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The Company
Time: Saturday, July 16, 2011 (dawn).
Place: The dude ranch, WY, U.S.A.
Last Event: Preparing to deal with the gangsters barricaded in the attic.
While Anabel and the wounded Lev and Paul hold the ranch house's downstairs lobby, and the even more bloodied Klas keeps his head down and pressure on his wounds out front, the other Agents scheme how to breach the attic before the four men moving toward the rear of the building get close enough to use their AT4s with precision. Everybody agrees that grenades look like the best bet. With that decided, Vinnie gets to work rigging the three frags he found into one big bomb. Meanwhile, Wen keeps an eye on the approaching mob soldiers by stealing glances out the window. Hamid, Jili, Qoqa, and Zhang simply keep their guns pointed at the attic hatch.
As Vinnie works, things get "interesting" downstairs. Three men, clearly Toru's, suddenly erupt into the lobby from one of the doors to the back of the building, shouting battle cries between bursts from their MP7s. The gunmen are brave but unlucky – the Agents guarding the lobby were paying special attention to the unsecured areas of the ranch house. Despite his wounds, Lev opens up with the M240, chewing up the attackers at point-blank range. Anabel and Paul add submachine gun and pistol fire to the mix for good measure, Anabel screaming and shooting until her weapon goes "click."
When Qoqa and Zhang show up at the balcony to lend a hand, they see three more gangsters sprawled on the floor, shot into an even bloodier mess than usual. Paul – winged a second time in the exchange – gestures for Qoqa's assistance. Qoqa dashes downstairs to help. Fortunately for Paul, his new injury is minor: the merest graze from a small-caliber bullet. Still, Qoqa remains in the lobby to bandage him up. Lev fights his pain and watches the doors to the rear of the building, while Anabel reloads and covers the front entrance.
Upstairs, Vinnie finishes assembling his deadly grenade cluster and hands it to Wen, who has the best arm by far. Then he, Hamid, Jili, and Zhang snatch up the poles that Qoqa detached from brooms and mops in the cleaning-supplies closet, and carefully and quietly brace them against the attic hatch overhead. With that, all eyes are on Wen, who gestures a countdown with her free hand. On her mark, everybody holding a stick shoves upward, lifting the trapdoor for just long enough to let Wen toss the makeshift bomb through the crack. She lobs it perfectly. The instant it disappears through the opening, the Agents drop everything and dive for cover!
There's a loud explosion in the attic, followed by the sound of some sympathetic detonations. The entire upper storey is showered with plaster dust and bits of ceiling. Grenade fragments and dislodged chunks of lath rip downward through the building. Zhang is nicked, though not badly. Fortunately, the Agents knew what was coming and covered their eyes and ears, so none of them are blinded or deafened by the blast.
As soon as it seems safe to move, Wen is up and at the window, using her rifle scope to observe how the men out back react to the explosion. She sees them abandon their careful bounding and break into a sprint! Behind Wen, Vinnie stands, wipes the dust off his face, and notices that the attic hatch is badly damaged. Grabbing one of the discarded poles, he gets ready to push the wreckage aside while Zhang prepares to clamber through the opening. Hamid and Jili point their weapons upward, just in case.
Once everyone is in place, Zhang springs athletically into the attic, submachine gun at the ready. All the preparation proves unnecessary, though, as nobody up there is in any shape to fight. The gangsters' status ranges from "unconscious and bleeding from the ears" to "messily dead, shredded by the explosion." What does worry Zhang is a square opening cut in the roof and covered by a curtain of translucent plastic sheeting – there may well be enemies lurking out there. Pointing his weapon at the hole, Zhang signals for his associates to join him.
Hamid, Jili, Vinnie, and Wen clamber up into the attic. Once those four are in position to support him, Zhang climbs out onto the roof. Yet again, the caution proves unnecessary. The only person Zhang sees is dead – the man Klas shot earlier. The corpse is slumped near a cluster of radios and antennae, and a SAM of some variety rests nearby. If there were other gunmen topside, they must have ducked indoors to back up their associates when the shooting started.
Zhang pokes his head into the attic and shouts for Wen to grab her rifle and join him, as the roof affords a good view of the surroundings. He also asks for one of Hamid or Jili to climb out and help him examine the comms gear. Jili volunteers, which leaves Hamid with the fun task of searching the blood-soaked attic for electronics and the like. Vinnie joins Hamid at this grim labor.
While Jili and Zhang search the rooftop installation, and Hamid and Vinnie comb the attic for intelligence, Wen sets up her rifle. From the roof, she has a good view of the four men behind the building. She calmly lines up the nearest of these in her scope and executes him. This causes the other three to scatter, seeking hard cover. Wen picks off two of them before they find anything solid enough to stop bullets. The sole survivor disappears behind a large rock, only to reemerge moments later with his AT4 at the ready! He and Wen fire simultaneously – but while the gangster has no time to aim, and shoots high, Wen doesn't miss.
