For Zephram's assault team.


Zephram
Calliandra
Harmon
The Madness
Takimastsu
Mithas
Fearless
Lady Marlene
This message was last edited by the GM at 12:10, Tue 01 May 2007.

   Standing out in the open with the undulating mound of mud "standing" next to him, Zephram waits for his underground team to gather around.  "So, who do we have so far... Marlene, Takamatsu, Harmon, Calliandra, and Madness..."  Zephram then pulls out his radio and broadcasts a brief message to Xion.  "Xion, this is Zephram, have you assigned a couple of your platoon to join my team yet?"

After Avery indicated she should instead report to Zephram, Callie looked around a bit until she identified the warlock's position, then headed over there quickly.  She stayed on the ground, though, both to let Harmon keep pace with her and to avoid Obidiah's elementals.

Once arrived, Callie salutes the lieutenant.  "Avery...Lieutenant Drake said that we should report to you.  Did he also pass on my message about helping out with the engineering calculations to collapse the road if you need it?"

Apparently none the worse for wear from the scouting mission, Takimatsu had handed over his Bobcat for anyone who wanted the superior mobility and firepower before joining the infiltration team that was assembling, as requested.

Given that this phase of the operation will be, of neccessity, close quarter combat, the self-proclaimed ninja-juicer has left his massive rail gun with the skycycle, the possibility of ricochet likely more dangerous to the prisoners than to any of the Coalition soldiers.  He does carry his heavy particle pistol and rifle, however, as well as his vibroweaponry.

"Are we going to try to employ stealth, or go in 'guns blazing', I believe it is said?" he asks the earth warlock.

"I've got a backpack full of explosives, I can rig the bridge," says the Madness reporting informally. "So are we not taking the APCs with us??"

He confers a moment with unseen forces:
_{"...I know this is a better plan, Father, I just wanted to make them look like fools..........but that would leave me vulnerable........alright Father, I'll ask...."}

He turns back toward Zephram, though not quite making eye contact (something he never seems to really do). "Suppose on our retreat I were to possess of one of the officers. I could throw off their persuit. I would be left helpless though, so I would someone to take my shell with them and keep it protected."

While everyone in the team talks to each other. She grabs her gear from the ATV. Then she return to the others saying, I am ready this assignment...Oh, forgive me, I am Lady Marlene. That for the ones who didn't know."
This message was last edited by the player at 22:46, Wed 01 Nov 2006.

Harmon hangs back in the group, waiting cynically for the confusion to resolve itself.

Finally as people are talking over each other without answers or clear communication, he interjects with a touch of the frustration he is feeling. OK folks, lets get you started on the sustenance enchantment. It'll last for several days, so don't be surprised if you aren't eating like yourself for a while.

As an aside, Mad-man, that's not a bad idea to create a diversion. There are easier ways to do that magically without going out of body, but we'll just have to file the idea away until we see how the battle flows.

He decides to help keep order and keep things together for Zephram. He speaks with a military authority that is bought with experience and conviction rather than rank or anger Now let the Lietenant concentrate. He'll let us know what is required of us shortly.

   "Alright everyone, gather round, I have a little diagram to draw..."
   Zephram then chants the words to a simple spell of create clay and as he did several days earlier, summons into being a large flat slab of clay on the ground before him.  He then brings his staff out and holds it over the slab of clay as a telekinetic force then emanates into the malleable material to draw and sculpt a relief map of his plan.  It even includes a handy little legend at the bottom.

Click the link belowto see a colour version of the map:
http://img215.imageshack.us/im...910/battlemappu6.jpg

   "As you can see, there will be a rather deep tunnel in place to allow us free movement under the battle ground.  The X's indicate the approximate location where the APCs will each be sunk into the earth.  This will be done with a casting of two quicksand spells.  Each one large enough to encompass a diameter of fifty feet.  These will force the APCs to a stop - smoothly enough to avoid injuring our prisoners by any sudden jolt.  I will then send my mud elemental up to the surface through the mud of the quicksand in order to cast the dig spell and tunnel out a space underneath each of the APCs.  The elemental will appear as a part of the quicksand and should not be targetted by any of the convoy.  It will be able to position the tunnels accurately enough to have them each fall deeper into the ground, burying them beyond the reach of the convoy above ground.  I will then use another set of tunnels to bring the APCs even deeper - perhaps fifteen feet with each fall.  Certainly a bumpy ride for those inside, but by no means lethal.

