Wallflower Session 2: Lasers In The Jungle
Breakfast And A Conversation
Waking up, our three pilots meet Commander Hadura over breakfast. She spoke more about the sniper campaign, and Zephyr started to collate the data that Commander Hadura and Patience could provide, in an attempt to model the movements of the sniper. She also explained about the grey towns, the wildcat settlements formed from those who walked away from Patience's guidance to strike out on their own. Officially, they are cut off, but unofficially there a thriving barter economy, Evergreen residents trading printer favors, and the grey towns providing non-staple foods. Jacob Merrick is a leader amongst these settlements.
As the Union Peacekeepers, the pilots duties are to do the most good for as many as possible. They were summoned by Patience, but their objective is to remedy the situation holistically.
Splinter groups such as Jacob Merrick's are interesting to the pilots and they plan to head out to speak with Merrick that afternoon. First though, Patience has scheduled them to meet with Chief Engineer Castor Fielding, who provides them an update on what the colony has done to protect it's workers and infrastructure, without letting the the raiders drive them entirely behind the walls and miss the late spring harvests. Armor plating on crucial vehicles and drones, shielded canopies to protect workers in the field, and a network of surveillance cameras to attempt to provide warning.
Castor mentions that a lot of maintenance of infrastructure has been left undone, especially of systems out of sight of the walls of Evergreen. He's looking forward to having some backup solid enough to deal with the backlog.
Going Calling
Heading to the Governors farm, they picked up the first mech to finish printing, Pilot Krell's Walking Under Fire.
Walking Under Fire is not a subtle frame. The acid green paint, spiked armor plates red lights and rollbars give it an eccentric air. The large array of weapons, all of them extensively modified, one or two even scratch built make it clear it's serous nature. Field repair and modifications only intensify this contrast later on.
Requisitioning a pair of ATVs for the unmounted pilots, they depart for Merricktown. About forty five minutes of traversing the eerily quiet fungal tower and vine greenery, they encounter the outskirts of a town. A militia member waiting by the side of the road waves them in, and gives them a subaltern to guide them in.
Subaltern is the catch-all term for a humanoid-ish robot in LANCER. In my campaign, I've run with Subalterns being the term for anything meant to approach it's work like a human would, with hands and on foot versus drone for anything shaped for a specific task.
The subaltern appears to be a representative of Serenity, a smaller scale but otherwise similar NHP to Patience in Evergreen. The pilots are somewhat surprised by this arrangement, but meet Jacob Merrick before they can ask more questions.
Meet The Neighbors
Merrick explains he's the leader of Merricktown. He and the couple dozen families that follow him wanted something more free than life under Patience in Evergreen. His grandfather had spent most of his cargo allotment on an NHP casket, and was on the original crew. Merrick has carried on the vision. He reckons that the pilots and Patience aren't going to get along.
"Patience is made of rules and schedules. You, you're here to fix things, but sooner or later you'll be the biggest disruption to their plans."
he also says that the raiders have hit the grey towns, and that Patience probably didn't mention that, and appeals to the pilots code; are they fighting for everyone, or just for Evergreen?
A Polite Request
Finally, he states that the raiders took out the main generator for Merricktown, and they have been limping along. However, it would be easy for Thunderbird to slip him a coldcore reactor from a mech, marked as expended in the line of duty, or maybe honestly given. Patience wouldn't dare turn them down for a replacement.
The pilots decline after conversing amongst themselves. Merrick makes good points, but he feels sketchy, and they don't even have all their mechs yet. They simply can't afford to give up key parts right now. The most benefit for all is keeping the coldcore with the pilots.
CSI: Hercynia
Jacob took the turn down graciously, and asked if there was anything else he could do for the pilots. They asked to inspect the sites the raiders have attacked. Investigating the machine shop, which recently had two rounds put through the large ag-drone being repaired from the last time it had been shot up, Thunderbird Squadron carries out some rough ballistic analysis, and traces the the mech-scale sniper weapon to forests edge.
Some hurried investigation later, two shells were discovered. Vintage union manufacture, and a keen eye revealed that both shells had the same unique serial number. This prompted speculation about hacked printers, and how the raiders are supplied. Thanking Merrick, they left town and returned to Evergreen without incident. Patience made no overt comment on their errand.
Rockstars
That evening, the second mech finishes printing, and they attend a small concert held by local band "Broken Filters", at the Bottom Of The Well. Hannah enjoys the concert to her surprise, as do Dreyvus and Jenna.