The girls try the latest tabletop game sweeping Equestria, the sci-fi urban action adventure role playing game known as Body Armor and Black Suburbans.
The dice giveth, and the dice taketh away. With any luck, the group will be able to complete their covert ops mission and not take it too seriously along the way.
A comment driven story.
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Hmm... I think they should start at a casino, like Rarity suggested. I think it's a good place to start attempting to find intel on a seedy politician.
A good place to go would be the slums, If sombrero is trying to overthrow the place, He probably has the support of the common folk.
Or shoot everybody until you hit the right guy, Valiant may be dead, but he lives on in or homicidal actions.
>rolls a 1
>Taxi driver attempts to extort them. Hillarity ensues.
Okay this reminds me of the Knights of the Dinner Table comics.
"Freedom fighters" bomb the airport before the group has a chance to get to whatever they were planning. They attempt to take hostages, but the attackers didn't realize they were dealing with PCs!
Well, I forgot completely who's writing this.
Find a newspaper or TV broadcast and get the lay of the land, and since this is Dubai, make a list of local oil sheiks, financing revolution isn't easy
Identifying and learning about the likely backers is the first step with the port being the best option for gathering information. The crews and especially the captains will know what is moving where and who is financing it to help figure out who is funding Sombrero and possibly more about his goals and methods.
I'm curious to see how this turns out. As a table top geek myself, I seem to have developed a fondness for the 'ponies playing pen and paper' stories.
As far as the story, my suggestion would be to take Rarity's tea break, possibly while Twilight waits for any possible information D.C. can dredge up on their mystery person. After all, Twilight is very organized and methodical. I'd imagine she would want to know as much as she could on any leads they had.
6897179 Agreed. They are not really on the clock at the moment so they should take their time to gather as much information as possible before making a move.
It would probably also be a good idea for some of them to see about discretely acquiring more resources because their arsenal is fairly limited at the moment and they will have a fair amount of free man-hours while Twilight and Spike go data mining. I'm thinking they at least need a pistol for Spike and an M203 or RPG-7 for some extra knockout power, especially because it is basically a given that they will eventually need to stop a vehicle. After that, a machine gun of some kind would also go a long way in a firefight and body armor would also be a good thing even if it is hideously expensive.
I know they're playing a game, but I've always heard that the SIG was famous for accuracy. Also, I can't imagine Fluttershy hefting an M14, though.
6899077 From personal experience, the longer barrel and weight balance of the 92 produces better results.
6899094 That's very cool to hear. I've never shot the gun, but my friend insists that it's a joy to shoot. Last time I talked to her, she was bragging about her accuracy with it, actually.
Oops. My idea may have had a small flaw.
I say they take the laptop and the papers.
6913490 Agreed, although I would photograph the papers and then dump them on the floor instead of stealing them. If they are missing, the owner might suspect that it was an intelligence operation, but if they are left behind then it reinforces the story that it was a robbery rather than an intell raid. Also, robbing the store will probably give them some extra cash to buy more weapons with so it is a win-win. That said, they definitely need to get someone to look at the alarm first to see if it went off because that will radically change the amount of time they have to work with.
Once they are done with that, the next step is to check who the rival arms dealer is to make sure they don't do something embarrassing like offing one of Sunset's friends, then kill him for the RPG and whatever else they can loot from his body.
6913490 Also, burn the place down and destroy a bunch of nearby shops and homes so that they can't be sure this specific place was the target.
6916053 No, you don't want to make it too suspicious. Arson is the kind of thing that gets people looking for a motive which can lead them back to you or at least make them suspicious and therefore harder to move against later, but simple robbery is so self-explanatory that it does not attract undue attention.
6916485 Spike got a mess of spy gear. There should be a camera in there somewhere, and if there somehow is not, they probably have other electronics with them that do thanks to the prevalence of smartphones.
If Fluttershy can still talk to animals, ask that rat about the comings and goings of people to the store. Also, maybe buy a falcon somewhere along the line, use it like a spy plane. Also, why do I feel like this talent is the only reason she got into the SEALs?
6916903 That back door they broke the improvised pick in would be a good candidate. Go smash in the door (without shooting it because that is suspicious) and leave a clear trail of an amateur but determined thief. After all, no professional operative would try picking a lock when they don't have the skills or tools for the job so no one will think it is anything out of the ordinary, especially because I got the impression that shop was in a shadier part of town.
