Session 49: Sandstorm
General Summary
The session began with libations after The Liberators assessment. Drinks flowed freely but even as The Liberator's men mingled and drank the mood among the minutemen was dower. The players snooped and heard the minutemen complain about the fighting southern front and spied they had insignias on their uniforms from two separate rifle companies, indicating they're made up of two companies that were each cut in half by casualties. Kutter went to the enemy commander, Major Cait McLoughlin, and offered her his jug of moonshine, drunkenly boasting that he almost killed her in the simulation, but she took the booze and brushed him off. The players tried to raise the Minutemen's spirits but were met with awkward or annoyed stares.
Eventually, they settled in and drank together while Jason was off to the side performing maintenance on his armor, with him was Blair who continued to rant about how the infantry squads they fought died very quickly. Cait came to them, apparently buzzed and she gave a grave warning about the southern front, telling them they better fight Jane on their troops being deployed to the front. After this dead serious conversation, she completely changed tones as she left to raise her troop's spirits. At the edge of the camp, Kutter heard someone coughing. When he went to investigate he found RM coughing up blood. He called Doc who put her under observation in the medical tent and promised to watch her overnight. Kutter sat outside the tent and smoked a jerry-rigged blunt to ease his nerves.
Early the next morning the players were awoken for a call with The General. The players questioned her on the assessment seemingly being rigged, she replied that it was because her rifle company and The Liberators exerting themselves before their deployment served no purpose as she already knew The Liberators were capable, so she hastened the inevitable conclusion. She then gave them new orders, their infantry would deploy to the southern front and reinforce her units, while the players and their mechanized platoon would head to the western front. Kutter pushed back against this, saying splitting up their infantry into Minuteman units would lead to disaster, and after a prolonged argument, she relented, letting them remain a cohesive unit when they deployed.
The arrangements were then hashed out by the players, the infantry led by Gramps and backed up by May on the vertibird, and Barry running liaison duties would head south. The players, 1st Vanguard, the marksmen, Blair, and the gorillas would ride their armor west as ordered.
Finally, Kutter went to check on RM and found her in a sorry state, she was laid on a stretcher and he spotted blue boils on her back. Doc, dressed fully in scrubs pushed him out of the tent. Kutter asked what she had, Doc said he didn't know for sure. When pressed Doc said it might be the new plague, which filled Kutter with dread as he knew it was a fatal disease. Doc said he was consulting his colleagues and he was going to do everything he could.
With that, the players set off as ordered to the Nuka World Transit Station where they met Ranger Cheif Akira who briefed them. He stated loading their vehicles on the train would be a tight squeeze and they'd need to double check the tunnel's clearances but he was cut off by the track exploding in the distance, he handed them a map and told the players to get what they needed and meet them on the other side of the mountains. Wordlessly he and his rangers gathered their gear and left to hunt down the saboteurs.
The players gathered some anti-vehicle weapons and mounted up, taking the backroad through the mountains. When night fell Kutter ordered strict light discipline, killing the vehicle's headlights and having 1st Vanguard slowly lead the convoy to avoid detection. This was almost broken when Ellie went to light a cigarette but Kutter shut it down after a short argument.
The players arrived on the western side of the mountains where the damp freezing weather turned into a scorching sun held back only by an overcast sky. They saw the rangers emerge from cover and Akira greeted the party and gave them the rundown.
He told them that Nuka World was occupied by what the Red Tide called a Warband, a mechanized force consisting of several smaller Bands brought together by influential lieutenants. He introduced them to Ranger Elder Vincent, whom they met at the castle during 1st Vanguard's break-in. Vincent had destroyed all the warband's vehicles, leaving them vulnerable as they were a hit-and-run force without means of retreat. Akira informed them of the bands in the force: the tinkers of the Mech Boys, the sniper Crows Foot, the cultish Shepards with their ghoul horde, and the unruly Trophy Hunters. The Lieutenants leading the warband each had personal forces, the leaders were Gork and Mork along with a third unknown commander known as The Berzerker who lead an especially deadly force that wiped out any force sent after them.
