Heavy Gear – RPG/TRPG Session
Run by Jason (jymmijamz)
Players;
Me – Robin Boyden
Will – Dillon Percival
PART ONE
Orders
It is a cool blustery morning, as the two new members of the 51st Recon Division, Gear pilots Boyden and Percival, have been called in to see the commanding officer. The Adjutant greets them when they enter the building, instructing them to go on in as they are expected. Captain Ripley is seated behind his desk as they enter, and instructs them to stand at ease. He informs them that he wishes to discuss their passing out test.
“Later this evening you two will be sent out on a recon mission. With this primarily being a recon force, you will often have to break down in to smaller groups to scout enemy positions. So this mission is to primarily test your reaction under stress, and working on your own cognisance. It will be a non-lethal encounter. Your Gears will be refitted with laser reference equipment, and your weapons will be loaded with blanks. Along with smoke canisters fitted to represent damage. Once you leave here, you are to head over to the Quartermaster’s, and hand in your personal weapons for modification. There will be no bladed weapons, only blunt equivalent. If you engage in close quarter hand-to-hand combat, then all physical contact must be pulled. Remember this is only a training mission. Your enemies will be of an unknown quantity, and they are also in training. That is all, are there any question before you leave?” Both Boyden and Percival acknowledge with a “No Sir.”
“Okay, in that case what I suggest is that while you wait for your personal weapons to be ready, you should take your Gears out for a test run, and go over to the training ground. Get yourselves accustomed to how the new modified weapons feel, and how the Gears respond. Okay dismissed.” Boyden and Percival give him a salute then turn and leave. Upon leaving they head directly over to see the Quartermaster.
Boyden and Percival hand over their weapons to the Quartermaster. Boyden hands over his sniper rifle, field knife and his kitana. Percival hands over his pistol, field knife and his cutlass. The Quartermaster informs them that they will be ready in a couple of hours. And with that they both head out and go over to the Gear sheds.
The chief technician greets Boyden and Percival as they enter the sheds. He leads them over to their Gears. Percival’s Gear is a Jaguar class, which is a general purpose. Boyden on the other hand is a Cheetah class Gear, which is a lightweight scout. Robin Boyden at his Gear and asks the technician how ‘Betty’ is. “Oh she is fine, you know how she is, a bit twitchy at times.”
“Yeah she is a bit feisty sometimes.” Looking over their Gears they can see small-disked like mirrors have been placed at strategic places, with small sensors. On the barrel of the guns are laser emitters. And in certain places like the joints there are small smoke canisters. Robin Boyden takes a slow careful walk around his Gear, running his fingers along the outside, giving her the once over before climbing aboard. Everything looks as it should. Dillon Percival just climbs on in to his Gear.
As they fire up the engines of their Gears, the machines shuffles and hums to live. The Heads Up Display illuminates and gives out the readings on their helmets. Robin Boyden took out his chewing gum from his mouth and stuck it under the dashboard. He then gave ‘Betty’ a teasing slap before firing her up. She almost seems eager to be active, like a horse waiting in the blocks to start the race. They pilot their Gears out from the sheds and on over to the training grounds.
Dillon Percival and Robin Boyden square off against each other. They circle and move around each other, giving their Gears and themselves a chance to stretch and settle in, feeling and making sure everything as it should be. It is Dillon who makes the first move. He rushes in behind Robin, trying to trip it. Dillon takes Robin by surprise, making him stumble, but luckily Robin was quick enough to catch himself, gaining his footing and turns to face Dillon in his Gear. Robin grabs for a near by limb to take a hold and throw a punch. He makes light contact with Dillon’s Jaguar, maybe causing a minor dent to the head armour. Then he quickly steps away, trying to give himself some range. But Dillon is having none of it and quickly closes the gap, trying to ram his head in to Robin’s Cheetah. Returning the favour by causing a dent of his own. Robin pushes away and fires off a salvo of M25 rounds at his opponent. Unfortunately with the haste it narrowly misses. “Bring it!” He shouts over the comms to Dillon. Dillon closes the range once again, and as he does he fires off a full salvo from his Pepper Box RP11 missile launcher. The salvos slam in to Robin’s Cheetah, and the smoke emitters burst in to life. A warning sounds in Robin’s ear as his HUD flashes a bright white light, telling him that it was a critical hit, ‘Crew compartment detonation.” Robin’s Gear powers down signifying his loss. First conflict to Dillon Percival. They carry on with their practice session, after resetting the Gears, whiling away the hours until their personal equipment is ready.
Strangers in the Night
The daylight is fading fast in the sky. Both Dillon and Robin both have their personal weapons back, and their Gears have been reset. They spend the next hour making sure they are up to speed with their mission details. And they go over their weapons and Gears to make sure everything is as it should be. Again on their personal weapons there has been fitted a laser emitter on the barrels, and the bladed weapons are now wooden representations of them. They are told their Gears have been pre-loaded with all the mission objectives and are ready.
