Deidranna demanded. “Where on earth could the rebels find the money to hire Mercenaries! Enough foolishness! Send a squad up there to clear the town immediately!”


Back at the squad....

The trip to Drassen was uneventful. The team had to sneak around a single enemy patrol, but other than that it was smooth sailing. Xeron surveyed the airstrip from a distant sector.

“Looks like there’s gonna be eight of them in there, man,” he explained to Booyah.

The enemy had taken up position in the area of the airstrip and behind a high chain-link fence ringed with barbed wire.



A frontal assault would have been sucicide, so instead Ira was ordered to open fire (randomly) from the north end of the fence. A short time later a red showed up and took a bullet in the long distance firefight that followed.

Meanwhile, Shadowgandor inched towards the base entrance until she came within sight of the front gate guard.



Xeron opened fire. Technically speaking his job was to put enough shots in the general direction of the area that the enemy was forced to dive for cover. He had tried to explain to Booyah that that was not exactly his style. Instead he aimed carefully enough to kill the enemy outright. I guess we can call that even, he thought, and decided Shadowgandor was okay.



With one enemy down, Shadowgandor focused all her fire on the remaining red. Two quick shots and he died as well.



“Thumbs-up!” Shadowgandor exclaimed in celebration.

With the gate cleared, our team pushed through and out onto the airstrip possible. Five enemies were dead, leaving only three. All of which were found near the small plane at the center of the field. None of which got a shot off before Shadowgandor.

When the smoke cleared and the dust settled, our team began sorting through buildings and speaking with the towns people.

We got information that the helicopter there worked and that the pilot was likely hiding in the swaps. We also met the local dumbass, Pablo Greco, the guy who tends the shipments.

Beyond that the airstrip didn’t have much to offer. None of the enemies packed any heat worth taking and most of the lockers (Burntpies  was kind enough to open them all) were flat out empty.

With the airstrip picked clean the team continued south to a battered portion of the airport.

On the way down the team split up into two groups. Shadowgandor, Burntpies , and Eurcher went center while Booyah, Xeron, and Ira went west.

Shadowgandor’s group had first eyes on in the new zone and true to form, Shadowgandor took first blood.



Knowing the sound of gunfire would draw other enemies, Shadowgandor’s squad took up defensive positions while Booyah’s squad moved in from the west.

But before Booyah’s squad could position themselves the enemies swarmed to the area.



Ira and Xeron (Booyah was moving slow from his injuries) got as close to the enemies as they could before opening fire. Nothing hit so all they got out of the deal was more attention.



The bad kind of attention



Ira managed to gun one down while Xeron fired of bursts of covering fire, hoping to get lucky with a hit or at least suppress the enemy long enough for Shadowgandor and company to provide backup.

Every member of the western squad managed to land shots safely, but Ira was the one who racked a second kill.

In the meantime Shadowgandor’s team had moved into position and Shadowgandor herself had wasted a perp.



But the enemy didn’t seem to care, they kept their focus squarely on the western squad, catching Ira in the arm with a shot.


Ira turned to run away from the danger right as Booyah was sighting in an enemy. She crossed his line of fire as he pulled the trigger.



His three shots tore into her and she slumped to the ground, dead.

Xeron saw it happen but seemed to find it more funny than tragic. Booyah on the other had was devastated but managed to compartmentalize it. It wasn't until the remaining two enemies were cleared from the local area and the hunt began for the final red in the sector that he gave the annoucement.

"Ira is dead by friendly fire. I... I killed her by accident. We need to take care of the last enemy so we can give her body proper respects."

No one responded. Booyah was thankful for that.

The final enemy was spotted in a building at the edge of town.



The lone enemy moved towards the window to open fire on Raven.



And never saw Xeron coming



The bullets barely missed the civilians.

"What in the hell were you thinking!" Shadowgandor demanded. "How are we supposed to liberate them if we kill them?"

Xeron narrowed his eyes at her and frowned. "You trust my shots well enough when I am covering your ass. It was him or me. I chose him. Honestly, if it was him and three civilians or me, I would still chose him." he frowned at Shadowgandor a moment longer before walking off to inspect the town.

Burntpies also set out to scavenge for more equipment. In a factory on the southern edge of the grid he found an MP5. He also found the factory manager and a large group of children.

