AFTER-ACTION REPORTS
EPISODE I
The Hand That Feeds
GENERAL EVENTS:
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All player characters found their separate ways to the NEC-Union summit in Ametrine, capital of the planet Halcyon.
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Governor Kell brought six combat frames to the summit – the first time ever displaying them openly.
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The Union leaders spoke their piece, seeking compromise and understanding.
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After his rebuttal piece, Governor Kell’s frames cut off external broadcast as he openly threatened the Union if his terms were not met.
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A civilian in the crowd threw a bottle, sparking instant, violent retaliation from the combat frames and kicking off a massacre in Ametrine’s central square.
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The Union deployed modified construction equipment in defense, managing to down two frames but losing nearly all of their operators. More Union members helped to evacuate the square, using the city’s rail system to bring most people to the massive mining base of Tenacity.
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The PCs met the Union general Sara Makarov, a former head of logistics for Halcyon’s mining operations. Due to their heavy losses in the square, the Union required more Pilots to fill their ranks in the newly started war. With some personal conflict, the PCs accepted her offer.
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With the captured NEC frames, the Union was able to begin reverse-engineering their Glass reactors to power frames of their own, giving themselves a fighting chance.
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PLAYER MOMENTS:
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Persephone was next to the man who threw the first bottle and saw him be vaporized by a frame-scale round. Her longtime friend Russel was killed saving her life in the evacuation.
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Jack spent the summit impersonating his sick twin brother as Kell’s head of security. In the evacuation, he distracted an NEC frame from a group of civilians at immense personal risk.
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Dorian befriended a violinist named Roland prior to the summit. Both were pulled from the square by a Union fighter named Clay.
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Arven was one of Kell’s six Pilots, knowing his weapon was loaded but unaware of his plans. In the chaos, he pretended to be taken out and gunned down one of the NEC frames as it tried to exit the square.
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Constance was present for the summit, but her player was unable to join us. Her brother Maximilian was another of Kell’s Pilots, specifically the one who fired the first shot into the crowd and escaped with the governor.
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- Will Lopez, Game Master
EPISODE II
The Cost of War
GENERAL EVENTS:
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The session picked up one day after the Ametrine Square massacre, with the new Pilots having received their neural jack implants.
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With their real frames still being worked on, the team entered a combat simulation against Fireteam Raven, the second group of newly recruited Pilots. They won decisively, destroying three of Raven’s frames in under thirty seconds.
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With some free time, the PCs decided to rock climb on the outside of Tenacity’s quartz mountain. On a flat section, they met a Bishop Arms sales rep named Steven, whose ship had not registered on Tenacity’s orbital sensors. With Bishop being the only current producer of frame components and weapons, they reluctantly introduced him to General Makarov, who agreed that ammunition would be a necessity in the coming war.
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On their way down the mountain, the PCs elected to name themselves Fireteam Fallen. In the morning, they awoke to the news that their frames were complete and began to strap in for the first time.
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Simultaneously, Tenacity received news that the NEC had dropped an occupation force on Ametrine, completely taking over the city. The Union rushed to mobilize an attack, but the NEC had fortified the city with artillery, force walls, and railgun emplacements. The First Battle of Ametrine was a disaster that saw heavy Union losses, including Clay of Fireteam Raven.
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Late at night, Fallen awoke to find Roland of Fireteam Raven being kidnapped by robed figures. One was shot, but the rest escaped in a vehicle. A strange symbol – an infinity symbol drawn in human hands – was burned onto Roland’s door.​
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PLAYER MOMENTS:
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Dorian called his mother to explain his situation, who believed he had joined a terrorist group.
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Constance spoke with Arven about her brother, who had fired the first shot in the Ametrine square massacre.
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Persy disagreed heavily with general Makarov’s decision to buy from Bishop. In a private conversation, Persy learned that Makarov’s husband had thrown the bottle in the square, sacrificing himself to start the war ahead of Kell’s schedule and let the Union capture combat frames.
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Jack tried to call his brother, who was hiding in Ametrine, but discovered that comms into the city were blocked by an NEC satellite.
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Arven non-fatally shot one of the robed men, who killed himself before he could be questioned.
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- Will Lopez, Game Master
EPISODE III
Good People are Extinct
GENERAL EVENTS:
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With a dead body and a kidnapped Pilot, Persy, Dorian and Constance began to research. They turned up a single 20-year-old result tying the symbol to a mysterious cult called the Infinite Hand, which liked to use underground bases.
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The Union had seismic scanners, but not enough time to scan half a planet. Tying a scanner into a satellite was possible, but the only one with enough power belonged to the NEC.
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With Makarov’s permission, Fireteam Fallen and Roland’s squadmate Athena undertook a nighttime raid on the Ametrine starport that housed all of the invasion force’s ships. With a proper strategy, they stole a dropship and a fighter, laid waste to the starport, and towed the NEC satellite out of its orbit.
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Having spliced in a seismic scanner, NEC techs discovered an undiscovered cave within a few miles of Tenacity and Fallen was sent to investigate.
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After finding a secret door in a rock face, Fallen blasted it open with their fighter ship, but were forced to leave their frames outside by the size of the entrance. Several cultists were killed in the blast.
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Inside, Fallen found fully stocked living quarters and a large space containing a strange machine stocked with the 11 chemicals required to build a human body. The last thing they saw was a bank of holding cells containing two identical Rolands.
