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[johiah]

It seems the RTD thing keeps confusing people. The missions that involve players controlling characters occurs only once every five turns, and not this turn.

[Thanik]

[X] Plan Banshee

Operation Techblitz : [Mission 2 - Scientist Extraction] Following contact with a particular Thantro scientists, a meeting was scheduled within enemy territory between said individual and ART I "Wittgenstein Wasn't Wrong". Our job is to meet with him, acquire the technology, then help him out, although extraction might be difficult and should be dropped should there be significant hurdles that could potentially leave the technology outside the Mondragon Collective, and thus the excursion useless.

Operation Fortress 83-1 : [Mission 3 - Protect Facility] To avoid losing the facility, ART II "Hempel's Ravens" is to be deployed on-site to secure the perimeter and prevent enemy incursions or otherwise crippling of site infrastructure.

Spoiler: Squad Equipment & Strategy (click to show/hide)

The team leader picked the designation, as he saw it fitting that a technology extraction unit should be called after a Wittgenstein's ladder, which is a simplified explanation of a technical or complex subject that is used as a teaching tool, despite being technically wrong.
Asset Reclamation Team I
1- Squad Lead: SOFIA M1983, Encrypted radio, 1x Smoke Grenade
2- Guard I: SOFIA M1983, Encrypted radio, 1x Smoke Grenade
2- Guard II: SOFIA M1983, Encrypted radio, 1x Flashbangs
2- Guard III: SOFIA M1983, 1x Smoke Grenades
2- Guard IV: SOFIA M1983, 1x Flashbangs
1- Extraction Agent I 'Paladin': SOFIA M1983, Encrypted radio, 1x Smoke Grenade
1- Extraction Agent II: SOFIA M1983, Encrypted radio
3- Designated Gunman I 'White Raven': SOFIA M1983 Silenced*, Encrypted radio
4- Patrol I 'Vanguard': SOFIA M1983, Encrypted radio
4- Patrol II: SOFIA M1983, Encrypted radio
Total Supply Cost: 46 Supply
Notes: ART I is Divided into 4 elements; A three-man team consisting of Squad Leader Reece Walker and two extraction agents deployed as the Scientist's bodyguard detail with the goal of achieving rendezvous and extraction safely and inconspicuously, while five guards are assigned on stationary positions within sight of each other, protecting the extraction team and forming a convoy vanguard once the men start moving. Finally, two men operate independently - namely, a patrol agent (Codename 'Vanguard') is set up to act as a sternguard/rapid response unit, while keeping his weapon and gear concealed until hostiles or otherwise suspicious entities are noted and to inform the rest of the unit, upon which he will inform the designated gunman / sniper (Codename 'White Raven') of hostile position, and await target liquidation, which the DS will confirm after firing from a safe location. Elements Vanguard and Paladin are given identical sedans, with Vanguard going ahead first and ensuring the path is clear for Paladin once the exchange has been initiated. The moment an OpFor shows up, units are instructed to press on to the objective, deploying smoke grenades to obscure enemy visual contact and effectively lose them, while Guards are instructed to deploy flashbangs quickly afterwards to disorientate enemy agents.