“Little people should be in school,” Burntpies observed.



The manager turned from Burntpies and went back to work. That made Burntpies angry. He continued to investigate and that made him more angry.



Finally he cursed. “DAMNIT TO HELLL.”

And opened fire.



Even before Doreen’s heart stopped the town began rejoicing.

With the airstrip and the town clear, our team moved to the most important sector. The mine. “It is vital we take this,” explained Booyah, “otherwise we will be out of money tomorrow.”

Xeron surveyed the mine area, “Six of ‘em here… they most like know we are coming, what with the killin’ their comrades and all up north.”

Booyah nodded, always grateful for the intel Xeron provided. “Alright, here is the plan, Shadowgandor and Burntpies, you two will take the eastern area. Xeron, Euchr, and my-“

“No!” Euchr interrupted, “I am not going anywhere with you… you gunned down Ira.”

“Not hies fault,” Burntpies droned, “Ira not trained in warfare, make mistake, cost life.”

“Mistake or not, I’d feel safer with Shadowgandor.”

“That is fucking bullshit, man, you do as you are told out here!” snapped Xeron

“Enough,” Booyah replied. “Euchr, you only ever get to talk to me like that once. Next time you will regret it. We may not be military but we do have a chain of command and you are on the bottom. That being said, go with Shadowgandor if that makes you feel better.”

And with that the teams split up, Euchr and Shadowgandor to the east, Booyah, Burntpies, and Xeron to the west.



The teams moved toward the center of town, hoping to draw the enemy into a cross fire. Booyah was moving slowly around the church when the gun fire started. He heard three shots.

“Contact!” Shadowgandor shouted into her radio. “Three shots, 1 hit, pulling back to cover.”

Booyah didn’t hear any gunshots for several seconds, then Shadowgandor got back on the radio.

“We have an unknown contact here… he is wearing blue… Doesn’t seem to be hostile.”

“Does he have anything to say?”


He didn’t, but he didn’t shoot either.

Meanwhile Burntpies, Xeron, and Booyah were advancing on the western side, still hoping to get the enemy in a cross fire. Shadowgandor continued to take long range shots and pull back, drawing the enemy further into the trap.

The shoot and run tactics paid off. Shadowngandor dropped two enemies before the western squad was anywhere near their position.

As the battle progressed, Shadowgandor found herself more and more surrounded.  “This situation is Un-Sat, I can’t get out to take a shot!”

“Sit tight little lady, Burntpies will help.”

Burntpies was too far from the enemy to fire with any accuracy, but he did have the ability to lay down some serious cover fire.


As the enemy dove for cover, Shadowgandor jumped around the corner and fired three shots, all of which missed.

Back on the west side, Xeron moved from behind cover with the intention of further covering Shadowgandor, but instead found himself staring at the backs of two enemies. He let loose with a burst of 10mm. The red never saw him coming.



The emenies broke of their siege of Shadowgandor and headed towards the deadly Burntpies-Xeron duo, leaving Shadowgandor free to take up an overwatch position. She caught one of the reds in transit and dispatched him.

Xeron and Burntpies were still exchanging gunfire with the enemies to the east when a red tried to flank their position, only to find Booyah ready.



“Shit hot man!” Xeron exclaimed. “That leaves two dudes and one of them is pretty messed already!”

The shot rang out before he even finished his sentence, followed by “Grooving!” over the radio.

“Well, that proves me wrong, looks like there is only ONE left.” Xeron responded.

The last enemy found himself caught between Shadowgandor and Burntpies. It ended poorly for him.

With the town cleared, Booyah went to the mine foreman and got some good news.



Our team had captured our first mine and with it, our first steady income.

The mine foreman explained that as long as we controlled the town the miners would work for us. If the Queen took it back over the miners would work for her. Booyah understood, they lived in fear, but they wouldn’t have to for long.

With the town and mine under control, Booyah went looking for Father Walker, the man Miguel had suggested would help the rebellion. Like any good father, Walker was found in his church.



He promised to help where he could.

The team fanned out to search the village and Euchr made contact with the armed man Shadowgandor had spotted.



Turns out he deals in explosives, but currently didn’t have anything in stock so Euchr moved on.

Their search turned up very little of interest so instead they all met in the center of town.