Upon starting up their Gears and putting their helmets on, the HUD gives them the information for the mission. The enemy has been spotted a few clicks north-west of their current location and have set up a camp. A beacon highlights on their HUDs compass showing them the direction. The enemy numbers are unknown, and the forces readiness is also unknown. Get in as close as they can to ascertain the enemies numbers and their readiness. Once this has been found out they are to return with the information. There will be no radio communication with base. They are to be completely on their own with radio silence. However they can communicate with each other.
Dillon Percival and Robin Boyden head out of base on the main road going in the general direction. As they draw near they go off the main road and go across country. Robin takes the lead, scouting ahead and keeping a wide berth of the enemy camp, trying to find a less guarded route closer. Dillon follows him at a safer distance, following his directions. They head further north towards a rougher terrain, better suited for cover.
Soon the external microphones on their Gears picks up engine noises, the noises are still at a distance. Robin stops his Gear checking on his sensors to ascertain what is actually out there. The sound is coming from the west, roughly a hundred meters away. It seems to an internal combustion engine. Robin warns Dillon of what he found, and then he sets off again. Suddenly from Robin’s left hand side a jeep leaps out from a dark gully, it’s spotlight sweeping the area. Robin quickly manoeuvres, finding his own dark spot to hide in. He lowers his Gear and shuts the power down to just his batteries. The spotlight sweeps across the top of Robin’s gear, just where he was stood mere moment ago. Eventually the engine fades of in the distance and dark. Once he is sure that the jeep has gone, he fires up the engines again and heads off once more. He soon spots an ideally craggy outcropping before him, so he goes towards this. He tells Dillon of what happened and where he is heading, giving the coordinates.
Dillon soon sees a spotlight heading his way. And it is moving rather rapidly. He shuts his engine down to battery and tries to hide behind a large boulder. The jeep continues its direction towards Dillon’s location, and then suddenly it fires a rocket in off. The impact explodes near to Dillon, showering him in rack fragments and dust. Dillon fires off his Pepper Box towards the jeep, but unfortunately it goes wide as the jeep swerves to the side. Another rocket fires at him hitting him square in the chest of his Gear. Dillon gets a warning come up telling him his fire control has been damaged. He quickly fires another salvo from his Pepper Box, this time hitting the jeep as it swerves and leaps over the rough ground. A bang and a flash erupt as the jeep’s radiator catches fire as it charges through the explosion. Dillon fires off another round at it, but again misses this time. However this gives the jeep a chance to turn around, and it begins to charge back towards the enemy camp. Again Dillon fires off another salvo, and this time he hits. Finally he manages a hit that kills his target, getting the confirmation on his HUD.
Mean while Robin has made his way up on to the craggy outcrop, and turns his engine off, staying on the battery power. He manoeuvres his Gear amongst the shrubs and trees, finding a location to station himself for observing the surroundings. From here he can see a natural bowl in the ground, where the enemy has set up a camp. There are a couple of vehicles parked in front of two sheds. There are four sheds in total. These vehicles appear to be Badge class APCs (Armoured Personnel Carriers). Each can carry a couple of squads of infantry each. Robin makes sure that his sensors are login and recording all this information. He can also spot a couple more spotlights moving around in different location around the outskirts of the camp, more patrols. Robin informs his colleague Dillon of what he has spotted, warning of more patrols.
Dillon moves his Gear roughly about half a mile away from this downed jeep. He then parks it up, powering it down fully and gets out. He heads back to the jeep on foot, rummaging around the enemies ‘dead’ bodies for a uniform to use. The ‘enemies’ are sat there in their ‘wrecked’ jeep, waiting for when they can finish their part. One of them begrudgingly removes his uniform for Dillon, handing it over as he colleague’s laughs. Dillon allows him a swig of Brandy from his hip flask, thanks him for the situation.
By this time Robin also gets out, making sure his Gear is secure. He checks the camp and surroundings, using both his night vision goggles and his sniper rifle. At the distance and visual conditions he cannot make out any further information. There appears to be some people milling about in the camp, who seem to be technicians. He also spots two more patrolling jeeps return back to camp to refuel. Both coming in from different direction. Once refueled they head back out. Robin then shoulders his rifle and begins to descent down in to the enemy camp.
An Intrusion
As Robin draws near to the encampment, he can see a couple of the technicians. One of them looks over in his general direction, and nudges his colleague. Quickly Robin stops and keeps low, trying to stay as quiet as possible. After a time the other technician who has been looking intently in the direction, shakes his head and indicates back to his work. Giving the technicians some time to settle back in to their work, Robin slowly and carefully makes a move to circumvent any other people before going in closer to the camp.
Dillon carefully walks towards the camp in his new enemies uniform, making sure to keep off the presumed patrol. Eventually he comes upon where the ground drops of lower, where the natural bowl begins. Coming from below him is an illumination of activity, so he looks and makes a quick study of the lay of the land. He plans his best way in, and the best path to take to avoid the most people.
As he makes his way in to the camp, Dillon suddenly hears a voice behind him in the dark. “Halt who goes there?” Dillon stops and stand to attention, “Private Smith.”
