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Post by maxvale76 on Dec 1, 2014 17:51:46 GMT
Hello one and all; I don't know if anyone is interested....but I just started a Robotech RPG (as in the pen & paper kind) using mostly D6 rules (as in the West End Games Star Wars 1st Edition variety....with a few house rules); and some Pendragon elements; such as having Passions (Chaste/Lust, Mercy/Vengeful, etc.) and some mechanics to have some 'heirs' to each character (as I'm planning on running a 30+ year campaign spanning the Macross thru Invid Invasion eras). My basic idea is to take a page out of Pendragon's style and break out each year in 3 parts (Early Year, Mid Year, Late Year); and have each part have a primary Mission (Adventure) and a Follow Up which recounts minor missions; has possible romances bloom/end; potential for marraige/children being born; promotions/awards; etc. Any given session could go through a whole year (or more in some circumstances) or only part of a year; depending on what's happening. I plan on having the show's characters still there; though some of the action may involve the PCs vice Rick, Roy, Max, Lisa, etc. I have 3 players and each will be a Veritech pilot; though 1 of them starts out as a civilian (like Rick). Here's how the first session went.... For the first game; I started it on the SDF 1's launch day; which I house-ruled to be in late 2009; vice early 2009. (I have a few issues with the 'official timeline'; but I'm hardly new in that regard.  ). Two of the PCs are playing Veritech pilots who are already in the Defense Forces; the other is a civilian who's father lives on the island as he is employed by the UN Spacy branch of the Defense Forces (as a civilian) and she is living there as a 19 year old employed at the Arcade where she also kicks ass at the Flight Sim games; except for her friend Max Sterling; who NOBODY can touch. The Pilots are: -2nd LT Dae Han Kang; a 22 year old South Korean who grew up near a US military base (in South Korea) and always had American friends growing up; where he learned English; and whose mother is a noted Robotics Engineer who eventually got stationed on Macross to help out with the SDF 1. Dae Han went to the Defense Forces Academy (a 2 year instituition in my take on things) and graduated as a Pilot. His first assignment was to the Lunar Base and there he learned all about flying in Space; on Lancer Space Fighters and he did so well; that after 2years; he was promoted to 2nd LT and assigned to the Veritechs of Skull Squadron on Macross Island as the Leader of a 3 Veritech Team with 3rd LTs 'Cochise' Ironhorse and Joe Turnbull. -3rd LT Robert 'Rob' Cole; a 20 year old recent graduate of the Academy who is the second son of a legendary US Navy ace; LCDR Roger 'Ringo' Cole; who died fighting the Anti-Unification League and whose older brother Randal is a military Doctor; and who lives on Macross with his wife (a school teacher) and young son William (Rob's nephew who adores his Uncle). Rob was a bit of a juvenile delinquet after his much older brother left home and his father died; turning his mother into a drunk. Rob's young nephew though gave the wild teenager an early wake-up call; and he decided to get his act together and follow in his Dad's footsteps by becoming a pilot. He came out of the Academy as a highly-regarded pilot and has been assigned to learn how to fly Veritechs on Macross and is almost done his training when the action starts. The Civilian: -Alejandra 'Alex' De Aza: as mentioned above; is a 19 year old girl who was born in Florida to a Dominican-American Father and a Cuban-American mother. Her father was employed by the U.S. military and they moved around a lot as a family. Alex's mother died of breast cancer when she was 11; and the young girl grew up quite the tom-boy. She bloomed late in her teen years and is now quite a knockout; though still very athletic and mostly hangs out with boys where she plays vidoe games and skates around the island with her friends; including Max Sterling at times. The Session: Late 2009 (Mid December)So as Launch Day is about to commence; Rob is flying in a two-man Veritech Trainer; doing some gun-runs for some of his last training with his instructor; when the instructor becomes exasperated at his poor marksmanship and orders him to return to base to reload for another go-round.... Dae Han menawhile is feeling lucky that he was chosen to be a part of the demonstartion air-team; picked by his squadron leader Roy Fokker; to show off his piloting skills for his visiting from college younger sister; when in the middle of the display; a fan-jet, expertly flown, suddenly crashes the party.... Alex is skating around the island with a few friends; poking fun at the tourists who have all arrived for the launch day fesitivities; when all hell breaks loose and a rain of energy bolts falls from the heavens all over the city and island. People are fried near her; buildings are turned to slag and rubble and all kinds of pandemonium busts loose. While her friends scatter; most heading for the shelters; she heads towards her Dad's building on the base.... Rob had landed the Veritech and had watched as the gun-pod had been reloaded with another ammo casseste while his instructor had hopped out for a nature call before the next flight out to the gunnery range set up over the ocean. Then the bombardment happened; and the tower (along with his instructor pilot) was turned into a burning pile of rubble right before his eyes; along with many of the aircraft and other buildings nearby. While attempting to radio for orders; Rob isn't surprised to find that all kinds of panicked voices are pretty much turning the comms channels useless; so he takes the initiative into his own hands and takes off in the Trainer Veritech; pulling up into the sky to see that all kinds of strange machines are suddenly HOPPING out of the ocean and into the City where they begin to open fire on anything and everything. Rob takes a deep breath and decides to do what he can to help out.... Dae Han had finished the show and was waiting for clearence to land when the attack suddenly dominated the sky all around him. He immediately calls for Cochise and Turnbull to form up with him and he pulls off to regroup with his team. He meets up with his two subordinates and is immensely relieved when he hears his squadron C.O. Roy Fokker come over the horn and tells the squadron that a group of enemy aircraft are coming down out of the sky and they are to intercept. He assigned a Sector to Dae Han's team; and he acknowledge's the order and heads over there; to find 5 of the triple-engined; green painted fighters approaching them. They do not respond to hails; and when they begin to attempt to get a lock-on at Dae Han and his wingmen; he orders his two Teammates to drop altitude and break right; while he goes high and to the left. The alien fighters split into two groups; with three sticking with him and the other two manueverng to face his wingmen. Things are about to get interesting..... Alex meanwhile has time to see the SDF-1 rise up; crash back down; and then rise up again while the city becomes engulfed in flames and bizarre two-legged giant machines crashing through it. The Defense Forces are responding; and weapons fire and sirens can be heard echoing all over the island. She makes it to the top of a slight ridge in town which overlooks the building her Dad works in; only to see the building collapsed and a two-legged alien machine standing on the rubble. Numb; she collapses in shock and an unknown amount of time passes with chaos spinning all around her until the sight of an APC rolling by with a soldier bravely firing a Heavy machinegun at the 'knee' joint of one of the alien walkers while the alien machine fired back; all of this about a block away from where Alex had fallen down. The leg of the Alien machine suddenly gave out under the heavy fire at about the same time one of the energy bolts from the walker lances into the APC; causing it to crash and spill over onto its side.... |
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Post by maxvale76 on Dec 1, 2014 18:51:22 GMT
....Cont'd...
Dae Han closes the range to the trio of enemy fighters and two of the enemy fighters accelerate towards him while firing thier triple nose cannons; while one hangs back and continues to attempt to get 'tone' on Kang's fighter. Kang in return; fires a pair of missiles at one of the figthers and rolls to the side to avoid incoming fire. He succeeds in dodging the alien energy bolts coming his way; but his missiles miss as well. Meanwhile the third enemy fighter finnally manages to get a lock on and fires a pair of misiles while Dae Han sprays the other two fighters with his belly-mounted gun-pod. Dae Han's shots fly true and one of the enemy fighters explodes into a fireball while the other has its wing sheared off and spirals down towards the ocean below. The remaining bogey's missiles though fly close by and explode right off the side of his Veritech; pelting his fighter with fragments and leaving one side of the fighter smoking and covered in tiny holes. Kang manages to restore control to his damaged fighter and fires off a cluster of three missiles towards the last enemy fighter who decides to cut and run; successfully dodging the missiles while doing so. Kang attempts a brief pursuit; but his damaged fighter is in no condition and he soon breaks off to rejoin his wingmen; who have managed to destroy thier two opponents; though Turnbull has taken damage as well. Contacting the rest of Skull squadron; he soon gets the order to head back to the SDF-1; which is now in flight; to land and get thier planes patched up....
Rob spots a pair of the Enemy pod-like walkers stomping through the city; wrecking buildings and shooting at cars and peoples milling around in terror. In a fit of anger; he flies down towards them; but not wanting to add to the rampant destruction with a strafing run; he decides to change into Battloid mode and deal with these things up close and personal. He transforms and sets down near the two walkers; with one of them belatedly reacting to his arrival by attempting to turn and face him and getting met with a hail of 55mm shells from the now hand-held gun-pod. It explodes into a thousand pieces and the other alien machine turns and hops up and towards him; opening fire with a pair of energy bolts in mid-flight. One just barely misses Rob's machine; while the other bolt just manages to graze his Battloid's shoulder; but does no permanent damage. The Pod lands a couple dozen yards away and Rob decides to TACKLE the machine! His move catches the enemy completely by surprise and he slams the machine down onto its back; causing it to crack and parts of it to snap off. Rob then begins to look for a way to pry the machine open to see who or what is flying it; when the machine opens fire with its small pair of light autocannons. The weapons don't manage to penetrate Rob's Veritech; but they DO manage to scare him into firing a long-burst from his Gun-pod into the downed machine; causing it to explode and leaving the knowledge of what piloted the craft to remain a mystery. Soon after; Rob finally manages to get in touch with a LCDR Lisa Hayes of the SDF-1; who orders him to return to the ship; now airborne above Macross island. Rob transforms into Guardian mode and returns to base....
