SavageRifts.com

Grabbing a radio from whoever is closest to him, Seric says: "Ron! I gather you are in charge? Name is Seric. I'm with your griffin riding mage. Count me in RON I am here to help, these CS goons killed my lady friend and I will help you track them down!"

Looking at Stormforge, Seric says, "Ron seems nice."

Saving Hauptmann Schmidt

Conditions wrote:

• Invisible in the Skybunker.

As an immortal with ties to the Federation of Magic, Gryphus easily recalls the place where the most dangerous criminals in the Coalition are taken - Starved Rock Prison. The prison is located on the Illinois River halfway between Chi-Town and the ruins of Old Chicago. This ultra-secure fortress sits atop a 250 foot tall sandstone butte surrounded on three sides by the waters of the Illinois. According to Native American myth a band of Illinwick warriors took refuge on top of the rock and starved to death rather than face capture signaling the end of their tribe forever. In cruel CS irony, the rock now holds one of the most feared prisons in all of the Coalition States.

If the Coalition are transporting Hauptmann Schmidt to Starved Rock it is likely no one will ever see her again.

The warlock also manages to recall the intelligence briefing he received when joining the Legion. The ruins of Little Rock are a sort of no man’s land. While the Coalition claims the entire area once known as Arkansas they really only have a small zone of control around Fort El Dorado. The middle part of the state if vast wilderness and largely unpopulated while the Northern part of the state is home to Castle Refuge. While reconnaissance patrols and seek and destroy squads are fairly common in these ruins a full fledged armored platoon is considered very heavy Coalition activity.

Going over some video from the 3M recon group Anon is easily able to recognize unit insignia of the elite forces who captured Hauptmann Schmidt - the Dirty Thirty. This group was infamous for their brutality, efficiency, and loyalty to the CS during the war on Tolkeen. Their leader - General Drouge - is considered a war hero in the CS and a war criminal by many others. While the group the 1st SET faced were local Arkansas regional army the Dirty Thirty are attached to the Department of Special Divisions based in Chi-Town.

Working his sensors Rod cannot crack the heavy CS encryption but he is able to catch heavy radio traffic, indicative of a large concentration of troops, heading south toward Fort El Dorado.

What do you do?

Anon's stomach does a little backflip when he watches the video and recognizes the unit insignia. The Dirty Thirty? Here? That makes no sense! He lets the rest of the team in on what he knows about the Dirty Thirty from Tolkeen, and says, "They're war criminals of the highest order, and they're incredibly effective. They ran all kinds of clever, efficient, and unspeakably inhuman ops during Tolkeen, and if they're here, something big is happening."

Once the rest of the information from the rest of the group is shared, Anon chimes in again.

"So they're headed to Fort El Dorado? Should we try and overtake them before they get there, and maybe use the element of surprise?"

Seric wrote: ↑Thu Jun 13, 2019 2:24 pm Grabbing a radio from whoever is closest to him, Seric says: "Ron! I gather you are in charge? Name is Seric. I'm with your griffin riding mage. Count me in RON I am here to help, these CS goons killed my lady friend and I will help you track them down!"

A sigh issues from Rod's mouth, "Hello Seric, the name is Roderick Wolfram, and thanks for the assist. We've got some pay back of our as well, if you want to help welcome aboard. Are you with the Tomorrow Legion already? If not, we can swear you in if you want to join. Tell my team once we set down, we need to discuss how we are going to get Hauptmann Schmidt back."

Once landed and team assembles, Rod shares where he thinks the Dirty Thirty are currently headed.


Leaning against a wall, Rod says, "While I want to tear her a new one, Hauptmann Schmidt has directly saved my life during the Tolkeen war. I can't let that go, I have to make an attempt to rescue her. These Dirty Thirty sound like bad business and there are only eight of us, so I don't think we can do a stand up fight with this outfit. We're going to have to be sneaky."

The pilot stands up and paces a bit before pulling up a tablet to jot down some notes. "I think we are going to need to steal her back from under their noses. Either at El Dorado or at Stark Rock. I'd prefer Ek Dorado. Anyone else have a better idea?" Rod looks at his group. If no one speaks up, he says, "I think we have five objectives, as follows..." Rod ticks them off on one hand as he continues,

"

1. Intel - We need to confirm their itinerary and identify the best place to strike. If it's at a facility, we will need to know the layout, personnel, protocols and the like.
2. Acquire Gear - We are going to need to look like Coalition troops. We will need transport, armor, weapons, and identification.
3. Infiltration and Extraction - We will need a team to get inside, find her, and bring her out.
4. Distraction - We will need a team on the outside to create a sufficient distraction.
5. Exit Strategy. Once we are clear, we need to make it back to Castle Refuge without an army at our backs.

"

We should get her out of starved rock... We are so far behind and what Rod is purposing will take time. She will already be beyond our reach by the time we get the intel and gear ready. Gryphus was going to just say sure no problem, where do you want me. But he had done that before just before the Grand City had waged war on the CS.

He grimaced deep in thought. ” I am the new guy, I get it and my words mean squat. But we know they have to be taking the Captain to starved rock prison... True, it has never been breeched... True it is the most feared, and best secret and secured place the CS has. It also is mostly surrounded by water making it one of the least accessible prisons ever. But that is why we hit it, we can plan for it, take the time needed to do it right. Trying for El Dorado makes a ton of sense. If we had everything we needed right now, I’d say lets do it. But we don’t, and they have a head start.”

