]

Ragnar slowly attempted to crawl and slink his way back around the flank of original fireteam, hoping to put his back towards the deep jungle he had approached from originally.  Once there, looking to find a tactically advantageous firing position to take up and continue watching the enemies in their defensive formation and heightened state of awareness.
This message was last edited by the GM at 07:05, Sat 15 Aug 2015.

An effective Jomsvikings strategy: Approaching from a tactically superior vantage point and attacking when the enemy is unprepared. Somehow, they still haven't received any help and haven't left to pursue your or escape.

You are now ready to attack. You get off three shots before they are able to respond.

Ragnar spends a few moments carefully preparing the firing position he selected.  A couple of obscuring smoke grenades, flashbangs, and noise simulators set to be remotely detonated arranged around what would otherwise be an advantageous shooting position directly to the rear of the enemy with the deep jungle to the rear.

Then he selects a separate firing position, on the left side flank to reposition to, and seeks to move there and position himself for engagement.  Once he begins shooting, Ragnar takes a rapid series of shots until the enemy begins to realize they are under attack.  Then the prepared distraction at the other shooting position is set off, while he hugs cover for a couple of seconds trying to ensure the enemy focus their attention there, before he begins shooting again.

Target Priority: Rocket Launcher, Radio Operator (if the shot could reasonably penetrate the crew compartment of the APC), HMG Crew.

]
This message was last edited by the GM at 07:05, Sat 15 Aug 2015.

It's been close to 20 minutes since your engagement begin. The LEGION must be spread out thinly. There's been no since of support. No artillery barrages. No air support. No squads coming in from the flank to assist.

Then again, maybe they don't want to send any more people to die. Or maybe they're setting up a perimeter to contain you.

A better warrior would have responded more effectively to your attack. They would have pulled back to a defensive line and lured you in. They would have come and closed the pincer on you during the attack on their other fire-team.

You squeeze the trigger. Not everyone can be a warrior.

Ka-thum

The first ferro-alloy slug splits the rocketeer's head in half. His helmet provides no protection against 42 grams of anti-material firepower. No more sound than a wet pop as the strings are cut on the unfortunate assault-man.

Ka-thum

Another almost whisper quiet round tears through the heavy machine gunner at the trigger. Before his crew even realizes what happens-

Ka-thum

20,000 joules of force blow through the chest cavity of the machine gun loader.

At this point, they start to react. Several of the perimeter guards start to fire wildly off into the jungle. The surviving machine gun crew stands up, confused. You wonder for a moment why someone would stand up like a rabbit in a spotlight during a fire-fight.

Ka-thum

A round splits his spine and he folds over at his waist. Instantly dead.

The rest of the fire-team is now flat on their bellies, crawling in the mud, firing wildly with primitive chemical rifles.

The engine on the APC rumbles to life...

[OOC: What direction is the vehicle facing in relation to the engagement?  And I presume the crew cabin is too small for a Huginn to fit inside?]

Ragnar quickly takes aim at the front wheel visible to him on the APC after it starts up.  He makes a quick succession of shots towards the wheel even as he moves forward from his cover, and throws a pair of fragmentary grenades towards the infantry in their disarray, seeking to deal with them quickly and have only the radio operator left to deal with.
This message was last edited by the GM at 07:05, Sat 15 Aug 2015.

OOC: It's facing away from you, but it's an all-terrain vehicle, so it could easily change direction if needed. And yes, battlesuits won't fit any normal human crew spaces.

Your first two rounds into the APC don't quite hit the mark. The rounds punch through the front of the vehicle, easily splitting into the armor that was never intended to be protection against dedicated heavy weapons. Sparks fly and smoke begins to billow from the engine components of the machine as it struggles to escape, spraying mud and debris in the air as they gun it.

Your grenades go off. Return fire fails to find you or land an effective hit, a few rounds ricocheting off you armor. You've exposed yourself and your grenades only failed to injure two of the enemy.

However, from your thermal scans, despite all the smoke and clouds of steam, you can see the remaining five infantrymen standing up and running. Two of them drop their rifles as they all flee in different directions into the jungle.

OOC: You can take three more shots at the APC before it's out of sight, or you can pursue it. You can also choose to attack the retreating infantry instead or do something else.
This message was last edited by the GM at 05:32, Thu 06 Aug 2015.

Ragnar draws up to take a series of additional shots on the APC.  If they take it out, he will move swiftly to tactically advance on it.  If not he pursues, looking for something that might pass for an elevated shooting position that might allow him to take additional shots at it.
This message was last edited by the GM at 07:05, Sat 15 Aug 2015.

Another round punches through the hull of personnel carrier as it speeds off into the jungle, out of sight.

A few slight ridges surround the area, but nothing you could use to gain a vantage point upon the escaping vehicle. Your only chance to catch it now is to sprint after it at full speed and try to catch up and find a better firing position.

Luckily, from this point, you can track it from the thermal emissions from the smoke escaping from the damage.

