Operation 13 Field Report – Humanity Ascendant

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…