Cat and Mouse...
The Bravos need to travel 5 klicks to get to pick up.  Not particularly far, but they need to avoid the Combine while doing it.

It's currently dawn (call it 5:30am) and pick up is at twilight (call it 6:30 pm)

They need to evade and survive 13 hours and reach 'pick up'.

They've just discouraged the first line of pursuit.

At this point it's a Mental Check to see how well the characters manage to evade the Combine Hunters.  Post a RP description of your suggestion and i'll plot how your day goes, till your next encounter

A successful check = one hours passed to get to pick up.
For each point above a successful check, another hour passes.
For each two points the character fails by (drop factions) the character has made a mistake and shortens the hours that pass before the Combine finds the Bravos.

Characters with the options 'Stealth' may add their bonus for this roll.

You MAY decline rolling a mental check, and simply follow the lead of those rolling.
This message was last edited by the GM at 18:28, Fri 06 Jan 2012.

"Right, doesnt look like theres immediate signs of pursuit.  If were finished here we need to move on.  No need to dilly dally here.  No need to hurry for pick up either.  Lets head deeper into the woods and hide through the morning and start out for pick up after lunch.  No need sitting by an empty field waiting for pick up where anyone driving by can see us.", Claudia starts to shrug into the now chilled winter parka she had shed for combat.

---

Claudia's mental check is good for getting us safely through a hour.

13:24, Today: Pvt. Claudia Tiberius rolled 5 using 2d6. Cat and Mouse Mental Check tn 5+.

This message was last edited by the GM at 23:09, Fri 06 Jan 2012.

Althea will leave two booby trapped locations as we withdraw.

The first trap will be a simple tripwire shortly before a palce they've obviously crossed through (make sure to break some twigs and stuff on the brush)

second will use claymores silencer as bait, after asking him to wipe some sweat onto it, so any tracker dogs will get their heads blown off when they poke it (which dogs will :P)


I roll 5 for both traps agaisnt a TN of 4+ (modified by whichever difficulty you'd apply, I'll have someone hold a light for me)


00:25, Today: Pvt. Althea McCormic rolled 5,5 using 2d6,2d6. Booby traps (hurr hurr) TN 4+kitty diff?

Willing to accept two booby traps as delaying tactics to stall pursuit so...

Doc got you 1 hour.
Boomer got you 2 hours.

Waiting on Wu to make a roll, and to see if Claymore is willing to try or wants to take a pass.

Wu moved quietly and resolutely in covering their tracks working as best as possible to delay the next encounter till well after the midday sun if he had anything to say about it.  Bringing up the rear he laid false tracks, blinds and used bits of dog remains to toss off any further pursuit by the animals while tying up the handlers the same.  It was exacting work that he did carefully as a misstep would cause them to find Bravo faster rather than delay their sighting.

22:28, Today: Pvt. Wu Feng Juntuan rolled 8 using 2d6. Cat and Mouse with the DCMS.
TN5+ nets 4 hours of extra leeway.

Darius follows the lead of the others, he has some ideas, but his ideas are a little hair-brained and mostly involve putting Ghost up in a tree to shoot at their pursuers from vast distances.

"Hey Doc, you want to split a sleeping bag?" the lout asks as they head towards a spot in the woods to set up camp, as per her idea.

It's what she gets for talking about blowjobs in the middle of the mission.

---

I think statistically Darius is more likely to hamper the cause than help it, so I will follow the others.

During that time period, under doc's care, the non lethal wounds fade (1 point a hour under Doc's care, otherwise 1 point per two hours.)  She takes a look at Althea's injury and patches that up as well.

Wu does an impressive job covering up tracks and trails and missleading false trails as he goes.

The Bravos, lead the Combine AWAY from where their pick is planned to happen.  No point in making the pick up any hotter, this soon when no one was coming to get them til 'later'.

A hour into the hiking, they hear an explosion off in the distance.  A few minutes theres another explosion.  That's bound to slow pursuit a bit, Althea things smugly to herself.

Doc offers Althea her SMG, citing that she's a pretty crap shot with it anyhow.  Althea has another clip of the HE Explosive rounds to ruin this SMG with too, but it beats getting over run if things get ugly.  She can decide to use the SMG herself or pass it over to doc with the explosive rounds.

