Jag – Officer’s Dispatch 29
Heroes: Jag, Atobe Keigo, Pacci, and Lord Flash
Enemies: Lt. Horwitz, Crash Man, the Conventionals army, and General Gol Draam
Recent Duties: To be frank (which is infinitely better than to be Surely), your recent duties haven’t thrilled you. In your opinion, Major Xelme’s instructional methods uncalled for and dangerous, and performing night-time Commando-style raids could really be a smear on your legal reputation. You believe in full transparency and accountability, as you intend to prove in the next little while.
Troop Status
-Supplies: Schmitzer SMGs, Armored Flak Vests, Deluxe Laywers’ suits, and briefcases full of legal documents.
-Morale: William Mattar, auto-injury lawyer, continues to stir up dissent among your troops, claiming that you haven’t managed to get them the injury money they deserve. Many of your lawyers are still outraged about the dangerous fumes inhaled during Exavur’s attempted coup, and their potential long-term effects.
-Health: Your men’s health has certainly seen better days. Shellback believes he’s developed a hacking cough from dangerous gas inhalation and is preparing documents in the event he goes into a coma. McMason’s arm is coming along, but he has yet to receive compensation for his lost wages, pain and suffering.
Military Communiques
-Gol Draam and his Conventionals are closing in, and your current location seems to be where the Special Forces will make their stand. The Commander has approached you with a special assignment to this end. Your troops are to conceal themselves in a narrow cul-de-sac valley prior to the battle and remain hidden until Kilant gives the order for the attack. Apparently, due to lawyer-client priviledge, you and your men are the only ones trusted to keep quiet about such a secret assignment.
Personal Notes
-You’ve received word that an old ‘acquaintance’ of yours is expected to be present at the Special Forces frontlines. Her name is 1st Lt. Ivy, an officer who once attended the same prestigious Ivy-League law school as yourself. However, she was eventually expelled for her rather unconventional witness interrogation practices. It goes without saying that you don’t expect her to be pleased by the presence of Law Division.
-You don’t intend to put up with Mattar’s trash talk any longer, and have resolved to put together an air-tight case against the estate of former-Commander Exavur on behalf of your men. In the past, you’ve learned the value of multi-media presentations in the courtroom, and to this end, you have decided to put together an anti-Exavur video to aid your case. After all, McMason has all the cameras you’ll need, the only thing left is to find some actual footage.
Mini-Objective
-Obtain as much footage as possible for your anti-Exavur propaganda video.
Atobe Keigo – Officer’s Report 28
Recent Duties: Unlike some, you are not overly upset over the execution of the Warlady Tallyn of Stormwind. Granted, in your opinion, there are some Spherans who deserve it more, but one less Spheran is still one less Spheran. As such, it makes you rather angry that you’re not going to be fighting any, but rather your own people in the impending battle. In fact, the only Spherans around seem to be on your side. Were your mother here, she would surely call it a disgrace to need their help to fight your own fellow Electrans.
Troop Status
-Supplies: FLAME-THROWERS, crimson uniforms, kamikaze headbands, Crimson Armor of the Republic, your original Coca-Cola hat, and fortunately, no sign of Lubosh, your personal tennis trainer, anywhere.
-Morale: Like you, Seishuen Gakuen holds no love for the Conventionals, but even they are somewhat reluctant to face none other than Gol Draam himself, the hero of so many of their bedtime stories while they were growing up (not that they’ve finished this process, mind you). As usual, it will be up to you to inspire them with your own greatness.
-Health: Having heard of your battle against Xelme, some of your boys have tried to ‘toughen up’ by sharing her breakfast philosophy. Fortunately, for once Stenda’s dietary opinion agreed with your own and she managed to stop them before they’d tried to swallow too many nails.
Military Communiques
-Your troops have been assigned to the front-line defense in the fast-approaching battle, and thus you’ll be among the first to meet the advancing Conventionals. This is your chance to show everyone exactly what Seigaku is made of!!
Personal Notes
-Over the past little while, you’ve become increasingly concerned that Major Xelme really is holding something against you. There is no one else whose bad side you’d rather not be on, perhaps even including Kilant himself, so this is definitely not a good thing. You can’t help but think it has to do with your former relationship to Exavur, but why this would matter to her more than to Kilant or anyone else who fought in the rebellion is beyond you. Right now, the Major seems about as likely to bash your skull in as talk to you, so asking her is out of the question, at least not without some kind of evidence.
-Unless your sense of direction is way off, the crash-site of the Lyonlot, the stolen Special Forces battleship, shouldn’t be too far off from your present location. Surely there’s got to be someone here who knows where it is, maybe finding it would reveal the key of Xelme’s hostility towards you.
