Category: Operations

Operation 13 Field Report

By Corporal Vance, Fortitude FEF

My first FEF sortie took place 15/09/2523 to 17/09/2523, commencing around 1700hrs on a mild Friday night.

Our base of operations was the Rybec facility in sector K10, also known as Fort Leon (apparently named after a dead FEF member – I did not enquire as to the details). Ironically, I do recall the initial skirmishes over this facility when our 2 Bunkers first clashed, although I was never directly involved.

I was unable to obtain an operational brief from the General as he was engaged with ‘family issues’, but after asking around I received a concise briefing from Councillor Sally Fields of the Bureaucratic division of Bunker Ascendant.

I was told that some local issues were to be resolved during the evening, but in the morning we would journey to a new location in sector AA12, a Vulcan Industries depot secured by the FEF in their previous operation. Once we arrived there, we would have the following main objectives:

  • Re-visit The Pact and continue to establish diplomatic relations and learn more about them (sector Z6).
  • Investigate a crater to the north of the Pact village (sector AA1)
  • Investigate and if possible exploit the resources of another Vulcan research facility.
  • Deal with any encounters with Bunker Victoria as diplomatically as possible.

Whilst these operations where underway, I was advised of the following rules of engagement:

  • “Super mutants” – engage on sight.
  • Hive – engage on sight.
  • All other encounters – fire only if fired upon.

As the Friday activities mainly centred around diplomacy, I engaged in security patrols and propped up the local trees aided ably by Ascendant soldiers Nero and Riley. However, later in the night I ended up joining a sortie to look into the “Choir of the Enlightened” or some other bullshit.

Mission 0 – The Choir of the Enlightened (OSOB)

Not quite sure what the brief was here but I was running security detail so to begin with it didn’t really matter. We headed for Hope’s End, the surface settlement where the disenfranchised members of Bunker Ascendant now live alongside an increasing number of Tribals. Fortitude security briefings told us to stay clear of this place to avoid ‘diplomatic tensions’ but a task was a task.

So we pushed out. First things first we ran into arguing factions around this ‘psychic cult. Ignored them, pushed on.

Into this…

Some voodoo bullshit

Yup. This crazy altar with some empty-head cultists praying at it.

Push on, and we run into -I think- the cult leader.

So time for a bit of background I think, as this is when I started to get an idea what was going on.

So this cult was trying to worship ‘The Ancestors’. Apparently the Ascendancy council disagreed and murdered a load of them. Then got away with it.

So this new leader was upset about that. And the job was to convince him of the need to murder his fellow cultists.

Chief Forgot-His-Name, mid rant

So the team got to work explaining to him the horrors of the Ancestors, and in particular the evil witch avatar thing that they all seemed to be worshipping. As luck would have it, I’d come across an old FEF file whilst researching threats prior to taking this assignment, and came an audio file in the bunker records which I was able to share with the team and Chief FHN.

This went someway to convincing him that the Ancestors might not really be the answer to his prayers.

Talking talking talking

Unfortunately we were called back to the camp as it fell under attack, leaving Chief FHN to his own devices. Hopefully we did some good, otherwise I foresee another murder mission requirement.

Saturday – Relocation to Forward Operating Base

Saturday Morning march route

As dawn broke we marched on to our FOB.

On arrival to the facility, it became quite clear that the area was far from secure. The Operatives we relieved appeared mentally and physically worn, and afraid. The mood changed substantially, and I started to see a little professionalism and seriousness from some of the FEF members around me. This was a welcome change from the lax standards I had seen the night before.

Mission 1 – Pact Diplomacy

A relative simple journey was to take us to the pact villages. After waiting for the Engineering team to establish a forward operating Drone Relay, we set off North.

After travelling a couple of KMs we had reports of Mutant activity ahead. I flanked left from the main group and engaged from the tree line. The resulting firefight was relatively controlled, with some of the larger mutants attempting to charge the gun line. The weaker ones certainly seemed more cautious and enjoyed breathing more than their larger brethren, but a lack of military organisation was evident.

Oh yeah. Ugly bastards. Real fucking ugly.

Tactical suicide by bullet rain

Who’s smiling now?

We pushed on and encountered yet more of the creatures. At this point I hit a moment of hubris. Thinking a flank clear, I pushed forward into the open and was summarily cut down in an ambush by one of the shyer but clearly intelligent ones.

Not my finest hour. Luckily the fight must have ended shortly after and I was recovered by the team.

We managed to push on to the village. The Recon members stayed in the tree line, leaving the main group to push on.

