RMS 1-14: Capturing the Thornheart's Crew

Mission Report

Tuesday, March 16, 2027 ((2024-05-05))
Team: Alice (Cael), Crunch (Keneux), Dex (wot), Haze (Aslene), Sol (Absent)

Dex smoothly landed our remaining missiles in the snow for retrieval. Sol jailed the thopter pilots aboard the Clever Mattie and secured their thopters atop the walker. The rest of the team focused on rescuing and securing the crew from Rikka’s Thornheart, the Childstealers’ walker. We communicated briefly via light semaphore. Some crew dismounted, including a trooper named Zenn. Zenn gave her word to assist with the evacuation. Dex and Crunch processed the evacuees, including taking away their weapons and electronics, and jailing them in the Clydesdale.

Alice and Zenn swept the burning walker, finding a total of nine survivors. This included Rikka, the clan leader. We recovered three bodies, too. Haze negotiated with the imprisoned major lightning elemental, Heat from Fallen Star Brings the Rain. Heat is accompanying us, at least temporarily. Meanwhile, Dex and Crunch used the Clydesdale’s searchlight to keep the Lurk away. After setting the enemy walker to self-destruct, we moved on. We caught a glimpse of a Lurk in primordial form before the explosion.

Details

• GM: [TABLE] Weather = [d144 = 95]
  • Temperature = Cool
  • Sky = Cloudy
  • Wind = 0
  • Precipitation = Heavy Snow
• Small Walker (Rikka's Thornheart), 2 thopters
• Alice (Hermetia Liddel): Alice keeps looking in the direction of the Resource.
• Alice (Hermetia Liddel): Alice puts in the earbuds she carries with her and pushes up her glasses.
• Alice (Hermetia Liddel): Alaice goes still for a moment.
• Alice (Hermetia Liddel): "Haze. I think something is..."
• Alice (Hermetia Liddel): "Ah. Nevermind. Later."
• Haze (Aislynn): -looks over at Alice- Nope. If you sense something, you say something, my friend.
• Dex safely dumped the missiles in the snowfield
• Alice (Hermetia Liddel): "...I... will explain. After this, when we are safe and have secured the Resource. It will make little sense before then as it is. But I ask that you keep an open mind, without fear or human prejudice, and try to understand us. I have told you no lies."
• The heavy snow is starting to lightly blanket the stationary, cooling Thornheart
• Light semaphore from Thornheart: "Emergency shut down in progress. Many injuries. Missiles stable. Core stable."
• Haze (Aislynn): Haze to Dex: This old school communications is also a good idea because it indicates it's a sapient being responding instead of any number of things that aren't sapients.
• Sol is transferring thopter crew to a secure cube in the Clever Mattie.
• Thopters are loose atop the Mattie
• Crunch puts the Clydes' searchlight into lighthouse mode
• Alice (Hermetia Liddel): "That will assist us." She briefly sticks her now very cold hands under her armpits, then puts her gloves back on -she had taken them off briefly for the magic- and pushes up her glasses. Alice makes sure her ear buds are in as the silver-white of her magic fades.
• Haze (Aislynn): "Wow, that's pretty Alice. Look how it sparkles! Also... it was an extremely clever bit of problem solving. Well done." Haze's bright smile is clear inside the words spoken on the group channel mindspeak.
• Alice (Hermetia Liddel): Alice blinks. "...It is a small magic. However, I am... glad you approve, Haze. I do not wish this 'Lurk' even on our enemies, even these."
• Haze (Aislynn): Spoken in lights, "Exit bottomside and surrender to the Clysedale if you wish to live. Danger coming from North, hurry."
• Alice (Hermetia Liddel): She seems... almost a tiny bit embarrassed by the praise, as if it was not expected, but pleased. Perhaps despite her usual cool demeanor.
• Haze (Aislynn): Haze speaks in a different tone when she's leadering, and she speaks towards Alice - her attention mostly on the hatch. "Try to hack into their system from here, we want intel - but mostly I need their list of personnel and which duties they each had. Pretty please."
• Haze (Aislynn): "Bonus points if you get access to any of their internal cameras."
• Alice (Hermetia Liddel): As they stumble through the snow, Alice twitches a hand. The silver-white of her magic flares in a little crystalline sort of pattern, and the snow... packs itself down, making walking a lot easier.
• Alice (Hermetia Liddel): In the Chain: Plenty of time to arrest them.
• Trooper Zenn pledges to do no harm to the Marshals until dawn
• Haze (Aislynn): In the chain: Dex, make sure to remove any weapons from the guy in the Clydesdale.
• Zenn's mindset: survive to fight another day
• Trooper 2: Jace, specialty is backup slinger
• 2 thopter pilots on board and secured on Mattie
• Sol secures the enemy thopters atop the Mattie
• Clan: Rikka's Raiders
• The Raiders have unusually good miltec smartphones
• Alice (Hermetia Liddel): Alice seems to be noting the tech around her with those cool, sharp silver eyes.
• Thornheart core: Major lightning elemental, true name: Heat of Fallen Star Brings the Rain
  • Imprisoned for 2 months and is supposed to have been released after 1 month, but because of the Wall, they have been unable to summon another one
  • Right eye: thunderstorm. Left eye: meteor-struck oak tree
  • Misses her children
• Alice (Hermetia Liddel): Alice's magic subsides, but does not vanish. There are motes of ice and flickers of flame around one hand, and a swirl of wind and a few pebbles around the other.
• Alice (Hermetia Liddel): There is the sense of RAPT keen attention from Alice.
• In this cramped, dark compartment, an unconscious crew member lies on the floor, adding to the grim scene. The area is dimly lit by the occasional flicker of emergency lights and the glow of short circuits, casting a haunting light on the scene. Small fires burn intermittently, their smoke mingling with the acrid smell of burnt wiring. Metal surfaces and machinery crowd the space, enhancing the claustrophobic atmosphere, suggesting recent and severe battle damage.
• Heat will travel with the Marshals, and has questions
• Haze (Aislynn): Haze to Alice - We need to take the bodies, no flesh for the reavers.
• Haze took the equivalent of their hard drive from the bridge of RIkka's.
• Lurk: This extraterrestrial monster is crafted from intertwining strands of black oil and cables. It exudes an unsettling aura, its form both fluid and mechanical. The body resembles a shifting mass of oil-slick tendrils, undulates with unnatural flexibility. Sharp, cable-like appendages emanate from its core, each one ending in a gleaming, metallic point. Moving silently and swiftly, this creature easily blends into the shadows. When light touches its glossy exterior, its carapace reflects twisted echoes of its environment.
• Survivors
  • Rikka (Hum F)
  • 3 Troopers: Zenn (Hum F), Jace (Hum F), Bracken (Hum M)
  • 5 Crew: Gears (Hum M), Gears Apprentice (Hum F), Dotti (Hum F), Rider (Hum M), Rider (Aasimar M)