Wu has enough time to fiddle with the power packs and substitute the full pack he has, for the mostly spent one in his Rifle to level off his ammo.

It's a pretty long and tedious morning.  Where Claymore keeps suggesting to have Wu climb up in a tree to snipe pursuit.  Wu knows the wintergreens in the area are crap trees to try and climb, and offer little cover... or leverage to shoot from, the top and has said so.

Claymore thinks the asian is chicken and keeps bringing it up.  Wu doesnt bother to explain it to him around the eighth time he brings it up and decides to ignore him like doc and Boomer.

Lunch is a few energy bars that the Bravos bought along for emergencies like this, and water from melted snow.  You cant really make a fire without risking giving your position away so you essentially huddle up back, to back, to back, to back.  It helps to share body heat and keeps eyes in a 360 arc where your holed up.

Every so often a VTOL flies over signaling that ... maybe.. they're still looking for you.

There a short pause before your next mission.  Time now is currently a little after one.  You should be contemplating breaking camp and a short hike to the pick up point soon.  It's not far, but travel will be slow, you want to be careful, and you definitely dont want to be late, and be stuck out here for another night and day.

In reply to Pvt. Darius Lyran (msg #83):

Doc rolls her eyes but humors Claymore with an answer.  They're stuck in the middle of no where, there are worse things than bantering with a jarhead over questionable humor.

"I dunno Claymore.  Are you sure theres enough room for me in there, having not one, but two heads as swollen as they are...", Docs eyes keep scanning the area on her 'side' for trouble.  It was hard even for her focused mind to stay sharp and alert after mind numbing hours... six...? seven?  She had to try to though, she didnt want anyone getting hurt because she was in attentive of all things.

If anybody is openly amused at the grenade trap paying off, its Claymore. He doesn’t have a ton of bright ideas but that particular trick with the silencer which was trash now anyway, was almost bound to do something, and it had. He just hoped it’d seriously ruined at least a couple of people’s day.

Too bad it probably also hurt some dogs, but it was better the dogs than him.

“Not really, but half the fun is in trying,” Claymore replies with a smile and lifts his rifle, scanning the area with his nightscope occasionally. When he finishes the powerbar he stuffs the wrapper down into the front of his coat and then pulls his feet up a bit tighter to conserve warmth, hoping everyone else is doing the same.

Indicating the VTOL off in the distance he nods his head and then looks back towards Wu, ”You able to make out any tail insignia on that thing?”

After a bit more time, he goes on, ”We should go, yeah?” and starts to clamor to his feet, ready to move after a cursory stretch.

"Combine, again..." replied Wu to Claymore again.

"Soon we should begin moving.  It will take time to cover our tracks again so they do not spot us before getting picked up."

Boom boom looked around camp as well, she'd gotten just enough sleep not to feel tired anymore, which was bad cause her system still needed a couple more, and a tired boom boom...

she got hyper!

She was all over their quickly made makeshift camp, untill she finally found her own packs, there she dug in and foun a clip, which she handed to Doc.
"here, you take this, explosive munitions, though i'd think that your weapon will need serious cleaning once back at the cave."

it didn't take long for her to be ready to move on, after which she tripped in place while waiting for everyone else.

As before, Darius follows the lead of the others, having little skill in covering tracks or slowing pursuit.

---

I think we're ready to move now, are we ready for rolls to keep delaying pursuit?

Lt. MacCall and Private MacHine were both hiking through the wintergreens looking for their wayward Bravos.  The Dracs were all over the extraction point and that made for a lethal fire fight unless they got word that the pick up was going to be different and 'on the fly'.

There was no sign of pursuit yet, but the place was crawling with Dracs.  They werent too fond of having their base blow up on them it seems.

Meanwhile...

The other Bravos were breaking camp.  Brief meals were taken, along with a modest amount of drink.  Everyone was a little cold and stiff, but otherwise okay.  Early non-lethal wounds had mended, and the Doc's medical care took care of the rest.  That was the good news.