Mini-Objective
-Discover the secret of Xelme’s relationship to the Lyonlot, Exavur and thus yourself.
Pacci – supreme Commander’s Report 20
Recent Duties: Frankly, you’re a little confused as to how Major Xelme could be so upset with you over your eating habits. Sure, eating nails is probably pretty tough, but they can’t be anywhere near as painful as new Vanilla Coke. Oh well, that’s in the past now, so surely you can all be friends again now.
Troop Status
-Supplies: PK-33 Handguns, SIR Rifles, Bright Yellow Deluxe Uniforms, and a fashionable European carry-all which no longer contains several Energeon Cubes, a Verizon wireless cell-phone, an amazing vintage Pacman arcade machine, and Protoman’s whistle.
-Morale: Like you, the Pac is demoralized by your reports of the disapointing flavor of new Vanilla Coke. Maybe Culligan’s Diet Water is the way to go instead. They’re also a little confused about why they’re going to be fighting other Conventionals when you’re the Supreme Commander. You have to admit, this one’s a tough question to answer.
-Health: You still have a bit of a headache from all those painful headlocks at the hands of the Vanilla Coke goons. You’ve heard people talk about some drinks giving you a ‘hangover,’ perhaps this is what they mean.
Military Communiques
-You and your troops have been assigned to the front line of the defense in the impending battle with the Conventionals. You’re really not sure how anyone could ‘assign’ you to do this, since you’re the Supreme Commander, but since Dust isn’t here, wherever your troops happen to be is pretty much the ‘front’-line by default (since that makes it the ONLY line…)
Personal Notes
-You are extremely suspicious about the destruction of that bridge earlier yesterday. Your fellow troops seem to attribute it to Conventionals sabotage, but you sense the diabolical hand of DR. WILY. What’s more, you’ve heard that the troops stationed out here on the frontline have been suffering from similar sabotage ever since they witnessed a large fiery explosion not too far from here. As usual, no one else seems to take the threat seriously, so it’s up to the Supreme Commander to set things right.
-Even you have to admit that the upcoming battle is going to be very confusing. What will happen when two Supreme Commanders of the Conventionals wind up in the same place at the same time? You’re tempted to think some kind of quantum vortex will occur, but since you don’t really know what that is, it’s difficult to explain to anyone else.
Mini-Objective
-Solve the mystery of the explosive sabotage on the frontlines.
-Find a way to explain to your men about the presence of TWO Supreme Conventionals Commanders on the same battlefield.
Lord Flash – Officer’s Report 7
Recent Duties: Great news: “F,” your new patriotic brand of ketchup, is a smashing success! Emphasis on the ‘smashing’ bit, mind you. Some might argue that your low-flying stunts in destroying those munition dumps wasn’t quite as successful, but there was no way you were going to let the infantry grunts have all (or any) of the glory.
Military Communiques
-Normally, you might be reprimanded for disobeying orders and flying in low on those munitions dumps, but fortunately, no one around here has that sort of AUTHORITY! WAAF!
-Fortunately, this time they’ve tried to give you a mission that you like a little better. In the upcoming battle with the Conventionals, you and the airforce have been asked to fly air superiority to keep the Conventionals bombers out of the sky. As far as you’re concerned, superiority and Flash are two words that all but belong in the same sentence.
Personal Notes
-Your plane is fixed now, as is evidenced by your dramatic and amazing flight performance, but that doesn’t mean you’re not going to deliver a knuckle sandwich to whoever wrecked it if you ever find out.
-As a professional pilot, you’re a man who knows all about air-time in all its forms. Recently, you’ve noticed some of the other soldiers around here hauling around some cameras. Already, you miss the cameras back in your office, and are feeling the need for some publicity. After all, what could possibly be more newsworthy around here than YOU?
-While buzzing over the current Special Forces frontline camp, you noticed a huge crater about 2 miles to the north-east, where some gargantuan ship appears to have crashed. You don’t recall shooting it down yourself, and that leaves only one explanation: the pilots must have heard you were coming and crashed it themselves just to save you the trouble. WAAAFF!
Mini-Objective
-Obtain as much camera air-time as possible.
-Prove your air-superiority by shooting down more planes than any other allied pilot.
The adventure opens, as usual, at the OC. It is dinner time, and Jag and Flash are tucking into a patriotic plate of Freedom Fries. Dust, meanwhile, is considerably less satisfied by his salad, which seems to be singed and burnt. Pacci is outraged at how anyone could burn a salad, since he equates healthiness to the sheer volume of food consumed. He heads to the kitchen, where he finds a scene of chaos as the chefs try in vain to chase down Keigo's charmander, Flammie, who is running around burning all the food. Officer Jenny arrives on the scene and issues Keigo a ticket for not keeping such a dangerous pet on a leash, and failing to produce a license. Flash cuts in on the situation and 'borrows' Flammie, for a mysterious task that no one assumes can turn out well.
