Operation Heathrow

Chapter 4: First Boss, First Blood

In the days leading up to the race to world first for fatal mode Operation Heathrow, the guild players set out to farm materials used for runes, food and potions. The by-products of having to farm these materials in areas populated with mobs and open-world quests allow them to craft other items, such as cosmetics.

Then comes Tuesday morning, where everyone is urged to log in early, so they can have patch 2.1b downloaded, with some fixes for some issues that were deemed less urgent by the manufacturer than the ones addressed in 2.1a. And, of course, Breathalyzer News has a podcast about the race to world first active and rotates among the forerunner streamers.

As Karine starts the stream early in the morning, some of her colleagues tune in on her stream, especially those working remotely, while the bulk of the viewers tuning in are either European or Asian.

"Welcome to the pre-race stream of the Operation Heathrow Race to World First, brought to you by Monseigneur Tanking!" Karine opens the stream, seeing hundreds of viewers at once.

And, of course, many of the tank lovers of MAA, especially bishop fans, have come to watch her on Twitch, by virtue of being a community favorite of people wanting to watch ranged high-evasion tanks.

However, the RWF draws viewers to high-end raiding who wouldn't watch raid streamers otherwise. The people who don't pick streamers to follow based on one's skill with a spec. The people who vicariously raid through a stream because they can't do it themselves.

For those who want to watch a specific spec, though, Breathalyzer News breaks down streamers based on the specs being run on air, as well as a link to the streamer's page in BN's system, where one can check on a player's raid progression status. A few minutes before fatal mode opens:

"This week will be rough, as we will be going into uncharted territory. Because we'll be playing against teams from around the world, and our main opponents are expected to play for very long hours, please make sure you have your provisions at the ready! Coffee, energy drinks, food, you name it" Karine harangues her players, while some of them have entire crates of ramen close by, as well as drinks.

In MAA's world, however, as soon as the reset hits, at 1PM GMT, and hence players are able to log in, the magical portals leading to Operation Heathrow have crowds of people waiting for their turn to enter it along with their respective teams. May Clavet take good care of Karine's home while I'm off to fight Belzebuth, Monseigneur starts thinking, while she's standing in a crowded area inside a castle room with hundreds of people piled up in a cramped space.

"And... let's roll!" Karine yells while the frame rates of everyone involved appear to diminish as they rush into Operation Heathrow's portal. "Operation Heathrow is go!"

Once they get onto the portal, the Death Fiscalists find themselves at the Terminal 5 roundabout, where an improvised repair shop is set up, complete with a blacksmith, a tailor and a leatherworker to repair weapons and heavy armor, light and medium armor respectively.

In fatal mode, a new type of trash mob is deployed on the access ramp to Terminal 5's departures plaza, and the outskirts of it, other than just airport security, squad cars and riot police: SWAT officers, the latter hiding behind riot police. And firing flashbang grenades that force Karine to pop the high mass on them, right after drawing the bright line in front of the melee DPS.

While the high mass causes the SWAT officers not to fire any further flashbang grenades, the flashbangs that did detonate near them end up stunning them for a few seconds apiece, causing the riot police to target the party at point-blank. In turn, the ranged DPS pop their stun-breakers and pelt the blinded riot police with massed area-of-effect attacks that affect the SWAT officers in their sleep.