Operation Pushback: Setting, Enemies
A description of New Port City and the enemy force occupying it.
The Place New Port City is a dense, urban area situated at the mouth of a river. It opens onto a large bay, which is straddled by a long suspension bridge. While the city suffered in the initial landings and associated bombardment, many of its skyscrapers and the bridge that straddles the river remain intact. Its downtown and beachside areas are home to an 18th century sewer system, which is large enough to walk around in and which reaches the ocean.
The Enemy The force that's landed in New Port City is a well-equipped, well-trained late TL9 military. They've already sent most of their forces inland; what remains in New Port City is effectively a supply garrison, there to protect the beachhead and supply routes for the forces further inland. They're not expecting a fight, but their guard isn't down either.
Ground forces consist of infantry, battlesuits, and mechanized support units (APCs, Tank destroyers, and tanks or small mecha). They've installed SAM batteries on some taller buildings, helping protect against an air attack. The naval forces are the high-value targets; they consist of supply ships in the port itself, and a battleship berthed outside the bay. A small force of helicopter gunships is based in the portside area as well, because helicopter gunships are high-speed air taxis and cool boss fights.
Protagonists will want to either disable the battleship and the SAM batteries, or destroy the supply ships and battleship outright, or some combination of both. Disabling the SAM batteries and the battleship's air-defence missiles will allow their air force to
How They Fight New Port City is too large for the garrison forces to secure its entire perimeter. They've formed a 3-layer defence network to try to compensate. The outermost layer covers the suburbs and outskirts of the city, and is only monitored; UAVs roam the skies here, on the lookout for any odd movements. The second layer is monitored and patrolled, and consists of the city proper until the downtown area. Patrols generally consist of infantry or battlesuits driving around in trucks or APCs and being very unhappy with their lot in life. The third layer is the downtown and portside area; here there are roadblocks, checkpoints, killzones and snipers set up. It’s the only area that’s actually entrenched.
Aside from charging in straight-on, enterprising heroes can try sneaking. Roof-hopping over the heads of roadblocks and checkpoints is one option, as is sneaking in through the sewers. These aren't without their own risks; UAVs watch the roofs, while motion sensors and mines protect the sewers. The defenders don't know how strong the protagonists are, so any response will be keyed to the apparent threat they present. The scale of response roughly goes infantry->battlesuits->tanks, helicopters, and armor units->naval bombardment. The defenders have very good communication with each other, so raising the alarm is liable to make things escalate very quickly.
BAD ranges from -2 in the outer regions to -5 nearer the port. It can get as high as -7 in the highest security areas once they're aware of the PCs and all out hunting - at which point, the players should probably be blowing doors open rather than lockpicking.