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Taking Smithport

 All out civil war was upon Run. The governor of Guardians of Tradition had brought out mercenaries of all sorts to compliment his already impressive armada of imperial security forces, and Autumn Leif had tripled her count of Rogue Security pilots as well as enlisted the help of several Paladin fighters. She had even gained the support of a pair of corvette commanders from a covert operative group that took Wolfberg and Orrere away from SDC and The Code. Conflicts started springing up all over Run and riots were breaking out on all of the settlements and stations. Despite Rogue Runners having almost 90% of the citizens of Run on their side, the minority still caused trouble  wherever they could. While the Guardians of Tradition civilian supporters may have been the minority , the Guardians of Tradition military forces were certainly the majority in Run. This did not stop the Rogue Runners from dominating almost every conflict that popped up. At the end of every skirmish all that was left of Guardians of Tradition forces were floating piles of debris. Rogue Runners quickly pushed what remained of the Guardians of Tradition armada back to Smithport for the final confrontation.

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   Autumn knew that smithport wouldn't be easy to take, especially since it was no good to the Rogue Runners if it was damaged. She had her executives, Art Compton and Bill Middleton, scouting possible ways to take it long before the war started, and they had come up with a solution.

 

    The plan was risky for those involved, but it was the only way to get control of the station defenses without losing half the Rogue Security force in the process. Some of Autumn’s most trusted executives, Bill Middleton and Art Compton,  along with volunteers from the Paladin Consortium stowed away on what seemed like a routine cargo delivery for Guardians of Tradition. Once the crate they were in was stashed in storage, they opened it up and got to work. They had to get to the mainframe of the station in order to install a newly created “Rogue AI” designed by one of the Rogue Runners’ technology specialist. This would be no easy task, as the mainframe was sure to be heavily guarded by Guardians of Tradition security. Riots had been happening for days on the station so the security was sure to be on full alert. The squad snuck down corridor after corridor clearing corners as they went. They had a few close encounters with some patrols, one even went as far as a skirmish occurring but the elite team had no problem quietly dispatching the alerted guards. They weren't far from the mainframe when all of a sudden, and alarm sounded. The patrol had probably missed a check in. The station began to lock down around them and they suddenly found themselves shut in by blast doors. Their comms weren't working and they were trapped. This did not look good for their forces outside. The whole plan hinged on the station defenses going down before the final battle started.

 

    Outside, the Rogue Runner forces, complimented by Paladins and the mysterious duo of pilots flying corvettes, readied for battle. The time had come to liberate Run from the reign of Guardians of Tradition once and for all. The fleet had dropped out of supercruise 50ls from Smithport and were preparing to launch the attack. The mission timer hit zero and all ships leapt into supercruise and dropped out 20km from Smithport. As expected, Guardians of Tradition had the remainder of their still sizeable fleet waiting outside the station. The Rogue Fleet and their allies deployed hardpoints and flew in guns primed and ready to go.

 

    They met the Guardians of Tradition fleet head on, both sides flashing lasers and multicannons, turning the area around smithport into a deadly light show. To the dismay of the Rogue Fleet, the stations weaponry added to this, but it wasn't targeting Guardians of Tradition. Luckily the first ships to be targeted by the station were the cutters, corvettes, and anacondas. Their shields plus the assistance of their wing mates armed with Broo Tarken’s donated regeneration beams kept them up long enough for the fleet to fall back out of range of the station. Instead of holding within range of the station, Guardians of Tradition pursued the fleet, thinking it was a full retreat. Once out of range of the station, the fleet turned to face their pursuers once again. The battle raged on and the fight for Smithport continued.