Named after the father of the well known Raven Paradox, a paradox arising from the question of what constitutes evidence for a statement. Observing objects that are neither black nor ravens may formally increase the likelihood that all ravens are black even though, intuitively, these observations are unrelated. This problem was proposed by the logician Carl Gustav Hempel (And so the paradox is also called Hempel's Paradox) in the 1940s to illustrate a contradiction between inductive logic and intuition. The team specializes in covert operations, but is also well trained for close and medium range engagements, with a single designated marksman. Lead by Reece Walker, detailed below.
Squad Commander Reece Walkers - Mondragon Worker File
Name: Reece J. Walkers
Short Desc. : Specializing in discrete infiltration operations, Reece Walkers had formally disappeared from the public in December 1979. to join SCALE special forces as part of the Phoenix project, where-in military officials were recruited into the collective for their unique skillset. Within the army, the operative performed high value target assassination, data mining, and saw frontline combat in minor conflicts. The operative possesses great discipline and has voluntarily cut ties with family in pursuit of Project Phoenix admission, after figuring out who the executive selection staff were based on mere traces of evidence, which he presented in addition to classical tests and testimonies. Operative is currently presumed KIA.
Addendum 1982-A: Following an 1981. excursion into the territory of 'the Enlightened' (see Report 1981E-A78) and return there-upon, Agent Walker has been promoted to Squad Commander and assigned his own team within SCALE. Further field analysis is required to judge the merit of said promotion.
Asset Reclamation Team II
1- Squad Lead Reece Walker: SFOS*, SOFIA M1983, Encrypted radio, 1x Smoke Grenade
2- Patrol I: SOFIA M1983, Encrypted radio
2- Patrol II: SOFIA M1983, Encrypted radio
3- Guard I: SOFIA M1983, Encrypted radio, 1x Flashbangs, 1x Smoke Grenade
3- Guard II: SOFIA M1983, 1x Smoke Grenade
3- Guard III: SOFIA M1983 1x Flashbangs, 1x Smoke Grenade
3- Guard IV: SOFIA M1983, 1x Smoke Grenade
1- Quick Response I: SOFIA M1983, Encrypted radio
1- Quick Response II: SOFIA M1983
4- Designated Sniper I: N5B2 Carbine Rifle, SOFIA M1983, Encrypted radio
Total Supply Cost: 53 Supply

*Free Gear
Notes: ... pending ...

Might as well include a named, fluff character which I'll later be able to use as a PC. And I'm off!

[johiah]

Mondragon escort mission:
The escort mission started well enough. We met up with the scientist in three sedans. He got in the middle, and the team set off. Seeing nothing unusual, the vanguard team went straight past the ambush point, an alley hidden between two buildings. When the car with the scientist passed that same alley, the sedan slammed into something and was immediately halted. Failing their orders, no one set off smoke grenades due to being too dazed. Lead got a warning off to the other two cars however and vanguard turned around to head back, seeing as the escort vehicle was totaled. Thankfully sternguard was far enough behind that it managed to stop in time to avoid joining the wreck, and there were no cars in between them at the time due to it being a relatively quiet street.
Suddenly five enemy agents poured out of the side alley, some wearing kevlar vests, some wearing combat suits, and some wearing plainclothes. Later corroboration of the SFOS camera with vanguard would confirm that there were definitely only the two plainclothes agents in the alley just before the assault. Four agents were caught on camera pouring from the side of an old cardboard box large enough for a layzboy. Flashbangs were thrown, further dazing the men in the escort vehicle. Bullets began flying, thankfully only pistols rounds, definitely from the original foal pistol.
When Rearguard rolled to a stop and the men jumped out, fire sounded from a roof. Rifle fire. Squaddies six through nine were dropped, dead. Rifle fire sounded again, this time directed at the escort car. Several shots tore through the scientist from above, one through the head.
At this point the vanguard arrived and stopped on the other side of the road. One leaned out, looking up, and fired twice. A figure up above flinched back over the edge of the roof as the bullets stopped in midair.
Lead had finally recovered, thankfully uninjured. II was down, but I was also beginning to recover and the enemy assault team had been distracted firing at Vanguard. Despite emptying an entire cartridge at the five assembled enemies, something stopped the bullets. Two of the last bullets actually pierced whatever invisible barrier was there, before dropping to the ground, too out of energy to do any actual damage. I's shots, however, managed to claim the lives of two of the enemy agents before whatever barrier was there snapped back up.
Vanguard had gotten back in the car and crossed the street. They deployed two smoke grenades, and II laid down supressing fire while III tore open the back door, dragged lead and I out, jumped back into the sedan, and drove off.
Overall the mission was a complete disaster. The scientist was killed, we lost five agents, and only got two confirmed enemy kills. The failure was attributed to two main reasons: Their invisible force barriers, that both caused the crash and protected them from retaliation, that either an entire assault force was missed inside the alley, or they managed to hide inside something with magic.
Mission objective failed
Sophia, Mateo, Aleksandr, Linh, and Gayatry were KIA
Diego, Adeladja, Chandi, Do-yun, and Evgeni are now more experienced.
Five SOFIA's lost, or claimed by enemy
5 radios lost, or claimed by enemy
3 smoke grenades lost, or claimed by enemy
2 smoke grenades consumed
Stability decreased by 9%

[Thanatos Russ]

Frick.

