D&A Session 12 - Fortunate Son

The end of this story may just be in sight, but you've got to steal every breadcrumb to get there; perhaps a spider can help track them all down?

Table Members

 * ForteNoir as the MC
 * Kixandra as Akamai Reyes
 * Dimin as Oliver Moorland
 * Elgar as Antonio Cervantes
 * RedAngelAlnet as CINO Ketaminé
 * SquashDemon as Doug Landry

Session Summary
A few weeks after their excursion in Mexico City, the team is called back to the Hraesvalgr to run a special op for Omega; infiltrate the United State military's Joint Operations Base at Fort McHenry in Baltimore, Maryland. The team expresses hesitation over the nature of the mission, but Omega insists that no other teams are available who can be counted on to handle the job. The specifics or of great important to the Chrome Road; the U military is transporting a quantum communications terminal across North America. Omega wishes to capture it in order to pair it with the terminal stolen from the KoBar facility in southern Spain in order to learn about how Aviary-distributed terminals convey information. Omega warns that the Chrome Road agent who smuggled this intel to him has not been heard from in three weeks, and that air security over the base has become much more intense. The team takes names from a list of embedded identities that the Road uses to move within US government facilities, and make haste to Baltimore.

Upon arriving, CINO takes point and heads to a condo belonging to the missing Road agent that forwarded the mission intel to Omega. After stumbling through the AC vents, CINO is found by one of the team's old contacts, Halcon, who is himself joined by a public figure; Pulitzer Prize-winning ex-primetime journalist, Doug Landry. Landry admits to having foreknowledge of Los Langaros and, despite being caught conversing with a benefactor, is able to muscle his way into the operation. The situation at McHenry goes south due to Landry's lack of candor in confronting the enlisted personnel, causing a security incident that leads to increased MP presence and scrutiny on the base and at its gates. Knight is able to leverage the group's intel to find the location of the base's hardened MILINT uplink, and is just barely able to steal classified shipping manifests before the team is forced to escape. Without being able to summon their own machines for fear of them being shot down by the air guard, the team steals a USAF cargo airship. Coming under fire, they call back their own AFs over the Atlantic and are forced into a defensive shootout with the US military.

Narrowly succeeding, the team reports the situation back to Omega, who quickly analyzes the data packet and re-deploys the lot of them to intercept a train as it crosses the Missouri-Arkansas border. The train is heavily guarded deploying a number of stealth escort AFs, three powerful special prototypes. A Kingfisher emerges from the surrounding forestry, revealing the Aviary's involvement in the matter; the team is challenged but ultimately manages to carve out a factory thanks to some unexpected help from Eagle. In an upgraded version of his favored AF, Eagle destroys what's left of the downed enemy machines to wipe out their blackboxes (and any records of him being at the scene). He then invites Los Langaros to sit for a dialog.

Eagle explains his current misgivings with the state of 'the Plan', as well as his distaste for the behavior of Cardinal and Swallow, and puts an offer on the table; assist him in directing the course of the Plan and reap the benefits of being able to guide human society towards a post-state peace, or condemn them all to constant confrontation and battle. Landry needles additional truths out of Eagle, though the team expresses a mutual distaste for the goals of the Plan and Eagle's nihilism. The parties break and go their separate ways.

The party decides to notify the Road of Landry's participation, and he is taken into custody by OMER. Speaking privately with Omega, Landry expresses a desire to find the same truths that the Road seeks. Omega offers a 'trial period' to determine whether or not a known media celebrity can be a trusted asset of the organization, and confines Landry to the Hraesvalgr for the time being.

In the ship's canteen, Ollie finds Knight chumming it up with OMER, and delivers the news that he is leaving the team to spend more time with Kiawe and the Almet children...