Keigo leaves the kitchen to find her snooty rival Cetina talking to Jag. Cetina demands for the lawyer to tell her why Keigo isn't already behind bars for her affiliation with Exavur. She also mentions that with her unit wiped out in Crescentia, she is on 'standby' and won't be accompanying them on the impending northwards march to face Gol Draam's Conventionals. Keigo brightens immediately and asks if that means Brock is available for duty. Cetina replies that he presumably would be, for anyone willing to pay the 2 credit transfer fee. Keigo rushes off while Jag distracts Cetina with talk of visiting Salon Sassoon and trying to talk Vidal into coming back into military service. Meanwhile, as Keigo returns from the Acquisitions centre having hired Brock, she sees the letters FLASH burned into the grass in front of the Light Vehicle hangar.
Finished with their preparations, our heroes and their troops join Kilant, Xelme and Rodric in setting out for the Special Forces frontlines. Along the way, an irrigation bridge is detonated just when the Pac is passing over. Pacci is convinced someone is trying to eliminate him as Supreme Commander of the Conventionals, but there is no evidence of who might have been behind the attack.
Time passes, and by nightfall, our heroes find themselves overlooking the vast stretch of campfires of the Conventionals camp. Kilant explains that they are going to conduct a night-time raid on several key munitions dumps. They will blow the munitions, while the airforce lays down a smoke screen to cover their escape and prevent the Conventionals from following. Our heroes take to the field, interrupting their opponent, Lt. Horwitz, in the middle of reading his email. Although Horwitz's heavy machineguns are powerful, most of the Conventionals break easily before the surprise assault. Of course, there's no way Lord Flash is going to give the glory monopoly to the infantry, and his Spitfire comes screaming in, blowing away the munitions dump beneath him. Just as the targets are destroyed, Conventionals shocktroops arrive on the field, and our heroes make a hasty withdrawal, though not before Seigaku is heavily decimated.
Following their escape, our heroes regroup at the Republic frontline camp. They are met by Captain Raphael, who was in charge prior to Kilant's arrival, and his subordinate, 1st Lt. Ivy. The former is not impressed by the rudeness of Rodric, and the latter is not impressed by the presence of Law Division, with whom she seems to have prior experience. They also see that during their raids, Xelme's engineers have been busy digging trenches into which they seem to be planning gas canisters. The prospect of a wall of fire enthuses Keigo, though Rodric skeptically questions the use of such a very temporary barrier.
Meanwhile, Jag has been busy inquiring as to Raphael's wardrobe. In particular, he is interested in puffy shirts of the pirate variety. Raphael supplies such clothing, which Pacci is more than happy to wear. Raphael also informs Pacci that there have been several explosive incidents around his camp ever since a mysterious warship plummetted to the ground not far from his camp. Pacci immediately wants to investigate, and Jag considers it the perfect backdrop for the propaganda video he seems to be shooting. Of course, at the mention of a video, Flash is there, and Keigo offers to take pictures of him during his daredevil flight to the fallen ship.
Our heroes' suspicions are confirmed as they arrive at the fallen vessel that can only be the Lyonlot. The skull-and-crossbones raised by Exavur was still flying in the wind over the scaffolding of the command tower. The scene of devastation made the perfect opening for Jag's video, and Pacci hammed up his starring role as Exavur to the extreme, laughing villainously and wishing that he was as evil as Dr. Wily. Of course, Jag planned to edit in his own sound effects later. As the two begin their filming on the wing of the plane, they discover both Exavur's beaten hat, and a strange golden, skull-shaped medallion lying in the dirt. Seeing the medallion around Pacci's neck, Keigo is immediately intrigued and concerned, and asks to borrow the medallion to analyze it back at the base. Of course, this 'borrowing' seems to involve no intention of giving it back, but Pacci agrees like the agreeable fellow he is.
Keigo and Flash then explore the ship's engine room, where a pair of dead bodies, rebels who must not have made it out in time, are discovered. Meanwhile, a bomb is discovered at the base of the Command Tower, and suspecting foul play, Pacci leaps to the top. His hunch pans out, for waiting at the top is none other than Crashman, another of Dr. Wily's evil robots, and the one behind the mysterious explosive sabotage. Despite Crashman's powerful crash-bombs, Pacci manages to pound him into the ground with repeated shield-jumps, and gets equipped with the Crash Bomber. Moments later, Jag arrives on the scene to document "Exavur's" evil destruction of a hapless innocent person.
