WRITTEN RECAP
The Second Drop begins with Ghost Squadron already on approach.
Their target is the Vesper Dawn, a military cargo ship drifting ahead of them.
The squad's own ship, the Raptor, manages to slip in behind the larger vessel without drawing fire. Whether that is because of stealth technology, luck or because everyone aboard the Vesper Dawn has more important problems is unclear.
The Raptor noses up against the cargo airlock.
Ghost Squadron has access codes.
The hatch opens.
And the Drop Troopers step aboard.
Their mission is straightforward.
Find a prisoner known as the Black Veil.
Bring her back.
Preferably alive.
The Vesper Dawn's loading bay immediately suggests that the people already aboard the ship may have opinions about this plan.
The first problem is mines.
Nyx begins sweeping the cargo deck and detects several hidden explosives.
This is useful information.
The squad responds to it by repeatedly walking into them anyway.
One trooper takes damage.
Another mine goes off.
Nyx attempts to explain that he has, in fact, located the safe path.
Eventually the tactical instructions become extremely simple.
Nobody move.
This produces several simultaneous responses.
"Can I move?"
"Yes."
"No."
Somehow Ghost Squadron survives the minefield.
Mostly because, after detonating enough of it themselves, there are fewer mines left to worry about.
Beyond the loading bay, there is another problem.
Nobody gave them a map of the ship.
They know the Black Veil is somewhere aboard the Vesper Dawn.
That is about it.
So the Drop Troopers begin clearing the vessel one compartment at a time.
Nyx handles reconnaissance.
Cipher deploys drones.
Ghost tries to maintain command.
Atlas provides the increasingly important option of pointing the largest available weapon at whatever needs to stop existing.
The first door is locked.
Cipher manages to crack it electronically.
The moment it opens, a pirate on the other side blasts his drone with a shotgun.
The drone explodes.
The pirate appears to be carrying something roughly equivalent to a giant sledgehammer.
This establishes the basic tone of the boarding operation.
Ghost Squadron answers with plasma fire.
The fight spills into the adjoining rooms as more pirates appear.
Somewhere in the middle of all this, the squad discovers that the identification system has apparently decided the enemy needs personality.
There is a Touchy Pirate Raider.
A Productive Pirate Raider.
And a Cordial Pirate Raider.
Whatever the Cordial Pirate's approach to interpersonal conflict might normally be, he is still shooting at them.
The Drop Troopers shoot back.
The squad also begins learning the finer points of fighting inside a spacecraft while wearing powered armor equipped with weapons designed for open battlefields.
At one point someone suggests using a Skyhammer missile.
The Skyhammer has an enormous blast radius.
They are inside a ship.
The possibility is reconsidered.
This counts as growth.
Atlas instead begins making enthusiastic use of the Titanfall cannon.
Against ordinary armored pirates, it is excessive in exactly the way Ghost Squadron prefers.
One pirate effectively disappears under the impact.
There is a moment of concern that this might have been the prisoner.
Fortunately, someone remembers an important piece of intelligence.
The Black Veil is a woman.
The deceased pirate was not.
Mission status remains technically acceptable.
The squad continues forward.
More compartments.
More doors.
More ambushes.
More drones.
More pirates.
Ghost Squadron gradually begins to understand how quickly combat can change inside the ship.
Enemies hide behind cargo.
Drones scout around corners.
Troopers use vertical movement to change firing angles.
Return fire turns every attack into a possible exchange of gunfire.
At one point Ghost tries to use his command abilities to encourage Atlas.
He accidentally inspires a pirate instead.
The pirate presumably appreciates the support.
He is still killed.
The squad pushes deeper into the Vesper Dawn.
They clear another combat section, repair damaged armor and keep searching.
Cipher's drones become especially useful because every unopened doorway has developed the distinct possibility of containing someone with a shotgun.
Unfortunately, the drones also develop the distinct possibility of exploding.
This happens more than once.
Eventually Ghost Squadron finds an elevator leading toward the upper decks.
They take it.
The lift brings them into the captain's area.
That is where the mission begins to make more sense.
Nyx searches the office.
Among the wreckage they find a data pad containing part of the captain's log.
The Vesper Dawn had been diverted from its normal assignment.
Its new orders were to collect and transport a dangerous prisoner.
The Black Veil.
She is not simply another pirate.
She is a major figure in the criminal operations of this sector.
The log then becomes hurried.
The Vesper Dawn was boarded by an unidentified vessel.
The final entries stop abruptly.
There is blood on the data pad.
Once Ghost Squadron begins looking for it, there is blood everywhere.
Trails across the deck.