Akira told them the plan, they would first assault Nuka Town USA, the enemy FOB to leave the rest in disarray. The Rangers would take the flanks and close in on the enemy, moving room by room while The Liberators would use their mechanized units to patrol the streets and pin enemies inside the buildings for the Rangers to assault.
The plan was set in motion and while the battle raged around them Kutter backed up by Quinten and Jason moved in on the enemy command post in the center of town. He saw Gork who greeted him enthusiastically. They merrily agreed to duel so Gork and his two lackeys walked out of the command post. A tense stand-off ensued as the two teams approached each other.
This quickly erupted into a chaotic battle, Jason dueled a bloodthirsty mutant with a thermic lance who tried to grapple him with a chain hook but Jason countered which spiraled into an intense tug of war. Quinten was suppressed to hell by a Mutant with an LMG and most brutal of all was Kutters and Gorks duel as Gork lit Kutter up with his dual Obrez Barret .50 cals. Kutter declared Gork would join him when Kutter defeated him but Gork said he couldn't as he'd certainly end up on The Bloodletters stake. Kutter countered that they'd beat whoever The Bloodletter is but Gork somberly declared that no one can.
Jason was tripped up when the mutant used the hook lodged in its own collarbone to leverage him to the ground and pierced Jason's fusion core with its thermic lance, sending it critical. Quinten was holding his own, striking back at the mutant with the MG. Kutter however was cut down but powered through with his orklike grit and martial determination. He gathered the strength to throw Gork onto Jason's exploding armor then pulled the freshly ejected Jason out of the blast radius. The explosion seemingly killed Gork and the lance-wielding mutant and turned Jason's armor to slag to his dismay. The final mutant yielded, ending the duel. Kutter hailed Mork on his frequencies and informed him his brother may have died and Mork said if he had it was his own fault. Kutter proposed a parley, again trying to recruit his friend on the other side but Mork said not yet.
Akira ran over and spoke with exasperation about the mutant he saw fly into the sky out of the explosion like a cartoon. He heard bits of Kutter's conversation with the enemy and almost went off on him but he told Kutter it was his lucky day. He had assessed the battle and realized most of the enemy had escaped out the east flank and began to reem Vincent for not pushing in. Vincent declared that they were pinned down by snipers but Akira countered that he had the ten best marksmen on the eastern seaboard and he should've been able to break through a stalemate. Kutter however was inclined to side with Vincent, even if the enemies had escaped he thought the proposed push was a stupid move.
The task force shifted to their next objective, clearing the park. Akira declared their targets, the Mech Boys had hacked the robots in the Galactic Zone meaning a frontal assault would be costly, he proposed a stealth op to hack Star Command and turn the robots back over to their side. The Crows Foot had turned Dry Rock Gultch into a shooting gallery, if someone could find their positions the rangers could methodically wipe them out. The Shepards had gathered their horde in the Kiddie Kingdom, a gunline or spearline could get the job done but one strong melee combatant could probably do it just as well. Finally, the Trophy Hunters had broken rank and were wreaking havoc on the animals in Safari Adventure. The Gorillas overheard this and insisted they deal with them personally. Kutter reluctantly approved then the players took the other objectives.
Jason and Blair snuck into The Galactic Zone. Blair asked how he was doing and Jason replied sharply, stating he was sick of his armor troubles. Blair suggested he round out his skillset and offered to teach him how to use his revolver like she could. Jason agreed and they easily snuck into the mainframe and Jason turned the robots loose. The pair casually walked out as pandemonium roared around them with the Mech Boys being cut down.
Quinten went to spot targets for the Rangers. He summoned a massive horde of synth crows with extra bird feed he had and spotted dozens of crow's foot, who were easily visible with their black cloaks atop the tan rock. The rangers moved in and methodically cleared the park with Quinten's detailed map of the enemy positions.
Kutter moved to the Kiddie Kingdom parking lot and looked out towards Noflag where Mork was stationed and waved, receiving a distant wave in return. Then Kutter got to business, getting the attention of the horde and standing at the entrance to the park and mowing the frail ghouls down as they flooded into the chokepoint.
The players, having completed their tasks, moved to rendezvous to move on to the bottling plant, the enemy command post.
