Winning Vote:
[X] Let's be bad guys
-[X] Take the deal
-[X] Agree and go along with Zero's plan
April UE 0083
Earth Federation/Neo-Britannian Military Base, Bahrain
You are Tamaki Shinichiro, and you drew the short straw for the plan that Zero is about to execute. The boss had reached some kind of agreement with the newest player on the block, the Solar Vanguard. In exchange for an off-the-book alliance, they would help the Black Knights stop an illegal invasion of Japan before it could get started.
Shame that plan involved you being forced to eject from your Knightmare for the umpteenth time.
You're approaching the base where one of the ringleaders of the invasion is in command, one General Septem. You don't really know much of him beyond what Zero told you, but you got the impression that Septem has an ego the size of Jupiter. All the more reason to take him down then. As a bit of a consolation for the fact that you're going to deliberately get yourself shot down, Zero has made sure that the first wave of resistance your squad encounters will be troops loyal to Septem. The 'destruction' of your Knightmare is going to be at the hands of insiders that Zero somehow managed to get on to his side. All you have to do is charge at a red Knightmare that you were given a photo of for reference. No pressure.
Ah, it looks like the base has noticed the approach of your group. True to his word, neither of the insider squads appear to have deployed yet. You and your allies are instead confronted with a mixed force of Knightmare Frames and Mobile Suits. The Knightmare Frames include Sutherlands, Glasgows, and the odd Gloucester, while the Mobile Suits consist of Jegans, Leos, GM IIs, and Aqua GMs.
"Charge! Stick to the plan Zero laid out!" Ohgi orders from his Command Burai, although calling it a Command-type was being generous, the only difference was that it had an extra radio as far as you could tell. Your Burai, in contrast, had been given a machine gun and just enough ammunition to last until the insiders deployed. To mark yourself to the pilot of the Alexander Red Ogre, it had also been painted with an olive drab streak going diagonally across the torso.
Your squad charges forward, firing their weapons at a squad of enemy Knightmares. You manage to perforate a Glasgow's torso and smash a Sutherland with your slash harkens, forcing the pilots to eject. Elsewhere, a different squad has lured a number of enemy Mobile Suits into a trap, surprising them with The Black Knights' own Mobile Suits, a mix of Jegans, GM IIIs, and Leos.
How are they not taking the bait yet? We're slaughtering them! You think to yourself.
"Hey Zero, are we ready for the uh...next phase of the plan yet?" You barely manage to keep yourself from blurting out 'insiders' in case the comms aren't as secure as you think.
"Hold out a little longer, and we will be able to move on to the next objective." Zero responds.
"Define 'a little longer!' I'm running out of ammo!" You bark back.
"Two minutes at most, then you can 'disengage'." Zero says.
Well, you have two minutes to have a little fun, you guess. You only hope that General Septem is as stupid as Zero says he is.
General Septem assesses the situation, does he smell a rat?-DC 5 to conceal the plan
Roll 1d10 + 3 (Septem's bloodthirstiness) + 1 (insider information)
Roll 5 + 3 + 1 = 9
SUCCESS
Shortly after your squad dogpiles and takes down a Leo, you hear Septem's voice over the comm channel that the insiders provided to Zero.
"Deploy everyone! Yes, including those assholes from the Asura squadron! Crush the Black Knights!"
Ah, there's your cue. You immediately start scanning the battlefield for the Alexander Red Ogre. After a few minutes, you it, along with the rest of the Asura Strike Force bearing down toward your squad.
"Tamaki, now!" Ohgi orders.
"Yeah, yeah, I'm on it!" You grumble. You'll have to make things look convincing.
Your Burai rumbles forward as you fire the last of your ammunition toward the Alexander Red Ogre, deliberately aiming at the ground around it instead of at it. You toss your now empty machine gun aside as you ready your Knightmare's tonfas. The rest of the Asura squad fires at your squad, similarly skewing their aim toward the ground around them as you close the distance. The Red Ogre tears forwards towards your Burai, and the pilot opens a private channel with you.
"You feel lucky, Eleven?" Ah, he's being racist for show.
The Red Ogre draws a sword and cuts off your Burai's left arm. You bring your machine's remaining arm up in a guard posture and eject as the Red Ogre swings down. Your cockpit block bounces once, then twice, before skidding to a stop on the dirt. Well, you've played your part, Zero better at least give you a commendation for this.
April UE 0083
Aboard the Clop class cruiser
Budapest
"That's the signal, launch now!" Kati orders.
The Rose, Patrick's Stark Jegan, the Wing Gundam, the Gundam Heavyarms, and a custom brown YF-19 launch from the
Budapest. An Argama class ship accompanying the
Budapest launches an army of Jegans and Leos along with the Knightmare Frames of W-0. Yukari is your copilot for this mission.