He opened a jounal... The one Zolo had penned, ” I’ve been reading abit about your exploits... Zolo was a bit of a historian herself. She mentioned the 1st set acquired a mark V early on. So that is probably at the castle. I also read you have helped out a verity of native american groups... Starved Rock is so named because a band of Illinwick warriors took refuge at the top of the bluff and starved to death rather than be captured... A common enough tale in native american lore... But what of the uncommon bits? How were they able to get up while the CS could not? Can these warrior spirits be asked to aid us? I was thinking one of the cheifs you have made an ally of could assist us in uncovering this riddle.”

Gryphus gulps preparing for the brow beating no doubt his words will ensue, ” I am with you, with you all to get the captain back. I would suggest though our efforts be focused on the prision. There we can prepare, but striking these, as Anon said, Dirt Thirty on the road seems like it would be something we would have rush into.”

Castle Refuge
Afternoon
Round 0

“A prison break will be infinitely more difficult than hitting them now, quick, with surprise,” Anarik protested. “What assets do these Dirty Thirty have? We have air power. We have creatures that can frighten them. We won’t be fighting in cramped quarters. The other alternative is to slip someone inside their column to locate Hauptman. Then we can do a surgical snatch and grab.”

***

Anarick and Ilserayne: -1 Fatigue (Bumps and Bruises) - needs 24 hours

"They will have access to reinforcement while in transit," Alecto says. "Jamming their communications will be necessary."

"That said, I think we should intercept them before they arrive at the prison. Extracting out of the prison will be the fallback position if the interception fails. What do we know of their current position and the forces escorting them?"

---

"Starved Rock, or in transit. Either way...

I agree with you Ron, Rod, sorry the other guy got me missed up. I am not Legion, but willing. Right now, I'm a guy who's lady friend just got offed because she was D'Norr, not human. We were headed east to here to look for something to do...to join a good cause as she would say. Hitting the prison and saving your friend seems like a good cause.

I will scout out the area and find some CS if you want, who we could borrow gear from. Or I can head out on my hover bike and track down these Dirty Thirty.

I also, if you want...when we are all disguised up as CS and head into the prison, I could be your prisoner you are bringing in. I don't need weapons to open fire on the bad guys. Just a thought."

Sinder listens to the others as they are heading out. He knows that they should strike prior to them getting to the prison but he is leery of the Dirty Thirty. If Fell was in charge he would attack the group now. Figuring chaos and all would be worse for the other side. “But Fell isn’t here!“

Sinder speaks to all over the tele link, “Flaming Furry Beetle dung, everything depends on if we get enough information in a timely manner and when and where to set up an ambush. We are down a mage right now he has used a lot of power as we all have. So information on the were about and what the Dirty Thirty has will be important factors boss. We might be able to stall them. but without a good plan who knows”

Sinder continues to comfort Angel. "If we can find a CS vehicle quickly we could act like we are coming to there rescue in it as the hover attacks?"

Seeing the team willing to help, but not liking the idea of a jailbreak, Rod considers the options.

"Okay, that's been some good feedback. I can't think of anyone who has claimed to taken out, let alone captured a Deathhead Transport on the move. But...we are the 1st and we've taken out a Hell Pit with a feather, so how hard can this be?" Rod says as he clears the tablet of his notes. Let's start over...

"We need to find their route, I suspect that they will be at least a day at KingsDale before they move on. Who has any contacts that might be useful? We've got about 24 hours then to find out their flight path to Stark Rock. Once we have that, Gryphus and Anarik, you need to locate a ley line or nexus that they will fly through. We've got to beat them to that spot where our Shifter and his demonic side chick are going to trigger a ley line storm. Gryphus, can your weather related powers influence it? If we can make it move on the DHT, we've got a chance. Merlaggon and I are going to bulldog the DHT to keep it from trying to go around the storm, but set down instead. Anon, Alecto, Seric, and Sinder your job will be to get yourself into the DHT, knock out the troops and take it over."

He looks at his team, his hands on his hips, and asks, "Well team, do you think this is doable?"

Anon strokes his chin thoughtfully. ”It’s a bit far for a traditional teleportation from the ground up to something flying as high as a Death’s Head, but we don’t necessarily have to jump that far. If we know where we’re going to intercept, we can be waiting in the air nearby on something small and then make the teleport from there. If the vessel is small enough, we might not even show up on their radar.”

He thinks a bit more, before nodding in the affirmative. ”It will be three kinds of tricky, but I think it could work. We’ll have to time it just right, and we’ll need a good pilot to keep our ship aloft if the Death’s Head sees us. If we can get the thing to land with the storm, of course, that makes all this easier, but we should probably plan for both scenarios.”
@Roderick Wolfram

Gryphus crackled with lightning. A giant ethereal raptor dove into his body merging with him or quite possibly something worse. The true Atlantan stumbled for a moment. In a raspy voice he cackled, ” Unexpected but welcomed. The raptor god Kawhi has given me the power to do as you wish Rod Ron. I will call upon my elemental kindred spirits and find this leyline. Thunder will calm the hearts and minds of the I’ll made coalition. Rain will flood their houses and they will see for the first time how awesome magic is.”

The wind swirls and rain falls... ” But from now on call me Stormforge.”

"If I can get into the transport, the Coalition would be at a significant disadvantage fighting me," Alecto opines. "I could attempt to infiltrate and sabotage the transport's propulsion or weapons as well. Getting onboard will be a challenge...but if we can anticipate its course and arrival time, it should be possible."