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[somemildmanneredidiot]

That. That is true. We don't know if they've picked us up on whatever sensors they have yet. I'd like to operate under the assumption that they do know that we're here, but we might be able to get away with this.

I kind of want to hold off on preemptively caving ourselves in because that tends to be insanely dangerous even with all of the proper equipment and math done in advance. I'd say mention it to Team 2 to get their reaction to the idea. We might be able to get away with collapsing either the cave entrance or the tunnel leading to Farpoint. Both of which would be signficantly easier to clear than the entire cave system being collapsed.

A reminder that to communicate with our teams, the gate needs to be open so that is a thing we are already have open.

[Parsely]

Yeah actually I say we leave the call to our teams. Let them decide whether to stay in the cave or hump it to the gate,

[TopHat]

Of course we should run our course of action through the team (they'll be on their own soon anyway), but I really don't think we should run for it unless the vast majority of our personnel decide to, it's far too risky. Collapsing the entrance should, of course, only be done if the majority agree, though.

Speaking of which, collapsing somewhere between the cave entrance and the turn-off to Farpoint was what I meant, sorry if I wasn't clear enough.

Though we have a new problem now: When do we close the gate, and should we bring back the RSU? If we leave it open till the last minute, that may tip them off that we still have forces planetside and want to remain in contact with for as long as possible (same goes if we leave the RSU). If we pull out immediately, that may lead them to conclude that we only had a small team by the gate, but we lose contact and surveillance immediately. Maybe a mid-ground?

If we decide to collapse the entrance, we have a new dilemma: again, when do we do it? Blowing prematurely could trap our troops for no reason, but doing so when the hostiles get closer increases the risk of it being identified as a deliberate, human action. Again, when we close the gate impacts on this as we lose RSU surveillance as soon as we do.

[somemildmanneredidiot]

We're command. We're supposed to be in position to handle all of the information both Gate side and base side. In the time it would take to inform our personnel of all of the possible options they have, it could be too late to take any option presented to them. In addition, not every person may agree on which decision to make, leading to more time spent trying to decide, giving the ship more time to do anything it likes. It's my belief that we should make this decision.

Thanks for clarifying the area to be collapsed! In regards to timing, I think we should do it as soon as we believe that our personnel are safely (or safely enough) able to do so. For the method of doing so, I say we have base side R&D try to quickly form some guesstimates about how much force would be needed and if 25 HE grenades detonated by a GL would do it. Set the fuse on the GL to go off in XX seconds and have the personnel who launched it sprint for Farpoint. Adjust details of that on R&D's recommendations. If it ends up being premature, then we were safe rather than sorry, and we can now acquire construction crew to clear out the cave and rescue our personnel.

Gate wise, I think we should have the RSU observe for the full duration, with it only retreating if we see the ship deploy units to the Gate. We don't know what they know and we don't know what they think they know. They might draw the conclusion that we're keeping in contact, they might think we're observing them for any information. They might not recognize the RSU as belonging to us.

Those are my votes on the current situation.

[Chiefwaffles]

EDIT: Fixed a cut-off sentence in the beginning of the update. "You consider activating the gate to distract whoever your enemies are, but active communications to the team requires the gate to remain open."

I assumed it was obvious, but the specialists are higher ranking than regular soldiers. If you want, you can specify specialists as leaders of squads, but it wouldn't change much.
On a side note, when I did talk about teams, I was thinking about more of a "6 soldiers, Dan Stevens, ____ loadout, call it 'WG-1'"-type deal. Though I can easily work with however the players want to do things. Seriously - it doesn't matter that much.

Oh yeah, and you have an Iris. It was suggested pretty early on and I did see it. Just forgot to include it in the subsequent update. And for those of you who don't know, the Iris is basically a lock for the Warpgate - when closed, no matter can get in/out, but communications can still go through. But yeah, you do have one.
2nd Encounter at Destination 5: Update 8
"Landing"

Back at the control room, the technicians are very worried. The personnel of R&D that weren't sent through the gate are scrambling across the control room trying to analyze what they can.
Greenfield, while staring at the RSU's feed and furiously typing out notes, begins speaking in a rather frantic tone.
"All we can really tell at this point is that based on the designs, it looks like they're the same people who owned those aircraft bothering us earlier."

You consider activating the gate to distract whoever your enemies are, but active communications to the team requires the gate to remain open.

Back at Farpoint, Team 1 and Team 2 have gathered and the specialists of Team 1 agree on a plan with you: To hole up in Farpoint after detonating the entrances. Team 2 works with R&D to figure out how to surgically collapse a portion of the cave. The group moves closer to the entrance and force 10 grenades into various parts of the cave walls. Teams 1 and 2 have 24 HE grenades left.