"Black Knights, cease your assault on this base and surrender peacefully!" Kati 'orders' over an open channel.
"Do you wish to know why we're attacking this base, Colonel Mannequin?" Zero counters with a question.
"What would we have to know about the reasons behind terrorist action?" Kati responds.
"Even if such action is taken to prevent an unjust invasion?"
"What do you mean?" Kati says in feigned surprise.
"General Septem, the commander of this base, is colluding with Neo-Britannia to conduct an illegal invasion of Japan. We are attacking this base to secure evidence of such, and are willing to turn it over to you if you cooperate."
General Septem is less than pleased that Zero is airing is dirty laundry and butts in.
"Colonel Mannequin, what are you doing!? I order you to reinforce us and attack the Black Knights! What Zero is saying is a bold-faced lie!"
"Wow, it's audio only, but I can practically see him being red-faced right now." Yukari quips to you.
"General Septem, this is a very serious accusation that has been leveled against you. The Black Knights have a pattern of exposing corruption and organized crime within the Federation. Besides, the Solar Vanguard is an independent task force, I don't have to answer to you." Kati bluntly states.
General Septem doesn't take this well.
"AAAAAAAHHHHH! Colonel Mannequin, you traitor! Kill! Kill them all!" He screams the order to his troops.
At that moment, the Asura squad turns and fires on Septem's forces. The fight is on again, and it's Septem against the combined forces of the Black Knights and the Solar Vanguard. As you get into the thick of things, a Gloucester manages to get close to the Rose.
Gloucester throws lance at the Rose
vs
Armor DC 13-6 Armor + 6 Ability + 1 (Yukari copilot)
roll 1d10 + 3 Ability
Roll 4
4 + 3 = 7
Result: The Gloucester wastes its most powerful weapon and is left wide open
The Gloucester's thrown lance bounces off the Rose's armor, not even leaving a scratch. You draw the Crystal Sword, a pink and red blade of crystal materializing out of the hilt. The Gloucester, despite its small size and maneuverability, is unable to get away in time as you bisect it with the Crystal Sword. The Sutherlands and Glasgows fire on the Rose with their machine guns, the underpowered ammunition either flattening against the Rose's armor or ricocheting off. The Heavyarms sweeps its Gatling Cannon across the enemy machines before launching a salvo of missiles, decimating a group of Knightmares and Leos. Patrick's Stark Jegan fires its missiles into a group of Aqua GMs before leaping up and crushing a GM II on landing, coring enemy mobile suits with his beam rifle.
You spare a glance over to the troops the Argama class ship deployed, and are pleased to see them doing well.
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qBOEkaCdhEI
W-0 is leading the charge, with a white Alexander in particular devastating any machine that dares oppose it. It riddles an enemy Sutherland with bullets before grabbing a Glasgow that attempted to sneak up on it from behind, using it as a shield to protect itself from a salvo of bullets from another Sutherland. The Alexander tosses what's left of the Glasgow at the Sutherland to distract it before blindsiding the enemy machine and hacking off its limbs with a bladed tonfa. A Gloucester charges the Alexander, throwing its lance at it in an attempt to catch it by surprise, only for the Alexander to leap over the thrown weapon and rush the Gloucester. The Gloucester fumbles as it draws a sword, only managing to clumsily parry a single strike before the Alexander decapitates the machine and caves in the cockpit with its fist.
Between the Black Knights, W-0, and your own group, you quickly sweep aside Septem's forces and surround the base, Zero's custom Burai pulling up to the command center along with a red Knightmare Frame you identify as the Gurren, the machine of the Black Knights' top ace. Zero disembarks, accompanied by a squad of infantrymen, and a few minutes later, come out with a contrite General Septem and his command staff in tow. Not long after, the Black Knights secure the base computers, and you have all the evidence you need to implicate Septem and several others in a plot to illegally invade Japan.
April UE 0083
The Sahara Desert
You are Sumeragi Lee Noriega, and you need a drink after the near-disaster that just occurred.
The mission was supposed to be simple enough, assassinate Alejandro Corner while he was inspecting the site of a controversial weapons development program so you could pass it off as an armed intervention. What none of you had anticipated was that the site was actually Alejandro's secret base for the nascent A-LAWS initiative that he had proposed to the Federation earlier this week. As a result, resistance was far heavier than anticipated, where you had expected the Meisters to encounter Linear Gun Tanks and Gaza series mobile suits, they instead had to fight through ReZels, Jegans, and MP Nu Gundams in addition to what you were certain are prototypes for a 6th generation Knightmare Frame.