6916053
I approve of wanton pyrotechnics.
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I'm sure glad I wrote this story the way I did - it's practically written for me. I can practically hear the dialogue across these comments.
6920711 Happy to help.
6920711
It's good to be helping
Go gear up. They don't know you are a threat and they have an improbable number of people ready to fight at the moment so waiting is the smart thing to do. As for shopping, start with the RPG and then get body armor for as many people as you can because even one or two people with armor will help a lot if you put them on point. A pistol for Spike would also be nice, but he can borrow one from someone else if the numbers don't work out.
After shopping, I would see about setting up a way to access those cameras remotely to identify patterns and a good time to attack without tipping off the target. If that is not possible, at least let Spike rest up and then launch a night attack to hopefully hit them when they are sleeping.
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I agree, except for what they should get. I say they buy bulletproof vests for everyone, then buy better guns for the heavy, then better guns for the others, THEN the RPG. A RPG is huge and obvious, and it is not the best weapon for a surprise raid.
6933241 Yes and no. While the RPG does have some limitations, it is a hell of an opening shot because it will cause lots of casualties and disorient the survivors to allow the rest of the assault to go smoothly. Successful raids depend on using speed and violence to overwhelm the enemy before they can effectively respond, and an RPG is perfect for that. It also opens up a lot of options if they need to disable a vehicle because their rifles are basically useless for that but an RPG will make short work of many armored vehicles.
Also, an RPG is significantly cheaper than a vest rated to stop rifle rounds so the worst it can possibly do is result in Spike not having armor. Exact numbers are obviously going to vary, but the RPG-7 looks like it runs somewhere between $500 and $900 while the rounds are roughly $100 each. In contrast, a NIJ Type III vest (rated for the 7.62 NATO ball round) does not actually exist on its own and must be assembled from a pistol-resistant vest which will be in the same price range as the RPG and completely useless against those AKs without several additional ballistic plates which are a couple hundred a piece, one-time use, and are severely limited in coverage because they are ridged.
6933447
Huh. Didn't know RPGs were that cheap. In that case...
BUY THE FRIGGIN' RPG!!!
AN' BLOW 'EM UP!!!
6933564 Yeah, games like to make them expensive because of their destructive power (which is still usually only a fraction of the real weapons), but in reality they are dirt cheap because they are not much more than a tube with a trigger.
If they stay, have Pinkie run some kind of distraction, (It's Pinkie shouldn't be hard) while Twilight grabs the HVI. You never clarified what the 'sneaky spook' perk meant so I'm assuming stealth is her specialty.
Alternatively, have AJ and Rainbow break something loud in the next building over to get their attention. Really anything to get them more concerned with the team than with Twilight specifically.
Twilight Sparkle, Stealth Expert
derpicdn.net/img/view/2012/7/5/33152__safe_solo_twilight+sparkle_box_metal+gear_konami_artist-colon-cosmicunicorn_cardboard+box.png
Spike stays in the car, alone, like every good nerd in covert ops fiction.
Then when things go pear-shaped, Spike saves the day, like every good nerd in covert ops fiction.
That Spike is also the game master means he can cheat to save the party if need be, too. Then Twilight can chew him out over breaking the rules of the game.
I was going to support the armor option, but after the cost of the RPG was mentioned, how large is this building?
If it is rather small just put a OG7 HE from the RPG into the wall and make your own door, hopefully even taking out the HVT in the process, otherwise have the M14 drop him- it has more reach than a budget AK47/ AKM and the seven have no armor to protect them.
If the building is too large/strong for that, have the majority of the team hold outside where the HVT is, and two or three go back to get armor and more kit.
Yeah, that's what happens when the government agency supporting you doesn't bother to give you decent equipment before an op.
Oh well, at least the RPG did its job.
As for the next op, they are in a very bad place because they don't have the resources they need to move quickly and waiting will almost certainly result in their lead going cold. I think the best thing to do would be to call home to see if they can get allies in to help them, possibly from the local police or military because I think the government was friendly. That said, it will probably take them time to get those resources in and they definitely need to keep an eye on the target until then so they will have to move in to observe and plan. Exactly what the best plan is will hinge on what they see, but if Sombrero is there, their best bet might be to wait until he moves and set up an ambush with the RPG to try to avoid having to assault a prepared position.
I think recon sounds good for them, seeing as they barely have any equipment at all. Probably should find some more money, and maybe even an inside person...
