Happy Thanksgiving to all my players! Eat yourselves into a coma!

https://imgflip.com/i/1qxh6g

HAHHAHAHAHAHAHA!!

Hello everyone! I look forward to playing with you. I hope my character's accent won't be too difficult or annoying to deal with. If it is, let me know and I'll try to adjust.

Howdy

Hullo.

I have a OOC question, does this mean we all got woken up now? Or is Meina the only one of the PCs in this scene?

     Meina is the only PC present.

     Hope everyone that celebrates Christmas had a good one this year. If you don’t, hope you had a good whatever holiday you do celebrate and a happy new year.

Merry Christmas, happy holidays, happy New Year and everything in-between.

Eagerly looking forward to where we go next on the story.

     Happy New Year everyone!

Is knowledge of The Mechanoids common on Rifts Earth?

Is their accidental invasion in the east also common knowledge?

     All of Rifts Earth, no. A good chunk of the people in North America, yes. The Mechanoids didn’t arrive and then just take a nap. Shortly after they arrived they began their quest to conquer Rifts Earth and assimilate it into their empire with the intention of using Rifts Earth as a hub to conquer and purge the Megaverse of their enemies. So most of the regional powers of North America, i.e. the CS, Lazlo, the Federation of Magic, Tolkeen, etc were aware of them. Also, Atlantis and the New German Republic knew about the Mechanoids. Although in the NGR’s case it probably was mostly limited to members of the NGR’s government and military. Not common knowledge but not completely unknown either. I would also suspect that in North America the farther west one goes the less common the knowledge about the Mechanoids becomes as they never really got far from the eastern seaboard. So someone from the Colorado Baronies or the area of Lone Star not under CS control may not have heard much or anything about the Mechanoids.
     As for how common the knowledge of their accidental invasion, well I doubt anyone besides Hagan and A.R.C.H.I.E. Three knows the full truth of what happened. Everyone that knows about the Mechanoids probably assumes they arrived through a naturally occurring random rift. I sincerely doubt Hagan or A.R.C.H.I.E. Three went around and told people afterwards that the rift in question the Mechanoids came through was opened by a Shifter they hired.

OK, so being born and raised in Lazlo, Dom knows of the Mechanoids and some of the details. Everything you just said, I'm assuming?

     Yes, plus probably a few details here and there that I didn’t list.

OK so maybe as a member of the Lazlo military, he was given briefings or has access to info not generally known or disseminated. Not everything and certainly incomplete but a few additional details.

     An official bringing, probably not. The Mechanoids have been defeated and eradicated since before you enlisted. However, you’ve likely heard stories from veterans and even before enlisting Dom would have heard of the Mechanoids and the war against them. Nothing stopping Dom from asking veterans if they’d share their stories with him.

OK went all the way back to December 28 to find this. So there was signs of regular damage but no bodies, not even slivers of them. My character wouldn't have said no damage then. Unfortunately for him, his player forgot in the weeks of real time.

I'll just stop posting for a while. I'll post again when I feel certain I have all the details right.

     If I wasn’t clear before I apologize, but there were signs of an attack inside the base too. As a reminder, just before your battalion arrived on scene a Lazlo recon team reported to the base that they could hear the sounds of battle coming from the direction of the Xitixic base and were going in to investigate. And then they disappeared too. When you arrived at the base you saw signs that something violet happened to the Xitixic and once you went inside you saw the same signs that the violent something forcibly extracted the Xitixic from inside the base. The Xitixic didn’t just up and leave this base en masse.

Thanks for the reminder. I forgot all about the other LDF team that went missing.

On that note, I've got frack all for ideas on how to proceed. Anyone know what we are supposed to do next? Honestly I'm hoping command just tells us where to go.

     Somnoirus. To paraphrase Dr. McCoy in Star Trek VI, I’d bet real money following him and Creepy Girl will lead us to whatever wiped out the Xitixic base. Two reasons. First, last mission he did tell us in his weird, cryptic, ambiguous way, about the Old One at Onaping Falls so forgive the metagaming but he’s probably a clue again. Second, Somnoirus seems to be drawn to the Devouring Swarm like a moth to a flame. Follow him long enough and either he’ll lead us to said Devouring Swarm or to some clues that’ll let us do the task ourselves.

That sounds reasonable. Dom is a good E4 though so he will just follow whatever orders he is given by his chain of command.

     For the record I wasn’t suggesting we go AWOL and just go looking for the Devouring Swarm on our own without orders. I’m just saying if we do get those orders following Somnoirus may be the best way to go about it.

That's what I said, I'm hoping command just makes a decision.

Back in February of 1991, the Military Police company, in which I served, landed at Dharan Airbase, where we spent the next three days sleeping in our vehicles or in cots under ponchos spread between them.  We get our first station, and head out to the desert to patrol an 80 mile stretch of highway.  Before leaving, we hear rumors that there is a red convertible driving around with a passenger who takes shots at American troop convoys with a submachinegun.
Anyway, I'm in the HMMWV with the platoon leader, a lieutenant, and the Platoon Sergeant.  I was supposed to be the driver, but the LT decided he wanted to drive, and the Sergeant, an Air Force Vietnam POW veteran, took the commander seat.  This left me to man the turret mounted M-60 if we come under attack, though I had not qualified with the weapon.  Ever.
About halfway there, one of the trailers hauled by a HMMVW flips (the hitches were designed to move freely for rough terrain).  The convoy comes to a stop, everyone is getting out of their truck and running to see if they can get the trailer upright.  I pop up into the turret, slap a belt of ammo into the 60, then look around.  I look down at the Platoon Sergeant, and ask (being fresh out of Basic and AIT), "Shouldn't we get a perimeter set up, Sergeant?"  He looks at me a moment, then starts barking orders.  One other guy gets up in a 60,everyone else is grabbing their M16s and taking up positions.  I happen to see a red, convertible sports car going by and track it with my 60 (though I had not taken out the pin so I could lower it and aim at the car).
Needless to say, the trailer gets righted and we get on our way to the log base where we would be headquartered.  The hilarious thing about this is out of the thirty people who set up the perimeter, only two of us took to the 60s.  Which were the only weapons for which we actually had any ammo yet.  The ammo for our rifles and M1911s wasn't going to get to us until we got to the log base.
The point is, there is a reason I know to set up a security perimeter when the convoy stops.

DO the HF losses of initiative and attack last entire combat or only one round?