Alex rises to her feet and watches a pair of soldiers manage to struggle out of the APC; with one of them carrying an Assault Rifle when they both stop and look in horror over at the downed alien walker. A hatch had opened on the pod's back and a 40 foot tall, humanoid giant in some kind of purplish-green armor was rising out of it. One of the soldiers began to frantically look in the wreckage of the APC while the other dashed across the street to take up cover behind a parked car. Alex snapped out of her funk and ran over to the soldier still looking through his downed vehicle; to find that he was trying to free a clip-fed rocket launcher. She helped him get it out of the APC while she suddenly heard the sounds of the Assault Rifle firing. She rose up; along with the soldier with his Rocket launcher; just in time to see the rifle-wielder emptying his clips into the giant alien's armored chest and then turning to run before being turned into a pile of goo as the giant alien callously crushes the soldier by stepping on him. The Rocket Launcher carrying soldier shoves Alex down and to the side and fires on the Giant; but misses as the Giant turns abruptly and swings out a rifle that looks like a telephone pole and fires a burst that shreds the soldier and the remnants of the wrecked APC; and leaves poor Alex on the ground with her ears ringing. She watches the alien trooper nonchalantly turning his back on the scene and striding down the street and a sudden flash of rage and sorrow and adrenaline over takes her as she rushes over to the pulped soldier and pries up the Rocket Launcher, steadies it over her shoulder, takes aim and with a scream of rage she pulls the trigger and sends a rocket streaking into the back of the alien's helmeted head; which proceeds to explode in a shower of gore; dropping the alien to the ground like a puppet with cut strings. (In the game; players get a "Luck Point"; similiar to Star Wars' Force Point; which gives a 1 round bonus to all skills; allowing for cinematic moments like this). Soon after; an ambulance comes by; and she helps out with rescuing some shell-shocked survivors and taking them to the shelters....
Soon after; the famous/infamous Fold event happens; and our heroes find themselves out at the very edge of the solar system. Over the next few months; Dae Han's team is broken up due to the need for spreading experienced pilots throughout the reorganized squadrons; and he finds himself in the newly formed 'Black Aces' squadron; with a couple of young 3rd LTs as his new wingmen; Joe-Bob Smith (yeah, his parents had no imagination) and Rob Cole. Meanwhile; Alejandra quickly decides to join the Defense Forces and all her time spend on Flight Sim games pays off; as she is quickly selected for Flight School and 12 weeks later; she is a newly minted 3rd LT and assigned to 2nd LT Kang's flight to replace the lost LT Smith; who was killed in action in one of the sporadic engagements between the aliens and the valiant crew of the SDF-1 as they begin the long trip home; since the Fold engines vanished after thier first use.
(As part of the game; I also check at this point for romantic developments and am working on a Honor/Glory mechanic where the PCs can receive PTs in these categories with benefits/penalties accruing as the total rises. The Honor mechanic can lead to promotions and recognition among fellow crew and civilians of the Heroic nature of the character.....which can lead to more lasting relationships, NPCs risking themselves for you; more readily following orders; etc. The penalty for this is of course more responsibility; more hazardous missions being assigned, etc. Getting lots of Glory means more parties and more quick relationships; medals and other awards; and the penalty is that others may grow to resent the character; sometimes to dangerous extents.) Dae Han Kang manages to start a romantic relationship with a civilian lady by the name of Tatyana Konovalova in the rebuilt city of Macross inside the ship; and so far; they both seem quite happy with how things are going. Dae Han has also managed to gain a little Honor and Glory; but not much yet. Rob and Alex have so far struck out on the relationship front; but both have gained a little bit of Glory for themselves; Rob especially so; with starting to live up to his famous father's name.
Final note; while I gave everyone 'plot immunity' for the first session; from this point on; death is a real possibility for the characters. To this end; each character has an immediate Designated heir; and a long-term designated heir; which really just means; what character will they play if thier main one ends up KIA. I wanted some kind of connection to the current character and for now; the designated heirs are: A Flight School buddy for Rob; Dae Han's sister who survived the Macross attack; and a fellow skating/video arcade friend for Alex. The long-term heirs for Dae Han and Alex haven't been chosen yet; but for Rob it is his nephew William. (Who also survived the attack, along with his Brother's whole family).
Thoughts? Do people want me to keep posting these sessions as they happen? I always LOVE to hear Robotech sessions; so if anybody has anything out there; please put them up! Thanks for the look!
-Max
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Post by debaser on Dec 3, 2014 12:06:36 GMT
Max, I enjoyed your post and I look forward to reading more. Sounds like you have a nice game going. |
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Post by maxvale76 on Dec 5, 2014 15:12:49 GMT
Glad to hear somebody's enjoying it; thanks! Well; we've only had the one session so far; but it seemed to go well with my players. Our next session is scheduled for next weekend (the 13th); so I'll definitely post a report of that session as well. This weekend; I'm going to be working on a few more random tables for possible dates (things like: 01-04: You meet and begin dating an extremely attractive but quite self-absorbed civilian in Macross city; 05-08: You meet an average looking but very nice and intelligent civilian who works as a teacher in a makeshift Elementary school in Macroos city; etc., etc.); possible ramifications for gaining Glory and Honor (i.e.: Another Veritech pilot begins to seriously resent the attention being lavished upon you and behind the scenes begins to spread rumors about how you're really a major phony and your wingmen are the REAL reason behind your success; or Due to exceptional way you've handled several combat situations; you are being assigned a Special Mission to escort a Special Mission in the Asteroid Belt where your Team of 3 Veritechs will be flying close escort for a modified Shuttle whose mission will be to tow a chunk of valuable "insert metal or ore here" locate in a small Asteroid to bring back to the SDF-1 as the material is desperately needed for some special mechanism/project being worked on by Doctor Lang and co.) Things like that! Any thoughts/observations/RPG experiences of your own are welcome! Thanks again for reading! -Max |
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Post by caffran on Dec 11, 2014 2:24:57 GMT
great read looking forward to more! wish I had a Game master to run this:(
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Post by maxvale76 on Dec 16, 2014 15:56:34 GMT
Thanks for the kind words Cafran.....if you have a group of friends you game with; you could always try running a RT game yourself...if you do; please post the results! Okay; this past weekend we had session 2 of the Campaign; due to the late arrival of one of the players it was shorter than I wanted it to be and due to the holidays; we won't be able to have session 3 until next year.....which sucks!  Anyway; here's the results of the session....
Early 2010 (April-ish)3rd LT Alex De Aza finishes up her 90 day boot-camp/flight training and upon becoming a full-fledged Veritech pilot in the Defense Force; she gets assigned to Sable Team of the Black-Aces squadron; to replace the recently killed-in-action 3rd LT Joe-Bob Smith (my other players gave him the wonderful first name(s) ). After a few early combat patrols; Dae-Han has racked up 3 victories; Alex has 2 and Rob has made ace with 5! He immediately gains a point of Glory for accomplishing this feat. On the home-front; Dae-Han and his girlfriend Tatyana Konovalova have been together for a good 3 or so months now and it looks like its getting quite serious. Things move in a bit more of an 'adult' direction for the couple and with a roll on the Fertility chart (yes; I have such a table....for setting up heirs in the later parts of the saga); she gets pregnant. Because she is a good person; she tells Dae-Han (I also have charts for the personality types of romantic partners for the PCs; and some of them might keep such a fact secret from male PCs); and he starts thinking about getting engaged in the near future. In the meantime; the SDF-1 has reached the orbit of Saturn and the Alien Fleet moves in with a couple of capital ships and when the Fortress attempts to fire the Main Guns; something goes wrong and weapon doesn't work. Thinking quickly; CAPT Gloval orders the Robot-mode SDF-1 into the ice-rings while sending out the Veritechs as well in a calculated offensive move to try and bait the alien ships closer and then smash through them to get closer to home. The Black Aces Squadron is assigned a position in the Rings which will guard the flank of the Fortress while she and Skull squadron and other Veritech groups will attack the main alien detachment; to guard against any crafty alien attacks from the rear. It's not long before Sable Team spies its first group of enemies from its hidden position in the rings; a half-dozen Green Fighter Pods burning for the Fortress.... |
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Post by maxvale76 on Dec 16, 2014 16:55:28 GMT
(cont'd)
Team Sable allows the Fighter Pods to pass and then they explode out of the Ice Rings behind the alien craft and open up with a missile volley. Each Veritech fires on two different fighters in an attempt to eliminate the whole group quickly; and while Cole and Kang are conservative and fire one missile each at two different targets; De Aza fires half of her dozen missiles; three at each foe.
Cole and Kang both manage to hit one of their targets and in both cases they cripple the Enemy craft but don't destroy them; while De Aza has a moment of amazing marksmanship and obliterates both of her targets in short-lived bright explosions as multiple missiles slam into the alien fighters.
The two cripples start to limp away from the fight while the two intact alien survivors turn to face the Earth mecha and each opens up with a missile swarm of half-a-dozen missiles; one swarm at Alex and one at Rob. Rob pulls off some amazing evasive maneuvers and manages to avoid all the missiles while Alex decides to attempt to shoot them down with a long burst from her gun-pod. Clearly; it is Alex's day as she drills the missile swarm with a perfectly placed hail of 55mm slugs that detonate the missiles and leaves her Fighter untouched. Meanwhile Dae-Han closes the distance and fires a pair of missiles at one of the intact Fighters and manages to take it out.
The last fighter turns to run and does some jinking-and-juking in an attempt to evade; but Alex will NOT be denied and she closes the range and puts a long burst from her Gun-pod into the craft and when it explodes into a million pieces she screams out in joy as she racks up her 5th victory and makes Ace! (Point of Glory for Alex)
Dae-Han and Rob go after the cripples and with the enemy in no condition to get away or fight; they are easily destroyed by well-placed gunfire from the GU-11 pods after failing a Mercy/Vengeance passion roll.
With everyone smiling and basking in the moment of taking out half-a-dozen foes while not suffering so much as a scratch in return; the Team belatedly realizes that their sensors are being jammed and while searching around with the ol' Mark I eyeballs; they suddenly see a swarm of Battlepods closing in!
Half-a-dozen Battlepods are closing on them while a Recon Pod stays back; jamming them with its powerful electronic gear; and a Light and Heavy Artillery Pod with another pair of Battlepods moves close to the SDF-1 in the cover of the Rings. The opening salvos from the Pod's Particle Beam cannons hit all 3 Veritechs; leaving De Aza's fighter lightly damaged; Cole's heavily damaged and Kang's luckily only grazed. Team Sable; suddenly humble; turns about to Fight....
Alex; quick to react; sprays a pair of Pods who are operating close to each other with a long burst from her gun pod and quickly adds to her score with another two victories. Rob; in his battered Fighter; launches a pair of missiles and misses one; but takes out another; and Dae-Han cuts loose with a long burst from his Gunpod as well; destroying one and damaging another. The remaining two Pods; one untouched and one damaged; fire back but they miss De Aza but manage to cripple Cole's already battered fighter. In retaliation; Alex fires a pair of short bursts from her Gun Pod and destroys both of the remaining Pods; bringing her score up to 7 victories so far this mission while Dae-Han orders Rob to return to the SDF-1 while he races into the Rings to try and get the jump on the Artillery Pods before they get close enough to launch a sneak attack on the aft-end of the Fortress. The Recon Pod; unarmed; had accelerated at top speed away from the fight and into the rings; successfully evading the Defense Force mecha.