It wasn’t long before Bunker Victoria also arrived. Councillor Fields had mentioned that they laid claim to the lands we were in, and my assumption was that must extend to the village. The Recon team stayed out of sight in case of escalation, but some photo-visual records were taken.

Practical Camo in 2523

As we had approached the village, one of the villagers had left. We followed her for a while, but as we left the village area we fell back to our protective positions. Turns out we probably should have followed her…

We became aware of possible hostiles to our West. Myself and Dancer pushed out to recce the area and sure enough came across group of mutants. We kept observati0n on them for around 15 minutes when they suddenly engaged an unknown foe.

Due to radio failure, I was unaware if they had engaged the rest of our group or not, so put to ensuring they lost the firefight. After ensuring they had been dealt with I was able to reconnect with Dancer. Getting back onto the main route, I realised they had been engaged with a Victoria patrol. We were able to heal 3 or the 4 patrol members, but the 4th had unfortunately been part consumed by the mutants.

Lunch suddenly less appealing

We were joined by Jacob, who asked us to help him look for a missing villager. We pushed on and found… Strangeness. Tracks leading to a pile of empty clothes next to a C7 contaminated lake…

We headed back to the village. The Elders talked of their missing villager having a serious, incurable disease. Probably something that would have been trivial for our Nanites to fix, but it was too late. She had chosen to ‘ascend’ and join the Ancestors…

Then there was this. I didn’t ask….

Counting with the tribals?

Apparently the diplomacy had gone quite well considering the attempted interference by Bunker Victoria.

Mission success then, back to camp for debrief.

Mission 2 – “Investigate” the Super Mutants

Something got lost in translation here. Maybe it’s just me… but this was quite simply a fucking war….

Came for the fight, stayed for the social…

We were met by a member of the Blackhill tribe. The Mutants were coming and they needed help. I’ve no knowledge of why it was a good idea to help, but that was the job…

Yep, this is gonna be bad…

Cue carnage. We fought through wave upon wave of these creatures. I almost got eaten very early on, and revised my tactics substantially after that…

During our journey to the village we encountered a friendly by the name of Cromwell. I was told he was the result of some kind of experiment by the Foritude military, but saw no evidence and this could be nothing but propaganda. Either way, he proved quite useful in thinning the hordes.

Not gonna lie, the Recon photos thinned out a bit here. Stalking / being counter stalked for around an hour meant my hand was on the DMR rather than the PADD… Took time for some trophy photos though, will save them for the end…

After fighting through around 3 or 4 more dozen of this filthy, loud, disgusting but scarily able combatants we were able to relieve the village. Our tour guide seemed content…

Yay us. Not in a rush to be crouched in a ditch five yards from a half dozen slavering giant cannibals again any time soon.

You’re welcome man, smile next time…

Night-time antics

The rest of the day was spent keeping an eye on our camp, with a number of attacks attempted on our position by the Super Mutants.

This escalated into a wholesale assault later in the evening, where the camp was hit from the darkness and the whole thing descended into chaos.

I spent most of my time laid on my chest in cover on the extreme edges of the camp putting down return fire. The attacks seemed to last for over an hour, and at a couple of points the core defenders were almost overwhelmed. These Super Mutants aren’t a pushover.

Sunday – take the facility

No point spending too much time here. Basically, we hit a facility packed full of Super Mutants. Messed them up then found some of them had ran off with the loot.

So we set out with a nice steady jog to catch them. And catch them we did – about five of us.

Well we seemed to bite off more than we could chew, as they turned on us and beat us down hard. The last thing I saw as I passed out from blood loss was Sally beating her way towards me and almost reaching me to heal me before dropping to a hail of bullets herself.

Dice Roll

Well, I was healed… turns out the Major had been left behind dealing with some kind of android and had tried to catch up with one of the 2 groups that had gone out to catch loot… he’d randomly picked our group to pursue and just happened to get there at the right time, tear some arms off and get us healed.

Let’s fucking hear it for Fortitude Power Armour!

We managed to get the loot. Mission done, time for a drink….

Trophy pics!

They say you shouldn’t glorify killing. But it’s literally what I get paid to do! So here’s my updated CV / bonus application…

Weak dead guy

Pile of powerful dead guys, pre-teabag

Body builder dead guy. He won’t be back.

Dead lady. Equal opportunity corpse creation at Bunker Fortitude.

Bonus pic – future dead guys cos they’re fucking idiots.

Well that’s Aggro signing off. Where’s that bonus?