[Shadowclaw777]

AMP-CAW-HD: (Anti-Magic Pulse Counter Electronic Warfare Handheld Device)

As it is a prerogative with our forces in the field to handle the intricacies of warfare between technology and magic, they will soon realize we are the archivists of the magical ways and seek all our interest to make sure they don’t defile. Equipment for our troops to handle magical forces should be the mainstay of our armory, and a item they can utilize on the field is paramount for our success.


While runic micro-circuitry was a poor’s man result of what we have achieved previously, the AMP electronic warfare grenade seeks a new way to utilize the arcane electronic components in a different way, in a way of performing an arcane pulse once after a remote triggers the grenade, by a way of igniting the grenade and the runes, of an anti-magic caliber, perform a heated miniature fission reaction instead the collectivized ball to perform a magical yet electromagnetic-imbued pulse because of the energy from the handheld device, and the device still keeps gamma radiation levels from such a pulse to tolerable levels by us.

The pulse that leaves, the handheld device is of course from the arcane runes that are inscribed to each of the devices, twisted combination of magic and technology, that performs a made of rebuking safeguard against the measure of users performing arcane warfare, such as energy shield users. The pulse seeks a way of performing a arcane conduit to magics like a energy shield wall, draining the spell’s sustainment and it just fizzling out, and as the arcane users is also affected by this electromagnetic burst of energy from the safeguard runes, it as silences and clogs up a arcane user’s access to magic for a short period of time, just enough time for them to deal with the horror of what has happen to them and the following moment of a bullet penetrating their skull.

The device is fully crafted out of titanium metal to form each ball, as it is the finest metal to inscribe these arcane runes inside for each gadget, as it takes time to combine the technical components of the grenade’s detonated trigger and the electronic components to handle the channeling and pulling of it as an arcane conduit, as well as, the runic inscription on the circuitry to channel the powerful safeguard runes and have it detonate as way of countermeasures against arcane activity.

AMP-CAW-HD: (1) SC

[NUKE9.13]

Two things:

First, I feel like you rushed the Tactics Phase a bit. 2 votes is hardly an overwhelming majority, and less than 24 hours had passed since the start of the phase. I mean, it's not a huge deal, but I was planning on voting this morning (GMT), which would've at least tied the vote. I know you're eager to get going, but still.

Second, I'd like to raise a formal complaint. I'm only going to raise it once, so if you decide it isn't important, I won't bug you about it.
Of the SFOS, you said (on Discord) that you gave it a high cost that prohibits us from equipping more than a handful of agents with it due to it more or less invalidating the starting pistol. Fair enough. However, it now turns out that whilst us invalidating the starting pistol was considered OP, Thantro was able to develop a spell that not only invalidates the starting pistol, but also our high-power, armour-piercing, rolled-an-eight pistol, and said spell is either castable by all their troops, or has a sufficiently wide area of effect that those agents who can cast it can protect all the others.
I hope you can understand my frustration at this state of affairs.

E: Oh, right, as Nik points out, it can apparently also stop an entire car dead in its tracks. And is castable at a moment's notice. And is one-way, since they can fire back without issue.

[Taricus]

There were a few more votes collected on discord.

[Thanatos Russ]

Only votes in the thread should be counted, unless it's completely one sided, in which case OP should post the discord vote results.

Also I totally agree with Nuke. No out the gate spell should be able to counter all our cool stuff so hard. At the very most the shield spell should have been able to tank the car and a bullet or two.

[johiah]

Two things:

First, I feel like you rushed the Tactics Phase a bit. 2 votes is hardly an overwhelming majority, and less than 24 hours had passed since the start of the phase. I mean, it's not a huge deal, but I was planning on voting this morning (GMT), which would've at least tied the vote. I know you're eager to get going, but still.