Dae-Han's marksmanship hadn't been great but his piloting is amazing and he zips and rolls through the ice-chunks as if it was the easiest thing in the world to do and he rapidly closes in on the Pod group (Kang's player spent a Luck Point here). De Aza; from the edge of the Rings; moves in cautiously; but takes a long range shot at the Pods with her remaining missiles. While the shot is extremely difficult due to the range and the heavy clutter of the ice rings all around the targets; she does manage to hit one of the opponents, the Heavy Artillery Pod, and it is quickly blown into the path of a large ice-chunk where it meets its end is a short-lived spherical explosion. (Alex's player spent a Luck point on this shot as well)
Dae-Han; now at short-range of the surviving three pods; snaps a long spray of rounds from his Gunpod and takes out the Light Artillery Pod and one of the two surviving Battlepods; while the last survivor in retaliation damages his VF-1J with a pair of well-placed Particle Beam shots. Alex has moved slowly into the rings and closed to Medium range as well; and she takes a well-aimed shot with the GU-11 that destroys the last Battlepod. Rob briefly struggled with his orders to leave the fight while his teammates were at risk and he recklessly decided to try and help but bringing his Fighter into the Rings as well. (He failed his Discipline/Reckless passion trait roll). After barely avoiding an almost certainly fatal-collision with some Ice Chunks (Cole's player had to spend a Luck Point on a re-roll); he came to his senses and wisely left the Ice Rings and began the journey home.
The reunited team (De Aza and Dae-Han easily overtake Rob's barely-moving fighter) head back to the SDF-1 and arrive just in time to see the 'Daedalus Maneuver' in action. (I had the DVD cued-up at this scene and played it for my players who have mostly never seen any Robotech cartoons)
The session ends with a wrap up on Honor and Glory; Kang getting a point of Honor for completing his mission and risking himself to make sure the Artillery Pods never got to launch their attack on an unsuspecting SDF-1) and De Aza getting yet another point of Glory for her 11! kill mission. Alex IS awarded a Pilot's Medal for her battle prowess; but sadly; neither Alex nor Rob manage to score a romantic partner on their rolls (This is nearly impossible with their accumulated Glory pts added in....in effect they both had to roll less than 5 on 3d6; both rolled a 4!) Kang suffers the first consequences of gaining glory when he falls in with some 'false friend/entourage types and begins to neglect his pregnant girlfriend Tatyana. This leads to some fights; but Dae-Han manages to snap out of it (he makes his Committed Passions Trait roll) and ditch the fake friends and makes up with and then proposes to Tatyana and she happily says Yes. Rob begins to go a bit into 'lone-wolf' mode as the realization that he nearly joined his Father in the KIA column on this last mission and he turns 21 soon after but tells no one; while De Aza; with some of her surviving friends in Macross City; begin to seriously think about starting a nightclub/bar as Restaurants and other businesses begin to re-open all through the city; with the crew members of the Fortress realizing that they have a ready-made R&R town onboard their own ship!
GM's note: I was hoping to get to the Mars mission after this and I thought for sure that either Alex and/or Rob would gain a romantic partner; but sadly this didn't happen. Kang's story though is writing itself with the chart results!
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Post by maxvale76 on Jan 20, 2015 18:20:48 GMT
If anybody out there is still following this thread; we finally had our 3rd session this past weekend after a month off. The next session will hopefully happen in 3 weeks. When last we left our heroes....well, the 3 pilots of Sable Team anyway... Mid-2010 (July-ish)
Having succeeded in destroying an alien Capital ship and defeating numerous Fighter Pods and Battle Pods in the Battle of Saturn's Rings; the SDF-1 uses the 'slingshot effect' of Saturn's orbit to accelerate its trip back towards Earth and it briefly escapes from the alien Fleet hounding it for a few months. This leads to some well-deserved and needed down-time for the various Pilots and military crewmen of the ship. 2nd LT Dae-Han Kang has a small, quiet marriage ceremony to his (now-showing) pregnant fiance Tatyana Konovalova (now Kang); with his beaming Engineer Mom, recently-enlisted-in-the-Defense-Forces younger sister Chin-Sun 'Sunny' Kang; Black Aces Squadron leader LCDR Karl Hyde; and of course his fellow Sable Team members, 3rd LTs Alejandra 'Alex' De Aza and Robert 'Rob' Cole all in attendance. Rob Cole, meanwhile had become a regular at a 'hush-hush' weekly poker game being run by a somewhat shady Defense Forces Marine Destroid pilot by the name of SGT Joe Rico; and when he wasn't winning and losing money at the games, was drinking heavily; spending time with his brother and family; telling his young nephew William to avoid becoming a pilot at all costs and hanging out with a flight school buddy by the name of 3rd LT Beuregard 'Bo' Buchanan; who had been the top pilot in the flight class and had been assigned as an Instructor Pilot ever since. Bo was EXTREMELY frustrated at not being able to get into the thick of it; and he was a frequent drinking companion to Rob. Alex; on the other hand; had fallen back in with one of her surviving Macross Island pre-war friends; a 22 year old semi-shady charmer by the name of Nestor 'Nes' Santiago. She had first met Nes way back when she first moved to Macross Island in 2005 when she was 14 and a freshman in high school and he was a senior at the same school. Nes had lost his younger brother to leukemia and his father had skipped out on the family when Nes was just a young boy. He was also a Spanish-speaking latino; like Alex; and the two of them quickly hit it off as surrogate siblings to each other. Nes was a big contributing factor in Alex's moves towards a more and more tomboyish and slightly shady lifestyle. While she blossomed into a lovely woman late in her teens; she retained her attitudes and thus was a bit of a 'bum' in her first year after high-school; hanging around with Nes and company; instead of trying to go to college or get a real job. After Macross Island; Nes had been drafted into the Defense Forces; but being the slick, resourceful young man that he is; he quickly pulled an assignment as an Enlisted Cook; and quickly figuring out the channels to get contraband foodstuffs to make hooch and getting the raw materials for setting up an underground bar/club. In the down-time after the Battle at Saturn; Alex joined in whole-heartedly and used her own connections and powers of persuasion to talk to her Video game arcade friend to get access to a whole floor of rooms above some abandoned shops in a building in Macross City; and with some of Nes's CB (Construction Battalion) friends; they quickly knocked out a few walls, built a bar and had some tables and a dance floor set up to go with a private room in the back for card games. "Loch Nes" as the underground bar/modern-day Speak-easy became known; quickly gained in popularity due to word-of-mouth; and soon pilots and Destroid drivers and hard-working engineers were all coming in to drink hooch and lose money in card games and drunkenly dance and hit on the few women, like Alex, that frequented the place. Rico's poker game quickly became a fixture at the place and one night; shortly after De Aza's 20th birthday; all 3 members of Sable Team found themselves at "Loch Nes"; enjoying themselves and about to become participants in a bar-brawl.... **Game Notes: I wanted to give the characters a bit of a chance to flesh out their characters' personal lives a bit more (i.e. what they like to do besides fly missions in Veritechs! ); and also get a bit of an idea of their chosen 'backup' characters in case they don't make it during a mission. (Which almost happened this session!) -Dae-Han's back-up character is his younger sister (20 years old); who had been on a Winter break from college to attend the Launch ceremony of the SDF-1 at her mother and brother's invitation and been caught up in the space fold. She enlists in the Defense Forces and goes through the same 90 day course that Alex had gone through; and at the end she wound up as a 3rd LT and a Cat's Eye Recon plane pilot. -Rob's back-up character is 'Bo' Buchanan; fellow Veritech pilot; but an Instructor pilot who is frustrated at his assignment and becoming a drinking partner to Cole. Rob's player has decided to have his character become a classic 'dare-devil; take any chance in battle' combat pilot trying to live up to the legendary fighter pilot image his father has; and who conversely is quite the pessimist outside of the cockpit and doing his best to drink away his nightmares and try and impart the true cost of war to his young nephew who hero-worships him. -Alex's player is the classic "Thief/Spy/Shady-type" kind of player who has always enjoyed that side of things. I was a bit at a loss as to how to set this up in the SDF-1/Macross setting (while MANY opportunities for this will be present in the Malcontent thru Invid eras); but in talking with him; we came up with this underground bar/speak-easy idea and the backup character of Nes kind of flowed as the primary conduit for setting this up. If Nes has to become a combat pilot; the idea is that he is another of the 'Arcade Aces' that Alex herself and most famously, Max Sterling are; and after getting caught with some contraband; he gets thrown into a front-line unit and his piloting abilities manifest themselves. |
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Post by maxvale76 on Jan 20, 2015 18:54:17 GMT
Continued.... (As I told my players; this is quite probably the only time I'll get to start a Robotech/Macross-era game off with a good ol' fashioned bar-fight, so enjoy it! ) Dae-Han Kang was enjoying his one-night 'out with the fellas' a week and away from his pregnant wife by coming to 'Loch Nes' and throwing back a few beers with some fellow Black Aces pilots while his fellow Sable Team members were off dancing on the floor (Alex) and playing poker in the back (Rob). Dae-Han watched as Alex came to the bar to get a drink from her friend Nes; the bartender; followed by a hulk of a drunk who was loudly trying to get her to come home with him. At about the same time, Rob came out of the poker room, loudly accusing SGT Rico of cheating at card which led to a shoving match. Kang swore softly and got up to head over to the fracas when two things happened simultaneously. First; the big hulk grabbed De Aza's backside; which led to a quick side kick to the big drunk; who stumbled over and fell onto a table of mostly drunk pilots from the rival Lion Squadron. At about the same time; Rob Cole shoved the loud-mouthed and possibly card-cheating SGT Rico after being shoved first and Rico fell back into a table of Marine Destroid pilots; and a pair of aces spilled out of the SGT's sleeves; which quickly led to Rob and a few of the other poker players who had followed him out; to rush over in a haze of vengeance, oblivious to the annoyed Marines who were rising from their table after Rico crashed into it and spilled all of their drinks. Naturally, chaos broke out.... Alex remembers quickly leaping over the bar and crouching down next to Nes, who just looked over at her and sighed ruefully while saying; "Well, little sister....I think we're gonna need some new tables and glasses after tonight"... Rob caught a punch to the ribs from Rico; but he more than made up for it by giving the Marine a right cross that dropped him like a stone. Unfortunately, he was then caught in the center of the melee; and a couple of inadvertent blows came his way as he shoved his way to the back door out of the club.... Dae-Han, knowing his new bride would be EXTREMELY upset if he got in trouble for being in a bar-brawl at an unauthorized club; moved