Worse Than the Disease 2 IC

[Shoot Da Moon]

Richard manages to hit one of the targets, wounding him badly enough to knock him out and down.

Twelve hostiles remain not (quite) in the fight. Only three manage to shake off the effects of the flashbang...

(OC: Bart the Hunter, then Tariq, then Waffle House backup.)

[u-b]

Bart and the Waffle House people keep watching four most promising windows while Tariq keeps his aim. Sean, still taking some cover crouching behind the courtyard wall, shoots a butst into the courtyard then instantly reloads.

Spoiler

Show

Extra effort reload. Not checking the book, but probably blinded and/or stunned guys should not be able to dodge.

[Shoot Da Moon]

TURN 4

Sean's gunfire walks through the crowd of the hostiles. None of them manage to see it coming in time, and kills a good handful with heavy caliber lead straight through their vitals. He's pretty sure he got the enemies who just recovered from the stun and they are all still blind.

[Volthawk]

Seeing his targets are more scattered, and conscious of the ammo he had left in the magazine, Richard fires off a burst at one of them before reloading.

[Shoot Da Moon]

Much to his frustration, Richard fails to hit his intended target. The shots go far too wild.

3 enemies manage to shake off the stun, the rest are still in a blind haze of confusion and horror.

(OC: Bart, then Tariq, then the Waffle House backup.)

[u-b]

Bart and the Waffle House people keep watching four most promising windows. They might be somewhat surprised that a fortified building with this many guards just outside seems to be uninhabited at all, but they keep watching it. Tariq keeps aiming at the same spot. Sean shoots a long burst at the remaining men, hitting most of them. He is certainly surprised that no firefight is going on between our men and the inside of the building, but does not object it at all...

[Shoot Da Moon]

TURN 5

Sean eliminates another 4 enemies with heart shots in a 16 bullet spray, leaving only two blinded men left standing and screaming in fear.

The ground of the courtyard is now unwholesomely painted with fresh red. Bullet holes mark the back wall. Sean and Richard are sweating heavily thanks to the strain and adrenaline.

(OC: Richard, your turn again.)

[Volthawk]

Not wanting to waste too much more ammo now most of them are dead and the survivors still aren't able to fight back, Richard takes a moment to more carefully line up a shot at the survivor most distant from Sean.

Spoiler

Show

Aiming.

[Shoot Da Moon]

The few remaining enemies are stuck in the smoke, one regains his senses just in time to comprehend how many of his fellows are dead and dying.

(OC: Bart, then Tariq, then the Waffle House backup.)

[u-b]

The four shotguns remain aimed at four windows while Tariq is ready to pull the trigger to launch another flashbang into the courtyard at slightest provocation. Sean shoots another burst into the courtyard, then shouts "Hands up and you'll live!" and steps to the left to take full cover behind the wall of the courtyard.

Spoiler

Show

Tariq: wait maneuver, will shoot if the man does not surrender and tries to do something else instead.

[Shoot Da Moon]

TURN 6

Sean eliminates the second last guard with a shot to the heart.
The last remaining enemy takes the hint, drops his weapons, and throws his hands up in surrender. He shouts cries of fear and begs for mercy. He stands alone in the midst of 6 dying and severely wounded comrades and 13 corpses.

(OC: combat over.)

The shotgunners whisper that they see no activity in the upper windows, but that could mean the bad guys are simply smart enough to stay away from the apertures.

Tariq twitches a little as he keeps the grenade launcher steady.

[u-b]

"Now, lucky bastard, on my voice. Come here." When he comes to Sean, he gets pointed and, in case he still cannot see clearly, pushed, towards where Richard is located. "Now that way. You'll be told when to stop." Then Sean takes cover behind the wall again and reloads. Then he starts to circle the wall around the building to be on the other side and see how things are over there. Meanwhile, he comments over the radio what he wants done with the captured guy. "I'll go around in case some people would like to reatreat. We do not enter the building. Take cover and interrogate the guy. I want to know how many friends of his are inside, who and what else are there, any reinforcements that might come today or tomorrow, and then let him explain about their general business here and future plans."

