Name: Nergal
Function: Metropolis
Government: Mardukite Theocracy
Planet Type: Terrestrial
Terrain: Jungles
Gravity: Standard
Atmosphere:Type I Breatheable
Length of Day:23 hours
Length of Year:381 local days
Hydrosphere: Moderate
Temperature: Warm
Population: 4 billion
Starport: Ocean Mooring
Tech Level: 4


Nergal had been taken months ago by the Unified Brotherhood. The ARKANGELOS elite guard had lead the assault on the ziggurat and slew the noble family. Three weeks ago, a captured cargo ship from Gryphon had been towed into orbit around the world the Brotherhood had renamed it Anatoli in the name of their single all-consuming god.

Aboard that ship, unbeknownst to the UB raiders, it was the bait for a trojan horse gambit. Hidden in the cargoholds amidst material and war supplies were several members of the Jomsvikings, a Gareshi mercenary unit. Clad in their Huginn-class recon suits and in cybernetically induced comas, they waited until they were shipped down to the surface of Nergal/Anatoli for receiving and study and then...

Awoke, slipped away and triggered the fail-safe bomb hidden within the cargo. To the receiving crew, this appeared to merely be an act of sabotage on behalf of locate resistance fighters.

The four members of the Jomsvikings split up and disappeared into the jungles, hidden within their camouflaged recon battlesuits they begin to map the ground defenses and prepare for the right time to attack. In the meanwhile, they took turns attacking isolated patrols and convoys to secretly assist the resistance fighters on the ground and keep the enemy buttoned up and concerned. Occasionally, the LEGION would send a few squads into the jungles and swamps to find the cause of these attacks and they'd either return empty handed... or not at all.

Fenrik Ragnar Iverson waited and watched patiently, listening to unencrypted transmissions, noting movements. Raiding when he could. Spreading fear and sowing chaos amongst the perimeter. Testing every line and checkpoint. Forcing the enemy to waste resources chasing ghosts in the steaming Negal jungles.

Today though, was special.

Today, Fenrik Ragnar Iverson went hunting.

Ahead, slightly less than a kilometer out, a fire-team of LEGION infantry is setting up an ambush. Almost certainly to catch whoever has been preying on the convoys they send through this region for the last couple weeks. They unload a heavy machine gun from their boxy-looking personnel carrier and move it towards a pit surrounded with ballistic bags. Even in the hot jungle, they stand out like glowing beacons on the thermal scan.

You can see them, but they can't see you.

He did not flee at Uppsala, but slaughtered as long as he had a weapon.
An old passage comes to mind as you watch them fumble with their weapon.

You know another fire-team is around here somewhere too, probably providing inadequate security for the first. These men were amateurs. Some of them were from the UB but some were conscripted from the local population.

These particular soldiers, LEGION, as they were known, appeared to be nothing more than conscripts. Protected with outdated armor and armed with primitive slugthrowers, they weren't exactly an elite force. What they lacked in quality, they certainly made up in quantity.
This message was last edited by the GM at 04:59, Mon 27 July 2015.

I shall walk the path of Gorum, Wise In War.  No battle should be engaged until the outcome is completely certain.  A cub may not be a bear, yet they have fangs all the same.  Let Grenth keep these cubs company a while longer, before giving them his embrace. Thought Ragnar, quietly to himself as he surveyed the team assembling their machine gun emplacement.

A trap, and a badly assembled one at that.  Contempt for the LEGION soldiers and their careless ways filled him, yet Ragnar was determined to adhere to the doctrine of Gorum, and the customary cautious battle ways drilled into his people.  Complacency before an enemy, no matter how foolish or feeble, often reaped a reward all its own.  And who else would he have to blame?  Let them set their trap.  He would let it spring upon they themselves, when the moment was right.

Quietly and slowly Ragnar moved to slip around the flank of this fire team, seeking to slip their line and search for their security team.  Locating them, and knowing for certain the number and caliber of enemies he faced was his main priority.