Surface Report – 13.5 Silver Tongue -Cllr S Fields

Operation Silver Tongue

Michael Shannon, The Drakes, Agro and I all travelled to Bunker Fortitude to try to help with our mutual specialist issue. 

We met up with several of the Fortitude FEF we have worked with before. I was happy to see people like Sarge and Katia as I hadn’t seen them since the Floor 17 mission and I wanted to see how they were all getting on. Councillor Alverson met us just as we were catching up with the terrible news that Welkerson had been poisoned by an assassination patch and was close to death. He tasked us with investigating the people working with him and to do so quietly so as not to spread panic, and to find a copy of the virus used on him. We had about 3 hours to get the job done.

We went to soldier Mclaren bunk space and started to poke around. A lot of the residents of the level were confused as to why we were there and were quick to suggest it was because of an assassination or something as they had heard rumours. 

In his room we found two PADDs that needed hacking to gain access to the information. Engineers and Psymon worked diligently to get us access to the information.

Here is an example of the comms

DF17305
DF17308

Unfortunately we appeared to trigger some kind of silent alarm as we came under attack from Fortitude personnel. The team managed to deal with the attack easily, and we left the attackers for Fortitude to investigate. 

The second communication led us to a lab which had all the technology needed to create the assassination patch.

It was here things started to get… odd.

The lab was investigated for traces of the virus and none were found. Shannon and Katia also discovered that the equipment was too clean. The lab was a fake! 

This called into question everything we had discovered so far and then another Padd with hidden data was discovered. In the course of hacking this, the device blew up, although luckily we got the data off it first. 

(Padd record)

DF17331

It became very apparent that this was the true communications device and that the ted by the Network and the Specialists. The other information that we had received could only be seen as dubious at best and on my opinion is utterly false and attempting to use our methods of collecting information against us. 

We informed bunker control that we would be leaving the bunker to head to the Garden that is mentioned in the comms. (K20 on the map) Control and Alverson were confused by this turn of events but allowed us to the surface. On the way to the Garden we came under repeated attack from the children of Eden. It’s a further confirmation that the Network have managed to get them under their control. 

Agro had a theory that someone was trying to stop us getting to the Garden and to try and deal with that suggested sending the drones back along the path we had already come and to say we were on our way home, unsuccessful. This turned out to be entirely true and getting rid of the drones allowed us to get there.

At the Garden there were further sustained attacks while Scar tried to get the doors to the facility open. There were specialist snipers and children of Eden and they were very persistent at trying to stop us. We pressed forward and Scar managed to get the door to the facility open.

I was not prepared for what Katia and I found within. It was a Hive subject suspended in some kind of device.

Shannon and Scar could tell you more about it as I understood very little as the medical and technological discussions were very advanced, but what I did understand was this was part of something called Project Nexus which was about infiltrating Hive programming for who knows what end.

Also in the facility the medics found a device that had the base codes for the virus that was killing Welkerson. Katia uploaded the code to bunker control who managed to use it to help Welkerson and just in the nick of time as he was nearly dead. 

As we started to make our way back to Fortitude, Alverson came over the radio taunting us with his superiority and accusing us of destroying years of research. He was Network! (I think his codename is Einstein) we tried to get back to arrest him but he shut down DAMAGE and the comms relays. He and several Network Specialists managed to escape the bunker in the confusion of DAMAGE being down. I imagine they will plague us further but at least he is not in a position of power on the council.

Once again Fortitude and Ascendancy personnel came together for the good of both bunkers and we all worked very well together.

If anyone wishes more details of Project Nexus or the Specialists and their misdirections please do contact me in office hours at the usual address.

Additional note:

As I was returning to Ascendancy lands, Katia asked for a conversation and the result of which is that she wants to join Bunker Ascendant and its FEF as she doesn’t feel comfortable at Fortitude. I have brought her back and she is currently living in the tunnels above my office. She’s a brilliant scientist and medic so I’m eager to see what she can do for the Ascendancy. 

Senior Minister 

Sally Fields.

Surface Report – 13.5 Silver Tongue – Dr M Shannon

I should start with the call from Alverson telling us that Welkerson had been infected with a tailor made virus keyed to his DNA, they had found a Sergeant had infected Welkerson and we started by searching his locked quarters, Scar got it open. whilst in there we were attacked by fortitude specialists

We then found some tablets that we hacked, they held messages which seemed to indicate Dr Matthews head medic at fortitude it also gave us a location of what was meant to be a lab where the virus was m,eant to be made however it looked like a set up

We then had a look at second tablet that gave us a location on the surface in the Children of eden lands, we started to move toward this but ot all seemed too well hidden, we tried some duplicity with drones shot plenty of Children of Eden then discovered two locked buildings, the first one contained a blender with Virus samples in it did explode but we were able to obtain the code to save Welkerson from one of the samples in it

The other building contained this

This is a Vulcam Golem, Sally screamed when she saw this, it had started the transformation into another form of Vulcan drone a shaper or a node but the blue cage around it was stopping this process from going forward

There was also code on a terminal to infiltrate and control Vulcan core code, I could not save the code but have enough notes to actually create it.

We then destroyed the Vulcan body and as we left Alverson outted himself as Network, we then lost all long range comms and drone and Damage stopped working, it was only a temporary thing though as Damage was soon up and running again, last but not least we had a psyker move from Fortitude to Ascendancy.

Operation 13 Stratosphere – Senior Minister Fields

First I want to open my report by saying that I was astounded by the number of excellent new FEF members we had with us on the surface this time. They made the bunker and the Ascendancy proud and I was happy to work alongside them. I am also happy to have had their fresh eyes looking at situations that have occurred and received a lot of good feedback, advice and questions that I plan to take forward in the upcoming year.

I also wish to formally ask for a vote to rename the forward outpost that was part of Vulcan facilities Fort NED in honour of his sacrifice but more of that later.

We started the surface mission at Fort Leon, consolidating our supplies needed for the long walk and the territory ahead. We were visited by the Shale who were interested in our PADDs and we traded some salvage for 2 PADDs, the salvage to go straight into repairing the new forward post. 

Several sets of protestors appeared wanting to discuss many different issues but mainly issues surrounding Psions and the Choir of the Enlightened. They were peaceful and engaged with many members of the FEF.

One of the protestors allowed Vlad to show him what had happened with the Witch and he was so horrified he tried to kill himself. Vlad with no thought to his own skin immediately took on the wound himself and the protestor healed. The protester then left, vowing to explain what he had seen.

A mission to do something scientific with a potato and a radioactive tree went out to apparent great success. I’m sure a report will be made by someone who understood what they did!

We were invited to meet with Brother Phineas to discuss the issues surrounding Psions and the Choir and strikes and on heading out to the meet point, met with two sets of fighting protestors who were arguing for and against the choir. I’m pleased that we managed to defuse the situation and we sent them to Councillor Shannon at the Bunker for a drink and further discussion.

We also came across a person worshipping the ashes of the Choir’s Holy Mother who I killed,  and Vlad got psychically entangled by the worshipper.

On meeting Brother Phineas he was very demanding and wanted to know exactly what we were going to do for him. Councillor Vlad and others made some excellent points but it wasn’t until we played the recording of the attack by the Witch upon the FEF forced and showed him the files on the issues with what has become to be known colloquially as ‘jumping over the edge’ in Psionic terms and moving up in power level that he began to at least understand a little why I did what I did. We need to have more discussion and he wants an answer as to why we don’t release more information to the whole bunker, but as I have said before, I don’t want the whole bunker to turn on Psions.

Unfortunately we had to leave Brother Phineas rapidly as there was an attack on Fort Leon by the specialists. The fighting was fierce. The specialists were heavily armed and well prepared but we managed to get to Fort Leon to help out and we had no losses in the attack. We didn’t manage to get any information from the specialist we captured alive before they killed themselves unfortunately.

We were just about to head to bed when we received a faint panicked radio call from a Fortitude Soldier on patrol. He had found a member of the Stricken who was dying and he needed assistance. We went out to collect them, but he needed surgery immediately. Indy managed to stabilise him for transport and then we marched back to Fort Leon.

I woke Dr Shannon up and set him to work (where do Dr’s go to sleep, I usually can only ever find Shannon late at night). Shannon completed a complicated surgical procedure that involved removing bits of landmine from the Stricken’s heart. Happily the procedure was successful and the Stricken, one Thirus Gorman made a complete recovery.

I discovered he was a leading member of the black hill boys settlement and that he came from a place called the Borderlands near The Vulcan Depot. I have to say I was very excited by this news and immediately started to plot this on the maps I had brought with me.

Unfortunately he carried with him grave news. The super mutants that had attacked us and we had driven from the depot were spreading out,  moving through villages and settlements and killing or taking prisoner the villagers (so that they could send them to something called The Jab). Gorman came through the area behind Fortitude that the Children of Eden held, looking for help but the rest of his friends were slaughtered by the Children. There was a brief discussion and those of the FEF present agreed that we need to help the Black Hill Boys.

The FEF the next day moved en masse to the Vulcan facility we had taken on the last surface mission. Although the team left looking after it had done a great Job the engineers did think that any number of the circuits and systems were likely to blow up at any given time. And how right they were!

When the first mission went out to discuss provisions and supplies with the Pact (which bunker Victoria also appeared to want and there was a competition for) the Depot worked for a while but then numerous parts of it started to go wrong. The engineers on duty were fantastic; Ned, Scar and Roary pulled the facility back from the brink of failure at risk to their own lives.

Vlad, Darya and everyone on the Pact mission did a great job of working together to impress the Pact although the situation remains unresolved. We do have a new contact at Victoria though, Ambassador Adalaid Armitage Smithe. Shannon also discovered that a lot of the Pact have lung rot and that we have no cure for it yet.

I went out with the second mission to see if I could film any conversation between the mutants and to see if I could work out their command structure. Discussion of ‘The Jab’ means there has to be a level of communication and scientific knowledge which means they or some of them could be reasoned with. Bloom, a member of the Lost tribe, thinks that this is impossible but I feel it’s important to try.

Cromwell

We met hard and consistent attacks from the mutants, but one bright point was running into Cromwell, who wanted one of our drones so that he could better protect a Stricken village from Mutant attacks. I felt that this was sensible and so we released a Drone to him, although this annoyed the Drone ops and Dahl greatly. He then joined us as we tried to take down a Mutant Warlord. (We are starting to learn their command structures!) The fighting was swift, brutal and ugly. But the FEF with Cromwell’s help prevailed and we took down most of the fighting forces. The Warlord unfortunately escaped. Gorman met us at the end and thanked us for our help. There may be a chance that we can become friends with this tribe and it’s something I would like to pursue.

Mr Gorman

The next mission to go out was to investigate the radioactive crater to the north of Pact lands. The area is highly radioactive and they ran into a Victoria science base that had been killed by a large Mutant beast. The situation was made worse by a Victoria patrol running into the team and threatening them as they believed the FEF had killed the science team. Preposterous accusations and postering in the face of evidence showing a beast attack that nearly got them all killed.

A firefight ensued and then the FEF patrol healed the Victoria soldiers and brought them to the Depot. Darya, Vlad and I interviewed the Victoria soldiers while several of the FEF called for their lives. Luckily cooler heads prevailed and we released them after getting a lot of information from them.

In summary I managed to get:

The location of Bunker Victoria

A list of the ruling families Bartholomew, Morterson, Watling, Pickman, Armitage

A rough idea of numbers and attitudes: there’s 10 divisions of soldiers, the soldiers are not invited to events with their officers, the soldiers have radiation damage and are malnourished, medical and logistics people don’t seem to be held in high regard, a lot of bunker Victoria are classified as farmers and even the ordinary privates believe that Victoria should be ruling an empire.

After this I have to say I wanted a quiet night but we were attacked by Super Mutants. The attack was again vicious and sustained. We fought well and as a coordinated unit with everyone playing major roles in successfully defending the depot. The skills and courage displayed on that night show why I am so proud to be a member of FEF.

Dead Mutant

Unfortunately after this high came another major situation. Elwood, Jacob and Anthony burst into the depot and restrained Nero claiming he had committed crimes against the Ascendancy.

Jacob explained that there was reason to believe that our communications systems had been compromised. As a precaution, council PADDs were scanned for hacks or bugs with full permission of councillors.

Major Elwood’s padd contained a bug that was inactive. The situation was monitored until the bug went active and the data transmission was tracked to Nero’s position after the Mutant attack.

A search of Nero was then performed and witnessed by members of the FEF including councillors Vlad, Jacob and Fields. The search was done in full view of all present. Upon Nero in a pouch was found a high quality shielded padd Fortitude in origin and some patches. He professed he had never seen them before.

To de-escalate the situation Councillor Vlad asked if he could search Nero’s mind for the truth of the matter and receiving permission from Nero received a blast of emotion when he opened himself to thoughts so crippling that he believed Nero to be guilty. (he later rescinded this and now believes him to be innocent) Studying his body language I believe Nero to be innocent but it was a very complex situation with very high emotions. Nero tried to escape, and so the decision was made to Stun him and hold him until the truth of the matter could be ascertained. The items recovered were given to Dr Shannon for DNA testing. This situation is ongoing at the time of this report’s submission and investigations into the bug, padd and patches are still happening.

After the arrest, the FEF met with Raze who issued several statements about the free peoples and their path moving forward.

He abolished the post of Soul

He created the post of Voice

He said that the Risen,  would be forgiven their transgressions with a new leader and a vow of fealty

The dead stars would be investigated and may be forgiven with a new chief and a vow of fealty

He said that there would be a council of tribal chiefs he would discuss everything with

The Tithe in excess that had been instituted at the prompting of the old Soul would be returned.

Rav was promoted to Chief of the Pack and he would be trying to get them to settle into the Crows’ old lands.

He doesn’t trust the Ancestors after the issues with the Soul and wishes to ban their worship although this is still being discussed.

If that wasn’t enough we also had a visit from Eli as a hologram using Dahl’s interface. He said this was the last time he would try to convince us. He confirmed that Aegis was a dictatorship and that the AI selected the 5 people best suited each year to help Aegis to run the bunker for the year. He also said that we would have to stop using C7 immediately if we joined and all people would need to follow what they were told to do for the good of the bunker. I asked about threats and attacks as our weapons use C7 and he said we need not worry as we wouldn’t need them as Aegis soldiers would protect us.

I understand the need to move from C7 and we have engineers and medics and chemists working on this right now. I however, will never live under the dictatorship that Eli and Aegis proposes even for their clean energy technologies.

The next day the FEF made their way to the old Vulcan Research facility. We were fighting Mutants all the way, and rescuing Stricken they had captured. One survivor called Julie identified herself as a member of the Smiths clan who had all been killed or captured and I sent her to Cromwell for protection. I hope she made it.

There was also a meeting of mutants/tribals from different clans and an argument about being just like the Cutlery users.

In the final push to the facility we again met heavy resistance but prevailed. Unfortunately a large part of the facility was destroyed. We still found some interesting salvage and then a choice. There were mutants fleeing and we could choose to go only after 1 or 2 of them, all which carried engineering data and all moving at speed. One was for a laser gun, one for satellite launch plans and one was for a personal defence system. It was a bit of a scrabble and I wasn’t sure who had gone for what but I legged after one team leaving Jacob and Elwood behind to study a communication system. I did not like leaving him behind. The other group went after the satellite information, I found later.

After a running foot chase under fire, we found the mutant and got the Fusion-Laser Tactical Weapon System (FLTWS). It was a hard and difficult chase. I wasn’t sure who was on the mission and many of us went down. I was desperately trying to get to Agro who had gone down in front, fighting hand to hand and then I was down. My vision leaving me I saw the face of my armoured savour. Elwood. Thank the maps he came after us, otherwise I think we all would have died. We returned to the Depot and it was only then we realised the full cost of our mission. NED didn’t return and had been killed. This is why the depot should be named Fort Ned in honour of his sacrifice. He spent much of the Mission fixing the Fort and its fitting it should be named after him.

It was a sombre group that made our way back to Ascendancy territory.

NED next to the comms uplink the engineers Scar and Ned worked on for hours to fix.

We have discovered a number of very interesting things about the area around Pact land. We have discovered that the Mutants are cannibals but also have some level of organisation and scientific knowledge. They can read and write.

We have knowledge of many more villages we can visit and the medics have a lot of scans of Mutant physiology.

It was a successful surface mission during which the FEF pulled together and we made large leaps forward in our understanding and knowledge.

Sally Fields

Senior Minister.

Operation 13 Stratosphere – Dr Shannon

Well an interesting event on Friday I was contacted by Dahl and he advised myself and fellow members of squad Spud, Anthony Brenner, Sick note Brenner Engineers Ned and Scar. We were tasked with obtaining cuttings from a 200 year old Radiation eating tree to plant in an Alpha radiation zone and hopefully these will grow, it did involve using radioactive “spuds” Anthony that is the last time I am using that word. They looked a bit like this.

However this being proper science we had to dip them in radioactive goo, wearing gloves masks etc stick the cuttings in the potatoes then plant them out in the alpha radiation zone.

Things went smoothly except Scar must now make a talking time watch for one of the Hell eye clan who showed us where the tree was and generously let us take cuttings. Once the dipping was done the cuttings and potatoes were transported to a planting site and planted with the aid of a shovel all in all a good scientific endeavour.

I then pulled a guard duty at fort Leon with most of the other medics galivanting off into the wild unknown, when this happened we were attacked by Fortitude specialists, I was shot down but was stabilised by the crat Darya, in fact she stabilised most of us and in fact saved the day in my opinion. She deserves to be recognised. I did manage to get several very close up scans of the fortitude specialists. (note to self why do fortitude soldiers grin when they expire, must find out why)

So after being shot I decided to retire, gun shots do wear you out a little only to be woken by a loud radio call from Councillor fields that they had a medical emergency coming in that was not responding to nanites and  I was the only medic I could find. A quick assessment showed the patient had multiple pieces of shrapnel in their chest slowly moving toward their heart, open chest surgery is tiring work, you cannot get anything wrong it must be perfect or the patient may die due to blood loss. It was tiring, I have never fought so hard with a patient but I did get all of the Fortitude landmine bits out of the patient’s chest, then a quick dose of nanites and the wound sealed itself and the patient could talk to us, I am afraid I was too exhausted to understand so left Sally to deal with it.

Would you believe it just as I am about to drift off Sally again could I help hack this chip that had been found, but being honest I was so tired I could not see straight and fell asleep in the attempt.

The next morning there was a long walk to what is now known as Fort Ned, just as I was settling in my bunk yes you guessed it Sally again, there no medics can you go out on this diplomatic mission to the pact, we want to negotiate with them to source some C7, C7 is insidious stuff burns the body chemically why the followers of the choir choose to drink it is beyond me, So I fell asleep under a tree, diplomacy is not my thing. I did manage to get detailed scans of the pact though. (Apparently eating cake is very important)

Whilst negotiating we were rudely interrupted several times by super mutants, I again scanned all of these, Ill put just a few in this report.

I then pulled bunker guard duty again, it was quiet until a little surprise visit from Bunker Victoria apparently the nephew of the fellow Simmerson we met the first time. They advised as we were occupying their lands, they would be expecting rent from us, the sum of £10.000. Well with help from the Crat Darya again we advised we would have to put this to our council and give then a response in a few weeks’ time, we have been given a month to pay, most people agree with me that Victoria will not be getting anything from us. I am confused though as the ambassador at the pact this morning was much more pleasant to deal with, maybe a genetic flaw in the males? They left us in peace after delivering this ultimatum, I have advised my fellow councillors.

So I decided to do a couple of hours research with my scans concentrating on Super mutants and The Pact, seeing if I could find any correlation between the two and generally losing myself in the research, I am hoping to do this with Dahl’s help but the network is very patchy here.

However just as I was settling down to study the code, an emergency came up, no not Sally this time but we were attacked by super mutants, we acquitted ourselves well, but I must admit not sure my nose has gone back right after getting punched in the face by a super mutant. Fort Ned was defended  superbly by not nearly the major in his power armour but I was surprised by the engineer Triss Brenner and Scar helping to hold the buildings thanks to them no more mutants made it into the building. Full marks to our newest medic stripes for grabbing a box and picking up people where needed.

After this calmed down something else unusual happened the Major and Jacob burst in and grabbed Nero accusing him of planting some sore of bug on the major, they restrained him and were marching him to a cell I was about to follow to carry out some basic procedure scans when  I was approached by “Wall” who said not to scan Nero as I would not like the answer but it would be alright in the morning. This naturally made me want to scan Nero even more and both of this scans showed no anomalies, they are here for you to see.

Nero was searched and a device and some nanite patches were discovered, when I scanned these patches they turned out to be tailor made viruses for individuals, namely the fortitude leadership.

I then buried myself in research again the pact and super mutant genomes whilst fascinating, I would like to find a way to slow them down or at least drop them so I don’t get punched in the face again.

This leads me up to the afternoon of Sun day when yes you guessed I was asked to hack a device along with several other hackers which we successfully did, when I learned the device was the one found on Nero I forensically tested the device and could find no trace of Nero on it at all.

A lot of research to do one of my medics has been tasked with finding a viable alternate to C7 Ill give him all the support on that, Rav and Indiana have been charged by Raze to lead an entire new tribe and investigate who took part in the recent ceremony I agreed to help with this. Lastly I want to look at possibly creating the first new AI after the fall, Fort Ned sounds like it would be the perfect place to do this, must start researching this.

Surface Mission Report – Bunker Fortitude Level 17: Operation Reclamation 

By Sally Fields – Council Member, Bureaucrats

Buoyed with the energy of clearing out a significant number of Hive on the surface mission, several of us travelled to Bunker Fortitude to observe and assist with the mission to clear level 17 of Hive.

We made our way to Level 17 in a lift that was controlled by Fortitude engineers and was blocked after our leaving it so the only way back to another level was to clear the floor.

I was less than happy with the new call sign that Frank Malone has gifted me, but my swearing at the new call sign and laughing at my expense seemed to settle Fortitude and Ascendancy personnel into a fighting force. I was also less than happy to discover that Chief Welkerson had not revealed until we were in the lift he wanted us to search for a missing engineer while we were on level 17: Engineer Pantellic. She is an Ironclad armour specialist.

On entry to 17 we met with heavy resistance. It appeared that the Hive were everywhere and we were hard pressed at the start but we managed to battle our way though to the habit area. Our progress was documented by new crat that was working under Kincaid. 

In the habitat area we managed to find Engineer Pantellic who was malnourished and struggling but seemed to be okay or so we thought.

Several diary entries were found during the search and one indicated a issue- that the Hive didn’t trouble Pantellic and seemed to ignore her. Other entries indicated the heart nreaking stories of those on level 17 and those were passed on to Debbie to catalogue as part of her documentary. Katia a medic and Psionic who I trust and have worked with in the past checked Pantellic with her permission and was hit by an immense wave of a vast mind and space and pain. From this point on we kept a very close eye on the Engineer.

The Hive continued to trouble us in the area and it was suggested that we moved to a better location. There seemed a never ending number of Hive Golem. 

I witnessed an amazing display of soldiers working together to pull out and pepperpot tactics to get us to engineering. When the area had been made safe we realised that Hive had been attempting to access level 16 through the floor and were drilling through. It was lucky that Fortitude had decided to take back 17 as they were very close to breaking through. 

Next it was suggested that we head to power generation to look at a fluctuating generator. 

Frank went ahead with a Fortitude soldier wearing CHAPS and carrying a Shannon/Max patch and so he was able to report back that there was a Hive in an Ironclad armour ahead.

After another magnificent display by everyone we fought our way through to the power area taking down the Iron Clad. The engineers looked at the fluctuating power and stabilised it and said that they could use it to blow up this level to take out the remaining Hive. I was loud in my objections considering their was a nursery and infirmary below us in 16. At that point the power armor blew up. The engineers had looked at it and said it was mostly safe, and so Pantellic was looking at what modifications the Hive had done. She finished what she was doing and moved away when it exploded rendering several of us unconscious and injured. Luckily there were enough people around to get us all back on our feet but we (and Welkerson) were unhappy it had exploded. At this stage I made sure to brief Frank especially that although Pantellic was being considered a hero by Fortitude for her survival in 17, there may be more too it.

And indeed there was.

On moving to the medical section the last main Hive stronghold the medics and engineers found a what looked like a murder scene which has been reported to Fortitude council. Also in the infirmary we found a Hive subject unlike anything we have seen, it appeared mindless and directionless, with rogue nanite programming that has attempted to create a shaper Hive. There was a cybernetic device entered into the brainstem and all the work on the body appeared to focus on the technical machine aspect of integration. 

On clearing out the medical area we were told that the majority of Hive had been dealt with so we could return to the lift. 

On the way to the lift I made sure to apprise Kincaid and Welkerson of the situation and on returning to their level Pantellic was escorted to medical and sedated.

The whole mission was a great success and shows how well the two bunkers can work together.

Unfortunately it also showed that the engineers were right about the Hive upgrading any Hive into a more senior one as when we were on level 17 we found evidence that the Hive were trying to forcible upgrade the golem in the set of Fortitude power armor to a Scythe. This was 77.2% accepted. This proves the theory that any golem is upgradable with enough time and so both Fortitude and the Ascendancy must continue our efforts to wipe out even the smallest pocket of Hive Golem. 

Since operation Reclamation medical teams have been examining Pantellic and trying to help stabilise her and it is likely that she has been exposed to a version of Hive Pandora. She is now suffering withdrawal symptoms or suffering a bodily craving for something that cannot be identified yet by medics.

I’m sure that together we can help her through this, and to root out Pandora in the same way we have the Vulcans.

Surface Mission Report

Surgeon General Michael Shannon

I have a lot of research to do and some study of the effects of the environment on both bunkers personel, however I had to attend a meeting with the fortitude Bunker council, not really sure why I was there but someone said I had to be, although meet their medical representative and have agreed to help them with their Hive problem in the middle of  in their bunker, there was a bit of a spat about power armour and rail guns but did not get involved with that.

Continue reading “Surface Mission Report”

Failure and Success

Surface report by Sally Fields – 21/04/2523

This surface mission was one of immense successes and devastating failures that will haunt me until the end of my career. While we have taken great leaps forward in defeating the Hive we have also failed to save lives and I wish to openly and wholeheartedly apologise for that.

Continue reading “Failure and Success”