Wen then uses her scope to search the area around the ranch house. As far as she can tell, all is quiet. Concerned that the radio call the group heard earlier might have been for reinforcements, and realizing that the only way for backup to arrive fast enough to matter would be by air, Wen turns her attention to the SAM sitting nearby. It proves to be a Stinger – in fact, it's one of the newer RMP designs with which she was familiarized just prior to her career change. She starts getting it ready to fire . . . just in case.
Down in the lobby, Qoqa gets Paul bandaged up and checks Lev's dressings. She figures that both men ought to be able to walk out under their own power, provided that they don't engage in any athletics more stressful than pulling a trigger. As Qoqa works, Anabel peers down the hall to the west. It looks as if the incendiary grenades have burned out and the sprinklers have contained the resulting fire. Then Qoqa taps her shoulder and signals that it's time to check on Klas. When Wen sees Anabel and Qoqa dart out the front door, she trades the Stinger for her M24 so that she can cover them.
Over the next few minutes, everybody sees to her or his job. Out front, Anabel and Qoqa find Klas still conscious (barely), and Qoqa does what she can for his wounds. In the attic, Hamid and Vinnie scoop up a bunch of USB keys, a rugged military laptop that miraculously survived the blast, some intact circuit boards that Hamid claims may be of importance, and the only surviving paper file folder. On the roof, Wen keeps watch on the surroundings through her rifle scope – but she leaves the Stinger powered up, chilled down, and close to hand. Nearby, Jili and Zhang gather yet more electronics, including a satellite phone. Downstairs, Lev and Paul are content to sit tight, given their injuries, but continue to keep an eye on the unsecured bits of the building.
If there's anybody left to oppose the Agents, they wisely decide to keep their heads down. There are no further shootouts, and nobody gives Wen an excuse to open fire. It's soon clear that it's time to leave, however. The ground-floor blast and fire damage, and the explosion in the attic, have rendered the ranch house a hazard. Against the dawn sky, the smoke snaking from it and the ruins of the water tower, not to mention the crashed Jeep, will doubtless bring the authorities. And with Klas unconscious with a leg splinted, Lev barely mobile, and Paul staggering around with an arm in a sling, exiting the area isn't going to be quick.
While the rest of the team assembles out front, Anabel, Hamid, and Vinnie run over to the parking shelter to rustle up some escape vehicles. Vinnie manages to break into and start two SUVs – although not before failing to get into a couple of others, leaving a few extra clues for anybody who cares to look. Hamid takes the wheel of one of the borrowed SUVs and picks up Zhang and Qoqa, who lift Klas into the back; Qoqa sits next to Klas to monitor his condition. Vinnie drives the other SUV over to the group and fetches Jili, Paul, and Lev; Lev stretches out in the back, but Paul is able to sit up. Anabel steals one of the motorcycles and swings by to give Wen a lift.
Before pulling out, the unwounded Agents collect all of the group's firearms – with no exceptions, not even a pistol – and toss them back inside the ranch house. If stopped for any reason, explaining bandaged-up injuries is one thing; Wyoming is rough country, people often suffer riding and climbing accidents, and only peeling off bandages would reveal gunshot wounds. It's would be trivial to talk a highway patrolman into leaving dressed injuries alone, but impossible to convince him to ignore guns, grenades, rockets, and missiles! Since Qoqa insisted on wiping down all of the team's weapons before the raid and issuing gloves to everyone, the only fingerprints that investigators are likely to find on the hardware are those of Georgi and Toru's people.
Once that's dealt with, it's time to go. Anabel leads the way on her motorbike, followed by Vinnie and finally Hamid. They stick to the main driveway to avoid ruts, rocks, and landmines. Before long, the whole group is at the Winnebago, where the unwounded Agents help the wounded ones aboard and into the RV's beds. While doing so, Qoqa warns that she'll need proper medical gear to treat the injured, which causes Vinnie to remark that he saw a big case with a red cross on it back at the ranch house. Qoqa asks him to take her to it.
Vinnie chauffeurs Qoqa back up the driveway in one of the SUVs. Fortunately for them, the ranch house seems well and truly silent – the Agents made sure that nobody was playing possum, and it appears that the gangsters all turned out to fight. The two go in, fetch the medical gear, and take off. Qoqa looks over the spoils as Vinnie drives, and sees that she has a comprehensive trauma kit of the sort issued to military platoons, plus various extras doubtless added by Georgi's ex-military men. Once the team is reunited again, Wen and Vinnie get to work setting the stolen vehicles ablaze. Then Vinnie slides behind the wheel of the RV and hits the road.
