The Fortress/News/Page 2

The Fortress News Page 2

Fortress Team Anaconda Team Battlehawk Team Cold Cell Team Dark Watch Past Teams Fortress News

TFN- Your eyes and ears in the city! Front Page: Top News - Team Anaconda - Team Battlehawk Page Two: Team Cold Cell - Team Dark Watch - Around the Tavern - In the Line of Duty
Editor -Jay Gorman Staff TFN Engineer -Private Mendoza Writers -Miss Elainious -Tiago Ferreira -Zombiedodger -Jay Gorman -Victor Vandregas -Jame334 -Anne Tardew -Morrigana -Zuton -Private Mendoza -Perrin the Wolf	Team Cold Cell Operation Reclaiming Ridleybank Written by Jame334 and Ruinator, October 6, 2008 Ridleybank, the sacred ground of zombies and home to the Ridleybank Resistance Front (RRF), Has laid in waste for months now. It’s a place where many people have entered, many have fallen, and from where few have returned.Cold Cell, a team full of brave men and women, headed in where few others choose to tread. The goal was to reclaim as many ruined buildings as possible and get the lights back on in the depths of Ridleybank. For far too long the RRF have been running amok throughout the suburbs of Malton unchecked.Cold Cell drew the line and said, “No More!” When we first entered Ridleybank, it was a shocking sight - the ruined buildings engulfing the skyline and dead bodies lay slain in the shadows . It was all silent, but we knew that the zombies where out there and out there in great numbers. We found a safe-house in a fallen building, dark and scary. Even the bravest among us were terrified. Ruinator couldn’t sleep at all that night. He sat at his makeshift desk – nothing more than a few stones piled together – and laid out plans for the coming days. The initial strikes were very successful – several buildings were quickly repaired and barricaded before the RRF became aware of our incursion onto their turf. Several other survivors were in place, willing to assist us in our goals.Amano made several major repairs, most notably a massive 87 AP effort, allowing the opportunity for fellow team mates to move in and barricade around him, in an effort to keep him alive until he was able to move to safer ground. Lights began to dazzle the suburb of Ridleybank with hope and life. Survivors began arriving but, alas, not alone. The RRF took note of our actions and retreated back to counter our advanced efforts. The RRF's dreaded Gore Corps began to infiltrate our recovered buildings and PK our team members and allies. After several of our members fell to their questionable tactics,Ruinator decided to move out to the next operation point. However, never the ungracious guest,Ruinator decided to leave parting presents for our hosts. Several Gore Corp members were hiding in an unpowered Cinema.Ruinator, Jame334, and ht1237 moved in. Ht1237 supplied the power to shine the light of justice on these renegades. Lord Morloch himself was the first to fall, followed by dgw. These were two of whom had most recently PK’d members of Cold Cell. We moved in to send a message to the RRF. In response to our actions, The Fortress received an “Official Complaint” from the Ridleybank Resistance Front concerning our actions on their home turf. Operation Firestorm Written by Victor Vandregas, August 14, 2008 Never, in all your years of playing Urban Dead, will you see a level of highly efficient coordination and indomitable power to match that displayed by Anaconda, Cold Cell and Dark Watch when we headed out to Fort Perryn with one objective on our minds - to take back the Fort with an epic triple-team assault. We’d been taking it easy in Blesley for a few days when Commander SubforM laid our plans. The first step was to run scouting missions across Pennville and the North-East area of Whittenside. This reconnaissance was vital; obtaining the necessary intelligence would allow us to gauge the zombie presence around Perryn and determine the best route into the area. When we had mapped out the suburb, we moved in, recading as many empty buildings as possible before retreating to the safety of the Mall. This process was repeated over a couple of days to monitor the zeds’ activities and ensure our survival among such a large horde. Once we’d gained a foothold in Pennville, we secured a number of safehouses and set up shop. This suburb would be the spearhead from which we would launch further raids on our target. We made sure our turf in Pennville was firmly under our control, then swept into Whittenside from the North-East, executing a pincer movement alongside Team Anaconda to secure our beachheads in the stricken suburb. We took and held predetermined safe houses, preparing ourselves for the next - and definitely biggest - phase of Operation Firestorm: The attack on Fort Perryn. Now is a good time to mention that we in The Fortress had a little help from our friends; namely the Cannonball Crew and the BMC. Our Ambassadors made sure these allies were on the same page. We set up conversations with whatever instant messaging systems we had. We psyched ourselves up for the monumental task ahead. At 20:00 hours on the 22nd May 2008... The first wave struck. The plan was beautiful in its simplicity; reclaim the Gatehouse, the cades of which the Cannonball Crew would maintain, then cleanse