The away teams brace for impact as the cave rumbles with an explosion. Rocks start raining down from the ceiling as the area of the cave collapses. After it seems stable enough, Team 2 returns to look at the remains. Very luckily, it looks like just what they expected happened, and more. The structure of the cave-in seems to be pretty resilient and should hopefully prove hard for any invaders to quickly bypass. In the control room, the R&D team tells you that some workers from the base and construction equipment will be able to clear a path through the cave-in in "reasonable" time.

As Team 1 and Team 2 prepare for the possibility of intruders and investigate Farpoint further, you speak to the Committee. You inform them of the current situation and ask them for any possible aid.
"You were aware of your resources and capabilities as you walked into this trap, Commander. One of your tasks is to use your given resources wisely."
"We will offer some form of aid, however. We can send one of the army's elite battalions - roughly 400 men - to deploy on the field. When we deem the situation under control, the battalion will return to service under the army's command and will no longer be assisting you in any way. You will have the ability to decide the general kinds of equipment distribution for its companies, as well. We would also provide several portable anti-aircraft installations."
"This comes with several conditions, however. Something like this is expensive to us in many ways - both in terms of physical funding and political influence. With light to moderate casualties and the rescue of your away teams, you will forego funding completely next session, and funding in the future will be heavily decreased. If you recover a sizeable amount of alien technology - such as this large aerial vessel you've informed of us, funding will remain normal despite casualties, but there will be no funding increase. In the case of total loss of both the battallion and the away team, it will severely impact our opinion of this project. While you will remain in command of it and the division will not be shut down, all monetary funding will immediately seize for the foreseeable future."
And with that, the feed to them shuts off.

You switch your focus back to D5, and ask for one of your specialists to report in. So far, they've been fruitlessly trying to find a way to power the base or to get the missile silo functioning again.
Sarah Leaf starts speaking to you via radio. "We've been trying to get the missile silo working, but it definitely looks like we need power first. I've been looking at the apparent power generation room and I'm sure those shards are the remnants of some kind of alien power source. Though what's strange is the lack of a backup power supply. I've instructed the groups to look for anything resembling 'power generation' and hopefully we'll find something."

As Sarah finishes her statement, you walk over to the RSU's feed and at the aerial vessel. Weirdly enough, the only thing that's happened since you last looked is the vessel moving downwards more. You avert your gaze for a while to go over some more stuff with the stranded away teams. According to them, with heavy rationing, their combined food supplies can feed both teams and the 20 survivors for 2 days until running out. About 4 days can be extracted from the rations if they didn't worry about the survivors.

Meanwhile, Jason Lerth sits in a chair as instructed to earlier by you. Nothing happens.  As he tells you this, he also informs you that the chairs themselves look like nothing special - they appear to just be made out of just metal, in fact. It may still theoretically be possible for the chairs themselves to be interfaces, but at this point it's not likely.
Emma Dawson contacts you next. "Team 2 and I have been looking over that bay door we found earlier. According to the engineers, it's probably the same material in, uh, that armor we have back at base. We're really probably not going to be getting through that door by bombing it."

"Sir!" a nearby tech yells. "You should really look at this."
You walk through the crowd gathered around the RSU's feed and observe it.
The ship is actually landing. Sets of apparent landing gear are coming into contact with the ground. Ramps extend from various locations and soldiers similiar to the ones seen earlier disembark from the ship.

What now?

Spoiler: Team 1 (click to show/hide)

14 Soldiers
- 5 Assault Rifles
- 1 Rocket Launcher
- 1 Anti-Materiel Rifle
- 1 Flamethrower
- 1 LMG
- 5 Grenade Launchers

Sarah Leaf (LIGHT WOUNDS)
- Assault Rifle
Emma Dawson
- Assault Rifle
Jason Lerth
- Assault Rifle

Spoiler: Team 2 (click to show/hide)

3 Engineers
- 3 Assault Rifles
5 R&D Techs
- 5 Assault Rifles

Spoiler: Waypoint Base (click to show/hide)

Personnel
3 Soldiers (CRITICAL WOUNDS)
4 Soldiers (MODERATE WOUNDS)
1 Soldier  (LIGHT WOUNDS)

Dan Stevens (HEAVY WOUNDS)
- Nothing

Other
1 Man (Recovered from village) (CRITICAL WOUNDS)

[stabbymcstabstab]

hmm if they didn't collapse the cave we could have probably boarded the ship. We also don't need 400 men we need like six and either a large bomb or a small nuke that they can plant in the ship and detonate,we should also change our tactics from sending in platoon size units to avoid having zero troops left at base. 

