1×08: Day Eight

• Everything goes to crap straight away. The bugs smash into the house and open up with non-lethal munitions clearly intended to capture. James, J.P. and Shane are quite promptly glued in place, while Damien is partially webbed. Meanwhile, John – who had been sleeping in a guest bedroom – reacts to the sound of the attack and lunges out of bed, grabbing his rifle as he does; at the same time, Reece is outside the house with Woola, working on the truck, and responds as well … though it’s a considerable distance for him.
• When John enters the fray, he does so with gunfire, which shifts the tempo of the engagement. Using cover to his advantage, he manages to avoid getting webbed and critically injures one of the bugs and outright kills a second. Simultaneously, Chandler manages to work himself free and retrieves his weapon to engage a third one before pursuing his fleeing ex-wife, Valerie. Reece finally enters the engagement and uses his shotgun to excellent effect, though he is unable to prevent Damien from getting gooped once more which ensures that Valerie can escape. Wells finally manages to get free and fires a single shot with the Desert Eagle he took from the prepper’s bunker; he quite quickly learns that he isn’t anywhere strong enough to use it effectively, but by this point, the fight is nearly over. The last of the battle bugs are taken out and Damien has an eyewitness view of Valerie fleeing into a waiting craft of some sort. There’s nothing he can do to prevent her from escaping…
• Over Buffalo, additional bug ships can be seen and the locals take numerous ineffective potshots at the craft overhead. Realizing that Valerie was after the photos that Damien informs them of, the “book club” gather their gear and plan for a rapid departure, pausing only long enough to warn the local authorities about the dead bugs now in Chandler’s backyard.
• Pressing on to the south, the group continue for a bit, pausing long enough for Reece to swap out as driver in a vain attempt to get some sleep; he suffers from intense insomnia and has not been able to sleep properly over the last few nights. While dozing, he has a strange, lucid dream of an odd-looking man standing before Devil’s Tower in Wyoming. The next time they stop, he quizzes John about this, knowing that some of Heinlein’s odd training under his Grandfather included dream interpretation. Though it about two hours out of the way, the crew decide to head to Devil’s Tower out of curiosity, some of them halfway convinced that this is just another example of the ongoing weirdness.
• They arrive to find … nothing. This seems like it was a monumental waste of time and gas, and Reece is exceedingly embarrassed about the fact. Chandler decides that, while they’re here, he’s going to climb Devil’s Tower; everyone else just begins setting up a camp for the night.
• And then, they see aerial combat between several unfamiliar but terrestrial-looking warplanes and bug ships; the bugs are shot down, much to the great delight of those on the ground, though they quickly go back into survival mode when the planes begin circling the area. A third aircraft approaches – it is clearly a transport craft of some sort and displays VTOL ability as it approaches and lands in the parking lot before deploying a small robot thing to sweep the area. A grizzled badass-looking old man exits the plane and Reece gets up to meet him. The man informs Sheriff Burroughs that they’ve been looking for the group. And who are they, Reece asks?
• They’re X-COM.

Player Notes:

• OMFG, the opening firefight was so irritating from a dice rolling standpoint. Heinlein could not roll under 14 for entirely too long and two of the PCs were either completely out of the fight or so far away that it took forever to get into the fight. Lessons learned. We need AP rounds.
• Evidently, we completely threw the GM for a loop when we simply threw our plans out the window and headed toward the dream location instead of continuing toward Cheyenne Mountain. Meanwhile, we all thought that was what he wanted us to do. I’m sure he’ll gripe about it on his blog.
• No game next week, but the week after I (Rigil) will be running Banestorm III: Embers of Defiance, season 3. Wheeeee…

See the Daniverse Blog for the GM’s post-game debrief.