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PLAYER MOMENTS:
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Persy volunteered for a spacewalk in order to splice the scanner into the satellite. She nearly fell into the void and came to some important conclusions about her moral compass (see her short stories).
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Arven left his frame behind for the starports raid, instead cramming himself into Jack’s frame so he could steal a fighter ship.
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Jack successfully flirted with Athena, earning cheers from all the women at the table.
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Dorian was a difference-maker in the raid, sawing two NEC frames in half with his Sharktooth sword. One of these was in defense of Persy, which she certainly noticed.
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Constance used her frame’s codepack weapon in an unintended fashion, managing to hack a fighter ship’s cockpit lock at long range. Additionally, she used her harpoon line to swing an NEC frame around like a shot put.
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- Will Lopez, Game Master
EPISODE IV
Honor Among Thieves
GENERAL EVENTS:
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In the underground temple of the Infinite Hand, the Rolands broke out of their holding cells, appearing not to feel the pain of smashing their way through acrylic walls. They viciously attacked Fallen, breaking Constance’s nose and tackling Arven before being knocked out and killed respectively.
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Fallen discovered that the machine was named the Orchestra, designed for the user to manually combine the necessary ingredients to build a human body. It had input boxes for genetic, hormonal, and brainwave programming packets.
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Someone calling herself Arienne spoke to Fallen over surveillance in the cave, telling them that she had cameras in Tenacity and expressing her confidence that they would die shortly. She opened an undiscovered tunnel, releasing three twisted, long-armed beings into the room.
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The beings attacked Fallen with bladelike nails, slashing Arven and near-fatally stabbing Jack and Dorian before being shot. As Fallen limped out of the cave, Arienne released a 30-foot armored lizard with acid fangs. It leapt onto their dropship and got mostly inside before Jack knocked it free with his frame’s shield.
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At Tenacity, the Union’s tech crew found a handful of advanced nanite cameras. Aided by a stolen tablet from the cave, Fallen concluded that Steven the Bishop salesman had placed the cameras and that Bishop was planning to sell a cloned army to the NEC.
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In need of information and with the NEC temporarily crippled, General Makarov authorized a mission to the Last Call, a lawless space station in the space between the Core and the Frontier.
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At the Last Call, Fallen encountered the infamous Fujin star pirates, whose captain agreed to find them an information broker in exchange for the schematics of their frames. Paid by the captain, the broker gave them intelligence on Arienne, connecting her to a mysterious Project Osiris and a non-abandoned warehouse on the planet Sidian.
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Everyone thought Captain Shard was hot. He wore a full hardsuit and a helmet the entire time.
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PLAYER MOMENTS:
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Arven drove Dorian to pick up his cat from a post office, where they talked about Persy and bonded a bit. In the cave, Arven killed one of the Roland clones with a bullet to the leg, causing it to bleed out.
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Dorian nearly died from his stab wounds in the cave. His search of the Roland clones revealed tattooed labels that helped Fallen understand the Orchestra’s purpose. On the Last Call, he bought an extremely expensive harp from a music store.
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Jack used a dead cultist to unlock the Orchestra and deduced what it was designed for. He began to spend nights sleeping in his frame, much to Constance’s concern. Before leaving for the Last Call, he got a hug from Athena.
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Constance used the dropship’s medkit to stabilize Jack and Dorian, saving their lives. She stayed with the ship on the Last Call, knowing she would hate the lights and noise of the markets.
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Persy came up with a plan: find concrete information on the NEC’s collaboration with Bishop and a cloning cult, then create an exposé to turn public opinion against them. The night before the Last Call, she was unable to sleep until she went to Dorian’s room.
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- Will Lopez, Game Master
EPISODE V
One Holt's Barred
GENERAL EVENTS:
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On the Typhoon, Fireteam Fallen purchased various pieces of pirate equipment for their personal use.
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General Makarov asked for a mission report and ended up on the phone with Captain Shard. She gave the team an urgent mission involving a Heartbreak Union team stranded onboard an NEC carrier with a new cruiser inbound to kill them.
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Fallen offered Shard the NEC cruiser in return for his help. The team joined Shard and 150 of his crew in a hot drop, launching themselves through space to land on the cruiser.,
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While the Fujin killed their way through the corridors, Fallen fought NEC frames and ship defenses along the top of the cruiser, including a mounted Quantum Lance that was stolen by Dorian. Constance's harpoon and Jack's shield were the MVPs.
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Having taken the bridge, the team (led by Persephone and Jack) convinced NEC Captain Holt to potentially join the Union.
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Back on the Typhoon, the team received an experimental weapon from Shard's engineers and decided to return to Halcyon.
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PLAYER MOMENTS:
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Arven met a girl named Jasmine who was a mechanic for the Fujin. They got along well and he gave her the option to join the Union when they left.,
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Jack contacted Athena for a bit. He also had a strange hallucination regarding his frame and wrestled Arven after Arven hit him with tranquilizer spray in the hangar.,
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Constance saved Dorian from flying into space during the battle. She received some interesting messages from her family in Ametrine.
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Persy also got messages from Ametrine about the increasing NEC pressure. She and Dorian worked together to steal the Quantum Lance.
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After the battle, Dorian got a panicked message from Roland with two photos of Dr. Blackburn's notebook regarding the Osiris project.
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- Will Lopez, Game Master