[Nirur Torir]

I'm not voting, but, from a narrative standpoint, accepting the battalion is a very interesting choice.
If we capture the ship, we change so much.
If we get away with low casualties, our invisible "is the conspiracy revealed?" counter goes way up.
If we lose the mission, we get to play Scavenger-Com, when we're already in hard mode from having these normal-tier scientists.

On the other hand, we may be able to perform some sort of infiltration mission from Fairpoint, if exploding our way back out of the cave doesn't alert them.


We should look into mercs. It's a little late for immediate large-scale action, but we might be able to make a deal with an African warlord for a few hundred disposable warm bodies carrying assault weapons. It's a flawless plan to prepare us for the next time we see a landed alien ship.

New test: Fire a cheap guided rocket through the gate at an uninhabited destination, and see if everything works. We may need to soften fortifications up so our guys can get back out, or we may need it for a diversion.

[Parsely]

I still don't understand the mechanics of firing a missile through a stargate. I mean you'd think it would take more than just a few hours preparation to fire a cruise missile through the gate. Not only do you have to get a missile, you also need to get it inside this room that has the gate in it, which if the show is anything to go by, is really small, and full of sensitive equipment that could be damaged or destroyed by the missile's exhaust. If the stargate isn't pointing directly at the mothership then you also need to be able to communicate with the missile in order to tell it where its target is, and the teams are buried in a cave so they couldn't laze it even if they had a laser designator.

And if we're still operating on the assumption that the mothership is bristling with high tech artillery then pouring a battalion of infantry through the stargate is the worst idea ever since the enemy knows exactly where they're coming from and they would be cut to pieces.

[somemildmanneredidiot]

This is about the sort of deal I was expecting from the Committee if they were going to offer anything at all. From the language they said, if we manage to snag them the ship alone our funding will be fine. They didn't mention Farpoint in that assessment, though from what they most likely meant, Farpoint will not get us a budget increase. I'd rely on not getting additional funding from this at all, however much I'd like for it to be otherwise.

I acknowledge the admonishment from the Committee and acknowledge that we were too greedy for our current resources. We'll need to revise operating procedures after all of this.

@Teams: I figured that was what you'd meant but I figured that we didn't quite have the personnel to do that at the moment. But I'm now realizing that we could have squads composed of multiple teams which are a set of specific personnel. Once we get everyone back at base we'll be able to refine the process.

@Update: I think a bit got cut off, right after Greenfield told us about the likelihood of who owned the ship.

@What Now: Alright, we've bought ourselves time. The ship acted in a manner somewhat different from what I was expecting, but that just means that we have some more time because they'll have to clear debris to get where they want. We should look into collapsing more parts of the cave in a safish manner. I don't believe we'll need a battalion to deal with the ship, just a few missiles and some crew to set them up properly in the Gate room. GUNINANRUNIN you are correct that this will take more than just a few hours. In normal circumstances, I would have wanted to devote at least an entire adjacent room (if not two) for the storage and deployment of missiles through the gate (can we get pricing on that?). Unfortunately, we're a bit pressed for time, so we're going to have to do this in a bit more messy fashion. We can have the RSU do the sighting for the missiles. We can send multiple out to help guide the missiles. The real question relating to this is how many missiles are they willing to give us and how big of missiles are they willing to give us. If we shoot too low on power, then it does nothing, too big and we kill all of the people. Also no loot. A description of the ship would be useful for plotting out where to strike (all I have in my brain is a giant pyramid).

Unfortunately, the more we ask questions IC the more opportunities the ship has to do actions. Which is reasonable.

Spoiler: I purpose the following actions (click to show/hide)

Instruct the Away teams to do two more cave ins, one at the entrance between the cave and the tunnel leading ti Farpoint, and one just inside the tunnel leading to Farpoint in relation to the cave. This will buy more time and if they are able to clear out the rubble at a decent rate, the second collapse may distract them sufficiently to send personnel to investiage further down the cave rather than what may or may not be another path.

After which, the Away team will set up in Farpoint in a manner similar as described before to set up a kill box. Team Lead Dawson is given leave to adjust the set up as she sees fit. Ideally, we are able to clear out the ship before it comes to direct conflict between the Away Team and HS#1, but this will allow them to survive longer and give us more time to do things Base side.

Contact the Committee and request the missiles and associated crew necessary to set it up in the Gate room and the equipment needed for the previous to be deployed just outside of the Gate at D5 instead of the battalion. The missles requested are 11 least resource intensive guided missiles they are willing to part with, the heaviest grade guided missile they are willing to part with (if that means we have a fusion bomb then we have a fusion bomb), and several guided missiles that would be used to destroy, disable, or neutralize an aircraft carrier in one strike.