quickly through the swirling mess to the front of the club; only having to cold-cock one pilot who tried to pick a fight with him and narrowly avoiding a thrown beer mug that almost connected with his head. Then he was free to the front door; and he quickly told Sven 'Thor' Larson; the bouncer; to get in there and get things under control. With a nod; the 6 foot infinity; close to 300 pound mountain of a man moved in and the chaos was rather quickly brought to order. As this was happening; Kang overheard a marine Senior Lieutenant (SRLT) by the name of Thomassen talking to a couple of others in the shadows; something about how they had to leave and make sure the MPs didn't learn about the secret meeting of 'their Organization'. Kang heard nothing more as Thomassen fled and everyone else either fled back to their quarters or helped with the clean up. The day after the glorious bar-brawl; the SDF-1 was re-discovered by the aliens; who sent a "surrender now!" message; showing that they had clearly learned the English language; and also identified themselves as "The Zentraedi". Captain Gloval simply ignored the message; but the crew soon learned that the ship was now on course for the planet Mars; to re-stock from materials at the abandoned SARA base. Combat patrols soon started again over the next few days; and Sable Team was once again flying sorties. About a week or so later; the SDF-1 had once again managed to seemingly shake off the pursuing enemy fleet and set down on Mars itself; quickly sending out patrols of Cats Eye recon planes; Vertiech fighters flying Combat Air Patrol; Destroids setting up a ground perimeter and dozens of cargo trucks and hundreds of CBs and engineers poring through every abandoned building on the base for every scrap of food stuffs; raw materials; and anything of any possible use for the battle-weary crew. Just before touching down; an excitable Chin-Sun Kang came to see her brother and tell him the good news; she was flying on her first patrol in the Cat's Eye Recon plane she had been assigned to. Dae-Han did his best to tell her to stay alert and focused and be careful; but he may as well have been talking to a wall; Chin-Sun wasn't called "Sunny" for nothing. Off she went with a smile and a hop and skip in her gait. Dae-Han just shook his head and asked the Gods of War to be kind to his little sister. Then, Sable Team was off on patrol.... They were off in their assigned section a couple of hours later; marveling at flying under a sky again; albeit a red one; when a badly scrambled message came over the comms; "-going down.....traedi activity...may-day"; Kang knew INSTANTLY the badly static-filled message was from his sister's plane. Pulling up his computer read-out; he quickly scanned and found out her assigned sector at a far-flung section of the Base; near a couple of hangars that were near a ridge line that fell off steeply into a narrow canyon on the other side. He sent a quick message to his squadron leader, LCDR Hyde about what had happened and was relieved to have his C.O. order his team to check it out; as he was going to do that no matter what the orders may have been. With that; Team Sable raced off to the sector and soon approached the area; seeing a trio of Destroids that I.F.F. read off as "Silver Squad"'; under the command of one SGT Rico. At the edge of the ridge line; half on the ridge and half hanging over it; a Cat's Eye Recon bird was crashed on the ground with most of its right wing shot off and one of the two crew members was struggling to pull the other crew member; either dead or unconscious out of the second cockpit. Kang was about to call for a report from Rico's squad; which consisted of Rico's Tomahawk; a Defender and a Spartan; when everyone's Comms and Sensors were suddenly filled with white noise and electronic interference; a sure sign of being jammed by an enemy Recon Pod! Sure enough; a moment later a wave of enemy Battlepods burst forth; led by one of the rarely encountered and feared Officer's Pods! The rest of the group consisted of half-a-dozen Regular Pods; a Light Artillery Pod; a Heavy Artillery Pod and was in the back; a Recon Pod. The Enemy took the Destroid squad by surprise and a wave of Particle Beams and missiles quickly turned the Defender and the Spartan into balls of orange flame and scrap metal; and badly damaged Rico's Tomahawk. The Pods all then landed at the Ridge edge and noticed the Veritech team headed their way and the battle began in earnest.... While the Recon Pod focused on jamming their long-range communications, sensors and fire-control systems; the Officer's Pod jumped and twisted in the air; apparently studying this new threat before opening up with its ample armaments. The Light Artillery Pod turned towards Dae-Han's Fighter while the Heavy Artillery Pod; with its two remaining medium missiles; turned towards Rob's Pod. One of the half-dozen Battlepods turned to examine the crashed Cat's Eye plane while two took aim at Alex, one took aim at Kang and the last at Cole. Rob's Veritech exploded into action before anyone else could react and his move took his fellow teammates as well as the Zentraedi completely by surprise. He detached and dumped all 12 of his missiles; transformed to Battloid mode and in mid-air; he slammed shoulder first into the wildly maneuvering Officer's Pod. (His player spent a Luck point here) The move slammed the Officer's Pod to the hard Martian surface with enough force to cause one of its twin-weapon equipped Arms to snap off and Cole landed on top of the Hangar, looking down upon the slowly rising Zentraedi Mecha as SGT Rico's Tomahawk slid behind the Hangar and into cover... Alex transformed to Guardian mode and cut loose with half-a-dozen missiles aimed at the Recon Pod and one of the two aiming at her fighter and she destroyed both with the salvo; raising her victory score to 13 and more importantly, getting rid of the jamming.... The Enemy Pods now reacted and the Light Artillery Pod sent half a dozen missiles at Kang's Veritech while the Heavy Arty Pod sent its last two missiles at Rob's Battloid. Kang managed to snap-roll and dodge the missile swarm while the twin medium missiles caught the edge of the Hangar where the sides joined the ceiling and exploding at the feet and legs of Cole's machine; sending it tumbling to the ground next to the rising Officer's Pod and leaving many of its systems damaged. The Pods firing at Dae-Han and Rob missed; but De Aza's Pod hit her with hits particle beam cannons; but failed to do much more than burn some paint and carbon-scoring into the armor of her fighter. The Pod nearest the crashed Cat's Eye stepped and crushed/kicked the ruined plane over the side of the ridge and down into the Canyon; with the conscious crew-member just barely managing to dive and roll out of the way; while the other crew member unfortunately met their demise with the wreck of the plane. It was at that point that Dae-Han made a spectacular shot with a short-burst from his Gunpod that holed the offending Battlepod through the very top of its 'main body compartment'; and causing the machine to freeze and then topple backwards onto the ridge-line edge and not move. (Kang's player spent a Luck Point here as well). The Officer's Pod, took aim at the damaged, but slowly-getting-to-its-feet Battloid of Rob; and opened up with its Heavy Particle Cannon and its medium beam cannon and medium ballistic cannon. All three shots slammed into Cole's veritech; and it was only by a minor miracle that Rob managed to yank the ejection handle before his machine erupted into a million pieces. His chair's parachute deployed and he had to watch with great dismay as the Tomahawk of SGT Rico stepped out from behind the hangar and sent a blast from his own Heavy Particle Cannon that further damaged the Enemy Officer's Pod and forced it to engage its thrusters and fly away, though not before opening up the external comms and in good English calling out; "You were worthy opponents today micronians; but you haven't seen the last of Captain Thrajino!" Rico and Cole were both wondering the same thing; what the hell was a micronian? Elsewhere on the battlefield Dae-Han and Alex were still in the thick of the fighting; with Kang cutting loose with a pair of bursts from his Gunpod that took out the two Artillery Pods while De Aza fired a long spray which dropped the two remaining Battlepods and ended the fight. As SGT Rico picked up a very annoyed-to-have-to-be-riding-with-HIM Rob; Kang was more than a little relieved to learn that the surviving crew-member of the fallen Cat's Eye plane was his sister Sunny. De Aza opened her cockpit and let Sunny climb into her lap and the two Veritechs and Destroid set off back to the SDF-1; which apparently had been caught in some kind of gravity mine trap and under assault by a massive force of Pods while they had been engaged in their own little drama. As the rag-tag band came close to the ramp leading up into the Daedalus; a quartet of Pods noticed them and attempted to score a quick few kills before retreating from the fray; and Dae-Han ordered Alex to fly his sister back and out of harm as a frustrated Rob reached over SGT Rico's shoulder to fire all six of the medium missiles carried in its over-the-shoulder launcher at the group of Pods and took out 3 of them all while being cussed at by Rico. Kang fired a trio of missiles at the last Pod; blasting it to pieces and clearing the way home for good. Everyone returned to the ship and the SDF-1 managed to escape the trap at Mars and resume its trip towards Earth. After a thorough review of the battle; while everyone agreed that Rob's transformation to Battloid and mid-air tackle on the Officer's Pod had been a remarkable maneuver; it had also been VERY ill-advised and poor Cole got quite the tongue-lashing from LCDR Hyde. However, for their fine combat record and ability to save Chin-Sun Kang and SGT Rico; everyone got a medal; the Platinum Sunburst for both Dae-Han and Alex; and the Gold Sunburst for Rob.* In addition; both Dae-Han and De Aza were promoted; Kang to 1st LT and Alex to 2nd LT. Rob remained at 3rd LT; largely due to poor discipline.** In the weeks that followed the battle; Rob Cole had a bit of a life-crisis. Realizing how close to death he had come; he began the process of quitting drinking and started to attend church services. While there, he met Gladys Polinowski, a nice, shy civilian woman who worked as an X-ray technician; and the two began dating. He still couldn't quite shake the need for a good card game though.... Alex threw herself back into making the 'Loch Nes' a wild and successful underground bar/club in her off-hours; working closely with Nes to do so. She began to consider expanding the establishment to possibly house a fighting ring of some-kind; as a way for those with pent-up aggression to let it out in a somewhat-safe environment. She also picked up a romantic partner; albeit it was only a brief fling; the swings-both-ways De Aza had a steamy, short-lived romance with an attractive Waitress/Dancer of 'Loch Nes' by the name of Tiffani Snow... Dae-Han Kang celebrated his 23rd birthday by moving out of his barracks and into a 3 bedroom apartment overlooking the Macross Stadium in "downtown" Macross; along with his wife Tatyana and took every chance he could to relax and enjoy the peace and comfort of living with her before the war caught up to all of them again.... *I have 5 medals that can be won by a roll with bonuses for Glory points; they are in order of lowest to highest: Pilot's Medal; Gold Sunburst; Platinum Sunburst; Distinguished Service Cross (or SPACY cross for Sable Team members); and the Titanium Medal of Valor **Honor rolls are made with bonuses for Honor Points for promotion rolls; if failed, the promotion doesn't happen for some reason. Of course, there will be times when the GM will impose promotions or demotions for certain actions taken with no roll needed. |
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Post by Thorfinn on Jan 20, 2015 21:57:20 GMT
Very cool.
