To the command structure lies a dangerous road. Heavy resistance was to be expected, of course. Being swarmed not even 200 meters to the goal, however, was not. You aren't sure how you managed to let the enemy overwhelm and outflank you, but four pieces - two Assaults, one Support and an Engie - are caught between a rock and a hard place. Or, to be more precise, between the walls of two buildings. Each of your pieces is peeking out from behind their own corner, anxiously awaiting but two things: rockets and grenades.

Thankfully, you have a Recon and another Engie circling around enemy positions. The enemy is aware that they haven't caught everyone yet and can't focus fire on your trapped segment. Attempts to "just shoot them" have been preempted by well-placed rockets and marksmanship.

With just two pieces mobile, you must vanquish 9 enemy soldiers ASAP.
>[] Fire rockets indiscriminately on enemy positions. The mayhem will allow you to escape.
>[] Focus fire on one exit to catch the enemy in a pincer attack, freeing the pathway.
>[] Cover for the trapped pieces while the Support plants charges on one wall and blows it up, giving you an alternative means of escape.
>[] Custom.

>>33979746
>[] Cover for the trapped pieces while the Support plants charges on one wall and blows it up, giving you an alternative means of escape.

they would be watching any current means of exit, which means they won't be watching any new means of exit

where are the other usual anons?

>>33980021
Sleeping, maybe. Don't worry.

>>33979867
You direct your Support away from the corner of his wall and toward the center. Enemy infantry immediately attempts to take advantage of the reduced defensive capacity, but their advance is halted by suppressive fire. Of the five soldiers on that side, one dies in the failed attack. You've ousted your Engineer's position, but manage to salvage the situation by following your well-hidden Recon's SMG burst fire with a rocket. It fails to hit anything significant, but kicks up a considerable amount of dirt, obfuscating your positions.

Once the C4 has been planted and the charge is armed, you command your Support to back away and the others to crouch, bracing themselves against the ground. A sudden, but rather soft shockwave runs through the four pieces. You never quite got used to the feeling of experiencing an event from several points of view simultaneously. It's like an out of body experience.

The makeshift exit is plenty large enough for everyone, and before the enemy's noticed a thing, you've already slinked away and out the proper exit. Your Recon and Engie cover the retreat and act as decoys while your main force moves up.

Roll 4d6+-4 to see if they return.

Rolled 1, 6, 3, 2 - 4 = 8

>>33980117

>>33980163
welp, off to an awesome start...

>>33980165
We've been through worse before!

Writing.

On one hand, the pieces you left behind have fulfilled their role perfectly: they prevented hostiles from capitalizing on your entrapment, they allowed your Support to make a path without having the defensive "perimeter" collapse, they even drew the focus of most reinforcements that followed up. At least, that's what you figure, going by the fact that you've met exactly zero resistance thus far. Most likely, the enemy hasn't managed to catch up yet.

On the other hand, you were really hoping to keep those guys. Split off from the main body of force, they were isolated, divided and conquered. Forced to keep their heads down, your Recon barely throws a single grenade before he's pelted with four others, whereas the Engineer's sight simply cuts out while march-firing on several rocket troops. Most likely, shot in the head. Your only consolation is that the Recon's quiver also detonated - having no doubt brought ruin to whatever building he died on top of.

It's rather odd that you hear two explosions, rather than one.

After navigating the filthy by-roads and dusty walls of this apparently-Confederate encampment, you're right up behind the command structure. You notice thick mist descending on your surroundings.

Considering that you're heavily outnumbered and outgunned, this is great.

Considering that you don't know the topography, this is awful.

>[] Search for entrances from the back.
>[] Blow up the back wall.
>[] Attack the structure wholesale - bringing it down entirely.
>[] Custom?

>>33980334
>[] Search for entrances from the back.
we can't afford the attention of the other options right now

>>33980364
Alright. Give me 15 minutes to grab a bite and I'll get to writing.

>>33980364
Alright, I'm back.

Writing.