Our heroes then return to the base, where Jag gleefully joins McMason in editing his video, considering it the knock-out punch in his anti-Exavur lawsuit. Keigo is meanwhile accosted by Raphael, who demands to know where she got her medallion. He warns her that the black souls of traitors are often refused even by hell, and that disturbing their possessions is a sure way to bring their wrath back upon those they so hated in life. With a spit of contempt he cuts the medallion from her neck and stalks away. Somewhat shaken, Keigo collects the medallion from the dirt and quietly slinks away.
Before long, the call to battle is sounded as the Conventionals have arrived. The Special Forces would make their stand in a valley carved by a dried-out river. For the most part, the valley walls were gentle, although there was a cul-de-sac where a lake had once been with sheer cliffs above it. Raphael and his Scarlet Duellists led the charge onto the field, followed by Xelme's Iron Maidens, Rodric's Horde, Seigaku, the Pac and the Ivy-League. They were soon to find the Conventionals were more than ready to put up a fight. General Electric and General Store led the enemy column, and backed up by two tank divisions, Lt. Horwitz and more, they would prove a difficult adversary. The tide changed towards the Special Forces when Kilant's Crystal Defenders charged out of a valley thicket and crashed into the vulnerable rear lines of the enemy, but apparently the Conventionals had been waiting for this. Gol Draam himself appeared on the field, leading the Iron Hammer, and he was supported by the gigantic troop of 100 men belonging to the Grand Old Duke of York, and a squadron of elite Blademasters. Trapped behind enemy lines, Kilant made a fighting retreat towards the steep cul-de-sac, ordering the rest of the Special Forces to fall back while they could. Draam and his Blademasters gave chase, but as soon as they entered into the steep valley, a wall of fire sprang up behind them, preventing the Duke and the rest of his men from following. On cue, two hidden units broke cover to fire on Gol Draam and his escort: Jag's Shark Pack, and the Bloody Ravens of Khaurus Vanbaal. While Jag successfully protected Vanbaal and his snipers from the Blademasters, the Crystal Defenders engaged the Iron Hammer, and with support from the super-elite snipers of Vanbaal, it was clear they had the significant edge.
Breaking through the lines, Kilant made a valiant charge to attack the legendary leader, Gol Draam himself. However, it seemed the Special Forces leader had at long last met his match and was beaten back by the massive Draam's armored fist. Throwing aside his blade, Kilant declared that neither leader could win the battle - the death of either would result in such dissent across Electra that the people could never be re-united in time to face their many foreign enemies. Though it may be his downfall, he would no longer do battle against his own people. Draam hesitated but was not convinced until Jag arrived on the scene and put his legal eloquence to good use. Justice had been tainted by the Senate, but now that they were gone, the reason for fighting one another was gone with them. This was the final straw, and Draam finally agreed to put an end to the battle and join Kilant in defeating the Republic's enemies. A hearty cheer came up from the beleaguered troops on the field, but only time would tell whether the alliance had come soon enough.
Lt. Horwitz
Race: Electran
Rank: Lieutenant
Affiliation: Republic Military, Conventionals Division
Lt. Horwitz was an officer fighting under Gol Draam's Conventionals division with one major characteristic, that being his propensity for checking his e-mail on his ubiquitous lap-top under all situations. He was also the leader of the ANZAC diggers, a heavy infantry unit wielding fearsome heavy machineguns that would unleash significant pain on anyone who interrupted his e-mail reading.
Raphael
Race: Electran
Rank: Captain
Affiliation: Republic Military, Special Forces Division
A tall, slender blond man dressed in dark clothing, Raphael was both a master fencer and a Captain in the Special Forces. Refined and civilized as his combat training would indicate, he spoke primarily with tag-lines out of the game on which he is based. Our heroes first encountered the cultured swashbuckler in command of the Special Forces northern advance guard fighting against Gol Draam's Conevntionals advance. However, if his concern over certain treasures of the dead is any indication, there is more to Raphael than meets the eye...
Ivy
Race: Electran
Rank: 1st Lieutenant
Affiliation: Republic Military, Special Forces Division
Ivy was a tall, cruel-faced woman with short-cut white hair, blood-red lips and a a blue embroidered British-style military coat and outfit. She and her brilliantly named unit, the Ivy-League, were serving under Captain Raphael on the northern frontlines. Her main characteristic seems to be her creepy love of pain of all sorts. She also apparently is a former law student, and bears no small amount of hostility towards Jag and the rest of Law Division.