Con-031 Mortimer's Cross 3

Background introduction:
This was to be my third and final in character, as Captain (Dr.) Ash, game mission offworld during this weekend game. This game was played on our alternative piece of woodland, which made for a more interesting game, as some of us had not been there before, and those who had couldn't fully remember the layout of the site.

This was a pick up the pieces left after "Operation Clean Sweep" scenario for the players. Given it was British Summer Time, it wasn't pitch black when we went out, but it rapidly became darker as the evening progress, especially given the tree cover that blocked the starlight that can help one see at night.

CON-031- MC3

Mission: Go to planet, designation CO55A (Colony Offworld 55 at gate site A). Our gate out was going at 21.08 hundred hours and our return gate would be at 23.14 hundred hours.

Orders:

Our orders were again do not to initiate hostile actions. Science was represented by all three on base members, as MID felt that medical and technical support might be needed.

AAR:

After entering the playing area the first thing we found was a disused building, which added tension to the game of exploring the site as no one remembered seeing it before. M.Sgt. Vosloo, led the mission and we did the whole "Forrest Gump in Vietnam thing" until we came to a spot in the woods where we stopped. During our pause we noticed a light in the distance from behind us, so we set up an ambush to wait for the unknown force to arrive, as we didn't want a repeat of last time when we bumped into "Them".

Turned out to be a single man who made no attempt to move stealthily and we even heard him whistling a tune. As he came close Dr. Stokes, our medic, arose from the undergrowth and greeted him, which surprised him. However, he acted as if he were expecting to meet a group in woods. Dr. Stokes took the bag from the stranger, playing along and then subdued him as he turned to leave (I can't remember if that was a shot in the back, or coshing the NPC, but was a typical Dr. Stokes trademark move).

Myself and another player, Dr. Carter, examined the contents of a white cooler bag that had two six packs of Coca-Cola in it, each with a message attached.

Msgt. Vosloo ordered that we move out, but just as did we made another contact with an unknown force. Dr. Carter, braver than I, bushwhacked one of them by lighting him up with her tac-torch and a small exchange of fire ensued. after this Dr. Carter dragged a captive back to join me. During the firefight we had become separated from the rest of the team we decided to make our way back to the gate as best we could.

We made it to the gate where Dr. Stokes had brought the captured courier and his bag with him. We sat and waited, as there was some considerable time left to kill. The remaining elements of our team arrived in due course and spread out forming a defensive line.

What was really eerie was that for some reason I could sense the presence of the enemy team across the clearing from us. anyway, just before our gate was due to open the captured prisoner kicked off, I shot him and a ricochet hit the other prisoner in the head killing him. However, we managed to manhandle our dead captives through the gate while under fire, which was a bit hairy.

Summary:

The final firefight seemed to be the equivalent of saying "get out of Dodge" as no serious assault on our teams exit was made, but there again we might have outnumbered them.

The messages with the Coke cans were written in Japanese, a combination of katakana and kanji, and I was able to recognise a couple of symbols. The Coca-Cola cans turned out to have been laced with ABC, and from the translated message it was clearly meant to be delivered to a spy, who would then use the Coke to contaminate someone.

I didn't make any notes about the rest of the scenarios, as I played an NPC for the rest of the weekend. However, I left the game feeling really energised and wanting to know more, with more questions than you could shake a stick at to ask.