“That was a hell of a first day,” Booyah stated. “We managed to make contact with the rebels and clear Drassen, but it came at a high cost. Ira wasn’t on the team for long and she was no soldier. She died horribly but with honor. We will always remember her sacrifice.”

Booyah handed out some of the local alcohol he had purchased and made a toast.

“To blood and money.”

“To blood and money,” the team repeated. And they drank.

Meanwhile....

Deiddranna was unhappy. She did not have time for interruptions, especially interruptions from that idiot Elliot. He was surely brining her bad news.

“You are aware I have better things to do I hope...” she growled.

“Of course your highness, it is that, ahem, the rebels have grown bolder and attacked Drassen.” He sniveled.

Good news at last! She thought. There is no way the rebels could have succeeded there.

But her joy was short lived. “Well, your highness, I regret to inform you, but they were victorious. They control Drassen, your Majesty.”



Her rage…



Was followed by the back of her hand.

“Find a way to kill them Elliot! I want them DEAD!” she screamed and stormed from the room.

Spoiler: Update 2 in review (click to show/hide)

Current statics:


















General Review:

Wow. Talk about gaps between updates. I have been home only 23 days so far this year and when I am on the road I generally crash not long after getting back to the hotel. That being said I hope to update more regularly.

Losing Ira was a big shock. It is one of those things that happen and you immediately reach for the quick-load button, only to remember that button is disabled. Well shit.

All and all fairly successful, however. Starting out with a long range weapon (aka, Shadowgandor) is so important for early success. Also using the more hit and run style of two separate groups really makes it easier to surround and overwhelm the enemy.

What should we do next:

Now the part you all have been waiting for. What do we do next?



There are a few good options. #1 is go looking for the helo pilot. He is supposed to be in the swamp nearby. A search could take a couple of days and it would give us a chance to build funds and buy weapons for the next time we fight a town.

Option 2 would be to attack Alma. Doing so would get us a second mine but Alma is a pretty tough nut to crack if I remember correctly.

Option 3 would be to control the center of the board by taking Cambria. I don’t remember anything about this town.

Option 4 would be to sit tight and gear up. Our weapons are not going to keep pace with the enemy and most of us are nearly useless in a medium range gun fight. Right now the best weapon we can pick up is the HK 416.



But as you can see that would cost us more than $12,000 for 3 of them and enough ammo for our squad. We won’t have that type of money for a while.

There are two more questions I wanted input on. What should we call our team and what should we call the enemy?

As always thanks for reading!

[Burnt Pies]

I vote for splitting up; 2 guys go looking for Skyrider, 3 stay in Drassen for a little while, training and repairing guns.

Also, might as well pick up the guard from Omerta. I think he's available once you've secured the supplies.


Chitzena's a fairly easy battle and a bit more income, you could hit that afterwards.

[Delta Foxtrot]

I like what Burnt Pies is suggesting. Though I'm not sure how well you can do Chitzena. Either you split up and attack it with a weaker force or go there with all guns and leave Drassen with maybe a token militia+militia trainer. Granted, it is an easy battle but this is still ironman we're talking about. Throwing just a few guys there would be risky. On the other hand I don't think we want to lose Drassen either. After finding the helipilot, I would probably leave Booyah and the rebel from Omerta in Drassen and have them train militia while the rest of the mercs start marching towards Chitzena. It leaves Drassen a little vulnerable but we need to risk it.

[Taricus]

Well, Drassen got a lot harder with Ira's death. She is one of the better trainers...

Stick around in Drassen for a day or three to train up the militia, then attack Chitzena. Good thing about this plan is that we can also get some better equipment due to the income from the mine.

[GlyphGryph]

Loved your last game, so I want in when you get the chance.

GlyphGryph
Role: Leader
Trait: Leader/Assault, distributed however you wish
Weapon: Whatever's Appropriate
Attitude: Focused on achieving the mission objectives, no matter the course. Brave, bordering on foolhardy, but not overly aggressive. Protective of those under his command.
Backstory (if desired)
Reached officer status in the army before getting into a bar brawl with the leader of another unit who had insulted one of his men. The other guy wound up in critical care, and the treatment GlyphGryph received for what he thought was a perfectly acceptable course of action led him to seek a new line of work. Well, a new employer in the same line of work, anyways, one who could appreciate his... methods of conflict resolution.