On another note...
Made me laugh at the lameness of the joke, because bad pun is so bad it's funny
.
Seconded on the recon- RPG was great and all, but I assume you need the resort at least mostly intact, even if it's just for SSE/ Intel or even stopping the local government getting all angsty about blowing up a very expensive tourist attraction.
I doubt that any ground recon is going to work given that someone will shoot someone and everything flies out of control. Have someone buy a ticket and go skiing, and get the lay of the building, also interrogations can yield intel, so kidnap some random mook on his way home from work. If Fluttershy kept animal speak, I'm guessing she kept The Stare.
Also question on the perks, Applejack has airborne. Does that mean she can fly a plane? I sense epic running away in our heroines' (and one hero's) future!
Come on, no loot? Shouldn't they be selling some of the stuff that they can pick up from dead bodies?
They could just give Spike a gun and have him come into combat with them, with a laptop or something. That's what they do half the time on Agents of Shield.
If they're going to do recon they should have their one actual stealth character do it. That sometimes works.
1. Acquire funds
2. Acquire silencers
3. ???
4. PROFIT!
RPG the bomb?
The biggest worry is that there might be more of them. But why would they be blowing up their own building?
Isn't like the number one thing that EOD does is blow up stuff? Like, disposing explosive ordinance?
6977384
The intent is to dispose of explosives without them actually exploding. That doesn't mean they're always successful, but it's what EOD attempts to achieve.
So, how much bomb are we talking about here? It might make a good distraction to rig it on a delay timer while they slip around the back or even blow up the whole building depending on its power and proximity to other buildings they don't want blown up.
Assuming they do actually have to diffuse it, I would leave most of the group there as in the original distraction plan (with diffusing the bomb added to their job) while AJ and Rainbow flank with Spike as their driver to get them in position faster. It won't be quite as subtle as having them move on foot, but it should be good enough with the distraction and will help keep Sombrero from bugging out when the shooting starts. Spike will then pull back behind a building or something to keep himself safe until they need him to sweep in for extraction because they cannot rely on one static extraction point with two teams maneuvering independently.
Also, I wanted to explicitly complement you on the humor in this chapter because there were a number of great gags in there.
6978109 No, most of their job is disposing of ordinance that failed to explode the first time and now has a risk of exploding in unexpected ways. The normal disposal method for that is to find somewhere safe to forcibly detonate it with another explosive to make sure it is no longer a threat. Even mines and IEDs are frequently detonated from range with high explosive incendiary .50 cal rounds because it is far safer to set them off from a hundred yards or more than try to actually diffuse them so long as there is nothing you don't want blown up near them.
get flutters to a nearby building with spike as a spotter give him a side arm and provide recon flutters looknig for guard patrols and spike watching surveillance footage and note guard positions have the rest go back and by kit and return , for peat sake you have three special forces team members who a trained in covert combat operations and a cia spook stealth your way in STOP THINKING LIKE A MARINE!! also to the guys who said drop him with an M14 round at range " how do they get intelligence from a dead man
Is this a Hollywood style bomb, with the great red digital timer and ominous beeping, or a more realistic bomb/ IED/VBIED?
If it's option one attempt to disarm it, if it's option two try a controlled det if possible, otherwise run very fast in the other direction.
Also, that tea scene was fantastic,I've always wondered what the B-team did while the lone insertion was going on. :)
6888811 Where did you find that video?
Is this a crossover?
And with that, the story ends. Terrorist caught, Pinkie missing a limb, and freedom preserved. Good stuff, good stuff
For some reason I love that line. Also Fluttermedic:
img09.deviantart.net/f071/i/2012/356/a/e/prepare_for_your_examination__by_dharthez-d5osl8x.png
6996472 No
Reminds me of one of the Old Man Henderson stories.
Specifically, Dropping the Yacht, wherein Henderson steals a military helicopter in order to airlift a 40-foot yacht owned by Hastur cultists in order to drop said yacht onto a penthouse dinner party being held by Cthulhu cultists. Then they parachute out of the helicopter and leave it hovering there until it crashes or the military shoots it down.
They should try Joints and Jivers. The game that's so high, your Funk is equal to (Funk - Wounds).
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6997491
See, This is EXACTLY what I meant by awesome moments.
Did something similar in a Warhammer 40K based game where we dropped Lemun Russ Tanks on the enemy for the shiggles.