Saturday, June 18, 2016

Wordslingin'

Thinking of thinking of terrorists. This week, Our Heroes (tm) contemplated what Gustafson might be up to, and came up with some troubling conclusions…


[When last we left off, Lukas had been arrested by SecBuro.]
Zac: “I say we Terminator the police station.”
Georges the GM: “That idea is considered, then discarded.”

[We contact Minnie to let her know the situation.]
Zac: “Is Minnie surprised that Lukas is arrested?”
Georges the GM: “No.”
Zac: “Neither are we.”

[The remaining PCs meet up to figure out what to do.]
Georges the GM: “So you go to sleep?”
Julie: “I do.”
Zac: “One of us should be on watch.”
Ariel: “Thanks for volunteering.”

[Fennec wants to stay up and keep watch through siesta.]
Georges the GM: “I’m curious – what do you think you’ll do when the SWAT team kicks down the door that requires you to be awake?”

[More of the same.]
Ariel: “A soft snoring emanates from my blanket fort.”
Zac: “Fuck you guys!”

[Lukas, of course, is not with us.]
Georges the GM: “I think this is the first time you’ve been arrested.”
Brock: “…”
Georges the GM: “In Port Arthur.”
Brock: “Oh. Then yes.”

[After siesta…]
Georges the GM: “If anyone wants to consider this half-day to be downtime…”
Brock: “Don’t do it! Don’t do anything! Don’t leave this apartment, don’t have pleasant interactions with NPCs, nothing!”

[Brock lays out plans to prevent another ‘Corner Coffee’ style incident.]
Brock: “New rule: from now on, we all go everywhere together in a four-man tortoise formation.”

[Lukas still has not been charged with a crime.]
Georges the GM: “They’re using a military form of justice, which is a little different.”
Zac: “I’m from the Badlands – having laws is different.”

[The remaining PCs have rescheduled their meeting with intelligence officer Major Stone.]
Major Stone: “Welcome. We are waiting for one more person.”
Zac: “Is that when the cuffs come down over our arms?”

[Meanwhile, Lukas has been transferred out of SecBuro custody to… somewhere else.]
Georges the GM: “All in all, it’s not as nice a cell as the last one. You suddenly find yourself pining for prison.”

[Lukas is taken out of his cell and escorted up to an office.]
Georges the GM: “The officer offers you a coffee.”
Zac: “They didn’t even offer you a coffee at Corner Coffee.”

[Lukas is brought into the meeting with Stone.]
Brock: “This could be the moment where we assassinate yet another prominent figure in the Heavy Gear universe.”

[Major Stone is unwavering in our mission.]
Major Stone: “You will find the kidnapper and you will eliminate him.”
Lukas: “We’ve encountered this person before.”
Major Stone: “I would consider this an advantage.”
Lukas: “It is. It tells me we have no chance on the second part.”

[Major Stone lays down the law.]
Major Stone: “You will comply for the next four days. You will succeed or you will fail, but you will try.”

[Major Stone has informed us that he will not be giving us the information Ti requested. In fact, the only thing we’ll be getting out of this mission is the opportunity to not be arrested again… so long as we leave an never come back after it’s over.]
Ariel: “So there’s no benefit to us doing this job, and if we can get away, there’s no reason not to?”

[Fennec says what we’re all thinking.]
Fennec: “I’m starting to think we shouldn’t have come to town.”

[Fennec has received a letter from Ti, telling her to do the mission whether or not Lukas agrees to do so.]
Brock: “I think Ti’s misinterpreting my 100% certainty of us failing to take out Gustafson as a ‘personal priority’.”

[We consider our next move.]
Fennec: “How personally are you taking the Corner Coffee thing?”
Lukas: “Not so personally that we need to kill them all right now.”

[We think about whether we want to skip town.]
Lukas: “Gustafson is probably planning some major terrorist attack, so you may feel some moral compulsion to do something about that.”

[More of the same.]
Brock: “Does it seem like Stone wants us to go after this guy at all, or does he just want us out there making a mess of things?”

[Stone informed us that he knows about quite a number of our past operations in Port Arthur.]
Zac: “I learn more about the PCs from the people detain us…”

[We meet back up with Minnie.]
Minnie: “Tell me what happened with Stone, because apparently all hell’s broken loose.”

[We tell Minnie what happened with Stone.]
Fennec: “Apparently we’ve shaken things up in this town… Well, ‘we’…”
Lukas: “Me.”
Fennec: “…one time too many.”
Lukas: “Probably three times too many.”

