Highlights from Last Session
Episode 03: "Crossroads"
SITUATION: Escalation Team (X-Team) 619 has been tasked with a “security protocol” detail. Octocil Energy Development (OED), a subsidiary of ExxonMobil, is building a new pipeline on Banggai Island in Indonesia, between recently acquired oil fields and a refinery at the port city of Kota Banggai.
Recent attacks in the hinterlands of these islands brings an unacceptable degree to risk to the development of energy industry infrastructure. The background for the conflict is complex. Some blame the Free Papua Movement (Indonesian: Organisasi Papua Merdeka – OPM) that have spread from western New Guinea. Others blame the Melanesian Spearhead Group, the Free Aceh Movement in eastern Indonesia (despite the fact that this war ended with the 2004 Indonesian Tsunami – but some warlords remain active).
The truth is the government has next to no control out here, and many “insurgents” are simple bandits or warlords connected with heroin production and export or piracy through Indonesian shipping lanes between Persian Gulf and industrialized nations of the Pacific Rim.
MISSION: X-Team 619 is tasked with working with OED security personnel to ensure the safety of corporate property, equipment, and personnel. Note these OED security personnel are civilians, not military-trained.
The mission is to investigate the threat, report possible concerns, and defend / respond if any OED assets, property, or personnel come under direct threat. This is a non-kinetic security protocol … or as some call it, a “nanny mission.”
PERSONNEL: In addition to X-Team 619, this mission also includes Gabrielle Knight and Shin Tae Yeon (the North Korean technician who asked for asylum at the end of Episode 02: Cold Reception)
These are liaison personnel only, tasked with working with OED security.
Mission lasts as long as the island remains under insurgent threat, or the new pipeline is open and Indonesian military expands its local Interior Ministry battalion at Kota Banggai.
Pay is $2000 a week, for the duration, plus a $20,000 bonus upon completion.
Here is the part of the South Pacific where this episode takes place. 
Octocil has recently leased land on this small island for recently-discovered oil resources, arranged subsidized loans from the US State Department to the Indonesian Ministry of the Interior for development of the fields and the pipeline that carries the crude to a port for shipment.
The "Mominiet Energy Development Project" (MEDP), Kota Banggai is the port through which OED hopes to ship the crude to larger refinery facilities elsewhere in the Pacific Rim. Primary export customers will likely be important Pacific allies like Taiwan, South Korea, and Japan
These are the OED sites and the pipeline routes (already under construction). However, OED is unprepared against the threat of possible insurgents / bandits / local warlords, especially based out of East Kota. Unfortunately, the US loans to the Indonesian government are in escrow, i.e., phased for installments pending certain benchmarks in the construction project / inspections by government and UN and other humanitarian overwatch groups. In other words, if this project doesn't go smoothly, not only will Phalanx Multinational not get paid (and thus our characters), but neither with the Indonesian government, which means Interior Ministry Police Battalions scheduled for deployment into Kota Benggai will not happen.
Okay, this game went for about six hours. I won't get into all the details about Gabrielle Knight's motivation for going on this mission, the OED's project director trying to manage his divorce from halfway around the world via satellite phone, the OED security manager's inferiority complex, the abuse of one of the OED security people and the backstory behind that, the issues with the local workforce, or the true nature of the "enemy" thread (not just insurgents, but also Chinese regulars have been inserted for sedition / insurgent ops). The point comes down to this ... when the rebels attacked, the characters had to make a cruel, cold, and impossible choice. Defend the oil platform (thus completing the mission for the company, their contract, and the economy / stability of this part of Indonesia) - or prevent an obvious genocide against a civilian village. There was NO right answer. The players would lose scores stripped of their character sheets no matter what. It was just a choice of which soul-crushing moment they preferred, and thus which ways their characters would develop. This was the map prepared if they chose to save the civilian village.
The group was split on this decision. It was really a razored moment, where the players really had to make an impossible choice. But it came down to the oil platform. They made the cold, hard, callous ... but ultimately pragmatic ... tactical decision. This was the map for the battle at the oil platform
Here are the characters ready for the big battle at the end. The three player characters (Ajax, Sirius, and Taaki) and the two Phalanx NPCs Gabrielle Knight and our North Korean expatriate Tae Yeon.
The battle was a brutal one. The group was in an "Alamo" position, assailed by all sides. No sooner had they barely fended off MOST of the insurgents than an enemy technical arrived (mounting twin ZU-23 autocannon) and a fireteam of highly-trained Chinese special forces. Here we see Sirius snipe out the driver of the technical, at least slowing it down, as Gabrielle abandons the shredded, burning remains of the construction trailer. Sadly, Tae Yeon had already been killed.
Taaki (Gladesrunner's character - former South African special tactics and rescue police) holds the perimeter in the northwest by backing a construction site truck OVER some of the attacking insurgents, bailing out of the riddled, burning truck, and engaging in a point-blank firefight with the survivors.
Perhaps the most desperate battle is in the northeast, where Brun's character (Ajax) winds up shot three times, falling back into the oil rig in a desperate defense.This was a rough one, folks. I really wanted to encourage character development by putting the players in a morally impossible position and forcing them to make a horrible choice. The players basically got to choose the adversity they would have to overcome, and thus the development that would lead to the characters they wanted to become. Friends were lost, as well as hundreds of blameless civilians, and yes, partly these events are the characters’ fault.
But would the alternative have been even worse?
All characters got to choose their “punishment” – ratings stripped off sanity or conscience. They also got to choose their “reward” -ratings added to rank or grit. With one exception, they chose the tough, hard, pragmatic, mission-oriented path. Badass mercenary was their choice, and at least for now, that’s the path most of them are on.
Per our wound tables, Ajax spent thirteen weeks in surgery, recovery, and physical rehabilitation. Tae Yeon didn’t make it all. Gabrielle has some very hard choices to make, having won the respect of Phalanx Multinational’s operators but lost huge standing with the “suits” upstairs, which is especially tough because that’s the career path she’s on (she’s an operations / intelligence analyst, not a field operator). She took this job to win the respect, especially of a certain Michael Easton, an operator on another team with whom she’s in a relationship. But now that relationship is also in question … (???)
There’s a lot going on here, folks. I’m really pleased to see the players really sink into their characters. Already we have close to 20,000 words in writing submitted by the players (not me), as players really work through what their characters are doing in the aftermath of this last one. This is storytelling game built around characters and narrative, much more than a skirmish wargame.
We’ve been on a short break over the holidays, but we hope to get our HK Ops sessions going again soon!
Congrats to community members @rasmus , @brunhudson, and @gladesrunner for a great game!
Great game, but as it was roleplay heavy – I can only say watch the video if you want to know more
Sirius
Thanks, @rasmus . Apologies for the late reply. Holiday madness.
I hope to bring HK Ops back to the Sitrep Podcast Channel this weekend (Sunday January 12)
Looking forward to it