SSSS Batrep #1: Field Report: 7th Catalina Hangar Incident
Location: Helios System
Incident Site: 7th Catalina Hangar
Incident Level: Minor
From the transcripted Interview of Patrolman Kryznitz
— BEGIN TRANSCRIPT —
We were simply investigating proximity alarms at the 7th Catalina Hangar. The hangar had a recent arrival of light equipment for the local site, mainly rations, ammo, and some short-range comm equipment. The ship didn't seem strange on the manifests, but something must've been off to have command send a damn Polaris Team, let alone Wallace. Getting that damn Bear on the ship and NOT losing a controller in the process was a feat in and of itself!
Our task was simple, sweep the perimeter of the hangar. If no contact, investigate further inside, turn off the alarms, radio back to command the all clear and the next loading crew would be sent out to finish the job.
Exterior and the surrounding perimeter was quiet enough for the secluded 7th Catalina hangar. Nothing unusual, save for a small transport vessel flying off as we approached, looked about the same size as the one that was in the hangar, but the hangar doors to the facility were still shut and locked when we radiod that to command.
As we approached the hangar from the woodline, things sounded… off. The internal alarms were suddenly silenced. The hangar doors still shut, but one of the side entrances had evidence of forced entry: some sort of cutter used to slice the lock off the door. We continued inside from here, only to stumble across who tripped the alarm…
— BREAK —
So this week, I had the pleasure of using my very unpainted Ariadnan Kosmoflot taskforce to square off against my opponent's very painted White Company taskforce. The scenario at hand was Supremacy at a force size of 150 points.
The kosmoflot task force was composed of William Wallace, a pair of Varangians to accompany him, a Polaris Team, a Strannik Outer Patrolman, a pair of Rokots, and a sneaky paracommando. The goal was to use the bearpode/varagians to throw loads of smoke, send them in with Wallace like a wild CC Missile just to be a distraction as the rokots and Strannik (with Forward Observer and Doctor respectively) would attempt to get the consoles. We will learn how this played out later.
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My opponent was running White Company, the plucky NA2 sectorial that I know mainly has PanOceania units and a sprinkle of Yu Jing in it, and that's about it.
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Our board was set up as though it was a O12 hangar. A small transport vessel, temporary structures, stacked boxes, and the occasional Corporate display board provided the terrain for the table, alongside the 4 consoles from Warsenal.
— CONTINUE TRANSCRIPT —
We inevitably had the bear bust through the locked maintenance doorway into the hangar, definitely giving our intruders a clear heads-up that we had come to spoil their party. What we found was a seemingly small raiding party of PanOceanian troopers, based on their fatigues and armament. I recall that some private organizations have the leisure of using PanOceanian assets for their more "covert" operations, but that thought only crossed my mine now instead of in the moment.
Myself and the two recon troopers hooked left out the door and took positions behind some crates and boxes; looked sturdy enough to stop at least small arms. The rest peeled off to the right, and I think the bear had jump on top of one of the prefab buildings to see who he could snack on. No idea where the Frenchmen went, for all I know he ran back to the comes room to message out what we found.
— BREAK —
DEPLOYMENT
We rolled for deployment or turn, I Crit my WIP with Wallace, he missed with a 13, which I thought was surprising, as most of who I've faced in my limited Infinity carrier had 13+ WIP on the LT. Learn something new every game, in this case it was tactics. After getting a little educated during this part, I opted for choosing my deployment zone, to which I picked the side of the board I was standing on. My reserve unit was Wallace, and I don't recall what my opponents was specifically, but I'm sure it was a varangian.
Below you can see my deployment zone, but good luck seeing all my unpainted figures, except the bearpode who stands out, haha.
My opponent had no fireteams present. He rolled up with a pair of Nøkken, a Karhu, 2x Pathfinder Dronbots, a Fusilier, Varangian, and a Zhanshi Yisheng with a little YaoZao buddy. AFter he mentioned his WIP failed on a 13, I figured it may have been a fusilier as his LT, but oh well. His deployment was pretty straight forward, the Nøkken forward deployed outside of LoS behind a barricade and the transport ship, the Zhanshi and her bot were parked in the backfield on his right flank, i presume to cover for if i had anything with Parachutist (Deployment Zone). Varangian plopped down in the backfield as well on his left flank. The Fusilier laid prone on one of the pre-fab buildings watching his stairs. The Pathfinders and the Karhu deployed on his left flank as well, as that transport ship separated LoS quite well from what I'm now realizing were very laid-out deployment squares, heh.