If you don't really want a leader out there, feel free to give me whichever traits you prefer.

[Shadowgandor]

I vote for training some militia in Drassen. Perhaps GlyphGryph, being the leader type, could be hired as a trainer? If he's okay with that ofcourse
Else I vote for finding the helicopter pilot. I can't really remember what he could do, thought he could fly your guys from one town to another which isn't that useful yet at the moment but atleast we're doing something

[Mephansteras]

Posting to watch.

[EuchreJack]

My character could really use some marksmanship training.  On the other hand, my character needs to heal Booyah up while he trains the locals, especially as our combo trainer/medic is now dead.

And for the record, I laughed when I read that Ira died.  Not the most valuable of recruits, honestly.  Pretty much her best trait was being free.

[Taricus]

And generally being the best militia trainer in-game, due to both the RPC bonus and the teaching trait.

[Xeron]

I agree to what has been said here.I also commend you on making a entertaining LP,hopefully its still alive

[Fikes]

Its alive. I have the update all done, I just haven't uploaded it yet. I'll do that today.

I leave tomorrow on vacation though, so if anyone wants to provide advice for what we do in update 4, it is going to have to be before I lose access to the internet.

[Fikes]

Spoiler: King in the North (click to show/hide)

The town’s people were willing, but it was going to take time to train them. Right now they were too inexperienced to arm.

Booyah’s wounds were less severe than they looked so within an hour he was out on the firing line with Xeron teaching the towns people the basics. Off to the side, Shadowgandor was personally training Euchr. Burntpies sat nearby repairing the team’s equipment.

Burntpies seemed to be the only one making progress. After a while Xeron went off to take a piss and came back with some bad news.

“There are 17 enemies moving in from the west and another five to the south, man. I think that old bitch wants her mine back,” he reported calmly.



Booyah weighed the odds. They did not look good. “Tell the team to meet up at the center of town. Make sure their weapons are fully loaded,” he then turned to the rag tag militia. “You all will have a chance to fight, but not today. More than likely we will have to leave this battle. The queen has sent more troops than we can handle. All of you should return home. We will come back for you.”

When the enemy showed up the team was forced to flee. Deiddranna recaptured the mine.

In central Drassen the team once again took up defensive positions, hoping the enemy would split their force and follow.

The enemy ended up splitting their force into three teams. When one of those teams moved in to take central Drassen back over, our team moved south to assault the mine again.



By the time we arrived it was dark.

The team moved into a dark area of town where the enemy could not approach without moving through bright lighting. (Note: It is totally dark where our mercs are, the light coming off them is just an effect)



The plan worked well. The enemies stumbled onto our group and kicked off a slow paced low accuracy fire fight. They would advance only to be driven back by gun fire.

8 out of 10 of the enemies fell in the center of town. The other two had to be hunted.

The team moved as pack around town eliminating the first enemy without issue. As they were approaching the mine, Xeron heard a sound, but before he could react he was shot.

Euchr turned to see the enemy and missed his first shotgun blast, but not his second.

The enemy fell and Euchr made it to Xeron just in time to save him.



It took two days to get a small militia trained and Xeron back up to fighting strength. On Day 3 at 0700 we decided it was time to take the fight back to the enemy.

In a nice change of pace, for once, we had the numbers.



The militia did most of the work and as a result we only took one hit. For this reason we decided it would be best to let the militia assault the airport alone.





They took the zone without issue.

With Drassen back under our control and income flowing again Booyah was able to assume a role of leadership and everyone knows that a big part of leadership is checking your email. Booyah did this and found something unexpected.



There was a new Mercenary service in town.

Booyah remembered Speck from when he was still a member of AIM. They had never worked together but it was nice to see someone get off the front lines before they died…

MERC offered cheaper and generally less professional/capable mercenaries then AIM, but it was something good to note none-the-less.

With his email sorted out, he put Shadowgandor in charge and ordered the team to move out and explore the swamp lands. If possible, he wanted them to make contact with the helicopter pilot he had heard about at the airport. While they were out exploring he would be setting aside money to buy better weapons.

The team returned late the night of day 4 with good news.

“We found him in a shack west of town.” Shadowgandor reported.