Signs of fighting.
Bodies.
Remains that appear to have been chewed.
That last part is harder to explain.
Pirates boarding a military transport makes sense.
Pirates trying to recover their leader makes sense.
Pirates eating the crew is less conventional.
The Drop Troopers move cautiously toward the bridge.
At least, that is the plan.
There is a brief attempt to arrange everyone against the wall and use smoke before entering the next area.
Then someone moves far enough around the corner to be seen.
The ambush begins without the smoke.
Heavy fire tears into Ghost.
This is not the lighter weaponry they encountered earlier in the ship.
The rounds punch through his armor.
He begins taking physical damage inside the suit.
Then something else appears.
A creature comes scrambling around the corner.
It is not human.
Another follows.
One of them seems to phase in and out of existence as it moves.
The squad has been fighting pirates.
Now the pirates apparently have alien creatures with them.
Whether they are pets, weapons, allies or something else is not immediately clear.
There is no time to ask.
The creatures attack.
More pirates join them.
The bridge access becomes a close, ugly firefight.
Ghost's armor is badly damaged.
Cipher fights while coordinating his drone.
Atlas takes heavy hits of his own.
Nyx works firing angles as the squad tries to avoid being trapped in the corridor.
The strange creatures close the distance quickly.
One attacks from behind.
Another shambles forward while flickering partially out of reality.
Fortunately, despite their disturbing appearance, they prove considerably less resistant to plasma fire than the giant tunnel monsters from the First Drop.
The Drop Troopers kill them.
Then they press toward the bridge.
The final defense is much stronger.
These pirates have better weapons.
Better armor.
Prepared firing positions.
And standing among them is the person Ghost Squadron came to find.
The Black Veil.
The fight becomes the hardest battle aboard the ship.
Atlas's armor is eventually pierced completely.
The powered suit shuts down around him.
He can still fire, but he cannot move.
Cipher rushes over with a repair kit and gets Atlas functioning again.
Nyx works the edges.
Ghost keeps himself alive through emergency repairs while trying to maintain the attack.
Cipher's combat drone fires into the enemy position.
And then the drone hits the Black Veil.
She goes down.
There is a short silence while everyone remembers the mission.
They were supposed to bring her back alive.
Preferably.
Ghost Squadron deals with the remaining pirates first.
Once the bridge is secure, somebody asks the important question.
Can they revive her?
The answer is maybe.
Her weapons are removed before anyone attempts it.
This is regarded as basic common sense.
Against the odds, the Black Veil survives.
Ghost Squadron has its prisoner.
The Vesper Dawn is secured.
And because nothing says successful military operation like immediately stealing the prisoner's equipment, the squad begins examining what everyone was carrying.
The Black Veil has a particularly good weapon.
The Veil Carbine.
It is essentially an improved version of the squad's standard firearm.
Someone gets that.
Another dead pirate has a high-quality targeting scope.
Atlas gets that attached to his already ridiculous Titanfall cannon.
There are also combat stimulants capable of boosting reaction speed for a limited time.
The discussion over who should receive them goes about as expected.
Someone suggests Atlas.
Someone else points out that Atlas is already killing everything.
Eventually the squad realizes that one member may soon possess a weapon system rolling an alarming number of dice.
This seems completely reasonable.
Then someone searches the Black Veil more thoroughly.
Very thoroughly.
Among her possessions is something far more important than another weapon.
A note.
It refers to pirate involvement in unrest on a populated world.
A district has gone dark.
Power has failed.
Security forces have collapsed.
Communications are fragmented.
There are signs the pirates may be connected to a larger rebellion.
Ghost Squadron barely has time to finish processing the information before new orders arrive.
District H-12 has now been without power for twelve hours.
Civilians are trapped.
Local authorities have lost control.
And Administrator Ellen Voss has reportedly been captured by hostile forces.
Ghost Squadron is the closest military unit available.
The Black Veil is secured aboard the Raptor.
She will eventually be delivered to the authorities.
Eventually.
First, the squad is being redirected.
Another planet.
Another emergency.
Another situation in which the official report is almost certainly leaving out something important.
The Second Drop ends with Ghost Squadron leaving the Vesper Dawn behind.
They boarded looking for one pirate.
They fought through minefields, raiders and creatures that could apparently slip partially out of reality.
They recovered the Black Veil alive.
They acquired better weapons.
And they found evidence that her people are connected to something much larger.
District H-12 has gone dark.
Its administrator is missing.
Security has collapsed.
And Ghost Squadron has just been volunteered to find out why.
The Raptor changes course.
The Third Drop is waiting.