A) They give us the missiles, the crew, and priority on getting this set up. We test a least missile with a shot through D4 (the island one if I messed up the designation), with an RSU or three sitting on the other side of the gate for observation and tracking purposes. We'll let the missile detonate into the surrounding water. If the test is successful, we will then check in at D5 and presuming that the situation is suitable for it, we will do a similar set up for shooting a ship killer missile into the ship. If the ramps have closed that that time then a direct hit works as well. The idea being that the ship is almost certainly composed of the same or similar material as found everywhere where aliens are, and will require something of a fairly solid grade to neutralize it. Once the ship is down we will use LRI guided missiles to target any soldiers that have been deployed from the ship that did not die already.

If the missiles don't work through the gate then we will move the necessary equipment into D5 and fire as quickly as possible. All possible set up able to be done before going through the Gate will be done so. They will have soldiers providing escort.

B) They deny the missile requests and tell us take it or leave it.

I therefore purpose that we request a field artillery set up for the battalion, a light tank set up for the battalion, or an armor battalion set up for the battalion. Or respectively, deployable artillery for blowing them up at a distance, light tanks for blowing them up at a closer distance, and APC with machine guns mounted on them. Of course I suggest all of these without a plan to get the motorized elements into place. Out of those three, I see the field artillery as most likely to be able to be deployed as those pieces need to be condensed and set up anyway.

As we are unlikely to get any of the three above, I would suggest we deploy the battalion with MANPADSs to keep them out of the air as well as to begin bombarding them from the Gate, Mortar crews to continue the bombardment, Anti Material Rifles to pick off any enemy soldiers that are perceived, Combat Engineers to begin putting up cover and defenses at the Gate to ensure that the previous three groups are able to do their work, and Heavy Machine Gun crews to ward off assault. If the long range bombardment is insufficient to stop deployments from the ship, then forces, under the cover of the previous fire, with AP and explosive munitions as well as plenty of conventional explosives should be deployed to the ship. Any portable anti-air installations should be deployed with the first set up and if any are able to be used as artillery, they should be used as such.

Regardless of the composition, the battalion should be briefed about everything we know about HS#1's weapons, armor, capabilities, and observed tactics, what little we have seen and know.

________

Well, either the huge ship doesn't have the firing options we thought it did in which case telling our personnel to GTFO could have worked out splendidly, or it just doesn't think they're needed.

So our options at this point are either accept Committee assistance and the risks and loses associated with, or let our personnel have a final stand in which they will almost certainly be overwhelmed. I have listed above a plan of action for accepting Committee assistance and encourage the plan to be critiqued. It's set up in order of least likely to be accepted by the Committee from my perspective of them to what they said they would commit to, with the final option presented being the battalion being equiped with certain things like MANPADSs and etc and then being deployed.

[TopHat]

Or, again, they haven't fired because they haven't detected our team. Speaking of which, could we detect the detonation on the RSU's feed? Not a perfect indicator as we don't know what sensors they're packing, but better than nothing.

I'd advise the following:
- move the RSU away from the gate towards the nearest patch of cover. They will investigate the gate and I don't think we can afford losing our eyes on the ground at this point. Of course, there's a high risk of detection anyway.
- Don't accept the battalion yet - among other things, it'd certainly attract foreign interest in our project. Asking about the missiles and setting them up is fine by me, though.
- Don't collapse further sections of the cave yet - rigging another section (a few metres down from the blockage) to blow, though, could be a wise precaution.

[somemildmanneredidiot]

I don't think it's a safe idea to run off of the assumption that the Away team is unnoticed, but that could be a reason why they don't think it's necessary to fire.

The problem I see with not accepting the battalion is that mobilizing them will take time and if we don't have any other course of action to go with (like they deny the missiles), then we really don't have anything else we can do. We could accept the battalion, brief them, gear them up, and wait on deploying them if we are able to pursue other options, allowing us to more easily deploy them when or if they're needed. Rereading what the Committee said, the only risk with accepting the battalion is if they take casualties. If we don't deploy them then they won't be harmed.

Prepping to rig another section to blow up works for me, though the order should be given to blow as soon as they start trying to enter the cave. Or once they start trying to clear the interior.

Moving the RSU to a better position could help so no objections here.