“He told us if we brought him back to the airstrip we could do business. It wasn’t until we arrived that he felt free to mention the complications and restrictions. He won’t drop or pick up if there are enemies around. He also explained that the queen has SAM sites. Basically he is worthless to us until we take out the one to the east.”



The team took the next two days to train up and repair equipment. With the Drassen militia gaining effectiveness, Booyah again sent Shadowgandor and her team out on a mission.

“I’d like you guys to see how Omerta is doing. Head up there and check with the resistance. Oh… and don’t give any specifics about how Ira died…”

The team moved out that evening and made it to the rebel hideout in Omerta later that day. Miguel was happy to see them.



“Perhaps, I am now in a position to offer you the services of Dimitri,” he said and went on to give details about his friends prowess with a knife.

Dimitri was eager to join, “I can learn much” he stated before saying good bye to his family.



The team returned to Drassen with the fresh recruit.

The next few days went by slowly. The team trained each other and the militia, repaired gear and rested. Finally, late on day 8 Booyah had enough money to place their first order from Bobby Ray’s



“It isn’t much, but it will keep us supplied for a while to come. The new weapon will be exceptionally deadly in Shadowgandor’s hands and her old weapon will make Burntpies even more dangerous,” he explained.

The shipment arrived that morning and gear was issued. Shadowgandor was clearly itching to try her new rifle out.

“You won’t get there today, but I want you to head towards Chitzena. It is a small town and we should not have an issue taking the mine. It would also mean that we control a good portion of the north of Arulco,” Booyah explained to her.

The team set out to the west yet again, taking a different path this time to learn more about the countryside. Several hours into their journey they ran across an enemy patrol. “I am inclined to take these perpetrators down,” Shadowgandor stated matter-of-factly.

“Me too, my new gun needs shooting!” Burntpies agreed happily.

Xeron grunted. “There’s only eight of ‘em, not even a challenge.”



The team wasn’t even three steps into the sector when Shadowgandor spotted and killed the first enemy of the day.



“This scope almost makes it unfair, they won’t even see me coming!” she stated. It didn’t seem to bother her.

Across the field Burntpies was also enjoying his new scope.



He didn’t need any speeches when the enemy fell, he just laughed like a goofy idiot.

It didn’t take long to clear the sector and the team suffered no injuries so they continued on their way.



“Fifteen here, m-boss,” Xeron reported to Shadowgandor, taking note of her gender at the last second.

“Good, it’s time for action!” she replied.

 “Looks like a place for the dead peoples.” Burntpies noted as the team entered what appeared to be a cemetery.

“Ira would know all about this place,” Euchr noted disapprovingly.

“Enough chatter, we need to get down to combat.” Shadowgandor stated.



The enemy came at us in force. As many as 8 of them tried to move towards our defensive position. This time the firefight was closer and fiercer but still resulted in an easy victory for our side. Towards the end of the fight an enemy got a couple of lucky shots in on Shadowgandor before taking a head shot from Burntpies. Euchr patched her up.

With the zone cleared our team set out to explore the town. Shadowgandor met up with an ancient man who decribed the ruins as containing the history of Chitzena.



Sorry old man, she thought, that boat sailed about an hour ago.

Yanni, as he was called, went on to explain that a sacred artifact had been taken from Chitzena and put on display in Balime. The locals would be grateful if we could return it.

Shadowgandor also came across a couple seeking safe passage back to Drassen. “We are going that way, but not just yet. Sit tight” she told them.

Her team picked through the spoils of war but found nothing worthwhile so all the enemy equipment was sold to the locals. They then geared up and headed south.

“Only ten enemies here,” Xeron informed.

The team moved in and took up a position with their backs to the mountain.



Less than 10 feet into the zone the team surprised an enemy. All plans of stealth and positioning went out the window as both sides open fire. The enemy fell just as two of his comrades were moving to reinforce him. They fell too.



The enemy kept moving in, only to find bullets. In the end the dead were stacked high and our team had secured another zone. Only Dimitri ended up even getting wounded.

“These scopes almost make it unfair,” Shadowgandor noted.

“I like it unfair, so long as it favors us!” Euchr replied.