the Fort of the undead infestation. We were a phalanx; not even hordes of this size stood a chance against our combined might as we swept through the Fort like a flood, all but annihilating the zed presence. Within thirty minutes we were finished; with just a handful of zeds still standing and only the Armoury still ruined, the second wave would have an easy job mopping up. An hour later, the second wave moved in. In less than twenty minutes, the Armoury was back in business and the remaining zeds had been forcefully evicted. The easy part was over. Now came the hard part - holding the Fort against the massive horde outside. Soon enough, the retaliation began. The zeds struck out with a string of small break-ins, but they were (relatively) easily repulsed. After a day or so, the order came through for Anaconda to move out of the Fort and turn their attention to the local NecroTech buildings - because as one might expect, an organised horde would aim to cut off the supply of syringes. Needless to say, the Condas weren’t gonna let that happen. The break-ins came thicker and faster, with more and more zeds getting in. We managed to stay on top of the situation, but with zed reinforcements sure to arrive in great numbers, and a few zed spies wreaking havoc within the Fort’s walls, the whole scenario looked rather bleak. But that was all about to change. We received very welcome news that Team Dark Watch were en route, and other survivor groups were being summoned to the Fort. The game was most definitely on. A number of us headed to the thankfully operational Joachim Mall to restock. When the 27th came around, SubforM announced a plan that might win us this battle. He’d been conversing with other combat team CO’s and the leaders of other survivor groups about implementing a “drawbridge” approach to defending the Gatehouse. In the past, the Fort Perryn Defence Force had successfully held the Fort for over two weeks - against a Feral Undead horde numbering at least 150 - using this method. The idea is that the cades are held at EHB until a group of survivors needs to get in, at which time the cades are dropped to VSB. Once they’re inside, the cades are immediately brought back up to EHB. It requires considerable coordination from all involved, but it works like a charm. By this time, the defences had been breached and the Fort had fallen once again, with at least 30 zeds inside at any one time. Needless to say, this had us miffed - but, in a way, we had to thank the z-bags. Wanna know why? Because they gave us an excuse to plan the biggest RTS in the history of Malton. Having optimised their inventories at Joachim (kudos to Tommy Crowbar for his ingenious restocking philosophy), the combat teams made their way back down into Whittenside. Constant recon runs into the Fort kept us on the ball with regard to zed numbers and building conditions. The CO’s had been conversing with our allies and the timing for our planned attack was leaning towards Sunday. The plan was to go in, guns blazing, and completely clean house. At midnight on Sunday, the Gatehouse cades would be raised to EHB and the Fort would be completely locked down; no survivors in or out. We organised ourselves, rallied the participants, and at 5PM GMT on Sunday, we descended upon the Fort like Death himself, slaying every zed that stood in our way. The result was incredible; 27 zeds, several bodies and all but one ruined building before, no zeds, no DB’s, 3 lit buildings and cades as they should be after. Over 30 survivors took part in the attack; a truly unprecedented assault that should serve as an example for survivors all across Malton. This, my friends, is how it should be done. But, as one would expect, we weren’t out of the woods yet. There were 63 DB’s and 11 standing zeds outside, with almost 7 hours still to go before the big lockdown. Previous intel had led us to believe that the Feral Undead and the RRF had moved North to Fort Creedy, but they had since heard of our retake of Perryn and were talking of heading back down to crash the party. At midnight, as planned, the Fort was locked down - and immediately the break-ins began. However, with 30+ Fortress members keeping a steel-wall vigil over the cades, every break-in was quickly quelled and the cades bumped right back up. A few extra Fortress members - namely Warlord and CouponBaller towards the start of the lockdown - managed to squeeze in during the zed break-ins. Clever guys. For the most part, it was a matter of battling with the active zeds to keep the cades up. While they relentlessly attacked from outside, we worked frantically on the inside to keep the cades healthy. Despite the dangerous situation, there was no shortage of comedy as BlackOps1337 kept us all giggling with a whole new, vegetable-esque take on the Mudkip craze. By now, even the greens of Boot Camp were partying with us. Drill Sergeant Officer Duncan had brought the newbies along to help us keep the Fort firmly under survivor control, but after several days, he felt it was time for BC to bow out; the Fort was holding, with all break-ins deal with swiftly and the Gatehouse cades generally kept high. After a few more days, Team Anaconda left the Fort for pastures new, as per orders from Miss