[Minnie explains what’s happening on her end.]
Minnie: “I’ve gone through some rather extraordinary lengths to ensure Stone can’t threaten me. And lo and behold, he’s threatening me.”

[Minnie offers to help. Reluctantly.]
Minnie: “Why don’t you tell me what you know about this op? I seem to be… motivated to help now.”

[We put our heads together.]
Lukas: “If I were Gustafson, would I attack the Hermes72 conference, or the Hermes72?”

[We reason out that Gustafson might be using Henriette Vovelle to attack the space-bound infrastructure of the Hermes network.]
Lukas: “Damnit – you guys are trying to convince me there’s a reason to fight this thing!”

[Of course, nothing is ever easy.]
Lukas: “There’s an additional complication: the longer we stay in town, the more likely Gustafson becomes aware of us and calls in his favor.”

[More considerations.]
Lukas: (to Fennec) “Since Ti is routing comms through you, that puts you nominally in charge. What do you want to do?”
Fennec: “Interesting analysis…”

[And yet more…]
Minnie: “I don’t think there’s any point in trying to figure out what Stone is thinking.”
Fennec: “Wow, it’s almost like some cosmic force is speaking through you, telling us to get to the action.”

[We try to figure out the connection between the various different players.]
Brock: “If Minnie hasn’t mentioned the Bear to us, we’re not mentioning it to her.”
Zac: “We’re not?”
Brock: “You’re right – I’m not taking responsibility for you people anymore. Do what you want.”

[We make plans. Kinda.]
Georges the GM: “Minnie agrees WestEx is the prime target.”
Zac: “Great – the NPC agrees! Let’s do it!”

[And immediately go back on our plans.]
Brock: “Have I outsmarted myself? Should we go after the mooks?”

[We consider going after the Brotherhood mooks.]
Brock: “If we do go after the mooks, we get a truck full of weapons.”
Zac: “Ah-ha! We’ve found the self-interest trigger!”

[More considerations.]
Lukas: “Can anyone think of a single downside to taking out the mercs?”
Fennec: “Other than the aforementioned knowledge that it would be springing a trap?”
Lukas: “Yes. Other than that.”

[Lukas thinks about how to take out two birds with one stone.]
Lukas: “Is there any way we could get the Forzi to attack the mercs or vice-versa?”
Torgath: “We could hire the mercs. They’re available.”
Lukas: *smiles*

[We think further about how to get our enemies to take out each other.]
Brock: “I could tell Perry I hired mercs to kill the Forzi and I’m telling him so he can be promoted.”
Zac: “Why would he believe you were doing that?”
Brock: “In fairness, Perry hasn’t understood most of what we’ve done.”

[We’re not having much luck on this line of planning.]
Zac: “You just give up on these ‘two birds with one stone’ plan?”
Brock: “I’ll just kill them all later.”
Zac: “I’m disappointed in you.”

[Minnie has not given up.]
Minnie: “I think I may have a way to have the Forzi attack the mercs.”
Lukas: “Yay!”

[We consier whether there is any use to taking out the mercs ourselves.]
Brock: “I think they will have no useful intel and are a distraction… but I could be wrong.”

[Georges the GM brings in another consideration.]
Georges the GM: “Is there any way you’re actually considering what Ti would want in this situation?”

[Georges the GM points out that Ti probably wouldn’t want us starting a low-level war between the Forzi and the Brotherhood.]
Zac: “Using the Forzi as a tool against our enemies…”
Brock: “You don’t have to convince me. You’re only convincing yourself.”

[Fennec tries to convince herself that it’s okay to throw our enemies at each other.]
Zac: “The Forzi screwed you out of your business. Badlands 101: you don’t let that slide.”

[More of the same.]
Brock: “Killing the Forzi doesn’t fit into Ti’s plan…”
Zac: “It’s just a perk.”

[We return to the issue of leadership.]
Brock: “I never said I was in charge.”
Zac: “Yes, you did.”
Brock: “That was before Ti cut me out.”

[We make plans to move forward. Kinda.]
Brock: "Lukas has been having a bad couple of days."
Zac: "So let's continue the trend by doing something stupid."

[We get Minnie to contact Harry Bonds to find out about the WestEx warehouse.]
Brock: "There is literally no way any of these packages are labelled 'orbital munitions'."

[As the session comes to a close...]
Georges the GM: "So, we'll go to the warehouse next week."
Zac: "You expected us to go to the warehouse this week, didn't you?"
Georges the GM: "I expected so much more than that."




Heavy Gear Roleplaying Game

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