 

    Back inside the station, Bill and Art were trying to find a way out of their predicament. They were looking for panels for the doors, but everything seemed to be sealed tight. There was no way out from inside. Luckily Guardians of Tradition security wasn't content to just let them sit in a locked chamber, they wanted blood. After 20 minutes of waiting, the strike team heard noise coming from the other side of a blast door as the station security prepared to storm the hallway. The Rogue team took up positions against the walls and behind bulkheads and prepared for the conflict. As the doors opened the rogues were met by 10 heavily armed Guardians of Tradition security with rifles leveled. They began unloading their rifles at the bulkheads the strike team was hiding behind, effectively pinning the team down. Bill quickly pulled out a personal land mine, armed it, and slid it across the floor, shooting it as it came to a halt in the middle of the security team. The blast engulfed the Guardians of Tradition squadron  and when the smoke cleared, only one injured soldier was still conscious. Art walked over to him grinning and said, “ That feeling when your entire team of overpaid scum bags gets taken out by lowly independent group, eh?” and slapped some onion head in the soldier's hand. “You'll want to use that until a medic gets here”, and then the team set off to finish what they had come for.

 

    Back outside the station, the battle raged on. The Rogue Fleet was dishing out plenty of damage, but with Smithport so close, all the Guardians of Tradition ships had to do was return to dock and get their hull patched up and they were right back at it. The Fleet was quickly running out of ammo for multi cannons and lasers alone would not be able to win this for them. They needed that station on their side. Just as it looked like they were going to have to retreat, Autumn heard the crackling of the comms channel that was reserved for the station strike team. Bill’s voice came through the speakers saying, “Well what the hell are you “commanders” doing out there, take the station already”. She could hear the smugness in his voice and Art chuckling in the background. She responded with a quick “I expect to see your dinky little keelback blasting it's way out of that port soon, Art”. She then shut the coms off and gave the fleet the go ahead to initiate phase 2 of the assault. A squadron of type 7s that had been waiting in supercruise dropped in and flew straight at the Guardians of Tradition fleet dropping hundreds of tons of mines throughout it before blasting back into supercruise as the mines detonated. The entire fleets shields popped and they began to fall back to the station to rebuild shields. To their dismay, the station turrets began shredding their hulls as they came in range and several of their cutters were disabled in seconds. The remaining ships, including Governor Jarod Wade’s cutter turned and jumped to Aling  where they would take refuge at Maitz Port.

 

     Run was won. Rogue Runners assumed control of Smithport with little incident after Guardians of Tradition retreated and they now had system control. While they had won this war, Autumn knew they had not heard the last of the Run Guardians of Tradition. Aling was just next door, and Guardians of Tradition still had heavy support at Brothers Landing. She had no intention of letting Guardians of Tradition survive to oppress another system though. Preparations for taking Aling began before she had even set foot on her company's newly obtained starport.

The events dramatized in the “run for Run” and “Taking Smithport” stories are based on the real bgs war fought between Rogue Runners player group and the NPC faction Run Guardians of Tradition , which was briefly backed by another group of players. Special thanks to all involved in helping our player group retake our home system of Run.


 

Special thanks to all Rogue Runner pilots:

Cmdr Waukonda - loremaster

Cmdr Swabslinger - loremaster

Cmdr Clock Face III

Cmdr King Coopah

Cmdr Virgil Coleman

Cmdr Boskoning

Cmdr KLED

Cmdr C. Pendragon

Cmdr Lazpixl

Cmdr CocoPenguin

Cmdr Utan

Cmdr Rootkitz

Cmdr Thanius

Cmdr Soul

 

Special thanks to the Paladin Consortium Player group for assisting us in bgs strategy and manpower.

 

Paladin Consortium Pilots:

Cmdr Big Papa

Cmdr Galerak

Cmdr Johnnykirk

Cmdr M.Grey

Cmdr Mottikhan

Cmdr Vacaendack

Cmdr Aldrich

Cmdr dfgqsb

Cmdr M1KEHONCHO

Cmdr Zakalwe88

 

Special thanks to the covert operatives group and the associated commanders who lended their guns to the cause.

 

Thanks to Hell’s Mob players for giving our faction something to rally against

CREDITS
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