escort missions

[The Colonel]

...with the "Q-ship job" being a subversion: the PCs are the decoy, but have been picked so that they inflict serious damage on the ambushers. Effectively arranging for the enemy to "mug a monster".

[tanksoldier]

What ideas do anyone have about escort missions?

Clint Eastwood’s “ The Gauntlet”. The person assigning the mission is actually working against the characters, turning them into fugitives or otherwise undermining the mission to protect themselves.

they were the fake diversionary mission expected to fail.

Spies Like Us

[RyanW]

Originally Posted by The Colonel

...with the "Q-ship job" being a subversion: the PCs are the decoy, but have been picked so that they inflict serious damage on the ambushers. Effectively arranging for the enemy to "mug a monster".

Another possible subversion is that the sender wants the cargo to be lost, to give a convenient excuse for something (which need not even be in the cargo) to go missing.

Possibilities:

• The item is being diverted to some use that needs to be kept off the books.
• Someone wants grounds to take action against the thieves (actual or framed).
• The item has just disappeared. Management, insurance, or regulations would accept theft quicker than incompetence.
• The item doesn't live up to expectations, and its inventor would prefer his patrons didn't find out he wasted their money.

[The Colonel]

Originally Posted by RyanW

Another possible subversion is that the sender wants the cargo to be lost, to give a convenient excuse for something (which need not even be in the cargo) to go missing.

Possibilities:

• The item is being diverted to some use that needs to be kept off the books.
• Someone wants grounds to take action against the thieves (actual or framed).
• The item has just disappeared. Management, insurance, or regulations would accept theft quicker than incompetence.
• The item doesn't live up to expectations, and its inventor would prefer his patrons didn't find out he wasted their money.

heh ... as an aside, there is the story of the Atlantic Conveyor, a British cargo ship that was sunk whilst hauling supplies for the Task Force during the Falklands War. Her loss was a significant blow to the operation causing great annoyance due to the destruction of key supplies of helicopters (command staff) and chocolate (troops).

However, those who were involved in British Army logistics around 1982 tend to note wryly that if the amount of material written off has having been lost when the Atlantic Conveyor sank had actually been aboard her, then she would have sunk without enemy action. Enemy action was certainly more readily accepted than accounting exceptions...

[jason taylor]

Originally Posted by RyanW

Another possible subversion is that the sender wants the cargo to be lost, to give a convenient excuse for something (which need not even be in the cargo) to go missing.

Possibilities:

• The item is being diverted to some use that needs to be kept off the books.
• Someone wants grounds to take action against the thieves (actual or framed).
• The item has just disappeared. Management, insurance, or regulations would accept theft quicker than incompetence.
• The item doesn't live up to expectations, and its inventor would prefer his patrons didn't find out he wasted their money.

The item could be a booby trap. It might have a bug or even an explosive device.

[Anaraxes]

Originally Posted by The Colonel

Enemy action was certainly more readily accepted than accounting exceptions...

I remember a similar story from a supply sergeant at a US Army depot back during Desert Shield / Storm. They were quite happy to have a chance to fix up all the items that had mysteriously gone missing as having been "expended in combat".

I imagine that if I looked, I'd find that same story somewhere in Tacitus or Xenophon.

[cptbutton]

Originally Posted by Anaraxes

I remember a similar story from a supply sergeant at a US Army depot back during Desert Shield / Storm. They were quite happy to have a chance to fix up all the items that had mysteriously gone missing as having been "expended in combat".

I imagine that if I looked, I'd find that same story somewhere in Tacitus or Xenophon.

The ObSF here is "Allamagoosa" by Eric Frank Russell, of course, where such an attempt goes horribly wrong.

[Anaraxes]

Originally Posted by cptbutton

The ObSF here is "Allamagoosa" by Eric Frank Russell

Oh, good cite.

[RyanW]

Originally Posted by The Colonel

However, those who were involved in British Army logistics around 1982 tend to note wryly that if the amount of material written off has having been lost when the Atlantic Conveyor sank had actually been aboard her, then she would have sunk without enemy action. Enemy action was certainly more readily accepted than accounting exceptions...

Originally Posted by Anaraxes

I remember a similar story from a supply sergeant at a US Army depot back during Desert Shield / Storm. They were quite happy to have a chance to fix up all the items that had mysteriously gone missing as having been "expended in combat".

After the Vietnam War, it was determined that helicopters were regularly being shot down carrying several times their maximum takeoff weight in items that often had no business being put on a helicopter going into combat. By sheer coincidence, it seemed to always happen to items with high values on the black market.

[tshiggins]

Originally Posted by The Colonel

Isn't that a FedEx quest? Unless the sword is sentient and keeps trying to wander off...?

(SNIP)

That's how it started out, and then the train got robbed and all but two of the escort samurai killed (Peacemakers vs. katanas).

The samurai in charge of the mission had to return to California and report events to the consulate. He ordered the other samurai (Mifune's character) to recover the sword.

Bronson's character just walked into the middle of the mess.