The bad news, was that even with the parkas, the cold was taking it's toll on the Bravos.  After over seven hours in the cold, fingers and toes were starting to go cold and numb.  By now, the Bravos were all looking forward to the drafty cave that they called the OK Coral.  (-1 attack roll for the cold affecting manual dexterity)

As Wu is dusting off tracks and signs of their passing his little comm unit chirps to life, calling his attention to Lt.  MacCall's call.
This message was last edited by the GM at 16:56, Tue 10 Jan 2012.

(ooc: i think you mgiht have a lastname wrong somewhere there, unless another player signe dup a McCormic)

Althea looked at wu for a brief second when his radio chirped to life, sighing.
That was never a good sign, She prepared her pistol and the silencer, and weighted her bag a bit, thenshe slipped her hands into the sleeves of the opposite arm, to help keep as much heat as possible.

In reply to Pvt. Althea McCormic (msg #91):

Mac this... Mc that... it's the round eyes.  All you white folks look the same to use asians, right Wu?

And you round eyes, when you speak it always sounds so strange as well.
This message was last edited by the player at 17:44, Tue 10 Jan 2012.

Reaching up to his earpiece he queues himself in, "Ghost here."

"Takashi's all over the extraction point.  Repeat Takashi's all over the extractin point.  Enroute to Fallback Delta.  Will fill you in on new extraction details when we link up.", with that the comm goes dead, to avoid having the signal triangulated on their position.

Fallback Delta, was a point actually not too far from where they were.  It was a mixed blessing.  It meant a short hike.  It meant... they werent really misleading the Dracs away from their extraction point but towards their new one.  It couldnt be helped though.  In Wu's estimate an encounter with their pursuers was all but inevitable.

Post by Kitten to set up mission...

now that's just racist! *cries*
and here i consider asians hot :P

Looking to the others he simply relayed the message, "Extraction is a no go, were to head to alternate Delta and link up with MacCall."

"We will run into the Dracs I'm almost certain since we had to break radio silence so be on your awares.  We need to move now before those Warriors find us."

"then lets go, keeping in motion will keep u warm anyway."
Althea said witha  resigned sigh, of course it wasn't good, how did the damned dracs know of their extraction point though?.

A wholesale subscriber to the notion that staying in motion keeps one warm, Darius pulls out another piece of gum and slides it into his mouth as they begin to move yet again. "Ghost, you figure we should keep covering our tracks?" he asks as they start off again, but this time in the direction of rendezvous Delta. Smacking his gum a few times, he lifts his auto rifle for the three hundredth and ninety second time and checks the action and ammunition count.

In all fairness, Darius’ whole MOS is ‘check your ammo and shoot the badguys’ and he does those pretty well, so that he doesn’t bother to keep tracks clean or lay traps isn’t really a surprise- so he does the one thing he knows how to do, he keeps his gun in working order.

As they shuffle through the snow, he curls his toes up in his boots and asks, ”You guys think I’ll be able to get a vibroblade? I’m missing my baby.”  His baby being the sword that was lost during a scuffle a few weeks prior, whether anyone else was there is up for debate, but the fact that Claymore is without his sword is not exactly easy to miss.

---

Following mah homies.

Ghost nodded to Darius and as the others prepared to leave he was already do what he could to destroy any evidence that they had camped out there for a number of hours.  As he worked he added, "Get going and I'll be following in a moment to ensure we're clear.  No need to point a blaring sign in the direction we wish to travel."

It was... one of those rare instances where (for once) things actually go the way you plan it to go.  The Bravos link up, and manage to evade the Combine long enough to get picked up by a hover APC camped out near the lake.  The Bravos manage to board, and elude pursuit, and return to the OK Coral.  A few days later, 6th Company takes the 123rds base, and the Bravo's manage to 'improve' equipment, per the weapon availability noted in the Bravo Barracks.

---

I had another scenario in mind but concluded, i needed to bring this mission to a close since too much time was passing else where and i wanted to keep the Bravos 'current' somewhat with what the rest of the unit was doing.

Will allow Kristy access to the Command thread so that she has a clue what's happening and will fill in the Bravos as needed.

Mission concluded, thread Exp and Combat bonus to follow.
This message was last edited by the GM at 21:58, Tue 10 Jan 2012.