Ragnar turns instead to the men left behind.  Sprinting through the jungle was too risky.  Too much potential for running into an enemy trap or reinforcing unit while out in the open.  Instead Ragnar knew he should clean up what remained here and then decide on the next move.  Quickly moving against them, turning to sight and fire one after another until only one is left.  No stealth now, he moves tactically and aggressively, from cover to cover in a rapid advance.
This message was last edited by the GM at 07:04, Sat 15 Aug 2015.

It's grim work, but after a few moments you are able to gun the rest of them down. They don't really even try to avoid you, they're just running for their lives. A few pulls of the trigger and they fall before you.

You stand in the jungle, with death all around you.

OOC: Combat/Gunnery + Wisdom DC7

01:20, Today: Ragnar Iverson rolled 7 using 2d6+2. Ammunition Check

Once only one man is left Ragnar pursues him into the jungle, seeking to capture and compel his surrender.

OOC: Make a Vehicle/Ground check. Add your speed as a bonus.

23:18, Today: Ragnar Iverson rolled 16 using 2d6+8. Exosuit + Dex + Speed.

Ragnar turns towards the lone infantryman and begins to bound over the terrain in pursuit.  The grav-stabilizers in the suit augment his gait, and let him move more rapidly than any man could hope to match unassisted, though not completely without tiring.  He ducks and weaves through the jungle, ignoring stealth for now in his pursuit.

OOC: to clarify, the radio operator was aboard the APC. He's probably still in there as it speeds away. There are no other foot mobiles.

The damaged personnel carrier has a hard time of it in the thick jungle. As much as the vines, branches and mud slow you down, they make a speedy escape nearly impossible for the LEGIONaries. Within a minute or two you've caught back up to them, right as they try crest a small rocky hill about 200 meters away from you.

You've got them dead to rights.
This message was last edited by the GM at 04:36, Fri 07 Aug 2015.

Ragnar fires on the move, keeping up his ground eating pace as he goes though his accuracy seems to suffer a bit for it.  Continuing his attempts to disable the APC, he tries to use the vehicle itself for cover from the vision of the driver, approaching along the flankside of the vehicle opposite of where he observed the driver position to be in previously.

Rail rounds come from his weapon at a steady pace, on the impact of each grav-assisted bound, before the next, in the moment when there is greatest accuracy on the move.
This message was last edited by the GM at 07:04, Sat 15 Aug 2015.

Several more well placed shots tear through the drive wheels and finally sever the tread belt, the APC throws a track and belches black smoke as it gets stuck in mud. It would probably take several hours and a dedicated recovery vehicle to get it back on dry ground and replace the tread.

The Huginn battle suit is so much more than a large suit of Power Armor, as some mech-jocks or astral troopers are inclined to say. No one in a suit of powered armor could run as fast as a soldier in a Huginn. No one in powered armor could take as much damage or carry as much equipment as they could in a Huginn.

On top of all of that, the battle suit had stealth capabilities and the capacity to support much larger weaponry.

Of course, there were trade-offs. A battle suit wasn't going to be much use in the cramped corridors on a star cruiser or in a tunnel deep within an asteroid base and the cost and maintenance requirements were significant. You could armor an entire regiment in power armor for the cost of a squadron of battle suits, to nothing of the maintenance requirements.

Still, a single man could do a lot of damage with a battle suit, and that was worth more than the mere credit price.

Your last shot sinks into the steel skin of the transport and an alert pops up on your HUD.

==WARNING: AMMUNITION DEPLETED==

This message was last edited by the GM at 02:49, Sat 15 Aug 2015.

Ragnar grimaced a bit, then headed for the APC cabin at a bound, trying to close in on the last man before anything else could happen.  He hadn't broken tactical protocol per se, yet ... he was more exposed than he cared for here and now, for certain.

Moving up the passenger side of the APC to the door, he reaches up with his left hand even as the barrel of his railgun retracted into the right arm and hand on that arm extended and was made available.  In a moment he would have both hands on the door and hopefully it would give way quickly...

[OOC: What state is the crew cabin in?  Can Ragnar see inside?  Can he tell how the driver/radio guy is?  How strong are the doors, reasonably speaking?  Feasible to get them open in the Huginn?

Ragnar intends at this point to move up to the cabin quickly and open (with force if necessary) the cabin to extract the drive/radio ops guy and the radio both, before retreating with both.]

The vehicle is badly damaged. It's a boxy armored carrier on treads, but there are a number of holes punched in it now and the treads have been thrown. It's belching out smoke and stuck in about a foot of mud.

It takes you about 20 seconds to tear open the door on the vehicle, ripping it aside and tossing into the jungle with a soft thud.

Inside the vehicle, two humans look back at you with expressions of terror and hopelessness. You recognize the radioman in the passenger seat of the crew-cabin and then another unknown LEGIONnaire sits in the driver's side, hands on the controls. The driver begins to fumble in his uniform with his hands, trying to draw a weapon.
This message was last edited by the GM at 07:13, Sat 15 Aug 2015.