The Personnel Carrier warranted a more detailed inspection than the conscripts.  Ragnar spends a moment recording the markings on the vehicle, any numbers or designations that might identify it, and so add to the log that he and his fellow Fenrik were keeping of the movements of the enemy in their assigned hunting zones.  He would upload and sync his log with theirs at their designated broadcasting times.

Sneaking past the hapless men trying to prepare an ambush for the foe they didn't even know was there. Your suit covers you in the darkness of the Nergalite jungle and you creep past amidst the vines and branches, the LEGION non-the-wiser.

The APC isn't anything particularly interesting, but you record the numbers: BMC-04A3

Your findings indicated they had set up this world as a prime staging point for further invasion. To your Gareshi thinking though, it was clumsy and lacked subtly. These Unified Brothers only cared about carrying on their crusade. They had good ideas, but no way to adapt them to their enemy who, you now knew, they cared not to study. They trusted too heavily in their god. How could a single god provide as well for war as harvest? What war god would allow their servants to bungle strategy and yet succeed by divine will.

It seemed laughable to any Gorumite who heard of it. The Dilettante god, who tried his hand at war for amusement. And from what you could see, this was a deserved accolade.

There! Up ahead.. to your right, the 10 strong fire-team of the LEGION. Once again counting on quantity over quality.

[OOC:  How far between the two groups?  Enough space to still be sneaky moving between them? ]

Ragnar smiled to himself inside the coolness of the controlled environment within his Huginn recon-suit.  Silently he marked all of the men on his HUD, then letting the tactical systems of his suit keep track of them while he surveyed the ground between the two teams and estimated the tactical suitability of the features it contained.

He searched for a suitable location between the two teams, along the likely response path of the security team, to stage an ambush of his own...

[OOC: 01:41, Today: Ragnar Iverson rolled 12 using 2d6+1. Tactics+Wisdom. ]

OOC: You've slipped past the first fire-team to the second one which is sweeping the jungle. They aren't doing a very good job, but they also don't know that you can blend in with the background. There are ten of them in a 'cross' formation. The column of six has a two, two man 'wings' spread out to comb the jungle. They're all spaced out by about 10 meters a piece. Easy pickings.

Ragnar moves forward carefully to his selected ambush trail and begins placing fragmentary mines.  Quietly he stages back along the trail, places a set of mines in a series of three locations.  He lays flat, as he works between the two groups of conscript soldiers, keeping a low profile and letting his stealth field conceal both himself and his work until it is complete.

The wet of the jungle makes him activate the moisture clearing system for his faceplate a time or two, working so close to the vegetation, yet it doesn't really impede his work.  Those poor conscript bastards out there however had no such benefits.

Once finished he works his way slowly back out from between the groups, and moves away.  Heading towards a slight ridge along a flank to both groups, he seeks to assume a firing position there.

If all goes well, once all is in position, Ragnar takes aim at one of the soldiers in the first fireteam, and begins firing at them.

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

The LEGION troopers spot you by pure chance as they begin to enter your ambush area. Seemingly unaware of your traps, they begin to open fire on you with what appear to be bolt-action rifles.

A few shots miss but a couple bounce off the armored shell of your armor. You feel a jolt from your suit as one of the bullets dents the polyceramic sheathing, slightly damaging your battlesuit.

Your shots go wide or hit the terrain. Just bad luck... Grenth seems to be stealing your shots, not letting anything land on target.

The fire-team begins to advance on your position, laying down cover fire and... driving you back towards the other fire-team.

Ragnar grimaces slightly, feeling to report of the round off of his armor.  He moves away through the underbrush, falling back behind the ridge he selected as his firing point and moving quickly down it before seeking to pop back up unnoticed at a different vantage and take another shot.  Manuevering down the ridge and repeating this a time or two, he will then break off and seek to let the ambush play itself out for a few minutes as he moves out into the jungle and away.

Or at least, such is the plan...
This message was last edited by the GM at 07:07, Sat 15 Aug 2015.