   Once the APCs have been moved to the desired depth and a full minute has elapsed since the quicksand spells were cast, I will excavate a space around the entrance to one of them.  Calliandra and/or Madness will move into position - ready to open the door.  I will send my elemental in first - he'll be able to squeeze through before the door even opens and cover the entire entrance, hopefully overwhelming any resistance inside the APC.

   Takamatsu will move in next, followed by Mithas and Fearless.  The rest of us will follow after that.  Marlene, I need you to conserve your mystic energy for an eventual teleport-escape, if necessary.

   While we free the prisoners from the first APC, the second one should be waiting for us nicely a short distance away.  After we finish with the first, and assuming none of the prisoners need medical attention, we'll move straight to the next and conduct the same operation - open door, storm the interior.  When everything is finished, we will make sure the prisoners are safe and secure and then determine what assistance, if any, we can offer to the teams operating on the surface - without endangering the prisoners.

   Are there any questions?"
This message was last edited by the player at 05:31, Thu 02 Nov 2006.

Takimatsu inclines his head slightly -- the only motion he's made since his arrival.

"Apart from an answer to my inital question, I have another.  What will keep elements of the rest of the convoy from immediately following the APCs into this quicksand in an attempt to protect them from this magical assault?"

   "If they follow the APCs into the quicksand, they will eventually suffocate after their independant air supplies run out - I don't plan on excavating everyone."

Takimatsu's head moves fractionally again.  "I was not aware that the skeletal robots required air," he says blandly.  "If they manage to acquire a hold upon the vehicle, they will be brought along whether you intend to or not."

    "Well, I won't be excavating the entire APC, but if we run across a skelebot underground, we'll have to deal with it.  The dig spell is not so fast that we would release more than one skelebot at a time.  We will have to be ready."

Takimatsu's nod this time is a touch more pronounced.  "I merely wished to know if contingencies had been planned for.  At what point are we to assume the mission is a loss and kill the prisoners rather than letting them be taken away alive again?" the ninja asks cold-bloodedly.

Listening to the juicer and the warlock discuss the finer points of their squads tactics, Callie has been pretty quiet.  At Takimatsu's last question, though, she stands up a bit straighter.  "Wait, what?  We're not going to kill our own men, are we Lieutenant?"

Madness looks disgustedly toward the Jap, "For the one with the little time on his biological clock, you are the most afraid. 'What if there are Skelebots?'?? Whiney little bitch. Those drugs have you paranoid. I have seen how this ends and the plan is a good one. Anything we encounter we will be able to handle."

Why he is so antagonistic all of a sudden is hard to say. But he seems quite confident in the plan. "Extraction then is magical, from bull-dyke there?" he confirms, referring to the Lady.

Lady Marlene listen to everyone comments about Zephram plan. She the plan is sound and she wants to enhance Zephram plan with her magical abilities. When she says, "Zephram, your is very workable and you are using your magical abilities to enhance it even more. Takimatsu, your concerns have some merits. Because, we won't know the CS troop size in the APC. We have too be as tricky as they are...When the APC fall to the bottom and stop, Zephram can cancel the quicksand spell. Trapping any CS troops or skelebot in the ground and it dosen't matter if they have an oxygen supply. Also, if any mage can distruct radio communication, beside me, it would very helpful.

   "Certainly not!"  Zephram responds to Calliandra, who was respoding to Takimatsu.  "There is no reason to end the life of any of these prisoners.  I would be quite surprised if they have not all been interrogated already.  They are en route to a prison camp, likely to be executed.  These people are relying on us to save them from death, nothing else."