Ragnar reaches in to attempt to grip the driver, pull him out of the vehicle before bodily swinging him against the hull of the APC, and then similarly tossing him aside.  After this he turns back to the vehicle and activates the voice emitter of his suit to speak, and the translation device around his neck to give a crude yet effective translation of his message. "Surrender!  Hands up!  Come out of the vehicle!" he orders, keeping his attention on his desired prisoner. "Move!"

You reach in and seize the driver, ripping him free from his harness. Pulled free of the vehicle, you simply slam him against the side with a wet slap and hurl his broken body out into the jungle without a second thought.

The radio operator looks at you with a horrified expression.

You bark out your orders and the battlesuit's speaker system spits out the translation for the hapless LEGIONnarie to hear. "Сдаться! Руки вверх! Выходите из машины! Подчиниться!"

The operator puts his hands up in the air and shouts "Я подчиняюсь! Пожалуйста, не делайте мне больно! (I surrender! Please do not hurt me!)" He stumbles out of the crew compartment and falls onto the wet jungle floor.

Ragnar reaches into the APC to retrieve the vehicle radio, deploying the fine manipulators from his left hand to rapidly loosen the fastenings bolting the thing into place.  The radio gets a good looking over for a spare couple of seconds before any power supply is removed.  After a moment of broad spectrum 'listening' to the radio to be sure it isn't still somehow broadcasting the power supply and radio are stowed separately in the cargo space of the suit, as compartments slide open on the side of either leg, for easy placement on the go... then slide closed again after receiving their cargo.

The radio operator he then turns to, giving a quick review for weapons or other transmission devices and discarding any found before binding his hands (in front of him) and mouth and slinging him under one arm. "Stay silent, or die." he orders, before beginning to fade back out away from the aftermath of this fight back into the jungle.

His pace is slower once again, moving tactically and attempting to regain the stealth in his movements so essential to surviving in this sort of environment solo.  Ragnar allows himself a brief smile from within the masking carapace of his Huginn.  All in all, things went rather well considering.  Of course, that was assuming there wasn't massive dragnet of these buffoons closing around him in all directions.

It was time to move back out into the deep jungle, well away from anywhere they would even attempt to find him.  Several hours of retreating and fading back, being sure he wasn't being followed or about to walk into some sort of ambush, were the labors he planned ahead before finding somewhere to pitch his camp for the night and have a chat with his dinner companion.

++++SEVERAL HOURS LATER++++

Night has fallen on Nergal. Blightflies fill the air, and beneath your boots, mud squirmers wriggle up from the earth to drink from the newly fallen rain.

The prisoner is lying on a tarp spread out over your camp set up in a recess in a cliff-face. No campfire, of course: Even primitive tech could pick that up on thermal scans. Instead, a HeatWave™ by Medicommodity Consortium provides you a hot meal of textured protein fibers and rehydrated vegimatter. You wonder at the clearly commercial-grade grub-nuker and the colorful branding and stylized chassis. It's orange for Tor's sake.

All in all though, the food wasn't really THAT bad. These had come from a Hegemony navy supply ship heading back from the front-lines. You'd definitely had better before, it wasn't freeze-rations or hard tack common in certain mercenary units. Even normal Jomsvikings rations were about this good. You did miss some actual meat though... and you had seen some boar-like creatures rooting around some trees earlier in the week however... you put that thought to rest for the moment and observe your prisoner. He's clearly awake, but very badly faking being asleep.

Ragnar finished his meal, eyeing the prisoner with a thoughtful gaze.  When he speaks, the translation device around his neck does it's job with a lag-time of perhaps half a second.  "What is your name?  Your rank?  And your position?  You operated the radio, yes?" he says, making up a second ration of his pre-prepared food, and sitting it down to warm on the HeatWave.  "Where are you from?" he says, curiously raising a brow.

You offer up a series of queries which are translated into their crude guttural tongue. You had heard somewhere, that the intelligence groups had assembled this based on an old earth language: Russian. Not something spoken in the Hegemony, but still, records of it existed.

"Как вас зовут? Оценка? И ваша позиция? Вы действовали радио, да? Откуда ты?"

For a moment he is still and silent, and you can tell he is considering your words. In a minute or less, he speaks, though he will not face you. He remains lying, bound, towards the darkness of the woods.


"Дионисий Витальевич Саянский. Eфре́йтор. Cерийный: номер ноль ноль семь одним девять пять шесть шесть одно три. Легион компания радист. Новый Хабаровск. ("Dionisiy Vitalievich Sayansky. Freedman. Serial Number - 0071951663. Legion-Company Radio Operator. New Khabarovsk.)"

He pauses for a moment and you can actually hear his stomach protesting.

"Будете ли вы дайте мне поесть? (Will you let me eat?)"

This message was last edited by the player at 10:42, Mon 21 Sept 2015.

Ragnar quirks a brow, giving a bemused frown as he finishes warming the second portion and sets it aside.  "If you tell me what I want to know." he says, matter of factly. "Otherwise things may turn less than pleasant between us.  I can't 'make' you tell me anything.  However I can show you very clearly that your best interest lies in doing so, whether you find the prospect pleasing or not." he says, his tone turning gentler if anything.