Several of the soldiers take parting shots as they follow you into the brush, the report of their rifle echoing across the canyons. There's no way the other fire-team wasn't aware of this by now.

The land mines go off, one by one. Popping up and exploding the faces of your pursuers. From your thermal scans, you can tell that at least 2 of your enemies were slain or disabled by the mines. One seems to stumble onwards with the help of a comrade. Your shot misses again. A few more rifle rounds skip through the trees. They're following you back towards their friends.

If you don't change your strategy you'll walk right into the APC fire-team and their machine gun...

Ragnar continues his fade and fire tactic until the mines detonate, and then he turns back, crests the ridge once again and engages while the enemy is in the chaos of the detonations.  Picking several targets and firing, he slips behind the ridge once again afterward and heads back up towards the oncoming team using it as cover once again as he tries to slip back up and either around them, or through any gap they leave open due to the mines and his firing.  He seeks to ghost through or along their line until he is no longer between the two groups, hopefully without them being aware of his evasion.
This message was last edited by the GM at 07:07, Sat 15 Aug 2015.

All three rounds connected with the targets this time. Magnetically accelerated slugs tear through three of the pursuing fireteam, forcing them into cover. They return fire, but mostly just for effect as they are pinned down behind some mossy rocks.

A quick glance at the thermal imagery indicates half of this fire-team is down. The first fire-team is somewhere behind you, through about 80 meters of jungle. They've surely heard this so far, but you quietly slip back into the foliage and re-position yourself around the ambushing unit.

So far, no one has spotted you. They seem to be worried. One of the LEGION members is sitting inside their personnel carrier shouting in a guttural language, you assume he's radioing back to their section HQ.

Ragnar silently takes position at a new firing position now that he has maneuvered around the pinned fireteam.  Now he fires on the move in semi-circle around the suppressed troops, seeking to keep them pinned and afraid as he finishes them off hopefully to free all of his attention for the fireteam with the HMG and APC.

Manuever and shoot, maneuver and shoot.  One shot, then bobbing and weaving through the jungle for the next clear angle to take a shot from.  A pause here and there, out of cycle with his running steps, giving his suit holoprojectors time to catch up and buffer his surroundings and break up any potential telltale blur in his camouflage that might reveal his movements.  From cover to firelane, back to cover, as he arcs around where the pinned team had gone to ground seeking to press his momentary advantage.
This message was last edited by the GM at 07:06, Sat 15 Aug 2015.

The remainder of the unit is lying prone in a small clutch of rocks and stones, belly down in what looks like a stream. The cool air of the suit's environmental systems are a sharp contrast to the miserable experience of the LEGION fire-team.

Another half dozen rounds, glancing off stone. Two of them find their mark, killing one of them outright and fatally wounding another. Cries of agony fill the steaming air as several of them bleed out slowly with the others helpless but to watch.

The remaining three troopers fire wildly into the jungle, completely off base about where you are. One of them is shouting into what looks like a communication device, trying to get someone who can help.

Ragnar moves around quietly, stopping his semi-circle arc as well as his firing to maneuver around and through the jungle trees until he comes to stand upslope above the pinned fireteam on the bank of the stream to their rear, looking/sighting down at them.  Taking some cover there, he carefully sights and shoots at each of those men left, starting from the rearmost man moving forward, hoping that by the time they notice his new firing position (if at all) it will be too late.

He takes care with his aim at the radio operator, seeking not to damage the radio/compad as he shoots the man.

Presuming his atrocious stealth roll means they spot him, he makes a tactical advance down the slope, firing and shooting from cover to cover, closing the distance rapidly.
This message was last edited by the GM at 07:06, Sat 15 Aug 2015.

Your first shot gives you away. It splits a man's chest in half and he goes down, faster than he can even let out a cry of pain. The other two turn and fire wildly up at you. Through some luck or providence, you even feel a slug ricochet harmlessly off your left shoulder plate. A few more rounds to set yourself up and you land the killing shots on the remaining two, silencing the last of the fire-team. A few of the fatally wounded lie, writhing in the mud. A quick look tells you they will not survive, even if medics arrived in this moment.