Second, I'd like to raise a formal complaint. I'm only going to raise it once, so if you decide it isn't important, I won't bug you about it.
Of the SFOS, you said (on Discord) that you gave it a high cost that prohibits us from equipping more than a handful of agents with it due to it more or less invalidating the starting pistol. Fair enough. However, it now turns out that whilst us invalidating the starting pistol was considered OP, Thantro was able to develop a spell that not only invalidates the starting pistol, but also our high-power, armour-piercing, rolled-an-eight pistol, and said spell is either castable by all their troops, or has a sufficiently wide area of effect that those agents who can cast it can protect all the others.
I hope you can understand my frustration at this state of affairs.

E: Oh, right, as Nik points out, it can apparently also stop an entire car dead in its tracks. And is castable at a moment's notice. And is one-way, since they can fire back without issue.

The only reason their barrier was so effective is mostly because of the situation. You will see its limits a lot more in the next mission. And yes the tactics phase was kind of rushed because otherwise you would have to wait three days before I had the three hour block necessary to do both missions.

Without spoiling how the barrier works, it would have broken with much less force that that car exerted, except that force was exerted all at once. Blocking the car actually caused internal hemorrhaging on the person casting it.

EDIT: Your armor also pretty much invalidates the rifle for as long as it matters. Their barrier doesn't, really.

[johiah]

Mondragon factory defense mission:
Somehow, half of Thantro's assault squad snuck into the factory. In a box. There were four agents, two with kevlar and two with combat suits. Only one had a rifle. They started retreating to the door. One of our patrols was in the factory storage room at the time, along with 8 guards, and they shouted out a warning in the radio while dropping to cover. VI wasn't quite fast enough, however, taking half a second of rifle rounds and dropping dead. V was too far to throw her flashbang, so she focused on dropping their lead agent with the SOFIA from behind cover. Again the bullets seemingly impacted some air barrier and fell to the ground, but she kept firing, hoping to overwhelm it. The last bullet in her first clip actually seemed to pierce the shield and then fall down on more of a parabolic arc, causing one of the kevlar armored people to slump, but then as the guards fired their rifles and pistols another shield seemingly snapped into place.
More of our agents and guards poured into the room, taking cover in the huge field of stored boxes. At the same time the enemy opened one of the storage doors and let six more agents in. They began heading back to try and push up one side of the box rows, but found themselves facing fire from three directions and were pinned in one of the rows. They had two people with rifles now and were back on the edge of the pistols' effective range, and were able to get several successful hits on our unarmored agents. It seemed that the second shield had dropped earlier and they had a separate shield for each angle, as occasionally a bullet that would have missed anyways skated through a "corner". One enterprising agent continued sneaking up and lobbed a flashbang from 10 meters. Upon the flashbang going off, all but one of the shields dropped, and only one woman was still firing, somehow trying to supress both sides at once. A few SOFIA rounds went through her, and she dropped. We shot two more agents before the others recovered and the shield(s?) went back up. At this point we had so many guards in the room, literally the entire facilities' forty or so surviving guards, and all seven of our surviving agents.
They did their best to retreat through the door, but their barriers were much smaller and inconsistent on the way out. We managed to drop a few more, and definitely injured one. The Board's agent congratulated us on successfully defending the factory, although many of the boxes in the room the fight took place were filled with... finished product.
Mission success
18 guards lost
12 guards injured
Fakhir, Miho, and Jamila KIA
Ganaatar, Aiko, and Alexandro wounded
7 agents are more experienced
1 foal pistols scavenged
1 kevlar vest scavenged
2 combat suits scavenged
5 confirmed agent kills
1 agent wounds
-5 supply next turn

Spoiler: Current technologies and equipment (click to show/hide)

EU and ammo can safely be ignored when equipping non player characters.

Weapons:
Foal N5B2 Carbine Rifle: 884m/sec muzzle velocity. Fully automatic. 700 RPM. Effective up to 500m. 5.56x45mm cartridge. 2 EU unloaded, 3 EU loaded. 6 supply. 30 round clip size. 30 rounds 1 EU. Can pierce 12mm of steel at 600m.

