What would a CS squad do if they fought X?

[darthauthor]

Studying up for a Tolkeen war game.

So I don't know if I should just handwavium some of this but here are some questions:

A lot of the questions are about if a particular mercenary character class would get involved
and how the CS Dog Boys, CS Psi-Stalkers, and CS grunts would respond to them.

The Cold Blooded R.C.C.

I'm trying to imagine how a team made up of any of "These" would be perceived.

I see the CS Dead Boys as stormtroopers who shoot first to solve most problems.

I imagine the Cold Blooded would look like a D-Bee to the Dead Boys, smell like a supernatural creature of magic to a Dog Boy.

If shot up with energy weapons fire till they dropped “dead” would they bury the body?

Next, in keeping with the Cold Blooded’s special nature they would rise in a couple of days (without their weapons and gear).

But, the CS Psi-Stalker, would they know the Cold Blooded is not dead "DEAD" but going to rise again?
Does the Cold Blooded’s blue blood poison throw off the Psi-Stalker?

I don't know if a Cold Blooded would show up to a psychic using the power of "Presense Sense" or "Sense Evil"
What is your opinion on the matter?

I actually like the idea of a player character being able to sort of respawn like a video game.
Then they can use wilderness skills to feed and cloth themselves.

Does seeing the Cold Blooded again warrent a Horror Factor scare out on the Dead Boys and crew?

Best guess is, they would assume they are animated dead or zombies.

[darthauthor]

My first take on the question is:

If the Cold-Blood lose the fight.
The CS would lick their wounds.

The common CS Dead Boy would either bury them or leave them to them humanoid looking D-Bees to rot above ground.

IF they fought them again and recognized them and beat them, they might stake them in the heart and cut their heads off. Maybe shoot them in the head.

Assuming they did not destroy them the 2nd time, the 3rd fight they would probably set fire to the bodies and watch them burn or attempt to vaporize them with their energy weapons. Completely mist them.

That would be the end of them.
A more curious science like officer might bury them like they did before and camp out over them.
Then wait to see what happens. If and when the body of the Cold Blooded rises the experiment would continue.

Unless the Cold Blooded lose to a different CS squad or one that does not recognize them, the CS is going to be a lot more thorough in dealing with their remains.

I feel comfortable with 3 strikes and your out.

I would probably admit if the same Dog Boy were present he has a chance of could recognize the scent of the Cold Blooded and know they are the same guys.

[Killer Cyborg]

How the CS behaves depends on what kind of threat the GM wants them to be.
Many people run them as mindless mooks and loot pinatas, but I always ran them as a deadly threat.
They're not always super-smart, but they have plenty of training, paranoia, and common sense.

When I run the CS, anything that seems supernatural or undead, which the CS kills, at the very least gets burned to ashes or obliterated by Mega-Damage weapons, any time the circumstances permit it.

Think of all the stuff people have done to corpses in the real world just to keep vampires from rising from the grave, and take into account that vampires aren't even REAL.

In a setting where the undead and walking dead are not only real, but a not entirely uncommon problem, I think obliteration of anything suspect would be the norm.
It wouldn't surprise me if cremation were the standard burial for dead CS soldiers and citizens, for that matter, along with mixing the ashes with concrete and burying it somewhere outside of town where no ghosts can bother people.

Super-paranoid fascist anti-supernatural military personnel are NOT--in my mind--likely to err on the side of underkill.

[darthauthor]

Killer Cyborg,

Thanks for the response.
I didn't know.
Sometimes I feel like it is the old 007 James Bond movie where the villian tell his secret plan then leaves Bond in an easily escapable death trap with one inept guard to watch him when he could just have him shot.

I agree.
The CS grunts are NOT stupid period.
They can make a mistake in the heat of battle.
Forgot something.
After the battle, I imagine they have been drilled on a standard operating procedure.
The CS lab coats have had time to experiment with killing zombies and such.
So, cut the head off.
stake in the heart.
Burn the head.
Burn the body.
Watch it burn.
That is the funeral they give their fallen enemies.

What about the funeral arrangements for their own.
CS Grunts, Dog Boys, and Psi-Stalkers?