[Shoot Da Moon]

The lone survivor follows Sean's instructions. He is incredibly shaken up by the sudden violence and the death around him right in the middle of when he was resting with his comrades.

Sean stays low, in the shadows, as he circles the building. He does not seek much, the windows on the other sides are firmly barricaded and closed. Only a few cracks in a few second story window reveals a light on upstairs, a single room being occupied. The rest of the windows are either completely boarded up or moderately dark inside.

There is no other entrance into the building either. At first glance, there's an old metal security door at the back, but a closer inspection reveals it is welded shut, the lock and doorknob has been replaced with sturdy metal plates. Guess someone does not care about the fire hazard?

[Volthawk]

Richard reloads once the situation seems calm and watches their new prisoner approach, directing them to get behind the cover he'd been using for the firefight before starting to ask questions, following Sean's suggestions.

[Shoot Da Moon]

The captured man does initially respond to questioning, he seems lost in his own horror.

Only when Richard take a harder tack after 20 minutes, does the man come back to reality and break his silence.

There's ten more guards inside the building, including the commander of this little love fest. They keep their high value prisoners and their supplies under guard in the bank vault. The upstairs bank manager's office has been taken by the commander as his own personal room. Ten slavers are out at the moment, either scavenging for more supplies, taking new slaves, or scouting - they're on motorcycles and one van. The slavers would normally stay in their hold and not take any chances, but orders from the top demand they keep maximum security watch over some VIP hostages who tried to desert or defect. That means they have to maintain their forty-man-strong hideout on their own rather than splitting up into smaller gangs and spreading out over the region or out of Vermont. That means they need food, water, ammo and slave labor to keep their base functioning in hostile territory.

[u-b]

"So, ten men..." says Sean having heard the results of the interrogation "...in a fortified building. I bet they won't be ready to surrender and must be rooted out close and personal, so..." Sean tries to think of a plan "...we can just come in front. It's not like they have a way to retreat here - the back door has been welded shut. Your choice of NVGs or the lights. A flashbang into each and every room we enter or I try to be sneaky until first contact? If you use light, we could don the gas masks, but gas grenades have to be adapted for close quarters and I have other plans for Tariq."

The plan for Tariq, and the Waffle House men, is to set up an ambush against possible return of the ten riders. For that, Tariq is to load with all frags. Bart is to come with us to cover our backs, but to leave the dogs with the ambush.

Spoiler

Show

How many rooms do we expect to be there in Sean's and/or Tariq's opinion?

[Shoot Da Moon]

Spoiler

Show

How many rooms do we expect to be there in Sean's and/or Tariq's opinion?

Spoiler

Show

A building of this size could have 5 big rooms (2 or 2.5 times that in smaller rooms) per floor. Probably bigger rooms on the lower floor than the upper floor.

[Volthawk]

Richard thinks it over for a moment. "They must know we're out here by now, and must be aware that we're not going to leave without taking the building. With most of the windows boarded up and the back door sealed, there's only so many ways in and we have to assume that they're watching each of them. You're sneaky and it's dark, but there's only so much you can do if they're on guard. With that in mind, I say we go with the light and the flashbangs - the latter can shake up any ambush they have planned, and anyone still watching the door after that will get the lights when we go in, bright enough that it might throw off their shots."

[u-b]

"Well, yes, they know we are here somewhere. And probably know where we'll have to enter. But they don't know exactly when we do that, so we might have some luck on our first contact. We don't have enough flashbangs for the whole building, so let's try the following. Richard and Bart take positions on both sides of the entrance to the courtyard. Bart with NVGs and Richard without. Then I advance to the entrance of the building and take a quick look. I will advance and take quick looks until I see something. Then we start flashbanging them, with Richard in front and with light. Bart will just cover our backs and maybe look after the rest of the bunch as I am not sure if I'm very comfortable with Tariq being the only one seeing things there. Good enough?"

If there are no strong objections, Sean proceeds with the plan.