Numbers aren't on your side right now. A third has already been lost to the enemy. It would be a waste to lose pieces now, especially to poor judgement.

You can only search.

So you do, for what feels like hours. Brick by brick. You come up with nothing but a simple garage, in which there is only an armored off-road car with a detachable machine gun in the roof turret. You promptly exchange your Support's LMG for the full-fledged MG. It's heavier and harder to wield, but guaranteed to bust through conventional armor.

Unfortunately, that's all there is. Attacking the command structure proper is suicidal - even if you were to succeed in the attack, you'd have the rest of the base on your ass, which would leave your main objective uncompleted.

You also doubt your ability to wreck a large number of artillery pieces and still have the time and manpower to bring down the heart of the base.

With that thought firmly in your mind, you set off for the vast, empty field, dotted only with radar installations and interception systems. The mist masks your mad dash to the hatches, where you hope nothing obstructs your objective.

In the distance, you see black smoke billowing from where you were ambushed. Nothing strange about that, you'd say, if you didn't spot several other, identical towers. Their tessellating bricks, expanding and dissolving in the air, mesmerize the unfettered by duty.

There is commotion all about. On no less than two occasions, a group of human soldiers passes you by, clearly on their way somewhere else. You dispatch them with haste. And yet...

Things no longer add up. You're at the hatches, finally, but several installations are destroyed. Wrecked by HE rounds. The fence that surrounds this whole place is not far, and you can hear the familiar sound of treaded vehicles whirring behind it. By the time you've opened one of the hatches and begun to descend, the din of bricks crumbling to explosions reaches your electronic ears.
[1/2]

Inside, you finally find what you've been looking for. Arranged in neat rows, dozens upon dozens of artillery pieces - exactly like the ones you saw on the surface - lay asleep on the dry, slightly dusty and very dim-lit floor.

You inspect one of them thoroughly. It looks like a hybrid between a truck and a treaded APC. Rather tall in front, gently sloping down to the very tail end. On that slope is a large battery, consisting of a plethora of tubes arranged in a chessboard pattern. There are enormous missiles in each tube, no less than 300mm.

Your first course of action is to:
>[] Locate the other entrances and seal them.
>[] Begin searching for the columns and other load-bearing elements of architecture.
>[] Continue to peruse the vast garage.
>[] Custom.

>>33981119
>[] Begin searching for the columns and other load-bearing elements of architecture.
we don't gots time to mess arouns

>>33981119
>[X] Locate the other entrances and seal them.
Whatever's causing a ruckus outside doesn't need to come inside.

Rolled 2

>>33981133
>>33981230
Time to engage decision-making protocols.

The absolute last thing you need right now is guests. Guests to interrupt your fun.

You scour the place for possible entrances and exits and learn of three other hatches, each at the end of a ramp, and a thin tunnel that looks positively medieval. You bolt the hatches down with whatever materials are nearby - metal rods, mostly. The tunnel is perfectly suited to a different kind of prevention: one Claymore in the middle, a ways off from the mouth, and another just behind the corner. Even if it doesn't disable any hostiles, they'd have to shoot it to get rid of it, alerting you to their presence. That, and they'll be in for a surprise as soon as they file out.

Accomplishing all this takes you upwards of 15 minutes. You hear a low rumble somewhere above the surface. A couple of percussive blasts sends a threatening growl through the cavernous garage and bits of dust and pebbles begin to fall from the ceiling.

This is bad. Real bad.

You scramble to find the load-bearing architectural elements. The walls aren't very thick - a few rounds from the MG punch them clean through at the top and hopelessly plunge into cement at the bottom. Thickness seems to vary depending on proximity to the surface, which means the soil surrounding this garage is easily displaced and exerts a constant force on the walls. There's a good two and a half meters of earth between the ceiling and the surface, and all that earth is held up by no more than four columns.

Very, very thick columns. You decide to try something new out: you strap the three remaining blocks of C4 to one of the columns and blast it.

The results are not what you'd call spectacular.

Your explosives amount to little more than 12 grenades and two almost-full quivers.