After a few minutes of driving, Vinnie declares that he's headed to Las Vegas, which is about 16 hours away by highway in this crate. He's convinced that's where Georgi and Toru are, given that they weren't here. The others have some doubts but reluctantly concur, as they have no better guess. Qoqa warns that she can't keep Klas and Lev stable for 16 hours – or even see to Paul's arm and Zhang's fragmentation wound – unless Vinnie pulls over for a few hours to allow her to extract bullets and fragments, and sew up the holes. Vinnie acknowledges this and asks everyone to keep an eye out for a place to stop. Wen soon spots an abandoned-but-solid roadside stand (it looks like a former fireworks shop) beside of the road.
Vinnie parks the RV out of sight behind the shack. After checking that nobody is in the area, the Agents break in and set up shop. Qoqa hastily cleans up an area and conscripts Wen – who has the best field-medic training – to act as her nurse. Then she gets to work disinfecting instruments and bloody holes, pulling out slugs and shards, suturing and dressing wounds, and administering antibiotics and painkillers. Luckily, it seems that all the hurt found skin and muscle; nobody has perforated organs, nicked arteries, or shattered bones. Barring disaster, Klas should regain full use of his leg, Paul's arm ought to knit properly, and Lev will heal up to continue his career as a bullet-stopper.
Qoqa cleans up her roadside surgery and then the Agents get back aboard the RV. After that, all there is to do is drive and cross fingers. Vinnie stays under the speed limit and obeys every traffic law, however minor, in order to avoid police attention. Hamid and Jili take the batteries out of all the captured electronics, to prevent other kinds of attention. Qoqa keeps an eye on the wounded. And everybody watches for trouble.
It's around 02:00 on Sunday, July 17, when the Winnebago rolls into Las Vegas. Vinnie finds a Wal-Mart that allows RV parking and pulls over. It's a crowded and uncomfortable way to spend a night, but everybody agrees that the alternative – trying to rent motel rooms in the wee hours, with wounded people in tow – would attract the wrong kind of attention. At least the ol' Winnie is a wide-body.
At around 10:00, the most presentable Agents head into the Wal-Mart and other nearby shops to buy medical supplies, toiletries, cleansers, food, water, pillows, sheets, and cheap clothing. Then Vinnie drives to a suitably dingy motel, one familiar to him from when he lived here, and rents five rooms. Anabel shares a room with Wen; Hamid, with Zhang; Jili, with Paul; Klas, with Vinnie; and Lev, with Qoqa. After that, Vinnie takes Hamid and Jili to an electronics shop where they can get what they need to examine the gear grabbed from the ranch house.
Hamid and Jili work their geeky magic out in the RV while their associates rest. At around 16:00, Jili knocks on doors and gathers everyone who is ambulatory for a meeting. She has three main pieces of intelligence to report, each important in its own way:
1. The "USB keys" are in fact a bunch of dongles. Specifically, they're single-use encryption devices – the one-time pads that Georgi and Toru mentioned in their video conference. As the original owners are by now painfully aware that the things have been snatched, there's little value to having them. Losing them doubtless represents an expense and an inconvenience, though.
2. The satellite phone was used to make a call once an hour, on the hour. There were a couple of extra calls right around when the shooting started, too. Most important, Jili says that the number called belongs to another satellite phone, and that based on some information or other (her explanation loses everybody but Hamid), she was able to learn that the target phone was physically in the Las Vegas area!
3. The laptop contains detailed personnel files on the team. The aliases are badly out of date, and the photographs depict the Agents before their surgery in Darmstadt, but the skill inventories and qualifications are accurate. It isn't much of a stretch to realize that Toru must have gathered this information when he was ostensibly supporting the Company, back before he betrayed Chaturvedi.
no subject
Good idea I wonder though if they still might have a tracking device.
'3. The laptop contains detailed personnel files on the team. The aliases are badly out of date, and the photographs depict the Agents before their surgery in Darmstadt, but the skill inventories and qualifications are accurate. It isn't much of a stretch to realize that Toru must have gathered this information when he was ostensibly supporting the Company, back before he betrayed Chaturvedi.'
uh oh... though maybe this means it might be possible to share more detail of the agents stats.
no subject
Hamid and Jili are . . . rather good at this stuff. They know about putting transmitters in metal boxes, and how to scan for such things in the first place. It would be a major violation of player trust to have the NPC electronics experts not do a basic task well! So no, there's no tracking device and the players can be confident of this.
uh oh... though maybe this means it might be possible to share more detail of the agents stats.
That's still up to my players. Most of them read this recap and see these comments, so if/when they want to share character sheets, they can let me know. I keep the sheets at my home for practical purposes (i.e., so they don't get lost!), but I still consider them to be the players' private notes.