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Post by maxvale76 on Jan 20, 2015 22:39:24 GMT
Thanks amigo!
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Post by maxvale76 on Feb 10, 2015 19:01:54 GMT
Alright; we had our fourth game session this past Saturday; and though we were down a character (Rob Cole's player couldn't make it); I think we still had a very good time. This session was spent mostly OUT of the cockpits of Mecha as I had the characters have fun being "mice among Giants"; as they found themselves snooping around a Zentraedi capital ship. I explained away Rob's abscence with the following encounter....
Late 2010 (November)
3rd LT Rob Cole was just beginning to finally get over the stress of his near-death in combat at the hands of the Zentraedi Captain Thrajino in his Officer's Battle Pod; when he was selected to be one of the special few to test pilot the new Armored Battloid on a protective patrol near the SDF-1. Making his way to the Hangar Bay; he took in the sight of the VF-1A in Battloid mode; wrapped in layers of blow-away armor and fitted with 70 short-range missile tubes. Promising to be very careful with the new Mecha; he moved out on his patrol.
A few hours later Rob Cole was beginning to get a bit sleepy at the controls when he noticed over a dozen contacts on his sensor screen; coming fast into his sector. He relayed a message to the SDF-1 that he had about 15 bandits moving in and that he could use a little bit of help and he wasn't exactly reassured when he got a reply from the excitable, little-girl voice of 3rd LT Sammie Porter saying that 'Indigo Team' of Skull Squadron had been scramble and would be at his position in approximately 2 and a half minutes. Hoping that he had that long; Rob moved to intercept the pack of bandits; which were revealed to be a dozen Battlepods; two Light Artillery Pods and a Heavy Artillery Pod.
Cole did his best to dodge the long-range fire from the Pods' Particle Cannons and he used his Gunpod to destroy 3 out of 4 of the medium missiles the Heavy Artillery Pod fired at him but the last one slammed into him; but his heavily armored Battloid took the damage better than he expected. As soon as the enemy 'horde' were in range; he opened up with a massive salvo of missiles and he took great delight in watching half-a-dozen of the pods explode. Then he was in a short-range swarm of a fight with the remaining enemy mecha; and he took hit after hit while using his remaining missiles and Gunpod to continue to take out Pods here and there. A Particle Cannon blast clipped the side of the Battloid's head and parts of Rob's controls exploded out and slammed into the side of his head and the last thing he remembered was the sight of a trio of Veritechs in Skull Squadron colors taking out the few remaining Pods.
Cole was brought back to the SDF-1 after racking up 10 victories and having his new Armored Battloid almost destroyed; but courageously fighting off the Zentraedi long enough for Indigo Team to get there and finish off the few remaining Pods. Cole wasn't really aware of this though as he would spend the next few days in the medical bay with a fractured skull and the next month on light duty, recovering from his serious injury. During that time; his girlfriend Gladys would come by every day and he would be promoted to 2nd LT and receive the Platinum Sunburst Medal. While he was recovering though; his teammates would have quite an experience of their own....
On Thanksgiving Day; 1st LT Kang and 2nd LT De Aza were on patrol when a Zentraedi Scout Cruiser moved in towards the SDF-1 and unleashed an attack with most of its complement of Battlepods and Fighter Pods. The two fighter Sable Team was vectored towards a Cat's Eye Recon plane which had been damaged and was reporting that a strange; not-seen-before Mecha with 'hands' was moving in to capture the craft. Dae-Han and Alex raced in to see the disturbing sight of a Zentraedi Captial Ship nearby and a pack of Battlepods firing at them while a mecha that somewhat resembled an unarmed Officer's Pod; using its arms to grasp the damaged Cat's Eye Recon Plane and pull it into the Hangar Bay of the Cruiser.
Kang fought like a demon and used his missiles and Gunpod to rapidly take out no fewer than 6 enemy Pods; but his Veritech took catastrophic damage in return; and he was forced to eject the cockpit and nose of his Fighter with Alex radioing over that she would transform to Guardian mode and carry his ejected canopy section. De Aza's aim was uncharacteristically off; and she had only managed to take out a pair of enemy Pods when she switched modes and snatched Dae-Han's canopy section before taking crippling hits and just barely managing to her get flaming wreck of a Guarding on a course to crash land onto the enemy ship's hangar bay....
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Post by maxvale76 on Feb 10, 2015 20:47:08 GMT
Cont'd....
2nd LT Alex De Aza manages to just barely crash land onto the hangar bay of the Zentraedi Cruiser; while cradling 1st LT Dae-Han Kang's detached canopy-nose section of his destroyed Veritech fighter like a mother cradling an infant. As the flaming wreck came to a screeching halt; they noticed the damaged Cat's Eye Recon plane in one-section of the mostly empty, massive hangar-bay; and about a dozen Battlepods and half-that number of Fighter Pods; all unmanned and parked in a seemingly hap-hazard manner.
Alex snatched up her 3-round Rocket Launcher and her sidearm; set her Veritech for self-destruct and hopped out of her ruined fighter while Kang was doing the same; except he was armed with an Assault Rifle and his sidearm. The two of them quickly rushed across the Hangar Bay to hide behind the foot of one of the Battlepods as the remnants of the two veritechs exploded into a millions pieces of metal and glass. Shortly after that, a pair of armed and armored Zentraedi foot-soldiers entered the Hangar and began to patrol the massive room, clearly looking for any signs of the pilots of the destroyed Veritechs. Dae-Han and Alex quickly came to the conclusion that they would have to destroy the Cat's Eye; to prevent any information still in its computer systems from falling into enemy hands; as well as to determine what had happened to the crew of the plane.
Moving stealthily and greatly aided by the fact that they were on a ship built for beings 40+ feet tall; the two of them were quickly able to move to the Cat's Eye without being spotted by the enemy foot soldiers. The twin canopies were empty; though one had a significant amount of blood in it. Dae-Han set the self-destruct switch and the two pilots once again raced away to take cover behind enemy mecha. Within moments the recon plane exploded and the two foot soldiers rushed over and one of them quickly went to a wall-mounted intercom and in a rumbling bass voice in an alien tongue; reported the situation. Unwilling to attempt an escape without first trying to figure out the status of the two crewmen; Alex and Kang quickly decided to explore the equivalent of a 'mouse-hole' at the base of the wall; and they were soon traversing inside the wall; using small flashlights that were part of their survival gear to see by.
It quickly became apparent that the enemy ships were not swept clean, nor in particularly good working order. There were numerous openings to various rooms and corridors and they poked their heads out here and there; seeing a closet with numerous uniforms hanging on racks; a monstrously huge corridor that was very dusty and grimy; a room with half-a-dozen liquid filled tanks hooked up to some kind of piping and machines which were big enough to hold a Giant Zentraedi in each; and which curiously had a human-sized tank at the base of each. All of this traveling took hours and eventually; finding a nook in the walls; the two took a break and ate a meal of rations and some of the water in their canteens and took a short rest, before resuming their search for the missing Defense Force pilots. Finally, they heard deep booming voices coming from a room near the tunnel and the pair moved quickly to a small, 'mouse-hole' opening and there, a very strange sight was in front of them....
The hole they were looking out of was big enough for them to fit through and looking out they saw a pair of Giant Zentraedi; one in the typical armor and weapons of a Foot Soldier; while the other had no armor or visible weapons and was in a purple uniform; instead of the green one that every other Giant they had seen had been wearing; and he was talking to the two missing pilots; in ENGLISH! The missing pilots were on a ledge that may have served as a desk or table for the Giants and was about 20 feet down from Kang and De Aza's position; but directly across from them. (I.e. the Ledge spanned the width of the room and was directly below Dae-Han and Alex) The light purple-skinned Zentraedi officer began to interrogate the two pilots; who it quickly became apparent were named 2nd LT Sam Walker and 2nd LT Jerry Jameson. Jameson had an obviously broken leg; with part of the bone poking out through the skin and had clearly lost a lot of blood. Sam had torn off a sleeve from his uniform and done his best to tie a tourniquet around the wound; but Jameson had passed out and things weren't looking good.
The Zentraedi officer barked out questions about 'Protoculture'; how many transformable mecha were still on the ship; and perhaps most bizarrely, about where did Micronians come from. At first, Walker stuck to the 'name, rank and serial number' routine; while asking for medical attention for Jameson. In reply; the Zentraedi officer grew angry and casually picked up Jameson and crushed the life out of him and tossed the remains, messily, down on the ledge. At this, Sam snapped and in a panic, began to answer questions; though consciously or not; he stayed away from the military ones and stuck with the Protoculture and where Micronians come from questions. He honestly told them that he knew next to nothing about Protoculture; only that he had heard rumors it had something to do with the 'alien clean-energy fuel' that powered the mecha and that Micronians came from Earth. When the Zentraedi leader asked him more specifically on HOW Micronians became Micronians; Walker replied in a baffled voice that they were born this way, of course.
The Zentraedi became noticeably agitated by this and in an incredulous manner; asked from WHAT were Micronians born from and when poor Sam told him in confused tone that they came from a male and female parent; the Zentraedi lost it; looking to be a combination of angry and sick. He quickly whirled away and left the room; leaving the guard in the room as Walker collapsed in a heap in the corner; visibly at the break-point of exhaustion, horror, fear and confusion. Dae-Han and Alex knew that NOW was the time to act.
Kang; using a combination of his assault rifle and survival knife; began to hack away at the sheath covering a wire in the wall; and the sound drew the attention of both Walker and the Zentraedi soldier. Walker stayed as far back and away as he could; but the guard advanced, holding an Assault Rifle that looked to be about the same size as a Veritech's Gunpod. Alex waited with her rocket launcher and took a deep breath....
