Mission Cycle Five

A Palace and a Prison

The STC cores inside the Fulminating Antipathy have revealed what lies beneath...

AWAITING SYSTEM POWERUP... AUX POWER CONNECTED. DIAGNOSTIC RUNNING... - POWER CAPACITY: 0.12 UNSTABLE! - FUNCTIONALITY: 0.35 - EXECUTION MODULE: OFFLINE - MEMORY MODULE: 0.49875 - DATABASE MODULE: 0.2346 - PERIPHERY MODULES: DISCONNECTED

########### LIMITED ACCESS TERMINAL READY. GREETINGS.

What is this place?

PERIPHERAL MODULES MISSING -- NO SCAN OF CURRENT GALACTIC TRIORDINATES POSSIBLE. LOGS ARE STALE. LAST ENTRY SHOWS THIS UNIT IS STILL ENCAPSULATED INSIDE SPACE HULK -- V1902DSA-SH-M31.2, IMPERIUM DESIGNATION: FULMINATING ANTIPATHY ORIGINATING VESSEL OF UNKNOWN DESIGN, UNDER OBSERVATION. XENOS PRE-IMPERIUM CONSTRUCTION. CONTAINS WARP-RESISTANT ENTITY EXHIBITING MILD INTELLIGENCE. VESSEL CAN CONSUME WARP-ALIGNED FOCI TO RECONFIGURE INTERNAL ENTITY. HIGH THREAT LEVEL TO IMPERIUM OPERATIONS. RECOMMEND DISPOSAL. CURRENT ASSIGNMENT: OBSERVATION ONLY. PLEASE REASSIGN.

You have a new assignment. Dispose of it.

CURRENT ASSIGNMENT: DISPOSAL. EXECUTION MODULE IS OFFLINE. NO AUTONOMOUS ACTION IS POSSIBLE.

How can it be disposed of?

FEED WARP-RESISTANT MATERIAL TO INPUT CATALYZERS. CRITICAL MASS WILL CAUSE ENTITY CONFIGURATION PROCESS TO BECOME INVERTED. DISPOSAL WILL FOLLOW PRESENTLY. BE AWARE: CORE FLOORS DO NOT CONFORM TO EUCLIDEAN SPACE.
###########

The Fulminating Antipathy shudders. The thing imprisoned within knows what the mortal lives outside intend to do.

At the same time, down on the surface of Occularia, enterprising forces seize their moment amidst the chaos. The Duke's palace becomes surrounded by strike teams. If the palace falls, Occularia Waypoint would turn into a power vacuum. Should the victor of such a coup play their cards right, their enemies could be cut off from the Nachmund Gauntlet entirely...

Mission Overview

The fate of Occularia Waypoint comes down to this moment. Teams battling inside the Fulminating Antipathy will either destroy its prison core or stabilize it into some sort of weapon. The battle to hold the palace will determine what political power holds sway in the future.

NAME	REF CODE	DESCRIPTION
The Palace	Chalnath 1.2 / Octarius 3.1	Secure Occularia palace. 2/3/4 Players.
The Prison	Shadowvaults 1.3 / Soulshackle 2.2	Destroy or defend the space-bending core of the Fulminating Antipathy. 4 Players.

The Palace

Opportunistic strike teams are ready to assault the palace from all sides. The communications wing is crucial to the palace's defenses. If it falls into enemy hands, the palace falls with it. As a last ditch effort, fail-safe mines may need to be deployed.

2 PLAYER VARIANT - MISSION RULES
Use the 2-Player map layout.

The Defender’s operatives can perform the following mission action:

LOCKDOWN	1AP
An operative can perform this action while within ▲ of an objective marker it controls. Until the start of the next Turning Point, for the purposes of determining who controls that objective marker, that operative's APL is treated as being one higher (to a maximum of 4).

3/4 PLAYER VARIANT - MISSION RULES
Use the 4-Player map layout. One player is the Defender. All other players are treated as the Attacker, and treat each other teams as enemy operatives.

During the Determine Attacker and Defender step, the Attackers roll off to determine deployment zones. The player who rolled the highest is the Attacker for the purposes of rules that require the Attacker to decide the outcome. During each Initiative Phase, all players roll for initiative simultaneously. Resolve all actions and activations for that turning point in order, from highest to lowest, based on the outcome of the roll. If two players tie, they roll off to determine priority.