Spoiler

Show

It is a free action for a familiar shooter to either disengage the safety or turn the light on, so if Richard waits with the gun on full auto, turning the light on will not take him time.

[Shoot Da Moon]

The team stacks up on the building's front door. Opening the door, they finally get a good look into the place's interior.
It is mostly dark, but there has been a single floodlight turned on, behind a corner from the entrance and shining onto a wall besides the entryway. Walking into the open floor lobby further means walking in front of the light. The floodlight is out of immediate reach for anyone not walking into the lobby and around the corner.

The open floor lobby features a bunch of Old World machines lined up across the wall (3 yards away from the entrance), couches in the center (5-7 yards away from the entrance), and a door going further into the building past a line of teller counters with security glass windows (about 10-15 yards away from the entrance).

[Shoot Da Moon]

Sean advances to the entrance into the building, listening for some time and taking a quick look inside only if nothing fancy is heard.

The scout hears nothing wrong...

Taking a quick look around, he quickly deduces that no-one is standing in the middle of the lobby. He peeks around the corner, and sees the floodlight is completely by itself, hooked up but not guarded. Nobody is around the corner...

[u-b]

Sean withdraws back towards the entrance and stands beside it next to the wall. "Well, there is a full-fledged lobby in there. Lots of space, mostly unlit and with some obstructions. Also there is a floodlight on a stand. I could blanket the place with one or two flashbags, but not sure. If they are even there, would take some time to search it all through and there is thick glass barrier that is not too easy to cross. Watch the entrance, I'll be back soon." Sean goes outside and to the main group. There he takes two grenades out of his backpack and also takes one dog with him. On the way back, he transfers the control of the dog to Bart and repeats to him what he've just told over the radio. "I want the dog to search the inside once the light is out. We won't yet come with our own lights on, but you and Richard should be reado on both sides of the entrance." Having said that, Sean readies a frag grenade, then approaches he corner and throws it in general direction of the floodlight without exposing much more than an arm. He then withdraws, noting "I don't suppose they keep their captives in the lobby..."

Spoiler

Show

All out defense, then attack and step back, then all out defanse all the way back. Will use extra effort if targeted. If the flood light is taken out, the dog is given a go.

I am pretty sure some of this should be in bold, but important thing is that Sean now has an extra TL7 frag grenade on him and has thrown a TL6 one.

[Shoot Da Moon]

For just a micro-second, all is quiet.

Then the world descends into madness.

First, the explosion of the frag grenade destroys the floodlight, plunging the lobby into darkness.
Second, the flashbang brings it back into the light for a moment.
Third, someone somewhere else in the lobby reacts by blindly opening fire with SMGs. The spray of lead puts holes in the all along the wall opposite the floodlight - Sean feels deeply uncomfortable by the terrible noise and the fierce impacts.

(OC: Sean might be able to locate where the gunfire is coming from with a roll. Combat time has started, TURN 1.)

[u-b]

By the time of explosion, Sean is out of the building. He crouches behind the left doorpost, waiting for anyone or anything to appear, but mostly just for the men inside to stop shooting. He says, just loud enough for Bart to hear clearly, "The bastard goes in the moment they stop shooting."

Spoiler

Show

Second, the flashbang brings it back into the light for a moment.

Not sure about this one. Sean and I have contemplated flashbangs, but decided to conserve them for other rooms, so used only one frag grenade. The stun effect is that of regular explosion as per Side Effects of Explosions section in HT181..182. There's a lot of effects listed in there, variously conditional, but the other important one is possible Hearing panalty that could be relevant after the dog is in.

The plan is now to do nothing much until they stop shooting, then Bart sends the dog, then Sean goes to peek around the corner. Sean would not quite object to something more aggressive by Richard, but thinks there is likely no need.

[Shoot Da Moon]

The next few seconds have someone in the building open fire with short bursts before stopping.

Bart has one of his dogs sent into the dark building, noticeably skeptical. The dog stays low, and sniffs around the lobby.

Sean goes in after the canine, peeking around the corner. He sees no-one, dead or alive, lurking there. The shots must have come from somewhere else...