>[] Pelt two columns with rockets, blow up the last two with grenades.
>[] Strap two columns with 6 grenades, the other two with a quiver each.
>[] Strap yourself to each column. If the core suffers critical damage, pieces tend to explode violently.
>[] Custom.

Remid me what a quiver is again in context? Also, could you repost the Addendum, OOQ?

>>33981486
so either way we use up all our rockets?

>>33981486
>[X] Custom.
2 quivers, 2 pieces that held the quivers.

>>33981507
http://pastebin.com/Lu06J1He
Here it is.

A quiver is long and rectangular, it holds 20 rockets for the rocket launcher. Each of them is around a meter long and about 4cm in diameter. They're called quivers for the resemblance to those used in archery, though these quivers look like thin rectangular prisms rather than cylinders.

>>33981520
This is our final objective. You don't have to, though.

>>33981486
>>[] Custom.
3 columns with 3 grenades each, and then rocket the last column, leaving us with 3 grenades and some rockets to deal with whatever is on the surface that is evidently very big, tracked, and full of destruction

>>33981571
>>33981507
This seems reasonable, and leaves us with rockets to spare. I'll second.

>>33981550
>>33981571
>>33981593
Alright, writing.

Your HE grenades should be sufficient, you think. You find some tape in a closet and affix three grenades to each unharmed column. A bit of rope, salvaged from several artillery pieces, serves as the trigger. With a heave, you pull on all three ropes.

BLAOW!

However, the columns remain standing. Badly damaged, but still standing.

You think for a bit, then come to an idea. You unfasten the DYI "locks" on two hatches and place your pieces right below them. Then, you fire. Without looking at the rockets fly, you scramble to load the next into each launcher and fire those. A pull of two triggers and the new batch of explosives hurtles toward the columns nearer. Just as they begin their aerial sprint, you hear (and see, through peripheral vision) two blasts.

The crash is instantaneous. Like a tent with its stick in the middle snapped in half, the ceiling bends down and falls apart, rubble descending like a wave of cement.

You kick the hatches open and get out of there. You're barely off the ramps when the pressurized air, full of dust, pushes you off balance, right into the soil at your feet.

When you raise your heads from the earth, a horrific, yet pleasantly surprising scene fills your field of view. Structures and buildings of all sorts, in the distance, are leveled. There's nothing left, just huge amounts of broken architecture, blasted stone and thick iron wires sticking out. Near you, two interception systems have been turned inside out by what must have been tank rounds.

Without a doubt, there was a full-scale assault on the base. You wonder...

You are almost certainly not the only Operator that was sent here. Everyone had their own objective, but didn't manage to find the camp as soon as you. When you punctured the fence and began sowing chaos, the others must have been alerted to the base's location. After that, it was just a matter of time. Those pillars of smoke you saw on the way to the underground garage must have been the results of other attacks.

Suddenly, you hear aircraft overhead.

They look like Imperial gunships. Wait. Something's dropping from above. That's...

A missile?

>>33981888
That awkward moment you realize you were wrong in not mentioning your plan to lay low in one of the hatch entries for a while and shoot any visitors peeking in because it was overcomplicating.

You're welcomed back by a familiar green wireframe GUI.

You've earned your third Perk point.

Time to choose.

[Thread end! Next one will be on Sunday, and we'll start it by selecting our upgrade(s). Hope to see you there!

Also, if you have any questions, about the lore or otherwise, I'll answer them on ask.fm/ObjectiveOrientedQuesting, in case anybody hasn't seen it yet.]

>>33981925
That awful feeling when you could've posted your glorious description of a bunker-buster ballistic missile turning the landscape into an inferno with hellfire and napalm, but didn't.

Maybe that scene will make it into the Director's Cut edition.

>>33981931
Thanks for the thread, cya in the next one.

Darida and Duva smut when?

>>33981963
Chronologically, Duva's is next thread. I'll put it in a pastebin which I will have to write up first.

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8 KB JPG

>>33981989
And so, we begin to sow the seeds of the Duravid Dinasty.