Elainious. They were soon followed by Cold Cell and Dark Watch as we moved out to prepare for our next operation. To say we were proud of ourselves would be a massive understatement. We’d held Fort Perryn against a sizeable horde for over a week. Every break-in was handled swiftly, and we were so well-equipped and well-coordinated that when a generator was destroyed, it was replaced and fuelled up in seconds. Operation: Firestorm stands as a true testament to the unparalleled skill, dedication and efficiency of The Fortress. Stay Vigilant! Team Dark Watch Operation C3: Salvation The Epic Siege at Caiger Mall Written by Morrigana, November 4, 2008 On September 8th, 2008, Dark Watch Commander FireWarlord gave the orders to move out to Caiger Mall in what would prove to be a long, bloody and successful siege. The mall had been in zombie hands for just about a year when the DHPD heroically reclaimed it back and called on Dark Watch for backup. Our troops quickly moved into the area to find a ruined suburb with barely a survivor in sight. The DHPD were defending the mall against a horde of zombies who desperately wanted to take back Caiger. The zombies were everywhere, and in every corner there were bloody corpses. Dark Watch arrived in full force and quickly restored the balance of power between previously overwhelmed survivors and the predominantly feral zombie horde. Dark Watch secured all the local resource buildings and the mall then another call came from DHPD. They needed Dark Watch's assistance in securing their home suburb of Dunnel Hills. We were happy to help. We moved into Dunnel Hills and reclaimed the NE quadrant of that 'burb in less than a week, often falling into comas after repairing buildings that took 100AP or more to fix! With the suburb now glowing in the night, word spread throughout Malton of the improved conditions and survivors started to flock back to the home they once called Caiger Mall. Upon returning to Caiger Mall, we were met with incessant break-ins. Day after day, night after night, hour after hour, the zombies would pound on the door of the mall, but we were always there to thwart their plans. Every time, Dark Watch, allies and local survivors quickly dispatched the threat, killing the intruding zombies by the dozens, cading the mall up and healing and reviving the survivors who were nom’d during the course of zombie invasion. You could almost see the frustration on the decaying faces of our undead enemies, and before we knew it a barhah harmanz rang through the night and reinforcements came to the side of evil. Regardless, Dark Watch did not break. With the diplomatic help of Brian Flynn, Michael Markus, Commander Warlord, and the ever shining Lieutenant Anne Tardew, survivor reinforcements began pouring in. Allies including USAI, ACC, battle hardened Fortress Combat Squads Cold Cell and Battlehawks arrived, as well as some of the promising new talent from Boot Camp, joined forces in Caiger Mall and the surrounding buildings. With a force this strong, we could not be defeated! With the extra support in the Mall, much of Dark Watch moved in to defend the oft-ruined Latrobe NT, and to maintain the revive point at Salopia Row. The zeds came a knockin’ but we stopped them cold in their tracks every time and the breaches decreased dramatically. By this time, the troops were feeling the combat fatigue brought on by nearly 6 weeks of siege but LT Tardew knew the remedy for that. Quickly a hot tub was installed in the NT building and Morrigana brought some deliciously scented bath bombs to sparkle up the waters and make everyone smell delightful! Music started playing and a twister game was secured and before you knew it a rousing game of strip twister commenced. It went something like this: [ *censored! There are kids around, sheesh!*]... the lovely girls in the NT got to show off their spiffy new bathing suits and one handsome gent lost his cowboy hat! The tunes were pumping and the booze was flowing which seemed to attract even more undead party goers, which meant the strikes against the NT increased with such vigor and force you might have believed that the zeds were jealous that they weren't invited to the big bash! Alas, Dark Watch and others (including some from USAI, ACC, TF's Battle Hawk and boot camp) explained in no uncertain terms that this party was INVITATION ONLY. With more than 100 zombies attacking the mall with X:00 coordination tactics and up to two dozen outside the local NT using the same strategy, the battle was rough and bloody. Many lives were sacrificed, but thanks to our superior Fortress medics, no one had to wait long to take a deep breath of fresh air again. Local buildings were regularly ruined, but the survivors would not be thwarted. Within hours, buildings were restored and powered and the zombies were left outside to bash their heads against the doors in frustration, making vain attempts to get a taste of fresh brainz. By this time morale was high across the suburbs of Chudleyton and Darvall Heights. While the break-ins were still frequent, they were less forceful than previously seen. With All Hallows Eve just around the bend, Dark Watch announced that they would be moving out of the Caiger area to celebrate our