“Smith? Smith I don’t recognise that name. Who are you?”
“I have just been sent here by the CO for patrol.” After a moments thought, the guards allows Dillon to carry on.
Eventually Robin finds a suitable location to make his way in to the compound. He sneaks in near to a dark side of a building. Carefully approaching from the rear, keeping himself up close to the wall and working his around to a door.
Dillon finally makes it to one of the buildings without any further interruption. The large shed has a single door off to the side of the large double doors. He takes a careful look through the wire-meshed window before opening the door. The door opens up to a corridor the leads off around a corner. Once inside he can hear many voices off somewhere further down the corridor.
Near to the corner of the building, Robin carefully peers around to see what activity is nearby. Seeing that it is at the moment clear, he edges his way to the door. Once at the door he tries the handle and feels it click open. Turning he faces the door and carefully and slowly opens the door. He becomes aware of someone approaching from behind so quickly steps in and closes the door.
Suddenly aware that behind him the door is opening, Dillon turns and readies his cutlass. An infantry man in the same uniform as him enters the corridor, he stops and stands there looking surprised at seeing Dillon stood there with a cutlass in his hand. He swings down hard, hitting the poor guy in the arm. The guy grabs a hold of his arm in pain. Seeing that he is not down and out, Dillon swings again but this time the guy dodges the blow. The guy retaliates with a strike of his own, and hits Dillon with a glancing blow. Dillon brings his replica cutlass around for another strike, lunging in past the guy guard and stabbing at his chest with the tip. The guy goes down holding his chest and gurgling.
Robin finds himself within a corridor leading off. He can hear no sounds from in here, but he draws his field knife and carefully makes his way along the corridor. Behind him he hears the handle of the door rattle. Quickly he steps up around the corner and hides on the other side, just as the door swings open. Robin stays right next to the corner with his back pressed up against the wall. He can hear the footsteps enter the corridor and shuffle about near the door, and then they walk off in the opposite direction. Hearing this Robin carries on up the corridor looking for a door to investigate.
Dillon gets on his personal communicator, talking with Robin to find out where he is. They discuss where they are and what building they are within. Both of them are in different buildings. They agree that they have enough information, but they will just check on the next door within the building and then will head out.
Robin eventually comes to a door at the end of the corridor. The door has a small window, similar to the one leading outside. Carefully approaching, he peers through the window to find the room in darkness, and can only make out the odd crates and boxes about. He can’t hear anything from within either so decides to head back out.
Dillon also comes across a door at the end of the corridor he is in. This one has light flooding out from the small window, and the voices and sounds come from within. Carefully peering through the window, Dillon can see that the enemy has set up a barracks within the main body of the shed, with a couple a dozen people milling about. So seeing this he heads on out, not wishing to risk staying around any longer.
As Robin sneaks his way out from the building and makes his way along the side, he hears a shout from behind. “Oi! You! Stop! Who are you?” Robin carries on walking as if he didn’t hear anything, until he makes it around the corner. He then makes a run for it, just as a sound of a klaxon screams out around the base.
Dillon quickens his pace as he exits the building he is in. Once out he heads over to the shed that Robin was in. He can already see a technician pointing and shouting towards the side of the building. There are also more infantry spilling out from another shed. As he looks around for a vehicle to use such as a jeep, but the only thing he sees is the APC parked nearby, he can hear the men from the building he was in begin to evacuate the shed.
Taking flight, Robin makes his way out from the compound, running through shadow and deep cover as much as possible. Trying to make it hard for observers to seeing him or get a bead on him. Dillon calmly walks towards the APC as if it is his assigned duty. However the technicians look at him quizzically as he pass them, but they allow him by, but as he steps up on to the foot plate of the APC, a burly hand touches him on the shoulder. “Sorry son, I don’t think you are authorised for that.” Dillon produces his hip flask and suggests that he was just looking for somewhere to hunker down until the fuss was over. The technician looks angry with him and informs him that he needs to be elsewhere. Dillon heads over to one of the nearby sheds, and then disappears around the back.
Robin eventually makes it back to his Gear, quickly climbing onboard and firing it up on the battery. Once the Gear is up and running he makes a move out of there, back tracking from the craggy outcrop through the path he took to get there. He makes haste as much as he dare push his Gear, considering he is only using his battery at the moment, to try to help keep him as difficult to find as possible.
The APCs all firing up and begin to roll out. All the infantry form up and quick march out. All heading in Robin’s general direction. Being aware of this Robin decides he needs to move quicker so fires up the main engines. And doing so the APCs get a lock on him and turn their turrets towards him.
Dillon is making a dash across country on foot towards his Gear, aware now that the APCs are fired up and some of the infantry are heading in his general direction. He is also aware that the patrolling jeeps seem to be heading towards him too. He radios in to Robin to see where he is and his situation. Robin tells him that he is getting the hell out of there, suggesting that he needs to do the same. Robin tells him that he will try to lead them away, giving Dillon a chance to get to his Gear. A frump sound, and then another, explode from the turrets of the APCs firing towards Robin.
GAMING TALES 