The Battle of Blue Mountain

November 27th, 2043. This is the twentieth anniversary of the Fall of Chongqing, the last major battle in the Kalen invasion of Earth. But it looks like the anniversary isn't going to work out the way they planned.

Every month, like clockwork, a shipment of weapons, supplies, and equipment comes in from the west, bound for the Kalen base at Harrisburg. Since this area of the world is effectively the backwater of a backwater, the Kalen haven't been doing much to reinforce the infrastructure.

Captain Pritchard lays the map in front of the Red Cloaks. Made before the invasion, but still up to date in most places. She points to a stretch of road heading through the state. "This is Interstate 76. The Kalen use this to take routine supply shipments to their bases on the East Coast. We're going to capture that shipment." She taps one spot on the map. "This is the Blue Mountain Ridge. Two tunnels cut through it, both over a kilometer in length. Between them is a 150 meter stretch of open road. The plan is simple. We blow the tunnels when the shipment is in between, then we ambush the middle. Kalen convoys put their heaviest weaponry at the back and front of the line, so if we time this right we should leave the supplies isolated. Any questions?"

A few hours later, the Red Cloaks are assembled in the trees surrounding the road. They have about an hour before the convoy arrives, just enough time to set up and prepare for the ambush.

Alright. Finally, some action... As strange as it is to admit, Nana feels a bit relieved by this tension finally boiling over - things are less uncertain this way.

Despite being better-suited for the ambush part of this plan than the beginning of the demolitions work, Nana is running back and forth amongst the Cloaks, transporting supplies from location to location.

Are there any difficulties or specific tasks during this phase?

Dale is doing prep-work for himself, making sure his weaponry is properly loaded, making the odd grunt as he limbers up. He expects to be making a lot of last-second decisions with his feet, and the last thing he needs is to twist his ankle the moment they strike.

'Shouldn't be too bad' he thinks to himself. 'Just gotta pop em in the back where possible and get the supplies out of there as fast as we can.'

Once he's done stretching, Dale decides to try and look for other ways to help prep things, like scrounging up things for camouflage or finding a decent spot to poke his head out of when the time is right.

aquablooms wrote:

Alright. Finally, some action... As strange as it is to admit, Nana feels a bit relieved by this tension finally boiling over - things are less uncertain this way.

Despite being better-suited for the ambush part of this plan than the beginning of the demolitions work, Nana is running back and forth amongst the Cloaks, transporting supplies from location to location.

Are there any difficulties or specific tasks during this phase?

Nothing seems amiss so far, the convoy is right on schedule so really it's just a matter of setting up the explosives and preparing the ambush. Nana is assigned to the task of actually placing the explosives, a mixture of old mining dynamite and stolen Kalen artillery shells.

Spinycemb wrote:

 Dale is doing prep-work for himself, making sure his weaponry is properly loaded, making the odd grunt as he limbers up. He expects to be making a lot of last-second decisions with his feet, and the last thing he needs is to twist his ankle the moment they strike.

'Shouldn't be too bad' he thinks to himself. 'Just gotta pop em in the back where possible and get the supplies out of there as fast as we can.'

Once he's done stretching, Dale decides to try and look for other ways to help prep things, like scrounging up things for camouflage or finding a decent spot to poke his head out of when the time is right.

On either side of the road are hills, covered in trees. They've advanced further since the invasion, since the Kalen have this road closed to civilian usage and the military convoys don't seem to mind. There are plenty of places to hide and prepare for the ambush to start.

Lannysteria wrote:

Nothing seems amiss so far, the convoy is right on schedule so really it's just a matter of setting up the explosives and preparing the ambush. Nana is assigned to the task of actually placing the explosives, a mixture of old mining dynamite and stolen Kalen artillery shells.

And this is a task Nana graciously accepts! In that case, Nana opts to head towards the tail of the convoy's path, wanting to give the other soldiers a bit more time to set up at the head.

... Of course, what this means is, he's got to go unnoticed by the Kalen trucks.

[Let's roll Acrobatics +2 to see if he needs to do some punchin' or not!]

Demolitions, demolitions! Ruby is light on her feet today, in spite of her limp, her voice bright with a vicious excitement whenever anyone speaks to her. She's spending her prep time scrounging up any kind of high explosives she can get her grubby claws on, peering over shoulders at maps and tunnel schematics. Planning out where to blow the tunnel behind the Kalen convoy. Oh, this is her time.

"Do you feel it, this exquisite tension in the air?" she chatters, to some random poor schmuck of a new recruit. "Savor it, my friend, and you'll never go hungry again. Oh hoh hoh..."

That said, she starts off for the tunnel in the rear. She's setting up the explosives needed to bring it crashing down. Hiding them quite carefully, and then hiding herself. Would that be Engineering + Acrobatics?

~

Meanwhile, Chihiro is chewing the side of her thumbnail, checking and re-checking her kit. There's an eye-in-the-sky drone in her case, patchworked together from scrap, in case the ambush team needs someone watching their backs. There's her laptop, though she doesn't anticipate there being anything hackable in the convoy. There's her revolvers and a couple sets of speedloaders. And then there's the keys to her enormous and beautiful baby girl, parked just over the crest of a hill. Just in case a hasty, unsubtle retreat is needed.

For now, though, she's doing recon work. "Hey, Aesir right—can you hear me?" she sends over the radio. "I'm sending up a drone right now. Let's get the lay of the land, yeah?"

Aesir's heaviest prep work is always way before anyone sets boot to ground, hogging good chair at the listening post, and studying maps like no one's business. This time, he had the pleasure of working with a techie with eyes in the sky -- a new recruit, newer than him even! -- who gave him some footage so that he could put (rock) faces to lines.

When the Kalen bark out a path, he'd know how to get there faster, and pass it all down the line.

His job was to sit in his little sniper nest/hidey hole, keep his ears on the radio, and be ready to hunt for new channels whenever the Kalen switched. Also, to shoot sometimes, if he saw an opportunistic target. The bug out plan was to shove the radio in his pack and run and hide like hell, if anyone looked at him funny.