Foal N2822 Semi-Automatic Service Pistol: 253m/sec muzzle velocity. Semi automatic. Typical range 25m, effective to 40m. 0.45 ACP cartridge. 1 EU unloaded, 2 EU loaded. 3 supply. 7 round clip size. 32 rounds 1 EU. Cannot pierce substantial armor without repeated shots.

Mondragon Collective Standard Operative Firearm (SOFIA M1983): [8], [5]
Scarily effective AP pistol. 4 supply. 3 EU loaded, 2 EU unloaded. 650 m/s muzzle velocity. Semi automatic. Typical range 75 m, effective to 150. 7.62×28mm SOFIA Standard Operative Cartridge (SOC-1983-01 FMJ). Bullets are titanium cased lead core. 1 AP. 12 round clip size. 24 rounds 1 EU. Can pierce type III armor at 100m. Silencer is 2 supply, sounds like a soft "pop" at 10m.

Combat knife: A small knife capable of piercing limited armor. 1 AP. 1 supply.

Armor and equipment:
Kevlar vest: Light protection of torso, shoulders, and upper legs. Gray. 3 EU. 2 supply.

Combat suit: Thin bodywide protection. Black. 1 EU. 1 supply.

Mondragon Special Forces Operational Suit (SFOS) Type IV Protection, Flex (TIVF): [6] [5]
Incredibly effective yet light body armor. 13 supply (20 originally). 6 EU. Heavy chest armor, substantial armor on limbs. Provides a bonus to combat analysis, a bonus to sniping with scopeless weapons.

Encrypted radio: 100 meter broadcast radius. Static gets rather bad at max range. Encrypted to prevent enemy intercepting, although use signals that agents are in the area to anyone listening. 1 EU. 1 supply for one.

Smoke grenades: Can form a cloud of smoke roughly 10 meters in diameter that reduces anyone inside to vague shadows. 1 EU for 3. 1 supply for 3.

Flashbangs: Likely stun and disorient anyone caught within the 3 meter blast radius. Anyone outside of that gets a reduced effect. 1 EU for 3. 1
supply for 3.

Forced entry kit: Lockpicks, acid and other assorted gear for breaking in. 4 EU. 5 supply.

Bomb/trap defusal kit: A series of items useful for defusing bombs. 4 EU. 6 supply.

Breaching charge: A small but powerful localized detonation meant for creating man sized hole in walls with a thickness of less than 15 centimeters. Ineffective against anything stronger than brick. 2 EU. 4 supply.

Spoiler: Owned equipment, materials, and supply (click to show/hide)

Corporation integrity: 91%
Supply: 95/100
Maintenance this turn: 26
(Unused supply will add to the next turn)
You have one squad out of two maximum (12/20)

1 SFOS
1 SOFIA M1983 (Silencer)
1 foal pistol (scavenged)
1 kevlar vest (scavenged)
2 combat suits (scavenged)
15 SOFIA M1983
15 radios
1 smoke grenades
5 flashbangs

Spoiler: Agents (click to show/hide)

[6]Diego (M) 1 mission
[2]Adeladja (M) 1 mission
[4]Chandi (F) 1 mission
[5]Do-yun (M) 1 mission
[5]Evgeni (M) 1 mission
[6]Alexandro (M) 1 mission, Violet Heart
[4]Aiko (F) 1 mission, Violet Heart
[3]Hannah (F) 1 mission
[1]Tim (M) 1 mission
[2]Indah (F) 1 mission
[2]Ganaatar (M) 1 mission, Violet Heart
[1]Kaish (F) 1 mission

It is now the Design Phase of February. Vote on a single design to research. Tech designs have a -1 penalty this month.