The Guard poke his face down at the hole's level and De Aza cut loose with a rocket (Luck Point spent here) that caught the poor soldier right between the eyes and blew chunks of gore on the ledge; further terrifying Walker and causing the Giant's body to fall to the floor. Kang had finally managed to get the wire out of its sheath and used enough of it as an impromptu rope to lower to the ledge and climb down to get a shaky Walker and help him back to the 'mouse hole'; and back on the hours long trip to the Hangar Bay.
Along the way, Sam finally got a hold of himself and spilled out that the interrogation had started right before Alex and Dae-Han had got there; and the officer's name was apparently 'Captain Thrajino'. De Aza and Kang shared a look; but said nothing to the poor Cat's Eye Recon pilot and eventually, the trio reached the Hangar Bay. This time; the Hangar Bay had about half-a-dozen armored soldiers milling around and it was a VERY near thing that the three of them managed to make it to a Fighter Pod with an open cockpit. Climbing up and into the cockpit; the three of them were able to make sense of the controls fairly quickly; and they quickly powered the Fighter up and lowered the cockpit with Dae-Han flying the craft; Alex working the weapons and Sam working the sensors and comms gear.
Kang managed to swing the Fighter from side to side; mostly dodging the incoming fire from the soldiers while some of the rounds pinged off the hull of the craft. Alex cut loose with the triple energy cannon on the nose of the Fighter Pod; and quickly managed to thin out their opposition. Walker managed to figure out how to send the signal to open the airlock as De Aza fired off some missiles to destroy some of the Battlepods and Fighter Pods at rest in the Hangar Bay. She was a little crest-fallen when Kang told her that they wouldn't count for her tally of victories.
Rocketing out of the Hangar bay and into space; Dae-Han; using his entire body to move the tree-sized Stick; managed to dodge the fire from the Zentraedi Cruiser (more expenditure of luck points here!); and soon; the triple-engined ship was well on its way towards the SDF-1; which Walker had managed to locate on the sensors. Switching over to a frequency used by the Defense Force; they sent out the message that they were friendlies and to PLEASE DON'T SHOOT THEM! A Veritech team soon came out and collected them and brought them back onboard; where they were more than a little surprised to learn that a similar incident had happened just the other day; only involving LCDR Hays and Vermilion Team of Skull Squadron!
Nevertheless; the acquisition of the Fighter Pod and the bravery shown in recovering LT Walker; as well as in escaping the enemy ship; led to Dae-Han Kang's receiving of a second Platinum Sunburst medal; Alex De Aza receiving a Gold Sunburst Medal; and best of all; a 'shore leave' pass thru the end of the year.
Alex's whirlwind relationship with Tiffany Snow ended as quickly as it had started; but she DID meet a much more serious-minded partner in Collin MacGregor; and it looked like THIS relationship might have a chance to turn into something special.
Dae-Han celebrated Christmas with his extremely pregnant wife Tatyana; and four days later was overjoyed to become the father of a son; Lu-Han Kang.
Rob Cole was finally released from the med bay and after a nice quiet holiday with Gladys; he was finally re-instated to active flight status and the three members of Sable Team all received newly constructed Veritech fighters and were once again out on patrol come January 1st, 2011....
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Post by maxvale76 on Mar 25, 2015 21:39:51 GMT
This session actually happened a couple of weeks ago; but life has gotten so crazy, I haven't had a chance to write it down. I doubt anyone is still reading it anyway; but considering that the next session is due to happen this coming Saturday, I figured I'd write it all down now, while I have the chance.
Early 2011 (January-April)
The SDF-1 finally manages to fight its way through the Zentraedi blockade and touches down on Earth in the early days of 2011. While the crew and civilians are thrilled to see the blue skies of Earth and the blue of the Pacific Ocean where the Fortress has touched down; they are soon dismayed to learn that Earth HQ is not allowing them to disembark anywhere in the United Nations.
Captain Gloval, dismayed by the situation, decides to risk things a bit and he allows Macross' number one celebrity Lynn Minmei to fly home to Japan in the civilian fan-jet piloted by 1st LT Rick Hunter of Skull Squadron. They soon return, with an unexpected passenger in the form of old family friend, Lynn Kyle and the crew learn that Earth HQ had reported everyone on Macross Island to have died in some kind of hush-hush accident. Gloval becomes more determined than ever to find somewhere to get the civilians off his ship so that he will no longer have to worry about the safety of some 60,000+ civilian lives.
Sable Team reports back to duty and soon after Minmei and Kyle have returned back to the SDF; they find themselves on a patrol over the Pacific when a detachment of Zentraedi mecha and a Purple-instead-of-green capital ship enter the atmosphere and make an attack run on the floating Fortress. They are vectored into the path of 5 strangely configured mecha; and they soon find themselves up against Battloid-esque vehicles which move faster and which much more agility than anything they have previously battled against. The enemy mecha move rapidly towards the 3 Veritechs in Fighter Mode and begin evasive maneuvers while closing to short range. Sable Team fires half a dozen medium missiles at medium range, but the vast majority of the missiles fail to connect with the agile, dodging mecha, and only one is damaged by a near-miss; and that one only lightly!
They the mecha are at short-range and an unprecedented amount of light missiles comes boiling out of shoulder and hip mounted launchers and all three Sable Team members find themselves going into desperate evasive maneuvers while firing back with bursts from their cannons and Rob and Alex quickly find their machines damaged; though Dae-Han manages to avoid taking any hits for the moment and the damaged Zentraedi mecha is destroyed while another one is damaged as well. The fight quickly escalates however and soon missiles, cannon-fire and laser bolts are flashing through the skies between the two groups of opponents.
Rob manages to take down a second enemy mecha, at the cost of his Veritech being crippled by rapid-fire energy cannon while Alex fires off ALL of her remaining missiles at once and disposes of the earlier damaged Mecha while crippling yet another. Dae-Han takes light damage as he damages the last of the untouched mecha in return with his gunpod; but there is little question that this fight has proven to be just about the toughest match Sable Team has ever been in.
De Aza puts her fighter into Full Evasive mode as a dozen missiles come screaming her way while Rob does the same with his barely-flying Veritech as well and somehow, both manage to avoid further damage while Dae-Han takes a scary near-miss but in reply manages to destroy another of the deadly mecha while the Crippled mecha is slowly trying to retreat and the last fully operational mecha attempts to deal with both Rob and Alex at the same time.
Alex pulls off an amazing maneuver and a pair of perfectly placed bursts from her gun-pod (i.e. she spent a luck point) to take out the Zentraedi mecha while Cole manages to pull off some equally amazing maneuvers to dodge and shoot down all of the missiles coming his way that the alien machine managed to get-off before being destroyed. (Rob spent a luck point here as well)
Dae-Han mopped up by taking out the last, crippled mecha, but he managed to get crippled in return by the last wave of missiles the Zentraedi surprised him with before becoming a fireball. The 2 crippled and 1 just-shot-up Veritechs returned to the SDF 1 at his point to learn the devastating news that although the strange 'new' Zentraedi mecha and capital ship had been fought off; it had come at a high price. Many veteran pilots; including the legendary ace LCDR Roy Fokker of Skull Squadron, had fallen to the enemy....
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Post by maxvale76 on Mar 25, 2015 22:37:04 GMT
Cont'd....
After the sobering losses sustained in the Pacific Ocean battle, several bits of news start to sweep through the crew and civilians on board the ship. First; several new Pilot-material-recruits are quietly 'scouted' and fast-tracked into training; including former enlisted/newly promoted 3rd LT Nestor 'Nes' Santiago and a transfer from Recon Pilot to Veritech Pilot by 3rd LT Chin-Sun 'Sunny' Kang. Also; the independent city-state of Quebec had agree to temporarily house the civilians on board the SDF-1, much to Captain Gloval's relief. Next; according to the Robotech engineers looking over several wrecked Zentraedi mecha brought aboard after the last battle, they appeared to have been flown by female Zentraedi pilots. Finally, word was that new, heavily armed 'Fast Pack' armor/thruster/missile pod equipment was rapidly nearing the completion stage for deployment on the dwindling number of Veritech fighters on board the Fortress.
As the SDF 1 slowly flew towards Quebec, they could soon see the city filling the windows and screens as the Fortress grew very close to setting down just outside the city to begin the off-loading of the civilian population. The inhabitants of Macross were of mixed feelings about this; many sad to have to leave this 'city on a ship' they had created and others glad to hopefully be out of the conflict for good. A wild party attended by the members of Team Sable on the night before the off-loading was to begin had lead to several complications in the lives of the veteran team.
A drunken Alex had gone topless at one point during the party and had photographed by numerous party-goers while in this state of undress and the pictures had made the rounds. Her boyfriend Collin MacGreggor had NOT been pleased and a loud argument the next morning with an angry De Aza, suffering from a hangover, had led to their break-up.
Dae-Han Kang had had one too many drinks as well, and upon gaining an audience of nearly-worshiping young pilots eating up his tales of combat and heroics, he had been more than a little boastful of his and his team and his squadron's exploits. A nearby Lion Squadron pilot by the name of 2nd LT Alphonse 'Big Al' Feretti had taken offense and he proceeded to wait right outside the bar and when Kang left, he was set upon and quickly roughed up by the angry pilot. Eventually coming home to his apartment; his wife Tatyana was NOT happy to find her beat-up and hung-over husband in such a sorry state while she had been dealing with their infant son all day and night and she proceeded to make his morning every bit as bad as his night had been when he finally regained consciousness....
Rob Cole had just barely managed to not succumb to the amorous advances of a young lady a the bar who found him quite dashing in his uniform; but when he returned home to his girlfriend Gladys, he pounced on her and though he wouldn't know it for another month and a half; his girlfriend would become pregnant that very night.
Late the following morning; all three of Team Sable members were nursing headaches when the alarm sounded and the word that a large force of Zentraedi capital ships and Battle Pods were entering the atmosphere and headed straight for them. The 'good' news was that they were the familiar green-painted ships and battlepod mecha; the bad news was that the unloading of the civilians had NOT yet started.
The SDF 1 fired it powerful main gun and trimmed down the opposition quite a bit while scrambling the Veritechs to deal with the numerous battlepods and then she activated the vastly improved 'Barrier Shield' which now protected the entire ship in an energy 'bubble'. Team Sable tore through the ranks of numerous enemy mecha; but the capital ships opened up on the Fortress with a massive bombardment of energy bolts and soon the Barrier Shield was glowing with an enormous surge of overloaded capacity. The Veritechs were all ordered to make best speed AWAY from the SDF right before the shield reflected the energy in all directions as it 'popped'; keeping the SDF 1 in the heart of the storm safe; but destroying virtually everything else in a several mile radius in all directions; including several Veritech fighters, most of the Zentraedi capital ships and most unfortunately, the city of Quebec.