Shadowgandor made contact with the mine foreman. It would be slow going until the town got to be more loyal, but an extra $3,500 a day was good money any way you slice it. With the enemy and money business squared away, Euchr started in on mending the wounded while Burntpies and Xeron set up to travel back to Drassen with the tourists from Cleveland.

That is, of course, after they meet and rob the locals.



Interesting guy… no mater what you say he replies, “Could use some help, yeah…”



Not much, but TNT is fun.

Shadowgandor instructed Xeron and Burntpies to take the couple to Drassen SAFELY and return with Booyah. They made contact no problem.



The trip back involved a lot of sneaking around enemies but John and Mary make it back to Drassen.



We get $2,000 and an interesting promise…



Hmm… We’ll have to keep an eye on the mail…

With that long trip of lenghtyness out of the way, Xeron, Burntpies and Booyah make for Chitzena… and don’t make it very for before the mine is attacked.

Shadowgandor, Euchr, and Dimitri move into defensive positions in the northern sector and hope that the militia is ready or Booyah and friends arrive in time.

Fortunately the enemy stays put long enough for Booyah to not only arrive, but to train up a small group of militia. The militia are sent against the enemy, 12 on 7, but get destroyed, killing only a single enemy.

“The elites are destroying us down here!” was the last transmission our team received.

“Elites are bad news… the Queen really trains a mean elite squad… nothing like what we have faced before… we should be extra cautious.” Euchr warned. Xeron snorted in reply.

Booyah trained up one more squad of militia before committing to the attack.



6 Elites, 6 mercs, 10 militia.

"Last time we came in from the North-East, with the mountain covering our backs. We were able to get a good field of fire from behind cover." Shadowgandor explained to Booyah.

"Do you think that will still work against the elites?" Booyah asked.

"I know it will." Shadowgandor replied, "Watch my back."

Booyah and Xeron took up positions behind cover and watched as Shadowgandor slowly made her way forward. She made it to the cover of a palm and begain to raise her rifle to see if there were enemies nearby.

There were enemies nearby.

They found Shadowgandor first.

Booyah watched as Shdowgandor took a full burst from a high powered rifle in the chest. The force of the blow knocked her off her feet and she lay on the ground, dead or stunned, Booyah could not tell.

"Covering fire!" He shouted. And the team opened fire at the trees.



One enemy elite came out of cover and the burst from Booyah took him out, but there were still two nearby. Xeron’s shots were close enough for some suppression on the second, but the third was out of range of everyone.



As the elite fell, Shadowgandor began to stir and both sides realized that she wasn't dead... yet. The enemy opened fire on her again but couldn't land a shot before she came back to her senses and began to retreat.

Euchr met Shadowgandor on the safe side of half-way and began to treat her wounds.



The enemy was relentless even as Shadowgandor was being patched. Both Shadowgandor and Euchr could hear the rounds hitting close to their position. Once Euchr started to retreat and abandon Shadowgandor, but when he looked up Xeron had his rifle pointed in Euchr's direction and didn't lower it until Euchr went back to work.

A little while later Euchr managed to field-treat Shadowgandor enough that she could safely retreat. As she did, she passed off her rifle to Xeron, who used it to clear the zone.

Booyah turned to Euchr, "That's it then... I want you to head north and begin treating Shadowgandor now. Come back when..." Booyah trailed off mid sentance as he noticed Xeron coming towards Euchr out of the corner of his eye. Before Booyah could even react, Xeron had Euchr by the throat with his left hand and had a gun to Euchr's head with his right.

"Listen you little shit. You ever leave Shadowgandor behind and I will kill you myself. You got that, man?" Xeron growled.

"Xeron, Jesus, you made your point, put the gun down." Booyah attempted, but Xeron ignored him.

"I said you got that?" Xeron said angrily as he shook Euchr. Euchr was too scared or too stunned to move.

"Xeron put the fucking gun down you made your point!" Booyah shouted. This time Xeron lowered his gun and shoved Euchr away with his left hand. Euchr stumbled but didn't fall. He stood rubbing his neck.

"Same goes for you, boss. You leave Shadowgandor and I'll kill you too."

"No one is leaving anyone, Xeron. You need to let this one go. Why don't you go give Shadowgandor back her weapon?" Booyah asked.

Xeron nodded. "Yeah. Yeah I'll do that," he said, and started off towards the north.