success and Halloween with our Fortress and allied friends. Seven weeks and 10 days after Dark Watch arrived, and having consistently kept the mall in survivor hands, our diplomats called on additional allies to replace them before pulling out. We sent our best wishes to the survivors remaining in the area and (not-so) quietly slipped into the night to take care of more business on the Dark side. Around the Tavern A Malton Recession? By Private Mendoza, June 05, 2008 The latest news I've been hearing from around the bar, in dark alleys, and during the increasing random muggings (Please stop!) is this rumor of how Malton is in an economic recession. After much research, and numerous Post-Apocalyptic Government funded-studies, the accusations are seemingly true, and the main causes have been released. Historic depletions of weapon reservoirs, the influx of cheap illegal Dead labor, Urban Dying, lack of safe-working conditions, sup-prime mortgages, shoddy barricade contractors, and PKer terrorism are just a few of the problems being blamed. The problem is obvious in the hardest hit pockets of survivors as the value of Cheese has been weakened by inflation while the Barhah Union currency, Brains, is rising in value. Consequently, generator prices are up, barricade materials are hard to find in the less-populated parts of the city, weapons cost twice as much as in the BU, and even the usually well-off zombie-stripper industry is suffering. The Urban Dying crisis is a major factor. Of course Bullets are the most effective way to dispatch a zombie, but the urban supply is dwindling and AP cost is up. The eco(nomy)-minded survivor might want to convert to renewable resources, such as axes and knives, but they are still riddled with major problems like low accuracy, and low damage. The recession doesn't seem to be showing any signs of slowing, so start saving that hard-earned Cheese. Hopefully our city’s leadership can come up with some sort of plan to combat the crisis. -- We can now follow up the TFN exclusive regarding a blossoming romance in the Fortress. Local nice guy and Fortress essential Charlie Mon recently announced his romantic feelings towards the new Director of Communications Azula Individa. Both were spotted together at the Malton-exclusive showing of 'Help, my Grandfather is a Zombie princess!'. We wish the new couple every success in their lives together. -- An old bank statement recieved from an inside source sheds light on secret love affair so well concealed it took over 20 bottles of Guiness to coax it out! Want to know the parties involved? Click: http://img389.imageshack.us/img389/1843/revelationbi9.jpg Out of Gossips? No!!!!! Seriously. We're working on it. While you are waiting for some fresh dirt, why don't you read the Gossips Archieve? In the Line of Duty If I only had a Brain? Written by Perrin the Wolf, September 2, 2008 Wolf Morrison reporting once more for the TFN. After a long awaited return and a far too long leave from the TFN I came to understand what it truly meant to be called a "friendly passerby". As I relaxed in Nichols mall gawking at the beautiful Goolina and sipping at my very stale coffee I noticed something that most would forget, something that only happened a few days before when Nichols was in a shambles once more thanks to the RRF. Walking in during a recent operation with The Fortress's Team Anaconda I noticed only one zombie in a corner of the room. I shrugged and looked at my needle I had labeled 'the hand of god' for obvious reasons. Slamming it into the lifeless corpse I did something that most newbie killers do, combat revived. Days later I revisited the site when a member of the RRF spoke to me. "Honestly, Perrin the Wolf, don't combat revive. Look at my group tag. Do i seriously look survivor friendly?" His name was Earl Boris. Of course I didn't have his ID on record, one of the very few RRF recruits I have ever missed. After he continued to rant as well as destroy the generator and kill himself, the friendly new kilt store worker Goolina started to revisit her former days as an RRF member. She gestured to the now zombified Earl Bori and had some odd conversation about reviving him. "Hi there Earl Boris. You know, if you wanted a kilt, you just had to ask. I speak fluent rattle, and could have assisted you without your resorting to parachuting. Once you're undead and all bitey, it's difficult to get a proper fit." Of course, as any man who is fascinated with the undead life knows, Goolina is a sweet person as a human and can never pass up a sale. They conducted business and when all was said and done he started to take his leave without harming anyone in the mall...but of course, due to profiling, some random passerby ended up killing the human version of this RRF member by the name of Wasabeee. His only words were, "The purple rabbit has been taken care of." It was some day I had but after a hard days work in this hellish world not even a passerby is safe nowadays. With Wasabeee hopefully being placed in the Rogue gallery all I can say is Earl wherever you are I hope that you enjoy your new kilt regardless of your blood stains on it. From your friendly reporter for the TFN take care, and until the next great catch is found.....