[NUKE9.13]

Okay, so, we get a penalty to tech this turn. That means it is time for some magic. We saw that breaking their concentration also breaks their shields. And breaking concentration is useful regardless. So:

Mindfog: You ever have trouble focusing on the task at hand? Gotten a little woozy after staying up for 48 hours? Spent too long in a carnival ride and have trouble telling up from down? Imagine all that, but more so. Instilling that in the enemy is the goal of Mindfog.
In execution, Mindfog is a simple induced region (3m radius) of random mental activity, projected up to 60m from the caster. Anyone caught in the area of effect will suffer at the very least from reduced concentration, and at worst dizziness to the point of not being able to stand and/or vomiting. And if they were, say, trying to focus on casting a complex spell whilst returning fire, well, that would be out of the question. The effect persists for up to 30 seconds after the caster stops maintaining the spell.

Alt, just get more Supply:

SCALE-ing Up: Our worst fears are confirmed. Thantro has employed the services of extralegal paramilitary agents to sabotage our operations. Clearly this means we need to ramp up funding for our own extralegal paramilitary agents. Of course, this is all off the record, so diverting funds is tricky, but surely after seeing the results- both good and bad- of last month's operations, the board will understand the importance of what we are doing, our ability to get results (at the factory), but also our need for more resources to prevent things like the escort mission happening again. A demonstration of the SOFIA and SFOS to a select few might help convince them of the good work we are doing as well.

[Taricus]

Mindfog: (0)
SCALE-ing Up: (1) Taricus

[Thanik]

Okay, so, we get a penalty to tech this turn. That means it is time for some magic. We saw that breaking their concentration also breaks their shields. And breaking concentration is useful regardless.

I agree there, this turn we should see about evening the playing field in terms of spells. We've now seen first hand how effective their shields are, and thus I propose we make our own - since it would even the playing field in combat. The following are two takes on the idea; a perpetual, relatively weak shield meant to provide a good reaction time to our agents via soaking up the first bullet or two, and a longer lasting focused barrier like the one enemy uses:

Envelope Hyperphysical Kinetic Protective Field (Envelope 'Hypke' Shield)
Work is done on creating a spell for the creation of a protective envelope made out of force around the individual, projected a small distance from their body, capable of stopping several projectiles before "crashing" so as to give the individual enough time to move to a more secure location.

Frontal Hyperphysical Kinetic Protective Field (Frontal 'Hypke' Shield)
In essence, by testing on metaphysically gifted individuals, the purpose of this project is to create a forcefield effect in a surface in front of the user within a projected distance, of variable size (between the size of the person, to three times as wide), capable of stopping enemy projectiles and/or other physical objects from passing it. 

Designs:
Mindfog (0):
SCALE-ing Up (2): Taricus, Thanik
Envelope 'Hypke' Shield (0):
Frontal 'Hypke' Shield (0):
Salvage:
A - Sell Salvage +~4 Supply (0):
B - Keep Salvage (0):
C - Sell SOME Salvage (0): Thanik
 -> Sell Foal Pistol (1): Thanik

SCALE-up allows us to optimally build 9 SFOS, while still leaving enough points to equip our other troops with weaponry. It would also benefit us in the long run, as it exponentially increases the amount of gear we'll be capable of having - helping us more effectively counter their magic.

[NUKE9.13]

Designs:
Mindfog (0):
SCALE-ing Up (3): Taricus, Thanik, NUKE9.13
Envelope 'Hypke' Shield (0):
Frontal 'Hypke' Shield (0):
Salvage:
A - Sell Salvage +~4 Supply (0):
B - Keep Salvage (0):
C - Sell SOME Salvage (0): Thanik
 -> Sell Foal Pistol (2): Thanik, NUKE9.13

Dull though it may be, a supply-boosting design would be quite useful. And obviously we sell the pistol, since it is toilets compared to the SOFIA.

[johiah]

Surviving agents:
[6]Diego (M) 1 mission
[2]Adeladja (M) 1 mission
[4]Chandi (F) 1 mission
[5]Do-yun (M) 1 mission
[5]Evgeni (M) 1 mission
[6]Alexandro (M) 1 mission, Violet Heart
[4]Aiko (F) 1 mission, Violet Heart
[3]Hannah (F) 1 mission
[1]Tim (M) 1 mission
[2]Indah (F) 1 mission
[2]Ganaatar (M) 1 mission, Violet Heart
[1]Kaish (F) 1 mission