As soon as he was out of ear shot Euchr began sputtering. "What the fuck," he said, quietly at first. Then repeated it. And again, three, four, five times before finally shouting. "What the FUCK! That guy is not stable. You need to get him out of here before he does something even more insane."

Booyah turned to Euchr. "I saw what he saw. That was a dangerous spot to be in. It was scary for all of us... I would not have killed you if you kept retreating." When Euchr started to respond Booyah held up his hand to stop him and continued in an even tone. "I would not have killed you because Xeron would have beat me to it. You need to decide if you can handle this job and if you cannot, you need to leave. If you want to leave now that is fine, but if you leave in the middle of a firefight I will not fault Xeron for taking you down." The look on Booyah's face was unreadable. Apathetic, stern, angry, it was hard to tell but what ever the look, Booyah maintained it while he let the statement hang in the air. Finally, he said "Come on, let's see if the elites left us any new toys."

The elites had in fact left us some new toys. Several of us get upgrades and the effectiveness of our squad gets a boost. Nothing beats Shadowgandors scoped rifle, but the supporting weapons are getting better.

An hour later Shadowgandor comes back in for medical treatment, only to find Euchr runs out of supplies part way through.

“We really need to get Skyrider in the air,” Booyah observed.

The team left Booyah to train up a militia and returned to Drassen to start the process of clearing SAM sites. On the way there they got an email from John stating that he had sent his custom pistols and that they should have arrived by now. He was true to his word.



They are pretty good… for pistols… not sure if we will have a use for them.

With Shadowgandor patched up, the team decides to go after the SAM site just after dawn on Day 16.



“Target in sight!” Xeron reported as he and Shadowgandor opened fire simultaneously.



Some of the shots found their mark, but we also managed to kick the hornets’ nest.



Xeron retreated and the enemy moved in… into Shadowgandor and Burntpies that is.

“This is MUCH easier than those elite bastards,” Shadowgandor said with disdain.

In no time at all the zone was clear and Skyrider was letting us in on some more news.



“I wish he would have told us that before we drug him back from the swaps, man,” Xeron growled.

Bad news or not, Skyrider transported the team half way to Chitzena and before long they had reunited with Booyah.

“We need access to more territory so we are going after another SAM site,” Booyah explained.



The northwestern SAM site went as painlessly as the eastern SAM site with the added benefit of an elite guard who dropped Xeron a (crappy) sniper rifle.

Skyriders range was greatly improved as a result of our victory.



We can now safely fly between any of our cites but it isn’t cheap. It is $1,300 to get from Drassen to the SAM site one-way. Yikes.

Either way we have a good foot hold in the country and a good end to the update. Tune in again next week at some point when we go cause trouble in other, distant lands.

Spoiler: Update in Review (click to show/hide)

Stats!













Some times for work I go out town with no access to the internet. That is the prime reason this update is so long.

Anyone is welcome to the mercs we find out and about. I can change their stats around a little bit but I'd like to keep their effectiveness roughly the same. Dimitri isn't great but we will find a use for him.

General LP Non-sense: One thing that drives me crazy is a buggy game played in Iron Man mode. I had to load ooooollllllddddd saves over and over to get John and Kate (or whatever) to work. They are extremely buggy.

Another thing that drives me crazy is just how unforgiving this game is. To get shot to half health and NOT be able to run away the next turn is just stupid. I really thought Shadowgandor was a gonner!

Also, how about that counter attack on Drassen? I thought for sure I disabled that noise. It turned out okay though. Hit and run worked out.

Moving on: We are starting to get to the point where the only really dangerous areas are in doors. That can be frustrating. Some fights take no effort only patience. Some fights take lots of luck.

Regardless we are positioned well to make another push. Drassen and Chitzena can defend themselves and once the SAMs get a small militia they will be okay too. So where to next?

Our Finances kind of suck. I can’t get ahead enough to get Shadowgandor on a week contract so a mine seems like a good idea.

That being said, if we clear the center of the board we massively extend our sam site range.

What do you think?

Also, please comment if you read everything Burntpies says in Steroid's voice.

[Burnt Pies]

I'm reading everything I say in Steroid's voice. It's the main reason I requested him.

Good read so far, wouldn't mind seeing Tex in this eventually.