Beam Saber 2
[This is part 2, and the final part, of my Beam Saber report. The game is still ongoing (though it will be finished soon), but this represented a nice short story-arc in that game to present here without focusing too much on one single game for my blog.
You can find part 1 as well as explanations about the characters and world here:
https://daydreamingmoose.bearblog.dev/beam-saber-1/
All images used with permission by Avalyn Ramsey, you can find Beam Saber here, as well as on Drive Thru RPG as print on demand: https://austin-ramsay.itch.io/beamsaber]
Shortly after arriving in their Forward Operating Base at New Caidiff, the 13th puts Zyre into an improvised holding cell in the basement, with a Blackwell guard out in front. They get called towards the local Blackwell branch's office for a video communications meeting with Yuki Blackwell-Sato, who is currently at the Boneyard. She is not happy that the squad happened to find out what they were transporting, but agrees that it was unavoidable given the circumstances and is generally content with how the squad has handled the last mission. She immediately assigns the squad another mission with a similarly delicate and secretive nature: A cargo ship recently sunk on its way towards the Boneyard, transporting the same kind of 'cargo' as the squad did with their convoy through the steppes. She is certain that the 'cargo' itself is dead, so this is not a retrieval mission, it's about deniability and keeping secrecy. The goal is to go down to the ship and keep scavengers away before they can retrieve any sensitive information. There's going to be another storm soon that is projected to push the cargo ship further down into the depths, making it effectively unreachable. Until that happens the squad needs to make sure that either nobody touches the wreck or they destroy all relevant information, like the cargo manifest. The positive aspect is that the wreck is in international waters, so use of excessive force to fulfil the mission is authorized although the opposing forces will most likely be just opportunity scavengers. Additionally, the groupās mecha will be fitted with diving equipment that will enable them to reach a maximum depth of 100 meters, with the wreck lying at roughly 75 meters below the water line (which also results in the Mechs being severely misaligned).
Meanwhile, the squad talks among themselves about what to do with Zyre and agrees that theyāll go and talk to him and give him the chance to rejoin the group. After a heated argument down in the basement of the local Blackwell HQ, Zyre reluctantly rejoins the group, but they all agree that in case thereās somebody alive down in the wreck, that it wouldnāt hurt to let them go and not tell Blackwell about it. Annil remembers that he might have a distant cousin working on the sunken ship ā the Persephone ā and tries reaching out to them using an electronic messenger, but unsurprisingly doesnāt get an answer.
Shortly after, the group finds themselves on the beach, starting the 90-minute approach and descend to the Persephoneās wreck while their team of rovers secures the beach itself. Arriving down at the wreck, they see that a lot of the cargo has already scattered around, but most of it is still on the ship, which is relatively close to a cliff edge and in danger of tumbling deeper (which would make it hard or even impossible to reach with their current equipment). There are three scavenger mechs, one of them obviously a commander-type, working on the wreck with heavy tools, winches and other things. The group decides to attack them frontally to either crush them or drive them off as fast as possible. A sonar scan reveals the deck plan of the ship, but also shows that the back third of the ship has cracked and is hanging down, only being connected by some cables to the rest of the ship. Thereās also some information that thereās somebody/something (not an animal) hiding among the wreck, possibly more enemies in āMechs because the contact was too big and too fast to be a single human diver. The Battle begins with Baizhi charging ahead with her Aquaboosters, stabbing the leader with her lance. Simultaneously she tries to interface with the commander using her cables to hack into the machine. Zyre grapples one of the other mechs as a setup, so that Annil can move in and finish them off. Meanwhile, Timur acts as a decoy for the third Mech, but notices that the one that is about to be wrecked by Annil might be one of those that acted during the messed-up ambush he was crippled in. He tries telling Annil to āspareā them via light signals, but doesnāt know yet if that signal has gone through. Overall, the fight goes smoothly with the squad helping out each other, subduing them. The squad talks with the commander and find out that they are probably just scavengers from the Meritocracy with no clue what is really hiding in the ship, but the commander is Captain Bataar, one of the higher ups from the Boneyard. He also tells Timur that the guy in the mech with the conspicuous repair job Timur has noticed earlier has joined the squad roughly 3 years ago ā probably after the double cross at the ambush, because the commander doesnāt know about that. His name is Sergeant Tuven. Meanwhile, Zyre uses his ESPer powers to sense if there are others on the ship, and finds out that there might be one or even two in the vicinity and hurries there, Annil is taking up a guarding position near the crack of the ship, in case the fled signal returns.
Sergeant Tuven remembers what has happened all those years ago during the double-cross ambush, and he tells Timur what he remembers: They were told by their superiors where the ambush would happen and to ambush the ambushers, but try and capture ā not kill ā the guerillas. He also tells Timur that the thing must have been a set up because Tuvenās superiors got their information from some other source than their normal channels and the containers themselves were empty. The mission was for the Meritocracy, but there was also a Blackwell attachĆ© named Ocharo who was there to supervise and observe the mission to gather combat data. Afterwards, while the Commander is talking down the Sergeant and berating him, Timur stalks off into the ship to get the mission done. Baizhi on the other hand, leaves her Mech and goes into the pilot house to gather information and upload everything she can to Solaris in secret, to feed their database. She finds out that not only was the ship tracking other ESPer transports by Blackwell, it also holds information that Blackwell is working with New Lakonia, as well as information about the Artifact that New Lakonia stole from Soalris to create the ESPers. Despite Blackwell being able to verify if theyāve done their job by checking the wreck later, she copies the information instead of deleting it and then short-circuits the whole bridge to cover her tracks. Down in the ship, Timur experiences a strange bout of headaches and tries to find the reason for them, especially if thereās something strange down here. Annil helps Baizhi escape from the closed pilot house again, and Zyre is tryying to find the ESPers and sends out signals of peacefulness and calm. The other ESPers turn out to be traveling in a small submarine, and contact Zyre, asking him what heās doing here and what his goal is, since itās clear that heās not aiming to steal and Zyre answers that heās here on a rescue mission. The ESPers arenāt from the ship themselves and say that nobody has survived. Zyre asks them who they are and why theyāre here. The speaker tells him her name is Mara Chen and that theyāre from the Ascended, a splinter group from New Lakonia who try to establish ESPer dominance over normal humans. Timur joins the others back on top of the ship, and all decide to check out the submarine. Baizhi moves ahead, with the others following. Before that, Timur tells the Makkam scavengers to contact him in case they are being thrown out onto the street. Heāll help them out if it comes to that, he has ample experience being homeless himself, after all. They then leave using a quick extraction device.
Both Baizhi and Timur get stealthily into position to react to a violent attack by the sub, and Annil signals to them to identify themselves. Seer Mara Chen contacts Annil via telepathy. A discussion breaks out and encompasses the whole group soon, the Ascended have orders to not let anyone life. The squad doesnāt manage to persuade them to leave on neutral terms, so a fight breaks out. The group defends themselves against the psychic attacks and brings the small, rather defenceless sub into a precarious situation. Before the sub is destroyed, Zyre manages to talk the Ascended down and decides to leave with them. With their mission now mostly done, the squad leaves as well, avoiding any damage from the fast-approaching storm. When they arrive at the beach, the weather is already very bad and the support squad looks like they did their job by fending off other scavengers. Thereās also a large group of onlookers that donāt engage with the group. The squad and the rovers regroup and make their way back towards New Caidiff to report their success to Yuki Blackwell-Sato.