The problems didn't end there, as breaking into the underground research facility revealed more unexpected opposition and with it, questions. The first thing encountered were a trio of Gundams using what appeared to be some kind of
GN particle technology. That had come as a nasty surprise to the Meisters. Despite this, they had managed to fight the opposing GN tech Gundams and force them to retreat further into the complex. When the Meisters managed to find them again, they came across a bizarre scene: one of the Gundam pilots had been killed and his machine hijacked by a mercenary known as Ali-Al Saachez. Ali then proceeded to destroy one of the other Gundams before fleeing upon seeing the Meisters. The last Gundam pilot opted to surrender, as the other Gundam pilots were her brothers, and she was overcome with grief.
While Allelujah secured the pilot, one Nena Trinity, and her Gundam, the other three Meisters pursued Ali deeper into the complex, only to stumble upon Alejandro himself, piloting an incomplete mobile armor using GN particle tech and housing another GN particle tech using Gundam, also incomplete. The Gundam Meisters had managed to destroy this mobile armor and Gundam, killing Alejandro in the process, but the Exia and Dynames had been heavily damaged, and Lockon Stratos would have to be hospitalized for at least two weeks to recover.
You barely had time to retrieve Nena and her Gundam, along with the wreck of Alejandro's mobile armor and Gundam, in addition to 10 devices similar to the GN drives your Gundams use. A search of the facility's computers revealed that there were originally 30 in inventory, but you didn't have enough time to verify where the other 20 had gone, the Federation response was closing in fast, and the Ptolemios wasn't meant for direct combat.
While the Gundam Meisters were exfiltrating, they came across a civilian who had apparently been kidnapped by the A-LAWS.
Kinue Crossroad survival roll-DC 8
Roll 7
Saji Crossroad had been investigating the disappearance of his sister, Kinue, a journalist, as she had gone missing while investigating Celestial Being. His girlfriend Louis Halevy had insisted on accompanying him, and they had been pursuing a lead when they were kidnapped by Ali. After being held captive in the base, Saji had found out that Ali had murdered Kinue because she had inadvertently stumbled upon a lead related to the A-LAWS and was dangerously close to a breakthrough. He was then separated from Louise, and kept in solitary confinement until you commenced your assault on the facility. He's willing to join Celestial Being in exchange for help in finding Louise, and according to Setsuna, he seems very,
very desperate.
You open a beer before chugging it down, Christina looking on in concern. Just about the only thing that had gone right was that Alejandro Corner was now dead, but you get the feeling someone else was pulling his strings. There's no way anyone outside of Celestial Being would be able to invent GN particle technology independently, you smell a rat within the organization.
You won't be able to keep any of this from the Solar Vanguard, doing so would be a massive betrayal of trust, and they need to know what they might have to deal with in the future. You sigh before turning to Feldt.
"Get me in contact with Marina Ismail, we need to have another talk with the Solar Vanguard."
Items, prisoners, and Intelligence gained by Celestial Being:
Wreck of the incomplete Alvatore and Gundam Alvaaron
Gundam Throne Drei
Nena Trinity as a prisoner
Saji Crossroad as a potential collaborator
GN [T] Drive x10
[A-LAWS puppeteer]: You suspect that Alejandro Corner was being manipulated by someone else, likely a traitor within Celestial Being
[GN kitbash]: There are 20 imperfect GN drives out there, likely supplied by the traitor in Celestial Being
[Super Betrayal Wars]: You suspect there is a traitor within Celestial Being supplying intelligence and knock-off GN particle technology to unsavory actors within the Federation
After securing the evidence against Septem and his collaborators, you have a bit of downtime while you wait for Trieze to make his case against Neo-Britannia.
Who do you socialize with? (pick ONE)
[ ] W-0
-The commander of W-0, Leila Malcal, seems like an interesting person, especially considering the fact that she has a command at only age 17. Find out why she decided to participate in this operation, as well as her motivations for joining the Solar Vanguard.
[ ] Asura Strike Force
-Ashley Ashra is certainly a colorful individual. Despite, or perhaps because of this, his men are fiercely loyal to him. Get to know him better and find out why he defected from Neo-Britannia.
[ ] Heero Yuy and Trowa Barton
-From what reports you've read, the Colony Gundams originally deployed to Earth to fight OZ and the Federation. What changed to make them work with their nominal enemy?
[ ] Patrick Colasour and Kati Mannequin
-Patrick is too busy flirting with Kati to pay you any mind, and despite her attempts to deflect him, she seems to enjoy it? Eh, leave the two of them alone for now.
+1 to bond with Yukari
A/N:
I apologize if the battle scenes against General Septem seem short, but honestly, in an SRW game, they would have just been your people against mook level units, so I decided to keep things simple. Please, vote, discuss, speculate, and critique!