You collect the comm-unit. It's a primitive model, but it's a quick check reveals it's not exactly what you want. It could be useful, but what you really need is the long-range communicate set in the APC back with the first group. That's designed for unit to unit communication, whereas this is only good for communicating with one's own squad.

Ragnar eyes the wounded with a critical eye even as he glances at the ammunition meter in his HUD.  Silenty reassured that his ammunition reserve is still healthy, he pauses to quickly and efficiently put a single round into each of those still lingering on with their wounds.  Grenth was cold, and Grenth was cruel, yet he came with peace and oblivion even for the enemy.  Due Honors dealt quickly, he advances on the radio operator and takes up the device.  A quick glance over it, and he deactivates and stowes it away before rummaging in the man's pockets in haste.  Any code-book or datapad etc. is quickly taken and put with the communication device.

Ragnar then quietly turns towards the original fireteam he encountered and letting all information from his suit sensor array pour in while he contemplates his next actions.  He does not linger.  That way lies only Grenth's embrace.



[OOC: Does this mean the crypto is different, or just the transmission capabilities?  Or yes?  Is there anything salvageable of value for intel purposes?  Ragnar will I suppose have a greater idea of this sort of thing later, once he can spend a few minutes looking.]

Setting out in the same sometimes fast, sometimes slow stutter stop gait, he advances around in a newly wide arc looking to get a view of the original fireteam from an advantageous position, and newly evaluate the situation.


[OOC: Headcount, from before, and now, at the original site?  Anything on sensors/radio, regarding their presumed calls for reinforcements?]

Once he has an observation point, he might take their radio out and try to give it a bit more of a look.  If there is a way to get the crypto load out of it so he can listen in on their chatter with his own suit com system then that is his priority.  Otherwise he is observing and trying to get a feel for what the troopers he can see seem to expect.  Confident of reinforcement?  Convinced they are all going to die? etc.
This message was last edited by the GM at 07:06, Sat 15 Aug 2015.

You determine after a more thorough check that this particular device is slaved to a squad radio uplink. The idea is that no individual soldier's comm exploits the whole network. However, you have no way of knowing how the main radio works or what the encryption key is. It's almost certainly a day key. Could be issued on a card or simply memorized by the commsman.

Without that information, you wouldn't be able to make use of any of the equipment.

Of course, this all assumes that the LEGION is as sensible as the Gareshi when it comes to operational security.

Based on your thermalgraphic imaging, the entire fire-team is down there. Three of them seem to be in the machinegun nest about 20 meters to the north. They're looking toward you, but haven't spotted you yet. They're set up backwards in the pit, so it seems they heard the firefight and are waiting for you. From what you can tell, the weapon only has a 90 degree swivel, so they'd have to reposition the whole thing if you came up in their flanks.

Two of them are in the APC, one is sticking his head out of the cupola on top, armed with what looks like a missile launcher of some kind. The guy in the troop compartment is talking into what looks like a handset. Looks like he's got his own backpack radio rig set up on the roof of the vehicle and the cord is dangling down in the 'safety' of the vehicle.

The other five grunts are spread out around the vehicle, forming a rough perimeter. Armed with the same weapons as the previous fire team, they seem to be looking out in all other directions, perhaps expecting a two-pronged attack or simply trying to keep you from flanking them.

[OOC:  I posed Ragnar attempting to flank this group already, should I redo that and/or make a new set of rolls?

I'd like to get him back around to position himself behind them/the HMG and be back around in the jungle from where he originally approached from.  Somewhere in that general vicinity that he can pick out as a shooting position with cover/concealment as previously indicated.]

OOC: You had to get a look at them to figure out where you needed to flank from. Now you know you can go around their HMG and try to take them from the side or the rear of that. The rest of the fire-team is set up in an omnidirectional perimeter, so you can't come up behind them.