Sean notices the dog has picked up a scent. The good boy makes a low growl and comes over to him, nudging him with his nose to alert him to something. Sean follows the dog's hint and realizes the dog has detected people behind the counters with glass dividers.

[u-b]

Sean pats the dog and turns on the IR flashlight mode of his combined illuminator, leaving the laser mode also on. Then he spends some time observing the scenery, pointing the flashlight everywhere he looks. The doggie thinks the opposition is behind the counters, so that is the first direction where Sean concentrates his attention. If he sees no one in there trying to peek at him, he'll also look around in general.

1. Anyone in the direction the dog has pointed, maybe hoping to remain unseen in the dark? I mean, the dog has detected them, but can Sean actually see anyone?
2. Any way to lob a grenade in there (either over the glass or through some sort of a window)? If so, will need applicable range and size penalties.
3. What would be the expected effect of such a grenade? Will it be localized to one counter or would it spread assuming we can get it to the "other" side of the bulletproof(?) glass? If localized, how many counters are there in total?
4. Also, to what extent was that glass damaged by the latest grenade? This might give hints as to how strong it is. While at it, what is the distance between where the grenade has exploded and the counters?
5. Where have the bullets hit relative to Sean's current position? Can the pattern be used to help localize which counter they were shot from?

[Shoot Da Moon]

Sean spots three people mostly hidden by the counter, behind the glass screen. Very little of their bodies are exposed. None of them seem to detect Sean, no surprise given the heavy darkness in the building. He sees no other heat signature in the lobby. They're certainly in the right position to open fire on the front entrance or the opening of the lobby, where the floodlight was pointing.

The openings in the glass screens are very narrow, as large as a human face at the biggest. Throwing a grenade in there would be very hard.

(OC: Shooting at the people through gaps in the glass is an extra -5 penalty (not counting Range or Darkness penalties) but only for certain hit locations not covered by the glass, everything but below the neck is covered by the counter for an extra -2. The skull, face, neck, and eyes can be targeted without the counter getting in the way (although the glass DR might still get in the way). The Range is about 10 yards, 15 yards from the front entrance, IIRC. Not sure how different Throwing would be compared to firearms attacks, probably can't claim the +4 bonus for targeting a hex.)

If a grenade were thrown in there, the space behind the glass would not provide much protection against the blast other than area to run away. The counters are close together, and only separated by thin wooden "walls" that one can easily step around. A decent explosion could ruin about three-fourths of the six counters.

The frag grenade did not damage the glass dividers. It seems the wall separating the counters from the rest of the lobby took the brunt of it. The corner where the grenade went off was too far (at least 8 yards) from the wall to reach the glass.

Checking the bullets, Sean sees the shots were mostly hitting where the floodlight was shining on. It probably had the shooters behind the counters poke their guns through the gaps in the glass while firing, aimed at where the floodlight was pointing and hitting chest height. Judging by the angle, they could still hit Sean standing further into the lobby if they knew where to shoot. If he went into the corner where the floodlight was standing, Sean would be in their blind spot, behind a wall to their side.

[u-b]

Standing upright 10 yards from glass-covered counters and preferably near some corner, Sean takes his aim and shoots a burst at the three men he can see. Then he quickly retreats to avoid return fire and shouts out loud: "Hey, you, the last one! Care to surrender?".

[Shoot Da Moon]

The bullets rip through two of the sentries, bull's eye-ing them both through spaces in the glass dividers. The third is much more lucky - the two bullets go off course and simply spiderweb the glass. The shots went through, weakly, and the glass overall shakes and cracks around the hole.

(OC: the glass DR is semi-ablative. The bullets going through it just reduced it by 4.)

The last man standing is defiant. He answers Sean's offer to surrender by yelling a cuss word and firing his gun once through the space in the glass divider, hitting nothing. He is not backing down, even if he does not see Sean well enough to fight back effectively.

[u-b]

Having retreated back after shooting, Sean gives the man a couple of seconds to shoot around blindly or otherwise act, then returns back without making a noise to give the situation another shot...