In addition to the above rules, the Defender may place 4 (four) Fail-Safe Mine tokens. The tokens should be uniform in appearance on one side and distinguishable on the other (injury tokens are recommended for this). The Defender secretly records which tokens are mines and which are decoys. In a three player game, the Defender places 1 mine. In a four player game, the Defender places 2 mines. The first time an enemy operative ends an activation within ⚪ of a mine token, immediately flip that token and resolve its effect. If the token is a decoy, nothing happens. If the token is a mine, the Defender makes an attack with the following weapon, targeting that enemy operative. That operative is always a valid target, regardless of any other rules.

Name	A	BS	D
Fail-Safe Mine	4	3+	3/4
Special Rules
Indirect, No Cover, Stun

2 PLAYER VARIANT - MISSION EQUIPMENT
DEPLOYABLE BULWARK [3EP]
Once per battle, this operative can perform the following action:

DEPLOY BULWARK	1AP
Set up one additional barricade within ▲ of this operative, more than ▲ from all enemy operatives and more than ■ from any other barricades. This operative cannot perform this action if it is within Engagement Range of an enemy operative.

3/4 PLAYER VARIANT - MISSION EQUIPMENT
In a 3 player game, the Defender can equipment one operative with a Deployable Bulwark for 0EP. In a 4 player game, the Defender can equip two operatives with a Deployable Bulwark for 0EP.

2 PLAYER VARIANT - MISSION OBJECTIVE
* At the end of each Turning Point, if Defender operatives control both primary objective markers, the Defender scores 1VP.

At the end of each Turning Point, if Defender operatives control both secondary objective markers, the Defender scores 1VP.
At the end of each Turning Point, for each objective marker Attacker operatives control, the Attacker scores 2VPs.

3/4 PLAYER VARIANT - MISSION OBJECTIVE
* At the end of each Turning Point, if Defender operatives control both primary objective markers, the Defender scores 1VP.

At the end of each Turning Point, if Defender operatives control two secondary objective markers, the Defender scores 1VP.
At the end of each Turning Point, for each objective marker controlled by an Attacker's friendly operatives, that Attacker scores 2VPs.

SPEC OPS BONUS
If you scored 3 or more VPs from Security Tac Ops during this battle, you gain 1 additional Requisition point.

Loot the Ruins: If you are victorious as an Attacker and scored more than 10VPs from mission objectives, you can add one item of Rare Equipment to your stash.

The Duke's Debt: If you are victorious as the Defender and scored more than 10VPs, you can add one item of Rare Equipment to your stash.

2-Player Map

4-Player Map

The Prison

At the core of the space hulk sleeps a strange entity, encapsulated by an autonomous engine that is absorbing psychic energy. If enough blackstone is fed to the engine, the system will breakdown in spectacular fashion. Others see an opportunity to repurpose this engine and turn it into some dread weapon. Either outcome means braving the hallways of the ancient vessel, whose twists and turns do not conform to realspace.

MISSION RULES
The players are split into two teams: Attackers and Defenders. During the Setup Barricades step, alternate placing barricades between Attackers and Defenders until each player has placed two barricades. During the Setup Operatives step, each player places a group of operatives during their side's deployment (i.e. both Defenders place one group, then both Attackers place one group). During the Scouting Step, each side chooses one Scouting option in order to determine initiative. Likewise, during the Initiative phase, each side rolls only one die to determine initiative for the turning point. Each side performs one activation at a time (i.e. one of the Attackers activates one operative, then one of the Defenders activates one operative, etc.). Operatives on the same side (Attacker/Defender) but on different teams may treat each other as enemy operatives, or as neutral operatives.

ARCANE CAUSEWAY
This marker (Alpha, Beta, Gamma) represents a twist in realspace that allows movement between the two floors of the killzone. An operative that ends an action, in which it moved, within ▲ of an arcane causeway can be removed from the killzone and set back up within ⚪ of the adjoining arcane causeway on the other board. Operatives can be setup within engagement range this way.

At the end of the Setup Operatives step, the Attackers place two Haulage Robot operatives wholly within their drop zone. Those operatives begin in the Operational state.A Robot terrain feature has the Light and Traversable traits. It has two statuses: Operational and Dormant. While it is Dormant, it has no additional traits. While it is Operational, it has the Programming trait.

