CORPORATION

Half-term and a game of Corporation at Halesowen Boardgamers. Present were Richard, Daniel, Ben, Ben C, Joe, James and Matthew. All members of Division Tertius, Eurasian Inc. They were summoned to see Colonel Rader, their Briefing Officer who told them that another Division, in deep cover, had been captured when their cover was blown. Taken prisoner by Comoros CIA; they are imprisoned on an offshore prison platform; an old drilling rig 90km off the coast of North Africa. The Mission was relatively straightforward, go in and rescue them. A secondary Mission was to investigate what the old rig was being used for now. They spent some time planning the raid; they had the use of a 5000-ton freighter (the ‘Blue Star’) as a base ship, a Gates-Learjet GL61 hover copter and four fast attack semi-inflatables. The ‘Blue Star’ was under orders not to approach closer than 300km to the platform. Richard, Daniel and Ben purchased Stealth Suits and one-use rocket packs to boost them from the water level 30m up onto the platform deck.. The plan was that they would sneak onto the platform from the east whilst the other four landed on the boat jetty and made their way up onto the platform via the stairs next to the derrick. Dan’s team would then locate the prisoners whilst Ben C’s team stood guard and engaged any hostiles. They aimed to assault the platform at 22:00.
Ben C successfully navigated them across 200km of sea to the platform, as Boat 1 approached the jetty, Boat 2 made its way under the platform to the east side. They noted the radar scanner on the roof of a building with red-lit windows, they also noted that there was no drill string from the derrick. Co-ordinating by smeaker, Team 1 headed off the jetty to the stairs; paying scant attention to a security camera. At the top of the stairs they looked out onto the platform deck, lit with occasional lights. To their right was the derrick, 40m high with red aircraft warning lights. Straight ahead was the red-lit control room, with the radar scanner atop, to their left a row of buildings and a set of metal stairs up to the helicopter landing pad. On the east side, Richard steered the boat opposite a low area of deck and they boosted themselves up, one at a time. Richard misjudged it and hit the deck railing; he just managed to grab the rail and hastily Dan and Ben pulled him up. Unfortunately, no one remembered to secure the boat.

Team one headed out across the deck. Without warning, full floodlights snapped on and a disembodied voice ordered them to surrender…

Ben C and Joe beat a strategic retreat toward the steps down to the boat jetty. Four guards, wearing brown uniforms, with ion shields and laser rifles, opened fire. There were two on the roof by the helipad, another on the control room roof and a fourth in the corridor on the LH side of the control room. Several hits were scored; no recalibration was needed as no-one in the Division has an ion shield. Matthew fired his plasma pistol at the guard on the control room roof; not realising (or caring) that Team 2 were in the passage just beyond.. That was when they realised the guards were wearing shields. James fired his rocket pistol at the guard by the helipad; well hit! The explosion took out his shield but also ignited the fuel stored under the pad. A further exchange of shots occurred; Daniel shot the guard on the control room roof in the back; taking out his shield. He and Richard then explored the passage behind the control room; ignoring the steps down they burst into the kitchen and took the cooks prisoner. Ben crept forward to the control room door and peered in; saw two guards and two crew in orange coveralls.
Back out on the deck, Matthew fired at the guards on the helipad roof, hurting one and taking out the other. James blasted the one on the control room roof, taking him out but catching Ben in the rocket’s explosion. Daniel and Richard were confronted by another guard whilst Daniel was assembling his M50; Richard used one of the cooks as a meat shield and demanded to know where the prisoners were. The guard refused to answer and raised his rifle, shooting and killing the cook.. At this point a ball of flame came up the passage to their left and engulfed them all.

Ben rolled around to put out the fire and went back into the control room. Part of the ceiling had come down; two crew and one guard were out and he triple-tapped the last guard to put him out permanently. An attempt to hack the computer locked it down. He didn’t see the telephone. He grabbed the guards laser rifle.

Out on the main deck, despite taking fire from the guard on the Flight office roof to the left; Team One combined fire to take out the two guards who had burst out from a door under the blazing helicopter deck. James fired at the guard by the control room; a hit that took him down and sent a ball of fire screaming up the corridor beyond. Ben C tapped the guard on the Flight Office roof ( who now had no way of escaping as the helipad was well and truly burning), Matthew took him with a plasma bolt that blew him overboard into the sea.
Recovering quickly from the fireball, Daniel cut loose with the M50 at the guard who killed the cook; the close-range burst rendered his shield ineffective and took him out. The slugs punched through the partition wall and took out several people in the mess hall beyond.

Suddenly it was all over. The upper deck was a mess, with the helipad a blazing inferno, a lesser fire burning on the roof of the control building. Matthew and James had taken several hits, as had Daniel, Ben and Richard (mainly from friendly collateral damage).

The Division regrouped and headed down the stairs behind the control room, emerging into what was probably a guard room (table, several chairs and thrown-down hands of cards). A telephone on the wall linked with the control room.. Two doors led out, they split into their Teams again and investigated.

Team 1 found themselves in a Treatment room, a dentist’s chair with steel webbing restraints, a battery of overhead lamps, and a large helmet-like device with various ports and openings, linked to a large data panel. Beyond this was a laboratory; in here was a data terminal and a large incubator tank. Inside this were lots of black thread-like worms swarming over what appeared to be brain cortex tissue. A hacking attempt on the terminal produced the following on screen information:

[>Verdere succesvolle implants voerden uit: 85% volledige terugwinning van onderwerpen. Adviseer bewegingsproject tot Stadium III.
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: >Doelstellingen geïdentificeerdi C & D. Het doel D heeft het Speciale potentieel van het Geval dat op profiel wordt gebaseerd]

Paper was found and a copy was made, ready for translation.
Beyond this, a set of stairs led back up to the Platform deck. They noted with some alarm that the fire had spread from the helipad. Boat 2 had drifted away, and there was not enough room on Boat 1 to accommodate everyone. They ran back to the radio room and attempted to raise the ‘Blue Star’. They used the correct recognition codes but the Master was adamant that the ship would not approach closer than 300km. The Gates-Learjet was despatched carrying the other two boats, ETA 120 mins

Team 2 found a long metal corridor, lined with ship’s bulkhead-like doors with locking wheels. From an open door came the sounds of violence; two guards were giving someone a good kicking. Daniel ordered them to stop; they turned on him but froze when they saw a wild-eyed maniac, slightly smoking, packing an M50. Richard cuffed them and herded them against the wall. The victim was African and had been badly beaten; he said he was a businessman from Damascus. In the next cell were two Asian males, they appeared to be unhurt but for some reason were unable to speak coherently and moved as if they were intoxicated. In the next cell was a young Asian girl, badly wounded from gunshots. Richard used a medipack on her, then found that she couldn’t speak properly either. Investigation revealed she had something embedded in her Process Chip socket, as did the two Asians. This couldn’t be removed; it was locked in somehow. Investigating further, they found an Interrogation Room and beyond this two cells. In one was an Arabic female who had been interrogated (judging by the marks on her). She was bleeding from the left ear. The businessman identified her as his business partner. In the other cell was a young 16 year-old African girl; her white eyes indicated she was blind. No-one knew who she was, they took her along anyway; the temperature was rising due to the fires raging overhead.

On the upper deck they regrouped and waited for pickup. It was touch and go as the rig began to disintegrate; the GL61 dropped the boats and Ben C and Joe went out to get them. As they all headed off in the boats they saw lights in the sky, approaching from the mainland.