Game Night Tales from around the gaming table

 

None.

 

I am playing Draka "Drake" -- my first ever character for the CthulhuTech RPG.

 

 

 

The day started out fairly normally -- running the family corporation -- visually checking the new employees to ensure that they weren't Dhohanoids, signing approvals for new R&D requests to improve our Stealth Armour and the final field test request for our new "Biter" assault rounds.  This last one was the most important thing of the day, it would get my team onto Task Force Mercury -- we had many contracts with the NEG, but this one would be very useful for what they were about to do.

 

It worked and we were added as the civilian operators to Mercury.  The Eldritch Society had reasons to get us on that task force -- there was an AI Core at the Ashcroft Archives facility in Anchorage (Juneau) that they needed retrieved before the Migou totally converted the area.

 

Our Operator gave us the secret mission briefing that night, and the next day Jack, Dan and I were shipped out to the NES Victory and briefed on the NEG's mission.  We would get to test out the Biters and, as usual, most likely die if things didn't turn out exactly right, but this time we were attached as part of NEG's Blue Squad --  an elite special missions team -- which would make it tough for us to use our Tager powers effectively.

 

As Tagers, we were considered monsters by the NEG, but the truth was that we were holy warriors fighting in a Shadow War to save the planet from its primary enemy -- the Chrysalis Corporation.  We had standing orders not to be seen as anything other than human -- Nazzadi in my case -- if at all possible.

 

The NEG mission was more difficult than our own secret mission.  With Blue Squad, we would infiltrate Anchorage and retrieve a potent artefact, which was lost during the Migou conquest of the arcology.  The artefact -- an Ainu Eater Statuette -- was in the possession of one Dr. Wen Song and his assistant, Cindy Wells-Yang, when their transport was shot down near the coastal spaceport.  Our Mission:  to find them and the artefact and extract them all to safety -- but the artefact was top priority.

 

We would be flown to Alaska by high speed scram-jets and then fired from there in drop needles -- which were basically bullets fired at Mach 9 into their target zone that would hold one person each.  This was meant to better the odds of most of the team getting onto the ground intact.

 

Speaking of the team, Mercury had the following people assigned to it:

• Task Force Commander, Colonel Viktor Tabanov -- GIA Special Projects Director.
• XO, Captain Klaus Ackerman -- NEG Special Operations Forces, 82nd Heavy Recon -- and Blue Squad's current Commander.
• Blue Squad Soldiers:  Jenner, Ouyang, Pernelli, Roya, Gardez, Taufel and Ward.
• 1st Lt. Alexis Lockhart -- our pilot and one cold blonde beauty.
• Sgt. Hern Adusha -- the NCO and only other Nazzadi on the team.
• Patrick “Sparks” Mulligan -- the Comspec and arcanotech.
• 1st Lt. Laura Briggs -- a GIA Researcher, and
• Lt. Heather Dering -- a GIA GhOST.

 

Surprisingly my team was offered a chance to give our opinion on how and where to insert.  After an intense debate, it was decided that we would insert just outside of the Ashcroft Archives facility – as it had the largest digital processing mass, so it was the best possible source of info on the artefact and where it might be.  As a secondary target, we would proceed to Toha Heavy Industries – it was a large port-side mecha and vehicle manufacturing plant which also had an airfield which we might be able to use to escape from.  Lastly, the Polaris Spaceport – the final target was the primary transportation hub in the area and possible site of any last defenders.

 

We were given 6 hours to prep and rest up before we would board the scramjet for Alaska.  As my team had already come prepared I gave them leave for whatever they wanted to do.  I took the opportunity to try and get to know the men and women that I would be risking my life with -- you never knew, sometimes these small gestures of humanity led to greater things, it could even save my life or that of my team.

 

Afterwards, we were each loaded into a needle for the long trip to Alaska -- I took that opportunity to rest and meditate.  Being a Tager was demanding, a Nightmare doubly so.  If one didn't take the time to calm the symbiont and master its urges, it could influence you at the most inopportune times.  It had happened to me twice so far, luckily both were in the first weeks of my bonding and I had still been with my Trainer, who showed me the techniques that I was using now.  It was part of me and I knew when we joined it would be a battle of wills to remain the dominant part.

 

My mind was brought roughly back into the present when the alarm klaxons went off.  We had just crossed over into the Alaskan territories when something struck our ship, cutting it in two.  Luckily, this type of craft had so many redundant systems.  For this very reason, we continued to fly -- ok, it was more of a controlled hurtle.  Unluckily, I was in the half of the ship that didn't have Lockhart in it.  I called out to Jack, my heavy weapons and pilot specialist, and with a little assistance from me, he managed to keep us in the air and even destroy the Migou that attacked us before ejecting the needles over our target zone.

 

We were down on the ground in a matter of moments.  A large blue splash of Gee-gel and I was out of the needle and moving towards cover, activating my Stealth Armour and drawing my silenced CS-44 "Enforcer" auto pistol.  Moments later the battle-net came on-line and those that were in our area were starting to rally together.

 

But the Migou had sent a Dragonfly to scout us out and it arrived only moments after the needles touched down, forcing everyone to dive for cover.