Wallflower Session 7: Giant Slayer
Having dispatched the majority of the opfor at Stable 2, Thunderbird Squadron only faced two remaining frames. Anthill, a drone deploying mech, who was dealing inexorable damage to critical reactor components, and Talos, a demolition frame that so far had gone untouched in the rush to bring down more obviously aggressive opponents.
The threat priority changed significantly when Talos drew level with the reactors exposed components, and brought them to a third of their integrity with a single swing. Prioritizing Talos over Anthill, Thunderbird closed in. Unexpectedly, Pilot Sen in Remember Why You Are Here managed to cripple Talos' demolition hammer, its only designated weapons system. With Talos somewhat de-fanged, Pilot Krell kept it engaged and prevented it from manually damaging Stable-2. Pilots Lyndale and Sen changed their focus to Anthill, forcing it into a retreat shortly thereafter. Pilot Lyndale attempted pursuit, hoping to capture the pilot or disable the frame, but was effective in neither goal.
Walking Under Fire, now completely outgunning the massive Talos, managed to bring it down with sustained fire with it's Heavy Machine Gun and Prototype Weapon, Talos' redundant systems finally giving out. Pilot Lyndale returned to Stable-2 shortly thereafter.
Aftermath
Opening a comms channel to Commander Hadura, Thunderbird Squadron learned that the colonial militia had managed to rout the enemy there too, but had sustained heavy losses. The militia's additional training under Pilot Krell had paid off, holding firm in the face of an armored engagement. Brava privately confided she half-wished the militia had broken, so that the death toll might not be so high.
Pilot Krell offered what comfort he could under the circumstances, while Pilot Lyndale investigated the opfor's wrecks. Finding a gravely wounded survivor in the remains of Talos, Thunderbird Squadron attempted medical assistance, and stabilized the pilot for transport. This decision was met with some initial hostility by other militia members in transit, with them feeling extremely disinclined to help any member of the opfor in the aftermath of this engagement. Pilot Krell rebuffed this with a reminder of Rules of Engagement, and the potential intelligence value of the now-prisoner pilot.
Debrief
leaving the prisoner in the surgical team's hands, and after getting checked out, Thunderbird Squadron reported to Patience. They encountered the NHP conversing with a messenger from the grey towns. They gave their after-action report, noting that Talos' pilot also had the distinctive forehead markings observed on prior opfor pilots. Asking after the messengers' errand, Thunderbird Squadron learned that almost half of the mechanized workforce of the grey towns had left due to the virus. With much arguing, Patience agreed to provide some aid to the grey towns, almost entirely due to the lobbying of the Pilots. The messenger left, and Patience informed the pilots that they'd been authorized to grant new License Contracts to the Pilots, on behalf of Landmark Colonial, then dismissed them.
Familiar Face
Later that evening, while the pilots were discussing team composition and upgrade plans, Pilot Sen received an unexpected Ommni-net call. Answering in private, she found her mentor from her time in Academy, Commander Akachukwu Seiki on the line, and looking appropriately older for their respective amounts of time-dilation. The two spoke of their past together, Commander Akachukwu stressing the strong backing of the academy in whatever Pilot Sen did, and finally getting around to the reason for his call. Commander Akachukwu believes that Pilot Sen would be a good fit for an experimental SSC frame project, at present heavily classified. Pilot Sen was very overwhelmed by this recommendation, and Commander Akachukwu praised their work in the academy, and asked polite questions about their career and present deployment. Shortly after finishing the call, Pilot Sen received and completed an application for enrollment as a test pilot. Forty five minutes later, they were accepted into the Mourning Cloak program.
Rebound
In joint celebration of the successful defense, their promotion, and Pilot Sen's new status (what she could share of it under NDA at least), Thunderbird Squadron held a revel at The Bottom Of The Well, with many militia members joining in. The tone started out shell-shocked and dour, but settled down to a strained enthusiasm.
Notably:
- Pilot Krell ran up something of a bar tab, trying to keep morale high, and exhausted Mir Bahadur's good favor.
- Pilot Lyndale, inebriated, wound up in Pilot Krell's bed, fast asleep. Krell slept on the common area couch.
- Pilot Sen brought down the mood accidentally with an unintentionally somber toast. Nevertheless, she awoke the next morning with an Omni-net address written out on her forearm.
Further Work
In the following days, Pilots Lyndale and Sen honed their predictive model, and derived two predictions of note. The opfor had lost the bulk of its forces in the preceding engagements. If it was larger than this predicted threshold, it would be inconsistent with prior patterns of behavior. Also, the opfor had more tech, and varied, than what could reasonably be salvaged. They had a supply line of some form.