[Vivalas]

I disagree with the idea of blowing up more sections of the cave. We don't even know if they know if the base exists, or if we are currently deployed on the planet, and collapsing more sections of the cave will make it harder to dig our guys back out, or worse, destabilize the cave entirely. Even if they do know we're here, I don't think they would attack anyways. We don't know their capabilities, morale, ethics, or mission, but we know they're not stupid. If they somehow clear the firsr cave-in, sending any number of infantry down a heavily guarded corridor is suicide. They would be running at a bunch of guys armed with LMGs and ARs. Worst case scenario is they decide to keep attacking despite horendous losses, and overwhelm us / deplete our ammo, which is possible depending on the number of troops at their disposal, but it is likely they will pull back and choose a wiser plan. Defenders always have the advantage even against foes with greater numbers or greater technology.

[stabbymcstabstab]

Yeah lets stop using our own explosives to kill ourselves via cave in.

[Chiefwaffles]

Sorry about the delay; I was waiting to allow for more actions and suggestions. Also as I write this, I'm just now noticing the error in the previous update, even though it was already pointed out. (I thought that was referring to something else that was intentional.)
So I'll quickly fix that as I write this update out.

Oh yeah, and let me know if you don't like the (temporary) narrative change. Even though it is definitely temporary, I have found that with SGs I can go too far with narrative changes and end up alienating people already participating in the SG.
2nd Encounter at Destination 5: Update 9
"Communications"

You run over to another screen and open a link to the Committee again. You explain your dilemna further and ask about the possibility of any guided missiles to use through the gate. After discussing the issue amongst themselves and consulting a few external sources, they begin speaking to you.
"We have decided to --"
"Sir!"
You spin around to face the tech addressing you.
"We've lost contact with Destination 5! Looks like our gate connection is lost!"

...

You are Emma Dawson. Experienced soldier and diplomat.
And you're stuck in an overly ornate cave with way too many people in it for your liking. As well as what's probably a flying alien battleship. You've just finished informing your micromanaging commander that yep, this alien high-tech and high-security door probably can't be safely blown up with grenades.

Your internal monologue is interrupted when your comms link with Command suddenly cuts out.
"Leaf? Lerth? Any of you have contact with base?" you state over the radio with an ever-so-slight hint of panic in your voice.
"Yeah, looks like mine cut out."
"Nope. Nothing."

Which means that the --
"Gate must have been closed." Lerth quickly says.
"Strange, considering that I'm pretty sure we haven't reached that supposed 'time limit' yet. Dawson, could you come over here to the power room?"

You sigh as you look at the bay door again. You inform the soldiers around you inspecting the door to stay put as you depart to the power room. Once you arrive, you see Team 2 assembled around Leaf as she holds a rather suspicious glowing container.
"It's a power cell!" She states with mild excitement. "I've looked around and it looks like every room has a slot for one of these. I bet you we could power up a single room if we find its slot and insert this thing in."
Lerth walks into the room from behind you, and begins speaking. "While it's definitely Dawson's decision here, I was just helping in the scouring of that missile magazine now. Really don't think that there's any use to that room there."

"I'll mull it over. Can we power more than one room, or is there only enough 'juice' in that thing for one powering?" You ask.
"Uh, I honestly have no idea. Wouldn't depend on being able to reuse it, though."

With that, you walk away. You did get an from Command before they got cut off. To set up that killbox again. Though they also discussed moving the RSU to a safer and more secure spot. Lerth told you that he can "easily" do that and walked away right after you told him. So you assume that the RSU's being moved.
You take a few minutes to set up the defense, assigning most of the soldiers to guard the entrance. When satisfied, you return to the central room to consider something.


What do you do now?

Spoiler: Team 1 (click to show/hide)

14 Soldiers
- 5 Assault Rifles
- 1 Rocket Launcher
- 1 Anti-Materiel Rifle
- 1 Flamethrower
- 1 LMG
- 5 Grenade Launchers

Sarah Leaf (LIGHT WOUNDS)
- Assault Rifle
Emma Dawson
- Assault Rifle
Jason Lerth
- Assault Rifle

Spoiler: Team 2 (click to show/hide)

3 Engineers
- 3 Assault Rifles
5 R&D Techs
- 5 Assault Rifles

Spoiler: Waypoint Base (click to show/hide)

Personnel
3 Soldiers (CRITICAL WOUNDS)
4 Soldiers (MODERATE WOUNDS)
1 Soldier  (LIGHT WOUNDS)

Dan Stevens (HEAVY WOUNDS)
- Nothing

Other
1 Man (Recovered from village) (CRITICAL WOUNDS)

[stabbymcstabstab]

should we load the power cell into the missile bay? We might be able to bring down the ship if we can check to see if it's actually out of missiles.