I elected to spend a Command Token to remove 2 orders from his only order pool.
– CONTINUE TRANSCRIPT —
The intruders struck first both Ekström and Schaumann were caught in the open as one of their operatives strode forward and fired on them through a burst of smoke. Clearly these intruders weren't messing around, coming in with gear like that! I swear I heard Wallace get hit, but my HUD showed his pulse still, well, pulsing. The varangians though, not so much. Flatline.
After they dropped I just heard than damn bear go on a rampage. Several explosions, more smoke, the sounds of broken bodies crumbling on the floor of the hangar and I could tell the bear got loose and just ran up and did his thing. Noir, on the other hand, I guess was trying something he had seen in an old movie? The man dropped out of an air vent right next to a mine, and that's the last we saw of him. Flatline.
— BREAK —
TURN 1
Turn 1 went pretty straight forward. The top was White Company. His Karhu pretty much ran the board with most of the orders in his pool. Managed to sling smoke to cover his advance, and when in position, proceeded to drop both Varangians with the multirifle and drop Wallace to NWI. Not really my favorite part, but ya live and ya learn. Also had his Nøkken do a shimmy and shake at the end to cover more firing lanes, and one of his FO Pathfinder remotes hit the button on the console on his left quadrant. He did use a coordinated order for something in round 1, but i cannot remember what results it yielded other than shooting and moving of units around.
Kosmoflot took the bottom of the turn, and all I can say is the bear was mighty pissed off that his Varangian friends were gone. Bearpode Banich (as he was called for this mission) jumped off his building, ran up, threw smoke to prevent shooting ARO for the nearby non-MSV Nøkken and Remotes, and swiftly embedded his trench-hammer into the torso of the Karhu, although the Karhu was able to slap down a mine that ate one of my wounds. Next order: Berserk into the nearest Nøkken behind the nose of the ship. After all ARO, I lost another wound, but efficiently removed the Nøkken with a boarding shotgun from my presence. Bearpode Banich is now Dogged, lovely. Welp, he's gonna die at the end of this, so why not clear the quadrant and go play with the other nearby Nøkken and a Pathfinder remote? Bearpode cleared them as well. LT order was spent to move Wallace into my right flank quad to have Zone Control tied, no VPs in turn 1.
Oh yea, and my paracommando tried to drop down to deal with some of the lovely friends that White Company had behind a console, to which he immediately ate a mine and he died. Quick in and out for him, pour one out for the para. Definitely will need to not be so quick to pull the trigger to use him. Would've been solid for some final turn shenanigans.
The picture above is the aftermath of when Smokey the Bearpode learns you don't try to stop forest fires.
— CONTINUE TRANSMISSION —
After the bear flatlined, there was mainly a pop of smoke, some yelled, the clashing of blades, and then Wallace flatlined too. I needed to get him back up, so I jumped from cover to see what happened. I looked over and saw his crumpled form against the console, his broadsword impeded into an opposing Corpse, but he had an ax that wasn't supposed to me there stuck in his side.
I noticed activity on a nearby console that seemed… unusual. I ran over to it and used my limited knowledge of these systems to stop what I presumed was some sort of data transfer. Or at least paused it. I figured it's be a good idea to get closer to where Wallace had fallen, just in case I could use my supplies to heal him. The console he was propped up against was doing a similar data transfer, so I paused that one as well. Having a big red STOP button on the touch screen makes that a whole hell of a lot easier for a doctor.
The recon team was in shock when I mentioned what happened to Wallace, and I can only presume the bear's controller was also in shock when it flatlined. It’s always painful watching your comrades fall.
— BREAK —
TURN 2
Being down 3 orders in a 7 or 8 man Team is never fun, especially when they were some of the more expensive units on your board, and they got knocked by a damn bear. The short-n-skinny for the White Company this turn was using a Varangian and smoke to run around the ship and bezerk charge Wallace, to which I ARO'd to CC attack. Mutually assured destruction saw both men drop to the hangar floor. His LT moved forward to get better cover behind said ship, and his pathfinder bot did his bot thing and took cover nearby the one unclaimed console on his right flank quad.
Kosmoflot, however, had to make some choices. I was down to my Strannik, 2x Rokots with FO, and a Polaris Controller. A WHOPPING 48 points. And with Wallace out, I'm in Loss of LT, so glorious irregular orders it is… if I did have just enough command tokens to convert the ones I needed to regular orders, hehe. The Strannik did all the work this time around, using his irregular order and then the three converted regular orders to nab both consoles and then get a little cover for when he gets killed and I go into retreat. End of the turn, I nominate my Rokot (looks like a shotgun, but shoots like a SMG) as my new LT. The picture to the right is how my side of the board looks after turn 2.