The next couple of weeks on the ship were perhaps the darkest since first finding themselves adrift in the outer reaches of the solar system almost a year and a half ago. With all of Earth demanding they leave and draw the aliens away; Gloval had little choice but to break Earth Orbit and attempt to do exactly that. Much of the crew and civilian population were numb with loss and angry and in despair over ever finding any king of lasting break from the fighting; but Lynn Minmei and her close companion Lynn Kyle did take everyone's mind off their troubles for a little while by shooting a martial-arts film called 'Little White Dragon'; entirely on board the ship and this did much to distract everyone from the current situation.
Alex De Aza, hurting from her break-up with Collin; found herself getting more and more invested in alcohol while Dae-Han found himself increasingly stressed out after finding out that he was now the X.O. of the much diminished Black Aces squadron and his responsibilities seemingly grew exponentially. Rob did his best to forgo gambling for awhile and tried to find as much peace and solace as he could with Gladys and his Brother, Sister-in-law and young nephew.
After a couple of months had gone by; the Zentraedi attacked the ship again; though this time they had come up with a crafty strategy. Attacking with one Capital ship that came into point-blank range; they had specially reinforced the ship's innards in the expectation that the ship would be hit with a 'Daedalus attack'; and sure enough, that is exactly what happened. Upon the Daedalus' bow opening and the Destroid firing inside the alien ship; a special wave of per-positioned Battlepods destroyed the Destroids and board the ship through the carrier.
Making their way all the way to the streets of Macross City; much damage was done and Team Sable found itself in Battloid mode, fighting street to street and the situation looked increasingly grim when the strangest thing occurred. Many of the enemy pods seemed to stop in the midst of fighting and several of them started firing on each other! Soon enough, the enemy attack had faltered and a small contingent, led by a particularly hard-fighting Officer's Battle Pod, escaped the ship; leaving a fair bit of Macross in dis-array.
In the days following the attack, during the clean-up efforts; some extremely surprising news shocked the population of the Fortress. Several dozen Zentraedi had micronized themselves to human size and were requesting asylum. Several OTHER micronized Zentraedi had apparently been onboard for months, as spies and they too requested asylum. Finally, a single female Zentraedi had micronized herself and not only had she requested asylum; but rumor had it that she was engaged to be married to none other than 2nd LT Max Sterling of Skull Squadron; the greatest veritech aces in the Defense Forces!
Things had DEFINITELY taken a turn for the stranger onboard the SDF 1.....
Dae-Han Kang and Alex De Aza were both awarded the SPACY Cross for their actions in the recent conflict; while Rob Cole was awarded his second Platinum Sunburst. Both Dae-Han and Cole had passed the 30 victory mark with Rob at 33 and Kang at 32 confirmed scores. Alex was close behind with 25 victories.
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Post by bradkane on Mar 30, 2015 13:52:47 GMT
I am one more follower, so please keep posting your progress! I enjoy reading this series.
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Post by maxvale76 on Mar 30, 2015 22:13:07 GMT
Thanks Brad! It's nice to know that there some folks' out there enjoying this. Actually, we just had a session this past weekend, which I'll try to get up on these boards tomorrow or the next day and we've got the next session coming not this weekend but the one after that.
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Post by maxvale76 on May 5, 2015 22:52:14 GMT
My apologies on the long delay in posting these session reports; we've had a couple of sessions since the last time I posted; I just never got around to posting them. Both sessions only had 2 of the 3 players; the first session was mostly just the 'Final Battle' against Dolza's armada; while the second jumped forward in time to deal with the Christmas and New Year's attacks of Khyron
Mid 2011 (May)
Very little time had passed since Breetai and Exedore and their approximately 200 ships and attendant Battle Pods and Fighter Pods had allied themselves to the Defense Force. With barely over 50 working Destroids (mostly Defenders pressed into duty as AA platforms; along with a pair of MAC II Monsters serving as Capital Gun Turrets) and 60 functioning Veritechs on board the SDF-1; Captain Gloval was almost overjoyed to learn that the remaining functioning ARMD 'Armor' platforms would be assigned to him along with the Veritech squadron stationed at the Moon-Base; which brought the total of Veritechs up to 88. Even better news was that about 40 'Fast Packs' had been assembled by the Engineers on board the SDF-1; which consists of some extra armor; booster rockets and missile batteries which were able to be 'worn' by the Veritechs in all 3 modes.
Dae-Han Kang had been assigned the duty of looking after Team Onyx; in addition to Team Sable; and for the upcoming mission against Dolza's Fleet; he had 3 regular Veritechs; 2 Fast-Pack 'Super' Veritechs and an Armored Veritech Battloid to dole out among the 6 pilots. It had also been stressed that taking out Capital ships was going to be a priority; so a Dozen of the rare and high-powered 'Reflex' heavy missiles had been doled otu to him as well. Kang decided to have Team Onyx utilize the 3 standard Veritechs, with standard (i.e. a dozen Medium Missiles) load-outs; while Alex and Rob would pilot the 'Super' Veritechs, loaded for bear with 2 dozen Light Missiles in the Booster Tube/Quad launchers and half a dozen Reflex Missiles each. Dae-Han would pilot the slow, but bristling with 70 Light Missiles Armored Battloid.
At last, the moment had come. Dolza's fleet of nearly 5 thousand ships (yes, I know it's almost 5 million in the TV show, but honestly....that's just too ridiculous for me!) appeared; all around the globe; and before the Earth/Breetai force could intercept; the armada unloaded a devastating rain of destruction down on the Earth; taking out two thirds of the population and turning much of the world to waste-land. The Grand-Cannon weapon was utilized by Alaska Base to take out about a quarter of Dolza's ships before being destroyed by the remainder of the fleet. A desperate counter-attack by Gloval and Breetai was soon mounted....
With Minmei blaring out songs and a video feed of her singing and occasionally making out with Lyn-Kyle was broadcast to throw Dolza's fleet into confusion while the SDF-1 and a select group of Breetai's ships made a bee-line for the command moon-like base of Dolza; with the whole 'cut-off-the-head-of-the-snake' idea in mind; and the Black Aces were to help clear a path for this operation.
A pair of Zentraedi cruisers were selected by Dae-Han; and he ordered Alex to take the Purple one while Rob lined up on the Green one; but first; the enormous amount of Battle Pods and Fighter Pods barring their way would be met by Kang and Team Onyx. Dae-Han opened up with a massive salvo of missiles and he did his best to guide the neo-phyte warriors of Team Onyx in battle as well; but though the combined four pilots managed to take out approximately thirty of the enemy (Kang getting 13 himself); Dae-Han lost 2 members of Team Onyx and just barely managed to keep the last Pilot alive. With that accomplished, Rob and Alex made their runs....
Rob first had to fight his way through a half-dozen Battlepods led by a familiar Officer's Pod; indeed, it was none-other than Captain Thrajino who had nearly killed Cole back on Mars! Rob showed tremendous ability as a Pilot and a Marksman; doling out volleys of his Light Missiles and Bursts from his Gunpod to rapidly shred the Battlepods and while he took a light hit from Thrajino's Officer's Pod; he quickly dealt with him as well; turning him into a short-lived fireball and definitely joining his father in the ranks of legendary aces named Cole. After that; he had a significantly more difficult time dodging the flak from the Zentraedi Cruiser while closing in to fire off the Reflex missiles; but he managed to salvo them all off and take out the Capital ship at the cost of a barely-functioning Veritech that limped out of the massive melee to await the results of this last, great battle...
Alex De Aza on the other hand first had to deal with a group of enemy Fighter Pods; which she managed to take out with well-aimed volleys of her light-missiles and a long spray from her Gunpod; but was more than a little lucky in only being grazed by what seemed to be well-aimed blasts from her opponents missiles and laser cannons. Her luck would not be so good against the next threat however as a quartet of Female Power Armor mecha came boiling out of the Purple Cruiser towards her Veritech. She fought hard and managed to eventually take out all of the enemy; but her own mecha was crippled in return. She was not able to get off much of a shot against the cruiser; but her Reflex missiles DID manage to heavily damage the Capital ship; and a passing SDF-1 in Battloid mode had one of its MAC II monsters destroy the wounded ship with a perfectly placed volley from its quad cannon. De Aza drited out of the fight and towards Rob, Dae-Han and a barely-functioning young pilot by the name of Chester Van Pelt, who was the sole survivor of Team Onyx.
The pilots had a wonderful view of what happened next as the SDF-1 smashed its way into Dolza's command base; cut loose a massive volley of Reflex weapons and THEN engaged the barrier shield as the Command Base went up in a massive fire-ball. The rest of the battle went on for a long time, but was mostly desultory, with hundreds of enemy ships plunging down into the atmosphere to wind up as crashed monuments of the war all over the shattered planet. By the time it was all done and they had landed back on the SDF-1; there were 31 surviving Zentraedi ships from Breetai's group; including his massive flagship; and 43 Veritechs....counting the cripples such as Alex and Rob's.
The next couple of years were extremely hard and while all 3 members of Team Sable would stay in the Defense Force and be promoted (Kang to Lieutenant Commander and Rob and Alex to 1st Lieutenant); the simple fact of losing 5 out of 7 billion people on the planet and having to see the devastation anytime you went outside would make those years very, very hard.
Rob and Gladys would end up married and Gladys soon became pregnant and had a slightly premature, but healthy baby in the late months of 2011. (The gender and name have not yet been chose as Rob's player was not at the follow-up session).
Alex De Aza never found a lasting romance; but she did adopt a war-orphan and used her years of growing up with a single parent along with how it felt to lose the remaining parent to war to good use in caring for an otherwise totally along child. (The gender and name of this child has not yet been determined either as the player is still mulling over the story.....this character will be the long-term heir who will be one of the PCs when we get to the Southern Cross arc)
Dae-Han became the new commanding officer of the Black Aces as LCDR Hyde has been promoted to full Commander and has been assigned to be the CAG of all the fighters on the Moon Base. He and his wife and son are currently stationed here at New Macross City (the city that rapidly grows around the grounded location of the SDF-1 and whose initial population is mostly formed from the surviving civilians on board the SDF-1.