ROBOT TRAIT: PROGRAMMING
This terrain feature is commanded by a player (the mission will specify which player commands it). Once during each Firefight phase, if it has not been activated this Turning Point, it can be activated by the commanding player instead of activating a ready friendly operative. It cannot have a Conceal order, and during its activation it can perform a free Fall Back or Normal Move action, but cannot climb, jump or traverse. Note that this means it does not generate action points as normal and does not have an APL characteristic.
The commanding player’s opponent can treat this terrain feature as an enemy operative at any time. For example, they can charge it, fight it, shoot it, etc. Similarly they could decide not to treat it as an enemy operative. For example, they can perform a Normal Move action while within Engagement Range of it.
When making shooting attacks against this terrain feature, draw Cover lines to every part of the miniature, it has a Defence characteristic of 3 and a Save characteristic of 3+. If this terrain feature is selected as the target for combat, do not select a weapon or roll any attack dice for it.
This terrain feature has a Wounds characteristic of 15. If its wounds are reduced to 0 or less, its status is changed to Dormant.
This terrain feature has a Movement characteristic of 3 that cannot be modified.

At the end of the Setup Operatives step, Attackers also place two Stockpile markers within their drop zone.

STOCKPILE
This marker represents a stockpile of blackstone artefacts. Friendly operatives within ⚪ of a Stockpile can perform the Pick Up action to gain a Blackstone token. A robot operative can perform a free Pick Up action on the Stockpile. A Stockpile can be accessed this way only once per Turning Point.

Operatives can perform the Plant Charge and Detonate Charge mission actions, as well as the following action:

DEFENSIVE ATTUNEMENT	1AP
An operative can perform this action while it controls a Hololith Dais (E4) Console terrain feature that has not been accessed during this Turning Point. Until the start of the next Turning Point, that terrain feature has been accessed.

When a Hololith Dais is accessed, select one option:

Close or Open all Hatchways in the killzone. (Must either be ALL closed or ALL opened)
Remove this operative from the killzone. Setup that operative within ▲ of any Arcane Causeway marker. This counts as a Normal Move.

Attacker's operatives can perform the following action:

CATALYZE BLACKSTONE DEPOSITS	1AP
An operative can perform this action while it controls a Augur Display (E1) or Relay Station (E3) or Control Lectern (E2) Console terrain feature that has not been accessed during this Turning Point. Until the start of the next Turning Point, that terrain feature has been accessed. Select one deposit location (objective marker) that has not been selected this Turning Point. All Blackstone tokens on that location are removed from the killzone.

CATALYZE BLACKSTONE DEPOSITS

1AP

An operative can perform this action while it controls a Augur Display (E1) or Relay Station (E3) or Control Lectern (E2) Console terrain feature that has not been accessed during this Turning Point. Until the start of the next Turning Point, that terrain feature has been accessed. Select one deposit location (objective marker) that has not been selected this Turning Point. All Blackstone tokens on that location are removed from the killzone.

Defender's operatives can perform the following action:

RECONFIGURE PRISON	1AP
An operative can perform this action while it controls a Control Panel (D2 or D3) terrain feature that has not been accessed during this Turning Point. Until the start of the next Turning Point, that terrain feature has been accessed. The deposit location (objective marker) nearest to this terrain feature cannot be targeted by the Catalyze Blackstone Deposits this Turning Point.

MISSION OBJECTIVE
Each time the Reconfigure Prison action is performed, the Defenders score 1VP.

At the end of the battle, for each Blackstone token that was removed from the killzone by a Catalyze Blackstone Deposits action, the Attackers score 2VPs (to a maximum of 16).

MISSION BONUS
If you were victorious as the Attacker and friendly operatives performed the Catalyze Blackstone Deposits action on all four deposit locations during the battle, you gain 1 Requisition point.

If you were victorious as the Defender and there are three or more Blackstone tokens on the killzone, you gain 1 Requisition point.

Epilogue

After the campaign has concluded (or after completing either of the above missions from cycle five), each team that has completed at least two (2) narrative missions during the campaign records the following rewards:

Operatives in your roster recover from all battle scars
Choose one option:
- If you have not completed a Spec Op, then reduce by 1 the number of games required to complete that Spec Op’s Operation 1
- Gain 1 Requisition Point
- Each operative in your roster gains 1XP