My opponent didn't have anyone in his right quad, and we each maintained 1, so once again, no VPs for zone control. Lovely.
— CONTINUE TRANSCRIPT —
After the command had gone through I start taking shots from one of thoseq them damn remotes. I ducked behind the console; I presume it was prowling for survivors? I saw Pvt. Maksymivna's pulse flatline. We're about to try and just pull out to at least radio command that something is clearly going down here! I look over as I see Cpl Yatsenko sprint from cover, run up behind some boxes and just mag-dump his submachine gun into something metallic, presuming it was that bot. Controller Yuriyivna ran up behind me, telling me to advance forward, to which I happily obliged. Was good seeing them forcing the enemy to act instead of cowering like my initial flight-or-fight response had been.
— BREAK —
TURN 3
So as you can imagine, turn 3 went FAST.
White Company only used the pathfinder bot he had, took some shots at my strannik, moved to grab the console after I moved out of LoS of him, and them moved up to cover in the zone so he could hold it. Managed to take a shot at my prone rokot with her SMG out and let ya join the rest of the falled on the ground. Ended his turn with both of his consoles activated, and a live body in both of his zones, wonderful. His LT chose to idle, no need risking the loss.
My turn 3 needed to get work done. Losing that rokot hurt as I went from 4 orders + LT to 3 + LT. Ended up using the LT order on my rokot first, got him moved up to the other side of the boxes of his pathfinder remote. Next regular order was to peek the corner, magdump 3 SMG shots, and hopefully not take a combi to the face. Rokot lived through that encounter, bit the pathfinder failed both arm saves and became scrap. Rokot is now holding my left quad zone uncontested, cool. Last 2 orders were having my Polaris Controller sprint out to maintain the right quad zone while the strannik ran forward to see if his LT had had enough by yelling at him from iver the ship. +2 VP to kosmoflot for holding more zones.
ENDGAME
Kosmoflot won 4 to 2 against White Company inside the Catalina Hanger somewhere inside the Helios System. With both sides having activated consoles, the zone control won me the game.
We soon realized we forgot about Key Ops, to which we were both upset about, but not willing to go back and try again, hehe.
Further victory points saw Kosmoflot come out with 38 points worth of surviving units to White Companies 28. An absolute banger of a game, to which my opponent and I are going to aim for a 300 pt full game eventually, as the bearpode won't be AS potent on the bigger map.
— CONTINUE TRANSCRIPT —
I start shouting to whoever was left on their side of the hangar, demanding surrender. There was no verbal reply. The hangar doors started opening, I presume someone flipped the switch, and three forms ran out. I aimed my rifle but it was jammed, one shot rang out and the casing stovepiped. Yuriyivna was further in shock after seeing the bear dead, surrounded by its prey, let alone her comrades. Yatsenko probably could've squeezed off a few shots, but he fumbled his magazine whole reloading while across the hangar. One of the enemy operative had a patch of a company or group I had never heard of or seen before, but that's just how life in the Outer Patrol gets ya at times. I bet if I saw it now without the adrenaline spike, I could tell ya what it belongs to. Whoever they worked for clearly has some pull though, cause their equipment was much more than I had figured. MULTI weapons and spectral visors were not something I'd ever have to hope to square off against again, I've heard how those encounters tend to lead on those who don't have them.
--- END INTERVIEW ---
--- DAMAGE BRIEFING ---
The following are confidential results regarding damage and loss records for the above report.
Exterior cameras showed the three forms going into the nearby woodline, to which we didn't pursue.
Analysts review the console data and it looks like the program running was compiling data off the transport for a file transfer through physical media instead of a wireless transfer, guess trying to go old school with it. We know the data was coming from the transport ship, which was O12 in nature. Curious what this data was, who was trying to get it, and why. But that's above my pay grade.
Taskforce Status
Pvt Maksymivna - KIA
Pfc Ekström - KIA
Spc Schaumann - KIA
Spc Yuriyivna - Active
Cpl Yatsenko - Active
Sgt Noir - KIA
Sgt Kryznitz - Active
Lt Wallace - Active (Cube regeneration)
Asset Banich: KIA
— END TRANSCRIPT —-
What a way to start off the local Infinity escalation league! 150 pt games are fun to me, and this was my first proper outing with the bearpode, mainly being able to actually hit things in melee! Next up is 200 pt of unlink center at SOME point. Hoping I take more/better pictures next time.
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