If you were the CS general would you order them burned also?
They know from experience, that spell exists which can raise the dead, including fallen Dead Boys.
Scortched Earth policy would be not to leave the enemy anything war materials to work with.
So no Dead Boy body parts.

I guess it is about how the CS in the field goes about the burning/incineration.
Shots from their energy weapons would be the fastest but most expensive when one is in the field.

I guess destroying the head is enough.

So much for the psychic who wants to use Death Trance to fool the CS into believing he's dead and just walking away leaving him with his clothes on.

[darthauthor]

I titled this line:

What would a CS squad do if they fought X?

Because I wanted to put in names for X.

I started with the Cold Blooded.

I was going to go down the list from Merc Adventures.

MageBane

Dragon

Xiticix

To the more interesting:

Cyber-Knight

Mystic Knight

Glitter Boy

Now I think they would not fire on a Cyber-Knight or Glitter Boy unless fired upon

Mystic Knighs? When they start to noitice their energy weapons don't do any damage I'd imagine they would throw hand grenades while they retreat.
I'd assume, in their position, they had TW items or were mages of some kind and were using the spell "Imperivous to Energy."
Return with Rail Guns and grenades?

[Grazzik]

It doesn't matter what X is... I would presume they would:

1) Avoid engagement, call in a missile / artillery / air strike, pass coords to a mixed skelebot / dogboy unit to mop up, observe / monitor / report enemy movement out of the area. If there are enemy survivors observed, rinse and repeat.

Or if enemy engagement is unavoidable...

2) Withdraw from engagement, call in a missile / artillery / air strike, pass coords to a mixed skelebot / dogboy unit to mop up, observe / monitor / report enemy movement out of the area. If enemy continues to press the attack, rinse and repeat. Otherwise, see #1.

Or if unit is prevented from withdrawing...

3) Find cover, repel enemy advancement with suppressive fire, call in a missile / artillery / air strike, withdraw from engagement in the aftermath, pass coords to a mixed skelebot / dogboy unit to mop up, observe / monitor / report enemy movement out of the area. If enemy continues to press the attack, rinse and repeat. Otherwise, see #1.

Basically, no heroics. No stand up fight. No avoidable loss of human life.

I'm sure CS field manuals tell troopers to always show the enemy some extra love and never use a human if a dogboy or skelebot will do.

[darthauthor]

What are some reasonable response times for CS artillary/missle fire?

Damage?

Setting is the War on Tolkeen.

Would they send a pair or sqaud of SAMAS?
Or under what circumstances would they?

Just trying to keep things within reason.

From my point of view, the Tolkeen defense forces can defend towns out in the open which draws the CS out unless the CS wants to rocket attack the entire town.

The rest is laying in wait at popular routes for CS tranports or boots on the ground to come their way.

Got the impression from the geography and tree canopy (blocks the sight from above) are such that neither the CS or Tolkeen could easily see the others ground forces from above.

Someone would have to give their respective side coordinates for: the big guns, rescue, or re-supply.

[Grazzik]

I recommend you do some research on small unit combat and figure out what best works for you and your game.

• Damage from missiles and artillery is scattered among various books including RUE, Merc Ops, etc. depending on the equipment you choose.

• Response time depends on where the squad is. If the middle of the Hivelands with no-one for hundreds of miles, it will be a different response time from being a half mile from a battalion strength force on the Tolkeen border with ChiTown.

• You need to provide more detail to explain what the scenario is. Active combat? Scratching ass on garrison duty? 2 week patrol? Otherwise, without context, we have to assume the worst case scenario, meaning that a full nuclear strike of hundreds of missiles and thousands of SAMAS is "reasonable". A pair of SAMAS against a warlock, a greater elemental, and dozens of minor elements ain't gonna amount to much.

• Just pulverize towns out of existence. Why bother with CQC if you can avoid it? Particularly if no quarter is to be given to Tolkeenites anyway. Scorched earth by both sides is probably the most common policy in the type of war inferred in SoT books.

• Trees are not a problem. Rifts is limited by the books' reliance on tech that is outdated today. But I would assume that during the Golden Age, and then "rediscovered" in the ~110 years PA, someone probably figured if you put nanophotonic LiDAR (which exists) on a drone or in a flying PA's optics package, voila, you aren't bothered as much by the canopy, day or night.