Operation Heathrow

Chapter 8: Showdown in Gatwick

Undaunted by their loss against the Koreans against Tiamat, the Death Fiscalists move across the taxiways of Gatwick to get to the final boss. On the taxiway, a fire engine spreads a fire retardant when the party gets within firing range. And the gunners on its roof fire a heavy machinegun at the party, at point-blank range.

"Down with Korea! Down with Bulgogi!" Karine attempts to motivate her players as they hack away at the fire engine's subsystems. "For the turret phase, I will man the turret because I am much more fragile than Béteulle"

As the party moves into melee range of the fire engine, the party is getting attacked by riot police, supported by their own heavy infantry. Which prompts Karine to draw a bright line. The now-blind riot police officers start detonating flashbangs at random, especially after the fire engine is destroyed. However, unlike in the fight against Tiamat, the CIWS crew doesn't use it to attack the party. It seems like the CIWS crew has learned their lessons from Tiamat, Karine muses while they advance under the loud noises of the flashbangs.

Once the riot police is dealt with, they drive a stair truck, and attempt to align it with a jetway so they can use it to get to the south terminal. And, from there, the CIWS turret at one of its corners.

And yet, the raiders enter a concourse devoid of any security guards. They start to feel like the demons are out to get them between boarding gates. Especially as they approach the maintenance spiral staircase of the CIWS turret.

"Watch out for new mechanics, but otherwise start the same as in brutal mode; I will take the point on the roof" Ram instructs the players. "Personally, I'd say, the melee DPS should go and defend Karine from the concourse's inside for phase one"

"Joy..." the assassin sighs, believing that Karine's bright line would be useful there.

When the first phase begins, Karine mans the CIWS turret to fire at Belzebuth. Which she needs to fire manually since Belzebuth does not have a radar signature, nor an infrared one.

While Karine mans the CIWS fire control console, the ranged DPS on the roof fend off enemies of increasing power, the first wave being paratroopers. Here, the real causes for concern are the grenades being thrown by several types of enemies, both on the roof and in the concourse.

"Are the grenade throws interruptible?" Karine asks her teammates, while the CIWS can no longer fire at the boss. "Or is there damage that must be healed or repaired before the CIWS can fire again?"

It turns out the answer is yes to the second question, but not the first. The second wave, on the roof, includes wyvern-riding knights, who zero in on the CIWS' barrel assembly, or the ammo underneath. Concourse grenadiers, on the other hand, aim for the staircase's central pole. Especially critical to them since the fire control system's wiring is housed in the central pole.

When they wipe to attacks from the wyvern knights and lords doing them in from above...

"We have been too slow in repairing the damage to the CIWS!" Ram complains about something that went wrong during phase 1.

"Speaking of CIWS, it seems like I might have focused too much on the boss whenever I was able to fire it. I guess I might need to focus on the adds for a second or two per airborne add" Karine wonders whether doing so would make the party's life harder in later phases.

As the wipes accumulate, the party gets better at dealing with the emergency repairs to the CIWS system, which are new in fatal mode.

"Whoever has consistently been the worst DPS should be performing the emergency repairs! Our DPS has been a little erratic!" Caro yells on voice.

By the time they start doing phase 2, an hour or so later, they realize how finicky the emergency repairs have been, or what forces them to undergo emergency repairs in the first place. Once the helicopter is near the CIWS turret, and the players start boarding it: