It is a funny thing to write in a report that I live only due to the magnanimity of an enemy. But it is true. And I’m getting ahead of myself.
This surface mission had a great number of successes and some terrible failures.
There has also been many significant things revealed
Friday night we all met up and started to pass information that we all had gathered. I hadn’t seen quite a few of the FEF given my recent stint in Jail at Fortitude and my extended stay with the Black Hill Boys trying to solidify our friendship and help rebuild after the explosion. A large party went to rescue the Tribal Leaders that had been taken by Raze, while the rest of us compared maps and shared data. They were successful thankfully.
Callum, a Speaker from the Aviary, arrived and told us that he was here to learn more about the UC and watch the FEF at work. He was sent to Fort Leon from Fort NED as he was looking for NED to find out if he could get any more information on what happens after a Supermutant takes you. Unfortunately his sister was taken and he is searching for her.
Later we also had the Foreman of the Black Hill Boys arrive and we had a long discussion about what the UC could do for the Black Hill Boys and vice versa and I suggested an exchange program so we can continue to learn from each other. I am hopeful that one day they will join the UC but even if they don’t they are an excellent trading partner and we both want the Mutant menace dealt with.
The next morning a small party of us set out to try and deal with Slasher, Raze’s current 2IC. It started off okay, with the surface team working our way through several parties of Warmongers, and approaching Slashers camp. The Warmongers had been decapitating any psionics that they had come across and we found the heads of several unfortunate souls.
When we reached Slasher’s camp Crow noticed an Aegis agent lying in wait with a sniper rifle which he worked his way to try and take out. Slasher was aggressive and demanded that we face him in single combat in a cage. None of the party were melee specialists and so we were reluctant to engage an expert with a very large shield. The Aegis operative took a couple of shots at us which I did not appreciate. Obediah offered him a duel with pistols but he refused. We were at a stalemate. We needed to remove Slasher from the field so that the mission to capture Raze had a chance. We also knew that Slasher had some kind of protection or approval from the ancestors. Crow managed to get the drop on the Aegis agent but the rest of us went down when we engaged Slashers forces. In hindsight we had far too few people to be taking on a camp of that size. We should have withdrawn and come back with more people. Slasher decided that letting us live with his brand to show the world that he had captured us was far better propaganda than killing us and so he branded all of us with the symbol of the Warmongers.
Conkers was very disappointed that we failed the mission, and more disappointed that we didn’t take Slasher on in single combat. I hope that doesn’t reflect badly in his report to the Black Prince.
After our failure to take Slasher, the Raze mission became somewhat more difficult. I was in medical getting my wounds treated but from the sounds of it he employed all sorts of tactics including explosive devices and body doubles to escape.
However the team managed to recover Padd that contained an earth shaking revelation; the Padd was of pre fall manufacture and belonged to UKUS marines and contained the information that Raze was being manipulated and controlled by the Marines.
Raze and some of the free people left towards the Pennines which is where (I have upon good authority) there is a Night Fall Base.
The implications for the future are mind boggling but I had no time to consider them. I was drafted on a mission to talk to the leader of the Ash Horde; Morgan and the leader of The Burnt Ghosts; Ivanova, in the Free Peoples’ sacred grove. The history of the grove is a long one, but basically before Raze when the tribes needed to come together and talk out a problem with no blood shed they would meet in the grove, place there weapons on the ground and use an item like a staff or dagger as a thing to pass around so that only the person with the item could talk.
Getting to the Leaders was fraught with danger. Several bands of Warmongers tried to stop us. However we got to the grove in one piece. There was bad news though, there were several waves of Warmongers approaching. We split into two forces, Ducky leading Vortigan and Scar, taking point on the defence and Esab, Preacher and myself doing the talking in the Grove. Callum took the point between and was running in with healing or assistance as needed.
In the Grove, we all spoke passionately about our hopes for the future. Understandably Ivanova as a trader was worried about her people’s trade being curtailed, and Morgan was worried about the situations that they might face. I offered a formal apology to Morgan and the Ash Horde for the lack of respect that had been paid to his tribe and their efforts in rebuilding New Hope and in building the original settlement of Hope’s End. I am glad that he accepted my apology as I feel that the UC could learn a lot from his people.
The team holding the line against the Warmongers was being hard pressed so we had to speak quickly. There was a mention of Aegis and maybe power armour so Esab spoke his piece and left to join the line and so did Preacher. I am very pleased to say that The Ash Horde and the Burnt Ghosts both agreed to join the UC after receiving several assurances that we would treat them the same as we treat any member of the UC. Further talks to see how we can better work together will of course be needed.
I ushered Morgan and Ivanova out of the Grove and joined my companions. They had done an amazing job securing the meet and we retreated to Fort Leon rapidly and while still taking heavy fire.
The same evening Crow said that he had located some salvage during a drone sweep and wanted to go collect it. I volunteered to help and 5 of us headed out. We heard a distress call on the radio but those back at Fort Leon dealt with that while we stayed on task.
We found a large pile of salvage that contained a broken drone and crat salvage that was all across a small area. While I was collecting the salvage, the rest of the team was locating it and on overwatch which was a very good job as we came under constant attack, from an unknown source. I hurried to collect the pieces we had found when one of the team called out that they had taken down an assailant. Imagine my horror when I realized that we were being attacked by Hive Vulcan Golems. I really hoped they were all dead but they were not.
There were too many Golems for there not to be something creating them. I immediately called Fort Leon to let them know that we would all need checking for Hive infection on our return.
On our return we found that most people at Fort Leon had gone on a rescue mission to assist the distress call. Those left at Leon checked up over and found us free of Hive influence. Those at Leon were very unhappy that more people had not been left as they had been taking continuous fire from the Warmongers and possibly Aegis since we had left to scavenge.
The distress call turned out to be from a Road Captain from Grey Ditch called Bo. Her car had broken and unfortunately all those with her had died defending the car but when they got to her Scar and NED were able to fix the engine on her bio fueled car.
Road Captain Bo gave us a fascinating look into her society, explaining about their social structure and how they are governed. They have two Leaders, one for the Inlands and one for the Ring Roads. They did live in a bunker but had to come to the surface after a disaster. She also said that they have met Victoria but don’t trade with them. They seem willing to trade with us, once we get to know each other better. She suggested we can talk to her on a specific coded frequency.
The Knights of the Office of the Home responded to Bo’s distress signal and joined us for rum club while we all got better acquainted.
The following morning, Artemis was told by the Lupines that Aegis was gathering forces to attack the Psionics that the Tunnels Rats were protecting. Ducky had a report that Aegis was dismantling the power station in Phoenix Kin lands and then would be transporting all of it to Aegis. We had a choice, hit the columns sent out, which would have meant that we wouldn’t be able to get hold of Aegis tech, or we could make the mission much harder and take the fight to the power station.
There was a long discussion but eventually we decided to go to where we knew the tech was and use a meteor strike to soften up the Aegis soldiers before we went in. Along the way to the base we met Gregory, an Aegis agent who was trying to convince Phoenix Kin to go and live with them in Aegis lands. Working with Artemis we managed to convince them to go to New Hope instead to meet with the Lupines and rest of Phoenix kin there. Having Riley on patrol there made me feel like they would be safe.
As soon as the Phoenix kin had started to walk away Aegis opened fire on us. We took them out and Cass started running scans on Gregory while Scar and I stayed with him. He later reported that they had internal tech. While Cass had been doing scans the rest of the team had been involved in a firefight and took down two more Aegis soldiers, who were carrying swords, guns and wearing armour that also needed studying by Crow and Scar. I started making makeshift bags out of Crow’s netting and pulling bags out of my kit to use to carry everything. We were not able to move above a walk but I think recovering all the kit was worth it for the study value.
Aegis armour and symbols
We then had to confirm the mortar strike. We all agreed to try and minimise casualties but also try to minimise the danger to us, getting the mortar to strike one side of the facility. Crow sent in the order. Unfortunately we were not aware that there were large C7 barrels stored on the site and when the mortar hit the C7 exploded. There were mass casualties and the destruction was extensive. We had failed to achieve our aims apart from saving the Psionics in the Tunnels Rat lands. The loss of life is horrific and we need to do better.
After this surface mission, we, the UC, have a lot to do. Hive Vulcan is back. We have failed to protect the Phoenix kin, and we have made promises that we need to keep.
Sally Fields