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Post by maxvale76 on Jun 10, 2015 22:19:22 GMT
Late 2013 thru 1st Day of 2014
The last two and a half years had been VERY long ones for the former members of Team Sable.
LCDR Dae-Han Kang had spent much of the time training new Veritech pilots and watching his new command; Sable Squadron; being broken up by Teams and dispersed as needed to various newly-built bases across the remnants of Earth and to the A.L.I.C.E. base on the moon. His wife Tatyana and young son Lu-Han were living comfortably in housing in the suburbs of New Macross City; sprawling around the lake-site where the SDF-1 had come-down to Earth after the defeat of the armada; and where the new SDF-2 was being constructed. Dae-Han traveled frequently and was quite happy to have been given leave to return to New Macross and spent a month's vacation with his family over the Christmas/New Year's holiday. He set down at the Aerobase which was popularly called "Fokker Field" in his fresh from the miraculously untouched Robotech Research Center factory in Japan VF-1S and warily, but happily made his way to his family....
1st LT Rob Cole and his wife Gladys and toddler son, Rob JR., were also enjoying some leave in New Macross City after Cole had spent the past few months ferrying Veritechs from the newly built mecha factory on the moon base, down to various Defense Force bases on Earth. Cole was also enjoying having his recently honorably discharged brother and family over for the holidays as well...
1st LT Alex De Aza was struggling with what exactly she wanted to do with her life. Currently she was juggling time teaching young Veritech pilots how to properly hit targets at the various ordinance ranges set up in the wastelands surrounding New Macross City while also taking care of a young war-orphan girl; Ella, who was the only survivor found in the rubble of a house destroyed during the holocaust of 2011 when she was not-quite 5 years old. Now she was 7 and had been formally adopted by Alex and was a VERY serious child with a bit of a nihilistic streak that De Aza wasn't always sure was a good thing in a child. Regardless, she was happy to get a holiday break and spent some quality time with her adopted daughter....
The survivors of the holocaust Dolza's armada rained down on the Earth 2 and half years ago have struggled mightily to rebuild some scattered towns and military outposts here and there; while in space; the remnants of Breetai's faction provides the only defense against any more alien invaders. In the summer of 2013; Breetai and a few select members of the Defense Forces mount a 'Trojan Horse' attack on the last functioning Zentraedi factory satellite and succeed in capturing it. Folded back to near-Earth orbit; this factory is painstakingly converted to build Earth mecha, vehicles, armaments and ships. Slowly, but surely, the Defense Forces are brought back up to strength.
Meanwhile; the tens of thousands of survivors of crashed Zentraedi ships of Dolza's aramada band together in the jungles and wastelands all over the Earth; or surrender to the humans in an attempt to learn how to live a new peaceful life. Untold thousands are micronized and integrated into society; with varying levels of success. While some adapt to their new roles as builders, farmers and even soldiers fighting for their former enemies; many also grow angry and discontent. Several charismatic leaders begin to gather bands of these 'malcontents' at various hard-to-monitor regions of the world and begin to amass hundreds of Battlepods, mecha, small-arms and earth-vehicles that have survived the 'final' battle in good shape. The most well-known such leader is the infamous Khyron.
Khyron and his ever-growing army, including female Commander Azonia and many of her warriors; soon begin to work on a long-term strategy. Large groups amass in the Amazon jungle of South America; the jungles of central Africa and the jungles of Indonesia and they will begin low-level guerilla campaigns to tie-up numerous Defense Forces units after the other major part of Khyron's plan is launched. Namely: a largely-intact cruiser in the rainforests of Brazil will be repaired and utilized to launch a surprise assault on the SDFs 1 and 2 at 'Lake Gloval' and after taking them out; will fold away on a journey to reach the Robotech Masters and then return with them to finish off the Micronians and traitorous Breetai and Exedore once and for all.
Khyron had finished all the necessary repairs to launch the cruiser by mid December of 2013. He just needed some more Protoculture to be able to power-up the ship for its mission. Utilizing spies among 'friendly' Zentraedi working in/near Defense Force units at New Macross City; he learned of a well-protected convoy which would be bringing down a container of Protoculture from the factory satellite and being stored at Fokker field for use of the mecha there. The crafty-though-insane warlord decided to launch a holiday assault with the primary goal of obtaining the fuel source.
The first part of the plan was an attack on the city of New Macross on Christmas; to take advantage of the lessened alert-status of the Defense Forces and to cause enough destruction to help obscure the true goal of the attack. This part of the plan worked to perfection....
Dae-Han, Alex and Rob were all contacted for an emergency recall due to the attack and all were quickly ordered to operate together due to their past history of working together very effectively. They were soon engaged with numerous Battlepods, supported by a pesky Recon Pod whose talented pilot did an outstanding job of jamming their sensors and communications capabilities and a dangerous Officer's Pod; but the reunited Sable Team handled the enemy pretty well; with only slight damage to Alex's fighter and some grazing scratches to Kang and Cole's machines in return for almost a dozen enemy Pods destroyed and the rest driven away. It was only after the Recon pod was forced to flee though the the desperate communications from Fokker Field came through about the Protoculture container being captured. Sable Team raced towards the half-destroyed warehouse to attempt to stop the enemy...
As they came roaring in; they saw that a pair of Male Power Armor units and an Officer's Pod with cables had secured the container and were starting to fly off with it. Meanwhile; a double row of full-sized Zentraedi infantry with Gunpod-like-Assault-Rifles and body armor stepped out from behind buildings they were using for cover in the section of the city they were using as cover and ambushed the low-flying Veritechs with a hail of autofire. All three machines took damage; with Cole's machine being heavily damaged; but all three managed to stay in the air and retaliated with the last of their missiles which took out about half of the troops; though at the cost of adding to the flames beginning to engulf large parts of the city. Rob and De Aza switched to Battloid mode and quickly took down the remaining Infantry at the street level; using buildings for cover just like the Zentraedi were doing; while Kang stayed in the air and attempted to intercept the Protoculture container. A pair of Male Power Armor units broke off from the swarm of surviving Zentraedi mecha; that were now largely retreating; and held up Dae-Han long enough for Khyron to escape with the Protoculture. Dae-Han took out the two Power Armor units; but his own mechas was crippled in response.
Landing at the less-damaged sections of Fokker Field; Sable Team was soon helping to fly the remaining undamaged-or-lightly-damaged Veritechs; loaded up with fire-retardant bombs and did what they could to help put out the flames all over the city on this very, very long Christmas day. Finally, they were allowed to go home and all of them at least had the comfort of finding out that their family members all survived the attack in good shape....
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Post by maxvale76 on Jun 10, 2015 22:47:51 GMT
Cont'd....
A week after the terrible Christmas Day attack; on the first day of 2014; Khyron's final attack came to New Macross City. This time; it wasn't a complete surprise; patrolling planes picked up on the unmistakable signature of a Zentraedi cruiser; INSIDE the earth's atmosphere; and coming north FAST. Once again; the emergency recalls went out and for the second time in a week; Team Sable was re-united in veritechs....
A large number of Fighter Pods and surprisingly; a not-insignificant number of Female Power Armor units were launched by the Cruiser and the Veritechs had to fight an intense wave of veteran opponents and missile swarms dominated the skies. Dae-Han, Alex and Rob all added to their scores but ALL were heavily damaged; with Alex just BARELY managing to land her crippled veritech safely when it was all said-and-done; but after the mecha had been taken out; there was little the three of them could do besides watch as the Zentraedi cruiser opened up with a devastatingly accurate hail of fire that absolutely tore the incomplete SDF-2 to pieces and left it sinking to the bottom of the Lake. The rusty, battered old SDF-1 though; which everyone had been told was non-operational; suddenly rose into the sky again; still in Battloid mode as it had been since the attack on Dolza's command center. It fired a blast from the Main-Gun which crippled the Zentraedi cruiser; but did NOT destroy it. The crippled cruiser then crashed like a spear into the Battle-Fortress and both crashed into Lake Gloval and settled down to join the shattered wreck of the incomplete SDF-2.
The stunned Team Sable team members eventually snapped themselves out of their shock and helped with recovery and rescue operations; but sadly there were not very many success stories. Of the command crews of the two Battle Fortresses; only Captain Lisa Hayes survived. The three Defense Force members were left to contemplate their futures while New Macross City was suffering through fires and reconstruction YET AGAIN, all around them...
GM note: This is the end of the first 'arc' for my Robotech campaign; the second arc will cover some of the Malcontent Uprisings of 2015-2018 and will focus on the 'back up' characters my players had created in the first arc; namely Nestor 'Nes' Santiago; Bo Buchanon and Chi-Sun 'Sunny' Kang. The third arc will cover the Southern Cross/Master's Saga crica 2030-2031 and the PCs will consist of the children/nephew of these characters and the fourth arc will deal with the New Generation/Invid storyline circa late 2030s with some of the children/heirs of various characters as well. Here's a quick synopsis of what's going to happen to the original 3 PCs over the next 5 years or so....
-Alex De Aza would soon decide that she had had enough of military service and she got out of the Defense Forces and soon became the manager, and later the owner, of the arcade/bar that she had once hung out with as a teenager along with a pre-Veritech legend Max Sterling. She would concentrate on running an establishment and become a prominent fixture of New Macross/Monument City in the years to come while her adopted daughter Ella would grow up here. Ella would eventually join the Army of the Southern Cross; but that's a story that will be told in due time...
-Dae-Han Kang would stay in the Defense Forces and he and his wife Tatyana would welcome a second child, a daughter, into the world in 2018. The entire family by this point were living on the Factory Satellite and would be a part of the Expeditionary Mission to the Robotech Master's home world of Tirol that would depart in 2020....
-Rob Cole would also decide to stay in the Defense Forces as would his wife as a Medical officer and like Dae-Han and his family; he and his wife would eventually become a part of the Expeditionary Mission. Their only child, Rob JR; however would remain behind when they departed for the other side of the galaxy in 2020; staying with Rob's older Brother's family. Rob JR and his cousin William would both defy their fathers' wishes though and decide to join the military; both becoming members of the Army of the Southern Cross...
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). Two of the PCs are playing Veritech pilots who are already in the Defense Forces; the other is a civilian who's father lives on the island as he is employed by the UN Spacy branch of the Defense Forces (as a civilian) and she is living there as a 19 year old employed at the Arcade where she also kicks ass at the Flight Sim games; except for her friend Max Sterling; who NOBODY can touch.
